Moose Droppings

Steve Windham Named New Chairman of North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission

Moose — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:33:49 +0000

Wes Seegars & Steve Windham Photo Courtesy of NCWRC

Steve Windham was selected by Governor Perdue to take over the chairmanship and the selection was approved by the Wildlife Commissions at yesterday’s meeting. Steve Windham was originally appointed to the board by Governor Easley as an at large commissioner and just recently re appointed by Governor Perdue.
Windham replaces outgoing chairman Wes Seegars who is expected to remain on the Commission serving out his remaining term. Wes Seegars took over the chairmanship after the untimely death of John Pechmann and chaired the board for 3 years.
Hopefully Mr. Windham will do a good job, listen to the professional staff, and look out for the wildlife resources across the state. I’ve already heard from a few turkey hunters that are not happy with his appointment and will hold his feet to the fire if he attempts to alter the turkey season structure like he has in the past.
Myself I say lets give the man a chance I met him for the first time the other day and he seemed reasonable and engaged in the issues at the Big Game Meeting.

Bear Baiting In North Carolina Discussed At Big Game Committee

Moose — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:52:47 +0000

Currently in North Carolina those hunters who hunt bears with hounds can legally bait bear with natural baits ie. Corn or grain but those that stand hunt bears cannot use bait at all. The non hound hunters are complaining that this is unfair and want the NCWRC to either allow all bear hunters to utilize natural bait or let no one use natural baits.

The current rules were set up I believe not to really allow the baiting of bears by anyone but to give some leeway to hound hunters around the issue when it came to bait sites for deer. Baiting of deer is legal and has a long tradition in North Carolina and the deer and bear seasons overlap. Under some of the earlier rules you had a number of bear hunters cited for hunting over baits when the dogs trailed a bear through a bait site set up by a deer hunter. This scenario played out a number of times making illegal hunters out of guys that really were trying to do the right thing. So that is how the current law got adopted to really give a loophole of sorts otherwise it would be nearly impossible to pursue a bear in this state without it crossing a natural bait site for deer.

At the Big Game Committee Meeting some of the Commissioners pointed out that their intent was not to allow houndsmen the opportunity to bait but that is what has happened.
Tuesday’s meeting the subcommittee looked at basically three options to address the bear baiting issue;

A. Prohibit any take of bears with the use or aid of natural bait.
B. Allow the take of bears with the use of natural bait by all hunters.
C. Make no change to current statue

There was nobody that seemed to be in favor of option A option B was favored by most of the observers in the room that self identified as “non hound hunters” and option C was favored by the North Carolina Bear Hunters Association / houndsmen.

The biological staff presented that if option B was the option that was selected that in all likelihood some additional methods would have to be put in place to prevent an overharvest of bears. That would mean a limit on tags or a shortening of the season. There is no doubt that option B would lead to more hunters pursuing bear whether they purposely go after them or it’s an incidentally take while deer hunting. I’m not sure that it would lead to a drastic increase in the bear harvest over time, initially it might, but bears seem to adapt to pressure more readily then most big game animals.
On the next post I’ll present an overview of the Black Bear in North Carolina as presented by the biological staff at this meeting as well as talk a little more about the concerns over selecting option B from those present at the meeting.

NCWRC Big Game Committee Meeting

Moose — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:12:54 +0000

I suspect like many of you other then the family time the rest of my vacation time I save to use during hunting season. Yesterday I used some of that time to attend the Commissioners meeting on Big Game because that seems to be where much of the stuff that affects our hunting comes from that committee.
Over the next few days I’ll go into depth on what was discussed at this 3 + hour meeting because there was a lot. The three main topics for yesterday’s meeting were; Bear hunting and baiting, Dog hunting in general, and should the state adopt a formal Quality Deer Management program.

I will say this that the average Joe hunter (which I consider myself one)needs to pay attention to what is going on because by far only the special interest groups seem to be represented at the meeting. Yesterday’s meeting there was about 20 to 25 people observing most of them were from the Bear Hunters Association and then a few from the Bow Hunters Association. There were only a handful of folks that was not associated with either of those two groups.

Don’t get me wrong these groups do a lot to preserve and advocate for our sport and I’m glad we have them. However their views are often one sided and may not represent the general view of the hunting community but rather their smaller group they represent. We saw that earlier in the crossbow fight.
Every year I attend the public hearings and give input on what is proposed and feel for the most part I’m pretty involved in the shaping of our sport here in North Carolina but maybe there is more that I can do. The meetings that are happening throughout the year are the ones I’m beginning to believe really shape the future of our sport. Voting and commenting on the proposals at a public hearing is good but can we have better impact by influencing what may get on the annual proposals in the first place? I think so or at least I’m going to check it out and see. I can’t make all the meetings but I’m certainly going to try to make a number of them. I may miss a day or two sitting in a treestand or a blind but maybe it will be worth it to see what takes place at the commissioners meeting and the future of our sport.

So now I’ll try to formulate some posts around what happened at yesterday’s meeting so stand by.

Zoo Visitor Killed After He Ate All Of The Animals On Display

Moose — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:28:57 +0000

A mountain lion cleaned out all the exhibits in a petting zoo in Arizona before a hunter was called in to kill the cat.

In 40 years on the Agua Linda Farm, Loew said this was first large cat he had seen when it appeared in the donkey pen about a month ago.
But soon, his animals started to turn up mauled or dead. First there were four sheep. Then, on June 15, an awful sight: 16 pygmy and nubian goats — all the mammals in the farm’s petting zoo — were killed. Only the geese were spared.
Loew and his wife, Laurel, who run the all-natural, community-supported farm, faced a tough choice: Try to kill the wild cat or put their animals and possibly their farm’s visitors — including many children — at some risk.
“We were really conflicted,” Stewart Loew said.
But when they thought about it, there was no choice. They had a garlic and onion festival coming up the next weekend at the farm, and people would be walking in the dark through areas where the mountain lion was making regular kills.
They called a family acquaintance who is a mountain lion hunter and got a “depredation permit” from Arizona Game and Fish — a permit to kill an animal that has been eating people’s livestock.

Hunting is an important management tool in controlling wildlife and it is good to see it was used in this sad situation. A small petting zoo was a tempting hunting ground for this cat and killing it was necessary before it took a human life. What lead to the cat hanging out at the farm?

several factors can cause mountain lions to start encroaching on human lands.
Among them: A younger mountain lion could have chased the older cat out of its home territory. That’s the theory an Arizona Game and Fish warden endorsed when looking into the case, Loew said.
Or the mountain lion could have been injured and found easy access to food and water at the farm, which is near the Santa Cruz River. Or long-term drought may have slowly made the cat’s territory unhabitable.
Many human factors could have contributed to the lion’s settling in at the farm, too. Urbanization, even in semi-rural areas like the river valley of Santa Cruz County, drives some animals out of their habitat. It may also lead to the animals more easily growing used to humans.

What will be the impact on this family business? Will some regulars boycott the farm because of this? I sure hope not I hope that the farm continues and is successful.

Whatever the cause, the petting-zoo slaughter shook up the Loews, who have a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl.
“My poor kids. These are their pets that they’ve raised, and they had to help bury them,” Laurel Loew said.
They didn’t want to kill the mountain lion, and now they’re worried about restocking the little petting zoo before October, when kids arrive for pumpkin picking. They’re also worried about a backlash from their environmentally conscious customers.
“For us, this story has no winners,” Stewart Loew said.

Arizona Daily Star
I like to think I’m an “environmentally conscious customer” and I love to provide organic free range meat for my family so hunting is a natural holistic way to provide that. If I lived in Arizona I’d stop by this farm and buy something.

Opening Day Fatal Shooting Ruled Justified

Moose — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:50:01 +0000

SBI investigation shows that Officer Mark Minton was justified in the fatal shooting of Clyde Coffey during the opening minutes of the 2009 wild turkey season. The district attorney will not file any charges against the officer despite the family and some in the community calling for him to do so.
Mr. Coffey was 76 years old and was deaf according to family and legally hunting on his own property.
The SBI investigators confirmed the presence of bait around the treestand Mr. Coffey was hunting from and the stand that his son in law was hunting from. Baiting of turkeys is illegal making both of these men poachers but certainly not a reason anyone had to die.
Why did the Officer Minton shoot Clyde Coffey?

“Through the investigative efforts of the SBI, it was determined that Officer Minton became aware that someone was potentially baiting turkeys on the Clyde Coffey property on Cane Creek Church Road in Wilkes County. Based upon this knowledge, Officer Minton went to that location to determine if anyone was illegally hunting turkey over this baited area,” Horner said.
“Officer Minton initially encountered Larry Dean Helton, later identified as the son-in-law of Clyde Coffey, in a tree stand at one location of the Coffey property. Officer Minton approached Mr. Helton and took enforcement action without incident. In addition, Officer Minton allowed Mr. Helton to ride his ATV down the mountain from this tree stand to another location where Officer Minton would later meet him,” the district attorney said.
“According to statements from Officer Minton, he then proceeded down the mountain alone and on foot to a second tree stand occupied by Clyde Coffey.
“Officer Minton was initially unsuccessful in multiple attempts to get Mr. Coffey’s attention and have him exit the tree stand. At one point after Officer Minton identified himself as a ‘game warden,’ Mr. Coffey stood up in the tree stand and in an agitated tone demanded that the officer leave his property,” Horner said.
“Mr. Coffey continued to not comply with Officer Minton’s commands, causing Officer Minton to radio for assistance to other N.C. Wildlife Resources officers who were several miles away. However, before assistance could arrive, Mr. Coffey descended from the tree stand with his weapon cradled across his arms, disregarding the instructions of Officer Minton to leave the weapon in the stand,” Horner said.
“According to the officer, when Mr. Coffey reached the ground, he advanced towards Officer Minton, holding his weapon in a ‘low ready’ position and pointing it directly at the officer. Officer Minton commanded him multiple times to stop and then retreated up the hill from Mr. Coffey approximately 85 feet from the tree stand as Mr. Coffey continued to pursue Officer Minton with his shotgun pointing at him.
“Mr. Coffey was approximately 25 feet from the officer when again he was told to stop,” Horner said. “Officer Minton stated that he thought Mr. Coffey was going to shoot him; he drew his service weapon, pointed it at Mr. Coffey and fired one round, striking Mr. Coffey in the chest. Mr. Coffey fell immediately.”
“The distance between Mr. Coffey’s body and the base of the tree that Officer Minton fired from was 14 feet. Officer Minton radioed to the other officers that he had shot Mr. Coffey and EMS was requested. Furthermore, Officer Minton attempted CPR on Mr. Coffey without success,” Horner said.
“In the course of the investigation, SBI agents collected ’scratch feed,’ which is commonly used for baiting turkeys, from the area around Mr. Coffey’s tree stand. This feed was consistent with feed located at Mr. Coffey’s residence and with feed located near the tree stand occupied by Larry Helton.
“Agents also determined that Mr. Coffey suffered from hearing loss. According to information provided by the family of Clyde Coffey, the conduct described by Officer Minton was out of character for Mr. Coffey,” the district attorney said.
“North Carolina general statutes authorize a law enforcement officer to arrest someone without a warrant if the officer has probable cause to believe that the individual has committed a criminal offense in their presence,” Horner noted. “Furthermore, a law enforcement officer is justified in using force upon another person when and to the extent that he reasonably believes it necessary: to defend himself . . . from what he reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of physical force while effecting or attempting to affect an arrest. Deadly physical force upon another person is justified… only when it is or appears to be reasonably necessary to defend (oneself)… from what is reasonably believed to be the use or imminent use of deadly physical force.
“After a thorough review of the SBI’s report, interviews with the investigating agents, a review of the appropriate legal standards and in consultation with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, it appears that Officer Minton’s actions were reasonable and appropriate in response to the perceived use or imminent use of deadly physical force by Mr. Coffey,” Horner said. “Therefore, criminal prosecution of Officer Minton for the shooting death of Clyde Hill Coffey is not warranted.”

Wilkes Journal Patriot

Unclear from the press release is whether or not Officer Minton was in uniform or not when this happened. Early on there was some speculation the lack of a uniform lead to some of the confusion as to who the officer was.
Game Wardens and Wildlife Officers have some of the most dangerous jobs seeing where many of the individuals are armed that they come in contact with. While some will believe that Officer Minton used excessive force I see that an officer acted the way he was trained so he could go home at the end of his shift. I believe despite the hearing issue that Mr. Coffey knew that this man was a law officer and he made some really poor choices that cost him his life.
Officer Minton while cleared of the potentially more serious criminal charges must now wait for the NCWRC to complete their investigation.

“We appreciate the work of both agencies to resolve this issue,” said Gordon Myers, the executive director of the Commission. “An internal investigation is ongoing and until the investigation is complete, it would not be appropriate for the Commission to comment further.”

NCWRC

Happy Independence Day…. and Hopefully Many More

Moose — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:45:24 +0000

I guess with the current leadership and the past 6 months one has to wonder if our Independence can last another 3 1/2 years? Anyways try to have a good 4th of July Weekend. Please Spend sometime and reflect on what our forefathers gave us and the sacrifices they made. Thanks to our men & women who serve this great nation and thanks to all the veterans that kept us free.

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North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Issues Warning About Bears

Moose — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:14:03 +0000

With this past weekend’s excitement in Durham about the bear and the bear (probably the same one) getting struck on I 85 NCWRC issued some advice today.

Residents can prevent conflicts with black bears by:
• Not approaching or following a bear when one is sighted. Instead, tell your neighbors and keep a adequate distance away from the animal. Unless fed, the bear will leave the area.
• Securing bags of trash inside cans stored in a garage, basement or other secure area, and placing outside as late as possible on trash pick-up days – not the night before.
• Purchasing bear-proof garbage cans or bear-proof your existing garbage container by outfitting it with a secure latching system.
• Discontinuing feeding wild birds during spring and summer, even with feeders advertised as “bear proof.” Bears can still be attracted to seed that spills on the ground.
• Avoiding “free-feeding” pets outdoors. If you must feed pets outdoors, make sure all food is consumed and empty bowls are removed.
• Cleaning all food and grease from barbecue grills after each use. Bears are attracted to the food odors and may investigate.

NCWRC

Some good advice for all of us to keep in mind.

Inner City Encounter With Nature

Moose — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:52:52 +0000

Nightfall Norfolk River Front

Ever have one of those surprising encounters with nature that just makes you stop with awe? I had one the other evening that caught me by surprise and although it only lasted a moment it made a lasting impression on me.
I’m on the road this week for training in Norfolk Virginia a very beautiful city. I was walking through the financial district headed towards the waterfront. Getting close to sunset so the area was pretty quiet compared to other parts of the city. Not really expecting to see much wildlife except for maybe a pigeon or two. To witness a peregrine falcon snatching a pigeon was a pretty cool sight. Many cities with skyscrapers have become home peregrines as well as other birds of prey. Of course I didn’t have my camera in my hand but I’m not sure I could have caught the shot because it was so quick.
A search of the net and I found a little bit of information on the project to restore peregrine falcons. Looks like Virginia has had some success with this program.

CCB biologists have worked in partnership with the state of Virginia, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and various other partners since the late 1970s to restore and manage peregrine falcons in Virginia. We monitored 21 breeding pairs during the 2008 breeding season.
This year the entire breeding population nested on artificial structures including wooden peregrine towers (12), bridges (5), a fishing shack (1), a ship (1), a power plant stack (1), and a high-rise building (1). The single territory on a natural cliff face in Shenandoah National Park was not active this year. Twenty pairs made breeding attempts and produced 76 eggs and 47 young that survived to banding age. There was a high depredation rate this year with four broods lost on the towers to raccoons and Great-horned Owls.

While I expect to catch unique encounters with nature when I’m in the turkey blind or the deer stand this serves as a great reminder that nature is all around us we just need to take the time to see it.
With no photos of the peregrine falcon I’ve included some night photos I’ve taken along the river front here in Norfolk. A beautiful city especially in the early evening and at night fall.

US Navy Ship In Dry Dock

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Tred Barta Continues To Battle Back From Spinal Stroke

Moose — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:00:42 +0000

Scott Miller/Vail Daily

Last month Tred Barta suffered a rare spinal stroke while preparing to head to Alaska to film his TV show. He is currently in a rehab facility making some progress.

Tred Barta is just learning to use a wheelchair. But he’s still pretty good with a long bow, and looking forward to his first horseback ride since a spinal stroke last month cost him the use of his legs.

After a stay at Denver Health Medical Center, Barta’s now working — and working hard — at Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Denver. The product of that work could keep him on TV. More important, he expects the work he’s doing now to let him hunt, fish and explore the backcountry again.

Keep Tred in your prayers if you want a more tangible way to help an account has been set up to help with medical expenses.

Tred Barta’s time at Denver Health Medical Center and Craig Rehabilitation Hospital are going to run up some pretty scary bills. Here are a couple of ways to help:

Donations are being accepted by the Vail Valley Charitable Fund. Send them to:

P.O. Box 1275,

Avon, 81620

Or call 970-845-6339. Mention the donation is for Tred Barta. Donations are tax deductible, and credit card payments can be made via the internet at: www.vvcf.org.

Wells Fargo Bank in Eagle has established the Tred and Anni Barta medical fund. Call 970-328-6361 to learn more.

Vail Daily

Black Bear Struck and Killed On I 85 In Orange County

Moose — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:15:12 +0000

Alaska Road Bear

A bear was struck and killed on I 85 in Orange County which is a bit unusual but not unheard of. What has become almost an annual event with a black bear moving through the triangle in the spring and summer appears to have happened again. Juvenile bears especially boar bears are often forced out of their home range and wander looking for a new area to set up residency.
With bear populations in North Carolina concentrated in the eastern part of the state and in the western part of the state as they expand we see more showing up in the central of the state. Most just move through the area and thus the reason NCWRC just urge people to leave them alone.
This particular bear was spotted a number of times in the Durham area this past weekend and unfortunately it was struck and killed. WRAL has some video of the bear from this weekend as it traveled around Durham and it is pretty obvious this is a young bear.

Moose Droppings

Steve Windham Named New Chairman of North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission

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