Reducing Deer Populations For Healthy Forests And People

I’ve talked some about his subject from a couple different perspectives. In Pennsylvania, the state is in the middle of a major deer population reduction in order to regrow the forests. According to reports from studies and officials, there are areas where too many deer have destroyed the natural under story of the forest allowing for growth of invasive plant species. Read more

Calling The Wild Turkey……..When And How Often??

By: Scott Ellis

2005,2006,2007 Florida State Turkey Calling Champion

2004, 2007 Florida State Gobbling Champion

Quaker Boy Game Calls Pro Staff

One of the most asked questions about hunting the wild turkey is “when do I call and how often?” I feel that there is an art to calling turkeys. It’s all based on feeling him out and knowing what he wants to hear. How do you know this? Well I think it will come to you the more you work gobblers in different scenarios. Right off the roost, mid morning with hens, with out hens, public land bird, private land bird. In my opinion, whether calling a hot to trot two year old or a four year old hard hunted public bird, it’s a matter of getting his attention and keeping his interest just enough to get him to investigate. If you over call him, he will stand his ground and wait for this hot hen to meet him for their rendezvous. If you under call him, he will move off to the next hot item. Read more

A Strategy To Eliminate Lyme Disease

Below is an Op-Ed piece published in the Connecticut Post and written by Terence Savery. Terence Savery, a resident of Redding, is chairman of the Connecticut Coalition to Eradicate Lyme Disease.

*Note* - I have spoken with and communicated with some of the people, including Mr. Savery, about this effort to eradicate Lyme disease in Connecticut. I have been assured that those supporting this effort are also supporting the use of hunting as a management tool in this effort.

Have you heard the good news about Lyme disease?

Did you know that a town on Cape Cod ended its Lyme disease epidemic more than 20 years ago, and has been a virtual “Lyme disease free zone” ever since?

Or that communities in three New England states have ended their Lyme disease epidemics? Read more

Northwoods Sporting Journal To Recognize Skinny Moose Media Bloggers

With over 40,000 Northwoods Sporting Journal readers throughout the Northeast, with subscribers in all 50 states, John Ward, National Sales Manager of Northwoods Publications, LLC. and co-host of the new Northwoods Sporting Journal Television, thought it would be a terrific idea to gift our tried and true bloggers with a one-year subscription to their magazine.

This is a great opportunity for everyone as the result of a cooperative business spirit between Northwoods Publications, LLC and Skinny Moose Media, LLC. I spoke with my son Steve Remington, President of Skinny Moose Media, LLC., this morning about this and asked him if either he or John Ward perceived each other as direct competitors in the outdoor media business. Read more

The Art Of Hunting Deer The Old-Fashioned Way

Pete Bodo has a story today in the New York Times about a traditional bowyer and deer hunter, Thomas Aquinas Daly, who prefers to hunt with a hand-made long bow and arrows. Interesting story and one I like because he doesn’t dump all over hunters who prefer other methods of hunting the whitetail tail.

Check it out here.

Tom Remington

Massachusetts Study Says Eastern Coyote Part Wolf

Like similar studies done in Maine and New York, a recent study conducted in Massachusetts by Bradley White, a conservation geneticist at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, showed that the state’s coyote there is also a mix breed. The tissue samples that were collected for the study was done by wildlife biologist Jonathan G. Way of Marston Mills.

For years many have believed that the coyote found in the east was some kind of cross between a western coyote and a wolf because the eastern coyote is considerably larger than the those found in the west. New York and Maine have conducted similar studies to show that what we call an eastern coyote is a cross or hybrid mix of probably a western coyote with a Canadian eastern wolf.

Read more about this study and its results at the Republican on MassLive.com.

Note: Top photo is of an eastern coyote and bottom photo of a western coyote.

Tom Remington

Someone Allegedly Illegally Imported Deer From New York To Vermont

img align=”left” src=’http://mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/vermontfishandgame.jpg’ alt=’Vermont Fish and Game’ />Vermont authorities are investing a report that someone imported three deer, I assume dead, from New York, a state that is on the list of those determined to have cases of chronic wasting disease.

Officials decided they should reissue a warning to all people that it is illegal to bring into Vermont any deer or elk or parts thereof from states and Canadian Provinces listed as having confirmed cases of chronic wasting disease. Those states and provinces are:

New York, West Virginia, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Montana, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

Below is a list of Vermont’s exceptions or clarifications as to how deer or elk harvested in other states and/or Canada must be handled.

– Meat that is cut up, packaged and labeled with hunting license information and not mixed with other deer or elk during processing.
– Meat that is boneless.
– Hides or capes with no part of the head attached.
– Clean skullcap with antlers attached.
– Antlers with no other meat or tissue attached.
– Finished taxidermy heads.
– Upper canine teeth with no tissue attached.

Please be vigilant and do your part to help stop the spread of the fatal disease chronic wasting disease to other parts of the country.

Tom Remington

EHD Hasn’t Peaked Yet Evidently

Even though portions of northern New England last night saw some frost and temps below freezing, cold weather has yet to reach areas that are infested with Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EDH), an insect-born virus that is deadly to whitetail deer. This year the outbreak of EHD was quite widespread. Common in many southern states, this year EHD has been detected in northern states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and now New York.

It has been confirmed that EHD was the cause of death for some deer found in Albany County. This is the first ever that EHD has been officially found in the Empire State.

Officials say that once the first freeze arrives it will kill off the tiny insects that carry the disease.

Tom Remington