Moose Droppings

Photo courtesy of NC Wildlife  

There are more than 200 North Carolina Wildlife Enforcement Officers in the state. Officers work tirelessly long hours and are on call virtually every day of the year. While it’s hard being a wildlife officer it is even harder to become one.

A lack of turn over in the 200 state wide enforcement positions means that no class was offered last year. 

Few make the cut;

 More than 600 people applied for this academy session; 14 were invited to attend training; that number was decreased down to ten.

They are planning to offer the class again next year so interested people should contact the NC Wildlife  Enforcement Division. 

Link to TV14 Story

I was reading on Outdoors with Othmar Vohringer and discover that Bob Hice founder of Tree Lounger past away.  I won’t rewrite what Othmar has already said so well and hope you go over to his site and read his post.
  I will say that like many I met Bob years ago at a local hunting show.  As a hunter he stood in the shadow of his wife Margaret who did most of the hunting on their movies.  This was a bold move on their part in the early days when few women were seen in mass media hunting.  I think we can all agree that as brilliant and cutting edge his stand was when it came on the market so was his marketing plan.  The Hice’s I believe made some great contributions to the sport and the preservation of hunting by showing Margaret killing some nice deer year after year.  I offer my sincerest condolences to the family.  I’m sorry for the family’s loss and the hunting world lost a good man as well.    
 

The East Oregonian had a story about a couple of citizens performing CPR on a deer that was struck by a car and fell into a creek.

 Wallowa County Detective Neil Rogers was called to a report of a deer that had been hit by a vehicle on July 2 in downtown Joseph. When Rogers arrived, a crowd of people had gathered in the street and were in the process of pulling the deer out from underneath a trailer, Rogers said.

The deer was badly mangled but managed to wake up and stumble past the crowd. It then fell into a nearby creek and started to drown.

Rogers went to re-park his car and when he returned, two men were pulling the deer out of the creek.

“One guy was giving compressions and the other guy was giving it mouth-to-mouth,” Rogers said. “I couldn’t really look over there because I was starting to laugh too hard. It had to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen in law enforcement.”

The detective didn’t know whether a person could contract any unusual diseases by giving CPR to a deer.  

Well how did this deer make out? 
 

 The deer was too badly injured to survive, Rogers said. He took the deer behind a building and shot it. 

So I guess they must of revived deer just in time for the Detective to put it down.  Wonder where these Good Samaritans might come from?   

 The detective didn’t know whether the first aide responders were locals, but speculated they were “probably from Portland or somewhere.”

He added, “they haven’t been around here much.”

Judging by some of the tree huggers I met the last time I was in Portland it wouldn’t surprise me if it wasn’t some of the ones who took exception to my deer hunting hat. 
 

Here’s Brent Mabrey with the mount of his state record, with its incredible “double-beam” right side.
Photo by Dan Kibler and NC Game & Fish

NC Game And Fish has the story of  Brent Mabrey’s record shattering Non Typical buck he took in Halifax County last September. 

Mabrey’s buck, sporting a “third beam” and sticker points everywhere, was the biggest non-typical ever killed with a bow and arrow in the Tar Heel State. Scott Osborne and Mike Seamster, wildlife biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, scored the buck in early December, and the numbers were astonishing.
Twenty-one scoreable points.
A 19 6/8-inch inside spread.
Brow tines over 6 inches long and a third brow tine on one antler that pushed 7 inches. One tine that was 11 3/8 inches long.
An enormous non-typical point curving out of the right antler, between the base and the brow tine, that measured almost 20 inches long.
A net non-typical Boone and Crockett score of 176 7/8 points, more than 10 inches larger than the buck that formerly held the state record, a Forsyth County buck killed in 1998 by Bill Froelich of Mocksville that scored 166 1/8. 

Wow what a buck I’m just posting some quotes about the scoring but the story covers the whole hunt and is well worth reading. 

The buck had a 4×3 main frame rack, with four points on the left side and three on the right. The main beams were 22 and 20 3/8 inches, and the left antler had one tine that was 11 3/8 inches long, a brow tine that was 7 3/8 inches long, and five sticker points, including a drop tine 4 1/2 inches long.
The right beam was the real story, however. In addition to the three points on the main beam, it had a 6-inch brow tine, a second brow tine that measured 6 7/8 inches, and a 19 6/8-inch-long third “tine” jutting out of the antler between the base and the brow tine. That extra tine had several sticker points, and the right main beam had several more drop points — a total of nine in all, giving the buck 20 scoreable points. The non-typical points measured a total of 59 1/8 inches. The main frame of the rack had almost 15 inches in deductions, so when Osborne and Seamster finally put away their calculator, they came up with 176 7/8.

That is an area that is not covered by the 2 buck limit (4 bucks are allowed) but it sounds like an area that got very limited pressure.  They estimated the age of the deer to be 5 ½ years old and it goes to show what can happen if bucks get the chance to live past 3.  I hope in the near future a 2 buck limit is set for the entire state.

Photo courtesy of NC Wildlife Commission

Bass Pro in Las Vegas 

Ever since the Charlotte area got a Bass Pro one of the hottest questions is when will the Triangle get a big outdoor retailer?  The growth in the area and the popularity of outdoor sports it seems like it would be a perfect match.  White Oak shopping center in Garner is certainly a very hot area and it’s not surprising to hear that it’s getting some serious looks from the big retailers.The I95 corridor is also another rumored spot and has been for years. 

The tannic run off into Lake Phelps has been stopped.  The state has made it clear that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service was clearly to blame for this problem.  Excerpt from an Email I received late today from the Raleigh office of the State Parks;

 We discovered that for a few days in
June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was redirecting water from the
Pocosin NWR into Lake Phelps (in Pettigrew State Park) for flood
control (rather than their usual practice of diverting it to the
south.)

We had concerns about water quality as well as about upsetting the
hydrology of the area and discussed the issue with the N.C. Division of
Water Quality which looked into the matter. The USFWS stopped the
practice right away when our concerns were made known.  

What remains unclear at this point is if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will remove the structure and return the area to how it was prior to the “Management Project” was started.  Failure to remove the structure only leaves the potential for it to be used again at some future date.  We will continue to follow this story. 

Lake Phelps is located in Washington County NC and is part of the Pasquotank River Basin and is very near Pocisin Lakes Wildlife Refuge The Southeast End of Lake Phelps has a noticeable discoloration of the water that extends from the shore line out about 100 yards into the lake.  The lake is well known for its very clear water and this spill of tannic tainted water from the surrounding land appears to be caused by a state park initiated project.
 

Thank you for your compassionate inquiries about the short-term discoloration in the southeast section of Lake Phelps. This condition resulted from a management project pursued by several environmental agencies. The intent was to restore the partially compromised hydrology of Lake Phelps.

One objective of this management project was to assist in providing water flow for migratory fish, specifically herring.

Unfortunately, unexpected rainfall accompanied this management project for a brief time period. This situation has been thoroughly investigated and as of July 6, 2006, this project was discontinued. Park staff has been continuously monitoring discoloration in Lake Phelps and notes the affect has greatly dissipated. The resource management staff of the division expects no long-term alterations from this short exposure to tannic water.

Thank you for your concern for the integrity of Lake Phelps. Your interest in the welfare of Pettigrew State Park is appreciated. Please contact us if you have any further questions in reference to this matter.

Adrian O’Neal
East District Superintendent
Cliffs of the Neuse State Park
Seven Springs, NC
919-778-9488 ext. 222
Adrian.ONeal@ncmail.net

The Federal Government in its 2007 budget request touts its six most significant accomplishments in the “Coastal Program” from 2005 and here is one of them;

In North Carolina, the Program restored hydrology to and natural flow through 2,500 acres of natural wetlands and 15 acres of associated riparian uplands into Lake Phelps.  This project provided habitat for alewife (native fish), blueback herring, American eel and migratory birds.