A Look Back at The Great Outdoors of 2007
January 6, 2008
In the world of the great outdoors 2007 was a very eventful year with lots of things happening. When I look back at what I reported on Moose Droppings these may or may not been the top stories you would pick but these are the ones I reflected on throughout the year.
I think 2007 will be known as the year of the Bear Mauling with multiple national & even international stories about problem bears. There were stories about brown bears as well as black bears and it was spread out throughout North America. This seemed to be a carry over from 2006 where we had a number of maulings as well. Bears like many other predators are opportunists as well as strong defenders of their young as many of these attacks resulted from these two factors.
Here are a few of the stories I did but by no means are these all the bear mauling s that took place this past year.
Wildlife Photographer Mauled for 2nd Time in his life… Yellowstone National Park
Grand Teton National Park Mauling
11 Year Old Killed by Bear in Utah
NC Man Knocked Over By Bear
As bear numbers increase across many parts of this continent we need to take a serious look at how we manage all predators especially bears. Hunting is the best management tool we have for two very important reasons, it controls the population and it also instills a natural fear of man, which can help reduce many of these deadly encounters. I’m certainly not advocating the eradication of predators but just a management plan that works and respects the animal as well as the landowner who has the critter on their land.
How about OSHA’s attempt to shut down the shooting industry? Regulation changes would of reclassified small arms ammunition as an explosive and made it impossible to ship it, store it, or sell it. Many of us bloggers and gun advocates came together to alert people to this end run that was being attempted and the emails and phone calls were successful in putting a stop to this asinine idea.
Another event in the blogging world that worked more as a wedge between hunters and target shooters was the Zumbo flap. No doubt Jim Zumbo’s ill thought-out post about Black Guns and questioning the reason individuals should own them set the net a fire and even made the National News for a while. Mr. Zumbo was thrown under the bus by many in the gun community loosing many of his sponsors, his TV show, as well as his writing gig with Outdoor Life. He has made some what of a comeback and is now back on TV. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies fighting amongst ourselves as our enemies just sit back and watch.
The story of the senseless death of Josh Leger, waterfowl guide, Avery Pro Staff Member out of Canada was a hard one to write about. He was shot by someone who stopped on the road seeing their decoy spread and then this individual shoot at the decoys with a rifle fatally wounding Josh. Such a senseless crime with far to high a cost just to kill a goose. I’ll never understand this. Much of the news reports on this story were in French so it presented a new challenge to me to translate them so I could help tell the story. Unfortunately this same scenario plays out all to often and we need to find a way to stop folks who illegally poach because it is not only game they are killing but they also kill and injury other people as well.
The last story or more accurately a theme was the whole rumors on the internet. Everyone hears about the biggest deer or the new monster bear and in many cases inaccurate information gets passed along. I doubt will ever get rid of the rumors on the net so I guess I’ll be forever running these stories down.
Moose Droppings is a place that chronicles my journey, Ill explore new places and ideas Ill learn new things and Ill teach the things Ive learned to others. Join me on the adventure and hopefully it will help you in your outdoor endeavors.
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