Hunters Should Be Cautious As Remnants of Ida Grip the State

Late season hurricane Ida hit the gulf coast earlier this week but the remnants of this storm our now stalled over North Carolina and the Mid Atlantic states. Parts of North Carolina are expected to get up to 7 inches of rain before this system clears out. In addition to heavy rains the state is experiencing high winds with gusts in excess of 45 mph. This is a deadly combination as trees are toppling over after ground saturation erodes the integrity of the root system and the high winds just push the trees over.

Chilly, windy, rainy

“It’s going to be chilly, windy and rainy today,” said WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner. “It’s the gusts that are really kicking up out there.”
Wednesday was the third-wettest day recorded at Raleigh-Durham International Airport since 1944, according to WRAL meteorologist Nate Johnson.
The storm that started the week as Hurricane Ida weakened Tuesday after making landfall in southern Alabama. It was downgraded to a tropical depression as it moved east over the Florida panhandle.
Moisture from that system joined forces with a cold front and a separate low pressure system off the coast of North and South Carolina to produce a nor’easter that will continue to dump rain on the eastern half of the state into Friday.
“The rain will probably be lighter and spotter on Friday, but still there,” said WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel.

WRAL

With signs of the rut beginning to kick in as well as it being the week of muzzleloader season across the center part of the state many people including myself has taken this week off to hunt. Hunters hunting from treestands should be aware that the tree they are hunting out of may not be stable and could potentially topple over. Other hazards include flash flooding as rain continues to fall.

People need to be safe and carefully consider whether or not hunting in their particular area can be done safely. I did not hunt yesterday nor did I venture out yet this morning. I do have plans to hunt this afternoon but if conditions are not safe I will forgo the hunt to be safe.
People should be cautious and carefully check things out before driving across any flooded areas and before climbing into a tree.
Be Safe

Update on I 40 Rock Slide

Last week I reported on a massive rockslide blocking I 40 a major travel route through the mountains of North Carolina. What was initially thought would take crews 2 months to clear now is estimated to be a 4 month project.

The rock slide more than a week ago will keep the interstate closed for at least four months. N.C. Transportation officials say the cleanup could cost $10 million, and Gov. Bev Perdue has declared the slide an emergency.

WRAL
Anyone planning travel through the mountains along I 40 corridor in and out of Tennessee should review travel routes to get around the slide.

Massive Rock Slide Blocks I 40 In North Carolina Mountains

A massive rock slide has blocked all four lanes of I 40 on the North Carolina Tennessee border at mile marker 2.6. The slide happened overnight being reported around 2am Sunday. Unknown is if there were any vehicles in the area when the slide happened and if they are buried under the massive amounts of rocks.
North Carolina Department of Transportation report that it could be a couple of months before the highway is cleared and reopened to traffic.
This is an important travel route for western NC and important to the local economy that depends on tourism. The detour around this slide is one hundred and forty miles!!! While there is never a good time for something like this to happen during the fall when people are traveling to see the fall colors and not to mention that Thanksgiving travel will be upon us soon.

UPDATE
A few new videos shot from the scene has been added that give you a pretty good idea how massive a slide this is. It would appear that the remoteness and the early morning hours kept anyone to be passing by at the time the slide took place.

Bear Population Soars In Mountains So Does Conflicts

The Southern Appalachian Bear Study Group reports a record year for bears in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Frank Van Manen, research ecologist with the University of Tennessee and chairman of the study group, said one indication of the expanding population is that bears have moved out of the mountains into areas like Piedmont in North Carolina and northern Alabama that haven’t traditionally been identified as bear habitat.
“Wildlife agencies have been incredibly successful in their bear recovery efforts,” Van Manen said. “Now, perhaps we’re dealing with the aftermath of that, with black bears moving into areas they’ve never been, or haven’t been in decades.”

KnoxNews

Conflicts with bears have also increased which is not surprising. Reports of bears killing livestock like the sow with cubs that killed a flock of chickens this past summer or the bear this week that killed a llama that was guarding a flock of sheep are somewhat unusual.

Marian Sigmon said she was taking her cat out about 6:45 a.m. when she heard the llama scream in the pasture, where the 6-foot-tall animal was stationed as a guard animal for Shetland sheep.
Sigmon and her husband, Robert, were able to chase the bear away to the edge of the pasture on Jones Cove Road. The llama was euthanized because its injuries were so severe.

Citizens Times

Conflicts with humans will naturally increase as bears move into new areas or areas with higher concentrations of humans. While with some species carrying capacity of the land is important with bears it seems that the cultural capacity is paramount.

Van Manen said that while the region may be biologically capable of supporting even more bears, it’s clear that in some areas, the population has reached its cultural capacity as determined by people’s willingness to tolerate bears visiting their bird feeders or breaking into their homes.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will have to make some decisions as bear human conflicts increase.
I assume that part of tomorrow’s free lecture at NC Wildlife on Centennial Campus will cover that aspect of bear management. Educating humans about living in bear territory and those who now find themselves in bear territory can help but how much they’ll tolerate bears is just as important. Bears for the most part will avoid confrontations with humans but they are predators and will make the most of any opportunities they have. Fatal attacks on humans are rare but not unheard of.
I like bears and hope to see them continue to increase however in the more populated areas of the Piedmont and the Triangle I’m not sure it’s too good of an idea to see them in those parts of the state.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission biologist Colleen Offenbuttel will be presenting a free lecture on Black Bear Research and Management in North Carolina this month. The lecture will be held on Wednesday the 14th of October at the Centennial Campus at 4pm.

Tree Full of Bears In Rockingham County A Publicity Stunt?

What some might think for a second as a publicity stunt was probably just a bit of lucky timing as a sow and three cubs showed up only days after NCWRC announced the next free wildlife lecture. “Black Bear Research and Management in North Carolina: 1970s Through the Present”. Bears are expanding their range in the state and how is North Carolina going to deal with the increase bear human conflicts that will certainly rise as well?

 

This video from Fox 8 certainly will give you a taste of the conflict as people remain in the area keeping the bears treed.

Part of me thinks NCWRC bigger job will be managing people not so much the bears.

Want to Learn About Bears & Bear Management in North Carolina?

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission biologist Colleen Offenbuttel will be presenting a free lecture on Black Bear Research and Management in North Carolina this month. The lecture will be held on Wednesday the 14th of October at the Centennial Campus at 4pm.

“Black Bear Research and Management in North Carolina: 1970s Through the Present” will examine the modern era of black bear management. Olfenbuttel will discuss projects and cooperative agreements with various universities, including N.C. State University; research on the demographics of the bear population and how monitoring efforts provide a basis for making sound management decisions; and adopting regulations to benefit bear populations and habitats.

North Carolina has bears mostly concentrated in the west and the eastern part of the state but bears are apt to pop up almost anywhere in the state as the population expands. The bears in eastern North Carolina can grow to some massive sizes as you can see by the photo I posted. Earlier this summer I talked with Mike Noles of Conman’s Guide Service and as far as he knows this bear Maximus is still walking around. Mike offers stand hunts for bears but the most common method for hunting bears down east is with hounds.
As the human population expands and the bear population does as well what will NCWRC response be to deal with the conflicts that will arise. We’ve already seen some issues in the mountains, the Piedmont, and right here in the triangle.

The Centennial Campus Center for Wildlife Education is located at 1751 Varsity Drive, Raleigh.

Herd of Pigs Take Over North Carolina School’s Playground

 

Fox 8

What is probably a sign of what is to come a small herd of pigs has taken a likening to a Guilford County School’s playground. Stokesdale Elementary school has had to cancel outside recess at the school until animal control can rid the playground of pigs. It is unclear if these are pigs that have escaped from someone or if they are feral pigs.
Feral pig populations across North Carolina and really the southern United States is exploding and growing virtual unchecked. Pigs are very prolific and will multiply quickly as well as very adaptable and hard to eradicate once they become established. Many hunters will look on the pig as a blessing because of the added hunting opportunities it provides however once established many of these hunters and landowners will see the pigs as a curse as they destroy the land and many native species. Hogs should be viewed as an invasive species and dealt with as such.

Unusual Creature Washes Up On Nags Head

Saturday a rare False Killer Whale stranded itself on South Nags Head beach in what is believed to be only the second occurrence to ever happen in North Carolina. The false killer whale is a rare whale species found in more tropical waters then those found off the coast of North Carolina.
Karen Clark with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission told the Virginia Pilot

The 14-foot female false killer whale stranded on a South Nags Head beach Saturday. It was only the second time the species has been reported to be stranded in the state, Clark said. The animal, normally found in tropical waters, appeared thin and may have been ailing, she said.
Its remains were sent to the Smithsonian Institution, she said, because there are few samples of the species.

Rough seas off the coast is believed to be partially responsible for the recent beachings that included a number of turtles as well as the false killer whale and a 30 foot humpback whale discovered Tuesday.

More Info On False Killer Whales

Seaworld

NOAA

In The News: Urban Deer Hunting

As the urbanization continues across North Carolina more natural habitat gets taken up with homes and expensive landscaping the whitetail deer just learns to adapt. I work inside the city of Raleigh and I see a lot of deer within the city as I travel about and other wild animals are adapting to city life including the coyote and the fox.
The deer presents a difficult problem because encounters with humans especially in the form of accidents can cause significant property damage as well as injuries and death. This happens mostly in motor vehicles but recently a man in New York State died after a collision with a deer while the man was bike riding.

ULSTER PARK — A 68-year-old man died after apparently striking a deer while riding his bicycle Thursday morning, according to the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said Warren “Bud” Clarke of Ulster Park was riding on Pokonoie Road about 7:20 a.m. when the accident occurred. It appears Clarke struck a deer and was thrown from the bike, deputies said.

The accident was reported to Ulster County 911 at 7:22 a.m.

Daily Freeman

Another significant problem the deer cause is damage to landscaping as they search for food in their urban environment. They have adjusted well learning to eat non native plants that have replaced their usual crops.

That’s the case at the Cary home of Mary Marsha Cupitt, whose house backs up to the Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve. She said deer snacked on her two tomato plants to the point that only a single tomato was left. And she’d rather not get into the state of her hostas.
“They love hostas, and that’s the one plant I have that’s eaten down to nothing but skin,” Cupitt said.

N&O

The NCWRC developed rules to allow cities to offer an urban deer archery season in January to help control the urban deer herd. There has been some reluctance on cities part to institute this but a few have across the state have and there has been no incidents or accidents reported. Bow hunting is very safe and a cheap alternative for cities during this time of dwindling budgets.

City officials have raised legitimate concerns about urban deer hunting, said Greg Batts, a biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Those include the cost of managing the program and, more importantly, safety questions. City governments have been reluctant to embrace a program that its residents could perceive as dangerous or reckless, Batts told a group of people with deer problems in Holly Springs last week.
But Batts said other methods of population control, such as poisoning, transferring deer to other areas and deer birth control are not as cost-effective or successful as hunting can be.

The NCBA was a driving force behind getting the Urban Season established and here is what Ramon Bell the president of the NCBA had to say.

Bell says urban deer hunting doesn’t present any safety hazard. City officials specify what areas can and cannot be hunted safely. Populated, busy areas are off limits. And for suburban homeowners concerned about hunting in their backyards, hunters would need written consent from individual property owners to hunt on their land and must pass a certification program offered by the Bowhunters Association to be eligible.

Cities and towns will have to address the issue of controlling wildlife within their limits and the costs associated with that. Urban Bow Season is a safe solution and can help keep things in balance.

Today’s Big Game Committee Meeting

Well I took the morning off to attend the Big Game Committee Meeting where a lot of the hunting regulations we debate get their legs so to speak. Long before they end up in the proposal booklet at the public meetings chances are pretty good some if not all the Commissioners have kicked them around a bit.

I’ll try to give you the readers digest version of the meeting and add a bit more flesh in future posts. If anyone has a specific question post it up and I’ll try my best to review my notes and recall my memory to give you the best answer about what was said.
They started the meeting off with reminding everyone that a number of hunting proposals were delayed from implementation for at least a year. At the meeting they reiterated that the 10 letter rule delayed all the deer rules and that there was no way the NCWRC could of sidestepped this with the use of temporary rules. I also asked about separating the rules so opposition to one or two does not sink the entire slate which they also said was not an option. From where I sit it would appear to me that we better just plan a two year cycle for getting new rules. Getting 10 letters of opposition is such a low threshold I can see some folks having fun with that process.

The first agenda item was a presentation on a proposal to establish a captive cervid herd certification program. (Deer Farming)

This would be for the current farms and will not allow any additional farms. Chronic Wasting Disease is the reason that tight control by state and federal agencies was implemented a few years ago. Presently there is no known cases of CWD in captive or wild deer in North Carolina. The closest cases of CWD is in West Virginia in both captive and wild deer. Under current laws captive deer in North Carolina are highly regulated with each farm receiving two inspections a year to verify compliance.

They are looking at establishing strict guidelines under which deer could be transferred / transported between two licensed farms. Operations would have to be clean record for 5 years before they could reach this status. This is in the early process and will go to public meetings if the NCWRC as a whole decides to go forward with it. Under this plan there is no plan to issue any new licenses this only for existing operations.

Bear

Proposal to look at a harvested bear needing to weigh 100 lbs or more was shot down.

Proposal to alter bear season in the NE part of the state so it didn’t fall the week of Christmas. Shot down

Both of those proposals were asked for by a number of bear hunters at the last meeting

Baiting of bear was again discussed. Under current law still hunters can not bait bear however hound hunters can strike dogs off a bait pile. This has led to some places where hound hunters are baiting and either drawing bears off others lands or limiting hunting opportunities on others land.

Baiting 3 proposals sent out of committee to the Commissioners Meeting.

(side note all of these are a ways off because they’ll require legislative action for any of them. They are being floated to see if the NCWRC wants to hear from folks on any of these potential proposals)

1. Outlaw all bear baiting outright.
2. Keep the law as it currently is and add a 3 day pre dog hunt still hunt over baits. This would be a limited draw hunt and NCWRC would set the number of permits it would issue for this hunt. (Private land only)
3. Establish a 3 day still hunt prior to the opening of dog season but no bait Rest of the current laws would stay in place

1&2 passed with only one vote each in opposition
3 passed unanimously from the committee.

Deer

Talking about QDM and possible inviting Mr. Hamilton to address the committee in the future. Early stages of this idea so it may nor may not happen. Several of the commissioners voiced concerns over internal politics within the QDM movement.

Beginning to look at the possibility that some deer rules maybe by county if the majority of hunters want a particular rule. IE. Some folks are wanting a one buck limit the big game committee is going to explore that topic of special rules for a county.
Well that is a brief overview of the meeting and some of these I’ll elaborate a bit more in future posts.

Fair Chase and Senator Feinstein

So are we to believe that the Senator is going to take up hunting with her concern over fair chase when it comes to Alaska wolves? Somehow I doubt it but I did get a kick out of a recent editorial on the subject in Juneau Empire

Feinstein did so, at least in part, because she believes the state’s effort violates “the hunting principle of fair chase.”
No, it does not, because, as she said, Alaska’s wolf control program is not sport.
“Fair chase” is a loose, ever-shifting set of guidelines employed by individual hunters who, for a variety of personal reasons, often make their hunts more difficult for themselves and thus potentially less lethal to their prey. More power to them, but such standards are illogical when attempting to manage wildlife populations.
What homeowner would set a mouse trap but leave it unbaited just to give the mice a chance? What farmer would put cats in the barn but remove their claws so the rats have a fair shake?
When attempting to control an animal population, neither individuals nor the government can apply standards of fair chase, because those standards are designed solely to make success more difficult. In a control effort, the intent is to kill the animal. The most efficient, quickest method should be used. The state of Alaska follows that mandate when it kills wolves using gunners in aircraft.

The editorial is right on the money the killing of the wolves by the state of Alaska is not for sport but an effort to control specie that is getting out of balance. This is a smoke and mirrors attempt by the Senator to inject an idea to cloud the issue that just doesn’t belong in the discussion to begin with. If the Senator wants to look at some guiding principles how about this one;

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The Federal government has become too powerful and we need it to go back to the principles established by our founding fathers and restore the rights of the states and the people.

Tragedy up And Down the East Coast in Hurricane Bill’s Path

This past weekend Hurricane Bill’s path up the east coast of the United States and Canada seemed the best possible outcome not making landfall as it burned up its energy and punch. However damaging waves, rip currents, and treacherous seas wreaked havoc on those who dared to get near.
In Florida a 54 year old man drowned while body surfing on Saturday in the storm fueled waves. On Sunday as many as 5 people were washed into the ocean at Acadia National Park when a large wave crashed over the viewing platform at Thunder Hole. Two of the five people were immediately rescued by bystanders and the three others were swept out to sea. Two of the three were rescued by US Coast Guard but the third, a seven year old girl was not and her body was recovered hours later.
The death of Michael Nemes on Saturday in Onslow County would also appear to be related to Hurricane Bill as more details of this tragedy become available.
Michael Nemes a vacationing police officer from New York was driving a jet ski on the ocean side of Brown’s Inlet a remote location along the North Carolina Coast near Camp Lejeune when the single vessel accident occurred around 4 pm.

The incident occurred around 4 p.m., said Jackie Schmidt of Jacksonville and his brother-in-law, Dan Haugk, of Holly Springs, who attempted to rescue the Nemes.
Schmidt and Haugk had been on their personal watercraft on the sound side of the beach, when a woman came running up the beach screaming that someone was drowning.
“We took off on our skis and went around the sound side, through Browns Inlet, and saw a man out in the ocean,” Haugk told The Daily News on Sunday.
Initially, Haugk said he thought a small boat had capsized, but as he got closer, he discovered it was a personal watercraft.
“I saw a person floating in the distance. He was face down and he was wearing a life jacket. I got as close as I could with the jet ski, then jumped off the jet ski and turned him over to see if he was responsive,” Haugk said.
Schmidt and Haugk tried to pull the man onto their personal watercraft, but the waves were too strong.
“About that time, an 8-foot wave hit us. I lost track of (Nemes) and the jet ski sunk,” said Haugk, who said he swam to shore on Browns Island. Haugk was able to spot Nemes out in the surf and, with Schmidt’s help, pulled him out the water.
“He had no pulse. He was unresponsive,” Haugk said.

Jacksonville Daily News
It took rescuers from Swansboro over an hour to reach the scene after the initial 911 call according to bystander reports. This accident remains under investigation by the NCWRC as well as the local medical examiner.
The power of the ocean especially when a storm is present or nearby can be over whelming. It would appear that in all these cases people wanted to be close to the excitement a storm like this can generate and the awe inspiring splendor of Mother Nature’s fury. Unfortunately they got caught up in that fury and paid dearly.

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