Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 300-feet over a pasture behind his Dublin home. But that wasn’t enough to stop him from coming forward after he read similar accounts in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.
“You hear about big bass or big buck in the area, but this is a different deal,” Sorrells said. “It feels good to hear that other people saw something, because that means I’m not crazy.”
The Colorado Division of Wildlife is planning to start emergency feeding operations for big game animals in the Gunnison Basin as soon as possible. Mule deer will be targeted because they are most impacted by adverse weather conditions. However,feed and hay will also be provided to bighorn sheep, pronghorn and elk.
Providing feed to wildlife requires a major undertaking and many personnel hours, and the DOW is seeking volunteers to help with the emergency feeding effort. DOW wildlife managers are now working on the logistics of the operation. While some feeding will start as soon as material is available, the effort will increase as feed, specially formulated for deer,becomes available from a mill next week. Continue reading Emergency Wildlife Feeding of Deer and Pronghorn
Tyler Goetzman of Willis caught the first Budweiser Sharelunker of 2008 action with a 13.06-pound largemouth bass from Lake Conroe January 13. The 15-year-old was fishing a tournament when the fish took a Rat-L-Trap in six feet of water. The fish was 24 inches long and 20.25 inches in girth.
This is only the fourth time in the Budweiser ShareLunker program’s 21-year history that the season’s first entry came in January. Lake Conroe has now produced 12 ShareLunkers and ranks fourth in the number of entries from public waters, behind Lake Fork, Lake Alan Henry and Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Goetzman’s fish is number 442 in the list of ShareLunker entries.
The Houston Zoo will host the third Wildlife Diversity Conference January 17-19. Texas Parks & Wildlife Department Executive Director Carter Smith is scheduled to speak at the event. Other speakers from a variety of academic and conservation organizations will speak on a range of topics including Attwater’s Prairie Chicken Recovery, Kemp’s Ridley Turtles, the non-game reptile and amphibian trade in Texas, the Texas Plant Recovery Initiative, coastal prairie restoration, black bears in East Texas and more.
“The Texas Wildlife Action Plan provides a road map for addressing priority species and habitats in need of conservation attention,” said Mike Berger, Ph.D., TPWD Wildlife Division director. “As we move from planning to implementation, we need stakeholders and others that know how to get things done on the ground to attend and participate in this conference.”
For a schedule and a complete list of speakers, visit the Wildlife Diversity Website.
A coalition of about 50 hunting, fishing and conservation groups banding together under the name Texas Outdoor Partners will meet this Wednesday in Austin. The group will discuss various issues affecting hunters, anglers and conservation in Texas, including “taking a close look at the future of Fund 9 and brainstorming overall conservation funding options in general,” according to Kirby Brown of the Texas Wildlife Association, who is helping lead efforts to organize the new umbrella group.
Brown said the meeting will include staff from the Texas Senate and House of Representatives, including the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House, as well as new TPWD Executive Director Carter Smith and other agency leaders.
Fisher County Game Warden Justin Valchar received an award from the Texas Department of Public Safety this week at DPS headquarters in Austin. The award is associated with a rescue during recent flood conditions in which Warden Valchar entered running water to rescue someone from the top of a vehicle.
Warden Valchar wore a Personal Flotation Device (PFD) and took another PFD to the stranded person. Warden Valchar worked with a DPS officer who was handling a line tied to Valchar during the rescue
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks is investigating a weekend hunting accident in Webster County that claimed the life of a teen-ager. County Coroner Steve Wells said Craig Collum, 19, of Cadaretta was accidentally shot Saturday afternoon by a minor who was deer hunting with him. Collum was pronounced dead at North Mississippi Medical Center-Eupora from the single gunshot wound he suffered, according to Wells. Continue reading Mississippi Teenager Dies in Hunting Accident