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7/17/2002
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Article/Press
Release
Outdoor News - Tidbits
Safari Club
International
Outdoor Advocacy Report
ˇROAR V3, N10 ˇ
www.safariclub.org
Support Celebrity
Hunters
Repeated calls by business
groups for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to lose its
nonprofit status because it has given money to ecoterrorist groups
in the United States, have done little to stem PETA attacks on
hunters and anglers. Most recently, Sports Illustrated noted that
PETA asked NBA star Shaquille O'Neal to stop going on hunts, and
both Western Outdoors and Bassmaster Magazine published editorials
outlining PETA's ongoing attempts to ban sport fishing.
Celebrity hunters and
anglers should be applauded for their efforts to maintain the
outdoor tradition that the latest USFWS survey shows to be a $70
billion industry in the United States. Frankly, more sportsmen
should join O'Neal, his friend and fellow NBA great Karl Malone,
pop icon Madonna, actors Gerald McRaney and Joe Mantegna, and
other VIPs in speaking out for hunting and fishing.
For more information on
how PETA and other activist groups spend their funds, go to
www.ActivistCash.com. To express support for angling, visit
www.FreedomToFish.org.
Rats With Antlers
The Dallas Morning News
recently published a survey on deer population explosions across
the United States with this telling quote: "They've really become
like a pest," said Princeton Township Mayor Phyllis Marchland.
"People in our town call them (deer) rats with antlers."
Among the survey findings
underscoring the importance of community support for professional
wildlife management involving legal hunting are:
1) Nationwide, deer
numbers have jumped 30 percent in the 1990's to about 33 million
animals today.
2) Texas has on average
three times the deer of other states, with some 3.7 million deer.
3) In Pennsylvania alone,
deer destroy $70 million-worth of crops annually.
More Nuisance Wildlife
& Attacks
Reports of nuisance
wildlife and wildlife attacks continue to fill the news, showing
how critical it is for wildlife management professionals to have
the decision making freedom necessary to keep populations in
balance:
1) A Bradenton, Fla. man
was forced to move because his one-bedroom apartment became the
favorite roosting spot of bats, reports FOXNEWS.com.
2) CBSNEWS.com announced
that 12 people were killed on both sides of the India-Nepal border
after a rogue elephant went rampaging through several villages.
3) The Boston Globe
reports that Maine's bear population increases 8-10 percent a
year, and that police in Worcester were forced to cull a black
bear that had scampered up a neighborhood tree.
4) The New York Times
reports a woman luckily escaped with only minor injuries from a
grizzly bear attack in Yellowstone National Monument.
Forest Fire Impact
In the wake of Colorado's
summer forest fires, state Division of Wildlife officials are
working hard to measure the fires' impact on the state's
wildlife. DOW, the US Forest Service and other agencies have
formed the Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) coalition.
Using data collected on the ground and in the air, BAER will
determine the extent of damage to wildlife and wild habitats.
"We'll be creating a plan
for reseeding, stabilization, and restoration of habitat," said
DOW Manager Ron Zaccagini. "The old age forest will be replaced
with a new forest and growth. The food supply and habitat that
was in short supply will be better - we'll probably see an
increase in deer and elk in the next few years. Our biggest
concern is impact on water supply.
SCI salutes all the
agencies and communities currently addressing ecosystem challenges
caused by draught and forest fires in the United States and
Canada.
Lyme Vaccine Pulled
According to the latest
issue of North American Hunter, pharmaceutical company
GlaxoSmithKline, the nation's only Lyme disease vaccine maker, has
pulled its vaccine from pharmacy shelves, despite warnings by
health officials that Lyme disease cases (ROAR 1.3) are rising.
Lyme disease, a bacterial
infection spread to unsuspecting people primarily by the deer
tick, has increased 25 fold since 1982 and now accounts for 95
percent of all vector-borne illness.
SCI urges GlaxoSmithKline
to reconsider its decision. Poor sales for Lymerix, and an
expectation that fewer than 10,000 people would seek vaccination
this year, might be addressed with a stronger education effort
aimed at tens of millions of hunters.
East Mojave Water
Sources
Outdoor writer Jim
Matthews of The Daily Press reports a diverse coalition of
sportsmen's and conservation groups, of which SCI is a part, was
successful in preserving East Mojave cattle water development
resources that were scheduled to be shut down as the desert's
cattle allotments are retired.
The water developments
have supported cattle and wildlife for the past 100 years.
"We got a lot of people
together who should be on this issue," said coalition leader Cliff
McDonald. "I feel that we made a point - that we're not going to
roll over and just let this happen." SCI salutes the efforts
McDonald and the coalition, and encourages sportsmen to in its
efforts to preserve these important wildlife water sources.
IWM Museum Helps
Threatened Fish
The SCI Foundation's
International Wildlife Museum in Tucson is helping the Arizona
Game & Fish Department and The Nature Conservancy preserve two of
Arizona's threatened indigenous fish species.
The Museum's pond, which
for year has been a habitat for the Desert pupfish (Cyprinodon
macularins) and the Gila topminnow (Poeciliopsis occidentalis
occidentalis), is now also housing a group of Gila chubs (Gila
intermedia) and the entire known gene pool of a breed of Sonora
suckers (Catostomus insignis).
According to Heidi Blasius
of Arizona Game & Fish, "the International Wildlife Museum is
playing an integral role in the survival of both species by
providing temporary habitat until they can be returned to
O'Donnell Creek. The partnership between the International
Wildlife Museum and Arizona Game & Fish has proven to be
invaluable in the management and conservation of Arizona's
imperiled native fish fauna." |
