Outdoor Adventures

[ksquared]

And good morning, Colt...

Bear discussion after the following amenities...
<g>

The movie was fun. It was also incredibly touching. Glad I spent the $1.99. Toying with watching About Schmitt today... a new PPV selection but one of the pricey ones. Hmmm.

Think the .22 will come in handy for the groundhogs... don't really see a need for it as protection. This is a LOW crime area plus which I made it safely through all those years in Manhattan... and I have been in some skeevy situations... without a gun. <g>

Think my friend has some wonderful ways to prepare deer meat so I would turn to her for ideas.

Now... to the bear problem and yesterday's conversation. I've been talking to the people I know in this area and I am hearing the same concern... too many yahoos who think they know what they are doing... especially city denizens who move out here and suddenly decide they are "big game hunters" coupled with jerks who will come here, kill the bear, walk off with the head for a trophy or the skin for a rug, and leave the carcass to rot.

Plus which, if these jerks only manage to wound the bears we are going to have a far worse problem. Hurting bears are pissed off bears... don't want to be in their paths when they seek revenge.

Must happen everywhere but this area is so densely populated that we get more than our fair share of know nothing troublemakers.

Plus which... law states that you cannot shoot a gun within four hundred feet of a house without the owner's permission (that's got to be about a football field and three downs distance). Where the bears are the problem, you would not be able to hunt. Thinning the population in the hills of the extreme northwestern corner of the state is not going to stop the bears who've discovered the easy eats of the burbs from continuing on their paths of destruction. They are not about to relocate on their own just because their ranks have thinned out in the woods.

The solution proposed by my programmer friend. No hunt. Specially trained wardens with bullets for each town who will go in and "shoot to kill" the nuisance bear. No more tranquilizing it and moving it into the witness protection program. She believes that would take care of the problem while meeting the quota they are setting to thin out the population. She also says that this way, you could be sure the meat and all parts of the bear were properly used and/or disposed of.

I'm leaning toward agreement.

A couple of other points that were brought up as far as the current license plan... training courses required before the tag is issued. Not sure if this is law yet or how strict the training programs would be. After hearing the opinions of folks who are responsible hunters and/or far more familiar with what goes on around here during hunting season, I think this should be mandatory at the very least.

I also wound up talking to Magic House Mama about this last night... she brought up another point about game wardens... allegedly they already have this training. Problem is they are not trained to track the bears or go after them in any way. By the time they get to the point of the problem, the bear is gone and nothing is done to pursue. Says we need to import some real mountain men from the west to head the program and bring these guys up to speed.

Any volunteers? <ggg> Bet you guys could set yourselves up with quite the retirement package for putting in a little consulting work.

Would love to hear feedback from this board. I'm trying to come up with a really good letter to the editor. Keep in mind that much of our bear problem has to do with our human overpopulation problem. Thanks.

bear.ksquared.fighter(HAR)