Annual hunting licenses and preliminary turkey hunting permit sales for the regular spring season are on the rise, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conversation.
The sale of annual hunting licenses and turkey permits in the prior months ahead of opening the regular spring hunting season has increased, and even an uptick amid the pandemic.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an increase in hunting license sales, especially in junior hunting licenses, as well as turkey permits throughout the state,” read in a statement issued by the Department of Environmental Conversation.
Lori Severino, a NYSDEC public information officer spills the details on the surprisingly active spring hunting season, which started on May 1st.
Tim Brass of Ft. Collins works his duck call at sunrise during a morning duck hunt near Jackson Lake State Park last week. (Denver Post file)
The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission has expanded the amount of state trust land open for public access hunting this fall by more than a third with the addition of 210,000 acres. The expansion brings the total enrolled acres to 777,000 in a multi-year effort to reach 1 million acres.
The purpose of CPW’s Public Access Program is to provide limited seasonal hunting and angling opportunities on Colorado trust land through a lease agreement between CPW and the State Land Board. The commission approved the addition in a virtual meeting on May 7.
Nothing says “I love you” to a mostly plant-based, animal rights advocate like selling your guns.
Prince Harry has sold his handmade hunting rifles to another game hunter for £50,000, or slightly over $60,000, the newspaper The Sun reported. He did it out of deference to wife Meghan Markle, who is a conservationist and animal-lover, sources say. Harry has not hunted since he went on a wild boar hunting trip to Germany when they two were engaged in 2017.
Harry first learned to shoot as a child and once killed a one-ton buffalo, and posed for a photograph with his trophy kill. But in the years since, he has gone off the “sport” and become more enlightened, sources told the paper that he gave up hunting to please Meghan, who is opposed to hunting.
Markle has never said she was vegan but when discussed her diet…
A young black bear was spotted in Brockville’s north end Friday morning, vanished just as quickly as it appeared, then popped up again in the general area later Friday afternoon.
Brockville police received numerous reports about a young bear in the area of Peden Boulevard, Windsor Drive, Laurier Boulevard and Duke Street around 6 a.m. Friday.
The last spot the bear was located, for a few hours at least, was in the Dana Street/Windsor Drive area – relatively close to the Mac Johnson Wildlife Area – which led police to presume it was heading for the Back Pond.
Spring is finally here. People are starting seeds in their kitchen windows and preparing their gardens. Mother’s Day too is upon us. It’s so fitting that Mother’s Day is celebrated during spring while new life is all around us. Spring, and Mother’s Day, remind us that all new life needs to be nurtured, treasured, and protected. The caring drive that is in all of us makes us parents and guardians of the tender lives that are taking root, blossoming, hatching or being born right now.
Spring is a time to breathe a little easier, feel a little lighter as we see shoots sprouting from the ground and leaves forming on the once-barren trees. I hope that your hearts are lifted, as mine is at this lovely time.
And, I can share something else with you that will lighten your hearts even more.
This year, for the first time since 2008 Parks Canada will not be conducting their annual cull of Double-crested Cormorants on an island in Lake Erie. We have talked with you many times about this persecuted species. Like wolves and coyotes, and deer and beaver too, these native wild animals are so often targeted for killing by conservation and parks managers. You know that we will always oppose the lethal ‘management’ of wild animals, and promote peaceful co-existence with the natural world and all its inhabitants.
This year, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, their annual cull of cormorants has been called off. So, a team of Parks Canada staff will not travel to Middle Island to kill birds.
This year, cormorant parents will not be shot off of their nests as they incubate their eggs. This year, mated pairs of cormorant parents will not be at risk of being left alone to incubate their eggs and then their offspring – a task too difficult to be successful. For this spring, all the birds on the island will not fly up in fear as shots ring out. Birds will not wheel around in the air, trying to return to their nests, only to be driven off again as shooting continues. This year, birds will not be driven by exhaustion at the end of the day to simply remain in their nests, even as the shooting continues, placing themselves at great risk.
For this wonderful year, here is what will happen, and is happening right now.
A vibrant, active and glorious sea bird nursery is teeming with birds of various species: our cormorant friends, as well as Great Blue Herons, Black-crowned Night Herons, Great Egrets and American white pelicans.
These colonial waterbirds are nesting, incubating their eggs in close proximity to each other in tree-top nests. Birds are flying in from the lake, returning to relieve their mates on their nests. Places are exchanged as each mate takes turns flying out to hunt for fish. The air is peaceful as the flight of the birds is unhurried. All around, birds fly to and from the island; some travelling far in small groups, others hunting for fish nearby. Birds are bringing in new nesting materials to firm up their nests. Cormorants are floating on the water, then quickly disappearing as they dive to catch a fish. Along the shoreline Canada Geese are swimming peacefully. The soft sound of bird call is mixing with the sound of the wind.
It’s a glorious time in this nursery for birds, thanks to the suspension of this year’s cull.
How do we know what is happening this year, you might ask?
And how do we know what has happened in so many previous years?
We know because each year Animal Alliance of Canada and the Animal Protection Party have hired a boat and captain to take our observers to Middle Island to monitor the cull. When Parks Canada shooters are on the island, we are anchored nearby to keep witness. This is a very expensive undertaking, but we are committed to be there when the killing is taking place. We believe that our presence makes it more likely that the shooters take more time to ensure that wounded birds are not left behind to suffer.
Wounded birds were left behind to endure prolonged deaths some years ago when the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry conducted a cull on High Bluff Island at Presqu’ile Provincial Park. As several groups monitored that cull, we took video evidence of wounded birds left behind to die of starvation, too injured to dive for fish.
We have also been able to see with our own eyes how peaceful Middle Island, and other nearby island nurseries, are when shooters are not there. And, sadly we have observed how disturbed the birds are when their remote island is invaded so violently. We believe that it’s essential to let Parks Canada staff and management know that as long as they are killing birds, we will be there to keep watch.
Thanks to you we have been able to monitor and witness.
We have been able to hire those boats and send a staff member to monitor the shooting because of the generosity of so many of you. It’s not a happy assignment but a necessary one. We will be heading to Middle Island once we’re able – to document what happens when there is no Parks Canada presence to disrupt the delicate ecosystem. Thank you for giving us the resources to be able to make this important trip.
So, for this one year, let’s all breathe a little easier and think about a season of peace for parents and their young on Middle Island.
And, we ask you to take an ACTION to protect Double-crested Cormorants from a misguided law that has been proposed by Ontario’s provincial government, one that has the potential to kill thousands of cormorants in just one year.
Ontario’s Premier, Doug Ford, and his government have started to implement one of the most regressive wildlife “management” programs in Canadian history. The proposed changes are rooted in an irrational hatred for cormorants that will fuel their persecution and drive them back to the brink of extinction, or worse, in the province.
What Ontario’s government is proposing is to allow hunters to kill 50 cormorants a day! Once all the proposed legislative changes come into effect, one hunter will be able to legally kill over 14,000 cormorants in just one season.
It wouldn’t take many people very long to wipe out most cormorants in the province. Cormorants would be reduced to just a tiny remnant of their population in a few protected areas. Double-crested Cormorants, a native migratory bird, could be driven back to near extinction in just one year.
Canada’s federal government can, and should, protect Double-crested Cormorants under Canada’s Migratory Bird Convention Act, paralleling the U.S. listing, a reasonable and scientifically sound request.
Help Cormorants: Oppose Ontario’s Plan!
Call or Write to the Honourable Jon Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Ask him to amend the Migratory Bird Convention Act to include Double-crested Cormorants who are migratory and should be protected under the Act.
A quick phone call or a brief email are the most effective.
The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson
Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Oceans are likely to rise as much as 1.3 metres by 2100 if Earth’s surface warms another 3.5 degrees Celsius, scientists warned Friday.
By 2300, when ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland will have shed trillions of tonnes in mass, sea levels could go up by more than five metres under that temperature scenario, redrawing the planet’s coastlines, they reported in a peer-reviewed survey of more than 100 leading experts.
About ten percent of the world’s population, or 770 million people, today live on land less than five metres above the high tide line.
Even if the Paris climate treaty goal of capping global warming below 2 °C is met – a very big “if” – the ocean watermark could go up two metres by 2300, according to a study in the journal Climate Atmospheric Science.
All the while, Alaska had sunshine and near record-breaking high temperatures over the weekend, including an 82-degree temperature reading in Fairbanks on Sunday.
The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Fairbanks said Monday that the region saw its first 60, 70, and 80 degree days of 2020 all within the span of a week.
“Hopefully everyone has enjoyed the beautiful weather as much as we have!” the NWS office tweeted.
2-inch long ‘murder hornets’ can sting multiple times and deliver 7 times more venom than a honeybee; insight from Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel.
Panic over the news of the “murder hornet” in America will lead to damage to essential bee populations, experts warn.
Workers leave the Tyson Foods pork-processing plant in Logansport, Indiana, on May 7. Michael Conroy/AP Photo
At least 4,585 Tyson workers in 15 states have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 18 have died.
Tyson has announced improved safety measures and relaxed attendance policies, but it still does not offer full paid sick leave for workers, instead offering short-term disability that is 90% of workers’ pay.
Some politicians and meat-industry insiders have blamed the actions and “living circumstances” of employees — many of whom are immigrants — for plants becoming coronavirus hot spots.
Some meat-industry insiders and politicians are blaming employees for meat-processing plants becoming coronavirus hot spots.
Meanwhile, workers say their employers failed to keep them safe. And despite new safety policies, meat-industry giants including Tyson still do not provide full paid sick leave.
Tyson has highlighted the new steps it’s taking to protect workers, including taking temperatures, requiring face masks, instituting additional daily deep cleanings, and installing workstation dividers. The company says it has relaxed its attendance policy and waived the waiting period to qualify for short-term disability, as well as the copay, coinsurance, and deductible costs for COVID-19 testing.
However, Tyson still does not offer full paid sick leave; instead, it offers short-term disability. Until the end of April, Tyson’s short-term disability covered only 60% of pay. On April 29, the company said it raised short-term disability coverage to 90% of normal pay until the end of June.
A Tyson representative told Business Insider that the company increased its short-term disability pay as “another way of encouraging team members to stay home when they are sick.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has encouraged meat-processing plants to make it easier for workers to take paid sick leave to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Progressive organizers have argued that the lack of paid sick leave makes certain groups even more vulnerable, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We see expanding access to paid sick leave, and family and medical leave, as an economic-justice issue,” said Nicole Regalado, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s liberty division. “It’s also a women’s rights issue and a racial-justice issue.”
Some people are blaming meat-processing workers for their own illnesses
A worker at a Tyson Foods plant in Rogers, Arkansas, on April 24. Tyson Foods
According to the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, there were at least 12,500 COVID-19 cases and 51 deaths in the meatpacking industry across the US as of Sunday.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said in an interview with Fox News in April that Smithfield employees at a Sioux Falls meat-processing plant were not getting sick at work but at home, “because a lot of these folks who work at this plant live in the same community, the same buildings, sometimes in the same apartments.”
At least 783 workers from the Smithfield plant have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and two have died.
In late April, a Smithfield representative echoed Noem’s comments, telling BuzzFeed News that the plant’s “large immigrant population” in which “living circumstances in certain cultures are different than they are with your traditional American family” contributed to the hundreds of COVID-19 cases.
A Smithfield representative told Business Insider that the BuzzFeed News article “is in no way, shape or form representative of our position on this topic.”
“They come from all over the world and speak dozens of languages and dialects. Our position is this: We cannot fight this virus by finger-pointing,” the representative said. “We all have a responsibility to slow the spread. At Smithfield, we are a family and we will navigate these truly challenging and unprecedented times together.”
Politico reported last week that Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, said on a call in late April that clusters of COVID-19 cases in the meat-processing industry were more heavily linked to “home and social” aspects of employees’ lives, not the conditions in plants.
Last week, while discussing the legality of Wisconsin’s stay-at-home order, Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack sparked backlash after saying a cluster of COVID-19 cases was tied to a JBS meat-processing plant and its workers, not “regular folks.”
Workers and unions representing employees of meat-processing plants have pushed back, saying employers failed to take the necessary precautions to keep employees safe. Bill Marler, an attorney, recently told Business Insider that America’s response to clusters in meat-processing plants had been influenced by who has become ill.
“If that was a grade school full of white kids, we’d all be freaking out,” Marler said of the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April demanding that meat-processing plants stay open to prevent meat shortages. Experts have said that with pork and beef production plunging by 35% because of plant closures, shortages and price inflation are nearly guaranteed in the coming months.
Wait, what? Even with the global economy at a near-standstill, the best analysis suggests that the world is still on track to release 95 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in a typical year, continuing to heat up the planet and driving climate change even as we’re stuck at home.
A 5.5-percent drop in carbon dioxide emissions would still be the largest yearly change on record, beating out the financial crisis of 2008…
Exposing the Big Game 