MyWildCrossing

It's time to build and clean wood duck nesting boxes

2010-03-24T11:07:00.001-07:00

Studies suggest that fewer than a quarter of the woods ducks that nest in tree cavities successfully hatch ducklings. The rest are eaten by raccoons or other predators.

Nest boxes that are mounted on poles with predator guards are the answer. They're easy to build, but must be cleaned every spring.

Learn how on the Ducks Unlimited website.

Have you built and placed wood duck nest boxes? Share your experiences and tips.

Supreme Court refuses second Asian carp injunction request

2010-03-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Supreme Court has turned down a second request to immediately close Chicago shipping locks to prevent invasive Asian carp from infesting the Great Lakes.

Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

This ruling means that Asian carp will continue to invade the Great Lakes while federal authorities conduct studies and implement measures that have already proven utterly futile in preventing the invasion.

What do you think?

Time to slam the door on Asian carp

2010-03-19T06:32:00.000-07:00

If you awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of breaking glass, followed by a window being jimmied open, and unfamiliar voices discussing whether to carry your 60-inch flat-screen out the front door or the back, would you wait until the bad guys came upstairs and into your bedroom before you called the cops or pulled a handgun out of the nightstand?

I know. It’s a dumb question. Yet, this is the exact strategy the federal government seems intent on pursuing when it come to Asian carp. Only there’s more at stake than having to watch the NFL on something less than high-def next fall. Screw this up and we could literally devastate:
• The $7 billion dollar Great Lakes sport and commercial fishing industry that employs an estimated 800,000 people
• The $8 to $10 billion Great Lakes recreational boating economy
• The largest freshwater basin in the entire world

Bighead carp
Photo courtesy David Riecks, UIUC/IL-IN Sea Grant

Big, bad and ugly
There are several flavors of Asian carp swimming around in U.S. waters, but it’s the Bighead and Silver carp that pose the biggest threat right now. Ugly enough to star in Clash of the Titans, these fish are eating machines, packing in up to 40% of their weight every day. Bigheads can grow to five feet and more than 100 pounds.

They eat plant and animal plankton and, get this, the eggs of other fish. That means they can rapidly crowd out every other species in a body of water. Picture you and a couple friends stranded on an island with a busload of 1,000-pound Mike Tysons. Who do you think is going to end up at the top of that food chain?

Did I mention that they reproduce like certain well-known athletes, government servants and other ne’r-do-wells? Asian carp can live as long as 20 years, spawning several times a year, potentially giving birth to a million offspring in the process.

Carp v. people
Other than a Northern that once chomped on a brother-in-law’s hand right after he released the unappreciative brute, Silver carp are the only other freshwater fish I know of that pose an actual physical danger to people. They become agitated when boat motors are around, jumping into the air and smacking boaters in their pie holes. Reported injuries include cuts, bruises, black eyes, broken bones and even concussions. No fatalities – yet. The photos and videos are incredible.

Asian carp were accidentally introduced into the southern Mississippi River basin several decades ago and have gradually spread into the Missouri and Illinois river systems, traveling relentlessly toward the Great Lakes. The last leg of their journey has been through the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal – the manmade channel that connects the Mississippi and Great Lakes basins.

Predictions of what would happen if they ever reached the Great Lakes have been, in a word, dire:
• “Asian Carp are a significant threat to the Great Lakes.” EPA
• “Asian carp could have a devastating effect on the Great Lakes ecosystem.” Fish and Wildlife Service
• "If the carp invade the Great Lakes, it will change them forever." Great Lakes United

The rest are just as gloomy, but the clearest comes from the Asian Carp Workgroup made up of the EPA, Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Coast Guard, and Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which just last month concluded, “The potential impact of Asian carp on the Great Lakes’ sport and commercial fishing industry can be seen now along the Mississippi River basin, where in just a few short years following introduction of Asian carp into an area, many commercial fishing locations have been abandoned, as native fish have nearly disappeared from the catch, replaced by Asian carp.”

Not an attractive prospect for the trout, salmon, walleyes, smallmouth bass, perch, and other species – some 80 of them listed as threatened or endangered – in the Great Lakes.

A legacy of failure
For at least the last eight years, federal and state authorities have worked to stop the fish from entering the Great Lakes. They’ve commissioned studies, issued news releases announcing “emergency action,” built electronic barriers and spent buckets of tax dollars.

Their efforts – however well-intentioned – have failed miserably. In January, Asian carp DNA was found in Lake Michigan near Chicago.

The State of Michigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court to order the immediate closure of the locks on the Chicago canal. Other Great Lakes states and Ontario, Canada joined the request, which was rejected by the high court.

Chicago, supported by the Obama administration, claims closing the locks would devastate the city’s economy, which relies on the canal to move goods and sightseers. That claim is being challenged by transportation experts at Wayne State University who say it is “seriously exaggerated.”

Asked about the discovery of Asian carp DNA in Lake Michigan, Major General John W. Peabody, Commander of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, said recently, "We feel confident that despite this new information, we can still win this fight.”

Please. “Fight” isn’t what I would call what they’re doing. What they’re doing is standing outside the ring waiting to drag their unconscious boxer under the ropes once he’s been KO’d. What they’re doing is stepping up their current measures – netting, poisoning, electric barriers, DNA testing – measures that have already failed.

Don’t let the locks hit you in the butt
We don’t need more of the same. We need the locks closed right now, before it’s too late. As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already concluded about these monsters, “Once in Lake Michigan, this invasive species could access many new tributaries connected to the Great Lakes. These fish aggressively compete with native commercial and sport fish for food. They are well suited to the water temperature, food supply, and lack of predators of the Great Lakes and could quickly become the dominant species. Once in the lake, it would be very difficult to control them.”

And then we need to push to permanently sever the artificial link we’ve created between the two largest freshwater systems in the world – the Mississippi and the Great Lakes – a link that Mother Nature never intended to exist.

Today, the Supreme Court reconsiders its earlier ruling in light of the new DNA evidence indicating that Asian carp have already breached the ramparts and reached Lake Michigan. Let’s hope they come to their senses.

What you can do
• Write your congressman and senators and urge them to support legislation to close the locks
• If you live in Great Lakes state, let your Attorney General know you support your state’s efforts to close the locks
• Support organizations such as the Alliance for the Great Lakes, Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, HealthyLakes.org, National Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation and others
• Write to Maj. Gen. John Peabody, U.S. Army Engineer Division, Great Lakes & Ohio River Division, 550 Main Street, Room 10032, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-3222 and urge him to close the locks
• Write to Nancy Sutley, Chair, Council on Environmental Quality, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington DC, 20500 and urge her to support closure of the locks

Sixty or so years ago, Lake Michigan was an ecosystem in perfect balance. Now it’s something out of a Tim Burton movie – a freak show of sea lampreys, gobies, zebra mussels, and some 180 other invasive species. Enough is enough.

Asking non-hunters, non-anglers to help foot the bill for conservation

2010-03-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

Idaho Statesmen

You may have to pay to hike or go bird watching in Idaho's wildlife management areas.

A bill in the Idaho Legislature would require a conservation license to use the state's WMAs for such things as mountain biking, boating or other recreation.

Read more in the Idaho Statesman.

What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea?

Great new DU bag

2010-03-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

Just ordered this good-looking Ducks Unlimited Field & Tackle Bag. It looks like it will store a lot of stuff.

You can get one with a $37 contribution and help fund the great work Ducks Unlimited does at the same time.

Check it out here.

Canada bound again!

2010-03-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

After a hiatus of more than twenty years, I’m thrilled to be returning to Canada to fish this summer.

In 1987 and 1988, I went on a brother-in-law’s family fishing trip to Lake of the Woods. I managed to dig up some pictures that bring back fond memories of family and friends, houseboats, and plentiful fish. Fortunately, there are no photos of me pitching a full stringer of walleyes into the lake before hooking the end to the boat. But I get good-natured reminders from eyewitnesses every so often – including a stringer with a padlock as a Christmas gift a few years back.

Work, kids and coaching kept me from continuing to make the annual trek over the last two decades. But this summer, I’ll be rejoining some of the same old gang – plus some new guys – to once again experience a week of camaraderie, relaxation, and nearly non-stop fishing in this breathtakingly beautiful and wild place.

One thing I discovered: a passport is now required to get into and out of Canada – and mine (of course!) expired this month.

Applying for a new one is easy – forms are available at any post office. And I found this great website where you can produce your own passport photos.

I found the instructions were very easy to follow:

Get someone to shoot a picture of you against a white or off-white background, framed with space at the top and sides, using a quality digital camera
Upload the photo to the website.

In the “Standard” pull-down menu, I selected “Avatar 2x2 – Smaller head” to produce the 2”x2” photos required. (For some reason, if you select “United States – Passport” on this menu, none of the available sizes is 2’x2”.)

Download the photo the site produces.

Print two copies in color to cut out and staple to your renewal application

I should be getting my new passport in four to six weeks – in plenty of time to be reeling in fish, wolfing down shore lunches, and listening to the loons in June!

One cure for cabin fever

2010-03-10T07:03:00.000-08:00

Nothing lifts my spirits and eases my chronic cabin fever like getting outside, so over the weekend, Duffy (our five-year-old Scotty) and I took a hike through the Cedarburg Bog, a few minutes north of my home.

The woods were sunny, windless and warm – in the mid-40’s.

Cedar trees with shattered trunks and sagging limbs bore testament to the heavy early-winter snow that likewise damaged so many fir trees in town.

Deer sign was abundant. Tracks crossed trails, hoof prints pressed deep into the snow. A bald spot melted in an otherwise snow-covered meadow revealed where a deer regularly suns. And near the parking lot, the carcass of a large doe, half-eaten by coyotes.

A few chickadees chirped in the trees, and I stood transfixed in a meadow watching two sandhill cranes soar high overhead, their white underbellies silhouetted against the cobalt sky, their lonesome calls echoing over the woods and fields.

Recharged for another week.

Coast-to-coast Conservation Thanks to Delta Waterfowl

2009-06-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

Electronically tracking individual skunks in California to learn how they hunt ducklings in their nests – to studying whether trapping predators such as skunks has an impact on brood survival in North Dakota – to understanding why the number of duck hunters is declining in the Central Flyway – to figuring out how to implement a revolutionary waterfowl habitat program currently being demonstrated in Ontario.

That’s the range – both in terms of geography and topics – of the student research projects currently underway across the North American continent thanks to Delta Waterfowl.

Delta’s research program was launched in the 1930s and counts among its founders Aldo Leopold, the father of wildlife management. Since then, Delta has supported the work of hundreds of students as they conduct research that is crucial to waterfowl and waterfowl hunters in every corner of the continent. Many of these students go on to become some of the world’s foremost waterfowl conservation experts.

Find out more here about how Delta’s support for these efforts is helping protect waterfowl populations now and far into the future.

Save Your Favorite Stream

2009-06-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

Know of a stream in your neck of the woods that could use a helping hand? Maybe a clean-up or some other tender loving care? You could get some help from OutdoorLife magazine. Submit your project idea to OutdoorLife Save-a-Stream Project by Tuesday, June 30th and you could receive a free kit and have your story published in the magazine.

For the Outdoors and Our Rights to Enjoy Them

2009-06-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

When it comes to the outdoors, there’s a lot to be negative about, isn’t there?

Against this development. Opposed to that legislation. Flinging mud at a particular group or individual. It’s easy to be anti- nearly everything – always poking holes in the ideas of others, finding fault with every initiative, forever hurling stones at those with whom we disagree.

Thankfully, there’s also a lot to be positive about. Things like constructive Congressional action this week on the Clean Water Restoration Act to restore protections for prairie potholes that provide critical habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife – legislation vigorously supported by Ducks Unlimited.

Or the ideas Subaru’s Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers shared this week at the Manice Education Center in Florida, Massachusetts with outdoor educators who lead wilderness courses for urban teens.

Or the Trout Unlimited volunteers who celebrated the organization’s 50th anniversary recently by holding a nationwide stream clean-up to make trout waters healthier for fish and other wildlife – and the people who enjoy them.

These are the people and organizations I want to be affiliated with, the ones I want to be like. In part because they’re just a lot more pleasant to be around. But also because they’re the ones actually moving forward on initiatives to protect the outdoors and our opportunities to enjoy them.

Sure, when well-meaning opponents succeed in defeating something-or-other, that can be a victory. But it’s also almost always just a continuation of the status quo: they may have stopped us from going in the wrong direction, but they didn’t really take us anywhere, either.

I want to be on board with people who have the better ideas, the bigger dreams and the determination to keep working at them. That’s the purpose of this blog: to promote the efforts of individuals and organizations working to protect the outdoors and our rights to enjoy them - whether that's hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, climbing, camping, kayaking, photographry or whatever. The people I'm talking about live at that place in the wilderness where the two trails – conservation and outdoor sportsmanship – converge.

It’s a place where I want to live, too, and this is the perfect way for me to do achieve that. Launching and maintaining this blog gives me the opportunity to combine my professional expertise as a communicator about sustainability issues with my fervent love for the outdoors and for hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and canoeing/kayaking. I’m kind of pumped about what’s ahead. Stay tuned.