September 5, 2023

Enough already with new firearm, ammunition law about to go into effect in New York

Blogs, Hunting, New York, Opinion / Mike Raykovicz

It looks like the inmates are back running the asylum. As part of the SAFE Act implemented 10 years ago, anyone purchasing ammunition in New York had to undergo a background check, but that provision was put on hold in 2015 when Governor Cuomo’s administration deemed this provision wasn’t practicable.
Last year, Governor Kathy Hochul instructed the State Police to find a way to make it work.

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Commentary: New York town overreaching in attempt to stop hunting on state land

Featured, Hunting, National Hunting, New York, Opinion / A. Dylan Mirarchi

On July 17, the Clifton Park Town Board, in Saratoga County, N.Y., was informed that legal waterfowl hunting would take place over the navigable waters within the boundary of the 900-plus-acre Vischer Ferry Nature & Historic Preserve.
The preserve is a NYS Canal Corp. land holding bordered to the north by the Old Erie Canal and to the south by the Mohawk River. It encompasses open navigable water, an expansive wetlands ecosystem, upland grasses, and mature stands of various timber species. The town has carried out a long-standing, limited, one-week season on the Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve property for waterfowl hunting and they have not been responsive to, nor supportive of, expanding the use for waterfowl hunters.

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Iowa Bumble Bee Atlas delayed until spring 2024

Featured, Iowa, Nature Page & Night Sky, News / Tom Giese

Due to “unforeseen circumstances,” the launch of Iowa’s effort to bring a focus on protection and preservation of bumble bees in the state has been delayed until 2024.
According to The Xerces Society, the Oregon-based group coordinating the effort, the official start of the Iowa program will take place in the spring of next year. The campaign, unofficially begun this summer, was launched as part of a regional approach to improve bumble bee numbers. Other states in the coalition include Nebraska, Missouri and Minnesota.

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Iowa DNR streamlines administrative rules in response to EO10 order; public comments on the docket

Iowa, News / Tom Giese

A reduction in word count and the number of pages for Iowa Department of Natural Resources-regulated procedures was recently completed as part of an update of administrative rules ordered in January by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

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Commentary: Record number of moose killed on Upper Peninsula roads in 2022

Michigan, Opinion / Richard P. Smith

Even though the Michigan DNR estimates that moose numbers in the western Upper Peninsula have remained statistically unchanged since 2019, the number of moose that ended up as road kill reached the highest ever in 2022, according to DNR Wildlife Research Specialist Tyler Petroelje.
“In 2022, there were 20 reports of moose vehicle collisions,” he wrote in an email. “Prior to 2022, the previous high number of moose-vehicle collisions occurred in 2012 when 18 incidents were reported to DNR employees.”

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