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Russ Mason

Early spring fly fishing is often an exercise in restraint, patience

Featured, Features, Fishing, Home Page News, Michigan, National Fishing /

The first few warm days of the year are enough to get me out on the water with a fly rod. It almost never works out as I hope, most likely because of my own impatience.
Early spring is a season of contradiction for warm-water fly anglers. The air softens, days lengthen, and the urge to fish returns – but beneath the surface, species like largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and bluegill are still governed by winter’s inertia.

Early spring fly fishing is often an exercise in restraint, patience Read More »

Commentary: Can reforming National Environmental Policy Act help fish and wildlife conservation?

Featured, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, Michigan, National Fishing, National Hunting, Nature Page & Night Sky, Opinion /

Recently, the outdoor press has raised concerns about reforms the Trump administration has proposed to the National Environmental Policy Act. Mostly, articles have highlighted the potential for negative impacts to fish and wildlife conservation. Not surprisingly, the truth is more complicated.

Commentary: Can reforming National Environmental Policy Act help fish and wildlife conservation? Read More »

Survey shows that folks in Michigan favor hunting more than they do hunters

10 Comments / Discussions, Featured, Fishing, Home Page News, Hunting, Michigan, National Fishing, National Hunting, National News, News /

Citizens in Michigan are much more supportive of hunting and trapping than the general public in other states. 
Fishing also gets an enthusiastic “thumbs up.” Yet oddly – or maybe not so oddly – nonsportsmen and women here tend to be more supportive of those particular outdoor activities than they are of the hunters, trappers and anglers who participate in them.

Survey shows that folks in Michigan favor hunting more than they do hunters Read More »

Commentary: Why Illinois SB 2924, Indiana HB 1003, and Michigan HB 4445 threaten conservation

Featured, Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Michigan, Opinion, Opinion /

Across the Midwest, conservation has long rested on a careful balance between public oversight, science-based wildlife management, and the principle that fish and wildlife are held in trust for all citizens.
Illinois Senate Bill 2924, Indiana House Bill 1003, and Michigan House Bill 4445 each undermine that balance in different ways. Taken together, they represent a broader shift away from conservation as a public good and toward deregulation, political convenience, and private advantage.

Commentary: Why Illinois SB 2924, Indiana HB 1003, and Michigan HB 4445 threaten conservation Read More »

Commentary: Warmer winters delaying duck migration

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Michigan, Minnesota, National Hunting, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin /

About 10 years ago, the Louisiana Department Wildlife and Fisheries sent an April Fool’s email to stakeholders announcing a new sportsman’s group. Called ‘The Black Surface Society’, the goal of the society was to pave over most of the wetlands north of I-10 (and drain the rest). The reason was to encourage ducks to fly past the rest of the Mississippi Flyway during the fall migration.
To the department’s surprise, it was inundated with calls from constituents who wanted to join.

Commentary: Warmer winters delaying duck migration Read More »

Commentary: Conservation needs a voice in the data centers conversations

2 Comments / Discussions, Fishing, Hunting, Michigan, National Fishing, National Hunting, Nature Page & Night Sky, Opinion /

The rapid expansion of data centers is one of the least visible but fastest-growing land-use changes associated with the quickly advancing digital economy.
Not surprisingly, advocates frame centers as clean infrastructure. Left unmentioned is that they are anything but green. Left unchecked by the conservation community, centers will have significant effects on fish and wildlife.

Commentary: Conservation needs a voice in the data centers conversations Read More »

Commentary: Diversity may kill us as hunters, anglers and trappers if we fight about our differences

1 Comment / Discussions, Featured, Fishing, Hunting, Michigan, National Fishing, National Hunting, Opinion /

Hunting, trapping, and angling have a diversity problem. Not the kind you’re probably thinking but the sort on the bumper stickers I used to see as a kid: “You Bet Your Dupa I’m Polish.”
Ask any hunter, angler, or trapper how they see themselves, and the response is rarely generic. Chances are they’ll self-identify as deer hunters, fly-fishers, waterfowlers, beaver trappers, grouse hunters, or predator callers. I suspect you get the drift.

Commentary: Diversity may kill us as hunters, anglers and trappers if we fight about our differences Read More »

Commentary: What does science say about population effects of lead in wildlife?

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Hunting, Nature Page & Night Sky, New York, Ohio, Opinion, Opinion, Opinion, Opinion, Opinion, Opinion, Opinion, Opinion, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin /

Concerns over the effects of spent lead ammunition prompted federal resource agencies in the United States and Canada to phase in a ban on lead shot shell ammo for waterfowl hunting starting in 1987. Now, the focus is shifting towards the effects of spent lead centerfire ammunition. Wildlife veterinarians, bird advocacy organizations, animal rights activists, and even some wildlife biologists assert that it’s “common knowledge” that lead is bad from a population perspective.
One might ask: What’s the evidence?

Commentary: What does science say about population effects of lead in wildlife? Read More »

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