ATTENTION HUNTERS: Please Attend Safari Club International’s Wildlife Law Seminar on Saturday, January 24! For those who are planning to attend Safari Club International’s Annual Convention in Reno, Nevada, at the end of this month, please be advised of a seminar that will be given on Saturday, January 24. Entitled, “Wildlife Law: Issues and Controversies Regarding Wildlife Management and Use,” this seminar should be of particular relevance to hunters who are interested in the laws affecting the shipment of firearms and trophies across state and international borders, as well as those interested in current issues affecting the management of wildlife. The seminar will be held from 8:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., on Saturday, January 24, at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, located at 3800 S. Virginia Street, in Reno. Admittance is $129, which includes the seminar, written materials, and single, same day admission to SCI Hunter’s Convention. Registration will close on Monday, January 12. For more information and to complete a registration form, please click here. To learn about SCI membership and their convention, please visit www.safariclub.com.
Archive for the ‘Hunting Fishing and the Great Outdoors’ Category
SCI Law Seminar for Hunters
January 12, 2009DOW VOLUNTEER PROGRAM GOING STRONG AFTER 15 YEARS
January 12, 2009Two articles from DOW on this subject. Stop talking, and start walking! Get out there and give them a hand. Heck! It’s fun too!
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Since 1993 people have cleared trails, planted seedlings, banded wild turkeys, spawned trout, mended fences, answered phones, entered data, and counted Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. What they all have in common is they are volunteers with the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW).
Over the past 15 years, more than 4,700 individuals and families have donated their free time, muscle, and brain power to help the DOW accomplish its mission to perpetuate wildlife resources and provide people with the opportunity to enjoy wildlife.
“Rapid development and habitat loss have increased the challenges to Colorado’s wildlife and the DOW is fortunate to have a dedicated group of people willing to get up early on cold mornings or work late nights to help the DOW in multiple ways,” said Jena Sanchez, a Volunteer Coordinator from Colorado Springs. “Volunteer efforts make a huge impact on helping wildlife. The value of their donated time is over a million dollars a year. Volunteers help accomplish important work that might not get done otherwise,” she said.
Sanchez conceded that not all of the jobs volunteers assist with are glamorous, but they all have a positive impact for wildlife. “Counting bighorn sheep and mountain goats sounds neat. But it means getting up before dawn to climb mountains in sometimes less than ideal weather. It can be a grueling experience, but by in large every volunteer who does it comes away with a sense of personal gratification that they are making a difference.”
Sanchez said the agency tries to match people with tasks they are comfortable with. Not everyone wants to get wet spawning fish, get dirty planting trees, or work with youngsters teaching hunting safety and outdoor ethics. Some volunteers do light office duty, work in customer service centers, serve as campground hosts, or staff information booths at wildlife festivals and trade shows.
The net effect, she said, is that game wardens and biologists get valuable assistance; and hunters, anglers, bird watchers, and other wildlife enthusiasts see the direct benefits in healthier wildlife populations.
Two of the most popular volunteer programs are the “wildlife transport,” and “bear aware” teams. Every year, hundreds of orphaned or injured animals are transported by volunteers to licensed rehabilitation centers where, whenever possible, they are nursed back to health and released back into the wild. Some of those same volunteers serve as liaisons in neighborhoods where bears and people share the same environment. The bear aware volunteers distribute educational materials and instruct homeowners in ways they can minimize conflicts with bears.
All DOW volunteers are required to complete an application form and participate in an orientation session prior to being assigned to project teams. Additional training may be required in the event the project involves specialized skills. For more information about the DOW volunteer program, visit the DOW website at: http://www.wildlifestate.co.us/Volunteer. Or contact one of the four regional Volunteer Coordinators listed below.
In southeastern Colorado including Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Lamar, contact Jena Sanchez (719) 227-5204, jena.sanchez@state.co.us.
In southwest Colorado including Montrose, Gunnison, Durango, and the San Luis Valley contact Jennifer Kleffner at (970) 375-6704, Jennifer.kleffner@state.co.us.
In northwest Colorado including Grand Junction, Glenwood Springs, Aspen, Craig, and Steamboat Springs, contact Linda Edwards at (970) 255-6145, linda.edwards@state.co.us.
In northeast Colorado including Denver, Castle Rock, Sterling, and Fort Collins, contact Mary McCormac at (303) 291-7369, mary.mccormac@state.co.us.
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For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR WILDLIFE VOLUNTEERS
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Colorado is home to some of the most diverse wildlife populations in North America. Since 1993, the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) Volunteer Program has provided people the opportunity to contribute their time and talents to help wildlife.
Over the past 15 years, more than 4,750 volunteers have supported the DOW in unique ways, such as counting bighorn sheep and mountain goats, searching for bats near entrances to inactive mines, teaching children and adults to hunt and fish, doing light office duty, and much more.
This winter, the DOW is holding new volunteer orientation programs across the state to recruit and prepare people for spring and summer projects.
Typical activities include transporting sick and injured wildlife to rehabilitation centers, helping spawn fish, monitoring nest sites for ospreys and eagles, being tour guides at fish hatcheries, State Wildlife Area clean-ups, and a variety of other hands-on projects. Projects are seasonal and vary by region of the state.
For people interested in public outreach and education opportunities, the projects include teaching people about black bears in neighborhoods where bears are active, and staffing information booths at festivals and trade shows.
New volunteer orientation meetings will be held on the following dates and locations:
Denver, Jan. 21
Pueblo, Jan. 21.
Colorado Springs, Jan. 22.
Fort Collins, Jan. 28
Grand Junction, Feb. 17
To learn more about these or other opportunities to get involved, contact one of the following DOW volunteer coordinators:
In southeastern Colorado including Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Lamar, contact Jena Sanchez (719) 227-5204, jena.sanchez@state.co.us.
In southwest Colorado including Montrose, Gunnison, Durango, and the San Luis Valley contact Jennifer Kleffner at (970) 375-6704, Jennifer.kleffner@state.co.us.
In northwest Colorado including Grand Junction, Glenwood Springs, Aspen, Craig, and Steamboat Springs, contact Linda Edwards at (970) 255-6145, linda.edwards@state.co.us.
In northeast Colorado including Denver, Castle Rock, Sterling, and Fort Collins, contact Mary McCormac at (303) 291-7369, mary.mccormac@state.co.us.
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For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.
TWO NEW PARCELS ADDED TO SOUTH REPUBLICAN SWA
January 12, 2009AWESOME!
TWO NEW PARCELS ADDED TO SOUTH REPUBLICAN SWA
Burlington, Colo. – Two more parcels of land have been set aside for wildlife recreation and added to the South Republican State Wildlife Area in eastern Colorado. The Colorado Division of Wildlife and landowner Rodney Kleweno established a joint land protection agreement on 1,760 acres in Kit Carson and Yuma Counties. The agreement includes public access for sportsmen.
The north parcel, in Yuma Co., is about 660 acres of cottonwood, river bottom, and agricultural crop land. The South Fork of the South Republican River flows through this parcel and provides excellent waterfowl, turkey, small game, and deer hunting opportunities, as well as wildlife habitat for nongame species. The south parcel, in Kit Carson Co., is about 1,100 acres. It is a mixture of shortgrass rangeland and CRP land. This property will provide pheasant, small game, and deer hunting opportunities.
“The funding for these easements came from money provided by sportsmen who bought Habitat Stamps as part of their hunting and fishing license purchases,” said Shaun Deeney of the Colorado Division of Wildlife. “These are excellent properties that benefit many wildlife species including deer, turkey, upland game birds, waterfowl, raptors, song birds, and a variety of small game species.”
“This project gave me the opportunity to protect my property from future development. Knowing this land will be kept in agriculture for my family to continue to farm and ranch is important to me,” said Kleweno.
Since the parcels are in the immediate vicinity of the South Republican State Wildlife Area near Bonny Reservoir, they will be managed under the same regulations as the South Republican SWA. The parcels will be open to year-round walk-in access to hunters, anglers, or anyone who purchases a Habitat Stamp, but the properties will remain in private ownership.
For directions or more information about hunting or fishing opportunities, call the South Republican SWA at 970-354-7317.
For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.
Gun Control, the Democrats are out for revenge
January 10, 2009Ever since the election I have been commenting about how the politics of revenge will become the law of the land. My RSS feed has been going nuts about new taxes, new confiscation, and assorted other schemes that the gun control crowd are coming up with in order to deny you of your Constitutional rights with regard to being able to properly, and effectively defend your self, family, friends, and country.
What follows is among the best that I have come across.
Alan Korwin
(Prior report with Brady gun-ban lists: http://www.gunlaws.com/newstuff.htm)
The powerful gun-ban lobby has developed its own language to color and disguise its true agenda — the disarming of law-abiding Americans in every way possible, and the end of effective self defense.
Their latest set of plans — used as a fund raiser (outlined below) — is filled with nice sounding terms that put a deceptive spin on their goals. Respect for the Bill of Rights is nowhere to be found, only clever end runs and literal destruction of rights Americans have always had.
Starkly missing from these plans is any direct attack on criminals — the whole game plan is aimed at firearms the public holds. It is a product of abject gun fear — hoplophobia — that afflicts the people behind the plan. They deny they’re hoplophobic, but just look at their plans, directed solely at restricting and eliminating guns — instead of the crime caused by criminals they nominally complain about. I noticed that all mentions of accident prevention, a former holy grail for the group, are gone.
The hypocrisy is unequivocal and self evident. Sarah claims, “We need to get these ‘killing machines’ off our streets.” Well, go ahead. Any person, on any street, operating any “killing machine” belongs in prison immediately under existing law, right? Everyone, even the Bradys, know this. It doesn’t matter if your gun is black, or too short, or holds the right amount of ammo.
The problem isn’t the “machines,” it’s the lack of law enforcement — in the bad parts of town and among the gangs where most of the problems occur (see maps: http://www.gunlaws.com/GunshotDemographics.htm). They will not admit this, and they do not address this.
Instead, they act out on their phobia and attack you and me. The real problem of crime and violence is just an excuse for them to work on disarming people who didn’t do anything.
The Federal Bureaucracy of Investigation, along with the Bureaucracy of Alcohol and Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives are in complete sympathy with the plan. The Brady plan will get them more staff, more office space, more of our money and more power, the acknowledged holy grail of bureaucrats.
Politically Corrected Glossary — of Bradyspeak
(See the entire glossary: http://www.gunlaws.com/politicallycorrect.htm)
Colorado DOW adds new easement
December 25, 2008The Colorado Division of Wildlife secured one really great present for everyone a few days ago. I cannot think of anything that has been acquired on a scale like this since the acquisition of the Forrest of the Bear, Bosque del Oso SWA.
NEW DOW EASEMENT PROVIDES HUNTER, ANGLER ACCESS
GUNNISON – Hunters, anglers and wildlife watchers will soon have access to an additional 4,800 acres of terrain in Saguache County in south central Colorado thanks to a new conservation easement. The easement, which includes public access, was purchased by the Colorado Division of Wildlife with money from the Colorado Wildlife Habitat Stamp program and in cooperation with Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO).
Combined with a previous easement at this site, the public will have access to 7,100 acres, including 8 miles of cold-water stream that provides excellent fishing.
After two years of negotiations, the DOW closed Dec. 18 on the deal which will provide permanent protection from development for significant big game winter range habitat, Gunnison Sage-grouse habitat, more than 4 miles of cold-water stream and riparian habitat along Cochetopa Creek, and public access. The land is located about 35 miles south of Gunnison, with easy access from Colorado Highway 114.
“This is a tremendous addition to the conservation of overall wildlife resources for the people of Colorado,” said J Wenum, area wildlife manager for the DOW in Gunnison. “This property provides habitat for a wide variety of wildlife, and includes a great trout stream and riparian areas. The easement also provides public access for hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing.”
On three sides, the property adjoins BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands, and the Dome Lakes State Wildlife Area. The proximity guarantees that migration corridors for wildlife will remain in perpetuity. The newly acquired property also adjoins the existing Cochetopa State Wildlife area, a pre-existing easement that totals 2,300 acres and includes 4 miles of cold-water stream. The two easements are now combined and total 7,100 acres and 8 miles of stream. The original easement, set up in the 1970s on what was the Coleman Ranch, was the first of its kind acquired by the DOW. That ranch was later purchased by Terry and Joanne Snyder of Norwood who have owned the entire Snyder Ranch for more than twenty years.
“The Snyder Ranch acquisitions will insure that important big game, small game, Gunnison Sage-grouse and fishery habitats are protected in perpetuity,” said Tom Spezze, southwest regional manager for the DOW. “It will also provide the public with some very significant and quality hunting and fishing opportunities for future generations to enjoy. This important acquisition exemplifies what the intent of the Habitat Stamp set out to accomplish for wildlife, hunters and anglers. I have known and worked with the Snyders since the 1980s. I am very proud and appreciative that we have established this long-term ranching and wildlife partnership between the DOW and the Snyder family.”
Much of the property is irrigated hay meadows and riparian areas which provide excellent winter range and migration corridors for elk, year-around range for pronghorn and habitat for numerous other wildlife species. The livestock operation will continue. The Snyder family will continue to manage grazing activities so that pastures remain in good shape. Because of the large pasture configurations on the property, wildlife can move easily through the ranch.
“The property has been well taken care of and the family understands the value of wildlife,” Wenum said.
Public access areas will be established and the DOW plans to have the area ready for the public by the summer of 2009.
“This was a complicated transaction but it was well worth the extra effort. We greatly appreciate the cooperation of the Snyder Family,” Wenum said.
The Colorado Habitat Stamp Program was started by the DOW in 2006 after approval by the Colorado State Legislature. Since then the DOW has collected more than $10 million, leveraged that money for an additional $38 million in grants and partnerships, and has protected more than 40,000 acres of land in Colorado.
Great Outdoors Colorado continues to provide critical matching dollars for Habitat Stamp projects. GOCO receives approximately $53 million annually from the Colorado Lottery. The GOCO program was enacted by Colorado voters in 1992 to help local governments, land trusts, DOW and Colorado State Parks protect and enhance the state’s park, wildlife, trails and open space heritage.
For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.
MICHIGAN MAN FINED $15,000 FOR POACHING MOUNTAIN GOAT
December 22, 2008Thieves at the public trough again.
SALIDA, Colo. – A Michigan man was fined $15,000 after being convicted of three charges related to killing a Colorado mountain goat without a license.
Burt Vincent, 60, of Jackson, Mich., also faces a potential lifetime suspension of his hunting and fishing privileges in Colorado, Michigan and 28 other states.
Vincent pleaded “no contest” in Chaffee County Court on Dec. 10 to illegal possession of a mountain goat, illegally killing a trophy animal in Colorado and hunting a mountain goat without a license.
Two others, Jack and Susan Derr of Florissant, Colo., also pleaded guilty to multiple misdemeanor charges related to Vincent’s case and other wildlife crimes discovered during the investigation. The Derrs were ordered to pay $10,000 to the Colorado Operation Game Thief Fund.
The convictions marked an end to a two-year investigation into multiple poaching incidents.
“This case demonstrates how effectively law enforcement professionals from multiple agencies work together,” said Shaun Deeney, an area manager with the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) in Colorado Springs
Investigators in Colorado and Michigan began working on the case in 2006 after an informant said that Vincent was in possession of a mountain goat from Colorado. However, there was no record in Colorado showing that Vincent was ever issued a mountain goat hunting license.
Based on the original tip, an undercover officer contacted Vincent at his place of work in Michigan. Vincent told the undercover agent that he had killed a mountain goat, adding that he had also killed a bighorn ram and a bighorn ewe in Colorado over the past several years.
The undercover officer had hoped Vincent would talk about the mountain goat, but didn’t expect to hear about the two bighorn sheep.
“Bighorn sheep and mountain goats are majestic symbols of Colorado’s high country,” said Deeney. “Sheep and goat tags are among the most highly prized hunting licenses in Colorado. Every year, thousands of applicants vie for a just a handful of tags. Vincent and his codefendants literally cheated law-abiding hunters out of a chance for the hunt of a lifetime.”
MOUNTING EVIDENCE
Wildlife investigators followed a trail that led them Vincent’s hunting partner Jack Derr. DOW records showed that Derr bought a mountain goat license in 2006. The DOW license database also showed that Jack’s wife, Susan Derr, bought bighorn sheep licenses in 2000 and 2003. This matched Vincent’s claim that he killed a bighorn ram and ewe.
Armed with several key pieces of information, two DOW officers interviewed the Derrs at their home in Florissant, Colo., and executed a search warrant on the residence. Meanwhile, Vincent was questioned by Conservation Officers from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and special investigators with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Michigan.
In tape-recorded interviews, Susan Derr admitted that she let Vincent use her bighorn ram license in 2003 and her bighorn ewe license in 2000. She stated that she did not kill those animals but that Vincent did. Jack Derr also admitted that he gave Vincent his 2006 license to tag a mountain goat that Vincent killed.
During the investigation, Vincent admitted that his rifle was used to kill the mountain goat, but claimed Jack Derr did the shooting. He further claimed that Derr gave him the mountain goat to take back to Michigan because Derr didn’t want it.
“The officers who conducted this investigation should be complimented on their thoroughness,” said Deeney. “All of the officers involved acted professionally and courteously throughout the entire investigation despite accusations of impropriety by the defendants.”
In addition to the mountain goat violation, investigators also discovered a case involving an illegal elk killed by Vincent in 2005 in Archuleta County. Vincent was found guilty in that case last August. He was fined $2,800 for that crime.
Deeney expressed his gratitude to the investigators with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and prosecutors from the district attorneys’ offices in Chaffee, Fremont, Teller, Archuleta, and Larimer counties for their help getting the convictions.
Colorado and Michigan are members of an Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact, which includes 30 states that offer some of the very best hunting and fishing hunting and fishing opportunities in the country. The compact includes provisions that establish reciprocal license privilege suspension by member states. Anyone who loses hunting and fishing privileges in one state is also suspended in the others. Colorado was a charter state in 1991 along with Nevada and Oregon.
Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact Member States: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.
DOW USING SOLAR POWER FOR WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
December 22, 2008HINSDALE COUNTY, Colo. – Small-scale electric solar power is providing the Colorado Division of Wildlife a unique tool for a variety of wildlife management tasks.
In southwest Colorado, two water aeration systems powered by photovoltaic panels are helping to keep trout alive at a reservoir. At other isolated locations, solar facilities are being used to operate well pumps to provide water for species of concern. By using photovoltaic solar panels the DOW can deliver power to remote areas where electricity is unavailable or very expensive.
At Road Canyon Reservoir in eastern Hinsdale County, two aeration systems powered by photovoltaic panels were installed in mid-November. The reservoir is quite shallow and can become stagnant after water stops flowing into the impoundment in the fall. When oxygen runs low, the fish in the reservoir die.
Since the 1960s the DOW has used an aeration machine powered from an electric line to stir up the water in the reservoir that’s located off U.S. Forest Service Road 520. But recently electricity costs spiked to $8,000 per year, so the DOW cast about for a less expensive solution.
Mineral County officials wanted to keep the aerator running because the reservoir is a popular spot for tourists. At the encouragement of the DOW, county officials applied for a “Fishing is Fun” grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The DOW contacted a North Dakota company, SolarBee International, which builds specialized solar pump equipment.
The equipment and installation cost $80,800. The grant from the federal government totaled $57,000, and Mineral County matched it with $23,800.
The two floating solar-powered machines can move 10,000 gallons of water per minute, explained Brent Woodward, district wildlife manager in the Creede area.
“Theses pumps do a much better job of aeration than the old pump and they don’t need power from the electric grid,” Woodward said.
The floating pumps, each powered by three photovoltaic panels, pull low-oxygen water from the bottom of the reservoir to mix with water at the surface that is high in oxygen. Each pump impacts an area of about 35 surface acres on the 160-acre reservoir. Because the water is pulled from the bottom there is no surface disturbance. The machines also are equipped with batteries that enable operations to continue for 72 hours without sunshine.
During winter, ice could form near the machines but it will be thin. Ice fishers are warned to stay well away from the floats. During the summer, boaters also are asked to stay at least 50 yards from the machines.
In three other remote areas in southwest Colorado where electricity is unavailable, solar-powered water pumps are pulling water from wells and helping with the effort to bolster the populations of Gunnison Sage-grouse. DOW biologists in Gunnison, San Miguel and Dolores counties developed these small well projects where natural sources of surface water are lacking. By putting water on the ground in sage grouse habitat, small wet meadows are formed.
For the hardy sage grouse, a little water goes a long way. While grouse spend much of their time in sagebrush, they need access to moist meadows that provide rich sources of fresh vegetation and insects. These meadows, even those small in size, are especially important to young birds because they must start eating within 18 hours of hatching.
The wet meadows also are utilized by a wide variety of other wildlife species, from big game to song birds to amphibians.
On Bureau of Land Management property in western San Miguel County, the DOW is working in cooperation with a local rancher to provide water to desert bighorn sheep. After a windmill pump fell into disrepair, the DOW shared costs with the rancher to install a solar-powered pump at the location.
“These photovoltaic systems are very helpful and low cost,” said Jim Garner, a wildlife conservation biologist from Montrose. “There’s no way we could afford to get regular sources of electricity to these sites.”
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NOTE TO EDITORS: Photographs of the solar installations can be downloaded from these links. Cutline information is below each link.
This floating, solar-power aerator is located at Road Canyon Reservoir in Hinsdale County. The photovoltaic panels provide electricity to the aerators which stir up the water, keeping it oxygenated for fish. These types of solar-power panels allow electricity to be delivered to remote locations. The Division of Wildlife uses solar power at remote locations throughout the state to provide water to wildlife. This photo was taken in December 2008.
http://wildlife.state.co.us/apps/ImageDB/ImageDownload.aspx?ImageId=24373&ImageSize=Print&ImageType=jpg
This photovoltaic solar panel is located at the Dry Creek Basin State Wildlife Area in western Colorado. The panel supplies electricity to a well pump that enables Colorado Division of Wildlife to provide water in this remote area to help sustain the Gunnison Sage-grouse. This photo was taken in December 2008.
For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.
Public Lands Newsletter
December 15, 2008Plenty to read and speculate on in this issue.
PUBLIC LANDS NEWS BULLETIN #11: November 24, 2008
Dear Subscriber:
This bulletin reports on the following:
* TRANSITION BEGINS WITH LONG LIST OF DOI POSSIBLES
* OMNIBUS BILL GOES DOWN THE TUBES, UNTIL JANUARY
* BLM MEETS DEADLINES WITH OIL SHALE REGS; LAWSUIT SURE
* MS. PICKENS MAY ADOPT 30,000 WILD HORSES
This bulletin is a supplement to your regular edition of Public Lands News. It is NOT your regular issue. The next issue will be published November 28.
The Editors
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CLINTON VETS PREDOMINATE AS OBAMA TRANSITION BEGINS
President-elect Barack Obama has chosen transition advisors in the public lands arena with strong affiliations with the Clinton administration.
Former Interior Department Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes is heading the Interior Department transition team. He currently works as a senior fellow for the World Wildlife Fund.
The Interior team also includes former Interior Department Solicitor John Leshy. He is presently professor of law at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Both Hayes and Leshy served in the Clinton administration. Leshy in particular was the scourge of the hard rock mining industry.
It is not unheard of for transition team members to become agency heads. Thus both Hayes and Leshy are being mentioned – if not by themselves – as candidates for Secretary of Interior.
OBAMA CABINET: The competition for posts in the Obama administration has already begun in earnest, as real and imaginary candidates for administration positions circulate their names, or have their names circulated. One prominent public lands player, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), is already mentioned as Secretary of Energy or Secretary of Interior. But an aide to Bingaman told us his boss is happy where he is.
Other names being circulated as a possible Secretary of the Interior include former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles (D), Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), Leshy and Hayes.
Numerous western governors have held the Interior post over the years, so New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) and Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) by that definition top the list.
Other intriguing possibilities include Rep. Norman Dicks (D-Wash.), chairman of the House subcommittee on Interior appropriations; Dan Beard, who has a long curriculum vitae with stops at the Interior Department, the House Natural Resources Committee and the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); and John Berry, Clinton’s assistant secretary of Interior for Policy.
HILL POSTS: In Congress the election strengthened the Democratic majority significantly but it hasn’t yet provided a super majority of 60 Senate votes that could overcome holds, i.e. filibusters. Best guesses put the Democratic edge in the Senate, when combined with two Independent senators, a couple of votes short of the magic 60. Best guesses put the Democratic edge in the House at about 80 votes. A few contests, including for Minnesota and Georgia Senate seats, are still in doubt.
As we reported in the last issue, committee and subcommittee leaders who oversee public lands programs are expected to stay pretty much the same, although some could play musical chairs. The House Democratic Caucus November 21 chose Rep. Nick Joe Rahall (D-W.Va.) to continue as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. On the Republican side Rep. Don Young (Alaska), ranking natural resources committee member, will return.
In the House subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-N.M.) was reelected, as was ranking minority member Rob Bishop (R-Utah.) In the House subcommittee on Interior appropriations Dicks is likely to remain the chair.
In the Senate Bingaman is a good bet to continue as chairman of the Senate Energy Committee and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is expected to continue to oversee Endangered Species Act legislation as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
A major change is due on the Republican side of the energy committee where ranking Republican Pete Domenici (N.M.) did not run for re-election. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is in line to replace Domenici. In fact we understand that Murkowski has already begun lining up staff members.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) returns as chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) served as chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Interior appropriations in the last Congress and may do so again.
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SENATE DOESN’T ACT ON OMNIBUS; REID PROMISES JANUARY VOTE
Faced with increasing opposition, Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-Nev.) November 17 postponed Senate action on an omnibus lands bill until next year.
But Reid warned critics of the 150-bill measure that the bill (HR 5151) will be a top priority when the new Congress meets in January with a large Democratic majority.
“One of the first things we’ll do (in January) is there will be a bipartisan piece of legislation introduced that will include all the stuff that was held up these past two years, so-called lands bills,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “That would be first or second thing we do when we come back in January.”
The bill was tripped up by increasing hostility from a wide range of interests, beginning with western House Republicans and extending to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, private property rights advocates, and conservative think tanks.
Reid said he quit on HR 5151 because critic Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) would insist on a reading of the bill that could take more than 24 hours. The Senate’s time is limited because it was working on a short week and still had to address an economic stimulus bill. “But I think the discretion is the better part of valor and we will alert everyone that we will do this when we get back,” said Reid.
The Heritage Foundation led the intellectual campaign against the bill with a widely distributed position paper. “The lands bill removes public land that would be available for recreational, commercial, and private ownership use by designating such land as wilderness areas, heritage areas, conservation areas and wild and scenic rivers,” said author Nicolas Loris. “Furthermore, the bill places restrictions on existing federal property.”
Loris said the cost should also be considered. “The Congressional Budget Office places an $8 billion price tag on the omnibus lands bill: $7.1 billion in discretionary spending and over $915 million in mandatory spending,” he said.
The critics most object to a provision in HR 5151 (S 1139 as a stand-alone bill) that would give Congressional certification to the 26 million-acre National Landscape Conservation System managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM.) The House approved its version of the NLCS bill (HR 2016) on April 9.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and conservationists are swimming against that tide by asking the Senate to expand the NLCS by adding 6 million acres from the California Desert Conservation Area to it. The NLCS already includes 4 million acres of CDCA land, but Feinstein wants to add the whole CDCA on the Senate floor, bringing the system to 32 million acres.
Karen Schambach, California coordinator for the environmental group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, sees mischief in the exclusion of the CDCA acreage from the NLCS. “The unspoken plan is for corporate conversion of large parts of the CDCA into giant energy farms and transmission corridor superhighways,” she said.
The Senate Energy Committee developed the omnibus lands package based on committee-passed bills. However, not all committee bills made the cut because both Democratic and Republican committee leaders enjoy a veto.
The idea was to produce a bill that would provide something for everyone on both sides of the aisle. However, one key senator, Coburn, objected to the cost and possible land use restrictions. When we asked a Republican Senate Energy Committee staff member if he knew of any other Senate Republicans who publicly opposed the measure besides Coburn, he said, “No.”
Indeed, there is considerable support for HR 5151. Twenty-four Democratic House members wrote Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) October 30 and asked her to schedule a vote on HR 5151, if the Senate acted on it.
But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, western House Republicans and their allies won the day, for now. Their main objection is to the NLCS provision. Back on August 4 27 House Republicans had asked President Bush to veto HR 2016 if it came to him by itself. However, they did not mention a recommended veto of an omnibus bill.
In addition to the NLCS measure, HR 5151, as amended by Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) from committee passed bills, would:
* WYOMING RANGE: The omnibus includes a bill (S 2229) from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) that would authorize non-federal interests to buy out oil and gas leases on 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
BLM and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have offered different estimates of the amount of oil and gas the range contains. BLM said on Feb. 27, 2008, that the area may contain 331 million barrels of oil. But on June 19 the USGS estimated only 5 million barrels of oil. Similarly, BLM estimated the area may contain 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and USGS estimated 1.5 trillion cubic feet.
* OWYHEE LANDS (IDAHO): The omnibus includes this bill (S 2833) from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) that would designate 517,000 acres of BLM-managed wilderness. An alliance of retired BLM employees, the Public Lands Foundation, objected recently to the bill and said that before designating wilderness sponsors should work with BLM to identify precise boundaries. The retirees also objected to a grazing permit buy-out provision. The administration supports.
* WILDERNESS (NINE OTHER BILLS): The omnibus includes several individual wilderness bills that would protect up to 2 million acres, including: Wild Monongahela Wilderness (West Va.), Virginia Ridge and Valley Wilderness (Va.), Mt. Hood Wilderness (Ore.), Copper Salmon Wilderness (Ore.), Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (Ore.), Owyhee (Idaho), Sabinoso Wilderness (N.M.), Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Wilderness (Mich.), Oregon Badlands Wilderness (Ore.), Spring Basin Wilderness (Ore.), Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wilderness (Calif.), Riverside County Wilderness (Calif.), Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Wilderness (Calif.), and Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness (Colo.)
In addition, the amendment includes individual bills that would designate two new National Park System units, authorize additions to nine existing National Park System units; authorize by our count a dozen land exchanges and conveyances; designate four national trails; authorize studies of additions to four National Historic Trails (all in the West: Oregon National Historic Trail, Pony Express National Historic Trail, California National Historic Trail, and The Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail); add three wild and scenic rivers including the Snake River Headwaters in Wyoming; and designate a Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area of about 3.5 miles of cave passages in Lincoln County, N.M.
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OIL SHALE REGS WILL GO INTO EFFECT BEFORE OBAMA MOVES IN, COURTS WILLING
BLM issued final commercial development oil shale regulations November 18 in time for the rules to go into effect before President-elect Barack Obama takes over on January 20. If the regs are in effect when Obama becomes President, his administration would be hard-pressed to reverse them.
However. A federal court could issue an injunction stopping the rules and directing BLM to begin over. In fact a coalition of six environmental groups virtually promised a lawsuit the day before the rules were published in the Federal Register.
“(W)e herby inform you that unless you respond to this letter immediately and inform us that BLM is withdrawing the ROD and reinstating the public protest period, we will have no choice but to consider initiation of litigation in federal court to protect our rights,” said the environmentalists, led by Melissa Thrailkill, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The environmentalists share the concern of Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) that BLM doesn’t know what the environmental impacts of commercial shale development will be. They say BLM should review the results of research and development projects before writing regulations. Salazar, who is being mentioned as a candidate for the next Secretary of Interior, said at a November 19 press conference:
“For all the people of Colorado I would simply ask the question: Where are we going to get what could be as much one billion acre-feet of water to move forward with oil shale development? Where are we going to get multiple coal-fired power plants probably that will create the power that makes the technology function if it can be proven technologically feasible? The fact of the matter is there are many unanswered questions, so in my view it is foolhardy to create the regulatory regime for development of oil shale when we don’t know the facts.”
The lead oil shale development company in the three-state oil shale country (Colorado, Utah and Wyoming), Shell Exploration& Production Co. – Unconventional Oil, has told us the company wants BLM to complete commercial development regs as soon as possible to provide formal guidance.
In January 2007 BLM issued five, 160-acre R&D leases in Colorado (Shell holds three) and in May 2007 issued one R&D lease in Utah. The R&D leases constitute the first step in what could be a major new energy industry in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The Green River Formation of Colorado alone could produce an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil, or 100 years worth of the nation’s annual consumption of 8 billion barrels.
On its behalf BLM said completion of the regulations (along with a programmatic EIS and record of decision) doesn’t automatically commit the bureau to approve any oil shale development project. The bureau said, “Before any oil shale leases are issued, additional site-specific National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis would be completed on the proposed development. Once a lease is issued, the lessee will also have to obtain all required permits from state and local authorities, under their respective permitting processes, before any operations can begin. Another round of NEPA analysis would be conducted before any site-specific plans of development are approved.”
Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), ranking minority member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said, “With this positive step, Americans have hope for vast supplies of clean synthetic oil and natural gas to fuel our homes and businesses for decades. If American innovation succeeds with the technology to develop this resource, it could supply America’s oil needs for more than a century.”
BLM chose a sliding scale for royalties that would begin at 5 percent during the first five years of production, and then increase 1 percent each year after that until reaching 12.5 percent. The standard oil and gas royalty is 12.5 percent.
Salazar said the BLM formula could cost taxpayers billions of dollars in lost revenue.” “I will study these regulations closely, but I am immediately concerned about the royalty rates that it has established. A royalty rate of 5 percent, of which Colorado would receive half, is a pittance,” he said. “The Administration is setting up Colorado to be sold short.”
The 160-acre research and development leases entitle a lessee to a preference right (but not a guarantee) to a commercial lease of 4,960 contiguous acres, subject to further environmental analysis. Regular commercial leases would be for 5,760 acres and a company could hold up to 50,000 acres in any one state.
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MS. PICKENS SAYS SHE WANTS TO ADOPT ALL STORED WILD HORSES
There is nothing in writing yet, but the wife of famed oilman T. Boone Pickens says she is willing to adopt more than 30,000 excess wild horses and burros that BLM can no longer afford to store.
Madeline Pickens has told BLM she would like to establish a 1 million-acre range in the West – perhaps with leased federal land – to store the animals. She reportedly is willing to spend between $10 million and $50 million. As part of the plan (1) the animals would be sterilized and (2) donors to her operation would receive tax credits.
For now BLM is intrigued. “We welcome her interest,” said Tom Gorey, BLM spokesman. “We welcome anything she can do. It would be a great step forward in reducing our holding costs.”
As PLN reported in the last issue, BLM’s wild horse and burro program is facing an imminent crisis from an overpopulation in holding facilities. The bureau doesn’t have enough money to expand holding facilities. But if it returns the animals to the range, it may create an environmental disaster. And if it euthanizes the animals or sells them without limitations (i.e. to slaughterhouses) animal rights groups and their Congressional allies will hit the roof.
At a regularly scheduled public hearing in Reno, Nev., November 17 of BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Pickens expressed her interest in adopting all 30,000 excess animals and placing them on a range in the West. Pickens reportedly envisions the wild horse ranch as a tourist destination.
With Congress facing a $1 trillion deficit in fiscal 2009 the outlook is dim for increased appropriations above the fiscal 2008 appropriation of $37 million for the program. (A temporary fiscal 2009 money bill extends the 2008 level until March 6.)
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a recent report praised BLM for making progress toward meeting an appropriate management level of wild horses and burros on the public range of 27,200. But to do that BLM has had to put 74,000 animals in holding facilities since 2001, far more than it can put out for adoption or euthanized under strict limits. The number of animals in storage has climbed from 9,807 in 2001 to 30,088 as of June 30.
The price of managing the holding facilities has increased concomitantly. In 2000 total storage costs were $7 million. In fiscal 2008 holding costs exceeded $27 million, or three-quarters of the annual program appropriation.
The GAO report, Effective Long-Term Options Needed to Manage Unadoptable Wild Horses, is available at: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-77.
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Public Lands News is published by Resources Publishing Co., P.O. Box 41320, Arlington, VA 22204. EIN 52-1363538. Phone (703) 553-0552. FAX (703) 553-0558. E-mail: james@resourcespublishing.com. Website: http://www.publiclandsnews.com.
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Keep your powder dry..?
December 14, 2008Political double speak is the rule of the day for those that hate inalienable rights as set forth in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those people know that “Gun Control” is an issue that will get them bounced from their positions of power in a heartbeat. So then, what’s a gun grabbing neo -communist to do?Oh my, oh my! After all the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment does in fact address an individual right possessed by the people and not the state! Then, heaven forbid a Federal Court struck down the ex post facto portion of the Domestic violence act! Never fear legal double speak is here! Some bright young hypocrite lawyer figured out a way to by pass that troublesome language in the Constitution, and, he will not even have to try and get a Constitutional Convention seated to do it!
All gun owners are familiar with the 17th century maxim, “Keep your powder dry.” But if we expect to be gun owners in the 21st century, we have to update that to read, “Keep your powder—and all the rest of your ammunition—at all.” That’s because politicians who want to ban guns, but who don’t have the votes in Congress and state legislatures, are trying to achieve the same effect by banning the manufacture, importation, sale and possession of as much ammunition as possible, and severely restricting the rest.
In the last year, so-called “encoded” or “serialized” ammunition bills have been introduced in 13 states—Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Washington. Their goal: Destroy our Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
All of these bills would prohibit the manufacture and sale of ammunition, unless the bullets and cartridge cases are marked with a code and registered to the owners in a computerized database. Most would also require gun owners to forfeit any non-coded ammunition they possess. For example, Arizonas bill says, “Beginning January 1, 2011, a private citizen or a retail vendor shall dispose of all noncoded ammunition that is owned or held by the citizen or vendor.” Tennessee’s says, “All non-coded ammunition . . . shall be disposed.” And in Pennsylvania, “An owner of ammunition . . . not encoded by the manufacturer . . . shall dispose of the ammunition.”
These bills include no compensation for the loss of millions of rounds of privately owned ammunition. But that’s not the point. Nor is the fact that ammunition encoding hasn’t been tested, let alone proven. Nor is the fact that criminals would easily figure out the numerous, obvious ways to beat ammunition registration.
The point of these bills is to prevent gun owners from having ammunition for defense, practice, sport and hunting. The fact that these bills are not gun bans is a mere technicality because, in practical terms, ammo bans are gun bans.
That isn’t the end of the anti-gunners’ attacks on ammunition in the current Congress and state legislative sessions. Ammunition bans are taking almost as many legislative and regulatory forms as there are types of ammunition to outlaw.
In October, the California legislature banned center-fire ammunition containing more than trace amounts of lead, when hunting big game and coyotes in the area inhabited by the California condor. And within two months, the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife adopted a regulation going further, banning any sort of lead ammunition when hunting any game or non-game animal in the condor’s area. Now a lead bullet ban is being pushed in Arizona, too, even though there is still no solid evidence that condors anywhere are dying because they have ingested fragments of traditional hunting bullets.
In Congress, a handful of members of the House (all rated “F” by the NRA Political Victory Fund) have introduced an “armor-piercing ammunition” bill to ban any handgun that can fire a bullet that, if fired from any rifle or handgun, could penetrate a protective vest. Given the number of rifle calibers that use the same diameter bullets as handguns, and the number of handguns that use rifle ammunition, all or virtually all handguns would be banned if this bill became law. Another bill proposes to reinstate the former Clinton Gun Ban’s prohibition on the manufacture and possession of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.
Anti-gunners’ current focus on ammunition is unmistakable, but going after guns by going after ammunition is not a new idea. As far back as the 1930s, during the debate over national gun owner licensing and handgun registration, it was proposed to implant a small tape bearing a serial number in every bullet, and require people to register ammunition purchases with their names and fingerprints.
This bullet coding idea lay dormant until 1969, when President Lyndon B. Johnson’s National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence recommended a law that would require manufacturers “to implant an identifying capsule with a distinctive number in each bullet and require firearms dealers who sell the ammunition to maintain records of the persons who buy all such numbered ammunition.”
Today, ammunition registration is back on the front burner because a company that claims to have the technology to turn the 80-year-old concept into reality is eager for profits at the expense of our rights. Calling itself “Ammunition Accountability,” the company is trying to market ammo registration by portraying itself as a “group of gun crime victims, industry representatives, law enforcement, public officials, public policy experts, and more.”
Meanwhile, another of the LBJ-era commission’s recommendations, “a system of giving each gun a number and the development of some device to imprint this number on each bullet fired from the gun”—known today as “micro-stamping”—was mandated in California at the end of 2007, to take effect in 2010, and has been proposed in several other states.
California’s law had been urged by Washington’s undisputed gun control crusader for more than 30 years, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. And on February 7, only a week after endorsing Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for president, Kennedy introduced a bill in Congress to mandate micro-stamping nationwide. Kennedy claimed that his bill “provides law enforcement with a much-needed resource in solving crimes.” But even if micro-stamping worked, it would be relevant only to new guns acquired from retail dealers, while 88 percent of guns used in crime are acquired through unregulated channels.
To say the least, Obama didn’t get Kennedy’s support only because he made the keynote speech at the Democratic Party’s 2004 national convention in Massachusetts. When it comes to ammunition and guns, Kennedy, Obama and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.—whom the 2004 Democratic convention nominated for president, and who has also endorsed Obama this year—are cut from the same cloth.
Longtime NRA members will remember that in the 1990s, Kerry sponsored legislation to prohibit mail order sales of ammunition, require a criminal background check to purchase ammunition and ban conventional ammunition as “armor piercing.”
At the time, Obama was a state senator in Illinois, where he supported increasing federal excise taxes on guns and ammunition by 500 percent, banning compact handguns, limiting the frequency of gun purchases, banning the sale of guns (except antiques) at gun shows, charging a person with a felony offense if his gun were stolen and used in a crime, prohibiting people under age 21 from possessing guns, increasing the gun dealer licensing fee, prohibiting dealers from conducting business at gun shows or within five miles of a school or park, and banning police agencies from selling old service firearms to generate funds to buy new firearms for their officers.
From 1998 to 2001, Obama was also a director of the Joyce Foundation, the largest provider of tax-free funds to anti-gun groups and causes in this country—$19 million, including $1.5 million to the ultra-radical Violence Policy Center during Joyce’s Obama years. Obama even considered becoming Joyce’s president, according to the Boston Globe.
To be fair, I should mention that Obama’s chief rival for the 2008 Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has a serious anti-gun record, as well. When she was First Lady, Clinton endorsed a 25 percent tax on handguns, an increase in the federal gun dealer license fee to $2,500, registration and licensing of handguns and their owners, and registration and licensing for all new owners of rifles and shotguns.
We’re hearing the word “change” a lot in this year’s presidential campaign. But the longer I’m part of the fight for the right to arms, the more I realize that even though the details of anti-gun bills may change, their underlying concepts remain the same.
Back in 1974, Kennedy knew that banning ammunition would have the same practical effect as banning guns. On the floor of the Senate, Kennedy said that the “manufacture and sale of handguns should be terminated” and that “existing handguns should be acquired by states.” And toward that end, he urged passage of his amendment to “require the registration of every civilian-owned handgun in America,” to “establish and maintain a nationwide system to license every American who owns a handgun,” and “to reduce the number of handguns in civilian ownership, by outlawing . . . all handguns except those intended for sporting purposes.”
But, Kennedy added, “if [banning handguns] is not feasible we may be obliged to place strict bans on the production and distribution of ammunition. No bullets, no shooting.”
Since then, Kennedy and others in Congress have introduced bills to ban or impose outrageous taxes on .25, .32, 9mm, 5.7x28mm, and .50 caliber ammunition; cartridge cases less than 1.3″ in length; hollow-point bullets; ammunition that “serves no substantial sporting purpose and serves primarily to kill human beings”; and (via the Consumer Product Safety Commission) “defective” ammunition. And who can forget the outrages feigned by media-hungry politicians over “Black Rhino,” Rhino, Black Talon, Blammo Ammo and other dubious threats?
I wish I could report otherwise, but I’m certain we can expect more bills and rhetoric of that sort after the November elections. In addition to federal and state-level gun bans of various stripes, there will also be a concerted effort to prevent the use of firearms for self-defense, target shooting and hunting, by prohibiting the ammunition you need for all those activities.
Whether these proposed bans become law will depend on how many NRA members and other gun owners turn out to vote. I’ll be in the voting booth on Election Day 2008, and I hope you will be, too. Our ammo and our guns depend on it.
Praire Wolves, and kids do not mix
December 6, 2008Seems that yet again we have had a wildlife human encounter that was anything but good.
BOY INJURED BY COYOTE IN WELD COUNTY
DENVER, Colo. – A nine year-old boy from Erie suffered a minor injury Thursday afternoon when a coyote snapped at him on the Vista Ridge Golf Course in Erie. The boy and his brother were snowboarding and had stopped at the bottom of a hill at about 3:30 pm when the coyote approached, circled the boy, and lunged at him twice.
After the incident, the boy returned home, where his mother contacted the Erie Police Department to report the attack. She then took the boy to Children’s Hospital Clinic. He was released early Friday morning.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife worked with assisting agencies to track and locate the offending coyote. A coyote was found in proximity to the incident and subsequently killed. It has been sent to the DOW Fort Collins lab for testing, which is standard procedure after an incident such as this.
“Coyotes are naturally fearful of humans, but occasionally a coyote becomes aggressive and must be removed for public safety,” said Larry Rogstad, Area Wildlife Manager. “It is imperative that people report encounters with aggressive coyotes right away so that we can monitor the activity and intervene when necessary.”
Most conflicts between people and coyotes are due to someone feeding these wild animals, whether intentionally or otherwise. The DOW strongly discourages feeding of wild animals, including coyotes. Coyotes also cause concern for pet owners, as these animals view pets as a threat, prey, or possibly even a mate.
If a coyote approaches you:
–Be as Big, Mean, and Loud as possible
-Wave your arms and throw objects at the coyote
-Shout in a deep, loud and authoritative voice
-DO NOT RUN or turn your back on the coyote
-Face the coyote and back away slowly
-If attacked, fight back with your fists and feet
The DOW encourages members of the public who encounter an aggressive coyote to immediately call 303-291-7227. If the incident occurs after business hours, contact the Colorado State Patrol (303-239-4501).
To learn more about living with coyotes, visit the DOW web page, at:
http://wildlife.state.co.us/WildlifeSpecies/LivingWithWildlife/Mammals/CoyoteCountry.htm
The Town of Erie offers additional information on living near coyotes on their website. Visit www.erieco.gov and select “Coyotes – FAQs” from the Living in Erie section.
For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.
Conservative Libertarian Outpost 