Field Notes

As the NICS Improvement Act of 2005 (H.R. 1415) makes it’s way through congress, firearm owners wondering if this is good or bad legislation may look to pro-gun groups for direction. Unfortunately, they may only wind up more confused in this instance. According to Gun Owners of America, the bill purportedly intended to improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System is a “monstrosity” that will “further prop up the unconstitutional Brady Law” and lay “the infrastructure for even more gun control in the future." The NRA, however, says it will expedite the background-checking process and improve the system, resulting in fewer “wrongful denials.” Anybody got a coin?
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200608/CUL20060830b.html

And now, the latest in the Bloomberg firearms fiasco: Since asking New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to turn evidence gathered against firearms dealers through private investigators over to the ATF, the National Shooting Sports Foundation finds his stonewalling revealing. Says NSSF senior vice president and general counsel Lawrence G. Keane: “The fact that Mr. Bloomberg is so afraid to turn over 'evidence' to the ATF speaks volumes as to the veracity of his claims. . . . As the mayor rejects public and law enforcement attempts to back up his incendiary claims it appears that his war against the firearms industry is more about publicity and personal disdain for guns than any illegality or impropriety on behalf of the firearms community.”
http://www.nssf.org/news/PR_idx.cfm?PRloc=common/PR/&PR=082806.cfm

World Hunting Association commissioner David Farbman’s recent attempt to quiet criticism from pro-hunting groups by changing WHA contest rules from stun-for-cash to kill-for-cash doesn’t appear to be working. Despite the change, senior vice president of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance had this to say: “The whole notion of a hunting competition turns most hunters off. Is that what hunting’s become - a body count contest?”
http://www.ussportsmen.org/interactive/features/Read.cfm?ID=1844

Alligators rarely grow to 13 feet, so when 20-year-old Marcus Haupt of North Fort Myers snagged one less than a foot shy of the 14-foot, 5/8-inch Florida record, he held on real tight. Fishing with friends Kevin Rossi and Everett Henkel, Haupt fought the giant reptile for more than three hours before getting it close enough to subdue with arrows, gaffs, and .44 magnum and .357 magnum bangsticks. Here’s the full story and pictures of the trophy gator, from Southwest Florida’s News Press.
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060828/ENT13/60827014/1075

If you’ve been following along, you know that backlash from horrified hunters has caused the World Hunting Association to change the rules in its inaugural contest, in which participants will now kill rather than dart animals for cash and prizes. Association commissioner David Farbman seems to believe that this will quiet the uproar. But in the Charleston Gazette article below, outdoor columnist John McCoy explains why Farbman may want to rethink the format yet again. (Or maybe just scrap the idea altogether.)
http://wvgazette.com/section/Woods%20&%20Waters/2006082662?pt=0

If you were looking forward to kicking back and watching a little hot saw, log-rolling, dog agility, and fly fishing on ESPN this summer, you’re going to be disappointed, as the sports channel has axed its Great Outdoor Games. According to this Huntsville Times story, ESPN Outdoors officials said it is “shifting its focus and will concentrate its energies and resources on B.A.S.S. and the Saturday Outdoors programming block.”
http://www.al.com/sports/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/sports/1156670470150930.xml&coll=1

Think you need to go to Florida or the Caribbean to catch tarpon? Well, maybe not. Last week, commercial gill netters were taking these prized gamefish 100 miles off Rhode Island’s shoreline, although no one has yet hooked one with rod and reel. In the article linked below, the Kennebec Journal’s Ken Allen speculates that if global warming raises northern water temperatures enough, New England’s already excellent saltwater fishing could get even more exciting with the addition of annual tarpon action.
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/sports/stories/701816564.shtml

In California, 95 percent of all saltwater marshes have been given over to development, according to this Associated Press report. But on Thursday, as bulldozers removed the last of an earthen dam and ocean water flowed into an historic wetland turned oil field for the first time in more than a century, 387 acres of the Bolsa Chica area was given back to nature. The two-year, $100 million project is being hailed as largest and most ambitious restoration of coastal wetlands in the state’s history.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/us/25wetlands.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

Ever since the “mystery critter” was found dead near in Turner Maine last week and especially since its picture started circulating on the internet (see http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0816-mutant.html), speculation has run wild about the beast’s identity. A few of the more colorful guesses include: northern chupacabra, Tasmanian devil, Injun Devil, Wendigo, and ET. Alas, DNA evidence has proven that the critter is canine. It’s mother is definitely a dog, say experts at a University of Maine laboratory. So far, though, the results still leave open the slight possibility that the father is a goat-sucker, Martian, or mythological bogeyman of American Indian folklore.
http://www.bangornews.com/news/t/statewide.aspx?articleid=139349&zoneid=500

There are as many as half a million abandoned mine sites on private property throughout the West, many of which continue to leak arsenic, zinc, lead, and other toxins into soil and water, including some celebrated fisheries. Cleaning up such sites has traditionally involved wading through a mire of bureaucracy and red tape. But now a private cleanup completed Tuesday in Utah’s American Fork Canyon is being hail as a brand new model. The project was made possible when in response to a petition by Trout Unlimited, the Environmental Protection Agency waived liability for a nonprofit cleanup on private property for the first time ever. The success of the American Fork Canyon project promises to pave the way for similar efforts in the future.
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/190701/3/