My wife’s cousin, Mike O’Neil, and I came across this fresh bear print while out turkey hunting this morning. It’s from a farm on the James River in Goochland County. It was probably 6-7 inches, toe to heel. It was one of a couple we saw, but we never made contact with the burly critter that created it. That would have been quite a site! We also heard plenty of gobbling from a Tom or two, and flushed a hen, but never got a shot at a Tom.

The turkey season ends Saturday at sundown.

For three days next month—June 6, 7 and 8 – you can fish for free in Virginia. No fishing license of any kind will be required for recreational rod and reel fishing on those days, except in designated stocked trout waters.

However, all fishing regulations—size, season, catch limits and gear restrictions – will remain in effect.

“We have some of the best river, lake and stream fishing in the country and we would love it if the non-fishing public would give it a try,’’ said Bob Duncan, Executive Director of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which regulates freshwater fishing.

A Virginia saltwater fishing license costs only $12.50 a year for state residents, and much of that money is used for programs that directly benefit recreational anglers, such as boat ramps, artificial reefs and fishing clinics for children. A freshwater fishing license costs only $18 a year for state residents and a trout license cost $18 a year for residents. Those license fees also support valuable fisheries work across the Commonwealth.

On Saturday I completed my first adventure race, the Primal Quest Sprint Series, with friend Jason Miller. That’s me on the left above and Jay on the right.

What an unbelievable event, and what an entry into the sport of adventure racing. The 6-hour “sprint” was held at Pocahontas State Park, and despite the ridiculous amount of rain we’ve been getting, the course was in great shape. It went like this: 10 miles of running, during which you had the option of searching the woods for orienteering checkpoints; 15 miles of mountain biking on singletrack and fire roads; a 4-mile flat water paddle; “log pt” and a ropes course invention. It took us about 6:40, though we earned an hour of time credits for finding 3 of the 4 orienteering points.

It was brutal, but in a good way...I guess. Look for the column on the event this Friday.

http://www.brmsstore.com/blogs/community/article/52/run-like-a-girl-8k

This is from the Peregrine Fund:

Washington, D.C. – Studies of several bird species, including the endangered California Condor, have provided extensive documentation of the health hazard posed to birds that ingest lead ammunition residues in the remains of gun-killed animals. Now, new studies suggest that humans who eat game shot with lead ammunition may also be at risk. A conference to further explore these links, “Ingestion of Spent Lead Ammunition: Implications for Wildlife and Humans,” sponsored by The Peregrine Fund, will be held May 12-15, 2008, at Boise State University.

“We’ve been studying the effects of condor lead ingestion for years,” said Rick Watson, Vice President of The Peregrine Fund, a conservation organization that leads the California Condor recovery program in Arizona. “Condors are sickened and some die from eating the remains of shot animals. The possibility that other species, including humans, are also at risk prompted us to organize this conference.”

Recently published research suggests that even very low levels of lead exposure in children can cause learning disabilities, and in adults may increase risk of Alzheimer’s disease and death from stroke or heart attack.  Lead is also associated with impaired visual and motor function, growth abnormality, neurological and organ damage, hearing loss, hypertension and reproductive complications. The degree of lead exposure associated with many of these problems is much lower than previously believed.

North Dakota state health officials recently ordered food banks to discard donated venison because it can contain lead fragments. Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck physician and member of The Peregrine Fund board of directors, made the discovery after learning about the problem in a Peregrine Fund report. Cornatzer collected about 100 one-pound packages of ground venison from food pantries in December and ran CT scans on the meat. The North Dakota Health Department confirmed the presence of lead in its own tests. Cornatzer plans to present his findings at the conference.

The Peregrine Fund will present results of its own recent investigation on lead in hunter-killed animals at the conference. The group is studying the amount of lead in venison from deer shot with standard lead bullets, which fragment into hundreds of tiny pieces upon impact. Their previously published research has shown that these fragments scatter widely into the meat along the bullet’s path of travel. Preliminary results of The Peregrine Fund’s current study will be given at the conference on May 13. The final report will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

A recent study found elevated levels of lead in Common Ravens during the hunting season for deer and elk in the Yellowstone region. Scavengers, such as ravens and raptors, eat offal piles left by hunters, or animals that were shot and not recovered.  These remains contain lead bullet fragments. Derek Craighead and co-authors of the raven study, are expected to present additional data at the conference showing that lead is also reaching elevated levels in Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, and other scavengers during the hunting season.

Recently, there has been a great deal of attention on the problem of lead bullets due to the poisonings of endangered California Condors, highlighted by several independent studies that will be presented at the conference. The use of lead bullets has been banned in the California range of the condor, and work continues to protect the species in Arizona through voluntary use by hunters of non-lead ammunition.

“When informed of the severity of the problem for condors, most hunters in Arizona have chosen to use non-lead ammunition to benefit wildlife,” added Watson, “and once the results from the conference become widely understood, hunters may also choose non-lead ammunition to benefit themselves and their families.”