Outdoor odds and ends
Maple sap has been running pretty well even though it is a tad early. I took my daughter, Rowan, grandson, Navarre, and of course Grandma up into the woods to tap a few trees for ol’ time’s sake. We are just doing a few near the house to hopefully make a gallon or so of syrup, so Navarre gets the experience without the emotional scars or frost bite. We got about a halfgallon bucket the first night which is pretty good, in my book, for this early in the season. Maple-ing was a serious business for the old-time settlers as they could not just run to Wal-Mart for a bag of sugar. Sugar cane was a thousand miles away and many years from being easily distributed in the north. So, the acer saccharum and rubrum trees were an important source of sugar for cooking, delicacies, and a commodity for trade. Not to mention and even more importantly, sugar was an important preservative before we could handily freeze food. In my mind, it is still important to stay in touch with the skill just for the importance of its history. To be completely up front, while I’m dabbling this year, most of my syrup comes from the good graces of my buddy Muddy who runs a fairly large sugar bush, right up to the walleye spawn.
I was looking for some white tail sheds, most of the bucks I am familiar with have already discarded their target identification and acquisition headgear. I have been stumped again and even though I walked through high traffic areas, there was no bone trash left behind where I have looked. It seems after this PA deer season strike out; I cannot even get antlers and they cannot run away. I will keep looking. It is early yet, unless you are looking for elk antlers then you may be getting a little late, if the whitetail has tossed its headgear already.
Sporting shows are going on, with vendors showing off their new equipment. I have been hearing about the new Savage KLYM with 110 action and straight pull impulse actions. It seems to be a wonderful rifle. It comes in the standard large game hunting calibers like .308, 6.5 Creedmoor, etc. Unfortunately, it does not come yet in the straight walled rifle calibers that are now legal in a lot of traditional shotguns only areas and have been in demand.
The Game Commission’s plan to release the pine marten weasels back into Pennsylvania was tabled at the last commission meeting. I had spent some ink on thoughts regarding the notion a few weeks ago. In short, it is not prudent. The simplistic, “they were here before,” argument baffles me. Where in Pa? Pennsylvania is a big state and there are animals native to the Philadelphia area that are not native to Erie and vice versa. There is good information that this is true of weasels. Also, what is the standard? We bring in new, old, here, never here, so far and, therefore, there is no principle. If we are to get all the critters back from the past, because they domiciled here, should we not bring back the long gone chestnut, hemlock forest or for Buffalo the longgone grasslands in Clearfield? Can they waive away trout and pheasants because they were not here? We happen to have all kinds of caterpillars, hornets, algids, thorny plants, and dominant trees and plants that push out native species everywhere. Can we do something about that before we bring in something old to a new area and a different forest? Can we learn from past mistakes? Along those lines about changes, if you change regulations every year, they start to lose any meaning or bearing. People restrain themselves to follow principles, not whims.
I do not know the reasoning that stocking pine martens was tabled (not halted). I hope someone started asking common sense questions. If that is the case, the idea should have been stopped long ago when it came up behind the closed doors of a staff meeting. I am not an everything the Commission does is wrong kind of guy. There have been some wonderful additions to our streams and forests that people enjoy but why weasels? Oh yeah, the pressing, “Forest seed dispersal issue.” Just stock ‘em if you want to just because you want to but do not insult everyone while you do it. That is all a sportsman who may one day, alone with a whim and a gun in his hand, see a thirty-inch weasel, asks.
See you along the stream.