Friday, April 29, 2005

Photographic proof! Hey, gang.  Here's a release from Ducks Unlimited on the ivory-billed woodpecker I told you about yesterday, along with a photo. Later... Contact: Laura Houseal (901) 758-3764 lhouseal@ducks.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Forested Wetlands Critical to Ivory-Billed Woodpecker MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 28, 2005 [^] Experts confirmed today that the ivory-billed woodpecker, thought to be extinct in the United States, is alive and well at the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Arkansas. Prior to this rediscovery, there were no confirmed sightings of the bird in more than 60 years. [base "]The disappearance of the ivory-billed woodpecker is a story of habitat loss,[per thou] said Don Young, executive vice president of Ducks Unlimited. [base "]And the habitats these birds need are exactly the kind of habitats Ducks Unlimited restores and conserves in Arkansas and throughout the southeast.[per thou] The ivory-billed woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in the country and the second largest in the world. It once thrived in the swampy bottomland hardwood forests of the southeastern United States. <> Ivory-billed woodpecker. Photo credit: George M. Sutton/Cornell Lab of Ornithology Over the last century, however, bottomland hardwood forests disappeared with urban and agricultural development, causing a simultaneous decline in ivory-billed woodpeckers. Of the original 25 million acres of bottomland hardwoods in the area, less than 18 percent remain. [base "]The rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker is testament to the value of bottomland hardwood forests,[per thou] said Young. [base "]We have an opportunity now to ensure that those forests are conserved and restored not only for the ivory-billed woodpecker, but for the thousands of other wildlife species that depend on these wetland habitats including ducks and other waterfowl. Restoring habitat like this is what DU and its partners do best.[per thou] Ducks Unlimited works with partners to restore and conserve bottomland hardwood forests and other waterfowl and wildlife habitat across the continent. To date, DU and partners like the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service have helped restore more than 125,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forests, including more than 87,000 acres under the Wetlands Reserve Program near the area where the ivory-billed woodpecker was sighted. [base "]These areas are valued recreational locations for thousands of people each year, including hunters,[per thou] Young said. [base "]We stand ready to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture and others to ensure that this species is protected and the land is open for everyone[base ']s enjoyment.[per thou]   With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world[base ']s largest wetlands and waterfowl conservation organization. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands [^] nature[base ']s most productive ecosystem [^] and continues to lose more than 100,000 wetland acres each year. 8:11:37 AM    comment []

Vote for Dan Small Outdoors! Hey, the folks at mkeonline.com hold a weekly "Best blog in SE Wisconsin" contest, and guess who's in the running this week?!! Yup. If you click on the link over to the right, it will take you right to the voting site ---> Check it out and vote for this blog! You've got until midnight on Wed., May 4 to cast your vote. Thanks for your support! Later... 7:16:26 AM    comment []

Grab that sucker! After my fishing seminar last week at the 2005 Plant Engineering & Maintenance Expo at State Fair Park (Hey, I'll talk to any group that will pay my fee!), I met a guy named Phil French, a long-time member of the Plant & Facilities Maintenance Association (PFMA) with a strong Scottish accent. Of course, we talked fishing. "Ever go guddlin'?" He asked me. I asked what that was, and he proceeded to describe the technique known in other parts as "tickling" trout. I had to admit I'd tried it as a kid, but had never pulled it off. The way I'd heard it and tried it, you find a trout hiding next to a rock or under a bank, slide your hand under its belly and stroke it gently until you are able to lift it out of the water. The trout where I grew up were too skittish, I guess. I have done this successfully with frogs and I understand it works with most cold-blooded vertebrates, even alligators. Anyway, in Scotland it's called "guddling" and Phil claims he has guddled up a mess of trout in his day. He described his technique, which differs a bit from what I'd heard: "You get a trout cornered alongside a rock," he said. "Then you slide both hands under its belly and stroke it gently in both directions." (Phil's eyes began to glaze over as he stroked an imaginary trout from its midsection out toward its head and tail.) "Then you grab it with both hands and throw it up onto the bank," he exclaimed, gesturing appropriately. Maybe that's where I went wrong, only stroking my trout in one direction. "When I was 13, another chap and I guddled about 200 pounds of trout and took them into town and sold them!" he told me with a big grin. That was good pocket money for a kid in Scotland back in the day. Tickling and guddling trout are illegal in Wisconsin, but you are allowed to take rough fish by hand in streams where it is illegal to spear them. In fact, I taped one of my all-time favorite TV segments on a small stream in Fond du Lac County about 18 years ago this month. When the suckers are running (well, swimming, actually) upstream to spawn, some folks wade into the streams with them, herd them into the shallow and grab them!  Suckers have a rough skin and they are shaped sort of like a cigar, which makes them relatively easy to hang on to (as easy as anything that's wet, slippery and wiggling like mad!). I taped several segments with a gentleman whose name escapes me at the moment. We grabbed a bucket of suckers, he showed us how to clean them, then we took them into his kitchen where his wife pickled them. We wrapped up the segment by tasting some pickled suckers and declaring them downright tasty. I was like a kid running up that little creek in my hip boots, yelling Grab that sucker! My brother, Mike, used to grab snapping turtles when we were kids. He jumped off his dock on Long Lake in the Adirondacks a couple years ago and amazed his neighbors when he came up with a big turtle, but that's a story for another time. Down South, "noodlin'" catfish is a big sport. It's pretty much the same game, except the big cats bite back. Rather than try to describe it for you, how 'bout I send you to a website with a great story on noodlin' and let Howard Ramsey, founder of Noodlers Anonymous, tell you all about his struggles with Walter, a 97-pound blue cat that... Check it out! later... 7:02:33 AM    comment []