January 2012 Western Snowpack

Keep clicking on image to zoom in.

From the National Water and Climate Service (Dept. of Agriculture). You can check SNOTEL monitoring stations at the same website.

Environmental Law Students Sue to Stop 'Over the River'

As the Fremont County commissioners began public hearings yesterday on the industrial-art project "Over the River," law students at the University of Denver's Environmental Law Clinic filed suit against it on behalf of the opposition group, Rags Over the Arkansas River, says the ABA Journal:

Christo plans to stretch fabric over the Arkansas River for two weeks in August 2014, an effort that critics who've dubbed themselves "ROAR," or Rags Over The Arkansas River, maintain is as risky as mineral development.

The installation would cover some 5.9 miles of the river and require the drilling of more than 9,000 bore holes, some 35 feet deep, in a critically sensitive wildlife area, according to a suit filed by the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law(PDF).

The suit against the Bureau of Land Management maintains Christo's project "requires the use of equipment commonly used in mining and road building, such as hydraulic drill masts mounted on Cat 320-330 long-reach excavators, Cat M313D—M322D wheeled excavators, boom truck cranes, grouters, air compressors, water tanks, grout mixers, support trailers, steel rock anchors, and anchor frames."

So ROAR has roared. Their website links to more news stories.

The BLM, which approved the project, says that it was "thoroughly analyzed."

The Little Ice Age: Solar Cycles or Volcanoes?

Researchers at the University of Colorado suggest that volcanic activity caused the cooler centuries (roughly the 14th-19th) known as the Little Ice Age.

Or eruptions and solar cycles influence the climate?

Lively comments at the linked blog.

Landowners Can Earn Extra Cash from Hunting

News release from Colorado Parks and Wildlife:

LAMAR, Colo. - Landowners in southeastern Colorado who open their property to hunters can earn extra cash by enrolling in Colorado Parks and Wildlife's Big Game Access Program (BGAP) for the 2012 hunting seasons.

This year marks the sixth year the program known as BGAP will open up public access for deer and pronghorn hunting on private lands in the following Game Management Units: 116, 117, 120, 121, 122, 125, 126, and 127.  In previous years, up to 140,000 acres were enrolled.

"The Wildlife Commission has funded the program again for 2012 to pay landowners who allow big game hunting access to their property," said Lamar Area Wildlife Manager Travis Black.  "As the program progresses, we are continuing to review landowner interest, sportsmen's satisfaction, harvest statistics and financial viability."

Eligible types of land include river bottom or riparian land with a focus on deer, and upland grass or prairie habitat for pronghorn.  Landowners who meet the requirements of this program will receive payment for allowing hunters onto their land. 

Landowner payments range from 25 cents per acre up to a maximum of $3 per acre depending on the size of the property, type of the habitat and number of days access is allowed.

Participation is by application only. Applications are due by February 25, 2012.   Properties enrolled in previous years must re-apply to participate again in 2012. 

Due to budget limitations, not all properties are accepted.  CPW employees rate properties according to habitat quality and the number of pronghorn and deer that use the habitat. 

Access to land enrolled in BGAP is by walk-in only.  Hunters must have a valid hunting license plus buy a $40 BGAP permit to gain access to enrolled properties.  Hunters can purchase BGAP permits at any license agent or Colorado Parks and Wildlife office. 

The BGAP access stamp allows access to hunt to pronghorn and deer only.  Small game hunting is not allowed unless the hunter gets special permission from the landowner.

Properties enrolled in BGAP are posted with "Walk-in Access" signs.  Landowners' names, addresses and telephone numbers are kept confidential.  

Information about ranch locations, maps and GMUs can be found on the Big Game Access Program page on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website.  Landowner applications can be downloaded from the same site.

For more information, or to obtain an application to enroll your land, please contact the Colorado Parks and Wildlife office in Lamar at 719-336-6600.  Address written correspondence to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, c/o BGAP, 2500 South Main St., Lamar, CO 81052.
  Visit this site for more information.

Building Bear Dens in Southern Colorado

Completed bears' den. (Colorado Parks and Wildlife photo.)

I have mentioned that M. and I have a sporadic volunteer gig transporting wild animals and birds to and from local rehabilitation centers.

One of those centers, not far from us, fostered seven bear cubs this summer.  Can you imagine how much they eat? And how much comes out the other end?

We had donated several large sacks of dry dog food — just a drop in the feed bucket. The bears got lucky when the manager of the Wal-Mart store in a nearby town not only sent over about a pallet-load of dog food but also cartons and cartons of fruit and vegetables.

As for the rest, let's just say that the question is not "Does a bear shit in the woods?" but "Does a wildlife rehabber dump buckets of bear turds in the woods?"

Then autumn comes. I learned that the rehabbers cannot release bears themselves, the way that they do with birds, deer, foxes, etc. It apparently is a question of liability issues. Wildlife officers pick them up and leave them at undisclosed locations.

Wildlife officers place tranquilized bear in den. (Colorado Parks and Wildlife photo.)

First, though, the state wildlife people have to build dens for the bears. This den is built of straw bales and plywood, stacked next to a rock outcropping. It was large enough to hold two of the half-grown cubs. The photo was taken in early December.

Presumably, they are sleeping there now.

A Geologist's Hammer under the Pilgrim's Robe

The trouble with the Telegraph's (UK) obituary of explorer and geologist Augusto Gansser is that there is no one good paragraph to excerpt. They are mostly like this:

Due to the war, the Ganssers were unable to return to Switzerland until 1946, when they took passage on a recently decommissioned British aircraft carrier. Augusto took with him two emeralds which he had found jutting out of a Colombian rock but, at the port, learned that it was forbidden to export uncut precious stones. On the spot, he hid them in the nappy of his infant son.

So you will just have to read it all.

SHOT Show: Shed-Huntin' Dawg

My dog Fisher cannot run through the woods without locating every bit of bone or carrion within 200 yards of his position.

Maybe his natural talent is shed [antler] hunting.

As the days lengthen, and depending on the amount of snow on the ground, people will be out looking for the antlers that deer and elk shed after the breeding season. Some just hang them on the wall, while others make things from the antlers or sell them to craftspeople who do.

There are even shed-antler brokers.

Plastic antler

So someone smelled commercial potential. Train dogs to find antlers. Even better, sell stuff to people that will help them train their dogs to find shed antlers! Scents! Plastic "training antlers"!

(You may, the instructions admit, also make your own training antlers out of heavy cardboard or thin plywood, painted white.)

And because we Americans are a proud and competitive people, fond — as Alexis de Tocqueville pointed out — of forming voluntary associations, you have the North American Shed Dog Hunting Association with competitive events and trophies. Go, girl! Hunt 'em up!

(Actually, the website seems to suggest that the association is a creation of the supplier, but I cannot tell for sure. There are precedents for that.)

Breeders probably are already advertising the shed-hunting trophies won by sires and dams.

SHOT Show: Scout Cameras Are Shrinking

Near home, mule deer slip through the woods in the early hours of January16th.

I looked at some of the new scout cameras (trail cameras, game cameras) on display at SHOT Show and noticed one overall trend: They are shrinking. No more big cases holding eight D-cells — or even four C-cells, like most of mine. Now it is AA cells that you want.

As with many other electronic devices, they do more with less juice. You can find better video, time-lapse features, and so on.

Palm-size Simmons camera.

Infrared capabilities are increasing. Some manufacturers are claiming that their products now take IR photos without the tell-tale red glow when the IR flash fires, although I did not see a demonstration.

Actually, that feature makes such cameras more desirable to people wanting to use them for home security, as the guy in the booth readily admitted. Scout cameras have already nailed a few burglars, particularly in rural areas.

You will also be told that smaller cameras are less likely to be stolen if placed on public lands.

Maybe.

I have been experimenting with camouflage. Most cameras, like the Simmons pictured, come with a black strap. (Simmons is Bushnell's low-end brand.)

Sneaking up on my own camera sets, I notice that the line of black webbing catches my eye before the shape of the camera itself. Yet most trail cameras ship with a black strap.

Choosing a more tree-matching color helps a lot. So does finding a different way to mount the camera, such as propping it up with small stones on a convenient ledge.

I have taken olive-drab cameras like the one pictured and spray-painted them in my own ponderosa pine camouflage scheme. Thought about gluing bark on the cases, but would it hold up to opening and closing? You can spray-paint the strap with a disruptive color scheme too.

The flash, infrared sensor, and lens still must be exposed though. Camouflage is not perfect — all it can do is make the camera less obvious to an inattentive passerby.

Into the Moors

British bushcrafter does not survive. (Gratuitous Bear Grylls references added by the reporter, apparently.)

Survival school instructor Ian Moran, who teaches extreme survival and bushcraft skills, said it was extremely unlikely anybody could survive a Highland winter out of doors living off the land.

He said: 'It would be a tall order for even the most professional person who calls himself a survivalist. Maybe centuries ago, when Scotland was covered in woodland and teeming with wildlife, but not now.'

I wondered about that. Was he planning to try to fish? Steal sheep?

SHOT Show: Some Product Notes

A random walk through the Media Range Day booths and elsewhere . . .

• Viridian's green-dot laser is easy to see. Its color probably is close to the middle of the human visual spectrum, which makes for high visibility under many outdoor conditions. Just don't wear amber shooting glasses when using it.

• I shot the Caracal 9mm semi-auto pistol, standard and compact models, made in Abu Dhabi, where, as the press kit says, it is "like the leadership of its motherland ... determined, ambitious." This was the company's first appearance at SHOT Show.

It felt comfortable and lightweight  (polymer frame). I liked the sights, and I seemed to be shooting it well (no formal scoring involved). I will let the gun-gearheads give the final long-term assessment

A caracal is a wild desert cat. Wikipedia lists the pistols' features better than the company web site does.

• Still in the Middle East, so to speak, I visited the Sarsilmaz booth and shot some clays with their full-camo semi-auto shotgun. I seem to do a lot of waterfowling under bright, sunny skies, and I like non-reflective shotguns that you can drop in the mud without worries. This is one of those. And I was shooting pretty well (for me) with it—better than I did later with a Browning Citori over-and-under, even though the Citori is a prettier gun.  (But I still got a prize, because every dog gets a ribbon.)

The size of the Turkish arms industry was one of the things I learned at SHOT Show. A number of firms were represented, both in terms of manufacturing their own products and manufacturing for other well-known names, such as Weatherby. I have nothing good to say about the Ottoman Empire, but it apparently fostered Turkish gun-building—or at least that is the myth of origin.

Based on the Dorrington jacket.

 • A persistent Internet meme among gunbloggers is the "shoot-me vest." I don't own one. But I would own some of the garments in the Woolrich Elite "tactical" (that word again) line.

Woolrich has long made good outdoor clothing. These shirts, jackets, and pants either have features to facilitate concealed carry (like tear-away side seams whose hook-and-loop fasteners facilitate access to a belt holster, or they have large, reinforced hidden pockets.

Yes, there are vests too. But this twill jacket might be more versatile in cooler climates. (Suggested retail price $140.)

SHOT Show: Random Photos (2)

Watching 3-D hunting videos.

Colorful and "affordable" revolvers from Cobra Firearms.

Victorinox representative discusses Swiss Army knives decorated with prehistoric mammoth ivory.

Unglamorous but necessary.

SHOT Show: Zombies Out of Control

Marketer with poster for Leupold's zombie-hunting rifle scope.

Heard in the crush of humanity between the exhibitors' booths: "This whole zombie thing is way out of control."

Someone in the outdoor-products industry once told me that you could sell more of anything if you made it in a camouflage pattern.

Leupold VX-R scope for zombies.

Nowadays you put fluorescent lime-green accents on it and use the word "zombie."

Here are some 2012 SHOT Show zombie-defense products.

Scope flip-up lens cover.

Leupold optics has a scope for zombie-hunting, complete with covers showing the optimal head shot.

Maybe it could be mounted on a rifle along with the back-up anti-zombie chain saw.

Anti-zombie loads are available for 12-gauge shotgun or for rifles firing .223 Remington.

If you run out of ammo, defend yourself against the living dead with a Ka-Bar anti-zombie knife. It's not the famous Marine Corps knife — this one has a fluorescent-green handle.

Lightfield's anti-zombie buckshot.

Hornaday's anti-zombie load.

Zombie gun-cleaning kit from Otis.

For the zombie ammo.

When the shooting is over, clean your weapon with Otis Technology' s gun-cleaning system in the zombie-themed pouch. It's not just tactical, it's zombie-cal.

"You have to get aboard [the zombie craze]," one marketer told me.

Another predicted that zombie-themed marketing was far from dead (sorry) because "Brad Pitt just signed a movie deal" for a zombie film — maybe even a trilogy.

There has to be more than Brad PItt driving the zombie theme.  For some people, it's just Halloween all year (earlier post: Zombies in Vermont).

In the shooting world, is zombie-preparedness just a way to think about shooting other upright bipeds — ones that are no longer human?

During and after the Cold War, zombies were seen as analogues for Communists. They were "brainwashed," as the 1950s expression had it.

I had breakfast with an editor who suggested that the political symbolism was still there — like the Lilliputians and Yahoos in Gulliver's Travels.

"A lot of zombies voted in 2008," he said.

SHOT Show: The Law Enforcement Side

For the police chief who thinks that black-and-whites are not scary enough.

Everybody said that the SHOT Show is too big to see completely. Everybody was right.

Mostly I find myself skipping the law-enforcement product exhibit halls.

I got tired of seeing videos and posters of Officer Friendly staring at me over his sights (laser dot on my chest, no doubt), eyes hidden behind the visor of his Kevlar helmet, him all decked out in camo and knee pads and body armor and MOLLE gear.

"Citizen [euphemism]! Down on the floor! Now!"

UPDATE:  Dave Petzal at The Gun Nuts blog thinks similar thoughts.

SHOT Show: It's International

The British Pavilion

The most common language heard at the SHOT Show is Upland Southern English, followed by German.

German firms form the largest national cluster.

Apparently to succeed in the firearms industry, it is helpful to sound like you come from Arkansas — or Arnsberg.

I have also overheard several varieties of Spanish, e.g., terse Argentinian around the Bersa booth — plus Portuguese, Swedish, Chinese, Turkish, Japanese, Italian, Arabic, and some that I could not be sure of (Hindi?).

German, Italian, and British firms are clustered in national pavilions, with Germany's being the largest.

The Italian pavilion is the place to go for reproductions of every 19th-century gun.

There are enough Turkish firearms firms to fill a pavilion too, although the man whom I spoke to at the Trabzon booth seemed cool to the idea. We prefer to be spread out, he said.

SHOT Show: Random Photos (1)

Should be reported in triplicate to the Department of Redundancy Department.

Concealed-carry gear for women still challenges some manufacturers

Let BAE Systems modify your 4x4, and the dogs will stay in for sure.

The family that hides together abides together.