Local View: Springs up north are filled with surprises and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it
From the column: Everyone up north has their own list of calamitous mishaps and arduous and costly remedies. Every surge of spring optimism, it seems, is tempered by catastrophe.
Written By:
David McGrath | × It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
The first 12 words in Charles’ Dickens’s “Tale of Two Cities” could very well be written about the north country every spring.
The paradox hit me like a sledgehammer in April of 1986. I had just closed on the purchase of a waterfront lot on Bluegill Lake near Winter, and I planned to spend our first night “van camping” on our private piece of paradise.
Local View: Saving wolves for the slaughter
From the column: Years ago, on a foggy summer morning, I came face to face with a wolf on the edge of the Chequamegon National Forest. . It’s a disgrace and a shame and a crime if it was shot to death for political vindication (this past week). Or for fun.
Written By:
David McGrath | ×
Hunters and trappers in Wisconsin needed less than three days to exceed the DNR s wolf harvest goal quota by about 40%. (Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin DNR)
In Shirley Jackson’s classic short story, “The Lottery,” the villagers of a small town randomly choose one of their own to stone to death, for no ostensible purpose other than the cathartic thrill of the kill.
AP Photos
In Shirley Jackson’s classic short story “The Lottery,” the villagers of a small town randomly choose one of their own to stone to death for no ostensible purpose other than the cathartic thrill of the kill.
A similarly macabre lottery recently was conducted by our neighbors in Wisconsin. Following the Trump administration’s controversial removal of the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list, just days before Donald Trump left office, 2,380 Wisconsin hunters chosen by lottery from 27,151 applicants “won” the privilege of buying licenses to kill 119 wolves over a seven-day period.
Opinion
But the hunt was cut short this week, on Wednesday, when the quota was exceeded and 182 wolves wiped out in just three days. This was likely because the wolves were more vulnerable due to heavy snow cover, said George Meyer of the Wilderness Wildlife Federation.
Outdoornews
February 4, 2021
Ashland Team / November
Wardens Phil Brown, of Iron River, and Dave Sanda, of Gordon, contacted an individual to register a bobcat. It was discovered: the cat had not been tagged correctly; the tag was not validated; the cat was trapped with a cable restraint, which are illegal to use until Dec. 1; and, the individual had illegally placed cable restraints for fisher trapping.
Warden Brown observed an individual driving slowly down a gravel road with a dog running alongside the vehicle. Brown was able to come around the other way and approach the vehicle from the front as the driver retrieved a grouse. The man was driving around with a loaded .22 rifle and shooting grouse from the road without a small game license. The man also admitted to shooting a buck he had not registered.
MARSHFIELD - Are you suffering from cabin fever and looking for something fun to do outside this weekend?
The Marshfield-News Herald has compiled a list of local tubing and sledding hills and ice-skating rinks that are open to the public.
Sledding and tubing hills.
Powers Bluff Winter Recreation Area: Powers Bluff Park, 6990 Bluff Drive, Arpin, will open its tubing and skiing hills Saturday. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, as conditions allow.
Tubing sessions are from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and cost $10 per person per session, or $15 for an all-day pass. An all-day downhill skiing and snowboarding pass costs $10 per person.