Guns in National Parks

  • Guns are no longer prohibited in America's national parks. (Photo courtesy of Fenners)

People can now carry guns in national parks. The National Park Service is adapting to the new law. Samara Freemark reports:

Transcript

People can now carry guns in national parks. The National Park Service is adapting to the new law. Samara Freemark reports:

The new policy means a reversal for the nation’s 392 National Park sites. Firearms have been prohibited in the parks.

But now….

Whatever law you were under in that state outside of the park now applies in the national park unit.

That’s National Park Service spokesman David Barna. He says that means that parks everywhere except Illinois and Washington DC will allow firearms.

But different states have different laws about the specifics – for example, whether you can conceal your weapon or not.

Barna says that could get complicated.

Appalachian Trail passes over 14 states. Yellowstone National Park is in 3 states. And the burden is going to be on the public to know those various laws.

Barna says the Park Service will help gun owners out with website updates and postings in park facilities.

But he says they can’t put up notices every time a park trail crosses a state line.

For The Environment Report, I’m Samara Freemark.

Related Links

Deer Poachers Getting Trigger Happy?

  • Wildlife officials encourage hunters to help thin the population of CWD, but some hunters may be taking it beyond what is legal according to regulations. (Photo by Dr. Beth Williams, University of Wyoming, courtesy of CWD Alliance)

In states with deer herds affected by Chronic Wasting Disease, wildlife officials have
encouraged hunters to help them thin the population. But some wardens worry that
poachers are taking this as an invitation to bag game any way they can. Brian Bull
reports:

Transcript

In states with deer herds affected by Chronic Wasting Disease, wildlife officials have
encouraged hunters to help them thin the population. But some wardens worry that
poachers are taking this as an invitation to bag game any way they can. Brian Bull
reports:


It’s illegal to shoot deer at night, from vehicles, or while trespassing. But that’s something
Wisconsin game warden David Youngquist has seen recently. He monitors that state’s
Chronic Wasting Disease eradication zone. Youngquist says in that area, there are nearly
six times as many deer as is healthy for the herd:


“Our agency feels that if we can get deer numbers down, we can halt the disease. But we
still enforce the road hunting the same as we ever
have. We want hunting to be safe.”


Youngquist says poaching activities are on the rise, because some people think bagging a
deer is the main thing, whether it’s done legally or not. In some of these eradication
zones, a record number of citations have been handed out.


For the Environment Report, I’m Brian Bull.

Related Links

Coast Guard Guns for Firearm Testng

For years, the Air Force has used the Great Lakes as a target range for ammunition. Now, the US Coast Guard wants to do the same. The GLRC’s Noah Ovshinsky has more:

Transcript

For years, the Air Force has used the Great Lakes as a target range for ammunition.
Now, the US Coast Guard wants to do the same. The GLRC’s Noah Ovshinsky has
more:


The Coast Guard says it’s giving the public additional time to comment on a proposal
to turn the 34 areas in the Great Lakes into permanent firearm training zones. The Air Force already uses the
lakes for live-fire exercises. The zones, locating on the water near Coast Guard stations, will be used to test machine guns, rifles and other weapons.


Jim Fenner sits on the board of the Michigan Charter Boat Association. He says the plan
raises a lot of concerns:


“We want to know how we’re gonna be informed and when these exercises would be
held and how long they would last and what happens if we’re in the area – could they compel
us to leave the area if that happens to be where the fishing is good right then.”


Fenner says about 20 percent of his favorite fishing spots lie within the proposed target zones.


For the GLRC, this is Noah Ovshinsky.

Related Links

Lessons From Wildlife Photographers

  • Carl Sams and Jean Stoick have been photographing wildlife for more than two decades. (Photo by Charity Nebbe)

Wildlife photographers Carl Sams and Jean Stoick have been taking pictures of Michigan wildlife for more than twenty years. What started as a hobby has become a lucrative business and spawned two best-selling children’s books. But this year, the work has become about more than just taking beautiful pictures. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Charity Nebbe has the story:

Transcript

Wildlife photographers Carl Sams and Jean Stoick have been taking pictures of Michigan wildlife for more than twenty years. What started as a hobby has become a lucrative business and spawned two best-selling children’s books. But this year, the work has become about more than just taking beautiful pictures. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Charity Nebbe has the story:


(Sound of birds chirping)


It’s early morning, and Carl Sams and his wife and partner, Jean Stoick, have gotten up to take pictures of wildlife in the early morning light.


“Oh, look, we got a deer. Right out there in the water. Is that beautiful. This is incredible. The very doe – I worked here back in 1982 – she crossed this lake, just the lake here, and she was pregnant, and since then I’ve taken over a hundred thousand pictures. Now this doe, she’s actually out eating lily pads right now, and this is typical for deer at this time of year to do that.”


For Carl, taking pictures of wildlife came naturally; he’s always loved spending time outdoors.


“I grew up hunting and fishing, but I sold my guns and bows for a down payment on a lens and now I can shoot a hundred thousand deer and not be arrested, no seasons, no license, and I can be out here all the time. Not many people can make a living at something that they really love. This is a dream.”


When Carl started to make a living from his pictures, he and Jean bought a second camera so she could join him in the field. Most of their pictures are taken near their home at a park in southeast Michigan. And over the past twenty years, Carl and Jean seem to have developed a rapport with the creatures they photograph.


(Sound of camera)


“Okay, ready?”


Jean coaxes a wing-flap out of a female swan as if she was a fashion model.


“Okay, let’s do it.”


(Sound of camera snapping)


STOICK: “Wasn’t she perfect?”


NEBBE: “Exactly on cue.”


STOICK: “Exactly on cue.”


For many years, they sold prints of their work to magazines, calendars, greeting card companies, and on the art show circuit. Then recently, they decided to create a book about white-tailed deer. But as they were selecting their pictures, Jean’s imagination took them in another direction.


“I noticed that we had an awful lot of good images of the deer and birds interacting with a particular snowman that we had built three years earlier. So I mentioned to Carl, I says, ‘You know, why not do a children’s book? It would be a whole lot more fun.'”


That first book became the best-selling children’s book Stranger in the Woods. Their second book, Lost in the Woods, is the story of a fawn alone in the forest. All of the animals it encouters worry that the fawn is lost, but in the end, we learn its mother leaves the baby alone because it has no scent and won’t attract predators. She’s free to forage for food and come back later to take care of her fawn.


The pictures are meant to be beautiful and the book fun to read, but Carl and Jean are hoping the readers will remember what they learn.


“The lost fawn concept is a mistake that people make over and over every spring. They unintentionally rescue fawns that they think have been abandoned, and children are good messengers.”


The couple is working to spread their message with visits to elementary schools and libraries. That fills a lot of their days, but almost every morning and every evening, they can be found doing what they love to do most: taking pictures.


“It’s amazing how graceful she is. I think sometimes she likes to pose. Here she comes again.”


For the GLRC, I’m Charity Nebbe.

Related Links

States Aim to Draw in Women Hunters

  • Michigan DNR Director Rebecca Humphries gets some coaching on her target shooting skills from her teenage daughter, Jenny Humphries. Jenny shoots clay pigeons competitively. (Photo by Sarah Hulett)

If you look at the average hunting camp, you’d see about six men for every woman. But some state officials want that to change. They think getting more women and girls into the shooting sports will help turn around declining sales of hunting licenses. And they say that will help shore up state funds that pay for conservation. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports:

Transcript

If you look at the average hunting camp, you’d see about six men for every woman. But
some state officials want that to change. They think getting more women and girls into
the shooting sports will help turn around declining sales of hunting licenses. And they
say that will help shore up state funds that pay for conservation. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports:


“Okay, ladies… Is everybody done dry firing? All right. Safety on, actions open. The
coach will insert one round into the chamber…”


Today is the first time Abby Wood has ever shot a gun. Abby’s 13 years old, and she’s at
a mid-Michigan shooting range with about a dozen other daughters and their moms for a
day of gun safety instruction and target shooting.


Abby loads and shoots five rounds. Then she and her mom, Ann Miller, walk downrange
to check out her target.


“I got ’em all on the target, and they’re sort of in the same area. But they’re a little off.
And I got one really close to the bull’s eye, I’m kinda proud of that. (Ann:) I thought we
did great.”


The Michigan Department of Natural Resources put on this mother-daughter event as a
way to get more women and girls interested in target shooting and hunting. Like many
states, Michigan is seeing a slow decline in hunting license sales – about one percent a
year. And some worry that if that trend continues, it could hurt the state’s ability to pay
for conservation programs and to keep its wild deer herd in check.


Lynn Marla coordinates a state program that puts on workshops for women to develop
their outdoor skills. She says of all the outdoor sports, hunting is the most difficult
activity to get women interested in.


“It’s basically ‘never been invited. Never been taught.’ I mean, I know a man who’s my
age and he had three daughters and a son. And he never even thought to ask his
daughters.”


But some states are extending invitations to women and girls who want to learn to shoot
and hunt. The Becoming an Outdoors Woman program – or BOW – started in Wisconsin
in the early 1990s. BOW is now in 43 states, seven Canadian provinces, and New
Zealand. Every year, about 20-thousand women spend a weekend hunting, fishing, and
learning other outdoor activities like paddling and orienteering.


Christine Thomas is BOW’s founder, and a professor at the University of Wisconsin. She
says it’s important to get different kinds of people interested in outdoor activities.


“Because – especially as budgets shrink, but really anytime – as people have less of a tie
to the natural resources, they are less likely to care what happens to them. So from a
standpoint of political support for fish and wildlife programs, environmental protection, I
think it’s important to get lots of people involved. And women and girls are some of
those people.”


At the rifle range, Mart McClellan says she didn’t grow up around hunters, and she used
to be opposed to hunting. But she says working with people who hunt has changed her
attitude, and she’s interested in trying it.


“You know, it seems like in the past, from my perspective, it’s been such a sexist kind of
sport…that doesn’t need to be. And I think a lot of women and girls get intimidated.
Because you know you hear the stories about deer camp, it’s all the guys, and guy
bonding. So I think this will kind of combat that stereotype. And hopefully get more
women out hunting.”


This is the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ first shooting event for women
and girls. Abby Wood – the teenager who’s shooting for the first time – says she likes
target shooting – and she thinks she might want to try hunting too. And after a day on the
shooting range littered with rifle shells, she’s got some ideas about what she might want
to wear to deer camp.


“I want to make earrings out of the leftover shells…”


For the GLRC, I’m Sarah Hulett.

Related Links

States Seek to Ban Internet Hunting

  • Live-shot.com is a website providing a "Real Time, Online, Hunting and Shooting Experience." Many states are proposing legislation to ban web hunting, saying that it's unsportsmanlike.

A new kind of hunting has already been outlawed in at least one state… and could be in others soon. Hunters, lawmakers, and animal rights activists say the practice is inhumane. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley
reports:

Transcript

A new kind of hunting has already been outlawed in at least one state… and could be in others soon. Hunters, lawmakers, and animal rights activists say it’s inhumane. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:


John Lockwood has created the web site “live shot dot com.” For a fee, users can control a gun from their computer to shoot animals on his Texas ranch. Critics say it doesn’t allow for a fair hunt.


But Lockwood says it closely resembles an “in-person” hunt because someone is on-site. He says that person sits in a blind with the user-operated gun and acts as the user’s guide.


“The animal still has the same chance of detecting you, you know the human scents as he would in any hunting situation. It’s not like all that’s out there is this inanimate object that’s aiming and shooting. It’s just like if somebody was there hunting.”


Lockwood says he created the site to help people who couldn’t get out to hunt, like the disabled. He says the online hunters must have a valid Texas hunting license.


But lawmakers in several states have introduced legislation to ban the practice.


For the GLRC, I’m Christina Shockley.

Related Links

Non-Toxic Alternatives for Waterfowl Hunters

The federal government is getting ready to approve new types of non-toxic ammunition for shooting ducks and geese… but the government isn’t even thinking about tackling a related issue. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

The federal government is getting ready to approve new types of non-toxic ammunition for
shooting ducks and geese… but the government isn’t even thinking about tackling a related issue.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in the process of approving three new types of non-toxic
shot for waterfowl hunting. Shotgun shell pellets used to be made of lead. But years of lead
pellets dropping into the wetlands found foraging waterfowl eating the lead and dying. So, lead
shot was banned in 1991. Since then, manufacturers have been looking for new shot formulations
that work well for hunters, but are non-toxic.


Nicholas Throckmorton is with the Fish and Wildlife Service and he says new kinds of shot give
hunters some options.


“Hopefully, late spring, early summer the three companies will be allowed to sell their new shot
formulations.”


While lead shot is banned, the government isn’t doing anything about lead bullets. Rifles still
use lead slugs. Game that is shot, but gets away is usually eaten by predators or scavengers.
Some of the animals, such as the endangered condor, have died from lead poisoning.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.