Maryland Bear Hunt

“Yep, things work differently up north.





In Louisiana, they tie a rope around the 8 year olds and let them play in the swamp as gator bait.”

“well be glad you have IP, start major worrying when Plum Creek comes your way...”

“IP needs to update there website. They're in the process of selling almost all of there holdings in NY (at least what they have in the Adirondack park). They decided its easier to buy pulp from Canada than cut down trees and make there own here in NY.

There are a lot of people that have leases with them that aren't very happy right now.
last edited: 11/01/05 3:25:17 PM”

“same thing happened here in Maine.”

“Bit, I thought you were one of those rednecks in the woods!!



I've never had a desire to hunt. Nothing against others doing it, really, as long as the hunters obey the rules. I like to fish, so it doesn't bother me to kill a creature and then eat it. Not sure why I have no interest in hunting, just don't....”

““well be glad you have IP, start major worrying when Plum Creek comes your way...”
twigeater
4:20:52 PM
11/01/05
ignore this user
Are they bad with managing their land?”

“it's after they're done with it that's scary.
http://www.plumcreek.com/

click on the plan for Mooosehead Lake.”

“That is scary and what worries me with the land the IP has or will have up for sale. IP is currently the largest private land own within the Adirondack Park with some were around 1-million acres. Almost all of this land has nothing on it with the exception of some small hunting camps scattered throughout. If this land were to become developed, this could be catastrophic to the ecosystem of the park.”

“Speaking of IP (International Paper I assume), they have recently indicated the desire to unload 639,000 acres in NC (mostly within the Coastal Plain).

I do hope the state gets the land for open space and wildlife habitat with the benefit of extensive (as opposed to intensive) timber management.

Its scary to hear that outfits like PLUM CREEK linked earlier in this thread feel driven to maximize the economic output of every acre they own (for inevitably they will subdivide for residential).”

“I would imagine within a few years wild bear shooting will be a thing of the past in most of the eastern US with the major exception of Maine.

The habitat is being fragmented daily and at an ever increasing pace.

If I might say so, it has been my observation growing up in an area with good bear hunting decades ago that now more or more hunters with more and more dogs and sophisticated electronic tracking equipment are pursuing fewer bears confined to smaller and smaller areas

yet, the typical bear hunter in these parts in my observation is:

'agin (against) the gubmint (government) and agin conservation and actually seem hell-bent on killing every last bear (almost as if its some sort of primal urge to protect home and family)

and this is not typically the case with sports hunters of other game animals who are by and large pro-conservation.
last edited: 11/01/05 5:08:06 PM”

“If I read your thread correctly, the addition of the IP land to state land would make state ownership rise from about 60% to about 80% within the declared boundaries of the Adirondack State Park?”

“Lumberzac:
“If I read your thread correctly, the addition of the IP land to state land would make state ownership rise from about 60% to about 80% within the declared boundaries of the Adirondack State Park?”
lonesurveyor
6:11:58 PM
11/01/05
ignore this user

Not quite. NY state currently owns about 42% of the park (including land own by local governments about 47% of the park is public (2.8 million acres)). With the addition of the IP land it would go up to about 64%. Unfortunately the state doesn't and won't have the funds to purchase all of the land.”

“Too bad, if fact it would be terrible if that much of the Adirondack area was sold and developed.

Possibly, with at least some state and even federal money and signifigant private conservancy action, that million or at least a large part of that million acres of IP land can be kept natural in somebody's trust.”

“All isn't lost, as the APA (Adirondack Park Agency) would have to approve a development on private lands. A large-scale development is likely to get red flagged by them, but I'm sure there may be some loopholes that can partially bypass the APA approval.

BTW bear populations for the most part are quite healthy in the Adirondacks. There are areas (Marcy Dam / Lake Colden corridor) that could probably use more hunting.”

“OK, Maine and the Adirondacks may continue to have decent bear habitat in the eastern US.

The parks and forests of the SE Apps., while totalling an area as large as the protected parts of the Adirondacks are not so concentrated as the Adirondack public land and it seems almost every tract in between the public lands is being subdivided with at a fever pitch.

The coastal plains and south Florida still have some limited bear lands.”

“MD just started the hunt back up last year because the bear population has become too large. They outlawed it for many years due to extinction worries, but that danger has now passed. The current hunts are kept in strict control to prevent over-hunting again. Little chance of it going away any time soon here, lonesurveyor.”

“SS, why aren't you gutting the deer right after it's shot?”
lumberzac
2:42:29 PM
11/01/05

Glad you asked, I was wondering too. I gut the deer as soon as he hits the ground. Hanging the deer by his legs to gut it is a big mess.”

“It was stated in the Nature show on PBS this week that 300 tons of elk remains and carcasses are left by hunters (many only take the racks) in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem each season and this is much needed by the grizzly bears there at a critical time

and the bears

have learned to standby patiently within plain sight of the hunters while the antlers and a portion of the skull are sawed off the freshly killed elk.”

“Edit to previous post:

The bears standing patiently by are possibly thinking

'Stupid people, what they going to do, gnaw on those antlers all winter?'
last edited: 11/02/05 5:27:30 PM”

“I don't believe very many hunters only take the rack.”

““I don't believe very many hunters only take the rack.”
bacpac
11:06:33 PM
11/02/05
ignore this user

I agree, at least from my experience with hunters in my area. While most would like to take that trophy buck, they are more interested in getting the meat from the animals. The only exception to that would be when they shoot coyotes.”