JULY 4 OFTEN MARKS
We'll use this week to report on a few news notes and wish everyone a safe and most joyful celebration of America's independence.
Just as we honor the service of America's fighting men and women, July 4 is a wonderful opportunity to project ourselves back a couple of centuries and appreciate the risk and the guts it took for America's founding fathers and a nation of farmers and patriots to pursue freedom. Let's also remember not to take for granted those freedoms set forth in our constitution.
This nation was built, largely, by people who knew how to hunt, fish and provide. This ethic is still important to many today.
The U.S. Sportsman's Alliance does a great job in monitoring political activity related to our ability to sustain this outdoor life-style. It reported Tuesday about two bills introduced
The Hunting Heritage Protection Act, is made up of Senate bill 1348, sponsored by Sen. Saxby Chambliss
Chambliss' bill would establish a requirement for federal land to be managed
The continued effort merits appreciation. USSA President and CEO Bud Pidgeon, noted, "In a time where access to suitable hunting land is becoming increasingly difficult, this legislation goes a long way towards curtailing that trend and guaranteeing current or increased hunting opportunities are available today and tomorrow."
Anti-hunting organizations, such as Born Free, start pounding their jungle drums encouraging their constituencies to contact elected officials, warning "federal management of wildlife on public lands should not fall prey to special interests."
Hunting, a "special interest?" George Washington, Daniel Boone, and the others who occasionally preferred to wear buckskin must turn over in their graves at drivel like this.
It's a free country, thanks mostly to people who bore arms and knew how to use them. This kind of anti-hunting stance ticks me off. Hunters, anglers and other conservationists have done the lion's share of the lifting when it comes to preserving and protecting wild spaces, to include paying the bill for much of that land; yet, anti-hunters swarms like flies on roadkill to try to deter any effort to ensure hunters are afforded some protection when it comes to preserving those wild spaces.
Good News, Too
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Basic Law Enforcement Academy graduated 20 new conservation police officers this week. These officers completed an intensive 29-week training program that included more than 200 courses.
This is the fifth class to graduate from the Department's Training Academy.
The training is extensive. Conservation police officers master skills including firearms, crime scene investigation, drug and operating-under-the-influence enforcement, search and rescue, boat operation and
American Shad Stocking
Shad used to be the money fish in Virginia's tidal waters. One of the biggest political events in the state is centered on the Wakefield Shad Planking, which draws every serious candidate and features oily, bony shad smoked on wood planks over open flames.
The legendary shad runs of yesteryear, which supported one of the Chesapeake's biggest fisheries, trickled off to dribbles in recent decades, though, prompting needed intervention by the Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries, the Fish & Wildlife Service, and others. The American shad species has been particularly slow to recover.
Dams, pollution, habitat destruction and overfishing contributed to the shad's demise. Fisheries in both Virginia and Maryland were closed. Restocking programs began in 1992 and the efforts continue today.
During April, the James River upstream from Richmond was stocked with a total of 3.8 million fry, bringing the total stocked
Restoration stocking began in the Rappahannock in 2003. With the Embrey Dam removal in 2004, the hope is migrating anadromous fish can travel to historical spawning grounds upstream of Fredericksburg.
According to the VDGIF, "The Potomac River, which has the healthiest run of American shad in Chesapeake Bay, has been used as the source of fish for stocking the Rappahannock. A total of 2.7 million fry were stocked in the Rappahannock River upstream of Fredericksburg during May as part of this on-going effort, which brings the total number stocked since 2003 to 26.2 million."
For more, on shad restoration efforts, see dgif.virginia .gov/fishing/shad-restora tion.
Note
There will be no Thursday outdoor column next week. Instead, look for full coverage of the 11th annual Take Dad Fishing for Father's Day winning entries and fishing trip reports in the July 11 Town & County section
Ken Perrotte can be reached at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia Street, Fredericksburg, Va. 22401, by fax at 373-8455 or e-mail
Email: outdoors@freelancestar.com.