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Aug 01, 2023

Elk say ‘cheese’; and more trees please

Now that bald eagles have fledged their nests leaving their camera angles empty, it’s big horn season. The Pennsylvania Game Commission again has installed a camera on State Game Lands 311 in Elk

Now that bald eagles have fledged their nests leaving their camera angles empty, it’s big horn season.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission again has installed a camera on State Game Lands 311 in Elk County, in a field that typically is a hub of elk activity, as the bugling season heats up.

According to the Commission, video and sound from the camera are being livestreamed at www.pgc.pa.gov, and viewers can expect not only to see elk, but turkeys, deer, possibly a bear, and other wildlife as well.

Elk in the coming weeks will ramp up activity – with bulls becoming more vocal and competing with one another for available cows. Enjoying the show is just a few clicks away.

The Elk Cam is slated to run until the end of the bugling season, likely sometime in mid-October. The top time to see elk on camera is late in the afternoon.

COPS RESPOND

TO CAT REPORT

Spring Garden Township police were called to a home in York County on Wednesday, after two big cats were seen in the yard. Those who saw photos, were pretty certain what they had was a mountain lion. The Pennsylvania Game Commission was not so sure.

CURLY LOVED CANINES

Jerome Horwitz may have been a Stooge, but better than that, he was also a dog lover.

According to The Southern Project, the guy who played “Curly” was known to many as a protector of dogs. His contract allowed him to take his dogs to the studio. When the Stooges were on the road, Curly found a new home for at least one stray in every town they visited. He is estimated to have saved and rescued more than 5,000 dogs in his lifetime.

MORE TREES PLEASE

Sadly, the acres and acres of trees being planted are having a hard time keeping up with the canopy loss.

A recent report from the Chesapeake Bay Program highlighted the loss of trees in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Across the region, while 8,307 acres of trees were planted between 2013-14 and 2017-18, more than 25,000 acres of tree canopy was lost in community areas, which the report defines as municipalities, cities, towns, and villages.

Development is one of the biggest threats to forest conservation. A loss of tree canopy means a loss of valuable habitat that helps protect clean water and air, while supporting the region’s economy.

According to the Bay Program, as more impervious surfaces are laid across the watershed, it creates more gateways for nutrient and sediment pollution to flow into local waters and the Chesapeake Bay. Paved or hardened surfaces do not allow water to pass through, meaning that water flows over the surface, picking up pollutants as it goes. Stormwater runoff is one of the fastest growing sources of pollution impacting the Chesapeake Bay.

When compared to previous data mapped in 2013/2014, impervious cover increased by 50,651 acres (79.1 square miles), which is an absolute increase of 0.12 percent as a percentage of land area. The fastest developing regions throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed are the suburban areas surrounding Baltimore, Maryland, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Richmond, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

According to the Bay Program report, 41.1 percent of Adams County’s 331,378 acres of land area are in tree cover, over 87 percent of that is forest. Net loss of tree cover on developed lands between 2013 and 2017 is 290 acres. This number considers 146 acres of tree gain over turf and impervious surface, against 436 gross loss to turf and impervious surface.

The report says that 45.5 percent of land use and cover is in agriculture, 5.9 percent in turf grass, 4.5 percent in impervious surface like buildings and pavement.

The report notes $31 million in annual benefits provided by tree cover in reduced air pollution, stormwater, and carbon dioxide.

York County’s net gain/loss of tree cover from 2013-17 is 576 acres.

The answer? More trees for Pennsylvania please!

Locally, the Watershed Alliance of Adams County and Conservation District has been doing exemplary work to add trees to the landscape. Without their work, Adams County for one, would be a much less cool place to live.

DOVE DAYS

Dove season opens in Pennsylvania Sept. 1 and runs through Nov. 24. The winter season will be Dec. 19-Jan. 6, 2024. Doves are migratory although a large proportion of them stay within the Commonwealth year-round. The average lifespan is less than a year, and amazingly the oldest wild dove on record was 30 years old.

QUOTABLE

“It won’t be long, and the velvet will be stripped, and the games will begin.” – Kootenay Outdoor Adventures

Send your wild thoughts and photos to [email protected].

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