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Outdoors Calendar

Atkinson Mills Sportsmen’s Club • Meetings — held on the first Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. The club is located at 55 Sportsmen Club Lane, McVeytown; email atkinsonmillssportsmensclub@gmail.com; online at http://atkinsonmills-sportsmensclub.weebly.com. Blue Rock Sportsman Club • Club meetings — 2 p.m. on the fourth Sunday of each month on the gun range, and at 7 p.m. in January and February in the barn. To east end Blue Rock: From Milroy, follow signs to Reeds Gap State Park. Free camping available and kitchen is open during all events except trap ...

US: Protect Louisiana, Texas land for rare burrowing snake

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Four areas in Louisiana and two in Texas should be protected as critical habitat for a rare snake that eats pocket gophers and takes over the rodents’ burrows, the federal government says. Louisiana pinesnakes, which produce the largest eggs and hatchlings of any U.S. snake, have been protected as threatened since 2018. Their decline is largely due to the drastic reduction and fragmentation of grassy longleaf pine savannas with sandy soil. And since Louisiana pinesnakes’ 5-inch-long (12.7-centimeter) eggs are so big that they lay only three to five at a time, ...

Forestry programs scheduled for 2023 and how to find them

UNIVERSITY PARK — Forestry-related associations are filling their events calendars for 2023. With the wide variety of topics covered at various programs, from individual tree care to timber sale administration and from legacy planning to logging safety, there should be something of interest for just about everyone. Besides the James C. Finley Center for Private Forest’s biennial Forest Landowner Conference, the most heavily attended forestry event is the Pennsylvania Forestry Association’s annual Conservation Banquet. This year the banquet will be held March 4 at the Ramada Inn ...

Whitten makes turkey calls, viral videos

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — It wouldn’t be fair to call Oxford resident Brion Whitten a jack of all trades. Just a lot of them. He’s a former Marine who toured Iraq, Africa and Peru before being honorably discharged with a rank of corporal. He’s authored a book about his experiences outdoors and how they relate to his faith. He created his own line of award-winning turkey calls. And now, seemingly out of nowhere, he’s become a content creator who’s steadily amassed a sizable online audience. But no matter what adventure life takes him on next, Whitten, 39, remains focused ...

Pa. hunters harvest 3,170 bears in 2022

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania hunters harvested some tremendous black bears in the 2022 seasons, including three of more than 700 pounds and 11 more that topped 600 pounds. Those were among 3,170 taken overall. That was down from 3,621 in 2021, but still enough to rank the harvest as the 14th largest all time. Pennsylvania’s all-time best bear season came in 2019, when hunters harvested 4,653. Hunters in 2022 took bears in 58 of the state’s 67 counties and 22 of its 23 Wildlife Management Units (WMUs). Notably, the harvest was spread out – more evenly than ever before – ...

Outdoors Calendar

Atkinson Mills Sportsmen’s Club • Meetings — held on the first Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. The club is located at 55 Sportsmen Club Lane, McVeytown; email atkinsonmillssportsmensclub@gmail.com; online at http://atkinson mills-sportsmensclub.weebly.com. Blue Rock Sportsman Club • Club meetings — 2 p.m. on the fourth Sunday of each month on the gun range, and at 7 p.m. in January and February in the barn. To east end Blue Rock: From Milroy, follow signs to Reeds Gap State Park. Free camping available and kitchen is open during all events except trap ...