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Outdoors

Kentucky’s Burkesville named new ‘Trail Town’

The Associated Press BURKESVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky’s 26th Trail Town has been certified. It is Burkesville in Cumberland County, the Department of Parks said. “Trail Towns are ideal destinations for outdoor recreation lovers,” Parks Commissioner Russ Meyer said in a news release Tuesday. “The program helps drive local and state economies and is an ever-increasing component of the nation’s economic impact. It also brings about more healthy activities and vibrant communities and parks.” The program is designed to provide a strategic plan that communities can use to ...

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 ...

Public asked to report turkey flocks

HARRISBURG — The Game Commission is asking for the public’s help finding turkey flocks to trap for ongoing turkey projects. The agency is encouraging Pennsylvanians to report the location of any turkey flocks they see between now and March 15. Information is being collected online at https://pgcdatacollection.pa.gov/TurkeyBroodSurvey. Visitors to that webpage will be asked to provide the date of the sighting, the location, and the type of land (public, private or unknown) where birds are seen, among other things. Game Commission crews will visit sites to assess them for the ...

Their wild ‘relatives’

FORT BELKNAP AGENCY, Mont. (AP) — Native species such as swift foxes and black-footed ferrets disappeared from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation generations ago, wiped out by poisoning campaigns, disease and farm plows that turned open prairie where nomadic tribes once roamed into cropland and cattle pastures. Now with guidance from elders and outside wildlife groups, students and interns from the tribal college are helping reintroduce the small predators to the northern Montana reservation sprawling across more than 1,000 square miles (2,600 square kilometers) near the U.S.-Canada ...

Bees face natural challenges

By Jennie L. Durant University of California, Davis THE CONVERSATION The extreme weather that has battered much of the U.S. in 2022 doesn’t just affect humans. Heat waves, wildfires, droughts and storms also threaten many wild species — including some that already face other stresses. I’ve been researching bee health for over 10 years, with a focus on honey bees. In 2021, I began hearing for the first time from beekeepers about how extreme drought and rainfall were affecting bee colony health. Drought conditions in the western U.S. in 2021 dried up bee forage — the ...

Altoona bow business known by hunters and Hollywood

By Walt Frank Altoona Mirror wfrank@altoonamirror.com Creating bows found nowhere else has been the key to success for an Altoona-based business whose work can be seen not only in the real world, but also in the digital world of “Avatar: The Way of the Water.” The movie opened in theaters recently. It’s Grayvn Traditional Archery’s biggest project to date, said Ned Miller, who along with his wife, Marlana, owns the company. “We have worked on this for years with their props department,” Miller said, noting he traveled to California about four years ago to help put ...