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Outdoors

Hunters split on use of powerful rifles

YORK (AP) — In 2017, Pennsylvania became the last state to legalize semi-automatic rifles — including AR-15s — for hunting. It looked like the guns might be allowed for furbearers, small game and big game, until something surprising happened: A survey showed hunters didn’t want them. Ahead of the March 2017 Board of Game Commissioners meeting, the Pennsylvania Game Commission sent out 4,000 surveys about semi-automatic guns. The responses showed there was support for using semi-automatic guns for furbearers and groundhogs, but not for big game. “Very many hunters who said ...

Fish and Boat Commission goes fishing for funding advice

HARRISBURG (AP) — The state Fish and Boat Commission has been tightening its belt for years, but most anglers haven’t felt the pinch. Staff continue to raise and stock 3.2 million trout per year, support co-op nurseries that raise additional trout, oversee industrial watershed impacts, study aquatic species and habitats, manage wildlife in Pennsylvania waterways, repair failing dams, administer boating permits and police the laws and regulations governing fishing and boating. The work is done by a staff that has lost one-fifth of its roster through attrition, working on a $52 ...

Outdoors calendar

Atkinson Mills Sportsmen’s Club ¯ Meetings are 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 ¯ Indoor .22 grocery matches will be held at 7 p.m. Saturdays through March 17. ¯ Indoor archery grocery matches will be held at 2 p.m. Sundays through March 25. ¯ Trap shoots will be held at 5 p.m. Sundays from April 8-Oct. 28. ¯ Outdoor .22 silhouette shoots will be held at 10 ...

NWTF chapter supports conservation locally

Did you ever wonder what comes from the organizations that the local community supports? I would like to tell readers where they can actually go and see the results — in this case, the work done by the Shade Mountain Chapter of the National Wild Tutkey Federation, which serves Mifflin and Juniata counties. Conservation is very important to the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) and should be at least a concern of many others. The NWTF’s mission statement is, “The conservation of the wild turkey and the preservation of our hunting heritage.” Conservation work, while ...

Eagle Cam should produce another exciting season

Pennsylvania Game Commission executive director Bryan Burhans sounds like a proud father, or perhaps grandfather, when he talks about the return of the agency’s Eagle Cam mounted in a nest at Codorus State Park near Hanover in York County. Eagle Cam is the online service that provides ...

Migration allows study of owls

CHICAGO (AP) — Scott Judd trained his camera lens on the white dot in the distance. As he moved up the Lake Michigan shoreline, the speck on a breakwater came into view and took his breath away: it was a snowy owl, thousands of miles from its Arctic home. “It was an amazing sight,” said Judd, a Chicago IT consultant. “It’s almost like they’re from another world. They captivate people in a way that other birds don’t.” The large white raptors have descended on the Great Lakes region and northeastern U.S. in huge numbers in recent weeks, hanging out at airports, in farm ...