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Rod, Gun & Game
Outdoor Adventure Awaits Summer Camp Kids days until March 9. The SWAP identifies species that need conservation action to maintain their abundance and distribution in New York, threats to these species and management actions that will be undertaken in the next 10 years to conserve these designated species and their habitats. Species that are declining or are at risk due to identified threats, such as loss of habitat, are on the SGCN list. Some 111 species are categorized as species that have poorly-known population status and trends in New York and will need further research or surveys to determine their conservation status. Public input can be e-mailed to swapcomments@ dec.ny.gov or joe.racette@dec. ny.gov, or sent by regular mail to: Joe Racette, NYSDEC Division of Fish Wildlife and Marine Resources, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY, 12233.
By Forrest Fisher OUTDOOR COLUMNIST
We see increasing interest in elementary and high school programs throughout Western New York, where curriculums include outdoor recreation and environmental education. Wish they had done that when I was a kid! Classes in my day were not about understanding animals or fish, they were about spelling, reading, writing, memorizing multiplication tables, science, American history and that baseball game after school. Things have changed! Today, parents and educators agree that time in the outdoors does help our younger generation to develop a good foundation to stimulate skills and interest in science, math and other fields of learning. At the same time, modern parents seek a solution to overcome the allure of handheld electronics while escaping the new obstacle of common core! Enter the idea of a quality summer camp education. Yes! Kids 11 through 17 years of age can enjoy weeklong adventures in conservation education at the New York Department of Environmental Education (NYSDEC) residential summer camps. There are four environmental education camps that include Camp Colby in Saranac Lake (Franklin County), Camp DeBruce (Sullivan County), Camp Rushford (Allegany County) and Pack Forest (Warren County). All four camps have programs geared to kids 11 13 years of age, but Pack Forest and Camp Rushford also host week-long teen ecology workshop programs, which offer in-depth environmental studies for ages 14 through 17 years old. This year, Pack Forest will host six teen ecology workshops and Camp Rushford will host two. Visit the DEC website (http://www.dec.ny.gov/ education/2013.html) for more information on that and to identify the types of sportsman education courses offered each week at the various camps. Kids attending the camps participate in a wide variety of outdoor activities such as fishing, bird watching, fly-tying, archery, canoeing, hiking, camping, orienteering and optional hunter safety education. Campers also learn about fields, forests, streams and ponds through the fun of hands-on activities and outdoor exploration. Qualified NYSDEC counselors teach youth about conservation techniques used by natural resource professionals, such as measuring trees and estimating wildlife populations (statistics). DEC training professionals include environmental conservation officers (ECO’s), forest rangers, fishing educators, sports-
Weekly Fishing Report DEC Fishery Biologist reports indicate that Lake Erie ice is about 12 inches thick in many places off Hamburg and Sturgeon Point, and will be thicker after this last week. There is one patch of six-inch ice off Sturgeon that occurred after the first ice shove and DEC warns that there may be other thinner patches, so be careful! Sturgeon Point anglers have marked the rough icy and bumpy trail part of the way out to the perch grounds, but the trail includes deep snow and slush (both), which has made for a tough walk and many ATVs are getting stuck. Snowmobiles have no issue getting out. Anglers fishing off of Sturgeon during the past week have been catching some nice sized yellow perch and the occasional walleye or large lake trout in 50-55 feet of water, more than two miles out. Most perch hauls have been of a dozen or less, but those who have found an active school have done much better. Emerald shiners are a must have for perch, fished on a drop-shot style rig with 2 or 3 baited hooks near the bottom, or on tip-downs. Anglers should use Fishing fun and outdoor skills education are among youth activities at NYSDEC Summer Camp pro- extreme caution when ice fishing Lake Erie, due to ice shoves, ungrams that are held at four different location in New York. even surfaces and the possibility man educators and biologists will this year, shortened from previ- Walleye Association and other offer 15 targets set from distances that pressure cracks may form. It be on hand to assist with some of ous years that had been Sunday groups. Families without in- of 15 yards to 40 yards. League is best to avoid fishing Erie when the classes and to discuss envi- through Saturday. The price has ternet access can telephone the participants keep score for each there are gusty winds out of the ronmental careers. The camper’s not changed, however, and will camp office at 518-402-8014 for shot that varies from a “10” for a east, as pressure cracks may form will have opportunities to learn remain at $350. The fee includes information on how to register perfect shot to a “3” for a shot not and widen. Use a GPS and carry outdoor skills through hands-on program supplies for outdoor les- for camp alternatively. that good. A perfect score is 150 a compass. experiences in a safe and fun sons and adventures, 15 meals, a For more information, visit the and there are several archers that Outdoors Calendar atmosphere. camper t-shirt and accommoda- DEC website (http://www.dec. score in the 140’s each week. For Feb. 22: 3D Winter Archery, All camps will operate for tions for the five nights. ny.gov/index.html) call 518-402- more information, call Matala at 2015 league, open to public, seven one-week sessions (from There are two ways to pay for 8014, visit “NYS DEC Summer 337-0126. Evans Rod & Gun, 864 Cain Sunday to Friday afternoon), camp, one is to simply register Camps” on Facebook or write beginning June 28, though youth campers through the on- to DEC Camps, 4th Floor, 625 DEC Looking for Endan- Rd., 7AM-2PM, info: 432-6035 Feb. 28: NRA 1st Steps Safety Pack Forest will also offer an line registration system and pay Broadway, Albany, New York gered Species Comments eighth week from August 16- by credit card or e-check. The 12233-5256. DEC collaborated with nu- Course, required for NYS pistol 21. Campers may attend camp other way is to find a sponsor that merous wildlife species experts permit, 9AM 12 noon, Morin for more than one week during will either pay or defer costs to Winter 3D Archery Fun and conservation partners to VFW Post, 965 Center Rd., West the summer, but will not be able help pay for camp. Several local The WNYOutdoor Winter 3D develop revisions to the Species Seneca, info: call Mark at 716to stay at camp on the Saturday WNYsporting clubs sponsor one Archery League is underway and of Greatest Conservation Need 440-9884 night between sessions. Parents or more children for a week at league president, Mike Matala, (SGCN) list, as part of an update must make alternate arrange- camp. These include the West would like competitive archery to the State Wildlife Action Plan ments if two or more consecutive Falls Conservation Society, East buffs to know that the weekly (SWAP). The public comment weeks are selected. The Sunday Aurora Fish and Game, Elma Sunday events are all open to the period for the draft SGCN is through Friday sessions are new Conservation Club, Southtowns public. The fun shooting events extended for an additional 30
Turning another page: Spring training begins with the annual quest for publications By Mike Haim
SPORTS COLUMNIST
Almost 40 years have gone by since various family members unwittingly decided to radically alter my methods of enjoying sports. First, one of my brothers gave me a gift subscription to Sports Illustrated. Shortly after that, a cousin began to deliver recentlyread issues of The Sporting News. Until seeing those magazines as a pre-teen, my way of getting “into the game” involved either attending Braves games (since there was no such thing as deeply discounted tickets for Sabres and Bills games back then) or glanc-
ing through the sports section of the two local daily newspapers. Accessing SI and TSN (known then as “The Bible of Baseball”) further exposed me to stories about every team in any given sport, sparking an interest in clubs way beyond the borders of Western New York. But The Sporting News, especially, revealed an added treasure for a kid with a passion for sports statistics: the existence of annual guides and record books. Back then, the beginning of spring training meant that I could take some of my paper route earnings, purchase a money order at the local bank, order a four-book set of TSN publications (Guide, Record Book, Dope Book, and
Register), and anxiously count down the four weeks it took before a package arrived with new additions to my personal library. Looking back, the waiting resembled Ralphie in “AChristmas Story” and his Little Orphan Annie decoder. Every day, I would rush home from school to see if that box bearing a St. Louis return address had been delivered. Like most everything in our lives, it’s all changed over the years. The Sporting News isn’t even a magazine anymore, becoming an online-only concern in 2013. It ceased publishing the various books in 2006 and 2007, creating a new quest to find the same information, someway, somehow.
Now most of the raw data can be found online. Websites like baseballreference.com, retrosheet.org, and thebaseballcube. com ably fill the void, but still can’t satisfy the desire to just thumb through a book during a game and find some nugget of information that you weren’t necessarily even looking for. So in an effort to really feel like I’ve pulled out a victory against the chill of a Buffalo winter, I still try to find modern-day print editions of baseball publications. Nowadays I trek to a bookstore to pick up a couple of things: the annual Who’s Who in Baseball, celebrating its 100th year in 2015, and the Athlon’s preview magazine the closest thing to
the classics previously put out by The Sporting News and Street & Smith. Other components of the “physical book” baseball library the Elias Book of Baseball Records and the Baseball America Almanac are inevitably online acquisitions, but the process of just ordering those items seems to warm the bones as effectively as a nice mug of hot chocolate, tea, or coffee. Otherwise, the closest replacement for the old Baseball Guide is a product from some ambitious members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), which each year publishes The Emerald Guide to Baseball. Alas, the free
download isn’t available until the new season is about a month old, when sub-freezing days are a distant memory; a print edition becomes available around opening day. I’ve also developed a certain satisfaction in downloading team media guides through the course of spring training and storing them on my computer and tablet. Toting around 30 or more books at one time was impractical in the past, so perhaps there is a benefit in modern progress. Still, I relish those spare moments of finding random facts and tidbits of data, keeping warm with a flip of a page. www.twitter.com/mikehaim