Daily Archives: January 27, 2016

Thirty-two fishing spots to catch trout in Kansas

We know what you’re thinking: trout in Kansas? Impossible. But, it’s true. While these spotted beauties may not be native to the Sunflower state, that doesn’t mean anglers fishing in Kansas can’t enjoy luring one ashore this winter. Thanks to a special program offered by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, anglers can catch stocked rainbow trout at more than 30 public waters across the state. Trout are stocked in a total of 32 spots during the trout season, which is open through April 15. Waters are categorized as Type 1, which require all anglers to possess a $14.50 trout permit, and Type 2, which require only those fishing for or possessing trout to purchase the permit.

The $14.50 permit is valid for the calendar year and can be purchased wherever licenses are sold and online at ksoutdoors.com. In addition to the trout permit, resident anglers age 16-74 and nonresidents 16 and older must also have a fishing license. Unless posted otherwise, the daily creel limit is 5 trout. Anglers 15 and younger do not need a trout permit, but they may only keep two trout per day.

TYPE 1 WATERS: TROUT PERMITS REQUIRED OF ALL ANGLERS

Cedar Bluff Stilling Basin

Dodge City Lake Charles

Fort Scott Gun Park Lake

Glen Elder State Park (SP) Pond

Kanopolis Seep Stream

KDOT East Lake in Wichita

Lake Henry in Clinton SP

Mined Land Wildlife Area (WA) Unit #30

Pratt Centennial Pond

Walnut River Area in El Dorado SP

Willow Lake at Tuttle Creek SP

Webster Stilling Basin

Sandsage Bison Range and WA Sandpits (Periodically Dry)

Vic’s Lake and Slough Creek in Sedgwick County Park

Topeka Auburndale Park

Garnett Crystal Lake

TYPE 2 WATERS: TROUT PERMITS REQUIRED ONLY FOR TROUT ANGLERS

Sherman County Smoky Gardens Lake (Periodically Dry)

Solomon River between Webster Reservoir and Rooks County #2 Road

Fort Riley Cameron Springs

Lake Shawnee – Topeka

Salina Lakewood Lake

Moon Lake on Fort Riley

Scott SP Pond

Hutchinson Dillon Nature Center Pond

Atchison City Lake # 1

Belleville City Lake (Rocky Pond) (Periodically Dry)

Holton-Elkhorn Lake

Syracuse Sam’s Pond

Cimarron Grasslands Pits

Colby Villa High Lake

Great Bend Vet’s Lake

TROUT PERMIT REQUIRED YEAR-ROUND*

Cherokee County – Mined Land WA No. 30

*Because trout survive through the summer here, a trout permit is required year-round for anglers utilizing the lake.

Residents 16-74 years old, and all non-residents 16 and older must also have a valid fishing license. The daily creel limit is five trout unless otherwise posted. Anglers 15 and younger may fish without a trout permit, but are limited to two trout per day, or they may purchase a permit and take five trout per day. Possession limit for trout is 15.

For information on trout stocking schedules, visit www.ksoutdoors.com and click Fishing/Special Fishing Programs for You/Trout Fishing Program.

Learn to burn at Feb. 11 Prescribed Burning workshop

 

If you’re interested in learning how you can incorporate prescribed burning into your land management practices, attend the Prescribed Burn Workshop in Harper County on Thursday, Feb. 11. The one-day class will be held at the Harper County Fair Barn, 128 E 9th St., and begin at 10 a.m. There is a $10 registration fee, which includes a class workbook and lunch.

 

Information presented will include topics such as reasons to burn, burning for wildlife promotion, fire behavior, regulations and permits, planning and conducting a burn, Conservation Reserve Program rules, safety, weather issues, liability, and how to design your own burn plan.

 

For more information, and to register, call (620) 842-5445 or email [email protected] by Feb. 1.

Waterfowl enthusiasts invited to Kansas Ducks Unlimited State Convention

You don’t have to be a waterfowl hunter, or a hunter at all, to be welcomed at the 2016 Kansas Ducks Unlimited State Convention in Hutchinson, Feb. 19-20. If you have a passion for conserving waterfowl and believe in the magic of a marsh, there’s a seat for you at this fun event. The convention will take place at the Atrium Hotel and Conference Center, 1400 North Lorraine, and rooms can be reserved at a discounted rate by calling (620) 669-9311.

Event activities include a kick-off party Friday evening, followed by a Kansas Conservation Update Saturday morning and an awards ceremony and banquet Saturday night. Optional wine tasting will be available for ladies only on Saturday with prior registration, and vendor merchandise will be on sale throughout the two-day event.

For more information, and to purchase admission tickets, contact Lynne Rozine at (913) 909-0622.

After a year of pledges and promises, are we any closer to saving the Monarchs?

Thousands of acres of milkweed will be planted in the spring—but environmental groups say the focus on habitat isn’t enough.

By Willy Blackmore

TakePart

With the White House’s Pollinator Research Action Plan and millions in donations and matching funds promised by the likes of Monsanto, 2015 was a landmark year for monarch butterfly conservation.

But with Friday’s news that Monsanto, DuPont, and the American Soybean Association—which are all tied to the drastic decline of monarch habitat across the U.S.—have signed on to yet another program promising to promote pollinator habitat conservation, you have to wonder what, beyond pledges and promises, is actually being done on the ground.

Much of the action that was promised last year—including the lofty White House goals to establish or improve 7 million acres of habitat and increase monarch populations to 225 million by 2020—will take time. Case in point: The first significant batch of habitat restoration projects that were awarded grants won’t be planted until this spring, and those plantings will take time to establish and mature. And environmental groups warn that habitat restoration won’t be enough to turn monarch populations around.

Still, grant money is making its way out into the world, and projects ranging from 10 to 10,000 acres in size have been funded across the country by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Monarch Joint Venture—three of the major groups facilitating the new national push on pollinator issues. All told, the various habitat restoration programs the three groups have funded amount to around 70,000 acres of new or improved habitat across the U.S.—from the Driftless Area along the Mississippi River in Iowa and Illinois to recent burn areas in California’s San Bernardino National Forest. With matching funds included, NFWF said the 22 projects it awarded grants to in 2015 will amount to just over $10 million in “total on-the-ground impact,” or, in other words, a whole lot of milkweed seed.

But planting more milkweed won’t necessarily offset what’s been lost over the past two decades, which have seen monarch populations drop from 1 billion butterflies down to fewer than 60 million. “There are myriad problems facing pollinators,” said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center for Biological Diversity. And while she readily acknowledges that lack of habitat is one of those problems, she’s less concerned with Monsanto’s conservation efforts than one of its best-selling products.

“The science is clear,” she added. “Glyphosate is the leading cause of the monarch decline. And with nearly 300 million pounds of it drenching soils in the U.S. and killing milkweed each year,” even the newly recharged efforts to restore and improve habitat won’t be able to make up the difference.

Monarch populations peaked in 1996, around the same time Roundup-ready varieties of corn, soy, and other commodity crops began to be widely adopted by American farmers. Prior to that shift, milkweed was able to grow rather benignly alongside the row crops that dominate agriculture along the Interstate 35 corridor, which cuts from Texas up through the Midwest to Duluth, Minnesota, more or less mirroring the primary monarch migration path. Milkweed is the only species of plant that female monarchs will lay their eggs on, and monarch caterpillars rely on it for food throughout the larval stage. In short, if there is no milkweed, there are no monarchs. Once farmers were able to spray all their Roundup-ready crops with glyphosate, killing weeds without killing, say, corn, American farmland suddenly stopped doubling as habitat for the butterflies. Currently, there are some 400 million acres of cropland in the United States.

There are other types of projects that have earned new grant money—programs focused on milkweed seed production, educational programs, and other conservation efforts that fall outside direct planting in areas historically frequented by the butterflies. Additional efforts are also being undertaken with the funding and support of other public and private organizations. In 2016, for example, the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will invest $4 million across 10 states to provide food and habitat—or rather, a variety of wildflowers—for monarchs.

“Every little bit helps,” Burd said. “But on the large scale, if we’re going to be serious about recovering pollinators, then we have to address glyphosate use in this country.”

U.S. Senate committee approves top sportsmen’s priorities

 

Sportsmen contacts needed ASAP

 

By Sportsmen’s Alliance

On Jan. 20, the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee approved a bill containing some of the top priorities of the hunting and fishing community.

S. 659, the second half of the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2016, includes a key provision sponsored by Sen. John Barrasso (R- Montana) directing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species List. Despite greatly exceeding population targets for delisting, anti-hunting groups successfully persuaded a federal judge to keep wolves protected. The amendment returning wolves to the state management, which has been advocated for and supported by the Alliance, passed on a voice vote.

The committee also rejected an attempt by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) that would have stripped language preventing the EPA from regulating lead in ammunition. Ammunition for hunting is already regulated at the state level, and by the Fish and Wildlife Service where appropriate. The amendment was defeated 9-11. Sen. Boxer also tried to remove language allowing polar bear trophies that were taken prior to their listing on the Endangered Species List from being brought into the United States. The amendment was rejected by the same 9-11 margin.

“This moves us one step closer to passage of the Sportsmen’s Act,” said Evan Heusinkveld, Sportsmen’s Alliance interim president and CEO. “These bills include the most critical items for the hunting and conservation community. This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. It’s a hunting and conservation issue. We’re hopeful that the Senate will look past partisan differences and take up the full package in the near future.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D- New Jersey), also threatened to include a ban on trapping on the 150-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, but failed to attract support and ultimately withdrew the amendment.

The Senate will now take up the entire package. Included is a major priority of the Sportsmen’s Alliance known as “Open Until Closed.” For decades, anti-hunting organizations have used the courts to block the opening of public lands that could, and should be, open to hunting. Language in the Sportsmen’s Act would mandate that federal public Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service Lands be open to hunting unless federal wildlife managers find cause to close them. The language will protect hunting and increase hunting access on millions of acres of public land.

Sen. Boxer, a regular opponent of pro-hunting measures, committed to publicly fight the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act on the floor, and is seeking to organize a filibuster. Sportsmen calls are needed immediately.

 

Take Action: Call both Senator Roberts ((202) 224-4774) and Senator Moran ((202) 224-6521) today. Ask them to support the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act.

Monsanto sues to keep weed killer off California’s list of carcinogens

The state will soon require glyphosate to bear a warning label declaring that it’s known to cause cancer.

By Willy Blackmore

TakePart

Monsanto has been on the defensive since last year’s announcement from the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm that its best-selling weed killer glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” That defense took a new step on Thursday, when the agrichemical giant took legal action in California to halt the state from adding glyphosate to a list of cancer-causing chemicals, based on WHO’s findings, under a law known as Proposition 65.

California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment announced in September that it would add glyphosate to the Prop. 65 list in light of the announcement from WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. On Thursday, Monsanto officially took legal issue with that plan, filing a lawsuit against OEHHA and Lauren Zeise, its acting director, in California state court seeking to block the move.

The lawsuit contends that listing glyphosate essentially outsources regulation to an “unelected, undemocratic, unaccountable, and foreign body,” Reuters reported.

However, Prop. 65, which was passed as a ballot initiative in 1986, looks to scientific research, not federal regulators, when deciding what to include on the list. The language of the law itself reads, “State government agencies have failed to provide them [California residents] with adequate protection” from chemicals that can cause cancer or reproductive harm.

That’s not to say that Prop. 65 is a perfect system, and any observant California resident is accustomed to coming across signs that read “WARNING: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm” throughout daily life. If you’re driving into a parking garage, pumping gas, buying aspirin, or shopping for Chinese-style salted fish, there’s likely a warning posted somewhere. Some 900 chemicals are listed under Prop. 65. Even bacon, which the IARC also recently declared a carcinogen, could soon be labeled.

“Generally speaking, the lead agency in California takes the position that if IARC has listed a chemical as a human carcinogen, it has to be added to the Proposition 65 list,” Bruce Nye, a defense attorney who works with companies on Prop. 65 cases, told Capital Public Radio last year.

Apparently, that precedent did not factor into Monsanto’s legal calculations, which is not all that surprising—the company has vehemently defended glyphosate, which it sells under the brand name Roundup, against the IARC declaration.

“The IARC classification of glyphosate is inconsistent with the findings of regulatory bodies in the United States and around the world, and it is not a sound basis for any regulatory action,” Phil Miller, Monsanto’s vice president of regulatory affairs, told Reuters. One such finding could make California look hypocritical here: The OEHHA concluded in 2007 that glyphosate did not present a cancer risk.