Once again its the same song out of Springfield.
Money is tight. We need to raise fees for outdoor recreation. Let’s gouge the hunters and fishermen.
That seems to be the thinking behind the heavily amended Senate Bill 1846 that now proposes a $2 hike in fishing licenses and a $5 increase on hunting licenses. It would also increase migratory waterfowl stamps from $10 to $15 and deer permits from $15 to $25.
And this bill, once aimed at the state finance and tax acts and bond payments in Chicago, now has the support of the revamped Conservation Congress for higher fees on hunting and fishing.
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Pheasant season is coming at different times and at different places around The Daily Journal region.
Ringneck hunters will hit the fields on Wednesday at the DesPlaines Fish & Wildlife Area near Wilmington and at the Iroquois County Wildlife Area near Beaverville. Hoosier pheasant hunters start their pheasant, quail and rabbit seasons on Nov. 6 and Illinois’ pheasant season opens statewide on Nov. 7.
For more on pheasant hunting in Kankakee, Iroquois and Will counties, check out the Outdoors section in this Friday’s print edition of The Daily Journal.
Here are some updates on the Indiana season that arrived to late from biologist Budd Veverka for our print edition this week.
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Right now thousands of migrating sandhill cranes are gathering at the Jasper-Pulaski Fish & Wildlife Area near Medaryville, Ind., about an hour’s drive east of Momence.
Some 4,000 cranes have are already roosting in the protected marshes at the preserve and can be seen daily foraging and “dancing” on open field around the preserve.
The numbers will continue to climb, averaging around 10,000 cranes as the migration peaks by mid November.
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The Orionid meteor shower peaks early on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and this year’s show could be unusally good according to NASA forecasts.
“Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley’s Comet, the source of the Orionids,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour.”
“The best time to look is before sunrise on Wednesday,” said Tony Phillips in an article published Monday on the “Science@NASA” Web site. “That’s when Earth encounters the densest part of Halley’s debris stream.”
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Autumn colors are still spotty across The Daily Journal area despite isolated splashes of deep reds and gold on individual trees.
But the change of seasons is a good time to review some curious facts about trees and their color changes.
For example:
• Changes in sunlight brought on by the shorter days of fall causes leaves to stop producing chlorophyll. That chemical gives leaves their green color during the spring and summer.
• Once chlorophyll is removed, the bright color of the leaf shows through.
• Leaves of some trees such as birches, tulip poplars, redbud and hickory, are always yellow in the fall, never red.
• Trees such as sugar maples, dogwoods, sweet gum, black gum and sourwoods are usually red but may also be yellow.
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Chaney Thomas, 15, of Bourbonnais, downed an 8-point buck last Sunday during a youth firearms hunt in downstate Pike County.
“Chaney and her mother Michelle were sitting in a blind around 7 a.m. Sunday when the deer starting moving,” said Chaney’s dad Brad.
“They first saw a doe and Chaney decided to wait and see what might be following it.
Her patience paid off as a buck came out of the woods and passed by at 30 yards.”
The buck will soon become a trophy at the Thomas home, Brad said. It is the third deer Chaney has taken in Pike County.
Chaney and her dad have hunted the county for four of the past five seasons. This year the hunt became a family affair with younger sister Cassie, 13, joining in the youth hunt.
Deer hunters in Illinois are again helping hungry families by providing venison to food banks, food pantries, and charitable organizations through the Illinois Sportsmen Against Hunger program.
The program allows hunters to donate whole deer for processing into venison that is provided to food banks for distribution in local communities throughout Illinois.
Since 1994, the Illinois Sportsmen Against Hunger program has coordinated the donation of more than 573,000 pounds of venison, providing nearly 2.3 million meals for families and individuals in need. More than 106,000 pounds of venison was donated through the program during last year’s deer season.
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Hunters across The Daily Journal region set some impressive totals during the first four days of the bow season.
Iroquois, Grundy and Livingston counties all reported four-year high harvests for the deer season which opened last Thursday. All local counties saw measurable increases in the early archery deer harvest.
The hunt got off to a fast pace in Will County where 86 deer were taken, the highest four-day harvest locally. That total is 18 deer higher than the county’s count during last year’s first four days.
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Every 26 seconds a driver somewhere in the United States collides with a deer.
That sombering assessment comes from State Farm Insurance’s accident claims over the past two years which estimate 2.4 million collisions between deer and vehicles nationwide The report covers the period from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2009.
In Illinois, the number of deer-vehicle collisions is up three percent from five years ago, according to the report. That compares with an 18.3 percent increase nationwide.
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Several thousand rainbow trout will be stocked at Bird Park Quarry in Kankakee for the Oct. 17 opening of the trout season.
Bird Park is only local site where trout will be stocked this fall. It is one of 37 sites statewide where 70,000 six-inch or larger trout will be available according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
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