Fishers in State Cowboy Action Shoots Parks on PCN
CURRENTS AFIELD
Fishers are uncommon in Pennsylvania. One of the largest members of the weasel family, fishers have a dark brown coat and weigh up to 15 pounds. Their name is a misnomer since fishers don’t catch fish, though they’ll eat one found dead. Fishers prefer squirrels, rabbits, porcupines and carrion. A mammal that can kill and eat porcupines and catch squirrels racing through the treetops is a very adept predator.
In a very unusual event, a fisher was recently hit and killed by a motor vehicle in Pine Grove Township, Schuylkill County. Wildlife Conservation Officer Will Dingman identified the uncommon mammal as a fisher after a citizen notified the Pennsylvania Game Commission. It is the first reported fisher death in the area since they began to be reintroduced in the state in 1994.
“This animal’s death is unfortunate, but the silver lining is that it likely means fishers are present,” Dingman said. Schuylkill County is also home to coyotes, bobcats, mink and weasels.
Dingman was surprised by where the fisher was killed. “This fisher was working lowland habitat not far from Sweet Arrow Lake,” he said. “It was more than a half mile from the nearest mountain, and uncharacteristically distant from forested areas.”
The dead fisher was found in an area previously designated as harboring fishers by radio-telemetry research conducted by Indiana University of Pennsylvania, according to PGC furbearer biologist Matt Lovallo.
The radio-telemetry study started in 2006 and will help determine the fisher’s home range, population size, density and distribution. The study will also establish a DNA profile and database via hair samples. Stomach contents and reproductive tracts of road-killed fishers will also provide data about this growing population.
“Fishers were uncharacteristically using deciduous [hardwood] stands and relatively new forestland,” Lovallo said. “Conifers had been described as an essential habitat component, although fishers did occupy both conifer and mixed forests.”
Once widely distributed in the state’s forests, fishers could not cope with unregulated trapping coupled with massive timber cutting during the 1800s. They were virtually eliminated from the state by the early 1900s.
“Large contiguous forested areas returned to the state in the late 1980s,” Lovallo said, “providing the forested habitat that fishers require for survival. Pennsylvania released 22 fishers in the Sproul State Forest in Centre and Clinton counties.”
A total of 190 fishers were released between 1994-98 in Pennsylvania as part of the reintroduction program partnered by the PGC, Frostburg State University, Pennsylvania State University and the Wild Resource Conservation Fund.
“Fisher population has recovered so well in many areas of Pennsylvania that we anticipate a highly regulated season for fishers sometime in the future,” Lovallo said. “Fishers are trapped in several northeast states.”
For more information, see www.pgc.state.pa.us. Click on “Wildlife” and select “Fishers.”
Most folks do not acknowledge aliases because they tend to be attempts to hide unsavory activities. Not so with the Single Action Shooting Society.
SASS, with more than 75,000 members, delights in the list of aliases coined by their members, and each alias is unique. It just wouldn’t do to have rough and tumble cowboys, gamblers, gunslingers, Western ladies and Western law enforcement officers, all wearing a pair of six-guns with both a rifle and shotgun handy, be called Timmy, Josh, Junior or other such wimpy names. Dead-Eye, Six- Shooter Steve, Crazywolf and other such aliases are much more appropriate for these history re-enactors.
The organization says that Cowboy Action Shooting is the fastest- growing shooting sport in the country. Founded in 1987, SASS has members in every state and 18 foreign countries in more than 500 affiliated clubs. SASS makes history fun.
Members choose a shooting alias and wear cowboy period outfits. The activity is similar to Civil War, Revolutionary War and other historical re-enactor groups. Their shootin’ irons are the type used over 100 years ago, though most are replicas. They include single- action revolvers, side-by-side shotguns, lever-action rifles and single-shot rifles.
For more information, call (877) 411-SASS or see www.sassnet.com. Some local sportsmen’s clubs offer CAS, including Elstonville Sportsmen’s Association and Southern Lancaster County Sportsmen’s Association.
Pennsylvania Cable Network and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will showcase the beauty and versatility of the state’s park system with a series of televised tours of selected parks.
Following is the schedule. All shows are on PCN at 8 p.m. On June 9, there’s also a 2 p.m. show.
June 1: Cherry Springs State Park is famed for dark skies for stargazing.
June 9: Leonard Harrison State Park overlooking Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon.
June 22: Hickory Run State Park’s main attraction is a geological feature, a large boulder field designated a National Natural Landmark. It is a 20,000-year-old area.
June 29: Lehigh Gorge State Park, where the Lehigh River flows through the park and provides Class III whitewater boating opportunities, plus a 26-mile bike trail.
July 6: Ricketts Glen State Park, with 22 named waterfalls in the Glens Natural Area, including the 94-foot Ganoga Falls.
July 13: Canoe Creek State Park, with a church sanctuary in the park that is home to Pennsylvania’s largest nursery colony of little brown bats.
July 20: Ohiopyle State Park is the gateway to the Laurel Mountains, featuring an outstanding 14-mile stretch of the Youghiogheny River Gorge that provides some the best whitewater boating in the eastern United States.
July 27: Presque Isle State Park, the most visited park in Pennsylvania, is a favorite of birders. The new Environmental Center is popular, and the park is also a perfect example of plant succession.
For more information, see www.dcnr.state.pa.us or www.pcntv.com.
(c) 2007 Intelligencer Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.