One down, one to go: That’s how Buckland’s Roger Ward sees it. First, the done deal. Anyone who’s scanned through the 2010 MassWildlife Abstracts may have noticed the $13 youth sporting license that’s available for the first time this year. If so and you wondered where it came from, thank Ward, known to his friends as “Heze,” pronounced Hezzie, short […]

The brittle leaves underfoot were dry and noisy, the day unseasonably warm for early November, approaching 70. The noontime sky was clear, blue and infinite, not a trace of a cloud anywhere, the southern sun big and bright, the air tomb still. We were walking an abandoned road, me and a man who shares my […]

Sad news from Noho, where Dave Warren is closing the doors to Dave’s Pioneer Sporting Center on the south side of Damon Road. Tell me, is there a less likely location for a successful gun and tackle shop than Northampton, the politically correct capital of our Happy Valley? No sir. But that’s not what killed […]

I found retiring, longtime state Bear Project Leader Jim Cardoza at his desk Tuesday (Oct. 6, 2009), just after noon, at Westborough’s MassWildlife Field Headquarters, where he’s kept his office during my entire Recorder tenure; more than 30 years, almost unimaginable to me, the South Deerfield bad boy who told many a teacher and coach […]

So, what should we make of last week’s antlerless-deer-permit drawing, strictly from a western Franklin/Hampshire perspective? Again, we wound up with the short straw, and some natives are restless. Once the bastion of Bay State deer hunting, western Franklin County hilltowns like Whately, Conway, Ashfield, Shelburne, Buckland, Colrain and Leyden are now among the toughest, […]

The 2009 Massachusetts spring turkey harvest did indeed break 3,000 for the first time on record. The final harvest of 3,072 includes 45 during the inaugural pre-season Youth Hunt. The preliminary harvest released in early June was 3,090, 43 by youths. Discrepancies between preliminary and official harvest are common. The preliminary figure is the fruit […]

If you want to find out where you stand physically, try following two enthusiastic English Springer Spaniels through dense, wet, tangled cover for the first few days of the pheasant season. It’ll put you in you place fast if you’ve made your living sitting behind a desk for any length of time. So I guess […]

The joy of bird hunting —free-wheeling through dense, wet, thorny cover behind an enthusiastic dog or dogs — is often preceded by the drudgery of preparation, something no hunter looks forward to. But a man is only good as his gear, which, unfortunately, requires consistent maintenance. Boots and bibs need regular cleaning and dressing, shotguns […]

Head to the barber shop, newsstand or corner greasy-spoon and you’re bound to hear discussion about coyotes — a hybrid wild canine that appeared on the local scene some 40 years ago, when loggers, hunters and farmers occasionally encountered what was then referred to as “wild dogs,” believing German shepherd-mix strays had adapted to the […]

May 2006 An alarming news release arrived in my Inbox. The headline read: “New Data Shows Brook Trout Imperiled Throughout Entire Eastern Range: Massachusetts Brook Trout Populations Threatened by Dams and Roads.” Troubling. We’re not talking here about the stocked hatchery brookies anglers have been catching in small streams this spring. No. We’re talking about […]