There’s an undercurrent among longtime hunters and trained observers here in Massachusetts’ upper Connecticut Valley that the deer herd is not what it’s cracked up to be. So let’s examine the issue briefly. If you believe MassWildlife’s deer-management team, the local deer herd has never been better. But talk to witnesses who’ve hunted the same […]

Interesting how, now that my hunting gear is squirreled away till next year, my sparse venison supply long ago consumed, Mother Nature has dropped two perfect snowstorms for deer hunting in less than a week. The old hag must be looking out for the deer in my neighborhood; at least that’s how it appears on […]

What to make of the recent bear problems in Deerfield? Well, we better get used to it and take precautions to eliminate artificial food sources that encourage bears into residential neighborhoods before natural foods become abundant. Bears come out of their spring dens famished, and there isn’t a lot of natural food available for months. […]

Sometimes with deadline approaching I sit at my desk, sheer-softened sunlight illuminating the room through the south windows, e-mail in the rearview, wondering how to fill this space. Then it just comes to me in any number of ways, this time during a telephone conversation sweetened by procrastination. I was chatting with a friend and […]

I caught it too late, a missed telephone message responding to a short narrative about a deer that had been killed by coyotes up the road from my home a month ago, one that dovetails nicely with fresher news about deer mortality north of here, in Vermont, where experts are concerned about the effects this […]

When my Recorder phone, I picked it up, put it to my right ear and glanced at the clock hanging high on the north wall. Half-past eight, Peter Mallett calling. The affable Mallett — card-carrying union pipe-fitter, conservation gadfly, Millers River Fishermen’s Association founder, and world-class gabaholic –sounded pleased to hear the, “Sports, Gary Sanderson,” […]

I look through electronic press releases from various sources daily, seeking information that may tickle my fancy. Rarely, though, do I get one like last week’s from Vermont Fish & Wildlife that touched on three subjects relevant to Franklin County. Most interesting was the item about a central Vermont dam-removal project. It got me thinking […]

A chill is in the air as the bright yellow maple pulsates in a blustery autumn wind, shedding its leaves to the ground. The burning bush shines pinkish-red, the Japanese maple brilliant scarlet when the sun peaks through the billowy white clouds racing eastward. Down the road a piece, a harvester levels the cornfield to […]

If memory serves me, the first time I met John Randolph, under brisk, gray November skies, he could have passed for a hardscrabble Vermonter, head capped, bib overalls covered by a dark sweatshirt and insulated vest. The morning was frosty. He was scurrying to get chores done with his family together for Thanksgiving at his […]

What better time to wet your line than under cool skies backdropped by brilliant colors reflected in the glassy water surface? It’s New England at its finest; at least that’s how I view it, and judging from the annual fall tourism trade, outsiders concur. From what I’ve seen thus far in the uplands, it looks […]