By Michael A. Sawyers, Cumberland Times-News, Md.
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Dec. 31–As January started, grumbling could be heard on both sides of the North Branch of the Potomac River.
The deer harvest was down dramatically and hunters didn’t like it. For example, the kill during West Virginia’s 2010 firearms season decreased 31 percent from the previous year.
On the Almost Maryland side of the big river, officers and members of the Allegany-Garrett Sportsmen’s Association fumed, insisting upon a minimum antler point rule, drastically reduced bag limits and other restrictions they believe are needed in Region A.
Maryland Wildlife & Heritage Service biologists, halfway through a two-year regulation cycle, made no changes for the 2011 hunts.
Head deer guy, Brian Eyler, said there was no need to fix something that was not broken. The firearms season buck kill in Region A rose by 12 percent later in 2011.
The Maryland General Assembly got under way in January. Hunters missed the boat by not strongly supporting a bill that would give the Department of Natural Resources control over the regulation of Sunday deer hunting. If that bill is introduced in 2012, hunters need to buy their boat tickets early and let the politicians in Annapolis know this is something we want.
It was announced in February that chronic wasting disease was confirmed in a deer killed on the Green Ridge State Forest. That was the first, and so far the only, CWD deer found in the state. Special regulations were established for hunting deer in that locale. Hunters didn’t seem all that concerned about the matter.
Additional land added to the Warrior Mountain Wildlife Management Area pushed that public parcel to almost 5,000 acres.
In March it became official. The Maryland Fisheries Service made it illegal to wear felt-soled waders in water anywhere in the state. The ban is intended to inhibit or stop the movement of rock snot, a yucky algae, from the Gunpowder and Savage rivers to other waters. It was the second-worst sham ever pulled off on Maryland anglers by the state agency.
A Hagerstown man charged with hunting bears over bait in eastern Allegany County was not found guilty after his attorney argued successfully that the Maryland Natural Resources Police had no right to go onto the private property.
Blu, the Labrador retriever handled by Maryland Natural Resources Police Officer Curt Dieterle, was trained to sniff and find trout and immediately began doing so when the trout season opened. Some of those trout were illegally caught.
In April, Maryland’s spring gobbler season began. It would have a couple firsts. In Allegany and Garrett counties, hunting was allowed on one Sunday and on all lands, both public and private. The 2012 season will have two Sundays available in those counties. Also, afternoon hunting was allowed for a portion of the five-week season.
On April 14, Kenneth Files III of Falling Waters, W.Va., (right) caught a Maryland record muskie from the Potomac River. It was 45 inches and weighed 31.75 pounds.
The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources announced that bow season would open on the first Saturday in October, adding time in tree stands for archers. Byron Chambers, Romney, was one of the natural resources commissioners who helped make that additional opportunity available.
May came and went without a regulations hearing being conducted by the Maryland Fisheries Service. It would be discovered later that no meeting was held because no regulation changes were proposed. In 2007, the agency made it illegal to use bait or keep brook trout in 111 miles of the Savage River drainage, saying at the time that the regulation would be revisited after five years to determine if it should be maintained. Instead, the regulation was allowed to move into its sixth year of existence. I have no information that would lead me to believe anything other than we were told an untruth. This regulation, by the way, is the greatest sham perpetrated upon the state’s anglers, especially those living in far Western Maryland.
Also in May, the Maryland Fisheries Service announced that trout it had purchased from a private supplier that were stocked in the North Branch of the Potomac River, Jennings Run, Wills Creek and Sideling Hill Creek were infected with whirling disease.
Gobbler hunters killed 339 spring birds in Garrett County, 287 in Allegany and 2,847 throughout the state.
In June, the Maryland B.A.S.S. Federation completed a permanent weighing station for tournaments conducted at Deep Creek Lake State Park.
The Maryland Wildlife Service announced that a new access road from U.S. Route 220 will be built onto the Dan’s Mountain Wildlife Management Area. That work will begin early in 2012.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation announced in August that it is footing the bill for a year-long look at the possibility of reintroducing elk into Allegany and Garrett counties. Since then, there has been zero information released about the effort. The Times-News heard that the Garrett County commissioners opposed the plan and Chairman Gregan Crawford confirmed that an official letter had been written by the elected officials rejecting elk for that county. Bill Miles of the Maryland Legislative Sportsmen’s Foundation said, though, that the investigation will continue.
A bear population survey for Maryland’s three western counties took place. Laboratory results of the DNA analysis of bear hair is expected to provide a new bear population number in the next month or so. The last survey was six years ago.
My old Beer/Deer Fridge died. I replaced it with The Beer/Deer Fridge II, which has worked wonderfully in chilling a bow buck in September and a gun doe in December as well as Busch Lite and that goofy beer stuff my sons stick in it during the holidays.
Maryland Fisheries Service decides to suspend licenses of recreational anglers guilty of violations. Four suspensions were for violations in Almost Maryland.
The Maryland bear season lasted four days in October during which 65 bears were killed. The greatest harvest was 68 in 2009.
Pennsylvania hunters killed 53 elk in that state.
Highly placed wildlife officials in West Virginia and Maryland confirm that representatives of the automobile insurance industry have never contacted their agencies concerning deer hunting regulations, including bag limits.
As of mid-December, 75 bears had died on Maryland roadways during 2011, according to an unofficial tablulation by the Cumberland Times-News. That’s a record.
Outdoor Editor’s note: In recent weeks, three people have told me they don’t believe that a record deer kill took place in Allegany County. I asked each of them, “Where did you see that a record deer kill took place?”
They said they read it in the Cumberland Times-News.
“No, you didn’t,” I replied.
I have given this much thought and believe that some people who read articles about the buck kill being up on the opening weekend of firearms season compared to one year ago and then up for the entire firearms season somehow think that means a record was set.
For the record, the record in Allegany County for bucks killed during firearms season was 2,615 that were dropped in 2001.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Contact Outdoor Editor Mike Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com or 301-784-2523.
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