If built, interceptor missile system likely won't shut off Ravenna Arsenal controlled deer hunts

The prospects of a high-security anti-ballistic-missile-missile system being located at Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center ought not to interfere with the 21,418-acre reserve’s controlled deer hunts.

Of concern to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife and the sportsmen and sportswomen who apply to hunt here is that such a system would close off access to Camp Ravenna, more popularly called Ravenna Arsenal.

Annually several thousand applicants submit to a random lottery drawing for an always meager number of permits. This year, for example, 4,798 men and women applied for only 176 available slots.

Yes, the opportunity to hunt deer within the high-fence arsenal attracts such large numbers of applicants.

And this year the reserve will hold just three hunts: two for adults and one in which lottery-selected women are considered the primary hunters. Those women selected are allowed to harvest any deer while their partners are limited to taking antlerless deer only.

Success varies according to the number of participants selected, which varies each year. Only after joint consultations between the Department of Defense and the Wildlife Division are held does approval come about for the number of approved hunting slots.

Over the past three years the tally of deer harvested has ranged from 219 in 2011 to 216 in 2012 and 232 in 2014, said Tom Rowan, assistant chief for the Wildlife Division.

This year’s Camp Ravenna deer herd is estimated to be around 1,100 animals. As such the reserve needs to keep its deer population in check, and the most efficient method is through the lottery drawing and adherence to both a management plan and a strict set of hunting rules.

Consequently, the hunts almost certainly will go on, even if Camp Ravenna is plucked from a field that includes three other candidates for a much-talked about silo-based anti-ballistic missile interceptor system that could cost upwards of $5 billion.

“We don’t believe such a system will impact the hunts, in part because the silos would be off-limits,” said Tim Morgan, the Environmental Supervisor for Camp Ravenna.

Agreeing is Jeff Westerfield, a biologist with the Division of Wildlife’s District Three (Northeast Ohio) office in Akron.

“I’d really be surprised if they shut down deer hunting entirely there,” Westerfield said.

Westerfield said as well that the only time he remembers Camp Ravenna’s controlled hunt being scrubbed was following the al-Qaeda terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.

“We wanted to get it open again as soon possible because the hunts are much more than just providing recreational hunting opportunity; it’s for wildlife management there,” Westerfield says.

As for the interceptor missile system, Morgan says initial speculation calls for setting aside 600 acres of Camp Ravenna. Within this small enclave would be installed up to 20 interceptor missile silos, their existence a component of the Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency.

Each of these silos would likely contain a 55-foot long, 25-ton, $50 million interceptor killer missile that would be ushered toward in-coming ballistic missiles careening from outer space and programmed to strike somewhere within the United States.

These interceptor missiles would not explode, per say. Rather, they would physically strike the arriving ballistic missiles, each projectile traveling at several times the speed of sound, obliterating one another on impact.

Estimates are that such a Star Wars-type, stationary Iron Dome-defense set-up could cost between $1 billion and $5 billion.

Two such systems are already in place; their job intended to combat a threat from such rogue régimes as those found in Iran and North Korea.

Currently one working interceptor missile system is at Fort Greely, Alaska and another is at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Thing is, this whole shooting match is one big “If.”

While Congress has approved conducting environmental impact studies of Camp Ravenna and the other three potential sites – Fort Custer, Mich., Fort Drum, NY, and the Navy-operated Portsmouth Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Training Area near Rangley, Maine – no final missile installation commitment is included, Morgan says.

And part of the reason for this stems from opposition in the first place to such a system’s effectiveness as well as its 10-figure cost.

 “All it is right now is a call for a preliminary environmental assessment of each of the four sites, and that’s going to take another 18 months to two years,” Morgan said.

Thus a decision to install a missile interceptor complex at Camp Ravenna - or at any of the other three candidate sites - is nowhere near at hand, Morgan says.

In the end then, sports hoping their lottery number will come up in the annual drawing to hunt deer at Camp Ravenna still have a chance of being picked, even if the odds are stacked against such luck.

“There’s no need to worry; we’ll certainly be hunting deer at Camp Ravenna,” Morgan says.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who  covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.

Results of Ohio's controlled deer hunt lottery drawing now available

Ohio deer hunters wondering how they fared in the annual special management deer hunts can restlessly toss and turn no more.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife has completed its random lottery drawing for the various hunts.

Among these hunts is the one for Camp Ravenna - more popularly called Ravenna Arsenal.

Some of the other special hunts are the ones at NASA’s Plum Brook Research Station, the Mosquito Creek Refuge muzzle-loader- only hunt, the deer hunts at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, the several mobility impaired hunts, as well as the women’s hunt, also at Camp Ravenna.

Odds are always long against being selected, of course. For the Camp Ravenna adult hunt the Wildlife Division received 4,798 applications but awarded only 176 permits. There will be only three hunts conducted here as well, including the women’s hunt in which selected females can shoot a deer of either sex while their partners (man or woman) is entitled to shoot does only.

To determine if you were successful in the lottery drawing, visit the Natural Resources Department’s web site at www.odnr.gov. Then go to the bar listing various departmental components and click on the word “Recreation.”

That will place you on the Wildlife Division’s home page. Scroll down to licenses to where it says “Buy a License or Stamp.”

When that page appears scroll down to “Manage Your Customer Account,” which is the last item on the page.

Once there, strike the cursor on “Start Now” which will offer the viewer four options for viewing his or her account.

Likely the most popular one will include the person’s last name, birth date and last four digits of his or her Social Security number.

Lastly, strike the cursor on the search “My Lottery Application and Results.”

The entire process is both seamless and pretty straight-forward.

It is important to note that the lottery results are for the various special management deer hunts only.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife will conduct the same type of random lottery drawing for the special waterfowl hunts with the results becoming available only after the setting of the duck- and goose-hunting seasons.

That process will be performed by the eight-member Ohio Wildlife Council toward the end of August. It may be early September before the results of the waterfowl hunt lottery drawing are known.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net

Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who  covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.

CORRECTED K. Fleeman's name: Mountain lion appears to still like NE Ohio/NW Pennsylvania

The mountain lion first seen July 29 in Jefferson County appears to have taken a shine to Northeast Ohio-Northwest Pennsylvania.

Spotted by an Ohio Department of Natural Resources-Division of Wildlife officer near 3,032-acre Fernwood State Forest, the tawny-colored cat was captured via an iPhone camera. The images were taken by Kenneth Fleeman of Paris, Pennsylvania.

Fleeman lives only six miles from the state line. His images were captured late in the afternoon of August 7 and were shot in his backyard. Grainy as the two iPhone-shot photos may be, they still offer the first known pictures of the mountain lion.

“I noticed the cat while working on the pool when my Jackabee, ‘Mollie,’ became highly agitated,” Fleeman said. “The cat appeared to be watching Mollie as she was tied out, though we do keep her in a kennel at night.”

Fleeman said he stepped up to the edge of the woods to take the photographs, and then also stood beside a tree in the foreground of the wide angle photo.

The cat then stood up, looked at Fleeman after which the critter stepped down “and headed into the brush,” Fleeman said.

“It was about the size of a full grown Lab or German shepherd; tan in color with lighter face and chest,” Fleeman said. “The tail was long and thick.”

Prior to Fleeman’s encounter the cougar was seen by an Ohio Wildlife Division officer near the state forest.

What the Wildlife Division is doing is reviewing its records of people licensed to own such animals.

Oho recently stiffened its laws regulating exotic wild animals including the requirement of site inspection of any facility and additional permitting protocols.

However, Division of Wildlife officer Peter Novotny said his agency worked with the Ohio Department of Agriculture in searching through the records to see if any licensed individual possessed a mountain lion.

Yet no known person in Northeast Ohio has the required permit for owning such a critter, Novotny said,

State biologists do say that if the original sighting was genuine and the animal was a wild mountain lion then in all likelihood it was young male.

That is because young male lions and young male black bears both share a trait that once sent on their way by its mother the animal is looking for new territory to set up a home range.

Ohio is within the species' original per-European settlement range, says the national non-profit Cougar Fund.

The Cougar Fund says no known cougar population exists in the state, having been extirpated long ago.

“The closest known breeding east-to-west population of mountain lions is northwest Nebraska, and north-to-south breeding population is the Florida panther,” says Penny Maldonado, the funds managing director.

Wildlife Division officials say that it's District Three (Northeast Ohio) Office in Akron will field reports of any similar potential sightings. Those sightings can be called in to the District office at 330-644-2293.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net

Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who  covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.

Lake Metroparks sets sights on an expanded controlled archery deer hunt

With only seven or so weeks ago until Ohio archers can launch their first arrows at deer, Lake Metroparks is still ahead of the curve.

The agency has revamped its controlled/by lottery archery-only hunts for the up-coming 2014-2015 Ohio deer-hunting season.

For starters the parks system will offer controlled hunts at four locations, up from the two sites utilized last year.

Besides allowing lottery-selected hunters at Lake Metroparks’ River Road Reservation in Madison Township and a portion of Indian Point Park in Leroy Township, added is a swath of Lake Erie Bluffs Park in Perry Township, and also a portion of the agency’s Blair Road/Walden II property, also in Leroy Township.

Other tweaks include allowing selected hunters to be afield for three week increments. That change is one additional week from what was utilized during the program’s previous three years of operation.

Another change is that Lake Metroparks will no longer provide corn, used as bait to attract deer within bow or crossbow range.

Neither will the parks system offer tree stand ladders or ground blinds at Lake Erie Bluffs, Indian Point, and Blair Road, said Tom Koritansky, Lake Metroparks’ natural resources manager.

“We will still be providing ladder stands and feeders at River Road,” Koritansky said, “but no corn.”

Koritansky says the reason the parks system will give the lottery-selected hunters an additional week is because hunters will need to determine where to set up and whether salting the site with deer-attracting food stuffs is necessary.

“We are also eliminating the doe-first rule,” Koritansky also said. “We ran with that rule for the first few seasons but we just didn’t see the results we were hoping for.”

While ladder stands and you-fill-it game feeders will again make their appearances at River Road, selected hunters will still have the opportunity to enjoy a 50-yard diameter wiggle room. This somewhat short leash will give a hunter some freedom as to where to install a personally owned stand or blind, Koritansky says.

Much more elbow is planned for the other three sites. At Lake Erie Bluffs, for example and says Koritansky, the three hunting units there consist of 15 acres, 30 acres, and 40 acres, respectively.

“Each of them is a mix of meadow, forest, brush and some wet spots,” he said.

Copy that at both Blair Road and Indian Point, too, where each selected hunter will have a designated portion of the respective property in order to make set-up adjustments if desired, Koritansky says.

In all, the River Road property will field eight sites, Indian Point will consist of four hunt units, Lake Erie Bluffs will have three sections, and Blair Road will offer two units.

As to who gets to hunt which location, that choice will come about by the order of the lottery draw. 

Get drawn early and the pickings will be better, says Koritansky.

Asked as to which location stands tallest in the deer-hunting saddle, Koritansky says each of the four properties offer fine opportunities for the archer looking for a controlled situation where he – or she – won’t be blitzed by trespassing interlopers looking to cash in on a restricted piece of real estate.

Still, the odds of being selected are around one pick for every three applicants. Last year 108 primary hunters were drawn from a field of 313 applicants. Another, smaller, group of applicants were plucked and who were on stand-by as alternates.

An alternate list is intended to be maintained again this season, says Koritansky

“We did utilize some of the hunters on the alternate list too,” Koritansky said.

And though only one person at a time can occupy a hunting unit or zone, a selected archer can name a partner. In such instances the partner can fill in if the actual lottery-selected hunter is unable to be afield on that particular day.

“This option has been well received but you have to remember that the partner still must abide by the same requirements as does the selectee,” Koritansky says.

Among those stipulations is the requirement to pass an archery proficiency test and attend the appropriate orientation seminar/class, Koritansky says.

Testing for the archery proficiency qualification is scheduled for Great Lakes Outdoors Supply store in Madison Township as well as Gander Mountain’s Mentor store.

A rule left unchanged since the program began is that the lottery is open only to Lake County residents and owners of businesses in Lake County. In short, the lottery is open only to the very people whose property taxes go to help support Lake Metroparks.

The application process is available on-line via Lake Metroparks’ web site at www.lakemetroparks.com. Persons also may apply in person at the agency’s registration department, located within the parks system’s Concord Woods Nature Park headquarters on Speer Rod in Concord Township.

Prospective archery hunters can apply from August 7 to September 1, inclusive.

Complete rules and further information is available via these two processing venues as well.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

Ohio DNR makes excuses for Watercraft officer caught parking state truck in handicapped-only slot

It would appear that when it comes to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources what is good for the goose doesn't necessarily mean that the law applies to the gander.

An Internet-based photograph has been circulating showing an Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Watercraft pick-up truck – bearing the agency's logo on the driver's door and a state license plate on the vehicle's nose – parked in a handicapped-only slot.

It took a while to ferret out what the deal was but the Natural Resources Department finally did address the issue. Sort of, anyway.

Indeed, says the Natural Resources Department, the Watercraft Division was illegally parked in the slot. But that's really okay, the department says, because six-year Watercraft Division veteran officer Darren Barnett didn't actually see that it was a marked handicapped-only parking slot.

It seems that officer Barnett must have been in something of a crash-rush hurry to get to his safe-boating education class at southwest Ohio's East Fork Reservoir. In the process of engaging his warp drive, officer Barnett failed to take note of where he was parked.

Extrapolating its excuse further, Natural Resources Department said officer Barnett would not have broke the law “... had he noticed the (internationally recognized handicapped-only) symbol on the pavement reserving spot.”

“He even apologized to the marina staff when he discovered his error,” said Natural Resources Department spokesman Matt Eiselstein.

Problem is, one would have to be oblivious to the obvious in failing to see the ubiquitous blue-colored handicapped symbol with its stylized white-painted outline of a person sitting in a wheelchair.

Fact is - and based on the circulating photograph - Barnett's state-issued Watercraft truck covers only about one-half of the symbol. The rest of the colorful emblem is readily visible in front of Barnett's Ford-branded pick-up.

Ah, but the Department's excuse game gets better.

Had the handicapped-designated space also contained a mounted sign designating the slot as being off-limits to all but handicapped permit-holders, well then, surely it “...would have immediately drawn the officer's attention.”

As a result, the Natural Resources Department's wrist-slapping tisk-tisk-tisk reprimand of officer Barnett consisted of him being “... counseled on being more attentive when parking his vehicle.”

“(The) ODNR expects all of our employees, especially law enforcement officers, to comply with all laws, rules and regulations,” Eisestein said as well.

Oh really? What about officer Barnett paying for his mistake via the issuance of a ticket, or does the handicapped-only parking rule only apply to the public? After all, parking in a designated handicapped-only parking slot is an illegal activity, punishable by a fine of $250 to $500.

As a person lawfully empowered to own and use a handicapped placard, I am always ticked-off by violators who utilize such parking slots, no matter how feeble are their arguments. So, yeah, I do take this offense personally.

Frankly, I am both surprised and miffed that officer Barnett managed to avoid paying a fine for his lack of attentiveness. After all, if it is good for the public goose than it ought to be good for officer Barnett's gander as well.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who  covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.

UPDATED: Time to end this Lake Erie toxic bloom madness

As Lake Erie water users further east of blue-green algae victim Toledo, this bloom is a concern of ours as well.

Given that August is prime time for when Lake Erie's water temperature spikes, it is far more likely than not how Northeast Ohio's Lake Erie coast will suffer the same as has Toldeo.

How in this day and age nearly 500,000 Ohioans can be deprived of safe drinking water because of human folly, neglect and politics is more than just a head shaker. It is something that happens in a developing country, not in the world's richest nation.

And yet here we are; watching as Lake Erie again falls prey to yet another toxic goo of blue-green algae, threatening human health.

And along with that horror, making Ohio appear once more unable, unwilling, or impotent to take the environmental bull by the horns and truly do something meaningful with the necessary sharpened teeth to ensure this will be the last such bloom.

What is not acceptable are the so-called voluntary efforts directed at western Ohio agricultural interests that include chemical companies - and to a lesser degree, municipal water purification systems and home lawn care services.

No one is arguing as to the nature of how this bloom thrives. It lusts after the high nitrogen levels and other chemical sources that come from the application of fertilizers on crops, particularly row crops that are commonly grown in western Ohio.

With today's road-to-road plowing and the high dependence on fertilizers along with the lack of protective vegetation along ditches, streams, rivers and such this mix of chemicals pour into the 130-mile long Maumee River chiefly and other streams such as the Sandusky River.

Even our own Grand River contributes, though no where near what toxic soup roils out of the massive 5,024-square mile Maumee watershed.

And say what one wants to about the federal and Ohio EPAs but these agencies are on the front line of efforts to thwart the infusion of nitrogen-eating blue-green algae. Bravo to these bureaus that are too often and unfairly depicted as intrusive government organs by elements of the Tea Party and other like-minded environmental Neanderthals and similar nitwits.

Good heavens, have not the lessons of June 22, 1969 when oil-soaked wood and other flotsam on the Cuyahoga River caught fire been so forgotten that we dare allow special interests to deprive people one of two of humanities' most critical needs, that being clean water?

Given that the latest clean water crisis is now over for Toledo and declared by that city's mayor the issue remains a serious flash point that very well may reignite. Maybe not in Toledo. Perhaps in Lorain or Cleveland, Lake County or Ashtabula.

Thus, it is way past time to lay down the legislative gauntlet and ensure that human health does not take a back seat to the powerful interests of Ohio's Number One industry: Agri-business.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who  covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.

Possible cougar sighting in Jefferson County by Ohio Wildlife Division officer

First there were bears and then bobcats, but now mountain lions?

It may seem so as an off-duty officer with the Ohio Division of Wildlife has reported to agency officials that he observed what may be a mountain lion July 29 in the Wintersville area of Jefferson County. 

This location is near the 3,032-acre Fernwood State Forest.

The closest large community in the region is Steubenville, located along the Ohio River.

Fernwood State Forest contains the remnants of coal extraction and is considered remote and rugged with many small lakes and ponds and consists of mature mixed hardwoods.

Wildlife Division officials and local police are in the area, scouting for any sign of the would-be mountain lion, also commonly called a cougar or panther.

Agency officials further say that it's District Three (Northeast Ohio) Office in Akron will field reports of any similar potential sightings. Those sightings can be called in the District office at 330-644-2293.

Likewise the agency sent safety tips to area schools and such for distribution to athletic and cross-country teams, the material noting how to avoid conflicts.

While little is known as to whether this sighting is genuine or not the Wildlife Division also is reviewing its records of people licensed to own such animals.

Oho recently stiffened its laws regulating exotic wild animals including the requirement of site inspection of any facility and additional permitting protocols.

And even though periodic and scattered reports of mountain lions in Ohio have cropped up in virtually all instances the to-date consensus has been either the creature in question was misidentified or else was deliberately released or an escaped animal.

State biologists do say that if the sighting was genuine and the animal was a wild mountain lion then in all likelihood it was young male. That is because young male lions and young male black bears both share a trait that once sent on their way by its mother the animal is looking for new territory to set up a home range.

Yet if the lion did exist and was seen that does not mean it is still in Jefferson County. Mountain lions have extensive home ranges and can move as far as 20 miles per day, said Jamey Emmert, public information specialist for the agency's District Three office.

Ohio is within the species' original per-European settlement range, says the national non-profit Cougar Fund.

The Cougar Fund says no known population of cougars exist in the state, having been extirpated long ago.

“The closest known breeding east-to-west population of mountain lions is northwest Nebraska, and north-to-south breeding population is the Florida panther,” said Penny Maldonado, the Cougar Fund's managing director.

That being said, Maldonado also noted that the Wildlife Division is spot on by saying how young male mountain lions occasionally wander far from their natal homes.

“It's called dispersal,” she said.

As far as a mountain lion posing a high risk to humans, such is rarely the case, says Maldonado.

“There have been just 20 known human fatalities by mountain lions over the past 120 years,” Maldonado says. “That's not to diminish the tragedy in each of these cases but many more children are killed from falls out of shopping carts than by mountain lion attacks.

"The greatest threat to us and to the cats is our own fear.”

For further information about the Cougar Fund, contact Maldonado at penny@cougarfund.org.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who  covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.