Ohio's lingering drought having mixed impact

 

A lingering drought that has stalked Ohio all summer appears to have avoided putting any lasting stamp of disapproval on the state’s inland angling meccas.

However, it has led to a premature shutting down of further sustenance for some trees in some locations. That “some” is the operative word, too.

Even more disheartening, the heat and dry weather have encouraged the breeding of tiny midges that has resulted in isolated pockets of EHD, shorthand for the viral epizootic hemorrhagic disease.

“It may be better to think of where moisture deficits haven’t happened in Ohio,” said Aaron Wilson, scientist with the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio State University.

The Ohio Division of Geological Survey says also that approximately 64 percent of Ohio is currently experiencing abnormally dry or moderate drought conditions, down from 79 percent at the end of July

Wilson says the latest data suggests the drought cuts a large swath across Ohio from its extreme northwest and toward the east-southeast. A large “doughnut hole” of generally near normal conditions exists in several east-central counties, among them being Coshocton, Muskingum, and most of Licking. This assessment being based on the Center’s latest Drought Monitor map.

Among other notable areas basking in generally favorable drought-free areas is the so-called Snow Belt region in extreme Northeast Ohio, and a “L-shaped” zone stretching from about Darke and Miami counties in extreme western Ohio and sweeping south and then east, following the Ohio River Valley though Meigs County.

Wilson said also these drought conditions have been experienced for the past 60 to 90 days. And the situation is particularly acute in some portions of northwest Ohio “which is a complete shift from what it experienced last year,” Wilson said.

Several pockets of moderate drought likewise exists. This situation is most notable in Wood, Sandusky, Henry, Ashland, Wayne, Stark, Fayette, Greene, and Pickaway counties, the Drought Monitor map revealed.

“This all started in Indiana and moved through Ohio into Pennsylvania where the situation is bad, but it’s even much worse in the Northeast,” Wilson says.

To illustrate that summer-time rainfalls have not fallen uniformly – not even in drought-plagued counties, Wilson noted how one rainfall measuring station in Fulton County recently recorded four inches of rain.

“But that’s not always a good thing,” Wilson says.

The reason for this less-than-ideal turn-about is because when so much rain falls quickly onto dry, hard ground a lot of run-off occurs instead of being absorbed into the soil, Wilson says.

“But with the cooler temperatures you’ll see less evaporation and in most cases, stream flow has been good,” Wilson says.

Agreeing the drought has not proven especially severe across much of the state – at least as it applies to angling - is Richard Zweifel, inland fisheries program administrator with the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

Zweifel says he’s not heard of many problems associated with anglers being able to access reservoirs to fish. Meanwhile, most streams have enough water in them “to float a kayak or a canoe,” Zweifel says.

“You might have to portage or slide a canoe or kayak a bit more,” Zweifel said.

And those reservoirs which most often are troubled by summertime low water levels are not in bad shape, either, says Zweifel,

Count Hoover, Caesar Creek, Grand Lake St. Mary, and even Buckeye as fairing pretty well all things being considered, says Zweifel.

“Nothing particularly out of the ordinary,” he said.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

REWRITTEN TO REFLECT UPDATES Cases advance against two youths accused of Hocking Hills State Park alleged murder

 

Delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the trial for one of the two youths alleged to have killed a woman at Hocking Hills State Park is now scheduled for September.

The other youth has worked out a plea deal with the Hocking County Prosecutor’s office.

Jaden W. Churchheus and Jordan A. Buckley, both of Hocking County’s Logan, are alleged to have caused the September 2nd, 2019 death of 44-year-old Chillicothe photographer Victoria Shafer at Hocking Hills State Park.

The two Hocking County youths - who were each 16 years old at the time of the incident – were originally charged with murder and bound over the Hocking County Common Pleas Court for trial. Such a charge is considered an Unclassified Felony punishable by up to life in prison.

It is important to note that all parties are operating under a judicial gag order. Thus the parties are prohibited to speak about any aspect of either of the cases.

However, and based on information provided by Hocking County Clerk of Courts Sharon Edwards, Churchheus’ nine September trial dates - and reserved before Hocking County Common Pleas Court Judge John T Wallace - were orally vacated August 17th with a journal entry made August 18^th.

Details of the plea agreement were not forwarded to the Clerk of Courts and possibly are still being worked on by the parties, Edwards said.

Should the case involving Churchheus be remanded back to juvenile court, the agreement’s details almost certainly will be sealed, Edwards said as well.

Also - and again based on the latest posting on the Hocking County Clerk of Court’s on-line-available docket for Buckley - a single trial date of September 28th - and likewise before Judge Wallace - has been set, to begin at 9 a.m.

Some of alleged details of the September 2nd incident allege the two youths caused a 74-pound, six-foot long log to strike and kill Shafer.

Shafer was said to be at the park in order to take graduation photographs of several area students, none of whom were injured during the alleged incident.

Investigators with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Hocking County Sheriffs Office allege Schafer was standing about 75 feet below and on a staircase at Old Man’s Cave, located within the 2,356-acre Hocking Hills State Park, when she was killed instantly by the log.

Investigators allege the log was removed from a pile about 40 feet from the ledge, which was above a second ledge before the final drop to where Shafer is said to have been, a Hocking County assistant prosecutor later said.

The Hocking County assistant prosecutor also said later that a video of testimony taken by investigators alleges that Churchhouse flipped the log over a downed tree while Buckley is alleged to have pushed the log.

“Ohio Outdoor News” will continue to follow any developments regarding this case.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Eight million firearms, 8.7 billion rounds of ammo and it's still not enough

 

Even with the production of more than eight million firearms and some 8.7 billion rounds of ammunition annually, the current rush to buy firearms and the crush to feed them with cartridges has still outstripped supply on both counts.

And by some estimates it may take one to up to two years before gun store shelves again are fully restocked with the myriad of calibers, loads and brands.

This demand-far-exceeding supply is particularly true for those calibers greatly favored for personal protection and also those calibers with multi-purpose-personal defense/target and varmint hunting.

Just how widespread is this dearth of firearms is seen in statistics compiled under the National Instant Criminal Background Check System maintained by the FBI. In March, the FBI saw nearly 2.4 million background checks (more than 76,000 daily) while in July the figure was 1.8 million such background searches.

Every month since January the system has set new background check records with more than 12 million such operations being conducted between January 1st and July 31^st, national statistics reveal.

Various firearms-related Internet sites report too that gun sales in some stores have exceeded 95 percent of normal. And ammunition sales have leaped by nearly 140 percent, resulting in severe availability shortages.

Clearly, firearms and ammunition sales have reached new heights with no end in sight – and possibly may spill over to calibers and gauges normally considered almost exclusively used for hunting.

“I’ve stopped using the word ‘unprecedented.’ The term has lost its value,” said Mark Oliva, director of public affairs for the National Shooting and Sports Foundation.

Oliva says his group – which represents and lobbies on behalf of the firearms and ammunition industry – continues to conduct research into the on-going phenomena. It has learned, for instance, that of firearms buyers, 2.4 million bought their first “gun.”

“That’s a game changer,” Oliva says. “And we seen, too, that 40 percent of all gun buyers are women and 58 percent are Black.”

Perhaps not surprisingly the firearm of choice has as its pinnacle, the handgun. Underpinning this are what some might consider as being “tactical” or personal protection shotguns, and then AR-plaform rifles, Olivia says.

Not surprisingly then is how absent from store shelves are the ammunition for these firearms. Similarly, Internet sites that offer ammunition for these firearms are now frequented with the disclaimers “Not Available,” “Out Of Stock,” and “Keep Checking Back.”

Just as imposing is that when hard-to-find ammunition choices are located, prices are outrageous. A cursory check of several Internet ammunition web sites have shown that what 9 mm ammunition is available is selling some two to five times what the popular product did only a few months back.

And a 500-round brick of .22 rimfire ammunition of the kind one would use to plink tin cans or hunt squirrels with? Try nearly $100.

Not since the election years of 2008, 2012, and 2016 have such high costs and low inventory choked off the supply of ammunition, says Oliva.

The “why” is hardly a challenge to understand, says Oliva, as a “compilation” of reasons underscores the record sales of firearms and the record lack of ammunition.

Unlike their fishing tackle counterparts which saw the supply dwindle when China cut production and shipping due to that country’s imposed COVID-19 quarantine, for firearms and ammunition its an enormous societal convergence, Oliva says.

When mayors and governors ordered people to stay indoors and the police presence saw reductions, more people began thinking of shouldering the responsibility for their own safety and that of their families, says Oliva.

This concern morphed further with the explosive urban rioting and looting seen earlier this summer, Oliva says also.

“People began reacting to the fear for their own safety,” he says.

Not lost either has proven the mantra of “buy now what you can before you can’t” syndrome.

“There’s been a surplus of demand, and people are stocking-piling to be able to have it when they believe they may need it,” Oliva says.

The thing is, Oliva says, both firearms and – especially – ammunition manufacturing are each running full bore. Such makers simply cannot buy more manufacturing equipment, hire and train skilled workers, and scrounge around for raw material and assemble them in plants to produce even more stock.

That was done when the so-called “Trump Slump” struck and ammunition sales fell sharply. Meanwhile, at the same time some gun makers – particularly those who made AR-platform rifles - closed their doors for good when their inventory sat unshipped, and $1,000 models were going for fire-sale prices one-half of that figure, Oliva said.

“It’s a much more thoughtful process now,” Oliva says. “Companies don’t want to buy equipment they can’t use later nor eventually have to lay-off people they’ve spent time and money training.”

Thus, the demand-supply pendulum will take months or even years to achieve some sort of renewed stability.

Of course another wrinkle lies ahead regarding potential future firearms and ammunition sales, says Oliva. That that twist is based on the up-coming November elections. Should forces less than kind to the Second Amendment play out, says Oliva, “it will be ‘Katie, bar the door.’”

“If that happens, people will buy whatever they can get their hands on,” Oliva says.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Feds again take to the air to battle rabies virus in Northeast Ohio

The federal government is taking to the air to help contain the spread of ground-based rabies in raccoons.

In an annual activity that sees the employment of fixed-wing airplanes as well as helicopters, the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has begun distributing oral rabies vaccine baits for wildlife in parts of eastern Ohio and surrounding states.

The program started August 11th and will continue through August 20th and is done in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Health along with several Ohio local county health departments.

Such baits have been distributed in Ohio through aerial drops and by hand since 1997 as part of the federal government’s National Rabies Management Program. This effort seeks to prevent the westward movement of the rabies virus which began a few decades ago in the eastern U.S.

Such viral spread is most often done by raccoons, the federal government’s Agriculture Department say.

.

The baits are being distributed using fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters and in some cases from ground-based vehicles.

Approximately 888,000 baits will be distributed in rural areas of eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and the panhandle of West Virginia. In Ohio alone, some 700,000 baits will be distributed: all in rural portions of Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Jefferson, Mahoning, Stark, Trumbull, and Tuscarawas, as well as parts of Belmont, Geauga, Harrison, Lake, Monroe, and Portage counties.

Baits also were dispersed by helicopter in urban and suburban areas of eastern Ohio during the first week in August. Among these urban locations were Courtland, Warren, Youngstown, Alliance, Canton, and New Philadelphia.

Lastly, staff will distribute baits by vehicle in a number of Northeast Ohio towns. Among them are Ashtabula, Conneaut, East Palestine and Hubbard.

The vaccine distribution campaign in Ohio will use a bait dubbed “ONRAB.” The vaccine - which is contained in a blister pack - is covered in a waxy green coating that has a sugar-vanilla smell.

The odor attracts targeted wild animals which then eat the baits and thus are then vaccinated against rabies.

ONRAB has been safely distributed in parts of Ohio since 2012 as part of ongoing field trials to evaluate the safety and immune effects of the ORV bait in raccoons and skunks.

The vaccine baits have been proven safe in many species of animals, including domestic dogs and cats.

Importantly, says the federal government, humans and pets cannot get rabies from contact with the baits. But if found, leave the baits undisturbed.

Even so, if a person who has experienced contact with a bait, should immediately rinse the contact area with warm water and soap.

However, do not attempt to remove a bait from any animal’s mouth, as you could be bitten. Ingesting the bait will not harm your pet. If your pet has eaten several baits, the pet may experience vomiting or diarrhea that is self-limiting.

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Seemingly random tackle shortages are proving perplexing to understand

Anglers on the hunt for fishing supplies are often enough encountering tales of how they should have been at the bait shop last week.

Or perhaps since the start of COVID-19 pandemic last winter.

On more a few occasions devoted anglers such as Bob Ashley of Mentor have run into difficulty finding tackle supplies.

So too have angling writers like Darl Black of Pennsylvania.

It’s the “why” that is hard to reel in, though.

A spokesperson with the American Sportsfishing Association – the trade group which largely represents the fishing tackle industry – crows that it’s all because many more people are fishing this year than even last.

However, when asked for clarification, expansion and verification, the ASA did not responded to other requests for additional comment.

Ditto with one of the nation’s leading on-line and brick-and-mortar outdoors suppliers.

On the reverse side there is speculation that the lack - at a minimum, sparse - assembly of fishing tackle in stores and on-line is directly due to COVID-19’s rise in China where a lot of fishing tackle or components are made. With that country shut down for two to three months this winter, the fishing tackle supply chain was severed.

And perhaps complicating matters further, the on-going trade tiff between the U.S. and China may be contributing to the shortages, though (again) the ASA has not been forthcoming to further request for comments.

For full disclosure, I recently experienced difficulties in obtaining some pieces of fishing gear, recently being unable to locate even the basic components associated with bass-angling’s latest “new” thing, the Ned rig. And that challenge was in bass-fishing’s Nirvana of central Florida.

Mary Jane Williamson, spokeswoman for ASA, said that while “it’s true that tackle inventory is going down just when recreational fishing is going up,” she adds that “the story’s may not be so much about inventory as (being) the problem.”

Rather, Williamson says “people of all ages are getting into recreational fishing in numbers we haven’t seen in a very long time.”

“Interest in all outdoor activity is on the rise as people take to the outdoors for safe(er) activities,” Williamson said.

A rise, perhaps, yet hardly a rapid acceleration that would better and more fully explain empty tackle shelves and thin displays or rods and reels – something which Ashley said he’s taken note of with the several fishing stores he frequents.

To illustrate this point - at least for Ohio - a look at the fishing license distribution through July 19, 2019 and compared to this year for the same time frame might be illuminating. The data supplied by the Ohio Division of Wildlife shows that 746,806 documents of all kinds have thus far been issued. Through July 19, 2019 that figure was 726,931 documents – or just a three-percent increase this year.

Small yer-to-year to-date gains were seen in Ohio resident licenses, one-day Ohio resident adult license, and Ohio senior licenses.

Down were everything else. Among them being non-resident licenses (off six percent), three-day licenses (off 35 percent), and Lake Erie non-resident permits (off 61 percent).

So the answer to the “why” remains itself unanswered. Which means some finger pointing at China may prove justified.

“Yes, every tackle shop I talk with say nothing is being shipped in terms of tackle,” said Black. “They are basically interested in terminal tackle, and right now they have nothing on the shelves; (the) last shipments were pre-COVID-19.”

Black says these owners further note that “their distributors say everything is slow in shipping due to previous shutdowns.”

“While no one wants to say it, I don’t think tackle is coming in from China where a lot of the terminal tackle originates. I don’t know what Trump has blocked to hurt the Chinese, but I suspect China just isn’t shipping to the U.S. in retaliation.”

Black did say that while even some stocks of popular brands of monofilament fishing line are in short supply at any number of locations, other brands that are made in whole or in part in the U.S. appear to have no inventory issues, Black says.

“On the positive side, Gamma Line is available (made in Japan and processed in US); Dale is not having a problem shipping to meet orders,” Black says.

And Black added, too, that while he’s not visited a big tackle retailer since the onset of COVID-19, he has scoured the Internet to replace a fishing rod his wife Marilyn broke in June.

“(But it) seems very few rods are available – and most rods are from China or Southeast Asia, with exception of certain higher price brands made in the U.S.,” Black says.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com