From 12/15/21 "Wilmington (Ohio) News Journal: Brian Liming gets 4 1/2 years in prison for shooting Ohio WO Kevin Behr

 Wilmington News Journal 12/15/21 by newspaper's John Hamilton

"WILMINGTON — The man found guilty of shooting a state wildlife officer gets prison time.

"On Wednesday, Clinton County Common Pleas Judge John W. 'Tim' Rudduck sentenced Brian Liming to four years and six months in prison. Liming was given eight days credit and will begin his prison term immediately.

"Liming, 44, of Jamestown was found guilty in November of assault (felony 4), tampering with evidence (felony 3), hunting without a deer permit and hunting without a license — the latter both misdemeanors.

"The charges are related to the December 2020 shooting of Kevin Behr, an officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources-Wildlife Division.

"Wildlife officers were investigating a deer poaching complaint last December in the area of Macedonia Road and Martinsville Road when the shooting occurred.

"According to authorities, Liming had exited the vehicle he was in, went into a wooded area where Behr was, and fired a shot to chase out a buck deer they heard was in the area.

"Behr addressed Liming in court telling him not only the effect the shooting had on him but also his family. Behr told him about the month-long coma he was in and how he still has surgeries to undergo.

"Liming addressed people in the court saying he 'isn’t a bad guy' and hoped to be given less prison time so he could be with his kids.

"Rudduck addressed Liming saying he wasn’t being judged as to whether or not he was a bad guy. The judge did say Liming was found guilty of all his offenses, highlighted his prior offenses (including domestic violence and vehicular homicide), and the severity of the situation — including Behr’s occupation as a wildlife officer."

State's 2021 Fish Ohio pins aren't missing. Just no one knows where they're at

 

If anglers are still wondering what has happened to their 2021 Fish Ohio pin featuring a longnose gar, it may very well be on a slow boat from China.

Or possibly the large pallet of pins is sitting in a warehouse. Or on a shipping dock. Or maybe anywhere but at the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s Fountain Square headquarters in Columbus.

In effect, the pins are not missing; just no one one knows exactly where they are at.

“We’re checking on the status every day,” said Brian Banbury, the Wildlife Division’s executive administrator who oversees the agency’s Fish Ohio program.

“They could be on a truck or sitting on a dock, but we believe they are (somewere) in the U.S.”

Banbury said the agency has ordered 11,000 standard Fish Ohio pins and 1,200 Fish Ohio Master Angler pins. The total cost for these pins was $4,938.

To date the Wildlife Division has electronically received 8,955 Fish Ohio applications with 688 of these applicants qualifying for Master Angler recognition.

Under the Fish Ohio program, anglers are eligible to receive a pin for catching a length-qualifying specimen from 25 recognized sport fish species. Inland waters/Ohio River and Lake Erie each have special lengths for five of these species.

A Master Angler designation is given to any angler catching at least four different specimens from the recognized list.

The deadline for entering a fish for any particular year’s edition of the program is December 31^st.

This year’s Fish Ohio pin delivery is even slower than was last year, and in each case, the problem is traceable back to the COVID pandemic. A cascade of issues involving the ordering and supply chain - including likely the shipping crisis – appears as the root cause. Or certainly close enough to its trunk.

Thing is, says Banbury the Wildlife Division is obligated by Ohio law to following mandated bidding protocols. Likewise, the agency is required to obey the requirements dictated by observing current fiscal year ordering stipulations – and Ohio’s fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30.

This year’s winning bidder was Nitsom Promotional Manufacturing Corporation, a two-person company based in Toronto, Ontario and which specializes in promotional products like patches and commemorative pins.

The company’s web site indicates ties with China, and was incorporated as a “foreign corporation” in North Canton, Ohio in October, 2020, among other states.

Then there is the matter of submitting a design – which changes each year based upon a pre-selected fish species the Wildlife Division has picked. This year’s pin features for the first time a longnose gar while the 2022 pin will highlight a black crappie.

“We could go with a less expensive pin by using steel instead of brass, but, really, a steel pin would rust and since these pins are often worn on a hat or fishing vest that would not be good,” Banbury also said. “That’s why they’re made from brass.”

Banbury says that once the pins do arrive at the agency’s Fountain Square headquarters they should begin to go out rather quickly. The agency has the padded mailing envelopes and address labels all ready to go, Banbury says.

“We’ll have executive administrators and other staff preparing the envelopes for delivery,” Banbury said.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Hunters in Ohio make fine use of the just-concluded firearms deer-hunting season

 

By any statistical metric, an eight-percent gain in the deer kill during Ohio’s firearms hunting season can rightly claim success.

That is the harvest increase size recorded during the just-concluded firearms season when compared to the state’s three-year average. In all, preliminary statistics show that 70,413 deer were taken during the seven-day season, November 29^th through December 5^th, up from the three-year average of 65,280 animals.

And to facilitate the taking and checking in of many of these deer, the Ohio Division of Wildlife issued 383,770 permits through December 5th.

Consequently, Clint McCoy – the Wildlife Division’s lead deer biologist - says the state experienced a largely “very normal deer gun season”, all things being considered.

“Even without widespread snow we saw relatively good hunting conditions for most of the state for the majority of the week with temperatures that remained generally stable,” McCoy said.

Interesting as well, perhaps, McCoy says, it appears that a “significant shift in harvest in favor of hunting during the archery season” is underway.

“We set a new archery harvest record in 2020 with 93,576 deer. In 2013, the percentage of the harvest occurring during archery season saw a significant bump that rose from a previous 39 percent to 45 percent,” McCoy said.

That archery-favorable statistic has remained in the 44 percent to 48 percent range, “subsequently reducing the harvest during the traditional gun week,” McCoy said.

Commenting further on the shift in hunter preference dynamics, McCoy noted that fifteen years ago the seven-day firearms season accounted for more than half of the total all-seasons’ take of deer. And in 1995 that figure was 75 percent, McCoy said.

“Things have certainly changed; since 2013 the gun week has only accounted for an average of 37 percent of the all-seasons total,” McCoy said.

The Wildlife Division says as well that straight-walled cartridge rifles have become increasingly popular. During the week-long deer-hunting season, straight-walled cartridge rifles were used for 49 percent of the checked deer. Meanwhile, shotguns accounted for 43 percent of the total, the Wildlife Division says.

Rounding out the implement type, six percent of the checked deer were taken with a muzzleloader, one percent by archery equipment, and less than one percent with a handgun.

In examining the number of deer shot in each of the state’s 88 counties, 74 saw their week-long take of deer exceed their respective three-year average. Meanwhile, 15 counties each posted a gain of 20 percent or more above their respective three-year average.

“At first glance, a majority of the big gainers were in the western portion of the state: Auglaize, Paulding, Montgomery, Madison, and Mercer all posted gains of 30 percent or more over their respective three-year averages,” McCoy says.

On the other end of the spectrum “we saw just two counties, Lucas (minus-19.7 percent) and Hamilton (minus-8.7 percent), with a week-long harvest significantly below their respective three-year average,” McCoy said.

Here is a county-by-county list of all white-tailed deer checked by hunters during the just-concluded week-long firearms deer-hunting season. The first number following the county’s name shows the deer harvest numbers for 2021, and the three-year average from 2018, 2019, and 2020 is in parentheses. A three-year average provides a better overall comparison to this year’s numbers, eliminating year-to-year variations. Numbers are raw data and subject to change.

Adams: 1,042 (973); Allen: 352 (338); Ashland: 1,444 (1,311); Ashtabula: 2,039 (2,032); Athens: 1,327 (1,281); Auglaize: 431 (332); Belmont: 1,154 (1,173); Brown: 887 (846); Butler: 352 (318); Carroll: 1,767 (1,530); Champaign: 469 (394); Clark: 209 (192); Clermont: 609 (638); Clinton: 208 (220); Columbiana: 1,362 (1,216); Coshocton: 2,403 (2,260); Crawford: 646 (568); Cuyahoga: 49 (44); Darke: 303 (275); Defiance: 802 (778); Delaware: 441 (383); Erie: 327 (261); Fairfield: 765 (681); Fayette: 117 (119); Franklin: 159 (147); Fulton: 407 (331); Gallia: 1,113 (1,048); Geauga: 700 (568); Greene: 246 (230); Guernsey: 1,968 (1,784); Hamilton: 140 (153); Hancock: 606 (520); Hardin: 640 (534); Harrison: 1,318 (1,371); Henry: 438 (351); Highland: 1,118 (933); Hocking: 1,102 (1,130); Holmes: 1,645 (1,468); Huron: 1,166 (1,008); Jackson: 986 (1,003); Jefferson: 866 (787); Knox: 2,023 (1,764); Lake: 164 (176); Lawrence: 677 (713); Licking: 1,712 (1,605); Logan: 780 (711); Lorain: 783 (646); Lucas: 103 (128); Madison: 234 (171); Mahoning: 614 (571); Marion: 446 (382); Medina: 682 (650); Meigs: 1,261 (1,148); Mercer: 422 (298); Miami: 256 (214); Monroe: 1,103 (1,092); Montgomery: 206 (153); Morgan: 1,298 (1,253); Morrow: 633 (620); Muskingum: 2,107 (1,993); Noble: 1,249 (1,240); Ottawa: 173 (141); Paulding: 598 (455); Perry: 1,112 (1,052); Pickaway: 259 (258); Pike: 623 (666); Portage: 719 (607); Preble: 334 (290); Putnam: 370 (308); Richland: 1,346 (1,270); Ross: 1,056 (1,024); Sandusky: 305 (278); Scioto: 683 (729); Seneca: 927 (800); Shelby: 400 (357); Stark: 929 (859); Summit: 206 (175); Trumbull: 1,241 (1,165); Tuscarawas: 2,204 (2,107); Union: 380 (331); Van Wert: 268 (229); Vinton: 930 (896); Warren: 317 (305); Washington: 1,483 (1,411); Wayne: 893 (798); Williams: 719 (633); Wood: 340 (339); Wyandot: 722 (739). 2021 total: 70,413; Three-year average total: (65,280).

Also, through December 5th, 80,178 deer have been taken by Ohio archery hunters. Plus, Ohio’s youth hunters checked 7,634 deer during their two-day youth gun season.

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com