UPDATED Ohio's coronavirus-impacted state park system is safe. Or not.

The closure of Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Parks and Watercraft’s campgrounds, cabins, golf courses, restrooms, shower houses, playgrounds, and state park marinas leaves in question the health and safety of visitors to what does remain open.

The temporary terminations came following Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s Stay At Home Order, which kicked into gear the cessation of activities.

And what is closed by the Division of Parks is considerable, too.

Data provided by the National Resources Department’s Office of Communications says the number of state parks with campgrounds totals 60, including those the agency operates on its own, by a concessionaire, or where camping fees are not charged.

The state likewise has 18 state parks with cabins, with as few as one cabin in a couple of cases. Along with the cabins, the agency has several locations with overnight shelters, the Natural Resources Department says.

As for the number of state parks with golf courses that figure is five, with the one at Shawnee State Park having been permanently closed last year, the Natural Resources Department says.

Among those unshuttered venues range from the agency’s boat ramps to dog parks to hiking trails.

Yet it is these places – and which the DeWine Administration encourages people to visit as emotional control valves and for exercise – that have some people concerned. And that anxiousness swirls around two areas: Safety and health.

On the first score the Natural Resources Department offers reassurances the still-opened venues are fine.

“Natural Resource officers continue to patrol our state parks as they always have. We have not instituted any furloughs, although we are asking staff to work remotely if at all possible for their protection and the protection of visitors,” said Sarah Wickham, chief of the Department’s Communications Office.

“We remain committed to the protection of state property and safety of our hikers and boaters.”

But not everyone agrees. Not even those who work for the Natural Resources Department. They note how the Parks Division’s staff repeatedly has endured cuts, and that the lack of now-furloughed maintenance workers could encourage illegal activity or injurious behavior.

“They (the parks) are dangerous,” said one Natural Resources employee who asked not to be identified and who emphasized the word “are.”

This source also questioned the Department’s statement as to how the parks are being patrolled, at least to the level they were prior to DeWine’s Stay At Home order.

Other current and former Natural Resources personnel agree, noting should a person run into trouble at a park – particularly a remote one – getting assistance when a single ranger is sitting in an office could prove problematic.

“That person could be in really serious trouble, especially where cell phone coverage is difficult. It’s just another element that most people haven’t likely thought about,” the second source said.

Regarding the health of visitors at what sites do remain open, that question is no less vital. It is one the Natural Resources Department even admits to, though likely without realizing it.

“Because we have closed lodges, cabins, campgrounds, restrooms, marina buildings and other enclosed facilities to prevent the spread of COVID 19, we have less need for staff on site,” Wickham said.

Thus, with comfort stations closed and the lack of staff to look after the parks system’s still-open physical assets, visitors looking to relieve themselves must find alternatives quickly.

In this respect, Wickham said “Visitors should plan their trips accordingly.”

“We are putting up as much signage as possible, but it’s important that visitors use common sense to protect themselves,” Wickham said.

And the state parks’ restroom closure does also mirror what some county park districts are also doing – such as the Geauga Park District. Still other county park districts – such as Lake Metroparks – are keeping their restrooms available for the public. At least for now.

Also, while the Natural Resources Department’s 15 unsupervised dog parks are not being maintained, someone has to clear the collection of disposed dog-waste bags and pick up what pet owners did not address.

Consequently, unmaintained recreation areas and those locations with shuttered restrooms may become breeding grounds for other forms of communicable diseases, critics allege.

“I would hate to be the one cleaning the restrooms but if one were available and I’d have to go, I’d go,” said the second source. “Otherwise I’d have to find a bush in the park.”

By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Ohio's Lake Erie walleye bonanza won't mean a larger daily purse for anglers

Even with unprecedented walleye numbers, Ohio’s Lake Erie anglers cannot expect to encounter an increase to the daily bag limit.

Nor is the on-going slide in Lake Erie Central Basin yellow perch numbers going to alter the state’s hard-line stance on allowing sport anglers to take up to 30 fish per day.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife’s lead Lake Erie fisheries biologist says a joint U.S.-Canada Lake Erie Task Force group projects that the predicted population of walleye for the 2020 fishing season is 116 million walleye, with an early projection of 151 million walleye for 2021.

“These astronomical estimates are the result of 2015, 2018 and 2019 providing three of the largest hatches that we’ve ever sampled, all drawing comparisons to the 2003 hatch,” says Travis Hartman, Wildlife Division fisheries biologist in charge of managing Ohio’s stock of Lake Erie fishes.

“In addition to the three big hatches, we also had good hatches in 2014 and 2017. And the 2016 looks small compared to the other hatches, but still provided an estimated 6.4 million fish when it entered the fishery in 2018,” Travis said also.

Travis said as well that last year the state’s Lake Erie sport anglers set a new record with a walleye catch rate of 0.83 fish per hour.

“We are approaching success rates that are nearly double the 1980s harvest rates that were around 0.5 fish per hour,” Hartman said. “This is truly the best walleye fishing that we have ever seen in the 40-year history of our Ohio Lake Erie creel survey.”

The bottom line, however, says Hartman, is that Lake Erie anglers will not see any increase to the daily bag limit on Lake Erie-caught walleye.

“We are at a point where a very small increase in effort, which I expect to occur based on the regional recognition of fantastic walleye fishing, could lead to our angling fishery getting very close to our Ohio total allowable catch,” Hartman says.

Hartman says Ohio’s Lake Erie walleye anglers actually went over the state’s total allowable catch for a few years even with the same six fish daily limit.

“Fast forward to our current fishery and we would only need five million to six million hours of effort to approach our five million total allowable catch,” Hartman says.

Besides, says Hartman, Ohio’s six walleye per day creel limit is accepted by most Lake Erie anglers.

“It provides a legitimate opportunity to achieve your daily limit on most trips, and it extends good year classes to provide world class fishing well into the future by keeping us within total allowable catch compliance,” Hartman said.

Hartman said also that while fisheries biologists are in the final stages of internally completing Ohio’s Lake Erie yellow perch allocations, “we are likely still in a position to ensure a 30-fish daily limit for anglers in all three management units while still allocating 35 percent to our commercial trap net industry.”

Importantly, too, says Hartman, the Wildlife Division is closely watching the designated Central Basin management units “as the population trajectories continue to decline.”

“We are clearly in a time of consistently poor hatches in the Central Basin, and we need some help from spring weather conditions to increase production,” Hartman said.

At least the lake’s Western Basin has produced better yellow perch hatches recently and Hartman says that a good year class entered the fishery in 2018.

“The larger yellow perch story is that, regardless of which basin you are fishing and what the population trajectory is, yellow perch have become extremely difficult to catch even if you can find them,” Hartman says.

Attribute at least a portion of Lake Erie perch angling difficulty, says Hartman, to a changing diet of the species .A higher proportion of invertebrate diet items in yellow perch stomachs - mostly made up of midge larvae and spiny water fleas – is being seen by biologists, says Hartman.

“Reliance upon these recently abundant food sources has likely changed the perch’s feeding behavior, and in the case of the spiny water fleas, is causing the perch to move up into the water column at times,” Hartman says.

Between the perch having shorter feeding windows and often being spread throughout the water column, anglers “have had much lower success rates than we would expect,” Hartman says.

“The Western Basin should have fantastic perch fishing, but the results in the west have been only barely better than results farther east where there are fewer fish,” Hartman says.

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

Ohio's fishing/turkey hunting may be latest coronavirus victims

Though a direct apples to apples comparison might be challenging, subtle hints could be suggesting the coronavirus might be causing fewer anglers to fish in Ohio.

And the wink might even be stronger for turkey hunting.

Figures supplied by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife shows that a to-date total of 65,819 fishing licenses of all kinds – the agency notes 17 types – were issued as of March 23rd. That to-date figure compares to the 100,213 fishing licenses of all kinds issued for the same period in 2019. This is a drop of 34,394 documents, or nearly 35 percent.

Perhaps more telling is the decline of non-resident annual fishing licenses; those permits sold to out-of-staters. These non-resident anglers are often seen as taking in Lake Erie’s acclaimed early spring walleye fisheries, but who often are required to make long distance runs to get to Ohio.

Here, the current to-date non-resident fishing license sales totals 2,797 documents verses the corresponding 2019 to-date figure of 3,705 documents. This is a decline of about 25 percent.

And the drops to appear be accelerating, too.

The to-date sale of all types of fishing licenses issued as of March 16th – one week earlier and just before Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued his Stay At Home order – was 48,020 documents. The corresponding 2019 to-date figure was 64,941 documents; or a drop of 16,921 documents, or nearly 26 percent.

Interestingly, too, the drop in annual non-resident fishing licenses took a significant course change over the past week. The issuance of annual non-resident fishing licenses for the period ending March 16th was 2,115 documents while the corresponding 2019 figure was 1,958 documents.

Thus, this change was an actual increase of 157 tags but which was wiped out following DeWine’s March 22^nd Stay At Home order.

“The year-to-date fishing license comparisons will be difficult this year because of two recent changes,” says John Windau, the Wildlife Division’s Licensing Communications Coordinator.

First, says Windau, for a true representation of active license holders, the sales of multiyear and lifetime fishing licenses from previous years “should be taken into consideration, since anglers who previously purchased these licenses won’t be purchasing a fishing license this year.”

“In addition, the transition from seasonal fishing licenses that expired the last day in February to licenses that expire one-year from the date of purchase will change when anglers renew their licenses,” Windau says.

Previously, anglers could renew their licenses beginning March 1, regardless of when it was purchased, Windau says.

“Now, anglers may renew up to 30 days before expiration which is based on the date of purchase. This will distort any comparisons of fishing license sales based on a fixed date this year,” Windau says.

Even so, another angling metric that might be stalking fishing activity in Ohio as it relates to the coronavirus crisis is the Fish Ohio program. This popular Wildlife Division program recognizes an angler who catches a qualifying representative from one of 25 eligible species.

Here, the to-date number of Fish Ohio applications is 670. The corresponding 2019 to-date figure was 579 applications, a drop of about 15 percent.

All in spite of one of the mildest winters and early spring, which – before the coronavirus outbreak saw large numbers of angler finding open water to fish from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.

Likewise, the sale of spring wild turkey permits is lagging this year and is also accelerating, another potential indicator of reduced outdoors activity in Ohio.

In looking at all five types of spring turkey-hunting permits, 5,057 have been issued to-date as of March 23rd. The corresponding figure for 2019 was 6,094. This represents a drop of 1,037 documents, or about 18 percent.

For last week – again, just prior to DeWine’s Stay At Home order – the to-date issuance of spring wild turkey-hunting documents was 3,526 while the corresponding figure for 2019 was 4,195 documents. This represented a drop of 669 permits, or 16 percent.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com

Ohio's public boat launches not impacted by Stay At Home Order - for now

With developments ratcheting to contain the cornoavirus crisis, as many questions are being asked as answers are available.

Among them for Ohio’s sportsmen is the status of the popular public boat launches in Lake Erie’s Western Basin.

This query is of particular concern now as the lake’s spring walleye fishing season ramps up. Access, then, to the region’s boat launches of keen interest and importance to anglers.

The situation remains in a state of uncertainty, however, especially after today’s – Sunday, March 21st - “Stay At Home Order” issued by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Health’s director, Dr. Amy Acton.

This order begins at 11:59 p.m., March 23rd and expires April 6th.
Impacted includes non-essential businesses. In Pennsylvania where a similar edict was issued last week, those non-essential businesess included sporting goods stores, gun shops, and bait stores.

Such a likelihood cannot be ruled out for Ohio, either.

“This order prohibits holding gatherings of any size and closes all nonessential businesses. It does NOT prohibit essential activities like going to the grocery store, receiving medical care, or taking your pet for a walk. Residents can return home from out of state and can leave the state,” says the Ohio Department of Health, which is the entity that actually issued the legally enforceable requirement.

As for the impact on Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ boat launches – whether along the Ohio River, inland, or straddling the Lake Erie shoreline – that issue is being studied by agency officials.

“Boat launches are open today. However, we are monitoring the situation and assessing the impact of today’s Stay At Home Order, and will make changes as needed to protect the public,” said Sarah Wickham, the Natural Resources Department’s chief of communications.

Asked about other agency holdings and whether the public can visit them, Wickham says the Ohio State Parks system remains open.

Such encouragement is necessary, parks officials of all stripes say both for the physical and mental well-being of the public they all serve. Under the order, people are still allowed to go to parks, hike, jog, walk, fish and otherwise enjoy the outdoors, officials with both the Natural Resources Department and the Department of Health are saying.

“But we are cautioning people to use common sense and maintain safe distances,” Wickham says.

“Parks and trails are always busy in the spring, and we are encouraging people to follow social distancing guidelines. We hope visitors will follow (guidelines) from the National Recreation and Park Association for staying safe while they are out.”

These guidelines are available for viewing at www.nrpa.org.

“Social distancing is an important first step in preventing the spread of a disease like COVID-19 that allows people to go about their daily activities while taking extra health and safety precautions,” The Ohio Health Department says as well.

“The Stay at Home order requires people to remain in their homes unless they have an essential job or are doing an essential task like going to the grocery store or walking a pet.”

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com

Ohio-based Fin, Feather, Fur Outfitters closes over COVID-19 threat

In an unprecedented move, the Ashland, Ohio-based Fin, Feather, Fur Outfitters has closed the chain’s six stores during the coronavirus crisis.

The announcement came Saturday evening in an emotional four-minute and 17-second YouTube video by Mike Goschenisk, the firm’s founder and president-CEO.

Fin, Feather, Fur is arguably the largest firearms and ammunition in northern Ohio, if not the entire state. As a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the ratcheting of activities that people do – or allowed to do – along with fears of a social order break-down, a run on firearms and ammunition is sweeping the country.

This stampede is particularly evident with ammunition supplies of popular self-defense handgun and rifle caliber rounds have paralleled those of hard-to-find bottles of disinfectant spray and toilet paper.

Using his Wooster store’s firearms room as the video’s backdrop, Goschenick explains his reasoning.

He starts with a very short history of Fins’ genesis, and then emotionally recounts that as a 19year-old he “made a bad decision” that cost his best friend his life. Goschenick stops for brief periods as he collects his obviously strained emotions.

Using that as a catapult to explain the chain’s temporary closing, Goschenick said the stores have, during this COVID-19 crisis, “crushed’ every sales record for the firm. This, as potential buyers that numbered up to 400 at a time stood in lines “for hours” just to enter the establishments.

That sort of close contact cuts against the local, state and federal guidelines which urges people to practice what-is-being called “social distancing” and also to avoid crowds.

Goschenick said that when he saw on the news how four members of the same New Jersey died from the virus, a reflection of what’s truly important came to the forefront.

“I need to make sure that I make the right decision now,” Goschenick says in his You Tube video, “and the right decision was how we can take care of my employees.”

In going further, Goschenick said he doubts he could look himself in the eye should an employee or an employee’s family member were to succumb to COVID-19 “because I kept the stores opened, continued to wait on customers.”

“Sooner or later, someone was going to pay the price,” he said.

Goschenick did say he was sorry “for the suddenness” of the closing, adding that the store will begin calling customers with back-ordered firearms. The store will offer refunds on credit card purchases, if the customer prefers. Goschenick said.

“It’s not about making money. It’s not about using your guns and ammunition. It’s about how do we save lives. How do we save your families’ lives, and how we can save our employees’ lives,” Goschenick said. “I hope you’ll understand this in the future.”

Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s did not respond last week for that duel-chains’ comments regarding potential v=COVID-19-associated activities or store closings. Only Bass Pro Shop’s Pennsylvania store is shuttered as a result of that state’s gubernatorial order for the closure of all non-essential businesses.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com

Ohio's wildlife officers pulled back on duties while metroparks rangers stay the course

During the on-going coronavirus crisis, officers with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife will not be performing “routine” fishing and hunting license checks.

Nor, it would appear, conduct clandestine law enforcement operations to check for suspicious and illegal activity. That would seemingly include undercover work along such places as the Maumee River, long a hot-spot for early spring walleye fishing.

This, from an inquiry made to the agency by “Ohio Outdoor News.”

Instead, the Natural Resources Department says, officers will only approach the public “...in non-emergency situation(s).”

But the agency did not elaborate as to what constitutes either an emergency or non-emergency situation, though clarification was sought but was not forthcoming.

The Natural Resources Department did say its staff will be “...monitoring our anglers from the shore, checking bald eagle nest reports, and monitoring our wildlife properties.”

However, sources within the Natural Resources Department’s law enforcement apparatus as well as agency retirees paint an entirely different picture.

Likewise, several county park districts say their respective ranger staffs continue to interact with the public they serve, including the Metroparks Toledo.

This metro parks operates the famous Side Cut Park, which is a preeminent Maumee River early spring walleye-run fishing hole.

Asked about ranger staffing and activity level of its 25-member ranger staff, Metroparks Toledo director of communications Scott Carpenter said the agency is encouraging its officers to continue interacting with the public, but exercise caution at the same time.

“Some of them may be staying in their patrol cars more and not out on foot patrols or on bikes as much, but, no, we want to see people out as much as possible,” Carpenter said.

As for any closure of Side Cut Park, that is not an option the parks system is considering at the moment, Carpenter says as well.

“Is there a safer place for people to be than standing in a river, fishing for walleye?” Carpenter said.

Lake Metroparks in Lake County also has a fully engaged ranger staff. Its officers continue to actively patrol and engage the public, including at that agency’s several popular steelhead fishing units along both the Grand and Chagrin rivers and several of the former’s tributaries, a parks official said.

Similarly, the Geauga Parks District’s seven-ranger staff continues to operate as close to normal as possible. This interaction is being done via patrol car and on foot, said agency spokeswoman, Sandy Ward.

“(Our) ranger operations are still ‘business as usual’ currently; no changes in protocol, beyond perhaps the six-foot social distancing guidelines staff will be inclined to follow,” Ward says.

All of which is in sharp contrast to how the Natural Resources Department is addressing as to how its law enforcement staff operates.

“Our priority right now is the health of the public and our officers, so they are practicing responsible interactions whenever possible which means things might look different than people are accustomed to,” said Sarah Wickham, the Natural Resources Department’s chief of communications.

“Our wildlife officers are a vital part of our operation. We are working to protect our officers and the public while they do their very important work in this unique time.”

Yet not every Wildlife officer agrees, with some of them saying the Natural Resources Department is requiring its commissioned staff to work at home, not from home.

“They have all of us staying home. Not allowed to go out and patrol,” said one commissioned officer who requested anonymity.

“(They are) dissolving the covert operations unit, as well. We need more boots in the field not more supervisors. They want to save money but they are creating more top heavy positions,” the source said.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com