By CJ Lotz

A black bear trapped and released in Florida this week was just four pounds shy of the state record. The 620-pound boar was spotted pulling aluminum siding off a shed while trying to scavenge for food in trash cans.

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission trapper caught the bear in Lake County and biologists sedated it, collected hair samples, and attached an ear tag. The big bruin was then relocated and released.
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By Bob Marshall

Which of the following is more impressive to a member of congress?

A) A sportsman explaining why protecting national lands is important to his pastimes.
B) The owner of a business saying national lands are critical to his operation.

If you answered “A” you might be interested in the polar bear hunt I’m organizing in the Sahara.

There probably are a few members of congress who would give sportsmen’s interests equal consideration to those of business and industry, but lately they’ve been about as a common as – well, polar bears in the Sahara. [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

When European settlers reached North America, the American chestnut was arguably the most important tree in the country. From the Adirondacks to southern Appalachia, chestnuts fed people, livestock, and wildlife. The tree produced lumber of both high quality and tremendous volume. Then, in 1904, a single tree arrived in New York City that carried a blight lethal to chestnuts. The disease tore through the eastern United States like a tsunami, and by the early 1950’s, the American chestnut was nearly extinct. [ Read Full Post ]

By CJ Lotz

When will people learn that if you decide to do something stupid, it might not be such a great idea to shoot video of said stupid act. Or at the very least, don't post it online. But then, that's what keeps YouTube running, right?

This video, recorded in a Cocoa Beach, Florida, neighborhood, shows three men harassing a manatee and its calf—with one of the men cannonballing onto the animals as they swim in a canal. [ Read Full Post ]

By Hal Herring

An algae bloom caused by nitrate pollution on Iowa's Big Creek Lake, located northwest of Des Moines, in summer of 2012.

The next time you find yourself jugfishing along the Mississippi River, or lying in your hammock on your old house boat in southern Louisiana where the freshwater hits the salt, pump up the old Coleman lantern and throw open your tattered old copy of D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths, and read the story of Cassandra. You do remember, don’t you? The beautiful prophet whose ears were licked clean by snakes, so that she could hear the future? No matter how accurate her predictions (including the destruction of Troy by way of the super-warriors hidden inside the gift of the Trojan horse) nobody ever listened to her. Ever. [ Read Full Post ]

By CJ Lotz

On May 11, a Miami man killed the longest Burmese python ever captured in Florida. The 18-foot 8-inch female python was sticking out of bushes near a road when Jason Leon spotted it and pulled his car over. Leon had experience owning snakes in the past, so he pulled the snake from the bushes.

As the python wrapped itself around Leon's leg, he stabbed it with a knife. After reporting the capture to Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Leon learned that the snake weighed 128 pounds. [ Read Full Post ]