Anthony Licata

Natural Gas Drilling Threatens Trout in Pennsylvania (and Other Appalachian States)

Online Editors — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:55:57 -0400

Western sportsmen have been dealing with the ramifications of natural gas extraction for years, but now Eastern sportsmen need to brace for impact. Widespread gas drilling is hitting Appalachia, and unless environmental regulations and enforcement catch up with the drilling, there could be major damage to world-class trout water, from small mountain streams to the Delaware River.

Remembering Jim Range

Joe_Cermele — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:26:02 -0500

Photo by Dusan Smetana

The hunting and fishing community lost one of its best this week with the passing of conservationist James D. Range, 63, after a short battle with cancer.

There may be quite a few sportsmen who have never heard of Range, but every single hunter and angler in this country has benefited from the tireless work and unmatched passion he brought to the fight for wildlife and wild places. Simply put, he was a giant whose accomplishments will live on for years to come.

The Tent People

fieldandstream-admin — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:00:39 -0500

Editor's Letter

fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

Every season for the past I5 years my two brothers, my father, my brother-in-law, a few nephews, several random friends, and I have come to this small, primitive camp in the Allegany Mountains of western New York. We bought the land when a paper company sold their vast holdings in these timbered ridges, and many other groups of hunters got parcels surrounding ours. For the first few seasons everyone improvised. They hauled sagging trailers up the access road or squeezed into tiny RVs. Some even slept in the beds of their trucks. My family cleared a spot close to a spring and the road and set up a large canvas wall tent. We heated it with a wood-burning stove that my brother Frank made out of an old 55-gallon barrel. Guys started referring to us as "the tent people."

Now all the camps surrounding ours have built cabins. They have generators, running water, and appliances powered by propane. We're still sleeping in the same wall tent. Not that we haven't made improvements. Over the years we've added a "cook shack," a 12-foot extension from the main tent that gives us a place to prepare meals and store gear. We've rigged a shower from a steel garbage can and a garden hose. It'll get you clean as long as you don't mind lathering up in plain view of the road. We've built portable tables, a nifty shelving unit, and a crude outhouse. Despite all the work we've put into it, our camp can't compete with the cabins when it comes to comfort and convenience.

But here's the funny thing. At the end of the day, people from the surrounding cabins gather around the fire outside of our tent. We sit on stumps, talking about the hunt and grilling skewered slabs of venison over the coals. Guys wander into the tent, chuckling at the tarp floor and the maze of clothes hung over the stove. They joke about how close the cots are to each other and complain about the pungent odor of smoke, muddy boots, and wet wool. Yet they always sit down with a cup of whiskey, and they're never in a hurry to head to their own beds.

Comfort isn't the most important measure of a good deer camp--camaraderie is, and sometimes you need to strip away modern conveniences in order to get it. Whether they acknowledge it or not, every hunter on our mountain seems to agree. I know on November 22, my family will be back in those cots, enduring that old camp smell. We wouldn't want it any other way.

hunting pheasants with hawks

fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:46:17 -0500

Manitoba's best new pike lodge

fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:46:14 -0500

hunting pheasants with hawks

fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:44:54 -0500

Manitoba's best new pike lodge

fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:44:54 -0500

hunting pheasants with hawks

fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:39:46 -0500

The author with Sprint, a hawk trained by falconers at the British School of Falconry's American branch. Hunting with birds of prey is an ancient sport, but it's also completely foreign to most American outdoorsmen. There's a reason for this; becoming a licensed falconer is a two-year process, involving an apprenticeship, tests, and many other requirements. And America doesn't have strong ties to the sport historically; it's not as easy to meet other falconers. But one place you can get an introduction to hunting with hawks is at the American branch of the British School of Falconry, located at the Equinox Resort in Manchester Village, Vermont. It's the first school of its kind in the United States. I visited last August.

hunting pheasants with hawks

fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:39:46 -0500

Harris hawk young sometimes stay with their families for up to three years in order to help raise subsequent broods and help out in cooperative hunts. Guests at the Equinox get to handle and observe trained hawks in action on training walks and in actual hunts. The school uses Harris hawks, a small, gregarious bird native to the American Southwest. In the school's experience, these hawks are calm and have shown more tolerance to being handled by different individuals--an important trait for a wild raptor expected to land on the gloved hand of someone who has never handled one before.