I'm back. But I never left. And we are in a crisis.

We are in the midst of a crisis.

I know we hear that a lot. There is a reason. When we are told that something is in such dire circumstances that the scenario is at a tipping point to where only a correction made immediately is the only way to have favorable results or everything is lost, it instills action.

Climate change is an example. We have an entire generation that is being taught blindly that without something changing last week that the earth can only survive for a little over a decade. The sense of urgency is important to create change. That sense is usually brought on by fear of something undesirable.

You can even hear it in sports. If a team isn’t performing well and it is approaching midseason, you will hear mention of the moment being critical, whether it be the second half of an important game, the upcoming game, or the next series of games. Crisis mode has been created to put a sense of urgency and complete focus onto something in order to create the change needed to be successful in the team’s goals.

Well, we are in crisis mode in the hunting and fishing community. This crisis is not only bad for the hunting and fishing community, but for natural resources and wildlife as well.

Two decades ago, North Carolina had 399,045 licensed hunting and fishing individuals that created just under $9 million in gross revenue. South Carolina had 263,045 creating $6.7 million. The United States in whole reported 15.7 million licensed hunters and anglers resulting in $688 million.

These monies are important. License sales go to protecting endangered and threatened species, providing habitat for those species, as well as employing officers that focus strictly on those activities.

By contrast, last year North Carolina had 592,564 licensed hunters and anglers bringing in $10.3 million in revenue to go to those activities. South Carolina had 200,912 licensed individuals resulting in $8.6 million. The US as a whole? 15.5 million with $896.4 million revenue.

While we have seen growth in numbers for both NC and SC in licensed outdoorsmen, the United States has lost numbers. We haven’t even mentioned the cost differences from twenty years ago.

North Carolina also increased population by nearly 3 million people over that same time period. For North Carolina, the licensed individuals (I keep mentioning it this way because looking at only license sales doesn’t give a perfect number as many people have multiple licenses) kept up with the population growth. South Carolina on the other hand, lost 62,000 licensed individuals over twenty years while having a population increase of 1.3 million.

South Carolina is an example of what is happening across the country.

With a loss of 2 million hunters and anglers in the US over the twenty-year period while having a population increase of over 50 million, we are losing the ability to protect these species and habitats as we need to. License sales used to nearly supply all the revenue needed. The outdoors community was a self-funded endeavor. Now, we have bipartisan bills in congress providing monies from the general funds as well as allowing more freedom in the uses of monies from past legislation such as that from the Pittman-Robertson act to both protect the species and encourage and recruit new hunters and anglers.

With a world that has increasingly pulled youth to new activities (specialized sports and training, television and video games to name a few), and an older generation that has increased responsibilities and longer work hours in a faster running world, we will all suffer.

The monies in the past helped turn around the potential losses of species such as whitetail deer and Canadian geese to where they are plentiful and thriving. Now, we may end up seeing species suffer.

And this is a true crisis for everyone.

Game Identification

When I used to teach hunter education, we saved the section on wildlife identification and worked it in with duck hunting. Duck hunting may be the most important type of hunt that requires proper identification due to the regulations limiting certain species and gender in the daily bag limit.

I would explain the importance and then Segway over to a couple of stories on bears and deer. The bear story was entirely fictional and had to do with identifying the species of bear based on their scat. The deer story however was and is completely true.

Many years ago, when the state of Kentucky was still building a sustainable population of elk, prior to the permitted hunts that are available now, a hunter was in the eastern part of the state. He happened to see the largest deer he had ever seen in his life.

Buck fever set in and the hunter was doing everything he could to control his nerves as he waited for the clear shot. The buck had a rack that towered above his head. The body must have been over 400 pounds.

He settled the sights on the buck, and even though he was fighting hard to keep the crosshairs steady, the buck bounced around in the glass. Finally, he felt that he could hold it steady enough to squeeze the trigger.

“Blammm!!” sounded the rifle as the bullet left the muzzle. He watched in amazement as this true trophy dropped to the ground.

Kentucky had check in stations for when you killed a deer, and the hunter called ahead to let the game warden know about this tremendous buck he had just downed. He also made a few calls to local media, friends and family, as he was positive this beast, a sure once-in-a-lifetime prize, would be a new world record. After all, he had to use a wench to pull the great animal into his truck and the antlers were so large they hung over the tailgate with it up.

He drove up to the check in station and saw that between the people he called, and the people they called, there was a large gathering to greet him. He beamed with pride as he was certainly about to become the talk of the town, the state, and maybe the country.

But something was wrong. As soon as he pulled up the game warden begin calling in other wildlife officers. Instead of a look of awe, there was a look of concern.

The hunter had shot one of the elk that Kentucky was using to grow the herd. Not a deer, but an elk. Same family, but a completely different species. An elk stands almost twice as high as a whitetail at the shoulder, the neck is long, the coat is much thicker and browner, and the antlers, well, the antlers are nothing similar.

A whitetail has curved main beams that forces the tips back in to each other. The most mature bucks may have a beam that comes close to 24 inches in length. An elk has antlers that go straight up and back and may be as long as four feet.

My class always questioned the validity of the story and I kept a newspaper clipping that I was happy to pass around.

Now there is more proof that identification is important. This story, like history in general, repeated itself. A hunter in Michigan proceeded to do the same thing back in November.

Misidentification can be costly regarding wild game animals. The hunter in Michigan was charged with a $5000 fine plus and additional $500 for each point on the antler. The elk was a 6x6. That is an additional $6000 on top of the $5000 fine. And he didn’t get to keep it.

As always, know your target before squeezing the trigger. That doesn’t mean just knowing where your target is, it also means knowing what is your target.

The Button Buck

One of the great things when sitting in the stand waiting for Mr. Big to come out to visit is watching the other wildlife. Birds, rabbits, and yes, even those pesky tree rats otherwise known as squirrels can be entertaining. It makes you wonder just what is going on in the minds of these creatures when they are doing so.

We have a habit of humanizing animals based on what they do and how they act. It is an attempt to empathize with creatures that we have a hard time communicating with in an effective manner.

This often carries over into art, media and entertainment. It is how we have Disney movies such as Bambi, Dumbo, The Fox and the Hound, and The Jungle Book. In the digital information age, it is how we get all types of memes such as the various facial expressions of a Siberian husky and oodles of cat videos.

Way back in the day, there was a salesman from Mississippi who had the gift of telling a story. He used his skills to assist in increasing his sales, as his customers were always excited to see him and catch his next great story. His stories often spoke of his cousin and were always based in rural America and life there.

I learned of this salesman/comedian through the news when I grew up. Every day during the news at noon, the local channel would run the farm report. I couldn’t tell you if there is still such a thing anymore, as I cannot remember the last time I watched a full broadcast of the 12pm news. Anyway, during the farm report each day, the person reporting on the various futures and sales prices of various farm markets would finish with a short outtake from the great Jerry Clower.

One such story, slightly changed for the environment, may explain why that little yearling buck you see every day from your stand acts like it does at times.

You see, there were three deer standing on the edge of a field. One was a fit eight-pointer, the second was a smaller six-pointer, and the last one was a young button buck. They were each watching the does that were grazing in the field.

“About twenty of those fine ladies are mine, and I won’t share with anyone,” says the eight-pointer.

“Well, the other ten have an eye for me and you won’t see them go with anyone else,” says the six-pointer.

“That little one over there. She is mine. We are happy with just us,” the button buck stated matter-of-factly to the other two.

Just then, all the does stood alert watching the other side of the field. A massive buck pushed through the bushes lining the woods. His rack boasted of fourteen points, with two of them being symmetrical drop tines. His brow tines were as tall as the rest of the base of the rack and the base was as big around as a man’s wrist.

His body was sculpted and masculine. If it were not for the antlers you could mistake the body for a champion thoroughbred racehorse. His neck was muscular and chiseled. It was clear he could have any doe he wanted and beat any buck in a spar in short notice.

The eight-pointer looked at the other two and said, “well, I don’t really need that many does anyway. I would be happy with five.”

The six-pointer followed suit telling the two bucks, “you know, I could probably get by with just one.”

The button buck, upon hearing the other two, starting pawing at the ground and snorting loudly. He then ran out into the group of does prancing proudly. He pee’d everywhere marking territory and then started rubbing his small antler knobs up and down on a tiny tree.

Running and leaping, he came back to where the other two bucks were.

“What are you doing? That guy is going to tear you apart if you think you can get any of these does!” exclaimed the eight-pointer.

“I just want to make sure he knows I am a buck and not a doe,” said the button buck.

The World is on Fire

The world is on fire. This is not referring to the election results, nor is it referring to the resulting protests of the election results. The world is actually on fire.

Several years ago I spent a week in the Linville Gorge. Yes, as mentioned in this column before, it is one of my favorite places to go. I backpacked into the gorge and around the rim on various trails in order to take in its beauty and serenity.

It may have been one of the most relaxing weeks I have ever had.

The very next week, the gorge was in the news. No, it wasn’t in the news because of my column in which I shared some of the moments while there. It was in the news because it was on fire.

I was able to share a landscape photo I had taken of Hawksbill and Table Rock mountains from a few days before showing magnificently painted leaves adorning the gorge and steep slopes down to the valley where the river flowed and compare it to a photo taken that evening in which it looked like an image that should be inserted into Dante’s Inferno.

All in all, the fire that erupted in the gorge encompassed 2,579 acres before being contained on November 13, 2013. Now, that part of the world is on fire once again.

By comparison, here are some of the numbers from a week prior to this column with a few of the fires burning: Party Rock, 7,171 acres and 45% contained; Maple Springs, 7,788 acres and 69% contained; Boteler, 9,039 acres and 77% contained; and Tellico, 13,874 acres and 91% contained. Can you understand why the smoke is reaching from the mountains all the way to coast of North Carolina?

It seems every day you hear of another fire that has erupted there. Lake Lure, Blowing Rock, basically anywhere in the Pisgah National Forest is in danger.

Cathy Anderson is a professional photographer based near Morganton, NC and has taken some fantastic landscapes of the gorge, Pisgah, and Great Smokey National Forests over the years. With the fires burning, she has gained fame in photojournalism.

Her images of fires taking away acers of pristine mountain forests have spread to various news outlets and been featured on CBS Evening News, several morning news shows, and of course, multiple local news outlets. A time-lapse of the fire burning at Party Rock captures the destruction in a hauntingly beautiful awe sensing experience.

But not only has she informed the nation of what is happening in our own backyard with her mesmerizing images, she also has collected needed items for the firefighters challenging the blazes. Her love of the land there extends past her imagery.

Lots of wildlife have lost their homes, if not their lives from the blazes. People have been evacuated and their homes destroyed as well. But from the ashes new life will grow.  Much like the mythical Phoenix, the mountains will come back stronger. We just need to pray for the safety of all those trying to limit the damage and contain the current fires so the healing can begin.