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News
Bow hunter uses arrow to fight off grizzly
Posted by WpgJim on Thursday, September 17, 2009 (15:18:46) (117 reads)
By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun
Rory Chapple was hunting for elk near the Kechika River in northern B.C. when he says he came face-to-face with a grizzly.
Photograph by: Handout, Vancouver Sun
An arrow intended for an elk instead saved a veteran bow hunter’s life when a grizzly attacked him last week in northern B.C.
Rory Chapple, an autobody worker from Fort. St. John, was on an annual elk hunting trip with four buddies near the remote Kechika River when he left camp in search of elk at about 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 8.
He was alone because his buddies didn’t want to hunt in the rain. Armed with his bow and quiver, he was ambling up a hill when he heard something huffing behind him.
Turning around, he found himself face-to-face with a growling grizzly sow and three yearling cubs.
“I’d walked about 100 yards before she came out of the bush and charged me,” Chapple, 39, said. “I couldn’t outrun her and I had nowhere to hide. It was a losing battle so all I could do was holler and scream at her.”
As she charged toward him, the screaming Chapple began backing up but his heel hooked on a root and he tripped.
The bear lunged and Chapple grabbed the only tool he had — an arrow from his quiver — and stuck it in her throat. He didn’t have time to load the bow.
“My first reaction was to save my ass. It’s ‘what can I do to survive this.’” Chapple said. “She landed on top of me, pushed my head into the ground and stepped on my right leg, ripping my pants.”
As the bear turned away, the arrow pushed deeper into her throat but she eventually managed to dislodge it and fled with her cubs into the willows.
That’s when the shock hit, Chapple said, and he was “hunched over like a bowl of jelly” when his buddies found him.
“I was close enough to camp so they could hear me screaming,” he said. “You realize it’s a matter of life and death here and all I had to defend myself was a bow and arrow.
“It could have definitely been worse.”
The hunters searched for the bear but there was no sign of her or her cubs in the area.
Chapple, a father of two girls, said this is the first time in seven years that he has seen a bear near the Kechika River, which is in a remote part of B.C.
To get to the camp, he and his buddies drove for eight hours up the Alaska Highway and then took a boat for another 3.5 hours on the river. The group returned home two days later, with Chapple relatively unscathed.
Chapple, who is president of the Fort St. John archery club, said he plans to return to the Kechika River next year and has already bought a can of bear spray.
The arrow that saved him, he said, will be kept safe in a glass case.
Source: http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/hunter+uses+arrow+fight+grizzly/2001599/story.html
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Who you gonna call?
Posted by WpgJim on Friday, September 11, 2009 (17:33:29) (114 reads)
East Selkirk resident disgusted after bear report goes unchecked
By Mark T. Buss
An East Selkirk resident who watched a mother bear and four cubs roam his property for over four hours on the weekend is disgusted with the way his report was handled by Manitoba Conservation officials.
Kyle Wass said not only did Conservation officers fail to attend the scene, he still hasn’t received a follow-up call.
“I grew up in a hunting family and I’ve had a lot of dealings with (Conservation) over the years, but the fact nobody would come out and investigate ... I was stunned,” Wass said.
Wass said the incident started around 2 a.m. on Sept. 5 when his two dogs became agitated and began barking vigorously in the family’s backyard on Strathcona Road across from Happy Thought School.
Wass said he went outside to investigate, only to find the dogs had treed two bear cubs on the property.
Realizing something else was in the yard, he turned to find a 250-pound sow and two more cubs scampering up a tree.
“She was right behind me and I didn’t even know it,” Wass said. “Needless to say, I got back into the house pretty quick.”
Wass contacted the Selkirk RCMP, who gave him the Conservation 800-number tip line to call, which he said he did.
After going through the automated directory, Wass said a woman answered the phone who, he said, sounded like she wasn’t to impressed with having her sleep disturbed.
“She told me the Selkirk Conservation office was the hardest one to get hold of and advised me to leave the animals alone and they would eventually go away,” Wass said in a joking tone. “I tried to explain I lived in the village, across from the elementary school ... that I didn’t live off in the boonies somewhere bears normally wander through, but that didn’t seem to matter.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” he added.
Able to eventually gather his dogs in the house, Wass said he and his family spent the next four hours watching the bears climb down from their perch and move from the back yard to the front yard.
As the clock passed 6 a.m., and the bears were still on his property, Wass said he realized no Natural Resources officers were coming to investigate.
“By 7 a.m. the bears were gone from my yard but we didn’t know where they went,” Wass said. “This is a pretty active place. People take their dogs for walks, people jog ... it wasn’t a very good feeling.”
Wass’ mother-in-law Elaine Markwart said her family had two other bear sightings within the last week – one on Frank Street and one of Church Road – including allegations of gunshots Monday night.
Markwart believes bears have become more brazen as they continue to forage for food following a poor summer for berries and other items.
“They’re starving,” Markwart said. “They’re looking for food and I think that makes them dangerous.”
A former Lord Selkirk School Division trustee, Markwart said the bear sighting’s proximity to the Happy Thought School – where children spend their summers congregating on the playground – is unsettling.
“This is potentially dangerous situation in a residential area and we can’t get a proper response?” Markwart questioned. “If (Conservation) doesn’t handle this, who does?”
Environmental sources say protocol regarding bear sightings involves reports being forwarded to the appropriate Conservation office which will then result in a call from a Conservation officer. At press time, it was undetermined if the Saturday morning report was ever forwarded to the Selkirk office.
Barry Verbiwski, head of Conservation’s problem wildlife unit, confirmed 59 bear reports have been called in the Selkirk area this year with approximately one month to go, as opposed to 41 all of last year.
Verbiwski advised homeowners have a role to play by managing their properties so bears aren’t attracted to them. Garbage and food should be secured in a manner that doesn’t allow odours to escape and attractants like compost piles and beehives should be covered.
“Bird feeders and garbage are responsible for 70 per cent of calls,” Verbiwski said.
He added not all reports are investigated but did confirm ones where animals won’t leave a property are normally followed through.
Although he couldn’t officially comment on Saturday’s incident, Verbiwski said having four cubs and a mother in a rural residential setting should have sent up a red flag in his view.
Selkirk Journal calls to Conservation Minister Stan Struthers’ communication staff were not returned as of press time.
Bear attack
While bear sightings are not that uncommon in and around East Selkirk, the community’s worst fears were realized in August 2005 when Harvey Robinson, 68, was attacked and killed by a 250-pound black bear while out picking plums behind his Two Mile Road property in the RM of St. Clements.
The incident could have been even more disastrous had family members not waited for RCMP officers to arrive on the scene. As they stood near Robinson’s body, the bear came charging out of the bush forcing a Selkirk Mountie to shoot the bear twice with his 9-mm pistol.
The bear was found dead five hours later in a massive search that included Selkirk RCMP, Manitoba Conservation and seasoned St. Clements hunters while a helicopter soared overhead.
Source: http://www.selkirkjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1749579
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Thinking through the camp proposal
Posted by WpgJim on Saturday, July 18, 2009 (14:30:32) (15 reads)
Whiteshell park area hardly pristine now
By: Bruce Owen
MEDITATION LAKE -- The wolf ambles through the clear cut, poking its nose in what little underbrush there is.
A 2007 wind storm toppled thousands of trees here that loggers have cleaned up, so it's easy to pick out the lone animal.
Chris Monk doesn’t want the proposed youth camp and all its services to set up in the area, where his family has fished for years.
Chris Monk doesn’t want the proposed youth camp and all its services to set up in the area, where his family has fished for years. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)
A timber wolf stares through the underbrush at Meditation Lake. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)
The wolf looks at us for a few brief seconds and continues with his scrounging, not caring if we're there. A few minutes later, he trots off.
To borrow a line from an old song, will he survive?
The Doer government is entertaining the idea of allowing coffee-and-doughnut juggernaut Tim Hortons, through its Children's Foundation, to build a wilderness youth camp on the shore of Meditation Lake.
Some fear the camp will ruin a pristine area of Whiteshell Provincial Park. Others say a year-round facility will only improve an area of the park that has been underserved by government.
But to say Meditation Lake and the area around it is pristine wilderness is stretching things a bit. The wind storm and earlier logging operations -- now banned -- have changed virgin forest to a moonscape. On the way into Meditation Lake off Highway 307, there's also a big quarry with high piles of gravel and crushed rock, and a second but inactive quarry.
The proposed $10-million camp that was to open by 2011 now appears to be in limbo as the province and the Tim Hortons Children's Foundation study its feasibility.
Hiker Chris Monk and a companion want Meditation Lake to stay as it is, and any camp built in a more accessible area.
"This is a paradise," Monk, 71, says, despite the rain and mosquitoes. "You're not going to have it back once you put the camp in here."
His family fished for northern pike on the lake, taking their boat down the trail on a makeshift bicycle-wheel trailer. Many still do.
If Tim Hortons gets the green light, it means building a new road to the lake for several kilometres off Hwy. 309 that's big enough to accommodate buses taking kids to the camp and trucks delivering groceries and taking away garbage. It also means extending electricity service and likely building a sewage lagoon and water-treatment system.
With increased vehicle traffic, the province may have to improve Hwy. 307 from Rennie north to White Lake and Hwy. 309 from White Lake to Big Whiteshell Lake.
"It's going to improve the park as a whole," Big Whiteshell Lake Lodge owner Karl Fabian says. "If they improve the roads, do you think any of the cottagers are going to complain?"
Tim Hortons Children's Foundation vice-president David Newnham has said officials are to review a summer's worth of provincially collected water-quality data before any decision is made.
Opponents say because the lake is shallow, and in dry years restricted in its outflow, it's plagued with blue-green algae blooms, making it unsuitable for swimming and canoeing activities.
What causes the toxic algae is unknown. One theory is airborne contaminants from fertilizer used in agriculture might be to blame. The same algae blooms appear on Lake Winnipeg from time to time.
"We want to make sure the water quality in the lake is appropriate for a children's camp," Newnham said. "It is possible we will need to take a look at other locations if Meditation Lake is not deemed to be an appropriate spot." Eric Reder, the Manitoba campaign director for the Wilderness Committee, said one option might be for Tim Hortons to take over and improve an existing facility elsewhere in the Whiteshell, though he wants the government to be more open should that happen.
Reder also said new legislation should be enacted restricting development on Meditation Lake and nearby Horseshoe Lake.
Maybe then, too, the wolf will survive.
What's there
MEDITATION Lake is 340 hectares in size, lying five kilometres west of Big Whiteshell Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park.
Access is off Highway 309 running 4.5 km from Rennie.
The landscape around the south end of Meditation Lake includes a large red pine stand and a fine sandy beach. The red pines were planted in 1957. The terrain is dominated by gently rolling bedrock.
Wildlife is primarily white-tailed deer -- some say too many deer -- which attract predators like the wolf.
Meditation Lake supports northern pike, walleye, perch, white sucker and smallmouth bass.
The province is to plant up to 400,000 trees to reforest an large area around the lake hit by a 2007 windstorm.
On April 1, 2009, logging was prohibited in Whiteshell Provincial Park.
-- Source:
Manitoba Government
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 18, 2009 A10
Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/thinking-through-the-camp-proposal-51090867.html
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Campground to include wheelchair sites
Posted by WpgJim on Saturday, June 06, 2009 (14:20:46) (3 reads)
The province and Ottawa are spending $5 million to build a new campground at Winnipeg Beach featuring wheelchair-accessible sites.
The provincial park will get 120 new serviced sites with children’s play areas, picnic sites and an expanded boardwalk. The wheelchair-accessible sites will be the first in the province.
A draft concept plan for the Winnipeg Beach Provincial Park redevelopment will be available for public review at an open house scheduled for Saturday, June 27 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion in Winnipeg Beach.
The project is expected to create up to 150 jobs. The cost of the $5-million project is being split evenly between the federal and provincial governments.
Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Campground-to-include-wheelchair-sites-47076902.html
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