Good afternoon everyone! Looks like we all have had a good weekend so far. just returned from the Green Mtns. in Ripton, about 30 miles from the lake. It's an area of old abandoned hill farms, sawmills, and logging jobs. Now owned and managed by the USFS, it has returned to it's prior wild state, and does contain one of VT's 2 widerness areas.....foot traffic only within it's boundaries, and preserved for all time in it's natural state with no manmade management.....so far it has spawned some terrific trophy deer, and the comeback of furbearers, and small game. Since it is not actively managed, Mother nature has had her way, and the windblown, and downed thickets make travel difficult, but that's where you want to be to observe the way Mother works, and have the primal experience. Great day, and located a small thicket of ginseng...none mature enough to dig yet, and have to check if in fact you can in wilderness area.
RC, bear have been moving out of the mountains here for a couple years, and even shown up on peoples porches in the area of Burlington, destroying the bird feeders, and people keep putting more out, and then get upset with Fish and Game when they have to remove the bear. Most are either live trapped, or tranquillized and taken back to the mountains and released. Some return and cause more problems, and are dealt with more severely! They become unafraid of people, and can do a lot of damage when pissed off!
Remember in 1982, when the Moose population was just expanding, and moving to new areas of the State, got a call one Sunday morning about a bull moose joining a foursome at Burlington country club, and not leaving. Grabbed the tranquilizer gun and headed to town.....first moose I bagged, put it temporarily to sleep on a fairway, and reality hits, how to get 1200 lbs of moose in the truck? Some 2x10's, and a come-a-long, and a headache later, Bullwinkle was returned to the wilds, the golf game continued, and I was home in time for lunch. When the wild children of Mother Nature meet man, one never can predict what will happen, but like the saying goes," it's not a job, it's an adventure"......Gary