Outdoors
Rec
Hunting For
Hare Habitat
Snow leads to
a surprising
discovery
Saturday, March 19, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Bear, cougar
hunters
required
to check in
animals
Rule, suspended during
pandemic, also affects
people who salvage
roadkilled deer or elk
BRAD
TRUMBO
EO Media Group
UPLAND PURSUITS
ix feet of snow piled atop
the Forest Service gate
that separated us from our
mountaintop destination – another
30-minute climb on a summer
day. I had snowshoes in the back,
but it would have taken the rest of
the day to make the hike. Walking
to the rig behind me, I peered
through the window at friends
Doug and Bob.
S
“What do ya think? Chain up and
give it hell?” I asked with a grin.
“You first!” Doug said through a
nervous chuckle.
We had talked of chasing snow-
shoe hares since Christmas, and about
a week before the season closed in
mid-March, we finally pulled together
a late morning hunt. Faced with the
wall of snow standing between us and
our original plans, “Plan B” took a dif-
ferent approach, leaving the deep forest,
circumventing a mountain range and
coming into the creek bottom in the
next drainage over. Bob didn’t have
snowshoes, so we played it safe by
Brad Trumbo/Contributed Photo
The beauty of a snowshoe hare makes it a difficult animal to hunt, but the table fare is equally
difficult to deny.
staying low in elevation, but I was skep-
tical of our hare-finding prospects.
The snow had mostly melted in the
creek bottom, save for the toe of the
eastern slope which contained the right
mix of ferns, ninebark, hawthorn, ser-
viceberry, rose, and raspberry, packed
tight against a steep hillside that was
punctuated with eroded basalt bands
and outcrops. I had only hunted the
area during grouse season and the
dogs had never moved a hare to my
knowledge. The likelihood of jumping
one was entirely unknown and unex-
pected by the three of us.
See, Hares/Page B2
Brad Trumbo/Contributed Photo
Snowshoe hares have impressively large hind
feet to distribute their weight in deep snow.
The most magical of kids camps
TOM
CLAYCOMB
BASE CAMP
first became acquainted with the
Scooters Youth Hunting Camp (SYHC)
back in 2004 or 2005. My wife came
home from school one day and told me that
she’d signed up two kids in her school in
some kind of youth hunting camp and that I
had to take them to it. What?!
The camp is held the first Saturday in
May every year. That is right in the middle
of primo bear and whistle pig hunting and
crappie fishing ... and turkey hunting ... and
morel mushroom picking season!
I don’t want to sound self-centered but
I was stuck no matter how much I whined.
So, I dutifully took the two young boys.
Little did I know that I would end up liking
the camp better than they did. In fact, I’ve
been a volunteer ever since. And the two
young boys have grown up to be good
young men and I later got to take them both
on their first deer hunt.
I conduct 40 to 60 outdoor seminars/
speaking engagements per year all the way
from Texas to Alaska. I had five in Vegas
in January alone and yet the SYHC is the
coolest deal that I do all year. Founder Scott
originally did it to help single moms. He
couldn’t deny kids with two parents to come
but his heart was originally to help single
moms in getting their kids in the outdoors
to help them stay out of trouble.
In the beginning kids mailed in applica-
tions and all were accepted. I think in those
days we had about 140 kids. Finally, it kept
growing until we had to hire someone to do
a call-in registration. Last year it filled up
with 250 kids in 47 seconds. It is the coolest
deal in the world.
Here’s the format. The kids show
up and sign in and are divided into six
groups. To begin we meet and say the
Pledge of Allegiance, a local pastor says a
prayer and then group one goes to the first
station, group two to the second one and
so on.
There are six stations: trap shooting,
.22 range, blackpower range, archery
B
SALEM — After a nearly two-
year hiatus due to the pandemic, a
state rule that requires bear and cougar
hunters who harvest an animal to have
it checked at an Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) office is
back in effect starting Saturday, March
19.
The rule, which dates back many
years, requires successful cougar and
bear hunters to bring certain parts of
the animal to an ODFW office within
10 days of harvest. The requirement
was suspended during the pandemic,
as ODFW offices were closed to the
public.
Although the check-in rule has
resumed, ODFW offices remain closed
to the public and aren’t expected
to reopen until May 1 at the ear-
lier, so hunters will need to set up an
appointment.
A list of field offices is available at
https://myodfw.com/contact-us.
For cougars, hunters are required to
bring the hide with skull, and proof of
sex attached. For female cougars, the
reproductive tract must be brought to
the check-in as well.
Bear hunters are required to bring
only the skull (although ODFW also
asks hunters to voluntarily include
the reproductive tract for research
purposes).
If a cougar or bear skull has been
frozen, it must be thawed prior to the
appointment, and hunters should prop
open the animal’s mouth to make it
easier for ODFW biologists to extract
a tooth. ODFW uses the teeth to gauge
the animal’s age, information that helps
the agency estimate bear and cougar
populations.
Hunters also will need to show their
license and tag during the appoint-
ment, and report the unit where they
killed the animal.
Cougar season is open year round in
Oregon.
The spring bear season opens
April 1.
Roadkill salvage
I
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
The Scooters Youth Hunting Camp at Emmett, Idaho, gives youth a chance to learn a variety of outdoor skills.
range, survival range, gun cleaning/knife
sharpening.
After 45 minutes, all groups reconvene
in the meeting area and a seminar is put
on by a Prostaff member. They are great
seminars and I always learn a lot at them.
When the seminar is over the kids rotate
to their next station.
At lunch time we break and eat lunch
that has been prepared by a group of vol-
unteers. What makes the camp really cool
is that due to generous local businesses
the food and snacks are all donated and
cooked by volunteers so they eat for free.
After lunch the kids rotate to their next
station.
After the kids have hit all of the sta-
tions they reconvene in the meeting area
for Scott’s favorite event — the kids
drawing. Due to local businesses and
major companies donating items, every
kid draws a gift. And I meant nice gifts.
Companies and local businesses are over-
the-top generous. Companies like Knives
of Alaska, Smith’s Consumer Products,
Spyderco, Swab-its, Otis, Umarex Air-
guns, Swab-its and the list goes on and on.
All of the kids get to go free due to the
generosity of local and national businesses
and volunteer help. Where the heck was the
SYHC at when I was a kid?!
Here are a few general rules but check
the website below to ensure that you don’t
miss the registration!
• Registration opens April 1, 2022 at
10 a.m. Mountain time.
• Kids must be 9-16 years old.
• Camp will be held rain or shine.
Nothing short of the rapture will stop the
camp from occurring.
• The camp will be photographed by var-
ious media sources. If you do not want your
kid filmed, then DO NOT attend.
• it will take place in Emmett, Idaho, at
the Gem County Rod and Gun Club.
(OK, I hate to be juvenile, but here’s the
highlight for me. HeBrews coffee in Emmett
sets up a doughnut trailer at start-up. Let’s
just say, I eat more than my fair share of
sugar/cinnamon doughnuts.)
More information is available
here: https://www.eventbrite.com/
e/2022-scooters-youth-hunting-camp-
tickets-153236060181
Also starting on Saturday, March
19, residents who salvage a roadkilled
deer or elk will have to call the nearest
ODFW office and schedule an appoint-
ment to have the animal checked and
turn in the head (including antlers, if
it’s a buck or bull).
The appointments are required
within five business days of collecting
the carcass.
The purpose is to allow ODFW biol-
ogists to take tissue samples that are
tested for Chronic Wasting Disease, a
potentially devastating affliction that
has not been confirmed in Oregon.
Deer with the disease were found in
Idaho last year within 30 miles of the
Oregon border, however.
Oregon’s roadkill salvage rule took
effect Jan. 1, 2019.
The law requires people to fill out
a permit within 24 hours of salvaging
the deer or elk. That can be done
online. The permit includes details
such as the person’s name, where and
when the animal was salvaged, and
whether the person who collected the
meat also struck the animal.
It is legal, in certain cases, for a
person to salvage a deer or elk that
another driver struck. That’s lawful so
long as the animal is dead and doesn’t
have to be put out of its misery with a
gunshot.
But if a driver hits and wounds
an animal, then has to euthanize it,
only the driver can legally salvage the
meat. In those cases the driver is also
required to immediately notify law
enforcement.
The driver who hits an animal can
also salvage the meat if a police officer
dispatches a wounded animal.
More information is avail-
able at https://myodfw.com/articles/
roadkill-salvage-permits.