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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2022)
OUTDOORS Blue Mountain Eagle A12 Wednesday, January 5, 2022 Disease outbreak likely won’t aff ect deer tags colder and these midges are no longer on the landscape, we didn’t really have any more losses,” Perrine said. By JAYSON JACOBY jjacoby@bakercityherald.com SHOOTING THE BREEZE You bagged your buck, now it’s butchering time Y ou went out and through hard work and a little luck were able to harvest some wild game this year. You kept it clean, got it home, skinned, hung and cooled. Now what? You want to get it butchered and in the freezer so you can enjoy those tasty steaks all winter long, but how? It seems like it is harder and harder to fi nd some- one to do the butchering for you these days. Many moons ago, I took a deer to a butcher and was sadly disappointed in Rod the quality and quantity of meat I got Carpenter back. Since then, I have done all of my own butchering. It isn’t my favorite part of the hunt, for sure. However, I like being in control of the quality of the outcome, and it isn’t really all that hard to do. The downside is that it does take some time. I can do a deer in three or four hours. An elk takes six hours or so. Naturally, there are thousands of tutorials on the internet. I like Randy Newburg and the Bearded Butchers myself. Basi- cally, you just separate the individual muscle groups off the bone and determine if they are going to be good for steaks, roast or burger. I almost always burger the front shoulders and trim meat of any big game animal. A 600-watt grinder won’t set you back much and, with the price of burger at the store over $4 a pound, will pay for itself pretty quick. You health nuts can grind straight meat for lean burgers. Adding some pork fat or bacon adds a nice fl avor. Last year I found some jalapeno bacon that I added to my burger grind, and it was amazing. The backstraps are always steaks. The hindquarters are usually a mix of steaks and roasts. If the muscle has little con- nective tissue running through it, it gets turned into steak. Oth- erwise it becomes roast. Fat and connective tissue contain most of the wild fl avor, so try to trim off as you can for bet- ter-tasting meat. Lots of folks like to package their meat with a vacuum sealer. It works, but personally, I’m not a fan. In my opinion it takes longer and the packaging isn’t as neat. I like to put the meat in Ziploc freezer bags and wrap it in a double layer of freezer paper. It is important that you squeeze out as much air as you can from the bag before sealing it or it will freezer-burn quickly. As with all things in life, it takes some practice, but it is worth the eff ort. Once you get the basics of butchering down, you can branch out and try making jerky, pepperoni sticks or summer sausage. As I said earlier, butchering isn’t my favorite part of hunting, but it does give me a sense of pride and satisfaction in my ability to be just a little bit more self-suffi cient. Have a favorite big game recipe you want to share? Let us know at shootingthebreezebme@gmail.com. Rod Carpenter is a husband, father and huntin’ fool. Introduction to Marketing Thursday, January 6, 5:30 PM Bird with Birch Trees Thursday, January 6, 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM Pocket Knife Case with Leon Pielstick Mondays, Jan 10 & Jan 17, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM Leather Spur Straps Email us: paintedskycenter@gmail.com Call us: 541-575-1335. Follow us on Facebook Visit us: www.paintedskycenter.com 118 S Washington Street, Canyon City, OR 97820 S275535-1 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo A white-tailed deer. dieoff won’t lead to a reduc- tion in hunting tags in the Sumpter unit, which includes Baker Valley. An outbreak of EHD killed an estimated 2,000 white- tailed deer in Umatilla County during the fall of 2019, result- ing in the cancellation of some deer hunts in that area. The virus poses no threat to people, cats or dogs. Nor can people become ill by eating the meat of a deer or other ani- mal infected with EHD. Deer are infected only by being bitten by midges; deer can’t infect each other through nose-to-nose contact, as with some other diseases. Baker County Union County In Baker County the dis- ease outbreak was mostly confi ned to the western edge of the Baker Valley, an area including Pine and Goodrich creeks, Ben Dier Lane and upper Hunt Mountain Lane, Ratliff said. White-tailed deer are com- mon in that part of the valley, about 12 miles northwest of Baker City. Ratliff didn’t have a fi nal estimated tally of how many deer died. But because there is no spe- cial hunting season for white- tails — they are legal quarry during seasons, the same as mule deer — Ratliff said the EHD also spread through white-tailed deer in Union County this summer, includ- ing in higher elevation for- ested areas in the Wenaha and Sled Springs units where the disease has rarely been con- fi rmed in the past, said Phillip Perrine, a wildlife biologist at ODFW’s La Grande offi ce. “It was more prevalent than we’ve seen,” Perrine said. He didn’t have an esti- mate for how many deer died, although he said there were outbreaks in both the moun- tains and in the Grande Ronde Valley. Assessing the extent of the outbreak will be easier once ODFW receives hunter reports and conducts its annual aerial deer census this month, Per- rine said. He said ODFW started get- ting reports of dead white- tailed deer in early summer, and, as in Baker Valley, tissue samples confi rmed EHD. Both Perrine and Ratliff believe the severe drought contributed to the severity of this year’s EHD outbreak. Deer tend to be most vul- nerable to being infected by midges when the animals are concentrated around water sources, the biologists said. And with fewer of those sources during this dry sum- mer, there were likely larger numbers of deer gathering in places where they were exposed to midges, Perrine said. It’s not clear yet whether the EHD outbreak will prompt ODFW to reduce hunting tag numbers for any 2022 sea- sons, Perrine said. He said he hopes that’s not the case, particularly with a popular muzzleloader hunt for whitetails. Ratliff said the EHD out- break ended quickly once freezing temperatures killed the year’s crop of midges. Both he and Perrine said they stopped receiving reports of dead deer in early fall. “Once the conditions get A total of 12 deer — 11 whitetails and one mule deer — were confi rmed by tests as having died from EHD, said Bree Furfey, district wildlife biologist at ODFW’s Enter- prise offi ce. The disease is also sus- pected as the cause in another mule deer’s death. Furfey said she doesn’t have an estimated total num- ber of deer deaths due to the outbreak. She said the virus was most prevalent in and around the city of Wallowa, but it was also confi rmed elsewhere in the Wallowa Valley includ- ing near Joseph, Lostine and Enterprise, and in the northern part of the county near Troy and the Wenaha country. Furfey said that although the extent of the EHD out- break isn’t certain, she doesn’t believe the death toll among deer was high enough to war- rant any reductions in hunting tags for 2022. Rapid recovery? Although white-tailed deer are much more suscep- tible to EHD, the species has an advantage in that white- tail populations tend to grow faster than mule deer herds when conditions are suitable, Perrine said. White-tailed does typically have twin fawns each year, he said. “It’s diffi cult to overhunt whitetails because they repro- duce so quickly,” Perrine said. Furfey and Ratliff also cited the procreation poten- tial of whitetails as one reason why this year’s EHD outbreak likely won’t aff ect next year’s hunting season. Bend skier hopes for Olympic return By MARK MORICAL The Bulletin BEND — Professional skier Tommy Ford was in Alta Badia, Italy, last month for World Cup races — but as a spectator, not a racer. “I was chomping at the bit to be in there,” said Ford, reached via phone in Austria. “It was kind of hard to watch, but also really exciting to watch my (U.S.) teammates do well. This month they’ve been great. It’s easy to be proud of them.” It has been nearly one year since Ford’s horrifi c crash in Adelboden, Switzerland, that ended his World Cup run last season on Jan. 9. He was knocked unconscious and suf- fered signifi cant injuries to his knee, wrist and head. Much of 2021 has been about recovery for the 32-year-old Ford, a two-time Olympian who was born and raised in Bend. The past year has been a painful, often emo- tional challenge for Ford, who has dealt with bouts of depres- sion while simultaneously rehabilitating his knee so he can return to racing. Ford was in the midst of a banner 2020-21 season at U.S. Ski Team/Submitted photo Bend’s Tommy Ford, left, with U.S. teammates Travis Ganong (middle) and Steven Nyman at a World Cup race in Beaver Creek, Colorado, last month. the time of his crash, posting four World Cup top-10 results in giant slalom, including a podium fi nish. Ford said he tore two liga- ments in his right knee, broke his tibial plateau and tore his meniscus. After four surgeries, Ford spent most of the off season home in Bend recovering. He is also continuing to recover from the concussion he sustained. “I’m feeling more and more normal,” Ford said. “I’m able to ski in a comfort- able way and I’m just trying to push back into some train- ing and run some gates. The knee’s been feeling really good and responding really well to training.” A MAN WAKES UP in the morning after sleeping on... an advertised bed, in advertised pajamas. Ford was able to get back on snow in mid-November at the U.S. Ski Team training camp in Copper, Colorado. “That was wonderful,” he said. “The fi rst couple days were pretty slow, just slid- ing around and getting com- fortable. Once I started to go faster and link some turns, it was a really neat reminder of why I ski.” Ford said he does not have a set timeline on a return to World Cup racing, but he said it is likely to be sometime this season. Whether that is in time to qualify for the Beijing Win- ter Olympics is unknown at this point. In order to qualify, Ford said, he would need to race in the fi nal qualifi er, set for Jan. 8-9 in Adelboden, the site of his crash. “It’s all dependent on how I’m feeling with my body and if my knee’s allowing it, then yeah, and if I’ve had enough training,” Ford said. “I have to qualify, and the qualifying races are happening right now, so … I’m not sure how it’s going to work out. It’s hard to say. There’s one more race to qualify and to be ready for that race will be a bit of a squeeze, but it’s not unrealistic either.” Ford said he continues to deal with lingering depression that set in during the off season. He attributes the depression to the concussion and trauma he suff ered in the crash, but also to the lack of a physical outlet while injured. Getting back on the snow has helped. “It seems like it’s kind of a wave thing. It comes in waves,” Ford said of his depression. “I wouldn’t say it’s gone, but I’m able to rec- ognize it more.” Ford said he is mentally ready to race again, but his body is not quite ready yet. At the same time, he knows the World Cup giant slalom in Adelboden is coming up soon. “It would be great to get in there for that, and if not, there will probably be some FIS or Euro Cup races that I would do, and just spend more time training,” he said. “My head is a little in front of my body. I remember the feeling of ski- ing really fast and I feel like I could be in a race and do well … tomorrow … but I simply can’t do that.” (cardio, weight machines, free weights), fitness classes, silver & fit member. Open 24 hours a day. He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR, have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE. Then it’s too late. AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK? DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it! Blue Mountain Eagle MyEagleNews.com S276059-1 Tuesdays, January 11 - February 8 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM Wallowa County S275529-1 Contributed photo Processing wild game may not be as much fun as hunting, but it can be rewarding in its own right. BAKER CITY — An insect-borne virus killed doz- ens of deer, most whitetails, in Baker, Union and Wal- lowa counties this summer, but wildlife biologists said the die-off might not lead to any reduction in hunting tags. Offi cials from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wild- life started getting reports of dead deer around the region this summer. Tests of tissue samples confi rmed that the animals were infected with a virus, spread by biting midges, that causes the frequently fatal ill- ness, epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD. Although EHD can kill both white-tailed and mule deer, as well as other wild ani- mals such as elk and prong- horn antelope, and sheep and cattle, the disease typically is much more virulent among whitetails, said Brian Ratliff , district wildlife biologist at ODFW’s Baker City offi ce. In late summer, Ratliff said 33 of the 36 dead deer he had examined were whitetails. Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710 "Great time to think about your health and getting fit" text/call Karen 541-620-1581 (541-620-5720) or email kdbroemeling@hotmail.com 677 W. Main John Day Covid-19 Guidelines followed.
