Outdoors category, Page 3
Hampton girls excel at riding waves, even on Allegheny RiverVideo
Once everyone and everything is ready to go, a motorboat surges forward, pulling a tow rope. As the speed increases, a person holding the rope rises from the water to stand atop a specially designed board. Eventually, he or she drops the line and starts riding the waves generated by...
Motorists should be on the lookout for deer as rutting season peaks, Pa. Game Commission says
Steve Boeser has been a busy man since June. Boeser is contracted by the Municipality of Murrysville to collect and dispose of dead deer that have been struck by cars. His contract starts in June, and he’s usually well into January before he reaches 100 calls. As of Oct. 22,...
On Lake Erie, getting rid of problem algae starts with giving it less food
OREGON, Ohio — On a warm late-summer evening, a small speedboat motored across a pea-green stretch of Lake Erie past a beach where a child sat splashing and a pair of newlyweds waded for a portrait photographer. On the sand, unseen or ignored, bright red signs warned people to stay...
Murrysville trail camera catches rare, unique piebald buck
The wildlife trail cameras set up by Bill Powers of Murrysville keep catching some of the area’s more elusive creatures. On Thursday, one of his PixCams cameras recorded a brief shot of a piebald white-tailed buck moving through the woods. Powers prefers not to identify the locations of his cameras....
Bear hunting season opens across state this month
Bear hunting season is underway in Pennsylvania with more than 200,000 hunters expected in the field this year, though the state game commission expects just 3% of them will come home with a bear. Archery hunting has started in specific regions and will continue through Nov. 29, including two Sundays,...
Bowhunting season begins Saturday for all of Allegheny County, small slices of western Westmoreland, opens Oct. 5 statewide
Justin Relihan has been bowhunting since he was 16 years old. The Butler resident began hunting at age 12 with a rifle, but quickly found he had more of a passion for using a compound bow. “I like the quietness of bowhunting,” said Relihan, 48. “There’s a lot less people....
A 13-foot (and growing) python was seized from a New York home and sent to a zoo
NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. — A 13-foot (4-meter) Burmese python was confiscated from an upstate New York man who was keeping the still-growing snake in a small tank, authorities said. The state Department of Environmental Conservation said it got a complaint about an illegally owned snake in New Hartford on Aug....
Hiking and biking routes leave a trail of short-term rentals across Western Pa.
Between the plain cedar furnishings, olive carpeting and antique phonograph, the interior of John Blinkhorn’s Airbnb appears frozen in various points of the 20th century. But its existence speaks mostly to the future of Export and similar communities along the region’s growing trail network. Blinkhorn bought the triplex in his...
Kayakers take on Ohiopyle’s renowned rapids — upstream
Kayakers took to the Lower Youghiogheny River on Saturday evening to race downstream — and back upstream. The Upstream Nationals took place on a half-mile section of the river at Ohiopyle State Park in Fayette County. The race started just below the falls at Ohiopyle and continued part of the...
Pa. Game Commission: DMAP program permits available on 41 state game lands
More opportunity in more places, that’s what awaits hunters this fall across much of Pennsylvania, thanks to additional state game lands enrolled in the Deer Management Assistance Program. DMAP, as the program is commonly called, works like this: hunters can get permits that allow them to harvest antlerless deer —...
Federal infrastructure funding is fueling a push to remove dams and restore river habitat
BOONE, N.C. — On the whooshing Watauga River, excavators claw at the remains of Shulls Mill Dam, pulling concrete apart piece by piece and gradually opening a waterway kept in check for nearly two centuries. Removal of this privately-owned hydropower dam in western North Carolina will be a boon for...
Wildfire smoke may be worse for your brain than other air pollution, study says
Wildfire smoke may be worse for brain health than other types of air pollution, according to new research linking it to an increased risk of dementia. The findings, reported Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia, come as millions spent the weekend under air quality warnings from wildfires...
The flickering glow of summer’s fireflies: Too important to lose, too small to notice them gone
DELAWARE SEASHORE STATE PARK — On a muggy July evening, Delaware state biologist Jason Davis is doing what kids have done for ages: Trying to catch a firefly. It’s nowhere near as easy as the summer evenings of his own childhood, with only a few in this large wetland between...
$1.2M in federal cash to help Pa. expand Eastern Massasauga rattler’s habitat
The Eastern Massasauga rattler is one of the few venomous snakes native to Pennsylvania. It’s also the least likely to be spotted, because its historic range only includes parts of Butler, Clarion, Venango and Mercer counties along with a small slice of Armstrong County. But there may be a few...
Dry, hot weather brings timber rattlesnakes out in Westmoreland
Timber rattlesnakes spotted recently in the St. Clair and Seward areas of Westmoreland County are likely just trying to beat the heat, according to officials with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. A St. Clair police officer posted a photo on social media of a timber rattlesnake Friday. The snake...
To save spotted owls, U.S. officials plan to kill hundreds of thousands of another owl species
To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, U.S. wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their smaller cousins. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service strategy released Wednesday is...
Lawmakers advance proposal to greatly expand Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — Hunting on Sundays in Pennsylvania would be greatly expanded under a proposal that passed the state House on Thursday over objections about trespassing provisions and new restrictions on hunting in state parks. Lawmakers voted 129-73 to send the bill to the state Senate. “Sunday is an opportunity to...
Getting rid of poison ivy is a serious matter — what you should and shouldn’t do
For all the time I spend digging, planting, pulling and weeding, one would think I’d have some poison ivy horror stories to tell, but I do not. I can’t say for sure whether I’m immune to the rash that tortures so many of my fellow gardeners or if I’ve just...
Copperheads, timber rattlers and the rare Eastern massasauga among Pa.’s venomous snakes
Summer is rapidly approaching, and, for a lot of people, that means getting into the great outdoors — whether it’s spending a few days camping, hiking a favorite trail or just getting out and enjoying a wooded park. Pennsylvania’s snake population also is enjoying the nice weather, and that can...
Pittsburgh considers sharpshooters in parks to reduce deer population
An expansion of Pittsburgh’s deer hunting program will bring limited archery into additional parks, and the city might bring in U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters in some areas. The city last year launched a limited archery pilot program in Frick and Riverview parks. Thirty archers culled 108 deer and donated...
Top Pa. Game Commission official resigns amid questions over side business
The Pennsylvania Game Commission has a new executive director this week after the agency’s former head resigned abruptly on Monday after issues were raised by commissioner members and lawmakers about his business dealings with employees. Bryan Burhans, who served as its executive director since 2017, was replaced by deputy executive...
Wild turkey season opens early for young hunters
Spring wild turkey season in Pennsylvania starts Saturday with an opportunity for young hunters in advance of the regular season opener on May 4. Junior hunters and mentored ones 16 and younger can hit the woods Saturday from 30 minutes before sunrise until noon, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission....
Pennsylvania hunters harvest more than 400K deer for 2nd year in a row, game commission says
No matter how you look at it, 400,000 is a lot of deer and Pennsylvania hunters have harvested at least than many in each of the past two years. According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, deer hunters took 430,010 whitetails during the most recent season, up 2% from 2022-23, when...
Pennsylvania Game Commission managing reintroduced bobwhite quail population
In the five years that Alex Busato has been keeping his eyes peeled for local birds, he’s seen perhaps two bobwhite quails. State game commission officials are hoping to change that. Once found in all 67 of Pennsylvania’s counties in the mid-1800s, the little 10-inch-tall bird has been pushed out...
Pedal coast-to-coast without using a road? New program helps connect trails across the U.S.
When Mike O’Neil opened his bicycle repair shop in Muncie, Indiana, the Cardinal Greenway trail just outside its window stretched only 2 miles south of the shop. Today, it extends 33 miles (53 kilometers) beyond that, but the ultimate vision is far grander. O’Neil hopes the trail born from eastern...
