The Outdoor Scene

As a past president of the NRA, you would think Sandy Froman would be content to ride off into the sunset, spending her free time target shooting and hunting. Not so. Even though Sandy achieved great things during her 2005 to 2007 NRA presidency, she said she still has a lot to give towards protecting the Second Amendment.

At the end of her second term, Sandy was elected to NRA’s Executive Council, which is comprised of past presidents. Though prestigious, the Executive Council carries a lifetime appointment sans the ability to vote. Sandy, who was the second woman president in the organization’s 139-year history, decided she still wanted a voice and a vote and is running for another three-year term on NRA’s board of directors.

Sandy hasn’t slowed down one whit, declaring she’s not ready for the “old goats club,” an affectionate term used to describe the Executive Council. Armed with a PDA bearing more contacts than the south has fire ants, her mission is to continue building on those relationships with the industry, donors and members through Friends of the NRA. To that end, she accepts many speaking engagements throughout the year.

During her presidency, Sandy cited her work restructuring the advancement office and enhancing NRA Foundation’s fund raising ability as something that made her most proud. When she joined the board in 1992, efforts to launch their endowment program had just begun. During that time, her work on the Foundation’s Board of Trustees led them from living paycheck to paycheck to building the kind of financial stability that allowed them to enhance training programs for safety, marksmanship, hunting and more as well as a multitude of programs for youth and women.  She continues to play an important role in working with donors to ensure there’s always a nest egg. As Sandy said, work to protect the Second Amendment is all for not if there aren’t opportunities to exercise that right.

Working for Women
Though standing only 5 feet 2 inches tall, Sandy is not the kind of woman who is easily intimidated by anything or anyone. A Harvard Law school grad and top gun attorney in L.A., she is now a practicing business litigation attorney running her own firm in Tucson, Ariz. However, in 1981 an attempted break-in at her Hollywood Hills home convinced the new divorcée she needed to defend herself. So she took a gun safety course and bought a Colt M 1911 pistol. And even though some of the hotshot lawyers in her L.A. firm were anti-gun and stopped talking to Sandy, the female secretaries and paralegals would pull her aside for a little gun talk. They wanted to learn but were scared to ask until they found a woman who wasn’t afraid to talk about her support of gun ownership.

Fast forward to now and women are snapping up handguns and taking training courses like their lives depend on it. Today’s woman is not interested in abdicating responsibility for her own protection. Sandy, who helped develop NRA’s Refuse to Be a Victim program, said these women are enthusiastic, determined students who recognize handguns are an important self-defense tool. While prison may not deter hardened criminals, the possibility of encountering someone who is armed and trained to protect themselves, will make them think twice.

While Sandy has enjoyed target shooting for many years, in 2001 she discovered a new wonderful way to enjoy firearms — hunting! Her first trip was with friend and mentor Brenda Potterfield of MidwayUSA. Sandy said Brenda coaxed her into a pheasant/chukar hunt by sharing photos of her hunting trips. While Sandy said she wasn’t sure how she’d feel killing an animal, when she shot her first bird, she was amazed at the beauty of it and captivated by the fun of wingshooting. That night, Brenda fixed roast pheasant, morel mushrooms picked from her Missouri farm and asparagus from her garden. Sandy was hooked.

Since that first hunt, Sandy has traveled to Africa with a group of women and said it was a life-changing experience. Everything was new and exciting, and she sopped up every sight, sound and smell. She has hunted seven states and three continents, including a return trip to Africa in 2008. Next on her agenda is caribou hunting in Alaska. That love of hunting translated into her encouragement of the hunting component of NRA’s Women on Target Program.

Sandy said she believes women can be a significant force in protecting the Second Amendment. Just as she was a different kind of NRA president than her predecessor Charlton Heston, women have a unique ability to get their point across. As an example, Sandy said years ago her husband tried to set an appointment with a congressman to discuss gun rights but was rebuffed. However, when she called, she got the appointment, possibly as a matter of courtesy. Though it may be sexism in reverse, it can get your foot in the door.

Sandy also noted that women play an important role in gun rights issues because of they often determine what activities the kids do after school, where the family goes on vacation and how they spend their disposable income. Even if women don’t necessarily want to shoot, Sandy found those she has met at NRA’s annual meeting respect the organization’s message of freedom and the right to keep and bear arms. You can see for yourself at this year’s NRA meeting, which is being hosted in Charlotte, N.C., May 14-16).

“NRA is a big tent. It doesn’t matter why you want to be a part,” Sandy said. “Maybe you’re interested in shooting, hunting or want self defense training. Or maybe you just believe in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.”

There are secret, sexy things happening in my backyard. And voyeur that I am, I don’t want to miss a minute of my eastern screech-owls pairing off and raising a family.

The rites of courtship usually kick off in March. One day, I look up from my computer and there he or she is, sitting at the entrance of the owl box that hangs 12 feet up in a loblolly pine tree.

For the next few weeks, I’ll see screech at all hours of the day. Then at last light, he or she takes off, in search of a meal of songbirds, insects, rodents and other yummy critters. However, by late March or early April, I won’t see so much as a feather. The first year this happened, I was convinced we had done something to offend screech’s sensibilities. However, several weeks later we were treated to our first look at young screech owls. Fluffy and gray, they bobbled in front of the nest box entrance like sock puppets on tequila. Their jerky, uncertain maiden flight occurred about a week later, with both parents offering encouragement from nearby trees.

The same thing has happened for the last five or six years, culminating with the young making their grand entrance Mother’s Day weekend (early May). This year, however, the adult owls threw me a ringer. In addition to seeing an owl in the usual nest box, I now also see another, smaller owl in a bluebird box that features a gaping entrance gnawed by gangs of demonic squirrels. Most evenings this March, they have each sat in their respective nest boxes, not paying one another the slightest bit of attention. And like a Hollywood gossip reporter, I just had to know what was going on. Are they friends, enemies or Frenemies? Are they courting or completely clueless of each other’s existence?

So, I called Laura Erickson, a science editor from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and author of “The Bird Watching Answer Book.” It turns out, Laura is not only an expert by training, she is licensed to possess a screech owl for educational purposes (though it’s not recommended the average birder undertake this responsibility). Her experience with a screech owl named Archimedes made her the ideal person for me to cross examine.

Screech owls, which are only about 6 ½ to 10 inches in length, come in two color phases: gray and red (mine are a handsome cinnamon color). Male birds are smaller, and Laura suggested the smaller bird I’m seeing in the bird box renovated by squirrels is a male, while the female is occupying the larger owl box. The male and female typically don’t roost together except during winter they occasionally will share a nest box or cavity.

Screech owls mate for life, though Laura said about six percent of pairs divorce and find another mate even if the original one hasn’t died. If one owl does breathe its last, the other often takes a new mate. Laura said screech owls differ from hawks in that they are more “touchy feely” and will preen each other’s faces. Singing is another part of the male’s romantic repertoire. He trills to court the female, and whinnies to defend his territory.

Then the work begins. The female incubates the eggs and broods the young. She sits on her two to six eggs for about a month. After they hatch, the male is in charge of hunting. For the next month, he hands his catch over to the female who tears it up and feeds the young. Males will hunt even during the daytime to keep nestlings fat and happy. Screech owls are respectable hunters, catching about 50 percent of the mice and birds they go after and 83 percent of the insects they pursue.

After the young fledge, the parents have another 8 to 10 weeks of hard labor, teaching the little owls how and what to hunt and making sure they recognize danger and then what to do about it.

Laura said screech owls are common backyard nesters and will use the same nest site year after year. Because they are shy and quiet, they often go unnoticed by their human neighbors (unless you hear their spooky, quavery calls), though I can tell you from experience the local songbirds are abundantly aware of this pint-sized owl’s presence. During the day, screech will sit at the entrance of her nest box, catching some rays (and vitamin D) until a mob of titmice or bluebirds start flapping around. Screech, whose eyes appear closed, is actually monitoring potential threats and pops inside the box when the avian bullies get too close. The songbirds have a right to be scared, though, as I have watched screech pick off a female cardinal from the feeder.

Many thanks to Laura for helping me lift the shroud of mystery surrounding the life of eastern screech-owls.

You can learn more about the birds that interest you at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Web site. Their “All About Birds” is one of my favorite places to loiter on the internet. It contains great photos, maps, life history descriptions and even audio files of bird songs.

Interested in becoming a citizen scientist by monitoring bird nests? You can contribute to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s data base of nest records through Project NestWatch.

Through eBird, you can also support a real-time, online checklist program by reporting bird sightings so scientists can spot trends in distribution and abundance.

“I have never experienced a moment where I thought I was going to die until now,” Sue Tabor told me on the phone last week after crashing her truck.

Trim, petite and emitting enough energy to qualify for nuclear reactor status, Sue is Michigan’s Becoming an Outdoors-Woman program coordinator. Like the proverbial long-lived cat, she’s had her share of lives. She worked as a promotions director at Bass Pro Shops, a coordinator for NWTF’s Women in the Outdoors program and a state representative for Michigan’s 71st District. But she almost exhausted all nine of them when her truck hit a patch of black ice a few weeks ago.

“I was going slowly, as a matter of fact it seemed everyone was passing me,” Sue said. “Then
I felt the backend start to sway, and I did what I usually do to keep it straight, but the little S10 started to spin and kept spinning. I think I did two complete circles on the expressway, before I hit the guardrail, bounced across to the left side, got into some deep snow in the median and that’s when I was able to bring her back into control and slow down, then stop.  Thank God all those other cars had passed me and that I didn’t hit another car. ”

Sue and her friend emerged from the wreck shaken and sore but otherwise okay. However, her truck was DOA.

The next weekend Sue was headed up north to host a BOW Discovery weekend, where 67 women had the opportunity to cross country ski, snowshoe, dog sled and check out a host of other courses including outdoor survival.

I doubt the outdoor survival class included instructions on what to do if your vehicle spun out like it had been deliberately wrecked by NASCAR driver Carl Edwards. However, Sue contends those schooled in the outdoors are more apt to prepare themselves for emergency situations.

“When we travel, we ready ourselves the same way we would when heading to the woods,” Sue said. “We make sure we have everything we need, especially in the north during the winter months.”

While Sue was lucky and had a cell signal where she wrecked, she advised thinking about what you would need to do to stay comfortable if you were stranded in the cold because of an accident or your vehicle broke down. A blanket, candy bar, first aid kit and water are items Sue keeps in her truck year round.  In the winter, she adds disposable hand and foot warmers to the kit as well as an extra pair of boots and socks to stay warm.

The most important item to have with you is your brain, especially when you’ve recharged it with knowledge of first aid and CPR.

Sue said the big take home from the experience, though, was more mental modification than what she puts in her glove box.

“Don’t wait to try the things you’ve always wanted to try. Life can be over in an instant.”

Sue is taking her own advice. The dog sledding at the BOW Discovery weekend tripped her trigger and she’s already making plans to mush.

You shouldn’t wait either whether you’ve always wanted to shoot a handgun or cast a fly rod. Sue is trying to make it easier for those of you who are battling the two-headed monster called “time and money.” She’s lowered the cost of the BOW programs by offering one-day and weeknight events. And she’s trying to get more courses offered throughout the state to reduce drive time.

To find a BOW workshop in Michigan, visit http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/1,1607,7-153-10369_15424—,00.html

To find BOW events throughout the country, visit http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/bow/map.aspx

Misty Waggener of Priest River, Idaho, leads a double life. From 9 am to 5 pm she’s all business as a training manager at the community bank. During her free time, she’s hard at work racking up elk calling titles, with five women’s division victories to her credit so far. Her latest win came last weekend when she captured the women’s division of the 2010 RMEF/Leupold World Elk Calling Championship. The competition was held during Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s 26th Annual Elk Camp, March 4-7.

While still a teen, she whupped all the boys in the youth division of the World Elk Calling Championship – three times – before moving into the women’s division in 1998.

Barks, whistles, grunts and squeals are in her blood. Her dad, Rockie Jacobsen, is a three-time RMEF World Champion elk caller while her brother Corey is also a competition caller, with several top five finishes under his belt.

Misty said she got her start 17 years ago when her dad was inventing his patented Tone Top Mouth Call Diaphragm. He asked her to give the call a test run, and quickly realized she had inherited the family bugling gene. Misty credits her success to her dad’s call. It’s the only kind she uses whether she’s knocking the judges’ socks off on stage or she’s knocking ‘em dead in the woods.

While Misty enjoys calling on stage, elk hunting is her true passion. She said she actually feels more pressure calling when she’s afield. She started off hunting with a rifle under her dad’s tutelage; however, today Misty prefers the challenge and adrenalin rush of bowhunting. When she gets time off from work, Misty and her husband Casey head to the wilderness to get their fix of screaming bulls.

A lot of Misty’s practice time occurs in the field, hearing the real deal. However, she also trains by listening to bulls on video. She admitted she doesn’t practice as much as she should, however, between riding her horses and shooting her bow, there’s not a lot of time left. Fortunately her hobbies mesh nicely. The trail riding gets her to the woods and the archery practice and calling competitions keep her hunting skills sharp.

Thanks to the $1,500 Misty received as top female caller this year, she said there might be a new horse trailer in her future. She also plans to enjoy all the other swag she won including a Remington .243, Cabela’s gift card and prizes from Eberlestock, Hoyt, Kershaw Knives, Montana Decoy, Montana Silversmiths, Schnee’s and Traditions Performance Firearms.

Even though hunting is a way of life in northern Idaho, Misty said not all that many women go. Still, her co-workers think what she does is pretty cool, and from time to time they ask her to liven up their meetings with a calling demonstration. Misty hopes she can use her accomplishments to encourage other women to get involved in the calling competition as well as give hunting a try.

Women do have a great opportunity to compete against each other at the World Elk Calling Championships. RMEF officials introduced the women’s division in 1994 in response to the enthusiastic participation at the Becoming an Outdoors-woman seminars they offered at Elk Camp, according to head judge and contest official, Fred McClanahan, Jr.

Good news is, with next year’s Elk Camp scheduled for March 3-6 in Reno, Nevada, you’ve got about a year to get your mews and chirps down pat.

For more information, visit http://www.rmef.org/AboutUs/ElkCamp/ElkCampMedia.htm

If you ever took a moment to watch the reality show drivel known as “Denise Richards: It’s Complicated,” you immediately understood it was anything but that.

What is does suggest, though, are the lengths some Americans will go to avoid topics with any complexity. Thank goodness there are people willing to do the deep thinking for those trapped in a haze of crappertainment.

There does seem to be an uptick in the willingness to tease through the tricky details whether it is understanding the ramifications of the health care bills or how McDonald v. City of Chicago will decide whether or not the 50 states are required to obey the Second Amendment, by testing the 14th amendment.

Hunting is not without its share of difficult issues as well.  What constitutes fair chase and the legal intricacies associated with access are just a couple of the matters we have to grapple with. In many ways the privileges we enjoy as hunters depend on our ability to tune in, understand and take a stand.

Being someone who helps shape the future means you should have some understanding of the past. Our wildlife history is a riches to rags to riches story that includes a group of conservation forefathers who pioneered a blueprint known as North American Wildlife Conservation Model.

Elk have benefited from the principles outlined in the North American Model.

While the North American Model and the Seven Sisters of Conservation may sound like a wild theme party at the Playboy mansion, actually, it’s the philosophical framework used to restore wildlife populations from the brink of extinction to the abundant levels we know today.

The model’s two basic principles—that fish and wildlife belong to everyone and are to be managed so their populations will be sustained forever—are explained through a set of guidelines known as the “Seven Sisters for Conservation.”

I visited Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s Web site to obtain a list of the “Seven Sisters” and below, I’ve provided a synopsis. You can see the full explanation at: http://www.rmef.org/Hunting/HuntersConservation/

Sister #1: The Public Trust
In the United States and Canada, wildlife is not owned by individuals. Instead, federal, state and provincial governments are responsible for managing wildlife and their habitat on public lands. This public trust gives all citizens the opportunity to view, hunt, fish and enjoy these natural resources.

Two hundred years ago, American colonists appreciated this unfettered access to the continent’s abundant wildlife. Back in Europe, in many cases only nobility and the very wealthy were allowed to hunt. In 1842, the U.S. Supreme Court set a legal precedent by supporting the American ideal that wildlife belongs to everyone.

Sister #2: Prohibition on Commerce of Dead Wildlife
Because we all own wildlife, it is illegal in North America to sell the meat of any wild animal. In some cases the hides, teeth, antlers and horns of game animals and the hides of a select few furbearers may be sold.

In the latter half of the 1800s, buying and selling meat, hides, feathers and other wild animal parts was big business. Excessive hunting nearly wiped out bison, egrets and elk, and drove other species, such as the passenger pigeon, to extinction. Strong laws written at the turn of the 20th century restricted market hunting and the buying and selling of some wild animals, which allowed many threatened wildlife species to rebound and thrive.

Sister #3: Democratic Rule of Law
Every citizen of the United States and Canada has the right to help create laws to conserve and manage wildlife. You can share your ideas and opinions about wildlife management at government hosted public forums or by voting for or against ballot measures.

Early 20th-century conservationists wanted to protect wildlife populations, yet many still wanted to hunt and fish. So they established laws and set limits to enjoy the bounty without depleting the population.

Sister #4: Hunting Opportunity for All
Everyone is allowed by law to hunt and fish in the United States and Canada regardless of social status, race, creed, religion or gender.

Hunters and anglers led the crusade for wildlife conservation a century ago. For instance, before Theodore Roosevelt became president, he helped found the Boone and Crockett Club. The club’s Fair Chase Statement was the first document outlining a code of conduct and ethics for hunters and anglers. It became a cornerstone of our game laws.

Sister #5: Non-frivolous Use
In North America, we can legally kill certain wild animals under strict guidelines for food and fur, self-defense and property protection.

Laws restrict us from casually killing wildlife. We can’t kill wildlife merely for antlers, horns or feathers or to use only a small portion of the meat. Laws also help ensure we show respect for and avoid mistreating wildlife and the land, and that we make maximum use of every animal hunted for food and other purposes.

Sister #6: International Resources
Because fish and wildlife migrate freely across boundaries between states, provinces and countries, the United States and Canada jointly manage land and wildlife to ensure wildlife can safely cross borders and that no country, state or province will take more than its share of a common resource.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 demonstrates this cooperation between countries. The Act made it illegal to capture or kill migratory birds, except as allowed by specific hunting regulations. Treaties now exist between the United States, Canada, Mexico and Russia, which has helped restore ducks, geese and cranes that cross several countries between their wintering and nesting areas.

Sister #7: Scientific Management
Scientific research—and applying that research–is essential to managing and sustaining North America’s wildlife and habitats.

If you’re still reading this, your understanding of wildlife conservation likely ranks in the top percentile. You probably could run an entire Jeopardy category titled “Measures That Saved Wildlife.”

Besides the obvious game show advantages, understanding the basic principles of wildlife conservation can help you become an informed decision-maker and a better spokesman or woman for hunting and fishing. Many Americans don’t even know hunters and anglers led the way in rescuing our wildlife populations let alone that we continue to be the biggest supporters of conservation today.

This community’s willingness to give back helps drive the model’s success. And a great place to start is by being in the know.