The Cleveland Daily Banner | Page 12

12—Cleveland Daily Banner—Monday, January 4, 2016 www.clevelandbanner.com States divvy up Yellowstone-area grizzly hunt BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Wildlife officials have divvied up how many grizzly bears could be killed by hunters in the Yellowstone region of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho as the states seek control of a species shielded from hunting for the past 40 years, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. The region’s grizzlies currently are under federal protection, but that could change in coming months, turning control over to the states. A draft agreement detailing the states’ plans for the animals was obtained by The Associated Press. The agreement puts no limits on grizzly bear hunting outside a 19,300-square mile management zone centered on Yellowstone National Park. Inside the zone, which includes wilderness and forest lands adjacent to the park, hunters in Wyoming would get a 58 percent share of the harvest, a reflection that it’s home to the bulk of the region’s bears. Montana would get 34 percent and Idaho 8 percent. The management zone has an estimated 717 bears. There is no estimate for how many live just outside the area, although biologists say the number is increasing as grizzly bears expand into new habitat. Wildlife advocates say the bear population remains too small to withstand much hunting. That’s a particular concern given the large numbers of bears already dying, including during surprise run-ins with hunters and after livestock depredations that prompt officials to trap and kill problem bears. In 2015, at least 59 Yellowstone-area grizzlies were believed to have been killed or trapped and removed by government agencies. That’s the most since the animal was given protection under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. Despite the deaths, state officials say the grizzly population has recovered from excessive hunting and trapping that exterminated grizzlies across most of the U.S. in the early 1900s. The officials have increased pressure on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe in recent months to revoke the animal’s threatened status. Directors of the states’ wildlife agencies told Ashe in a Dec. 4 letter that such a step was long overdue. “It is critically important that we capitalize on our tremendous progress and momentum....by proceeding with a long overdue delisting” of bears from the threatened species list, the directors wrote. It was signed by Idaho Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Director Jeff Hagener and Wyoming Game and Fish Director Scott Talbott. Montana wildlife activist Louisa Wilcox says the states’ push for hunting ignores the many bears already dying due to other causes. “You’re not even hunting them and you have this ongoing pile-up of dead bears,” Wilcox said. “Adding a hunt will drive down the population. It’s exactly the wrong thing to do.” State officials said bear hunts would be conservative and need approval from wildlife commissioners following a public comment period. The size of each harvest would be on a sliding scale. More hunting would be possible when the population tops 675 bears, and hunting would be largely barred if that figure falls below 600 animals. “We’re definitely not talking about a large number. We’re not talking hundreds or anywhere near that,” said Wyoming Game and Fish spokesman Renny MacKay. A decision on whether protections should be lifted is due in early 2016, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Barring a successful court challenge, it would take approximately a year for such a rule to go into effect. 104-year-old veteran rings in the new year OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) — One Alabama man is reflecting on a lifetime this new year in an area he’s called home for more than a century. These days, the 104-year-old Rodger Williams is still energetic as the father of nine touts the duration of his residency in Lee County and his accomplished life. He is entering the new year with an extra buzz after celebrating his recent birthday with friends and family, including a birthday card from President Barack Obama, the Opelika-Auburn News (http://bit.ly/1R3jKO0) reported. For Williams, life is good. “The Lord has took care of me all these years. Time takes care of you, that’s what I think,” Williams said. “I appreciate life from the first day I was born. I’ve had a lot of help along the way.” Williams has served as a U.S. Army medic nearing the end of World War II, working a 10-year stint in a Chicago steel mill and farmer on more than 100 acres. He retired in 1977 after working as a custodian at Auburn University for 17 years. Born in Waverly in 1911, Williams said he has learned many life lessons in his 100plus years. “It don’t cost no one nothing more to be nice in life than to be mean,” he said. “I tell young folks: ‘You don’t have to have everything that you want. You can make out with what you’ve got.’ Life is funny sometimes. Time tells you what life is like. Some years you’re going to be poor, some days you’re going to be up. If you’ll be nice, it’ll follow you.” These days, Williams said he enjoys spending his days watching television, admiring photos of his children and grandchildren and eating cornbread, collard greens and sweet potatoes. Williams’ daughter, Jenese Tyner, said her father is an inspiration to her. “He’s showed me how to work, to be consistent and go to work every day,” she said. “He taught me to have something out of life. That’s how he inspires me.” Doug Kelley/The Spokesman-Review via AP, File A GRIZZLY BEAR walks through a backcountry campsite in Montana’s Glacier National Park on Aug. 3, 2014. Wildlife officials have divvied up how many grizzly bears could be killed by hunters in the Yellowstone region of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The move comes as the states seek control of a species shielded from hunting for the past 40 years. 30th arrest: Transit impostor says he needs help NEW YORK (AP) — Darius McCollum’s addiction isn’t for booze and pills — it’s for buses and trains. The New York transit impostor who first commandeered a train at age 15 has been arrested 30 times over the years for transitrelated crimes. Most recently, he was nabbed in November behind the wheel of a Greyhound bus that officials say he had stolen from a depot in New Jersey. Now McCollum, who is 50 and has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, is worried what will happen to him next. He says the obsession that’s put him behind bars for half his adult life is out of his control. But instead of more jail time, he says, he needs help. “I can’t seem to get myself out of this on my own,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press at Rikers Island jail. “But what am I supposed to do? There’s no AA for buses or trains.” If he were a drug user, there’d be substance abuse treatment. If he were violent, there’d be an anger-management class. Even if he had been accused of a sex crime, there would be therapy available for him. “We applied for everything, sought help everywhere, but there’s just nothing,” said his lawyer, Sally Butler. “This isn’t how he should be treated. He shouldn’t be behind bars.” McCollum’s story has become the stuff of New York folklore. He grew up in Queens, near the 179th Street subway station, and would go there after school; conductors and other train operators got to know him. He says he soaked up information, including memorizing the subway map by age 8, but he never quite understood the social rules, a hallmark of his then-undiagnosed disorder. At 15, he managed to drive an E train from 34th Street — his favorite subway station — six stops to the World Trade Center without any passengers noticing. It started the cycle he’s been in for years. He’s posed as a transit worker, collected fares, fixed broken tracks, operated New York City subway trains and regional rail lines and driven commuter buses. It wasn’t until after his 2010 arrest for taking a Trailways bus on a cross-state joyride that he was diagnosed with autism. Over the years, McCollum has been the subject of numerous articles, a play and a documentary. A feature film on his life is currently in production. “If there’s one thing that really drew me in, it is his sacrifice,” said filmmaker Adam Irving, who produced the documentary “Off the Rails.” ‘’I don’t know anyone that would give up 20 years in prison to do something that most New Yorkers would find extremely mundane. Collecting a subway fare? Driving a bus route?” Eric Robinson of The Gotham Group, one of the producers of the feature film, said McCollum’s story is a “poignant treatise on a lot of what’s going on in our society today about mental health.” In the interview, on a recent rainy day, McCollum sat in a front-row pew in the chapel at Rikers. He is wearing a beige uniform and his beard is graying. He is calm and well-spoken. “I’m too functional in some ways,” he said. “I can cook. I can clean. I can take care of myself. I can get a job. No one knows what to do with me.” from the Staff at Audibel Changing Lives Through Better Hearing Cleveland 182 Old Mouse Creek Rd. NW (423) 961-8025 Larry Simpson, BC-HIS Board Certified Hearing Instrument Specialist American. Hearing. Excellence. audibelhear.com Call Now! Appointments are limited!