12—Cleveland Daily Banner—Monday, January 4, 2016
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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.”
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