TheJump.Net News Journal

The U.S. Dept. of Interior has proposed a rule change to the current regulations on firearms in your national parks and wildlife refuges. You can thank the NRA for leading this amendment to current policy. You have until June 30 to comment on the proposal and the NRA strongly urges people ot file comments in support of the rule change.

You see right now you are prohibited from carrying a firearm onto National Parks and wildlife refuges. The proposed rule change corrects this and allows you to excersize you 2nd amendment rights on these lands. Seems like a no-brainer to me. The constitution gives you this right so it seems contridictory to me to restrict this right on public lands.

Currently it depends on which agency controls the land as to whether you are legally allowed to possess a firearm. Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands allowed the carrying of firearms whereas the Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service lands usually do not.

Again you until June 30th to submit commnets. Comments can be submitted here or by mail at:

Public Comments Processing
Attn: 1024-AD70
Division of Policy and Directives Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222
Arlington, VA 22203

If you haven't visited in awhile and are reading topics from top to bottom you might want to skip down to the "When Turkeys Turn Bad" article directly below this one. Yep rogue turkeys are at it AGAIN!

When you hire on as a postal worker you are fully aware of the rain or snow not keeping you from your rounds mantra. Well the well know phrase may have to undergo a complete overhaul after this. Apparently some terrorist turkeys in Wisconsin, have decided they just don't like mail carriers anymore. This small group of turkeys we will call a sleeper cell, believed to be number to as many as 10 has begun unleashing turkey violence out on the local mail carriers.

So far no deaths have occured but one can only wonder how long it will be before the first fatality occurs. Probably enboldended by religious beliefs the violence has escallated from pecking to now turkeys entering the vehicles and pecking and scratching the postal workers with their razor sharp spurs.

Eric Lobner, regional wildlife program supervisor for the state Department of Natural Resource a branch of homeland security isn't taking the matter as seriously as the postal workers would like. In typical coverup behavior of the government they are burying their heads in the sand and hoping this conflict is isolated and will resolve itself after breeding season is over.

Trying to shift the blame from religion to race Eric Lobner says "Color plays an important role in turkey breeding" he said. He added "with the color of the male's head during mating season changes from gaudy blue to white to red. Lobner speculated that perhaps the turkeys are attracted to the red, white and blue postal trucks." Sounds like he is grasping for straws.

With no help coming from the government the Postal workers have had to resort to arming thereselves with water pistols. But Lober the turkeys continue to evolve and adapt and the squirts of water are no longer working, the turkeys now seem accustomed to it and now some workers are using long sticks to fend off the birds.

We will have to wait and see what happens with this story.

It’s a common occurrence, repeated thousands of times every year. Husband’s heads out each spring in search of a turkey... possibly for a Thanksgiving feast in the fall. The wife kisses him goodbye and waits for his return. Nothing strange about that but what about on the rare occasions when a turkey turns bad!

That is exactly what happened to Melissa Spoelma recently. But first for those that don't turkey hunt let me tell you a bit about turkeys. Turkeys have great eyesight and are a difficult quarry to hunt. Outsmarting an old tom gobbler is considered a major accomplishment and most trips afield result in no turkeys being bagged, that is the norm. Due to the wily, frustrating nature of these game birds they have gained a reputation for being smart and elusive, not exactly like their domesticated dumbed down counterparts.

Most of the time these smart birds walk the straight and narrow and avoid a life of crime. Have you ever seen a turkey on Americas Most Wanted? Well apparently a new and frightening trend may be developing. What happens when turkeys turn bad!!!

Back to Melissa. Melissa is enjoying the solitude of having the house to herself with her husband out hunting up some food... turkey that is! The quiet didn't last long though. The silence was shatter by the sound of shattering glass as a intruder breaks the glass on one of her windows. Melissa flees the house fearing for her life and calls 911 to let them know a thief or worse is in her house.

When Deputy Sarah Flick arrives she can hear the intruder banging on the walls and Melissa's dog is growling at the intruder. Deputy Flick kicks down the door to the bedroom where the outlaw is ransacking the house. Deputy Flick's year of training and experience didn't prepare her for the sight that lay before her. This was a situation beyond her expertise, she would have to call for backup. That’s right she called animal control who responded and removed the marauding TURKEY.

Now imagine the surprise when the husband finds out that he drove hundreds of miles looking for a turkey and all he had to do was stay at home and the turkey would have come to him. Can we expect this trend in delinquent turkeys turning to crime and using there intellect for evil instead of for good. Turkey experts think not. Turkeys for the most part are not criminals and rarely break into homes or resort to other violent criminal activity. Apparently this turkey’s turn to evil is just an anomaly. Thank goodness.

Mr. Rodney Coronado is an evil man and is no stranger to run in's with the law. Coronada has been convicted and served 5 years in the past for torching a Michigan State University mink research facility and another eight months in prison for trying to disrupt a 2004 mountain lion hunt in Arizona by pulling up sensors and disabling snare traps.

So it is safe to say that Coronado is a pretty evil treehugger aka environmentalist. This go round Coronado was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in federal prison for speaking publicly about how to make a homemade Molotov cocktails. This wasn't some idol conversation on the street mind you. It was a 2003 speech given at a community center in San Diego a couple of hours after a blaze caused 51 million dollars in damage to a condominium project a few miles away. ELF a eco-terrorist group claimed responsibility for the fire and Coronado was at one time a speaker for ELF. Coronado was never linked to the blaze in San Diego however.

The 1 year and a day sentence was metered out after a plea deal. The deal was for Coronado to plead guilty to distributing information on destructive devices on the condition that he not be charged with other speeches. He could have potentially been sentenced to 20 years due to new laws enacted against terrorism since 9-11.

Jesse Bonvillain was frogging in the swamps of Louisiana when he came across something he had never seen before. Something most of us have never seen before... a rare white bullfrog. The frog was caught in the Bayou Black area.

When Jesse first saw it he was frogging and knew it was a frog right away because of it's eye's but as he got closer he began to have some doubts, he had never seen a frog quite like this. Jesse's frogging partner Mike Luke actually caught it when the frog tried to make its escape. It went under but surfaced near Mike who caught it and put it in the sack with the rest of the frogs. They now have it in an aquarium as a pet.

They thought it might be something a museum or zoo might be interested in but apparently albino white frogs can be purchased relatively cheaply an aren't so rare. But the thing is this, frog isn't an albino. Although it is white it isn't entirely white and the eyes aren't pink like that of a true albino.

So if white frogs can be had cheaply why does this one deserve attention here? Because this was a WILD white frog. The chances of a white bullfrog making it to maturity are much much lower than the camoflauged versions that we normally incounter hopping and swimming around.

So there you have it. From the wilds of Louisiana, the rare WHITE bullfrog of Bayou BLACK.

After a large number of sheep were killed on a farm in Western Massachusetts wildlife officials figured it was most likely a wild dog. Well they were shocked to discover not a dog gone wild but a wild canine of the Eastern Gray Wolf variety.

Thomas J. Healy through DNA test determined that it was indeed a Gray Wolf and there were no signs that the wolf had ever been held in captivity either. Now they Gray Wolf is native to the area but have not been present there for more than a hundred years.

The wolf was a 85-pound male and is yet another piece of evidence that they wolves are expanding their ranges south.

There have been reports of wolves in the area states of Maine and Vermont but never this far south. It is unlikely that you can expect Gray Wolves to recolinize Mass. due to lack of habitat and conflicts with man. Just how far south will they be able to colonize is yet to be seen.

The American Chestnut Foundation has been instrumental in bringing back one of the greatest trees of North America. We are all familiar with the lyrics "chestnuts roasting on an open fire", but how many of us even know what a chestnust looks like?

A brief history. When the white man first set foot on North America they encountered a forest ecosystem that was quite a bit different than what we have today in the much of the Eastern USA. Back then one of the main hardwood forest trees was the American Chestnut tree. It didn't just mengle with other large hardwoods like oaks, it dominated them both in size and in numbers. The American Chestnut was the king of the hill so to speak all up and down the Appalachians mountains and surrounding forest.

Today people drive out west to see the great Sequoias and Redwoods; but did you know that the eastern US use to be home to a giant of it own? Yes the American Chestnut tree once grew to proportions that the vast majority of us easterners can not even imagine.

What happened to this magnificant tree? Why isn't it around anymore? Well many years ago (1904) the American Chestnut trees all started to die. Then to make matters worse the timber industry started cutting down all the chestnuts tree because they figured it was just a matter of time before the live trees succomed to the chestnut blight anyway. You see exotic chestnut trees from Europe and Asia were brought over to the US and with those trees came a disease that forms cankers at the trees trunk which almost always proved fatal in a few years.

The chestnut blight for many years was thought to be the end... the death nell for the American Chestnut tree who had no (or very little) resistance to the blight. Well thanks to modern science the American Chestnut Foundation has been working on a way to bring back our once beloved chestnut trees.

The method they are using is called back grossing. Here is a brief overview of how it works. The American Chestnut is crossed with a blight resistant Chinese chestnut tree. Half of the offspring have the blight resistanse but the trees are only 50% American. The seedlings are infected and those that show resistance are kept while those that don't are removed. Then these 50% American chestnuts that show resistance are crossed with pure american chestnuts, resulting in offspring that are 75% American Chestnut. This proceedure is repeated until a tree that is 15/16 American is produced that still incorporates the resistance to the blight.

This project has been going on for many years and we are nearing the final stage where blight resistant American Chestnut Trees can be sold to the public. A firm date has not been set but it appear that roughly around 2010 the seeds and seedlings will be available and we can once again bring back one of the greatest trees to the Eastern USA!

Why is this tree so "great" as I put it. The American chestnut tree was a late-flowering, reliable, and productive tree, unaffected by seasonal frosts, it was the most important food source for a wide variety of wildlife from bears to birds who feed on the tremendous mast of 1 inch chestnuts these tree inevitably produced. Rural communities once depended on the annual nut harvest as a cash crop to feed livestock. The chestnut tree produced rot resistant lumber, and a superior lumber at that. American Chestnut wood is straight-grained and easily worked, lightweight and highly rot-resistant, making it ideal for fence posts, railroad ties, barn beams and home construction, as well as for fine furniture and musical instruments.

So basically you've got an excellent lumber tree that is also excellent for wildlife and before to much longer it will once again be back in its rightful place in the Eastern Hardwood forest.

The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) has been a hotly contested project before it was even built. The canal was dug through Louisiana marshes to provide sea going vessels quicker access to the Port of New Orleans.

The MRGO has destroyed thousands of acres of Marsh and acts as a conduit for saltwater intrusion and for storm surges. To rub even more salt in that wound the economic impact promised by its construction has never materialized. So basically we have been paying money to destroy the marsh and facilitate hurricane damage while getting almost no benefit from it.

Enviromentalist fought the construction of the canal and lost and have been fighting to get it closed ever since. Well we don't have too much longer to wait. Hurricane Katrina finally forced the issue to be addressed and the Chief of Engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has submitted his report for the closure of the MRGO to the Secretary of the Army for Civil Works to review the findings and obtain Office of Management Budget input and send the report to Congress.

The work on the MRGO closure will be coordinated with the storm surge protection measures in the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal which is a component of the plan to provide 100-year hurrican risk reduction to the New Orleans area by 2011.

The contract for the MRGO closure is suppose to be awarded this spring. The actual construction of the MRGO closure structure will begin during the lock repair work but completion is not expected on the closure structure until the late spring of 2009.

I have been looking forward to this news for many many years. It is ashame it took a hurricane to finally get it done. Hopefully it doesn't come to late as all of the cypress forest have already been killed and salt marsh has replaced most of what use to be freshwater marsh. But it is a good sign. I penned the response after the hurricane that the MRGO could be used as an indicator of the seriousness of the Government in its fight to save South Louisiana. Well at least this indicator is pointing in the right direction.

VIRGINIA BEACH - Fred Barnes hauled in a 73 pound striped bass totally shattering the previous state record striper which weighed in at 68 pounds 1 ounce. Not only did the golioth of a fish best the Virginia state record but it came only 3 pounds shy of beating out the largest Striper ever landed with recreational fishing gear in the USA!

As amazing as this catch is the story has a unique twist that to me is almost as amazing. Instead of having the once in a lifetime trophy mounted Fred plans on having the fish cut into strips so he can dispose of the carcass a few pounds at a time into some hot grease.

Gun Owner Right Upheld in California State Court of Appeals

San Francisco voter being smarter than the founding fathers decided they know best and voted to pas a law that not only outlawed the sale of guns in the city, but required almost everyone who is not a cop, security guard or member of the military to surrender their handguns to police. Second Amendment.... what second amendment.

This wasn't the first gun law they have passed that flys in the face of the US constitution as well as state law. In 1982, the courts struck down a similar gun ban on the grounds it conflicted with state law. If a reversal had not happened law abiding citizens would have had to get rid of their guns are become criminals in the eyes of the law.

The California State Court of Appeals overturned newly passed law, one of the most restrictive gun bans in the country! The National Rifle Association (NRA) can be thanked for bringing this ridiculous infringement on your rights to and end. They were instrumental in bring the suit to get this unconstitutional law overturned.

The NRA got an injunction against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2005 to prevent them from enacting the gun ban. But in true California style the City's mayor and Board of Supervisors ignored the court order (since they are above the law) and approved a set of penalties, including a $1,000 fine and a jail term of between 90 days and six months, for city residents who own firearms for lawful purposes in their own homes.

Yesterdays decision to overturn the ban came after a 3-0 opinion in support of the lower court ruling overturning the gun ban.

Constitution 1, Loonies 0

Jaguars once well into the United States at least as far east as Louisiana and as far north as the Grand Canyon. Yes the jaguar is native to the USA and there have even been a few roamers crossing back into the USA from Mexico in recent years.

There population has been eliminated from the USA for all practical purposes since the mid 1960's and the Mexican jaguar population has only faired slightly better. In northern Mexico there is a breeding population numbering a little more than 100 cats.

There is a movement underway to try to the the United States Government to fulfill its obligation to help restore the jaguar to its former range but so far these calls have fallen on deaf ears. If the jaguars can establish thereselves the government will have its hand forced and will have to take protective steps.

The best way to make that happen is to first help stabilize and protect a place for the big cats just south of the border. If the remaining population in Northern Mexico disappears there will be no change of ever re-establishing them here.

The "Northern Jaguar Project" has been working since 2004 to establish a 10,000 acre Los Pavos Jaguar Reserve and is now trying to secure more land to bring the total acreage to 45,000!

You can help! Donations are need to help by the land and at roughly 50 dollars per acre a little goes a long way. So if you can find it in your heart and your pocket book to fork over a few hard earned dollars to help with the purchase of this reserve you can sleep well knowing you are helping save the jaguar and many other species that share this same habitat. Donations can be made at the following url: Donate Here!

I am in no way affiliated with there website or organization and I recieve no compensation or share of any donations they receive.

Five deer have tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease in West Virginia. These 5 deer have now brought the total for the state to 19 total deer testing positive for CWD.

The deer were killed by hunters and then tested as part of West Virginia's CWD surveillance effort. Test were performed on 1,285 hunter-harvested deer that were brought to game checking stations in Hampshire County. One of the five deer was located outside of the "containment area" but still withing Hampshire County.

CWD has now been detected in a total of 19 deer in Hampshire County with the first case being detected in 2005.

According to the State they are operating within guidelines established by its CWD – Incident Response Plan, the DNR has taken the steps necessary to implement appropriate management actions designed to control the spread of this disease, prevent further introduction of the disease, and possibly eliminate the disease from the state. That is a pretty bold statement considering containment and illimination have not occured in West Virginia OR anywhere else for that matter.

With our current knowledge of the disease the is no current control method that has been found to effectively control the spread of CWD.

Steps taken so far are:
1. CWD testing to determine the prevalence and distribution of the disease.
2. Lower deer population level to reduce the risk of spreading the disease from deer to deer by implementing appropriate antlerless deer hunting regulations designed to increase hunter opportunity to harvest female deer.
3. Establish deer carcass transport restrictions designed to lower the risk of moving the disease to other locations;
4. Establish regulations controlling the feeding and baiting of deer within the affected area to reduce the risk of spreading of the disease from deer to deer.

Currently it is believed that CWD does not poses a risk for humans or domestic animals.

A Florida teenager was cited for trying to kill a deer by illegal methods, and attempting to take game after legal shooting hours. Nothing earth shattering about that... happens all the time. It is not something that is going to be picked up by the news media normally. But this poaching incident wasn't what you would call NORMAL.

You see this teenager got caught in a stakeout. FWC officers had a deer decoy placed off the side of the road in an attempt to catch poachers shooting at the deer from their vehicles... which is illegal. Well they caught a poacher all right but this one used a slightly different method than all the previous poacher the officers have arrested.

The young man saw the deer decoy and then proceeded to steer his truck off the road through a ditch and then up a hill to run over the decoy. And now you know the rest of the story!!!

He was also charged with reckless driving and attempting to take game after legal hours.

Sorry for the lack of updates. My house burnt down so it might be a little long between new items right now.

A wild whitetail buck jumped from the top of a 20 foot wall into the polar bear habitat at the Pittsburgh Zoo. The two young bears showed great interest in the buck but didn't show the killer instinct that a wild bear would likely have exhibited. The bears did not kill the deer but certainly would have eventually.

The bears chased the deer around in circles for a few minutes after he plunged into the water. Zoo keepers eventually lured the bears and the deer into holding pens. But despite that good fortune the tramatized deer when into shock and was euthanized.

The bears were apparently unhurt despite the bucks successful attempts to defend itself using both its antlers and it hooves at times to fend of the curious polar bears.