Tag: Military
The content below has been tagged with the term “Military.”
Articles
Veterans appreciation fishing rodeo
May 31, 2018 | 1 minute readOn Friday, May 4, Chattahoochee Forest National Fish Hatchery held its sixth annual Veterans Appreciation Fishing Rodeo. More than 150 U.S. military veterans and family members attended the free event. About 2,800 beautiful Rainbow and some Brook Trout were stocked into Rock Creek for the event including a number of fish each averaging three pounds or more. Veteran Larry Akins with one of the large trout he caught. Photo by Crystal Thomas, USFWS. Learn more...
Anglers arrive early to get their spot on Rock Creek. Photo by Crystal Thomas, USFWS.
Hog heaven
March 28, 2018 | 3 minute readFeral pigs are widely considered a nuisance species. The wild hogs cause an estimated $1.5 billion in property damage every year all over the United States on both public and private lands, according to the Mississippi State University Center for Resolving Human-Wildlife Conflicts. They are an invasive species that can disrupt entire food chains. “They’re really bad for the ecosystem,” said Craig Sasser, refuge manager at Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina. Learn more...
Two wounded warriors and a volunteer, accompanied by a cameraman, carry a feral pig through the swamp at Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by SOWW.
Marines and woodpeckers share the high ground
March 22, 2018 | 8 minute readJacksonville, North Carolina — Above the distant din of 50-caliber machine gun fire and Cobra attack helicopters, John Hammond hears the unmistakable sound of a red-cockaded woodpecker. He is approaching Combat Town, where U.S. Marines routinely assault a mock Iraqi village at Camp Lejeune. A sign for Combat Town at Camp Lejeune. Photo by Dan Chapman, USFWS. It is an incongruous spot for an endangered bird to make its home – the middle of a war zone where artillery boom and tanks prowl. Learn more...
Combat town at Camp Lejeune with a pine tree that is home to a red-cockaded woodpecker cluster. Photo by Dan Chapman, USFWS.
Safe harbor for woodpeckers
January 29, 2018 | 8 minute readNewton, Georgia – They’d probably spent 20 minutes touring the forest when the agent and potential buyer stopped. The client took it all in – the southwest Georgia sky, a blue that got only deeper as it reached to heaven; and, closer to earth, the longleaf pines, their brilliant green needles prickling that lovely sky. That was enough for Charley Tarver. He turned to the agent. Charley Tarver bought a plantation in southwest Georgia 18 years ago and has turned it into a habitat for the red cockaded woodpecker, or RCW. Learn more...
Tarver, who grew up in Alabama, is a longleaf fan. His property, 200 miles south of Atlanta, is named Longleaf Plantation. Photo by Mark Davis, USFWS.
Chattahoochee Forest National Fish Hatchery presents certificates honoring volunteer support
November 30, 2017 | 1 minute readChattahoochee Forest project leader Kelly Taylor and program assistant Crystal Thomas met with community representatives and volunteers in October, including representatives from Trout Unlimited chapters, government agencies, local newspapers, chambers of commerce, and a local radio station. Project leader Kelly Taylor presented appreciation certificates for volunteer support provided throughout the hatchery’s 2017 fishing and outreach events, including the Veterans Appreciation Fishing Rodeo, Special Kids Fishing Rodeo, Seniors Fishing Rodeo and Family Fishing Festival. Learn more...
The woodpecker’s journey
November 20, 2017 | 9 minute readIt was getting dark. A light rain fell. Distant thunder rolled across the steamy, late-summer sky. The hunters were apprehensive. Their prey: endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. Learn more...
A red-cockaded woodpecker has dinner outside its nesting cavity. Photo by USFWS.
‘Lots of new help here,’ as recovery picks up and residents begin returning
September 16, 2017 | 5 minute readBig Pine Key, Florida – Hurricane Irma hammered the Florida Keys a week ago Sunday and the recovery has been a whirl of progress and promise. Learn more...
Fallen tree at National Key Deer Refuge. Photo by USFWS.
Boosting the gopher tortoise
August 22, 2017 | 8 minute readAtlanta, Georgia – Typically, animals like the Florida panther lose their Southern habitat, dwindle perilously close to extinction and end up on the endangered species list. Federal, state and non-profit groups hustle to raise money and conserve land to bolster the populations with the chance, one day, of delisting it. The gopher tortoise, though, just might buck the trend. An at-risk species in Georgia, Florida and parts of Alabama and South Carolina, the tank-like tortoise is the recipient of an unprecedented, high-dollar collaboration between government agencies, NGOs and the private sector to keep gopherus polyphemus from ever gracing the threatened or endangered species list. Learn more...
Col. Matthew Higer, 96th Test Wing vice commander, bends down to release a gopher tortoise into its new home deep within the Eglin Air Force Base. Photo by Samuel King Jr., U.S. Air Force.
News
Base recognized for conservation work
May 30, 2018 | 4 minute readCamp Blanding, flush with federally endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers, donates juvenile birds to other wildlife areas across the South. Nearly two-thirds of the National Guard base in Northeast Florida is prime habitat for at-risk gopher tortoises too. More than 10,000 acres of pine and scrub is carefully burned each year to benefit under-threat flora and fauna as well as conservation-friendly longleaf pines. And the joint military base is a critical piece in the creation of a wildlife corridor that connects central Florida to southeast Georgia. Read the full story...
Red-cockaded woodpecker. Photo by Martjan Lammertink, U.S. Forest Service.
Service crews head south
September 13, 2017 | 2 minute readHurricane Irma had hardly dissipated before U.S. Fish and Wildlife (Service) crews headed south, tracing in reverse the path the storm had cut across Florida and Georgia. In trucks and cars they crossed into Florida, or headed for south Georgia. The teams are bringing fuel, water, food, chainsaws and more to look after people and places in Irma’s path. Crews ran into “logistical challenges” on interstates crowded with evacuees headed home, said Sami Gray, who is leading the Service’s response effort. Read the full story...
Incident Commander a Sami Gray briefs N MS Task Force team before heading into Big Pine Key to provide support following hurricane. Photo by USFWS.