AND GOOSE MEAT IN THE FREEZER TO BOOT

MORNING ON THE MARSH, DECOYS ON THE WATER

BILL AND ZODIE BRING IN  A GOOSE

BILL, ZODIE, THE ARGO AND GEESE

DITTO, ART

Monday, 8:30 AM.  45 degrees F, wind NE, calm to very light.  The sky is clear except for a band of clouds on the SE horizon.  The humidity is still very high, at 95%, and we got some rain while we were gone over the weekend, enough to register in the bird bath, anyway.  We had good weather for our trip except for rain yesterday morning.

   The Urban Forestry Council meeting at the University in Stevens Point was very interesting, and revolved primarily around the Emerald Ash Borer's march through Wisconsin.  The effect of the invasive foreign pest is not really being recognized as yet by most people and politicians outside of urban areas, where the death of street and park trees is very apparent.  But when the beetle hits the forested areas of the state, as it will, the damage and expense is going to be enormous.  Millions of trees will die, and will be a fire and safety hazard if left standing, and it will be an unbelievable  expense to collect, quarantine and dispose of the dead wood.  The wood will be suitable for saw logs, firewood, wood chips and fuel, but will be difficult and expensive to utilize.  One of the problems currently is that quarantines have been established according to counties, and that may preclude transporting wood to a marshaling yard, saw mill or power plant (to be burned to generate electricity) across a county line.  That problem can be pretty easily solved, but it is indicative of  the lack of foresight we all have in the face of this kind of emergency.

   Our society does not have the maturity to be cautious and think ahead in many situations.  I have been considering all the small coal burning power plants that have been closed by the EPA all around the country, with many more scheduled to be shut down in the near future.  This action severely limits the ability to dispose of dead wood, which could with some modifications be burned and produce power.  We insist on  one-size-fits-all solutions to problems, and that size is usually way too big, and way too draconian.  We embrace new ideas and technologies as though they will solve every problem, and they seldom  do.  Maybe in a few hundred years, if we last that long, we will grow up.

   The annual goose hunt didn't look as though it would amount to much, as there there was little evidence late in the week of any migrating birds, and local flocks were decimated in the spring by wholesale slaughter of geese by city governments (aided by the DNR) because they are considered a nuisance.  This is to me another instance of societal immaturity.  Fifty years ago we seldom saw a goose in southern Wisconsin,  except flying high and fast heading south.  Conservationists worked hard, with the encouragement of the public, to reestablish local wild goose populations, and were eminently successful.  Of course as soon as there was success there was also goose poop, so then the fickle city folks insisted on eliminating the geese.  Completely.  We are childlike in our demands for gratification, regardless of the cost.

   So we went to Bill's twenty acre marsh, which he has diligently created over the past twenty years, fully expecting to see no geese, as Saturday morning dawned bright and clear.  His blind is accessible only by the Argo, a floating tracked vehicle built in Canada.  It is also almost impossible for old guys with knees that don't bend the way they should to get in and out of the Argo,  but undeterred we finally got goose decoys out and ourselves into the blind.  We put out four decoys, and while sitting in the blind counted five.  Of course one was a goose that had landed unseen amongst all the commotion we had caused.  The dog made a perfect retrieve on that bird.

   And on the next two as well, since we must have caught the incoming flights of a flock or two of early migrating birds who really had no good reason to be where they were.  We missed a number of shots but were satisfied with what nature and fate had provided us.  We called it quits by ten o'clock as no more geese were flying.

   Sunday morning the weather changed to cold and rainy.  We thought we would really have good hunting with the weather change.  We saw not a bird.  Saturday's geese must have come down ahead of the weather on an advancing low pressure system.  Guess we should have known that.

   In any case it was a good hunt and more importantly, a good visit with friends of more than half a century, with goose meat in the freezer to boot.