Summer fishing in WNY and across NYS is hitting high gear, and your humble host, Rich Davenport, provides the latest on the migrating walleyes and where the are now, bass biting in the upper River and Lake Ontario salmon are slammin'! The new circle hook regulations requiring circle hook use for striped bass fishing when using live bait is also now in effect! Still no news on the public hearing in Erie County for local law intro 1-1-2021, but we should hear something very soon. Meanwhile the rest of the state marches on adopting their own laws to allow 12 and 13 year olds to hunt deer with firearms under supervision. With black bear mating season winding down, bears should be settling into the summer feed, but that means searching for food, which could bring bears into your back yard. Be bear smart, and don't let bears habituate to your surroundings.
Yet, it seems in NY, government officials have our environment under full frontal assault. That air show which shuttered the largest harbors in Erie County for opening weekend of bass season also had a terrible toll on the colony of threatened common terns that nest in the outer harbor not far from the Lackawanna wind turbines. DEC Biologist Connie Adams reports the terns were scared senseless by the jets, and these very shy, skittish birds wound up flying into the wind turbines, with hundreds killed. Not smart. The terns leave the area by end of August, so perhaps next yea a Labor Day Airshow would be best?
And while Albany continues its assault on rural NY, NYSERDA CEO Richard Kaufman plays stupid before the NYS Senate, claiming no knowledge of the Great Lakes wind study (really?), which seems similar to those in NYSERDA pretending not to know these studies were already done by them 11 years ago! However, a lawsuit has been filed against ORES (Office of Renewable Energy Siting) for ignoring SEQRA standards intentionally, while trampling upon home rule rights of communities. While the hypocrites in Sierra Club, League of Women Voters and Citizens Campaign for the Environment promote the destruction of our natural resources in the name of saving the planet, wiser, smarter people have recognized that you don't serve the public interest by saving the planet through destroying envirnments. BUckle up, folks. This fight is now fully engaged and joined!
