OutdoorsVT 3-27-09

Happy birthday to OutdoorsVT

It’s been a whole year since I first subjected you to OutdoorsVT.

Can you believe you’ve put up with me for 12 months?

My long-suffering wife sympathizes with you. She can barely put up with me.

Congratulate yourself on your dedication and perseverance.

Whether you actually like reading the dreck I schlep every week or just put up with it, I thank you.

Many writers go through their entire careers thinking so highly of themselves they believe it’s their work that is important and the readers are lucky to read it. But I learned long ago it’s the other way around.

These days we have many, many places to get our news and that applies to outdoor information as well. If you spend a part of your Friday with my ugly mug in front of you, I appreciate that.

But, just like getting drunk at the end of the year and making resolutions about what we’re going to do in the coming 12 months, I like to take a moment and reflect and look forward — just without the headache that follows.

In the last year we’ve gone biking, hiking, boating, camping, skiing, snowshoeing, watched spring babies, chased the fall foliage and reminisced over Bubba, my golden retriever who went to that great trail in the sky.

We’ve built bridges, attended outdoor shindigs, counted birds, promised to follow the Leave No Trace outdoor ethic and celebrated a relatively safe snowmobiling season.

We’ve bought boots and snowshoes and worried about the BPA in our Nalgene and similar plastic bottles.

We’ve competed in the Mount Ascutney Run, went on plenty of runs in Pine Hill Park including the Sunset Series, ridden in the Vermont Lakes Region Cycling Weekend, a variety of triathlons and went on monthly jaunts around the West Rutland Marsh with the Rutland County Audubon birders, and weekly hikes with the Green Mountain Club.

We’ve celebrated Vermont Days, National Trails Day, the Long Trail Festival, Dead Creek Wildlife Day, and Killington’s 50th anniversary.

We even ran for president together under the banner of the Outdoor Party.

It was fun.

The best part is we’re heading into year two and we get to do it all again.

But before we hit the trail, I’d like to know what you think.

I give a rip what you like or don’t like about this column.

What is it that works, or doesn’t work, for you when you read OutdoorsVT?

For example, my wife doesn’t think I’m funny and when I try she thinks I embarrass myself.

Should I leave humor to Leno and Letterman or Colbert and Stewart? What do you think of the where-to-go pieces? More gear? More trails? Book reviews? What would you prefer to see more coverage of?

Too much hiking and not enough biking? Too much gear and not enough deer? Want to read about a new trail, but not about a … a … sorry, can’t do it. I gave up rhyming after “Green Eggs and Ham.”

What columns do you read to the end and which ones do you turn the page without starting? I want to know.

Understand one thing. I reserve the right to ignore anything you have to say. But I can promise I’ll consider all suggestions and criticisms — even those that include profanity and thinly veiled threats.

But at least put your name on your correspondence. I don’t want to have to write back and say:

Dear Youraidiot@yahoo.com,

I’m sorry you think my column is a waste of perfectly good fire starter.

Sorry, I won’t beat my head on the remaining ice at Lake St. Catherine, but I will seriously consider avoiding suggesting that people hang their wooden snowshoes on the wall in the future.

I did not mean to offend both members of the World Association of Snowshoe Travel Elitists.

Thanks for writing,

Darren

That’s a joke. I actually had one very nice gentlemen write to tell me I was all wet in addition to a recent letter to the editor. The end result? I promised to write a piece about wood snowshoes next winter to give them a fair shake.

If that’s not democratic, I don’t know what is.

And before I forget, I think this is an appropriate time and place to apologize to some folks who were inadvertently ignored back in December and January or so. I apparently had problems with my e-mail configuration or something and I didn’t get any e-mail for a period of time.

I didn’t intentionally ignore you and appreciated hearing your comments on various columns. Now that I’ve recovered them I’m slowly catching up with those that are still valid.

So, send in that feedback. E-mail it to the address below, or do it the old-fashioned way by writing to the Rutland Herald, PO Box 668, Rutland, Vt., 05702.

Go crazy. Tell me what you think. Get it off your chest. It’s not every day a writer asks you to criticize him.

Thanks. I look forward to hearing from you.

Except for you, Long Suffering Wife. You get your say at home. Now, let’s hit the trail on the second year.

Darren Marcy is a local outdoor enthusiast. His Web site is www.DarrenMarcy.com. E-mail him at darren@darrenmarcy.com.

OutdoorsVT 3-20-09

A couple of hikes over the last weekend proved that it's not always what you pick up along the way, but what you bring home that matters.

It started with my youngest daughter picking up a handful of deer pellets, and ended 24 hours later with me getting in trouble for bringing home a scat specimen to identify. In between, there was plenty of fun.

Read about the adventure here.

Fla. Outdoor Writer Dies

An outdoor icon in Florida died March 13.

Jerry Hill, an outdoor writer for the Bradenton (Fla.) Herald for 32 years, was hailed as one of the best outdoor scribes in the state of Florida.

It's always sad when one of these old-timers heads off to the great field or stream in the sky.

For more about Jerry Hill, read a story in Saturday's paper, a column carried in Sunday's Herald, followed by an opinion piece a couple days later.

Salem-News.com Adds Outdoor Reporters

Hold the presses and your hat.

In a move that is the complete oppositive of everything going on elsewhere in the world of publishing, Salem-News.com has announced the addition of two outdoor reporters to its publishing efforts.

It may not exactly be the New York Times, but any work for an outdoor writer is to be celebrated.

Longtime Izaac Walton League Leader Dies

Jack Lorenz, the longtime director of the Izaak Walton League, died March 2.

Lorenz became known nationally during his 18 years at the helm of IWL where he developed a code of ethics on outdoor activities and led the group into the forefront of the national environmental debate.

Lorenz was respected in many outdoor circles, bringing together groups often at odds with each other like the Sierra Club and National Rifle Association to achieve common goals.

Paul Hansen, who led the Izaac Walton League from 1995 to 2007 spoke highly of Lorenz.

"He was the nation's spokesman for many years on the ethical management of hunting, angling and off-road vehicle use," Hansen said. "He was one of the nation's most well known and popular environmentalists."

Read about Jack Lorenz in this Washington Post piece.

OutdoorsVT 3-13-09

It's been a safe year on Vermont's snowmobile trails compared to past years.

With an average of 40 to 50 crashes a year and two or three deaths per year, Vermont closing in on the end of the season with only a handful of crashes and a single fatality.

Authorities are hoping the luck will hold as Vermont remains one of the safest states in New England for snowmobiling.

Read about the safe year in Vermont here.

OutdoorsVT 3-6-09

A coalition of 52 conservation and outdoor recreation groups held a press conference earlier this week to call on the federal government to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund was established in 1965 to help preserve the nation's natural areas, culturally and historically significant landmarks, and outdoor recreation opportunities.

It is currently designed to be funded to the tune of $900 million per year, but only once has it reached its full funding level.

In the last decade, the funding has continually fallen until, in the 2008 fiscal year, only $155 million went into the fund.

More than $17 billion of the funding has been diverted from land conservation for other governmental uses.

It's no wonder there is such a backlog of needs and a lack of funds for land acquisition and conservation projects.

Read the column about why I think the LWCF should be fully funded.

Seeking Historical Vermont Hunting & Fishing Photos

I'm looking for historical hunting and fishing photos in Vermont for a book project.

Do you have old hunting or angling photos from Vermont?

Do you have family or friends in Vermont who might?

You could see your family's hunting and fishing photos in a book dedicated to those sports.

Please contact me at: darren@darrenmarcy.com.