Recruiting women, buying guns and more

Posted on: January 6, 2017 | Bob Frye | Comments

Amidea-Daniel-kids-Pine-Creek-2016Amidea Daniel works as a fly fishing guide and takes her own children exploring outdoors when not working for the Fish and Boat Commission.

A roundup of outdoor news…

= It’s official: the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has a youth and women’s program coordinator.

It didn’t have to look far to find her, either.

The commission – looking to formalize and intensify efforts to recruit women and families into fishing and boating – hired Amidea Daniel to work the new position. Daniel has worked as an outreach and education specialist for the commission since 2008. She holds a degree in outdoor recreation management.

A lifelong outdoorswoman who fishes, hunts, camps and more, she said she’s working on a few pilot initiatives for 2017, details of which will be released in the coming months.

A new Facebook page – “FISH PA – Youth and Women’s Programs” – will promote those ideas. An Instagram page is to follow.

= There are book of the month clubs, wine of the month clubs, fishing lure of the month clubs. So why not a gun of the month club?

Butler County-based Cabot Gun Co. recently started one of those, offering members 1911-style pistols every month through October, with a special custom-built one sent out for November/December. Members will get their first firearm this month.

Cost to be a member of the club? That’s a cool $55,000 annually, payable in monthly installments of $4,583.33.

That gets members a few “surprises,” though. The company promises a custom Cabot Guns ring worth $1,000, plus a tungsten carbide knife.

And the custom pistol being offered for November/December is worth $15,000 alone.

= Something like this was bound to happen.

A hunter in New Jersey killed a black bear this past fall known to many as “Pedals” for the way it walked on its two hind feet. Biologists with the state’s wildlife agency said it did that because it’s two front feet were deformed, likely as a result of being struck by a vehicle.

The hunter who killed the bear did so legally, in hunting season.

Still, some people took to social media to criticize him for shooting the bear, calling him a “murderer” among other things .

At least six of those people criticized John H. DeFilippo by name. There’s one problem: he says he’s not the guy who killed Pedals.

And now he wants paid.

According to NJ.com, DeFilippo is suing those six people for defamation after posting photos of his home online and otherwise invading his privacy.

= A local walking path is among projects being funded in part with some new state grants.

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources recently awarded $45 million for 261 projects across the state meant to “create new recreational opportunities, conserve natural resources and help revitalize local communities.”

The money is available through the “Community Conservation Partnerships Program.”

Benefiting are 38 trail projects, protecting nearly 9,000 acres of open space, 14 projects for rivers conservation and 126 projects to develop or rehabilitate recreation, park and conservation areas and facilities.

Development of the Loyalhanna Trail in Westmoreland County to connect Keystone State Park to New Alexandria Borough is one project getting money.

Additionally, more than $2.25 million is being provided to Heritage Areas for projects including advancing river and trail towns, closing gaps in Pennsylvanian’s destination trails, developing heritage tourism initiatives, improving educational and interpretative signage and planning and marketing heritage tourism events.

Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures.com editor. Reach him at 412-838-5148 or bfrye@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodyadventures.com.

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