Tagged: New Hampshire Fish and Game

House lawmakers will hear a bill Thursday  that would make New Hampshire the first state to make people pay fees any time they are rescued by Fish and Game.

Backers of the proposal say they want to help Fish and Game recoup costs of expensive rescue operations.

But opponents, including the state’s volunteer search and rescue outlets, say this bill is a bad idea that could put people, and the state’s appeal to hikers at risk.

Hikers who were in trouble in the White Mountains, exhausted, climbing out a helicopter…

Explaining what went wrong….

Warm winters have been tipping the balance between New Hampshire moose and the winter ticks that feed on them.

The ticks have benefited from warmer temperatures, and their increasing numbers have become a problem for moose.

When too many ticks latch on to the moose, it suffers blood loss, hair loss, becomes sick, and sometimes dies.

Kristine Rines, a wildlife biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, says the real enemy is weather.

This week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted more than $950 thousand to 30 states with bats affected by a fungal disease called ‘white-nose syndrome.’ New Hampshire received more than $14 thousand.

State Fish and Game wildlife biologist Emily Brunkhurst says white-nose has severely impacted local bats.

In a couple of species we are seeing 99 percent declines.

State Fish and Game officials will use the grant to monitor bat populations and raise public support.

Six pairs of piping plovers are nesting on the beaches of Hampton and Seabrook this summer. The birds are endangered in New Hampshire. For years, state Fish and Game officials have been trying to bring them back. This year, they’re roping off nesting areas and hiring volunteers to monitor the nests.

Brendan Clifford, a biological technician of the New Hampshire Fish and Game’s Wildlife Division, says the plovers have met with some obstacles.

On Wednesday Fish and Game officials aided a woman at Franconia Notch when she experienced chest pains. The same day hikers helped a man who fell 20 feet down a Mount Washington trail.

The New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game’s Lieutenant Robert Bryant said hiker mishaps are a common occurrence in the summer.  

This is the time of year for vacation and hiking and it’s certainly not uncommon for us to head out to help hikers.

Bryant says many problems arise from poor planning, and he offers the following tips for hikers:

A Littleton man hiking without a flashlight, map or warm clothing spent the night in the mountains while officials looked for him, according to a news release from New Hampshire Fish and Game.

Dylan Jessen, 20, planned to hike the 15 miles from the Lafayette Campground in Franconia to Route 112 in Woodstock but didn’t begin until about 1 p.m.

His mother lost cell-phone contact with him about 7 p.m.  when he still had about five miles to go and only 30 minutes of daylight left.