Outdoors Bound News & Notes: Federal Charges, Elk Rebound, Baby Muskies
ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) – Here is a round-up of the latest outdoors news from across southwest and central Virginia.
Illegal Hunting Federal Case
Five men, four from Virginia and one from Maryland, have been found guilty on federal charges for illegally baiting or hunting wood ducks. According to federal court records, it happened at a pond in Middleburg. Those records indicate a property manager illegally baited the pond with corn, then invited the other men to hunt it. Photos of the man baiting the pond were included in those federal court documents. All of the men were fined, sentenced to probation, and lost their hunting privileges for anywhere from 18 to 24 months.
According to prosecutors, the men bragged about the hunt online and that caught the attention of federal authorities as well as the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (VDWR).
Mountain State Elk
West Virginia’s elk restoration program is meeting with success. The herd, located in Logan County, has grown from 24 animals in 2016 to 127 today. Seventeen more elk were added to the herd recently. Those animals came from herds in other states.
Elk are native to West Virginia and Virginia, but their numbers declined greatly because of overhunting and habitat destruction. In recent years, elk from other states have been brought in to restore the herds.
Cross-Border Cooperation
Virginia and North Carolina have renewed their musky brood stock program partnership. The VDWR collects adult muskies in the spring and sends them to North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Eggs and sperm are collected from those fish and then hatched and raised to fingerling size. Those fingerlings are then stocked in bodies of water in North Carolina and Virginia.
The muskies harvested from Virginia come from the New River. However, because the New is a self-sustaining fishery, it receives no stockings.
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