“Take your child hunting, rather than hunting for your child.”



Youth hunt Saturday

Youth-only pheasant, squirrel and cottontail rabbit hunting opens Saturday and runs for a week.

Tomorrow the Game Commission is stocking the first wave of what will eventually become 200,000 birds in preparation for the hunt. If you really want to boost the percentages for a young person for this hunt, you might to take advantage of the 50 percent discount Saturday for parties that include youth hunters at Martz’s Preserve located near Dalmatia.

You can get more information by logging onto www.martzs.com or by calling 800-326-8442. The Game Commission will have three additional waves of pheasant stocking that will go right up to the late season that comes in after Christmas. This is really shaping up to be a great year for pheasant hunters.



Local outdoor art show

While enjoying this year’s Harrisburg Gallery Walk a few weeks ago, I had the good fortune to have a conversation with Alice Kelsey of Warriors Mark over in Centre County.

We discussed some of the many picturesque areas along Penns Creek, Pine Creek and Cedar Run.

She will be painting scenes from these streams for the upcoming “Upstream: Images of Susquehanna Waterways” exhibit that will be opening at Faustina’s Gallery in Lewisburg on Friday, Oct. 19 from 6-9 p.m.

This exhibit should be wonderful and, even better yet, a portion of the proceeds from the exhibit will benefit the Merrill Linn Land and Waterways Conservancy. These kinds of art displays can really help to spread the message about the need for conservation of our streams and waterways.



Speaking of outdoor art

If you have a passion for outdoor art you won’t want to miss the 19th annual wildlife art auction at the Ned Smith Center on Saturday. The auction begins at 9:30 a.m. Artwork by the late Smith, Gerald Putt, R.C. Kray, Laura Finberg and many others will be offered to high bidders. More information is available at www.nedsmithcenter.org.



Coonhounds

The Chillisquaque Chapter of the Coonhound Club will have a hunting dog competition at the North Montour Sportsmen’s on Saturday afternoon. For more information about this club and their events please call Richard Pipech, Jr. at 940-0221.



Trout Unlimited

The R.B. Winter Chapter of Trout Unlimited will start up their regular monthly meetings on Wednesday, Oct. 17. This meeting will be held at the Towne Tavern and Dick Remensnyder who is a fine Wildlife Conservation Officer will be the speaker. The public is always welcome at these meetings and presentations. Dinner is served at 6 p.m. with the presentation starting at 7 p.m.



Gift shopping?

It’s not too early to start thinking about Christmas gift shopping, so you may want to consider the commemorative calendar that the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has published. This 16-month calendar is in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps and it features some of the CCC projects right here in our valley. The calendar costs just $8.49 plus shipping. You may order as many copies as you need by calling the State Parks Reservation Hotline at 1-888-727-2757. All proceeds from the sale of the calendar benefit state parks throughout our state.



Envirothon booming success

Since its inception in 1987, the Envirothon for high school students has steadily grown and this past year 40 student teams from across the state competed in the Statewide Enviro-Olympics. These teams are sponsored by their county conservation district offices and staff. To insure the on-going success of this impressive effort, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection awarded $300,000 to the Envirothon coordination group. Environthon helps to insure that “no child is left inside” and that students learn about our natural resources and about environmental science the best way possible: by mucking around in the mud and the glorious out-of-doors.