August 14, 2007
Losing a follower in a cloud of dust
This monring I met DGIF biologist Dan Lovelace in Buchanan to talk about the state's Deer Management Assistance Program. I figured the best place to talk DMAP would be at a property that uses the program, so I asked him to follow me out to a friend's place a few miles from town. (I wanted to scout out a couple of stand sites afterward, which is why I suggested we take separate rigs.)
After we left blacktop the road was super dusty. I couldn't even see Dan behind me. After a few miles I got to the property, stopped and waited. And waited. And waited.
I called Dan's cell phone and didn't get an answer.
This is a pretty twisty road so I started fearing the worst, that maybe he'd slid into a ditch. So I backtracked back to the blacktop. No Dan. By then I was on the phone with his office, and they couldn't raise him on his NEXTEL walkie-talkie.
There's one fork in the road so I went down it. I was nearly at the end when my phone rang. It was Dan. He had taken that wrong fork, turned around, and gone the right way when I was back at the hardtop.
He said there hadn't been any dust at the fork. When I drove back through there I saw he was right. There's a house there and they must spray the road with something to keep the dust down.
The mishap delayed us by maybe 15 minutes, but it actually worked out OK. Just inside the gate I spotted a yearling black bear that had just crossed the road in front of us. We wouldn't have seen him if we'd gotten there earlier.
The bear stood and looked at me from about 35 yards away, but I didn't have my 400mm lens on my camera and by the time I got situated he had moved off.
Comments
[August 16, 2007 6:25 PM]
Dr. Tom Abbott (Dakota2004)Mark, please slow down when driving on dirt roads. I know most of you don't think about where that dust you kick up goes. For years I didn't either.
The fugitive dust we kick up from driving too fast on dirt roads is really contributing to the pollution of our air. The reason I suspect you never thought about it is because you probably don't live near a dust source. I have had to breathe the dust kicked up by unaware travelers for many years. Rural folks don't want to breathe the dust! The equation Einstein proposed, E=MC2, can be used to determine how much fugitive dust air pollution you generate by driving too fast on dirt roads. All sportsmen should change their habits on this one because the nation has a bunch of dirt roads. C2 (C Squared) represents the velocity whether it is autos, bullets, or arrows. So at 20 MPH C2 has roughly the energy of 400 to suspend fugitive dust, but at 40 MPH C2 has the energy to suspend the same size dust particles of 1600. Why do that to our air?
PM10 dust (Particulate Matter less than 10 microns diameter)is lodged in the most important lower reaches of the lungs of all animals and always causes breathing problems (if not leading to lung cancer). What was your hurry? Thanks, you get the picture. Learn more by checking about PM10 health risks on Google.com. Dakota2004 (Dr. Tom Abbott)
Lastly, I plan to send articles I have written about CWD in deer to the VA Legislature in the near future to renew the push for allowing Sunday hunting because of public health and safety issues. When an area is over populated by deer or any other animal the DGIF need to have the flexibility to quickly get hunters in that area to cull the herd before A disease spreads.
I have said at public hearings before that CWD is as bad as the Chestnut Blight of the 1950s (Chestnuts were the major food source for turkey, deer, bear, humans, etc.). All ages and sexes of deer in my area of Boulder County, CO have around a 33% CWD infection rate. If you used to like deer jerky say goodbye to that organic protein source because of reasonable human safety concerns.
[August 16, 2007 10:23 PM]
Mark TaylorTom, Thanks for the comment and suggestion. And thanks also for what may be the first-ever Einstein reference on an outdoors-related blog!
I actually do have experience living on a "dusty country road." I grew up on one. I remember when they actually would spray the thing down with oil (I assume waste motor oil) to control the dust. I'm sure that was good for us, too.
But, you're right. I wasn't thinking about it as much as I should have been. I wasn't going that fast because, like I wrote, the road is twisty. But I was probably doing 35 when I would have been just fine going 20 or 25.
As for CWD, as you might now it's been found in West Virginia just a few miles from our border. It's been two years and I remain amazed that it hasn't been found here yet, and the state is doing extensive testing. No doubt reducing deer density can have an impact on helping control the spread of the disease. Whether allowing Sunday hunting is the answer to reducing Virginia's deer herd, I don't know.
Thanks for reading.
mt