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rjzimmerman · 3 years

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Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

Jonah Yellowman sang his morning prayer in Navajo Thursday as the rising sun began to light up Bears Ears country. Below the steep cliffs in the east, golden light brought to life the sandstone monoliths in the Valley of the Gods. Up the mesa, twin buttes formed a silhouette suggesting a bear’s head peeking over the northern horizon.

Who heard Yellowman’s inspiring invocation was just as meaningful as where he stood, peacefully praying at the heart of a national controversy about environmental justice. Those in the circle of 20 people were mostly Native Americans from five tribes of the region who’d persuaded a U.S. president to preserve the area as a national monument five years ago.

Head bowed in prayer with the group was U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, whose Pueblo ancestors inhabited this spectacular and storied landscape. The first Indigenous person to become a cabinet secretary, Haaland is not only the new president’s top public lands official, overseeing 244 million acres, but also a person with deep roots in Bears Ears, a 35th generation New Mexican of the Laguna and Jemez Pueblos.

“I never thought,” Yellowman said afterward, “I would do something like this for an important person like her.”

The scene on Muley Point represented an historic coming together of the federal government and sovereign tribes and, perhaps, a new chapter in the struggle over managing public lands. It’s a struggle that’s playing out on the national stage, in Congress and the White House, and locally, from Navajo hogans to the rural, predominantly Mormon, towns of San Juan County, where the Bears Ears National Monument is located.

Haaland spent three days in Utah last week at the request of newly elected President Joe Biden. On Inauguration Day, he’d directed the Interior secretary to advise him on changing the boundaries and the management of the Bears Ears and two other national monuments, the nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of Maine. But her visit to red rock country is significant far from any of those mountains and waters, especially to environmental justice communities.

#Secretary of the Interior #Deb Haaland #President Biden #national monuments #Native Americans #Bears Ears National Monument

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dil-howlters-mirror · 4 years

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The Harvest – Beau Knutson

Every hunting season starts the same for me. In early July, I start hanging trail cameras and setting up blinds; and then in mid-August, I try to cover as much ground as possible in the mornings and evenings with the hope of locating a giant mule deer. This year would have been similar to any other year except for the fact that I had some extremely big shoes to fill after last season’s archery mule deer hunt.

Without a doubt, I had harvested a once-in-a-lifetime deer; but the thing that frustrated me the most was when people began to say, “You will never shoot a bigger one than that one!” My motivation, and that of my hunting companions, is the love of the outdoors and the enjoyment of time spent with friends and family – not whether or not I can “shoot a bigger one!” That is what motivated me to get my butt out of bed at 4:00 a.m. in August, in search of a shooter buck.

We had an extremely harsh winter this year, and after I had spent many days on the trails this spring looking for sheds, I was doubtful that 2013 was going to produce many mature deer. However, during the early summer I was surprised to notice that the mule deer herd in our area was not looking that bad…but it was still too early to guess what the horn growth was going to be like. By the middle of August, I relocated a few bucks that I had noticed had potential last year; but they had stayed relatively the same size as the previous year.

It wasn’t until the latter part of August that I found a deer that a buddy had spotted during the muzzleloader season last year. Last year, he had seen a basic four-point, with a few small sticker points and a small drop tine off his right beam. We had guessed that he was close to the 200” non-typical mark, but my buddy, Ken, had the draw tag and chose to pass him up. I was quite impressed with the amount of horn he had put on this year; however, the only time I could spot this deer was in my headlights, going to – and coming from – other scouting locations! It was a bit strange, because last year, I seen this buck in legal shooting light just about every time I was out. I’m not sure why, but this deer was pretty much nocturnal. A friend of mine did happen to catch him in some alfalfa in the early summer and got a few long distance pictures.

I was starting to get a bit concerned because I hadn’t figured this deer out yet; and, being a rancher, it was time for me to start harvesting. This meant I’d have zero chance to scout unless it rained until the season started. I had some ideas, but he was far from figured out. After harvest was done, I returned to puzzle solving; but it wasn’t till the third week of the season that I had a chance at this deer.

I spotted him out in the field before sun up and watched him walk away in the darkness and bed down – well before shooting light. Once the sun came up, I snuck into his bedding area, only to find out that I had no chance. There he was, lying right in the middle of a slough with not a breath of wind; I wouldn’t have gotten within a hundred yards of him, so I backed out and went back to work.

I got back to the farm and told the guys I had found a pretty good buck. Right away they both looked in the box of my truck. I told them I knew where he was laying and if the wind picked up I’d have to sneak away early that day. Sure enough, at about 4:00 p.m., the wind picked up and off I went. I snuck into position only to find out that he had moved during the day. I sat at the edge of the slough and glassed, trying to pick up a horn tip or an ear twitch, but I had no luck. Just when I was going to call it quits, I caught a glimpse of a horn in the sunlight – it was the little buck that had been accompanying him that morning. Game on! I started belly crawling toward the little fella, with the hope that the big guy was bedded nearby. I got into a position where I couldn’t go any closer without the risk of busting the buck, so I just started glassing again and finally picked out horn tips. I was 30 yards away and all he had to do was stand… seems simple, right? That’s what I thought.

I lay motionless for a couple hours and nothing happened; all of a sudden, I looked over my shoulder and noticed a 50” bull moose coming up behind me, grunting like crazy. I was a bit concerned because it was mid-September and the moose rut was starting. Now, there were two things that could happen: one, the moose could push me out; or two, the moose could motivate the deer to leave! The big bull walked parallel to me at 50 yards, grunting the whole time. I was a bit tense for a bit because he came straight downwind and stared me down the whole time! Lucky for me he continued on, but when he got to the end of the slough, he busted the small buck out of the bush. I figured my night was done but since I hadn’t seen the big guy get up, I waited till the end of hunting time…but he never stood up. The big guy had outsmarted me so I backed out and headed back to the truck.

The next few days required me to focus on work, but I knew my friend, Ken, would be down for a week, when my work concluded, so I was confident we would relocate this deer. The only concern was that he was bedding close to a road and I knew time was limited before someone else would discover him.

The night Ken got here, it was raining like crazy! We had received an inch the day before and ended up with three total inches before we could finally get out hunting. I was a bit worried that we wouldn’t be able to hunt for a day or two, but we managed to get out the next morning. Our plan was simple, we were going to go sit on post and watch him go off the field and bed down, and then we would sneak in and slide an arrow through him. Sounds easy…but it didn’t go quite like that!

We pulled into our spot at least an hour before shooting time so we wouldn’t spook anything off the field. About a half hour before shooting time we saw headlights coming up the trail; the truck stopped and two guys got out and walked out to the slough where we were hoping to locate the buck. That was not in our plans!

As soon as the sun came up, Ken could see through his binoculars that the big guy was heading right back where we thought he would, the only problem was the two guys walking around in the slough. I was worried that they were going to spook this deer off the face of the earth. I figured the way they were walking around, the chance of them killing the deer was zero; but more concerning was the fact that older, mature muleys don’t give second chances — they disappear when they are spooked.

We watched the show go on for about an hour and finally the hunters started walking back to their truck. We knew the big guy had gone in and hadn’t come out; only a couple little bucks had fled the country. Our plan now was to let the deer relax a bit, and wait for some wind; so we drove around for an hour or so and then came back to do our stalk. When we got back, the wind was perfect. We were a bit uncertain as to the exact location of the buck, but we knew he was in there somewhere. I’d seen it before, where muleys will use their same bed – over again – so our plan was to stalk where I had spotted him the week before.

Sneaking quietly, we got to about within 60 yards when Ken spotted horn tips with his Swarovski binos. We watched for a few minutes and figured we were safe to close the distance to 30 yards. I figured it would be better if only one of us tried to get to 30 yards, so Ken snuck up and got there – no problem. The buck was bedded and didn’t appear to be alerted, so Ken waved me forward. When I got in position, the buck was still bedded and still had no idea we were there. I figured we would be sitting there until 7:00 p.m. and it was only 10:30 a.m. — so I was going to have a snooze.

I had just settled in for a nap, when Ken tapped my boot and whispered, “He’s up.” I kind of fumbled my stuff together and we got ready. Ken appeared to have a clear shot to the lungs, at 30 yards; but when he released his arrow, it deflected over the deer’s shoulder. I was uncertain where the hit had been, so I went through the trees to get a look and was startled by the buck coming right toward me. I wasn’t sure he was going to stop! So when he was at 40 yards, I drew my bow and watched the Fletching disappear into the deer’s chest. The old buck made it about 50 yards and plied up.

The best thing about this hunt was having someone else along to celebrate with. It was a great hunt and one I won’t forget for a long time. Later in the week, Ken, my daughter Mackenzie, and I, took the deer to be measured. It ended up scoring 235 net and 241 gross non-typical.

I can hardly wait to see what next year brings!

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