The good times could easily change. . . a reminder

[watercolor]

During my past several hunts in the woods, I have been approached TWICE by official,
card-carrying, volunteer "stewards" who make it their mission to protect the forests from
anyone and/or anything that 'might' be harmful.

My first encounter with one of these forest "stewards" occurred about two weeks ago
and my last encounter happened just this afternoon. During each of these encounters,
I was STERNLY reminded about how fragile our environment is. In both instances, I explained
that in addition to metal detecting for coins. . . broken glass, aluminum cans, trash, etc. . . are
ALSO picked up and ALL holes that have been dug are COMPLETELY re-filled and solidly compacted.

When I was confronted today by one of these forest stewards, he told me point-blank that he was
planning to make a phone call to the forest office to get my a$$ booted from the woods. . . until I
showed him a satchel of broken glass & crushed beer cans that were also collected.

When you hunt the woods, or anywhere for that matter, you ARE being watched.

[Dirt fishing Wolf]

Would it be a good idea to pre pocket a few trash items?
Might not hit many targets before you get confronted.

[scrounger d detector collector]

whoa i was really suprised to hear this.

i find it hard to believe that anyone would be willing to roam

the woods just looking for this .

what reward could be in it . a chance to play barney fife ?

its so funny to me that human nature is to try and

stop one of the few legit users of the facilities who is

out doing something insteada watching tv.

if these folks really wanted to benefit the system

they would be organising trash cleanups in the park themself.

bottom line i guess its more fun to play cop than

pickup garbage.

i assume they dont have arrest powers and just tell on you ?

also how can you tell there for real.

with todays printing technology. anyone can make a very

official looking document.proves nothing.

even uniforms can be faked. several years ago there

were multiple murders by a faker forest ranger.

up in the pacific northwest.

if im in a fairly frequented area sure il stop and talk.

if im alone in a very remote area u aint gonna get close

enuf to me to have a conversation.

another reason to buddy hunt.

[treasurefiend]

you gotta love the enviro nut jobs out there, if only they knew that the precocious FP's are really just landfills with trees on them, and that are all for the most part 1930's and newer and not some pristine untouched gem. GET A LIFE PEOPLE AND STOP HASSLING OTHERS!!!

Seems that they can make more of a difference if they take a few garbage bags with them and pickup the tons of garbage that is all over the woods. They would absolutely have a heart attack if they ever found the mega bottle dump from in my videos - its the size of a CITY block if not bigger!!!!

[treasurefiend]

mixed in with all that trash I still managed to find some keepers so I guess im doing my part cleaning it up 1 bottle at a time!!! The tall bottle is from 1901 and was right on the surface next to a pit (probably set aside by a bottle digger and forgot to grab it when he left)

[Lowbatts]

Been over run by the nature nazis more than enough. It's their woods too, in fact they have ribbons that show how much they care, somewhere. One time a group of octogenarian bird watchers came down the path at DG west and happened upon me. They started sceaming about no wonder there's no birds to be seen with me making all my commotion and whatever.

They totally missed the Indigo Bunting less than 15 feet from me, where it had been all along until they came storming up, along with the grosbeak, the flickers and the downy woodpecker.

The only thing they noticed was me digging. I didn't have a defib unit and didn't want to give them my usual treatment so I just casually informed them of my sightings and how close I am to the birds but that was little console to them so I killed them all. I mean I left them to wander noisily through the woods.

Another time in the river a group of heron addicts were yelling at me to get out of the river because I was disturbing the egrets that were much closer to me than to them. They had a couple uniforms with them too. I walked under the bridge and pointed out to them that they were not informing the wading fisherment that they were liekwise disturbing the birds and that they were idiots and tossed them my bag of trash and told them to make themselves useful.

Not what sort of trash was in my bag? 25 lbs of fishing sinkers and fishing gear but the fishermen can walk the river as they please and step on crawdaddys all day long. I dig into the rocks and muck for an old sinker or a silver coin and I'm killing everything in sight as far as they're concerned.

It just goes to show that people are idiots. Lots of people. If you are not aware that there are people that are out to ban all md'ing then get that "I" stamp on your forehead. Ask Mayo for a transcript from the lawnmower man incident last year regarding the people's mem cent and how we, alone, in our pursuit do not constitute the "people" who enjoy the FP's. Rather we destroy and corrupt them and in his zeal he statede there were MANY people who thought like him. Well I don't see an anti-md'ing forum anywhere so we still outnumber them but it's a PR GAME.

I'm in this game to WIN. Most folks who've hunted with me know I am always quick to engage the curious and demonstrate good will as events warrant. No pressure, all smiles and cool tales of small fortunes, one dime at a time, found and saved from some other fate.

If met with aggressive tree huggers and root lovers, you have to choose a response knowing that my fate and the fate of all of us ride on your actions at some level. And you have to leave as little room for them to complain as possible.

P.S. Remind the heron addicts that the frog watchers are all suffering now because of the recent seemingly unbridled growth in the heron and egret populations around here due to all those damn rookeries they're putting up out this way. And those baby turtles? They're like crunchy little candies to them as well. So long wood frog and blandings turtles.

[Lowbatts]

You also can sign up for the "stewards" program.

Applications are on line. CCFP.

Meet your fellow "stewards" while your out deteting.

Finally!
A sage among us!

That is one great idea! Not sure I'll jump on it, not a Cook County guy myself but it sounds like something a few of those who are regulars should pursue.

Excellent idea fellas!

[Gimmie The Loot]

Seems that they can make more of a difference if they take a few garbage bags with them and pickup the tons of garbage that is all over the woods. They would absolutely have a heart attack if they ever found the mega bottle dump from in my videos - its the size of a CITY block if not bigger!!!!

Wow any old beer bottles out there? I would love to re-fill them with my homebrew!

[Gimmie The Loot]

You also can sign up for the "stewards" program.

Applications are on line. CCFP.

Meet your fellow "stewards" while your out deteting.

I joined the Lincoln Park Conservation group last summer so I could get involved and learn of park maintenence, lagoon dredging etc... I also received an official STAFF t-shirt : ) Went out a few times and pulled weeds from around the North Pond. Was kinda fun, and now I know some of the park officials.

[extractor]

[/quote]
Was that you wearing that ORANGE jump suit?? Were you ordered by a judge??
[/quote]

LMAO

[litefire56]

Would it be a good idea to pre pocket a few trash items?
Might not hit many targets before you get confronted.

Yep, I always start off a hunt with some previous dug trash in the pouch. Not because I'm
smart like Rich. It's just because I'm to lazy to clean it out.

Thanks for the heads-up WC!

[kimsdad]

Yep, I always start off a hunt with some previous dug trash in the pouch. Not because I'm
smart like Rich. It's just because I'm to lazy to clean it out.

LOL! - me too!

Whether you're in the woods or out in the open, the best defense is to be able to stand there and say "Show me where I was digging" and have them be unable to find any areas.