DEC offers summer camp scholarships
The Lake Champlain Chapter of Trout Unlimited will provide six scholarships for those ages 11 to 13 and 14 to 17 to a Department of Environmental Conservation summer camp in 2012.
The camps, located at Camp Colby near Saranac Lake and Pack Forest near Warrensburg, as well as Camps DeBruce and Rushford, offer an unusual opportunity to learn more about the environment and the outdoors. Campers enjoy a completely paid week of summer fun at either youth camp or teen camp conducted by DEC's well-qualified instructors. The scholarships cover all costs, while parents are responsible to get the child to and from the camp. Sessions are for one week starting July 3.
The scholarships are memorials to Sam Thuesen and Dennis Aprill, both outstanding outdoorsmen, conservationists and educators with a keen interest in the young people of the North Country.
Applicants must be between the ages of 11 and 17 at the time the camp starts, and live in Clinton, Essex, Warren, Washington, Hamilton or Franklin counties. Send a short one-page letter to Gretchen Comfort, 749 Norristown Road, Schuyler Falls, NY 12985, telling her why you want to go to camp. The cut-off is March 31, and these camps fill up fast.
For more information on DEC summer camps, go to www.DEC.ny.Gov/education.
'Celebrating New York's Forests' Photo winners announced
ALBANY — The Department of Environmental Conservation's Division of Lands and Forests has announced the winners of the 2011 "Celebrating New York's Forests" Photo Contest.
More than 530 photos were submitted and judged. The winners' and semifinalists' photographs for each of the five categories — "Enjoying the Forest," "Trees Where We Live," "Forest Products," "State-owned Forests" and "Commissioner's Choice" — can be viewed by going to the "Celebrating New York's Forests Photo Contest" webpage on DEC's website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/75396.html.
DEC seeks info on sick, dead deer
ALBANY — The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is asking the public to report any instances of deer appearing sick or acting abnormally.
Anyone who sees a white-tailed deer acting abnormally or who finds a dead deer that was not struck by a vehicle is asked to report the animal to the nearest DEC regional office or to an environmental conservation officer or forest ranger.
"One of the ways that DEC monitors the health of New York's deer herd is by performing post-mortem examinations to determine the cause of the illness or death," Assistant Commissioner for Natural Resources Kathleen Moser said. "We depend on information provided by people who are outdoors to tell us when they see something that does not look right to them."
Recently, DEC identified an uncommon bacterial disease in a deer from Warren County. This bacterial disease does not affect humans. However, DEC is seeking additional information to determine the prevalence of this disease in the deer herd.
To locate your nearest DEC office, visit www.dec.ny.gov/about/50230.html.
