hunting

A group of veterans standing indoors under an American flag

Hunting for peace

Air Force veteran Bill Frost established what he originally called the Pickaway County Disabled Veterans Hunt in 2010 with just an idea, some public land, a handful of volunteers, and 10 hunters. 

Frost says he founded the event because he wanted to give veterans with disabilities an opportunity to take part in one of his favorite activities, hunting, that they likely wouldn’t have otherwise. And he encourages veterans with all levels of disability to take part.

“They suffer daily with mental or physical things they have wrong with them because they served our country,” Frost says. “If you have any doubts about thinking you can’t go hunting because of your disability, whatever it is, I really want you to please reach out.”  

Co-op People
A man holding a walleye on Lake Erie

What are the chances?

Even with more than 11 million people living within its borders — some 282 folks per square mile — our state is still known nationally for its excellent sport hunting and fishing opportunities, particularly for wild turkeys, Lake Erie walleyes, and white-tailed deer.  

Just as amazing, however, are the staggering odds that individual wild animals face to survive to adulthood in our modern environment. Take the wild turkey, for example. Joe Hutto, author of the 1995 book Illumination in the Flatwoods (which was made into a PBS TV special, My Life as a Turkey), put it this way:

Woods, Waters & Wildlife

Teddy's bear

Teddy bears will be purchased in untold numbers this Christmas season as gifts for children, both around the country and around the world. Ever stop and wonder why?

Guiding the president for several days was Holt Collier, the most famous bear hunter in the state. Born a slave, Collier was now a freed man who made much of his living by bear hunting. He and his pack of top-notch hounds were said to have taken more than 3,000 black bears. 

Woods, Waters & Wildlife
Had it not been for Ohio’s duck hunters, much of Ohio’s marshland, which is so important to both birding and hunting today, may well have been lost to development.

Birding vs. hunting

"There’s a singular reason that some of the best Lake Erie marshes in Ohio have been saved from destruction. One reason, two words: duck hunters. It sounds blunt and oversimplified, but from the viewpoint of wildlife, duck hunters saved the marshes.”

During settlement, the Buckeye State lost an estimated 95% of its original wetlands, much of that the Great Black Swamp, which once covered nearly all of northwestern Ohio and northeastern Indiana. That gigantic region was a haven for wildlife of all sorts — not just waterfowl — as the water slowly drained into the vast marshes that ringed the western edge of Lake Erie from Toledo to Sandusky.

Woods, Waters & Wildlife
Four guys holding on to what is becoming a lost art: Scott Lynch, Dave Miller, Greg Thomas (also shown at left), and Rick Truman, hunting with their beagles.

Beagles and cottontails

For some 25 years, I raised beagles for hunting cottontail rabbits. Reluctantly, I gave it up about a decade ago when my oldest dog died. What I miss most about the sport is the sound of the chase.

Hunters call it hound music.

My longtime friend and fellow outdoors writer Mike Tontimonia is another who knows the sound well. A member of Carroll Electric Cooperative in eastern Ohio, Tontimonia estimates he’s owned 150 beagles during his lifetime — both hunters and field-trialers — with as many as 20 dogs in his kennel at any one time.

Woods, Waters & Wildlife
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