REDEMPTION

The following article was first published in the September 2019 issue of

the american beagler

magazine.

Subsequently, The October issue of

THE RABBIT HUNTER

magazine.

It is presented here with additional photography and information for your reading pleasure by authority of the author.

From Western Pennsylvania,

And

The World Headquarters of

The Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny

REDEMPTION

Written

By

Joe Ewing

High HareMan

Of the

Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny

Photographed by

Michelle M. Murray and

Joe Ewing

 

The Clarion River near Cooksburg, Pennsylvania

The Clarion River, the playground of western PA

“The hunter that travels out into the woods is lost to the world, yet finds himself.”-Unknown.

Redemption was not bestowed upon me in any one defining moment of triumph. Atonement came during tranquil moments of self-reflection, contemplation and soul-searching. Deliverance came during moments of quiet self-examination in the great outdoors.

I like to keep records. I’ve kept paper records or a journal of almost every rabbit hunt or training run in which I’ve participated. I’ve concocted a paper form which I now utilize. I enjoy referring to these notes. These simple scraps of meaningless looking paper never cease to bring back pleasant memories.

Not long ago a beagling friend called me on the phone. During the conservation he mentioned his beagle was pregnant and that’s all he said. After hanging up the phone a thought went scurrying through the not yet dead segments of my minuscule brain. I combed through my paper notes, found the last time he and his female beagles hunted with my males. It had been exactly 60 days.

The next night the phone rang again and my friend began with, “Say, when was the last…?”

“I’m way ahead of you,” I rudely interrupted. “You’re having puppies next Friday.” To make a long story short his female wasn’t pregnant and the litter didn’t materialize for reasons too extensive to expound upon here. The bottom line, I had my records and I didn’t have to rely on my declining recollections.

In the late 70s a bunch of us hunted eastern cottontail rabbits hard. I mean intensely. We were young and seemed to have an obsession with the sport of rabbit hunting. We were out in the fields before daylight every chance we could possibly find and according to my notes there is no way I could’ve returned home until after dark most days. I loaded beagles in the dark in the morning, I fed hounds in the dark in the evening and I skinned cottontails in the dark of the night. Many days we spent as many as 9 or 10-hours hunting rabbits. As long as there was daylight, we chased beagles. Everyone filled their bag limit most days. According to my archives, on at least one occasion, Andy and I led dogs across the breast of a beaver dam in the dark of night. We then leashed hounds another two miles to the trucks. My records don’t show if we got our feet wet.

Courtesy: Google Earth

My records also don’t indicate our beliefs, opinions, conceptions or misconceptions, but I know we were fanatical with hunting to the point of excessive, single-minded zeal. Our motto was, “Hunting isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” We hunted rabbits anywhere and everywhere we could find them. Holding down a job was our only inconvenience.

We hunted the abandoned strip-mines of southern Clarion County, Pennsylvania. A co-worker owned a small hobby-farm and ran a greenhouse/nursery operation surrounded by abandoned strip-mines and he literally hated the cottontail rabbits which ate his nursery stock and vegetable garden. His farm and the abandoned strip-mines were loaded with rabbits. Ed didn’t care if we shot cottontails in his back yard just as long as we killed rabbits. We tried to be careful around the farmhouse; however, the greenhouse suffered a few BB holes on occasion. It was fortunate the greenhouse wasn’t made of glass. After old Ed’s passing his farm was obliterated from the face of the Earth by the strip-miner’s dragline. It was sad to see the place in which Ed took so much pride and the place we loved to hunt rabbits disappear with one fell swoop of a D-9 bulldozer and the ravenous bite of the dragline.

Strip-mining (open pit mining) is a type of surface mining for coal and other minerals including petroleum. Strip-miners opened up a long strip of land and removed the coal. They moved the soil and rock (overburden) to the side, dug as deep as possible with the equipment they had available, removed the coal seam and were gone. The greedy coal barons never worried about restoring the land, back-filling or acid mine water. Many creeks and streams in Clarion County still display the bright orange of sulfur mine drainage. At one time the Clarion River was the most polluted river in Pennsylvania. I’m sure rabbit hunters across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky and many other states know all about the curse of strip-mining. Thanks to the volunteer work of conservation groups like the Mill Creek Coalition the Clarion River runs clean and was voted Pennsylvania’s river of the year.

 

An old abandoned strip-mine, unrestored, overgrown and worthless land.

The strip mines we hunted in were covered with slow growing non-native trees and shrubs. Native varieties of trees would not grow in the acid shale spoil piles or “spilly piles” (local jargon) which the strip-miners left behind.

A spoil pile, also called boney pile or slag heap, is a pile built of accumulated overburden or other waste material removed during coal and ore mining. These waste materials are composed of shale as well as sandstone and various other residues.

One of the hazards of strip-mines are “highwalls”.  A highwall is the unexcavated face of exposed overburden in a surface mine. The coalminers dug straight down leaving a hazardous cliff-like precipice. Although I’ve witnessed cottontails make their escape up a highwall, on many occasions the beagles would chase the cottontails to the very brink of the highwall and there the chase would end with the beagle catching the rabbit. My beagle, Honey, would show up with the rabbit, wagging her tail and feeling very proud of herself.

Numerous iron furnaces operated from 1829-1867 in Clarion County. The county was often referred to as “The Iron County.” There are many iron ore strip-mines in the county. One of these abandoned iron ore strip-mines is within a few yards of my back door. I couldn’t believe my good fortune when I moved into the house where I now live. The iron mine was covered with great rabbit cover and full of rabbits. On many evenings I came home from work, placed my favorite legal beverage in my pocket and within minutes the beagles would be on a rabbit. I trained and hunted cottontail in the abandoned iron mine for many years until civilization and development crowded me out.

Helen Furnace, one of numerous iron furnaces in Clarion County, was built in 1845 on the Alexander McNaughton farm. This cold blast furnace operated until 1857. In 1856, within a 26-week period of operation the furnace generated 26 tons of iron.

More Clarion River.

In the late 1970s Congress passed a new law which changed strip-mining practises dramatically. The law regulates the way coal miners reclaim the land. We hunted for eastern cottontails in the reclaimed strip-mines of central and southern Clarion County, Pennsylvania during the late-80s and all through the 1990s.

The mining companies planted thousands of non-native evergreen trees which made excellent rabbit cover. The restored land soon became virtually overrun with rabbits and we hunted them with obsession. The ground was compacted from the restoration process so there were no holes for the rabbits to escape. They never stopped running. As the non-native pine and spruce continued to grow, they shaded out the understory. These trees are slowly dying, the sun is reaching the ground and the rabbit habitat is slowly returning.

One Thanksgiving morning years ago we stopped at a promising looking cover, just to try it for a few minutes. We each had promised to be home for Thanksgiving dinner. The few minutes turned into a few hours and everyone was late for Thanksgiving. I never promised to be home at noon again; however, we hunted this new cover for many years.

Numerous whitetail deer abound in the area.

In 1987 my son turned twelve years old and started hunting rabbits with the gang. He had trailed along on many rabbit hunts and now it was his turn. I let him shoot most of the cottontails we ran which felt good to me. He was having fun shooting rabbits in front of the hounds and I was having the time of my life as the dog handler. I only had two safety rules: unload the shotgun and “safety on” while gutting the kill and, mainly because my beagles were fast, I allowed “no jump shooting”. The beagles had to circle the rabbit one full circle before we were allowed to shoot. I didn’t want any hunter or beagle to suffer during my watch. I often told young hunters, “I don’t care if you shoot me in the backside; however, if you shoot one of my dogs I’ll be upset,” or, something to that effect.

It was about this time we really got into snowshoe hare hunting. The more we hunted them the more we loved it. During a moment of quiet introspection, it became apparent we couldn’t shoot them all and still have hare for the beagles to run. At some point along the way it became more about the dogs than about the killing. We were gaining respect for the magnificent snowshoe hare as we discovered what an elusive adversary the hare really was.

During a hunt to the Adirondacks our guide asked if his son would be allowed to shoot a hare. “Sure,” was the answer, “no problem.” Soon, I heard a bawl from a beagle and the immediate report of a shotgun. The lad had shot the hare on the jump right out from under the beagles. I had travelled to New York to listen to the beagles run. It was cases like these which led to the “one-hour-rule”.

On a trip to the Tug Hill Plateau in New York the pair of beagles kicked up a hare and were running expertly in the deep snow. As the hare ran past the first hunter a report came over the hand-held radio, “the hare just ran past.” As the hare ran past the second hunter, “hare on the run.” As the snowshoe hare ran past another hunter and then another the same report was relayed. By this time our guide was completely beside himself. He had never heard of such a thing.

I’ve taken many hunters snowshoe hare hunting over the years. On many of these hunts the hare would amble by and the hunter armed with a 12-guage would miss. The snowshoe hare would run for another two, three or more hours before the hunter would connect. It was after a few of these hunts, after moments of self-reflection, contemplation and soul-searching, the “one-miss-rule” and the “two-hour-time-limit” were added to our rules of engagement etiquette. It was becoming “all about the beagles”.

I’ve been chastised, castigated, made fun of, laughed at, ridiculed and even belittled because of our rules and of course it doesn’t matter to me or anyone I hunt with. Actually, it’s all part of the fun. We believe in our cause and we’ll never veer off course.

I’ve received redemption in the great outdoors. Is it wrong to shoot a magnificent snowshoe hare? Probably not, however, you’ll do better if you show respect for your quarry. It’s all about the beagles, first and foremost, and all about the snowshoe hare.

“Go afield with a good attitude, with respect for the wildlife you hunt and for the forest and fields in which you walk. Immerse yourself in the outdoor experience. It will cleanse your soul and make you a better person.”-Fred Bear

SHRINE CIRCUS ADVERTISEMENT

JAFFA SHRINE CIRCUS

Altoona, PA

click on picture to enlarge

Thanks to a benevolent benefactor, charter member of the Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny and mentor to the Big Woods Hare Hunters, the above pictured advertisement was placed in the Jaffa Shrine Circus program recently. 

Thanks to Big Woods Hare Hunter and Shriner, Jim Taylor, for helping to get our name out there.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE

presents

 

From the World Headquarters

of the

Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny

TROUBLE IN PARADISE

Written and Photographed

by

Joe Ewing

High HareMan

Of the

Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny

This article was first printed in the
July 2019 issues of
american beagler
magazine
and the
THE RABBIT HUNTER
magazine
and the
October 2019 issue
of the
HOUNDS and HUNTING
magazine.

The article is reprinted here for your reading pleasure and is authorized by the author.

My favorite subject is the very elusive, exceptionally majestic, and extremely omnipotent snowshoe hare. My favorite activity involves beagles and beagling. Combine the two hares and beagles, and I’ve discovered my pastime. Place my pastime in my most beloved place on Earth, and I have realized my passion. Chasing snowshoe hare in the dead of winter on the Allegheny while listening to the hounds in full cry with their glorious music ringing from mountainside to mountainside is an activity I challenge anyone to beat. Pursuing the elusive snowshoe hare with beagles on the Allegheny has bestowed upon me untold hours of extreme enjoyment, absolute pleasure, and unlimited adventure.

My mission is to inform as many people as possible of the sheer magnificence of the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus). I describe the snowshoe hare as “magnificent” because they are impressively beautiful and spectacularly difficult to hunt. I call the hare “elusive” because they are extremely difficult to find in Pennsylvania and unquestionably evasive. Being both unconquerable and invincible, the snowshoe hare can only be described as “omnipotent”.

There is trouble in paradise. Hard times for the magnificent snowshoe hare and other small game animals like ruffed grouse and eastern cottontail rabbits are here, now, on the Allegheny, and no one is doing anything about it. In 2012, after hearing from a few hunting-incapacitated and game-disabled road-hunters unable to locate the elusive hare, the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) excessively dramatized the situation by reducing the hunting season to three days and by restricting the hunting in three wildlife management units (WMU) located in the Poconos.

In a feeble attempt to get a supposed handle on the hare population problem across the state, the PGC hired a snowshoe hare biologist along with experts (students) from Penn State University (PSU). The results of the two-year-long study; "…the loss of acceptable habitat, from development and forest maturation and fragmentation has been plaguing hares for decades. Where good habitat can be found in their range, you'll find hares.", said Calvin DuBrock, director of the PGC’s Bureau of Wildlife Management. The most revealing words in DuBrock’s statement were “forest maturation and fragmentation.” 

Veteran deep-woods Pennsylvania snowshoe hare hunters instinctively understood the problems without studies, biologists, or doctoral students. The study made not one smidgeon of a mention of the threat or damage from the overpopulation of whitetail deer. The solution from the PGC was to “manage” the problem. The hare season is back where it was before 2012, the snowshoe hare biologists are long gone, the doctoral students have moved along to more pressing matters, and the snowshoe hare and other small game species are on their own.

Sometimes called the snowshoe rabbit or varying hare, the hare is one of Pennsylvania’s rarest and most elusive game animals. Ninety-nine percent of Pennsylvania’s population has never seen a hare in the wild. Many of the population have never heard the term “snowshoe hare” and don’t know this splendid animal even exists. The Allegheny National Forest (ANF) Headquarters in Marienville, PA, thoughtlessly or purposely neglects to include the snowshoe hare in their display of mounted animals native to the ANF.

Pennsylvania is at the southernmost fringe of the hare’s range. Snowshoe hares are predominantly found in parts of the Allegheny Mountains, the high plateaus of the northwest, the Pocono Mountains to the east, and, yes, the Allegheny National Forest. Snowshoe hares thrive in the high plateau swamps, clear-cuts, evergreen plantations, and laurel bottoms of the Allegheny High Plateau, where the snowpack persists throughout the winter.

Snowshoe hares are boundless in awesomeness although small in size, standing about 8 or 9 inches at the shoulder, weighing in at 3 to 5 pounds, and around 21 inches in length. At 5 inches, the hare’s hind feet are incredibly huge in comparison to their overall size. The hind feet are covered with thick hair allowing the snowshoe hare to attain speeds of up to 30 miles an hour (40 feet per second) even in deep snow, stop on a dime, and turn 90 degrees in midair. Snowshoe hares will run for hours in front of a pack of beagles. The varying hare knows there is no dog alive he can’t outrun.

Hunting snowshoe hare on the Allegheny is a far cry from hunting hare in most other places in North America. Maine is blessed with huge numbers of hare covers virtually impenetrable by man or hound, which explains why snowshoe hare are numerous in the state. Hare hunting on the Allegheny is more like big game hunting and a far cry from Maine’s hare populations. On the Allegheny, the cover is sparse, and the hare is few. The hunter seldom finds more than a few hares in any cover. I’ve personally discovered when a cover is shot out, the area may never repopulate.

The snowshoe hare’s name comes from their large, 5½ inch hind feet which keeps them “afloat” in the deepest of snow.

A little history. Pennsylvania's forests were completely obliterated in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The forests were completely destroyed. Not a twig was left standing. However, the ground was filled with millions upon millions of dormant seeds, ready to sprout. As the forests began naturally regenerating, the thick brush was exactly what the snowshoe hare needed for nesting and escape cover. The hare, as well as other wildlife populations, boomed.

Credit: Courtesy Pennsylvania State Archives

The "Pennsylvania Desert," Tioga County, PA, circa 1920

White-tailed deer emerged as one of the greatest threats to Pennsylvania’s forests in the twentieth century. Pennsylvania’s deer population exploded, devastating the state’s forests. Escape cover, nesting cover, and food sources became severely limited for the snowshoe hare as well as ruffed grouse, woodcock, cottontail, turkey, and many non-game species, including songbirds.

My story: In the 1980s and 1990s, my beagling buddies and I hunted for and shamefully killed what few snowshoes hare we could find in the sizable clear-cuts and mature spruce plantations the CCC and WPA boys planted during the 1920s and 1930s. The National Forest and state forest were erecting fenced deer exclosures to protect vegetation from deer browsing. We were confident a hare would be inside when we spotted a wire fence. The many hares we ran inside the fences would play with the hounds by exiting the wire, running a few yards, and then entering back through the fence, impeding the hounds with every exit and entrance. Regularly, I was compelled to increase the size of the holes in the wire so the beagles could reenter. Our desire to kill this awe-inspiring, beagle-challenging little animals seemed to wane. Chasing these awesome running creatures with beagles became more challenging than killing them.

  

In the 1980s, the public fell in love with big trees, and “clear-cutting” became a dirty word. The Pennsylvania Department of Forest and Waters and the U.S. Forest Service stopped cutting trees on public land primarily due to pressure from well-funded, well-organized environmental groups. Contrary to proven science and common sense, these “environmentalists” believed they were helping out wildlife. Well-funded environmental groups tied the U. S. Forest Service up in court for almost ten years. Hardly a tree was harvested in the ANF during that period. As the forests matured, the forest floor became barren wastelands. The forest floor was devoid of green vegetation small animals needed for survival. The very animals the well-intentioned public wanted to protect vanished.

On the evening of May 31, 1985, multiple violent and deadly F4 tornados raged through eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania into Canada. Nearly one mile wide, one tornado tore through the Allegheny National Forest. Millions of board feet of timber were flattened in the Marienville ranger district alone. The tornado ripped a path of total devastation 29 miles long.

In the years following this natural disturbance, the tornado’s path began to heal itself and regenerate naturally. The natural reforestation created many great snowshoe hare covers. For the next twenty years, nature gave adequate nesting and escape cover for countless small creatures, including snowshoe hare. Then we started chasing the elusive snowshoe hare with beagles all winter.

Today, the ANF has chosen selective cutting over clear-cutting. Natural disturbances like fire and wind cannot be depended upon to create hare habitats.  The debate between foresters and conservationists rages on, resulting in over-maturing forests and forest mismanagement. Too many deer competing for the same food as snowshoe hare, cottontail rabbits, and ruffed grouse have combined to restrict the small game population. Snowshoe hare hang in covers long past their prime. Relatively few new covers are being made, and snowshoe hare are picky.

In the March 2018 issue of the Pennsylvania Game News (PGN), the official publication of the PGC, an article titled “Too Much Old Forest” with the subtitle reading, “The future of hunting is rooted in younger forestland” was presented. The sub-subtitle reads, “Many hunters find comfort and familiarity in older stands of Penn’s Woods. But they’d likely find more deer [it’s all about deer in PA] and opportunities in younger forests that provide more cover and varied foods. The canopy and ferns of older stands limit understory development and opportunities for wildlife. But the Game Commission and its partners are working to provide wildlife a better mix of forest age classes.”

The article openly admitted the PGC has been mismanaging commission-owned forests for a long time. In a prior article, Kosack (writer of the PGN article) acknowledged the PGC has been more interested in timber production than wildlife, a very interesting statement from the organization mandated to protect our wildlife. The title of the article said it all with nothing more to be articulated. If the article was genuine it was good news for snowshoe hare and other small game.

In the opinion of the Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny, the majestic snowshoe hare and all small wildlife should be granted more respect from our state and national wildlife officials. Snowshoe hare and other small game, like ruffed grouse, wild turkey, rabbits, and non-game species, are entitled to a higher standing than they presently enjoy. We understand deer is king; however, it will be a sad day when the forests are completely void of all small creatures.

The bottom line: snowshoe hare and all small game numbers go up when trees go down. Our public forest lands are in desperate need of improved management. More trees need cut. Selective cutting does not work. Trees are a crop that requires harvesting. Clear-cutting small patches of timber every few years creates a mixed-age forest, just what the snowshoe need. We must let our public officials know what we expect and what the snowshoe hare and other small game animals need and deserve. It’s time we get serious about small game. Enough said? Hardly. The Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny have only just begun.

Private timber companies clear-cut hundreds of acres of forest every year. But is it enough?

Fresh clear-cut in the summer of 2015

Same clear-cut as above in the summer of 2017.

Hunting in a clear-cut on the high plateau.

John Griffith commented on Facebook.com-- I just wanted to say that I just read your article in the July issue of Rabbit Hunter magazine. I must say that it was a great article! I am 31 years old and enjoy hunting for snowshoe hares as well as ruffed grouse. I fear that hunting for these majestic creatures could become a thing of the past, if our game commission does not change its philosophy. For far too long our forests have been managed for dollars instead of animals. If our game commission gave half the time and money that they have devoted to deer and elk we would be in a much better position. I applaud you for speaking the truth and I agree with your mind set 100%. It was refreshing to read

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