ven•a•tic: fond of or living by hunting
NORTH AMERICA’S MOST-READ OUTDOOR NEWSLETTER
Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the newsletter. If you’re still with us, that means you’ve made it to the middle of yet another week.
With that said, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey and get this mid-week dispatch out the door.
Here's what's worth reading about this morning:
Bones crunching - Two cousins survive harrowing bear attack while on Alaskan caribou hunt last week 🐻
Expanded - Idaho expands mandatory CWD testing 🤮
700+ dead deer - Wisconsin is dealing with a massive viral outbreak experts say cannot be stopped 🦠
Tax holiday - Florida hunters and anglers can save the sales tax until the end of the year 🤑
C’mon man - Vandals dump 5-gallon pails of paint in Bighorn National Forest creek 🤬
Momma don’t play - This cow moose clears the yard of barking canines in a matter of minutes 🫎
QUITE THE ORDEAL
“I COULD HEAR ALL THE BONES CRUNCHING”: WASHINGTON HUNTERS SURVIVE NORTH SLOPE BROWN BEAR ATTACK
A Walla Walla man is home with his wife and two little girls after a brown bear tried to take his face off on a caribou hunt last week.
Jadon Nicoara, 27, and his cousin Daniel were four days into a caribou hunt on Alaska’s North Slope—about 100 miles southwest of Deadhorse, near the Colville River. They’d glassed a herd in the distance and were climbing the lip of a canyon on a steep hillside to close the gap when the pair noticed the bushes above them begin to move…
QUICK HITS // FROM AROUND THE WEB
Idaho expands mandatory CWD testing requirements for 2026 hunting season: Deer hunters in several parts of Idaho will face mandatory chronic wasting disease testing requirements during the 2026 hunting season, including new requirements in Units 64 and 69 near Idaho Falls. Read the full story.
Florida Retail Federation urges hunters, campers and anglers to snag tax break holiday on their gear: The Hunting, Fishing and Camping Sales Tax Holiday will kick into gear in the Sunshine State beginning Sept. 1 and runs through Dec. 31. The tax relief exemption approved by the Legislature frees sales taxes from the merchandise for those pursuits. Read the full story.
DNR: 700+ reports of dead deer in Washington, Waukesha Counties amid virus outbreak: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said it has received more than 700 dead deer reports in Washington and Waukesha Counties amid a viral outbreak that experts said cannot be stopped. Read the full story.
National Elk Refuge plan calls for feeding Jackson Hole elk, even if CWD transmission skyrockets: The proposal leans into hunting to reduce the population to 5,000, but it doesn’t require steps to end feeding, which wildlife disease experts predict is best for the elk population. Read the full story.
Angus M. Thuermer, Jr./WyoFile
Reedsville man pleads not guilty to 80-plus charges in alleged illegal hunting case: Luis Rodriguez pleaded not guilty Thursday to more than 80 criminal charges and citations for allegedly illegally hunting, and then lying about it to wardens.
Rodriguez, 24, faces 16 misdemeanor counts of shining, 15 counts of resisting a warden, and 15 counts of hunting during a closed season. More than 40 other citations were issued for a variety of offenses, including taking an animal without a tag, hunting after hours, and discharging a firearm across a highway. Read the full story.
Vandals Dump Five Gallon Paint Cans In Bighorn National Forest Creek: A Sheridan County family outing quickly turned into a cleanup effort after they found multiple five gallon cans of paint dumped in Porcupine Creek in the Bighorn National Forest on Sunday. The family cleaned-up what they could and then called authorities. Read the full story.
VIDEO // SOME THINGS JUST HAVE TO BE SEEN
🫎 Mother moose cares not for your gaggle of dogs. Watch as this poor lady scrambles to save her troops while this cow moose keeps coming back for more.
She must have had some little ones nearby…
QUOTABLES // WORDS TO LIVE BY
Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.”
— Wendell Berry 🙏
HUMPDAY MEME // MAKING GREAT GRADES
WANDERINGS // A SFW GLIMPSE OF OUR BROWSER HISTORY
There’s a Looney Toons movie that was supposed to have been released three years ago but has since been resurrected from beneath the anvil. I think they are nothing but glorified games, personally. So what says you? Can these apps really make you fluent in another language? The dude who broadcast freewheeling records from all over the world in an attempt to lure aliens to Earth. And the late great Wendell Berry’s vision of a sacred world.
EYE CANDY // PICTURES > WORDS
Exploding with flavor.
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