Sandvik is great for cutting brush on the line.Or a power scythe(stihl brush cutter) for serious brushing grown in trails.

Cutting the brush is the easy part. It's getting all the cut stuff out of the way that's the pain in the rear. Having a swamper or two doing the clean-up helps you gain a lot of ground.
For black spruce, I use a machete. Just bend the tree over a bit and give it a whack at the base. It will bust right off. I use a chainsaw for the bigger stuff.

We flew into Grayling today and they had one of those Buffalo in a pen right in the village,it was hanging around the village eating trash and dogfood and breaking into people sheds and stuff. So they penned it up and are going to sling it with a chopper back to the herd after they fatten it up.

Talking to the Bethel Bio a couple weeks ago he said they were already near Russian Mission , and working their way down this way.

Cant wait for some Tatonka.

Garbage Bison?

One was seen just outside of Bethel this winter.

Anybody eating those things yet?

They are getting around thats for sure. Like sending out recon to find the best grazing in Western Alaska. A cow apparently was over by Aniak. Then spent the summer by Marshal and then Crossed back over the Yukon and was Near Russian Mission. All by her self. Then a friend saw one on a flight from Bethel to Akiak. Yep there getting around.

They were promised one to eat at some point, they said no one shot or ate one yet but lost a bunch through the ice this spring during breakup.

Moose go by here on the ice too, I wonder if we will see buffs going by this spring.

What's the earliest you have seen a bear out of hibernation? I have a picture from a friend who saw a brown out the other day. It came out of a den dragged its back legs down to the river, got some water then dragged its back legs back up into the den of willows. It is warm this year just curious if they going to start coming out. Ill have the picture up here this afternoon.

Malukchuk There was one killed up river from here a couple weeks ago I have not heard the condition of the bear so not sure if it was a hunger thing or the exceptionally warm weather we are having

saw bear tracks in december last year. My cousin saw the same tracks too. Heard a growl night time while he was setting traps. When there is hardly any snow or warm out they come out once in a while, not too often though. Could be that they were not fat enough too, had bad berry season the past couple summer. Hopefully we will receive more snow soon and have a better season for berries this summer.

I caught a wolf this weekend in a 330 wolverine box set. Can't believe he stuck his head in that thing. Feels like a 50-60 lb pup. The other wolves must have been laughin at him. No struggle. It was lights out. The cable was still slack around the tree. I can't upload pictures but I'll see if I can send it to smalltime and have him upload it.

Hankit's pics. Tough lesson, but I bet he educated the rest of the pack, lol!

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than.... Congrats Hankit!

Some people have been catching crabs up here with this disease inside them. Anybody know what it is?

Interesting. So it's INSIDE the shell and the crab looks normal on the outside?

As far as I can tell its only on the inside. I got the picture off of facebook from some folks here in Nome.

Looks like "cottage cheese disease". I've only seen it a few times but here is an excerpt from the Biological Field Techniques for Lithodid Crabs (https://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/AK-SG-05-03.html).

".....is a microsporidian infection and is recognizable by the white, large curd cottage cheese-like appearance in the abdominal cavity of male and female crabs....has been found in red, blue, and golden king crabs......probably fatal (to the crab) because the cardiac muscle of the heart is heavily invaded...."




The shellfish research biologists at Kodiak ADF&G would likely have more info too.

Does anyone have a link to the Almighty Video thread. Seems it may have been pruned.
I can't find it using the search option.
I really hate loosing some of these threads.