For Muncie resident Edith Pittenger, by going parasailing at age 100.

“We were 400 feet up,” said the mother of three children and one stepchild, grandmother of 10, great-grandmother of 21 and great-great-grandmother of four. “We didn’t see any sharks, either. That’s what I was thinking about before.”

Retired after a long career at Ball State University, which saw her rise from a secretary to assistant director of personnel, Pittenger had her latest adventure earlier this month off Nokomis Beach in Venice, Fla. It was the payoff of a 10-year promise to her grandsons.

READ MORE: 100-year-old woman goes on another adventure | The Star Press | thestarpress.com.

photo: Wikipedia

According to a statement released on Wednesday, the decision to extend the rule removes the expiration date on a 10-year-old regulation limiting a hunter to taking no more than one antlered deer during the regular archery, firearms, and muzzleloader hunting seasons.

The “one-buck rule” was first applied in 2002 for a five-year period and the NRC approved an extension in 2007 with an expiration date of Sept. 1, 2012.

This year, the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife proposed extending the rule indefinitely, stating that limiting deer hunters to only one buck per year is not needed to manage the deer herd. The DNR considers it a social issue, not a biological issue.

READ MORE: DNR indefinitely extends one buck hunting rule.

The National Park Service last week released the park’s final deer management plan outlining what methods will be used to control the deer population.

A Deer Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement reviewed four alternatives for managing the deer population and addressed various consequences of each alternative. Alternative D, a combination of the three alternatives, was chosen.

“The plan will include application of all the identified deer control measures described in the approved Alternative D. This would include doing additional monitoring of deer impacts since control actions are based on monitoring data, acquiring some fencing and repellent supplies for spot treatments or to protect specific rare plants and communicating with the Indiana office of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service about potential sharpshooting efforts,” said Bruce Rowe, IDNL spokesman said.

When the plan was written, it called for more than 1,000 deer to be culled during the first three years of the 15-year plan, with additional culls in later years.

The cost to implement the plan ranges from $2.6 million to $2.8 million over its 15-year life.

Rowe said those numbers and costs are not set in stone.

READ MORE:  Deer management plan approved for Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore : Portage News.

photo: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

“It’s a great sport it’s outdoors you can’t beat it,” said Newton.

He says he would’ve loved to have had the opportunity to be on a fishing team back in High school.

“I would’ve jumped right in there and been glad to do that,” said Newton.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the South Carolina Bass Federation have teamed up to bring Youth Fishing Clubs to high schools.

Currently there are 17 high schools in South Carolina that have bass fishing teams.

Northwestern High School Athletic Director Lauren West says a fishing team was a part of the discussion at recent meeting among AD’s and Principals in the district.

“I think it’s something that got a warm reception,” said West.

She says starting any kind of athletic program has a lot of logistical hurdles. The best resource to get a fishing team up and running is already a few miles away from the school at Lake Wylie.

“But you’ve got to get the kids out there, you have to get somebody to sponsor it that knows something about fishing, and again how do you go about the equipment, the boats,” said West.

One idea, is fishing poles and lures could be kids’ personal gear much like, golf clubs on a golf team. Another hurdle is finding enough boats to use for everyone on the team.

Newton says from his experience starting a fishing team wouldn’t be too expensive and help could be out there.

READ MORE:  SC DNR casts to hook Fishing as high school sport – WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC.

Cass County deputies received a tip that two stolen guns were thrown into the St Joseph river.

They decided to turn the search into a training exercise for their dive team, along with Berrien and St. Joseph County.

During the search they only found the one of the guns, but that’s not all they found.

Two unrelated guns were also found along with a motorcycle and the change box of a vending machine.

This was the first tri-county training exercise and deputies say, given the results, more are on the way.

READ MORE: Police diving excercise finds stolen property in St. Joseph River.

The small turnout suggests that the animal isn’t a pressing issue in Northwest Montana, but it surely is elsewhere in the state. Farmers and ranchers have raised concerns about bison spreading disease to livestock, damaging fences, competing with livestock for rangeland and other issues.

But conservation advocates are looking for some place to establish a free-range herd, with some suggesting areas like the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge. Some hunters have expressed interest in establishing a population that would be controlled through a legal hunt.

In March, about 60 Yellowstone National Park bison were transferred to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation by the state, and three years ago, about 80 bison were transferred to a private ranch in the Bozeman area.

Arnie Dood, a native species specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said those transfers were aimed at establishing “interim” populations until a long-range plan is developed.

“The question is still, ‘What’s the long-term plan in Montana for this animal?’” Dood said at the meeting Tuesday at the Red Lion Hotel Kalispell. It was one of the first of many similar meetings that will be held across Montana to gather public comments.

By this fall, it’s expected that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will have input to develop a proposal outlining where and how many bison might be acceptable. A draft environmental statement isn’t expected until fall 2013 and a final long-range plan may not be ready until 2014.

“We want to be as inclusive and transparent as we can with this program,” Dood said, referring to the long public review process.

READ MORE:  Bison meeting attracts little public interest – Daily Inter Lake: Local/Montana.

“They usually go up past our house,” said Bloomington homeowner Mark Erehart.

“I have a neighbor whose dog was killed by a deer,” said developer Eric Stolberg. “They eat our flowers. We have a deer population that’s exploded.”

Stolberg is glad that Bloomington has a task force that is about to come up with plans for dealing with the deer problem.

“People feel they are having an adverse affect on their lives, whether it’s gardening or car collisions,” says councilman Dave Rollo.

Rollo’s task force is leaning toward fines for people who feed deer, more fencing and lethal measures.

“Probably the safest option is some form of sharpshooting at close proximity,” said Rollo. “And using a trap system that is called a clover trap.”

In a clover trap, the shooter, working at night, lures deer in with food, then administers a quick lethal gunshot to the head to prevent suffering. The shooter would be a wildlife biologist. The shooting areas could be in someone’s big backyard.

“This can be done very safely,” Rollo said. “We’re not concerned about that at all. It’s all done at very close proximity.”

He says in rural areas, hunters could be used.

Some outdoorspeople feel it’s not too sporting.

Mark of Big Mark’s Bait Shop blames development. “Oh, so we’re gonna build them $300,000 houses, and then ‘oh, they’re eating our flowers, let’s kill the deer,’” he said.

READ MORE:  “Clover trap” system might solve Bloomington deer problem – 13 WTHR Indianapolis.

photo: Brent T. Wheat

Visitors to Ohio Caverns in West Liberty still will be able to take the tour that has been offered since 1925 at the caverns known for their array of colors and abundant stalactites and stalagmites. But beginning Memorial Day weekend, they also can choose a tour providing more historical information about the cave and a shorter one with access for the disabled — rare in caves due to the often rough terrain. The sections formerly closed off by debris and mud will make the existing tour and the historical one each about a mile long, increasing the amount of surveyed passageways to 3 1-2 miles.

Workers started clearing the thick clay-like mud in the formerly closed sections in 2007.

“You could crawl through the areas, but you couldn’t walk in them,” Ohio Caverns owner Eric Evans said.

The caverns running underneath a 35-acre park in Logan and Champaign counties were formed thousands of years ago when an underground river cut through limestone, forming large rooms and passageways. Mineral deposits created highly decorative cave walls stained with red, orange, blue, purple and yellow in addition to the more traditional brown, black and white.

The caverns about 45 miles northwest of Columbus were discovered in 1897 by a farm hand when a 30-foot deep sinkhole opened up after heavy rain, Evans said. Visitors were drawn to the thousands of stalactites, stalagmites and other formations and took lantern-lit, self-guided tours in the early 20th century.

The 45-minute formal tour offered for nearly 90 years takes visitors past formations such as the Crystal King, a 400-pound white stalactite nearly five feet long and more than 200,000 years old, and the Palace, featuring translucent crystals. Other rare formations such as helictites, which resemble straws, hang from the ceiling in unusual twisted shapes. Rare dual formations feature reddish iron oxide on top of pure white calcium carbonate, with the colors never blending.

READ MORE: Ohio cave system to offer tours of sections not open before to public in west central Ohio.

The plaintiffs are the Native Village of Chickaloon, Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Water Advocacy.

They claim the National Marine Fisheries Service improperly issued exploration permits to Apache Alaska Corp. for high-intensity seismic exploration.

“Each year, there are fewer and fewer of these whales left,” Taryn Kiekow, an NRDC attorney, said in an announcement of the lawsuit. “Oil and gas drilling activities expose Cook Inlet beluga whales to earsplitting underwater noise that threatens their survival. All that noise in the marine environment makes survival impossible for these endangered whales.”

National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman Julie Speegle said from Juneau the agency would have no comment.

“Because it’s a legal matter, we cannot comment,” she said.

READ MORE: Groups sue National Marine Fisheries Service, claim AK oil exploration will harm beluga whales.

Beginning Saturday, which is Armed Forces Day, the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management will begin issuing free annual passes for military families.

The military version of the America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass will permit free entrance to sites managed by the BLM, National Park Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Active-duty members of the armed forces can pick up their passes at field offices, visitor centers and entrance stations. They must show a current, valid military identification card.

The pass, which normally costs $80, does not cover the cost of camping, boat launching or other special fees.

“Through the years, military members, especially those far from home in times of conflict, have found inspiration in America’s patriotic icons and majestic landscapes, places like the Statue of Liberty and the Grand Canyon that are cared for by the National Park Service and symbolize the nation that their sacrifices protect,” National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis said in a statement.

READ MORE: Military families get a free pass for federal lands | The Salt Lake Tribune.