Lenore Groundwater, 93, of Green Valley, AZ topped a field of 789 participants to net the $1,000 grand prize in the one-day Valdez (AK) Women’s Silver Salmon Derby on Saturday with a 16.58 pound fish. Ms. Groundwater has been fishing for more than 60 years, and she has been traveling to Valdez to visit her family and fish for 30 years. Asked her age, she replied, “I’m 39 backward.” Tim Mowry in the Fairbanks News-Miner.

A flurry of recent black bear sightings at an Aspen, CO-area campground—punctuated by a bruin ransacking a tent Monday—has prompted the U.S. Forest Service

to impose temporary tent-camping restrictions there. For an indefinite period of time, campground users are prohibited from using tents and soft-sided trailers or campers. Aspen Times.

Lab tests confirmed that deer feces found in strawberry fields in Oregon were the source of E. coli 0157:H7 infections that killed one person and sickened at least 14 others, Oregon Public Health Division officials confirmed Wednesday. “There were six samples that positively matched the E. coli that was found in the people who were infected,” said Dr. Katrina Hedberg, Oregon Public Health state epidemiologist. Food Safety News.

Over the years we’ve posted numerous links to stories pertaining to the scourge of feral felines and the devastating effect millions of roaming cats have on bird populations and small wild animals in the US and elsewhere. They have literally exterminated entire populations.  Our friends at The Wildlife Society blog report the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is advertising for a Director of Cat Protection and Policy to oversee Trap-Neuter-Return programs. TWS calls it “wild bird execution.”

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources yesterday released an ambitious plan to bolster declining moose numbers, including a ban on recreational deer feeding in primary moose range. The DNR estimates there are about 4,900 moose in NE Minnesota, down 11 percent from 2010 and down from more than 8,000 a decade ago. Duluth News-Tribune.

The Washington Post reports that Tommy Wells, a DC Council member and outspoken advocate of walking and biking who often boasts that he doesn’t own a car, is currently carless in Minnesota after he slammed into a deer in his wife’s Toyota Prius while on vacation. The diminutive hybrid was totalled in the whitetail run-in.

An officer with the Arizona Department of Game and Fish shot and killed a young male mountain lion found treed on the ninth fairway of the city of Prescott’s Antelope Hills Golf Course Wednesday morning after it was determined the animal posed a public threat—as well as an obvious hazard to golfers. The Daily Courier and Mohave Daily News.

Spokane County (WA) Deputies arrested a 54-year-old man on felony charges of indecent exposure after a father fishing with his two young sons reported seeing a completely naked angler on the shore of Medical Lake on Sunday. Authorities said Dean H. Meginniss had a previous conviction for indecent exposure and an outstanding warrant for stalking. KREM.com.

A Brownsville, TX family’s black Labrador retriever was found in the yard holding a severed human hand in its mouth Thursday morning, launching a search that turned up the body of a suspected illegal immigrant. Police found the remains in a nearby canal with the assistance of a U.S. Border Patrol K-9. Brownsville Herald and UPI.

The family of a hiker who bled to death after being gored by an aggressive 370-pound mountain goat in Olympic National Park in 2010 is pursuing a $10 million wrongful death claim in Tacoma, Wash. federal court. Bob Boardman, 63, was attacked by the goat Oct. 16 as he was hiking with his wife and another friend. Peninsula Daily News and Seattle Times.

Arne Fuglvog, a commercial fisherman in Alaska and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s top fisheries advisor since 2006, has pleaded guilty to $100,000 in illegal fishing and faces restitution of up to $150,000 and a maximum 10 months in jail when he is sentenced in November. LA Times.

There’s sadness and despair in The Briar Patch—Br’er Rabbit has disappeared. The 3-foot tall, 250-pound statue depicting the long-eared trickster and troublemaker in front of Eatonton, Georgia’s Uncle Remus Museum was pried a’loose by perpetrators sometime Sunday night. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills reports that Br’er Fox has already been questioned and released by local authorities. And Tar-Baby? Well, he ain’t a’sayin’ nothin’! Macon.com.

After an 8 1/2-hour search by sheriff’s divers, authorities in Gurnee, IL have determined a boy fishing in Lake Marie who reportedly hooked a human foot, instead saw a Halloween prop on his line. “Needless to say, everyone involved is relieved that the foot turned out to be a fake one,” said Sheriff Lt. Christopher Thompson. Chicago Tribune.

A fish that Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Fisheries biologists say could be the oldest largemouth bass ever recorded in the state was caught and released by a young angler half its age in July. The 3.5-pound bass caught by Garrett Frost, 10 in Rose Creek Slough on July 16 was carrying a tag that identified it, placing its age at approximately 19 years. MFWP.