These photos are courtesy of the Oceanic Research Group. The following information is from their press release. Ancient Caves 3D Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSZL9YbXDGs 

Flight of the Butterflies 3D Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nww3L5b0wno 
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqGjhVJWtEg
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itnqEauWQZM&t=75s 

The Flash Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hebWYacbdvc 
 
Attached images: Credit Oceanic Research Group 

• Research diver Brian Kakuk enters The Glass Factory in the Crystal Cave of Abaco, Bahamas. 
• Dr. Gina Moseley crosses the small lake inside the mouth of Grotte de Gournier in Vercors, France.  
• Research divers Brian Kakuk and Todd Kelly examine a “Christmas Tree” stalagmite in the crystal section of the Crystal Cave of Abaco, Bahamas. 
• Deep inside Grotte de Gournier, Dr. Gina Moseley and Chris Blakeley navigate down a riverbed with deep pools. 

This is a press release from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, posted as received. I have only eaten bear once, but it was tasty.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
North Carolina’s Bear Harvest Sets Record for 2022 Season
RALEIGH, N.C. (June 7, 2023) — Results from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s 2022 annual bear harvest summary show that hunters statewide recorded the highest harvest total on record at 4,056 bears — an 11% increase compared to the previous season.

Record-breaking harvest totals were recorded in the Coastal and Mountain Bear Management Units (BMU), 2,533 and 1,468, respectively. The Piedmont BMU experienced its third-highest recorded harvest of 55 bears.

 “The increase in the harvest in the Mountain BMU likely reflects the influence of the poor acorn crop we observed in the fall 2022 in this region,” said Colleen Olfenbuttel, the black bear & furbearer biologist for the Commission. “Acorn production has been surveyed by the Wildlife Commission for 40 years and when acorn production is poor, bears will move more in search of fall foods, making them more vulnerable to both vehicle mortality and legal hunter harvest.

For the Coastal BMU, the record harvest reflects the continued interest, both locally and nationally, in bear hunting in this region due to its reputation for large bears and, in some areas, high bear densities.”

Most of the bear harvest occurred in the Coastal BMU (63%), followed by the Mountain BMU (36%) and Piedmont BMU (1%). This is a trend that has stayed the course since the mid-1990s.

Other season results showed:
Statewide, most bears were harvested on private lands with 16% of the harvest occurring on Commission game lands.
In the Mountain MBU, 34% of the harvest occurred on Commission game lands.
Most successful hunters used the assistance of dogs for harvesting bears; however, the number of still hunters increased, with 41% of successful bear hunters reporting they used still hunting to harvest their bear in 2022. This is the highest percentage since the Commission started requesting this information via the Big Game Harvest Report in 2009.

“Bear hunting seasons are highly regulated and play a key role managing local bear populations, helping to resolve agricultural damage, reinforce a bear’s natural fear of people, and providing wild game meat to communities and families,” Olfenbuttel said “The 2022 bear harvest produced an estimated 591,700 plates of food, providing an important source of sustenance for many North Carolinians.”

Commission staff closely monitor trends in the harvest, including the female bear harvest, which was up 11% in 2022, comprising 40% of the statewide reported harvest. Since the 2015 bear season, the Coastal BMU had the highest ratio of females (43%) comprising the harvest among the three BMUs.

“The Commission works continuously to assure bear hunting seasons remain sustainable so that we can continue to maintain our successfully restored bear population,” Olfenbuttel said. “Based on our most current data, we are meeting the population objective for the Coastal BMU, which is to stabilize population growth.”

Biologists conduct research and monitoring efforts in all BMUs to have the best science to evaluate and inform current and future management decisions. This includes a bear population and density study they recently conducted in the Mountain BMU and a similar study currently being conducted in the Coastal BMU.

 “These studies, in addition to other data, will assure our continued success in meeting our goal for the bear population, which is to use science-based decision making and biologically sound management principles to manage black bear populations in balance with available habitats and human expectations to assure long-term existence and hunting opportunities,” Olfenbuttel said.

 Mandatory Bear Tooth Submission Program Helps Biologists Monitor Bear Population Trends

In 2021, with support from the N.C. Bear Hunters Association and the state’s bear hunters, the agency began requiring bear hunters to submit a premolar tooth from their harvested bear. The data gained from the tooth provides the Commission with information about the age structure of the harvest, which is used to monitor trends in the bear population and evaluate impacts of current and proposed changes to hunting season structures. After submitting their harvested bear tooth, hunters receive a hat and the age of their harvested bear.

“The mandatory tooth program has been enthusiastically embraced by our bear hunters, who for decades, have played a key role in assisting with our agency’s efforts to restore, and now manage, North Carolina’s bear populations,” said Olfenbuttel.

The Commission posts its annual harvest summaries on the black bear webpage under the Surveys and Reports section. A comprehensive Bear Annual Report is published in the late fall. The report is available on the agency’s website
https://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/Hunting/Documents/Bear/NCWRC_Annual_Bear_Report_data_through_2021.pdf.

About the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission 

Since 1947, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has been dedicated to the conservation and sustainability of the state’s fish and wildlife resources through research, scientific management, wise use and public input. The Commission is the state regulatory agency responsible for the enforcement of fishing, hunting, trapping and boating laws and provides programs and opportunities for wildlife-related educational, recreational and sporting activities.

Purchase or a renew a fishing, trapping and hunting license and renew a vessel registration online at ncwildlife.org. 
Get N.C. Wildlife Update — news including season dates, bag limits, legislative updates and more — delivered free to your Inbox from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

Field Blackberry, Wood Sorrel, Cranes Beak, Field Madder, Jewelweed, Tulip Poplar.

​As published in the spring issue of The Avocet.
 
Birdsong
 
The silent forest comes alive with birdsong.
A chorus of Blue Jays erupts to celebrate the bounty.
Antiphonal to highway noise, they sing.
A red bandana might attract a hummingbird.
 
I sit beneath an ancient oak where
A red bandana might attract a hummingbird.
Alone, I contemplate the flowing water.
The silent forest comes alive with birdsong.
 
I sit beneath an ancient oak where
A woodland stream murmurs reassurance.
Alone, I contemplate the flowing water.
A chorus of Blue Jays erupts to celebrate the bounty.
 
A woodland stream murmurs reassurance.
I have never heard them so energetic before.
Car horns and humming tires reverberate from the expressway.
Antiphonal to highway noise, they sing.
 
They sing as if this were the first day of birdsong.
Woodpeckers provide percussion with their beaks.
Chickadees and Titmice celebrate with melodies.
A red bandana might attract a hummingbird.
 
Copies of the bound journal have sold out. I can send you a pdf of the journal.
If you want one, please contact me by email.
Ray Zimmerman - Chattanooga, TN – znaturalist (at) yahoo.com

These poems about trees appeared in the Weekly Avocet. The photo from Fall Creek Falls State Park did not. 

“I think that I shall never see
a poem lovely as a tree.” – Joyce Kilmer, “Trees.”
 
His full name was Alfred Joyce Kilmer He had published five books and fathered five children when he deployed to Europe at age 31. He was killed at the Second Battle of the Marne and didn’t come home. His poem “Trees” is his most celebrated work.
 
Joyce-Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness


A winded old man, I climbed as high as I could.
I saw the forest primeval, never cut Tulip Trees.
The state tree of Tennessee, the Tulip Poplar
in an open forest, with space between trunks.
But here they are in North Carolina.
 
They are a favorite tree of lumbermen,
who may decry  the waste of trees uncut,
but I will celebrate this small section of
the Nantahala Forest set aside for generations.
 
I never made it to the hemlock grove,
equally ancient but giving way
before the onslaught of the woolly adelgid.
Venerable old giants are slain by aphids.
Foresters cut the dead to save the living
at least in this case, and I’m glad I didn’t go.
 
I celebrate the Tulip Trees of my neighborhood.
They flower each year, green blossoms tipped
with golden red and favored by honeybees.
I remember an old beekeeper who called me
every year, “and how are the Tulip Poplars this year?
 
Ray Zimmerman, Chattanooga, Tennessee znaturalist(at)yahoo.com
Warren Woods
 
Nestled among the Michigan dunes
escaping the doom of axe and saw,
the ancient beeches and maples stood,
too large to reach around.
 
One giant that fell left roots, reaching
upward, revealed a patch of sand.
They sent roots sideways in soil that
should never have grown them.
 
Yet there they were,
giants among the dunes.
I was young then, and
I hope they still survive.
 
Ray Zimmerman, Chattanooga, Tennessee znaturalist(at)yahoo.com
A Haiku
 
Killed by fungus
Mature Chestnut trees are gone
I’d like to see one
 
Ray Zimmerman, Chattanooga, Tennessee znaturalist(at)yahoo.com
 
A Tanka
 
Virginia to Florida
Longleaf pines growing
Outward to Texas
A few uncut stands remain
To house the gopher tortoise
Ray Zimmerman, Chattanooga, Tennessee znaturalist(at)yahoo.com


The weekly Avocet is distributed free by email. Message me if you would like subscription information. It is a journal of nature poetry. 
​I have a recent memoir piece in Waxing and Waning https://www.waxingandwaning.org/issue-11/how-i-became-a-poet-by-ray-zimmerman-_cnf_/ and an article in The Hellbender Press.
https://hellbenderpress.org/news/wnc-creek-snorkels. 

​

Fall Creek Falls State Park, photographed April 10, 2023

Top left, Fall Creek Falls. Left to right sequentially: Redbud, Dogwood. Next row: Redbud, Two Dogwoods. Third Row Piney Falls, Swinging Bridge 

From the Top:
Two photos of Trout Lilies and a Redbud Tree. 
Trillium - species not determined. 
Two photos of Trout Lilies and a Forkleak Toothwort.
Undetermined Trillium and to photos of Primrose. 

​My article on Sandhill Crane migration appears in the Hellbender Pres, East Tennessee’s environmental journal https://hellbenderpress.org/news/sandhills-fly-in.

Other Recent Projects

Aside from preparing this personal newsletter, I am the editor of two others. Newsletters for the Chattanooga Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society appear on this page
​https://chattanoogatos.org/newsletters/.

My recent newsletter for the Chattanooga Writers Guild includes Finn Bille’s article on revising your poetry https://chattanoogawritersguild.org/2023/01/13/newsletter-january-14-2023/.

Here is a poem recently published in The Weekly Avocet.

​Singularity
 
We live in the gravitational well of a quantum singularity.
Astronomers call the center of the singularity a black hole.
 
Astronomers call the center of the singularity a black hole.
We pour in coal, oil, soil, and forests.
 
We pour in coal, oil, soil, and forests.
We pour in laborers, water, and money.
 
We pour in laborers, water, and money.
The singularity wants more every year.
 
The singularity wants more every year.
There will never be enough.
 
There will never be enough.
Until we say, “enough.”