Meade County Lincoln Day Dinner and lions on the rise
I had a note from reader Aaron Lorenzen who attended the Meade County Republican Lincoln Day dinner just the other night which was keynoted by new GFP Secretary Jeff Vonk who gave a talk on elk and mountain lions. Above, you see Senators Ken McNenny and Dennis Schmidt who were in attendance. Speaking of mountain lions, I see from the Kevin Woster article in the Rapid City Journal that their numbers are going up, with lion deaths up 16 from the previous years. While the "lion loonies" say it shows that the population is being pressured, GFP officials say it shows there's plenty of them out there: Dr. Sharon Seneczko, a Custer veterinarian who heads the Black Hills Mountain Lion Foundation, said it was troubling to see such a substantial increase in the mortality outside the sport-hunting season — from 27 in 2005 to 40 in 2006. “To me, it shows that we have much human-caused mortality — predominantly from traps, cars and the taking of lions (by GF&P) because of problem...