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By Peter BG ShoemakerFor the Journal

New regulations passed last month by the New Mexico Game

Commission could turn the tide of declining numbers of young hunters, New Mexico Game & Fish Department officials say. And it could go a long way in alleviating frustration many parents have expressed to the department about being unable to get their children into hunter education courses.

Starting in 2013, New Mexico will join another nearly three dozen states in making it easier by offering a one-time mentored-youth

hunting license..The Game Commission

agreed to rule changes that will enable youngsters to hunt under adult supervision, prior to getting into, and taking the state’s mandated hunter education course. Previously, all hunters under the age of 18 had to take and pass the course before they had an opportunity to hunt in New Mexico.

The number of hunters across the country has dropped nearly a quarter over the past 25 years, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with much of this decline coming from the difficultly in recruiting new, young hunters. While multiplying entertainment options and changing cultural norms

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part “Gear Junkie” column on the best gear of 2012. Part No. 2 will be published in this spot on Jan. 3.

By Stephen RegenoldFor the Journal

From sea kayaking on Lake Superior to a remote

trek down California’s Lost Coast, 2012 for me offered no shortage of outdoor adventure. Along the way I put dozens of products to the test. These five items below emerged as a few of the best.

■ Revolutionary Bike Lights. A new concept, RevoLights gives a rider 360 degrees of visibility at night with wheel-mounted L.E.D. lights. The lights are timed in sync via tiny magnets and an accelerometer unit on each wheel. The result is wheels that spin and magically produce white and red arcs that paint the road like laser beams in the night. $250, revolights.com.

■ Power-Producing Cook Units. Two camp-oriented cooking products this year impressed with a side benefit beyond just boiling water. Both the BioLite stove ($129, biolitestove.com) and the PowerPot cook pot ($149, thepowerpot.com) have integrated modules that turn heat from a fire into usable electricity that can then be pumped through a cord to recharge a device. Boil your water, recharge your GPS – that’s the reality with either of these unique new camping products.

■ Bombproof Case. My iPhone comes on bike rides, trail runs, and hikes to track GPS data, distance, and speed. I keep the phone in a LifeProof case, which offers a slim, solid shield from rain, dust, snow and anything else nature puts in its way. Without a LifeProof case, my phone simply would have to stay home more often when I head outdoors. $69.99, lifeproof.com.

■ Winter Bike Boots. No more cold feet. That’s the simple premise with the Wölvhammer, a boot from the brand 45NRTH, that is made for winter biking. It has Thinsu-late insula-tion and a cold-blocking insole. The outers are a waterproof Cordura nylon, and on the bottom is a rugged Vibram sole more reminiscent of something used for mountaineering than riding a bike. $325, 45nrth.com.

■ Self-Adjusting Light Source. The NAO headlamp from Petzl is a sensor-equipped light that “self-adjusts” its beam depending on your situation outdoors. Be it looking at a map where low light is needed, or spot-lighting a distant object in the dark, the NAO adjusts automatically from 8 lumens to a blazing 355 lumens in a literal blink. $175, petzl.com.

Stephen Regenold is founder and editor of www.gearjunkie.com. Connect with Regenold at Facebook.com/TheGearJunkie or on Twitter via @TheGearJunkie..

GO!Thursday, December 27, 2012ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL ABQjournal.com/go

B4Fishing LineHead out to the lake and see what you can hook. B6

Fishing Line

GO! ON A HUNT

GO! GEARGO! BRIEFS

See SAFETY on PAGE B6

See GO! BRIEFS on PAGE B6

Hunting classes optional in 2013

■ Light sources, bike boots, cell phone case among the top products for outdoors.

Off seasonOur Ironman triathlete, Jaime Dispenza, reminds us that we are only as strong as our weakest link. Check in with his winter training in his blog – Go for Three – at ABQjournalfit.com.

‘Junkie’ lists the best gear of 2012

Regional forester retiring in January

Corbin L. Newman Jr., regional forester for the southwestern region of the U.S. Forest Service, has announced plans to retire on Jan 3.

Newman was assigned in December 2007 to the position of regional forester for the southwest, and has directed management of 21 million acres of national forest land in New Mexico and Arizona, as well as western Oklahoma and northwestern Texas.

He has held numerous positions at all levels of the Forest Service – in both the eastern and western parts of the country – during his 36-year career.

Gilbert Zepeda, deputy regional forester for resources, will serve as acting regional forester.

Burns planned in Santa Fe watershed

About 20 acres of piles of forest waste called “slash” will be burned in the Santa Fe watershed from Jan. 7 through the end of February, if conditions are favorable.

The pile burn location is about six miles east of Santa Fe, and one mile east of McClure Reservoir. Burning will take place while snow is on the ground, according to a news release.

Although the snowpack tends to keep smoke levels low, smoke from the burning may settle into lower elevations and in drainage areas. The smoke is expected to lift by midmorning. To mitigate smoke impact, fire managers use different strategies and tactics to manage smoke, according to the release.

During the upcoming burns, smaller blocks of fuel will be treated. This will decrease daily smoke volume, officials say. In addition, the Forest Service also works closely with meteorologists and air quality regulators to burn when conditions will disperse smoke most effectively.

More fire information is available by calling (505)438-5321.

Federal lands photo deadline Dec. 31Calling all photographers.

Enter your federal lands photos by Dec. 31 for a chance to win great prizes, including a grand prize of $15,000, a complimentary annual Federal Recreation Lands Pass, plus your photo featured on the 2014 annual pass.

Photos from amateur photographers should highlight the best of America’s federal lands, national parks and historical sites in these categories:

■ Adventure and outdoor recreation

■ Historical and cultural■ Scenic, seasons and

landscapes■ Friends, family and

fun(ny) on federal land■ Wildlife.

If you goWHAT: Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort Geotour

WHERE: 1300 Tuyuna Trail, Santa Ana Pueblo

From I-25, turn west on to U.S. 550 toward Bernalillo. The intersection of Tamaya Boulevard and U.S. 550 is 2.4 miles from the freeway. Follow the signs to the resort.

HOW MUCH: Free.

Coordinates for the tour’s 10 geocaches are available at geocaching.com for GPS device or smartphone app. Hotel guests can borrow a GPS unit. Trivia questions also are available from hotel concierge.

By Donna OlmsteadFor the Journal

If your holiday plans keep you close to home, a free geotour at Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort is one answer for what to do on an

afternoon outing with your family and friends.

Tamaya spokeswoman Jena Marquez-says the resort has worked with geocach-ing.com to set up the activity as an edu-cational adventure for guests and locals.

“We’re always looking for family activi-ties and this seemed like an outdoor experience that everyone can enjoy,” Marquez says, adding that it’s the first geotour of its kind at a resort.

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (con-tainer) hidden at that location.

Marquez says guests have been gener-ous with their praise on geocaching.com. The geotour with plotted coordinates can lead visitors armed with a GPS-enabled device through about four or five miles of the resort’s 500 acres on Santa Ana Pueblo.

Hotel guests can borrow a GPS -enabled device from the concierge, and locals can bring their own unit or down-load an app for their smartphone from geocaching.com.

Each of the 10 small plastic boxes, is filled with the answer to a trivia question and a log to sign. The giant treasure hunt is designed to educate explorers about the history and culture of the pueblo and the resort.

For example, the first question is, “What is Tamaya and what does it mean?”

Following the coordinates one recent afternoon, and locating the cache under an evergreen in the hotel courtyard, the answer revealed that Tamaya means “a special and quiet place.”

The tour heads to the bosque of cotton-woods, where trekkers can discover why the forest is so important to the people

ADOLPHE PIERRE-LOUIS/JOURNAL

Jessica Wat, left, Luke O’Dell, Kanwal Joshi and Ray Dominguez use GPS-enabled devices while on a geo-cache expedition at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort.

Ray Dominguez looks for geo-cache clues in a bush near the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort. The resort has recently started offering geotours for its guests and residents of the greater Albu-querque area.

Geocaching has the reward of finding “treasures” in unexpected places.

PUEBLO DISCOVERIES Tourists and locals alike can hunt for treasure,

aka geocache, using GPS devices to find the way.

See SEARCH on PAGE B6

PHOTO COURTESY OF NEW MEXICO GAME & FISH

Dolly Aragon and her father, Joseph, stalking big game.

Mentored hunting changes game

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B6 Albuquerque Journal Thursday, December 27, 2012

are contributing factors, equally important are the barriers many states have thrown up in front of interested youngsters.

Traditional hunter education courses in New Mexico rely on volunteer instructors, and demand has outpaced supply in recent years. Jennifer Morgan, who coordinates hunter education at NMDG&F, cuts to the chase in explaining what’s at stake.

“If we don’t make it easier, these kids are going to find other interests, and that’s going to hurt — conservation, wildlife management and tradition.”

Since a large part of the hunter education curriculum is safety, it might seem counter-intuitive to allow young hunters into the field without first passing a hunter education course. The statistics suggest otherwise, and were a significant factor in the commission’s decision to amend the rules. Studies demonstrate that youngsters who hunt with a mentor are significantly safer hunters than those who’ve passed a course and then hunt on their own.

While safety is part of the picture, so too are trends in states that already permit mentored-youth hunting that show increased youth participation and a significant retention of young hunters. These latter two elements are important because many states —

New Mexico included — get the lion’s share of their conservation funds from outdoor sportsmen and women.

Morgan looks to driver’s education as a parallel for the mentor-led program.

“You get out with your mentor, and you learn how to drive. Then, when you’re ready, you take your licensing test,” says Morgan.

This “try before you buy” approach changes the dynamic, particularly for youth who aren’t sure hunting is for them.

For Jim Dunham, a long time volunteer instructor, there’s an additional benefit, particularly for the youngest hunters.

“Kids under 10 or 11 have a hard time with the written part (of the hunter education curriculum). There are often comprehension issues. But these same kids know enough to pass the firearm handling tests. They’re safe.”

On top of that, he adds, field education — hands-on instruction by a mentor — is going to beat classroom education at that age for creating responsible hunters.

Regardless of the money, time or other tangible benefits, for many, the introduction of mentor-led youth hunting will help breathe new life into a traditional sport that’s a big part of the state’s history.

Linus Bosley, a hunter education instructor, sees the return to the past as

the way for the future. “We have a lot of parents and parents

of friends willing to take kids hunting, and since the tradition has sold itself that way for the last million years or so, I’m all for making that the easy path again,” he says.

Although final procedures are being drawn up and will be published in early January, NMDG&F has established the basic outlines of what the process will look like for the mentored-youth hunting license program — including being younger than 18 years old and pass an online quiz.

Successful candidates — those who score eight out of 10 on the test — will then be issued a mentored-youth authorization number that they can then use to apply for a license using the same online system as everyone else. From there, they can apply for any available hunt.

Once in the field, the youngster must be supervised by their adult mentor, and be within unaided sight and voice distance of that person at all times.

The mentored-youth hunting license is good only once, and for two consecutive license years. After that time, if the hunter is still under 18, he or she will be required to pass the standard hunter education class to obtain a license. NMDGF will continue to run hunter education classes throughout the year.

CATCH OF THE WEEK

Ronnie Rhea of Albuquerque caught a $5,000 tagged trout at ISLETA LAKES on Christmas Eve, and since it was a Monday, he doubled his winnings to $10,000.

AROUND THE STATE

ISLETA LAKES: Fishing at both SUNRISE and TURTLE lakes has been very good during the morning hours. A full capacity stock-ing of trout took place on Dec. 20 and another will take place next week. Our tagged trout tournament ends Monday and there are plenty of tagged trout available. Best baits reported are salmon egg, salmon peach and white PowerBaits, glitter salmon eggs and euro worms. Few catfish have been reported. Our hours are 7 a.m.-5 p.m., seven days a week. Isleta Lakes & RV Park will be open on New Year’s Day. For more lake information call Isleta Lakes & RV Park 505-244-8102. Michelle J. Keryte, Isleta Lakes & RV Park

TINGLEY BEACH: Trout fishing in the Childern’s and Central Ponds has been good to OK. Some anglers are catching their limits, some are not. Best reports are from anglers using, Pow-erBait, salmon eggs and worms. Trout fishing in the South/Catch and Release Pond has been slow to good. Anglers are using small, bead-headed midges, egg patterns,and leeches. Joe Martinelli, curator

NOTES from GAME & FISH: Water flow on the SAN JUAN RIVER below Navajo Lake as of Monday morning was 355 cfs. Trout fishing through the quality waters was fair to good for anglers using egg patterns, dead chickens, bead head pheasant tails, small midge patterns, small streamers and small woolly bug-gers. Fishing through the bait waters was fair to good using salmon eggs, worms, copper John Barrs, and woolly buggers.

Fishing for northern pike at NAVAJO LAKE was about the same as last week with anglers reporting a few strikes while using swim baits. Fishing pressure was extremely light. The surface water temp was in the mid 40s.

Monday morning water flows on the CHAMA RIVER below El Vado and Abiquiu were 206 cfs and 311 cfs respectively. Fish-ing below El Vado was fair using PowerBait, copper John Barrs and San Juan worms for a mix of browns and rainbows. Fishing pressure was light and there was some ice forming along the banks. Below Abiquiu, trout fishing was fair using worms, egg patterns and woolly buggers.

Fishing pressure at ABIQUIU LAKE was very light and fishing for all species was slow. The surface was free of ice and open to launching boats. Try jigging spoons and blade baits deep for a shot at some good winter walleye fishing.

Water flow on the JEMEZ RIVER as of Monday morning was 15 cfs. Trout fishing on the lower Jemez was fair using small cop-per John Barrs.

FENTON LAKE is off limits to fishing at this time due to a cover-ing of thin ice and snow. For updates contact the state park office at 575-829-3630.

As of last Friday there was a thin layer of ice on BLUEWATER LAKE which was unsafe for fishing. Contact the Bluewater State Park office at 505-876-2391 for updated ice conditions.

Fishing was slow for all species at COCHITI LAKE.

Trout fishing on the ALBUQUERQUE-AREA DRAINS was very good again this past week. Anglers did well fishing the Albuquer-que Drain, Belen and Peralta Drains. Best baits were a single salmon egg on a small hook, parachute adams, small brassies, small copper John Barrs and homemade dough bait.

As of this past Friday EAGLE NEST LAKE was covered with snow and ice but unsafe for fishing. For updated ice conditions con-tact the Eagle Nest Lake State Park office at 575-377-1594.

Fishing at UTE LAKE was slow to fair using spoons at 35 to 40 feet for walleye. Anglers fishing for walleye also picked up a few white bass. Fishing for all other species was slow. The surface water temp was in the mid 40s.

The water flow on the RIO GRANDE on Monday at the Taos Junc-tion Bridge was 349 cfs. Trout fishing in the Pilar area was good using bead head pheasant tails and brassies. A few fish were also taken by anglers using Pistol Petes. We had sighting of northern pike but no catches reported.

Water flow on the RIO GRANDE below Elephant Butte as of Mon-day was .86 cfs. Trout fishing was good using worms, salmon eggs, corn salmon egg combinations and PowerBait.

At ELEPHANT BUTTE, fishing was generally slow for all species with just a few catches of white bass and black bass. Best baits were spoons and jigs worked deep. Fishing pressure was light. The water was murky and the surface temp ranged from the high 40s to the low 50s.The Monticello, Dam Site and Rock Canyon boat ramps remain closed due to low water conditions.

As of this past Friday the shore line at SANTA ROSA LAKE was free of ice and open to bank fishing. Anglers were catching a few walleye. They were using minnows and small swim baits fished slow and near the bottom.

Fishing at SPRINGER LAKE was slow for all species.

As of mid week there was some ice on the interior of QUEMADO LAKE, but the banks were open to fishing. Fishing was slow for all species.

spt00-LOGO-fishlineb/w-g

Fishing Line

F I S H I N G L I N E

Angel Fire 29 0 41 of 77 trails open

Durango 28 0 9 lifts open

Enchanted Forest XC 20 2 100% open

Pajarito 19 1 Opening date TBA

Red River 35 0 38 trails open

Sandia 10 0 Limited areas open

Santa Fe 37 0 Upper mtn. open

Sipapu 20-28 ½ 30 trails open

Ski Apache 14 0 5 trails open

Taos 31 0 31 trails open

Valles Caldera 6 0 All 9 trails open

Telluride 24 0 12 lifts open

Wolf Creek 40 0 100% open

New snow

Tubing area at Taos Ski Valley is open from 2-6 p.m. daily until Saturday. Cost is $15 per person and includes tube rental and use of the magic carpet.

Snow base (inches)/

SLUG: GO-Ski Report 2012

ARCHIVE X - maps - go - go ski report original on Ball pc - artist Russ Ball SIZE: 2 col x DATE OF PROOF: November 20, 2012

IN STANDING ART - LOGOS SPORTS

bw

Forecast from the Associated Press; conditions by Ski New Mexico, ski areas; new snow totals for 24-hour period ending Wednesday. Daily updates available at www.abqjournal.com/go

HIGH COUNTRY SKI ANDSNOWBOARDREPORT

Comments

of Santa Ana Pueblo, known as the Tamayme, Marquez says.

Explorers can also discover what efforts the pueblo has made to restore the bosque.

Another cache takes visitors near Tuyuna Mesa, so they can view the jag-ged buttes and sloping rocks of one of the pueblo’s sacred places.

“It’s enough to know that it’s sacred to the pueblo. We respect that,” she explains.

Tracking down another cache takes visitors to the Tamaya stables, where

the resort has established a shelter for wild and homeless horses.

Luke O’Dell(cq), who manages the hotel’s computer information systems, says he’s sure that his six children, ages one to 10 years old, will enjoy the geotour. They’ve been exploring the world via GPS for about three years now.

“Everyone enjoys geocaching. We enjoy bonding and getting outside together,” he says.

O’Dell says after arriving at the loca-tion directed by the GPS coordinates the focus required to find the cache

can be the most fun of the adventure.

“It teaches us to navigate. It’s often very challenging to find the caches. We’ve found caches that are as small as a button,” he says.

Marquez hopes everyone comes to explore: “Everyone is welcome to get out into nature here at the resort. We just ask that you check in with the con-cierge before you go out on the geotour. There’s no fee and we really do hope the local community will enjoy the Tamaya adventure.”

from PAGE B4

from PAGE B4

from PAGE B4

Search for hidden boxes at resort

Safety is first for young hunters

PHOTO COURTESY OF NEW MEXICO GAME & FISH

17-year-old JoAnna ONeill with her trio of cranes.

Visit Share the Experience at sharetheexperience.org for a complete

list of prizes, official rules and guidelines. Voting for weekly winners also is online.

Participating agencies include: the

National Park Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service.

GO! BRIEFS

The Associated Press

LIVE OAK, Texas — A new battle is brewing in Texas’ Wild West, draw-ing a line between oil companies and ranchers and hunters. In the middle are massive drills extracting once unreachable oil and gas from dense rock.

It’s not always easy to strike a bal-ance between the noisy, sometimes dirty, oil production sweeping the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas and the quiet, clean ecosystem that deer — and those hunting them — prefer.

Terry Retzloff has attempted to find that happy medium on his 650-acre ranch, allowing four wells to produce oil and gas, while also continuing the annual winter white-tailed deer season that runs from Nov. 3 through Jan. 20.

“A one-eyed buck with hydraulic fracturing going on in the back-ground,” Retzloff murmured as he spotted a 7-year-old, 11-point buck he’s been looking for all season. “Oh, man.”

Some ranchers used to sell hunt-ing leases to help keep their ranches financially viable, but have stopped because oil companies’ cash has made it unnecessary.

Retzloff doesn’t think that’s wise.“Those people who say this is going

to last 10 years or 20 years shouldn’t be saying that,” he told the San Antonio Express-News. “They can’t predict what commodity prices are going to do.”

David H.O. Roth, an attorney on Cox Smith Matthews energy team, said deer hunting is a common issue in negotiations between oil companies and landowners.

“It is generally your larger landown-ers who are able to negotiate those terms,” Roth said.

And while the oil boom has brought money and jobs into an area that has high rates of poverty and unemploy-ment, many hunters are unhappy with the drilling.

“The deer hunting guys want the quiet and the stars and coyotes howl-ing,” attorney James Barrow said.

In some cases, landowners didn’t foresee the scope of activity that would spread across the Eagle Ford, now one of the most productive shale fields in the United States, and failed to include hunting restrictions in their agree-ments with the oil companies.

Charles Covert of the Covert Ranch in Cotulla, an area famous for its tro-phy deer, doesn’t have any production on his property, but is still dealing

with flares, noise and dust from a nearby ranch.

“It’s devastating to your hunt-ing business,” Covert said, noting animals change their patterns and move around, creating an unequal distribution.

The Covert Cattle Co. Inc. sent a let-ter this month to the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees oil and gas drilling, saying the “noise is a nui-sance and is interfering with our busi-ness and the enjoyment of our remote ranch headquarters.”

Regulations are needed to minimize the damage, Covert said.

“They need to make sure there’s the least destruction in ecology and way of life,” he said. “The development pre-ceded the plans to control it.”

Frank Matthews, a wildlife biologist for the Killam Laredo Ranch in Webb County, said except in an emergency, oilfield activity is not allowed on their 45,000-acre property before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m.— hours when deer are most active. After a tanker scared off a deer a hunter had in his scope, the family posted signs making the restrictions clear.

“We try to get all of our drilling done before deer season,” Matthews said. “The hunters do not like the oilfield activity.”

Drilling, hunting meet on oil fields■■ Hunting season not as quiet

as it used to be