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Black-Capped Chickadee VS Carolina Chickadee

Ohio Department Natural Resources

COLUMBUS, OH --(Ammoland.com)- The fourth annual Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp Contest will feature black-capped and Carolina chickadees, which are common in Ohio and frequent backyard feeders.

The two species look nearly identical, but black-capped chickadees occupy the northern 1/3 of the state, and Carolina chickadees are found in the southern 2/3 of the state.

“We encourage Ohio residents to use their photography skills to showcase our native songbirds,” said James Zehringer, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). “This is a unique opportunity to share the beauty of our black-capped and Carolina chickadees.”

Entries will be accepted Aug. 13-31, and the photographer with the winning image will receive $500. The contest is open to Ohioans age 18 years and older, however, budding photographers, age 17 and younger, will be able to compete in the youth division. For complete contest rules, visit www.wildohiostamp.com.

Photographers submitted 58 images during last year’s contest. The winning salamander photograph was captured by Nina Harfmann of Pleasant Plain. Her photo of a spotted salamander will appear on the 2012 Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp and be available for purchase on March 1.

The inaugural Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp, featuring a Baltimore oriole, went on sale March 1, 2010. Since then the stamp has raised more than $45,000. The collectible stamp and its companion photo contest are part of an innovative program intended to raise awareness and support for wildlife diversity.

It is important to note $14 out of every $15 Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp sold is invested in Ohio’s Wildlife Diversity Fund. The fund supports habitat restoration, purchases and conservation easements, wildlife and habitat research projects, creation of wildlife educational materials, as well as efforts to restore and conserve endangered and threatened species.

Promotion and sale of the Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp has been a grassroots effort and found early success thanks to the dedication of conservation groups across Ohio. For a limited time only, stamp collectors and conservationists will be able to purchase the 2010 and 2011 stamps.

More information about the Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp and other wildlife-related topics can be found at www.wildohio.com.

Filed under: Conservation News by Ammoland No Comments »

By Gerard Valentino

Top Threats To Gun Rights In 2012 & It May Be You

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- Every January, Buckeye Firearms Association identifies the top 10 threats to our gun rights for the upcoming twelve months.

Historically, the list includes an ever changing line up of anti-gun personalities including the likes of Sarah Brady, Toby Hoover and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

One of the people included on the list more times than any other, however, is the apathetic and uninformed gun owner.

Few individual threats pose more danger to the right to bear arms than the self-proclaimed gun-rights advocate who doesn’t support the latest pro-gun reform, or who refuses to take their business elsewhere when a company discriminates against gun owners.

During 2011, the anti-gun gun owner was front and center during the debate over allowing legal concealed carry in places that serve alcohol. Despite the fact that the reforms proposed in SB17 were already law in every state that surrounds Ohio, the mainstream media didn’t have any trouble getting self-proclaimed die-hard gun owners to claim allowing legal concealed carry in bars was a crazy idea.

In many cases, the offending gun owner opened their anti-gun statement to the media by claiming to be an ardent supporter of gun rights, and often used their membership in the National Rifle Association as proof. Few things sound sweeter to the anti-gun establishment media than hearing someone with ties to the NRA, or another gun rights group, who then claims to oppose the latest pro-gun reform.

Just to be clear, that isn’t an indictment of the NRA, or any other gun group. Instead, it is an indictment of the individual gun owner who is willing to be a mouthpiece for gun-control.

Since 2012 is a presidential election year, the ability of the mainstream media to misrepresent members of the gun community as supporters of President Barack Obama has serious implications. If President Obama returns to the White House, he will be free to pursue anti-gun policies without fear of alienating the electorate, and he is likely to claim a mandate to attack the right to bear arms.

A mandate he will claim demands the appointment of another anti-gun activist judge to the United States Supreme Court.

Such a viewpoint wins President Obama and his campaign staff a spot on the 2012 list.

In the last 10 years, the anti-gun lobby has failed to win a single vote in Congress, or in the Ohio legislature. So, putting the likes of Toby Hoover, or anyone else connected to the Ohio anti-gun lobby on the list is a waste of time. After all, before we can call her a threat to gun-rights, she has to become relevant.

The same holds true for anti-gun Ohio legislators like Bill Patmon (D-10), who is so blinded by a hatred of guns that he is willing to use falsified statistics, misquotes and fabrications as a means to push his misguided agenda. Sadly, it appears only like-minded anti-gun zealots, his legislative staff and mainstream media sycophants fail to see just how impotent Representative Patmon appears to everyone else when espousing one transparently false statistic after another.

His best anti-gun effort remains one of the pro-gun community’s best assets. We can only hope nobody lets Representative Patmon in on the joke.

That means for 2012, we are left with only two true threats to our gun rights:

• Number TWO: President Barack Obama and his campaign staff – Everyone expects him to aggressively pursue an anti-gun agenda if elected to a second term as president. So, it is vital to the pro-gun community that every possible effort is made to see that he fails to win reelection.
• Number ONE: The Apathetic, Misinformed, or Anti-gun Gun Owner – A united pro-gun community can easily defeat President Barack Obama, just as a unified gun community defeated former Democratic Presidential candidates Al Gore and John Kerry (D-MA). Sadly, there were just enough gun voters tricked by Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign that he was able to carry Ohio and therefore win the presidency.

A situation that can’t be allowed to repeat itself in 2012.

Gerard Valentino, a former military intelligence analyst, is a member of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation Board of Directors and the author of “The Valentino Chronicles – Observations of a Middle Class Conservative,” available through the Buckeye Firearms Association store.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

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