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In a culture that gravitates toward the melodramatic, Brooks is master of the understatement. Perhaps the enormity of his accomplishment hadn't sunk in. Maybe he was exhausted and didn't want to take time to write more. Or, as I suspect, his recent endeavor was just one more in a string of remarkable adventures that are becoming commonplace for the young man from Jewell.
After all, what's the big deal about walking the entire length of California, as well as across Oregon and Washington? Two summers ago, Brooks paddled solo in a kayak from the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. He followed up that trip last summer by paddling the entire length of the Missouri River from Montana to the Gulf of Mexico.
Adventure just seems to be part of Brooks' DNA. Before he had even set foot in southern California back in May, he was already contemplating a possible next trip: paddling the Yukon River next summer.
Congratulations, Adam. We can't wait to hear more about your trip.
Go northwest, young man. Pheasants Forever biologist Dave Van Waus sent an e-mail earlier this month with the sort of bad news most upland hunters already were braced for: During a 30-mile drive around southeast Story County to count pheasants as part of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' August Roadside Count survey, Van Waus counted 65 percent fewer birds than a year ago.
"Not good," he wrote. "I've heard worse results from other parts of the county and state."
His advice?
"Go northwest young man, that's where the birds are."
A few days later, Van Waus ran another route.
"Second route was a little higher: Down 60 percent. Big deal. It's going to be a lean year for pheasants in (hunters') freezers for the southeast two-thirds of Iowa."
Todd Bogenschutz, upland game biologist for the DNR, said earlier this week he's compiling the statewide results of the counts and should have a tally to share with hunters sometime next week.
The results will be available at the DNR's Web site, www.iowadnr.com, for those who don't mind the pain and dare to look.
DU honors ISU grad. Bill Ohde, who received a master's degree in wildlife biology from Iowa State University nearly three decades ago, has been named Ducks Unlimited's 2008 Iowa DU Professional of the Year.
Ohde, who has been with the Iowa DNR since 1980, is the agency's wildlife management biologist at the Odessa Wildlife Management Unit in southeast Iowa where, among other responsibilities and duties, he and his staff manage 17,000 acres of state wildlife areas in five counties.
Many of us know that water-level management, not only at Lake Odessa, but at wetland areas elsewhere in the state, is sometimes controversial, often creating tension between wildlife managers, hunters and local residents. Ohde, according to Ames resident Eric Lindstrom, DU's regional biologist in Iowa, has been exemplary in his management of those areas in southeast Iowa.
Ryan Heiniger, DU's director of conservation programs for Minnesota and Iowa, agreed.
"We recognize the immense challenges Bill and his staff face, and the recent flood events have made management issues increasingly difficult," Heiniger said in a press release.
Here's hoping all the state's hunters, not just waterfowlers, can spend less time this fall arguing with wildlife managers and more time working together in finding solutions to the many critical issues we're all faced with in improving hunting conditions around the state. There's too much at stake for all parties not to ban together.
Todd Burras is outdoors editor and local news editor
of The Tribune. E-mail him at tburras@amestrib.com.
