Columnist Paula DelGiudice: Canada’s concerns reflect our own

Paula DelGiudice

Wednesday, June 16, 1999 | 9:42 a.m.

Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears Wednesday. Reach her at PDelGiudice@compuserve.com.

Ijust returned from the annual general meeting of the Canadian Wildlife Federation in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territory where I learned a lot about the issues troubling conservationists in Canada. Outdoors people in Canada have plenty in common with us in the U.S.

One difference is the abundance of game in Canada. While many states have the same to offer, arid Nevada's game is more sparse. While we're wondering if we're going to draw a deer tag, they're fretting about where to hunt moose.

While we crank up the thermostats on our air conditioners to cope with the encroaching high temperatures, they're pulling the blackout curtains to keep out the sun that shines for 21 hours each day.

A couple of other interesting observations about our Canadian neighbors is that they are the friendliest lot set upon this earth, and they love Las Vegas. They are friendly and easygoing by nature and they love getting away to our fair city when their long winters come to call.

We do have similar conservation issues:

They wonder what will solve the dilemma of the declines in Pacific salmon populations on the West Coast of our countries.

They worry about water diversions from some of their healthy lakes to areas in need, particularly the U.S.

They worry about how to solve the problem of over population of snow geese before the mass of birds devastate nesting and rearing areas.

They worry about the continuing development of wildlife habitat for growing cities.

We have a lot to be gained by working together and fostering a better understanding of each other's country.

* TAGS ARE IN THE MAIL: News of either application rejection accompanied by refund checks or long-awaited big game tags should have reached all who applied by now. For those who weren't successful, all the rifle buck hunt tags have been issued. There remain, however, 2,276 either-sex tags for the youth hunt, 1,526 archery buck tags, 32 muzzleloader buck tags and 1,855 antlerless (doe) rifle tags.

Other tags available to residents in the second draw are 107 antlerless (cow) elk rifle tags, 29 antlerless elk archery tags, nine buck antelope archery tags and 49 doe antelope rifle tags.

Applications for the second drawing are available at most sporting goods stores and the Nevada Division of Wildlife, 4747 W. Vegas Drive. Applications must be received at the Hunt Application Office in Fallon by July 6 at 5 p.m. to be eligible for the drawing.

* RAVEN HAVENS: Whether you're a hunter, angler, hiker or teacher you probably depend on maps. They're the blueprints, the footprints, the magic carpet and the wish list of every outdoors person, teacher, history buff, explorer, traveler, armchair adventurer or child.

Outdoors people especially use maps to plan hunting trips, fishing adventures or hiking sojourns. In the past, you needed to have a vault of them. Agency or road maps didn't show the detail. You needed every U.S.G.S. map available to plan a hunting trip.

That situation has improved in the past couple of years as more and more map makers fill in the void. Now, they can all quit trying.

Raven Maps of Medford, Ore., has developed a huge, wall-sized format featuring shaded-relief printings with elevation tints at 500-foot intervals; most are based on the Geological Survey's 1:500,000 scale state series. To make them even more useful, they are lithographed in seven colors on smooth, high class paper that lets all the details hang out.

The Nevada map is beautiful. The only slightly misleading feature is that the lowest elevation areas are shaded in green and the higher elevations move to shades of brown. That would lead some to believe that the areas around Las Vegas are the most green.

For more information, check out their web site at www.ravenmaps.com or call (800) 237-0798.