Log flippers

[potogold71]

I live near a great little state park in central Ohio called Fowler's Woods, awesome place! Fowler's Woods is full of salamanders, newts, skinks, and at least two if not more Ohio listed endangered species.

This spring we noticed a lot of logs had been tossed and not put back! As the summer goes on almost every log and rock has been moved and not put back! This is a place with a boardwalk and no one is to be off a marked trail!

We finally found out it is the Amish going out there catching salamanders for fish bait. How do you stop something like this? Its been going on forever and they don't give a s**t about salamanders, protected or not.

We have only 1 wildlife officer for our county and he is way to busy to babysit salamanders. We are going to try to contact local Amish Church's and see if we can work something out and be good neighbors.

I'm sure this happens everywhere, and I'm not trying to pick on the Amish. I'm just asking about our local problem. Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks, Chad

 

[tmarmoratus]

That's terrible! And it's not like we can use the internet to yell at them for doing this!

ha: Amish humor)

In all seriousness though, that's messed up.

 

[Scorpion]

Terrible! And not something I'd expect, either. I wouldn't have expected salamanders to make good fish bait. They do, after all, have toxins in their skin specifically designed to make them taste bad. Right? Besides, wouldn't it be easier to find worms to use as bait? Poor salamanders...

 

[freves]

Unfortunately salamanders make a wonderful fishbait. I still have clear memories of all of the bait shops around here selling "spring lizards" every summer. Fortunately this is no longer practiced in VA but many fisherman still collect their own. If I am not mistaken tiger salamanders are still sold in areas out west as fish bait.
Chip

 

[Greatwtehunter]

In Virigina we can collect up to 50 salamanders under 6 inches to use as bait. Some states like South Carolina do not even have limits (or at least they didn't last time I checked).

 

[freves]

"In Virigina we can collect up to 50 salamanders under 6 inches to use as bait" ...but we can only keep up to five as pets. You gotta love the law.
Chip

 

[dthor68]

Chad, you should tell the state park officials. I am sure that they have rules against that. I say that because nearly every state in this country has rules against metal detecting in state parks.