State: Young boaters need education class?
COLUMBUS The mild winter and lack of frozen waterways has produced a rare sight for Ohio in mid-March fishermen in boats chasing walleyes on Lake Erie.
Even with the traditional start to the summer boating season, Memorial Day weekend, more than two months away, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Watercraft and its boating partners already are busy providing boating education courses.
Ohio law requires anyone who was born on or after Jan. 1, 1982, to show proof he has completed an approved boater safety education course before operating any powered watercraft greater than 10 horsepower.
For a list of classes, visit www.ohiodnr.com/watercraft or call (877) 4BOATER.
Pickerel Creek worker calls it career
FINDLAY - Sandusky County resident Brent Weickert has retired after 30 years of working for the state of Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.
He retired from his post at Pickerel Creek Wildlife Area, where he has worked since 1987.
'Snake lady' earns state wildlife award
COLUMBUS Kristin Stanford of Sandusky received the 2012 Wildlife Diversity Conservation Award at this year's Wildlife Diversity Conference, sponsored by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.
While a graduate student at Northern Illinois University, Stanford worked with garter snakes and was asked by her mentor, Richard King, a long-time NIU watersnake researcher, to continue her research and relocate to the Erie Islands. After earning a master's degree from NIU in summer 2002, she remained on staff as a full-time research associate, funded by ODNR's Division of Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Stanford soon will earn a doctoral degree from NIU in the same area of study.
In 2006, she drew the attention of a national audience when she appeared on Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe.
Last year, Ohio State University hired her as an outreach and education coordinator at Stone Laboratory. She will plan herpetology sessions designed for students to closely study the lake's snakes and amphibians.
Stanford is involved in other snake-related efforts, including a review of the status and distribution of the Eastern foxsnake in Ohio; conducting a population viability analysis of the Plains garter snake; serving on the Division of Wildlife's conservation team; teaching a one-week field herpetology course at Stone Lab; and annually supervising several students in Stone Lab's Research Experience for Undergraduates Program.
Compiled by A-T Staff Writer Vicki Johnson. Email her at vjohnson@advertiser-tribune.
com.
