The World 111721

WORLD SPORTS & OUTDOORS
Fall Foods Abundant for Wildlife
Vermont Fish and Wildlife is reporting that several important
fall foods for wildlife are abundant this year following
last year when many foods were lacking.
Fish and Wildlife staff survey mast stands around the state
each fall season, and last year they documented that many
important berry and nut species were lacking which helped
cause a dramatic increase in the number of bears harvested in
the hunting season due to the bears searching widely for alternative
foods including corn.
Results for this year are markedly different, with most species
of nuts and berries available to wildlife and some, such as
apples, choke cherries and mountain ash berries being very
abundant. Acorn numbers were the highest in twenty years.
It was a good year in most areas for beech nuts, for although
many of the beech stands surveyed contained abundant nuts,
other stands contained few or none.
“The great variation in beechnut numbers between sites that
were sampled was a surprise to us as we had predicted it to be
an excellent year for beechnut production following such poor
numbers last year,” said State Wildlife Biologist Jaclyn
Comeau who was recently chosen to fill the position of Black
Bear Project Leader.
Hunters Asked to Help Collect Deer Teeth
The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is asking hunters
for help in a statewide initiative to gather more biological
data on the state’s deer population. Hunters who get a deer
during the November 13-28 regular deer season are asked to
provide an incisor tooth from their deer. Tooth envelopes are
available at all deer reporting stations.
Biologists are collecting middle incisor teeth from all regular
season bucks to evaluate regional differences in ages and
antler characteristics as well as to help estimate population
size, growth rate, health, and mortality rates. Each tooth will
be cross sectioned to accurately determine the deer’s age, and
the results will be posted on the Fish and Wildlife website next
spring.
“Knowing the ages of harvested deer is critically important,
and more information allows us to make better management
decisions,” said Nick Fortin, Vermont Fish and Wildlife’s deer
project leader. “To produce accurate population estimates,
and to better assess our current management strategies, we
really need to get teeth from as many bucks as possible.”
St. Louis to Leave Position at Devil’s Bowl Speedway
Devil’s Bowl Speedway will bid farewell to its director of
media and marketing after 10 years, as Justin St. Louis leaves
his position to begin a new career. St. Louis will start full-time
work outside of the motorsports industry on December 1.
Mike and Alayne Bruno hired St. Louis in October 2011,
just prior to their purchase of Devil’s Bowl Speedway, to help
transition into the new era of stock car racing at the historic
Vermont track. St. Louis had previously worked for the
American-Canadian Tour and the Thunder Road, Bear Ridge,
Airborne, and Riverside speedways, as well as various radio,
print, and digital media outlets.
At Devil’s Bowl Speedway, St. Louis was initially responsible
for media communications and building new relationships
with competitors for the 2012 season; over time, his
duties have expanded to include marketing and sponsorships,
event planning, registration, record-keeping, announcing, and
other obligations. St. Louis juggled similar positions under
the Brunos’ leadership with Airborne Park Speedway, the
King of Dirt Racing Series, and the former Northern Modified
Challenge Series, and he also assisted with operations of
Bruno’s Towing.
“These last 10 years have been incredibly rewarding for
me,” St. Louis said. “I didn’t know Mike and Alayne before I
started working for them, but I feel that I’m part of their family.
I’ve watched their kids grow up, and I even lived at their
house for a few months. We stuck together through some hard
years, and that only made us stronger as a unit. Devil’s Bowl
is thriving right now, and I’m proud to have played a small
role in that with the entire Bruno family and the talented
people that we have had behind us.”
St. Louis will coordinate the upcoming Banquet of
Champions before officially ending his tenure at Devil’s Bowl
Speedway. He said that his personal priorities and family
responsibilities have changed over the years, and that has
made him reevaluate his time commitment and level of
involvement in racing.
“I have a different outlook now at 38 years old than I did
when I was 28,” St. Louis said. “A 60-hour work week is
pretty normal in the summer in this business. We’ve done it
for 10 years here, and I had another 12 years working in the
sport before that. My family has always supported my passion
for racing, and this decision came as a surprise to them, but I
realized a while ago that I have missed too many birthdays
and vacations, and that it’s time to reprioritize. I will still
enjoy racing as a hobby in my spare time, but I’m ready to
shift gears.”
Mike and Alayne Bruno both showed appreciation for St.
Louis and wished him well in his future endeavors.
“Justin has a young family now, and we all come to a point
in our lives where we want to do something different,” Mike
Bruno said. “That’s where Justin is at, and he wants a more
regular Monday through Friday job, which we totally understand.
It has been a great ride the last 10 years having him be
a part of what we have accomplished at Devil’s Bowl
Speedway. We wish him the best of luck and the door will
always be open for his return.”
• • •
• • •
Mountain ash berries and acorns are some of the fall foods
enjoyed by wildlife this year. VTF&W photos by John Hall.
Hunters who get a deer during the November 13-28 regular deer
season are asked to provide an incisor tooth from their deer.
VTF&W photo.
Photo by Alan Ward
“Justin has been a huge part of our organization, and we are
going to miss him tremendously,” Alayne Bruno said. “We
have worked side-by-side since we all began here at Devil’s
Bowl, and it will certainly feel different for us in the office and
at the track without him.”
St. Louis expressed his appreciation for the Devil’s Bowl
Speedway community including its competitors, fans, sponsors,
and a team of track officials that has been together for
many years.
“I grew up at other tracks, but Devil’s Bowl Speedway is
my home,” St. Louis said. “I didn’t know many people in this
area when I got here, but everyone welcomed me with open
arms and now I have hundreds or even thousands of friends
here whom I will love forever. I’m not going to work at
another track, because there’s nowhere I’d rather work in racing
than Devil’s Bowl.
“My position gave me the opportunity to interact with literally
every person who came to the races, and that’s something
that I never took for granted,” St. Louis continued. “No other
group of people has made me feel like I was one of them as
much as the Devil’s Bowl family, and I hope that my work
rewarded their trust in me. I’ve had so much fun, and I’m
immensely proud to be from Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West
Haven, Vermont.”
Devil’s Bowl Speedway is located on Route 22A in West
Haven, Vt., four miles north of U.S. Route 4, Exit 2, and just
20 minutes from Rutland, Vt. For more information, visit
www.DevilsBowlSpeedwayVT.com or call (802) 265-3112.
Devil’s Bowl Speedway is on Facebook at facebook.com/
DevilsBowlSpeedway, and on Instagram, Twitter, and
Snapchat at @DevilsBowlSpeed; follow the action using the
#DevilsBowl hashtag.
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HUNTERS!
Chances are your best wildlife friend is the farmer
whose land you’ll be hunting Saturday morning.
Please mind your manners. Leave his fences
alone, close the gates and don’t drive onto his
fields. Remember your great outdoors is nothing
more than his backyard. He knows every ledge,
odd shaped tree, straight ash and best bucket
hanging maple out there. He watches over his land
day and night, making him one of the best and
cheapest game wardens the State has! So think
about him when you’re buying groceries for camp.
Take some real butter to help out the camp cook,
plenty of Cabot cheese, and a couple gallons of
Booth Brothers milk to get the boys started in the
morning. Buy dairy products with local labels and
support the farmers who have been feeding your
buck all summer. Be careful and have a good hunt
this Saturday.
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November 17, 2021 The WORLD page 25