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Clay Campbell
Riley Oncken
Serving DeKalb County since 1879
Thursday, January 2, 2014
MARCH PRIMARY • LOCAL, A3
MEN’S BASKETBALL • SPORTS, B1
Judge to rule on Campbell ballot issue
Huskies enter year with 4th-best defense in MAC
Birders gather for annual count By BRENDA SCHORY
Know more about birds, birding:
bschory@shawmedia.com
• Kane County Audubon – www.kanecountyaudubon.org • McHenry County Audubon – www.mchenryaudubon.org • DuPage Birding Club – www.dupagebirding.org • KROW Birders – https://www.facebook.com/ groups/144242675643241 • Cornell Lab of Ornithology – www.birds.cornell.edu • Illinois Audubon Society – www.illinoisaudubon.org • National Audubon Society – www.audubon.org
Birds of a feather flock together, they say, and so it is with birders, as the hardcore watchers bundle up on snowy December days to count their feathered friends. The National Audubon Society’s 113th Annual Christmas Bird Count this month yielded some exciting numbers, volunteers said, as counts in Kane, DuPage, McHenry and DeKalb counties documented the ups and downs of various spe-
cies. Birds are counted across North America from Dec. 14 through Jan. 5. Volunteers count birds in designated 15-mile diameter circles every year. Results are tabulated and reported to the Illinois Audubon Society. The society then will report to the National Audubon Society, which partners with Bird Studies Canada, the North American Breeding Bird Survey and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
See BIRD COUNT, page A3
Shaw Media file photo
People look for birds on Nelson Lake during a bird walk on New Year’s Day 2013 at Dick Young Forest Preserve in Batavia.
Illinois preps for wolves By MICHAEL TARM The Associated Press
two medium-sized trucks and four pickup trucks. He said the duration of the snowfall made it difficult for snowplow drivers. It also didn’t make it any easier that he was running low on salt, he said. “This storm just brings you to your knees,” he said. Fred Busse, Sycamore public works director, said his crews normally let some snow build up before they go out to avoid continuously scraping little amounts of snow off the street, he said. He said snowplow drivers don’t have an easy job. “We only have 12 trucks. We can’t be in every neighborhood every 10 to 15 minutes,” he said. “It could be four hours until you get through everything.” Busse said people should expect this kind of weather in northern Illinois. His crews will continue to focus on plowing the main streets first, he said.
CHICAGO – The wolf was believed to be a lone male expelled by a pack in Wisconsin. The hunter who shot him in northwestern Illinois, allegedly keeping his skull as a trophy, was the first person in the state ever prosecuted for shooting a wolf under federal endangered species laws. The incident, resolved in 2013 when the hunter pleaded guilty and paid a $2,500 fine, comes amid evidence of a modest but perceptible uptick in the number of wolves roaming across the Wisconsin border into heavily populated and widely farmed Illinois. Illinois’ own once-thriving wolves were hunted to extinction by the 1860s. But since the first confirmed sighting in the state in 150 years, in 2002, wolf sightings have gone from rare to regular – with at least five in the last three years. “We used to joke with our counterparts in Wisconsin that, ‘Yeah, one day your wolves will be coming to Illinois,’” said Joe Kath, the endangered species manager at Illinois’ Department of Natural Resources. “Well, we’ve reached that day.” That has state wildlife officials contemplating another day – still way off – when there are so many wolves in Illinois they’ll have to ask residents to decide if they want to encourage the growth of a wolf population or strictly limit it, possibly through hunting or trapping. “It’s too early to ask the question, but it’s not too early to prepare for a time when the question might have to be asked,” said Kath. That preparation, he said, has already begun, including by drafting plans on how to manage wolf packs should they become established. The North American wolves, known as gray or timber wolves, have proven resilient.
See WEATHER, page A3
See WOLVES, page A4
Voice your opinion Do you think area streets have been cleared of snow and ice fast enough this season? Vote online at Daily-Chronicle.com.
Photos by Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
A moped rider is seen traveling north Wednesday on North First Street in downtown DeKalb.
By ANDREA AZZO aazzo@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The ringing in of the new year wasn’t so pleasant for some local drivers Wednesday. In a 24-hour span from 3 p.m. Tuesday to 3 p.m. Wednesday, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office reported helping 18 cars in ditches. There also were four property damage-related car accidents and seven personal injury car accidents, said Gary Dumdie, DeKalb Sheriff’s chief deputy. None of the accidents involved drivers sustaining major injuries, Dumdie said. Nathan Schwartz, DeKalb County engineer, said a full force of crews worked since 6 a.m. Wednesday – despite it being a federal holiday – dealing with drifting, dry snow. “It [was] certainly a battle out there,” he said. “It [was] light snow, so that means with any sort of wind, snow was drifting and blowing onto the roads.”
A pair of snowplows remove snow Wednesday afternoon from Lincoln Highway traveling west in downtown DeKalb. It takes Schwartz’s crews about three hours to make a full round to clear roads. By the time they got back to the beginning of their route, it gave plenty of time for snow to accumulate or drift back onto the road, he said. The National Weather Service reported between 6 to 8 inches of
snow fell between Tuesday and Wednesday. Mark Espy, DeKalb assistant director of public works, said this was the worst storm so far this season. His crews were working since 4 a.m. Wednesday, and all the crews were out: 16 large trucks,
Weather
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