Updates
September 24, 2012: The original post linked to one of the more ridiculous stories that I have linked in the past couple of years. I was surprised that someone even bothered to post a comment (see first comment below). The reader suggested "oil and farming" was all that western North Dakota had to offer (I assume the reader was from eastern North Dakota; out-of-state readers do not know that there are two Dakotas, east and west, north of 45 degrees latitude, but I digress).
I responded that western North Dakota had more to offer, including hunting and fishing. A reader provided this link from USA Today, posted within the last 24 hours! Absolutely incredible!
More Americans are heading outdoors to hunt and fish for fun, reversing a two-decade-long decline among adults.
Eleven percent more Americans (ages 16 and older) fished and 9% more hunted in 2011 than in 2006, according to a new five-year survey from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"What we see is a pretty significant change in direction," says Dan Ashe, the Fish and Wildlife Service's director, noting declines in prior surveys since 1991.
He says the specific causes for the reversal won't be spelled out until the final report is issued later this year but adds: "There's a growing realization that doing things outdoors is healthy."Just incredible. Incredible. No one will believe me but that was the sequence of events: a) reader comments; b) I respond with "hunting and fishing"; c) another reader provides link of a story that had just been published supporting my thesis; and, a story that I would have otherwise missed. What a great country.
Original Post
Two UND professors are studying the impact of man camps in the oil patch. See The Bismarck Tribune link.“These man camps are only going to be there for 20 or 30 years, depending on labor needs,” Caraher said. “What’s it going to look like in 300 or 500 years?”I can't make this stuff up.
