Field Reports: Scentless clothes confound senses

Special hunting clothing with activated carbon that promises to eliminate human odors doesn’t work, according to a lawsuit filed in Minneapolis last month.

The clothing made by ALS Enterprises Inc. of Muskegon, Mich., sold for more than a decade through major outdoor retailers, claims to absorb human body odors that would alarm game in the field. But the lawsuit filed by four Minnesota hunters, alleges the clothing doesn’t work and that hunters are being defrauded.

Class action status is pending to include all hunters who purchased the clothing from defendents, including Cabela’s.

Spokesmen for ALS say they have test results and hundreds of testimonials to prove the products work.

But T.R. Michels, 57, a Minnesota author and hunting guide has gone from skeptical to convinced.

“Hunters have been screwed,” he said. “They have been misled. And they (companies) are making tons of money off the stuff.”

He said outdoor magazines won’t write about the issue for fear of losing lucrative advertising dollars for the hunting clothing.

ALS explains how the activated carbon adsorbs human odors on its Web site ( www.scentlok.com).

Meanwhile, the suit seems to point out the obvious indictment of both parties:

“Defendants knew or should have known that their odor-eliminating clothing cannot, as a matter of science, eliminate all human odors … or render a human body scent-invisible to a deer or other game animals,” the suit states.

Rich Landers

PUBLIC LANDS

DNR meeting on land exchange

Proposals for land exchanges, including 11 parcels of Washington Department of Natural Resources-managed land in southern Stevens County, will be presented in a public meeting Thursday, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. at the Lakeside Middle School, 6161 Highway 291, in Nine Mile Falls.

In all, the South Stevens Land Exchange involves state trust lands in 11 counties in Eastern Washington. About 15,100 acres of mostly scattered state parcels would be exchanged for about 15,900 acres of privately-held land in order to consolidate public lands in larger contiguous blocks.

Rich Landers

FISHING

Bighorn River short on water

Montana’s Bighorn River rainbow trout fishery, one of the best in the world, is threatened by drought.

Inflows into Bighorn Lake, which straddles the state’s border with Wyoming, are the sixth-lowest on record, and next year’s runoff is expected to be even lower at about 52 percent of the historical average, Bureau of Reclamation officials said.

People with an interest in Bighorn Lake want to save water in the reservoir while Montanans with a stake in the downstream fishery want a guarantee of minimum releases needed to assure trout survival.

The bureau will release its operation plan on Wednesday.

Associated Press