Have you thanked your favorite teacher?

In elementary school and the early years of high school, I had a good but not great understanding of mathematics. I knew just enough to be dangerous and to get only above-average grades.

But, then, something happened in the eleventh grade.

It was like I had discovered the Rosetta Stone to higher math. The floodgates opened and even relatively complex arithmetic become easy. It was an acquired skill – a new mindset -- that then allowed me to prosper not only in college but in my professional life as well: As any good businessperson will tell you, their career revolves around numbers and you’d better have a very good understanding of them or it will be the death of your business.

So, what was it that led to my awakening?

Was it intellectual maturity? Was it the subject material being taught? Did years of schooling create a foundation that I was now able to build upon?

The answer is “maybe, to some small degree,” to all of the above.

But, without a doubt, the biggest reason I was able to go to the next level was my teacher, Kerry Finger.

Mr. Finger’s style of teaching changed the way I saw math – what I had once considered useless number science only befitting textbooks and the mundanity of the classroom was transformed under his watch to something useful that I could capitalize on to make complex decisions in day-to-day life. He continually walked us through real world examples, teaching us himself rather than having a boring book do it. He made us master the minutiae and the significant. He made it entertaining, too -- his approach of using good-natured ribbing to goad excellence out of the students did just as it was intended. 

Mr. Finger personally delivered my mathematics wake-up call and I was fortunate enough to have him as a teacher in my junior and senior years. He changed my life for the better.

As the years went by and I applied what he taught me to work (and even these columns), I developed a sort of guilt that I hadn’t properly thanked him for that when I was in high school. Then again, maybe I couldn’t have at the time because I wouldn’t have had the proper perspective of how important his lessons would become to me.

So, I looked him up, but found that Mr. Finger had moved out of Western New York. He had gone to the Chicago area. Luckily, as Facebook became vogue, I found his wife online and then had a way to reach out to him. So, I penned him a heartfelt thank you and made sure he understood the impact that he had on my life. It was a “thank you” that he appreciated.

At the past June’s commencement ceremony at my alma mater of Royalton-Hartland, I told the graduating class that they should take the time to thank their teachers and their parents for making them who they are. I wonder now in retrospect if maybe I should have told their parents to offer a “thank you” of their own to their Roy-Hart teachers of old. It’s meaningful dialog to have with the men and women who dedicated their careers to changing lives and I think it means more coming from a former student from long ago because that student now has, as I had mentioned, the perspective necessary to understand who they were, who they have become and where they are going as a result of the education and life lessons given them.

My challenge to you, dear reader, is this: Thank your favorite teacher.

Your teacher will savor it…and so will you.      

 From the 10 October 2016 Greater Niagara Newspapers

EXPLORING THE NIAGARA FRONTIER: What is your “go to” fishing gear?

Heading off to one of our family vacations in the Adirondacks, I -- of course -- had to include fishing gear on the list of necessities.


When it comes to such a trip, I have to pack wisely – the family’s luggage takes up a lot of space in the truck and, on top of that, I really can’t take a massive tackle box out in the kayak with me. Any tackle that’s going on the water has to fit into my life vest.

That really limits what can go. I must focus on lures that I find reliable, no matter the water, no matter the species. In the Adirondacks, just like anywhere in upstate New York, I might find myself targeting trout on one cast and bass or pike the next. I have to be diverse and prepared to catch anything.

This is old hat to me. I’ve been vacationing in the Adirondacks with my wife for a dozen years and I’ve been small boat fishing longer than that. So, I already have my old stand-bys that I stuff into life vest. It just so happens, they are the very same lures that I keep with me no matter where I might fish, be it Alma Pond near the Pennsylvania border or Glenwood Lake in Orleans County.

So, just what is in my life vest?

Here is my “go to” fishing gear:

• 7.5” black plastic worms: I won’t fish any bass pond without a handful of these effective baits. Rigged Texas style -- that is with a bullet weight and a hook made weedless in the body of the worm -- they can be fished in shallow waters, along deep weed edges, or dragged across the top of the thickest mats of moss. Fished with touch and nuance, they are deadly lures for largemouth bass. 
• 3” tube jigs: I use only the smoke colored tubes shown in the photo with a ¼ ounce jig inside of them. Smoke is a neutral color that mimics many species of baitfish, making them useful for any body of water and any species of fish. They can be fished shallow or to depths to 20 feet and in lakes or fast moving rivers. They are incredibly versatile and I’ve caught everything from salmon to pike to walleye on them.
• 3” white Mr. Twisters: Many longtime anglers may have given up on these lures as they became more “serious”. I haven’t. They are productive and, to me, they are just as fun as they were when I just started to fish. On one roadside Adirondack lake I’ve used Twisters to catch a 20” bass and a 30” lake trout from my kayak. Those aren’t slouches on any waterway in New York. I always keep two sizes of jigs handy – 1/8 ounce for jigging in shallow water (15 feet or less) and a heavy one – ¼ ounce -- for deep-water jigging (up to 50 feet). 
• Live worms: Those same jig heads that I use on Mr. Twisters are also used on live worms. Many fishermen might think I’m a heathen or an amateur for using nightcrawlers, but I’ll tell you what – they catch fish. When I’m stymied on smallmouth bass lakes, I put on worms and start catching fish. Likewise, many a jigged crawler has tempted tasty panfish, walleye, and trout. Plus, earthworms always lend themselves to surprises – you never really do know what’s on the other end of the line when you set the hook. I’ve even been caught off guard by two snapping turtles, a real shocker when you are in a kayak.      

So, that’s it. That’s all you will find in my life vest. My selection might seem simple. Maybe it is. But it works.

And, I should probably tell you that with that gear I always use a two-piece medium action rod with 12 pound test on a spinning reel. That line diameter allows for a nice slow, subtle drop of tube jigs and it gives me the strength I need to horse a bass out of weeds.

This begs the question: What are YOUR “go to” lures and baits?

If you were stuck in the wilderness and had just a handful of lures to stay alive, what would you hope you had with you?

I’m curious what you would choose and why. Comment on this story on Facebook and Twitter to keep the conversation going.   


From the 06 October 2016 All WNY News

The college bubble is ready to burst

The bursting of the housing bubble was the unquestioned cause of the Great Recession. After years of unprecedented growth in the housing market that saw home ownership and home values rise dramatically, the collective bad decisions of homebuyers, banks, and government finally caught up to the economy at large.

The supply of easy money that led to the ersatz prosperity –- financial institutions foolishly gave, and government foolishly backed, mortgages for almost everyone, despite the risk – proved to be the bane of the same. It didn’t take some homeowners long to figure out that easy money really wasn’t so easy; their exorbitant mortgage payments weren’t sustainable, especially if the slightest hiccup appeared in their personal finances – such as the small scale recession that pre-dated the heart of the Great Recession. With their family budgets hit hard, they had to choose between paying for their mortgages or their survivability (food, utilities, and transportation). That choice not being so difficult, they defaulted on their loans. Housing prices plummeted and the financial sector suffered immensely.

Our economy still hasn’t fully recovered 8 years later (household incomes are still below their 1999 peak!) and likely won’t before the decade closes. If the ship is ever righted to the heights that we remember, it won’t be long before another bubble is ready to burst.

On the horizon is one that has numerous characteristics eerily similar to the housing markets’ -- the college bubble.

Easy access to money defines the modern college experience. Such is to be expected when you consider the federal government has been one of the largest lenders in the college loan market. From 1965 to 2010, it issued subsidies to lending institutions to fund their student loans while assuming all the risk. In 2010, Congress acted to eliminate the middle man and now the government deals directly with the debtors.

So, whether being the lender indirectly or directly, Uncle Sam has always demanded and/or strived to give out funds ad nauseam under that wanton desire to be benevolent that drives Big Government, especially since government has what is believed to be unlimited backing (the taxpayers and Federal Reserve) to make good on bad lending decisions. The federal government currently backs 90% of new student loans. 

With the ability to borrow the capital necessary to fund their degrees, Americans have taken to the classroom in numbers. In 1965, at the start of the government’s lending efforts, only 23 percent of the middle class had received any education beyond the twelfth grade. Now, more than 3 in 10 have a degree, while a whopping 70 percent of young Americans enter college within 2 years of their high school graduation. 20 million Americans attend college every year. Just like it seemed as if everyone in 2006 was a homeowner (prior to the bursting of the housing bubble), it seems like everyone is college student.

And, just like construction firms, realtors, resellers and the like fed off of a freewheeling mortgage market at the turn of the century, driving up housing prices (it was not uncommon to see 80% to 150% increases across the country from 2000 to 2006), universities are capitalizing on the freewheeling student loans and the widely-held misconception that everyone needs a college education (which minimizes the value of vocational skills and the trades). Knowing that everyone – the poor, middle class, and rich – all have access to funds and will buy their product, they are charging what they want and whatever the market can bear.

Because of these factors, education costs have grown at a rate beyond inflation. Tuition and fees at public and private universities in New York State have risen by a whopping 50 percent since 2005. Student loan debt in New York grew to $82 billion last year, up from “just” $39 billion 10 years earlier. The average college graduate here owes $32,000 in student loans.

It’s not a problem unique to the Empire State, either. Student loan has debt has tripled across the country over the past decade, surpassing $1.2 trillion. In a moribund economy, it has been difficult for workers to pay that back: Nearly 7 million Americans have gone at least a year without making a payment on their federal student loans.

As it was with housing in the Great Recession, the financing of and demand for higher education isn’t a sustainable economic model – easy money creates more demand, but said easy money ultimately creates unaffordability, less demand, default and a badly damaged economy.

It won’t be long before this college bubble bursts…and bursts badly.

From the 03 October 2016 Greater Niagara Newspapers

EXPLORING THE NIAGARA FRONTIER: The Southern Tier’s war on porcupines

I have a love-hate relationship with porcupines, the giant tree-climbing rodent of the Southern Tier.

If I encounter the prickly creatures in the forest I can’t help but enjoy their cuteness. With their slow, ungainly walk and poor vision, they are easy to walk up on, which is probably why they have an armor of quills. They’d be defenseless otherwise.

In most cases, they are accommodating to your intrusion into their world, as they’ll come to a complete stop and allow you to get very close. Of course, I always stay at least 5 feet away. I can only imagine they think, “Get a little closer and I’ll show ya something!”

But, as fun as those meet-ups in the woods can be, I don’t like them anywhere near my campsite.

In such a location, they are pests of unmatched damage and danger. They will destroy outhouses, trailers, and cabins by munching on them. They will chew on the underbellies of vehicles to get salt which could lead to damaged brake lines, putting your life at risk.

As much as I like the beasts, for those very reasons I have to dispatch them when they are too near my domain.

But, while I let them thrive in their own environment, other people aren’t so accommodating.

Porcupines are marked animals in the Southern Tier, no matter where they might be.

Many residents down there, especially in the heavily-wooded sections near the Pennsylvania border, see them as a threat to their economy as porkies will girdle trees, break limbs, and chew on saplings and shoots, causing damage to the forests.

So, locals will kill every porcupine they see.

Not to jest, but that’s overkill.

The damage done to the woodlands are minimal. An adult porky might kill two mid-size trees a year (most of their girdling is survived). In forests as vast as those on the Allegheny Plateau, that’s not a lot. Plus, porcupine populations are low – they birth only 1 a year and are susceptible to predation by fishers.

But, you grow up in a lumber culture, you live a lumber culture. In some misguided way, the porcupine hunters are trying to save their quality of life. You can’t blame them.

But, you can when they can go too far and look at it as entertainment. On many spring and summer overnights, Southern Tier “hunters” will get in their trucks, see porcupines in their high beams or spotlights and get out of their vehicle to shoot or even club porcupines. The latter is a vicious, inhumane way to kill a wild animal, but it’s done in spades in the hills. It is not uncommon to see some roads littered with porcupine carcasses in June and July.      

On deserted roads with no homes in sight, those bodies are a little sad – animals put to death for no reason…they haven’t affected Man’s properties, they won’t be eaten by their killers, and they’ve harmed no one.

There’s a war on porcupines and it’s one they can’t win.

+Bob Confer is a Gasport resident. His column, Exploring the Niagara Frontier, is published every Thursday on All WNY News.


From the 30 September 2016 All WNY News

EPA is failing environment when it comes to invasive species

Too many scientists and policymakers focus so much on global warming that they’ve given the short shrift to environmental threats that are real and active, destroying our forests and waterways at unprecedented rates.

One could argue that invasive species, not warming temperatures, are the greatest threat posed to natural balance in North America. These animals and plants don’t belong in our country but, through global trade, they have ended up taking root, destroying our resources in perpetuity.

Among them is the emerald ash borer, a beetle that came from Asia in the 1990s and has likely killed more than a billion ash trees – 700 million in Michigan alone. More than 7 billion of these trees are threatened by this unstoppable beast, including 1 billion here in the Empire State.

Then, there’s the woody adelgid which is wiping out hemlocks across the northeast. Once those coniferous trees die off, so will impressive populations of migrant songbirds like warblers that frequent them.

Most noticeably here in Niagara County is the mass die-off of beech trees. The smooth-barked trees well known for their carving graffiti will be totally wiped out by 2025. The loss of those nut-bearing trees will affect every mammal in the forest.   

The pestilence doesn’t end in our woodlands. Our waterways are under attack, too. Consider the Asian carp, a large bottom-feeding fish making its way across the Great Lakes where it will be certain to disrupt the system’s $7 billion fishery.

These invaders represent only the tip of the iceberg. Many more are here. More are coming.

It wasn’t always like this. Prior to 2000 our greatest invasive nightmares were limited to the introduction of pests and disease that wiped out elms and chestnuts, trees that once grew large and dominated our forests. Those depressing die-offs slowly took place over decades.

But now, such attacks seem to be effecting so many species and are happening too fast.

You can blame our shrinking world and the global economy. With the vast amount of exports we bring in annually, it’s no wonder that we’ve opened our borders to such invasions. More than 6 million shipping containers come to America every year, filled with unchecked product of questionable integrity from questionable sources. If the products themselves are suspect, imagine the skids upon which they are shipped (what insects do they carry?) or the craft that carry them (what do their ballasts hold?).

That begs the question: Why has the EPA done so little to regulate trade and incoming material? Is it misplaced priorities?  

Many have argued that the EPA’s modus operandi is unconstitutional. The federal government is not authorized to legislate environmental issues within the states. Truthfully, there is no agency that better understands the uniqueness of New York and its various habitats and the creatures that inhabit them than the state’s environmental arm, the Department of Conservation. It is that agency and New York’s state and local lawmakers (along with citizen participation) that should decide what are permissible levels of development and non-standard inputs into the environment as well as what may be taken from it.

But, constitutionally, the EPA does have the power to oversee aspects of international trade and protect our environment – and economy – from outside damage. The preamble to the Constitution describes the limited purposes of our federal government and among them is the provision of common defense and regulation of trade. Under that, the EPA would actually have constitutional justification to focus on the external, specifically invasive species at the point of entry.

If the EPA were serious about living out its mission – and the Constitutional responsibilities of the federal government – it would set strict rules and conduct numerous inspections to protect our nation from these outside factors that will compromise our environment and health more than any domestic factors will. Rather than harassing a locally-owned farms and gas stations, the EPA should instead hold accountable the foreign firms and governments that don’t care the least about America’s wild lands and natural resources and the equally-guilty American corporations that don’t have ethical or environmental policies.

It seems like Big Money is winning out here, especially with help from abroad. Corrupt trading partners — like China — would prefer to see our resources expunged because it means more exporting business for them. Our losses are their gains. Invasive species represent a sort of economic warfare. And, it’s war in which the EPA has seemed to throw up the white flag.

 From the 26 September 2016 Greater Niagara Newspapers