September 2, 2024 • 26 mins
This week, Cal talks about the Lake Erie gator, what Florida is teaching everyone about state-owned lands, national threats to hunting, fishing, and access, and so much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Calahan. Here's
cal For the.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Last three weeks, residents of Erie, Pennsylvania have been searching
for an alligator that was allegedly spotted in Lake Erie
earlier this month. The gator first appeared on August fourth,
about twenty to thirty yards from shore, according to a
timeline of the gator hunt published on goerie dot com.
Officials were notified the beach was closed and a trapper
was sent out to capture the prehistoric reptile. I like
(00:44):
to think this trapper has an Australian accent and has
been in witness protection since faking his death in two
thousand and six. But if that's the case, mister Irwin
has lost a step or two. Tracks turned up on
the beach a few days later, but the trapper's efforts
have so far proved futile, and locals haven't spotted the
gator since August seventh. Where this gator came from is
(01:04):
an even bigger mystery than where it's currently hiding. The
American alligator has a native range that only goes as
far as the southern portion of North Carolina and northern Arkansas.
They aren't known to be great travelers, as you can
probably guess from their stubby little legs, so this isn't
a juvenile dispersal situation. The best guess of local lake
(01:24):
Erie experts is that this is an exotic pet that
escaped or was released into the lake. The gator is
unlikely to survive the cold PA winter, but that's small
comfort to lake Erie beach goers, as temps won't drop
for some time. This week, We've got the crime desk,
bad shooting, and dispersal. But first I'm going to tell
you about my week, and my week has been spent packing.
(01:48):
I have a heck of a September planned, and if
you are listening to this, then you know September is here.
Checklists are good things. I have a checklist for my
archery gear, my optics, my truck, came camp, my backpack, camp,
sub lists for sleeping gear, cooking gear, food, rifle, hunting checklist,
A list for things to fix and replace in the camper.
(02:10):
The old must get this done before I lose connectivity.
Work checklist, headlamps, tent steaks, pea cord, freeze, dried perfect bars,
water bladders which I finally got around to dumping a
little bleach into. Was well needed, first aid kit, toilet paper,
cow calls, bugle reads, diaphrams, hearing protection, what boots to wear,
(02:30):
how many socks to bring, what rifle to bring? How
much ammunition? Rain gear or no rain gear? Stove or
no stove for fifty.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yea, that's all I need.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So much to do. On top of that, there is
a checklist of national importance that just does not leave
my mind. Initiative ninety one in Colorado will be up
for a vote in November. That's the proposal to ban
lion and bobcat hunting, where individual voters in the state
of Colorado have the ability to tell the state game
(03:08):
agency how to manage game. That is a threat. Just recently,
Governor Ron DeSantis and his cabinet just proposed the development
of State of Florida parks, basically a state park Disney
World crossover where instead of boat ramps, beaches, camping, and
nature there could be golf courses, pickleball, and five hundred
(03:28):
bed hotels. This is a threat. Utah state lawmakers just
made the decision to sue the United States for control
of eighteen and a half million acres of federally managed
land in that state. Utah has sold fifty four percent
of its state owned lands since statehood, netting around two
billion dollars for roughly four point one million acres, which
(03:52):
sounds like a good payday, but that's only five hundred
dollars an acre, which is basically freeland in the west,
factoring in current market rates. This situation and way of
thinking is a threat. Firearm laws that restrict or hinder
the freedoms of law abiding, tax paying citizens in an
attempt to regulate the misdeed's misuse or sickness of others
(04:15):
is happening on many levels of government. This is a threat.
The list goes on and on. I recently put up
a ranting post about the Utah and Florida situation on
the old Instagram Utah and Federal Land, Florida and state land.
It's an amazing political blunder to have both of these
situations occurring at the same time because the extreme profitization
(04:37):
of state held lands at the expense of wildlife and access,
and the ultimate sale of state held lands is a
huge driving factor behind the opposition to state ownership of
federally managed or as I like to call them, public lands.
Lots of comments happening in the comments section. I just
(04:57):
want to address one which is relevant to the threat list.
One fella commented that, yes, this is a threat, but
I want to focus on one thing at a time,
and my thing is guns. I get it, I understand,
But as you all know right now, we have a
(05:18):
lot of stuff that matters to us that we can
affect if we wade in and do so. In any
given legislative session in any state, there is never just
one thing, one threat. It all comes at us at
the same time. So if your attitude is to divide
and conquer, I just want to remind you that's the
(05:40):
exact strategy the folks are using to strip us of access,
access to wildlife, access to land, access to firearms. It's
predator swamping. Put enough out there that we can't effectively
kill it all. If you give a crap, you need
to weigh in on all of these. All of these
(06:01):
issues will affect you. Write those emails, sign the petitions,
make the phone calls. Also, beware of the co opting
of terms. Right now, the Utah folks have literally stolen
the backcountry hunters and anglers byline of keep public lands
in public hands, making it so you have to ask
(06:25):
what do you mean by that. If it's BHA saying it,
you can be damn sure that what it means is
public land available to all for hunting and fishing, right BHA,
the voice of public Lands, waters and wildlife. If it's
this Utah coalition saying it, what they mean is to
(06:45):
take all of those lands that we collectively own and
are held in trust and managed by the federal government
under state control so they can dictate how they are developed,
how they are sold, and what we can and cannot
access and what we can and cannot access those lands for.
(07:05):
In Florida, the DeSantis administration said this in a defense
of state park development. Quote Teddy Roosevelt believed that public
parks were for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,
and we agree with him. That was from Press Secretary
Jeremy Redford. He goes on, but it's high time we
(07:26):
made public lands more accessible to the public. Do you
see what he's doing there. He's making this an access
issue and implying that giant RV parks, golf courses, pick
a ball, five hundred bed hotels complexes are what makes
the outdoors accessible to people. Old Teddy Roosevelt tr would
(07:50):
be rolling in his grave. The guy who had the
foresight to establish national parks and the United States Forest
Service with Gifford Pinchip as chief Forrester, did not say, Hey,
we need national forests to conserve resources for the future.
To protect these resources against businesses that want to destroy them,
(08:11):
and ensure the United States public has a right to
those resources. Oh and pickleball and golf courses. Moving on
to the crime desk, and Idaho man is being charged
with five felonies and fifteen misdemeanors for a host of
wildlife crimes that cover everything from harassing wildlife with a
(08:32):
helicopter to improperly tagging trophy elk, to wounding and keeping
a live antelope buck in the back of his truck,
to illegally buying and selling big game tags. Believe it
or not, that's just a partial list. We don't have
time here to cover every crime alleged in the sixty
seven page Affidavid, but I do want to zero in
on that last one I mentioned. Forty three year old
(08:55):
Carl Stuter is being charged with four misdemeanors four quote
solicitation to or market landowner appreciation tags. Landowner appreciation tags
are given to landowners in Idaho via a lottery, and
it's illegal to sell or market those tags for sale.
The idea behind the program was to give landowners some
extra incentive to protect wildlife habitat, and, as the name implies,
(09:18):
to express appreciation for all the work farmers and ranchers
do for conservation. The program is not supposed to make
landowners rich, but that appears to be what's happening in Idaho.
Meet eaters Jordan Sillers spoke with Idaho hunters who report
that there has been an active illegal market for landowner
tags for years, and I can confirm I've seen the
(09:39):
same in the time I've been hunting in the gym state.
The stuter Fella was probably more active than most. According
to the affidavit, he spent over one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars in twenty twenty three purchasing landowner tags, and
he likely planned to flip some of those for profit.
These tags give the designee access not only to the
private property of landowner, but also to the entire game
(10:02):
management unit in which that property resides. This means that
legal public land hunters in Idaho not only have to
compete with other public land hunters and local landowners, but
also with wealthy folks who can afford to purchase landowner
tags that have been illegally sold or marketed. As I
told Jordan for his article, which you can read over
at the meat Eater dot com, and you really should,
(10:23):
this is a great example of open secrets and corruption
of good intent. Idaho's Landowner Appreciation Program or LAP, was
created to incentivize good stewardship of natural resources resources. We
all get to benefit from landowners who are trying to
make a living in agriculture have it tough skyrocketing property
(10:44):
values and the associated taxes, fragmentation of fertile crop and
grazing ground from development, beef from South America, land from
New Zealand. Most hunters would agree that in order to
maintain the North American model of wildlife management, where free
roaming gamelo belongs to the people, not the landowner, landowners
who make a living off of the land, who provide
(11:05):
habitat for game species and livestock alike through the stewardship
and management of land should be considered for certain types
of compensation through the state. However, when corruption takes place
like this case in Idaho, the public trust is violated.
We can understand the ask for reduced herd numbers when
crops are decimated, but we can't understand or support a
(11:29):
system that increasingly looks like it was designed for individuals
to skip the line and predate solely on monster bulls
like mister Stuiter did. If the LAP isn't a population
control program, if it isn't a program to relieve pressure
on crops or pasture land, if it isn't an accessible
access program, then it shouldn't be an Idaho Fishing Game
(11:53):
Department or State of Idaho program. The public does not
support another avenue for trophy for the well healed. Now,
this is the first case that I've heard of, first
one that I can point to anyway of anyone being
charged with violating the rules about landowner tags in Idaho.
Hopefully this case signals that the Idaho Fish and Game
(12:14):
Department is taking this problem seriously and we can expect
to see more prosecutions in the future. For the whole
story head on over to the meeteater dot Com. The
Sheriff's office in Morrison County, Minnesota is searching for the
person who killed a white tailed deer from the roadway
on the night of August thirteenth. Deputies responded to the
scene and found a dead deer with what looked like
(12:36):
a wound from a twelve gage shotgun. They also found
that whoever had shot the deer had also hit several
street signs, mailboxes, and electrical boxes with the scattergun to
round out the mental image of this suspect or suspects.
The Sheriff's office press release notes that the only details
they have about the vehicle are that it is quote
an older truck and notably loud. If alcohol wasn't involved
(12:59):
in this little night time shooting spree, I'll eat my mustache.
Anyone with information on this case is being asked to
contact the Morrison County Sheriff's Office. Three two zero sixty
three to two nine two three three to Montana men,
one of whom was a longtime guide an outfitter in
the Bob Marshall Wilderness, have been indicted on federal charges
for illegally killing and transporting a brown bear in Alaska.
(13:21):
The indictment documents indicate that forty six year old rich
mctee and fifty one year old Arlen Franz went hunting
in the Alaska Peninsula at National Wildlife Refuge in May
of twenty twenty two. The documents don't say who killed
the bear, but they say that one of the men
violated a rule that requires non resident hunters to hunt
with a master guide. The indictment also alleges that the
(13:41):
bear was shot and killed before the legal season to
hunt brown bear and occurred the same day that the
hunter had been airborne, in violation of state and federal laws.
It also says the pair violated the LASIAC because they
transported the height out of a federal refuge to a
local hunting lodge and from there to Port Mooler, then
to Anchorage. I'm sure there's a long and complicated story
behind this case. By given their experience in the field,
(14:03):
they'll have a tough time pleading ignorance. If convicted, each
man faces up to five years in prison and one
hundred thousand dollars fine. Thanks Maddy for sending that one in.
The poacher who killed a famous buck in Richmond Virginia.
Has been sentenced to four months in prison, a thirteen
thousand dollars fine, and a twenty five year hunting licensed suspension.
Thirty six year old Jason Walters made national news when
(14:25):
he killed the Hollywood Buck, named for its frequent sightings
in the Hollywood Cemetery in downtown Richmond. Walters claim to
have shot the buck in Prince Edward County, Virginia, using
a muzzleoder, but he made the mistake of posting images
on social media. Richmond residents immediately recognized the buck's non
typical rack, and from there things went downhill quickly for
the thirty six year old. Speaking of ill advised social
(14:48):
media posts, Oregon State Police are searching for two men
suspected of taking an oversized sturgeon within a protected breeding
sanctuary in Umatilla County. A video posted on Snapchat shows
one person holding a fishing rod hooked to the fish
as another person enters the water and wrestles the sturgeon
to shore. The man then lifts the sturgeon vertically by
shoving his hands through the gills and out the mouth.
(15:10):
According to the OSP the injuries to the sturgeon's gills
were almost certainly fatal. All sturgeon angling is closed in
the breeding sanctuary from May one to August thirty one
to protect the stock, but this incident allegedly occurred around
May ninth. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the
Oregon State Police. Moving across the pond, French conservation groups
(15:33):
are sounding the alarm with sharp increase in the number
of wolf poaching cases. Much like we've been covering in
Washington State and other areas, France has been dealing with
an increasing number of wolves, mainly in the southeastern parts
of the state. There are about one thousand wolves right
now in the country, which is just a little smaller
than Texas. Though the population dropped slightly last year, it's
been steadily increasing over the last ten years. Not surprisingly,
(15:56):
not all French residents appreciate the change. Though no official
estimates exist on the true amount of poaching, several high
profile incidents over the past few years have shown a
light on the issue. In June twenty twenty three, three
people were indicted for poisoning a wolf, one of whom
was an employee with the French Office of Biodiversity. This
person admitted to having infiltrated the agency to obtain information
(16:19):
on wolf packs. Two wolves were found poisoned in a
national park a year earlier, and a year before that,
wolf was found hanged in front of a town hall
in a small village. The country does allow about nineteen
percent of the wolf population to be called each year
to help keep the population and check. Animal rights groups
believe this number is far too high, while agricultural groups
say that's not nearly enough to limit the number of
(16:41):
attacks on sheep and other livestock. Looks like we've got
a few more things in common with France, after all.
Moving on to the Traveling Animal Desk, it's always interesting
when animals show up in strange places. Sometimes this is
a good thing. Listener Matt Mann sent me a story
about an oslot being spotted in a region of Arizona
(17:03):
that hasn't seen one of the elusive cats in the
last fifty years. Oslots are wildcats about twice the size
of an average house cat. They used to live throughout
southern Arizona, most of Texas, and as far north as Arkansas.
Now there's only one stable population of the species in
the US, which lives in a wildlife refuge in southern Texas. However,
(17:24):
they are sometimes spotted in southern Arizona as they come
north from Mexico. A spot analysis of this cat confirms
that it is new to Arizona and it's the first
cat to be spotted in the at Tescosa Highlands region
in at least fifty years. The new sighting marks the
seventh known oslot to roam around Arizona in the last
two decades. Just to go back Asmidge, spot analysis isn't
(17:47):
some fun acronym, it's literally identifying cats by the configuration
and location of their spots. Biologists are encouraged that continued
conservation efforts will create more suit habitat for the species.
In southern Arizona. Oslots need dense forests and sprawling grasslands
for shelter and protection as they move, but habitat fragmentation
(18:09):
has made it difficult for the species to thrive. Biologists
will continue to monitor this area to see if this
cat is just passing through or might be the first
of the country's second stable population. Oslots in southern Arizona
are welcome news, but invasive bugs in New York City
are not. Local media reports that Manhattan ants have taken
(18:30):
over the city, and biologists have finally identified them as
an invasive species from Europe. The larger than average black
and red ant wasn't recorded in two thousand and nine
survey of ants in the Big Apple, but in the
years that followed the insects first began appearing in local parks.
Now they're one of the most common ants in the
city and have been found inside buildings, on six floor balconies,
(18:50):
and even in a flower planter in the middle of
Times Square. How a new ant species ended up in
New York is still unclear, but DNA tests and observ
of the colonies have revealed that Manhattan ants are actually
Las sue and managinatis, a European species. Go ahead and
(19:10):
right in to ask col to let me know how
to pronounce that one. Scientists are still trying to figure
out what the ecological impact of these large ants might be.
They're not what's known as a super colony species that
expands and dominates habitat, but they are expanding quickly and entomologous.
Scientists who study insects worry that they could negatively impact
(19:31):
trees and other native bugs. Fortunately, Manhattan ants have only
been in New York City since about twenty eleven, which
is actually less time than it usually takes to detect
invasive species. But most invasive insects aren't detected until they
reach pest status, at which point it's too late to
do anything about it. For these ants, they'll be better
(19:52):
able to monitor and tract their impact, and they're asking
New Yorkers to record their observations of the ants on
the app I Natural Yes. Moving on to the gun
violence desk, a new study published last month claims to
have found a link between deer hunting seasons and an
increase in gun related violence in rural counties. The study,
(20:14):
published in the journal JAMA Network Open, looked at shootings
reported in eight hundred and fifty four rural counties and
forty four states. Researchers found that in the week following
the opening of deer season, firearms shootings that injured or
killed county residents jumped by an average of forty nine percent.
That rate was still forty one percent highed during the
second week, but the increase fell close to zero by
(20:37):
the third week of deer hunting season. Since most deer
harvested in those first two weeks, this indicates a strong
connection between hunters going out to harvest deer and gun
related criminal activity. If that sounds a little far fetched,
not to mention mildly insulting, you aren't alone. Hunters aren't
a perfect bunch, as we cover pretty often over at
their crime desk, but I have never heard anyone suggests
(21:00):
that the deer opener leads to gun crime. These Princeton
researchers acknowledge that their findings can't be explained by hunting alone.
Firearm accidents in the field are extremely rare, and when
they account for those accidents, their results don't change. So
how do they account for their findings? Here's the key quote.
This evidence leads us to conclude that the most plausible
(21:21):
explanation for the increase in shootings the week after the
start of deer season is the heightened presence of firearms
in public and private spaces. There are simply more guns
floating around during deer season, they argue, which by itself
leads to more shootings and rural counties, or maybe not. First,
it's worth pointing out that the average number of annual
(21:42):
shootings in these counties is five point four per one
hundred thousand people. That's total shootings, not just homicides. For comparison,
in twenty twenty one, there were six point seven gun
related murders per one hundred thousand people across the entire country.
In Chicago, that number was twenty nine point six intoenty
twenty one. The number of per capita shootings is much
(22:03):
higher since not all shootings result in death. Point is,
these rural counties have far far lower rates of gun
violence than metropolitan areas. Kind Of makes you wonder why
Princeton researchers are spending their time looking at areas that,
by comparison, are some of the safest in the country. Anyway,
getting back to the study itself, if gun violence spikes
(22:23):
because hunters are carrying around their rifles and shotguns, we
should expect that the rise in shootings is driven by
long guns. Correct, right, rifles, long guns, long shotguns. Actually
the opposite is true, The study admits, quote we found
that the increase in shootings after the start of deer
hunting season was more pronounced for shootings with a handgun
rather than a long gun, they say in the conclusion quote.
(22:46):
This additional evidence suggests the main results may be associated
with a broader influx of guns into public and private
spaces rather than simply an increase in long guns used
for hunting. Sounds to me like maybe these researchers haven't
met many actual hunters. They seem to be suggesting that
deer hunters cause an influx of guns into public and
(23:07):
private spaces because they're toting around handguns along with their
deer rifles. Some hunters certainly do carry a handgun in
the woods, but it isn't nearly enough to drive higher
rates of gun crime. The real hole in this study
appears in a single line in the results section. It reads, quote,
of the eight hundred and fifty four counties in the sample,
(23:29):
three hundred and five had at least one shooting during
the study period. In other words, even though they looked
at eight hundred and fifty rural counties, they could only
find three hundred and five that had even a single
shooting in the weeks around deer season. They also don't
provide their full data set, so it's not clear how
many shootings those three hundred and five counties had. I'm
(23:51):
no statistician, but it seems like if you're basing your
conclusions on just ten percent of American counties, having a
single shooting in the week after deer season, you might
have found yourself a random coincidence rather than a ground
breaking link between the deer opener and gun violence in America.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Do you like apples? How do you like their maps?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Moving on to the mailbag desk, listener Dan Broult wrote
in with a great story about what can happen when
you engage with your representatives at the local level. Like
many towns in North America, the town of Aurelia, Ontario,
has a Canada geese problem. The population has grown so
large that goose poop has become a major issue in
(24:37):
the city's waterfronts and parks, and some of the beaches
on Lake Simcoe have been closed due to pollutants in
the water. The city council is taking the issue pretty seriously,
but they're considering a range of mitigation measures that include
naturalizing certain portions of the shoreline to help deter geese.
One council member, however, suggested what to hunter, sounds like
(24:57):
a more effective and tasty option. Counselor Whitney Smith said
during a recent meeting, quote, I'm a waterfowl hunter, and
I'd happily take care of that problem as well as
dozens of my friends. Her comments were taken as a joke,
according to the local media report, but Dan Brolt saw
an opportunity to make a real connection with one of
his local leaders. He reached out to Counselor Smith then
(25:19):
expressed his appreciation for her comments and for her on
the record support of hunting. Counselor Smith apparently appreciated the
call because she said she'd like to hunt with Dan
at some point this season or really. A city council
probably won't allow Canada goose hunting within its jurisdiction, but
you never know. And now Dan has made a real
connection with one of his representatives. That connection might not
(25:41):
pay dividends right now on this specific issue, but it
may very well in the future. Nice job, Dan, keep
up the good work. That's all I got for you
this week. Thank you so much for listening, and remember
to write in to as case c Al that's Askcal
at the meeteater dot com let me know what's going
on in your neck of the woods. On top of that,
I was dead toot and serious about you keeping your
(26:04):
nature journals, your bird watching journals and showing me that
you did so, and I'm gonna randomly select one of
you for a new Final Rise vest and some col
Ammo pouches from FHF Gear, And then I'm gonna select
two more Evia just for some cow pouches. Okay, maybe
I'll throw something else cool in there too, so remember
(26:24):
keep those going this season. October thirty one is gonna
be the big day. Okay. Then I'm gonna pull those
names from the hat, So you got all of September
all October to keep those journals. Get them back to me.
We'll pick some big, big winners. Citizen Science kicks a butt,
and I know you do too. Thanks again, I'll talk
to you next week.
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Calahan. Here's
cal For the.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Last three weeks, residents of Erie, Pennsylvania have been searching
for an alligator that was allegedly spotted in Lake Erie
earlier this month. The gator first appeared on August fourth,
about twenty to thirty yards from shore, according to a
timeline of the gator hunt published on goerie dot com.
Officials were notified the beach was closed and a trapper
was sent out to capture the prehistoric reptile. I like
(00:44):
to think this trapper has an Australian accent and has
been in witness protection since faking his death in two
thousand and six. But if that's the case, mister Irwin
has lost a step or two. Tracks turned up on
the beach a few days later, but the trapper's efforts
have so far proved futile, and locals haven't spotted the
gator since August seventh. Where this gator came from is
(01:04):
an even bigger mystery than where it's currently hiding. The
American alligator has a native range that only goes as
far as the southern portion of North Carolina and northern Arkansas.
They aren't known to be great travelers, as you can
probably guess from their stubby little legs, so this isn't
a juvenile dispersal situation. The best guess of local lake
(01:24):
Erie experts is that this is an exotic pet that
escaped or was released into the lake. The gator is
unlikely to survive the cold PA winter, but that's small
comfort to lake Erie beach goers, as temps won't drop
for some time. This week, We've got the crime desk,
bad shooting, and dispersal. But first I'm going to tell
you about my week, and my week has been spent packing.
(01:48):
I have a heck of a September planned, and if
you are listening to this, then you know September is here.
Checklists are good things. I have a checklist for my
archery gear, my optics, my truck, came camp, my backpack, camp,
sub lists for sleeping gear, cooking gear, food, rifle, hunting checklist,
A list for things to fix and replace in the camper.
(02:10):
The old must get this done before I lose connectivity.
Work checklist, headlamps, tent steaks, pea cord, freeze, dried perfect bars,
water bladders which I finally got around to dumping a
little bleach into. Was well needed, first aid kit, toilet paper,
cow calls, bugle reads, diaphrams, hearing protection, what boots to wear,
(02:30):
how many socks to bring, what rifle to bring? How
much ammunition? Rain gear or no rain gear? Stove or
no stove for fifty.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yea, that's all I need.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So much to do. On top of that, there is
a checklist of national importance that just does not leave
my mind. Initiative ninety one in Colorado will be up
for a vote in November. That's the proposal to ban
lion and bobcat hunting, where individual voters in the state
of Colorado have the ability to tell the state game
(03:08):
agency how to manage game. That is a threat. Just recently,
Governor Ron DeSantis and his cabinet just proposed the development
of State of Florida parks, basically a state park Disney
World crossover where instead of boat ramps, beaches, camping, and
nature there could be golf courses, pickleball, and five hundred
(03:28):
bed hotels. This is a threat. Utah state lawmakers just
made the decision to sue the United States for control
of eighteen and a half million acres of federally managed
land in that state. Utah has sold fifty four percent
of its state owned lands since statehood, netting around two
billion dollars for roughly four point one million acres, which
(03:52):
sounds like a good payday, but that's only five hundred
dollars an acre, which is basically freeland in the west,
factoring in current market rates. This situation and way of
thinking is a threat. Firearm laws that restrict or hinder
the freedoms of law abiding, tax paying citizens in an
attempt to regulate the misdeed's misuse or sickness of others
(04:15):
is happening on many levels of government. This is a threat.
The list goes on and on. I recently put up
a ranting post about the Utah and Florida situation on
the old Instagram Utah and Federal Land, Florida and state land.
It's an amazing political blunder to have both of these
situations occurring at the same time because the extreme profitization
(04:37):
of state held lands at the expense of wildlife and access,
and the ultimate sale of state held lands is a
huge driving factor behind the opposition to state ownership of
federally managed or as I like to call them, public lands.
Lots of comments happening in the comments section. I just
(04:57):
want to address one which is relevant to the threat list.
One fella commented that, yes, this is a threat, but
I want to focus on one thing at a time,
and my thing is guns. I get it, I understand,
But as you all know right now, we have a
(05:18):
lot of stuff that matters to us that we can
affect if we wade in and do so. In any
given legislative session in any state, there is never just
one thing, one threat. It all comes at us at
the same time. So if your attitude is to divide
and conquer, I just want to remind you that's the
(05:40):
exact strategy the folks are using to strip us of access,
access to wildlife, access to land, access to firearms. It's
predator swamping. Put enough out there that we can't effectively
kill it all. If you give a crap, you need
to weigh in on all of these. All of these
(06:01):
issues will affect you. Write those emails, sign the petitions,
make the phone calls. Also, beware of the co opting
of terms. Right now, the Utah folks have literally stolen
the backcountry hunters and anglers byline of keep public lands
in public hands, making it so you have to ask
(06:25):
what do you mean by that. If it's BHA saying it,
you can be damn sure that what it means is
public land available to all for hunting and fishing, right BHA,
the voice of public Lands, waters and wildlife. If it's
this Utah coalition saying it, what they mean is to
(06:45):
take all of those lands that we collectively own and
are held in trust and managed by the federal government
under state control so they can dictate how they are developed,
how they are sold, and what we can and cannot
access and what we can and cannot access those lands for.
(07:05):
In Florida, the DeSantis administration said this in a defense
of state park development. Quote Teddy Roosevelt believed that public
parks were for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,
and we agree with him. That was from Press Secretary
Jeremy Redford. He goes on, but it's high time we
(07:26):
made public lands more accessible to the public. Do you
see what he's doing there. He's making this an access
issue and implying that giant RV parks, golf courses, pick
a ball, five hundred bed hotels complexes are what makes
the outdoors accessible to people. Old Teddy Roosevelt tr would
(07:50):
be rolling in his grave. The guy who had the
foresight to establish national parks and the United States Forest
Service with Gifford Pinchip as chief Forrester, did not say, Hey,
we need national forests to conserve resources for the future.
To protect these resources against businesses that want to destroy them,
(08:11):
and ensure the United States public has a right to
those resources. Oh and pickleball and golf courses. Moving on
to the crime desk, and Idaho man is being charged
with five felonies and fifteen misdemeanors for a host of
wildlife crimes that cover everything from harassing wildlife with a
(08:32):
helicopter to improperly tagging trophy elk, to wounding and keeping
a live antelope buck in the back of his truck,
to illegally buying and selling big game tags. Believe it
or not, that's just a partial list. We don't have
time here to cover every crime alleged in the sixty
seven page Affidavid, but I do want to zero in
on that last one I mentioned. Forty three year old
(08:55):
Carl Stuter is being charged with four misdemeanors four quote
solicitation to or market landowner appreciation tags. Landowner appreciation tags
are given to landowners in Idaho via a lottery, and
it's illegal to sell or market those tags for sale.
The idea behind the program was to give landowners some
extra incentive to protect wildlife habitat, and, as the name implies,
(09:18):
to express appreciation for all the work farmers and ranchers
do for conservation. The program is not supposed to make
landowners rich, but that appears to be what's happening in Idaho.
Meet eaters Jordan Sillers spoke with Idaho hunters who report
that there has been an active illegal market for landowner
tags for years, and I can confirm I've seen the
(09:39):
same in the time I've been hunting in the gym state.
The stuter Fella was probably more active than most. According
to the affidavit, he spent over one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars in twenty twenty three purchasing landowner tags, and
he likely planned to flip some of those for profit.
These tags give the designee access not only to the
private property of landowner, but also to the entire game
(10:02):
management unit in which that property resides. This means that
legal public land hunters in Idaho not only have to
compete with other public land hunters and local landowners, but
also with wealthy folks who can afford to purchase landowner
tags that have been illegally sold or marketed. As I
told Jordan for his article, which you can read over
at the meat Eater dot com, and you really should,
(10:23):
this is a great example of open secrets and corruption
of good intent. Idaho's Landowner Appreciation Program or LAP, was
created to incentivize good stewardship of natural resources resources. We
all get to benefit from landowners who are trying to
make a living in agriculture have it tough skyrocketing property
(10:44):
values and the associated taxes, fragmentation of fertile crop and
grazing ground from development, beef from South America, land from
New Zealand. Most hunters would agree that in order to
maintain the North American model of wildlife management, where free
roaming gamelo belongs to the people, not the landowner, landowners
who make a living off of the land, who provide
(11:05):
habitat for game species and livestock alike through the stewardship
and management of land should be considered for certain types
of compensation through the state. However, when corruption takes place
like this case in Idaho, the public trust is violated.
We can understand the ask for reduced herd numbers when
crops are decimated, but we can't understand or support a
(11:29):
system that increasingly looks like it was designed for individuals
to skip the line and predate solely on monster bulls
like mister Stuiter did. If the LAP isn't a population
control program, if it isn't a program to relieve pressure
on crops or pasture land, if it isn't an accessible
access program, then it shouldn't be an Idaho Fishing Game
(11:53):
Department or State of Idaho program. The public does not
support another avenue for trophy for the well healed. Now,
this is the first case that I've heard of, first
one that I can point to anyway of anyone being
charged with violating the rules about landowner tags in Idaho.
Hopefully this case signals that the Idaho Fish and Game
(12:14):
Department is taking this problem seriously and we can expect
to see more prosecutions in the future. For the whole
story head on over to the meeteater dot Com. The
Sheriff's office in Morrison County, Minnesota is searching for the
person who killed a white tailed deer from the roadway
on the night of August thirteenth. Deputies responded to the
scene and found a dead deer with what looked like
(12:36):
a wound from a twelve gage shotgun. They also found
that whoever had shot the deer had also hit several
street signs, mailboxes, and electrical boxes with the scattergun to
round out the mental image of this suspect or suspects.
The Sheriff's office press release notes that the only details
they have about the vehicle are that it is quote
an older truck and notably loud. If alcohol wasn't involved
(12:59):
in this little night time shooting spree, I'll eat my mustache.
Anyone with information on this case is being asked to
contact the Morrison County Sheriff's Office. Three two zero sixty
three to two nine two three three to Montana men,
one of whom was a longtime guide an outfitter in
the Bob Marshall Wilderness, have been indicted on federal charges
for illegally killing and transporting a brown bear in Alaska.
(13:21):
The indictment documents indicate that forty six year old rich
mctee and fifty one year old Arlen Franz went hunting
in the Alaska Peninsula at National Wildlife Refuge in May
of twenty twenty two. The documents don't say who killed
the bear, but they say that one of the men
violated a rule that requires non resident hunters to hunt
with a master guide. The indictment also alleges that the
(13:41):
bear was shot and killed before the legal season to
hunt brown bear and occurred the same day that the
hunter had been airborne, in violation of state and federal laws.
It also says the pair violated the LASIAC because they
transported the height out of a federal refuge to a
local hunting lodge and from there to Port Mooler, then
to Anchorage. I'm sure there's a long and complicated story
behind this case. By given their experience in the field,
(14:03):
they'll have a tough time pleading ignorance. If convicted, each
man faces up to five years in prison and one
hundred thousand dollars fine. Thanks Maddy for sending that one in.
The poacher who killed a famous buck in Richmond Virginia.
Has been sentenced to four months in prison, a thirteen
thousand dollars fine, and a twenty five year hunting licensed suspension.
Thirty six year old Jason Walters made national news when
(14:25):
he killed the Hollywood Buck, named for its frequent sightings
in the Hollywood Cemetery in downtown Richmond. Walters claim to
have shot the buck in Prince Edward County, Virginia, using
a muzzleoder, but he made the mistake of posting images
on social media. Richmond residents immediately recognized the buck's non
typical rack, and from there things went downhill quickly for
the thirty six year old. Speaking of ill advised social
(14:48):
media posts, Oregon State Police are searching for two men
suspected of taking an oversized sturgeon within a protected breeding
sanctuary in Umatilla County. A video posted on Snapchat shows
one person holding a fishing rod hooked to the fish
as another person enters the water and wrestles the sturgeon
to shore. The man then lifts the sturgeon vertically by
shoving his hands through the gills and out the mouth.
(15:10):
According to the OSP the injuries to the sturgeon's gills
were almost certainly fatal. All sturgeon angling is closed in
the breeding sanctuary from May one to August thirty one
to protect the stock, but this incident allegedly occurred around
May ninth. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the
Oregon State Police. Moving across the pond, French conservation groups
(15:33):
are sounding the alarm with sharp increase in the number
of wolf poaching cases. Much like we've been covering in
Washington State and other areas, France has been dealing with
an increasing number of wolves, mainly in the southeastern parts
of the state. There are about one thousand wolves right
now in the country, which is just a little smaller
than Texas. Though the population dropped slightly last year, it's
been steadily increasing over the last ten years. Not surprisingly,
(15:56):
not all French residents appreciate the change. Though no official
estimates exist on the true amount of poaching, several high
profile incidents over the past few years have shown a
light on the issue. In June twenty twenty three, three
people were indicted for poisoning a wolf, one of whom
was an employee with the French Office of Biodiversity. This
person admitted to having infiltrated the agency to obtain information
(16:19):
on wolf packs. Two wolves were found poisoned in a
national park a year earlier, and a year before that,
wolf was found hanged in front of a town hall
in a small village. The country does allow about nineteen
percent of the wolf population to be called each year
to help keep the population and check. Animal rights groups
believe this number is far too high, while agricultural groups
say that's not nearly enough to limit the number of
(16:41):
attacks on sheep and other livestock. Looks like we've got
a few more things in common with France, after all.
Moving on to the Traveling Animal Desk, it's always interesting
when animals show up in strange places. Sometimes this is
a good thing. Listener Matt Mann sent me a story
about an oslot being spotted in a region of Arizona
(17:03):
that hasn't seen one of the elusive cats in the
last fifty years. Oslots are wildcats about twice the size
of an average house cat. They used to live throughout
southern Arizona, most of Texas, and as far north as Arkansas.
Now there's only one stable population of the species in
the US, which lives in a wildlife refuge in southern Texas. However,
(17:24):
they are sometimes spotted in southern Arizona as they come
north from Mexico. A spot analysis of this cat confirms
that it is new to Arizona and it's the first
cat to be spotted in the at Tescosa Highlands region
in at least fifty years. The new sighting marks the
seventh known oslot to roam around Arizona in the last
two decades. Just to go back Asmidge, spot analysis isn't
(17:47):
some fun acronym, it's literally identifying cats by the configuration
and location of their spots. Biologists are encouraged that continued
conservation efforts will create more suit habitat for the species.
In southern Arizona. Oslots need dense forests and sprawling grasslands
for shelter and protection as they move, but habitat fragmentation
(18:09):
has made it difficult for the species to thrive. Biologists
will continue to monitor this area to see if this
cat is just passing through or might be the first
of the country's second stable population. Oslots in southern Arizona
are welcome news, but invasive bugs in New York City
are not. Local media reports that Manhattan ants have taken
(18:30):
over the city, and biologists have finally identified them as
an invasive species from Europe. The larger than average black
and red ant wasn't recorded in two thousand and nine
survey of ants in the Big Apple, but in the
years that followed the insects first began appearing in local parks.
Now they're one of the most common ants in the
city and have been found inside buildings, on six floor balconies,
(18:50):
and even in a flower planter in the middle of
Times Square. How a new ant species ended up in
New York is still unclear, but DNA tests and observ
of the colonies have revealed that Manhattan ants are actually
Las sue and managinatis, a European species. Go ahead and
(19:10):
right in to ask col to let me know how
to pronounce that one. Scientists are still trying to figure
out what the ecological impact of these large ants might be.
They're not what's known as a super colony species that
expands and dominates habitat, but they are expanding quickly and entomologous.
Scientists who study insects worry that they could negatively impact
(19:31):
trees and other native bugs. Fortunately, Manhattan ants have only
been in New York City since about twenty eleven, which
is actually less time than it usually takes to detect
invasive species. But most invasive insects aren't detected until they
reach pest status, at which point it's too late to
do anything about it. For these ants, they'll be better
(19:52):
able to monitor and tract their impact, and they're asking
New Yorkers to record their observations of the ants on
the app I Natural Yes. Moving on to the gun
violence desk, a new study published last month claims to
have found a link between deer hunting seasons and an
increase in gun related violence in rural counties. The study,
(20:14):
published in the journal JAMA Network Open, looked at shootings
reported in eight hundred and fifty four rural counties and
forty four states. Researchers found that in the week following
the opening of deer season, firearms shootings that injured or
killed county residents jumped by an average of forty nine percent.
That rate was still forty one percent highed during the
second week, but the increase fell close to zero by
(20:37):
the third week of deer hunting season. Since most deer
harvested in those first two weeks, this indicates a strong
connection between hunters going out to harvest deer and gun
related criminal activity. If that sounds a little far fetched,
not to mention mildly insulting, you aren't alone. Hunters aren't
a perfect bunch, as we cover pretty often over at
their crime desk, but I have never heard anyone suggests
(21:00):
that the deer opener leads to gun crime. These Princeton
researchers acknowledge that their findings can't be explained by hunting alone.
Firearm accidents in the field are extremely rare, and when
they account for those accidents, their results don't change. So
how do they account for their findings? Here's the key quote.
This evidence leads us to conclude that the most plausible
(21:21):
explanation for the increase in shootings the week after the
start of deer season is the heightened presence of firearms
in public and private spaces. There are simply more guns
floating around during deer season, they argue, which by itself
leads to more shootings and rural counties, or maybe not. First,
it's worth pointing out that the average number of annual
(21:42):
shootings in these counties is five point four per one
hundred thousand people. That's total shootings, not just homicides. For comparison,
in twenty twenty one, there were six point seven gun
related murders per one hundred thousand people across the entire country.
In Chicago, that number was twenty nine point six intoenty
twenty one. The number of per capita shootings is much
(22:03):
higher since not all shootings result in death. Point is,
these rural counties have far far lower rates of gun
violence than metropolitan areas. Kind Of makes you wonder why
Princeton researchers are spending their time looking at areas that,
by comparison, are some of the safest in the country. Anyway,
getting back to the study itself, if gun violence spikes
(22:23):
because hunters are carrying around their rifles and shotguns, we
should expect that the rise in shootings is driven by
long guns. Correct, right, rifles, long guns, long shotguns. Actually
the opposite is true, The study admits, quote we found
that the increase in shootings after the start of deer
hunting season was more pronounced for shootings with a handgun
rather than a long gun, they say in the conclusion quote.
(22:46):
This additional evidence suggests the main results may be associated
with a broader influx of guns into public and private
spaces rather than simply an increase in long guns used
for hunting. Sounds to me like maybe these researchers haven't
met many actual hunters. They seem to be suggesting that
deer hunters cause an influx of guns into public and
(23:07):
private spaces because they're toting around handguns along with their
deer rifles. Some hunters certainly do carry a handgun in
the woods, but it isn't nearly enough to drive higher
rates of gun crime. The real hole in this study
appears in a single line in the results section. It reads, quote,
of the eight hundred and fifty four counties in the sample,
(23:29):
three hundred and five had at least one shooting during
the study period. In other words, even though they looked
at eight hundred and fifty rural counties, they could only
find three hundred and five that had even a single
shooting in the weeks around deer season. They also don't
provide their full data set, so it's not clear how
many shootings those three hundred and five counties had. I'm
(23:51):
no statistician, but it seems like if you're basing your
conclusions on just ten percent of American counties, having a
single shooting in the week after deer season, you might
have found yourself a random coincidence rather than a ground
breaking link between the deer opener and gun violence in America.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Do you like apples? How do you like their maps?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Moving on to the mailbag desk, listener Dan Broult wrote
in with a great story about what can happen when
you engage with your representatives at the local level. Like
many towns in North America, the town of Aurelia, Ontario,
has a Canada geese problem. The population has grown so
large that goose poop has become a major issue in
(24:37):
the city's waterfronts and parks, and some of the beaches
on Lake Simcoe have been closed due to pollutants in
the water. The city council is taking the issue pretty seriously,
but they're considering a range of mitigation measures that include
naturalizing certain portions of the shoreline to help deter geese.
One council member, however, suggested what to hunter, sounds like
(24:57):
a more effective and tasty option. Counselor Whitney Smith said
during a recent meeting, quote, I'm a waterfowl hunter, and
I'd happily take care of that problem as well as
dozens of my friends. Her comments were taken as a joke,
according to the local media report, but Dan Brolt saw
an opportunity to make a real connection with one of
his local leaders. He reached out to Counselor Smith then
(25:19):
expressed his appreciation for her comments and for her on
the record support of hunting. Counselor Smith apparently appreciated the
call because she said she'd like to hunt with Dan
at some point this season or really. A city council
probably won't allow Canada goose hunting within its jurisdiction, but
you never know. And now Dan has made a real
connection with one of his representatives. That connection might not
(25:41):
pay dividends right now on this specific issue, but it
may very well in the future. Nice job, Dan, keep
up the good work. That's all I got for you
this week. Thank you so much for listening, and remember
to write in to as case c Al that's Askcal
at the meeteater dot com let me know what's going
on in your neck of the woods. On top of that,
I was dead toot and serious about you keeping your
(26:04):
nature journals, your bird watching journals and showing me that
you did so, and I'm gonna randomly select one of
you for a new Final Rise vest and some col
Ammo pouches from FHF Gear, And then I'm gonna select
two more Evia just for some cow pouches. Okay, maybe
I'll throw something else cool in there too, so remember
(26:24):
keep those going this season. October thirty one is gonna
be the big day. Okay. Then I'm gonna pull those
names from the hat, So you got all of September
all October to keep those journals. Get them back to me.
We'll pick some big, big winners. Citizen Science kicks a butt,
and I know you do too. Thanks again, I'll talk
to you next week.
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