February 10, 2025 • 24 mins
This week, Cal rounds up bills from across the country, rattles off a hot list of just what's happening in Montana, and lets you know how to get involved.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 We're all familiar with the trashy shorelines, old monophilamon,
nightcrawler containers, beer cans, balloons, But what do we do
when someone leaves an entire boat on a beach. That's
(00:33):
what officials in Wisconsin are wrestling with, as two abandoned
boats have become minor celebrities after their owners ran them
a ground. Back in October, a boat christened Deep Thought
was abandoned on the shore of Lake Michigan, just outside
Milwaukee after it ran out of gas in a storm.
It's still there on the beach between McKinley Marina and
Bradford Beach, but now it's frozen into the ice. Its
(00:55):
owners say a local salvage company is committed to getting
it out after the spring thaws, but Milwaukeeans have already
made a virtual marker on Google Maps where you can
see its unofficial name the Minno daytime TV watchers will
recall that's the name of the boat in the show
Gilligan's Island A three. It's currently listed as a tourist
(01:19):
attraction on Google and has a very respectable four point
nine stars with ninety one reviews. The perfect option for
people who want the Great Lakes boating experience but prefer
to stay on shore, one of them reads, Another calls
it Milwaukee's finest and newest art installation, while another says
she couldn't get enough of the waterfront view. Images show
that local graffiti artists have been hard at work to
(01:41):
give the shipwreck an authentic touch, with thoughtful messages like
love yourself and these nuts, which, oddly enough is a
good buddy of mine's hot mail account name to this day.
Very adult, you know who you are. Milwaukeeans are making
the most out of this giant piece of litter, but
some Wisconsin officials say this is no laughing matter. After
(02:03):
another boat turned up abandon on the Saint Croix River
near Hudson, the mayor of that city wants to pass
state legislation making it a crime to abandon your boat.
Hudson passed an ordnance that finds boat owners hundreds per
day for abandoning their vessels, and the owners of the ship,
dubbed Sweet Destiny, owed the town a whopping fifty thousand dollars.
(02:23):
That's part of the reason they recently sold it to
someone named Bill Warren, who the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel describes
as a quote treasure hunter and lounge singer. I'm not
exactly sure what a lounge singer is, but Warren, who
claims to have found the body of Osama bin Laden
in the Arabian Sea, wants to sail Sweet Destiny down
to the Gulf of Mexico for an undersea treasure hunt.
(02:44):
You can't make this stuff up, folks. Just remember, if
you plan to take your ship on a three hour tour,
be sure you aim for an uncharted isle and not
the town of Hudson, Wisconsin. You'll end up owing a
good chunk of change. And it's still litter. This week,
we've got duck hunters state legislation, a little bit of
the federal action, and so much more. But first I'm
(03:05):
going to tell you about my week. And my week
well everybody knows if you're paying attention to meet Eater Live.
We all just got back from Mexico with our buddies
from Sig Sour. Had a great time down there. It
was cold and windy, we got snowed on and by windy,
I mean like thirty mile an hour sustained winds, which
(03:27):
it's hard to stare into the wind and glass for
little tiny deer on faraway mountains. But man, I love Sonora.
It's incredible, great plays, full of great people. And we
did pretty good, did pretty good on the deer, especially
for the conditions, So would love to go back. Also
got to shoot a new short action six hour saw
(03:50):
tooth in a not as of yet released caliber that
was a really fine shooting rifle. One of my travel
tips hacks, you know, is to hang onto your cardboard
be that you know, like a soda pop container or
a flat of other beverages. The cardboard underneath that makes
(04:11):
a great target that you can put just about anywhere.
And then I just bring a little Scotch tape, make
a couple of crosses on there, and that's what we
use to ensure that our zeros are still set. So
we did that the first day and then made sure
our turrets were working well and cranked them up and
down in various angles and conditions and busted a bunch
(04:35):
of rocks out there, which is just really really good practice.
And I got to say that I ended up shooting
a deer under almost the exact same conditions that I
shot a fist sized rock at same yardage, same windage,
almost same degree set up, all that fun stuff, and ma'am,
(04:59):
having that under your belt, just like busting clays with
the shotgun, makes for a very confident shooting scenario. So
that's my travel tip for you. Don't be one of
those people that is like, oh, I got to get
stick on targets. Please don't. It's just trash. Wherever you go.
You're buying pre made trash. One of my many personal vendettas. Okay, now,
(05:22):
there's so much to cover. Legislative sessions are happening all
over the states, and you may have noticed a little
bit of federal news. So I just want to give
you an example here from the state of Montana. We
have right now going on right now SB two eighty three,
which would add the option to raffle two tags, two
(05:42):
statewide tags, one for moose, one for big worn sheep.
This would just be an option to raffle as opposed
to how it's written right now, where those are purely
auction tags. HB three twenty eight, which would allow hunters
over the age of seventy five to use their general
elk tag on a cow elk. HB three thirty would
(06:04):
add an auction antelope and swan tag. HB three fifty
three would revise shed hunting laws. HB three forty seven
would revise hunter's orange laws. HB three fifty four revised
penalties for criminal trespass, specifically to shed hunting. HB fifty
seven designate quail as a game bird, which is ridiculous
(06:26):
in my opinion. HB ninety five damage based muskrat and
bear and beaver trapping. SB two thirty five revised landowner
preference for elk tags. This is a cute industry one.
There's currently a loophole in the state of Montana where
you can be under contract to purchase six hundred and
forty contiguous acres of land in Montana and still apply
(06:51):
for land owner preference tags. SB two thirty five would
eliminate that loophole, which should not exist. And there's some
famous folks that take advantage of this, and this loophole
would probably still be there had you not ticked off
a bunch of people. I'm not going to say your names,
but you know, hate the player, not the game. Hate
(07:12):
the game, not the player. I don't know how you'd
say it, but man, come on. HB three seventy two
revised license fees for upland game Bird Enhancement programs. HB
three seventy nine Revised State Land Lease and Sale. This
is a big one. Montana State lands are considered public
here in Montana, which is super awesome. That happened relatively recently,
(07:36):
and there's been taxpayer funded moves. I sure didn't get
asked about this to make those lands easier to sell,
As you can tell by my tone, not a big
fan of that. Three seventy nine, most notably, would move
this into like a straight real estate transaction versus how
(07:56):
it's written right now, where state land, in order to
be sold needs to go through auction, which is just
more of a public process. It's a little more onerous,
I'm sure, and I think that's the point. We need
more public land, not less of it. This is obviously
happening right now as Western states are kind of joining
(08:16):
these Utah lawsuits to divest of federally managed lands, and
HB three seventy nine right here in the state of
Montana is a good example as to why we should
push back against state ownership of federal lands because they're
going to fricking sell it. HB seventy one second lion
tag and in some lion reporting specific to the Tenduay Mountains.
(08:37):
This one is a real tricky subject, a touchy subject
rather with lion hunters. Most lion tags go unfilled in
the state of Montana. It's your classic case of the
folks who do it well are the ones that fill
most of the tags, and the ones that do it
really well end up not filling tags because they just
like running their dogs. So the State of Montana is
(08:58):
looking to issue second lion tags in certain regions. Argument
against this one is like, well, why don't you get
people who own lion tags to go to those regions
versus issuing another lion tag? And then your lion hunters
also are very skeptical as to whether or not the
state knows how many lions there actually are. HB three ninety.
(09:20):
This is an interesting one. I threw it in here
because it's egg based, which is the Right to Repair Act.
This one for all you farmers out there who keep
updating equipment in the Great agricultural arms race. You kind
of get to a point where you can't work on
that equipment yourself, and you become beholden to your manufacturers
(09:42):
who have very specific people who can work on this stuff,
and end up having equipment down during critical times of year.
This is something I believe all hunters should be in
support of. The more onerous the egg game becomes, the
fewer places we're going to have to hunt on the
private side of the fence, and it's gonna make all
(10:05):
those private acres so fricking valuable that they're gonna have
to farm all of it just to make their land payment.
HB one oh five. Revise laws related to game bird
farms HB one oh six. Revise game bird preserve requirements
HB one oh seven. License requirements for commercial licenses regulated
by Fish, Wildlife and Parks HB four oh one. This
(10:27):
is another fun one for you. Prohibit the sale of
lab grown meat in the state of Montana. I put
this in here just so I could bring up my
old argument of if folks get hooked on lab grown meat,
what about all those private acres that are growing food
for America and housing wildlife. I think there's a strong
link there. HB seventy four revise private fish pond and
(10:49):
commercial game take. This one's kind of an interesting one.
It's mostly for private pond, but it does have some
specific language in there to paddle. Again, just good examples
of what's happening right now in one state. If your
state's in session or if your game Commission is meeting,
there's stuff happening that is going to affect you, you
(11:13):
should at minimum be aware of it. But man, if
you're listening to this podcast, you know I want you
to get involved. Write some letters, make some phone calls,
and do the scariest thing of all, show up and testify.
I'll maybe do some social media make that less scary
for everybody. It's really not a scary deal. There's some
procedural things that are nice to know, but you know,
(11:36):
here in the state of Montana, we're small enough to
where our elected officials are very lenient and happy to
deal with first timers. So get out there and do it.
Moving on to the state legislative desk, HB zero two
eighty six prohibits the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission from
setting hunting areas, bag limits, mortality limits, or time limits
(11:59):
on mountain lion hunting. The bill sets the season from
September one to August thirty, first of every year. It's
a year round season, is what it is. Which for
those of you without a calendar handy, yeah, that's year round.
If this sounds familiar, that's because Utah passed a near
identical bill last year. As with that bill, hunters in
Wyoming are not happy. Mule, deer and elk hunters and
(12:21):
outfitters have all banded together on this one, with the
Mountain Lion hunters as well as a lot of not
traditional hook and bullet NGOs and groups to say this
is not science based management and this bill has been tabled.
You'll hear more about that with Old Luke Worthington, founder
and President of the Wyoming Houndsman Association, on a special
(12:41):
drop next week. In a similar vein, the Kansas state
legislature is considering a bill that would eliminate the authority
of the Secretary of Wildlife and Parks to issue non
resident landowner deer permes. Current regulations allow the Secretary to
issue deer hunting tags to non resident landowners, which are
defined as anyone who lives outside Kansas but owns eighty
or more acres Senate Bill eighty would end that program
(13:04):
and make all non resident landowners get tags by the
lottery like other non residents. Well, you might expect this
bill to come from resident Kansas hunters, I'm being told
that this bill is actually coming from the Kansas Livestock Association.
They're worried that people are buying land in Kansas for
the sole purpose of deer hunting, which pulls the land
out of egg production. This could create local property tax
(13:27):
loss as well as the loss of native prairie habitat
as non resident landowners allow the growth of the Eastern
red cedar and other woody encroachment staying in Kansas. The
state Chapter Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is supporting two bills
aimed at encouraging landowners to conserve wildlife habitat. HB two
zero nine seven was requested for introduction by Kansas BHA
(13:50):
on January twenty second. This legislation was drafted in partnership
with the Nature Conservancy and would provide an income tax
credit to landowners that have their land enrolled in a
qualified habitat management program and have the land enrolled in
a public access program such as WEIHA or we FAW
which is the hunting and the phishing version of walk
(14:10):
in Access. In Kansas, HB two zero six three would
develop a state conservation fund providing grant programs for conservation
efforts relating to working lands, wildlife, outdoor wrec and education.
It was first introduced last year and was reintroduced in
a modified format in twenty twenty five. The North Dakota
State Senate passed a bill last week that would make
(14:32):
it more difficult for landowners to draw highly coveted to
antelope tags. Big thanks to listener Matt Gross for sending
this one. In current rgs set aside the first fifty
antelope tags in each unit for landowners, as well as
fifty percent of the remaining tags. Senate Bill two one
five five would put those first fifty tags back in
the general pool, but it would still set aside fifty
(14:52):
percent of the general unit quota for landowners. Matt tells me,
the legislators who are landowners don't like the idea of
it being harder to get antelope tags, but the non
land owning public is waiting five to eight years just
to get a single tag. SB two one five five
initially failed in the Senate on a twenty three to
twenty three vote, but when a revote was called, it
(15:12):
passed twenty seven to nineteen. It now heads to the
state House, so North Dakota residents should get in touch
with their state reps to weigh in. Listener Amanda Atkinson
sent me a bill she's concerned about in Indiana. House
Bill sixteen nineteen would allow residents to sell venison as
long as the meat was harvested legally in Indiana, was
processed at a commercial deer processing facility, and meets certain
(15:36):
requirements about packaging labels. Sometimes you come across a bill
that just seems like a favor to a constituent, and
this is one of those bills. Given our country's history
of market hunting, I have no idea why someone would
propose this bill. We know how this story ends, and
it's not great. If you live in Indiana, get on
the horn with your Rep. As well as Rep. Shane Lindauer,
(15:57):
who is the author of this bill. Two Northern Minnesota
lawmakers are proposing a constitutional amendment to require a legislative
supermajority for land transfers. The proposal would require a three
fifths supermajority vote in both legislative chambers to approve the
transfer or sale of public land below market value. The
amendment is being proposed in response to an effort by
(16:20):
other state legislators to transfer state lands and waters around
Upper Red Lake to the Red Lake Nation, a Native
American tribe. The bill SF four to three six will
require three fifths of the legislators in both houses to
approve it to become a constitutional amendment. In other constitutional news,
the Iowa legislature is considering a resolution that will amend
(16:43):
the state's constitution to include a right to Hunt and
Fish HJR. I follows other Right to Hunt and Fish
amendments by guaranteeing that the people of the state have
the right to hunt, trap, fish, and harvest wildlife, including
by the use of traditional methods. The amendment wouldn't take
power from the Natural Resource Commission, but it would require
that any laws or regulations be reasonable, promote wildlife conservation
(17:07):
and management, maintain natural resources for public use, and preserve
the future of hunting, fishing, and trapping. Here in Montana,
the state House past bill that would make non native
quail and official game bird species. This bill, HB fifty
seven was sent to me by listener John Burt. He
believes the Fish and Wildlife and Parks Department should not
be spending time and resources managing a non native bird
(17:30):
when they could be putting that effort into recovering sharp
tails in western Montana. Tend to agree John. These birds
were released by individual landowners, probably working dogs illegally. In
western Montana, most of the hunting opportunities only on private ground,
(17:51):
or if you did like we did, which was stretched
the boundaries of the high water rule a little bit.
Growing up anyway, while you're at it Ekayan on several
bills that would expand wolf hunting and trapping in Montana.
House Bills one seventy six and two twenty two both
past the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee last week.
HB one seventy six would require an unlimited gray wolf
(18:12):
quota when the population exceeds five hundred and fifty wolves.
The current population is estimated to be one thy one
hundred wolves, so that unlimited take would probably be in
place for a long time. The bill would allow multiple
licenses per hunter, unlimited harvest numbers, the use of bait
and night hunting on private land. HB two two two
would create a ten month wolf hunting season closing in
(18:35):
May and June for denning and whelping. That bill sets
a target population for six hundred and fifty wolves. Down
in Arizona, the legislature is considering several bills that should
be of interest to hunters, anglers, and conservationists. HB two
five eighty eight would require the Arizona Game and Fish
Department to issue landowner permits for elk, antelope, deer, and
(18:56):
oryx and SB one zero six eight would require a
private landowner to seek the permission of the state legislature
before selling his herb property to the federal government. Moving
on to the federal legislative desk, We've already covered a
few of the executive orders coming from President Trump's desk,
but there are also some bills moving forward that you
(19:18):
should know about. On January sixteen, the Ending Presidential over
Each on Public Lands Act was introduced by Reps. Celest
molloy and Mark Amodi, along with our old pal Senator
Mike Lee. This would remove the authority of the President
granted under the Antiquities Act to protect public lands through
National monument designations. Proponents say that the presidents have exceeded
(19:38):
their authority under this law to designate large squaths of land.
Opponents say this bill will undermine a law that has
safeguarded some of America's most iconic landscapes and associated hunting
and fishing opportunities for more than a century. On January
twenty one, the Boundary Water's Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention
Act Hr five to eighty eight was rein introduced by Rep.
(20:00):
Batty McCollum. This would extend a permanent mineral withdrawal within
the Superior National Forest to protect the Boundary Waters from
sulfide or mining proposals such as twin medals. In other words,
it would protect the Boundary Waters from some mining operations,
even as the current administration seeks to open up more
public lands to extraction. Finally, January twenty three, the Keep
(20:25):
Public Lands in Public Hands Act Hr seven eighteen was
reintroduced by Representative Ryan Zink and Gave Vasquez. This would
require Congressional approval for the sale or transfer of publicly
accessible tracts of federal land greater than three hundred acres
or greater than five acres if accessible by public waterway.
(20:45):
Moving on to the CWD desk, the Georgia Department of
Natural Resources announced last month that the first case of
chronic wasting disease has been confirmed in the state. The
deer in question was a two and a half year
old buck harvest and Landier County, and it was sampled
through the state's routine surveillance program. Nothing will change for
most Georgia deer hunters moving forward, but the DNR announced
(21:07):
that the CWD response Plan is in effect and a
CWD management area is established. This management area includes the
county where the positive sample was found and any county
that touches a five mile radius around the location of
the positive sample. That means the current CWD management area
includes Lanyer and Barrion Counties in the southern part of
the state. If you live in these counties, be looking
(21:29):
for additional reporting requirements or carcass movement restrictions being put
in place for next year's season. If you've been paying
attention to the CWD story, you know that the disease
has been making a slow march into the states where
it's never been reported. Last year, Washington State, California, Indiana
saw their first cases. A year prior, CWD was detected
(21:49):
for the first time in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Florida.
Two thousand and two, Alabama saw its first case Without
any reliable treatment for the disease, this progress was inevitable. However,
A new study has found that hunting is one of
the key ways we can slow CWDS spread. Authored by
US Geological Survey in the Wyoming Game and Fish Department,
this new paper found that hunting greater numbers of mail
(22:10):
deer can reduce the prevalence of CWD by as much
as twenty five percent. According to Win Moss, when one
of the studies lead authors, when at least forty percent
of our hers adult males are harvested every year for
twenty years, less than five percent of the mails on
average are expected to be infected. On the other hand,
a lower level of hunting pressure, such as twenty percent
(22:31):
of adult males harvested per year, would result in a
much higher prevalence of around thirty percent infected. Though nothing
can eradicate the disease and keep it from spreading to
New States, hunting is one of the main ways we
can keep CWD at manageable levels. That's all I got
for you this week. Thank you so much for listening
and remember to write in to askcl that's ascaltmeeater dot com.
(22:53):
Let us know what's going on in your neck of
the woods. If you want to meet up talk about
some of this stuff in person, and you'll be at
the National Well Turkey Federation for Friday night. Oh Yiannis
pateel Us, Clay Nukeom, bunch of folks are going to
be down there helping out with an official after party
at NWTF. We're going to raffle off some hunts for
(23:15):
Turkey species that you may not have harvested before, such
as the goulds which is a tough one to get,
osceola and a bunch of gear too, so you can
come down win some stuff, support a great habitat organization
and if you're going to be at the Western Hunt
Expo in conjunction with utah Bha and really everybody, it's
(23:35):
just a big show of support. Utah Bha doing the
heavy lifting of course for a party for public lands,
saying hey, federally managed lands, our public lands, they meet
a lot to us every single year throughout the calendar year.
Let's not sell them off to any bidder. We want
to maintain our access that will be at the beer
(23:56):
bar Saturday night, Western Hunt Expo. If you aren't attending
the last big shin Dig at Mulder Foundation Expo, you'll
get to meet a bunch of awesome ng os, win
some stuff, and just celebrate public lands on a big
positive note. Remember right in to a S K C
(24:16):
A L. That's Ascal at the meteater dot com. Let
us know what's going on in your neck the woods.
You know we appreciate it. Thanks again,
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Calahan. Here's
cal We're all familiar with the trashy shorelines, old monophilamon,
nightcrawler containers, beer cans, balloons, But what do we do
when someone leaves an entire boat on a beach. That's
(00:33):
what officials in Wisconsin are wrestling with, as two abandoned
boats have become minor celebrities after their owners ran them
a ground. Back in October, a boat christened Deep Thought
was abandoned on the shore of Lake Michigan, just outside
Milwaukee after it ran out of gas in a storm.
It's still there on the beach between McKinley Marina and
Bradford Beach, but now it's frozen into the ice. Its
(00:55):
owners say a local salvage company is committed to getting
it out after the spring thaws, but Milwaukeeans have already
made a virtual marker on Google Maps where you can
see its unofficial name the Minno daytime TV watchers will
recall that's the name of the boat in the show
Gilligan's Island A three. It's currently listed as a tourist
(01:19):
attraction on Google and has a very respectable four point
nine stars with ninety one reviews. The perfect option for
people who want the Great Lakes boating experience but prefer
to stay on shore, one of them reads, Another calls
it Milwaukee's finest and newest art installation, while another says
she couldn't get enough of the waterfront view. Images show
that local graffiti artists have been hard at work to
(01:41):
give the shipwreck an authentic touch, with thoughtful messages like
love yourself and these nuts, which, oddly enough is a
good buddy of mine's hot mail account name to this day.
Very adult, you know who you are. Milwaukeeans are making
the most out of this giant piece of litter, but
some Wisconsin officials say this is no laughing matter. After
(02:03):
another boat turned up abandon on the Saint Croix River
near Hudson, the mayor of that city wants to pass
state legislation making it a crime to abandon your boat.
Hudson passed an ordnance that finds boat owners hundreds per
day for abandoning their vessels, and the owners of the ship,
dubbed Sweet Destiny, owed the town a whopping fifty thousand dollars.
(02:23):
That's part of the reason they recently sold it to
someone named Bill Warren, who the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel describes
as a quote treasure hunter and lounge singer. I'm not
exactly sure what a lounge singer is, but Warren, who
claims to have found the body of Osama bin Laden
in the Arabian Sea, wants to sail Sweet Destiny down
to the Gulf of Mexico for an undersea treasure hunt.
(02:44):
You can't make this stuff up, folks. Just remember, if
you plan to take your ship on a three hour tour,
be sure you aim for an uncharted isle and not
the town of Hudson, Wisconsin. You'll end up owing a
good chunk of change. And it's still litter. This week,
we've got duck hunters state legislation, a little bit of
the federal action, and so much more. But first I'm
(03:05):
going to tell you about my week. And my week
well everybody knows if you're paying attention to meet Eater Live.
We all just got back from Mexico with our buddies
from Sig Sour. Had a great time down there. It
was cold and windy, we got snowed on and by windy,
I mean like thirty mile an hour sustained winds, which
(03:27):
it's hard to stare into the wind and glass for
little tiny deer on faraway mountains. But man, I love Sonora.
It's incredible, great plays, full of great people. And we
did pretty good, did pretty good on the deer, especially
for the conditions, So would love to go back. Also
got to shoot a new short action six hour saw
(03:50):
tooth in a not as of yet released caliber that
was a really fine shooting rifle. One of my travel
tips hacks, you know, is to hang onto your cardboard
be that you know, like a soda pop container or
a flat of other beverages. The cardboard underneath that makes
(04:11):
a great target that you can put just about anywhere.
And then I just bring a little Scotch tape, make
a couple of crosses on there, and that's what we
use to ensure that our zeros are still set. So
we did that the first day and then made sure
our turrets were working well and cranked them up and
down in various angles and conditions and busted a bunch
(04:35):
of rocks out there, which is just really really good practice.
And I got to say that I ended up shooting
a deer under almost the exact same conditions that I
shot a fist sized rock at same yardage, same windage,
almost same degree set up, all that fun stuff, and ma'am,
(04:59):
having that under your belt, just like busting clays with
the shotgun, makes for a very confident shooting scenario. So
that's my travel tip for you. Don't be one of
those people that is like, oh, I got to get
stick on targets. Please don't. It's just trash. Wherever you go.
You're buying pre made trash. One of my many personal vendettas. Okay, now,
(05:22):
there's so much to cover. Legislative sessions are happening all
over the states, and you may have noticed a little
bit of federal news. So I just want to give
you an example here from the state of Montana. We
have right now going on right now SB two eighty three,
which would add the option to raffle two tags, two
(05:42):
statewide tags, one for moose, one for big worn sheep.
This would just be an option to raffle as opposed
to how it's written right now, where those are purely
auction tags. HB three twenty eight, which would allow hunters
over the age of seventy five to use their general
elk tag on a cow elk. HB three thirty would
(06:04):
add an auction antelope and swan tag. HB three fifty
three would revise shed hunting laws. HB three forty seven
would revise hunter's orange laws. HB three fifty four revised
penalties for criminal trespass, specifically to shed hunting. HB fifty
seven designate quail as a game bird, which is ridiculous
(06:26):
in my opinion. HB ninety five damage based muskrat and
bear and beaver trapping. SB two thirty five revised landowner
preference for elk tags. This is a cute industry one.
There's currently a loophole in the state of Montana where
you can be under contract to purchase six hundred and
forty contiguous acres of land in Montana and still apply
(06:51):
for land owner preference tags. SB two thirty five would
eliminate that loophole, which should not exist. And there's some
famous folks that take advantage of this, and this loophole
would probably still be there had you not ticked off
a bunch of people. I'm not going to say your names,
but you know, hate the player, not the game. Hate
(07:12):
the game, not the player. I don't know how you'd
say it, but man, come on. HB three seventy two
revised license fees for upland game Bird Enhancement programs. HB
three seventy nine Revised State Land Lease and Sale. This
is a big one. Montana State lands are considered public
here in Montana, which is super awesome. That happened relatively recently,
(07:36):
and there's been taxpayer funded moves. I sure didn't get
asked about this to make those lands easier to sell,
As you can tell by my tone, not a big
fan of that. Three seventy nine, most notably, would move
this into like a straight real estate transaction versus how
(07:56):
it's written right now, where state land, in order to
be sold needs to go through auction, which is just
more of a public process. It's a little more onerous,
I'm sure, and I think that's the point. We need
more public land, not less of it. This is obviously
happening right now as Western states are kind of joining
(08:16):
these Utah lawsuits to divest of federally managed lands, and
HB three seventy nine right here in the state of
Montana is a good example as to why we should
push back against state ownership of federal lands because they're
going to fricking sell it. HB seventy one second lion
tag and in some lion reporting specific to the Tenduay Mountains.
(08:37):
This one is a real tricky subject, a touchy subject
rather with lion hunters. Most lion tags go unfilled in
the state of Montana. It's your classic case of the
folks who do it well are the ones that fill
most of the tags, and the ones that do it
really well end up not filling tags because they just
like running their dogs. So the State of Montana is
(08:58):
looking to issue second lion tags in certain regions. Argument
against this one is like, well, why don't you get
people who own lion tags to go to those regions
versus issuing another lion tag? And then your lion hunters
also are very skeptical as to whether or not the
state knows how many lions there actually are. HB three ninety.
(09:20):
This is an interesting one. I threw it in here
because it's egg based, which is the Right to Repair Act.
This one for all you farmers out there who keep
updating equipment in the Great agricultural arms race. You kind
of get to a point where you can't work on
that equipment yourself, and you become beholden to your manufacturers
(09:42):
who have very specific people who can work on this stuff,
and end up having equipment down during critical times of year.
This is something I believe all hunters should be in
support of. The more onerous the egg game becomes, the
fewer places we're going to have to hunt on the
private side of the fence, and it's gonna make all
(10:05):
those private acres so fricking valuable that they're gonna have
to farm all of it just to make their land payment.
HB one oh five. Revise laws related to game bird
farms HB one oh six. Revise game bird preserve requirements
HB one oh seven. License requirements for commercial licenses regulated
by Fish, Wildlife and Parks HB four oh one. This
(10:27):
is another fun one for you. Prohibit the sale of
lab grown meat in the state of Montana. I put
this in here just so I could bring up my
old argument of if folks get hooked on lab grown meat,
what about all those private acres that are growing food
for America and housing wildlife. I think there's a strong
link there. HB seventy four revise private fish pond and
(10:49):
commercial game take. This one's kind of an interesting one.
It's mostly for private pond, but it does have some
specific language in there to paddle. Again, just good examples
of what's happening right now in one state. If your
state's in session or if your game Commission is meeting,
there's stuff happening that is going to affect you, you
(11:13):
should at minimum be aware of it. But man, if
you're listening to this podcast, you know I want you
to get involved. Write some letters, make some phone calls,
and do the scariest thing of all, show up and testify.
I'll maybe do some social media make that less scary
for everybody. It's really not a scary deal. There's some
procedural things that are nice to know, but you know,
(11:36):
here in the state of Montana, we're small enough to
where our elected officials are very lenient and happy to
deal with first timers. So get out there and do it.
Moving on to the state legislative desk, HB zero two
eighty six prohibits the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission from
setting hunting areas, bag limits, mortality limits, or time limits
(11:59):
on mountain lion hunting. The bill sets the season from
September one to August thirty, first of every year. It's
a year round season, is what it is. Which for
those of you without a calendar handy, yeah, that's year round.
If this sounds familiar, that's because Utah passed a near
identical bill last year. As with that bill, hunters in
Wyoming are not happy. Mule, deer and elk hunters and
(12:21):
outfitters have all banded together on this one, with the
Mountain Lion hunters as well as a lot of not
traditional hook and bullet NGOs and groups to say this
is not science based management and this bill has been tabled.
You'll hear more about that with Old Luke Worthington, founder
and President of the Wyoming Houndsman Association, on a special
(12:41):
drop next week. In a similar vein, the Kansas state
legislature is considering a bill that would eliminate the authority
of the Secretary of Wildlife and Parks to issue non
resident landowner deer permes. Current regulations allow the Secretary to
issue deer hunting tags to non resident landowners, which are
defined as anyone who lives outside Kansas but owns eighty
or more acres Senate Bill eighty would end that program
(13:04):
and make all non resident landowners get tags by the
lottery like other non residents. Well, you might expect this
bill to come from resident Kansas hunters, I'm being told
that this bill is actually coming from the Kansas Livestock Association.
They're worried that people are buying land in Kansas for
the sole purpose of deer hunting, which pulls the land
out of egg production. This could create local property tax
(13:27):
loss as well as the loss of native prairie habitat
as non resident landowners allow the growth of the Eastern
red cedar and other woody encroachment staying in Kansas. The
state Chapter Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is supporting two bills
aimed at encouraging landowners to conserve wildlife habitat. HB two
zero nine seven was requested for introduction by Kansas BHA
(13:50):
on January twenty second. This legislation was drafted in partnership
with the Nature Conservancy and would provide an income tax
credit to landowners that have their land enrolled in a
qualified habitat management program and have the land enrolled in
a public access program such as WEIHA or we FAW
which is the hunting and the phishing version of walk
(14:10):
in Access. In Kansas, HB two zero six three would
develop a state conservation fund providing grant programs for conservation
efforts relating to working lands, wildlife, outdoor wrec and education.
It was first introduced last year and was reintroduced in
a modified format in twenty twenty five. The North Dakota
State Senate passed a bill last week that would make
(14:32):
it more difficult for landowners to draw highly coveted to
antelope tags. Big thanks to listener Matt Gross for sending
this one. In current rgs set aside the first fifty
antelope tags in each unit for landowners, as well as
fifty percent of the remaining tags. Senate Bill two one
five five would put those first fifty tags back in
the general pool, but it would still set aside fifty
(14:52):
percent of the general unit quota for landowners. Matt tells me,
the legislators who are landowners don't like the idea of
it being harder to get antelope tags, but the non
land owning public is waiting five to eight years just
to get a single tag. SB two one five five
initially failed in the Senate on a twenty three to
twenty three vote, but when a revote was called, it
(15:12):
passed twenty seven to nineteen. It now heads to the
state House, so North Dakota residents should get in touch
with their state reps to weigh in. Listener Amanda Atkinson
sent me a bill she's concerned about in Indiana. House
Bill sixteen nineteen would allow residents to sell venison as
long as the meat was harvested legally in Indiana, was
processed at a commercial deer processing facility, and meets certain
(15:36):
requirements about packaging labels. Sometimes you come across a bill
that just seems like a favor to a constituent, and
this is one of those bills. Given our country's history
of market hunting, I have no idea why someone would
propose this bill. We know how this story ends, and
it's not great. If you live in Indiana, get on
the horn with your Rep. As well as Rep. Shane Lindauer,
(15:57):
who is the author of this bill. Two Northern Minnesota
lawmakers are proposing a constitutional amendment to require a legislative
supermajority for land transfers. The proposal would require a three
fifths supermajority vote in both legislative chambers to approve the
transfer or sale of public land below market value. The
amendment is being proposed in response to an effort by
(16:20):
other state legislators to transfer state lands and waters around
Upper Red Lake to the Red Lake Nation, a Native
American tribe. The bill SF four to three six will
require three fifths of the legislators in both houses to
approve it to become a constitutional amendment. In other constitutional news,
the Iowa legislature is considering a resolution that will amend
(16:43):
the state's constitution to include a right to Hunt and
Fish HJR. I follows other Right to Hunt and Fish
amendments by guaranteeing that the people of the state have
the right to hunt, trap, fish, and harvest wildlife, including
by the use of traditional methods. The amendment wouldn't take
power from the Natural Resource Commission, but it would require
that any laws or regulations be reasonable, promote wildlife conservation
(17:07):
and management, maintain natural resources for public use, and preserve
the future of hunting, fishing, and trapping. Here in Montana,
the state House past bill that would make non native
quail and official game bird species. This bill, HB fifty
seven was sent to me by listener John Burt. He
believes the Fish and Wildlife and Parks Department should not
be spending time and resources managing a non native bird
(17:30):
when they could be putting that effort into recovering sharp
tails in western Montana. Tend to agree John. These birds
were released by individual landowners, probably working dogs illegally. In
western Montana, most of the hunting opportunities only on private ground,
(17:51):
or if you did like we did, which was stretched
the boundaries of the high water rule a little bit.
Growing up anyway, while you're at it Ekayan on several
bills that would expand wolf hunting and trapping in Montana.
House Bills one seventy six and two twenty two both
past the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee last week.
HB one seventy six would require an unlimited gray wolf
(18:12):
quota when the population exceeds five hundred and fifty wolves.
The current population is estimated to be one thy one
hundred wolves, so that unlimited take would probably be in
place for a long time. The bill would allow multiple
licenses per hunter, unlimited harvest numbers, the use of bait
and night hunting on private land. HB two two two
would create a ten month wolf hunting season closing in
(18:35):
May and June for denning and whelping. That bill sets
a target population for six hundred and fifty wolves. Down
in Arizona, the legislature is considering several bills that should
be of interest to hunters, anglers, and conservationists. HB two
five eighty eight would require the Arizona Game and Fish
Department to issue landowner permits for elk, antelope, deer, and
(18:56):
oryx and SB one zero six eight would require a
private landowner to seek the permission of the state legislature
before selling his herb property to the federal government. Moving
on to the federal legislative desk, We've already covered a
few of the executive orders coming from President Trump's desk,
but there are also some bills moving forward that you
(19:18):
should know about. On January sixteen, the Ending Presidential over
Each on Public Lands Act was introduced by Reps. Celest
molloy and Mark Amodi, along with our old pal Senator
Mike Lee. This would remove the authority of the President
granted under the Antiquities Act to protect public lands through
National monument designations. Proponents say that the presidents have exceeded
(19:38):
their authority under this law to designate large squaths of land.
Opponents say this bill will undermine a law that has
safeguarded some of America's most iconic landscapes and associated hunting
and fishing opportunities for more than a century. On January
twenty one, the Boundary Water's Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention
Act Hr five to eighty eight was rein introduced by Rep.
(20:00):
Batty McCollum. This would extend a permanent mineral withdrawal within
the Superior National Forest to protect the Boundary Waters from
sulfide or mining proposals such as twin medals. In other words,
it would protect the Boundary Waters from some mining operations,
even as the current administration seeks to open up more
public lands to extraction. Finally, January twenty three, the Keep
(20:25):
Public Lands in Public Hands Act Hr seven eighteen was
reintroduced by Representative Ryan Zink and Gave Vasquez. This would
require Congressional approval for the sale or transfer of publicly
accessible tracts of federal land greater than three hundred acres
or greater than five acres if accessible by public waterway.
(20:45):
Moving on to the CWD desk, the Georgia Department of
Natural Resources announced last month that the first case of
chronic wasting disease has been confirmed in the state. The
deer in question was a two and a half year
old buck harvest and Landier County, and it was sampled
through the state's routine surveillance program. Nothing will change for
most Georgia deer hunters moving forward, but the DNR announced
(21:07):
that the CWD response Plan is in effect and a
CWD management area is established. This management area includes the
county where the positive sample was found and any county
that touches a five mile radius around the location of
the positive sample. That means the current CWD management area
includes Lanyer and Barrion Counties in the southern part of
the state. If you live in these counties, be looking
(21:29):
for additional reporting requirements or carcass movement restrictions being put
in place for next year's season. If you've been paying
attention to the CWD story, you know that the disease
has been making a slow march into the states where
it's never been reported. Last year, Washington State, California, Indiana
saw their first cases. A year prior, CWD was detected
(21:49):
for the first time in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Florida.
Two thousand and two, Alabama saw its first case Without
any reliable treatment for the disease, this progress was inevitable. However,
A new study has found that hunting is one of
the key ways we can slow CWDS spread. Authored by
US Geological Survey in the Wyoming Game and Fish Department,
this new paper found that hunting greater numbers of mail
(22:10):
deer can reduce the prevalence of CWD by as much
as twenty five percent. According to Win Moss, when one
of the studies lead authors, when at least forty percent
of our hers adult males are harvested every year for
twenty years, less than five percent of the mails on
average are expected to be infected. On the other hand,
a lower level of hunting pressure, such as twenty percent
(22:31):
of adult males harvested per year, would result in a
much higher prevalence of around thirty percent infected. Though nothing
can eradicate the disease and keep it from spreading to
New States, hunting is one of the main ways we
can keep CWD at manageable levels. That's all I got
for you this week. Thank you so much for listening
and remember to write in to askcl that's ascaltmeeater dot com.
(22:53):
Let us know what's going on in your neck of
the woods. If you want to meet up talk about
some of this stuff in person, and you'll be at
the National Well Turkey Federation for Friday night. Oh Yiannis
pateel Us, Clay Nukeom, bunch of folks are going to
be down there helping out with an official after party
at NWTF. We're going to raffle off some hunts for
(23:15):
Turkey species that you may not have harvested before, such
as the goulds which is a tough one to get,
osceola and a bunch of gear too, so you can
come down win some stuff, support a great habitat organization
and if you're going to be at the Western Hunt
Expo in conjunction with utah Bha and really everybody, it's
(23:35):
just a big show of support. Utah Bha doing the
heavy lifting of course for a party for public lands,
saying hey, federally managed lands, our public lands, they meet
a lot to us every single year throughout the calendar year.
Let's not sell them off to any bidder. We want
to maintain our access that will be at the beer
(23:56):
bar Saturday night, Western Hunt Expo. If you aren't attending
the last big shin Dig at Mulder Foundation Expo, you'll
get to meet a bunch of awesome ng os, win
some stuff, and just celebrate public lands on a big
positive note. Remember right in to a S K C
(24:16):
A L. That's Ascal at the meteater dot com. Let
us know what's going on in your neck the woods.
You know we appreciate it. Thanks again,
Host
Cal Callaghan
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