March 10, 2025 • 28 mins
This week, Cal covers high-fence shenanigans in Texas, Colorado wolves, and why egg prices are so dang high.
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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 Klahan. Here's
cal a Washington State man made headlines last week after
he tried to steal an eighty foot commercial fishing boat
with the crew still aboard. But he didn't take the
crew hostage or make off with the boat in the
(00:32):
dead of night. Oh no, this fellow was too smart
for that. Instead, he pretended to be the boat's captain.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife police reports that
the man woke the sleeping crew and ordered them to
get under way. He was apparently pretty convincing, because the
crew did exactly as he said. They told police later
that they assumed the Charlatan skipper was an alternative operator
(00:56):
or someone sent by the real captain. They were also
a new crew to the boat, which added to the confusion.
Jack Sparrow had something else going for him. He actually
knew how to start the boat's engines and navigate the
vessel into Gray's Harbor off the coast of Westport, Washington.
He was about to cross into open ocean when he
made his first big mistake. He began laying out his
(01:17):
plans for the ship, and they didn't seem to involve fishing.
According to Washington Fish and Wildlife quote, the subject driving
the boat was talking about meeting the Chinese mothership and
was not making sense. He certainly was not describing fishing activity.
The gig was up and the imposter captain, who has
not been identified, agreed to return to port. He was
(01:39):
arrested and charged with theft, possession of stolen property, vehicle prowl,
and unlawful manufacture or possession of marijuana. He was found
with four thousand dollars in cash and a large quantity
of individually weighed and packaged weed. Incredibly, further investigation revealed
that this wasn't the first time this fella had tried
(01:59):
the same stunt. Earlier that same morning, he attempted to
commandeer another fishing vessel, but that crew, being a little
more with it than the other, identified him as an
impostor and ran him off the boat. They didn't tell
police until they heard about the more successful venture later
that day. Say what you will, but this fella's got
(02:19):
Gumpshen kids, you are, without doubt the worst part I've
ever heard of. But you have heard of it this week,
we've got Texas high offense, Shenan against bird flu, Colorado Wolves,
listener mail, and so much more. But first I'm going
to tell you about my week and my week well, yeah,
you know, it's interesting times out there, Gang. I'm getting
(02:42):
a ton of request to weigh in on our federal
situation as it pertains to the important stuff we like,
like hunting, fishing, access, public lands, public wildlife. So at
the risk of whatever I say right now being dated
and out of touch by the time you hear this
on Monday or later, I'm going to give you my
best rundown of the situation as I see it. This
(03:03):
is an apolitical view, believe it or not. I do
not care who you voted for. I just care that
you love your hunting, fishing, and public lands enough to
stand up and defend those things. First, we all can
agree that we want our money. I'm speaking of taxes
spent in the most effective way possible, that's no waste,
(03:24):
maximum efficiency, and spent on what matters to us taxpayers
the most. That being said here is the state of
public lands. From my point of view, the debt conversations
as it relates to Doge and federal agencies that manage
public lands. We are not reducing the national debt. Anyone
who knows how a loan works is capable of understanding this.
(03:47):
Credit card debt, student loans, mortgage. Those things do not
get smaller if you save any amount of money. They
only get smaller if you apply more money to the principle,
that is not what we're doing. Even when we talk
about Reaganomics, the time when taxes were cut, government spending
was curtailed in many areas, we grew the national debt.
(04:08):
We did not shrink it. Federal layoffs. We want the
bums kicked out, only ass kickers, real civil servants. Well.
DOGE is not picking and choosing and reading performance reviews
or resumes. DOZE is just laying broad squaths of people off.
It's cutting down their funding. It's making the remaining employees'
(04:31):
jobs impossible to complete by preventing them from driving to
public meetings with shareholders and stakeholders, which means we will
start to notice things all the lack of maintenance issues
that we've already talked about, trails, bathrooms, garbage removal, waste removal,
but also good science. Good science is being stifled right
(04:56):
now stuff that relates to climate change, to agriculture, agronomy, ecology, fisheries,
large mammals, small mammals. It's all on pause right now. Now.
You may be thinking, well, sure, but there were just
too many federal employees. By and large, the federal employee
numbers have remained fairly constant since the nineteen eighties, meaning
(05:19):
that relative to you and I, we have fewer federal
employees now than we did then. Per Cabita. Big question
as to where are those federal employees who and how
are they serving? Are they working on the stuff that
matters to us? That is a question. I'll tell you
right now that because these agencies are lean, and certainly
(05:42):
lean compared to the rest of the federal government, a
lot of our public lands, and I'm not talking the
front country stuff, but the back country stuff has been
operating on like a co op model for generations of
Americans who hit the back country. Due to a decrease
of field personnel and an increase in to maintain, we
have generations of backcountry users who clear, clean, and maintain
(06:04):
a lot of trail miles as an unrecognized and unofficial volunteer.
Big thank you to all of you. You'll have to
keep it up. Big thank you to all the moms
like mine who routinely pick up garbage both inside fire
rings and out at campsites, long trails, at trailheads. You
will have to keep it up. We will all have
(06:26):
to keep this type of behavior up and encourage this behavior,
and know you will not get a lot of thank yous.
The villainization of federal employees. Anyone who has worked their
ass off on a roofing crew or drywall or painting
or any job in the trades, or if you're a cop,
you should be able to relate to this. Bad apples
(06:47):
exist in any profession. But there's a hell of a
lot of people that are dedicated civil servants that manage
to bust your ass on our behalf, make a living,
and then take time to make make sure the family
learns to fish, hunt and camp. You pay your taxes
and make lives, the economy the GDP better. There is
(07:10):
an absolute toxic injustice rolling out right now in America.
We have dedicated, hardworking civil servants who chose to toil
and trudge in conditions most people would not to perform
jobs on our behalf without thanks and those folks are
in the crosshairs. I'm gonna stop my raft here. These
(07:34):
are things that you can choose to tell your elected officials.
If you're concerned about your public lands, and I think
you should be, you need to share that concern. You
can tell them a couple of good things you like,
but share your concerns. You can say, hey, I love
get rid of waste. I love whatever it is you love,
(07:54):
but man, you just hate seeing good members of your
community getting thrown to the curve with that waste. I'm
going to read a little exert of a letter that
I received that sums us up. From a dedicated civil servant,
you just got laid off. So when I hear things like, quote,
those are not real jobs, or that we federal workers
(08:18):
are a quote parasite class, how can I not resent
that when I receive my termination letters signed by a
beacrat in Washington, d C. Stating that I have quote
poor performance, that I no longer have qualifications that meet
the needs of the Park Service as determined by those
in DC, none of which is based on any actual
(08:39):
performance evaluation or with any input from my direct supervisor,
department head superintendent, or regional director. But on the whims
of dosee kids. We park employees are real workers doing
real jobs on behalf of the American people. We are
not a phantom quote parasite class us to be disposed
(09:01):
of and thrown away like garbage at the whim of
doge people who are far removed from our national parks
or are shared values in public lands and public service.
We are people with real families. We are proud of
our service. We are dedicated to working on behalf of
our great country in service to our fellow Americans. I
ask the public to please take that into consideration. Moving
(09:26):
on to the deer smuggling desk, Texas Game Wardens announced
last week that twenty two suspects have been charged with
twelve hundred violations related to illegal whitetail smuggling and black
market wildlife trade. The smuggling operation encompass three deer breeding facilities,
ten release sites, one deer management pen, and three illegal
(09:48):
unregistered facilities. The smugglers and illegal breeders are accused of
poaching wild deer to replace their own, falsifying mandatory CWD tests,
and transporting potential contagious deer across the state without the
proper paperwork. Those of you in states that don't allow
wild animals to be owned and treated like livestock might
be scratching your heads, so here's a quick primer. The
(10:11):
deer breeding industry in Texas generates revenue by breeding pen
raise deer for desirable traits like large antlers, and then
releasing those deer onto hunting ranches. Sometimes those ranches are
on the same property as the breeding facility, but sometimes
deer shipped back and forth across the state. Breeders are
tightly regulated to avoid moving deer that might spread chronic
(10:33):
wasting disease. They're required to conduct regular testing, report deer
mortalities and escapes, and ear tag deer. Most breeders follow
these rules, but the regulations cut into their profits, and
so some try to fly out those regulations. TPW did
not release the names of the suspects or the location
of the breeding facilities in this case, but a press
(10:53):
release published by the agency suggests a massive operation aimed
at selling and moving potentially CWE de positive deer across
the state. Some of the charges, for example, are for
transporting deer without valid anti mortem CWD tests. Other charges
stem from a failure to report dead deer within the
required seven day time period and illegally selling and purchasing
(11:16):
wild whitetailed deer. One charge even suggests that some of
the suspects hunted wild free ranging deer out of season
and submitted tissue samples from those deer in place of
captive deer. In other words, they've been accused of stealing
deer from the public and using those animals to avoid
being held accountable for the CWD and their pen raise facilities.
(11:38):
Other charges stem from replacing dead captive deer with live
wild deer within the breeding facility and releasing those wild
deer for hunting. They're also accused of trapping previously released
wild deer and re selling them. Those crimes should be
enough to rile up Texas whitetail hunters, but the real
penalties come from felony charges related to falsifying documents. The
(11:59):
suspects are accused of falsifying tissue samples, tag swapping between
breeder deer, and swapping tags between breeder deer and replacement
deer captured in the wild. These crimes carry a maximum
penalty of two years in the slammer and a ten
thousand dollars Fine. A Texas Parks and Wildlife representative told
us in an email that she could not release any
(12:20):
additional details due to the ongoing nature of the case.
That tells me more charges could be pending, and I
wouldn't be surprised if the FEDS get involved. As always,
we'll keep you in the loop as this case progresses.
Moving on to the legislative desk, a Kentucky state rep
(12:41):
is trying to avoid a situation like we just covered
in Texas. Representative Josh Bray introduced a bill that would
limit the transport of captive deer if a positive CWD
case is found within ten miles of a captive servant facility.
Would also restrict movement of deer outside counties that fall
within a thirty mile radius of CWD detection. Bray said
(13:02):
an email that he introduced the bill in response to
the first cases of CWD being discovered in wild and
captive herds in Kentucky. He believes restricting the movement of
deer in areas where CWD has been detected is a
common sense solution, but he says he's struggling to get
engagement from the outdoor community, the deer breeding industry, is
well funded and they've put significant resources behind lobbying against
(13:25):
this bill. But there are only about one hundred and
twenty breeding facilities in the state, which pales in comparison
to two hundred and seventy thousand deer tag holders. If
you live in Old Kentuck, check out House Bill seven hundred,
authored by Representative Bray. In Minnesota, legislators are mulling a
bill that would create a task force to study the
(13:47):
best ways to allow for sustainable foraging. The state Department
of Natural Resources has considered restrictions on foraging after agency
staff reported eighty to one hundred foragers descending on state
properties one day. While the DNR says they have no
problem with a reasonable amount of wild food harvesting, they
want to ensure the human foragers aren't taking all the
(14:08):
food from wild animals. But Big Forage is pushing back. Rep.
Isaac Schultz sponsored HF eight point nine, which would require
the DNAR to establish a Minnesota Sustainable Foraging Task Force
by September one, twenty twenty five. Its duties would include
gathering and reviewing data and existing regulations and developing recommendations,
(14:31):
educational materials, and a permitting model all jokes aside. Hunters
and anglers have to live within harvest limitations. It seems
like foragers should have to do the same if they're
putting the resource at risk, whether that involves bag limits, licenses,
or seasons. Launching a task force to advise the DNR
seems like they're reasonable first step. As per usual, it's
(14:52):
not about folks who are taken enough to feed themselves.
The magazine Mary Clare just published a story about how
Princess can Middleton, King Charles, and Queen Camilla all share
what they call an unusual interest. That interest turns out
to be foraging, which the magazine calls very on brand.
Minnesota game wardens may want to watch out for British
(15:15):
Royal fans rummaging around state parks. If they roll in
with a iHeart the Union Jack bumper sticker, keep a
close eye on him, bloody hewn. In the Golden State
of California, houndsmen are getting behind a bill that would
legalize hounding, the practice of chasing bears into trees with dogs,
but not actually killing the bear. Assembly Bill one zero
(15:37):
three eight was introduced by assembly Woman Heather Hadwick, who
says the state's growing black bear population is getting out
of control. Her bill would require the Fish and Wildlife
Commission to establish a season during which houndsman would be
allowed to pursue bears with dogs, as long as the
houndsman does not injure or kill the bear, or allow
the bear to be injured or killed. Hadwick says his
(15:59):
kind of hazing is necessary for rural communities struggling to
keep bears away from homes and livestock. Of course, animal
rights groups are none too happy with this bill, and
legacy media outlets aren't doing California hound hunters any favors.
Most reports I've seen focus on the shock and outrage
from animal rights groups and include images of cute, fuzzy
(16:20):
black bear cubs stuck up in trees. They characterize the
hazing process as cruel and confuse hounding with actual hunting.
Whether this confusion is accidental or intentional, you can decide.
The bill does permit the Commission to establish a bear
hunting season, but it does not require the Commission to
do so. In Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers is proposing significant
(16:44):
increases to hunting and fishing license fees. License fees haven't
increased since two thousand and five, and the governor argues
that the DNR needs the funds to continue operating. All
license fees would increase, including resident deer which would go
up from twenty two dollars to forty two dollars, small game,
which would increase from sixteen dollars to thirty five, and
(17:05):
resident fishing, which would jump from twenty to thirty Those
are big increases percentage wise, but not enough to keep
most hunters out of the field. However, listener James Nugent
points out that non resident licenses are increasing by a
far lower percentage, which might not sit well with Wisconsin hunters.
He also noticed that while the governor's budget includes sending
(17:27):
millions in additional funding to state parks, it doesn't say
anything about increasing entry fees. He would like to see
cost shared among all outdoor recreators, rather than asking hunters
and anglers to foot the bill by themselves. If you
live in Wisconsin and want a way in, contact your
state representatives and let them know what you think. Right now,
(17:47):
the governor's budget is just a proposal. It will need
the majority of both houses of the legislature to vote
for it before it becomes law. Moving on to the
national stage, a bipartisan group of representatives and senators has
introduced a bill that would triple funding for a program
designed to increase access to hunting and fishing. The Voluntary
(18:08):
Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program VPA or HIP give
state and tribal government's money, which is then doled out
to landowners to conserve wildlife, habitat and open up properties
for outdoor recreation. The program has been popular and successful,
but it's up for renewal this year. Sponsored in the
House and Senate by both Democrats and Republicans, the Voluntary
(18:31):
Public Access Improvement Act would renew VPA hip for the
next five years. Would also triple funding levels from fifty
million dollars to one hundred and fifty million, which would
allow even more landowners to participate. This program is a
win win for landowners, hunters and anglers, and the general public.
But your representatives need to hear from you. Every dollar
(18:52):
of federal spending is getting scrutinized these days, so it's
important that our elected officials here from the outdoor community
head on over to the Mediator Forward slash col for
a linked to the bill, as well as how to
get in touch with your United States representatives and senators.
This is a super positive one. Please do this. I'm
podcasting at you right now from Kansas. Had a phenomenal
(19:15):
meeting with Kansas BAH last night. Tons of people showed up.
It was incredible. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for
all of you guys and gals and kids who came out.
It was impressive night because we covered a lot of
heavy stuff and you stuck in there and you were engaged.
It was awesome. Darnear brought tears to my eyes. One
of the things we talked about was this bill and
(19:36):
why Kansas, because this is how your WIHA, your walk
in Hunting Access program is funded. You need this. Moving
on to the eggflation desk, if you've had the misfortune
of purchasing eggs recently, you won't be surprised to learn
that they're more expensive now than they have ever been.
(19:58):
And that's not an exaggeration. Acording to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, the average cost of a dozen eggs in
a major US city was four ninety five and in
January that exceeded the previous record set in January of
twenty twenty three of four to eighty two. Egg prices
dropped to about two dollars a dozen by August of
the year, but ever since then prices have been steadily rising.
(20:19):
Experts or experts zero point to one primary cause of
rising prices. Bird flu. The deadly disease has decimated egg
laying flocks in many states. The flu kills many of
the birds directly, but millions have been culled by farmers
to keep the disease from spreading even further. The demand
for eggs is pretty stable, but as the supply goes down,
prices go up. Grocery stores have also been keeping prices
(20:41):
high to avoid having customers worry about empty shelves. This
isn't the first time we've dealt with bird flu in
this country, but as we've covered previously on this podcast,
this strain is different. This version of the flu infects
wild birds as well as domestic poultry. That gives the
flu a place to spread even when egg farmers call
their flocks. It also allows the disease to spread to
(21:02):
new areas and makes it almost impossible to contain. For example,
listener Harry Wainwright, who's from Bedford Falls. Yeah, I didn't
know Bedford Falls was in Indiana. Everybody knows a wonderful life,
heehaw and Merry Christmas anyway, Harry Wainwright writes in bird
(21:23):
flu is killed over fifteen hundred sand hill cranes statewide.
The Department of Natural Resources say they usually receive reports
of a handful of crans dying of the flu, but
this is the first time the virus has hit crans
this heart. In Fish Lake and Laporte County, dozens of
cranes have washed up on the shore and the DNR
doesn't have the capacity to collect them all. That's a
(21:44):
problem because those dead birds can still spread the infection
of other waterfowl that land on the lake. Those birds
will then transmit the disease to the other wild birds,
which might then poop over a chicken farm. Next thing
you know, you're paying six bucks for carton of eggs.
The good news is that, as per usual, everyday Americans
are doing what they can to help and Laporte County,
(22:04):
one resident has taken matters into his own hands. Sean
Leon is organizing volunteers to collect the dead birds, and
he's picked up around thirty cranes from fish Lakes so far.
If you get the opportunity to follow Shawn's lead. Just
make sure you're wearing a face mask and disposable gloves.
Double baged birds and dispose of them according to your
local regulations. Also, don't forget to disinfect any equipment. Humans
(22:27):
are at low risk of catching the virus, but you
know it does happen. You don't want your good deed
turned into ground zero for the next one. Moving on
to the wolf desk, the artificial reintroduction of wolves to
Colorado may end the same way it started, with a
vote by the people. Katie Hill reports over at the
meat Eater dot Com that a new ballot initiative has
(22:49):
been proposed that with sunset Colorado's wolf reintroduction. That initiative
cleared an important hurdle last week when the Secretary of
State's title Board gave its approval the measure what it's
simply sunset the state's reintroduction efforts on December thirty one,
twenty twenty six. It wouldn't make any other adjustments to
the law or affect the ability of wildlife officials to
(23:10):
manage the wolves that currently live in Colorado. It also
wouldn't impact the funds that are available to reimburse landowners
for wolf depredation would simply require Colorado Parks and Wildlife
to end its reintroduction efforts by the end of next year. Currently,
law does not specify when the reintroduction program will end.
(23:31):
It estimates how many wolves will be imported into the
state each year to achieve a self sustaining population, but
that process could last for many years if the wolves
fail to thrive. Ending the reintroduction next year would cap
the number of imported wolves around fifty individuals, which actually
isn't too far off the stated goal, but advocates say
(23:51):
they want a guarantee that the importation will end on
a specific date rather than the more subjective metric of
a self sustaining popular The measure isn't on the ballot yet.
It's been approved by the Secretary of State, but it
still needs to gather over one hundred and twenty four
thousand signatures to qualify for a vote. Once it's on
the ballot, it would need support from a majority of
(24:13):
Colorado voters in the twenty twenty six election. That's tall task,
but advocates say they've tapped into the infrastructure of donors
and volunteers that help defeat the Mountain Lion Hunting Band.
They're hoping even urban Coloradoans have tired of the wolf
controversy and can be convinced to let nature take its
course and allow wolves to migrate south on their own.
(24:35):
Moving on to the mail bag gang, it's easy to
feel a little depressed right now. We're paying attention to
conservation news in our public lands. But that's why I
was so pleased to read an email from a listener
in Kentucky. BHA District Director Derek Toles. Derek wrote in
to tell me that not only are Bluegrass State BCHA
(24:56):
members fighting the good fight in the legislature, but they're
also getting their boots dirty on local conservation projects. Here's
what he said, Kentucky BHA is hard at it. Last weekend,
eleven of us from BHA helped the Kentucky Department of
Fish and Wildlife Resources plant approximately seven acres of native
grasses and forbes on the Taylorsville Lake WMA. We seated
(25:16):
several different areas somewhere along a fire line and some
were in open areas. The areas we seated in the
fire line are hopefully going to help benefit the future
development of oak savannahs on the WMA and the open
areas we seeded will be used to create excellent insect, songbird,
small game, and turkey habitat. This was the first of
(25:37):
hopefully many projects we'll be doing out there. I just
wanted to write and let you know about some of
the great work we're doing here in Kentucky. Thanks for
the update, Derek, and I know you're not alone. Thousands
of dedicated outdoorsmen and women work every day to make
our public lands just a little better than when they
left them. You don't read about these folks on the
nightly news, and they aren't holding press conferences in DC.
(25:58):
But they're a big part of what makes their country awesome,
and they're not going anywhere. I don't know about you,
but that's reason enough for me to keep pressing on
to help make sure their hard work doesn't go to waste.
Uh oh, late breaking news as in I forgot to
mention this during the legislative news. HB three oh seven
(26:19):
in the Great State of Montana is an attempt to
steal vitally important. I say vitally because federal funding is
a giant question mark and on pause, this is state
funded habitat money that once again folks are trying to steal,
all right. Habitat Montana is a fund that was set
(26:42):
up to be funded through the tax associated with the
sale of recreational marijuana in the state of Montana. The
voters of Montana allowed recreational marijuana to be sold in
the state as long as those taxes went to funding
the Habitat for Montana fund, which provides access improvements maintenance
(27:05):
for state parks, state access sites, recreation in the state
of Montana. It's an awesome thing. We voted for it,
we want it, and unless you act on HB three
oh seven and ask your state representative to vote, know
that funding is going to be taken for something else.
(27:26):
And the whatever else literally does not matter because the
State of Montana is running a billion dollar surplus money
coming out of our ears that can go to those
other programs. This is our habitat money. We need it
now more than ever, so please take action on HB
three oh seven in the state of Montana. That's all
(27:48):
I got for you this week. Thank you so much
for listening, and remember to write in to ask c
al that's Ascal at the meateater dot com. Let me
know what's going on in your neck of the woods.
You know, I appreciate it. Thanks again and I'll talk
to you next week. M
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Klahan. Here's
cal a Washington State man made headlines last week after
he tried to steal an eighty foot commercial fishing boat
with the crew still aboard. But he didn't take the
crew hostage or make off with the boat in the
(00:32):
dead of night. Oh no, this fellow was too smart
for that. Instead, he pretended to be the boat's captain.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife police reports that
the man woke the sleeping crew and ordered them to
get under way. He was apparently pretty convincing, because the
crew did exactly as he said. They told police later
that they assumed the Charlatan skipper was an alternative operator
(00:56):
or someone sent by the real captain. They were also
a new crew to the boat, which added to the confusion.
Jack Sparrow had something else going for him. He actually
knew how to start the boat's engines and navigate the
vessel into Gray's Harbor off the coast of Westport, Washington.
He was about to cross into open ocean when he
made his first big mistake. He began laying out his
(01:17):
plans for the ship, and they didn't seem to involve fishing.
According to Washington Fish and Wildlife quote, the subject driving
the boat was talking about meeting the Chinese mothership and
was not making sense. He certainly was not describing fishing activity.
The gig was up and the imposter captain, who has
not been identified, agreed to return to port. He was
(01:39):
arrested and charged with theft, possession of stolen property, vehicle prowl,
and unlawful manufacture or possession of marijuana. He was found
with four thousand dollars in cash and a large quantity
of individually weighed and packaged weed. Incredibly, further investigation revealed
that this wasn't the first time this fella had tried
(01:59):
the same stunt. Earlier that same morning, he attempted to
commandeer another fishing vessel, but that crew, being a little
more with it than the other, identified him as an
impostor and ran him off the boat. They didn't tell
police until they heard about the more successful venture later
that day. Say what you will, but this fella's got
(02:19):
Gumpshen kids, you are, without doubt the worst part I've
ever heard of. But you have heard of it this week,
we've got Texas high offense, Shenan against bird flu, Colorado Wolves,
listener mail, and so much more. But first I'm going
to tell you about my week and my week well, yeah,
you know, it's interesting times out there, Gang. I'm getting
(02:42):
a ton of request to weigh in on our federal
situation as it pertains to the important stuff we like,
like hunting, fishing, access, public lands, public wildlife. So at
the risk of whatever I say right now being dated
and out of touch by the time you hear this
on Monday or later, I'm going to give you my
best rundown of the situation as I see it. This
(03:03):
is an apolitical view, believe it or not. I do
not care who you voted for. I just care that
you love your hunting, fishing, and public lands enough to
stand up and defend those things. First, we all can
agree that we want our money. I'm speaking of taxes
spent in the most effective way possible, that's no waste,
(03:24):
maximum efficiency, and spent on what matters to us taxpayers
the most. That being said here is the state of
public lands. From my point of view, the debt conversations
as it relates to Doge and federal agencies that manage
public lands. We are not reducing the national debt. Anyone
who knows how a loan works is capable of understanding this.
(03:47):
Credit card debt, student loans, mortgage. Those things do not
get smaller if you save any amount of money. They
only get smaller if you apply more money to the principle,
that is not what we're doing. Even when we talk
about Reaganomics, the time when taxes were cut, government spending
was curtailed in many areas, we grew the national debt.
(04:08):
We did not shrink it. Federal layoffs. We want the
bums kicked out, only ass kickers, real civil servants. Well.
DOGE is not picking and choosing and reading performance reviews
or resumes. DOZE is just laying broad squaths of people off.
It's cutting down their funding. It's making the remaining employees'
(04:31):
jobs impossible to complete by preventing them from driving to
public meetings with shareholders and stakeholders, which means we will
start to notice things all the lack of maintenance issues
that we've already talked about, trails, bathrooms, garbage removal, waste removal,
but also good science. Good science is being stifled right
(04:56):
now stuff that relates to climate change, to agriculture, agronomy, ecology, fisheries,
large mammals, small mammals. It's all on pause right now. Now.
You may be thinking, well, sure, but there were just
too many federal employees. By and large, the federal employee
numbers have remained fairly constant since the nineteen eighties, meaning
(05:19):
that relative to you and I, we have fewer federal
employees now than we did then. Per Cabita. Big question
as to where are those federal employees who and how
are they serving? Are they working on the stuff that
matters to us? That is a question. I'll tell you
right now that because these agencies are lean, and certainly
(05:42):
lean compared to the rest of the federal government, a
lot of our public lands, and I'm not talking the
front country stuff, but the back country stuff has been
operating on like a co op model for generations of
Americans who hit the back country. Due to a decrease
of field personnel and an increase in to maintain, we
have generations of backcountry users who clear, clean, and maintain
(06:04):
a lot of trail miles as an unrecognized and unofficial volunteer.
Big thank you to all of you. You'll have to
keep it up. Big thank you to all the moms
like mine who routinely pick up garbage both inside fire
rings and out at campsites, long trails, at trailheads. You
will have to keep it up. We will all have
(06:26):
to keep this type of behavior up and encourage this behavior,
and know you will not get a lot of thank yous.
The villainization of federal employees. Anyone who has worked their
ass off on a roofing crew or drywall or painting
or any job in the trades, or if you're a cop,
you should be able to relate to this. Bad apples
(06:47):
exist in any profession. But there's a hell of a
lot of people that are dedicated civil servants that manage
to bust your ass on our behalf, make a living,
and then take time to make make sure the family
learns to fish, hunt and camp. You pay your taxes
and make lives, the economy the GDP better. There is
(07:10):
an absolute toxic injustice rolling out right now in America.
We have dedicated, hardworking civil servants who chose to toil
and trudge in conditions most people would not to perform
jobs on our behalf without thanks and those folks are
in the crosshairs. I'm gonna stop my raft here. These
(07:34):
are things that you can choose to tell your elected officials.
If you're concerned about your public lands, and I think
you should be, you need to share that concern. You
can tell them a couple of good things you like,
but share your concerns. You can say, hey, I love
get rid of waste. I love whatever it is you love,
(07:54):
but man, you just hate seeing good members of your
community getting thrown to the curve with that waste. I'm
going to read a little exert of a letter that
I received that sums us up. From a dedicated civil servant,
you just got laid off. So when I hear things like, quote,
those are not real jobs, or that we federal workers
(08:18):
are a quote parasite class, how can I not resent
that when I receive my termination letters signed by a
beacrat in Washington, d C. Stating that I have quote
poor performance, that I no longer have qualifications that meet
the needs of the Park Service as determined by those
in DC, none of which is based on any actual
(08:39):
performance evaluation or with any input from my direct supervisor,
department head superintendent, or regional director. But on the whims
of dosee kids. We park employees are real workers doing
real jobs on behalf of the American people. We are
not a phantom quote parasite class us to be disposed
(09:01):
of and thrown away like garbage at the whim of
doge people who are far removed from our national parks
or are shared values in public lands and public service.
We are people with real families. We are proud of
our service. We are dedicated to working on behalf of
our great country in service to our fellow Americans. I
ask the public to please take that into consideration. Moving
(09:26):
on to the deer smuggling desk, Texas Game Wardens announced
last week that twenty two suspects have been charged with
twelve hundred violations related to illegal whitetail smuggling and black
market wildlife trade. The smuggling operation encompass three deer breeding facilities,
ten release sites, one deer management pen, and three illegal
(09:48):
unregistered facilities. The smugglers and illegal breeders are accused of
poaching wild deer to replace their own, falsifying mandatory CWD tests,
and transporting potential contagious deer across the state without the
proper paperwork. Those of you in states that don't allow
wild animals to be owned and treated like livestock might
be scratching your heads, so here's a quick primer. The
(10:11):
deer breeding industry in Texas generates revenue by breeding pen
raise deer for desirable traits like large antlers, and then
releasing those deer onto hunting ranches. Sometimes those ranches are
on the same property as the breeding facility, but sometimes
deer shipped back and forth across the state. Breeders are
tightly regulated to avoid moving deer that might spread chronic
(10:33):
wasting disease. They're required to conduct regular testing, report deer
mortalities and escapes, and ear tag deer. Most breeders follow
these rules, but the regulations cut into their profits, and
so some try to fly out those regulations. TPW did
not release the names of the suspects or the location
of the breeding facilities in this case, but a press
(10:53):
release published by the agency suggests a massive operation aimed
at selling and moving potentially CWE de positive deer across
the state. Some of the charges, for example, are for
transporting deer without valid anti mortem CWD tests. Other charges
stem from a failure to report dead deer within the
required seven day time period and illegally selling and purchasing
(11:16):
wild whitetailed deer. One charge even suggests that some of
the suspects hunted wild free ranging deer out of season
and submitted tissue samples from those deer in place of
captive deer. In other words, they've been accused of stealing
deer from the public and using those animals to avoid
being held accountable for the CWD and their pen raise facilities.
(11:38):
Other charges stem from replacing dead captive deer with live
wild deer within the breeding facility and releasing those wild
deer for hunting. They're also accused of trapping previously released
wild deer and re selling them. Those crimes should be
enough to rile up Texas whitetail hunters, but the real
penalties come from felony charges related to falsifying documents. The
(11:59):
suspects are accused of falsifying tissue samples, tag swapping between
breeder deer, and swapping tags between breeder deer and replacement
deer captured in the wild. These crimes carry a maximum
penalty of two years in the slammer and a ten
thousand dollars Fine. A Texas Parks and Wildlife representative told
us in an email that she could not release any
(12:20):
additional details due to the ongoing nature of the case.
That tells me more charges could be pending, and I
wouldn't be surprised if the FEDS get involved. As always,
we'll keep you in the loop as this case progresses.
Moving on to the legislative desk, a Kentucky state rep
(12:41):
is trying to avoid a situation like we just covered
in Texas. Representative Josh Bray introduced a bill that would
limit the transport of captive deer if a positive CWD
case is found within ten miles of a captive servant facility.
Would also restrict movement of deer outside counties that fall
within a thirty mile radius of CWD detection. Bray said
(13:02):
an email that he introduced the bill in response to
the first cases of CWD being discovered in wild and
captive herds in Kentucky. He believes restricting the movement of
deer in areas where CWD has been detected is a
common sense solution, but he says he's struggling to get
engagement from the outdoor community, the deer breeding industry, is
well funded and they've put significant resources behind lobbying against
(13:25):
this bill. But there are only about one hundred and
twenty breeding facilities in the state, which pales in comparison
to two hundred and seventy thousand deer tag holders. If
you live in Old Kentuck, check out House Bill seven hundred,
authored by Representative Bray. In Minnesota, legislators are mulling a
bill that would create a task force to study the
(13:47):
best ways to allow for sustainable foraging. The state Department
of Natural Resources has considered restrictions on foraging after agency
staff reported eighty to one hundred foragers descending on state
properties one day. While the DNR says they have no
problem with a reasonable amount of wild food harvesting, they
want to ensure the human foragers aren't taking all the
(14:08):
food from wild animals. But Big Forage is pushing back. Rep.
Isaac Schultz sponsored HF eight point nine, which would require
the DNAR to establish a Minnesota Sustainable Foraging Task Force
by September one, twenty twenty five. Its duties would include
gathering and reviewing data and existing regulations and developing recommendations,
(14:31):
educational materials, and a permitting model all jokes aside. Hunters
and anglers have to live within harvest limitations. It seems
like foragers should have to do the same if they're
putting the resource at risk, whether that involves bag limits, licenses,
or seasons. Launching a task force to advise the DNR
seems like they're reasonable first step. As per usual, it's
(14:52):
not about folks who are taken enough to feed themselves.
The magazine Mary Clare just published a story about how
Princess can Middleton, King Charles, and Queen Camilla all share
what they call an unusual interest. That interest turns out
to be foraging, which the magazine calls very on brand.
Minnesota game wardens may want to watch out for British
(15:15):
Royal fans rummaging around state parks. If they roll in
with a iHeart the Union Jack bumper sticker, keep a
close eye on him, bloody hewn. In the Golden State
of California, houndsmen are getting behind a bill that would
legalize hounding, the practice of chasing bears into trees with dogs,
but not actually killing the bear. Assembly Bill one zero
(15:37):
three eight was introduced by assembly Woman Heather Hadwick, who
says the state's growing black bear population is getting out
of control. Her bill would require the Fish and Wildlife
Commission to establish a season during which houndsman would be
allowed to pursue bears with dogs, as long as the
houndsman does not injure or kill the bear, or allow
the bear to be injured or killed. Hadwick says his
(15:59):
kind of hazing is necessary for rural communities struggling to
keep bears away from homes and livestock. Of course, animal
rights groups are none too happy with this bill, and
legacy media outlets aren't doing California hound hunters any favors.
Most reports I've seen focus on the shock and outrage
from animal rights groups and include images of cute, fuzzy
(16:20):
black bear cubs stuck up in trees. They characterize the
hazing process as cruel and confuse hounding with actual hunting.
Whether this confusion is accidental or intentional, you can decide.
The bill does permit the Commission to establish a bear
hunting season, but it does not require the Commission to
do so. In Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers is proposing significant
(16:44):
increases to hunting and fishing license fees. License fees haven't
increased since two thousand and five, and the governor argues
that the DNR needs the funds to continue operating. All
license fees would increase, including resident deer which would go
up from twenty two dollars to forty two dollars, small game,
which would increase from sixteen dollars to thirty five, and
(17:05):
resident fishing, which would jump from twenty to thirty Those
are big increases percentage wise, but not enough to keep
most hunters out of the field. However, listener James Nugent
points out that non resident licenses are increasing by a
far lower percentage, which might not sit well with Wisconsin hunters.
He also noticed that while the governor's budget includes sending
(17:27):
millions in additional funding to state parks, it doesn't say
anything about increasing entry fees. He would like to see
cost shared among all outdoor recreators, rather than asking hunters
and anglers to foot the bill by themselves. If you
live in Wisconsin and want a way in, contact your
state representatives and let them know what you think. Right now,
(17:47):
the governor's budget is just a proposal. It will need
the majority of both houses of the legislature to vote
for it before it becomes law. Moving on to the
national stage, a bipartisan group of representatives and senators has
introduced a bill that would triple funding for a program
designed to increase access to hunting and fishing. The Voluntary
(18:08):
Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program VPA or HIP give
state and tribal government's money, which is then doled out
to landowners to conserve wildlife, habitat and open up properties
for outdoor recreation. The program has been popular and successful,
but it's up for renewal this year. Sponsored in the
House and Senate by both Democrats and Republicans, the Voluntary
(18:31):
Public Access Improvement Act would renew VPA hip for the
next five years. Would also triple funding levels from fifty
million dollars to one hundred and fifty million, which would
allow even more landowners to participate. This program is a
win win for landowners, hunters and anglers, and the general public.
But your representatives need to hear from you. Every dollar
(18:52):
of federal spending is getting scrutinized these days, so it's
important that our elected officials here from the outdoor community
head on over to the Mediator Forward slash col for
a linked to the bill, as well as how to
get in touch with your United States representatives and senators.
This is a super positive one. Please do this. I'm
podcasting at you right now from Kansas. Had a phenomenal
(19:15):
meeting with Kansas BAH last night. Tons of people showed up.
It was incredible. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for
all of you guys and gals and kids who came out.
It was impressive night because we covered a lot of
heavy stuff and you stuck in there and you were engaged.
It was awesome. Darnear brought tears to my eyes. One
of the things we talked about was this bill and
(19:36):
why Kansas, because this is how your WIHA, your walk
in Hunting Access program is funded. You need this. Moving
on to the eggflation desk, if you've had the misfortune
of purchasing eggs recently, you won't be surprised to learn
that they're more expensive now than they have ever been.
(19:58):
And that's not an exaggeration. Acording to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, the average cost of a dozen eggs in
a major US city was four ninety five and in
January that exceeded the previous record set in January of
twenty twenty three of four to eighty two. Egg prices
dropped to about two dollars a dozen by August of
the year, but ever since then prices have been steadily rising.
(20:19):
Experts or experts zero point to one primary cause of
rising prices. Bird flu. The deadly disease has decimated egg
laying flocks in many states. The flu kills many of
the birds directly, but millions have been culled by farmers
to keep the disease from spreading even further. The demand
for eggs is pretty stable, but as the supply goes down,
prices go up. Grocery stores have also been keeping prices
(20:41):
high to avoid having customers worry about empty shelves. This
isn't the first time we've dealt with bird flu in
this country, but as we've covered previously on this podcast,
this strain is different. This version of the flu infects
wild birds as well as domestic poultry. That gives the
flu a place to spread even when egg farmers call
their flocks. It also allows the disease to spread to
(21:02):
new areas and makes it almost impossible to contain. For example,
listener Harry Wainwright, who's from Bedford Falls. Yeah, I didn't
know Bedford Falls was in Indiana. Everybody knows a wonderful life,
heehaw and Merry Christmas anyway, Harry Wainwright writes in bird
(21:23):
flu is killed over fifteen hundred sand hill cranes statewide.
The Department of Natural Resources say they usually receive reports
of a handful of crans dying of the flu, but
this is the first time the virus has hit crans
this heart. In Fish Lake and Laporte County, dozens of
cranes have washed up on the shore and the DNR
doesn't have the capacity to collect them all. That's a
(21:44):
problem because those dead birds can still spread the infection
of other waterfowl that land on the lake. Those birds
will then transmit the disease to the other wild birds,
which might then poop over a chicken farm. Next thing
you know, you're paying six bucks for carton of eggs.
The good news is that, as per usual, everyday Americans
are doing what they can to help and Laporte County,
(22:04):
one resident has taken matters into his own hands. Sean
Leon is organizing volunteers to collect the dead birds, and
he's picked up around thirty cranes from fish Lakes so far.
If you get the opportunity to follow Shawn's lead. Just
make sure you're wearing a face mask and disposable gloves.
Double baged birds and dispose of them according to your
local regulations. Also, don't forget to disinfect any equipment. Humans
(22:27):
are at low risk of catching the virus, but you
know it does happen. You don't want your good deed
turned into ground zero for the next one. Moving on
to the wolf desk, the artificial reintroduction of wolves to
Colorado may end the same way it started, with a
vote by the people. Katie Hill reports over at the
meat Eater dot Com that a new ballot initiative has
(22:49):
been proposed that with sunset Colorado's wolf reintroduction. That initiative
cleared an important hurdle last week when the Secretary of
State's title Board gave its approval the measure what it's
simply sunset the state's reintroduction efforts on December thirty one,
twenty twenty six. It wouldn't make any other adjustments to
the law or affect the ability of wildlife officials to
(23:10):
manage the wolves that currently live in Colorado. It also
wouldn't impact the funds that are available to reimburse landowners
for wolf depredation would simply require Colorado Parks and Wildlife
to end its reintroduction efforts by the end of next year. Currently,
law does not specify when the reintroduction program will end.
(23:31):
It estimates how many wolves will be imported into the
state each year to achieve a self sustaining population, but
that process could last for many years if the wolves
fail to thrive. Ending the reintroduction next year would cap
the number of imported wolves around fifty individuals, which actually
isn't too far off the stated goal, but advocates say
(23:51):
they want a guarantee that the importation will end on
a specific date rather than the more subjective metric of
a self sustaining popular The measure isn't on the ballot yet.
It's been approved by the Secretary of State, but it
still needs to gather over one hundred and twenty four
thousand signatures to qualify for a vote. Once it's on
the ballot, it would need support from a majority of
(24:13):
Colorado voters in the twenty twenty six election. That's tall task,
but advocates say they've tapped into the infrastructure of donors
and volunteers that help defeat the Mountain Lion Hunting Band.
They're hoping even urban Coloradoans have tired of the wolf
controversy and can be convinced to let nature take its
course and allow wolves to migrate south on their own.
(24:35):
Moving on to the mail bag gang, it's easy to
feel a little depressed right now. We're paying attention to
conservation news in our public lands. But that's why I
was so pleased to read an email from a listener
in Kentucky. BHA District Director Derek Toles. Derek wrote in
to tell me that not only are Bluegrass State BCHA
(24:56):
members fighting the good fight in the legislature, but they're
also getting their boots dirty on local conservation projects. Here's
what he said, Kentucky BHA is hard at it. Last weekend,
eleven of us from BHA helped the Kentucky Department of
Fish and Wildlife Resources plant approximately seven acres of native
grasses and forbes on the Taylorsville Lake WMA. We seated
(25:16):
several different areas somewhere along a fire line and some
were in open areas. The areas we seated in the
fire line are hopefully going to help benefit the future
development of oak savannahs on the WMA and the open
areas we seeded will be used to create excellent insect, songbird,
small game, and turkey habitat. This was the first of
(25:37):
hopefully many projects we'll be doing out there. I just
wanted to write and let you know about some of
the great work we're doing here in Kentucky. Thanks for
the update, Derek, and I know you're not alone. Thousands
of dedicated outdoorsmen and women work every day to make
our public lands just a little better than when they
left them. You don't read about these folks on the
nightly news, and they aren't holding press conferences in DC.
(25:58):
But they're a big part of what makes their country awesome,
and they're not going anywhere. I don't know about you,
but that's reason enough for me to keep pressing on
to help make sure their hard work doesn't go to waste.
Uh oh, late breaking news as in I forgot to
mention this during the legislative news. HB three oh seven
(26:19):
in the Great State of Montana is an attempt to
steal vitally important. I say vitally because federal funding is
a giant question mark and on pause, this is state
funded habitat money that once again folks are trying to steal,
all right. Habitat Montana is a fund that was set
(26:42):
up to be funded through the tax associated with the
sale of recreational marijuana in the state of Montana. The
voters of Montana allowed recreational marijuana to be sold in
the state as long as those taxes went to funding
the Habitat for Montana fund, which provides access improvements maintenance
(27:05):
for state parks, state access sites, recreation in the state
of Montana. It's an awesome thing. We voted for it,
we want it, and unless you act on HB three
oh seven and ask your state representative to vote, know
that funding is going to be taken for something else.
(27:26):
And the whatever else literally does not matter because the
State of Montana is running a billion dollar surplus money
coming out of our ears that can go to those
other programs. This is our habitat money. We need it
now more than ever, so please take action on HB
three oh seven in the state of Montana. That's all
(27:48):
I got for you this week. Thank you so much
for listening, and remember to write in to ask c
al that's Ascal at the meateater dot com. Let me
know what's going on in your neck of the woods.
You know, I appreciate it. Thanks again and I'll talk
to you next week. M
Host
Cal Callaghan
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