April 14, 2025 • 22 mins
This week Cal talks about fishing confrontations, legislation, public lands, and executive orders.
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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 Col's Week in Review with Ryan cow Kalahan. Here's
cal A poop chucker is on the Loosened Summit County, Colorado.
According to the local sheriff's office, a woman called to
report that a mysterious man has been thrown bags of
poop on her lawn and driveway for the past month.
(00:33):
The feces in question appears to be from a dog,
and the woman said she suspects that one of her
neighbors is the culprit. She even had video footage of
the suspect in the act, but when deputies contacted that
alleged suspect, they determined that he does not match the
appearance of the person in the video. They also spoke
to several neighbors who said that the supposed victim often
(00:54):
fails to pick up after her dog. They suspect that
an unknow own neighbor is on a quote crusade against
those who don't do their duty after their dog does theirs.
There are two sides to every story. Is the poop
chucker a no good hooligan or a righteous avenger bent
on the cause of justice? And a feces free sidewalk.
(01:19):
Only time will tell. Thanks Cale Patterson for sending in
that one. We had another one in first place for
the intro this week, but we went with number two instead.
This week we've got the FEDS, the State Crime Desk,
and so much more. But first I'm going to tell
(01:40):
you about my week. And my week well you know,
I still haven't got my taxes done, and pile of
other boring adult stuff tempts are heating up, the green
grass is starting to poke through, and I might just
possibly have a Montana turkey under my belt by the
time you are listening to this opening week is the
fifteenth here that, my friends, I am looking forward to
(02:03):
more than you know. I need some outside time. The
news cycle is shockingly fast. I have just not done
the necessary digging into the most recent of recent secretarial orders.
But if I don't include something now, it'll be too
late by the time we record the next one, specifically
talking about all that's wrapped up in zero based regulatory
(02:27):
budgeting to unleash American energy, which according to the summary,
would require not all, but a hell of a lot
of our environmental regulations to sunset, which is the government
term to end stop cease by September and then be
rewritten and updated. Those updates would have to have their
own sunset date of five years in the President's words,
(02:51):
because they were written in the seventies. Hard to say here, kids,
but I personally would love to see some updates in
a lot of regulatory areas, such as how much you
get fined for driving motorized vehicles into a wilderness area,
for instance. But this list includes such hits as, but
not limited to, the Eagle Protection Act, the Migratory Bird
(03:12):
Treaty Act of nineteen eighteen, the Fish and Wildlife Coordination
Act of nineteen thirty four, the Anadromous Fish Conservation Act
of nineteen sixty five, the Marine Mammal Protection Act of
nineteen seventy two, the Endangered Species Act of nineteen seventy three,
the Magnus and Stephens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of
nineteen seventy six, and the Coastal Barrier Resources Act of
(03:33):
nineteen eighty two. I believe the Mining Act of eighteen
seventy two, which I've referenced here on this show many
many times, is also in there. Bunch in here, Okay,
The good faith. Part of my brain says that this
could be a great way of updating and eliminating redundancies
and just a ton of referencing and reading, and the
(03:54):
things that don't need updates will actually just remain. You
got to keep in mind like the Migratory Bird Treaty
Act nineteen eighteen has you know, over one hundred years
of amendments in there too, So it started simple and
got bigger. Ideally, what's going to happen is that will
be refined down to what's happening right now and will
(04:17):
be better off for it. However, the skeptic in me says,
this incredible undertaking could just cause enough of a cluster
fluffel that a bunch of unregulated development and sensitive areas
could take place. As we've talked about like the Miny
Act of eighteen seventy two. We get five dollars a
surface acre for a mine, and that five dollars goes
(04:40):
into the treasury. But is that all that surface disturbance
is worth to us, the American people. Right on top
of that, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced that
due to dose budget cuts, they may not have the
ability to perform the annual Migratory Bird Survey, which is
not only the world's longest running migratory bird population study,
(05:04):
but also what we hunters depend on to set our
regulations in a sustainable manner. Oh my science, you might
be saying, it's been a heck of a day. So please,
from the up top of the week in review, be engaged,
keep your elected officials on speed dial and make sure
they know what you hold Dear. As usual, you can
(05:26):
tell them thank you for this, and please don't do that.
That's your job. Election day is just the start of
a four quarter game. I appreciate you. I do have
a couple of awesome updates for those of you who
followed the North Carolina access issue, where a bunch of
folks wanted to make it illegal to launch personal water
(05:48):
crafts such as kayaks and canoes off the shoulder of
the road the right of ways into public water from
a public road. That got gunned down. So that's a
big win for access over there in the tire heel state.
And then a recent bill in Arkansas bit the dust.
Had that bill gone through, who would have opened up
the Buffalo River for potential industrial farm waste pollution. So
(06:13):
a couple of big wins. And I know a ton
of people wrote into the show for both of those issues.
And I know you got a bunch of folks engaged
to get a hold of the year elected officials and
stop that stuff. So great job North Carolina and Arkansas.
And I know North Carolina and Arkansas backcountry hunters and
anglers were heavily involved in both of those and you're
(06:37):
burning down the phone line, so great job, great job.
Moving on to the DC desk. Last week, the US
Senate voted down an amendment that would have blocked a
proposal to sell public land to build affordable housing. You
may have seen headlines about this, but the whole story
is a little confusing, so stick with me. A few
weeks ago, some Republican senators floated the idea of selling
(07:00):
the land and using those funds to reduce the national deficit.
This isn't a new idea, but they wanted to include
it in this year's budget bill. That's a big deal.
Thanks to some complicated congressional rules I'm not going to
explain here, mostly because I don't quite understand them, the
Senate only needs a simple majority to pass its budget.
Most legislation requires at least sixty votes in the Senate
(07:21):
to overcome a filibuster, but budgetary matters can be passed
by a simple majority using a process called reconciliation. That's
why people were taking this public lands proposal seriously. Republicans
actually have enough votes to pass it if they include
it in the budget bill. That's why a group of
senators proposed an amendment to the budget resolution that would
(07:42):
have prevented the proceeds from public land sales from being
used to reduce the deficit. It was a simple amendment,
but it would have stopped Congress from prioritizing public land sales. Unfortunately,
that amendment did not pass. Two Republican centers, Montana's Danes
and she He voted in favor of it, Thank you
very much, Danes and Shihi, but all other Republicans voted
(08:04):
against it. One Democrat didn't vote, so the amendment failed
fifty one to forty eight. I've seen headlines claiming that
Republicans just made it easier for the federal government to
sell public land. That's not true. As of this recording,
Congress hasn't approved the final version of the budget resolution,
since both the House and Senate need to agree before
anything is set in stone, and even if they agree,
(08:26):
they'll still need to pass the actual spending bills. We
don't know yet whether public land will be on the
chopping block to reduce the deficit and offset tax cuts.
So it's still worth sending a message to your senators
and representative. But that thing that I mentioned today, the
executive orders that also sunsets FLIPMA as we know it,
which is the Federal Lands Policy Management Act, the mechanism
(08:50):
to sell public land as provided for the BLM. Taken
all together, this is not a good sign. Not all
Republicans want to sell off federal land, but clearly a
majority of them are fine with it. There's also Democrats
who hear the word affordable housing and they lose their
minds with joy, without actually understanding that there's a hell
(09:15):
of a lot of work that's got to get done
in order to ensure affordable housing is actually built on
the public lands that these folks want to sell. And
I don't hear anybody doing that work because it's hard. Now.
The budget did pass today and no words of public
land sales being included. But will keep you posted because
(09:38):
you know, if I'm being Frank, it's just hard to
keep up. Moving on to the crime desk, a Florida
woman was arrested last week after she brandished a pellet
rifle at two teens who were fishing, as she said,
in her backyard. Fifty nine year old Donna Elkins threatened
to quote blow the heads off the thirteen and fifteen
(09:59):
year old boy who were fishing. I mean, listen, we're
talking about fishing, not a gang, not a gang, not
a gang, We're talking about fishing. Elkins stormed out of
her home, pellet rifle in hand, and forced the boys
to lay on the ground for about five minutes. Her
husband finally disarmed her, but when police arrived, they concluded
(10:19):
that the boys were not on Elkins's property as she claimed,
and Easemont runs around the outside of the pond and
the boys were fishing from a spot about thirty feet
from elkins property line. Here's the thirteen year old boy, Braden,
speaking to local media, still pretty chicking up. I just
can't believe it really happened that I got like a
gun put on me, and at the time you didn't
(10:41):
know this was just a pellet gun. The way she
threatened you. According to the Sheriff's office. You were really
in fear for your life, like she could have shot
and killed you. Yes, sir, I was just like terrified.
A pellet rifle is obviously less dangerous than a firearm,
but still more than capable of killing someone. Glad to
hear the boys are okay. Maine State Game wardens just
(11:05):
busted a poaching ring they say as one of the
largest in recent memory. The ring was operating on Mountain
Desert Island off the coast of the state, which includes
Acadian National Park. Someone who lived on the island sent
in a tip about a deer they believed was poached,
and wardens launched an investigation. They executed search warrants of
three different residences and uncovered repeated violations by five different people.
(11:28):
One of the offenders was determined to be a primary perp,
and that individual was charged with sixty criminal and civil violations.
He was found guilty and lost his hunting license for
thirteen years, paid nearly ten thousand dollars in fines, and
served thirty days in jail. The wardens have not released
the names of the individuals involved, which tells me that
the investigation is ongoing and more charges are coming down
(11:50):
the pike. Based on the images that have been released,
it looks like wardens seized five or six nice deerheads,
a bunch of hunting gear, trail cameras, and a rifle.
Big thanks to listener Christy H. For sending us that one.
Christy tells me that there is no hunting on the
entire island where this poaching ring was operating, so the
deer tend to get real big. She also told me
(12:10):
that the main game Wardens are one of the oldest
conservation law enforcement agencies in the entire US. They've been
nabbing poachers for the last one hundred and forty five years,
which means they've been operating since old James Garfield was president.
The earliest wardens did not have a salary, but collected
half of the fines paid by poachers, which seems like
it's an incentive system, but it could be a bad one,
(12:33):
conflict of interest and all that. Glad they don't do
that anymore, but sounds like they're still doing great work.
A New Hampshire jailed superintendent was placed on leave last
week after being arrested for poaching game wardens with New
Hampshire fishing games say Travis Cushman hunted whitetailed deer at
night during a string of evenings in November twenty twenty three.
(12:54):
Further details are scarce, but it sounds like Cushman bags
some pretty nice bucks during the course of those night hunts.
New Hampshire Antler and sculpt Trophy Club announced on Facebook
that they were removing two entries submitted by Cushman because
those animals were taken illegally. Along with the firearm and
archery equipment. Warden sees three buck mounts, two of which
looked like they would qualify for the trophy record books.
(13:16):
The good news for Cushman is that he's not at
much risk of being jailed alongside the inmates he previously managed.
He's facing seven misdemeanor charges and ten violation level offenses,
none of which are eligible for jail time staying in
the Granite State. A logger was recently convicted of something
called deceptive forestry for harvesting timber from a property and
(13:39):
failing to pay the landowner. The New Hampshire Forest Protection
Bureau says Steven O'Neill of O'Neill Timber Harvesting LLC was
contacted by a landowner to conduct a timber harvest, but
a year long investigation found that O'Neill logged a portion
of that property, sold the lumber for just a little
over twenty seven thousand dollars, and he didn't pay the
landowner for logging that portion of the property. O'Neill pled
(14:02):
guilty to a Class B felony and was required to
reimburse the property owner the twenty seven grand He was
also sentenced to one to two years in prison along
with a four nine hundred and sixty dollars fine, but
both the fine and jail time were suspended pending five
years of good behavior, where O'Neill cannot commit any crimes,
including those involving timber harvesting. Moving on to the public
(14:25):
land desk, after a year's long battle, it looks like
the public will be able to access a lake in
Oregon that had been barred by the surrounding property owners
from public use. Listener Jonathan Adams wrote in to tell
me that Lake Oswego, located just outside of Portland, had
been used by the public as a place to fish
and recreate, but homeowners who built houses on the shores
(14:47):
of the lake didn't like that. They put up barriers
around the lake, as well as signs saying private Lake,
no trespassing, so local anglers and members of the public
took action. They brought the case to court, arguing that
the lake falls under the state definition of navigable and
should therefore be open to the public. On March third
of this year, Clackhamu's County Circuit Court Judge Kathy Steele
(15:07):
ruled in their favor. She gave town officials one hundred
and twenty days to remove obstructions like boulders and metal reeds,
and the signs have to be gone within thirty days now.
Just last week, the city has announced that they do
not plan to appeal the decision. Mayor Joe Buck said
that they've defended the decisions our community has made, but
the cat is out of the bag and people are
(15:28):
accessing the lake. The decision not to appeal means that
Judge Steele's ruling stands. The public will henceforth have access
to Lake Oswego, which locals say offers some pretty great fishing.
The local access story had a happy ending, but there's
another story in Texas that's still going on there in
the eastern part of the state. Locals are defending access
(15:49):
to a section of public water known as the Cutoff.
The cutoff should sound familiar. We've reported on it many times.
It's also called Creslin Lake. It spans twelve miles along
the boundary of Navarro and Henderson Counties. Originally part of
the Trinity River, the waterway was separated from its main
channel by a levy project in the twenties. Historically, users
(16:11):
would access the publicly owned water by launching their boats
from a county road with the dedicated right of way,
But in twenty twenty two, a landowner illegally used a
backo to dredge up material from within the waterway in
order to install a fence along the right of way.
The fence installed along that right of way was clearly
intended to exclude the public from a century old tradition
(16:32):
of hunting and fishing the cutoff, and this is not
the first time. Over the last hundred years, numerous attempts
have been made to cut off access to the public waterway,
but they've all been defeated. That means there's a ton
of historical and legal precedent that clearly deems this as
a violation. The Texas Department of Transportation has given the
landowner notice of a right of way violation, and the
(16:54):
Army Corps of Engineers has sent a cease and assist letter.
What's more, Texas Parks and Wildlife has documented over eight
hundred thousand dollars in damages. Despite all this pressure, the
landowner still hasn't restored public access. That's why a group
of local hunters and anglers have founded a nonprofit called
Save the Cutoff. They've launched three separate lawsuits aimed at
forcing the landowner to restore access. They've been filed in
(17:17):
federal and county district courts, and they're asking government officials
to step in. The Legal process is long and costly,
but this is exactly the kind of legal battle we
need to be fighting. Certain portions of the federal government
have made clear that they want to sell off our
public land, but ultimately these decisions will come down to
specific parcels in specific counties. When they do, those local citizens,
(17:39):
like the ones in these two cases, we'll have a
chance to take a stand for public land. Oh boy.
Moving on to the angler harassment desk, a bunchie has
sent me a video of a charter captain in Florida
berating a young angler for supposedly not having his boat
lights on before the sun came up. Five minute video
(18:02):
racked up close to ten million views, and it seems
like everyone in the coastal fishing community wants to weigh in.
If you haven't seen this video, don't watch it. It's
such a frickin bummer. There's a captain, you're gonna find it.
It's all over and he just flat out loses his
mind on a twenty two year old kid named Gauge
(18:24):
Towels who is fishing under a bridge on his own boat.
Gauge does a really good job of trying to de escalate,
and in my mind, de escalate while you know, acting
like an adult. And boy, it just it's embarrassing for
anybody who angles, and I feel bad for all involved.
(18:44):
And there's a lot more here, gang, but I don't
even want to get into it. It's just too down depressing. Yeah,
the captain was arrested with twenty thousand dollars bail. This
is a big kind of media event. I think it's
safe to say that his coastguard life, this captain's license
is probably toast, and I am speaking to you as
somebody who can take fishing very seriously. But at the
(19:08):
end of the day, we're talking about fishing. Moving on
to the legislative desk, a bad bill was just introduced
in Alabama that would classify white tail deer and breeding
facilities as personal property. Like the Texas bill we covered
a few weeks ago, Alabama House Bill five oh nine
would give deer breeders almost total control over the animals
(19:29):
and their facilities. Rather than treat deer like the native
wildlife they are, HB five oh nine would allow breeders
to treat them like pets. That means the Alabama Department
of Conservation and Natural Resources would have no ability to
inspect those facilities and make sure the animals aren't carrying
chronic wasting disease. Breeders would also be free to ship
deer across the state without any kind of CWD testing,
(19:51):
increasing the risk of spreading the disease to areas that
don't already have The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources has come out against this bill. Conservation Commissioner Chris
Blankenship calls it reckless and warns it will threaten the
deer hunting industry at large. If you live in Alabama,
contact your representatives today and let them know you don't
support HB five H nine. If you don't live in Alabama,
(20:14):
be on the lookout for this kind of legislation in
your state. There's a big push by the deer breeding
industry to deregulate and block inspections of their facilities. Whatever
you think about deer breeding or hunting captive deer, you
should support measures designed to protect wild, free ranging deer populations.
These policies put those populations in danger, and no deer
hunter should support that. Speaking of troubling trends, the Westva
(20:40):
Senate is set to pass a bill that would make
it much easier to fire employees with the state Department
of Natural Resources. House Built two thousand and eight is
supposedly an attempt to consolidate government agencies. It abolishes some
agencies altogether, and it consolidates other under larger departments. But
it also removes civil service protections for new government employeoyees
(21:00):
or current employees who move positions. This will allow the
governor to hire and fire employees. It will Now you
might agree that as the leader of the executive branch.
The governor should have this ability. The problem comes when
those hirings and firings become pure political. If, for instance,
a DNR employee makes a decision that's good for wildlife
(21:20):
but is contrary to the governor's political agenda, the governor
can simply remove that DNR employee from their position. We
give civil servants in the DNR a certain amount of
protection so they can make decisions based on science without
fear of retribution. But if this bill passes, it would
remove those protections and hamper the ability of wildlife professionals
to make sound decisions. The bill may have already passed
(21:43):
by the time you listen to this, so you should
contact the Governor's secretary at three zero four five five
eight two thousand ask for the entire DNR to be
removed from Bill two thousand and eight and to retain
their civil service protections. Get on it, West Virginia. That's
all I got for you. Thank you so much for listening.
(22:03):
Remember to write in to a s k C A
L Let's askcal at themeeteater dot com. Let me know
what's going on in your neck of the woods. You
know what you appreciate it thanks again. We'll talk to
you next week.
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Col's Week in Review with Ryan cow Kalahan. Here's
cal A poop chucker is on the Loosened Summit County, Colorado.
According to the local sheriff's office, a woman called to
report that a mysterious man has been thrown bags of
poop on her lawn and driveway for the past month.
(00:33):
The feces in question appears to be from a dog,
and the woman said she suspects that one of her
neighbors is the culprit. She even had video footage of
the suspect in the act, but when deputies contacted that
alleged suspect, they determined that he does not match the
appearance of the person in the video. They also spoke
to several neighbors who said that the supposed victim often
(00:54):
fails to pick up after her dog. They suspect that
an unknow own neighbor is on a quote crusade against
those who don't do their duty after their dog does theirs.
There are two sides to every story. Is the poop
chucker a no good hooligan or a righteous avenger bent
on the cause of justice? And a feces free sidewalk.
(01:19):
Only time will tell. Thanks Cale Patterson for sending in
that one. We had another one in first place for
the intro this week, but we went with number two instead.
This week we've got the FEDS, the State Crime Desk,
and so much more. But first I'm going to tell
(01:40):
you about my week. And my week well you know,
I still haven't got my taxes done, and pile of
other boring adult stuff tempts are heating up, the green
grass is starting to poke through, and I might just
possibly have a Montana turkey under my belt by the
time you are listening to this opening week is the
fifteenth here that, my friends, I am looking forward to
(02:03):
more than you know. I need some outside time. The
news cycle is shockingly fast. I have just not done
the necessary digging into the most recent of recent secretarial orders.
But if I don't include something now, it'll be too
late by the time we record the next one, specifically
talking about all that's wrapped up in zero based regulatory
(02:27):
budgeting to unleash American energy, which according to the summary,
would require not all, but a hell of a lot
of our environmental regulations to sunset, which is the government
term to end stop cease by September and then be
rewritten and updated. Those updates would have to have their
own sunset date of five years in the President's words,
(02:51):
because they were written in the seventies. Hard to say here, kids,
but I personally would love to see some updates in
a lot of regulatory areas, such as how much you
get fined for driving motorized vehicles into a wilderness area,
for instance. But this list includes such hits as, but
not limited to, the Eagle Protection Act, the Migratory Bird
(03:12):
Treaty Act of nineteen eighteen, the Fish and Wildlife Coordination
Act of nineteen thirty four, the Anadromous Fish Conservation Act
of nineteen sixty five, the Marine Mammal Protection Act of
nineteen seventy two, the Endangered Species Act of nineteen seventy three,
the Magnus and Stephens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of
nineteen seventy six, and the Coastal Barrier Resources Act of
(03:33):
nineteen eighty two. I believe the Mining Act of eighteen
seventy two, which I've referenced here on this show many
many times, is also in there. Bunch in here, Okay,
The good faith. Part of my brain says that this
could be a great way of updating and eliminating redundancies
and just a ton of referencing and reading, and the
(03:54):
things that don't need updates will actually just remain. You
got to keep in mind like the Migratory Bird Treaty
Act nineteen eighteen has you know, over one hundred years
of amendments in there too, So it started simple and
got bigger. Ideally, what's going to happen is that will
be refined down to what's happening right now and will
(04:17):
be better off for it. However, the skeptic in me says,
this incredible undertaking could just cause enough of a cluster
fluffel that a bunch of unregulated development and sensitive areas
could take place. As we've talked about like the Miny
Act of eighteen seventy two. We get five dollars a
surface acre for a mine, and that five dollars goes
(04:40):
into the treasury. But is that all that surface disturbance
is worth to us, the American people. Right on top
of that, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced that
due to dose budget cuts, they may not have the
ability to perform the annual Migratory Bird Survey, which is
not only the world's longest running migratory bird population study,
(05:04):
but also what we hunters depend on to set our
regulations in a sustainable manner. Oh my science, you might
be saying, it's been a heck of a day. So please,
from the up top of the week in review, be engaged,
keep your elected officials on speed dial and make sure
they know what you hold Dear. As usual, you can
(05:26):
tell them thank you for this, and please don't do that.
That's your job. Election day is just the start of
a four quarter game. I appreciate you. I do have
a couple of awesome updates for those of you who
followed the North Carolina access issue, where a bunch of
folks wanted to make it illegal to launch personal water
(05:48):
crafts such as kayaks and canoes off the shoulder of
the road the right of ways into public water from
a public road. That got gunned down. So that's a
big win for access over there in the tire heel state.
And then a recent bill in Arkansas bit the dust.
Had that bill gone through, who would have opened up
the Buffalo River for potential industrial farm waste pollution. So
(06:13):
a couple of big wins. And I know a ton
of people wrote into the show for both of those issues.
And I know you got a bunch of folks engaged
to get a hold of the year elected officials and
stop that stuff. So great job North Carolina and Arkansas.
And I know North Carolina and Arkansas backcountry hunters and
anglers were heavily involved in both of those and you're
(06:37):
burning down the phone line, so great job, great job.
Moving on to the DC desk. Last week, the US
Senate voted down an amendment that would have blocked a
proposal to sell public land to build affordable housing. You
may have seen headlines about this, but the whole story
is a little confusing, so stick with me. A few
weeks ago, some Republican senators floated the idea of selling
(07:00):
the land and using those funds to reduce the national deficit.
This isn't a new idea, but they wanted to include
it in this year's budget bill. That's a big deal.
Thanks to some complicated congressional rules I'm not going to
explain here, mostly because I don't quite understand them, the
Senate only needs a simple majority to pass its budget.
Most legislation requires at least sixty votes in the Senate
(07:21):
to overcome a filibuster, but budgetary matters can be passed
by a simple majority using a process called reconciliation. That's
why people were taking this public lands proposal seriously. Republicans
actually have enough votes to pass it if they include
it in the budget bill. That's why a group of
senators proposed an amendment to the budget resolution that would
(07:42):
have prevented the proceeds from public land sales from being
used to reduce the deficit. It was a simple amendment,
but it would have stopped Congress from prioritizing public land sales. Unfortunately,
that amendment did not pass. Two Republican centers, Montana's Danes
and she He voted in favor of it, Thank you
very much, Danes and Shihi, but all other Republicans voted
(08:04):
against it. One Democrat didn't vote, so the amendment failed
fifty one to forty eight. I've seen headlines claiming that
Republicans just made it easier for the federal government to
sell public land. That's not true. As of this recording,
Congress hasn't approved the final version of the budget resolution,
since both the House and Senate need to agree before
anything is set in stone, and even if they agree,
(08:26):
they'll still need to pass the actual spending bills. We
don't know yet whether public land will be on the
chopping block to reduce the deficit and offset tax cuts.
So it's still worth sending a message to your senators
and representative. But that thing that I mentioned today, the
executive orders that also sunsets FLIPMA as we know it,
which is the Federal Lands Policy Management Act, the mechanism
(08:50):
to sell public land as provided for the BLM. Taken
all together, this is not a good sign. Not all
Republicans want to sell off federal land, but clearly a
majority of them are fine with it. There's also Democrats
who hear the word affordable housing and they lose their
minds with joy, without actually understanding that there's a hell
(09:15):
of a lot of work that's got to get done
in order to ensure affordable housing is actually built on
the public lands that these folks want to sell. And
I don't hear anybody doing that work because it's hard. Now.
The budget did pass today and no words of public
land sales being included. But will keep you posted because
(09:38):
you know, if I'm being Frank, it's just hard to
keep up. Moving on to the crime desk, a Florida
woman was arrested last week after she brandished a pellet
rifle at two teens who were fishing, as she said,
in her backyard. Fifty nine year old Donna Elkins threatened
to quote blow the heads off the thirteen and fifteen
(09:59):
year old boy who were fishing. I mean, listen, we're
talking about fishing, not a gang, not a gang, not
a gang, We're talking about fishing. Elkins stormed out of
her home, pellet rifle in hand, and forced the boys
to lay on the ground for about five minutes. Her
husband finally disarmed her, but when police arrived, they concluded
(10:19):
that the boys were not on Elkins's property as she claimed,
and Easemont runs around the outside of the pond and
the boys were fishing from a spot about thirty feet
from elkins property line. Here's the thirteen year old boy, Braden,
speaking to local media, still pretty chicking up. I just
can't believe it really happened that I got like a
gun put on me, and at the time you didn't
(10:41):
know this was just a pellet gun. The way she
threatened you. According to the Sheriff's office. You were really
in fear for your life, like she could have shot
and killed you. Yes, sir, I was just like terrified.
A pellet rifle is obviously less dangerous than a firearm,
but still more than capable of killing someone. Glad to
hear the boys are okay. Maine State Game wardens just
(11:05):
busted a poaching ring they say as one of the
largest in recent memory. The ring was operating on Mountain
Desert Island off the coast of the state, which includes
Acadian National Park. Someone who lived on the island sent
in a tip about a deer they believed was poached,
and wardens launched an investigation. They executed search warrants of
three different residences and uncovered repeated violations by five different people.
(11:28):
One of the offenders was determined to be a primary perp,
and that individual was charged with sixty criminal and civil violations.
He was found guilty and lost his hunting license for
thirteen years, paid nearly ten thousand dollars in fines, and
served thirty days in jail. The wardens have not released
the names of the individuals involved, which tells me that
the investigation is ongoing and more charges are coming down
(11:50):
the pike. Based on the images that have been released,
it looks like wardens seized five or six nice deerheads,
a bunch of hunting gear, trail cameras, and a rifle.
Big thanks to listener Christy H. For sending us that one.
Christy tells me that there is no hunting on the
entire island where this poaching ring was operating, so the
deer tend to get real big. She also told me
(12:10):
that the main game Wardens are one of the oldest
conservation law enforcement agencies in the entire US. They've been
nabbing poachers for the last one hundred and forty five years,
which means they've been operating since old James Garfield was president.
The earliest wardens did not have a salary, but collected
half of the fines paid by poachers, which seems like
it's an incentive system, but it could be a bad one,
(12:33):
conflict of interest and all that. Glad they don't do
that anymore, but sounds like they're still doing great work.
A New Hampshire jailed superintendent was placed on leave last
week after being arrested for poaching game wardens with New
Hampshire fishing games say Travis Cushman hunted whitetailed deer at
night during a string of evenings in November twenty twenty three.
(12:54):
Further details are scarce, but it sounds like Cushman bags
some pretty nice bucks during the course of those night hunts.
New Hampshire Antler and sculpt Trophy Club announced on Facebook
that they were removing two entries submitted by Cushman because
those animals were taken illegally. Along with the firearm and
archery equipment. Warden sees three buck mounts, two of which
looked like they would qualify for the trophy record books.
(13:16):
The good news for Cushman is that he's not at
much risk of being jailed alongside the inmates he previously managed.
He's facing seven misdemeanor charges and ten violation level offenses,
none of which are eligible for jail time staying in
the Granite State. A logger was recently convicted of something
called deceptive forestry for harvesting timber from a property and
(13:39):
failing to pay the landowner. The New Hampshire Forest Protection
Bureau says Steven O'Neill of O'Neill Timber Harvesting LLC was
contacted by a landowner to conduct a timber harvest, but
a year long investigation found that O'Neill logged a portion
of that property, sold the lumber for just a little
over twenty seven thousand dollars, and he didn't pay the
landowner for logging that portion of the property. O'Neill pled
(14:02):
guilty to a Class B felony and was required to
reimburse the property owner the twenty seven grand He was
also sentenced to one to two years in prison along
with a four nine hundred and sixty dollars fine, but
both the fine and jail time were suspended pending five
years of good behavior, where O'Neill cannot commit any crimes,
including those involving timber harvesting. Moving on to the public
(14:25):
land desk, after a year's long battle, it looks like
the public will be able to access a lake in
Oregon that had been barred by the surrounding property owners
from public use. Listener Jonathan Adams wrote in to tell
me that Lake Oswego, located just outside of Portland, had
been used by the public as a place to fish
and recreate, but homeowners who built houses on the shores
(14:47):
of the lake didn't like that. They put up barriers
around the lake, as well as signs saying private Lake,
no trespassing, so local anglers and members of the public
took action. They brought the case to court, arguing that
the lake falls under the state definition of navigable and
should therefore be open to the public. On March third
of this year, Clackhamu's County Circuit Court Judge Kathy Steele
(15:07):
ruled in their favor. She gave town officials one hundred
and twenty days to remove obstructions like boulders and metal reeds,
and the signs have to be gone within thirty days now.
Just last week, the city has announced that they do
not plan to appeal the decision. Mayor Joe Buck said
that they've defended the decisions our community has made, but
the cat is out of the bag and people are
(15:28):
accessing the lake. The decision not to appeal means that
Judge Steele's ruling stands. The public will henceforth have access
to Lake Oswego, which locals say offers some pretty great fishing.
The local access story had a happy ending, but there's
another story in Texas that's still going on there in
the eastern part of the state. Locals are defending access
(15:49):
to a section of public water known as the Cutoff.
The cutoff should sound familiar. We've reported on it many times.
It's also called Creslin Lake. It spans twelve miles along
the boundary of Navarro and Henderson Counties. Originally part of
the Trinity River, the waterway was separated from its main
channel by a levy project in the twenties. Historically, users
(16:11):
would access the publicly owned water by launching their boats
from a county road with the dedicated right of way,
But in twenty twenty two, a landowner illegally used a
backo to dredge up material from within the waterway in
order to install a fence along the right of way.
The fence installed along that right of way was clearly
intended to exclude the public from a century old tradition
(16:32):
of hunting and fishing the cutoff, and this is not
the first time. Over the last hundred years, numerous attempts
have been made to cut off access to the public waterway,
but they've all been defeated. That means there's a ton
of historical and legal precedent that clearly deems this as
a violation. The Texas Department of Transportation has given the
landowner notice of a right of way violation, and the
(16:54):
Army Corps of Engineers has sent a cease and assist letter.
What's more, Texas Parks and Wildlife has documented over eight
hundred thousand dollars in damages. Despite all this pressure, the
landowner still hasn't restored public access. That's why a group
of local hunters and anglers have founded a nonprofit called
Save the Cutoff. They've launched three separate lawsuits aimed at
forcing the landowner to restore access. They've been filed in
(17:17):
federal and county district courts, and they're asking government officials
to step in. The Legal process is long and costly,
but this is exactly the kind of legal battle we
need to be fighting. Certain portions of the federal government
have made clear that they want to sell off our
public land, but ultimately these decisions will come down to
specific parcels in specific counties. When they do, those local citizens,
(17:39):
like the ones in these two cases, we'll have a
chance to take a stand for public land. Oh boy.
Moving on to the angler harassment desk, a bunchie has
sent me a video of a charter captain in Florida
berating a young angler for supposedly not having his boat
lights on before the sun came up. Five minute video
(18:02):
racked up close to ten million views, and it seems
like everyone in the coastal fishing community wants to weigh in.
If you haven't seen this video, don't watch it. It's
such a frickin bummer. There's a captain, you're gonna find it.
It's all over and he just flat out loses his
mind on a twenty two year old kid named Gauge
(18:24):
Towels who is fishing under a bridge on his own boat.
Gauge does a really good job of trying to de escalate,
and in my mind, de escalate while you know, acting
like an adult. And boy, it just it's embarrassing for
anybody who angles, and I feel bad for all involved.
(18:44):
And there's a lot more here, gang, but I don't
even want to get into it. It's just too down depressing. Yeah,
the captain was arrested with twenty thousand dollars bail. This
is a big kind of media event. I think it's
safe to say that his coastguard life, this captain's license
is probably toast, and I am speaking to you as
somebody who can take fishing very seriously. But at the
(19:08):
end of the day, we're talking about fishing. Moving on
to the legislative desk, a bad bill was just introduced
in Alabama that would classify white tail deer and breeding
facilities as personal property. Like the Texas bill we covered
a few weeks ago, Alabama House Bill five oh nine
would give deer breeders almost total control over the animals
(19:29):
and their facilities. Rather than treat deer like the native
wildlife they are, HB five oh nine would allow breeders
to treat them like pets. That means the Alabama Department
of Conservation and Natural Resources would have no ability to
inspect those facilities and make sure the animals aren't carrying
chronic wasting disease. Breeders would also be free to ship
deer across the state without any kind of CWD testing,
(19:51):
increasing the risk of spreading the disease to areas that
don't already have The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources has come out against this bill. Conservation Commissioner Chris
Blankenship calls it reckless and warns it will threaten the
deer hunting industry at large. If you live in Alabama,
contact your representatives today and let them know you don't
support HB five H nine. If you don't live in Alabama,
(20:14):
be on the lookout for this kind of legislation in
your state. There's a big push by the deer breeding
industry to deregulate and block inspections of their facilities. Whatever
you think about deer breeding or hunting captive deer, you
should support measures designed to protect wild, free ranging deer populations.
These policies put those populations in danger, and no deer
hunter should support that. Speaking of troubling trends, the Westva
(20:40):
Senate is set to pass a bill that would make
it much easier to fire employees with the state Department
of Natural Resources. House Built two thousand and eight is
supposedly an attempt to consolidate government agencies. It abolishes some
agencies altogether, and it consolidates other under larger departments. But
it also removes civil service protections for new government employeoyees
(21:00):
or current employees who move positions. This will allow the
governor to hire and fire employees. It will Now you
might agree that as the leader of the executive branch.
The governor should have this ability. The problem comes when
those hirings and firings become pure political. If, for instance,
a DNR employee makes a decision that's good for wildlife
(21:20):
but is contrary to the governor's political agenda, the governor
can simply remove that DNR employee from their position. We
give civil servants in the DNR a certain amount of
protection so they can make decisions based on science without
fear of retribution. But if this bill passes, it would
remove those protections and hamper the ability of wildlife professionals
to make sound decisions. The bill may have already passed
(21:43):
by the time you listen to this, so you should
contact the Governor's secretary at three zero four five five
eight two thousand ask for the entire DNR to be
removed from Bill two thousand and eight and to retain
their civil service protections. Get on it, West Virginia. That's
all I got for you. Thank you so much for listening.
(22:03):
Remember to write in to a s k C A
L Let's askcal at themeeteater dot com. Let me know
what's going on in your neck of the woods. You
know what you appreciate it thanks again. We'll talk to
you next week.
Host
Cal Callaghan
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