April 21, 2025 • 25 mins
This week Cal talks about Dire wolves, neck of the woods, advocacy works, and his opening morning turkey adventure with Snort.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Cala. Here's Cal.
We say it all the time on this podcast, but
have you ever thought about where the phrase neck of
the woods comes from? I ask you write in to
ask Cal at the meaeater dot com and tell me
(00:30):
what's happening in your neck of the woods every episode.
But why don't I just say your section of the woods,
or you're part of the woods, or you know where
you're currently at a few minutes on the Google machine
tells me that this idiom was coined by American colonists
in the sixteen hundreds. Some argued that neck sounds a
lot like algonquin for point or corner, so your neck
(00:54):
of the woods is just your corner of the woods.
Others have pointed out that my neck sounds like the
German my neck, which just means my corner, same kind
of thing, But the consensus seems to be that the
word neck was used by American colonists to describe a
narrow strip of woods that, when imagined from above, would
have looked like the neck of an animal. You might
(01:14):
build your house or a group of homes in these
sections of forest. So your neck of the woods was
literally the strip of forest you called home. So there
you go. You learn something new every week on Col's
Week in Review. This week we've got the hottest fashion
trend in the pet world. I'm talking about dire wolves
plus big bears, breeders and legislation. But first, I'm going
(01:36):
to tell you about my week in My week was
interesting as always, Frankly, been working like a dog trying
to figure out if under our watch we are going
to let our elected representatives sell off our public lands.
I'm not talking about national parks either. It's a real conversation, gang.
It might not be happening at your dinner table, but
it's absolutely happening. I know this sounds very simil, but
(02:00):
you just need to call your senators and congress people
right now. Talk with them if possible, if not, talk
with the staff member, and just let them know you
have a connection to public lands or you're planning on
making your public land connection even stronger, and talk to
them about specifics. Make it clear that you're not talking
(02:21):
about national parks. Make it clear that you're talking about
that seemingly barren sagebrush flat a Bureau of Land Management ground.
Let them know how important it is to you, and
how you know it will be important for the next
generation as well, especially when it occasionally comes alive with
pollinators and sage grouse and antelope and jack rabbits and pronghorn.
(02:44):
I myself ran out for the turkey opener here in Montana,
just to a spot like this. Nobody else there. It's inconspicuous,
it doesn't look good. I got there at dark, walked
with old Snorticus, listening to all the migratory birds settle
for the night, sandhill cranes making a hell of a commotion.
No turkeys though, No gobbles, no yelps, nothing to my
(03:06):
coyoke calls or owl hoots or crow talk. And that's
what you get for exactly zero scouting regardless. We woke
up the next morning well before turkey time. The prairie
was alive with birds, meadow larks, killed deer, night hawks,
two pairs of cranes doing their best to imitate a
flock of one hundred or more. But no turkey talk.
So we took our time. I slept mostly pre dressed
(03:29):
to hunt, so my getting ready was just sliding out
of the go fast camper, which is like, you know,
one of those like rooftop tent things that you know
rightfully so get made fun of. I don't use this
thing a whole lot, but holy cow, it's comfortable and
convenient when I do. It's a quick strike mechanism. And
then I slid out of the camper into my ancient
(03:49):
pair of extra toughs that I describe as mostly waterproof.
At this point, then we repeated our walk from the
night before. Again, no gobbles, just racus pre I did
have a really cool encounter with the young bull moose
who emerged out of the brush to some hen yelps
and engaged our general direction with the classic bovid stare
(04:10):
of a thousand yards or more. And then I thought,
h time to get back to work. Tuesdays are when
the Montana Fishing Game Committee at the Old State House
meets and there are bills on the docket to testify on.
Then beyond reason, there's turkey fans emerging from the thick brush.
Two or three jakes and one tom, I think snort,
(04:31):
and I set up. I yelped at the gaggle of
birds in the gray light and they do what turkeys do.
They walk the opposite direction, swing around us, and come
into the back door, where, out of a corner of
my eye, two jakes begin to jump up and spur
each other in an attempt to win the decoy's attention.
It's the first morning of the first day of the season,
(04:52):
and it's just too much for Snort. She pops up
from her crouch and squares up to look at the commotion,
which of course puts the birds on edge. They start
to putt and walk away, not run away, because this
small flock of birds doesn't know it's turkey season yet.
Snort lays down to my muffled curses, and the birds
wander over a hill. Once out of sight, we reposition.
(05:15):
I crawl up to thirty yards, plant the decoy and
the defunct two track they disappeared on, and slide back
to an alder patch. Two yelps and tail fans mount
the hill, not so much in rank as in a
ball of bird with no shot opportunity to kill just one.
The tom and jake gobble at each other, full neck
(05:35):
stretched almost to the point of kissing. For a moment,
I think two for one, but the next retract back
into the hands, and as the girls begin to put
their dislike of man and dog and decoy very evident.
At fifteen yards, Tom is left out in the open,
and just like that, it's over seven point fifteen in
(05:58):
the morning. I believe he's a young bird, but he's
a big bird, short beard, huge, full fan, no spurs,
and twenty two pounds on the scale. Then I packed
up headed for Helena in time to exercise my rights
as a citizen and inform are duly elected as to
my desires on matters of public funding for habitat improvement,
(06:21):
both on the public and private side of the barbed wire.
One thing I noticed up there, there's a usual cast
and crew of you know, conservation heroes, really guys who
are there all the time. Aside from being there all
the time and advocating their butts off, they have this
other thing in common. They're getting old. So we need
(06:42):
some youth at that state House when our legislature is
in session. This particular committee kicked off well after five o'clock,
so our working class heroes and our school kids had
no excuses could have been there. It's tough to time
like this all the time, but we need you pay
attention get there. It's not as scary as it seems.
(07:04):
Moving on to the vanity pet desk aka dire Wolves,
Game of Thrones fans rejoice. Dire wolves are back and
dragons are soon to follow. At least that's what you
might think if you've been reading the headlines recently. An
outfit called Colossal Biosciences announced earlier this month they have
successfully brought two dire wolf puppies into the world. The
(07:27):
little critters have long, white fur, and, at six months old,
already weigh eighty pounds. Colossal Biologists say they expect them
to eventually tip the scales at one hundred and fifty pounds,
which is about how big dire wolves were when they
roamed the place to Seem ten thousand years ago. For context,
modern gray wolves average about eighty five pounds, though big
(07:48):
males can clock in at one hundred and eighty pounds.
The company created these canines using portions of dire wolf
DNA found in a thirteen thousand year old tooth found
in Iowa and a seven two thousand year old skull
fragment found in Idaho. They compared these DNA fragments to
modern wolf DNA and found fifteen gene variants they believe
(08:09):
separate these two types of canines. Then they used gene
editing technology to adjust the genes of wolf embryos, inserted
those embryos into female dogs, and hey, presto, magic dire
wolves again. Of course, it didn't take long for other
researchers in the scientific community to start poking holes and
Colossal's claims. We don't have the entire wolf genome. We
(08:32):
don't know how big it was, which means we don't
know with certainty that these dire wolf puppies match their
prehistoric ancestors, or to what degree they do if so. So,
strictly speaking, they aren't dire wolves. At the same time,
they do appear to be especially large wolves. Colossal reps,
who spoke with Eli Fournier for his article over at
(08:52):
the meeater dot Com, argue that if it looks like
a dire wolf and talks like a dire wolf, it is,
for all intents and purposes, a dire wolf. You should
keep that in mind this Halloween season. Okay, choose your
costume appropriately, but there's an even deeper question here, and
that is why poor quet Juarum Peche. What's the point
(09:16):
all this. These wolves have lost their natural habitat, so
this isn't a reintroduction effort. Colossal says they plan to
breed these wolves at some point down the line and
rewild their property at an undisclosed location. They also say
that this technology can help other animals on the verge
of extinction. Creating new individuals in the lab could help
(09:37):
with genetic diversity, or simply to ensure we have a
few examples of critters that have gone extinct. At the
same time, there's a hazard here if we can supposedly
quote bring back dire wolves. Some might say, why are
we so worried about currently endangered species. We don't need
to concern ourselves with habitat protection and ecosystem conservation or connectivity.
(10:00):
Can just make more prairie chickens or condors or blackfooted
ferrets in the lab. That's the danger of promoting this
kind of tech, and it's not hypothetical. Our own Interior
Secretary Doug Burgham took to x to push for Endangered
Species Act reform in light of the dire wolf experiment.
He said, quote, we need to continue improving recovery efforts
(10:20):
to make that a reality, and the marvel of de
extinction technology can help forge a future where populations are
never at risk. The truth is, populations always will be
at risk if they don't have good habitat. De extinction
technology can bring back a few individuals, but those individuals
are you know, they're kind of like decorative towels. Okay.
(10:43):
You ever go to somebody's house and they're like, oh yeah,
don't use those towels. They're just for looking at and
party is like, well, why the hell they are they
in the bathroom? Then that's kind of like what we're
talking about here. You got to have landscape, you got
to have habitat, you got to have connectivity, and if
you can't have those things, you're not going to have
the critters. A better version of Endangered Species Act reform
(11:08):
is preventing litigation that holds back the true intent of
the Endangered Species Act. Just imagine if we had all
the money spent on lawsuits and we had that put
into habitat. Moving on to the bear desk, here's a
fascinating story out of Missouri, sent in by listener Matt
(11:28):
Irvin in twenty twenty two. A twelve year old kid
named Wiley Williams shot what would have been Missouri's largest
ever black bear, a four hundred and twenty four pound monster.
He tagged after he won the state's competitive lottery drawing
and eighty hunters applied for one of four hundred permits,
but the quote of that year was only for forty bears,
(11:50):
meaning that three hundred and sixty bear hunters who won
a very hard to draw lottery would not be killing
a bear. Wiley drew a tag and brought down found
not just a bear, but a state record bear after
a week long hunt. However, he probably didn't hear about
this because it was seized by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
(12:10):
The agency said that they received a tip that Wiley's father,
not Wiley, was the one who shot the bear. That
turned out to be false. Wiley's father wasn't even on
the property when Wiley took the bear with his thirty thirty.
But during that investigation they also found something else, a
couple colonels of corn, which led MDC to believe that
(12:30):
the bear had been baited. It is illegal to bait
during hunting in Missouri four bears, However, you can entice
bears onto your property with bait prior to the hunting season,
so long as the bait is cleaned up. Wiley and
his dad and a fellow named Lindell Williams did all
of this. They baited ahead of time, prior to the
(12:53):
season opening. They cleaned the bait up, but they didn't
get all of it. MDC found quote twenty twenty five
Ernol's of corn. They issued a citation, and they seized
the bear. When the MDC sent its case to the
local prosecutor, that attorney amended Lindell's ticket to littering, which
is a non wildlife violation. At that point, Wiling and
(13:13):
his dad expected to get the bear back, but that
didn't happen. NBC says returning the bears against their policies,
and they want to use it for training purposes. Lindell
is assuing the agency on behalf of his son and
the cases currently before a circuit judge. Lindell argues that
this littering conviction isn't enough justification for the NBC to
seize the bear. Now, in these cases, you got to
(13:35):
give everybody the benefit of the doubt, because, as we know,
more often than not, more information comes out before it's
all said and done, this is a tough blow for
ol Wiley. Shooting a bear that big is a once
in a lifetime achievement. You can read more on this
at the Webster County Citizen. You probably already have a
subscription right in. Let us know what you think. Askcl
(13:58):
at the meateater dot com. It's not cutt and dry yet.
We'll get you informed when it is. Moving on to
the legislative desk. Last week, the Arizona Game and Fish
Commission considered a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity
to ban the use of hound dogs to hunt mountain lions, bears, bobcats,
boxes another wildlife. The Commission held a hearing at which
(14:21):
many residents, activists, and experts testified. One of those experts
was our buddy, Jim Heffelfinger, who presented Arizona Game in
Fish's official response to the petition. I won't get into
all the details, but here's a summary of what Jim said.
The petitions to ban hound hunting objected based on normative
value judgments and opinions of quote unsporting and unethical activities
(14:43):
instead of well constructed scientific studies. The CBD cited web
pages of anti hunting organizations and news reports, and unverified
information or simply speculations. Jim told the Commission, quote, decision
makers must base their decisions on objective, peer reviewed science
and reliable sources of consistently gathered information. Many of the
(15:04):
sources used in the petition do not satisfy the scientific
standard rightly expected of management agencies entrusted with the conservation
of these native species. Based in part on Jim's excellent testimony,
the Commission rejected the petition to ban hound hunting, but
keep an eye out for similar petitions in your state.
That's often how hound hunting bans start, so it's important
(15:28):
that everyone follow Arizona's lead and end these efforts before
they can get off the ground. As the Trump administration
moves to ramp up energy production on public land, some
members of Congress are working to protect especially valuable portions
of those lands from mining. Last week, Minnesota Senator Tina
Smith introduced the Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection Act. This bill
(15:51):
would permanently ban mining for copper, nickel, and precious metals
near the Boundary Waters Canoe area in northern Minnesota. Smith
said that while she's not opposed to mining in general,
a copper mind in this area would be too environmentally dangerous.
The Biden administration agreed with that assessment when they imposed
a mining moratorium towards the end of his term. President
(16:11):
Trump has officially reversed that moratorium, but he has signed
executive orders calling for as much mining as possible on
federal lands. The boundary waters will definitely be on that list,
and it's unclear what conclusion this administration will take. He'll
have plenty of allies if he decides to reverse the moratorium.
GOP Rep Pete Stabber reintroduced legislation in February to reverse
(16:35):
the mining ban and return two key federal mineral leases
that were revoked by the Biden administration in twenty twenty two.
Stobber says Smith's legislation has zero chance of passing, but
there is some evidence that Western Republicans may be breaking
ranks with moves that the administration is making. I mentioned
last week that my senators here in Montana voted in
(16:57):
favor of an amendment that would have pro prohibited public
land being sold off for affordable housing during the reconciliation process.
Representative Ryan Zink, another Montana Republican has also introduced a
bill called Keep Public Lands in Public Hands. This bill
would prohibit the FEDS from transferring a piece of publicly
accessible land if it is over three hundred acres. Zink
(17:19):
is breaking with his party on this issue, and this
week he got another ally when Idaho Republican rep. Mike
Simpson became an official sponsor of this legislation. We hope
that Zink and Simpson are only the first of many
Republicans to listen to their constituents, because I know you
are writing and calling and emailing yours and telling them
(17:40):
how good of an idea to Keep Public Lands in
Public Hands Act is to ensure future generations have the
same access to public lands that we've enjoyed. Please also
right in and thank Representative Simpson and Representative Zink for
their actions so far. Sticking with DC Area, a group
(18:01):
of Republican representatives have introduced a bill that would have
removed all restrictions on suppressor purchase and ownership. The Silencers
Help Us Save Hearing Act or SHUSH Act, would remove
suppressors from the National Firearm Act and treat them like
any other firearm accessory. No background check, No. Two hundred
dollars tax stamp no waiting. Under the Shush Act, you
(18:23):
could simply walk into a store, purchase a suppressor, and
walk out. The legislation was introduced by Texas Rep. Michael
Cloud and is being co sponsored by ten other Republicans
from states across the country. There was a push during
the last Trump administration to deregulate suppressors, but it never
gained much traction. It's unlikely this will pass either, since
(18:43):
they'd need seven Democrats to vote for it in the Senate.
But the good news is that even if this doesn't pass,
suppressors are easier to get than ever. Outfits like Silencer
Central have streamlined and simplified the process, and the ATF
has shortened approval time to mere days. Producer Jordan Sillers
applied for a russer on a recent Friday, received an
email saying he had been approved the next Monday, which
(19:05):
is great trending in the right direction. A suppressors just
tool gang, not a scary thing. No reason you can't
lean on our Democrats in the Senate to approve the
Shush Act either. Moving on to the legal desk, last week,
a Texas Appeals Court ruled that deer breeders do not
(19:26):
hold a vested property right in deer. The ruling comes
as legislatures in Alabama and the Lone Star State consider
bills that would categorize captive deer as the private property
of the people who run those facilities. This case revolves
around a deer breeding operation called RW Trophy Ranch located
just east of Dallas. CWD was detected on this facility
(19:49):
in twenty twenty one, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department gave its owner, Robert Williams, several mitigation plans to
slow the spread of the disease, but Williams refused to
impl meant any of them, and so by twenty twenty two,
the disease had spread so rapidly that the agency was
forced to euthanize all the deer in the facility. Williams
fought that order in court for two years, but finally
(20:12):
in May of last year, TPWD depopulated the ranch of
whitetail deer, but Williams continued fighting the Wildlife agency in court.
He argued that TPWD had no right to kill the
deer in his facility, and that doing so amounted to
a violation of the Texas Constitution. His lawyers made a
variety of arguments we won't get into here, but the
justices didn't buy any of them. They said, quote in Texas,
(20:35):
all wild animals, including white tailed deer, belonged to the
state as trustee for the people. It is illegal to
possess them for any purpose not authorized by the Parks
and Wildlife Coade. Texas law stipulates that deer breeders must
obtain a license from TPWD, and they must follow all
rules and regulations imposed by the agency, including a requirement
(20:57):
to depopulate a CWD infected. The court thus dismissed Williams's
case and upheld a key tenant of the North American
model of wildlife conservation. People who argue that CWD is
some kind of hoax designed to attack deer hunting. Here's
looking at you, uncle ted, are often the same people
involved in the deer breeding industry. These legislators, activists, and
(21:19):
businessmen have a vested interest in deregulating their industry, and
they rightly see CWD as the main threat to that deregulation.
So they're pushing to discredit the biologists who warned about
the threats of the disease, while they also push to
turn native wildlife into private property. That's why cases like
this are very important and why will continue to monitor
(21:40):
these issues as they develop. Moving on to the mailbag listener,
Skyler Gass wrote in with a great breakthrough for salmon
populations on the West Coast, The Seattle Times reports that
researchers may have discovered a way to protect urban salmon
from a toxic byproduct of car tires. Skyler was part
(22:01):
of this work, and I'm very happy to share it
with all you. We've known since twenty twenty that a
chemical called six ppd quinone, which is produced by car
tires as they roll down the road, kills huge numbers
of salmon each year in the form of a runoff. If,
like many salmon streams do, a stream runs under or
near a roadway, chemical runoff can kill forty percent to
(22:25):
ninety percent of returning coho before they spawn. So researchers
put together a study to see what kind of soil
mixes that are approved for stormwater treatment are most effective
in filtering out this toxic tired dust. They found that
a soil containing compost, sand and coconut fiber and biochar
did the best job filtering out the chemical, but they
(22:47):
were astounded when they put that finding to the test.
They exposed twenty juvenile Coho salmon to treated water and
twenty to untreated water. Of the twenty exposed to untreated water,
only two survived, which you just how toxic this chemical is.
But of the twenty exposed to the water that had
been filtered through the special soil, all survived. There's still
(23:08):
more work to be done to see how this works
in the real world, but it's great news for salmon
fans out west, and I hope we can implement this
solution to protect the struggling population. Listener kirk Port wrote
in with an update on a bill we covered a
few weeks ago. Back in episode three five seven, I
told you about North Carolina Senate Bill T twenty. This
(23:30):
bill would have made it a misdemeanor to access public
waterways from public roadways, as many of us do. Tons
of you wrote in to tell me about this bill,
and I know the North Carolina Chapter of Backcountry Hunters
and Anglers joined with other hunting and fishing organizations to
oppose it. Well, I'm pleased to say that your advocacy
paid off. Kirk wrote in to tell me that one
(23:50):
of the bill's primary sponsors amended the legislation to remove
that provision, and it was approved unanimously by the Senate Ag,
Energy and Environment Committee. Kirk said, quote, there was a
public comment period, so I thanked the senator and the
other bill sponsors for listening to their constituents in the hallway.
After that meeting, another Senator from the committee came up
and told me, thank you for your advocacy. Great win
(24:14):
today in the old North State end to quote, A
great win just goes to show you what can happen
when hunters, anglers and public land advocates stand up and
speak with one voice. We'll need to be doing a
lot of that starting right now. Gang, email call, make
it happen. I appreciate you. That's all I got for
(24:35):
you this week. Thank you so much for listening, and
remember to write in to ask c Al that's Askcal
at the meeteater dot com and let me know what's
going on in your neck of the woods. You know,
I appreciate it. Thanks again. We'll talk to you next week.
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Cala. Here's Cal.
We say it all the time on this podcast, but
have you ever thought about where the phrase neck of
the woods comes from? I ask you write in to
ask Cal at the meaeater dot com and tell me
(00:30):
what's happening in your neck of the woods every episode.
But why don't I just say your section of the woods,
or you're part of the woods, or you know where
you're currently at a few minutes on the Google machine
tells me that this idiom was coined by American colonists
in the sixteen hundreds. Some argued that neck sounds a
lot like algonquin for point or corner, so your neck
(00:54):
of the woods is just your corner of the woods.
Others have pointed out that my neck sounds like the
German my neck, which just means my corner, same kind
of thing, But the consensus seems to be that the
word neck was used by American colonists to describe a
narrow strip of woods that, when imagined from above, would
have looked like the neck of an animal. You might
(01:14):
build your house or a group of homes in these
sections of forest. So your neck of the woods was
literally the strip of forest you called home. So there
you go. You learn something new every week on Col's
Week in Review. This week we've got the hottest fashion
trend in the pet world. I'm talking about dire wolves
plus big bears, breeders and legislation. But first, I'm going
(01:36):
to tell you about my week in My week was
interesting as always, Frankly, been working like a dog trying
to figure out if under our watch we are going
to let our elected representatives sell off our public lands.
I'm not talking about national parks either. It's a real conversation, gang.
It might not be happening at your dinner table, but
it's absolutely happening. I know this sounds very simil, but
(02:00):
you just need to call your senators and congress people
right now. Talk with them if possible, if not, talk
with the staff member, and just let them know you
have a connection to public lands or you're planning on
making your public land connection even stronger, and talk to
them about specifics. Make it clear that you're not talking
(02:21):
about national parks. Make it clear that you're talking about
that seemingly barren sagebrush flat a Bureau of Land Management ground.
Let them know how important it is to you, and
how you know it will be important for the next
generation as well, especially when it occasionally comes alive with
pollinators and sage grouse and antelope and jack rabbits and pronghorn.
(02:44):
I myself ran out for the turkey opener here in Montana,
just to a spot like this. Nobody else there. It's inconspicuous,
it doesn't look good. I got there at dark, walked
with old Snorticus, listening to all the migratory birds settle
for the night, sandhill cranes making a hell of a commotion.
No turkeys though, No gobbles, no yelps, nothing to my
(03:06):
coyoke calls or owl hoots or crow talk. And that's
what you get for exactly zero scouting regardless. We woke
up the next morning well before turkey time. The prairie
was alive with birds, meadow larks, killed deer, night hawks,
two pairs of cranes doing their best to imitate a
flock of one hundred or more. But no turkey talk.
So we took our time. I slept mostly pre dressed
(03:29):
to hunt, so my getting ready was just sliding out
of the go fast camper, which is like, you know,
one of those like rooftop tent things that you know
rightfully so get made fun of. I don't use this
thing a whole lot, but holy cow, it's comfortable and
convenient when I do. It's a quick strike mechanism. And
then I slid out of the camper into my ancient
(03:49):
pair of extra toughs that I describe as mostly waterproof.
At this point, then we repeated our walk from the
night before. Again, no gobbles, just racus pre I did
have a really cool encounter with the young bull moose
who emerged out of the brush to some hen yelps
and engaged our general direction with the classic bovid stare
(04:10):
of a thousand yards or more. And then I thought,
h time to get back to work. Tuesdays are when
the Montana Fishing Game Committee at the Old State House
meets and there are bills on the docket to testify on.
Then beyond reason, there's turkey fans emerging from the thick brush.
Two or three jakes and one tom, I think snort,
(04:31):
and I set up. I yelped at the gaggle of
birds in the gray light and they do what turkeys do.
They walk the opposite direction, swing around us, and come
into the back door, where, out of a corner of
my eye, two jakes begin to jump up and spur
each other in an attempt to win the decoy's attention.
It's the first morning of the first day of the season,
(04:52):
and it's just too much for Snort. She pops up
from her crouch and squares up to look at the commotion,
which of course puts the birds on edge. They start
to putt and walk away, not run away, because this
small flock of birds doesn't know it's turkey season yet.
Snort lays down to my muffled curses, and the birds
wander over a hill. Once out of sight, we reposition.
(05:15):
I crawl up to thirty yards, plant the decoy and
the defunct two track they disappeared on, and slide back
to an alder patch. Two yelps and tail fans mount
the hill, not so much in rank as in a
ball of bird with no shot opportunity to kill just one.
The tom and jake gobble at each other, full neck
(05:35):
stretched almost to the point of kissing. For a moment,
I think two for one, but the next retract back
into the hands, and as the girls begin to put
their dislike of man and dog and decoy very evident.
At fifteen yards, Tom is left out in the open,
and just like that, it's over seven point fifteen in
(05:58):
the morning. I believe he's a young bird, but he's
a big bird, short beard, huge, full fan, no spurs,
and twenty two pounds on the scale. Then I packed
up headed for Helena in time to exercise my rights
as a citizen and inform are duly elected as to
my desires on matters of public funding for habitat improvement,
(06:21):
both on the public and private side of the barbed wire.
One thing I noticed up there, there's a usual cast
and crew of you know, conservation heroes, really guys who
are there all the time. Aside from being there all
the time and advocating their butts off, they have this
other thing in common. They're getting old. So we need
(06:42):
some youth at that state House when our legislature is
in session. This particular committee kicked off well after five o'clock,
so our working class heroes and our school kids had
no excuses could have been there. It's tough to time
like this all the time, but we need you pay
attention get there. It's not as scary as it seems.
(07:04):
Moving on to the vanity pet desk aka dire Wolves,
Game of Thrones fans rejoice. Dire wolves are back and
dragons are soon to follow. At least that's what you
might think if you've been reading the headlines recently. An
outfit called Colossal Biosciences announced earlier this month they have
successfully brought two dire wolf puppies into the world. The
(07:27):
little critters have long, white fur, and, at six months old,
already weigh eighty pounds. Colossal Biologists say they expect them
to eventually tip the scales at one hundred and fifty pounds,
which is about how big dire wolves were when they
roamed the place to Seem ten thousand years ago. For context,
modern gray wolves average about eighty five pounds, though big
(07:48):
males can clock in at one hundred and eighty pounds.
The company created these canines using portions of dire wolf
DNA found in a thirteen thousand year old tooth found
in Iowa and a seven two thousand year old skull
fragment found in Idaho. They compared these DNA fragments to
modern wolf DNA and found fifteen gene variants they believe
(08:09):
separate these two types of canines. Then they used gene
editing technology to adjust the genes of wolf embryos, inserted
those embryos into female dogs, and hey, presto, magic dire
wolves again. Of course, it didn't take long for other
researchers in the scientific community to start poking holes and
Colossal's claims. We don't have the entire wolf genome. We
(08:32):
don't know how big it was, which means we don't
know with certainty that these dire wolf puppies match their
prehistoric ancestors, or to what degree they do if so. So,
strictly speaking, they aren't dire wolves. At the same time,
they do appear to be especially large wolves. Colossal reps,
who spoke with Eli Fournier for his article over at
(08:52):
the meeater dot Com, argue that if it looks like
a dire wolf and talks like a dire wolf, it is,
for all intents and purposes, a dire wolf. You should
keep that in mind this Halloween season. Okay, choose your
costume appropriately, but there's an even deeper question here, and
that is why poor quet Juarum Peche. What's the point
(09:16):
all this. These wolves have lost their natural habitat, so
this isn't a reintroduction effort. Colossal says they plan to
breed these wolves at some point down the line and
rewild their property at an undisclosed location. They also say
that this technology can help other animals on the verge
of extinction. Creating new individuals in the lab could help
(09:37):
with genetic diversity, or simply to ensure we have a
few examples of critters that have gone extinct. At the
same time, there's a hazard here if we can supposedly
quote bring back dire wolves. Some might say, why are
we so worried about currently endangered species. We don't need
to concern ourselves with habitat protection and ecosystem conservation or connectivity.
(10:00):
Can just make more prairie chickens or condors or blackfooted
ferrets in the lab. That's the danger of promoting this
kind of tech, and it's not hypothetical. Our own Interior
Secretary Doug Burgham took to x to push for Endangered
Species Act reform in light of the dire wolf experiment.
He said, quote, we need to continue improving recovery efforts
(10:20):
to make that a reality, and the marvel of de
extinction technology can help forge a future where populations are
never at risk. The truth is, populations always will be
at risk if they don't have good habitat. De extinction
technology can bring back a few individuals, but those individuals
are you know, they're kind of like decorative towels. Okay.
(10:43):
You ever go to somebody's house and they're like, oh yeah,
don't use those towels. They're just for looking at and
party is like, well, why the hell they are they
in the bathroom? Then that's kind of like what we're
talking about here. You got to have landscape, you got
to have habitat, you got to have connectivity, and if
you can't have those things, you're not going to have
the critters. A better version of Endangered Species Act reform
(11:08):
is preventing litigation that holds back the true intent of
the Endangered Species Act. Just imagine if we had all
the money spent on lawsuits and we had that put
into habitat. Moving on to the bear desk, here's a
fascinating story out of Missouri, sent in by listener Matt
(11:28):
Irvin in twenty twenty two. A twelve year old kid
named Wiley Williams shot what would have been Missouri's largest
ever black bear, a four hundred and twenty four pound monster.
He tagged after he won the state's competitive lottery drawing
and eighty hunters applied for one of four hundred permits,
but the quote of that year was only for forty bears,
(11:50):
meaning that three hundred and sixty bear hunters who won
a very hard to draw lottery would not be killing
a bear. Wiley drew a tag and brought down found
not just a bear, but a state record bear after
a week long hunt. However, he probably didn't hear about
this because it was seized by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
(12:10):
The agency said that they received a tip that Wiley's father,
not Wiley, was the one who shot the bear. That
turned out to be false. Wiley's father wasn't even on
the property when Wiley took the bear with his thirty thirty.
But during that investigation they also found something else, a
couple colonels of corn, which led MDC to believe that
(12:30):
the bear had been baited. It is illegal to bait
during hunting in Missouri four bears, However, you can entice
bears onto your property with bait prior to the hunting season,
so long as the bait is cleaned up. Wiley and
his dad and a fellow named Lindell Williams did all
of this. They baited ahead of time, prior to the
(12:53):
season opening. They cleaned the bait up, but they didn't
get all of it. MDC found quote twenty twenty five
Ernol's of corn. They issued a citation, and they seized
the bear. When the MDC sent its case to the
local prosecutor, that attorney amended Lindell's ticket to littering, which
is a non wildlife violation. At that point, Wiling and
(13:13):
his dad expected to get the bear back, but that
didn't happen. NBC says returning the bears against their policies,
and they want to use it for training purposes. Lindell
is assuing the agency on behalf of his son and
the cases currently before a circuit judge. Lindell argues that
this littering conviction isn't enough justification for the NBC to
seize the bear. Now, in these cases, you got to
(13:35):
give everybody the benefit of the doubt, because, as we know,
more often than not, more information comes out before it's
all said and done, this is a tough blow for
ol Wiley. Shooting a bear that big is a once
in a lifetime achievement. You can read more on this
at the Webster County Citizen. You probably already have a
subscription right in. Let us know what you think. Askcl
(13:58):
at the meateater dot com. It's not cutt and dry yet.
We'll get you informed when it is. Moving on to
the legislative desk. Last week, the Arizona Game and Fish
Commission considered a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity
to ban the use of hound dogs to hunt mountain lions, bears, bobcats,
boxes another wildlife. The Commission held a hearing at which
(14:21):
many residents, activists, and experts testified. One of those experts
was our buddy, Jim Heffelfinger, who presented Arizona Game in
Fish's official response to the petition. I won't get into
all the details, but here's a summary of what Jim said.
The petitions to ban hound hunting objected based on normative
value judgments and opinions of quote unsporting and unethical activities
(14:43):
instead of well constructed scientific studies. The CBD cited web
pages of anti hunting organizations and news reports, and unverified
information or simply speculations. Jim told the Commission, quote, decision
makers must base their decisions on objective, peer reviewed science
and reliable sources of consistently gathered information. Many of the
(15:04):
sources used in the petition do not satisfy the scientific
standard rightly expected of management agencies entrusted with the conservation
of these native species. Based in part on Jim's excellent testimony,
the Commission rejected the petition to ban hound hunting, but
keep an eye out for similar petitions in your state.
That's often how hound hunting bans start, so it's important
(15:28):
that everyone follow Arizona's lead and end these efforts before
they can get off the ground. As the Trump administration
moves to ramp up energy production on public land, some
members of Congress are working to protect especially valuable portions
of those lands from mining. Last week, Minnesota Senator Tina
Smith introduced the Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection Act. This bill
(15:51):
would permanently ban mining for copper, nickel, and precious metals
near the Boundary Waters Canoe area in northern Minnesota. Smith
said that while she's not opposed to mining in general,
a copper mind in this area would be too environmentally dangerous.
The Biden administration agreed with that assessment when they imposed
a mining moratorium towards the end of his term. President
(16:11):
Trump has officially reversed that moratorium, but he has signed
executive orders calling for as much mining as possible on
federal lands. The boundary waters will definitely be on that list,
and it's unclear what conclusion this administration will take. He'll
have plenty of allies if he decides to reverse the moratorium.
GOP Rep Pete Stabber reintroduced legislation in February to reverse
(16:35):
the mining ban and return two key federal mineral leases
that were revoked by the Biden administration in twenty twenty two.
Stobber says Smith's legislation has zero chance of passing, but
there is some evidence that Western Republicans may be breaking
ranks with moves that the administration is making. I mentioned
last week that my senators here in Montana voted in
(16:57):
favor of an amendment that would have pro prohibited public
land being sold off for affordable housing during the reconciliation process.
Representative Ryan Zink, another Montana Republican has also introduced a
bill called Keep Public Lands in Public Hands. This bill
would prohibit the FEDS from transferring a piece of publicly
accessible land if it is over three hundred acres. Zink
(17:19):
is breaking with his party on this issue, and this
week he got another ally when Idaho Republican rep. Mike
Simpson became an official sponsor of this legislation. We hope
that Zink and Simpson are only the first of many
Republicans to listen to their constituents, because I know you
are writing and calling and emailing yours and telling them
(17:40):
how good of an idea to Keep Public Lands in
Public Hands Act is to ensure future generations have the
same access to public lands that we've enjoyed. Please also
right in and thank Representative Simpson and Representative Zink for
their actions so far. Sticking with DC Area, a group
(18:01):
of Republican representatives have introduced a bill that would have
removed all restrictions on suppressor purchase and ownership. The Silencers
Help Us Save Hearing Act or SHUSH Act, would remove
suppressors from the National Firearm Act and treat them like
any other firearm accessory. No background check, No. Two hundred
dollars tax stamp no waiting. Under the Shush Act, you
(18:23):
could simply walk into a store, purchase a suppressor, and
walk out. The legislation was introduced by Texas Rep. Michael
Cloud and is being co sponsored by ten other Republicans
from states across the country. There was a push during
the last Trump administration to deregulate suppressors, but it never
gained much traction. It's unlikely this will pass either, since
(18:43):
they'd need seven Democrats to vote for it in the Senate.
But the good news is that even if this doesn't pass,
suppressors are easier to get than ever. Outfits like Silencer
Central have streamlined and simplified the process, and the ATF
has shortened approval time to mere days. Producer Jordan Sillers
applied for a russer on a recent Friday, received an
email saying he had been approved the next Monday, which
(19:05):
is great trending in the right direction. A suppressors just
tool gang, not a scary thing. No reason you can't
lean on our Democrats in the Senate to approve the
Shush Act either. Moving on to the legal desk, last week,
a Texas Appeals Court ruled that deer breeders do not
(19:26):
hold a vested property right in deer. The ruling comes
as legislatures in Alabama and the Lone Star State consider
bills that would categorize captive deer as the private property
of the people who run those facilities. This case revolves
around a deer breeding operation called RW Trophy Ranch located
just east of Dallas. CWD was detected on this facility
(19:49):
in twenty twenty one, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department gave its owner, Robert Williams, several mitigation plans to
slow the spread of the disease, but Williams refused to
impl meant any of them, and so by twenty twenty two,
the disease had spread so rapidly that the agency was
forced to euthanize all the deer in the facility. Williams
fought that order in court for two years, but finally
(20:12):
in May of last year, TPWD depopulated the ranch of
whitetail deer, but Williams continued fighting the Wildlife agency in court.
He argued that TPWD had no right to kill the
deer in his facility, and that doing so amounted to
a violation of the Texas Constitution. His lawyers made a
variety of arguments we won't get into here, but the
justices didn't buy any of them. They said, quote in Texas,
(20:35):
all wild animals, including white tailed deer, belonged to the
state as trustee for the people. It is illegal to
possess them for any purpose not authorized by the Parks
and Wildlife Coade. Texas law stipulates that deer breeders must
obtain a license from TPWD, and they must follow all
rules and regulations imposed by the agency, including a requirement
(20:57):
to depopulate a CWD infected. The court thus dismissed Williams's
case and upheld a key tenant of the North American
model of wildlife conservation. People who argue that CWD is
some kind of hoax designed to attack deer hunting. Here's
looking at you, uncle ted, are often the same people
involved in the deer breeding industry. These legislators, activists, and
(21:19):
businessmen have a vested interest in deregulating their industry, and
they rightly see CWD as the main threat to that deregulation.
So they're pushing to discredit the biologists who warned about
the threats of the disease, while they also push to
turn native wildlife into private property. That's why cases like
this are very important and why will continue to monitor
(21:40):
these issues as they develop. Moving on to the mailbag listener,
Skyler Gass wrote in with a great breakthrough for salmon
populations on the West Coast, The Seattle Times reports that
researchers may have discovered a way to protect urban salmon
from a toxic byproduct of car tires. Skyler was part
(22:01):
of this work, and I'm very happy to share it
with all you. We've known since twenty twenty that a
chemical called six ppd quinone, which is produced by car
tires as they roll down the road, kills huge numbers
of salmon each year in the form of a runoff. If,
like many salmon streams do, a stream runs under or
near a roadway, chemical runoff can kill forty percent to
(22:25):
ninety percent of returning coho before they spawn. So researchers
put together a study to see what kind of soil
mixes that are approved for stormwater treatment are most effective
in filtering out this toxic tired dust. They found that
a soil containing compost, sand and coconut fiber and biochar
did the best job filtering out the chemical, but they
(22:47):
were astounded when they put that finding to the test.
They exposed twenty juvenile Coho salmon to treated water and
twenty to untreated water. Of the twenty exposed to untreated water,
only two survived, which you just how toxic this chemical is.
But of the twenty exposed to the water that had
been filtered through the special soil, all survived. There's still
(23:08):
more work to be done to see how this works
in the real world, but it's great news for salmon
fans out west, and I hope we can implement this
solution to protect the struggling population. Listener kirk Port wrote
in with an update on a bill we covered a
few weeks ago. Back in episode three five seven, I
told you about North Carolina Senate Bill T twenty. This
(23:30):
bill would have made it a misdemeanor to access public
waterways from public roadways, as many of us do. Tons
of you wrote in to tell me about this bill,
and I know the North Carolina Chapter of Backcountry Hunters
and Anglers joined with other hunting and fishing organizations to
oppose it. Well, I'm pleased to say that your advocacy
paid off. Kirk wrote in to tell me that one
(23:50):
of the bill's primary sponsors amended the legislation to remove
that provision, and it was approved unanimously by the Senate Ag,
Energy and Environment Committee. Kirk said, quote, there was a
public comment period, so I thanked the senator and the
other bill sponsors for listening to their constituents in the hallway.
After that meeting, another Senator from the committee came up
and told me, thank you for your advocacy. Great win
(24:14):
today in the old North State end to quote, A
great win just goes to show you what can happen
when hunters, anglers and public land advocates stand up and
speak with one voice. We'll need to be doing a
lot of that starting right now. Gang, email call, make
it happen. I appreciate you. That's all I got for
(24:35):
you this week. Thank you so much for listening, and
remember to write in to ask c Al that's Askcal
at the meeteater dot com and let me know what's
going on in your neck of the woods. You know,
I appreciate it. Thanks again. We'll talk to you next week.
Host
Cal Callaghan
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