September 1, 2025 • 27 mins
This week Cal talks about the Roadless Rule rescission, rhino-poop-sniffing dogs, corner crossing, and so much more.
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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 Col's Week in Review with Ryan cow Kalahan. Here's Cal.
A TikToker in Oregon is making waves on social media
by pretending to be a girl on the dating app
Hinge and then stealing phishing spots from unsuspecting would be lovers.
(00:31):
It's actually I'm not even mad, that's amazing. The user,
who goes by the handle at central dot Oregon dot
fishing has posted dozens of videos on the social media
app and racked up an impressive two hundred and twenty
six thousand followers. His cat fishing technique is pretty simple.
He creates a fake Hinge profile as an attractive woman
(00:53):
and then messages with guys who think they've won the
lottery a hot girl who wants me to take her
fishing sign me up. He pumps them for information about
their favorite fishing spots, information they probably don't share with
their closest friends, and then makes videos about the fish
he catches at those spots. I have no way of
knowing whether or not his gambit is real, but if
(01:15):
it is, I got to give him credit for being
an astute observer of human nature. There's only one thing
a dedicated angler cares about more than fishing, and this
guy has figured it out. And if you're a single
fisherman in Oregon, it's probably best to keep your date
in suspense about where you plan to take her. This week,
we've got wyworms and people don't mix, corner crossing rhinos,
(01:38):
and so much more of it. First, I'm gonna tell
you about my week, and my week has been tough.
I'm trying to knock out all the responsibilities before my
hunting season really starts up in Alaska at the end
of the month. Knock off the travel, focus on the gear,
replace the broken and abused stuff, and keep flinging arrows,
a lot of them of that. I'm sitting here recording
(02:01):
this as the comment period comes to an end for
the USDA reorganization, which will shut down regional offices such
as the one here in Missoula, Montana. Fear is that
because the closest regional office will be in Salt Lake City,
in my case, we're going to lose out on quick
local input. For instance, what fires we should let burn,
(02:25):
which Chief Schultz is not into right now, and what
fires we should let run so you know hunters can
be happy the coming fall and spring when that little
burn zones an ecological hotspot. Then tomorrow the public comment
period for the recision of the roadless rule opens. Fifty
(02:45):
eight million acres of designated roadless areas across the West,
the good stuff for a ton of hunters and anglers
that want to get away from the crowds. I gotta
tell you the reason the USDA is pushing this is
not to increase timber production. No, nobody has announced a
magical finance mechanism that pays crews to mechanically thin timber,
(03:05):
which they always talk about. It's the type of timber
cutting that somebody has to pay you to do, not
the type of timber cutting you get paid to do. Rescinding.
Roadless is about punching in roads for mineral extraction, which
we very well may need in some areas. But here's
the fun fact. If anyone tells you the only way
(03:26):
to build roads in a couple of areas for any
purpose is to throw out the entire roadless designation for
fifty eight million acres, well, friends and neighbors, gotta tell
you don't buy that. Bs. We need to make these
people do the hard work. Fifty eight million acres is
a lot of country, essentially, none of which is the
(03:47):
exact same, So why do we want to treat it
all the same. Let's not buy into the bs that
the management of fifty eight million acres needs to be
all one way or all the other. Hell, not that
many lights switches operate that way anymore. Seems to be
a dimmer switch on darn near anything. That's what I'm
gonna write in and tell him at the USDA and
(04:08):
my representative's office. This is lazy management. Let's act like
we're dealing with extremely valuable public land that deserves unique
management fitting of the uniqueness of the land itself. Moving on,
I have an unfortunate update for you over at the
(04:28):
screwworm desk. A man in Maryland has the honor of
being the first confirmed human case of the New World
screwworm since the most recent outbreak in Central America. The
man has not been identified, but Reuter's reported last week
that he had recently traveled to El Salvador. Initial reports
were that he came from Guatemala, but the Department of
Health and Human Services has since corrected the mistake. The
(04:50):
threat to humans from the flesh eating parasite is pretty
darn low. The worms are deposited when a New World
screwworm fly lays its eggs in an exposed wound, and
then those eggs hatch into maggots and burrow into the flesh.
Once a person gets it, the maggots must be removed surgically,
the wound is cleaned, and then the patient undergoes around
to antibiotics. It's not the kind of thing that can
(05:11):
spread from person to person, and the unfortunate Maryland mand
is the first Homo sapien in the US to get it.
In years since our last report, US Department of Agriculture
Secretary Brook Rawlins announced plans to build a sterile fly
facility in Texas as part of efforts to combat the pest.
These sterile flies are released into the population, which slowly
(05:31):
dwindles as it becomes unable to reproduce. Ranchers are pretty
rattled as they fear the parasite coming north and infecting
their herds, and wildlife biologists are also concerned, especially for
white tailed deer. We'll let you know if there are
any future updates, and for more information, you can read
Eli Fournier's article over at the meateater dot com move
(05:52):
it on to the crime desk. A hunting outfitter in
Montana has been accused of shooting a grizzly bear and
then failing to report the kill for two weeks. Court
documents say that Bryant Mickelson of Timber Mountain Outfitters has
been indicted for a misdemeanor. Officials say he shot at
grizzly during the spring black bear hunt back in May.
It's unclear if he did so intentionally. It's sometimes difficult
(06:15):
to distinguish between a grizzly bear and a black bear,
and most years we hear stories of hunters getting in
trouble for mistaking one for the other. Experienced guides and
outfitters shouldn't make this mistake, but it's not out of
the realm of possibility. What's landed Mickelson in trouble is
that instead of walking up to the bear, realizing his
mistake and reporting it right away, he allegedly sent photos
(06:36):
of himself with the bear to his buddies. Those messages
allegedly indicate that he knew the bear was a grizzly,
but he failed to report the kill for two full weeks.
We don't know why he eventually decided to call it in,
but you can probably guess. In any case, his tardiness
could earn him a fine of ten thousand dollars and
one year of probation. He's reportedly struck a deal with
(06:56):
the prosecutors that will levy this penalty in exchange for
a guin guilty PLEA speaking out fitters, behaving Badly and
Arizona man was recently sentenced to a full year in
prison for operating an illegal guiding service in Colorado, among
many other violations. The investigation began when game wardens in
Colorado became suspicious that fifty six year old Timothy Rawlings
(07:19):
was guiding clients in the state without the proper licenses.
He owned and operated Old West Guides and Outfitters in Lavigne, Arizona,
but he was apparently leading hunts for deer, elk, mountain lions,
and bears in Colorado. Unfortunately for Old Tim, the Feds
got involved because his crimes crossed state lines. Most of
his clients lived outside of Colorado, which meant that the
(07:39):
animals they killed ran afoul of the Lasiact. This law
originally passed all the way back in nineteen hundred, makes
it a federal crime to take poached animals across state lines.
Rawlins was also convicted of conspiracy to violate the Lasiact,
which means he knew what he was doing and he
took steps to give investigators the slip. And Rawlins didn't
just fail to register as a guide in Colorado. He
(08:01):
also bought and sold landowner vouchers, shot from vehicles, chased
animals with vehicles, hunted in unlicensed in unpermitted lands, and
failed to register animals taken, including mount lions. Along with
his year in the federal Slammer, Rawlins will also have
to serve three years of supervised release and pay forty
five eight hundred dollars in restitution. This is the type
(08:25):
of character that makes me want to remind you that
we don't call them bad hunters. We call them poachers
for a reason, because they're outlaws. You'll be unsurprised to
hear that Rawlins wasn't the only fellow who got caught
up in this scheme. Seventy one year old Howard Rodermrel
was also sentenced and find for Lazy Act violations. But
he didn't receive jail time. To add a little more
(08:46):
meat to the bones, or received an email from a
listener who says he's from the same town as Howard.
Says Howard's crimes were local knowledge for years, but the
game wardens weren't able to pin anything on him. Several
of this listener's friends told him they stopped hunting in
the area because quote Howard poaches anything good. Good on
the Mortons and federal agents for giving this guy their
(09:06):
just desserts. I hope they've learned their lesson. Moving even
further west to California, the wildlife agency there announced that
they'd recently busted illegal marijuana growers who had been diverting
water from famous steelhead fisheries. The California Department of Fish
and Wildlife said they recently served twenty one search warrants
on weed growing operations in Mendocino County, just north of
(09:28):
San fran They eradicated forty six thousand cannabis plants and
destroyed thirteen thousand, six hundred pounds of processed weed during
the process. They also confiscated thirteen firearms, a stolen vehicle,
and two poached blacktail deer, including a dough To make
matters worse, they also realized that these cush cultivators had
made nineteen illegal water diversions from local rivers. Two of
(09:52):
those rivers, the Russian River and the El are some
of the state's most famous steelhead fisheries. Riding over at
the meat eater dot com, Age Marshall reports that the
Russian River was once one of the more premier steelhead
fishing rivers in the world, though impact from logging, dams,
water diversions, and development have left it a remnant of
its former self. The Yel River remains a decent wild
(10:15):
steelhead fishery and will soon have two major dams removed,
potentially improving the fishery's long term health. Moving to international
wildlife crime, the world's most famous rhino breeder has been
accused of selling rhino horns on the international market. Eighty
three year old John Hume owns one of the world's
biggest rhino ranches, a twenty thousand acre property near Johannesburg,
(10:39):
South Africa that's home to over sixteen hundred white rhinos.
Hume has styled himself as a conservationist and a savior
of the species, but investigators say he also funnels rhino
horns into illegal markets in Southeast Asia. In total, they
believe Hume and five co conspirators smuggled nine hundred and
sixty four rhino horns valued at fourteen point one million dollars.
(11:03):
You can buy and sell rhino horns in South Africa
with the proper permits, but it is illegal to ship
them out of the country. For his part, Hume has
denied any wrongdoing. He has also argued previously that allowing
rhino ranches to profit from the horns will incentivize more
operations like his own. That's right. You just let him
(11:24):
sell the horns on the black market, then we can
have more rhinos behind fences. This, he says, will result
in more rhinos on the landscape, even if they're held
as livestock within ranches. Opponents argue that tying monetary incentives
to wildlife is always dangerous. There's a long history of that,
and that's even more true when it comes to endangered
and threatened species. We'll see how the legal process plays out.
(11:47):
South African law enforcement says they've been conducting this investigation
for seven years, so I imagine they have a fair amount
of evidence to back up their accusations. I have two
more for you, both involved hunters who helped solve crimes
rather than commit them. In the first story, a pair
of hunting guides in Maine helped police chase down a
(12:08):
shooting suspect. Matt Yorke and Kyle Bodett told local media
that they witnessed one man shoot another in broad daylight
in the town of Wyndham last week. Investigators say there
is no connection between the suspect and the victim, so
the shooting appears to have been random. York and Bodett
operate a guiding service for Bears, Deer and Bobcat, and
they were picking up a U haul truck when they
(12:29):
witnessed the shooting. They decided to go after the suspect,
and they say they followed his car into a parking
lot and rear ended him. They called police once the
suspect turned back onto the main road and gave a
description of the vehicle and the license plate, but they
abandoned the chase after they turned a corner and saw
the suspect pointing a gun at them, which I suppose
is understandable. Plus, like, what type of insurance. Did they
(12:51):
get on that U haul right. The suspect was found
later with a self inflicted gunshot wound. Along similar line,
a Minnesota angler may have helped solve a thirty year
old cold case. Brody Locke told local media that he
was fishing the Mississip when he noticed a large object
appear on his sonar device. The object turned out to
(13:12):
be a buick, and when officials pulled it out of
the water, they realized it was connected to a man
who went missing all the way back in nineteen sixty seven.
Car belonged to Roy Ben, who, at age fifty nine,
was reported missing to the Benton County Sheriff's office. He
was never seen again, but officials at the time said
he disappeared while carrying a large sum of money. What
happened to Ben has been the cause of much speculation,
(13:35):
but thanks to old Brody and his fish finder, they're
one step closer to getting his family some answers. Officials
haven't said whether Ben appears to have been injured prior
to going in the river, but I'm sure they'll update
the public as soon as they're able. Moving on to
the public land desk, speaking of getting onto land we
(13:58):
all own some new development On the Wyoming corner crossing case.
First up, a coalition of ranchers, landowners, and advocacy groups
have officially petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case,
which could overturn the earlier Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
ruling that made corner crossing legal in six Western states.
The United Property Owners of Montana, the Wyoming Stock Growers
(14:19):
and Woolgrowers' Associations, the Montana Stockgrower Association, and the Claremont Institute,
a conservative think tank, submitted a brief to the Supreme
Court laying out their arguments for why the higher court
should resolve the issue. One of those arguments makes sense,
but some of them will make you roll your eyes
so hard that you might sprain your optic nerve. On
(14:41):
the logical side, the group's brief states, quote, there is
a need for a nationwide rule addressing corner crossing, and
this case may be the only opportunity for the Court
to consider the issue. They are correct that the limited
jurisdiction of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals means that
corner crossing has only been made legal in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah,
(15:01):
New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas, which according to aex collectively
have three point three million acres of corner locked public
land that's not landlocked public land, but corner accessible public land.
There are still about five million acres outside the tenth
district that remain in a legal gray area across the West.
(15:22):
If the Supreme Court takes the case, their decision would
apply nationwide and resolve the question for all eight point
three million acres across the country. But that's where the
good sense of this group ends. The Claremont Institute lawyers
cited English common law from the seventeen sixties. How many
of you are English citizens? By the way, Well, if
(15:44):
you are, this pertains to you. In my humble opinion.
Your common law from seventeen sixty states the poorest man
in the meanest hovel can deny entry to the king.
That's right. The brief compares four Missouri Hunt to the
King of England, the billionaire pharmaceutical exec Fred Eshlmann to
(16:04):
the country's poorest man, and the airspace above a piece
of ranch property to the inside of that poor man's home.
That's the kind of reasoning that only law school can teach.
The Montana Stockmen's Association also built arguments on shaky foundations
when it argued that public access to public land quote
can cause great stress to livestock unquote. Ranchers can, of course,
(16:27):
choose to avoid that stress by not grazing their animals
on public land. They also point to all the maintenance
that private landowners would have to do on this land
because state and federal agencies like the BLM wouldn't be
able to get vehicles and equipment to this public land
to maintain it. That point certainly makes sense if it
didn't raise the question of how do the livestock growers
(16:49):
access that land? And if these folks want to talk
about a better system of granting easements into these parcels
for land management agencies, I'm all for it. However, I
believe in this case what they are talking about is
locking the public out of the land that we all
collectively own. These groups are filing this petition because they're
(17:10):
betting that a conservative Supreme Court will come down in
their favor. Legal analysts think it'll be very close, but
not a sure thing for either side. However, the Tenth
District ruling will stand if the Supreme Court declines to
hear the case. They're set to make that decision early
this fall, so stay tuned. Lots more to come on this.
(17:30):
Believe me, us folks here at Meat Eater, and I
know the good folks at Wyoming BHA and BHA in
general are very invested as well. On the other end
of the access issue, the Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural
Resources Committee of the Wyoming Legislature has advanced a bill
declaring that corner crossing is not an act of criminal
trespass or violation of game and fish laws. This bill
(17:54):
would essentially take the Tenth District decision, strip out all
the legal lees, and make it a clear law on
the books that would let law enforcement focus on other
things than responding to disputed trespassing claims. The full Legislature
will review the bill in November and consider any amendments.
Wyoming Backcountry Hunters and Anglers has asked the legislature to
(18:15):
go one step further, not just declaring that corner crossing
isn't illegal, but also protecting it as an affirmative right.
If the law says that we can use corner crossing
as a legitimate way to reach the land, we own,
then our right to do so is on much firmer footing.
The BHA brief also recommends an amendment defining a corner
as the point where two parcels meet, which would allow
(18:38):
corner crossing even in places where a precise property line
survey has not been carried out. This would prevent landowners
from intentionally using ambiguity over the location of property lines
to prosecute people for trespassing. A bill protecting corner crossing
as an affirmative right was drafted in the Wyoming legislature
in twenty eleven, but never made it out of committee.
(18:59):
This one has, so we're further along than we ever
have been before. But why don't we go even further?
What if US Congress passed a law giving us an
affirmative right to corner crossing everywhere in this great country.
That's not likely until the Supreme Court makes it a decision,
but it's not as impossible as it once seemed. For
more on the history of the corner crossing issue, on
(19:22):
X has a fantastic guide on its website and our own.
Jordan Sillers and Sam Lungren explained the nitty gritty in
a series of articles over at the mediator dot com.
You should buff up. There's more common. Last, but not least,
on this issue, it is imperative for folks who intend
on corner crossing to use the narrowest definition of the law,
(19:46):
which means crossing swiftly at the corner and only at
the corner, and doing so only through foot traffic. In
a sense, do as the Missouri four did, so out
of your way, as ridiculous as it may seem to
cross at the corner from public to public, pick up
(20:07):
any trash that you see, don't spend any extra time
there that is not absolutely necessary, and again only on foot.
Don't let some bad examples help the other side's case
here this fall all right, gang. Moving on to the
rhino dog desk, a rare piece of good news from
(20:28):
the world's rhinos came in last week from way Cambus
National Park in the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Sumatran
rhino is one of the most endangered animals in the world,
with fewer than fifty individuals remaining both in and out
of captivity. Conservationists were convinced that there were none remaining
in way Campus Park. Park rangers drones and camera traps
(20:49):
had failed to turn up any of them for the
past several years. Not only has the species been relentlessly poached,
but they are also notoriously reclusive, even in many cases
learning to avoid motion sensing cameras. The situation seemed so
hopeless that Nina Facione possibly Nina Facione, executive director of
(21:09):
the International Rhino Foundation, argued for bringing in specially trained
sniffing dogs to prove there were no Sumatron rhinos left
in the Way Canvas National Park so that she could
dedicate resources to protecting rhinos elsewhere. She told the news
outlet Mangabay that she thought, quote, let's get dogs in there.
We'll say we've tried everything. But the two dogs, Yaggy
(21:32):
and Quinn, did what dogs do best. After being trained
on the scap of ten Sumatron rhinos currently in a
captive breeding program, including specimens for males and females, mature animals,
and juveniles, within two days they had identified piles of
what researchers believe is rhino poop. And where there is
rhino poop, well there must be rhinos. Locating even a
(21:55):
few new rhinos could make an enormous difference for the
overall population because any species with so few individuals is
at risk for inbreeding depression, which happens when genetically related
to animals mate with each other and give birth to
offspring with birth defects and lower fertility. A classic example
is the Florida panther, whose numbers went down to as
(22:17):
few as twenty cats by the nineteen nineties. Inbreeding caused
health problems and reduced reproductive success and gave rise to
outward signs like kinktails and fur cowles. Conservationists then imported
ten female cougars from Texas in ninety five, and just
those few ladies improved genetic fitness so significantly that there
(22:38):
are now as many as two hundred Florida panthers in
the wild. Here's hoping that Sumatrin rhinos can find some
similar love connections. Maybe Aggy and Quinn can lead researchers
to some rhinos singles playing especially hard to get deep
in the rainforest. Moving on to the mail bag listener
Roy Matthewson wrote in with a question about lead ammunition, said,
(22:59):
there there's a push in Colorado to band lead ammo
and fishing tackle on state lance. He heard that ammo
makers have come out against the ban and said, quote,
while I do hunt poorly and fish some I do
not have the experience or knowledge to understand why opposition
from manufacturers exists other than for profit. Could you help
(23:20):
me understand this better. I'd really appreciate it. So there's
definitely a profit motive. Lead's pretty inexpensive and largely recycled
as well. There's another argument here that price increase in
ammunition will also push people out of not the shooting
(23:41):
sports because probably always be able to use lead and
shooting sports, but out of hunting, which is an interesting one.
But outside of that, and we've covered this a ton
on the podcast. Lead often has individual effects on animals,
specifically if you shoot something with lead, but it rarely
has population level effects on animal populations, and typically we
(24:06):
talk about population health when we talk about wildlife. Now
there's an intersection where lead and its individual effects on
animals can have a population level effect by removing an
animal from the population, think like California condor. Right in
(24:28):
those areas, then yes, we need to have concerted efforts
across the board, from the users, through the manufacturers, state
and federal agencies. But outside of that, you know, it
gets a little fuzzy, right. And when we talk about
lead fishing tackle bands, that should, in my opinion, only
(24:50):
apply to little tiny kids that lick their fingers all
the time and carry around lead fishing tackle and lead weights.
But hey, I'm still here and to fish in very
shallow water where diving birds that go down to pick
up gravel and grit in the bottom of these areas
can and do what's been proven pick up lead shot
(25:12):
and lead weights from fishing tackle. Again, like specific use case,
Like I said at the beginning of the show, if
you want to punch a road into a certain area
for a certain specific thing, and your argument is that
humanity needs it by God, then that's something we can
talk about. But do we need to roll back protections
(25:34):
that tons of people, tax paying Americans enjoy on fifty
eight million acres for that very specific use case that
may affect I don't know, five hundred acres, No, not
in my opinion. Thanks for the question, Roy. We always
like hearing from our audience, and I'm happy to announce
another way to let us know what's going on in
(25:54):
your neck of the woods. If you'd rather not type
out your message on a computer. You can now call
in and leave a message at this number four zero six.
That's Montana by the way. Two two o six four
four one four oh six two two oh six four
four one. We'll play your message on the podcast and
then I'll be able to answer your questions, respond to
(26:17):
your objections, or just laugh along at your jokes. You
can also take a voice memo and text it to
that number if you're one of the cool kids who
communicates by a text only again that number four oh
six two two zero six four four one, Give me
a ring. We'll chat about it. Thank you so much
for listening. You know the email ask c Al. That's
(26:40):
askcal at the meeteter dot com right in Let me
know what's going on in your neck of the woods,
or call thanks. 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 TikToker in Oregon is making waves on social media
by pretending to be a girl on the dating app
Hinge and then stealing phishing spots from unsuspecting would be lovers.
(00:31):
It's actually I'm not even mad, that's amazing. The user,
who goes by the handle at central dot Oregon dot
fishing has posted dozens of videos on the social media
app and racked up an impressive two hundred and twenty
six thousand followers. His cat fishing technique is pretty simple.
He creates a fake Hinge profile as an attractive woman
(00:53):
and then messages with guys who think they've won the
lottery a hot girl who wants me to take her
fishing sign me up. He pumps them for information about
their favorite fishing spots, information they probably don't share with
their closest friends, and then makes videos about the fish
he catches at those spots. I have no way of
knowing whether or not his gambit is real, but if
(01:15):
it is, I got to give him credit for being
an astute observer of human nature. There's only one thing
a dedicated angler cares about more than fishing, and this
guy has figured it out. And if you're a single
fisherman in Oregon, it's probably best to keep your date
in suspense about where you plan to take her. This week,
we've got wyworms and people don't mix, corner crossing rhinos,
(01:38):
and so much more of it. First, I'm gonna tell
you about my week, and my week has been tough.
I'm trying to knock out all the responsibilities before my
hunting season really starts up in Alaska at the end
of the month. Knock off the travel, focus on the gear,
replace the broken and abused stuff, and keep flinging arrows,
a lot of them of that. I'm sitting here recording
(02:01):
this as the comment period comes to an end for
the USDA reorganization, which will shut down regional offices such
as the one here in Missoula, Montana. Fear is that
because the closest regional office will be in Salt Lake City,
in my case, we're going to lose out on quick
local input. For instance, what fires we should let burn,
(02:25):
which Chief Schultz is not into right now, and what
fires we should let run so you know hunters can
be happy the coming fall and spring when that little
burn zones an ecological hotspot. Then tomorrow the public comment
period for the recision of the roadless rule opens. Fifty
(02:45):
eight million acres of designated roadless areas across the West,
the good stuff for a ton of hunters and anglers
that want to get away from the crowds. I gotta
tell you the reason the USDA is pushing this is
not to increase timber production. No, nobody has announced a
magical finance mechanism that pays crews to mechanically thin timber,
(03:05):
which they always talk about. It's the type of timber
cutting that somebody has to pay you to do, not
the type of timber cutting you get paid to do. Rescinding.
Roadless is about punching in roads for mineral extraction, which
we very well may need in some areas. But here's
the fun fact. If anyone tells you the only way
(03:26):
to build roads in a couple of areas for any
purpose is to throw out the entire roadless designation for
fifty eight million acres, well, friends and neighbors, gotta tell
you don't buy that. Bs. We need to make these
people do the hard work. Fifty eight million acres is
a lot of country, essentially, none of which is the
(03:47):
exact same, So why do we want to treat it
all the same. Let's not buy into the bs that
the management of fifty eight million acres needs to be
all one way or all the other. Hell, not that
many lights switches operate that way anymore. Seems to be
a dimmer switch on darn near anything. That's what I'm
gonna write in and tell him at the USDA and
(04:08):
my representative's office. This is lazy management. Let's act like
we're dealing with extremely valuable public land that deserves unique
management fitting of the uniqueness of the land itself. Moving on,
I have an unfortunate update for you over at the
(04:28):
screwworm desk. A man in Maryland has the honor of
being the first confirmed human case of the New World
screwworm since the most recent outbreak in Central America. The
man has not been identified, but Reuter's reported last week
that he had recently traveled to El Salvador. Initial reports
were that he came from Guatemala, but the Department of
Health and Human Services has since corrected the mistake. The
(04:50):
threat to humans from the flesh eating parasite is pretty
darn low. The worms are deposited when a New World
screwworm fly lays its eggs in an exposed wound, and
then those eggs hatch into maggots and burrow into the flesh.
Once a person gets it, the maggots must be removed surgically,
the wound is cleaned, and then the patient undergoes around
to antibiotics. It's not the kind of thing that can
(05:11):
spread from person to person, and the unfortunate Maryland mand
is the first Homo sapien in the US to get it.
In years since our last report, US Department of Agriculture
Secretary Brook Rawlins announced plans to build a sterile fly
facility in Texas as part of efforts to combat the pest.
These sterile flies are released into the population, which slowly
(05:31):
dwindles as it becomes unable to reproduce. Ranchers are pretty
rattled as they fear the parasite coming north and infecting
their herds, and wildlife biologists are also concerned, especially for
white tailed deer. We'll let you know if there are
any future updates, and for more information, you can read
Eli Fournier's article over at the meateater dot com move
(05:52):
it on to the crime desk. A hunting outfitter in
Montana has been accused of shooting a grizzly bear and
then failing to report the kill for two weeks. Court
documents say that Bryant Mickelson of Timber Mountain Outfitters has
been indicted for a misdemeanor. Officials say he shot at
grizzly during the spring black bear hunt back in May.
It's unclear if he did so intentionally. It's sometimes difficult
(06:15):
to distinguish between a grizzly bear and a black bear,
and most years we hear stories of hunters getting in
trouble for mistaking one for the other. Experienced guides and
outfitters shouldn't make this mistake, but it's not out of
the realm of possibility. What's landed Mickelson in trouble is
that instead of walking up to the bear, realizing his
mistake and reporting it right away, he allegedly sent photos
(06:36):
of himself with the bear to his buddies. Those messages
allegedly indicate that he knew the bear was a grizzly,
but he failed to report the kill for two full weeks.
We don't know why he eventually decided to call it in,
but you can probably guess. In any case, his tardiness
could earn him a fine of ten thousand dollars and
one year of probation. He's reportedly struck a deal with
(06:56):
the prosecutors that will levy this penalty in exchange for
a guin guilty PLEA speaking out fitters, behaving Badly and
Arizona man was recently sentenced to a full year in
prison for operating an illegal guiding service in Colorado, among
many other violations. The investigation began when game wardens in
Colorado became suspicious that fifty six year old Timothy Rawlings
(07:19):
was guiding clients in the state without the proper licenses.
He owned and operated Old West Guides and Outfitters in Lavigne, Arizona,
but he was apparently leading hunts for deer, elk, mountain lions,
and bears in Colorado. Unfortunately for Old Tim, the Feds
got involved because his crimes crossed state lines. Most of
his clients lived outside of Colorado, which meant that the
(07:39):
animals they killed ran afoul of the Lasiact. This law
originally passed all the way back in nineteen hundred, makes
it a federal crime to take poached animals across state lines.
Rawlins was also convicted of conspiracy to violate the Lasiact,
which means he knew what he was doing and he
took steps to give investigators the slip. And Rawlins didn't
just fail to register as a guide in Colorado. He
(08:01):
also bought and sold landowner vouchers, shot from vehicles, chased
animals with vehicles, hunted in unlicensed in unpermitted lands, and
failed to register animals taken, including mount lions. Along with
his year in the federal Slammer, Rawlins will also have
to serve three years of supervised release and pay forty
five eight hundred dollars in restitution. This is the type
(08:25):
of character that makes me want to remind you that
we don't call them bad hunters. We call them poachers
for a reason, because they're outlaws. You'll be unsurprised to
hear that Rawlins wasn't the only fellow who got caught
up in this scheme. Seventy one year old Howard Rodermrel
was also sentenced and find for Lazy Act violations. But
he didn't receive jail time. To add a little more
(08:46):
meat to the bones, or received an email from a
listener who says he's from the same town as Howard.
Says Howard's crimes were local knowledge for years, but the
game wardens weren't able to pin anything on him. Several
of this listener's friends told him they stopped hunting in
the area because quote Howard poaches anything good. Good on
the Mortons and federal agents for giving this guy their
(09:06):
just desserts. I hope they've learned their lesson. Moving even
further west to California, the wildlife agency there announced that
they'd recently busted illegal marijuana growers who had been diverting
water from famous steelhead fisheries. The California Department of Fish
and Wildlife said they recently served twenty one search warrants
on weed growing operations in Mendocino County, just north of
(09:28):
San fran They eradicated forty six thousand cannabis plants and
destroyed thirteen thousand, six hundred pounds of processed weed during
the process. They also confiscated thirteen firearms, a stolen vehicle,
and two poached blacktail deer, including a dough To make
matters worse, they also realized that these cush cultivators had
made nineteen illegal water diversions from local rivers. Two of
(09:52):
those rivers, the Russian River and the El are some
of the state's most famous steelhead fisheries. Riding over at
the meat eater dot com, Age Marshall reports that the
Russian River was once one of the more premier steelhead
fishing rivers in the world, though impact from logging, dams,
water diversions, and development have left it a remnant of
its former self. The Yel River remains a decent wild
(10:15):
steelhead fishery and will soon have two major dams removed,
potentially improving the fishery's long term health. Moving to international
wildlife crime, the world's most famous rhino breeder has been
accused of selling rhino horns on the international market. Eighty
three year old John Hume owns one of the world's
biggest rhino ranches, a twenty thousand acre property near Johannesburg,
(10:39):
South Africa that's home to over sixteen hundred white rhinos.
Hume has styled himself as a conservationist and a savior
of the species, but investigators say he also funnels rhino
horns into illegal markets in Southeast Asia. In total, they
believe Hume and five co conspirators smuggled nine hundred and
sixty four rhino horns valued at fourteen point one million dollars.
(11:03):
You can buy and sell rhino horns in South Africa
with the proper permits, but it is illegal to ship
them out of the country. For his part, Hume has
denied any wrongdoing. He has also argued previously that allowing
rhino ranches to profit from the horns will incentivize more
operations like his own. That's right. You just let him
(11:24):
sell the horns on the black market, then we can
have more rhinos behind fences. This, he says, will result
in more rhinos on the landscape, even if they're held
as livestock within ranches. Opponents argue that tying monetary incentives
to wildlife is always dangerous. There's a long history of that,
and that's even more true when it comes to endangered
and threatened species. We'll see how the legal process plays out.
(11:47):
South African law enforcement says they've been conducting this investigation
for seven years, so I imagine they have a fair amount
of evidence to back up their accusations. I have two
more for you, both involved hunters who helped solve crimes
rather than commit them. In the first story, a pair
of hunting guides in Maine helped police chase down a
(12:08):
shooting suspect. Matt Yorke and Kyle Bodett told local media
that they witnessed one man shoot another in broad daylight
in the town of Wyndham last week. Investigators say there
is no connection between the suspect and the victim, so
the shooting appears to have been random. York and Bodett
operate a guiding service for Bears, Deer and Bobcat, and
they were picking up a U haul truck when they
(12:29):
witnessed the shooting. They decided to go after the suspect,
and they say they followed his car into a parking
lot and rear ended him. They called police once the
suspect turned back onto the main road and gave a
description of the vehicle and the license plate, but they
abandoned the chase after they turned a corner and saw
the suspect pointing a gun at them, which I suppose
is understandable. Plus, like, what type of insurance. Did they
(12:51):
get on that U haul right. The suspect was found
later with a self inflicted gunshot wound. Along similar line,
a Minnesota angler may have helped solve a thirty year
old cold case. Brody Locke told local media that he
was fishing the Mississip when he noticed a large object
appear on his sonar device. The object turned out to
(13:12):
be a buick, and when officials pulled it out of
the water, they realized it was connected to a man
who went missing all the way back in nineteen sixty seven.
Car belonged to Roy Ben, who, at age fifty nine,
was reported missing to the Benton County Sheriff's office. He
was never seen again, but officials at the time said
he disappeared while carrying a large sum of money. What
happened to Ben has been the cause of much speculation,
(13:35):
but thanks to old Brody and his fish finder, they're
one step closer to getting his family some answers. Officials
haven't said whether Ben appears to have been injured prior
to going in the river, but I'm sure they'll update
the public as soon as they're able. Moving on to
the public land desk, speaking of getting onto land we
(13:58):
all own some new development On the Wyoming corner crossing case.
First up, a coalition of ranchers, landowners, and advocacy groups
have officially petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case,
which could overturn the earlier Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
ruling that made corner crossing legal in six Western states.
The United Property Owners of Montana, the Wyoming Stock Growers
(14:19):
and Woolgrowers' Associations, the Montana Stockgrower Association, and the Claremont Institute,
a conservative think tank, submitted a brief to the Supreme
Court laying out their arguments for why the higher court
should resolve the issue. One of those arguments makes sense,
but some of them will make you roll your eyes
so hard that you might sprain your optic nerve. On
(14:41):
the logical side, the group's brief states, quote, there is
a need for a nationwide rule addressing corner crossing, and
this case may be the only opportunity for the Court
to consider the issue. They are correct that the limited
jurisdiction of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals means that
corner crossing has only been made legal in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah,
(15:01):
New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas, which according to aex collectively
have three point three million acres of corner locked public
land that's not landlocked public land, but corner accessible public land.
There are still about five million acres outside the tenth
district that remain in a legal gray area across the West.
(15:22):
If the Supreme Court takes the case, their decision would
apply nationwide and resolve the question for all eight point
three million acres across the country. But that's where the
good sense of this group ends. The Claremont Institute lawyers
cited English common law from the seventeen sixties. How many
of you are English citizens? By the way, Well, if
(15:44):
you are, this pertains to you. In my humble opinion.
Your common law from seventeen sixty states the poorest man
in the meanest hovel can deny entry to the king.
That's right. The brief compares four Missouri Hunt to the
King of England, the billionaire pharmaceutical exec Fred Eshlmann to
(16:04):
the country's poorest man, and the airspace above a piece
of ranch property to the inside of that poor man's home.
That's the kind of reasoning that only law school can teach.
The Montana Stockmen's Association also built arguments on shaky foundations
when it argued that public access to public land quote
can cause great stress to livestock unquote. Ranchers can, of course,
(16:27):
choose to avoid that stress by not grazing their animals
on public land. They also point to all the maintenance
that private landowners would have to do on this land
because state and federal agencies like the BLM wouldn't be
able to get vehicles and equipment to this public land
to maintain it. That point certainly makes sense if it
didn't raise the question of how do the livestock growers
(16:49):
access that land? And if these folks want to talk
about a better system of granting easements into these parcels
for land management agencies, I'm all for it. However, I
believe in this case what they are talking about is
locking the public out of the land that we all
collectively own. These groups are filing this petition because they're
(17:10):
betting that a conservative Supreme Court will come down in
their favor. Legal analysts think it'll be very close, but
not a sure thing for either side. However, the Tenth
District ruling will stand if the Supreme Court declines to
hear the case. They're set to make that decision early
this fall, so stay tuned. Lots more to come on this.
(17:30):
Believe me, us folks here at Meat Eater, and I
know the good folks at Wyoming BHA and BHA in
general are very invested as well. On the other end
of the access issue, the Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural
Resources Committee of the Wyoming Legislature has advanced a bill
declaring that corner crossing is not an act of criminal
trespass or violation of game and fish laws. This bill
(17:54):
would essentially take the Tenth District decision, strip out all
the legal lees, and make it a clear law on
the books that would let law enforcement focus on other
things than responding to disputed trespassing claims. The full Legislature
will review the bill in November and consider any amendments.
Wyoming Backcountry Hunters and Anglers has asked the legislature to
(18:15):
go one step further, not just declaring that corner crossing
isn't illegal, but also protecting it as an affirmative right.
If the law says that we can use corner crossing
as a legitimate way to reach the land, we own,
then our right to do so is on much firmer footing.
The BHA brief also recommends an amendment defining a corner
as the point where two parcels meet, which would allow
(18:38):
corner crossing even in places where a precise property line
survey has not been carried out. This would prevent landowners
from intentionally using ambiguity over the location of property lines
to prosecute people for trespassing. A bill protecting corner crossing
as an affirmative right was drafted in the Wyoming legislature
in twenty eleven, but never made it out of committee.
(18:59):
This one has, so we're further along than we ever
have been before. But why don't we go even further?
What if US Congress passed a law giving us an
affirmative right to corner crossing everywhere in this great country.
That's not likely until the Supreme Court makes it a decision,
but it's not as impossible as it once seemed. For
more on the history of the corner crossing issue, on
(19:22):
X has a fantastic guide on its website and our own.
Jordan Sillers and Sam Lungren explained the nitty gritty in
a series of articles over at the mediator dot com.
You should buff up. There's more common. Last, but not least,
on this issue, it is imperative for folks who intend
on corner crossing to use the narrowest definition of the law,
(19:46):
which means crossing swiftly at the corner and only at
the corner, and doing so only through foot traffic. In
a sense, do as the Missouri four did, so out
of your way, as ridiculous as it may seem to
cross at the corner from public to public, pick up
(20:07):
any trash that you see, don't spend any extra time
there that is not absolutely necessary, and again only on foot.
Don't let some bad examples help the other side's case
here this fall all right, gang. Moving on to the
rhino dog desk, a rare piece of good news from
(20:28):
the world's rhinos came in last week from way Cambus
National Park in the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Sumatran
rhino is one of the most endangered animals in the world,
with fewer than fifty individuals remaining both in and out
of captivity. Conservationists were convinced that there were none remaining
in way Campus Park. Park rangers drones and camera traps
(20:49):
had failed to turn up any of them for the
past several years. Not only has the species been relentlessly poached,
but they are also notoriously reclusive, even in many cases
learning to avoid motion sensing cameras. The situation seemed so
hopeless that Nina Facione possibly Nina Facione, executive director of
(21:09):
the International Rhino Foundation, argued for bringing in specially trained
sniffing dogs to prove there were no Sumatron rhinos left
in the Way Canvas National Park so that she could
dedicate resources to protecting rhinos elsewhere. She told the news
outlet Mangabay that she thought, quote, let's get dogs in there.
We'll say we've tried everything. But the two dogs, Yaggy
(21:32):
and Quinn, did what dogs do best. After being trained
on the scap of ten Sumatron rhinos currently in a
captive breeding program, including specimens for males and females, mature animals,
and juveniles, within two days they had identified piles of
what researchers believe is rhino poop. And where there is
rhino poop, well there must be rhinos. Locating even a
(21:55):
few new rhinos could make an enormous difference for the
overall population because any species with so few individuals is
at risk for inbreeding depression, which happens when genetically related
to animals mate with each other and give birth to
offspring with birth defects and lower fertility. A classic example
is the Florida panther, whose numbers went down to as
(22:17):
few as twenty cats by the nineteen nineties. Inbreeding caused
health problems and reduced reproductive success and gave rise to
outward signs like kinktails and fur cowles. Conservationists then imported
ten female cougars from Texas in ninety five, and just
those few ladies improved genetic fitness so significantly that there
(22:38):
are now as many as two hundred Florida panthers in
the wild. Here's hoping that Sumatrin rhinos can find some
similar love connections. Maybe Aggy and Quinn can lead researchers
to some rhinos singles playing especially hard to get deep
in the rainforest. Moving on to the mail bag listener
Roy Matthewson wrote in with a question about lead ammunition, said,
(22:59):
there there's a push in Colorado to band lead ammo
and fishing tackle on state lance. He heard that ammo
makers have come out against the ban and said, quote,
while I do hunt poorly and fish some I do
not have the experience or knowledge to understand why opposition
from manufacturers exists other than for profit. Could you help
(23:20):
me understand this better. I'd really appreciate it. So there's
definitely a profit motive. Lead's pretty inexpensive and largely recycled
as well. There's another argument here that price increase in
ammunition will also push people out of not the shooting
(23:41):
sports because probably always be able to use lead and
shooting sports, but out of hunting, which is an interesting one.
But outside of that, and we've covered this a ton
on the podcast. Lead often has individual effects on animals,
specifically if you shoot something with lead, but it rarely
has population level effects on animal populations, and typically we
(24:06):
talk about population health when we talk about wildlife. Now
there's an intersection where lead and its individual effects on
animals can have a population level effect by removing an
animal from the population, think like California condor. Right in
(24:28):
those areas, then yes, we need to have concerted efforts
across the board, from the users, through the manufacturers, state
and federal agencies. But outside of that, you know, it
gets a little fuzzy, right. And when we talk about
lead fishing tackle bands, that should, in my opinion, only
(24:50):
apply to little tiny kids that lick their fingers all
the time and carry around lead fishing tackle and lead weights.
But hey, I'm still here and to fish in very
shallow water where diving birds that go down to pick
up gravel and grit in the bottom of these areas
can and do what's been proven pick up lead shot
(25:12):
and lead weights from fishing tackle. Again, like specific use case,
Like I said at the beginning of the show, if
you want to punch a road into a certain area
for a certain specific thing, and your argument is that
humanity needs it by God, then that's something we can
talk about. But do we need to roll back protections
(25:34):
that tons of people, tax paying Americans enjoy on fifty
eight million acres for that very specific use case that
may affect I don't know, five hundred acres, No, not
in my opinion. Thanks for the question, Roy. We always
like hearing from our audience, and I'm happy to announce
another way to let us know what's going on in
(25:54):
your neck of the woods. If you'd rather not type
out your message on a computer. You can now call
in and leave a message at this number four zero six.
That's Montana by the way. Two two o six four
four one four oh six two two oh six four
four one. We'll play your message on the podcast and
then I'll be able to answer your questions, respond to
(26:17):
your objections, or just laugh along at your jokes. You
can also take a voice memo and text it to
that number if you're one of the cool kids who
communicates by a text only again that number four oh
six two two zero six four four one, Give me
a ring. We'll chat about it. Thank you so much
for listening. You know the email ask c Al. That's
(26:40):
askcal at the meeteter dot com right in Let me
know what's going on in your neck of the woods,
or call thanks. Talk to you next week.
Host
Cal Callaghan
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