Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
From Mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is
Cal's Weekend review, presented by Steel Steel products are available
only at authorized dealers. For more, go to Steel Dealers
dot com. Now here's your host, Ryan cal Callahan.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
A small city in southern California, recently became the first
municipality in the US to recognize the legal rights of
a non human animal. The Ohai City Council voted four
to one last month to give elephants the right to
bodily liberty. Quote. The City Council intends to adopt an
ordinance to codify elephant's fundamental right to bodily liberty, thereby
(00:46):
prohibiting the keeping of elephants in captive settings that deprive
them of their autonomy and ability to engage in their
innate behaviors. You might be wondering what motivated this first
of its kind to ordinance. Is there an elephant being
unjustly held captive within city limits? Not exactly. The Non
Human Rights Project explains in a press release that there
(01:08):
used to be a captive elephant named Tara that lived
in the Ohi Valley and was used for entertainment. This
was the nineteen eighties and people could still be entertained
by a roller skating elephant, but Tara is no longer
with us, so this ordinance was passed to make sure
no other elephant will be subjected to that kind of indignity.
(01:28):
Fun fact for you. The last time, and I think
only time I was in OHI, I was subjected to
a first and saw somebody shooting up behind the bank
of all places. Hopefully OHI has taken care of that
situation and moved on to elephants, not in the other order,
I'm afraid n Anyway, what the actual ordinance is, Elephants
(01:57):
can still be held in captivity as long as it's
the right kind of jail. The ordinance makes an exception,
for example, for elephants held at a sanctuary accredited by
the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. If the sanctuary has
not been accredited, it must allow elephants to quote exercise
their autonomy and prohibits elephants from being put on display, bred,
(02:19):
or housed in settings that do not closely resemble their
natural habitat. But what happens if that's how they're exercising
their autonomy as well? Whatever you think about giving legal
rights to elephants. You have to admit that calling a
prison a sanctuary is one of the best euphemisms out there,
because if you really think elephants have the right to
(02:39):
bodily liberty, even the nicest animal sanctuary is still a
prison of sorts. Thanks to listener Shane Norwood for sending
us that story. This week, we've got Hooters, mules, legislation,
and the mail bag. But first I'm going to tell
you about my week. And my week was, you know,
it's just a hustle, lot's going on. It was, you know,
(03:01):
the pheasant and antelope opening season, which is something Snort
and I are real, real big fans of. I got
sick as a dog had a shootout in Wyoming. Snort
got sick, was puking all over the place. And my
grandmother died, Marion Walton, which sucks only in the fact
that I can't call her up and ask about a
(03:22):
recipe or all manner of like home diy things that
she was good about, like how to cut glass. And
we also can't argue about what is actually a word
in scrabble. I can and really should go on and
on about this lady, but pertin into this podcast. My
grandmother was born October twelve, nineteen twenty eight. That's the
(03:43):
time of Zeppelin travel, not the band. FDR and Hoover
are campaigning for president, and it's still the Great Depression.
Hard scrabble folks familiar with all the off cuts of
meat and a wide variety of game. Just last week.
I could call this lay and ask for a recipe
for pheasant, trout, smelt, rabbit, gizzards or liver, and she'd
(04:05):
give me the step by step off of the top
of her head. Food was always a big deal in
her house, and everyone was expected to chip in and
help in some way. It was a great thing to
be exposed to, big kitchen, big family. She had ten kids.
It was to eat what's on your plate, say please,
thank you, bless this meal, realize how fortunate we are.
(04:27):
Then help clean up and cheat at scrabble, which she
would do by laying out a questionable word with absolute certainty,
and then defend herself by looking you dead in the
eye and dare you to challenge at the risk of
a insulting your grandmother and be losing your turn anyway.
(04:49):
One of the best memories of this lady was only
four or five years ago when she got very aggressive
about learning how to fly fish, which is something all
ninety year old should do. This was a bit of
a because Granny only had part of one lung, she
was a multiple time cancer beater and had acquiesced to
life with an oxygen tank only a few years prior.
(05:10):
I honestly think this lady was a certifiable genius based
on how sharp she was, especially when you consider how
many brain cells she donated due to lack of oxygen
over the years. She hated the oxygen tank. She was
definitely a little vain and proud, but she didn't want
to be limited by this thing that had to be
refilled and recharged and how much was in there. Her
(05:32):
supply was a visible meter and all of us had
to pay attention to it. So anyway, there we were,
standing on the banks of the Boulder River in mid July, Montana.
I was well prepared because years ago I had made
a meager living teaching people how to fly cast. Every
day for most of every summer brought a new set
of beginners who wanted to learn, and every day I'd
(05:55):
repeat what I had the day before. Rod tip high
back stop, forward, stop, follow your fly with your odd tip.
Now Granny was an angler. She was super proud about
catching a hawl a bit up in Alaska one time,
catching trout off the river banks. And for whatever reason,
I had in my mind that Granny had known how
(06:16):
to fly fish, even though she said she didn't. I
thought this was like a senior moment she was having.
And sure enough, after only half a dozen casts, she
was incrementally adding line and casting further, not getting tangled
up or hooking stuff behind her, and she was dropping
the fly on the water. I said, Graham, I knew
(06:37):
you knew how to do this. She said, no, Ryan,
when you're my age and you want to learn something,
you listen and do it. You don't have any time
to waste. We were really fortunate that day. The Boulder
River out of Big Timber, Montana is known for windy days,
and we had zero wind. The water level on the
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Boulder can often be too high and fast for most anglers,
or too low and bony that a one lunged old
lady couldn't safely walk to where the fish were, but
we had the in between. The river hadn't fully dropped,
there was a side channel within casting distance of the bank,
and there were a few trout visible just below the surface.
(07:20):
Granny got a couple of eats. I kept changing flies
to entice them again and again, but she didn't quite
have the hook set. But it was amazing, right, she
could see the fish coming up for the fly. She
was doing it all on her own, she got it
was incredible. Unfortunately, before we'd caught anything, she was getting
noticeably tired and out of breath. I said, you know,
(07:44):
we should probably call it. And I gotta tell you, man,
if looks could kill, I mean, I'd have been stone
dead on that river. And then I remember to look
at the oxygen tank and noticed that the old gal
had turned her oxygen down to the lowest setting in
order to preserve gas and fishing time. My kind of lady, right,
(08:05):
So after discovering this, I rolled up the oxygen flow
turned it up to eleven, as they say, and the
effects were immediate, so much so that when Granny couldn't
quite get the distance out of her cast, she, without
asking and giving no notice, charged into the river. So
focused on the fish she just believed. I guess that
(08:28):
the current and the snot slick river rocks could not
harm her. I, on the other hand, in mild cardiac arrest,
imagining having to explain the drowning of a frail old
woman to ten kids and twenty seven grandchildren, managed to
just reach out and grab in the nick of time,
a combination of shirttail, her underwear and part of her pants.
(08:52):
And I'll tell you that, no matter how old you get,
if you find yourself holding up your grandmother by her underpants,
it is not a comfortable situation. But as we are
now knee deep in the river, by the stretch of
the elastic band over unders and maybe some sort of
divine intervention, she reached just far enough out to the
(09:14):
last unfazed trout in the riffle and it ate, this
being a famed Boulder River brown trout, it ate slow,
perfectly matching Granny's hook set, and we had a fish
on rod bent fish pulling and it was just magic.
It was amazing. But to let you down full disclosure,
(09:35):
the hook broke, specifically my hook broke, the one that
I had tied on, and she knew it. When the
trout came off, I said, Hedge, Cram, you did everything right,
but the you know, the line broke and Granny said, no,
the hook broke, you must have used a rusty hook,
and she was right. So here's some takeaways. Don't listen
(10:00):
to people who say they can't go. Think of my
one lunged, cancer riddled grandma. Often it is the desire
that holds you back, not the physical condition. So don't
bitch about how certain things are not for you if
you don't have the determination to at least try them. Two,
use fresh hooks, and three save your oxygen for when
(10:22):
it's needed, but when it is, turn it up to eleven.
Moving on to the owl desk. For the first time
since Wyoming ornithologists have been keeping track of such things,
a breeding pair of barred owls has been discovered in
the state. While barred owls are not native to North America,
(10:43):
they are not native to the western half of the continent.
Their presence in Wyoming is interesting to amateur birders, but
it's making ornithologists in the state nervous. That's because bard
owls are generalists. When you're trying to survive as a species,
it's best to not be a picky eat and barred
owls eat just about anything from small mammals like mice
(11:04):
and rabbits, to larger mammals like possums, to other birds,
to frogs, to crayfish. Barreed owls can also be territorial
and aggressive. These attributes have let them expand their range
north into Canada and west into Pacific states like Washington, Oregon,
and California. They've especially been a problem in Washington State,
where their presence has led to a reduction in the
(11:27):
endangered spotted owl population. Spotted owls are less aggressive and
more specialized eaters, and they often can't compete when barred
owls move into an area. The problem was so bad,
in fact, that federal wildlife officials in the US and
Canada have lethally removed bared owls from the landscape. That
strategy has been controversial but appears to be effective. According
(11:49):
to a twenty twenty one study, these spotted owl population
stabilized in areas where barred owls were removed, but continued
to decline by twelve percent per year in areas where
bar owls were not removed. This is why Wyoming ornithologists
are concerned. There are no spotted owls in Wyoming, but
the state does have native owl species like the great
(12:09):
horned owl and the great gray owl. Great horned owls
are also generalists and even more aggressive than bared owls,
so there doesn't seem to be much concern about them,
but Catherine Gura of the Teton Raptor Center told Wyofile
that she's concerned about gray owls. She said there isn't
much research on how gray owls and barred owls interact,
(12:30):
so biologists will have to monitor the situation closely. Comparing
the diets of the two species on the Autobound Society website,
gray owls look more like spotted owls than bared owls.
They feed on mainly small mammals like voles and gophers,
and only rarely branch out to frogs. A species survival
depends on more than just diet, and this is the
(12:51):
first breeding pair of bared owls to be observed in
the state, but it's easy to see why biologists are concerned.
Hearing or seeing an owl is one of the coolest
things that can happen in the woods. Bared owls are
similar in size to great horned owls, but lack the horns.
They are similar in profile to great gray owls, but
are smaller and have black eyes in contrast to the
(13:12):
great gray as distinct yellow eyes. This is what a
barred owl hoot sounds like, and you may have recognized
the call as one of Clay Newcom's favorites. Barred owls
have a distinctive call. The great horned owls have what
you might call a classic owl hoot and a round
(13:39):
out our owl choir. Here's what a great gray owl
sounds like. Now, the next time you're chasing elk in
the woods of Wyoming, you'll be ready to identify at
least three of the state's owl species. Good luck. Moving
(14:01):
on to the mule deer desk. We saw two stories
about California mule deer this week that show off how
different areas can have drastically different population dynamics. First, on
Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles, officials are
backing a plan to shoot mule deer from helicopters. The
Catalina Island Conservancy says that the introduced mule deer population
(14:24):
has grown well beyond the island's capacity to sustain By
overbrowsing and trampling native plants, the deer destroying the island's
ecosystem and threatening native species like the Catalina fox, ground squirrel,
and quail. Overbrowsing is also causing soil erosion, which can
negatively impact aquatic habitats and species. To deal with this
(14:44):
growing problem, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is
planning a management program that involves culling much of the
eighteen hundred deer herd. Hunting is legal on the island
with proper tags, but this apparently hasn't been enough to
stop population growth, so the conservancy and the Department of
Fish and Wildlife are planning to work with a private
management contractor to eliminate as much of the herd as possible.
(15:07):
As you can imagine, some of the island's residents aren't
too happy. An online petition has been circulating trying to
put a stop to the slaughter of the animals. They're
not killing their deer, the petition reads, they're killing your deer.
The petition says that older generations of people on the
island still rely on the deer for food and that
eliminating all the deer isn't necessary. They say the conservancy
(15:29):
in the state haven't done enough to increase hunting on
the island, and these groups have failed to engage with
residents or given them alternatives. I got to say here
real quick, I've researched hunt deer on Catalina, and it's
not straightforward. It's a little soupy from what I've seen.
They really try to push it towards only hunt without fitters,
(15:49):
which you know, I got nothing against hunting without fitters,
just wasn't what I was looking to do when I
was looking to hunt out there on Catalina. The Humane
Society has also gotten into the action. A member of
the Catalina Island Humane Society says that the deer have
been on the island for over one hundred years and
quote their gentle presence is an integral part of our
(16:10):
island's natural appeal. She calls for non lethal solutions like immunocontraceptives,
but is also open to allowing ethical and responsible deer
hunters to balance the population, which is like the best
thing out of the Humane Society you could ever hear.
This is not Humane Society us. By the way, by
the time you hear this, the final decision may have
(16:33):
already been made, but as of this recording, the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife has yet to make a
final determination. There may be too many mule deer on
Catalina Island, but the population on the California mainland may
be headed in the opposite direction. A new report from
the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis notes that the
number of mule deer vehicle collisions decreased by about ten
(16:55):
percent per year between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty two.
While this is good for Golden State drivers, it's not
a great sign for the mule deer population as a whole.
The report notes that vehicle collisions can indicate population trends,
especially if there aren't big changes to traffic or wildlife movement.
Sure enough, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has
(17:17):
also reported a statewide decline of about one percent per
year in mule deer populations over the twenty six years
preceding twenty sixteen. The report concludes, quote in one to
two decades, statewide mule deer may be reduced to the
low hundreds of thousands, jeopardizing human enjoyment of this common
keystone animal and important carnivore food sources. That's a pretty
(17:41):
sobering thought, As California deer hunters head out into the
field this year, but it's not a problem that's going
to go away on its own. Moving on to the
legislative disk. A few weeks ago, I told you about
a new initiative by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and
Parks to get public fees feedback on a statewide deer
baiting ban. The agency wants to quote explore issues surrounding
(18:06):
baiting and wildlife and investigate how baiting impacts chronic wasting disease.
It's pretty clear from the agency statements that they're open
to a baiting ban, but want to get public input
before making a decision. Now, at least one Kansas state
legislator is threatening to defund the entire Kansas Department of
Wildlife and Parks if they move forward with the baiting ban.
(18:29):
State Rep. Lewis Bloom said at a public hearing, quote,
if you consider banning baiting, we're going to take a
million dollars off the top of your budget immediately, and
then we will go through every line item, bit by
bit and take off everything we can possibly find. One
of his allies is State Rep. Ken Corbett, who serves
(18:52):
as the chair of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Budget Committee.
Local media has pointed out that Corbett owns a lodge
in Topeka that offers deer hunting for thousands of dollars
per person. While baiting is already illegal on public land,
it is still legal on private land, which to me
is like the most jackass way to run a state.
(19:12):
Public hunters, you have to have a certain set of rules,
while as private land hunters you get a totally different
set of rules, even though what you are hunting, either
on public land or private land, is public wildlife. Some
argue that Corbett is using the power of the state
government to protect his own personal financial interests. It'll be
(19:36):
a bit harder to guarantee high dollar clients that they'll
bag a booner buck if they can't set out a
pile of corn. Kansas deer hunters don't sleep on this one.
I'm sure this won't be the last time we cover
this issue. The National Park Service and US Fish and
Wildlife Service have released a draft plan to restore grizzly
bears to the North Cascades ecosystem in northern Washington State.
(20:00):
The North Cascades is one of the two grizzly bear
recovery areas with no known populations, and the agencies say
natural migration is unlikely to repopulate them, so they've come
up with a three hundred and three page document outlining
three alternatives. Under the first alternative, no action would be taken.
Under alternatives B and C, three to seven grizzly bears
(20:20):
would be released into the Northern Cascades each year over
roughly five to ten years, with the goal of establishing
an initial population of twenty five grizzly bears before switching
to adaptive management. Alternative B would manage the population as
quote threatened, and Alternative C would manage the bears as
a non essential experimental population under Section ten J of
(20:43):
the Endangered Species Act. As we've covered before, giving the
bears a ten J status would give wildlife managers more
flexibility to respond to depredation events and other bear human conflicts.
The agencies have opened a forty five day comment window
for the public to voice their concerns. That comment period
ends November thirteenth, and you can find a link to
(21:04):
comment at the meat eater dot com forward slash col
I gotta tell you very interesting proposal here, Washingtonians. I'd
like you to just consider how many grizzly bears we
killed due to conflicts in states like Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.
Idaho has a population of one point nine million. Wyoming
(21:27):
has a population of five hundred and seventy eight thousand,
eight hundred and three. Montana has a population of one
point one million. Washington has a population of seven point
seventy three nine million. Grizzly bears get killed due to
human conflict in the lower forty eight. That's the only
(21:48):
way they get killed is human conflict. We're not talking
about hunting. I don't think it's gonna kind of take
the state of Washington very long to run out of
grizzly bears if they do introduce them. Moving on, New
York State is dealing with the fallout of a recent
law that requires a background check to purchase all types
of ammunition. Thanks to listener Tom Levy for sending this
(22:10):
one in The state background check system launched September thirteen,
and as of September twenty eighth, it's approved eighty three
hundred ammunition transactions. That's according to Spectrum News wont but
reports are surfacing of approval delays and even some high
ranking retired law enforcement officers have been denied. County sheriffs
(22:31):
from upstate communities are pushing back, arguing that the background
checks won't stop criminals from obtaining ammunition. Most criminals get
their guns and ammo from illicit sources, and the state
already required a background check for firearms purchases. Multiple challenges
against the state's gun laws are pending in federal court,
and the US Supreme Court recently held an emergency conference
(22:53):
to consider a challenge to New York's concealed carry law,
which included background checks on ammo. Over in Washington State,
eleven animal rights groups submitted a petition to lighten the
guidelines that govern when wolves can be killed for attacking livestock.
They say too many wolves are dying needlessly under the
(23:13):
current system, and they want to see the state deny
more permits to kill wolves. How many wolves are being
killed under the current regime about six per year. That's
six per year six. According to an annual report published
by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, forty four wolves
have been killed due to livestock conflicts since twenty twelve,
(23:35):
and six were killed last year. That's six wolves out
of a total of two hundred and sixteen canines and
thirty seven packs. The Department argues that the standards are
already strict and that they're doing much of what these
groups are demanding, but that's not good enough. Presumably these
eleven animal rights groups want to see that number drop
down to zero. They've submitted a petition to the Washington
(23:56):
Fish and Wildlife Commission, which we'll take it up at
an upcome meeting. I think what they need to do
is probably talk to the wolves themselves, who are, of
course the number one predator of wolves. Speaking of animal
rights groups, the Wild Earth Guardians filed the petition in
federal court last month to stop Montana's wolf trapping season.
(24:17):
They say that setting traps for wolves and grizzly bear
habitat will lead to unintentional bear killings, which they say
violates the Endangered Species Act. How many bears get caught
in traps set for wolves? The lawsuit claims that there
have been quote twenty one verified grizzly bears caught in
leg hold traps set for coyotes and wolves in Montana.
(24:39):
The suit doesn't include a timeline. A little internet sleuthing
reveals that their data includes all the bears caught since
nineteen ninety. That's about half a bear per year. You
might argue that the grizzly population has been growing, so
we can expect the rate of captures to increase. But
a little more sleuthing reveals that only six bears have
(25:00):
been caught in wolf traps since twenty ten, and the
word is caught, not killed. Many of those bears survived
the traps, albeit with some pretty nasty wounds. But there's
an even bigger picture here that deserves a mention. For
many years, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana have been trying to
get grizzlies delisted so the state agencies can take over management.
(25:21):
Wild Earth Guardians is using this lawsuit to argue that
Montana can't be trusted to do that. They say Montana
is using a quote archaic approach to wildlife management, and
that this quote proves Montana cannot manage grizzly bears if
they are delisted. With human bear conflicts on the rise
in a population topping two thousand, I'll let you decide
(25:44):
whether a half a bear per year is enough to
prove that Montana can't manage the bears. In its state.
Moving on to the mailbag desk, listener James Morton wrote
in to tell me about a controversial deer call in Youngstown, Ohio.
City and state officials approved a proposal to allow three
(26:05):
hundred and thirty one hunters to go after whitetail deer
in Mill Creek Metro Park. As we've covered on this
podcast before, this is a common way that metro areas
manage an overabundance of deer. Hunting is not usually allowed
in city parks, but this year archery and gun hunters
will be permitted to take six antlerless deer each that
(26:25):
won't count against their usual bag limits. The park will
be open during archery season, but close during gun hunts.
There's usually some amount of local controversy around these hunts,
but in this case the opposition is serious. Opponents of
the hunt say in a petition that they've worried about
hunters accidentally injuring pets and children. On the campaign's GoFundMe,
(26:47):
which has raised over eleven thousand dollars, they argue that
seeing deer helps relieve anxiety. Quote neighbors close to our
park can sit on their deck sip their coffee, and
enjoy the breathtaking deer should they make it appearance. These
folks have already tried and failed to stop the hunt
in county court, but now they've threatened to appeal that
loss to a higher court. James tells me that there's
(27:10):
also a Facebook group where opponents are threatening to throw
firecrackers in the hunting zones and use portable speakers to
scare deer away from hunters. This Facebook group has since
been deleted, probably because members were openly plotting to break
the law. For any of you planning to participate in
the Mill Creek deer hunt, here's a little info that
might come in handy. Section one five three three point
(27:33):
zero three of the Ohio Revised Code prohibits hunter harassment.
This includes placing oneself in a location that might affect
the behavior of wildlife or quote creating a visual, oral, olfactory,
or physical stimulus intended to affect the behavior of the
wild animal being hunted. In other words, it's illegal in
(27:56):
Ohio to intentionally scare deer away from lawful hunters. Under
this statute, hunters have the ability to secure a restraining
order against people who engage in this kind of behavior.
That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you
so much for listening. Remember to write in to ask
c Al. That's an asscal at the Meat Eater dot com,
(28:18):
and let me know what's going on in your neck
of the woods. On top of that, do you kind
of feel like it's fall already? Like snow is right
around the corner. We're getting snow on mountaintops right now.
You could probably use a clean, quiet, dependable, pro level
steel battery operated chainsaw or even like a micro chip
(28:39):
auto tuning gas powered chainsaw that's gonna buck up wood
faster than you can reach out and grab your granny
by your unders. How's that www dot steel Dealers dot com.
Find a local, knowledgeable steel dealer near you. They're gonna
set up with what you need and they won't send
you home with what you don't. Thanks again and I'll
talk to you next week. Had been in a fen
(29:05):
of the angastber
From Mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is
Cal's Weekend review, presented by Steel Steel products are available
only at authorized dealers. For more, go to Steel Dealers
dot com. Now here's your host, Ryan cal Callahan.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
A small city in southern California, recently became the first
municipality in the US to recognize the legal rights of
a non human animal. The Ohai City Council voted four
to one last month to give elephants the right to
bodily liberty. Quote. The City Council intends to adopt an
ordinance to codify elephant's fundamental right to bodily liberty, thereby
(00:46):
prohibiting the keeping of elephants in captive settings that deprive
them of their autonomy and ability to engage in their
innate behaviors. You might be wondering what motivated this first
of its kind to ordinance. Is there an elephant being
unjustly held captive within city limits? Not exactly. The Non
Human Rights Project explains in a press release that there
(01:08):
used to be a captive elephant named Tara that lived
in the Ohi Valley and was used for entertainment. This
was the nineteen eighties and people could still be entertained
by a roller skating elephant, but Tara is no longer
with us, so this ordinance was passed to make sure
no other elephant will be subjected to that kind of indignity.
(01:28):
Fun fact for you. The last time, and I think
only time I was in OHI, I was subjected to
a first and saw somebody shooting up behind the bank
of all places. Hopefully OHI has taken care of that
situation and moved on to elephants, not in the other order,
I'm afraid n Anyway, what the actual ordinance is, Elephants
(01:57):
can still be held in captivity as long as it's
the right kind of jail. The ordinance makes an exception,
for example, for elephants held at a sanctuary accredited by
the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. If the sanctuary has
not been accredited, it must allow elephants to quote exercise
their autonomy and prohibits elephants from being put on display, bred,
(02:19):
or housed in settings that do not closely resemble their
natural habitat. But what happens if that's how they're exercising
their autonomy as well? Whatever you think about giving legal
rights to elephants. You have to admit that calling a
prison a sanctuary is one of the best euphemisms out there,
because if you really think elephants have the right to
(02:39):
bodily liberty, even the nicest animal sanctuary is still a
prison of sorts. Thanks to listener Shane Norwood for sending
us that story. This week, we've got Hooters, mules, legislation,
and the mail bag. But first I'm going to tell
you about my week. And my week was, you know,
it's just a hustle, lot's going on. It was, you know,
(03:01):
the pheasant and antelope opening season, which is something Snort
and I are real, real big fans of. I got
sick as a dog had a shootout in Wyoming. Snort
got sick, was puking all over the place. And my
grandmother died, Marion Walton, which sucks only in the fact
that I can't call her up and ask about a
(03:22):
recipe or all manner of like home diy things that
she was good about, like how to cut glass. And
we also can't argue about what is actually a word
in scrabble. I can and really should go on and
on about this lady, but pertin into this podcast. My
grandmother was born October twelve, nineteen twenty eight. That's the
(03:43):
time of Zeppelin travel, not the band. FDR and Hoover
are campaigning for president, and it's still the Great Depression.
Hard scrabble folks familiar with all the off cuts of
meat and a wide variety of game. Just last week.
I could call this lay and ask for a recipe
for pheasant, trout, smelt, rabbit, gizzards or liver, and she'd
(04:05):
give me the step by step off of the top
of her head. Food was always a big deal in
her house, and everyone was expected to chip in and
help in some way. It was a great thing to
be exposed to, big kitchen, big family. She had ten kids.
It was to eat what's on your plate, say please,
thank you, bless this meal, realize how fortunate we are.
(04:27):
Then help clean up and cheat at scrabble, which she
would do by laying out a questionable word with absolute certainty,
and then defend herself by looking you dead in the
eye and dare you to challenge at the risk of
a insulting your grandmother and be losing your turn anyway.
(04:49):
One of the best memories of this lady was only
four or five years ago when she got very aggressive
about learning how to fly fish, which is something all
ninety year old should do. This was a bit of
a because Granny only had part of one lung, she
was a multiple time cancer beater and had acquiesced to
life with an oxygen tank only a few years prior.
(05:10):
I honestly think this lady was a certifiable genius based
on how sharp she was, especially when you consider how
many brain cells she donated due to lack of oxygen
over the years. She hated the oxygen tank. She was
definitely a little vain and proud, but she didn't want
to be limited by this thing that had to be
refilled and recharged and how much was in there. Her
(05:32):
supply was a visible meter and all of us had
to pay attention to it. So anyway, there we were,
standing on the banks of the Boulder River in mid July, Montana.
I was well prepared because years ago I had made
a meager living teaching people how to fly cast. Every
day for most of every summer brought a new set
of beginners who wanted to learn, and every day I'd
(05:55):
repeat what I had the day before. Rod tip high
back stop, forward, stop, follow your fly with your odd tip.
Now Granny was an angler. She was super proud about
catching a hawl a bit up in Alaska one time,
catching trout off the river banks. And for whatever reason,
I had in my mind that Granny had known how
(06:16):
to fly fish, even though she said she didn't. I
thought this was like a senior moment she was having.
And sure enough, after only half a dozen casts, she
was incrementally adding line and casting further, not getting tangled
up or hooking stuff behind her, and she was dropping
the fly on the water. I said, Graham, I knew
(06:37):
you knew how to do this. She said, no, Ryan,
when you're my age and you want to learn something,
you listen and do it. You don't have any time
to waste. We were really fortunate that day. The Boulder
River out of Big Timber, Montana is known for windy days,
and we had zero wind. The water level on the
(06:59):
Boulder can often be too high and fast for most anglers,
or too low and bony that a one lunged old
lady couldn't safely walk to where the fish were, but
we had the in between. The river hadn't fully dropped,
there was a side channel within casting distance of the bank,
and there were a few trout visible just below the surface.
(07:20):
Granny got a couple of eats. I kept changing flies
to entice them again and again, but she didn't quite
have the hook set. But it was amazing, right, she
could see the fish coming up for the fly. She
was doing it all on her own, she got it
was incredible. Unfortunately, before we'd caught anything, she was getting
noticeably tired and out of breath. I said, you know,
(07:44):
we should probably call it. And I gotta tell you, man,
if looks could kill, I mean, I'd have been stone
dead on that river. And then I remember to look
at the oxygen tank and noticed that the old gal
had turned her oxygen down to the lowest setting in
order to preserve gas and fishing time. My kind of lady, right,
(08:05):
So after discovering this, I rolled up the oxygen flow
turned it up to eleven, as they say, and the
effects were immediate, so much so that when Granny couldn't
quite get the distance out of her cast, she, without
asking and giving no notice, charged into the river. So
focused on the fish she just believed. I guess that
(08:28):
the current and the snot slick river rocks could not
harm her. I, on the other hand, in mild cardiac arrest,
imagining having to explain the drowning of a frail old
woman to ten kids and twenty seven grandchildren, managed to
just reach out and grab in the nick of time,
a combination of shirttail, her underwear and part of her pants.
(08:52):
And I'll tell you that, no matter how old you get,
if you find yourself holding up your grandmother by her underpants,
it is not a comfortable situation. But as we are
now knee deep in the river, by the stretch of
the elastic band over unders and maybe some sort of
divine intervention, she reached just far enough out to the
(09:14):
last unfazed trout in the riffle and it ate, this
being a famed Boulder River brown trout, it ate slow,
perfectly matching Granny's hook set, and we had a fish
on rod bent fish pulling and it was just magic.
It was amazing. But to let you down full disclosure,
(09:35):
the hook broke, specifically my hook broke, the one that
I had tied on, and she knew it. When the
trout came off, I said, Hedge, Cram, you did everything right,
but the you know, the line broke and Granny said, no,
the hook broke, you must have used a rusty hook,
and she was right. So here's some takeaways. Don't listen
(10:00):
to people who say they can't go. Think of my
one lunged, cancer riddled grandma. Often it is the desire
that holds you back, not the physical condition. So don't
bitch about how certain things are not for you if
you don't have the determination to at least try them. Two,
use fresh hooks, and three save your oxygen for when
(10:22):
it's needed, but when it is, turn it up to eleven.
Moving on to the owl desk. For the first time
since Wyoming ornithologists have been keeping track of such things,
a breeding pair of barred owls has been discovered in
the state. While barred owls are not native to North America,
(10:43):
they are not native to the western half of the continent.
Their presence in Wyoming is interesting to amateur birders, but
it's making ornithologists in the state nervous. That's because bard
owls are generalists. When you're trying to survive as a species,
it's best to not be a picky eat and barred
owls eat just about anything from small mammals like mice
(11:04):
and rabbits, to larger mammals like possums, to other birds,
to frogs, to crayfish. Barreed owls can also be territorial
and aggressive. These attributes have let them expand their range
north into Canada and west into Pacific states like Washington, Oregon,
and California. They've especially been a problem in Washington State,
where their presence has led to a reduction in the
(11:27):
endangered spotted owl population. Spotted owls are less aggressive and
more specialized eaters, and they often can't compete when barred
owls move into an area. The problem was so bad,
in fact, that federal wildlife officials in the US and
Canada have lethally removed bared owls from the landscape. That
strategy has been controversial but appears to be effective. According
(11:49):
to a twenty twenty one study, these spotted owl population
stabilized in areas where barred owls were removed, but continued
to decline by twelve percent per year in areas where
bar owls were not removed. This is why Wyoming ornithologists
are concerned. There are no spotted owls in Wyoming, but
the state does have native owl species like the great
(12:09):
horned owl and the great gray owl. Great horned owls
are also generalists and even more aggressive than bared owls,
so there doesn't seem to be much concern about them,
but Catherine Gura of the Teton Raptor Center told Wyofile
that she's concerned about gray owls. She said there isn't
much research on how gray owls and barred owls interact,
(12:30):
so biologists will have to monitor the situation closely. Comparing
the diets of the two species on the Autobound Society website,
gray owls look more like spotted owls than bared owls.
They feed on mainly small mammals like voles and gophers,
and only rarely branch out to frogs. A species survival
depends on more than just diet, and this is the
(12:51):
first breeding pair of bared owls to be observed in
the state, but it's easy to see why biologists are concerned.
Hearing or seeing an owl is one of the coolest
things that can happen in the woods. Bared owls are
similar in size to great horned owls, but lack the horns.
They are similar in profile to great gray owls, but
are smaller and have black eyes in contrast to the
(13:12):
great gray as distinct yellow eyes. This is what a
barred owl hoot sounds like, and you may have recognized
the call as one of Clay Newcom's favorites. Barred owls
have a distinctive call. The great horned owls have what
you might call a classic owl hoot and a round
(13:39):
out our owl choir. Here's what a great gray owl
sounds like. Now, the next time you're chasing elk in
the woods of Wyoming, you'll be ready to identify at
least three of the state's owl species. Good luck. Moving
(14:01):
on to the mule deer desk. We saw two stories
about California mule deer this week that show off how
different areas can have drastically different population dynamics. First, on
Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles, officials are
backing a plan to shoot mule deer from helicopters. The
Catalina Island Conservancy says that the introduced mule deer population
(14:24):
has grown well beyond the island's capacity to sustain By
overbrowsing and trampling native plants, the deer destroying the island's
ecosystem and threatening native species like the Catalina fox, ground squirrel,
and quail. Overbrowsing is also causing soil erosion, which can
negatively impact aquatic habitats and species. To deal with this
(14:44):
growing problem, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is
planning a management program that involves culling much of the
eighteen hundred deer herd. Hunting is legal on the island
with proper tags, but this apparently hasn't been enough to
stop population growth, so the conservancy and the Department of
Fish and Wildlife are planning to work with a private
management contractor to eliminate as much of the herd as possible.
(15:07):
As you can imagine, some of the island's residents aren't
too happy. An online petition has been circulating trying to
put a stop to the slaughter of the animals. They're
not killing their deer, the petition reads, they're killing your deer.
The petition says that older generations of people on the
island still rely on the deer for food and that
eliminating all the deer isn't necessary. They say the conservancy
(15:29):
in the state haven't done enough to increase hunting on
the island, and these groups have failed to engage with
residents or given them alternatives. I got to say here
real quick, I've researched hunt deer on Catalina, and it's
not straightforward. It's a little soupy from what I've seen.
They really try to push it towards only hunt without fitters,
(15:49):
which you know, I got nothing against hunting without fitters,
just wasn't what I was looking to do when I
was looking to hunt out there on Catalina. The Humane
Society has also gotten into the action. A member of
the Catalina Island Humane Society says that the deer have
been on the island for over one hundred years and
quote their gentle presence is an integral part of our
(16:10):
island's natural appeal. She calls for non lethal solutions like immunocontraceptives,
but is also open to allowing ethical and responsible deer
hunters to balance the population, which is like the best
thing out of the Humane Society you could ever hear.
This is not Humane Society us. By the way, by
the time you hear this, the final decision may have
(16:33):
already been made, but as of this recording, the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife has yet to make a
final determination. There may be too many mule deer on
Catalina Island, but the population on the California mainland may
be headed in the opposite direction. A new report from
the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis notes that the
number of mule deer vehicle collisions decreased by about ten
(16:55):
percent per year between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty two.
While this is good for Golden State drivers, it's not
a great sign for the mule deer population as a whole.
The report notes that vehicle collisions can indicate population trends,
especially if there aren't big changes to traffic or wildlife movement.
Sure enough, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has
(17:17):
also reported a statewide decline of about one percent per
year in mule deer populations over the twenty six years
preceding twenty sixteen. The report concludes, quote in one to
two decades, statewide mule deer may be reduced to the
low hundreds of thousands, jeopardizing human enjoyment of this common
keystone animal and important carnivore food sources. That's a pretty
(17:41):
sobering thought, As California deer hunters head out into the
field this year, but it's not a problem that's going
to go away on its own. Moving on to the
legislative disk. A few weeks ago, I told you about
a new initiative by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and
Parks to get public fees feedback on a statewide deer
baiting ban. The agency wants to quote explore issues surrounding
(18:06):
baiting and wildlife and investigate how baiting impacts chronic wasting disease.
It's pretty clear from the agency statements that they're open
to a baiting ban, but want to get public input
before making a decision. Now, at least one Kansas state
legislator is threatening to defund the entire Kansas Department of
Wildlife and Parks if they move forward with the baiting ban.
(18:29):
State Rep. Lewis Bloom said at a public hearing, quote,
if you consider banning baiting, we're going to take a
million dollars off the top of your budget immediately, and
then we will go through every line item, bit by
bit and take off everything we can possibly find. One
of his allies is State Rep. Ken Corbett, who serves
(18:52):
as the chair of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Budget Committee.
Local media has pointed out that Corbett owns a lodge
in Topeka that offers deer hunting for thousands of dollars
per person. While baiting is already illegal on public land,
it is still legal on private land, which to me
is like the most jackass way to run a state.
(19:12):
Public hunters, you have to have a certain set of rules,
while as private land hunters you get a totally different
set of rules, even though what you are hunting, either
on public land or private land, is public wildlife. Some
argue that Corbett is using the power of the state
government to protect his own personal financial interests. It'll be
(19:36):
a bit harder to guarantee high dollar clients that they'll
bag a booner buck if they can't set out a
pile of corn. Kansas deer hunters don't sleep on this one.
I'm sure this won't be the last time we cover
this issue. The National Park Service and US Fish and
Wildlife Service have released a draft plan to restore grizzly
bears to the North Cascades ecosystem in northern Washington State.
(20:00):
The North Cascades is one of the two grizzly bear
recovery areas with no known populations, and the agencies say
natural migration is unlikely to repopulate them, so they've come
up with a three hundred and three page document outlining
three alternatives. Under the first alternative, no action would be taken.
Under alternatives B and C, three to seven grizzly bears
(20:20):
would be released into the Northern Cascades each year over
roughly five to ten years, with the goal of establishing
an initial population of twenty five grizzly bears before switching
to adaptive management. Alternative B would manage the population as
quote threatened, and Alternative C would manage the bears as
a non essential experimental population under Section ten J of
(20:43):
the Endangered Species Act. As we've covered before, giving the
bears a ten J status would give wildlife managers more
flexibility to respond to depredation events and other bear human conflicts.
The agencies have opened a forty five day comment window
for the public to voice their concerns. That comment period
ends November thirteenth, and you can find a link to
(21:04):
comment at the meat eater dot com forward slash col
I gotta tell you very interesting proposal here, Washingtonians. I'd
like you to just consider how many grizzly bears we
killed due to conflicts in states like Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.
Idaho has a population of one point nine million. Wyoming
(21:27):
has a population of five hundred and seventy eight thousand,
eight hundred and three. Montana has a population of one
point one million. Washington has a population of seven point
seventy three nine million. Grizzly bears get killed due to
human conflict in the lower forty eight. That's the only
(21:48):
way they get killed is human conflict. We're not talking
about hunting. I don't think it's gonna kind of take
the state of Washington very long to run out of
grizzly bears if they do introduce them. Moving on, New
York State is dealing with the fallout of a recent
law that requires a background check to purchase all types
of ammunition. Thanks to listener Tom Levy for sending this
(22:10):
one in The state background check system launched September thirteen,
and as of September twenty eighth, it's approved eighty three
hundred ammunition transactions. That's according to Spectrum News wont but
reports are surfacing of approval delays and even some high
ranking retired law enforcement officers have been denied. County sheriffs
(22:31):
from upstate communities are pushing back, arguing that the background
checks won't stop criminals from obtaining ammunition. Most criminals get
their guns and ammo from illicit sources, and the state
already required a background check for firearms purchases. Multiple challenges
against the state's gun laws are pending in federal court,
and the US Supreme Court recently held an emergency conference
(22:53):
to consider a challenge to New York's concealed carry law,
which included background checks on ammo. Over in Washington State,
eleven animal rights groups submitted a petition to lighten the
guidelines that govern when wolves can be killed for attacking livestock.
They say too many wolves are dying needlessly under the
(23:13):
current system, and they want to see the state deny
more permits to kill wolves. How many wolves are being
killed under the current regime about six per year. That's
six per year six. According to an annual report published
by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, forty four wolves
have been killed due to livestock conflicts since twenty twelve,
(23:35):
and six were killed last year. That's six wolves out
of a total of two hundred and sixteen canines and
thirty seven packs. The Department argues that the standards are
already strict and that they're doing much of what these
groups are demanding, but that's not good enough. Presumably these
eleven animal rights groups want to see that number drop
down to zero. They've submitted a petition to the Washington
(23:56):
Fish and Wildlife Commission, which we'll take it up at
an upcome meeting. I think what they need to do
is probably talk to the wolves themselves, who are, of
course the number one predator of wolves. Speaking of animal
rights groups, the Wild Earth Guardians filed the petition in
federal court last month to stop Montana's wolf trapping season.
(24:17):
They say that setting traps for wolves and grizzly bear
habitat will lead to unintentional bear killings, which they say
violates the Endangered Species Act. How many bears get caught
in traps set for wolves? The lawsuit claims that there
have been quote twenty one verified grizzly bears caught in
leg hold traps set for coyotes and wolves in Montana.
(24:39):
The suit doesn't include a timeline. A little internet sleuthing
reveals that their data includes all the bears caught since
nineteen ninety. That's about half a bear per year. You
might argue that the grizzly population has been growing, so
we can expect the rate of captures to increase. But
a little more sleuthing reveals that only six bears have
(25:00):
been caught in wolf traps since twenty ten, and the
word is caught, not killed. Many of those bears survived
the traps, albeit with some pretty nasty wounds. But there's
an even bigger picture here that deserves a mention. For
many years, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana have been trying to
get grizzlies delisted so the state agencies can take over management.
(25:21):
Wild Earth Guardians is using this lawsuit to argue that
Montana can't be trusted to do that. They say Montana
is using a quote archaic approach to wildlife management, and
that this quote proves Montana cannot manage grizzly bears if
they are delisted. With human bear conflicts on the rise
in a population topping two thousand, I'll let you decide
(25:44):
whether a half a bear per year is enough to
prove that Montana can't manage the bears. In its state.
Moving on to the mailbag desk, listener James Morton wrote
in to tell me about a controversial deer call in Youngstown, Ohio.
City and state officials approved a proposal to allow three
(26:05):
hundred and thirty one hunters to go after whitetail deer
in Mill Creek Metro Park. As we've covered on this
podcast before, this is a common way that metro areas
manage an overabundance of deer. Hunting is not usually allowed
in city parks, but this year archery and gun hunters
will be permitted to take six antlerless deer each that
(26:25):
won't count against their usual bag limits. The park will
be open during archery season, but close during gun hunts.
There's usually some amount of local controversy around these hunts,
but in this case the opposition is serious. Opponents of
the hunt say in a petition that they've worried about
hunters accidentally injuring pets and children. On the campaign's GoFundMe,
(26:47):
which has raised over eleven thousand dollars, they argue that
seeing deer helps relieve anxiety. Quote neighbors close to our
park can sit on their deck sip their coffee, and
enjoy the breathtaking deer should they make it appearance. These
folks have already tried and failed to stop the hunt
in county court, but now they've threatened to appeal that
loss to a higher court. James tells me that there's
(27:10):
also a Facebook group where opponents are threatening to throw
firecrackers in the hunting zones and use portable speakers to
scare deer away from hunters. This Facebook group has since
been deleted, probably because members were openly plotting to break
the law. For any of you planning to participate in
the Mill Creek deer hunt, here's a little info that
might come in handy. Section one five three three point
(27:33):
zero three of the Ohio Revised Code prohibits hunter harassment.
This includes placing oneself in a location that might affect
the behavior of wildlife or quote creating a visual, oral, olfactory,
or physical stimulus intended to affect the behavior of the
wild animal being hunted. In other words, it's illegal in
(27:56):
Ohio to intentionally scare deer away from lawful hunters. Under
this statute, hunters have the ability to secure a restraining
order against people who engage in this kind of behavior.
That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you
so much for listening. Remember to write in to ask
c Al. That's an asscal at the Meat Eater dot com,
(28:18):
and let me know what's going on in your neck
of the woods. On top of that, do you kind
of feel like it's fall already? Like snow is right
around the corner. We're getting snow on mountaintops right now.
You could probably use a clean, quiet, dependable, pro level
steel battery operated chainsaw or even like a micro chip
(28:39):
auto tuning gas powered chainsaw that's gonna buck up wood
faster than you can reach out and grab your granny
by your unders. How's that www dot steel Dealers dot com.
Find a local, knowledgeable steel dealer near you. They're gonna
set up with what you need and they won't send
you home with what you don't. Thanks again and I'll
talk to you next week. Had been in a fen
(29:05):
of the angastber
Host
Cal Callaghan
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