May 13, 2023 • 41 mins
Curt Melcher is the Director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Curt is a native Oregonian, who graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.S. degree in Biology. He began his career with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife as a temporary employee in 1985. During his time at the Department, he has represented the State of Oregon in numerous regional management forums, including the Pacific Fishery Management Council, Klamath Fishery Management Council, and Pacific Salmon Commission Southern Panel.
Curt served as the Deputy Director for Fish and Wildlife programs from2007 through 2014 and was appointed the Interim Director in September2014. He was hired as permanent Director in February 2015 and is currently the President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
Curt is passionate about the conservation of Oregon's natural resources and is an avid hunter and angler.
Curt served as the Deputy Director for Fish and Wildlife programs from2007 through 2014 and was appointed the Interim Director in September2014. He was hired as permanent Director in February 2015 and is currently the President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
Curt is passionate about the conservation of Oregon's natural resources and is an avid hunter and angler.
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(00:00):
The Houston Safari Club Foundation is afive O one C three nonprofit organization that
supports the future of hunting and conservation. Wildlife and habitat conservation, youth education
and outdoor experiences, scholarships, andanti poaching efforts are just a few of
the programs supported by this organization.Monthly events, an annual convention, award
winning publications, networking opportunities, andvaluable resources for hunting knowledge or just a
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org or call seven one three sixtwo three eight eight four four. Tradition,
Conservation Family, the Odors. Itmatters to you, It matters to
(00:48):
us. This is Hunting Matters presentedby Houston Safari Club Foundation. Here's Joe
Bitar. It is time for HuntingMatters once again. This is your host,
Joe Bitar. You've gotten a bighead since you went solo last week.
Big head, that's what you getfor playing hooky and say calling me
like the day before and say Idid. I was tired. I didn't
(01:11):
want to come into work. Youcan't blame me for that. So did
you impose the death sentence? Lastweek? We did find him guilty of
murder? Yeah, yeah, itwas a kind of a very adult thing
that I did. I had juryduty for those I know it. You
couldn't stay around, hang around forthe sentencing, huh. Well, we
were gonna, but then after werented the verdict, they changed their whatever
(01:32):
they call it to where they wantedthe judge to sentence. Coincidentally, the
judge came in after the sentencing orafter the verdict and said, look,
I got to sentence this guy.What would y'all have given out? And
we all said, well, wewould have thrown the book at him,
because this wasn't the first time he'dand he admitted it, and he admitted
it. Yeah, and the judgeagreed. And actually this Thursday is when
(01:53):
Schill sentenced him, and so Igot to follow up with that and see
what happens. But yeah, yeah, fascinating stuff. Well it's a good
thing you weren't in there for likea month that it was pretty shutt and
closed. Yeah, open and closed. It was yeah, good. But
I mean I had respect for thejuries the justice system already, but sitting
in and doing a jury thing,man, that was were you nervous?
(02:14):
Very yeah? Yeah yeah, justbecause I have unpaid parking tickets and stuff
like that that they were going toget the price. You got selected too,
too, because I kept jumping upevery five minutes going he's guilty.
Well yeah, I'm not tupulle asmoke. But those people there to have
to know who you are. Imean you're pretty, you know, visible
publicly here in Houston and other placesas well. So not only that,
(02:35):
but the jury information you got tofill out, you know, I mean,
Amy's my wife, July's my kid. You know, they must recognize,
oh wait, this is Ramon Robe. Yeah you know, but it
had no bearing because they did askme, you know, can you be
fair? And parsonal I said,yeah, absolutely, Yeah. I think
everybody's guilty to proven innocent, butI'm glad I did it. I know
(02:55):
people make fun of it when theyget the summons and you know, they
roll their eyes, and my thingis of crude. I gotta go do
jury duty, but you should,you should go. Yeah, that's my
parise you're being called to serve yourfellow dude and the judicial system, and
you should go. It's a right. And how many countries are there where
the people don't ever have any decisionmaking in there and judicial process or any
(03:16):
policy. They wrote it in theBill of Rights you could have a jury,
a trial by jury and being ableto participate in that. It's just
like exercise in your first Amendment oryour second Amendment. I mean, it's
it's pretty cool. That is cool. Yeah. Yeah. And to be
on such a not a high profilecase, but such a you know,
it was it wasn't you know?This guy was jaywalking and you know,
(03:37):
I mean it was a real deal. We're talking autopsy photos and and uh,
you know, interview taping and youknow, and derogating taping and stuff
like that. Plus the best partis I got forty bucks a day was
selected for jury. Almost covered yourparking. Yeah, but that was cool.
That was cool. Up next,on the last forty eight, Less
(04:00):
puts the hammer down. Alrighty,what's happening with the Houston's Far Club Foundation
again, folks? In June,mister Tim Harold, who is a worldwide
trophy Adventures is coming to talk tous about hunting Uganda. That's June eighth,
on the fifteenth and sixteenth of June. Oh, we're double tapping.
Next month, the Houston Safari ClubFoundation Flip Flops and Pop Top saltwater Fishing
(04:21):
Tournament out of sanley On, Texasdown there near Galveston is happening, and
we got we got some cool stuffcoming up in the fall, but I'm
not going to reveal that stuff later. Come on, just give me a
s We're gonna have a one ofour life members who has got to be
in his seventies almost eighty that justclimbed kill Himanjaro is gonna come talk about
that. That's cool. Yeah,Wow, what am I doing with my
(04:43):
life? Wow? Underachievers? Bothwe are kidding. And then we'll have
our big Sporting Clays tournament in Octoberlike we normally do, and a lot
of cool stuff around that. Butgo to we Hunt we give dot org,
click on the membership drop down buttonand click on monthly events upcoming events,
and you'll see those things and folks, you can come if you're remember
or not. We just want youto come out and hang with us and
maybe you'll sign up become a member. We'd love for you to learn about
(05:04):
all things hunting and conservation, wildlifeand habitat by becoming a member and then
meeting some new friends and maybe someclients and business partners at those events as
well. You're talking about October events. You know, the NFL schedule was
just released Friday, and I knowthey were running ads about Yeah it was
released Thursday, whatever it was.But now it's got me in the mood
for fall all of a sudden.I mean, I know we're just getting
(05:26):
in the spring, but now I'mthinking, oh my god, you're events
in October. We got football comingup. I'm ready for college football season.
Yeah, college football, last yearof the fourteen playoff anyway, let's
move on and then Texas and Oklahomacome into the SEC after next year.
How about that? It's weird.I heard. I heard a rumor and
it has next to do with huntingand Kurt Art guest today is going to
be like, what are these guysdoing? Yeah? I heard that A
(05:48):
and M in Arkansas may leave theSEC in the next three to five years
and go back and form you know, like the Big twelve or whatever they
call it. They get tired ofbeing whooped. Well, A and M
stands better chance of competing. Butyou know, Arkansas and A and M
have not done well in the SEC. But they've gotten a lot of money.
They've gotten a lot of good recruits. So it's a whole new world
(06:08):
now. It transfer portal in this, all this paying players. I just
not your daddy's college football. Youcan talk about that forever that I have
moment, do ask Kurt what hethinks about I mean, he's in Salem,
in there where the ducks is it. I'm not shan beavers. They
have ducks and beavers and tigers.Oh. My. Our guest today is
Kurt Melcher. Kurt is the directorof the organ Department of Fish and Wildlife.
(06:30):
He is speaking to us today freshfrom Salem, Oregon. Kurt,
thanks so much for joining us.Hey, thanks for being here. Thanks
for having me. It's my pleasurebeing here. Sure you can. You
can just return the favor and haveramonent up to the beautiful part of the
world that you live in. Man, it is gorgeous up there. Yeah,
happy to do it. So,Kurt, you are You're a lifelong
(06:50):
resident Organ, aren't you. Iam. I've lived in Oregon for my
entire life. I'm a seventh generationor Aregonian and a direct the Senative,
a member of the Wilson Price HuntOverland party that came here in eighteen eleven.
Wowy, hot shot, that ispretty cool, I said, you're
(07:11):
a hot shot. That's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Established
the oldest American settlement west of theRockies at what is now Astoria, Oregon.
That's back when men were men.Yeah right, and women were women,
and so were the so were thesheep. What is it so,
Kurt, You're you're the director ofthe Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife,
(07:32):
And like you said, you're anative Oregonian. You went to University of
Oregon, got your degree in biology, and um, when did you join
the department up there? And kindof what led you to pursue that career.
Well, yeah, you know,I've always been interested in the outdoors,
of course, and I got mydegree in biology, and I was
just looking around for work after college, found a seasonal position here with the
(07:56):
department and stuck it out for thelast thirty eight years. And so really
it was my interest interest in theoutdoors that kind of started to starting me
down this path and then just builtmy career over the last almost four decades.
Then it's been great, great ride. Yeah, now you have a
(08:18):
you have a phenomenal state to runwildlife and habitat and that sort of thing.
And I want to dig a littlebit further. I want to talk
to you about the department in specific. We're gonna have to take a quick
break here on hunting matters. KPRCnine fifty folks. Stick with us.
We'll see you on the other side. He would listen to the music.
(08:39):
It's time to go fishing. Announcingthe Houston Safari Club Foundation Flip Flops and
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(09:00):
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For more information, go to wehunt we give dot org and click on
the membership monthly events dropped down orcall seven one three, six, two
three eight eight four four. Nowyou're bringing back memories of high school and
(10:03):
college back when I was sport tomullet. Oh my goodness, that's is
that true? Oh yeah, I'llto show you sometime, give you a
good laugh. Okay. Welcome backto Honeymatters KPRC nine fifty. This is
Joe B. Tar. I amRamon Roeblis. We joined today where our
guest Kurt Melcher Kirch is the directorof the Oregon Department Official Wildlife. And
before I forget folks um, checkout the website. It's my od FW.
(10:24):
That's myodfw dot com. Or youcan go to the other website at
DFW dot state dot or dot us. But I like them. I ODFW.
That's easy to remember, Kurt,Thanks once again for joining us.
Hey my pleasure, Kurt. Didyou ever have any embarrassing haircuts in high
school? Oh? Hey, Iwas in high school from nineteen seventy eight
(10:45):
to nineteen eighty two, so youknow, Oh yeah, heck yeah,
probably some bell bottoms too. Ohyeah, my man. Okay, I
remember when I pioneered. I pioneeredthe Levi's look too funny, too funny.
So, Kurt um, the stateof Oregon. Um, you've got
(11:07):
how big? How big is yourdepartment? How many of your people are
under your purview there in the stateof organized as far as the department goes,
Yeah, I have about thirteen hundredfull time of couvent employees here at
ODFW. So we're moderately large agencyin the fishing wildlife world. There's certainly
larger across the country. There's certainlylarge agencies, but I would say on
(11:28):
average most or smaller than that.Yeah. Um. Yeah. People don't
realize what, um, what aa task it is for these directors of
fishing, game and wildlife departments acrossthe across the US. Um. You
know, they think, well,this is the guy making the decisions running
all those people. But I mean, you know, we've done a lot
(11:48):
of work personally with the with theTexas Department, uh here in our home
state, and you know from youknow, and and Oregan is very diverse,
just like Texas is. I mean, you guys have huge fishing opportunities
there you have, you know,the oceanic aspect, you have the wildlife
and habitat in the forest and allthose sorts of things. So how much
(12:11):
how's your time? I mean,how do you manage your time between the
two? I mean, you know, we don't we're not harvesting clams and
muscles and things over here. Butthere's you know, of course certain of
course the oyster issues and always issuehere and saltwater fisheries. But how do
you how do you manage your timebetween all those things? You know,
it's a really good question. Ofcourse, I have staff that work on
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those things. Uh, you know, on a day to day basis.
Everything from marine commercial fishery management,recreational fishery management in the ocean, all
the inland fisheries, hunting seasons acrossthe state, habitat work as well.
You know, I like this,I guess I would say that for a
director. Many times, unfortunately,it's the tyranny of the urgent. You're
dealing with the issues that are causingum, you know, that are causing
(12:56):
the consternation somewhere in the States,and that seems to be the direct visual
many times too. Come in onthose. So a lot of times I
don't get to prioritize my work.I get you know, it gets prioritized
for me. Yeah. I canjust imagine coming in and saying, Okay,
you know, you've got this gameplan set for the day, and
then everything it's blown up, whetherit's whether it's at directly having to your
(13:18):
job, whether it's legislative issues andthat sort of thing. And you know,
the show's called Hunting Matter. SoI'm sure there's a few people,
quite a few people listen listening herethat have not been to Oregon or not
hunted in organ or fishing in Oregon. So, um, what for those
people who are unfamiliar, what arethe big game species that you guys hunt
in Oregon. Yeah, we haveboth Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain elk, we
(13:41):
have both California and Rocky Mountain,big orange sheep, we have Rocky Mountain
goats. We've got mule deer,blacktailed deer, Eastern whitetailed deer, Colombian
whitetailed deer, all of those areare hunted in Oregon. Then, of
course we have black bear, veryhealthy black bear population as well as very
(14:03):
healthy cougar population. All all arehunted. Did you say cougar? Cougar?
Yeah, hunt you out here?Yeah, yeah, yeah, someone
rem means six thousand plus cougars statewide. That's not to mention the ones at
the bars, right right exactly.Um, you guys have anything about those,
(14:28):
I'm sticking of the wildlife here exactly. That's a safe that's a safe
channel. You stay adult. I'mthe child here, all right, all
right? Um, So Kurt,do you guys have a lot of non
resident hunters that apply to hunting yourstate? And and and what are the
opportunities there for non residents to huntin Oregon? Yeah, we still have
(14:52):
some really great non resident opportunities ofcourse, like all of our Western Oregon
deer hunt tail deer, those areall over the counter tags, so you
can literally come in and buy onewithout e's going through a draw process.
Similarly, many of our elk huntsin the state are over the counter tags.
You can come in and buy themjust simply, you know, the
(15:15):
day you arrive in Oregon without havingthis pre plan. And then our controlled
hunts, which of course all ofour mule deer hunts, many of our
elk hunts are controlled hunts that iswe limit the number of participants through through
a random draw and those are wehave a statute that limits nonresident participations to
(15:35):
five percent, so only five percentof our tags in those controlled hunt draws
will actually be allocated to non residents. We certainly have non residents to apply.
We have prepping point system as well. They accumulate points for their hopeful
one day drawings. Yeah, Iknow, I've talked to over the years,
(15:56):
I've talked to a lot of peoplethat are you know, they apply
for these party points in these taxsystems and other states, and UM,
some people are lucky enough to getdrawn and some people aren't. And I
understand you guys have to you know, you have to allocate your resources to
U to put residents in priority m. One thing that I think a lot
of people don't know about UM isthat and I'm kind of blowing your department's
(16:18):
horn here, but you guys doconservation or auction tag permits for for nonprofits
for fundraising where um, you knowa large large portion of those funds go
back to the state to help youryour programs in wildlife and habitat. We've
been part of the application process inthe past, but tell us a little
bit about that program. Yeah,we have a we have a number of
tags that are legal to our whatwe call our Access and Habitat auction process.
(16:45):
So we will option off one bighorn sheep tag, one Rocky Mountain
sheep tag, and about a dozendeer and or elk tags annually. And
these are you know, very lengthyseasons. These aren't the normal ten day
season. There starts August one andgoes through the end of the year,
so they're very highly coveted and theydon't have the geographic restrictions that other controlled
(17:06):
hunts might have. We you know, I mean, I think this year
we sold our Rocking Mountains, wesold a big horned sheet tag I think
for like one hundred and sixty eightthousand dollars, which is record high for
us. The nonprofit that works withus on each auction, they get to
retain ten percent and the rest ofit goes right back into our Access and
(17:27):
Habitat program, which Access and Habitatin Oregon as Habitat program works on access
for hunters to private land as wellas habitat improvements spent it at wildlife,
so really great program. There's additionallythere's a search charge and every license.
So if you buy, you know, show if you come here to Oregon,
(17:48):
you buy a hunting license embedded inthat as a four dollars search charge
that goes to the Access and habitatprogram. So yeah, it's uh,
you know, there's there's certainly opportunitieshere for non residents. I would I
wouldn't. It's one other thing thatwe do that I don't think a lot
of folks know about, but wesell all of our all of our license
(18:08):
products to all active duty military basedon the state resident structure. For instance,
if you're active if you're active dutymilitary and your states in the campell
in June and you've never even setfoot in Oregon, you can apply as
(18:29):
a resident and start accruing points,you know for a future hunt, or
you can travel to Oregon and purchasea license to hunt state, you know,
with the residency structure. And asfar as I know, we're the
only state that does that. Everythingdoes military. Yeah, every state does
attractive duty military if they're stationed intheir state or if they have a residency
(18:51):
in their state. But we doit for any active duty military, whether
they whether they reside here or nevereven set foot in this state. They
can. They can state with residencystructure. That's very cool. I got
a kid stationed San Diego. I'llhave to let him know about that.
All right, folks, gonna takea quick break here on Honey Matters KPRC
nine fifty C. After the break, Welcome at Hunting Matters KPRC nine fifty
(20:02):
Had you not seen that title,would you know what that something? The
name is? Oh man, thissong takes me back to high school.
Collector Soul. Yeah, I sawthem one time a concert. They all
just sat on stools and played andit was phenomenal acoustic or no, they
did. They did the whole thing, but they were just like a studio
band, just sitting on stage.They didn't move around much. Very nice.
Yeah. I saw him in suchGarden theater back in San Antonio.
They came into the radio station whenwe wouldn't lunch. We're sitting there.
(20:23):
Hey, come on down. CollectiveSouls in the lounge. Nice okay,
tight group? Man, Yeah,they're really good. I'd like to see
them again. I even know ifthey were. Let's go, let's finish
your show up and find out wherethey are. You don't have auctions.
Yeah, fasts out there. Cool, honey matters kPr KPRC nine fifty and
I'm excited about Collector Soul. Thisis Joe I am ramone and joining the
stay as Kurt Melcher, the directorof the Oregon Department of Fish and While
(20:45):
alive. Kurt, welcome back.Hey, thanks to be bad joe By.
I got a question. Okay,what is the population of the city
of Oregon about Oregan's Estate? Imean, I'm sorry, yeah, Sale,
I'm looking at I'm sorry. Didyou know Oregon? It's a population
of Salem. Salem is about probablyaround one hundred and fifty thousand. That
is very good. Guess one hundredand seventy seven thousand. I'll accept one
(21:07):
hundred, one hundred and seventy seventhousand. I didn't realize it was that
big. Yeah. Cool. Ilike looking up stuff. I like to
find out where our guests are whenwhen I'm talking to him, Kurt,
what is the one place we musttry and eat if we ever visit Salem?
Oh, one place you must eatin Salem. You know there's a
(21:29):
great rib place called Adam's Ribs where. Yeah, that is hilarious place right
by the state Capital. It's calledAdam's Ribs. Now, that's very bold
to suggest a Texan go to Oregonto eat ribs. You know that.
Well, it's just the first thingthat came to mind. I'll think about
(21:51):
it, come up with another onefor it. That is a I will
never forget the name of that ribplace, Adam's Ribs. That's funny,
Okay, I'll try it. Yegive it as I once they had at
a burrito place in Seattle called Bimbosbitch in Burrito Kitchen. I don't know
if it's there anymore. It wastwenty five years ago. But I never
forget that. That's awesome, Kurt. We were talking a little bit about
(22:15):
hunting in the tag process. Youknow, a lot of the Western states
have had such a harsh, harshwinter that they're reducing the number of hunting
tags available in their state for theupcoming hunting season. Are you guys going
to see that this year? Youknow, I think we might see a
little bit of it. Uh,you know, we're still evaluating. Um,
(22:37):
we're still evaluating things on the eastside. That's predominantly if we had
any tag reductions, it would bein eastern Oregon and likely on mule deer,
but still evaluating that. I don'tit's certainly not it's certainly not as
bad as we've been hearing the reportsfrom some other states, Wilming in particular,
Yeah, where it sounds like theyhad larger literally was zero fond survival.
(22:57):
So hasn't seemed quite that bad here, um, in Oregon, but
in our mule durban struggling, Soour tag numbers are already very, very
far reduced from where they work fortyyears ago. Even. Yeah, I've
been reading a lot of the reportsout of Oregon where they're just finding pronghorn,
they found finding pronghorn lane dead everywhere, just from you know, a
(23:18):
lack of forage in the harsh conditionsand that sort of thing. A remone.
It's it's it's sad. I mean, it's you know, hate,
you hate to see animals dionetously becauseof that. But um, and you
know it's you know, we're alwaysall of us in the outdoor world are
trying to recruit, retain and reactivate, you know, hunters every single day,
are you are you guys seeing you'reum, the sales of your hunting
licenses, fishing licenses kind of stableor they bounced at this since the pandemic.
(23:42):
I know a lot of people sawthem, you know, escalate during
the pandemic. So what's the statusin your state of Oregon. Yeah,
we saw certainly during the first coupleof years of the pandemic twenty twenty and
twenty twenty one, we saw modestincreases in sales pretty much cross categories up,
you know, in the high singledigit to ten percent range, which
(24:07):
is great, you know, youknow, it's given given a terrible situation,
to actually have our revenue increase asa result of it was really good.
Twenty twenty three here we're we're rightnow. We're tracking. Of course,
our control hunt draw is still open. The deadline to apply is May
fifteenth, so we got about fouror five days ago, and the U
(24:33):
right now we're tracking just slightly aheadof last year's applications, so that's good.
Fishing license sales are down a littlebit from last year, but we've
just had such a terribly cold wetspring that you know, there's there are
many factors that contribute. Obviously,the anticipation. It's not just about it's
not just about the status of theresource. It's also about how nice is
(24:56):
the weather outside. When the weather'scrumbing, you know, people don't do
it. So so we're seeing thatcome back. And well, of course
we track that literally, you know, monthly, if not more frequently,
and look at revenue and look atexpenditures and just things accordingly. Yeah,
I'm sure there's license sales reports somethingyou have. You know, you cast
a key and I at um.You know, unlike Texas, you guys
(25:17):
have a lot of public land hunting. Um. How many acres are we
talking about in the state of ORGANIwhat are some of the challenges in your
position of managing hunting on public lands. Well, I can't cite the actual
acreage. I could. I couldprobably google it kind of real quick if
I said, ramon's gonna look itup. Yeah, Ramone, help me
(25:37):
out, Ramone, help me outon that. Fifty percent of our state
is public land. Yeah, andwe're a pretty big state. I think
we're about this eleventh largest state inthe nation. So yeah, there is
a lot of public ground here.There's also a lot of large private industrial
timberland that while it's not technically publicland, um, it has incredibly good
(25:59):
access or feel public hunting. Andso yeah, lots of lots of good,
lots of good public land hunting opportunitieswithout having to pay for a lease
or no, the no, theneighbor next door. Yeah, that's good.
Do you do you still in yourhome state? Do you still find
you know some do you remember itreally wasn't that long ago, you know.
(26:22):
I talked to my friends that livedin other states that had a lot
of public land hunting and they didn'thave leases, things like that, you
know, they could go up toa farmer, or they can go to
somebody's place say hey, listen,can we hunt turkey on your place,
you know, for the weekend orsomething like that. And people used to
be a lot more friendly and alot of kind or do you still hear
reports of that in Oregon? Arethere's still people willing to let people come
in under certain conditions and hunt theirland? Absolutely? Absolutely? I think,
(26:45):
you know, we have seen overthe last decade or so a lot
of a lot of landowners taken opportunityof hunting leases, in particular with guides
or outfitters. But there's still alot of landowners that don't don't do that,
and they, you know, ifyou're a friendly face in particular,
if you've got a child with youand you go up and ask them to
(27:06):
hunt turkeys on their property, verygood chance to get let aunt lettie.
And as long as they don't havean existing lease, right right, well,
that's good to have a lot ofYeah. Absolutely, Um, we
got a couple of minutes here beforewe're going to go into our our final
break. But now you currently serveas a Are you still serving as the
president of the Association Offish and WildlifeAgencies? Yes, I am. I
(27:29):
was going to mention that. Ithink that's probably how I got hooked up
with you, Joe. I amalso in addition to being the director here
in Oregon, I'm also the presidentof the Association of Fishing wildfe Aden.
You didn't have enough to do inyour role that you took that on it?
Yeah, yeah, I yea ina week moment, I agreed to
do it. But no, butno, I've been really rewarding. It's
(27:51):
been great. And I you know, when you become a director of an
agency like this and you you know, you suddenly don't have any peers left
in your agency year you're you know, you're kind of on the island and
when you get to interact with allyour colleagues from around the country. Those
are your peers, and it's incrediblehow how many similarities we have. I
(28:11):
mean, it's not a red state, blue state thing. There's just so
many similarities between the challenges that weface in our states. It's really it's
really rewarding and gratifying to get towe get to engage with them and hear
about their issues that are in someways, you know, so similar to
ours. I'm sure it's a greatm when you guys do get together.
(28:32):
It's a great way to bounce thingsoff of each other and see, you
know, to reflect back on what'sworked and what hasn't worked as far as
management policies and that sort of thingas well. Correct, absolutely, I
mean, we have a whole committeestructure at the Association where we'll have a
committee that we you know, thatworks on wildlife disease and they will literally
develop based on input from all thestates, things like best management practices or
(28:56):
working with CWD or whatever the diseaseof the day happens to be. And
so yeah, it's it's it's agreat resource and a great opportunity to share
experiences and and develop a common approach. Are you guys seeing any issues,
any recurring issues with CWTD in Oregonor we're seeing in all the time in
(29:18):
Texas? Now, yeah, no, we do not. We're still a
CWD negative state. We have youknow, we sample every year, um,
you know, many thousands of deerand elk M and thus far I
not detected CWD in Oregon. Ofcourse, Idaho detected it just a year
ago, a little over year agonow, um. And and they've detected
(29:42):
it an area that's literally like twelvemiles from Oregon. So we know it's
not it's most likely not a questionof if, it's a question of a
when. Um. But so farwe are still CWD negative. That's all.
That's that's very very good news.All right, folks, going to
take a quick break here. Ourguest is Kurt mel Sure from the Organ
Department of Fish Wildlife. See youon the other side, hunting matters,
(30:03):
KPRC nine fifty. You know theyif they did this version of this movie
(30:42):
about you and me today, we'dbe walking down the street, you said,
holding a can of paint. You'dbe holding a pound of ridge.
I'll be holding a gallon of barbecue. Sauce. Yes, sir, Welcome
back to Honeymatters. KPRC nine fiftyR. Guest today is Kurt Melcher,
the director of the organ Department ofFish and Wildlife. Kurt, thanks once
again for joining us. Absolutely mypleasure. All right, So the question
(31:04):
is Adam's rib They have a fourmeat plate. I don't think you're gonna
eat too much. I don't thinkyou could do four meats, Joe,
could you? Yeah? Absolutely so. Saint Louis ribs, beef ribs,
chicken quarter, turkey, breast,pulled pork, killed bassa, chopped brisket
or double smoked ham. What youget I've got to get with ribs brisket?
Um? Do they have chopped brisket? It actually says chopped brisket.
(31:27):
Yeah. Yeah, I like choppbrisket. I like ribs to have turkey
on there. Saint Louis ribbed orthe beef ribs both? Okay, Yeah,
they had chicken, turkey, breastturkey. I'd have to get some
turkey for my wife. That's ourthing is smoked turkey. Got it?
How about you? I'm probably gonnatry, you know, put there.
I'll get four and you get adifferent four and we'll just share. Oh
that's a good point. Well,I do the trinity anytime I go to
(31:48):
a new barbecue place, ribs,brisket, and sausauce. Yahyah, So
I would do that. I wouldhave to get the side of sausage if
I could only have four ribbed metSo yeah, what about And it's funny
because it says it includes sweet cornmuffin or Texas toast. Texas is so
popular they named a toast after us, which is flattering. Sorry about that,
Kurt. We're just looking. Youdid it and we haven't had our
(32:09):
breakfast yet. That's wrong. Breakfastbarbecue is overlooked, overrated. You get
some brisket and scrambled eggs. Yeah, oh boy, my sister used to
eat cold steak for breakfast. Yeah. So what about you, Kurt?
What are you? What are yougoing to order at Adam's Rib Yeah,
or Roman's placing orders right now thatit will be delivered to your to your
officety five. Yeah. Yeah,I like the brisket. I'm going to
(32:30):
brisket and just you know, justfull disclosure here. I just want to
make it clear that I do notknow the owner of Redam's Rib nor do
I have any financial yet in thatthis is not an endorsement, but we
will accept for orders for the department. So I asked a question on where
we should go eat. That's whatKurt said. He then endorse it.
(32:51):
Beyond that, I grabbed it andrain with it full disclaimer. Yeah,
all right, yeah, back backback to Oregon and back to hunting.
Kurt. I was looking at yourwebsite and I'm impressed by the intro to
Hunting program. Can you tell usa little bit about that. Yeah,
you know, we've really been focusing, like and frankly every state in this
country has been focusing on recruitment,retention, and reactivation of hunters and anglers.
(33:16):
The the the intro to hunting.What we've found, you know,
through our surveys of either new huntersor prospective hunters is many times they're not
getting that connection from their family.They have a genuine interest, but they
don't have the long standing family connectionand they need mentors, they need they
(33:37):
need information to help them decide andyou know, the process process their their
interests and move forward. So introto Hunting is just one of the things
we've done. Of course, there'sa lot of hands on work as well
through through workshops and classes. Butpeople need people need the mentoring. And
(34:00):
within this day and age, you'vegot the YouTube generation, and hey,
they're going to They're going to videosto figure out figure out what the what
they want to do, how todo it and if they like it.
And I'm no different. I'm usingYouTube all the time, you know,
answer that question about my outboard modeor what going on YouTube and boom oh
(34:21):
here's the guys has the same thing. Somebody somewhere said the same exact problem
and they didn't get the instructions withwhatever they're dealing with. And it's it's
great. I mean, I gottaadmit, it's great to go and it's
might guy goes, Okay, Ifinally figure this out. Here you go
out, here's how to do it. Yep. Um. Yeah, So
in Front of Hunting is a bigdeal. It's it's something we all got
(34:43):
to continue to work on. Well, I I applaud you guys for having
that program and specifically you know,I've I'm reading reports all the time about
one of the largest growing demographics inhunting and just a report came out last
week the largest demographic and people whopurchase firearms are women. I mean,
granted, you know, when youlook at raw numbers, it's you know,
it's all relative, but percentage wise, it's the faster showing demographic.
(35:07):
Or do you have any programs thatyou guys do now or that you're considering
the future specifically for women who wantto get into the outdoors where they're be
hunting, you're fishing. You know, we have had in the past a
program called Becoming an Outdoors Woman,but we decided to go away from things
that we're focused solely on, youknow, on one on one demographic.
(35:28):
Of course, we're working on ourmessaging, we're working on our visuals to
make sure that you know, perspectiveparticipants can see themselves in these roles instead
of just the standard in you know, the standard hunter image that you might
think of a blessed you know,many decades so, but you're right for
us, same thing. Women arethe fastest growing demographic in both hunting and
(35:52):
fishing, and we need to reallyseize on that. Even and even when
you look at public opinions, polein really in urban areas and this this
isn't unique to Oregon, It's inother areas too, but when you look
at public opinion POWL and you seethat hunting, hunting as a food gathering
activity is strongly supported even amongst nonhunters. Yeah, you know, Ramona
(36:15):
and I we're talking about it offair before we even started the show today
about you know, he was askingme to it because we were talking about
I've got a garden and my stuff'scoming starting to come in and he's growing
stuff here, and he said,you know, do you do you guy
stock up and prepare for you know, a massive price increase or God forbid,
something terrible happens, and and uh, you know, this is the
thing I tell people every day isthat, you know, the great thing
(36:36):
is I really I worry about badthings happening, of course, but I
really don't worry about providing because youknow, we've got vegetables in the garden
and if I have to worst youknow, worst case scenario, if I
have to got in the yard andpop a few squirrels and make a make
a gumbo with it, I cando it. And I think that's over
the last few years that's really attractedmore people who have never considered hunting before
is the fact that um, they'vewatched these factory farming things on Netflix,
(37:00):
and they've done these things. Seeingthese things are like, you know what,
I want to be able to sourcemy own protein, and I think
that's a really positive thing that weall need to see. Zon Absolutely absolutely,
there's something about cutting your own meattoo. I just love doing it.
I never take my meat to thebutcher. I always cut my own
animals because I like to see.I like to see what I'm getting and
what it looks like, and makesure that it's clean and you know,
(37:22):
all those things. Still, Yeah, there's definitely, I mean, I
think there's there's interest from really anon traditional community. There's interests in hunting
as a food source. So yeah, a lot of folks are looking at
that. Yeah. Absolutely absolutely,And I'm gonna shift gears a little bit.
You guys have some tremendous fishing inthe state of Oregon. What's the
(37:43):
status of the salmon fisheries there inyour state? Oh? Yeah, we
have, of course, many,many different salmon fisheries. The one that
probably gets the most pressed of late, I would say, is probably our
Ocean Chinook salmon fishery, which isclosed this year. Oregon and Cali Fornia
both have their salmon fishries closed thisyear due to really really poor runs that
(38:06):
are originated in the state of California, but many of our other runs,
many of our Oregon original runs arestill in really good still in a really
good place and exceptional returns of cohost Sam expected this year a lot of
a lot of fishing opportunity in toColumbia for both cohannchin of salmon. And
then of course we have you know, we have some actually blue ribbon quality
(38:30):
trout fishries and and kind of innfar away places in the state. But
maybe that's why they're so good.Yeah, Romote was talking about eating earlier
one of the best pieces of fishI've ever had my life. Roman was
a Columbia River salmon with a likea blueberry compote on it. Phenomenal piece
(38:50):
of fish, yeah, just phenomenal. Better than like red lobshat, Yes,
a little better, but yeah,Columbia springs book or finest eating salmon,
I mean, Copper River smok kindof Alaska is is very similar,
but Plunder River spring shuk is incredible. And yeah, I mean I think
(39:12):
retail right now, a pound ofPlunder River springsselves are about forty dollars.
Wow, that's crazy. Well,I mean it's worth it, so ramon,
I'll be charging you forty dollars apound when I come back from Alaska
this year. I'll do it inthe big boxes of salmon. I'll cut
you a deal at thirty. I'dlove to go to Alaska with you.
Well, you had, you hadthe opportunity, but you blew. That's
what you say. Those who hesitatelose UM. Folks. If you're just
(39:37):
joining us, we're going to bewrapping up the show here in just a
second, where with Kurt Meltzer,the director of the Oregan Department of Fishing.
One. If I've got about aminute left, Kurt, and this
is kind of a big question,but what's the biggest challenge that you in
your department will face over the nextfive years? Do you think, uh,
you know, I think I'll saysome of the biggest challenges we look
(39:58):
at or really work for related UM. And that's not unique just to our
industry. I think a lot ofindustries are really facing challenges with workforce UM.
You know, retaining employee, recruitingand retaining employees. It's like recruiting
new retaining hunters and anglers is achallenge or gonna going to be more so,
and particularly at the entry level wehave. Out of those thirteen hundred
(40:20):
employees I mentioned, about three hundredof those positions are seasonal positions where they
work, you know, three monthson the coast and then six months in
central Oregon. And the the lackof housing in these rural communities and even
the urban communities is really a pinchpoint, especially for these you know,
(40:40):
relatively entry level positions that have tomove around a lot. I think that's
big challenge. Of course, wecould talk about climate change challenge. We're
all feeling bad and and but um, in terms of just us as an
agencies, it's really going for coursemanagement. All right, man, we're
(41:01):
gonna have to have you back andtalk about a bunch of other stuff folks
today. Kurt Melcher, director ofOregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, we
are out of time on huntingmatters.We'll see you next week Huntymatters. KPRC
nine fifty Big are home with meand
The Houston Safari Club Foundation is afive O one C three nonprofit organization that
supports the future of hunting and conservation. Wildlife and habitat conservation, youth education
and outdoor experiences, scholarships, andanti poaching efforts are just a few of
the programs supported by this organization.Monthly events, an annual convention, award
winning publications, networking opportunities, andvaluable resources for hunting knowledge or just a
(00:21):
few of the benefits of being amember of Houston Safari Club Foundation. If
you're searching for a group of peoplededicated to protecting the future of hunting,
look no further. Join Houston SafariClub Foundation today at we Hunt weegive dot
org or call seven one three sixtwo three eight eight four four. Tradition,
Conservation Family, the Odors. Itmatters to you, It matters to
(00:48):
us. This is Hunting Matters presentedby Houston Safari Club Foundation. Here's Joe
Bitar. It is time for HuntingMatters once again. This is your host,
Joe Bitar. You've gotten a bighead since you went solo last week.
Big head, that's what you getfor playing hooky and say calling me
like the day before and say Idid. I was tired. I didn't
(01:11):
want to come into work. Youcan't blame me for that. So did
you impose the death sentence? Lastweek? We did find him guilty of
murder? Yeah, yeah, itwas a kind of a very adult thing
that I did. I had juryduty for those I know it. You
couldn't stay around, hang around forthe sentencing, huh. Well, we
were gonna, but then after werented the verdict, they changed their whatever
(01:32):
they call it to where they wantedthe judge to sentence. Coincidentally, the
judge came in after the sentencing orafter the verdict and said, look,
I got to sentence this guy.What would y'all have given out? And
we all said, well, wewould have thrown the book at him,
because this wasn't the first time he'dand he admitted it, and he admitted
it. Yeah, and the judgeagreed. And actually this Thursday is when
(01:53):
Schill sentenced him, and so Igot to follow up with that and see
what happens. But yeah, yeah, fascinating stuff. Well it's a good
thing you weren't in there for likea month that it was pretty shutt and
closed. Yeah, open and closed. It was yeah, good. But
I mean I had respect for thejuries the justice system already, but sitting
in and doing a jury thing,man, that was were you nervous?
(02:14):
Very yeah? Yeah yeah, justbecause I have unpaid parking tickets and stuff
like that that they were going toget the price. You got selected too,
too, because I kept jumping upevery five minutes going he's guilty.
Well yeah, I'm not tupulle asmoke. But those people there to have
to know who you are. Imean you're pretty, you know, visible
publicly here in Houston and other placesas well. So not only that,
(02:35):
but the jury information you got tofill out, you know, I mean,
Amy's my wife, July's my kid. You know, they must recognize,
oh wait, this is Ramon Robe. Yeah you know, but it
had no bearing because they did askme, you know, can you be
fair? And parsonal I said,yeah, absolutely, Yeah. I think
everybody's guilty to proven innocent, butI'm glad I did it. I know
(02:55):
people make fun of it when theyget the summons and you know, they
roll their eyes, and my thingis of crude. I gotta go do
jury duty, but you should,you should go. Yeah, that's my
parise you're being called to serve yourfellow dude and the judicial system, and
you should go. It's a right. And how many countries are there where
the people don't ever have any decisionmaking in there and judicial process or any
(03:16):
policy. They wrote it in theBill of Rights you could have a jury,
a trial by jury and being ableto participate in that. It's just
like exercise in your first Amendment oryour second Amendment. I mean, it's
it's pretty cool. That is cool. Yeah. Yeah. And to be
on such a not a high profilecase, but such a you know,
it was it wasn't you know?This guy was jaywalking and you know,
(03:37):
I mean it was a real deal. We're talking autopsy photos and and uh,
you know, interview taping and youknow, and derogating taping and stuff
like that. Plus the best partis I got forty bucks a day was
selected for jury. Almost covered yourparking. Yeah, but that was cool.
That was cool. Up next,on the last forty eight, Less
(04:00):
puts the hammer down. Alrighty,what's happening with the Houston's Far Club Foundation
again, folks? In June,mister Tim Harold, who is a worldwide
trophy Adventures is coming to talk tous about hunting Uganda. That's June eighth,
on the fifteenth and sixteenth of June. Oh, we're double tapping.
Next month, the Houston Safari ClubFoundation Flip Flops and Pop Top saltwater Fishing
(04:21):
Tournament out of sanley On, Texasdown there near Galveston is happening, and
we got we got some cool stuffcoming up in the fall, but I'm
not going to reveal that stuff later. Come on, just give me a
s We're gonna have a one ofour life members who has got to be
in his seventies almost eighty that justclimbed kill Himanjaro is gonna come talk about
that. That's cool. Yeah,Wow, what am I doing with my
(04:43):
life? Wow? Underachievers? Bothwe are kidding. And then we'll have
our big Sporting Clays tournament in Octoberlike we normally do, and a lot
of cool stuff around that. Butgo to we Hunt we give dot org,
click on the membership drop down buttonand click on monthly events upcoming events,
and you'll see those things and folks, you can come if you're remember
or not. We just want youto come out and hang with us and
maybe you'll sign up become a member. We'd love for you to learn about
(05:04):
all things hunting and conservation, wildlifeand habitat by becoming a member and then
meeting some new friends and maybe someclients and business partners at those events as
well. You're talking about October events. You know, the NFL schedule was
just released Friday, and I knowthey were running ads about Yeah it was
released Thursday, whatever it was.But now it's got me in the mood
for fall all of a sudden.I mean, I know we're just getting
(05:26):
in the spring, but now I'mthinking, oh my god, you're events
in October. We got football comingup. I'm ready for college football season.
Yeah, college football, last yearof the fourteen playoff anyway, let's
move on and then Texas and Oklahomacome into the SEC after next year.
How about that? It's weird.I heard. I heard a rumor and
it has next to do with huntingand Kurt Art guest today is going to
be like, what are these guysdoing? Yeah? I heard that A
(05:48):
and M in Arkansas may leave theSEC in the next three to five years
and go back and form you know, like the Big twelve or whatever they
call it. They get tired ofbeing whooped. Well, A and M
stands better chance of competing. Butyou know, Arkansas and A and M
have not done well in the SEC. But they've gotten a lot of money.
They've gotten a lot of good recruits. So it's a whole new world
(06:08):
now. It transfer portal in this, all this paying players. I just
not your daddy's college football. Youcan talk about that forever that I have
moment, do ask Kurt what hethinks about I mean, he's in Salem,
in there where the ducks is it. I'm not shan beavers. They
have ducks and beavers and tigers.Oh. My. Our guest today is
Kurt Melcher. Kurt is the directorof the organ Department of Fish and Wildlife.
(06:30):
He is speaking to us today freshfrom Salem, Oregon. Kurt,
thanks so much for joining us.Hey, thanks for being here. Thanks
for having me. It's my pleasurebeing here. Sure you can. You
can just return the favor and haveramonent up to the beautiful part of the
world that you live in. Man, it is gorgeous up there. Yeah,
happy to do it. So,Kurt, you are You're a lifelong
(06:50):
resident Organ, aren't you. Iam. I've lived in Oregon for my
entire life. I'm a seventh generationor Aregonian and a direct the Senative,
a member of the Wilson Price HuntOverland party that came here in eighteen eleven.
Wowy, hot shot, that ispretty cool, I said, you're
(07:11):
a hot shot. That's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Established
the oldest American settlement west of theRockies at what is now Astoria, Oregon.
That's back when men were men.Yeah right, and women were women,
and so were the so were thesheep. What is it so,
Kurt, You're you're the director ofthe Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife,
(07:32):
And like you said, you're anative Oregonian. You went to University of
Oregon, got your degree in biology, and um, when did you join
the department up there? And kindof what led you to pursue that career.
Well, yeah, you know,I've always been interested in the outdoors,
of course, and I got mydegree in biology, and I was
just looking around for work after college, found a seasonal position here with the
(07:56):
department and stuck it out for thelast thirty eight years. And so really
it was my interest interest in theoutdoors that kind of started to starting me
down this path and then just builtmy career over the last almost four decades.
Then it's been great, great ride. Yeah, now you have a
(08:18):
you have a phenomenal state to runwildlife and habitat and that sort of thing.
And I want to dig a littlebit further. I want to talk
to you about the department in specific. We're gonna have to take a quick
break here on hunting matters. KPRCnine fifty folks. Stick with us.
We'll see you on the other side. He would listen to the music.
(08:39):
It's time to go fishing. Announcingthe Houston Safari Club Foundation Flip Flops and
Pop Top Saltwater Fishing Tournament June fifteenththrough the sixteenth, the Top Water Grill
in San Leon, Texas. Optionsinclude self guided or the use of a
professional guide with all the extras.Join us for the kickoff party and Captain's
meeting on Thursday evening June fifteenth.The tournament will be held on Friday,
(09:00):
June sixteenth, followed by an officialawards ceremony in banquet. Prizes will be
awarded in the speckled trout, redfish, and flounder categories. The tournaments open
to the public and registration is opensponsorships and boost spaces are now available.
For more information, go to wehunt we give dot org and click on
the membership monthly events dropped down orcall seven one three, six, two
three eight eight four four. Nowyou're bringing back memories of high school and
(10:03):
college back when I was sport tomullet. Oh my goodness, that's is
that true? Oh yeah, I'llto show you sometime, give you a
good laugh. Okay. Welcome backto Honeymatters KPRC nine fifty. This is
Joe B. Tar. I amRamon Roeblis. We joined today where our
guest Kurt Melcher Kirch is the directorof the Oregon Department Official Wildlife. And
before I forget folks um, checkout the website. It's my od FW.
(10:24):
That's myodfw dot com. Or youcan go to the other website at
DFW dot state dot or dot us. But I like them. I ODFW.
That's easy to remember, Kurt,Thanks once again for joining us.
Hey my pleasure, Kurt. Didyou ever have any embarrassing haircuts in high
school? Oh? Hey, Iwas in high school from nineteen seventy eight
(10:45):
to nineteen eighty two, so youknow, Oh yeah, heck yeah,
probably some bell bottoms too. Ohyeah, my man. Okay, I
remember when I pioneered. I pioneeredthe Levi's look too funny, too funny.
So, Kurt um, the stateof Oregon. Um, you've got
(11:07):
how big? How big is yourdepartment? How many of your people are
under your purview there in the stateof organized as far as the department goes,
Yeah, I have about thirteen hundredfull time of couvent employees here at
ODFW. So we're moderately large agencyin the fishing wildlife world. There's certainly
larger across the country. There's certainlylarge agencies, but I would say on
(11:28):
average most or smaller than that.Yeah. Um. Yeah. People don't
realize what, um, what aa task it is for these directors of
fishing, game and wildlife departments acrossthe across the US. Um. You
know, they think, well,this is the guy making the decisions running
all those people. But I mean, you know, we've done a lot
(11:48):
of work personally with the with theTexas Department, uh here in our home
state, and you know from youknow, and and Oregan is very diverse,
just like Texas is. I mean, you guys have huge fishing opportunities
there you have, you know,the oceanic aspect, you have the wildlife
and habitat in the forest and allthose sorts of things. So how much
(12:11):
how's your time? I mean,how do you manage your time between the
two? I mean, you know, we don't we're not harvesting clams and
muscles and things over here. Butthere's you know, of course certain of
course the oyster issues and always issuehere and saltwater fisheries. But how do
you how do you manage your timebetween all those things? You know,
it's a really good question. Ofcourse, I have staff that work on
(12:31):
those things. Uh, you know, on a day to day basis.
Everything from marine commercial fishery management,recreational fishery management in the ocean, all
the inland fisheries, hunting seasons acrossthe state, habitat work as well.
You know, I like this,I guess I would say that for a
director. Many times, unfortunately,it's the tyranny of the urgent. You're
dealing with the issues that are causingum, you know, that are causing
(12:56):
the consternation somewhere in the States,and that seems to be the direct visual
many times too. Come in onthose. So a lot of times I
don't get to prioritize my work.I get you know, it gets prioritized
for me. Yeah. I canjust imagine coming in and saying, Okay,
you know, you've got this gameplan set for the day, and
then everything it's blown up, whetherit's whether it's at directly having to your
(13:18):
job, whether it's legislative issues andthat sort of thing. And you know,
the show's called Hunting Matter. SoI'm sure there's a few people,
quite a few people listen listening herethat have not been to Oregon or not
hunted in organ or fishing in Oregon. So, um, what for those
people who are unfamiliar, what arethe big game species that you guys hunt
in Oregon. Yeah, we haveboth Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain elk, we
(13:41):
have both California and Rocky Mountain,big orange sheep, we have Rocky Mountain
goats. We've got mule deer,blacktailed deer, Eastern whitetailed deer, Colombian
whitetailed deer, all of those areare hunted in Oregon. Then, of
course we have black bear, veryhealthy black bear population as well as very
(14:03):
healthy cougar population. All all arehunted. Did you say cougar? Cougar?
Yeah, hunt you out here?Yeah, yeah, yeah, someone
rem means six thousand plus cougars statewide. That's not to mention the ones at
the bars, right right exactly.Um, you guys have anything about those,
(14:28):
I'm sticking of the wildlife here exactly. That's a safe that's a safe
channel. You stay adult. I'mthe child here, all right, all
right? Um, So Kurt,do you guys have a lot of non
resident hunters that apply to hunting yourstate? And and and what are the
opportunities there for non residents to huntin Oregon? Yeah, we still have
(14:52):
some really great non resident opportunities ofcourse, like all of our Western Oregon
deer hunt tail deer, those areall over the counter tags, so you
can literally come in and buy onewithout e's going through a draw process.
Similarly, many of our elk huntsin the state are over the counter tags.
You can come in and buy themjust simply, you know, the
(15:15):
day you arrive in Oregon without havingthis pre plan. And then our controlled
hunts, which of course all ofour mule deer hunts, many of our
elk hunts are controlled hunts that iswe limit the number of participants through through
a random draw and those are wehave a statute that limits nonresident participations to
(15:35):
five percent, so only five percentof our tags in those controlled hunt draws
will actually be allocated to non residents. We certainly have non residents to apply.
We have prepping point system as well. They accumulate points for their hopeful
one day drawings. Yeah, Iknow, I've talked to over the years,
(15:56):
I've talked to a lot of peoplethat are you know, they apply
for these party points in these taxsystems and other states, and UM,
some people are lucky enough to getdrawn and some people aren't. And I
understand you guys have to you know, you have to allocate your resources to
U to put residents in priority m. One thing that I think a lot
of people don't know about UM isthat and I'm kind of blowing your department's
(16:18):
horn here, but you guys doconservation or auction tag permits for for nonprofits
for fundraising where um, you knowa large large portion of those funds go
back to the state to help youryour programs in wildlife and habitat. We've
been part of the application process inthe past, but tell us a little
bit about that program. Yeah,we have a we have a number of
tags that are legal to our whatwe call our Access and Habitat auction process.
(16:45):
So we will option off one bighorn sheep tag, one Rocky Mountain
sheep tag, and about a dozendeer and or elk tags annually. And
these are you know, very lengthyseasons. These aren't the normal ten day
season. There starts August one andgoes through the end of the year,
so they're very highly coveted and theydon't have the geographic restrictions that other controlled
(17:06):
hunts might have. We you know, I mean, I think this year
we sold our Rocking Mountains, wesold a big horned sheet tag I think
for like one hundred and sixty eightthousand dollars, which is record high for
us. The nonprofit that works withus on each auction, they get to
retain ten percent and the rest ofit goes right back into our Access and
(17:27):
Habitat program, which Access and Habitatin Oregon as Habitat program works on access
for hunters to private land as wellas habitat improvements spent it at wildlife,
so really great program. There's additionallythere's a search charge and every license.
So if you buy, you know, show if you come here to Oregon,
(17:48):
you buy a hunting license embedded inthat as a four dollars search charge
that goes to the Access and habitatprogram. So yeah, it's uh,
you know, there's there's certainly opportunitieshere for non residents. I would I
wouldn't. It's one other thing thatwe do that I don't think a lot
of folks know about, but wesell all of our all of our license
(18:08):
products to all active duty military basedon the state resident structure. For instance,
if you're active if you're active dutymilitary and your states in the campell
in June and you've never even setfoot in Oregon, you can apply as
(18:29):
a resident and start accruing points,you know for a future hunt, or
you can travel to Oregon and purchasea license to hunt state, you know,
with the residency structure. And asfar as I know, we're the
only state that does that. Everythingdoes military. Yeah, every state does
attractive duty military if they're stationed intheir state or if they have a residency
(18:51):
in their state. But we doit for any active duty military, whether
they whether they reside here or nevereven set foot in this state. They
can. They can state with residencystructure. That's very cool. I got
a kid stationed San Diego. I'llhave to let him know about that.
All right, folks, gonna takea quick break here on Honey Matters KPRC
nine fifty C. After the break, Welcome at Hunting Matters KPRC nine fifty
(20:02):
Had you not seen that title,would you know what that something? The
name is? Oh man, thissong takes me back to high school.
Collector Soul. Yeah, I sawthem one time a concert. They all
just sat on stools and played andit was phenomenal acoustic or no, they
did. They did the whole thing, but they were just like a studio
band, just sitting on stage.They didn't move around much. Very nice.
Yeah. I saw him in suchGarden theater back in San Antonio.
They came into the radio station whenwe wouldn't lunch. We're sitting there.
(20:23):
Hey, come on down. CollectiveSouls in the lounge. Nice okay,
tight group? Man, Yeah,they're really good. I'd like to see
them again. I even know ifthey were. Let's go, let's finish
your show up and find out wherethey are. You don't have auctions.
Yeah, fasts out there. Cool, honey matters kPr KPRC nine fifty and
I'm excited about Collector Soul. Thisis Joe I am ramone and joining the
stay as Kurt Melcher, the directorof the Oregon Department of Fish and While
(20:45):
alive. Kurt, welcome back.Hey, thanks to be bad joe By.
I got a question. Okay,what is the population of the city
of Oregon about Oregan's Estate? Imean, I'm sorry, yeah, Sale,
I'm looking at I'm sorry. Didyou know Oregon? It's a population
of Salem. Salem is about probablyaround one hundred and fifty thousand. That
is very good. Guess one hundredand seventy seven thousand. I'll accept one
(21:07):
hundred, one hundred and seventy seventhousand. I didn't realize it was that
big. Yeah. Cool. Ilike looking up stuff. I like to
find out where our guests are whenwhen I'm talking to him, Kurt,
what is the one place we musttry and eat if we ever visit Salem?
Oh, one place you must eatin Salem. You know there's a
(21:29):
great rib place called Adam's Ribs where. Yeah, that is hilarious place right
by the state Capital. It's calledAdam's Ribs. Now, that's very bold
to suggest a Texan go to Oregonto eat ribs. You know that.
Well, it's just the first thingthat came to mind. I'll think about
(21:51):
it, come up with another onefor it. That is a I will
never forget the name of that ribplace, Adam's Ribs. That's funny,
Okay, I'll try it. Yegive it as I once they had at
a burrito place in Seattle called Bimbosbitch in Burrito Kitchen. I don't know
if it's there anymore. It wastwenty five years ago. But I never
forget that. That's awesome, Kurt. We were talking a little bit about
(22:15):
hunting in the tag process. Youknow, a lot of the Western states
have had such a harsh, harshwinter that they're reducing the number of hunting
tags available in their state for theupcoming hunting season. Are you guys going
to see that this year? Youknow, I think we might see a
little bit of it. Uh,you know, we're still evaluating. Um,
(22:37):
we're still evaluating things on the eastside. That's predominantly if we had
any tag reductions, it would bein eastern Oregon and likely on mule deer,
but still evaluating that. I don'tit's certainly not it's certainly not as
bad as we've been hearing the reportsfrom some other states, Wilming in particular,
Yeah, where it sounds like theyhad larger literally was zero fond survival.
(22:57):
So hasn't seemed quite that bad here, um, in Oregon, but
in our mule durban struggling, Soour tag numbers are already very, very
far reduced from where they work fortyyears ago. Even. Yeah, I've
been reading a lot of the reportsout of Oregon where they're just finding pronghorn,
they found finding pronghorn lane dead everywhere, just from you know, a
(23:18):
lack of forage in the harsh conditionsand that sort of thing. A remone.
It's it's it's sad. I mean, it's you know, hate,
you hate to see animals dionetously becauseof that. But um, and you
know it's you know, we're alwaysall of us in the outdoor world are
trying to recruit, retain and reactivate, you know, hunters every single day,
are you are you guys seeing you'reum, the sales of your hunting
licenses, fishing licenses kind of stableor they bounced at this since the pandemic.
(23:42):
I know a lot of people sawthem, you know, escalate during
the pandemic. So what's the statusin your state of Oregon. Yeah,
we saw certainly during the first coupleof years of the pandemic twenty twenty and
twenty twenty one, we saw modestincreases in sales pretty much cross categories up,
you know, in the high singledigit to ten percent range, which
(24:07):
is great, you know, youknow, it's given given a terrible situation,
to actually have our revenue increase asa result of it was really good.
Twenty twenty three here we're we're rightnow. We're tracking. Of course,
our control hunt draw is still open. The deadline to apply is May
fifteenth, so we got about fouror five days ago, and the U
(24:33):
right now we're tracking just slightly aheadof last year's applications, so that's good.
Fishing license sales are down a littlebit from last year, but we've
just had such a terribly cold wetspring that you know, there's there are
many factors that contribute. Obviously,the anticipation. It's not just about it's
not just about the status of theresource. It's also about how nice is
(24:56):
the weather outside. When the weather'scrumbing, you know, people don't do
it. So so we're seeing thatcome back. And well, of course
we track that literally, you know, monthly, if not more frequently,
and look at revenue and look atexpenditures and just things accordingly. Yeah,
I'm sure there's license sales reports somethingyou have. You know, you cast
a key and I at um.You know, unlike Texas, you guys
(25:17):
have a lot of public land hunting. Um. How many acres are we
talking about in the state of ORGANIwhat are some of the challenges in your
position of managing hunting on public lands. Well, I can't cite the actual
acreage. I could. I couldprobably google it kind of real quick if
I said, ramon's gonna look itup. Yeah, Ramone, help me
(25:37):
out, Ramone, help me outon that. Fifty percent of our state
is public land. Yeah, andwe're a pretty big state. I think
we're about this eleventh largest state inthe nation. So yeah, there is
a lot of public ground here.There's also a lot of large private industrial
timberland that while it's not technically publicland, um, it has incredibly good
(25:59):
access or feel public hunting. Andso yeah, lots of lots of good,
lots of good public land hunting opportunitieswithout having to pay for a lease
or no, the no, theneighbor next door. Yeah, that's good.
Do you do you still in yourhome state? Do you still find
you know some do you remember itreally wasn't that long ago, you know.
(26:22):
I talked to my friends that livedin other states that had a lot
of public land hunting and they didn'thave leases, things like that, you
know, they could go up toa farmer, or they can go to
somebody's place say hey, listen,can we hunt turkey on your place,
you know, for the weekend orsomething like that. And people used to
be a lot more friendly and alot of kind or do you still hear
reports of that in Oregon? Arethere's still people willing to let people come
in under certain conditions and hunt theirland? Absolutely? Absolutely? I think,
(26:45):
you know, we have seen overthe last decade or so a lot
of a lot of landowners taken opportunityof hunting leases, in particular with guides
or outfitters. But there's still alot of landowners that don't don't do that,
and they, you know, ifyou're a friendly face in particular,
if you've got a child with youand you go up and ask them to
(27:06):
hunt turkeys on their property, verygood chance to get let aunt lettie.
And as long as they don't havean existing lease, right right, well,
that's good to have a lot ofYeah. Absolutely, Um, we
got a couple of minutes here beforewe're going to go into our our final
break. But now you currently serveas a Are you still serving as the
president of the Association Offish and WildlifeAgencies? Yes, I am. I
(27:29):
was going to mention that. Ithink that's probably how I got hooked up
with you, Joe. I amalso in addition to being the director here
in Oregon, I'm also the presidentof the Association of Fishing wildfe Aden.
You didn't have enough to do inyour role that you took that on it?
Yeah, yeah, I yea ina week moment, I agreed to
do it. But no, butno, I've been really rewarding. It's
(27:51):
been great. And I you know, when you become a director of an
agency like this and you you know, you suddenly don't have any peers left
in your agency year you're you know, you're kind of on the island and
when you get to interact with allyour colleagues from around the country. Those
are your peers, and it's incrediblehow how many similarities we have. I
(28:11):
mean, it's not a red state, blue state thing. There's just so
many similarities between the challenges that weface in our states. It's really it's
really rewarding and gratifying to get towe get to engage with them and hear
about their issues that are in someways, you know, so similar to
ours. I'm sure it's a greatm when you guys do get together.
(28:32):
It's a great way to bounce thingsoff of each other and see, you
know, to reflect back on what'sworked and what hasn't worked as far as
management policies and that sort of thingas well. Correct, absolutely, I
mean, we have a whole committeestructure at the Association where we'll have a
committee that we you know, thatworks on wildlife disease and they will literally
develop based on input from all thestates, things like best management practices or
(28:56):
working with CWD or whatever the diseaseof the day happens to be. And
so yeah, it's it's it's agreat resource and a great opportunity to share
experiences and and develop a common approach. Are you guys seeing any issues,
any recurring issues with CWTD in Oregonor we're seeing in all the time in
(29:18):
Texas? Now, yeah, no, we do not. We're still a
CWD negative state. We have youknow, we sample every year, um,
you know, many thousands of deerand elk M and thus far I
not detected CWD in Oregon. Ofcourse, Idaho detected it just a year
ago, a little over year agonow, um. And and they've detected
(29:42):
it an area that's literally like twelvemiles from Oregon. So we know it's
not it's most likely not a questionof if, it's a question of a
when. Um. But so farwe are still CWD negative. That's all.
That's that's very very good news.All right, folks, going to
take a quick break here. Ourguest is Kurt mel Sure from the Organ
Department of Fish Wildlife. See youon the other side, hunting matters,
(30:03):
KPRC nine fifty. You know theyif they did this version of this movie
(30:42):
about you and me today, we'dbe walking down the street, you said,
holding a can of paint. You'dbe holding a pound of ridge.
I'll be holding a gallon of barbecue. Sauce. Yes, sir, Welcome
back to Honeymatters. KPRC nine fiftyR. Guest today is Kurt Melcher,
the director of the organ Department ofFish and Wildlife. Kurt, thanks once
again for joining us. Absolutely mypleasure. All right, So the question
(31:04):
is Adam's rib They have a fourmeat plate. I don't think you're gonna
eat too much. I don't thinkyou could do four meats, Joe,
could you? Yeah? Absolutely so. Saint Louis ribs, beef ribs,
chicken quarter, turkey, breast,pulled pork, killed bassa, chopped brisket
or double smoked ham. What youget I've got to get with ribs brisket?
Um? Do they have chopped brisket? It actually says chopped brisket.
(31:27):
Yeah. Yeah, I like choppbrisket. I like ribs to have turkey
on there. Saint Louis ribbed orthe beef ribs both? Okay, Yeah,
they had chicken, turkey, breastturkey. I'd have to get some
turkey for my wife. That's ourthing is smoked turkey. Got it?
How about you? I'm probably gonnatry, you know, put there.
I'll get four and you get adifferent four and we'll just share. Oh
that's a good point. Well,I do the trinity anytime I go to
(31:48):
a new barbecue place, ribs,brisket, and sausauce. Yahyah, So
I would do that. I wouldhave to get the side of sausage if
I could only have four ribbed metSo yeah, what about And it's funny
because it says it includes sweet cornmuffin or Texas toast. Texas is so
popular they named a toast after us, which is flattering. Sorry about that,
Kurt. We're just looking. Youdid it and we haven't had our
(32:09):
breakfast yet. That's wrong. Breakfastbarbecue is overlooked, overrated. You get
some brisket and scrambled eggs. Yeah, oh boy, my sister used to
eat cold steak for breakfast. Yeah. So what about you, Kurt?
What are you? What are yougoing to order at Adam's Rib Yeah,
or Roman's placing orders right now thatit will be delivered to your to your
officety five. Yeah. Yeah,I like the brisket. I'm going to
(32:30):
brisket and just you know, justfull disclosure here. I just want to
make it clear that I do notknow the owner of Redam's Rib nor do
I have any financial yet in thatthis is not an endorsement, but we
will accept for orders for the department. So I asked a question on where
we should go eat. That's whatKurt said. He then endorse it.
(32:51):
Beyond that, I grabbed it andrain with it full disclaimer. Yeah,
all right, yeah, back backback to Oregon and back to hunting.
Kurt. I was looking at yourwebsite and I'm impressed by the intro to
Hunting program. Can you tell usa little bit about that. Yeah,
you know, we've really been focusing, like and frankly every state in this
country has been focusing on recruitment,retention, and reactivation of hunters and anglers.
(33:16):
The the the intro to hunting.What we've found, you know,
through our surveys of either new huntersor prospective hunters is many times they're not
getting that connection from their family.They have a genuine interest, but they
don't have the long standing family connectionand they need mentors, they need they
(33:37):
need information to help them decide andyou know, the process process their their
interests and move forward. So introto Hunting is just one of the things
we've done. Of course, there'sa lot of hands on work as well
through through workshops and classes. Butpeople need people need the mentoring. And
(34:00):
within this day and age, you'vegot the YouTube generation, and hey,
they're going to They're going to videosto figure out figure out what the what
they want to do, how todo it and if they like it.
And I'm no different. I'm usingYouTube all the time, you know,
answer that question about my outboard modeor what going on YouTube and boom oh
(34:21):
here's the guys has the same thing. Somebody somewhere said the same exact problem
and they didn't get the instructions withwhatever they're dealing with. And it's it's
great. I mean, I gottaadmit, it's great to go and it's
might guy goes, Okay, Ifinally figure this out. Here you go
out, here's how to do it. Yep. Um. Yeah, So
in Front of Hunting is a bigdeal. It's it's something we all got
(34:43):
to continue to work on. Well, I I applaud you guys for having
that program and specifically you know,I've I'm reading reports all the time about
one of the largest growing demographics inhunting and just a report came out last
week the largest demographic and people whopurchase firearms are women. I mean,
granted, you know, when youlook at raw numbers, it's you know,
it's all relative, but percentage wise, it's the faster showing demographic.
(35:07):
Or do you have any programs thatyou guys do now or that you're considering
the future specifically for women who wantto get into the outdoors where they're be
hunting, you're fishing. You know, we have had in the past a
program called Becoming an Outdoors Woman,but we decided to go away from things
that we're focused solely on, youknow, on one on one demographic.
(35:28):
Of course, we're working on ourmessaging, we're working on our visuals to
make sure that you know, perspectiveparticipants can see themselves in these roles instead
of just the standard in you know, the standard hunter image that you might
think of a blessed you know,many decades so, but you're right for
us, same thing. Women arethe fastest growing demographic in both hunting and
(35:52):
fishing, and we need to reallyseize on that. Even and even when
you look at public opinions, polein really in urban areas and this this
isn't unique to Oregon, It's inother areas too, but when you look
at public opinion POWL and you seethat hunting, hunting as a food gathering
activity is strongly supported even amongst nonhunters. Yeah, you know, Ramona
(36:15):
and I we're talking about it offair before we even started the show today
about you know, he was askingme to it because we were talking about
I've got a garden and my stuff'scoming starting to come in and he's growing
stuff here, and he said,you know, do you do you guy
stock up and prepare for you know, a massive price increase or God forbid,
something terrible happens, and and uh, you know, this is the
thing I tell people every day isthat, you know, the great thing
(36:36):
is I really I worry about badthings happening, of course, but I
really don't worry about providing because youknow, we've got vegetables in the garden
and if I have to worst youknow, worst case scenario, if I
have to got in the yard andpop a few squirrels and make a make
a gumbo with it, I cando it. And I think that's over
the last few years that's really attractedmore people who have never considered hunting before
is the fact that um, they'vewatched these factory farming things on Netflix,
(37:00):
and they've done these things. Seeingthese things are like, you know what,
I want to be able to sourcemy own protein, and I think
that's a really positive thing that weall need to see. Zon Absolutely absolutely,
there's something about cutting your own meattoo. I just love doing it.
I never take my meat to thebutcher. I always cut my own
animals because I like to see.I like to see what I'm getting and
what it looks like, and makesure that it's clean and you know,
(37:22):
all those things. Still, Yeah, there's definitely, I mean, I
think there's there's interest from really anon traditional community. There's interests in hunting
as a food source. So yeah, a lot of folks are looking at
that. Yeah. Absolutely absolutely,And I'm gonna shift gears a little bit.
You guys have some tremendous fishing inthe state of Oregon. What's the
(37:43):
status of the salmon fisheries there inyour state? Oh? Yeah, we
have, of course, many,many different salmon fisheries. The one that
probably gets the most pressed of late, I would say, is probably our
Ocean Chinook salmon fishery, which isclosed this year. Oregon and Cali Fornia
both have their salmon fishries closed thisyear due to really really poor runs that
(38:06):
are originated in the state of California, but many of our other runs,
many of our Oregon original runs arestill in really good still in a really
good place and exceptional returns of cohost Sam expected this year a lot of
a lot of fishing opportunity in toColumbia for both cohannchin of salmon. And
then of course we have you know, we have some actually blue ribbon quality
(38:30):
trout fishries and and kind of innfar away places in the state. But
maybe that's why they're so good.Yeah, Romote was talking about eating earlier
one of the best pieces of fishI've ever had my life. Roman was
a Columbia River salmon with a likea blueberry compote on it. Phenomenal piece
(38:50):
of fish, yeah, just phenomenal. Better than like red lobshat, Yes,
a little better, but yeah,Columbia springs book or finest eating salmon,
I mean, Copper River smok kindof Alaska is is very similar,
but Plunder River spring shuk is incredible. And yeah, I mean I think
(39:12):
retail right now, a pound ofPlunder River springsselves are about forty dollars.
Wow, that's crazy. Well,I mean it's worth it, so ramon,
I'll be charging you forty dollars apound when I come back from Alaska
this year. I'll do it inthe big boxes of salmon. I'll cut
you a deal at thirty. I'dlove to go to Alaska with you.
Well, you had, you hadthe opportunity, but you blew. That's
what you say. Those who hesitatelose UM. Folks. If you're just
(39:37):
joining us, we're going to bewrapping up the show here in just a
second, where with Kurt Meltzer,the director of the Oregan Department of Fishing.
One. If I've got about aminute left, Kurt, and this
is kind of a big question,but what's the biggest challenge that you in
your department will face over the nextfive years? Do you think, uh,
you know, I think I'll saysome of the biggest challenges we look
(39:58):
at or really work for related UM. And that's not unique just to our
industry. I think a lot ofindustries are really facing challenges with workforce UM.
You know, retaining employee, recruitingand retaining employees. It's like recruiting
new retaining hunters and anglers is achallenge or gonna going to be more so,
and particularly at the entry level wehave. Out of those thirteen hundred
(40:20):
employees I mentioned, about three hundredof those positions are seasonal positions where they
work, you know, three monthson the coast and then six months in
central Oregon. And the the lackof housing in these rural communities and even
the urban communities is really a pinchpoint, especially for these you know,
(40:40):
relatively entry level positions that have tomove around a lot. I think that's
big challenge. Of course, wecould talk about climate change challenge. We're
all feeling bad and and but um, in terms of just us as an
agencies, it's really going for coursemanagement. All right, man, we're
(41:01):
gonna have to have you back andtalk about a bunch of other stuff folks
today. Kurt Melcher, director ofOregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, we
are out of time on huntingmatters.We'll see you next week Huntymatters. KPRC
nine fifty Big are home with meand
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