2-8-25 - The Straight Truth About Native and Invasive Species

Jim and Scott tackle wildlife conservation issues and its challenges in the future.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
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(01:25):
Jim Straighter Outdoors right here on News Radio eight forty
whas good.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Evening, everybody. Jim Straighter here and welcome aboard to Jim
Straighter Outdoors Tonight. We've got a great show for you
this evening, folks. We're gonna talk conservation tonight, and it's
gonna be a really extensive program about some of the
concerns that my co host, Scott cron and I have

(01:53):
about things that we have observed through the years in
the environment. We're gonna take a walk back in time
and some things that I've seen in the number of
decades I've been in the outdoors and some of the
big changes that have been wrought by land practice techniques

(02:13):
that have changed tremendously through the decades. We're gonna talk
about the scarcity of a lot of critters that used
to be very, very common, and many of which are
near and dear to our hearts. We're gonna talk about insects,
We're gonna talk about invasive species, and we're gonna talk
about the disappearance from things from fish to frogs and amphibians,

(02:37):
birds and mammals. So this is gonna be a kind
of a very extensive show, as I mentioned, and I
think you'll be very pleased at where these concerns come from,
and I think you'll share most of them when we
try them out far tonight. So without further ado, I'm
gonna go to break. This break is presented by s

(03:00):
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(03:21):
SMI Well, Scott, We're going to cover a lot of
ground the night. Let's get folks at little taste of
where we're going with.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
This, speaking of covering a lot of ground, I'm sure
over your years a lot of people would consider you
more than just an expert. My experience with you, listening
to you as a kid growing up, now co hosting
the show with you is experience means expertise. And I'm
sure between the troll and motor batteries that you've drained

(03:52):
the leather that you've put to use from your boots,
your rubber boots you've worn out. You've got the hike
and hunt and fish a lot of miles of rivers, lakes,
woods all across this country. And I want to start
off asking you why, when and where did we lose
touch with our wildlife species. And I want to start

(04:15):
off with the numbers of grouse and quail and where
they've gone over the years and not made a successful
comeback in most areas and almost quietly disappeared as far
as that game species being hunted in the Commonwealth.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
You know, that is a great place to start, because
if we don't impart any other thing to the audience. Tonight,
I watched the quail disappear, I watched the rabbit's plummet,
and I watched grouse get the down where they're just
hardly worth hunting throughout the Appalachian Mountains in general. And

(04:53):
these things happen, you see a pattern start and it
revolves around a lot of things. But where I'm going
with this is people have a lot of concerns about
the wild turkey right now. You and I have been
working with the various agencies around the country that help
conserve the wild turkey, to protect the wild turkey, and

(05:17):
everybody's got these concerns. Well, don't ever thank folks that
the turkeys can't plummet like the quail or the grouse,
because the habitat, loss, the predation, they're all part of it.
But let me explain this in a way I think
her about. You understand when I was a young man,
when I was really hard bitting with upland game hunting,

(05:38):
which I still am today. But I can't hunt quail anymore.
I don't order a bird dog anymore because they're not
enough quail for me to feed a dog and feel
like I'm doing the dog any justice. It's either release
birds or you're going to travel. It's one of the two.
In our area, whether you're talking about Kentucky, most part

(06:00):
to Tennessee, Indiana, whatever, they're just not there anymore. And
there was a lot of things that entered into that,
but there was a climactic dial in the seventy eight winners,
no question about that. A lot of the biologists pushed
back on me on that said, although rebound, well, they

(06:21):
weren't taking in consideration the changes in farming practices they
coincided with that. You know, back in those days, on
a good piece of habitat where you had lesbides and fields,
clover fields, soy bean where farmers couldn't combine the way
they do now, and you had ditch rolls full of

(06:41):
honeysuckle and hard brier, and that cover well, all that
shifted in a very rapid fashion. Riz zipped forward. Quail
or scares today. Grouse, my goodness, was I hardbent with
grouse hunting. Had a grouse dog that I don't mind
bragging on a bit, but I won't go in detail.

(07:02):
But she was cracker Jack and by the time she
was seven or eight years old. And the folks in Heartland,
which was a group of radical people that really caused
the stoppage of clear cutting international forests, they ruined it.

(07:22):
And what they didn't realize. They also ruined habitat for
a lot of soft birds, a lot of mammals, a
lot of other critters that need stem growth. Good example
of that, I've said all my life hunting grass, if
I'm in cover that a hawk can fly through, I'm
not gonna see many grouse because they're almost like a

(07:44):
tame chicken in the way they move through habitat. If
they don't have an overstory, if there's not briars fawing
at you, you're not gonna find many grous. Let's riz
zip forward on something. What do people think happens to turkeys?
And there is where they don't have things that you
and I have been preaching forever about the need for

(08:06):
hard stem plants. They go through the summer and protect
those poles because, let me tell you, some folks, they
didn't call Cooper's hawks and redtail hawks chicken hawks back
in the day for nothing. What do you think happens
when young polts they're less than half grown, step out

(08:26):
in these open fields and don't have seclusion anywhere.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
They're picked off. They're picked off. And is that the
whole picture? Heck no, But we're gonna talk to a
good bit about turkeys. But here's where I'm going with this.
None of this is a joke.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
This is a serious point in history and it can
happen again, and turkeys is one of the species that
I'm really really concerned about. Scott, Let's talk about some
other birds here. Let's stay on the bird train for
a bit.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Well, as you mentioned that in the bush hogs stayed
active and these critters started disappearing, those folks that started
to hunt them disappeared. Well, we we get into now
with the modern era that we're in that tonight, we're
not going to talk just about the game birds that
we hunt, so much of the quail and the grouse

(09:18):
and the turkey pheasants that are across North America. Jim, a
lot of people that have conducted their own independent research,
and we'll talk how important this is in a little bit.
But they're finding that ground nesting birds in general are
down across the board. And it's not just Kentucky. It's

(09:39):
a national and a global you know, an enlightenment to
folks as they tracked this data and what we're learning
as we watch these biologists and these reports come in
that these ground nesting birds it's not just the agriculture practice,
it's not just the predators, it's not just the weather

(09:59):
and the flo but all of that combined. Instead of
just having one or two years of low production, Jim,
we're starting to see ten, fifteen, and twenty five year
patterns developed where folks are really starting to come together
and trying to figure out a way in which we
can advocate and put better habitat into production for these species.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Okay, let's give a perfect example to the turkey hunters
out there, the campers out there, folks that are out
in woodland habitats a lot. When was the last time
many of us heard a bunch of whipper wheels? When
was the last time many of us heard the chuck
wheels widow, which is the relative to the whipper wheels.
I don't know about everybody else, but that was one

(10:40):
of the most beautiful lullabies for me when I was
camping out doors. You and I've talked about this, and
we're in straight kidship on that nothing is pretty than
hearing those whipper wheels at night, seeing them on the
roads when you're driving into your camping sites. They're gone.
I'm not saying they're extinct. Honey, I'll put this with

(11:02):
if you spend time in the woods again, knows this
it's because you weren't paying attention and it's a tragedy.
Back to your deal about ground nesting birds. Think about
species like the metal ark. You know, when I was
a kid, you went into any meadow, there was metal
arts all over the place, whether it was a cover field,

(11:25):
whether it was a hey production field, no matter what
it was. But with the chemical sprays and the rotation practices,
we've got down the fact that they mowed down to
where it's hardly anything left but a little stem. They
don't have any place to hat, they don't have any
place to nest. And to your point, they're not a

(11:46):
game species, but manda missile.

Speaker 5 (11:48):
And it's not just agriculture.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
I'm you know, look at this the impact of urban
sprawl and what feral cats can do to gain populations
and species. Look at the amount of ground that can't
be set idle now because it's got a real estate
signing it and it's become an asphalt and concrete. But
one of the things that I'm interested to learn about

(12:13):
tonight's interview with you on this is where are we
as far as my generation and a younger generation, do
we have our head wrapped around this? Do we understand
how important it is for conservation and habitat work and
to make sure that the acres that we do have
are being put into best production this like Later we'll

(12:35):
talk about Kentucky thirty one Rescue. Are we as a
younger hunting society my age group? Are we as in
tune with mother nature and the woods as what the
guys and the gals were when you were my age?

Speaker 2 (12:50):
I hate to say this, but it's the unvarnished truth
from my perspective. No, the younger generations are not. And
here's why. They've got access to better equipment that makes
it easier to mold. They're more accustomed to seeing a
mode slick surface to look out over what you and

(13:10):
I know are food items like iron weed, and you
know all the different forbes that are out there. Forbes basically,
folks are what most people call weeds, and folks that
have been raised in these later generations despis weeds. You know,
they get allgically about you name it. I mean, dandelions,

(13:34):
for example, are iron weeds. I mean, I can't go
on and on the warm season grasses even they'd rather
see a mode rescue. And we will talk a bit
about fescue. But the reason that concerns me is they
don't really know. I'm not They're not stupid, right any bees,

(14:00):
They're not. I'll just put this way. They're uneducated with
the ways nature is supposed to work. They bought into
chemicals or the answer. They bought into these moodery contrivances
that can keep everything looking manicured for about better way

(14:21):
to or lack of a better way to describe it,
and that that's a big concern for me.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Well, what scares me, Jim, is that we've got a
lot of people that are very knowledgeable on great gear.
We've got better gear and better things to our disposal
than we've ever had.

Speaker 5 (14:37):
In a lot of ways.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
But when it comes to the year round engagement with
mother Nature, being in the woods, seeing what's going on,
I'm just afraid that there's a lot of people that
are filling tags really quick on opening day or opening weekend,
or just getting out and hunting doves that opening day
is season, or only fishing on the pretty days, and

(15:00):
they get just a little bit just enough to say
that they've done it, but I'm not sure that we're
creating conservationists and all around outdoorsmen.

Speaker 5 (15:10):
It seems we're getting more specialized.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
We've got a good deer hunter, we have a good
turkey hunter, and we don't have as many people now.
When you ask them do they hunt? You almost got
to ask them what they hunt, because I don't know
if they're hunting for rabbits and squirrels and deer and
turkey and doing at all. I'm not And it's not
taking anything away from them. Some of it's just based
off of the time they have or the access to

(15:34):
the properties private or public that they have. But it's
harder for me now to find someone to talk to
about true conservation. How to cut their forest, how to
manage their land, wind to mow, what to plant, how
much game should be harvested, and what ratio of buck
to doe should be getting taken. And to be quite frank,

(15:54):
because of the power of YouTube and podcasts, there's a
whole lot of people that make themselves experts GYM. And
when we come back from the break, I want you
to elaborate over what you've done for all of these
years to advocate, not just for the Commonwealth, but for
species of wildlife and habitat. You don't just bring a

(16:16):
talk show to the radio to talk about what you're
harvesting or what you're catching. You're always trying to have
foresight and forward thinking about the populations and what we're
doing good. And you've always got that gut instinct to
kind of let us know what's coming up or what's
around the corner. You've got that insight better than anybody

(16:37):
that I've ever met.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Well, that's a high compliment, and I hope I can
live up to it. I consider myself a naturalist. Honestly,
I'm not the best big buck hunter in the world.
I pretty much can hold my own with most anybody
with turkeys. As a dog trainer, I've had squirrel dogs,
burden dogs, retrievers. I've done all that. And what I

(17:00):
I was always wanting to learn in my journey through
journalism was what did people want? What does the average
hunter or angler want to know? And you just hit
something on the head that's pretty important. Sometimes I think
we have become too specialized. We've lost sight that the

(17:24):
outdoors is a place to obtain meals. The outdoors is
a place where we have to exhibit stewardship. The outdoors
is a place where we definitely better keep our eye
on the next generations. You touched on that. That's a
real big one. It's me as you know, well, I say,
as you know, we are both very passionate about introducing

(17:47):
youth to the outdoors. Absolutely why because it's a lifestyle.
It's not a one dimensional thing, and everybody doesn't have
time to do it all. You can be a year
round deer hunter yourself, and that's great. But here's what
I'll tell you. You know, something that makes me sick
is watching outdoor TV shows where they'll tak an animal

(18:12):
killing animal. I'm not gonna talk about harmlest to kill him.
We're run and done. We got her done today. That
isn't what it's about. I'm sorry. If it isn't about
the experience, if it isn't about your learning with the animal,
if it didn't learning about how to handle the weather
and adjust, But most importantly in tonight's show, if it

(18:34):
isn't about awareness of the environment, and I'm talking about
the environment in general. We as sportsmen and outdoor women
have been at the forefront of conservation since conservation became
an issue that's indisputable. We've spent billions and billions of
dollars through our taxes that we asked for Pittman, Robertson

(18:56):
money Jingle, Johnson Money's We have been at the forefront
of that. And here's what I'm going to tell you.
We damn well better stay that way or it can
go south really really quickly.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Listening to you talk, not just has the conservation and
some of these game numbers changed. Putting that game on
the table has changed, and I think that's had a
tremendous impact too. I think we have forgotten how important
game wild game was to feed not only the man
or the woman who harvested it was what fed their families.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Jim generally speaking clothing thought sholryman that doesn't need his
game or eat his fish to have burned out for
two long he or she generally won't last us in
the sport, very very long. All right, folks, gotta go
to break here. This break is presented by Paul Thomas
and Mansiel Property's Heart Realty. Paul is an outdoorsman himself,

(19:52):
got all kind of vacation holes, wildlife properties in farms
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Speaker 5 (20:03):
Jim Strader.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
The bush hog or the brush hog, no matter what
you want to call it has always come up in
conversations when it comes to game numbers. I don't know
as many hunters that own a pair of brier proof
pants or bids anymore. They own a lot of gortex
and a lot of fancy camo, but they're not bleeding
when they're walking through a lot of farms and men.

Speaker 5 (20:24):
You talk about that a lot on how the habitat.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
It doesn't all need to be that way, but a
lot of the small game and a lot of triggers
we want to hunt. If we can walk the farm
and not bleed on it, then it may not have
good habitat. But just the amount of seed that's left
over from a combine's not there. We're in such an
early busy hurry anymore to get things planted earlier than
we ever have. We're harvesting crops earlier than we ever have.

(20:51):
We're leaving such a habitat desert out there. We don't
have those briars, we don't have that habitat of blackberries
have multiploor rows and all of this stem count. That's
so important. And in your years of walking in your
leather boots or your rubber boots, or maybe converting to

(21:11):
riding the side by side versus walking in two miles
from the truck, where are we at right now on
just the amount of good natural habitat that gain needs
to flourish in our area.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Overall, we're at a bad place. And here's why I
say that. And I'm talking here to you guys that
hunt rabbits with beagles. I'm talking here to you guys
that are so hard bitting you're still chasing quail. You
know you're down to a point where if you run
into one covet you've had a good day. I believe
for you. But it doesn't have to be that way.

(21:50):
And I have said this for many many years, and
you have to if you're not getting stuck and bleeding
as you refer to. I put this way. I watched
the coach come across the Ohio River in nineteen seventy
eight winter when the river froze. You talk about a
game changer. Both jokers went from being here. I was

(22:14):
the first guy that wrote about it. I was fortunate
enough to have a trapping buddy that caught one very quickly.
At the tail end of that winter, I said, oh
my gosh, they're here. And because they're here, kadye, bar
the door and guess where we're at today. What that
means is there's only so many things you can do
to help our wildlife. One of them, and you and

(22:35):
I talk about a lot, and we preach it, and
we're going to keep preaching is trapping. If you're not
trapping your property, you're not doing your part. Don't come
griping to me. If you're not seeing turkeys, if you're
not seeing quail and rabbits, if you've got the habitat,
that's number one. Number two, the need for escape cover

(23:01):
for critters today is more important than it's ever been.
We've got so many avian predators today, it's unreal. You know,
back in my day you could still legally kill al's
and hawks and that did that need to change? Yes,
but I'm not sure in the little overboard at this point,

(23:22):
the number of retail hawks and stuff you see out
there's pretty incredible. I'm not advocating we do that. What
I'm advocating is we create cover where they can't in
quotes rule the roost. What do we mean by that
you referred to it? You've got to have hard brier
as a rabbit hunter in today's world, which I do
still participate in a lot. If I don't see huge

(23:45):
gross of honeysuckle choking brier and our tree laps that
are overgrown so thickly that it's tough for you to
get through it and a little bit hard for the
dogs to get through it, I move on. You're not
going to kill many rabbits there kicking a fencerol there there.
In the past, it's done.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
The leafs, the stems, the seed, all that was part
of the habitat. It was the cover, It was the space,
It was the food, and even to jump into it
a little bit further. If we really get into this
habitat and how we hunt and the cover, look at
how many ponds are just bear and open. Look at

(24:26):
how many ponds have silted in. Look at all of
these places that men walked, and their brierproof pants and
their brierproof bibs were two and three inches shorter than
the n se.

Speaker 5 (24:37):
Other blue jeens.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
You know, they the bottoms looked like Freddy Coueger had
shredded up. I mean, and these were faded. These were
things that were worn for fifteen twenty years. As you
as you walk and you and you cover this ground
and you reflect back on your hunting career.

Speaker 5 (24:54):
Is water part of that habitat cover?

Speaker 2 (24:57):
It's huge. It's huge in many counties in Kentucky. As
you drive around, you don't see the number of farm
ponds you did back in the earlier years. Why again,
this move towards huge tracts of monocultural agricultural land. They

(25:17):
took out the ponds, they took out the fence rolls,
they took out the ditches, straightened them, tiled the fields.
I mean, it's no mystery about why a lot of
these critics are in shorter supply. But I guess here's
the important thing to realize here, Scott. I've forgotten what

(25:37):
the percentage is, but I think it's notinety something percent
of Kentucky's land is privately owned.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
That is correct.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
The agency isn't going to do this for you. They
can't do it for you. They don't have the money,
the human resources, etc. However, I will say this when
I tour our wildlife management properties. Excuse me, I'm not
overly impressed with how they're being managed. Uh, there's just
not a balance between food, water, and cover. I'm talking

(26:09):
about good impenetrable kyo deterring redtail hawk detern cover for
these small game species to drive well.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
That that right, there's a great point because it's not
necessarily about working harder.

Speaker 5 (26:26):
It's about working smarter when.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
You mow how you mow, making the best management practices
you can in passing that on and giving folks that advice.
I mean, when you walk onto a farm, I bet
you before you even start to hunt or fish that
you can tell whether or not it's going to be
a good day, just about how your eyes and your
brain function.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
They get thirty minutes. I'm trying to tell you we're
gonna have a driven here, boys, earth thin hunt. And
I can also not that I'm some genius, but I'm
looking for as the things we're describing. If I don't
see hard succept, I should cover. Let me give you
a good example. Somebody asked me one time, Jim, when
you want to go to a new farm and you
want to figure out how you want to hunt it

(27:08):
that next far or the next winter, what do you
look for. I said, I want to see it in
January and February. Yeah, and if there's not hardcover, if
there's not brighter, if there's not Japanese honey something. I
didn't say bush honey something, because we're going to talk
about that in a little bit. If I don't see
a lot of blowdowns that are growing up, you know,

(27:29):
in a wooded set, it I bet waste my time there.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
Well that's another talking point too. I'm sure you've seen
it a thousand times, and give us some feedback on this.
You walk a farm for the very first time, very
first time you've ever been on it.

Speaker 5 (27:43):
Maybe it's somebody that's bought a farm.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
You've got to bleed a little bit, maybe even cuss
or say a bad word to get through it. You
got to walk backwards, your feet are getting tangled up,
you're wishing it. Maybe you had a little bit thicker
particle of clothing on. But what's the very first thing
people wanted to do. They want to bush hoog a
path to make it easier to get back there. They
want to clean this up, they want to clear that out.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
The thing that is and it absolutely chills me to
the ball. I want to clean this place up. I
want to clean it up good. You just gave a
death delder, but most of the critters that live.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
There no doubt.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
And you can walk and walk and walk a piece
of property and when it looks the same, open and clear,
what normally happens? What does Jim Straighter see when he
finally gets some cover where you better look down at
your feet and look ahead where you're walking because you've
got to navigate through it.

Speaker 5 (28:34):
What happens? Does a rabbit jump out or a deer
get up?

Speaker 2 (28:37):
Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (28:38):
Is there a good buck sign in there? Even from
the previous year.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Every critter. People forget this. I want to point out
another thing that really galls me. Okay, you go on
these outdoor shows and these guys talking about deer management,
ninety percent of the conversation is about a kill plot.
I'll let you describe a kill plot to me. It's

(29:03):
just simply a place to kill a deer at a
specific time of year. It's not a plot to feed
those deer on that property year round. It's not a
place where they're talking about habitat around it. It's just like,
you know, I grew this food, and I drew those
deer in here and fall I killed my big buck. Well,
good on you, but how long is that going to

(29:25):
last on a continuing basis, It's not good. There is
a bright spot here, however, and I want to continue
this conversation after the break, because in addition to staying
off the bush home, you want to know one of
the bright stars. I see what's that is these warm
seasoned grasses. It is absolutely something that I have seen

(29:47):
progress through the last decade or so to where I'm
convinced if there's going to be a savior on many properties,
that's going to beget And I know you're an expert
in that field. So we'll talk about after the break.
This break is presented by send Ring. We see Tim
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(30:09):
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soaked by my friends at SFI.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Gem Straighter. When it comes to these warm season grasses,
it takes a little bit of time, it takes a
little bit of love, and it takes a little bit
of money to get them established. And we have a
lot more acceptance to the people who take the time
to understand burning and planning in the first year, the

(30:40):
second year, the third year. But why are these warm
season grass is so important?

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Well, Number one, there are native species. Let me start
off with that. In other words, critters take to them
because it's what they naturally evolved in to begin with,
and that's a big deal. Number Two, they have a
high our food value than most people realize. But the
cover value that it provides from hawks, owls, kyots, et cetera,

(31:11):
for rabbits and quail, and you know all these credits songbirds.
It's just a wonderful adjunct to any property that you
want to manage for wildlife. The only thing that drives
me crazy about some of these things is some of
those government programs where they require you to mow it

(31:34):
at the very time of the year when these credits
are going to need that cover going into winter. That
drives me insane.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
We won't jump in the weeds in it, but we
will walk around the weeds in it. The government has
told us saying such as Kutzoo autumn olive. There are
multiple species out there. They've told us to plant only
fifteen to twenty years later that there's fines and policies.
If you don't remove them from your farm, you'll be
fine penalized. And that's a subject we may or may

(32:03):
not get into a little latter. But what you're talking
about on those warm season grasses, they're bunch style grasses.
You're Indian grasses, buffalo grasses, and instead of it just
being a mat, those things grow to the point to
where the wildlife can get underneath the canopy of those grasses.
They have the bare ground to get the seed, they

(32:26):
have the nesting habitat, they've got the security of the cover.
It's even their form as a thermal in different parts
and times of the year shade and not this shade.
It's there for warmth. And unfortunately, if folks don't find
a way to be incentivized from the reward of having

(32:46):
this better wildlife habitat on their property or the paycheck
from planning this warm season grasses, a lot of times
jim go just ignored and forgotten about.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
Absolutely and are the panacea you know? Or they answer everything, No,
you need to have a significant amount to make a
huge impact. Here's what I mean by this. A twenty
or thirty or fifty foot strip really isn't enough to
deterc ouoats and do the things that you would like
to do. And then the mowing practices have to be done,

(33:23):
in my opinion, in ways where the critters can move
to the next session section of the ground while that
one regenerates. You don't want to zip it all at once.
There are places of times you have to. We both
know that if you get woody cover in it and
it needs renovation, there's places in times. But for it

(33:44):
to be an optimal cover. In addition to food, there's
just a lot of things to be considered. And look,
let's talk a little bit here about some other things
that are in that category. Warm seasoned plants, partridge p
I'm big on partridge pea. If you want a quail,
if you've got partner's pee and warm seasoned grasses and

(34:06):
maybe a clover plot or two to feed your deer
in conjunction, you'll be golden at some point. If there's
a quail in your immediate vicinity, they won't end up
in there.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
The best thing about the plants you're talking about, when
they're plant in the proper order, or they're allowed to
come back in succession. You don't have everything ready at
just one time of the year. You have things that
are constantly going through a cycle. One when one is flourishing,
the other one may be going out on the end note,
And what this does it makes that area of land

(34:40):
available for good habitats of these species more than just
a few days a year. It works for the species
most of the time, not only for the year, but
long term one year, two year, three years.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Back to my criticism of kill plots, you know, we
went on a wrong turn there for a number of years.
You know it, I know it. We saw it at
outdoor television. We saw it even with some of the agencies.
And we need to have a bigger vision than that.
Food cover, water, food cover, water, mineral supplement is a

(35:15):
huge thing, as we both know. So the native plannings
that we can do in addition to allowing native forbes
to grow or proliferate by staying off the bushog. Now
you're stalking about starting talking about some magic stuff here.
This is stuff that will sustained wild life through the

(35:38):
year round process.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
There's a whole lot of these plants to Jim that's
beneficial because when you look at traditional natives. A lot
of those plants. Even when you talk to the experts,
it doesn't matter if you're at Roundstone Native Seed or
working with an independent biologist. They don't require the pH
and fertility costs that some of these modern crops that

(36:01):
folks are putting in for these things you call kill bloods.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
And you know by secessional mowing, by that, I mean
on a yearly rotational basis. Let's say every two to
three years. Let it go, let it, let it have
stem growth, let it have flowering, let reset itself, and
then whack it. But do it where the one next
to it's still got that cover and food for the wildlife.

(36:26):
It's not rocket side really, when you get down to.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
It, Mowing and burning does a whole lot on a
good rotation.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yes, sir, the rotations of tea in my opinion, All right,
folks gotta go to break here. This break is preserved
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Speaker 5 (36:54):
Jim's Trader.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
A Grass it's not so well loved like the warm
seasoned grass. Is the famous Kentucky thirty one fescue, And
I'm going to tell on my age just a little bit.
I remember when Kentucky thirty one fescue was new, and
I remember when every contractor and every landscaper and every
homeowner was buying a bag of it. And then the

(37:18):
next thing you realize people were sewing it in their pastures.
They were putting it in for hayfields. What is Jim
Straiter's opinion, knowledge and expertise with Kentucky thirty one fisking.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
I make this real simple. I hate that stuff. I
literally hate it. And there's a variety of reasons, but
I can give one that our beagle hound rabbit hunting
and our quail people will understand. Back in the day,
our number one thing that was in most of our
pastures to help hold soil was koreed lespidisakreed lespidisa is

(37:57):
a favorite of mine. I know it's falling out of
favor and it's a little bit expensive nowadays because it's
not as available as they used to, but we always
call it poor man's alfalfa because it loves or can
tolerate acidic salt, has a very deep tap root. That's
one of the things that the people need to keep

(38:19):
in mind. What does that mean. It's drought resistant, much
more so than clover, for example, and I like to
integrate it in my clover plots. Hint, hint for those
who are paying attention here. And the seed was very
attractive to rabbits and quail, all kinds of song birds,
et cetera. The problem with fescue that I stumbled across

(38:42):
through some equine research at the University of Kentucky was
the fact that it contains a fungus an end to
fight is the proper term that inhibits milk production or
lactation in mammals. Well, I looked into it with a

(39:02):
couple of the really good biologists back in the day.
This is going back into the seventies, and what we
discovered was if rabbits main food item was rescue, they'd
get what was called rabbit fever. The mama rabbit in
her tits could not produce milk. Well, guess what that does.

(39:22):
That kills baby rabbits. You kill the babies. You're in
a bad place. So now you're talking about a triple whammy.
That was about the same time that Coyle's got here.
That was about time all this stuff started hammered at
the rabbits and the quail. You lost cover. You had
this really bad wildlife habitat that wasn't good for much

(39:47):
of anything. And that stuff, that's one of the things
for me, that's devil's work, and I hate it. I
hate it.

Speaker 5 (39:55):
And before we jumped to these specific.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Animals we're going to talk about, you've got to know
the full name of these plants. It's not just honeysuckle.
You need to know which honeysuckle it is. It's just
not rye. You need to know which ride is. It's
not just fescue. You need to know is it tall fescue?
Is it Kentucky thirty one fescue?

Speaker 5 (40:17):
Talk to us a little.

Speaker 3 (40:18):
Bit about how these newer plants that have come about,
maybe have come in a fashion in a quick and
easy way to help control erosion, but long term it
has really controlled and helped maintain some of these low
numbers in our wildlife species.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
Well, the fescue is one of the number ones. The
things that people are planting in some of these fields
are just not all that beneficial. I mean they are
to an extent, but the amount of chemical that needs
to be used to keep it viber. I'll give an example,

(41:00):
and I know I'm gonna get criticized for this, and
I'm okay with it. I people all the time talk
about turnips and what's old the man of humans or
breakdown as a result does for the soul which are
morphous with aerial rice my partial ree grass. Talk about

(41:21):
protea and available the barbohydrates and everything. Can you look
it up up what's going on any of the websites
that these cultiversities have and look with it the saw.
It's a huge system and command as if he did.
Now put them out your right forget for turf, you

(41:42):
know that's for your yard. That's not But the strap
to me is the best possible. It's cheap on your
fertiles bill, it doesn't ben slable, and it's want to
go to tricks in my clover fields, I expect to
feed their sprint up till about first and just better
how cold gets go in and the default see all

(42:03):
right and we great, all right, guess what happens is
clover plays that just feed the deer winter what happened
to sprint? Come in like you should anyway be spreading
for overt and you want to bang for your guessitor plan.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Well, we'll close out on this right here. How good
or bad in your opinion has this seed game become
when it's just a bag of seed and a picture
of a shrutting turkey or a deer on the bag?
Do we need to It goes back to how well
do we know our stuff? Have we marketed to the

(42:38):
point to where we forgot about the education and the
real world experience and put the photo and the price
on the bag to be more important than what's in
the bag.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Well, you and I both know from dealing with entities
like Bardstown Bills and Roundstoweed and some of these other
entities that are in that business, there's a big difference
between seas with filler in it, lack of purity, noxious
weeds that may or may not be present. You better
be careful who you do business with. And I will

(43:08):
say this, the proliferation of so called wildlife seed companies
that's out to today deserves a little bit of hesitant introspection.
What I mean by that be careful what you're buying.
It's easy for them to make it sound good, but
the proofs in the pudding. And I will say something,

(43:30):
I'm proud of partnering with you. When we mentioned products
on the air, it's products we have experience with. Now
we do mention products that are new and appear to
be innovative, But what I'm getting that is through you know,
I've been in wildlife management now for over fifty years,

(43:52):
not fifteen five zero. You've been in for how many.

Speaker 5 (43:56):
Now, I'm pushing thirty five years, you know, So.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
When we speak to these issues, it's not off the cuff. Hey,
this is what we think. We try to pass on
what we've seen through experience. We know. And are there
some new exotic things out there and new clover this
and that. Sure there is, and we'll talk about it.

(44:22):
But I can tell you if you stick to the basics,
you're probably pretty well loft.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
There are some pillars and there is some foundation there,
and everything is always compared back to the proven basics,
every bit of it.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
And if you don't have that, you're it's a gibbick.
Let me put it that way.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
Well, changing on the plants, just a little bit between
the animals that have tails, some of the fish that
swim in our waters four legged, two legging. We've seen
some declines in some of the species that we are
passionate for, and we have seen some increa numbers and
some of the species that we both advocate for that

(45:03):
people should maybe have a little more awareness on whether
or not if those critters are really good or not.
Talk to us a little bit about the gray fox
and the otter and the cout and what you've seen
over these years.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Well, let me start with this. In my view, a
good colt is a dead cold and I'm going to
qualify that they are not a native species. They were
not native to hear the wolves controlled this environment going
back in time, and that wolves will not tolerate colds.

(45:39):
We had, you know, several species of wolves here and
they wouldn't tolerate them. So when they came in here
and trapping declined, trapping was already declined about the time
the colds hit. It was a bad, bad situation. What
went by the wayside. Gray fox. When I was a kid,
you saw gray foxes all the time. And I say

(46:01):
a kid, even a young man, and you saw a
lot of red fox, red fox and gray fox, despite
what people painted them as as rabbit killers and quail
killers back in the day. Did they take the occasional Yes,
but they're primarily mauss and they're big on insects. Believe
it or not. Gray and red fox eat grasshoppers. Interestingly,

(46:26):
you know this, They love perciments. They feed on a
lot of things that most people don't really understand. And
there they were native. So I miss seeing gray fox.
You know, they're part of our heritage. Year why wouldn't
I miss them? Uh? I got another one I hate,
and it's one of the biggest mistakes on a reintroduction

(46:48):
of the species that I've seen in my lifetime. And
I'm very passionate about it because I'm a fisherman. You
know where I'm going. I I hate they never should
have been brought back here. They have decimated the small
Mouth and Rock Bass and so many of our premier

(47:09):
streams in this state. It's pathetic. They have ruined I
don't know how many thousands of farm ponds across the region.
And as far as I'm concerned, they're cud. I get it,
But you know what, I'm just not in favorite of
honors and Here's where I'm at with that. There should

(47:31):
not be restrictions on trapper or shooting dodders. Sorry, if
they become a problem, you shouldn't have to call a
conservation officer or a trapper. You gotta be able to
take care of business. And I feel very strongly about
that because I'll give you example. I fished one of
my favorite streams going back forty years this summer was
a friend of mine. We fished a mile and a

(47:53):
half of stream with the most beautiful mussel beds, crawfish everywhere, mills.
The biggest sunfish I saw was maybe three inches. There
were no small mouth. Wasn't a bad day of fishing.
They weren't there. You fished with me before. I stand
up in the boat and I'm looking everywhere. I'm looking
under cuts in the bank, I'm looking out and the

(48:15):
breaks in the rocks. I'm looking on the gravel bars.
They were gone. I told my buddy, I said, you
know what, something really bad has happened here. And my
best guess is, hos guess what happened On the way
back to the ramp when we gave up the day,
I've seen one saw a whole family. Yeah, scattering the banks,
rooting under the undercuts, everything that they do, and I'm sorry,

(48:37):
I don't have a big place for them. So I'm
gonna go to break here real quick and we'll talk
more about this coming back from the break. This break
is presented by SMI. Go see them, they'll take great
carry you. Remember you never get soaked by my friends
at SMI.

Speaker 5 (48:56):
Jim Bowl.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
The old raccoon is getting fed by the deer hunters,
the cold is always in question, and the bobcats are
as controversial as any species you'd want to talk about,
especially in Indiana. Those are the three big whimmis I'm
going to throw at you to impromptu us on where
we're at with them and where we need to be

(49:18):
knowledgeable about them to help control them and to adapt
with them, because they've definitely adapted to us.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
There's too much talk and agency biological circles about how
habitat can cure what those animals, those predators are doing
to our game species. I'm sorry, but it doesn't work
that way. The burden of proof of that is almost

(49:46):
everyone that I and you managed far we tell right
out of the box. If you're not trapping, you're missing
the boat. Even with good habitat, what your hard on
work is going to produce is going to be minimized
by those critters. I cannot believe in the state of Indiana,

(50:09):
with amount of bobcat that have exploded in southern Indiana,
what in the world they're thinking, because those creators got
to be controlled. I'm sorry, they're an apex predator. What
are they hard on? Turkeys, fawns, rabbits, whatever quail we

(50:29):
got left you name it. I mean, they're an apex predator,
and predators need to be controlled in today's environment with
the shortage of quality habitat on a big basis, you know,
I'm talking about one thousands of acres. You better do
on your acreas what you can. You touched on the
coon as you know, that's a big one with me.

(50:50):
You feed these coons all went around these deer feeders,
which increases the amount of pupps they can have. What's next,
boom the population explosion? What are they gonna eat? Turkey eggs?
Come on, guys, get with the program. Nothing's easier to
trap the a coup. I mean, if you're not incorporate

(51:11):
trapping into your management plans, you're just missing the boat
of coylots. I said it earlier. Good coots a dead cold.
I have a rule on all my hunting properties. You
see a coat, you shoot a colt, no questions asked.
I don't care if you're working a gobbler, I don't
care if there's a buck on the way. That is

(51:32):
a day when you saved a whole bunch of critters.
Why do I say that, Well, let's look at this
way during the fawning season. You and I have seen
through the years the effects. And not only that, there
was a big QTMA study that I challenged them with
back in the day to do in the Carolinas where

(51:53):
they studied a property that was trapped for colouds and
a property of that was and the far mortality that
property that had the cow's the workcrap was unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
I can assure you nine out of ten times, whether
it's been hunting myself, hunting others, film and television shows,
folks that think they're going to kill that deer or
that gobbler because they're not going to shoot the cow.

Speaker 5 (52:19):
You know how the hunt normally ends.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
They could have killed the cow and they never got
a shot at the gobbler or the deer, and they
should have executed the shot on the cow. They thought
that maybe, just maybe that buck or that turkey may
come in.

Speaker 5 (52:34):
It's a major mistake.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
It is a mistake because how many faun deer were
killed by that cowt into three sixty five that they're
on the landscape for rabbit hooter, whatever you want to
talk about these Again, a cow's not native to begin with,
and bobcats, why in the world they're in such an

(52:57):
explosion kind of causes me to scratch ahead a lot
of times. But you know what, you study something to death,
we don't need to study it. And that goes to
something that you and I are passionate about. When are
these agencies gonna listen more to a hundred feedback? Because
when you've got a lot of hunters that have had

(53:18):
boots on the ground on a year round basis through
all these critters we're talking about, why wouldn't you listen
to them?

Speaker 3 (53:24):
For God's say, you're not telling me, demonstrator that a
game agency would load questions and only select certain stakeholders
to interview with limited surveys to get to that that
they want.

Speaker 5 (53:35):
That's not what you're telling me, is it?

Speaker 2 (53:37):
It's exactly what I'm telling Okay, that's he worried about it. Yeah,
well I'm stared of these stacked surveys that leads you
down to a primrose path where well, what this word
happen or that I'm not stupid, and neither's the average hunter.

Speaker 5 (53:51):
By the way, no sarcasm there.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
It's happening too often and it's beyond evident what they're
trying to do.

Speaker 5 (53:57):
Now let's talk about.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
Well why they did it. Well, we can't move off that.
They're looking for funds to do grant studies.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
That's why they can get approval and they can get
things moving the way they want to if they can
control the equation. And that's what's happening now. Not honorable mention,
horrible mention. Let's come back here in a little bit.
Let's talk about these pigs, especially down around the LBL area,
and how that could be the next specie that becomes

(54:28):
in the top three of the talks other than Raccoon's,
Kylets and Bobcat.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Absolutely, that's a great idea. All right, folks, got to
go to break here. This break is presented by SBI
Marine they're eleven four hundred Westport Road. Come. Adding to
the staff are experts of troubleshooting any of the boats.
You're having troubles you're having with your boat, and remember
you never get sold by my friends at SMI.

Speaker 3 (54:52):
Demonstrator's Kyle management plan is see a cole kill a
Cole jim. In the last few years, especially around the
land between the Lakes area, certain sections along Pond River
in western Kentucky, we're having this issue with these wild pigs,
and it's a very controversial issue because of the government

(55:13):
agency's ways in which they do not want hunters to
harvest and shoot a pig when they sing them say,
for example, they're on a quota hunt on a piece
of public land, they want you to call and report it.

Speaker 5 (55:26):
There's a number.

Speaker 3 (55:27):
We have mutual friends that have called the number and
never got a call back, and they could have executed
and took that pig out right down the spot. So
it's open to you, big boy, share your opinion on it.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
I have a personal friend of mine who is one
of the best wildlife managers. I know I'm not gonna
mention him because I haven't asked his permission. But since
you posed this question, he reported wild pig almost a
month ago. Dad in western Kentucky. No response, no return,
full calls. And I've heard this, I don't know how

(56:02):
many places. I got a very long term friend of
mine up in northern Kentucky that had problems with hawgs.
Partner said I, we need to come in. We need
to trap them. If you disperse them by shooting into them,
they'll disperse, they'll be gone. I ain't buying it. I
ain't buying it for a lot of reasons. Number one,
what I just stated, They don't show up the way

(56:24):
they say. They don't have the mind power to show
up the way they say. Do I think that trapping
of pigs is super effective. You bet I do. But
here's what I'll tell you. Every pig you kill, every
pig you kill, is a pig that won't reproduce. Now,
isn't it how it works. Well, if that's the way
it works, then tell me where the logic is. Because

(56:46):
they say, well, the sounders which is the word for
the you know, families and pigs will disperse and they
won't be able to trap them. Not in my experience,
not my experience, in all the properties that I've managed
to been associated with down in the Deep South in Georgia, Florida, Alabama.
Doesn't work that way. Well, those folks do. But if

(57:07):
they get it after with dogs, they get it after
with their rifles, they get after with traps, they get
it after with cannerite, which is kind of an ugly subject.
Then they get after it with helicopters. They kill them
any in every way they can. And you know what,
we better because if they ever take hold here, Katy
Barrowdor for the farmer, and Katie Barrowdor for most of

(57:30):
our native wildlife. See a pig, kill a pig. That's
my mantra.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
All right, let's keep trucking down the road. We've got
Bradford pears, we have Asian cart we have all of
these issues going on with how many hunters we have
and the percentage of the hunting population. Where you want
to go, what's Jim Strader want to talk about when
it comes to conservation invasive native species and promoting hunting

(57:58):
and fishing and a sustainable wildlife population for the next generation.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Well, to begin with this mantra that we've heard out
of Kentucky fish. In my life, we've got less hunters
is not true. We've actually got more hunters. We just
got less in the percentage of our Kentucky population of people.
But we actually have more hunters. What are we doing

(58:26):
to provide for them? If there's a small game hunter
out there? The thanks they're doing an excellent job of
managing for small game I'd like to hear from them
everywhere I go. All I hear is they've forgotten a
small game. It's all about health, deer and turkeys. I'm
all far those three species. I'm all about it. But

(58:48):
these game agencies got lazy, quite frankly, when deer came
along and turkey came along, and they were exploding management
parameters and the money that needs to be spent was
easy because they were exploding. But me time, they forgot
the small game hunter. And in forgetting the small game hunter,
which is a huge subject for another show down the road,

(59:10):
is the leasing of land by non residents that is destroying,
literally destroying Kentucky's hunting heritage. In my opinion, what is
the number one reason folks quit hunting today is because
they cannot find a place to hunt. Why are they
not able to find a place to hunt because the

(59:31):
private lands are being leased up at an alarming rate.
Somebody wants to argue with that, come on the show.
I'd love to do it with you, because it's irrefutable.
It is. It's just irrefutable. That's the number one reason.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
The truth of the matter is there's less acres to
hunt on than there ever has been. Absolutely, and that's
going to continue as people lock land up, whether it's
with leasing, whether it's with commercial development. Lots of things
to go at there at a future show. But Asian
cart where are you yet?

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Huh? The big problem? I will say this, I got
to give kudos to the Department and to TVA and
everybody got involved with that. They're starting to get it
under control. The small mouth are on the incline at
Kentucky and Barkley. You know, I gotta give kudos where
they're due.

Speaker 5 (01:00:21):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
The bluegill or back up towards size as they were.
The crappie fishing's coming back. But those jokers, what they're
going to do across the United States, nobody's gonna believe.
Because what they did in Kentucky Barkley, they're into Tennessee
River guys. You know what's next, Gunnersville, Wilson Wheeler. I mean,

(01:00:44):
where are they going next? They better be on the
game because old jokers, we saw what they did. We
know the history. It's it's ugly, but I really have
to take my hat off to what Kentucky fishing while
I did in conjunction with TVA and those other agencies
on them.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
While we're on the subject of agencies, any feedback, any
type of knowledge that we can pick from old Jimbo
about places like the EPA or any other agencies.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
I'm glad you asked me about the EPA. This is
going to be probably one of the most explosive things
I've ever said in my radio career.

Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
Well, let's hear it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
The EPA as it exists today in terms of curbing pollution,
I'm especially talking about pollution out of sewage treatment plants
all across the United States is a joke. Here's why
people don't understand this. They don't as a result of reporting,
shut those sites down about the pollutants they are trying

(01:01:45):
to curb. They find them. What has happened here. It's
easier for those people that run those pollution sites to
pay the five than it is to redo the whole plant.
So what has evolved here? It has evolved into a
huge money laundry scheme where the EPA is self funded

(01:02:06):
through allowing people to actually pollute.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
And you're telling me the green buck takes priority over
the white tail.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
But Son, I just said it as plan as I
ever knew how to do. When I found that out
as a real of reporting some pollution sites that I
knew about, it blew my mind. I couldn't believe it.
I thought, this can't be true. Guess what it's true, people,
This is a calamity and what does it lead to?

(01:02:33):
All kinds of problems we real report before we get
out of the show, especially when it comes to amphibians,
fish and frogs and a lot of other things that
we've mentioned on the program before. Got to go to
break real quick, folks. This break is psented. But I'm also
properties Heart Realty. Check them out at mop h rt
Realty dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
One of the greatest things about bringing Jim Straighter to
you tonight and a different interview style is to brag
on his spine and how solid his feet can plant
when it comes to tough subjects and Jim right now
in today's world.

Speaker 5 (01:03:11):
I don't know of a more.

Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
Difficult subject to talk about than pesticides, and specifically with pesticides,
I'm talking about our insecticides that are being used to
help with mosquito control. They're being used to help with tics,
and a lot of these are being used by county
and state and federal government.

Speaker 5 (01:03:30):
Jim.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
But unfortunately, you know, and I know from using herbicides,
that you can have selective and non selective herbicides. But
we're both in agrance that our grasshoppers are pollinators and
a lot of these little insects and bugs that people
don't like but our wildlife loves, they're in some of
the greatest dangers of the wildlife species that we could

(01:03:52):
spend time on.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Well, you just mentioned a couple and I refer back
to the turkey here because this is a big deal.
When I was a young man growing up through most
of my life, when you went out into fields and
crop lands and especially pastures, especially pastures, you see clouds
of grasshoppers. One of my fondest memories of wild turkeys

(01:04:16):
is watching flocks of poles glide up in the air
and flushing grasshoppers and getting up there and snatching them
out of the air. There was nothing more satisfying to
me visually than seeing something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
Jim Schreyer, I don't know anybody past the age of
forty five that doesn't have a good memory of catching
their own fishing bait.

Speaker 5 (01:04:37):
It's hard to do for a kid.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Absolutely is. I used to put a menticaint on the
front of a truck, drive it through a pasture and
having no grasshoppers to fish for a week, no doubt.
I mean literally, you can't do that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
Any earthworms, nightcrawlers, it's all there. It's such an impact.
We don't realize what the long term consequence is sometimes
of we're doing right now.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
We don't. I mean, look at the decline and the
butterfly bees have got problems. And when was the last
time somebody saw a june bug? My goodness, When I
was a kid, you went on any golf course or
out in any pasture. I don't know if you remember
this year, probably too young. We used to put a
thread on the flying around like a minister airplane.

Speaker 5 (01:05:24):
My old man told me about it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
And you know, and as you talk about this, what's
happening is our invasive species are increasing, our native species
are going down.

Speaker 5 (01:05:31):
The native species that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
We need are it's hindering the fact that our natives
don't have them to thrive on. In the end, the
big word in today's world, Jim, is sustainability, and if
we don't take the time to focus on these things,
we're not sustainable.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
No we're not. And you give some other examples in
another regard. Look at the Japanese beetles, look at the
Asian stink bugs that we've got now, stuff that we
don't want. It's like for every step forward, taking steps backwards.
And it's just kind of a crazy situation that I

(01:06:10):
think deserves a lot of real thought here. There's a
lot of invasive species that we probably are mentioned here
because they have done some really bad things. And you're
a real expert on me. These bread for Paris, for example.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Goodness man, they are the cancer of succession. They are
the cancer of a young starting establishment of a woodlot.
They absolutely have taken over. And it is definitely it
is easier seeing now in the last two years than
any other time, and they are at a peak of

(01:06:55):
showing up where they don't need to be Jim. When
we look at this, we spent years talking about endangered species.

Speaker 5 (01:07:03):
We've talked about species.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
That were exempt, and we need to spend as much
or more time on the word native and invasive. And
that's where we're at. These Bradford pairs. How many thousands
of brad predpairs demonstraders has department stores and retail stores
sold for people to line their driveway with.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Well, the crazy thing about them once they took hold,
I mean, anybody dies up down to the interstates or
gets out fields and successional areas can see what they do.
They're the most prolific thing I've ever seen about life.
I mean, they're just crazy and I don't really see
the benefits to wildlife they're at all.

Speaker 5 (01:07:41):
Oh, and anybody's not knowing.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
What maybe a little shade, yeah, but I mean basically
the wind barely blows and they break. I mean they're
a pain and it goes to show it from earlier
in the program. You need to know the full name
of what you're planting. You need to know what you're planning,
and you need to know what the positive and the
negative impact can be of what's going in the ground.

(01:08:04):
We have to know and be knowledgeable of what seed
we sow and what seed we sow or what plant
we put in the ground is going to give a
short term, mid term and long term benefits and or problems.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
Let's talk about another one bush honey so not Japanese
holy soble, Japanese honey sohle was it a introductive thing,
but it provides sustenance to deer and rabbits and or quail.
Whatever's left or.

Speaker 5 (01:08:35):
The pollinators or our pollmon is bush sh houty something.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
On the other hand, beyond being one of the first
things that greens up in the spring, look at the
way is destroying the understory in the oak, hickory, et cetera.
Saplings ability to reach some light in the forest.

Speaker 5 (01:08:56):
It suffocates succession.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
It is it great? That is a great way of
saying that. Thank you for saying that, because that's exactly
what it does. Not only that, try to hunt in
that stuff. You can't see it dear forty yards away,
much less thruder air through. I mean that stuff is bad, bad,
bad stuff, and unfortunately it's hard to eradicate. Well, probably

(01:09:23):
maybe need to do the show about the eradication of
some of this stuff here in the near future, because
it's just really, really bad. There's other species we can
talk about all across the board, but well, here's one.
Look at the horror show that the Emerald Ash Board did.

(01:09:44):
The horror hash trees in Heart region.

Speaker 3 (01:09:47):
And the hazard it created anybody that wants to hike
or walk through the woods. It's not This didn't just
impact hunters. This impacted the economy. It impacted just any
time that a person will in any type of canopy
of the woods. And unfortunately, it was one of those
true ugly esthetic values that come on to many landowners'

(01:10:10):
private properties and they were absolutely destroyed, destroyed thousands of trees.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
Thou and the ass tree was a very important species
from the catkins with squirrels eight for the shade value
for the timber, I mean and I mean, buddy, it
got zipped. That's the best way I can describe it.
It's horrible. And I will tell folks this. This is
a separate issue. But you'd better be careful where you

(01:10:39):
set a tree stand nowadays, because those things are winnow bakers.
Despite aspect of how a ash tree grows, when it dies,
if it were to fall on you, you will be impaled.

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
And for the common person who doesn't think that there
is some issues with these emerald ash boars and some
of these other invasive species. Just try to go camping
somewhere where you have to have certified farwood. It has
created a mess, Jim. It's created a mess for people
who want a camp. It's created a mess for people
who want to sell firewood. It's created a mess for

(01:11:15):
people trying to get something to go here. And there's
a lot of people that can't do what they want
to do because these invasive species have put regulations in
the place, and to get quite frank, it's hit people
in the back pocket.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Oh absolutely, it has absolutely has. I guess in closing here, folks,
what we want to impart to you is these are
different times, we have much different challenges. A lot of
these things have galloped upon us is very rapid fashion.
And if we don't become more environmentally conscious, we're going

(01:11:51):
to seem the disappearance of more of our native species.
We're going to see more invasive species dona make the landscape.
And none of that's good. None of that were we close.

Speaker 3 (01:12:00):
Demonstrator, Thank you for all you've done all the years
to get people informed and engaged with making wildlife and
habitat better.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
Well, that's been my passion my whole life. Thank you
for the compliment. I'll try to live up to every
word of it. God bless everybody.