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Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cow’s Week in Review with Ryan cow Calaian. Here’s cal iguanas fell from the sky in Florida last week, but it wasn’t a sign of the apocalypse or a plague. Instead, it just got a little chilly green. Iguanas aren’t native to South Florida, and it’s legal to kill them throughout the year, but controlling the population of large invasive lizards is a problem, which is why wildlife managers were happy to see a cold front moving in earlier this month. As with most cold blooded critters, iguanas enter a state of torpor if the temperature gets too cold. Tempts dropped into the mid to low thirties during the cold snap. This was enough to cold stun many of the iguanas living up in the trees and bring them tumbling down to Earth. Biology with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were prepared. They issued an executive order a few days before that allowed Floridians to collect as many iguanas as they could, stuff in a cardboard box or a dog kennel, and bring them to designated drop off locations. You’d normally need a permit to keep a live iguana, but this executive order exempted residents from that requirement. After the cold snap ended, the Commission reported that they’d received five one hundred and ninety five invasive green iguanas, most of which were left at the Sunrise location near Fort Lauderdale. The lizards were either transferred to permit holders and sold or euthanized. No one knows exactly how many iguanas are in the Sunshine State, but I’ve seen estimates as high as one million. Five thousand. Won’t do much to curb that population, but that wasn’t the only reason that FWC launched this campaign. Every news outlet in the country ran coverage of the following iguanas, which helped spread the word about the problem lizards, and hope fleet encourage more Floridians to get rid of them on their own. You don’t need a permit or license to hunt iguanas on private property, and I’ve heard it’s a pretty darn good time like slow motion squirrel hunting. Although I’ve never killed one, I have eaten the kind of backstraps, tail meat, and legs. I would put it right up there in a slightly tougher dark meat chicken catfish cap of territory, kind of like frog leg a little more chickeney. Very good, well worth eating for sure. This week we’ve got resuscitation, black Bear’s Policy, listener Mail, Catalina, mule Deer, and so much more. But first I’m gonna tell you about my week. And my week finds me in Charleston, South Carolina, where we are attending the Southeast Wildlife Expo, talking public lands and waters with a bunch of folks, and as I tend to do in these parts of the world, look at a lot of old stuff. Montana is a young place in comparison, just cruising around looking at old houses, old sidewalks, old buildings, easily entertained. What can I say? Part of the mission down here is tod you know, just spread the good word of public lands and waters and wildlife and drum up some support awareness for those things, backcountry hunters and angler’s role in protecting our access and our opportunities on public lands and waters. But we’d also like to see a new South Carolina chapter of BHA. A few years ago the South Carolina chapter was real strong, folks moved away and she kind of fizzled out, which happens in the volunteer world. But there’s a lot of good work to be done in this state. Spoke with several water keepers last night as we listened to old Paul Puckett pluck away with his band. Guy’s a great artist. Never knew he had a pretty darn good band too. Good timelinelas night Fellas. So lots of local work in the state. That’s part of the reason to have a chapter. Another part of the reason is that when crazy ideas to sell off our public lands pop up, we need every state, including South Caroline, to stand up and holler. I sure would, as a landlocked Montana kid, holler on South Carolina’s behalf if news came down that public access to the ocean or Francis Marion or Sumter National Forest or the Cape Roman Wilderness was all of a sudden going to be privatized and sold off, You darn sure I would be calling senators and raising Holy hell on your behalf. But it’s our behalf too, because these lands are held in trust for us the people, and we got to make sure that folks understand they have a rightful sense of ownership, that of course comes with the responsibility of being a steward of those lands. Now, if you I think those areas that I named off here in the southeast twenty nine thousand acre Cape Roman Wilderness for instance, is a special area, you got to keep in mind that that is just how people feel about the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota or big tracks of Bureau of Land Management land out west. They’re very special for those of us who use them and for those that don’t but happen to like clean air, water and the benefits of biodiversity. What do you think, paulin h crops kids, and speaking of boundary waters. By the time you hear this, we may have a vote in the Senate. So please use the BHA action alerts at Backcountry Hunters dot org and call the Capitol switchboard two two two two four three one two one. While you’re at it, do me a personal favorite and call Senator Danes and she he here in Montana and tell them to leave our wilderness study areas alone. Senator Steve Danes has a bill he’s pushing to remove the federal Wilderness Study Area designation that covers one hundred thousand acres of good hunting and fishing terrain in the home state. A way to make them less good for the stuff we like, as in hunting and fishing would be to remove that WSA designation. Moving on to the mouth to mouth desk. A South Texas hunter went viral on social media last week for using CPR to save the life of a white tail buck. The video was posted by an account called Lone Star Outdoor Show, and the caption said the hunter’s name was Adolpho Lozano. In the video, Lozano walks up to young buck who’s managed to get his head stuck in the square openings of a wire fence. The problem is the deer’s head is so high that its hind legs can barely touch the ground. The deer is still alive, but it won’t last much longer. Its tongue is hanging out the side of its mouth, and it’s wheezing and gasping as Lozano carefully lifts it up, tilts its head so its antlers can clear the wire fence, and lays it on the ground. He stands back and looks at it for a few seconds, but it looks pretty nearly dead. His mouth twitches a little, otherwise it lies still. Lozano proceeds to perform a form of CPR I can confidently say as not Red Cross approved. He starts by puckering his lips and slathering on a little lip gloss, the real shiny kind, I’m kidding. He starts by picking up the deer’s head by its antlers and shoving its face in the ground. That not producing the desired effect. He does ten or twelve chest compressions before grabbing the deer’s antlers and shaking its head again. He then picks it up by his back legs, shakes it, puts it down, and goes back to chest compression. The deer remains unresponsive, and it’s not looking good for Bambi’s dad. You can see Lozano hesitate for a minute before moving to the final step. He grabs the deer’s snout in both hands and blows it into its nose three times. You can see the chest rise as he pushes air into its lungs, and the animal shutters to life. Lozano holds its head for a few seconds, gives two more rescue breaths for good measure, and the deer sits up, it looks around, gets its bearings, and returns to the land of the living. Do mouth to mouth? I don’t know, there’s nowhere. Some of the commenters pointed out that Lozano’s buddy, the guy holding the camera, could have been a lot more helpful, But you already got one person there in harm’s way. Antlers are pointy, and those deer have a lot of power, so I don’t know if I blame the guy. It’s not like you’d call nine to one one. It’s hard for the general public to understand, but hunters do love the animals they chase, and they don’t want to see them suffer. Hats off to you there, Lozano. Maybe someboday that deer will return the favor. Moving on to the bare desk, I have another lightning quick update on Florida’s recent bear hunt. The Fish and Wildlife Commission just released some additional stats, and I wanted to cover them. The Department received applications for the hunt from fourteen thousand, nine hundred and ninety six individuals, ninety seven percent of whom were Florida residents. Those fifteen thousand people submitted one hundred and sixty three thousand, four hundred and fifty nine applications, which means each person submitted an average of eleven. The agency issued one hundred and seventy two permits, resulting in a per permit success rate of only zero point one percent. All fifty two harvested bears were killed by Florida State residents. Forty five of the bears were harvested on private land, while seven were harvested on public Forty nine were killed with the rifle, two were killed with shotgun, and one enterprising hunter killed one with a bow. The heaviest male and female bears both came from Collier County. The boardwig to whopping six hundred and ninety seven pounds, while the sal weighed three hundred and forty pounds. All in all, it sounds like a successful hunt. As we reported previously, the animal rights crowd snatched up some of the permits, so the true success rate was likely higher than the reported thirty percent. But it doesn’t sound like anyone in the FWC is making noise about ending the hunt, so I’d expect Florida to continue holding a bear hunt every year for the foreseeable future. Chalk that up as a win in the hunting Access and Opportunities calumn. Moving on to the embezzlement desk, a former treasurer of a conservation organization called Pheasants for the Future is being accused of embezzlement after investigators say he stole one hundred and seventy four thousand dollars from the organization. Local media reports that fifty two year old Michael W. Johnson was charged with misapplication of entrusted property for money he allegedly took between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty five. In case you missed it, I should reiterate that we’re talking about a group called Pheasants for the Future. That’s Pheasants for the Future, not Pheasants Forever. Still. Pheasants for the Future is, according to its website, the largest sportsman’s group in North Dakota. They’ve been around since nineteen eighty two, working to restore and preserve a pheasant habitat in one of the country’s best upland hunting destinations. Marcus Nelson, the group’s president, said in court documents that he spoke with Johnson when they realized someone had been skimming off the top. Johnson allegedly admitted to the crime, saying he had been using the funds to pay employees at a separate business he owned at the time. He apologized and said he’d pay the money back, but the damage had already been done. He was removed from the organization, and court documents indicate that Nelson and the group’s vice president approached the Minor police with theft accusations against Johnson. He was charged with a Class A felony, which carries a maximum possible sentence of twenty years in prison if convicted. One hundred and seventy four large ones isn’t chump change for anyone, but especially not this group. According to their twenty nineteen tax records, which is the latest year available, their total assets that year only amounted to one hundred and forty eight thousand dollars. Imagine what that group could have done for conservation with an extra one hundred and seventy four thousand. Moving on to the mail bag listener, Craig from Minnesota is a bone to pick with folks out west, but not for the reason you might think. Here’s what he has to say in an email. When Western Public Lands were on the chopping block this summer, I called my Senators and reps, and I voiced my opposition. My family did, my friends did, many other Minnesotans did. I have been on two Western l kunts, but the lands on the chopping block were very likely lands I would never set foot on. But I called and I stood up for that land. I am disappointed in Western folks because I did not see that same battle cry and rally for these mining rights outside the Boundary Waters Canoe area, even though the Boundary Waters is actually the most likely to be visited by people from all over the I also am sadden to see how Montana Representative Ryan Zinki stood strong for public lands when it mattered to him, but now that it is in Minnesota, he voted yes to remove these protections from the Boundary Waters. I hope the fight is not over for the Boundary Waters when something comes up for it again, as it certainly will now with the mining restrictions lifted. Potentially, I should say there, I expect Westerners and people from all over to get his worked up about this, as we did for the land that we will likely never set foot on and is certainly not in our backyard. Minnesota is the west of the Midwest. We have so much public land, and it is an absolute treasure for Minnesota. Call your western state senators and demand they vote know on this Craig, I get the frustration, buddy, Obviously not true that everyone out west is sitting docile on this one. It’s really interesting to know, like we have two Chapter leaders in Arkansas, for instance, who were former fishing guides, paddling guides in the Boundary Waters. So there’s a group in Arkansas that is advocating like hell to stop this mineral withdrawal in the Rainy River watership. They have a personal connection to it. And what Craig points out, it’s not in everybody’s backyard. So what I like to say is think of those backyard issues when things like this pop up, and make that comparison for your senator. In this case, I’ve been super super impressed by and this is no surprise Randy Nuberg, Mark Kenyon, Steven Ronella talking about boundary waters, plus tons and tons of other folks. But Craig does have a point. All Americans, no matter where you live or plan to hunt, should take steps to protect our public land, wildlife habitat, even if you’ll never set foot in the boundary waters. You should care about protecting them. I know that ongoing attacks can feel overwhelming, but you are making a difference. If we can win this boundary Waters fight on the heels of last year’s victory, it will send a powerful message to our leaders in Washington. You can’t threaten our most pristine wilderness areas without hearing from hunters, anglers, and other public land users, not just from those who will be most impacted, but from Americans across the country. Moving on to the Alabama desk, a few updates from Alabama this month. First, some good news. HB one point eight one, a bill that would significantly reduce mud dumping and Mobile Bay, has passed the state House and Senate and has been signed by Governor k Ivy. Some background, Mobile Bay is to be dredged periodically to keep shipping channels deep enough for boats to get through, but that dredging produces huge volumes of sediment that must be disposed of. Until recently, that dredge spoil was released back into the water of the bay through so called thin layer replacement, a technique that opponents dubbed mud dumping. Residents have worried that depositing that sediment has been taken a major toll on wildlife in the Bay. Charter Captain Patrick Garmison recalled the effects of mud dumping in the northwestern part of the Bay starting in twenty twelve, telling Fox News ten quote, there was giant oyster reefs all out there that are no longer there, and we’re now fourteen years from having that happened, and it hasn’t rebounded. This state bill works hand in hand with a recently passed federal law sponsored by US Senator Katie Britt, which mandated that the Army Corps engineers had to use seventy percent of the dredge spoil for Mobile Bay for a quote unquote beneficial use think creating additional wetlands or reversing erosion. But the law didn’t specifically define what beneficial use means, so this state law prohibits mud dumping itself from being designated a beneficial use. A big win for clean water down south. On the other hand, other bill racing through the Alabama legislature is SB seven to one, which would prohibit state agencies from establishing environmental protections more stringent than existing federal protections when there aren’t any federal guidelines in place. Any new state rules would have to pass much higher scientific standards than any other states, defined as the best available science and the weight of scientific evidence. Even if the decisions of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management do meet those thresholds, the agency now has to go through the rigamarole of demonstrating that every time they make a rule. This will make it a lot harder for the department to limit toxic chemicals from ending up in Mobile Bay, even if there’s going to be less mud there. Unfortunately, this one has already passed the state Senate and will go to a vote by the House on Thursday, February twelve, which is before this podcast comes out. But Alabama’s find out how your state reps voted on this one SB seven to one and keep that in mind the next time you go to the ballot box. Final note from Alabama. Last week we covered the bill that would create a bear hunt in Mississippi. I said that all the states surrounding Mississippi, including Alabama, already had a bear season, but listener Dalton Adams wrote in let me know that in fact, Alabama does not yet have a bear season, and he linked to information about ongoing research led by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in Auburn University on black bear populations in the state, focusing on gathering accurate population data and supporting good habitat to establish a stable number of bears. Dalton said he hoped that if Mississippi goes ahead with the season, Alabama might move in the same direction. Our writer and researcher Alex Tilney regrets the error, especially because black bears are a favorite topic of his. Unfortunately, there are a few seemingly trustworthy websites that wrongly assert that Alabama does have an open hunt for bears. This is a good reminder that these days on the Internet, you better find trustworthy sources and stick with Big thanks to Dalton for writing in and let’s hope that Alabama’s bear hunt happens before too long. Over to the charismatic Invasive Species Desk, brought to you by Sunny Catalina Island. Starting this fall, professional sharpshooters will be coming to California’s Catalina Island to completely eradicate the local population of mule deer. California Fish and Wildlife recently approved the plan put forward by the Catalina Island Conservancy, the entity that owns eighty percent of the state controlled island. Mule deer were brought to the island in the nineteen twenties to establish a hunt, and with no natural predators there, their numbers grew. The Conservancy argues that the deer have become unsustainable and that the eradication is necessary to protect the endangered plant species endemic to the island. Pepe Barton, communications director for the conservancy, told the La Times quote, when deer eating native plants, those are being replaced by invasive a annual grasses, and then those dry out quickly and burn easily, and then as a burn comes through, the native plants that are trying to grow back are eaten down again. Catalina Island is home to some of the rarest plants in the world, including the Catalina mahogany, which got winnowed down to just seven surviving mature plants by two thousand and six. Unfortunately, the Catalina mahogany doesn’t look as compelling on a protest poster as a mule deer font. But notably, this wouldn’t be the first animal eradication on the island. Feral goats and pigs were wiped out there by two thousand and four. The island also has a population of bison, which are both easier to manage and much more of a tourist draw. Even the Center for Biological Diversity, usually a stranded animal rights group when it comes to wolves and bears, is getting behind the eradication. Plant Conservation director Brennan Cummings said, quote, if the unique and he replacement native species on Catalina are to survive and ultimately recover, the single most important thing that needs to be done is to remove the non native deer herd from the island. It’s interesting, right because Center for Biological Diversity probably isn’t thinking about this in terms of predator and prey and uh, you know, track record their predator management, you know, connect the dots there. Although regulated hunts have taken place on the island for decades, they haven’t brought deer numbers down to a sustainable level because I will tell you the hunt is a pain in the butt if you do it the way they want you to do it, and the information isn’t good to say that they’ve run a regulated hunt in a way that hunters would want to do. It is just ridiculous. But for the numbers. A thousand deer tags were available for California residents in twenty twenty four, only three hundred and ninety seven were taken that year, nowhere near enough to knock back the approximately two thousand deer who live on the island. Deer tough to hunt on Catalina, both because much of the island is mountainous difficult terrain, and because deer have learned to commute into the populated off limit areas of the island during the hunting season, which means they’re urban deer, right. Fresh Water’s kind of limited out there. It’s you know, very desert environment, really cool, but if you’re a deer that wants any sort of green grass, you’re probably moving into town. Opposition to the measure has made some strange bedfellows. The Humane Society unsurprisingly came out against the eradication, but so did Safari Club International, which argued that hunting opportunities in southern California were already rare enough without losing this mule deer herd. Although you can expect to hear more protests before it’s all over. The California Fish and Wildlife are on board with the eradication and an established track record of successful similar efforts, this one looks pretty hard to turn back. If you want even more on Catalina deer, head over to the meat Eater dot com and check out the excellent deep dive on the issue by our very own Eli Fournier. That’s all I got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write in to ask c Al that’s ask Cal at themeatater dot com and let me know what’s going on in your neck of the woods. You know, we appreciate it. And you know, if you’re not much of a writer, and maybe you are listening to this in the car, came up with something that you want to say, ask Siri to dial four oh six two two zero six four four one. That’s four oh six two two zero six four four one and leave us a message. And lastly, when you hear about this state news, pay attention, especially or even when I should say, it’s not your state, because if it can happen there, it can happen in your backyard. Get engaged. If you’re not going to represent yourself, I’ll represent you. Just buy that thirty five dollars membership to backcountry Hunters and Anglers for me. But even then, you may not always like how I represent you, even though I think you will. But you know, if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. As they say, that’s all I got for you, for reals this time. Thanks again, talk to you next week.
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