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Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News Headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Col’s Week in Review with Ryan col Calahan. Here’s cal A California woman made the news last week for illegally harvesting abalony and then hiding it down our pants. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife reports that a game warden became suspicious of the woman and her male companion after observing them harvesting purple sea urchins in the intertitle zone. As he watched, he observed the woman quote discreetly conceal what appeared to be an abalony down her pants, an unconventional storage method, especially if you’re doing things legally. But this story gets even better. If you’ve ever been tasked with confiscating candy from a child, you can probably predict what happened next. Stopped the couple and asked the woman to produce the abalony from her nether regions. She handed it over, but the warden was still suspicious, so he called over a female colleague and told the woman she’d conduct a more thorough search. This prompted the abalony underpants poacher to produce yet another marine snail from her trousers. Satisfied that all the snails had been accounted for. The warden sighted the woman for illegal take of too abalony. That might seem a little harsh, but the recreational harvest of ablony has been closed in California since twenty eighteen. They were long considered a culinary delicacy and harvested up and down the coast, but a marine heat wave between twenty fourteen and twenty sixteen decimated kel forest, which was the main food source for ablony. At the same time, the area saw an explosion in purple Sea urchin, which compete with abalony for food. You can still find the delicious snails along the coast, but you can’t pick them up at the end of the day. The only thing more uncomfortable that an abaloni in your pants is explaining to warden why it was there in the first place. This week we’ve got bear attack, death, DC listener mail, and so much more. But first I’m going to tell you about my week. And my week well, I got walloped in a three punch combo. Let’s say first off, I had a great time in Charleston, South Carolina. Loved everybody I met. I was down there for the Southeast Wildlife Expo. Huge shout out to free Fly. We did a lunch and learn series out there for back country Hunters and Anglers. Really really cool group of folks working on that brand, and they produced a really killer collab sun hoodie and hat with our buddy Ed Anderson’s artwork on there. Super sharp, super functional gear and the proceeds go to backcountry Hunters and Anglers. All of that was amazing, great people, but you all sent me packing home with a hell of a flu. That’s punch one, Okay, now punch two. Mike Beagle, who, among many other things and accomplishments, is the founder of back Country Hunters and Anglers founding thought leader. He was the person that kind of helped organize a group of about seven people around an Oregon campfire and came up with this idea that there needed to be another group out there that could speak for public land, public water, public wildlife specifically wilderness big chunks of BLM and do it from a land use kind of perspective, a hunter angler land use perspective versus being you know, maybe confined to a species specific type of perspective. It’s the only founder we’ll ever have and it’s because of his forethought and thinking that PHA took off the way it did and Mike passed away, likely of a heart attack hiking. So it very fitting, but certainly taken before his time. And that was punch two of the week. Guy had a giving back ethos and awareness of what public lands and wilderness give to all of us, and he spearheaded the organization. Punch three of the three punch combo is My grandpa Jim, also known as Doc Callahan, died the same day, and I was so sick from Punch one that I couldn’t make it two and a half hours over to see him, which you know, don’t cry for me. I’d been visiting and calling him regularly, and ninety one years is a really good run. So permit me to eulogize a bit here. I’m just a grandchild, so you know, not my role, but this is my show, so I can do whatever the heck I want. Doc was called Doc because he was an oral surgeon. He loved his family, and I think, like most folks who stick around into their eighties and nineties, that’s really what kept him going. He also loved his home state of Montana. In fact, He expressed to me how he couldn’t hardly travel the state anymore because of how much it had changed. His mother’s side of the family had homesteaded in what is now the Gallatin Valley bos Angelus, as we often mock it. Doc had several stories which by sheer usage I would say were favorites. One of which was when his grandpa. His grandpa would hitch up a two horse team to a buckboard wagon and go into Gallaton Gateway to the store and post office, and he would let my grandpa take the reins. He would say every time that the horses could have gotten the mail themselves, because that’s all they did, but it still made him feel like the biggest mule skinner around. He would name those horses every time he told this story, and for the life of me, I just cannot remember the dang horses’ names, which is scary and also makes me feel guilty like I took that story for granted, or that time with him for granted. He had tons of stories, stories of goose hunting and elk hunting and pheasant hunting and fishing and football and tackling elk calves in the Bob Marshall in the early days of elk steadying, cowboying out on the glory beat, how scary old ranch hands were grizzly bear encounters when they’re almost were no grizzly bears left in the state. He had mournful stories of his mother’s trying to make it on the farm. When the dust bowl blew the Callahans out of the farming game. The smell of boiling oats made her wonder if it were food for the chickens or food for the kids. He had lots of good dog stories, and he had stories of alcoholism and depression too, which I think of his tools and his toolkit. When Doc wanted to learn a lesson, he was willing to expose his very personal examples in order to make that lesson impactful. At the same time, he was aloof and frankly as a kid, he was scarier than hell. You know, as most old folks get old, they shrink. This guy was still bigger than me when he passed away, and so as a little kid he was just larger than life. I’d say for most of his life he averaged cripes over two hundred and twenty five pounds. Probably he was six foot fourish, I don’t know, big dude. And so you’d have this big guy hanging on the periphery, arms crossed, almost always standing. He’d be aside behind and wearing what most people would consider a scowl across his face. If you looked at him, you know, you wouldn’t see a happy person there. But he was always there. He always made time to be there, even if he never interacted, and more often than not, he was a silent presence again as a kid, intimidating as hell, big guy, big hands, scars, And it’s weird to know all of these action stories of this man and I never personally saw him do any of the big Western stuff that he would talk about and the stories that he knew I loved. Other than downhill ski. The guy loved to ski, and he skied, you know, well into his seventies until his childhood best friend, his cousin, Loell Kloneger, passed away, and he pretty much put up his skis after that and said, there’s no more point to this. And that kind of started a sad trend for me, because even though right ups until the very end, he was mentally and physically fit to do whatever he wanted, and I would prod him to do more with his time, bug him, irk him, tell him how much people younger than him would kill for what he had mentally and physically. And this inact he looked to me like giving up. But I think now he was just holding himself in reserve in case his family needed anything. Even if what was needed was I unasked for something thankless, like standing silently arms crossed at a football practice or Christmas program, away game or home game. The guy was always there. So friends and neighbors, even though we all think this stuff good reminder that these times are fleeting, might want to write down the names of those ponies before the original subject matter experts disappear. Moving on to the attack desk. Although prehistoric cultures had lots of advanced technologies stone needles at laddles, perspective drawing, one thing they did not have was bear spray. According to a recent paper published in the Ernal of Anthropological Sciences, a can of counter assault would have come in handy for an adolescent boy who died in northern Italy twenty eight thousand years ago and whose bones show the characteristic injury patterns of a bare attack. The boy’s grave was discovered in nineteen forty two, and it was quite a grave. The body was laid on top of a layer of red ochre, The head was covered in a shawl containing hundreds of tiny perforated shells and deer teeth, and a nine inch long flint knife was placed in his hand. Because of his elaborate burial, archaeologists have nicknamed him Prince Shippe or the Prince, supposing he was a high status person to earn such a big send off. And although researchers had previously guessed that the boy died of a predator attack, this is the first study to take microscopic scans of the preserved bones and compare them with known patterns of predator attack trauma. Sure enough to damage to the boy’s jaw, collar, bone, and skull matches injuries from a large carnivore run in a long groove on his skull, and a puncture in the fibula fit the shape of claw and teeth. The researchers concluded quote given the overall traumatic pattern, a bear attack Ursus arctos or Ursus spalius remains the most plausible explanation. A couple interesting things here. First, we’re familiar with how dangerous Ursus arctose is the famous grizzly bear, but Ursus spielius was about ten percent bigger than the grizz despite relying more on plant foods, So this boy was almost definitely killed in the defensive attack rather than a predatory one. Second, that scientists who found very subtle healing of the boy’s phone fractures, which means that he must have survived for a few days before he died, and in fact, this wasn’t unusual. Many elaborate graves of this time period contained bodies that show signs of injury, disease, or other unusual features. So it could be that these burials weren’t honoring people of extraordinary status, but instead comforting people who were going through extraordinary suffering. And who knows, maybe that nine inch long flint knife was meant to fend off a bear in some future life. Moving on to the Washington d C desk, the Trump administration recently launched a new commission. It says we’ll conserve America’s natural beauty and expand outdoor recreation opportunities. The Make America Beautiful Again or MABA Commission, was created in July of last year, but it only recently announced its goals and agenda. According to a press release from the Department of Interior, the MABA Commission will have five key priorities. Balance stewardship and economic growth, Increase access for hunting, fishing, and other forms of recreation, Expand voluntary conservation, recover species and support habitat, and finally, quote cut red tape driven by climate extremists and bureaucracy in the outdoors. That last one, they say, is about red tape that gets in the way of conservation and restoration projects, not as you might assume, red tape that gets in the way of energy development. As with most presidential commissions, it’s unclear exactly what this body will be empowered to do. Some conservation organizations applauded the move and see it as an opportunity to work with the Trump administration to conserve habitat. Joe Webster, the Chief Conservation Officer of TRCP, called it quote a clear opportunity to advance the interests of America’s forty million hunters and anglers. TRCP points out that, in conjunction with the MABA announcement, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced a request for projects that improve the quality of big game seasonal habitat, stopover areas, and migration corridors on federal land. The NFWF is a private conservation foundation, but it was established by Congress in nineteen eighty four and works closely with the federal government. I think it’s fair to say that other groups and individuals are more skeptical. The New York Times ran an article about the commission titled Trump Executive Order creates Commission to open protected public Land, implying that it would give hunters access to protected areas. The Sierra Club took this line as well, writing that MABA is nothing more than an attempt to greenwash Trump’s goal of stripping public land protections in your Secretary Doug Bergham said in the MABA press release quote through American Energy Dominance expanded to access to outdoor recreation and an end to burden some red tape, the Trump administration has already taken monumental steps to make America beautiful again. You know, the way to look at this gang is it’s a good door opening says these are the things that we’re thinking of. There’s some clear ish buckets, and we get to go in there and help define those. Any One of these things can be a big win or potentially a loss if they’re not guided correctly. That’s why you got to be involved in this stuff now. The Forest Service recently announced a new rule that gives us a better idea of what Secretary Burgham is talking about. The new proposal is supposedly designed to streamline the project approval process and makes it easier for the Forest Service to quote build healthier, more resilient for US and infrastructure. But they want to do that by limiting public input. Under the rule, the public comment period would be reduced from thirty days to ten days for projects that require an environmental assessment. These projects have a moderate environmental impact and include things like a timber sale or a new trail. For more major projects that require a full environmental impact statement, the public comment period would be reduced from forty five to twenty days. The rule would also eliminate the ability of the Forest Service to extend the comment period for especially controversial or complicated projects. This could significantly limit the ability of the public to weigh in on initiatives that affect the health of our forests. It often takes several days for a new project to get covered in the local media, and then several more days for it to get picked up by national outlets. Then, if you rely on a program like this one to learn about this kind of thing, it takes several more days for the episode to air. Unless you open up your laptop and type out a comment as you listen, it likely takes several more days on top of that to actually submit a comment. If the comment periods for these projects are between ten and twenty days, that will often not be enough time to inform all the people who need to weigh in. It will advantage the big industry lobbyists that keep a close eye on these issues, while leaving average Joe hunter out of the process. Again, full agreeance that some of this stuff should be way more simple, but limiting the public from our public lands and how they’re managed not a good idea. The way you should read this, The MABA Commission has opened the door, given us some guidelines. Now it’s time to weigh in. Moving on to the mailbag, listener, Jim Layin sent me an article from Archaeology magazine about an ancient village that served as a meeting place between a Mesolithic hunter gatherer culture in a Neolithic agricultural culture. Archaeologists had previously assumed these two societies did not interact in Central Europe, but they found evidence of both cultures at the same site, which suggested it was a place where quote two distinct communities, newcomers and longtime residents exchanged objects, ideas, and technology. This got Jim thinking about the way his hunters and farmers interact even to this day. Jim said in his email quote years ago, I was a young hunter gatherer and a dairy farmer allowed me to hunt on his land. He was older and did not hunt himself. I took a decent four point. He was able to observe the whole show at a distance. He was excited and enthusiastic that Christmas. I gave him what I thought was the not very impressive rack and some burger. When he passed away. Years later, his daughter told me the antlers were displayed in his house the rest of his life, and even if he noticed anyone looking at them, he would repeat the story of that little hunt. How I was concealed in the fence line, the buck chasing, the does the shot, How he helped recover the deer with his tractor in front of the rack on the wall. He’d point out the window and say, it fell right there. Sometimes what we do is more important than what we know. I gonna say it better myself, Jim. We often highlight conflicts between hunters and landowners, but we should never lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of our interactions are like this one. Positive. Farmers and ranchers give thousands of hunters the opportunity to chase game on their properties, and they’re often just as excited as we are when we have success. Moving on to the maple syrup desk. That’s kidding, it’s the Vermont desk. When we talk about large predator reintroduction the US, you’re almost always talking about the West wolves in Colorado, grizzlies in California, and can anybody buy a turkey? Who wants a turkey? But recently a group called Mighty Earth has pushed forward an interesting plan for our neighbors back east, bringing the mountain lion back to Vermont. The species puma conkolar colar. It should be coolar ed as Latin anyway, con color as we’d say in Montana or concolar as. I’m sure I’m wrong on both. Please write in ask c al meeater dot com. The cat goes by a bunch of names depending on where you live mountain, lion, cougar, puma, catamount, panther, and more than thirty others, and that’s just in English. It also has the largest native range of any large mammal in the Americas. At one time you could find lions from the Yukon and Northwest Canada all the way down to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America, and so all the different people across that range had their own moniker for their local cats. But the very familiar story of over hunting and habitat loss hit these cats hard and they were completely extirpated east to the Rockies. In fact, the last lion documented in Vermont was way back in eighteen eighty one. But times have changed, and now the forests of the northeast have all the habitat and prey animals that a cat could want. Pumas have been expanding across the country, now arriving into the Midwest from the Dakotas, and young cats often traveled hundreds of miles once they’re kicked out of their parents’ home range, so there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t eventually make it to the East coast, But as with wolves in Colorado, that’s not fast enough for certain activists. Recently, with the backing of Mighty Earth, House Built four seven to three was introduced into the Vermont legislature which would require Vermont Fish and Wildlife to conduct a feasibility study on mountain lion reintroduction. A feasibility study considers all existing research on a certain wildlife policy before that policy is implemented. But the problem here is that there is no existing research to draw from. Although we know it would be cool to have mount lions back in more of their historic range, we can only guess about what it would look like in practice. Lions would no doubt eat whitetail deer and maybe some Springer spaniels. They would die of old age and mostly by getting hit by cars, and they would move within the Green Mountain State, but also into surrounding New Hampshire, Canada, Maine, and Massachusetts. The fact is no state has ever reintroduced lions back into an area where they had previously been wiped out. The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife last week wrote an op ed urging activists to slow down, stressing that the region’s biologists and wildlife agencies should go do the research about what all that might look like before we can decide if it’s feasible for cats to come back. Listen, if I ran the Vermont DFW, I’d want to slow things down too. Officials, there are no doubt look to Colorado and see their colleagues out there struggling to comply with a voter mandated predator reintroduction, and if a cat wherever to God forbid, pray on a human, the agency would be the one to pick up that phone call. For the good of the cats and the people in the Northeast, we should know more before we speed ahead. Here’s an example. Nineteen fifty eight to nineteen sixty eight, the wildlife coordinator for the state of Arkansas, a guy named Gene Rush, just decided to go up to Minnesota, trap black bears at garbage dumps and drive them twelve hundred miles south in pickup trucks. He and a few colleagues told almost no one. Turning bears loose in the National Forests of Arkansas, not even getting permission from the guys in charge of the National forest. That’s pretty rude and reckless. But it’s also why we have bears in the house central part of the country today. Would I want that same thing to happen in Vermont with mountain lions, No, I wouldn’t, but mostly because they’re just going to get hit by cars. So I think we should do the research and dream about having that tasty lion meat accessible in a sustainable harvest manner. Oh my gosh, maple syrup and porkline goes together, you know, like spaghetti and meatball. Yeah, you be the judge. Moving over to the Cowboys State, the legislature is voting on House Bill nineteen, which would officially legalize corner crossing in the Cowboys State. This might seem strange after the Supreme Court decision back in October not to hear a case challenging the Tenth District Court ruling that legalized corner crossing and wyoming is in the Tenth District, So that Supreme Court decision makes it legal, right, So why pass a separate law if it’s already legal? That’s a heck. Of a question. Although the tenth the District ruled that corner crossing isn’t illegal, it gave no guidance about how corner crossing should be conducted. How precise does a corner cross there need to be about where the property boundaries are? Is the property owner liable if someone falls off their ladder? How much privacy can a landowner expect. Passing a law explicitly making corner crossing legal would address these and bring up other questions too, And maybe even more importantly, we don’t know why the Supreme Court declined to hear the corner crossing lawsuit last year. With state laws in place establishing the right to corner cross we would be protected against that possibility. Not everyone is happy about the bill. At a public hearing on the issue, Park County farmer and rancher Carrie Peters said, quote, this is a slow creep on private property rights. One person says this bill is good. Another says, just add pack animals and then I’ll be happy. Where does it stop. I’d respond that clarifying these matters is exactly what this bill is attempting to do. But I would also point to the unlawful enclosures Act of eighteen eighty five, which allows for livestock to pass over private property to get to public So a state build defining all these rules around this stuff would be great for landowners and to access seekers alike. However, if everybody just pointed and said, this is how the highest court in the land has ruled, which in a sense they did right the United States Supreme Court said the lower court decision is sound and that is the law. So how much more defining do we need to have? Don’t you worry we’ll get or sorted out? Two things? Can it happen at the exact same time. We can respect the heck out of private property, which we do here in America, and we can access public property and stay on public property. That seems pretty cut and dry to me. That’s all I got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write in to askl Let’s ask hell at the met Let me know what’s going on in your neck of the woods. Say a big old prayer for your old doc Callahan for me. He did a lot of praying for me during his time here on earth. And maybe that’s exactly how I got this far, stayed alive anyway, currently at Pheasantfest, checking that off the list. Going down to Austin, Texas next week. Week after that, I think I’m going to the Black Bear Bonanza in Arkansas. So folks in the you know, the greater Fayetteville zone over there, I suppose Bentonville, all that region, come on down to Black Bear, Banansa. It’ll be my first time there. Brent Reeves will be there, Bear Newcomb will be there. I think Clay is out chasing something super special. But boy, I’d love to see you, and I’m sure those boys would too, So come on down, big family friendly event and supports you know my favorite conservation organization, back country hunters and Anglers. All right, that’s really all I got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write in a s k C A L that’s asked Cal at the meeteater dot com. Let me know what’s going on in your neck of the woods and we’ll talk to you next week
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