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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 Calahan. Here’s cal A gray wolf recently attacked woman at a shopping area not far from the city center of Hamburg, which is Germany’s second largest city. The incident sounds so unlikely that you might suspect someone of crying wolf, but no, it really happened. According to a report from North German broadcaster, which we valiantly translated into English using Google Translate, the attack took place west of Hamburg city center on the evening of Monday, March thirtieth. The wolf had reportedly been running repeatedly into a glass storefront, and the victim had tried to lead it away, and unsurprisingly, it got bitten in the face in the process. Quote. We were coming out of the supermarket when I heard a woman fall. Then I saw this huge animal, and at first I thought it was a dog. When I saw the blood and how big this huge animal was, I thought that’s a wolf, said onlooker Lionel von Lawrence Olen. Apologies for butchering the pronunciation. The victim was stitched up at a hospital and promptly released Meanwhile, authorities went after the wolf and used a news to catch it while it was swimming in a city lake. The wolf is apparently in good health, and authorities planned to release it back into the wild, well away from the city at a later date. It’s a young wolf and was likely trying to find new territory. It just wandered into the wrong neck of the woods, or perhaps more accurately, the wrong side of town. If you didn’t realize there were wolves in Germany, you’re not alone. Similar to much of the continental US, gray wolves were killed off in Germany by the mid eighteen hundreds, but the clever canines eventually trickled back into the country from Eastern Europe and re established themselves. Strict protections have allowed the species to recover, so much so that just a couple of weeks before the recent attack, German parliament voted to recategorize wolves as a huntable species, largely because of the impact the critters are having on livestock. The decision to use hunting to manage the species has been met with controversy, just like in parts of the US, but just like in the US, Germany has decided to use hunters as an effective management tool. This week, we got mule deer, we got fur bands, we got Colorado, Wisconsin, Utah bears, cranes, wolves, and so much more. But first I’m gonna tell you about my week. In my week, you may already know, it was pretty well wrapped up in this whole Boundary Waters situation going to the Senate floor. Interesting fact for those who don’t know, had the vote not been pushed onto the floor from the White House, they would have had to reintroduce the bill, which would have been very, very hard after next week. There’s a ticking time clock there. But interested parties pushed the Senate to introduce that Boundary Waters cra and we lost fifty to forty nine. Really interesting situation. As you’ve heard here, I’ve spoken with tons and tons of Republicans who all said the same thing, we do not want to take this vote. We don’t think it’s a good deal. But they did it anyway, And the question now becomes what’s accountability look like, especially when we’re in this situation where there was real acknowledgement from every office I stepped into saying like, yeah, this isn’t a good deal, we don’t want to do this near term. This is what accountability looks like. Right. I truly believe that we can disagree on issues and still be good human beings to each other. I’ll tell you right now, Like getting literally crazy on the internet, dropping comments and fly and middle fingers is just really easily dismissed on the other side, and informed electorate, educated constituents who know these issues are not easily swept aside. In fact, they can be very painful because they take up a lot of time and it forces our elected officials to have very well thought out responses. Historically, when we go into big votes like this, and you know, social media comes on fire and we’re all asking everybody we know to write and call in, we actually shut these offices down, like they just can’t deal with anything else. Right, And if you looked at this week, it was a tough week for our Senate right dealing with war powers resolutions and all the other craziness out there. This boundary waters cra vote was just a really, really small thing. So how did weasel in there what I think will be effective in the future. And this is a I’m thinking out loud here, a gang, if you can tell if we can get our community to not only act with tenacity in their passion, but tenacity in their education on these subjects, and diligently right in after these votes, one pay attention to the vote, see who’s voting and how they’re voting, and then respond with a thank you or respond with a hey. I followed this process. I wrote in I called repeatedly, here’s what I know about this issue, why did you vote the way you did? And you hit that demand for an answer with the same tenacity that you hit the demand for the proper result right the way that you wanted the results to lay out in the beginning, where we tie up these offices because we’re demanding that they fulfill this consumer feedback loop, and they can’t move on to the next really important thing because they’re like, oh my gosh, we have these people who are our constituents, are voters, and they are demanding real answers to this vote because they paid attention to it, and they followed along all the way up prior to the vote, and then they watched it on c SPAN and they saw the whole process, and now they’re demanding to know why we went throughout we did. I think this is a great step forward on the path to accountability, and it’s something that is not being done. You gotta trust me on that it is not being done. It is a novel concept and it’s a simple one and it’s up to us. All great organizations put in incredible hours on this National Wildlife Federation TRC to you, and you know, of course, Bha, I mean we did almost nothing but Boundary Waters for the last three months on the federal level. Oh I should say sportsmen for the Boundary Waters Cane area, among many others. Right, But there’s a real serious effort here, but it’s not going away. And I think a real real shot at getting people in powerful places to avoid public lands issues is just by demanding their time and not letting them slide away onto the next thing until we get satisfactory answers. That’s going to take all of us. Again, it’s always up to us. That’s our job. And you know, certainly in my life, the good things come from hard work, not the easy stuff. Moving on to the mule deer desk, the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources announced plans to bump its mule deer tag allocations by sixty five hundred permits, which is an eight percent year over year increase. The allocation adjustments vary from unit to unit. The moves come just several years after the state’s deer population reached worryingly lows following what biologists considered a double whammy. Persistent drought was followed by a harsh winner in twenty twenty three, which led to large scale die offs and prompted significant tag cuts. However, the population has recovered a bit since then, which is why the DWR bumped tags this year. Big Game coordinator Mike Wardle quote it should be noted that harvesting buck deer does not drive deer populations. The most important factors that drive population size are the survival rates of adult doze. You know, the bucks haven’t figured out how to have fawns yet. Fawn production and fond survival also boosts those numbers. Obviously, the way we hunt buck deer in Utah doesn’t drive deer populations, but what happens with deer populations drives how we hunt buck deer. Still, the announcement has sparked mixed reactions among Utah deer hunters, some of whom worry that the DWR is moving too aggressively. Considering the recent lows of the mewley population there, as well as challenging drought conditions on the near horizon. Fortunately for them, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is accepting public feedback on its recommendations during in person meetings this month and online at Wildlife dot Utah dot gov slash feedback. Do you have strong opinions on muley management and the beehive state? I’d be shocked if you don’t let me know. Askcl that’s Ascal at the meeteater dot com. Jumping on over to Colorado. Back in March, we let you know that Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife Commission voted to advance petition to prohibit the sale of wildlife for in the state. Although that sounds like a total fur bound, the vote in fact just kicked off the onerous process of Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff drafting rules that would implement a ban if approved in the future. We’re now at the first stage of that rulemaking process, and CPW is currently writing a quote unquote issue paper which lays out the context of the situation and the possible changes to the regulations now on the books. They plan to represent this issue paper to the Commission at their July sixteenth meeting. CPW is collecting public comment to inform the issue paper, and they need to hear from you now. CPW is explicitly considering quote, public and stakeholder input and enforceability of proposed regulations as they draft this paper. You might object, thousands of people commented before the last vote, and most of these comments were against the petition, but it’s still passed, so why should we bother commenting again now? Well, even though the petition passed, it rests on very shaky ground, and turning it into a real world for BAM is far from assured. If you watch the Commission meeting in March, you saw how tentative and confused the Commission seemed as they discussed the issue and finally voted on it. By commenting on all the weaknesses of the petition and how impossible it will be to make a coherent set of rules out of it, we make it harder for the Commission to wave it through. For a reminder of what those weaknesses are, listen back to the March nine episode of the Week in Review, or search for the article from that same date on the meaeater dot com. Remember, running out the clock on this process is just as good as defeating it outright. The Commission is tentatively scheduled to vote on final regulations at their September second meeting, but they might not be able to make up their mind by then. Governor Jared Polis’s term ends on January twelve of next year, and the next governor of Colorado is expected to replace Polus’s animal rights nominees on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. If a furban is implemented before that, it becomes much harder to turn back. But if we can delay it until then, we will let it die a quiet death. We really don’t know what’s going to happen on this one. The commissioners might bow to pressure to adopt something before the end of their term, no matter how nonsensical, or they might see that in practice these rules would be totally unworkable, even if they personally feel uncomfortable with trapping. But no matter what, keeping up the pressure now gives us the best chance of prevailing in the long run. Navigate over to engage CPW dot org forward slash commercial for sales. There you can weigh in we’ll also post a link on the CALTA action page at the Mediator website. Moving over to Oklahoma, as you should be well aware, deer breeders in the Oklahoma state recently released captive deer into the wild with the blessing of the State Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry or ODAFF. This is, of course a horrible idea, not backed by science in any way, and the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission has opposed the program. Now, the sponsors of the captive deer release program have introduced a new bill that would remove any oversight by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation or ODWC, the agency that should be in charge of all policy affecting wild game. That bill would grant all permitting authorities solely to the ODAFF. If that bill passes, future captive deer releases would be essentially unlimited. So we need to defeat that bill HB three two seven zero to keep ODWC involved in restraining the deer release program. Once we put out that immediate fire, we can work to eventually repeal the deer release program altogether. A bit of background here. In twenty twenty four, the Oklahoma State legislature passed a bill creating the Chronic Wasting Disease Genetic Improvement Program, which aims to improve wild deer genetics by introducing captive deer that supposedly have a resistance to CWD. Essentially, they’re hoping that released deer will breed with wild deer and produce a new generation of bionic deer who can be exposed to the CWD prion without getting sick. But biologists who do understand population dynamics have shown that accomplishing that kind of population level effect would require releasing hundred of thousands of deer, and even if they did that, there’s little evidence that these genetic modifications are effective against CWD. They are very effective at putting cash in the pockets of captive deer breeders and captive deer breeding facilities. We are still searching for an effective way to test living animals for CWD, and because captive deer operations are the primary source of CWD infections, the program is most likely to spread the disease rather than control it. Even apart from those consequences, there are all kinds of collateral damage from this decision. Imagine if you lived in a state that bordered Oklahoma. The boden Crocket Club and Popin Young specifically exclude genetically manipulated animals from their record books. Another thing to consider. Once deer from this program are out among the wild deer in passing their manipulated DNA to offspring, Oklahoma’s entire deer herd could be disqualified from the record books. Deer do not observe state boundaries, so with the herds of surrounding state, it’s like Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas also be disqualified. Now, if you want to talk crazy conspiracy theories, uh, there is a theory out there that CWD has jumped to the brains of ODAF and that’s why we’re getting these decisions that could be totally wrong, but somebody should look into it anyway. HB three two seven zero passed the Oklahoma House and is now being considered by the Agriculture and Wildlife Committee of the State Senate. Sooners, call your senators now in demand that they kill HB three two seven zero thirty two seventy If you can keep ODWC involved in acting as a check on captive deer releases, working on behalf of hunters eventually cooler heads might prevail and repeal the entire program. To get a much more in depth understanding of the issue, head over to the meaeater dot com and read Jordan Siller’s very thorough article and scroll back to episode two seventy three of the Week in Review, where I talked with Kip Adams of the National Deer Association and covered all the ins and out of the so called genetic improvement efforts to combat CWD. A few weeks ago, we covered the very restrictive stream access regulations in Illinois, and at the time we contrasted the very generous rules of neighboring Wisconsin, where everything you can float is public. Well, a beach stroller named Paul Floorsheim is fighting the much less generous shoreline access rules in the Badger State and hoping to take his case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Floydsheim grew up on Lake Michigan and regularly walked the beach in front of private property, sticking to the ground below the ordinary high watermark aka the OHWM. Because we need more acronyms. Well, last summer he walked past a no trespassing sign north of atwater beach in Shorewood, and when the property owners called the cops, they gave him a three hundred and thirteen dollars ticket. Floorsheim contested that ticket and by extension the nineteen twenty three Wisconsin Supreme Court case Domal v. Jans, which held that a person walking on the exposed shore between the ordinary high water mark and the waterline of a lake was trespassing, even though the state owns the bed of navigable waterways on behalf of the people. A municipal court ruled against Flourisha, saying it didn’t have the authority to overrule the Supreme Court precedent, but that judge also wrote, quote, perhaps Domo should have been overruled, but only the Supreme Court of Wisconsin can do that. If the case does make it all the way to the High Court, Let’s hope there are some justices who like to take in a sunset with sandy feet, and might I also suggest that Wisconsin legislators establish a new boundary that’s more clear than the ordinary high water mark, which only a surveyor can confirm. I mean I can confirm it. Maybe they could take a page from Rhode Island’s book and change the boundary to the quote unquote recognizable high tideline or the strip of dried water debris that shows where high tide is in practice, Stay tuned for the fate of Floersheim’s case, where rooting for the underdog here. Moving on to another story from the Badger State, pro hunting advocates and lawmakers fell just short of the votes needed to institute a sandhill crane hunt in Wisconsin. The effort had the backing of groups such as Delta Waterfowl and Ducks Unlimited, who said it would be a win for hunters and I don’t know if you’ve tried eating sand hill, but it’s darn tasty stuff. They also hoped to hunt would help mitigate the monetary damages the birds inflict on ag operations. While the eastern sandhill crane population once struggled, it is starting to rebound in a serious way, and other states, including Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama have held regular hunting seasons for them without issue in recent years. The push to do so in Wisconsin too passed the state’s House Assembly, but it eventually died after the state Senate failed to take it up because it lacks support Republican state Senator Rob Stasfold had pushed for the bill’s passage and said that they were just two votes short of what they ultimately needed. Apparently, some legislators reportedly thought that cranes were too beautiful to hunt, and I probably don’t have to tell you how broken that logic is, because they are conducting damage hunts in the state of Wisconsin. The sad fact of those is those cranes cannot be consumed. They can be killed, but they cannot be consumed on those depredation hunts. It’s our job as hunters to get the story across that if hunters love something, we’re gonna do everything we can to make sure that that population is a booming and viable so we can continue to enjoy it outside of hunting season and consume it during hunting season. More information on this one over at Outdoor News, where writer Larry Polenski has the scoop moving over to Colorado, one of the many places that black bears are emerging from their winter dens and stretching in the sunlight along with the rest of us. In Pasadyena, California, for example, a bear walked into the background of a local news report that happened to be covering bear human conflict. Recent years, Colorado has been trying to get out in front of that conflict by establishing a one million dollar grant program for local governments, nonprofit orgs, hoas, schools, and anyone else with a significant human presence in bear country, which is essentially the whole state. Grants can run from fifty thousand dollars all the way up to five hundred thousand dollars and can be used for any measure that reduces bear human conflict, which, let’s face it, is mostly just putting locking lids on garbage containers. But those lids don’t come cheap, so having this grant program is a good start. Maybe the fund can grow to the size that everyone in the state has a locking trash container. Anyway, let’s try to have as few bears killed as possible by CPW this year and in years to come. Coloraden’s head over to CPW dot state, dot co dot us and search for the human Bear Conflict Reduction Grants. Deadline for the application is May twenty nine. That’s all I got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening, and remember to write in askcal that’s ask how at the meat eat dot com. You know, we want to hear what’s going on in your neck of the woods and we’ll talk to you next week, right
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