00:00:10
Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Col’s Week in Review with Ryan cow Calahan. Here’s cal as though public land employees don’t have it hard enough these days with staff cuts and slashed budgets. Two seasonal workers with the Forest Service were kidnapped and held at gunpoint last week in the shaft at Trinity National Forest in northern California. According to authorities, forty nine year old Joseph Charles Henrickson and his twenty three year old son Phoenix, were motivated by extreme anti government sentiment, which you know, even if you’re on that path, I think you might agree that a couple of kids doing trail maintenance, I believe they were biologists looking for frogs. You’re not exactly hitting the tippy top anyway. July sixteen, Forest Service law enforcement officer called in the kidnapping to the local Sheriff’s office, saying that the two workers were being held in zip ti restraints inside a trailer near Gumboot Lake. More than two hundred police personnel made the trek up the one lane road into the remote forest, including a swat team, snipers, hostage negotiators, a bomb squad, and it sounds like a whole lot of backup. Things got extremely tense during the standoff, as when the hostage takers told negotiators that they had quote unquote live rounds ready for anyone who got too close, and when they cut off talks, retreated into the camper and covered all the windows. But finally, after fifteen hours, the Hendricksons finally accepted that there were no good outcomes for them and they released the hostages and surrendered. Several air fifteens and grenades were seized from the scene. Father and son faced the possibility of life in prison if convicted. This is, you know, unfortunately, something that our civil servants get exposed to all sorts of threats, you know, most of them not legit, but there are examples of things being more extreme than this. So from everybody out here at the Cow’s Week in Review World, I just want to say thank you to everybody who’s out there still doing the work, keeping the lights on for those threatened and endangered species, picking up the trash, pumping the toilets, and ensuring that some of the coolest stuff this country has to offer is accessible for all Americans. First, I’m going to tell you about my week, and my week has been packed, biggest thing on the list, And I have to preface this with the fact that I’m working on information that has not officially been released yet. The information that hasn’t been released is if this news is going to come out tomorrow, not if everything else I’m about to say is actually true, because this analysis has been ongoing here. If you have ever purchased a duck stamp, part of what you are funding is habitat in the form of conservation easements. The other part is our refuge system. Refuge system, of course, was one of the first big conservation moves this country made because we were damn near out of ducks, out of geese, out of crans, and many other migratory birds, a lot of which we wouldn’t call game species today. Several months ago it became known that there was a movement afoot in DC to try and convert all US Fish and Wildlife Service wetland easements to conform to the NRCS Wetland conservation Easements. The reason being was along the lines of well, on paper, it’s less confusing, but that conversion what it does is give the people who have these ease months on their property, many of which were paid for them. The ability to reduce the size of prairie potholes and intermittent wetlands due to the fact that the restrictive language or permissive language, however you may see it, in the two types of easement allow for a greater degree of fringe removal. As a US Fish and Wildlife servicesman, the fringe, the stuff around the edges is, of course the habitat stuff. Now, Intermittent wetlands are just that. Sometimes they befall, sometimes they be dry, and that’s why they work. Dry periods remove bacteria and disease factors that can be bad for nesting and allow for vegetation growth that breaks down and produces the zooplankton and phytal plankton that the invertebrates dig into. And that soup is what gets our ducks started when they be wet. Additionally, this is not just duck habitat. Some of the biggest mule deer bucks I have ever chased in my life were drawn to these little dried up sud like magnets. It’s upland bird habitat, songbird habitat, pollinator habitat, and big game habitat too. These easements are incredibly successful. They are a huge factor in why we have huntable species. But here’s the problem. As farm machinery has gotten bigger and more advanced, it no longer is tolerable to drive anything other than a straight line. As such, many of the wetlands that are not under conservation easements are no longer there. They have been drained through a process called tiling, which is installing perforated pipe subsurface which expedites the dispersal of water. Don’t frat. The water doesn’t magically disappear. It often collects in very large amounts in very inconvenient areas where tiling is popular. Think low lying towns, farmsteads, county roads, highways, et cetera. And you can see a lot of this. We did a meat eater duck hunting episode way back when in South Dakota and tiling wasn’t the only factor, but it does play a factor. Checked out episode out you’ll see a lot of farmsteads underwater, a lot of this prairie pothole region. Right. It’s like big basins that glaciers sat in and then as they dried up, you have this big sink with no drain, so you get this underground water that supersaturates the subsurface, and then as you get additional rain, there’s just no way for the water to get out. Right, So taken care of as in, eliminating these little wetlands that again may not be wet may not sound like a big deal, and reducing the fringe area around these wetlands may not sound like a big deal. But that reduction and surface area means we’ll lose fifty to seventy plus percent of our duck production habitat that still exists. So if you believe this was just like a Doze era simplification effort, you should write that in there’s going to be an upcoming comment period and just say, hey, you miss the mark on this one. At your desk wherever it may make sense, But out here on the landscape it has giant repercussions. If you ever go out and drive through the Dakotas and flip on your your on X map, everybody knows what that little marshy area looks like on a map, even you old codgers who think about printed maps. It’s like the little wispy, green, grassy things. It’s not quite water, it’s not quite land. That’s your intermittent wetland. Well. Drive around and it will not take you much time at all to identify things that are no longer wetlands. They were historic. It’s there on the map. They range from big to small, and they are no longer there. It is just a plowed field. Those are areas that ideally never had wetland conservation easements. We’ve lost, according to the Wildlife Management Institute, a staggering sixty one percent of these wetlands already. It’s not hunters killing the ducks, boys and girls. Total wetland acreage has been reduced from seventeen million to six million acres within the Prairie Pothole region. Should this idea of converting one easement to the other take hold and prosper will lose hundreds of thousands of acres more and again, if you have ever purchased a duck stamp or donated a nickel to Ducks unlimited, or paid taxes state or federal, we’ve paid for these acres already. There is or will be a very short comment period. You need to loosen your beak and weigh in on this. One will have an actional air from BHA heading your way. Click it. Remember, many refuges have been pieced together through a series of wetland conservation easements, so even though they are not on the private land, they can be augmented the cornerstone of our conservation history. The refuge system is not safe. None of this stuff is here out of luck. None of our opportunities exist by chance. This stuff, the spoils we enjoy today. They spoiled kids, are abundance of riches, the options that we have out our door. It’s here because people stood up and demanded it. Now it’s our turn. How are you going to weigh in? Moving on to a slightly different atmosphere, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Several restaurants now have ticks on the menu. Okay, A more even handed version of that sense is to say that tics have gotten so bad add out there that restaurants are including dishes specifically for patrons suffering from the tickborn disease Alpha gal. Those mammal meat free items are marked on menus with the initials AGF for Alpha Gal friendly or AGS for Alpha gal safe. You know you’re in a new era when you’re adding these warnings to the list of gluten, shellfish and peanut free dishes. In twenty twenty, there were only two cases of alf gal on Martha’s Vineyard. In twenty twenty five, there were seven hundred and forty two. In response, last month, the island’s chefs and tick experts gathered for a town hall to deal with the situation. Chef Charlie Grandquist has started eliminating mammalian ingredients from the meals he cooks for his restaurant staff, and his wife recently went into anaphylactic shock without warning after eating a hamburger. Martha’s Vineyard in general is getting serious about its tick situation, and hunting on the beautiful and exclusive island has shifted into a higher gear. The organization Tick Free MV was established this past December and is working to coordinate all the island stakeholders to bring down the number of deer. They commissioned an aerial population count at the end of the most recent hunting season, showing a minimum number of four six hundred and eighty one animals. That means there are forty nine deer per square mile, quadruple the ideal number for balanced habitat mass Wildlife has therefore recently started to issue year round damage permits to property owners. The permits required that a professional deer processing facility be an operation year round nearby, and several of them have started to deliver the meat to local food banks. The organization mb Hunt Club is now operating one such facility, and the On Island Wampanog tribe has started in another. Landowner permissions have historically been hard to come by, and much of the land there is also owned by land trusts, which have not been a space actually accommodating to hunters, but all that might be changing. MV Hunt Club is now actively matching landowners and hunters, and several of the land trusts seem to be changing their tune. James Lingle, executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, told the Vineyard Gazette quote, the land Bank is involved in tick Free’s work and wants to do whatever it can that may take the form of a deer damage hunt and or other forms. We’re going to look at what tick Free proposes and then take it from there. All this means the Massachusetts hunters might be able to squeeze all these lemons into lemonade. If you’re a listener in a cramped apartment in Boston, Providence, or Woosta, google MVY Hunt Club, send them an email see if he can get matched with a landowner and a couch to crash on and enjoy a ferry ride out there this fall. Just remember to slather yourself in picarden or promethron and stay safe. Some could have been worse news out of Colorado this week on the state’s furband saga. The good news is that the campaign to prohibit the lawful sale, barter, and trade of wildlife for in Colorado is dead. At the July seventeen meeting of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, the commissioners voted six to five to terminate rulemaking for the ban, which they had approved out of a citizen’s petition back in March. The body has had some personnel changes since then, and the majority concluded that any ban was going to be incoherent and impossible to enforce. However, the bad news is that the commission also voted six to five to establish a blanket bag limit of two animals for all fur bearing species in the state. Colorado previously had no limit because Colorado Parks and Wildlife had demonstrated that trapping had no effect on fur bearer numbers, but just as with many decisions lately, the Commission ignored the expertise and science of CPW. They chose the number two because that was the average number of animals taken per license holder cited by the CPW, but that decision disregards the fact that most license holders harvest zero animals, and anyone who hopes to make any kind of living out of trapping will now likely not be able to do that. The animal rights groups recognized that an outright ban was no longer viable and expressed gratitude about getting half a loaf. Samanth the Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity told the Fort Collins, colorad in quote, I felt with a win on bag limits, I was more okay losing the petition because at least we accomplished something for these fur bear species that have been exploited for commercial sales. He said. The group doesn’t plan to keep going with a different version of a ban, and instead will advocate for better data gathering on fur bearer numbers. And that’s where I think we see hope for the future on this issue. The Parks and Wildlife Commission is obviously very muddled here. Governor Jared Polus, who has appointed the commission members most hostile to trapping, is term limited this year, and his successor is not likely to be as anti tree as he has bent. If the data continues to demonstrate that furbars are abundant in Colorado, then a future commission could vote to change these bag limits to a reasonable number, or to do away with them altogether. That kind of change is a lot easier than having to repeal a complicated ban. Here’s hoping that in the long term, cooler heads prevail here, and thank you to everyone out there who has weighed in again and again on this issue. We face some setbacks along the way, but ultimately even the most committed anti trapping activists had to admit that their aims don’t make sense. Lots to go here, gang, keep showing up and keep informed. There’s no telling what the air outside will look like by the time you hear this. But over the past two weeks, intense smoke from Canadian wildfires has oppressed the most heavily populated parts of North America. Toronto, Detroit, Toledo, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston all experience some of the worst air quality on record. The air quality index of DLUTE, Minnesota hit nine thirty four, more than three times over the limit for hazardous pollution. Trump and other Republican politicians are charging Canada with not managing their forests to prevent fire, but almost all these fires are happening in the extremely remote Boreal Shield region that have never been managed at all and have no need to be managed. The difference now in what makes fires more likely are warming temperatures caused by climate change. Eleanor Osluski, Canada’s Minister of Emergency Management, said northern Ontario and Quebec received less than forty percent of normal precipitation this June, with temperatures above historical averages. But this is not the only smoke activity happening on the continent, making the borders between countries irrelevant. Several fires out west in the US have sent smoke blowing north into British Columbia. There’s no immediate fix here and the rest of the summer could be rough after record low snowfalls across the West, but longer term solutions are advancing Martin Heinrich this week introduced a bill in the Senate that would require electrical grid managers to adopt a so called connect and manage approach to getting new electricity generation on the grid, modeled on the system used in Texas. By dramatically streamlining the process to allow new power projects to get up and running, we can get more clean energy projects delivering electrons sooner. This bill is totally neutral, meaning natural gas burning plants will be able to connect as quickly as solar projects. But Texas leads the nation in renewables because a lot of the time, renewables are the most economical option, and whenever new nuclear or geothermal generation technology comes online, we have to be ready to get those projects connected as well. It’s time to get serious about the work we have to do on climate, and Heinrich’s new bill is a concrete step in that direction. Colorado, a local sheriff’s office recently posted about a search and rescue effort gon a wire on July seventh. The Sam Miguel County Sheriff detailed and incident in which the county’s search and rescue team responded to a garment SOS in a remote alpine area of the San Juan Mountains known as Columbine Basin. The SOS was received at two forty five pm. The man reported that he’d fallen one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet and believed he broke his leg. Rescuers responded to the scene both on foot and with helicopter, but when they arrived they found him walking around. He had apparently been injured when base jumping off of a cliff and his parachute failed to deploy. He then declined assistance from the search and rescue team and opted to walk down on his own. The team then had to endure a prolonged egress and the mission was closed at eleven thirty pm. Apparently, according to the sheriff, the man had, unsurprisingly, given his chosen hobby, received the help of search and rescue team after a base jumping accident in the Swiss Alps. Here’s what San Miguel County Sheriff Dan Cobalt had to say. This individual chose to participate in an extremely dangerous activity alone, and particularly given his prior rescue his head. His actions demonstrated a disregard for the risks involved and the resources required to rescue him. His decisions unnecessarily diverted emergency resources, including a care flight helicopter that may have been needed for other emergencies. The fact that he was able to hike down shows a profound lack of respect for the tremendous effort and resources devoted to this rescue. It’s an interesting take and gets at the difficult decisions that CERCHA and rescue teams have to make in terms of how to allocate rescue resources. I’ll just say that while this incident involved someone participating in an extremely high risk endeavor, I suspect most search and rescue efforts involve unprepared tourists doing relatively mundane pursuits. However, the social media post took some heat, and the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office eventually amended it, adding that quote, we would like to emphasize that people should never hesitate to call CERCH and rescue when they are lost, experiencing a medical emergency, or have been injured. Right in, let us you know what you think about this one. I happen to think that unpopular opinion here. Game part of the amazing thing at getting out on big public lands is depending on yourself. It is up to us to be prepared and use the best of our cognitive abilities and skills to make simple decisions that avoid it being put in bad situations where we then have to put a bunch of other people in bad situations. Doesn’t always work out that way. Best of intentions, as they say, But if I could snap my fingers, we’d go back to the rotary dial phone. Moving on to the duck desk, Louisiana has announced all new duck season, and it’s an interesting one. This fall, the Sportsman’s Paradise will hold an experimental special season for black bellied whistling duck. If you haven’t heard of these species, well, I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s certainly not a good old greenhead, widgeon, pintailed teal, black duck, or anything else most people have pursued. In North America, the species has goose like long legs and chestnut brown and black body. It’s found throughout the southern parts of the central Mississippi and Atlantic flyways during the summer, but most of them typically migrate into Mexico and South America by the early fall. At least that used to be the case In recent years, the species seems to have been expanding its breeding range northward and has established year round populations in parts of Louisiana. Local wildlife managers say that black bellied whistling ducks can cause damages on local egg operations, particularly rice, and that having a special season is a win win for sportsmen and rice farmers. The first season will run for nine days this October, during which no other species of duck will be open. There will be a four bird daily bag limit. One important regulation to be aware of are the shoot times, which, unlike typical duck season, will start at sunrise, not thirty minutes before. This is ostensibly to make sure hunters can accurately id birds during the season. Have you hunted black bellied whistling ducks, we want to hear from you. Askcl at the meat eater dot com. If they’re eating rice fields. I guarantee you can make them taste real good. I’m jealous of that new opportunity controversy here in the home state, and it has to do with ditch chickens, roosters, cocks. Back in twenty twenty one, state legislators authorized a bill providing Montana Fish Wildlife and parks a million bucks each year to buy rooster pheasants, bread at prisons and plant them in popular public hunting areas. Proponents of the bill said it would help with new hunter recruitment, particularly for youth hunters, while others say that the program is not cost effective or sustainable and that improving habitat to benefit wild birds is a better alternative. There is also concern about disease transmission from pen raise to wild birds. However, on August nineteen, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission will consider proposal to double the number of released birds and sites and open up the possibility of stalking them on private and state lands, which is ruffling the feathers of some bird hunters in the Treasure State to say the least. This gets an interesting question about how to best allocate resources between hunter recruitment and habitat restoration. Head on over for a breakdown by Andrew McKean at Outdoor Life. We’ve covered this topic a bunch long term habitat habitat habitat always wins. Stockbirds are more of your instant gratification variety. Jumping over for a roadless update our friends over at Onax have again put their technological prowess to work in the name of conservation. The company recently released a report outlining some of the impacts of the two thousand and one Roadless Area Rule, which, as you know from listening to this very podcast, is under fire after the US Department of the Interior recently announced plans to scrap it. Well on X analysts cross reference Forest Service boundary file with its own outdoor recreation data, US Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife habitat data, and fifty years of National Interagency Fire Center records. Some important takeaways. Roadless rule areas encompass just twenty seven point seven percent of all land managed by the Forest Service. Just three point one seven percent of wildfires start in those areas, while ninety percent of all fires in the US start within half a mile of a road. Inventory roadless areas overlap with key habitat and migration corridors four black bears and elk, not to mention mule deer. The roadless rule doesn’t prohibit motorized recreation where it was already allowed, and inventory roadless areas include seven thousand, two hundred and one miles of full sized motorized trails and primitive roads, two thousand, four hundred and ninety four miles of ATV and side by side trails, two thousand, one hundred and sixty seven miles of motorized single track trails, and one thousand, two hundred and ninety five miles of snow homobile trails. Keep all of this data in mind and put it to use when the US Forest Service releases a draft Environmental impact statement on the rule change sometime this year. We’re thinking August, and a new public comment period opens. On X has also put out an interactive map that visualizes the areas covered by roadless rules. Head over to on xmaps dot com to check this out, as well as their full report. It’s a critical issue. It’s great to have these new resources. Thank you on X, Thank you, Thank you. Thank you. Allowing people to visualize what this is help so much. You can only repeat the facts so often. A visual is worth, you know, one thousand words. As they say, Sun of a gun gang. That’s all I got for you this week. Remember to write in to ask cl Let’s ask how at the meateater dot com. If you’re like me and you want to see a big old Grizzly Bear hunt. You’re gonna want that roadless rule in place because it’ll never happen if we don’t have that habitat protection and remember, head on over to backcountry Hunters and English dot org become a member. We need you
Read the full article here