00:00:02 Speaker 1: From Mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cal's weekend review, presented by Steel Steel products are available only at authorized dealers. For more, go to Steel Dealers dot com. Now here's your host, Riot, Cal Callahan. What do mountain lions and walruses have in common? Usually not much, but last week both animals were involved in unusual attacks that left their human victims literally scratching their heads. Thanks to Bob t and Cody Talina for sending us these stories all the way up in None of It, which is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada, three walrus hunters found themselves in cold water after one of the two thousand pound mammals flipped their boat. They'd spied a walrus from their small aluminum watercraft. One of them took a shot. The walrus dove and reserviced a few times, but the final time they had tried to jump in the back of their boat. The hunters believe it was trying to get up on the ice and mistook the boat for an ice flow. Either that or it was unhappy for being shot. Okay, moving on anyway, the boat flipped and the three hunters were pitched into the frigid ocean. The air temperature was negative twenty degrees celsius or minus four fahrenheit. The men survived because the boat retained enough air in the hole to stay afloat. They clambered onto the bottom of the boat, which is now the top of the boat, and had to wait six hours to be rescued. Amazingly, they all survived and are doing just fine. They never saw the walrusk again. In Colorado last week, a mountain lion took a swipe at a man's head as he was sitting in a hot tub. The man was sitting in the warm water with his wife when a mountain lion snuck up behind them and gave the man four superficial scratches on the top of his head. The couple responded as you might expect. They screamed, splashed water out the animal, and showing a flashlight at it. The lion retreated, apparently deciding that the ruckass wasn't worth the chance at soft boiled human. The man is fine, but state Wildlife officials say they're taking this incident very seriously and are attempting to capture the offending cap but also included that this is not the first story of a cougar getting posy in a Colorado mountain town hot tub, someplace warm, a place where the beer flows like wine. We're beautiful women instinctively flocked like the salmon of Coppastrano. I'm talking about a little place called the Aspen and for you, Herman Melville Fans. A forty four foot sailboat was recently sunk in the Pacific Ocean after it collided with a whale. Reportedly, the captain of the vessel, Raindancer of Treburnier, Florida, Rick Rodriguez, had just dunked a slice of vegetarian pizza in ranch dressing when the boat oched onto its side. Alarms started to sound as the vessel took on water, and one of the crew mates reported that a large side fin could clearly be seen out of the water. Infer what you will, But although many people love it, ranch dressing on pizza is gross and can get this type of violent overreaction from pizza fans just about anywhere to kick Captain Rodriguez while he was down. He and his crew were rescued after ten hours at sea by the Rolling Stones, A forty five foot sail boat, which had to make for a long ride home forty four foot or huh yeah, we went ahead and got a forty five Staying comfortable. This week, we've got animal rights legislation and the Willow Project. But first I'm going to tell you about my week. And my week was spent at one of my favorite events, surrounded by my favorite people, BHA Rendezvous and BHA chapter leaders, coordinators and volunteers with any membership organization, Volunteers and volunteer organizing and leadership are the backbone of the whole thing. Very fortunate to spend time with these people who are dedicated to hunting, phishing, foraging, teaching, as well as making the time to testify at phishing game meetings around Capitol Hill. Big big thank you to all of you. You mean a lot. I'm already looking forward to the next one. But we got a lot to talk about, so we're going to move on to the animal rights desk. Two. Nevada legislators are pushing a bill that would ban what they call wildlife killing contests. Assembly Bill one O two prohibits anyone from organizing, sponsoring, promoting, conducting, or participating in any kind of contest that offers a prize for hunting a list of animals that includes coyotes, bobcats, beavers, and rabbits. Anyone who has found guilty of organizing one of these events will face a fine between five thousand and thirty thousand dollars, and anyone found guilty of participating will be forced to pay between fifty and one thousand dollars. This isn't the first time we've covered a bill like this on the podcast. California, Vermont, Arizona, Massachusetts, New Mexico, call Ata, Washington, and Maryland have already passed bills banning these contests, with the exception of California, which handed down at the ban in twenty fourteen. All of these bills passed in the last five years. Animal rights activists see kyote calling contests as lohane fruit, and they've been successful in their more recent lobbying efforts. They're being especially aggressive about this bill. In Nevada, the Humane Society sent undercover agents to two kyote calling contests in Fallon and Reno. Someone from the Humane Society went to the Way Ends with a hidden camera and microphone, and they published the most outrageous things they heard and saw. The photos and videos are pretty much what you'd expect a bunch of dead coyotes. I can see how someone unfamiliar with hunting would find these photos shocking, but they don't show anything particularly bloody or gruesome. The quotes from participants are a little more cringey. One hunter supposedly said that he likes participating in kyote calling contests because he can quote shoot as many as I effing want and killed stuff. He also said he has a quote itch to kill something better than people, which I don't know if it is a compliment for coyotes or not. This isn't a great look, but it's one of only a few quotes the Humane Society includes in their press release. If that's the best this an investigator could come up with after spending two days fishing for bad quotes, I'd say the Humane Society needs to hire a new undercover agent. We reached out for the full audio recording to hear these quotes in context, but the animal rights organization hasn't responded, and I'm not holding my breath. I did hear back from George McNeill, who organized one of the contests. The Humane Society investigated. He told me that the reports slightly exaggerated the number of coyotes killed, but it also falsely implied that the kyotes were just dumped in a hole. That's not true at all. Many of the participants keep their dogs and sell the pelts at the local fur trading show. Every one of the contests have somebody that wants those pelts, and so they generally take all the dogs. I've been approached life, I think from other calling in and saying, hey, what are you going to do with those bells? They will come out here and pick up all the dogs. The hunting community has had legitimate and productive debates about the place of predator contests and how those contests should operate. The Humane Society claims that hunters ought to oppose these events because they make us look bad. But if they really cared about the public perception of hunters, they want cherry pick a few bad quotes and plaster images of dead coyotes across social media. In other words, if they're trying to convince hunters to agree with them, they're a long way off. Anyway. If you live in Nevada and want these contests to continue, give your state legislators a call and tell them what you think about Assembly Bill one zero two. The bill is being considered right now by the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources, so you should contact those legislators as well, and we'll have these up at the meat eater dot Com forward slash cal case you need to track them down later. If predator hunting is a public enemy number one for animal rights activists, hound hunting is a close The Center for Biological Diversity submitted a petition to the US Forest Service earlier this year to prohibit hound hunting on the Chickamaugan Nicolette National Forest in northern Wisconsin. They argue that dogs pose a danger to wolves, which were recently returned to the endangered species list. Houndsmen are no longer allowed to target wolves, but the Center for Biological Diversity worries that if dogs are allowed to go after bears or bobcats, they'll run into wolves and injure them. There's just one problem. Even according to the center's own petition, the injuries almost always run the other direction. During the twenty twenty one wolf hunt, for example, only one wolf was documented to have been killed by dogs. However, more than one hundred dogs have been killed or injured by wolves in Wisconsin over the last five years. I'm sure wolves have also sustained some injuries, but I'd say the chance of a pack of bear dogs going after a wolf and succeeding and beaten up the much larger canine are pretty slim. If you'd like to weigh in on this one, contact Gina Owens and Paul Strong. They're the US Forest Service officials who received the petition, and all include their contact info at the meat eater dot com forward slash cap. Moving on to the legislative desk, the Kansas Fishing Game Commission voted unanimously earlier this month to ban the use of trailcams on public land. While several Western states have imposed similar bands in recent years, Kansas is the first Midwestern whitetail state to follow suit. Supporters of the band cited privacy, fairchase, and conflict issues among hunters. Opponents wanted an amendment that only banned trailcams during big game hunting seasons, but the Commission ultimately decided on a total year round ban. The prohibition applies in all twenty eight state parks and roughly three hundred thousand acres of public wildlife areas, as well as the one point four million acres of least private property enrolled in Kansas walk in Hunting Access Program, which is a suite program. Speaking of trail cameras, the Montana State House passed to build this month that bans the sale of trailcam and location data obtained on public land. The sale is only prohibited if those images and data are used in a way that quote harms, harasses, or kills fish or wildlife. Violators can be fined between fifty and a thousand dollars, be in prison for up to six months, or both. The House pass the bill HP five four seven on a fifty seven to forty one vote. It's now being considered by the Senate Fish and Game Committee. For those of you who don't know, closest thing I can think of here that is pretty widespread is like selling ice fishing locations. Like guides will go out tell people how many fish they caught, and offer to sell the way points to those holes. This is kind of like that. But imagine you get a big old awesome buck on your trailcam on public land. Then you post that big old awesome buck out there and you say, hey, this buck's coming through at this time, how much will you pay me for the location data? Got it? Got it. Also in Montana, a group of legislators are working to pass constitutional amendment that would make it more difficult to regulate trapping. The state constitution already describes the opportunity to harvest wild fishing game as a quote heritage that shall forever be preserved to the individual citizens of the state. This bill HP three seventy two would replace opportunity with right and guarantees Montana's a right to hunt, fish, trap, and harvest fish and wildlife. The amendment would also require the state to quote give preference to hunting, fishing, and trapping by citizens as the primary, but not exclusive means of the state's management of wildfish and wildlife populations for the benefit of all Montanas. Opponents argued that a recent committee hearing that because trappers make up less than one half of one percent of the Montana population, they should not have so much say in how wildlife is managed. The debate over this bill reflects a larger debate happening across the country. Animal rights groups want to limit the influence of hunters and trappers on wildlife policy. They say wildlife departments and commissions are too beholden to hunters, and they're trying to keep hunters from having such a large seat at the table. This constitutional amendment is designed to make it more difficult for hunters and trappers to lose that seat at the table. If you haven't guessed, I'm all in favor of the language change. HB three seventy two suggests making it a right to hunt, fishing, trap and harvest fishing wildlife copy. Moving on to the state of Utah, Governor Spencer Cox signed a controversial bill that would, among other things, allow for year round mountain lion hunting without any special tags or permits. The bill also sets aside one million dollars a year to acquire land to preserve it for wildlife habitat and hunter access, bans the use of trail cameras on public lands from July thirty one to December thirty one, and establish his rules for using air rifles and hunting. The Oklahoma State House passed a bill last week that would transfer CWD management authority from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation to the Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry. Under the current system, the AGG Department handles CWD in captive serve at herds, while the Department of Wildlife tackles the issues in the wild population. It's unclear why anyone would want to strip the Wildlife Department of this authority, considering the fact that this agency handles every other hunter related issue in the state. But the lead sponsor the bill, Representative Kevin Wallace, seems to think the Wildlife Department is no longer fit to manage CWD. He said on the House floor that the Department has been quote infiltrated by quote extreme environmentalists. He also said the department has been alarmist about the threat of CWD and said CWD might very well be a quote made up disease that is actually just a sheep any goat disease called scrapies. Representative Wallace clearly thanks the AGG Department will take a different approach to CWD management, and many of his colleagues agree. His bill passed the House on a seventy three to seventeen vote, and it now heads to the Senate. If you'd like to weigh in, get in touch with your Oklahoma state senators about House Bill two eight six two. Before you do, you may want to look up what happens to cheap or goat herds when they contract scrape and maybe then go back and inform Representative Wallace. Moving on to Texas, State Senator Mays Middleton is pushing a bill that would reverse the burden of proof and public access dispute. Public access to the sea in Texas includes the area from the mean high tideline to the edge of the vegetation or dunes. Under current law, if there is a dispute about public access, the landowner must prove that their position is the correct one. Senate Bill four thirty four would shift that burden of proof back to the public, which would make it much easier for landowners to restrict access to public property. The bill doesn't change the definition of public and private, but it does mean that the state will be forced to defend public property in court again and again and again. Listener Joshua Hoak wrote in to tell me that this bill will majorly impact access for recreation and fishing in areas like Galveston and Corpus Christi port Ranzas. Ironically, some landowners are also opposing the bill because it would mean that the state will no longer handle beach cleanup and other maintenance on beach property with no public access. Senate Bill four thirty four has not been sent to the Natural Resources and Economic Development Committee, but it has not received a hearing either. Alaskans are concerned about a new Bureau of Land Management program that would transfer federal public land to the State of Alaska, which would then use that land to fund the University of Alaska. The program was included in the most recent Omnimus bill package passed by Congress. Some of the land that will be transferred is located along the Dnali Highway, often abbreviated the DH by locals, so you know how to refer to it when you ever go up there. Slide into a saloon and have a beer. These parcels are prime habitat for all sorts of wildlife, including moose, caribou, black bears, brown bears, lake trout, and grayling. Justin Mason, a board member for the Alaska Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, also pointed out that locals love this area because it has a feeling of true wilderness. He told me that lands will most likely be sold as recreational parcels to individual Alaskans or to commercial developers like Carnival Cruise Lines. The area already has some development, but Mason and others are concerned about adding even more development to this pristine wilderness area. Unfortunately, there isn't much Alaskans can do to keep the transfers from happening. But Mason still believes it's worthwhile to pressure the state to manage the land responsibly. That's always our job as public land users, but it's especially important when states are deciding how to sell what was formerly federal public land. I'm going to jump back over to the state level and talk about Wisconsin courtesy one mister Trevor Hubbs. You Wisconsinites may know that the Wisconsin Conservation Congress is an organizational body of delegates elected by the citizens to advise the Natural Resources Board and Department of Natural Resources on responsible management of Wisconsin's natural resources based on the North American model of wildlife conservation. But you may not know that listeners in Wisconsin who attend their county spring open house can meet their delegates, meet their representatives, and discuss the spring hearings for twenty twenty three. They can vote on new members and make their opinion known on any wildlife management or natural resources topic. Further, you may not know that you Wisconsinites need to vote in the spring hearing, which is available online April ten through April thirteenth. Pay special attention to the Turkey and Upland Game Committee Question number seventy, which establishes an annual perch of a Native grouse stamp, which would then authorize you to hunt grouse in Wisconsin. Before you go crying in the mud about you know, an extra fee that you gotta pay, keep in mind Wisconsin currently requires a pheasant stamp. The funds from that stamp go toward the pheasant stocking program. This new proposed native grouse stamp would raise funds to be directed toward habitat development and preservation for Wisconsins. For native grouse species, the prairie chicken, which is probably going to be on the endangered species list here soon. The sharp tailed grouse. Yes, you have sharp tailed grouse in Wisconsin, spruce grouse, and rough grouse. This is a big deal. I think you know how I'd vote on that, So show up represent If you need more info, you can find it at DNR dot Wisconsin. Dot gov forward slash about forward slash WCC forward slash spring hearing. We'll get that up at the ASCAL site as well. Moving on to the snake desk, a new comprehensive study published by the US Geological Survey has found that the Burmese python population in Florida is not only growing, it's also expanding. The study polls together decades of python research and data into one document and provides a breakdown of seventy six prey species found in Python digestive tracks. It also reports new findings, including a summary of body sizes, a comprehensive assessment of all control tools explored to date, and the estimated geographic spread of pythons over time. The estimated geographic spread isn't great news for the biologists and hunters hoping to keep the population in check. The giant invasive snakes have been spreading steadily beyond their core range in the Florida Everglades since the late nineteen nineties and are now invading areas as far north as West Palm Beach and Fort Myers. While the study admits that low detection rates make precise population estimates difficult, researchers are confident enough to claim quote erratic of the population across the landscape is not possible with existing tools. Snakes are too well camouflaged for hunters to put a dent in the overall population, and they do not readily enter any type of trap. If you live in an area with feral hogs, you can begin to understand the problem. Pythons, like hogs, are incredibly competent reproducers, but unlike hogs, they're predatory and exceptionally stealthy. They live in inaccessible wilderness areas, and they're hard to find even if you can get into those areas. This new study identifies genetic biocontrol as one of the only real solutions. This novel new technique manipulates genetic material with the goal of decreasing the ability of an invasive species to thrive in the non native environment. The genetics of pythons could be manipulated such that the snakes produce only male offspring or infertile offspring. These techniques have the advantage of being potentially population wide, and they don't rely on humans identifying where the snakes are located. Unfortunately, the study also describes these techniques as currently unproven and even If they're effective, they'll take many years to develop. So for now, it looks like the python issue is much like the CWD issue. We should be doing everything we can to control the spread of the species until researchers come up with a better solution. That's a bit depressing, but that's nature for you. It rarely behaves like you want it to. Moving on to the extraction desk. By now, you've probably heard about President Joe Biden's decision to approve the Willow Oil Project in northern Alaska. This is the largest proposed oil drilling project on America's public lands, with an expected five hundred and seventy six million barrels of oil over the thirty year life of the project. It's a scale back version of what was originally requested by Conico Phillips, but environmentalist groups say they were blindsided by the decision from an administration that has so far expressed opposition to new oil drilling. While climate activists having universally decried the decision, the response from hunting and fishing groups has been more muted. Not many groups have issued at public statement, but the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership or TRCP did publish a great primer on the topic. They point out that the Biden administration was in a legal bind since Conico Phillips has held leases in this area since the nineties. If the BLM denied the drilling permits, Conico Phillips would sue, and the result would be billions of lost taxpayer dollars without much to show for it. Instead, the Interior Department denied two of the five proposed drill sites, which decreases the project's public land footprint while ensuring it remains economically viable. The reduced projects scope will decrease the project's freshwater use and potential impacts to Cariboo caving grounds and migration routes. According to the TRCP, the approved version of the project, for example, has twenty one one hundred and fourteen fewer acres of Cariboo disturbances and the initial plan. Of course, no drilling project is free of environmental impact. It will cause some disturbances to Cariboo migration. It will also result in five hundred and thirty two acres of lost wetlands, six nineteen acres of potential polar bear habitat disturbances, and seventeen thousand thirty seven acres of disturbances for birds. This is a small portion of the entire twenty three million acre area known as the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, but it's also still a cause for concern for some of the local indigenous communities. No one seems to be particularly happy about this plan, which is sometimes the sign of a good compromise. Advocates for the oil industry would have liked to see all five drilling pads approved, while the clean energy folks worry how this decision will impact the climate. For their part, TRCP praised the BLM for threading the needle and working to offset impacts with conservation gains. They call on administration to make good on their promises to keep environmental disturbances to a minimum, which I'm sure is what we always want. That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write in to ask c A L. That's ask Cal at the Meat Eater dot com and let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. Also, you may not have known it because you're sitting in a major snowstorm like we were, but the first day of spring has sprung and as you know, things start emerging out of the snowpiles. You may get a hankering to cut something down, pile up some slash, burn it, get that nasty stuff off the yard. Well, if you need some tools to make you look like pro, go to www. Dot steel Dealers dot com and find a local, knowledgeable steel dealer near you. They're gonna get you set up with what you need and they won't try to send you home with what you don't. Thanks again and I'll talk to you next week.