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, ran Cal Callahan. Parts of South Florida are under quarantine after officials sounded the alarm about an invasion of giant African land snails. Don't worry, they won't be here for some time. I mean they're here, but you know that's a snail joke. They move slow. Giant African land snails can grow to be nearly eight inches long, and they eat at least five hundred different types of plants. Even more terrifying to South Florida residents, and I swear I'm not making this up. They've also been known to consume plaster and stucco off of buildings, which, if you were affected by the hurricanes last season, you probably don't need a new critter to in your home. I mean, you're in Florida, you have carpenter rats, termites, mold, and humidity already. The snails are native to East Africa and considered a dangerous invasive in the US. They've been in Florida since the nineteen sixties, where they pose threats to agriculture and human health. The Florida Department of Agriculture calls them quote one of the most damaging snails in the world. The species was supposedly eradicated twice in the state, once in the nineteen seventies and then again just a few years ago, but now it's been found in Lee and Pasco Counties, where residents are under strict instructions not to move snails, plants, soil, or yard waste outside those counties. South Floridians are not only concerned about their palm trees, plaster, and azaleas. Giant African land snails have also been known to carry a particularly nasty pathogen called a rat lung worm. This parasitic worm can cause meningitis in humans, which, if you recall from past episodes of The Week in Review, several people have died horrible deaths after eating carriers of the rat lung worm, like slugs and snails on seemingly harmless dares. So if you see an especially large snail slithering on the sidewalk near Tampa or Fort Myers, don't encourage your friend to eat it because you think it'd be funny. Do everyone a favor instead and grab the salt. This week we've got some housekeeping legislations and the crime desk. But first I'm going to tell you about my week, which was awesome. Hopped flight down to Florida, where I met up with my good friend and artist Ed Anderson. Ed had rounded up several of his buddies to fish with Captain Lacy Kelly at a Home Assassa, Reeves Carlyle Off of Marcos Island, and Brian Neil, who drove all the way down from Thunderbolt, Georgia, which is a phenomenal name of a town I never knew existed. We fished fairly, seriously, supported the local economy, and generally just had a good time. If you're looking for Tarpan on Marcos Island, give a call. He knows his stuff. He grew up there. If you're looking for Tarpan a little further north like Home Assassa, give Lacy Kelly a shout. And if you're ever in the Greater Savannah area and just need a little space, give Brian a call at Low Country Drifters. He does eco tours up there and He's insanely gifted at hanging out with humans, lots of historical knowledge. You get to see Savannah and the Barrier Islands from the water ditch the people. You may even find a Megalodon tooth, which is part of the reason I'm gonna line a trip up with him. Veteran owned and operated awesome. If you're sick of the shout outs, I get it, But when you get a weekend to just hang out with a bunch of great folks, I will not apologize for giving blatant shoutouts. Give him a call. Quick fishing story. We found tarpan and that was a blast. We landed one, but jumped a couple more. Watching big fish and gulf A teeny tiny fly will always be as I've hit all the super cool facts about Turpin on this podcast enough, but if you want to do some research on your own, just look up obligate air breather and fish in the Fossil Record, Living fossils anyway. I also talked old Ed into hitting the water after hours to fish docklights for snook. Much to my surprise, certain individuals do not like this. I don't know why. It's very strange to me, but we got I can't really say yelled at, but talked at by an old codger sitting in the dark warned us not to hit his underwater docklight, which people put out underwater dock lights to attract baitfish, which in turn attract bigger, more fun fish like the snook we were after. Now, I totally agree that breaking people stuff is bad, but we were throwing tiny flies that stay in the top eighteen inches of the water column, and the docklight was probably submerged at least ten feet on the bottom, so I deduced that the warning was not about the light anyway. That was strange to me. If I was a retiree on some backcanal in Florida, I would have a light array specifically set up to attract as much bait and fisherman as possible. After all, the second best thing to catching fish is watching somebody else catch one. Also brush for bucks April eighth, outside of Mountain Home, Idaho. The Hushing Crew First Light Mule Deer Foundation, along with Idaho Fishing Game have a great volunteer slash pay it Forward opportunity. You'll get some swag, including a real deal limited edition ed Anderson cap or T shirt, a bisonberger and mule deer knowledge by restoring mule deer winter range. I'll be there too, and I'm bringing as much of the crew with me as I can. For more information, check out first light dot com. Moving on to the corrections desk, in episode two oh three, I told you about two Wisconsin legislators who are pushing a bill that would require a population goal in the next wolf management plan. In that segment, I incorrectly stated that the current plan calls for a population limit of three hundred and fifty wolves. Listener Mark Rasmussen rode in to point out that the plan actually calls for three fifty to be the threshold at which active management can take place. In other words, the state isn't aiming to cap the population at three to fifty, but once the wolf population exceeds that number, officials can begin allowing proactive control and hunter harvest. In episode two oh four, I said that Kansas was the first Midwestern state to ban the use of trailcams on public land. Listener Dan White sent me an email noting that Missouri has had a public land trailcam ban for several years now. No one is allowed to place trailcams on lands owned or released by the state Department of Conservation, also known as conservation areas. I'll be honest, Missouri has always struck me as more of a southern state than a Midwestern state. But that's just picking the ant poop out of the pepper, as they say. I also have an update on the Alaska land transfer program we covered last episode. To recap, this new program would transfer BLM land to the state, and the state would sell it or lease it to fund the University of Alaska. While it's true that the land transfer program was written into an omnibus bill passed by Congress, Alaska state officials are still collecting public comments. I heard from Cody Straithe, a local business owner who lives in the area where land is likely to be sold. He spoke with Lacey Hamner, a natural resources manager with the State of Alaska and the person in charge of managing the transfer. She would like concerned citizens to submit comments directly to her email at Lacey dot Hamner. That's h am n Er at Alaska dot gov. The Feds aren't requiring public comments, but she wants to gather some anyway, So if you live in Alaska or care about what happens to the Danali Highway area, send an email Lacy. Moving on to the legislative desk. In Kentucky, Governor Andy Bisher veto to bill that would provide public access to approximately fifty four thousand acres of land in Kentucky's Elk Zone. Senate Bill two four one would also compel landowners to develop their land in a manner that is consistent with conservation goals in the area. Kentucky's legislative Sportsman's Caucus is working to garner enough votes to override the governor's veto. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Commission is considering a policy that would require hunters to bring bear carcasses to a designated site for registration instead of waiting for a conservation officer to come and do it in the field. The change comes in response to a growing bear population and corresponding harvest numbers. In years past, hunters would only harvest between three hundred and five hundred bears. Now that they're harvesting over one thousand bears every year, the Game Commission wants to institute a system that will get bears read registered in a more timely manner. The Commission is also considering a variety of new deer hunting regulations, including an increase in the number of tags in some regions, establishing online deer registration, and making it legal to kill a deer with a bow and arrow under a muzzleloader license. If you'd like to weigh in, you can attend the April fourth meeting and Keene or the April fifth meeting in Lancaster. Will post the details over at the meat eater dot com. Forward slash cow moving north of the border. The province of Manitoba has issued new regulations designed to limit the number of foreign duck hunters in the province. In past years, American duck hunters could use a foreign game bird license to hunt in the province under the same rules as Manitobans. Now that the same license will only allow hunters to hunt in the province for seven days, and it can only be obtained either by entering a draw process or booking with a licensed outfitter. This is obviously a bummer for hunters in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, but Manita Toba hunters are reportedly having trouble getting access to good hunting spots, and officials decided to prioritize resident hunters over non residents. In Michigan, House bills four one three eight, four one four two and four one four three would combine to create a registration system for long guns in the state. Michigan already requires handgun owners to register their firearms, but these bills would expand that system to include all firearms. Obtaining a license does not require gun owners to pass a training class, but it does require them to submit an application and delays the purchasing process. The bills will also criminalize the private transfer of firearms. The bills pass the House by three votes and the Senate by only two. They're now headed to Governor Gretchen Whitmer's desk, so if you'd like to get involved, give her a call. Moving on to the Great Salt Lake Desk. In news that sent shockwaves around the political universe, the Utah legislature has officially chosen a state crustacean, the Brian shrimp or Artemia franciscana. The Brian shrimp has been honored as the state's only officially sanctioned crustacean. The bill passed by overwhelming margins in both legislative chambers, although twenty four House members voted against the measure. Brian shrimp live in the Great Salt Lake, and the harvest of their eggs contributes to a multi billion dollar business in Utah. The Brian shrimp fishery at the Great Salt Lake supplies over forty percent of the worldwide demand for Brian shrimp, whose eggs are harvested and used as food for fish and other kinds of shrimp. A variety of birds also feed on the Brian shrimp, including some types of waterfowl. John Luft, program manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said the importance of the Brian shrimp in the Great Salt Lake ecosystem can't be overstated. Utah gets a little carried away with state designations. They also have a state Work of Land art, a state dinasas sore, and a state cooking pot, but they have good reason to call attention to the Great Salt Lake. A twenty twenty three report from Brigham Young University warned that if no action is taken, the Great Salt Lake could go completely dry in five years. The lake is nineteen feet below it's eighteen fifty levels. And it's lost seventy three percent of its water and sixty percent of its surface area since eighteen fifty. The report's authors point to increased water consumption and climate change as the main culprits Utah's population is growing and using more water at the same time the area is experiencing a drought. The papers authors say that it's saving the lake will require cutting consumptive use in the watershed by a third to a half. The consequences of a dry Salt Lake would obviously be devastating to the animals that rely on the ecosystem to survive. Scientists also worry about the impact on air quality if the lake bed turns into a giant dust bowl. Air Quality in Salt Lake City isn't great as it is, and adding a bunch of saline lake dust isn't going to help. It's also hired to do much waterfowl hunting. Without water, a dry salt lake will end waterfowl hunting in the area and destroy a vital piece of habitat along the Pacific Flyway. There are no easy solutions to this problem. Scientists say that raising the lake's levels will require a massive conservation effort, and even larger piles of money, much of which will likely come from the taxpayer. Several bills were proposed this year, many of which failed to make it across the finish line. Legislators pointed to near record amounts of snowfall as they blocked emergency measures, though one year of solid rain and snow won't be enough to reverse decades long trend. A bill passed to help farmers make their irrigation systems more efficient, but other bills failed that would have limited residential water use and bought up water rights around the lake. If you live in Utah, this is one issue you should get educated about a state crustation is great, but there are more important policies that need serious consideration. Let your legislators know that if the Salt Lake dries up after so many warnings from scientists, you'll be holding them accountable. Moving on to the Hunter Safety Desk. If you've heard the old journalistic adage, if it bleeds, it leads, well, we cover our fair share of bleeding on this podcast, but I also want to highlight the stories that you probably won't see on the nightly news. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation announced earlier this year that the Empire State enjoyed one of the safest hunting seasons ever recorded. Only nine hunting related firearms incidents occurred in two twenty two, and only one of those resulted in a fatality. These numbers tied two twenty one for the safest hunting season on record. Four of the nine incidents that occurred in two twenty two involved two party firearm incidents, while the other five were self inflicted. The one recorded fatality occurred due to his self inflicted gunshot by a turkey hunter. In this tragic accident, a seventy six year old was hunting from a tree stand when he unintentionally discharged his firearm and struck himself in the hand and head. In another incident, a hunter shot at a running deer and struck another hunter who was sitting seven hundred yards away. The other accidents mainly involved hunters slipping and discharging their firearm into their foot or leg. Knowledgeable listeners will point out that hunters are more often injured in tree stand accidents than firearm related accidents. New York keeps track of those two. In twenty twenty two, the agency received reports of thirteen tree stand accidents, four of which were fatal. Only two of the thirteen hunters involved who were wearing a safety harness. Doing a little quick math, this means then, in New York in twenty twenty two, firearm related accidents were fatal eleven percent of the time, while tree stand accidents were fatal over thirty percent of the time. Wearing that harness is just as important as practicing good firearms safety. In New York, at least, it's more important. Moving on to the crime desk, In a surprising turn of events, the two men caught cheating at an Ohio walleye tournament last year have pled guilty to felony cheating and misdemeanor animal ownership. You'll remember this pair from the viral video of the incident we Got Lights and Fish. Jacob Runyon and Chase Kaminski had initially pled not guilty when they were indicted for four crimes back in October, but in exchange for their guilty plea, prosecutors dropped two of those charges. Runyon and Kaminski are unlikely to face jail time, but they will have to forfeit their one hundred thousand dollar boat and trailer and their fishing licenses have been suspended for at least three years. It's also safe to say that their fishing tournament days are over. Jason Fisher, the man in the video who cut the weights from the fish, told me Eater that he doesn't see any tournament director anywhere in the country letting them enter a competition. If you want more details on the story, check out the article at the meat eater dot com. A Minnesota man is being charged with second degree murder after he killed another man with a moose paddle. Twenty seven year old Levi Axtell told the authorities that he suspected seventy seven year old Lawrence Scully of stocking his toddler aged daughter. Scully was convicted of molesting a six year old girl all the way back in nineteen seventy nine, but police haven't said whether there was any truth to Axtel's claims. Whatever the case may be, Axtel decided to take matters into his own hands. According to CBS Minnesota, he crashed his car into a vehicle on Scully's driveway, entered his home, and reportedly struck the older man fifteen to twenty times with a shovel. Apparently the shovel wasn't quite doing the job because the Axtel later told the authorities that he grabbed a moose paddle and used it to quote finish him off. Axtel then turned himself into the police immediately after the incident. Another man turned himself into authorities after a far less serious but still grizzly crime. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reported that a man blamed quote elk fever for his decision to shoot from a road into a herd of elk. Officials have not identified the man, but the sixty six year old allegedly killed one elk and wounded at least three others with a rifle chambered in three o eight. There were about thirty animals in the herd, and while he did possess a late season cow elk tag, he ended up hitting at least two other cows and one Bowl game Wardens put down one of the cows and the bull and the other cow swam into the Nehalem River, where officials believe she drowned. The man harvested one of the cows and turned himself in after the landowner encouraged him to do so. He has been sided with one count of using a prohibited and hunting method and two counts of unlawful take of an elk. Now I'm not a doctor, but if this man is suffering from elk fever, I think there's only one real solution. All that famed music producer Bruce Dickinson take it from here. I got a fever, and the only prescription it is mort Cowbell Up in Michigan, game wardens arrested and charged two men with illegally possessing firearms and drugs after they initially pulled them over for suspected hunting violations. The two men were driving around a remote area of the Pigeon River Country State Forest when game wardens stopped their vehicle. They noticed the passenger had a three or eight rifle leaned up against his right leg with a round balanced on the door handle, and the driver had a loaded twenty two caliber rifle behind his seat. When questioned, they said they were quote outlooking to hunt stuff. That may have been true, but game violations turned out to be the least of their concerns. A search that the rental car turned up two additional firearms, alcohol, several containers of crystal meth, marijuana, and evidence of drug use. Staying in Michigan, six Colorado men have been fined a combined sixty six hundred dollars after they were caught using an elite goal fishing method to snag salmon from the Menistee River Game Warden seized over four hundred and sixty pounds of fish, which were donated to local charities. We covered this instant back an episode one eighty three, but the DNR just reported that the men have each been fined eleven hundred dollars. I'll let the good people of the Minton State decide whether that penalty was too harsh, not harsh enough, or just ride. In another case where approaching violations led to more serious crimes, a Minnesota man was hit with firearm and drug charges after being investigated for illegal bear guiding. Fifty five year old Brett Glatsmeyer was already on probation for felony livestock wrestling when officers conducted a search of his home in Becker County. As you can imagine, one thing kind of led to another, and old Brett had himself a pretty bad day. Officers noticed a corn feeder and pumpkins in his yard, and while baiting doesn't appear to be illegal in Becker County, Gladsmire admitted to shooting a deer out of season from his window. Officers also eight rifles and two shotguns in his home, which are illegal for him to possess given his pending livestock rustling felony. Agents added another felony after they found a graham of meth in his bedroom. All of those crimes are on top of a misdemeter violation after investigators discovered that Glasmeyer had charged a woman six hundred dollars for a guided black bear hunt back in September, and Illinois ma'am will pay over twenty thousand dollars After D and R investigators accused him of illegally harvesting eight point and twelve point whitetailed deer, as is common in these cases, his true crimes were actually much more extensive. Fifty eight year old Jerry Stafford runs a high fence hunting operation called Sampson's Whitetail Mountain. I wonder if it has like those automated animals that played the banjo. That's what it sounds like. Anyway, Stafford found himself under investigation after he began advertising low fence hunts in conjunction with the Illinois whitetail hunting season. Stafford and his unpermitted guy. We're apparently willing to do almost anything to get their clients a deer. They were documented hunting with the aid of a motor vehicle and the use of lights, hunting before legal shooting hours, hunting without permission, and violating tagging requirements. In exchange repleating guilty to two white tail buck violations and a misdemeanor for improperly disposing of an animal, he received twenty four months of court supervision along with the twenty thousand dollars fine. Now, before we sign off here, boys and girls, remember your state legislatures are in session. They are making lots of decisions that involve you. They will affect you. We ran off a shortlist this episode, but we're getting down to crunch time here. New laws and regulations are going to be made. You gotta pay attention, and as per usual, thank you so much for listening, and please write in to ask se Al that's Askcal at the Meat Eater dot com and let me know what's going on in your neck of the Woods. On top of that, head on over to www dot steel dealers dot com. 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.