00:00:09 Speaker 1: From Mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cal's We Can Review with Ryan cal Callahan, now Here's Cal. 00:00:20 Speaker 2: Employees with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are in hot water this week after blowing up deer stands with dynamite. The Duluth News Tribune reports that the offending deer stands had been built illegally in the Bow Strain State Forest. The permanent structures had been built at least a decade ago. In efforts to get the owner to remove them had been unsuccessful, so the DNR decided to press the big red button and bring in the big guns. Local residents say they could hear the blasts from their homes. One man told Outdoor Life that the blast was powerful enough to shake his windows and knock a can of coke off the counter. After detonating the deer stands, DNR employees apparently didn't even bother to clean up the debris. One resident even found part of the debt cord used to ignite the dynamite. For their part, DNR officials are distancing themselves from the employees who had clearly seen hurt locker one too many times. They said in a statement quote the method of demolition did not follow DNR policy or reflect good judgment. I bet it was fun though. Big thanks to listener Dashah Scholin for sending us that story. She said in her email that if private citizens can't use dynamite in the state forest, perhaps the Minnesota DNR shouldn't be doing that either. That's a good point. I'm also wondering how DNR employees have access to dynamite. Probably some sort of plastic explosive like they use for blowing up beaver dams and things like that. Blowing stuff up is definitely a part of the job that a lot of people don't think about. Blowing up dead animals in areas where they can attract grizzly bears, for instance, blowing up beaver dams like I talked about, blowing up trees, all sorts of things that our folks can do with explosives to manage our public lands here. So but just like when you make that decision to go out and shoot a urban interface Turkey early in the morning, you know that there could be repercussions with people drinking their coffee not too far away. If you got any good dynamite stories, right, in ask cal at Themediator dot com. This week, We've got the crime desk, federal legislation, big cat ladies, and so much more. But first I'm going to tell you about my week. And my week? Oh boy, what did I do? I am unbelievably late for getting into the Turkey woods, driving me crazy being outside in general. I just got back from DC where I attended in co m sed the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership trcp's big fundraising night called the Capital Conservation Awards Dinner. Super cool. Bruce Westerman got an award, Debbie Dingle got an award, Randy Nuberg got an award. Great line up of conservationists and bipartisan lineup as well, which is more what we need. As Debbie Dingle said in her speech, we aren't Democrat or Republican first, We're Americans first. I think we need more of that room. Map is the CEO of Outdoor AFRO. They do amazing get people out in the outdoors stuff, amongst a bunch of other things. She's also just a real ballfire, so real fun to hang out with and just chat with everybody in that room. Astounding fundraising. By the way, one point one million dollars. They're just over one million dollars as I understand it, raised in one single evening to facilitate the advocacy, science, and advocacy behind the management of our public lands and wildlife. So that's a big win. And then we're jumping on that live tour which is still rolling out there come Monday. But first we got to find a turkey. So I'm cutting this week short and we're gonna get on with the news and we're gonna jump right over to the crime desk. Three New York men got busted in Buffalo last week after using an antler trap to harvest sheds from whitetail bucks. The trio had been warned about truspassing on land owned by the railroad company, but they refused to comply, so railroad agents worked with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation to launch an investigation. They found that the men had been baiting an antler trap with deercorn in the hope that bucks would get caught in the trap and lose their antlers. Antler traps use wire, bungee, cord, sticks, rope, anything that might snare a bucks of antlers. When they go in to eat that bait. Ideally, the bucks struggles for a short time and the antlers pop off and voila. You get a set of sheds without the joy of walking through the woods and getting any form of exercise. Sounds great, doesn't it. Anyway, Setting antler traps is not illegal in New York as far as I can tell, but the men were charged with trespassing, illegally baiting deer, placing salt licks for deer, and littering. Speaking of shed hunting, making people crazy, and Idaho man was recently sentenced for poaching one thousand pounds of shed antlers in Wyoming, valued at eighteen thousand dollars. The man stole the sheds from the National Al Refuge in Bridger Titan National Forest and then tried to sell them. This violated the Federal ac Act as well as Wyoming's designated shed hunting season. Sheds are views for dog chews, knife handles, kitchie, chandeliers, and a bunch of other stuff, and their value has grown in recent years. Federal officials hope that announcing this case and sentence right before Wyoming's May first shed hunting opener will quote deter others from flouting shed antler collection rules. The antler poacher will be forced to pay six thousand dollars and is prohibited from accessing any Wyoming public land for three years, during which time he is banned from hunting anywhere in the world. Seven people have been charged in Florida for operating an international flying squirrel ring, which isn't a phrase I thought I'd be saying, but seems pretty on brand for Florida. You might be asking yourself why anyone would want to traffic in flying squirrels. Apparently they're prized in South Korea's pets, at least that's what a Humane Society official told ABC News. The squirrels were caught in Florida using as many as ten thousand live traps in multiple counties. They were then laundered through a licensed animal seller who claimed they were captive bread rather than wild Buyers from South Korea would travel to Florida and purchase the squirrels, which were shipped to Asia by a wildlife exporter in Chicago. As many as thirty six hundred flying squirrels were captured in less than three years, which earned the dealer two hundred and fourteen thousand dollars. The international retail value of the squirrels was as much as one million dollars, which comes out to about two hundred and eighty bucks per squirrel. Six of the seven poachers charged to have been named by law enforcement, but one is described as an unnamed fugitive, which means that somewhere in the world a person is looking over his shoulder because he poached flying squirrels. Of all the reasons to go on the lamb, that's got to be one of the lamest. Speaking of lame ways to go, a security guard in South Africa appears to have committed suicide using a cobra snake because he was afraid of going to jail for wildlife trafficking. The Daily Mail reports that twenty eight year old Marius Joe bart or Jobert maybe I don't know, South Africa, had been arrested for burglary and theft in the town of Henneman. Police took him back to his home to look for the items he stole, but when officers opened the door to his house, they found sixty snakes along with the crocodile iguanas monitors Tarantula's hedgehogs and ferrets. Joe Bart asked the officers if he could have his handcuffs taken off to feed the animals, and the officers complied. Then, according to police, he stuck his hands into two separate cages and was bitten by both snakes, one of which was an Indo Chinese spitting cobra. Police confirmed to the Daily Mail that his actions appeared to be intentional. He told the officers he would probably be fine, but his condition worsened over the next few hours and he died later that day. This guy must have thought his consequences would be extremely dire, because the way he chose to and venomate himself and consequently die from it is horrible paralysis asphyxiation. It's nasty. The Daily Mail cited one anonymous source who goes out of their way to say that the police aren't to blame and push this story that this guy committed suicide by snake, which very well may be the case. If you're collecting that many animals, you probably got a screw loose. Big thanks to listener Jim Lane for sending that one. In Tennessee, man has been sentenced for proaching two elk last November at the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area. Tennessee Game wardens were first notified by another hunter who had spoken to the poacher, thirty four year old Preston William Douglas, on the day of the incident. Douglas claimed to have shot a doe and a buck whitetail, even though he was only allowed to shoot one in that unit. When warden spoke with Douglas at his home, he said he hadn't shot anything. A subsequent investigation revealed the carcass of one cow and one bowl elk with bullet wounds from a six and a half creed More rifle and a forty caliber handgun. Douglas later admitted to killing but not retrieving the elk, and he was fined ten thousand dollars and forced to forfeit his rifle and handgun. He is also banned from hunting for five years, can't visit the wildlife Management area for three and will be on supervise probation for three years. A Colorado springsman got hit with a lifetime hunting ban, six months in jail, and a forty six hundred dollars fine for poaching fifteen animals. One of which was a big horn sheep. Investigators have been looking into the guy, a twenty eight year old named Iniki Viki Kapu, since receiving a tip in twenty eighteen. Along with the sheep, he also poached twelve deer, two turkeys, and Teller and Chaffee counties. He has thirty five days to appeal the lifetime suspension in the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, and I hope they treat him with as much deference as he treated law biting Colorado hunters. Moving on to the com reservation desk, it was a huge week for federal conservation policy. Just a few days after the Interior Department announced the expansion of four national wildlife refuges, our land management agencies in Washington dropped three new rules last Friday. We'll dig into these policies more in the coming weeks, but for now, here's a SparkNotes version so you can go to the bar tonight with enough infoto, amaze your friends and confound your enemies. First up, the Bureau of Land Management finalized rule that would allow individual businesses and other organizations to purchase ten year conservation leases. But they're not really calling them conservation lisaes like they did when this was first tossed around for public comment, and yeah, we've covered this topic and podcast before. We asked BLM Director Tracy stone Manning about this in episode two eighteen. You can go back and listen to that. Basically, the rule puts conservation on the same level as other activities the BLM allows as part of its multi use mandate. BLM is used for grazing, timber harvesting, mining, and recreation. Now the agency is adding conservation to that list. So they're not being called leases. They're being called restoration and mitigation leases, which, if you both of those things would be beneficial to the landscape. Restoration and mitigation. But more to come on that one. Some groups still oppose the rule. We'll get to those in a minute. But I was particularly concerned about whether these leases would restrict recreational access. I'm sure you are too. I asked Director stone Manning about this, and here's what she had to say. 00:11:26 Speaker 1: Say, there's some riparian work that needs to be done and that people might see some fencing around willows. They might see some fencing off the riparian area with some ability for cattle to water off the riparian area to ensure that the restoration can take hold. 00:11:46 Speaker 2: You know, they might. 00:11:47 Speaker 1: See things like that, but you know, a big old fence around the lease that says stay out. Absolutely not. 00:11:53 Speaker 2: It's also worth noting that other land use projects limit public access. I've seen no trespassing signs on BLM for logging and mining projects. For instance, ski areas that operate on BLM can limit folks hiking around. So even if these conservation leases limit access to certain small areas, they wouldn't be the first land use category to do so. And just like those bigger operations, they got to have a darn good reason. Of course, cattle grazers and mining operations are concerned that nonprofit groups will buy up conservation leases specifically to shut down other activities. The National Cattleman's Association in the Western Energy Alliance have come out in strong opposition to this rule, and the Utah State government is already planning a lawsuit. House Committee on Natural Resources chair Bruce Westerman, who's also been a guest on this podcast, boy strong opposition. He said in a statement that this rule is a quote slap in the face to local communities who already engage in conservation work. Others say that adding conservation to the BLM's list of uses might have the unintended consequence of reducing conservation work on other leases. Conserving our land and resources should be a part of any lease, whether it's grazing or mining or timber harvesting. Do these new leases mean that we can ignore conservation on other BLM lands. That's an interesting question, but maybe if we're all in kindergarten seriously come on. For their part, the BLM says that conservation leases will not be issued if they would conflict with existing authorized uses, so they won't be used to shut down existing operations, though they might be used to prevent other uses in the future. There's much more to say on this. We're going to get into it seriously in the future, probably several times. But we should also talk about another big announcement that dropped last Friday. The BLM is denying a permit for a road project that would cut two hundred and eleven miles into Alaska's Brooks Range. The road had been proposed by mining companies hoping to use it to access an untapped copper mind worth an estimated seven and a half billion dollars, but it would have cut through pristine wilderness areas as well as eleven major rivers. The BLM said in its environmental impact statement that the road would quote significantly in Eravokei impact resources in ways that cannot be adequately mitigated. We hear at Meat Eater haven't been shy about voicing our opposition to this project. We joined the coalition that fought against Ambler Road, which also includes TRCP, TROUT Unlimited, National Dear Association, Vortex Optics, a bunch of other outdoor brands you'd recognize. But the fight isn't over yet. The BLM denied the permit by selecting the no action alternative in the environmental impact Statement, but it still hasn't issued a final record of decision. What's more, the BLM director changes with every presidential administration. Future administrations might be more open to the idea of putting a road through the Brooks Range, which is why we should push for a more permanent solution now. Speaking of Alaska, the Department of the Interior also issued a final rule last week that will maximize protections for thirteen million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve. Alaska also known as the NPRA. This new rule limits future oil and gas leasing and industrial development in five designated special areas, which I will now attempt to pronounce. These are the Tashek, Puck Lake, you decockpa Uplands, Calville River, Casigulac Lagoon, and Piered Bay. These areas are known for their globally significant intact habitat for wildlife, including grizzly and polar bears, caribou, and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds like ducks, geese, and swans. If you hunt Alaska or ever inspired to hunt in Alaska or hunt waterfowl in the Pacific or Central Flyway, this decision should come as good news. I understand there are economic and political issues that we're not going to get into. All three of these announcements have their supporters and detractors, and there's a lot of perspectives worth considering. But from a conservation standpoint, from the perspective of a hunter and angler who wants to see more intact, healthy landscapes and more critters running around right now so there can be even more in the future, I'd say it was a pretty good week. Moving on to a Michigan edition of the Mailbag. Desk. Listener Mike wrote in a few weeks ago to tell me about a lakefront property listing in Michigan that included a picture show in the private lake that came along with the property. Unfortunately for the listing agent, that private lake was actually connected to the larger Wabasas Lake, and Mike had fished that exact spot with his John boat. Well, I'm pleased to report that, after some hounding on Mike's part, the listing was finally changed to reflect the fact that purchasing that property does not create exclusive individual access to public water. Maybe not coincidentally, the same day they changed the listing, they lowered the price by forty thousand bucks. Now that the listing reflects reality, I can say that it looks like a great little plot, almost one hundred acres, and it looks like they harvested a few nice bucks on there too. If you're looking for lakefront property in West Michigan, it might be a good time to give the seller a call. Nice work, Mike. Listener Curtis Vandenberg wrote in to tell me about a concerning proposal from his neck of the woods. The Board of Commissioners in Ottawa County, Michigan, recently approved a seven hundred and fifteen thousand dollars grant that would put a paved bike trail through a popular recreation area. The ten foot wide strip of pavement would connect existing trails on either side of the Bass River Recreation Area, but Curtis points out that this is the country's largest public hunting property. The bike path would run smack through the middle of these sixteen hundred acres, including an eight hundred and thirty acre portion called the Bekale Tract that was acquired with the assistance of Ducks Unlimited. In a press release, the Ottawa County Parks and Recreation Commission says they're building the trail to quote significantly enhance access to the Bass River State Recreation Area for users of all abilities. I'm all for diversity in the duck blind, but they're not going to have any ducks to shoot if there's a bike path through the middle of prime habitat. That's all I got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. For those of you coming out to live shows, I'll see you there. Let the boys get that rusty gal off the ground for us, and I'm going to come in and on the back end put a little more mustard in that show. So I'm happy to see you come down. Say hi, thank you so much for listening, and remember to write into a s K C A L. That's Ascal at the meeteater dot com and let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. Thanks again, I'll talk to you next week.

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