00:00:10 Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Col's Week in Review with Ryan Col Kalahan. Here's cal presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Junior admitted last week that he picked up a road killed black bear cub, brought it to Central Park in New York City, and made it look like it had been killed by someone on a bicycle who says politics are boring. Kennedy made the strange maya culpa and a video posted to his social media accounts He's trying to get out in front of a New Yorker article that will break the story, and he hopes he can control the narrative before it spins out of control. 00:00:47 Speaker 2: Woman in a van in. 00:00:48 Speaker 3: Front of me hit a bear and killed it, a young bear. So I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was in this in the bear and it was very good condition, and I was going to and put the meat my refrigerator. And you can do that in the York to say you can get a bear a tag for a road killed bear. 00:01:12 Speaker 1: If you haven't seen this, he's literally talking to Roseanne bar amongst other people, and uh, you know, Roseanne, it's enough said. Anyway. Kennedy explains that he had some functions to attend in New York City, but he didn't want to leave the bear in his car, so he landed on a brilliant idea. 00:01:31 Speaker 2: You know, at that time, this was a little bit of the redneck and me. There'd been a series of bicycle accidents in New York. They just look in the bike lanes and people a couple of people are killed. And it was every day, and people badly injured every day. 00:01:48 Speaker 3: It was in the press, and so I thought I wasn't drinking, of course, but people were. 00:01:55 Speaker 2: Drinking with me, who thought this was a good idea. 00:02:00 Speaker 3: I had old lifebody, when you get rid of it, I said, let's go put the bear in Central Park and we'll make it look like. 00:02:11 Speaker 1: The appearance of a dead bear baffled New York authorities for several days back in twenty fourteen, but no one could figure out what happened or how it got there. After this story broke, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation has said it won't find RFK Junior for his actions because the statute of limitations for his offense is only one year. Maybe the most unbelievable part of this story is a Kennedy referring to himself as a redneck. But the independent presidential candidate is a dedicated falconer. He has experienced skinning animals, and he obviously appreciates a good bear steak. I doubt this story will help his electoral chances with most people, but hunters and conservationists can at least appreciate that position. We've all been in of Oh my gosh, this just happened at the wrong time. I've grossly underestimated my ability and time on the calendar to deal with this big pile of protein. I just know that the folks who listened to this show at this point go, But I did it. I got to deal with it. I'll make it happen, even if I have to stay up all night. That's just what you do. We've all been there many times. Don't go try and make headlines with a perfectly good critter. This week, we've got public relations, public service legislation, and so much more. But first I'm going to tell you about my week, and one of the many highlights was being able to meet up with a few folks at Allwaters Dotorg. Matt Bond, his son Noah, and Christopher Killing We got together for a morning of diving on the California coast outside of Carmel, California. Water temp was a balmy forty eight degrees, which is insane at least to me a Montana kid. For August. The visibility was fantastic. We had at least thirty five feet of gorgeous diving biz. A couple of things you should remember about the name Matt Bond. Matt was a previous guest we had here on the weekend Review. We had a great conversation regarding marine protected areas in California. MPAs have varying levels of restrictions. Currently, California Marine Protected areas span about sixteen percent of California's coast. They range in levels of restriction from you can fish it to you can't be in it at all. Those MPAs are up for a decatal review, and there's certain groups out there that are lobbying for the expansion of MPAs and possibly just to restrict fishermen from fishing. People accessing the ocean next to fancy houses runs the whole gamut. So with this in mind. It wasn't a coincidence that we chose a walking in spot adjacent to an MPa. This spot took advantage of one of the greatest tools ever created for the public access, the Public Access Easement. This little tiny easement was through what I would call a very affluent cliff side neighborhood. It also had minimal poison oak. There was great diving. The fish action could have been a little hotter, but we picked up some rockfish and the cab is on, all of which are fantastic eating. I saw some absolutely fantastic giant sea and m and E's cloud of krill sea otters, gotta dive, some kelp, gotta stick my head, and a bunch of holes looking for lin cod. Didn't find any, but that was super fun. Also really got to see the destruction, the decimation of the seafloor caused by purple sea urchins. In southern California, where I've been diving the most, there's purple sea urchins around. They tend to just be bigger from my very little experience, Whereas get up in those NorCal waters and there's just a gagillion of them and they're super tiny and it's wild. It's wild. It really does kind of look like a dead zone, even though there's plenty of life, but it doesn't look good. We've covered purple sea urchins before. Purple sea urchins are one of the things that destroys KELP for us, are crazily biologically diverse. Lots of species depend on them. Kelp is the thing, and it's often the thing that is cited the most when people want to impose MPAs, although the jury's kind of out as to whether they truly help KELP get re established. Anyway, this spot would not be possible to get to without the access, which again was an easement through this fancy neighborhood. And this whole MPa question made me think of this other question, which is if this MPa that we were walking adjacent to were to be expanded, and this was a not phishing legal MPa is a stay out. If that thing were expanded, what would happen to this easement? Right, The easement wasn't down to a nice beach that you'd take the family to. It was rocky. I'm sure at high tide it'd be considered pretty dangerous. There's plenty of swell in other words, You're probably not going to walk down that thing unless you can go fishing. It's not a surf break. So what would happen if that MPa were to be expanded and you still couln't fish in the MPa to that easement? Well, as we've covered a good jillion times here in the Old Cow's Weekend Review, if you google easement, the first thing that pops up is a bunch of lawyers who specialize in getting rid of ease months. And how do you get rid of ease months? It's by proving that they're not being used. So when you start paying attention to the public process of the Marine Protected Area review that's going on right now, you need to keep in mind that the potential expansion of an MPa could eliminate a lot more than just fishing. It could eliminate the ability for the public to access the ocean in any way in these areas, which some believe is the actual point behind some of the proposals to add or expand MPAs on the California coast. We're gonna get Matt back on here, maybe Chris two talk about MPAs where we're at right now. It's an ongoing process, and it's one you got to be involved in. Moving on to Beautiful British Columbia, a hunting outfitter in BC is receiving threats after accidentally using a photo of a famous wolf to promote its guiding services. Now, anti hunting groups in BC are using the incident to push for a wolf hunting ban in the entire province. The owner of Terminus Mountain Outfitters and Grand Forks, British Columbia told local media that he had hired a web developer to set up a page about their wolf hunting packages. Along with images of successful hunts, the developer had also used several images of living wolves. Unfortunately for him and his peace of mind, one of those images was of a celebrity wolf named Takaya. Takiya was a gray wolf from BC's coast, made famous by a photographer and animal rights activist named Cheryl Alexander. Alexander had been documenting this wolf's movements since twenty twelve until he was killed by a legal hunter in twenty twenty. Takaya became a kind of rallying cry for the anti hunting crowd, and he's been featured in a film and in books. Alexander says she was quote researching trophy hunting in Canada when she stumbled upon a photo she'd taken of te Kaya on Terminus Mountains website. She posted about it multiple times on Instagram, and both of those posts went viral. She said in the caption she was shocked to see the image of the wolf on a hunting website and use the opportunity to push an end to wolf hunting in the province. She said, quote. Unlike killing pets like cats and dogs, killing wild animals for fun isn't an illegal criminal action in Canada, but it should be. People will continue to kill for trophies unless the laws and government regulations change. Alexander defines trophy hunting as not hunting for food. It's true that most wolf hunters don't eat their kill, but I wonder why a wolf pelt, rug or blanket is so much less useful or moral than an elk steak. Seems like in both instances, the animal is being used as a resource, not just as a trophy. Whatever trophy means to you. I will point out lots of people do eat wolves, been lots written about it. If I ever snap a cap or a trap on a wolf, I'll certainly be eating it. But the point we're trying to make here is it's a renewable resource. You know. You may not see it that way, or choose to see it that way, but wolves are doing just fine in British Columbia and there's many uses for that critter. For his part, the owner of Terminus Mountain Outfitters said he had no idea the developer had used an image of a famous wolf, asked that the photoill be taken down. He said he never meant to offend anybody, and he told local media that he respects different opinions on the topic, but that hasn't been enough to quiet the anti hunting mob. He said he's received numerous angry and threatening messages, and the outfitter has removed all mention of wolves and wolf hunting from the site. They've also taken down their phone number, and they've turned off commenting on their Instagram posts. We reached out to Terminus Mountain for more info. We'll keep you in the loop when we hear back. Moving on to the volunteer desk, I always like to see hunters and anglers volunteering to improve public lands and today, I have two great stories out of South Dakota. First, bow hunters in the western part of the state are volunteering to replace sheep fences with a pronghorn friendly alternative. Joshua Hire of South Dakota. Spotlight reports that members of the South Dakota Bow Hunters Association have been working with landowners to make the landscape a bit safer for North America's fastest land mammal. This state is home to tens of thousands of hunters, and every year we take and take, said association member and volunteer Rob Mahaffey. Let's also give back. You might be surprised to learn that pronghorn also called antelope, prefer to go underwire fences rather than leap over them. Anelope can hit speeds of up to sixty miles per hour. Even with all that speed and agility, they just don't like to jump. Antelope can get stuck in a standard barbed wire fence when trying to evade predators or during a blizzard. So South Dakota operates a public program that pays landowners up to two thousand dollars for wildlife friendly fencing projects. These fences have a maximum top wire height of forty two inches, a second strand of wire at thirty inches, a third wire at twenty four inches, and a smooth bottom wire at eighteen inches plenty of room for pronghorn to squeeze through. The problem is, even if a landowner wants to replace some of his fencing, he often doesn't have the time or resources to do it himself. That's where the South Dakota Bow Hunters Association comes in. They've organized three work days and helped landowners from move and replace about four miles of fencing. They plan to do another six miles in the coming weeks, and they say this is just the beginning. If you live in South Dakota and want to get involved, send an email to SDBI dot net at gmail dot com, or check them out on Facebook and Instagram. Staying in the Mount Rushmore State, the Black Hills Flying Fish Club is working to mitigate beaver damage on Rapid Creek. The beaver population in Rapid City has increased over the last few months and some old trees have been removed due to damage. So the fly Fishing Club joined forces with two other groups, Trout Not Trash and clean Up Rapid Creek to paint the base of large trees along the waterway. The paint is mixed with sand, which deters beavers from munching on those particular trees. This allows the beavers to stay in the area, but keeps them from causing too much damage for especially troublesome beavers. These groups have also launched a trapping and relocation program. A big adaboy to everyone who volunteered for these projects in South Dakota. For everyone else, I guarantee there are similar opportunities in your neck of the woods. Get involved with your local conservation groups and see how you can give back to the landscapes we enjoy so much. Moving on to the fishing desk, Speaking of voluntary conservation programs, a listener recently sent me information about a nonprofit that wants anglers to release popular game fish if they are over twenty inches long. Listener Kaylin Pichoki sent me a link to an outfit called Release over twenty. This group was founded in twenty twenty by a fellow named David Fladd, who says he started the organization because he was worried about the spotted sea trout population off the South Carolina coast. He wanted to see more big trout in Charleston, and he knew that large fish tend to be female. It's important to preserve these big fish so they can pass down their survivor genes and maintain the population, so he organized a nonprofit that seeks to give anglers incentives for releasing speckled trout, foun sheep's head, and red drum that measure over twenty inches in length. Anglers report on Release over twenty dot org when they've released one of these big fish, and the website tracks which anglers have released the most. Flad also sends anglers free decals for their truck or cooler, and he's secured corporate sponsors to donate items that are given away in monthly random drawings. I've never claimed to be the first person to advocate for releasing bigger fish, and of course many people have done it for years, Flat rights on his website, But I hope that by starting a Release over twenty I have given others something to rally around, talk about, and hopefully participate in. That's all I could hope for. As of this recording, participating anglers have released twelve, seven hundred and fifteen speckled trout, four hundred and forty nine flounder, three hundred and thirty four sheep's head, and two two hundred and sixty three red drum. An angler named Corey Mayo has the most releases with four hundred and thirty four, and Virginia is leading all other states with five six hundred and thirty five four releases. They've had anglers participate from twelve states, including Texas, New Jersey, and Mississippi. Flat isn't the first angler to advocate returning big fish to the water, for sure. He's also not the first outdoorsman to launch a campaign four hunters and anglers to go above and beyond the published regulations. You may remember last year when we covered the led Deer Walk program in Wyoming. That movement asked hunters to sit out the deer and antelope season in an effort to help the herds that were hit by an especially bad winter in twenty twenty two. In twenty twenty three, hunters could enter their unfilled tags into a drawing for prizes donated by companies like Weatherby and Polaris. I love the intention behind these programs, and I think people's hearts are in the right place, but there are some potential downsides. It does take some decision making power out of the hands of biologists who have a deep understanding of the most current science. Flat explains that he founded the organization because that the South Carolina state legislature puts the public before the resource when crafting wild life regulations, which may be true. You might also argue that there can't be any harm in releasing big fish, and I doubt you'd find a biologist who would say that Release over twenty is really harming the resource. That being said, population health usually depends more on habitat than anything else, and I wouldn't want anglers skipping habitat improvement work because they think they've done their part by releasing big fish. Slot limits are important for managing marine resources, but let's be sure we're walking and chewing gum at the same time. In this case, that means investigating habitat loss in addition to overfishing. If you want to learn more about Release over twenty, go to Release over twenty dot org. Moving on to one of our least controversial desks, the lead Ammunition Desk, The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week the introduction of a pilot program to encourage hunters to switch to lead free ammunition. The program will be entirely voluntary and will begin its seven national wildlife refuges during the fall of this year. The program is the brainchild of the Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Council. This council was announced by the Biden administration in September of twenty twenty two to advise the federal government on issues related to hunting, fishing, habitat conservation, and shooting sports. There was controversy about some of the appointees, but in this case their recommendation matches what we know about lead free ammunition. Hunters don't like being told what kind of ammo to use. That's why the Council has recommended a program that encourages, but doesn't force, hunters to switch to lead free alternatives. US Fish and Wildlife Service will offer a rebate for hunters who voluntarily choose to use copper and other lead free ammo. This will include prepaid debit cards for reimbursement with proof of purchase, and other refuge specific economic incentives. The Service will be monitoring the success of the program to determine how many hunters make the switch. The program will be available at seven refuges across the country, Patoka River in Indiana, Blackwater and Maryland, Wallkill River in New Jersey, Pecosa and Lakes in North Carolina, William L. Finley and Oregon, Canaan Valley in West Virginia, and Trumpeloo in Wisconsin. Most of these refuges will only offer the rebate program for deer and elk hunters, but a few of them include other species as well. Whether you oppose or support the Biden administration's push to outlaw LED tackle and ammunition, most hook and bullet groups agree that voluntary incentive programs are the way to go. These programs have seen success on the state level, and this federal program has earned the support of groups like the Congressional Sportsman's Foundation, the Boonen Crockett Club, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. According to Becky Humphries of TRCP, quote, voluntary incentives and public education continue to represent the most effective approach to convince hunters to use non led ammunition. The fact is most hunters care about the environment. They don't want to cause unnecessary harm to non target species like raptors, and if given a choice, many will do everything they can to limit their harmful impacts on the places they love to hunt and fish. But outdoors people are also independent. If you force them into something, they'll be less likely to support it. That's why voluntary, led free programs have worked, and I'm hoping this new program is a sign of things to come. Moving on to the legislative desk, no legislation is just The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has agreed to strike a regulation that bars and anglers from carrying firearms on the water. The regulation was put in place twenty five years ago and stemmed from an even older rule to stop people from shooting muskies. This had been a common means of take in previous decades, when anglers would shoot the fish with small caliber pistols to kill it before bringing it in the boat. However, the practice had fallen out of favor by the mid sixties and was deemed unsportsmanlike by the Conservation Commission. The DNR rewrote the rule in nineteen ninety nine to prohibit the possession of any firearm while on the waters, banks, or shores that might be used for the purpose of fishing. But the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty sued the DNAR in June. They said the regulation was overbroad, since any type of firearm might technically be used for fishing. They also said it violated the Second Amendment rights Wisconsin residents who wanted to carry a firearm for personal protection, and it ran a foul of state laws that allow open and concealed carry of firearms. What's more, of the state already has a law that prohibits fishing by any means other than hook and line, except as specifically authorized. All of these arguments were enough to convince the DNAR to reverse course. They've agreed to remove the rule from the books, though they say they haven't been enforcing it since the state changed their firearm carry laws in twenty eleven. Thanks to listener Andrew Whitman for sending us that story. Moving on to the shroom desk, the Minnesota Poison Control Center has seen a spike in mushroom poisonings. According to a new report from WCCO News, the state has enjoyed a warm, rainy summer, which means my celium fruiting bodies are popping up all over the land. To ten thousand lakes. Unfortunately, that also means a lot more folks are accidentally eating poisonous mushrooms. Since April, the Minnesota Regional Poison Center says it has received ninety calls for potential exposures. Last year, during that same time period, they received twenty six calls. Some of the calls are because kids find mushrooms, and kids, much like puppies, explore the world by putting things in their mouths. But other cases are due to would be foragers looking for an instagram will addition to their salad if they don't double check that that mushroom is safe using a credible resource or a knowledgeable friend. For instance, I text Genner Rozelle that Gal's a forager knows everything, and every time she's like, mah, better be careful. But you know, that's how the world works. It's easy to assume that a yard is safe to eat. Many edible mushrooms also have poisonous lookalikes that make things even more complicated. If you're not already an experienced forager, and I know some of you are, double check your mushroom identification with at least two sources. It's also a good idea if you have kids and dogs, to pick those yards rooms and check them in the trash or a compost pile. And if you're ever in doubt about whether a mushroom is safe to eat, don't test your luck. Your friends will be significantly less impressed by your forging abilities if you end up in the hospital. Moving on to the elk desk, a group of Montana landowners who want to kill tens of thousands of elk suffered to set back in court last week when a judge ruled that state wildlife managers were meeting their legal obligation to manage elk populations. We covered this case all the way back in episode one sixty one. A group called the United Property Owners of Montana known as you Palm, argue in court that the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission and the monte and A Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks were legally obligated to reduce elk herds to population objectives. They wanted these elk herds cold because they claimed that the elk were damaging property. They asked the court to force the Montana FWP to remove a wopping fifty thousand elk from the landscape, which is over thirty percent of the state's total population. Fergus County District Court Judge Gregory Todd has been considering this case since it was brought in twenty twenty two, and he finally issued his ruling It's not good for you PALM. Basically, he says the state agencies are meeting their statutory obligations because they hold annual hunting seasons with meticulous quotas and have a liberalized ant list harvest with the goal of reducing populations. Todd points out that the reason hunters haven't been able to reduce elk numbers is because they can't access private land. That in part is the fault of landowners. Montana operates a program that gives landowners wildlife deterrence support and supplemental hunting permits in exchange for allowing the public to access their land. But UPALM members don't want the public accessing their land. They want to be able to cull the elk herds themselves while keeping the public off of their properties. They claimed in the suit that they're being forced to give the public access if they want their elk numbers reduced, but Judge Todd observed that landowners aren't forced to offer the public access. They don't have to participate in the public access program. They're free to use other non lethal methods of keeping elk off of their properties. He said they could use lethal methods outside of hunting season if they exhaust non lethal methods, but he ruled that they haven't met that bar yet. Here's the big money quote. While the state cannot force landowners to endure public access on private land, it is also true that you Palm cannot claim that public involvement in game management deprives it of a vested property right because You Palm's members never owned a property right that allowed them an absolute freedom to kill. Nothing has been taken from them by the statutes and regulations at issue. In other words, landowners don't own the elk on their properties. It's owned by the public, and so the public should have a say and how that resource is managed. This is a positive development for Montana's elk hunters, but this case isn't over. There are still a few remaining issues that will be resolved at a bench trial in October, and You Palm can, of course appeal any decision to a higher court. That's all I got for you. This week. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write in to Ask c. 00:26:29 Speaker 2: A L. 00:26:29 Speaker 1: That's Askcal at the meateater dot com and let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. You know we appreciate you. Thanks a bunch. We'll talk to you next week.

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