00:00:10 Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Klaan. Here's cal Canadian wildlife officials are looking for a man and woman caught on camera dumping the headless body of a white tail buck outside a Calgary grocery store. Bonnie and Clyde can be seen getting out of what looks like a Toyota Siena minivan, walking around to the trunk and unloading the animal. They throw it in a dumpster behind a co Op grocery store located right along the Trans Canada Highway, then drive away. The lack of a head means wildlife officials can't say for sure how big the buck was, obviously, but media reports indicate that even though their actions were not, the buck was quote mature. They also mentioned that the body had been gutted, but they don't say whether any of the meat had been harvested. We could have a situation where a novice hunter killed the deer, tried to butcher it, and then gave up, but I think that's unlikely. Alberta Fish and Wildlife is calling this a poaching incident, presumably because the legal deer season had ended in November. Poaching is bad, but don't punish these two for the Sierra. That's a solid minivan choice, especially the all wheel drive version. Check out episode oneh nine of Brent Reeves podcast This Country Life. He points out that hunting vehicles don't have to be trucks. It's all about functionality, and I'd say minivan qualifies as long as you have a sturdy tarp and folding rear seats. Also the automatic doors. I mean, come on, gang, I mean, I'll be honest. Minivans are great. This week we've got wolves, legislation and executive orders. But first I'm going to tell you about my week. And my week will be spent in the great Mexican state of Sonora chasing cow's deer tasty tiny full of spines. Also be chasing Havevelina, which I'm really excited about. This week we're going to be joining Peter Howell of Sig Sour Fame, Randa Williams, Seth Morris, and Giannis pitell Us. Should be darned great to shiver in the morning and warm up in the sun, ideally to hot hot rut activity followed by hot hot tortillas. Once sun goes down, which all sounds awesome and it will be, but I am also high anxiety if I'm being honest, to miss some of Montana's legislative session. If I can get the cell signal, I'll try to get online and testify if at all possible. So much important stuff going on this time of year. Please let me know if you've been out there, either in this state or your state. I want to hear about it, and I know the testify curious would also like to hear about your experience. Moving on to the wolf desk, Colorado residents welcomed ten new wolves to their state last month, as the Parks and Wildlife Department continues the project that voters approved in a twenty twenty ballot initiative. This is the second batch of wolves to be shipped down to the centennial state, but these are from British Columbia instead of Oregon. What's also different from the last reintroduction is the lack of fanfare. You may remember a little over a year ago when wildlife officials released ten gray wolves in an event that featured videographers and a press conference. This time around, it's almost as if the state would rather people not know about it. We didn't see any images or videos of the wolves being released, and there's even less information about the exact location. That unwillingness to tell local ranchers where the wolves are being released as prompted Colorado's to take matters into their own hands. A Facebook group called Colorado Wolf Tracker claimed to have found the ranch where these new wolves would be released. The group's members used live flight tracking information, and some of them even went to the airport and planned a stakeout to try to spot which trucks might have wolves in them. Separately, an outlet called Colorado Politics ran a story naming several family members of the ranch that supposedly hosted the wolf release, but they had their backtrack and redact those names after representatives of that ranch told another outlet, the Post Independent, that the first report wasn't true. They claimed that as a result of the first report, people had trespassed on their ranch, claiming to be wildlife watchers hoping to catch a glimpse of the wolves. It's just called trespassing, folks. It sounds like a real mess. Ranchers are upset that they aren't being kept more in the loop, and they believe Colorado Parks and Wildlife should be doing more to help them protect their livestock. They submitted a petition last month to Parks and Wildlife Commission asking that the reintroduction be paused. They wanted CPW to adopt a definition of chronic depredation, initiate site vulnerability assessments, create a widespread range riding program, start a carcass management program, and hire and train a rapid response team to address reports of depredating wolves more quickly than they had to date. The ranchers pointed out that they didn't vote for wolves to be shipped in and eat their livestock, but they are the ones who are paying the price. The Commission refused. They voted ten to one to deny the petition, and the shipment of ten British Columbia wolves went forward as planned at an undisclosed location in Garfield, Eagle, or Pitkin County. On the other side of the ledger, animal rights group Wild Earth Guardians praised the Commission's decision and welcome the state's new canine residents. Native wolves are critical to our ecosystems and their restoration as part of an iconic effort to heal Colorado's landscapes. The Commission did it right in continuing to facilitate their return. Said to Lindsay Laris, conservation director for A Wild Earth Guardians, I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear of this new batch of Colorado wolves, so as always, we'll keep you in the loop. Next one, don't you pull that trigger. This one comes from vha's Western field director, Katie de Lorenzo akakt D, who I are recently crushed by out shooting her on a quail hunt. I'm willing to let it go if you are Katie. In the New Mexico Wild Cheap Foundation's recent newsletter, Brian Bartlett points out that you may have a sheep tag, but I would add AKA barbary sheep are not desert cheap or big horns and cannot be interchanged. Since twenty eighteen, at least six desert bighorn sheep have been killed by barbary sheep hunters. Recently, in the Tuopdera Mountains near SoCoRo, a barbary hunter killed a young big horn ram. New Mexico Wild Sheep Foundation points to New Mexico Department a Game and Fish recent decision to issue statewide over the counter barbary sheep tags as an issue. They could, for instance, limit tags in native sheep range. They would also like to see monetary penalties for mistakenly shooting a big horn to get up to like a current status, The real value of bighorn sheep, based on data from eight years ago, sets a minimum five thousand dollars and New Mexico Wild Cheap Foundation is sure that price is long out data. Now here's what is being done, and I'm sure it's at no insignificant expense. So think of this the next time you think of a New Mexico Wild Cheap Foundation. New Mexico Wild Cheap Foundation, Texas Big Horns Society and the Wild Cheap Foundation partnered to create and distribute educational trifle pamphlets on how to tell the difference between a bighorn sheep and an odd at ten thousand high quality trifolds were designed and printed by WSF in less than a week. The Wild Cheap Foundation also created and placed an instructional test on their website where people can learn how to tell the difference. New warning signs for the Sacramento Mountains were purchased to educate hunters as well. If you have a barbary sheep tag in your pocket, go to Wild Cheap Foundation dot org, forward slash Field Identification Desert Bighorn out ad. This is a great example of a identify your target and what's beyond or don't pull the trigger. That's a core principle to hunter's education and be a huge issue that we are experiencing all across the country right now. How do we educate hunters effectively? How do we find them where they are? People who seek knowledge will go to the WSF website that I just listed and do the research. But those who don't, well, how do we talk to them? Hunter's ed is needed not just for the kiddies, but for adults too. There are just too many workarounds in this online day and age. Something I am advocating for here in Montana is that in order to hunt certain species or access WMA that's a wildlife management area or private land public access program such as block management, you would need to complete an online course. Right This is all done when you're purchasing your items at your state fishing game website. You click on your state conservation stamp. You got to roll through a ten minute course on how to behave on state lands. You click on block management that you want to get the updated map for your block management areas well, you got to go through a ten or fifteen minute online course on how block management works and how you behave if you want to participate in that program. In this example, if you want to get that over the counter state wide barbary sheep tag, you're going to sit through a ten minute Identify your Sheep course right there on the New Mexico Department of Fishing Game website. Heck, they could even transfer you over to the Wild Cheap Foundation website. Got to try out something new here, gang writ in, let me know your thoughts. And just for the record too, I hunt enough states where if I had to do this in every state, I would huss me out. But it's for the best possible result for our resources, and just like the constant public relations campaign that we need to run as good ethical hunters. Moving on to the legislative desk, listener Chris Jones sent me a bill being proposed in Iowa that would create a new deer depredation season. House File sixty five would direct the state Wildlife Agency to call an annual depredation season from January eleventh to January thirty one. Any landowner can participate in this season as long as they have a deer depredation permit. These permits will be made available to anyone who incurs crop, horticultural product, tree, or nursery damage of one thousand dollars or more due to deer. Many states have such pros, but Chris doesn't believe this is a good idea. He points out that the bill doesn't specify how many permits can be issued, and he calls the one thousand dollars minimum relatively low. He says in his email quote, I'm really concerned about this bill as our deer herds are struggling from two years in a row from some of the worst EHD outbreaks Iowa has ever seen. Myself and everyone I have talked to has experienced a massive loss in deer numbers. I'm worried this is a huge step in the wrong direction for our deer numbers. I also don't like that this is legislation compelling the DNR to issue tags by an incentivized insurance company rather than a more flexible regulation issued by the DNR itself. Well rit Chris. Thanks for the email. If you live in Iowa and want to weigh in, get in touch with your legislators or visit the media dot com forward slash col be one click away and Oklahoma is proposing a bill that would eliminate most licensing requirements for landowners who want to kill faral hogs on their property. SB four seven eight, known as the Free to Hunt Feral Hogs Bill, is being proposed by Senator Dusty Devers. Current REGs require landowners to obtain a variety of permits and licenses to kill wild hogs that are damaging property, including a depredating Animal's license from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, as well as a permit from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. They must also obtain an agricultural exemption from the Oklahoma Tax Commission for nuisance Control, a permit for hunting feral hogs at night, and a special license for hunting feral hogs during primitive firearm deer hunting season. This bill eliminates all of those requirements. If you want to weigh in, give your Oklahoma state legislators a call and tell them what you think about SB four seven eight. Listener James A sent me a bill in Oregon that would criminalize the intentional release of balloons. Florida passed a similar measure last year. This one makes releasing a helium filled balloon and active offensive littering and hits the person responsible with a Class C misdemeanor. It exempts balloons released for meteorological purposes and hot air balloons that are recovered after launching, which makes sense, as well as balloons released by a person on behalf of a government agency, which also makes sense. Obviously, they would specify our government, not the Chinese government. Come on gang. The bill number is HB two five nine to two. The Wyoming legislature is considering a measure that would increase hunting license fees across the board. House Bill two would boost resident hunting license application fees from five dollars to twenty dollars. Fees for non resident hunters would jump from fifteen to seventy five as per our usual arrangement. With these proposals, the Wildlife Agency says the cost hikes are necessary to keep up with inflation and the rising numbers of hunters in the state. There's a fair amount of grow raping among hunters, but some also understand the importance of keeping our wildlife agencies well funded. Whatever you think, get in touch with the Wyoming legislature to let them know about it. In New York, legislators that have introduced a bill that would that would legalize suppressor ownership as well as the use of suppressors for hunting. Big thanks to listener James Kreny for sending this one in. Suppressors are currently illegal to possess in the Empire State, but Senate Bill S two zero nine to nine aims to change that. It would allow residents to go through the complicated legal process of applying for a permit from the federal government to own a suppressor, and then it would let them own and use that suppressor for hunting and sport shooting in the state. Interestingly, this bill comes in tandem with a piece of federal legislation that would remove that complicated legal process. Virginia Congressman Ben Klein recently reintroduced the Hearing Protection Act in the US House of Representatives. This bill would change the process to own a suppressor so that it mirrors the process to own a firearm. A non prohibited person could walk into a gun store, past the FBI's instant background check and walk out with the suppressor that day. New York and other states would still be able to ban suppressor ownership, but it would at least make the purchasing process more painless for the rest of us. More painless or less painful. You be the judge, the last one for you. The United States Congress will once again be considering a bill that would restrict the federal government's ability to ban lead tackle and ammunition. HR five five six, the Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act, would prohibit the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service from banning the use of LED ammunition and tackle absent approval by the applicable state Fish and Wildlife Department and proof that led ammunition and tackle is primarily causing wildlife population decline. It would no longer be enough for a federal agency to prove that lead tackle or ammunition might be harming wildlife. It would have to prove that it's the primary cause, not just of harm, but of population decline. As you know, it's never just one thing, So that's a really high bar and it will be extremely difficult to clear, but I suppose that's the point. Love it or hate it, Contact your US rep and tell them what you think. Moving on to the Presidential desk, this is our first presidential desk with the old Donald Trump in the office. As everyone and probably your pets are aware, the Dawn signed a raft of executive orders on his first day in office, and a few of them could have major impacts on public lands and wildlife. President Trump hasn't made any bones about his desire to remove barriers to drill and mine on federal land, and these executive orders are right in line with that priority. For example, in the order titled Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential, the President directs the Secretary of the Interior to rescind a temporary halt on oil and gas extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This halt was cheered by conservationists when it was put in place in twenty twenty one, but now it looks like that wilderness area will be open to drilling once again. The order also rescinds a June twenty twenty four decision that put a stop to the Ambler Road project. The Ambler Road was a proposed two hundred and eleven mile I should say is a proposed two hundred and eleven mile industrial road to nowhere currently that the Biden administration blocked from being built. They determined that it posed too much of a risk to wildlife, habitat and waterways that are vital for the subsistence activities of tribal communities in the Brooks Range in north central Alaska. Reminder that this road is considered to be a death blow to the already declining Western Arctic caribou herds. But this new executive order calls for that decision to be reviewed, quote in light of alleged legal deficiencies and for consideration of relevant public interests. And yes, I know, lots and lots and lots of relevant public interests already weighed in on this one, and I think got the result that hunters and anglers certainly wanted. Provisions within this order would also reverse protections for thirteen million acres in designated special areas in the Western Arctic, expedite development of a road through designated wilderness in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, revoke the conservation status of twenty eight million acres of public lands that have been withdrawn from development since nineteen seventy one reinstate the Alaska Roadless Rule, which will strip protections from more than nine million acres of the Tongas National Forest. To help speed along these projects, the President also declared what he calls a national energy emergency. He accused the previous administration of not doing enough to develop our country's energy capacity, and so he calls on the heads of his EXAs executive departments and agencies to quote, identify and exercise any lawful emergency authorities available to them to facilitate the identification, leasing, sighting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources, including but not limited to, on federal lands. It's unclear what all these emergency powers may be, but his overall message is clear the barriers to energy production should be eliminated as much as possible. He issued a similar executive order titled Unleashing American Energy that, among other things, and courages energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, rescinds the electric vehicle mandate on car makers, and eliminates a variety of councils and offices related to climate change. And clean energy. Important to note that under Biden's administration, and to the shock of many in the Green Party, the US produced record amounts of oil and gas, and it was very much drilled, baby drill. So it will be super interesting to see if industry responds to Trump's executive orders by trying to produce more, possibly driving down their own earnings. Keeping with this theme, the President also sign an order whose title tells you pretty much everything you need to know, temporary withdrawal of all areas on the outer Continental shell from offshore wind leasing and review of the federal government's leasing and permitting practices for wind projects. It looks like we won't be seeing any more wind farms off the coast, at least for the foreseeable future. And let's not forget re renaming de Nully to McKinley. I assume because Ohio residents really want to make sure they're long dead Ohioan who famously never visited Alaska has that honor, even though also famously Alaskans, which is where the twenty thousand foot Peak lives have petitioned the US to change the name since the seventies. This one isn't my fight. I just have to laugh because there's got to be something better to do right now. Gang, this is day one. There are going to be a lot of ins and outs what have us, But you need to understand that the big issue is sportsmen and women have already written, called advocated on behalf of these areas and now we have to do it all over again. Some of this is just going to be a friendly reminder. Hey, I voted for you, and you need to know that these areas are where all my migratory birds come from. Or we'll never get the opportunity to hunt caribou if this road goes through. Or hey, I'm going to ask a resident, and these areas provide for me and my family through subsistence. Before you get on the horn and write knee angry email to Askcal at themedia dot com, please do By the way, I recognize that President Trump sparks strong feelings from both sides of the political aisle. He signed a bunch of executive orders when he took office, and you might like a lot of them. That's great, But when it comes to the issues we cover on this podcast, I don't see a lot to love from these initial actions. If you were of the same mind right your congressional representative and ask them to let your voice be heard. Our job never ends, doesn't matter who's an office gang. That's all I got for you with this week. Thank you so much for listening, and I remember to write into a sk C a L let's ask healt the meeater dot com and let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. Thanks again, talk to you next week.

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