00:00:10 Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Calai. Here's cal. Late last month, in Quebec, Canada, masked intruders were caught red handed after breaking into a manufacturing facility of the aircraft Giant air Bus. In this case, it wasn't thieves trying to lift precious aerospace metals or agents from rival company stealing design plans, but instead a family of raccoons looking to take shelter from the elements. A plant worker discovered a nest of five baby raccoons known as kits, hidden inside the fuselage of an A to twenty passenger plane, and the mother was separately found climbing up the landing gear. Subsequent investigations revealed chewed up wires and areas that had been used as the bathroom. The raccoons also did not turn the latch to show the occupied sign, which was pretty inconsiderate. The company reported that thorough inspections were conducted and the electrical damage was repaired, but declined to say if more than one plane in the factory was affected. The official Airbus spokesperson delivered the following not especially reassuring comment quote, the aircraft is now pursuing its assembly process. Hey, if anyone from Expedia is listening right now, can you add a feature to your website that allows customers to select the specific model of plane that's traveling at a particular route. From now on, I might give the Airbus a two twenty a pass and stick with the good old A three point thirty or a three eighty, just to be safe. However, this story did give me an idea for a bit of a win win synergy for Airbus' American rival Boeing, which over the past several years has been plagued with manufacturing snaffoos and aircraft crashes. Well. Raccoons are, of course, some of the smartest and most dexter animals in North America. Their paws contain no webbing between the digits, which allows them to move each finger individually and manipulate objects with great skill. Two thirds of their cerebral cortex is made up of neurons connected to their paws, and one study from way back in nineteen to eight showed raccoons opening complex locking mechanisms just as well as reesis monkeys. Raccoons also have extremely good eyesight in low light, so you can see where I'm going, right, and we've all seen ratitude at this point. Maybe Boeing could invite in its own bash of raccoons, bring them up to speed wiring diagrams with the latest triple seven X jetliner, turn them loose inside those tight little crevasses with a pair of ice grips and soldering iron. Yeah it'll be cute but effective. Might be a pain to clean up all the turned over garbage cans on the factory floor, but they're natural born night shift workers. This week you've got Senate Public Land sales, mushroom Killer, Mounta Lions, and so much more. But first, I'm going to tell you about my week. In my week, if I'm being totally honest, I got crushed by the flu. Then I got crushed by the news out of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, chaired by Mike Lee. I'm currently sitting in absolutely fantastic place. Well, I'm sitting in my truck, which is a great place too, but I'm parked at the Teller Wildlife Refuge, run these days by a good buddy, mine, Dan Bailey. Teller is hosting our field to table dinner, which is as fancy as BHA gets. It's a seated fundraiser dinner for backcountry hunters and anglers, and it's the most unique meal in America. Got a bunch of volunteer, highly skilled chefs who look all year long in preparation for this dinner, almost exclusively foraged ingredients from all over the place, including game. Yeah, it's a ticketed event. You pay some cash, and it's gorgeous out here at the Teller refuged barn, and the food is incredible. It's so incredible that I don't partake in the actual eating. I volunteer and serve folks and make sure people are happy and enjoying themselves. So before I get in there and do what I just said, I got to record this podcast. Don't have to, but in times like these, friends and neighbors, I feel like we are providing a service. And before we get into like the news news of this, I got to tell you what's been going on here a long time now. We've been talking about like how amazing North America is right with our public model of wildlife management, our public access to public life. It is literally the envy of the world. I have many many emails and messages from listeners of this show in countries outside of the United States and Canada who regularly write in and say, hey, do you guys not understand what you have? How could anybody want to mess this up? Right now? The news that we got out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee is just way worse than we thought it would be. It includes the the mandatory sale of over two and a half million acres of land, possibly higher in a bunch of Western states the areas that they're talking about. Okay, there are places where the American public can regularly go and enjoy good old fashioned American freedom and adventure on public land, right. We're not talking about like the places that take technical skill or or backcountry airstrips or mules or skis. This is something that you can pull over on the side of the road and enjoy. It's where people take off after work to get a little bit of fishing in or a little bit of turkey hunting in, or bear hunting or deer hunting, or get out before work or go out for a run at lunch, or run the dog or work the dog, or site in the rifle in preparation for the upcoming season. We're busy, folks. We need easy access to this stuff as much as we need the big, untrammeled backcountry stuff that you know, I got a big soft spot for as well. The land sales are an assault on front country. And what everybody needs to be thinking right now is if the front country goes away, gets sold off to the highest bidder, and there are carve outs in this language, and listen, gang, don't believe me. Don't believe a freaking word I say. Go and read this document. It is out there for everybody to see. You can see it at the Federal Register dot gov, or you can go to the Meat Eater website and hit the link and read the full document. Okay, there are carve outs in here that are very specific to large landowners and their ability to purchase more than anybody else outside of state government or local government, which is not defined by the way in this document. So if you're thinking that you're on equal footing and maybe being like, oh yeah, public land sales, that sucks, but you're trying to get your affairs in order so you can purchase a chunk of America, well guess what gang deck is. So stacked against you, and it's right there in the language of this bill. We're getting the wool pulled over our eyes. Do not sit back and let somebody try to fix this for you. You've got to pick up the phone and call your senator, call your congress people and tell them that, hey, you can understand some land sales, but that has got to happen through the processes that we have in place, namely FLIPMA Federal Land Policy Management Act, not in the budget process, and sure shit can't be mandatory. Sorry little nippers for cussing there, but a little fired up, I'm gonna get on with the news. That's my opinion again. Don't believe me. Go read this document. It is straight from the mouths of our elected officials, and you got to read it, ingest it, and then get on the horn and tell people what you think about it. You gotta do it. It's up to us. Also, you know, I got to tell you, man, while I'm sitting here outside of this amazing BHA function. Become a member of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. What you get for the low low price of your membership, which I still think is like thirty bucks or thirty five bucks. You get representation, You get somebody in the room saying, hey, our membership does not agree with this. Let's work to find a better solution, right, which is very important when we all have jobs and we can't be in that room as many days as it takes. One of the many benefits. Moving on to the public land desk gets deja vu all over again again. A mere three weeks after Hunters and Anglers in Conservation has successfully defeated a provision in the US House that would have sold five hundred thousand acres of public land, an even worse amendment was added to the Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Budget Bill, spearheaded by Utah Senator Mike Lee, a longtime opponent of federal public land. The Senate selloff could put as many as three million acres on the auction block. The proposal takes Senator Lee's Houses, a bill he has tried and failed to pass in Congress the last three years, and applies it to eleven Western states. It purports to solve housing shortages by expediting the process of selling public land to build affordable housing. Previous versions of the bill, which again failed to even be considered on multiple occasions, would have allowed any state or local government to nominate land to sell, but this one would only allow BLM and Forest Service land to be sold in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. It also protects certain federal lands from disposal, including national parks, national monuments, and National wildlife refuges. However, unlike previous versions of this bill, this one requires the sale of between point five percent zero point seventy five percent of BLM and Forest Service land. The percentages aren't enormous, but the actual acreage between two and three million acres, dwarfs the five hundred thousand acre threat that we had in the House. What's more, the bill doesn't just prioritize small tracts of land around existing metropolitan or suburban areas where you might consider building homes. In the list of land that should be given priority consideration are isolated tracks that are inefficient to manage. The bill does not explain which parcels count as quote inefficient. The bill requires the party interested in purchasing the land to explain how it will address local housing needs. As well as any associated community needs. These needs presumably could be anything from a new grocery store to, in the case of those inefficient lands, wildfire mitigation. In most ways, the bill is worse for public land advocates than the House version, but it's the same in one respect. The money generated from these lands will go straight to the US Treasury, not to conservation or expanding public land holdings. Elsewhere, there is a five percent of revenue set aside for state or local government. Again, that doesn't look super straightforward to me. Read the bill, let me know what you think. Senator Lee justified these sales in a video posted to social media. He described as quote not fair, the fact that seventy percent of Utah is federal land. He said, quote, it's not serving the Americans who actually live here. We're opening under used federal land to expand housing, support local government, support local development, and get Washington d C out of the way of communities that are just trying to grow. He also tried to assure hunters and anglers that they won't be losing the land that they love, but that quote, Washington has proven it can't manage this land. This bill puts it in better hands. You may have noticed that Montana is notably absent from the list of states where public land will be sold. Montana Senators Steve Danes and Tim Sehey have both public opposed public land sales. A spokesperson for Senator Danes told us previously that he quote always and will always oppose the sale of public lands. You might say that Senators Danes and Chihi are just doing their jobs and advocating for the wishes of their constituents. But you might also say that they're ducking their responsibility as public land advocates and selling all the other Western states down the river. So what can you do? There is still time to amend the bill before it passes the Senate. Contact Senate Majority Leader John Thune and ask him to remove the land sale language before it goes to the floor for a vote. You should also contact your senators and representatives in the US House, especially if they're a member of the Public Land Caucus. The members of the Caucus know that we're watching them, and we expect them to honor their words and vote against this bill if it retains public land sales. You did it once, Do it again. Come on, gang, We're rooting for you, and we need heroes. Now. I want to circle back and dry your attention to something that you will hear often. That land isn't serving a purpose, that land is under used. Washington has proven it can't manage this land gang. You know, if you're listening to this, if you have the magical ability to drive a vehicle and listen to this podcast punch stuff into the Google machine, then you know for a fact that broad statements like that can be partially true, but they are seldom wholly true. How many of you listening to this have been in some absolute kick ass, amazing chunks of public land. Raise your proverbial hands. I sure have. I've been on some chunks of public that would just break your heart over how pretty they are and how much game they have available. You wouldn't trade that chunk of public for a private estate darn near anywhere, I absolutely promise you, and those places exaist. Okay, because Senator Lee can't see it, that doesn't mean it's not valuable and it's not doing its job. We need big, wide open spaces that quote unquote are underused in order to matriculate all of our water down into the ground. So all these houses and new housing developments can suck them up. That's just one example, and the list goes on and on and on. Carbon sequestration, clean air, mental health. My goodness, let's not shoot ourselves in the foot. I'm gonna get off this bully pulpit of mine. But gang, you know the drill. I trust you call righte in, make it happen, and we're gonna move on. An Australian woman is on trial for killing three people in what she says was a horrible mushroom foraging accident. Fifty year old Aaron Patterson has pled not guilty to murdering her seventy year old in laws and another sixty six year old relative by feeding them death cat mushrooms in a beef wellington. The fateful meal went down in Patterson's home in Victoria in twenty twenty three. Patterson told The Jerry that she had been foraging during COVID and that she liked the taste of wild mushrooms because they had quote more flavor. She said the vast majority of the dried mushrooms that went into the beef Wellington had come from the store, but she also said she keeps both wild and store bought mushrooms in the same container, so it's possible a bad shroom she foraged weeks ago got accidentally included in the dish. The prosecution, on the other hand, presented evidence that showed a person using a computer found in Aaron Patterson's home had conducted searches for deathcap mushrooms on ianaturalist dot com. Patterson says she doesn't remember whether she reached out for that or not, but it could have been one of her kids. Part of the reason officials are suspicious of Patterson's claims is because she was a strange from her husband, whose parents she killed. She separated from her husband in twenty fifteen, but more recently began having financial conflicts with him in twenty twenty two. Reporting from the trial, the BBC said prosecution showed explative laden texts between Patterson and her friends in which she criticized her husband and her in laws. Patterson countered those texts were just her venting her frustration, and she maintained a good relationship with her in laws despite her struggles with her husband. She reportedly became emotional on the stand, describing how much cared for the couple. She killed, and how she regretted saying those things. Among the other pieces of evidence against Patterson are the fact that she tried to throw away her mushroom dehydrator that had deaf cat mushroom residue on it, photos of mushrooms on scales that included death caps, and the fact that she didn't feed the beef Wellington to her children. She had been admitted to a hospital for poisoning, but the prosecution says she was faking her symptoms to cover her crimes. By now, you're probably wondering how do I identify deaf cat mushrooms to avoid getting whacked by a beef Wellington. Producer Jordan and Sellers googled this topic, but he would like to go on the record as saying he has no enemies and would never feed them to anyone on purpose. Death cap mushrooms are white and look like other edible varieties like paddy straw mushrooms or puffballs. They have a greenish cap, white gills and spores, and a distinct ring on the stock. Eating just half a death cap mushroom is enough to kill an adult if you see one or think you do. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare advises plucking it from the soil before mowing to prevent spreading it further. You can touch them without hurting yourself, but I'd say it's still a good idea to wear gloves. If you ever worry you or someone else has consumed a death cap, seek medical attention right away. Early symptoms of poisoning are persistent and violent vomiting, abdominal pain, and profuse watery diarrhea six to twenty four hours after eating the mushroom or symptoms. These symptoms generally last a few hours, after which there is an apparent recovery with no symptoms for a few days. Then jaundice, loss of strength, coma, and death can occur from liver fail and kidney failure. Anyone for a mushroom pizza Mamia? Moving on to the kiddy desk. The first time in modern history, Mountlon kittens have been documented and confirmed by biologists in the wild in Oklahoma, non zoo kidneys. The Sooner State has seen an increase in cougar sightings in recent years, and not just in swanky casinos around Oklahoma City. No, we're talking the big cat type of cougar. And now the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has photographic evidence that they're reproducing in the state. The images, which you can see on the agency's website, show two kittens in Osage County in October twenty twenty four and three more kittens in Cimarron County in December twenty twenty four. Both were captured by trail camera that had been placed by a private landowner, So two cheers for citizen science. ODFW furbearer biologists Jared Davis called the photos quote exciting and interesting, but caution that they are just one small piece of the puzzle needed to better understand this species. Historically, Oklahoma is mountain lion territory. In fact, the species range once extended across the entire lower forty eight. However, as Europeans settled North America, they extirpated mount lions in much of the Northeast and Midwest by the late nineteenth century, though populations persisted in the West and Florida. In recent years, though anecdotal evidence indicated that mount lions have been spreading from Western populations back into parts of the Midwest. A recent study by Tufts University researchers confirmed suspicions that Mount Lion Range is likely expanding to several Midwestern states, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The same appears to be true for Oklahoma. Prior to the photographic evidence of two breeding pairs, confirmed sightings have been on the rise in the state for the past eight years, peaking at nineteen in twenty twenty three, which is up from zero in twenty sixteen. Residents, including many mentors underneath the Facebook post announcing the kitten photos, have long suspected that breeding pairs of lions are living in the state. The Wildlife Agency has been more cautious about those claims, but these photographs will likely force them to start developing a more robust plan for how to manage this new species. Moving on to the wolf desk. Wolves were extirpated from Japan in nineteen not five, but there's been a recent push to bring them back big thanks to listener Dan Brow for sending us this story. Much like in the US, Japan's human population has urbanized in recent decades, since rural residents tend to hunt at higher rates than city slickers. Populations of deer, wild boar, and monkeys have risen. These gritters damage crops and native plant species, and some believe reintroducing wolves is a good way to restore balance to the ecosystem. The Japan Wolf Association has been around since nineteen ninety three, and they told the South China Morning Posts that they would like to see small scale reintroduction efforts in remote regions of the country. They'd like to import wolves from China for the main islands of Hanshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, and a more hearty species from Siberia for the most northerly Maine island of Hokkaido. While introducing natural predators can help balance an ecosystem, this idea may not pass muster with Japan's human occupants. That's because, as we've reported on this podcast, the country has seen a spike in bear attacks in recent years. Last year saw a record two hundred and nineteen bear attacks, six of which were fatal. Wildlife officials believe the bears are becoming less fearful of humans as hunting participation declines in urban sprawl makes for more bear human interaction. Wolf attacks are extremely rare, but it seems unlikely that those city dwellers will be keen on importing another predator with sharp teeth and a scary reputation. Moving back to the land of the Free year, Arizona wildlife officials are hearing it from protectionist groups for capturing a family of Mexican gray wolves in the southeastern portion of the state. Landowners in the area reported several cases of wolves predating on livestock, so the Arizona Game and Fish Department sent out range riders to deter the wolves from killing cattle. But the ongoing drought is making natural prey scarce, so officials knew that probably wouldn't be sufficient. Instead of killing the wolves, they opted to capture them instead. They found the den where a female had recently given birth to three puppies. All of the puppies appeared to be underweight, but one was doing so poorly that it had to be euthanized. But the other two puppies, along with a female and a male, were captured and brought to a captive facility. Now you'd think animal rights groups would be fine with this course of action. Problem wolves were captured rather than killed, and now they're in a position to survive the drought. But no our friends over at the Center for Biological Diversity said that removing these four wolves is a quote assault on ongoing recovery efforts. They say landowners are fearmongering about livestock depredation and are unwilling to live alongside the predators. I've known more than a few livestock producers in my time, and I can tell you that if they're unwilling to live with wolves, they don't call the Game and Fish Department. I'm sure there are some BADA actors among them, but this doesn't seem like a good case for the CBD to get all hot and bothered. The wolves survived and will be released. Maybe take the win instead of hounding state officials just trying to do their jobs. Moving on to a coyote edition of the Legislative Desk, wildlife officials in Nevada are considering a changed General Regulation five twenty six, which would prohibit the use of thermal image technology in hunting. Right now, in Nevada, it is illegal to take big game after dark, but silver staters may hunt round the clock for coyotes using spotlights or thermal optics. Supporters of the thermal imaging band say the technology is an unfair advantage that violates fair chase, and they worry that poachers use the technology under cover of night to kill deer elk undetected. Just think of the effects thermal optics would have had on one of the greatest movies ever made. Predator also launched a gubernatorial career co'm on. George four Bush of the Nevada Predators Hunting Association gave the opposing viewpoint to Fox five News, saying, quote, you will make the most effective kill without wounding or losing that animal with thermal If your night hunting off of lights, you have the opportunity of misidentifying an animal, shooting the wrong animal, whether it be the rancher's dog, a fox instead of a coyote, or hitting the animal in a bad spot, and then that animal takes off and runs away. Four Bush and other opponents of the band are calling for better enforcement of existing laws to punish poachers. Although public comment on the issue will have passed by the time this episode airs, you can still call or write to Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners to make your voice heard on this issue before it is voted on later this year. Legislators in Michigan also have coyotes on their mind. State Senators Michelle Hoitanga and Parker Fairbairn have drafted an amendment to the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act reinstate year round hunting of coyotes. Until recently, Mischiganders were permitted to kill coyotes three hundred and sixty five days a year, but in March twenty twenty four, the state's Natural Resource Commission enacted a hiatus from April fifteen to July fifteen. The sponsors of the bill argue that this band doesn't have a basis in conservation science and that coyote numbers are out of control in Michigan. Michigan United Conservation Clubs sued the Commission earlier this year, but a judge ruled against them last week and upheld the commission's decision. Now the legislature is trying to take matters into their own hands. As much as you might agree that there's no scientific reason to end the year round take of coyotes, you have to be cautious whenever politicians stick their noses into wildlife policy. For those who want to weigh in, the bill, number is SB three six six Gang I am hot and bothered on the topic of thermals. I'll be completely straight up with you. I do not care about the use of thermals for coyotes and wolves. As long as we're not poison in those creators, they're going to be just fine. May sound callous, but that's just the truth of the matter. Additionally, I don't know how we prevent people from locating big game animals with thermal optics. If we don't ban thermal optics, what is the right solution. One of the things that I've thought about is if you possess a valid big game tag, you can't have optics in your possession or in the possession of anybody in your party. But then again, you're only a cell phone call away, and every cell phone's a sat phone from somebody who probably does have thermal optics. It's hard, man, it is a quagmire. But I've seen thermal optics in the field and there's just no part of that stuff that I think belongs in the use of big game hunting. Right in, Diane, to know what you think, askcl that's ascal athmeeater dot com. Thank you so much in advance for calling your duly elected afis and telling them that this land grab is just ourse backards. It really is. Gang. If you think land sale should happen, then let's make sure that they happen in the right way, through the right process, and in a way that gives back to the conservation community and all Americans by purchasing land of higher strategic value. That's what we have in place. Doesn't have to be all or nothing. Funny how that works. That's all I got for you. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write in askc al Askal at the media dot com let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. You know I appreciate it. Thanks again. We'll talk to you next week.