00:00:09 Speaker 1: From Mediators World News Headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Kel's We Can Review with Ryan kel Kelly. Now Here's Kel. I don't think it's a secret that the people over at Peter People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals know that they will get ink just about everywhere when they decide to go after entities and in this case, entertainment that just don't really matter. If you'll recall, way way back to episode one of Cal's Week in Review, I brought up the term species is a term coined by Peter that means, or attempts rather to end the misguided belief that humans are superior to all other animal species and that it's okay for us to exploit some species in horrible ways for our own trivial purposes. Part of this species is um campaign is to try to alter some of our old timey phrases. For instance, instead of saying I don't mean to beat a dead horse, you would instead say feed a fed horse. Or for instance, if you were fond of heading to work and saying, well, time to bring home the bacon, you would instead say, well, time to bring home the bagels, and my personal favorite, instead of killing two birds, with one stone, you would feed two birds with one stone. Not sure how to use that one in the instance in which I am, you know, actually trying to kill two birds with one stone. Now, to be fair and back to the point, I myself have been rather turned off by some folks ability to elevate themselves far above the other organisms. We share this planet with, people included. So I get that part of species is um but the part about our own trivial purposes I do not get. I love food, and food, my friends, is no trivial pursuit anyway. Most recently, Peta went after the gaming company Nintendo and their new and wildly popular game Animal Crossing New Horizons. In this game, the players can capture bugs and fish, which, according to Peta is not vegan and therefore not okay. Being is the video game beat is a bit of a departure for me. I reached out to meet eaters own electronic gaming man on the digital street, Phil, the podcast engineer tailor. According to Phil, the game is interesting in the fact that it has no villain, no source of friction. The digital landscape is built in bright, inviting colors, a real mood lift, which may be why so many people are taking to this game. Additionally, since there is no villain, the players can do whatever they want, including picking fruit, sitting next to campfires, and building snowmen. Obviously the type of setting that breeds animal tortures, so I chose to investigate more by looking, as Phil suggested, at a few YouTube videos of animal crossing new horizons. Let me tell you what I found. It was indeed shocking. Two lips ponds, water flowing mysteriously without any form of gradient, old timey stick string and bobber fishing, butterfly catching, random snowman building, little people interacting with animals, wearing people clothes. I'll tell you it just as a natural folks. In fact, I would call it fantastical that Peter always one step ahead of us. Animal crossing New Horizons could have been an Al Qaeda ask breeding ground for animal haters until they stepped down. Honestly, the only problem I have with this game is the fact that the fish and the bugs are a form of currency. If you're looking for a game where you can actually hunt animals that won't cross the line of animals for money, Phil says, check out Legend of Zelda, Breath of the wild players can apparently not only hunt wild pigs, but they can barbecue them as well. This week we've got big announcements fishing closures and openings, bears, and social distancing the fishing game way. But first, I'm gonna tell you about my week, as everyone knows my week, and this podcast is sponsored by steel Power Equipment, World's first and finest chainsaws. I took those fine chainsaws and headed to a friend's property where they had a bunch of problem trees, you know, trees that threatened to drop on roads, houses and puppies and whatnot. They had those trees previously dropped, bucked up into eight foot lengths and stacked. I took my two battery powered saws and went to work on the stacks of ponderosa pine to then turn those eight foot lengths into woodstove lengths. Which got me to thinking about how arduous the process of explaining cutting wood into firewood would be to someone who doesn't know what firewood is. You see, you take that and and then you cut it into a small chunk, and then you cut it into a smaller chunk, and then you break that into smaller chunks, and then you burn it. Anyway, I had three batteries total. I ran the two twenty c battery saw primarily, and three batteries allow you to cut up more than enough wood to deal with when they eventually get to the point of having two dead batteries with one still needing time on the charger. The eight foot lengths ranged in diameter from fifteen tot made a lot of sawdust. Then we split some of those rounds, burn them into coals, and cooked cou's deer ham on the fire, along with some potatoes, all outside trying to maintain a respectful six foot distance from each other. If you have a hard time imagining what a six foot distance is like, and you fancy yourself an angler, look no further than your state's Fish and Game website. A few state agencies, and hopefully every state agency soon will have a helpful reminder of what appropriate social distances. In Pennsylvania, it may be helpful to know that if you are within twenty four adult at headmintal lengths to the next angler, you may want to take a step back. If you were not alive baying angler. That's nine and a half yellow perch in Montana angler terms about four trout lengths away from each other, or to shovel nose sturgeon or one good sized paddlefish. Can't wait to see what the other states come up with next. I love that good job, whoever came up with it. Over the update desk, we have a real big news over at the meat eater dot com home with the Ranella who tell us campaign All profits from campaign merchandise will go directly to our new land Access initiative. Those funds will be used to bring you us we more of what we love, access to hunting and fishing opportunity. This could be in the form of an easement, a property, a boat ramp, or a convenient place to park. No job too small or big, will consider them all, no matter the location, so long as the location provide something more. If this has you thinking, please go to the meat eater dot com and submit a property or location that could help us all out and we approve this message. On top of that, if you did not catch the Weekend Review Field Reports YouTube series, please check that out. We go to Tennessee to look at the impacts Asian carp and their edibility. We go to Oregon and look at how the Nature Conservancy is balancing access cattle and a whole lot of elk on a bunch grass prairie ecosystem called the zoom Walt Prairie Preserve. Then we end up in Montana, my friend Eric Siegfried from on x Maps looking at hard to access public hunting opportunities. It's a lot of fun. Check them out. And lastly, I always get asked to validate nonprofit conservation organizations. The question is do you think I should join whatever organization? My answer is always the same. Sign up for their newsletters. They are free. You can read every week what is going on. Then you can look at what that particular group is doing by following them, stalking them if you will, on social media, and you can see if they're volunteers and chapters and the organization as a whole behaves the way they say they do in their newsletters, and then you can make the right decision right now. An organization that I love, back Country Hunters and Anglers, a national nonprofit that advocates for public land, has a special offer of a free copy of the back Country Journal to anyone who wants one. Great photography, stories, recipes, and even some great gear. Amongst the conservation News. The back Country Journal is worth paying a membership for, but right now you can get a copy for nothing. If maybe you've read or seen the movie Children of the Corn by Stephen King, and since then you've never really trusted the rustle of a corn field, well now you have a reason to be justified. A story out of the Grand Forks Herald tells of a bear den in a corn field just outside of Warren, Minnesota. The bear dug into the ground about eight to ten inches, then lined the shallow hole with corn stocks. Additionally, that bear piled up roughly thirty inches of corn stalks around the hole, making a nice little nest. So next time you hear the dry rustle of corn stalks on a windless day and that eerie feeling comes creeping in, get it corn stalks eerie, You may not be wrong, and maybe a bear. It's probably nothing, but it could be a bear. The area around More in Minnesota is in an area of the country where farmers could not get into their fields to harvest corn due to flooding. In an attempt to harvest what corn still stands, harvesting equipment has been getting out early in March to take advantage of frozen ground. But as it turns out, there have been several bears that had already been taking advantage of the standing corn. In fact, act a sole black bear was inadvertently hit and killed by a harvester outside of strand Quist, Minnesota, about sixty miles north of Grand Forks. Harvesting equipment such as combines and harvesters do collect some non plant material from time to time. We lost several batches of guinea fowl, which is a wild bird in parts of Africa that some rural families like to have around the barnyard because they act as a sort of guard dog chicken. They raised a pretty obnoxious alarm call when new people or things show up unexpectedly. Anyway, we had several batches of those when I was a kid, and the guinea fowl would fly into the alfalfa and essentially get turned into round bales, deer fons, pigs, ground nesting birds and now bears can be by catch to the corn or hay crop. But remember, if you're a big fan of the bagged microgreens, bears need not concern you. You need to be on the lookout for frogs. I'm kidding, of course, you would be very lucky to find a frog in your salad. Invertebrates are way way more common. Peter may need to get off the video games and start looking at the way we harvest food. Anyway, the Minnesota Department and Natural Resources captured the South cubs and transferred them to a rehab facility. Moving on, but sticking with predators. The endangered Mexican gray wolf population is that an all time high population surveys just ended, recording at least a hundred and sixty three individuals, recording to the ap News spread out amongst forty six packs. That is a population jump of nearly twenty five percent since last year. The population has had a steady increase, with about fifteen percent year over year since individuals were released in One theory for the dramatic population jump this year is that we now have a good population of adult wolves rearing pups and teaching them in the wild, versus a semi captive adult wolf being really east onto the landscape to figure things out. One thing that a wolf in the former scenario may figure out is livestock. Two thousand nineteen market the all time high for livestock kills. The Mexican gray wolf. Love them or hate them, is here to stay. If you want to call yourself a conservationist, this is what you sign up for, healthy managed wildlife populations. Wolves will not be the end of the hunter, or hunting or cattlemen and cattle can. They make things more difficult, absolutely, but they are pretty darn neat to watch and listen to. I have packed out a few elk on I back with wolves singing in the background. It is not something I will ever forget. But that really isn't the rub when we talk about reintroduction of species, be they wolves or elk for that matter. In many cases you have farmers or ranchers that have moved to and lived in a place without the existence of whatever animal, and then all of a sudden, the quote black government helicopters are dropping grizzly bears, wolves and crop hungry elk onto your spread. Even though that is not how things work, you could see how that would dramatically affect your business plan. I am, and I think most people are more supportive of animals walking in and building a population in a natural way. That's not always possible, but it sure allows for both the wildlife and the human inhabitants of that scene to adjust to each other, unless we're talking about wild hogs, of course. Moving on, the state of Maine and Missouri have temporarily granted free fishing, encouraging people to be outdoors recreating, while again maintaining proper social distancing. A couple of major points. In Missouri. If you are not a member in good standing with the Department of Conservation, meaning you have a previously revoked hunting and fishing license, you still can't fish for free or at all. And here is the major thing to remember, rules and regulations still apply. I this is not a free for all on our natural resources. This is a great economic excuse to get some well spaced time and the healthiest place of all the out of doors. Just like at the grocery stores, do not take more than you need, and if you feel you need a lot, you can buy seafood at bargain prices. For many captains who have lost the ability to sell in both restaurants and overseas markets, get out for the mental and physical health. Take a fish home where it is legal to do so, but leave some for others and for yourself. If you're coming back the next weekend. What's more, if you can afford to do so by that fishing license anyway, you'll be happy you did. On the flip side, the state Washington has temporarily suspended fishing and shellfish harvesting in the state as a response to overcrowding at some boat ramps and fishing locations. Take it for me. In non COVID times, I've had Western Washington salmon fisherman stands so close to me the accidentally stuck their hands into my waiters when their fingers got cold. I think by mistake, but that isn't the way it is always. There are plenty of river bank miles to get some good distance from other anglers, especially if you're just looking as I often am. To just be outside the fish is just a bonus. Anyway. I hate seeing this again. I feel like the outdoors can be such a healthy experience. But because some fishing activities in some areas, anglers have a hard time keeping that twenty four fat head minnow or four trout or two shelvenel sturgeon leans from each other. The fishing has been shut down, and friends and neighbors, if that is what it takes to get this pandemic over with. Let's all strap in, do the right thing, and avoid each other so you know, we can hurry this thing along and get back to being sick of being around each other all the time. That's what I'm doing. It is easy to get bitter about a situation like this in Washington. It is easy to look the fishing calendar and just see time, opportunity and business swim past. If you are able, I encourage you to take this opportunity to focus on your fisheries health, tie up a bunch of extra globe bugs, clean and organize your gear, and make some calls on behalf of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Maybe those boat ramps are too crowded because there aren't enough of them. Call your duly elected your congressional representatives right now and ask them to co sign the Great American Outdoors Act. Tell them to be a part of the greatest conservation legislation since Nixon was in office. Isn't that something? We are a couple of co signers away from a super majority. And Mitch McConnell, who was a co signer, sets the schedule, meaning this thing has a real shop. COVID nineteen be damned. Let's set up our future. This is attainable. Get on those phones. Let's stand in solidarity as outdoor loving people, and pass the Great American Outdoors Act. Over to the Marine Mammal Desk. We're gonna start out with a recap. What do you call a bluga whale and a narwall cross a nor luga? How about a false killer whale dolphin hybrid? That's a wolfing, of course. Another interesting matchup across the marine mammal desk just recently, the melon headed whale and the rough toothed dolphin. This unlikely combo have had a successful offspring, confirmed by a tissue sample taken by a specialized bolt fired from a crossbow. This specialized bolt is designed to just barely penetrate and extract a skin sample for DNA analysis. That's uh, just another day as marine biologist for you kids. Not much else to tell on this one other than the fact that you know that happens, which I think is neat. Of course, I just made an antelope meat loaf that I referred to as an anteloaf, which I thought was pretty neat too. Hopefully definitely. Moving on to the law enforcement desk, I do not know why, but cheating and bass fishing must just go together. Two men from Washington City, Utah, which is part of the St. George metropolitan area that you didn't know that because I didn't, were charged in Kane County sixth District Court with bribery or threat to influence a contest a third degree felony, unlawful release of wildlife a Class A misdemeanor, an unlawful captivity of protected wildlife a Class B misdemeanor. What the two men did is nothing new. If you read Sam Lungern's article on the infamous bass angler and tournament cheater Mike Long at the meat eater dot com. The Washington City man caught bass at a different lake, held them, and presented them as fresh catch at the two day Lake Powell tournament, where they could stand to win a prize. They were, however, d Q or disqualified from the tournament due to the fact that several anglers noticed the fish were distressed and their appearance was not consistent with bass from late Powell. Their court case is scheduled for June four. Will follow up on this one then. Another court case we need to check in on is postponed indefinitely. It is the case of illegal dear transporter Steve the transport reporter, but we have correspondent Patrick Dirkin on that beat and he won't forget. Finally, if you're looking for an outdoor group that is antisocial, you may want to look at the group a s s anti surface uh pooping. I have had it with these monkey fighting snakes on this Loney to Friday play. Their slogan is bury your pooh, don't leave it on the trail for others to stare at. You can look them up on social media platforms. I am sure you know someone who would appreciate that sticker. If you want a hot tip, don't bury your business too deep. The point is to get that material out of sight, but not out of the microbial layer that will break it down. I prefer to burn my toilet paper when conditions allow, as in, don't go starting a fire by trying to hide your t P. It's been done before in my former state Idaho. That's all I've got for you this week. We're doing a ton of excellent stuff just for all of you working towards the collective good in your respective quarantines. Please check it out at the meat eater dot com. You can always get a hold of me at A sk K C A L at the meat eater dot com. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you next week.

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