00:00:09 Speaker 1: From Mediators World News Headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Kel's We Can Review with Ryan kel Kell and now here's kel Welcome to the Florida Desk food. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has, for reasons unknown, banned the future ownership, importation, and sale of some sixteen snakes and reptiles. Argentine black and white tegus, green iguanas, Indian and Burmese pythons, North African python, Southern African pythons, a methisteen python, scrub python, green anacondas, and nile monitors will be illegal to own or breed without having the proper permit by two thousand twenty four. Again, what do we have to oh to this prompt action. Burmese python started officially popping up and eating things in the Everglades in the nineteen seventies, which is fifty one years ago. Right now, If you aren't scratching your heads, you should be. If you've been paying attention to this podcast, you know that rarely a week goes by that some giant fourteen to sixteen foot python, or rare songbird or endangered tortoise egg eating lizard doesn't make the news in Florida. Green iguanas were first reported in Miami Dade County in the nineteen sixties. One of the most destructive attributes of these invasives is their burrowing ability. They undermine sea walls, foundation sidewalks, and when the temps dropped, they freeze and fall frozen out of the trees onto Governor de Santis's head, which is the only plausible explanation of why there is any response from the state now. Of are than millions of dollars spent on marketing the Python Bowl, you know, the Super Bowl of python catching, the state of Florida has taken no statewide action as to the root of some of these issues. The new rule will allow for current tagou and green iguana pet owners to keep their personal pets with a no cost permit. The breeding of tegoos and iguanas for commercial sale can continue until June thirty, two thousand twenty four, but will be prohibited after that. The Nature Conservancy estimates that just the cost of invasive plants hits the one million dollar mark conservatively in Florida every year. In two thousand twenty, iguanas were listed as a contributing factor in the failure of an earth and dam, which ended up costing taxpayers one point eight million dollars in just one incident. The cost on Florida's native wildlife, both plant and animal, what the iguanas displaced and eat our estimated far beyond that. According to the University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health, invasives cost the state of Florida over five hundred million dollars per year. Interestingly enough, the U s d A, the University of Georgia, the University of Florida, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission all say generally the same thing when it comes to harmful invasives. Early detection and rapid response is the second best option to prevention. Which again, how long ago we're breose pythons found in the Everglades green iguanas well, I mean green iguanas. The sixties were a different time anywhere. And speaking of time, we do know time is relative, and if we were working on geologic time, the state of Florida is in fact moving lightning fast and responding to harmful invasives. The welcome sign with the neon vacancy flashing underneath well, don't worry about that. It'll rest itself off the post by two thousand twenty four. No need to walk all the way over there and turn it off. In an effort to be somewhat fair, it is not legal to release your unwanted pets or those you cannot care for into the wild, which there is no doubt contributes to some of these invasive populations. What this bill is not exactly a dressing head on is it has always been illegal in the state of Florida to breed thousands of these animals for sale. The Florida weather is kind of perfect for them, obviously, but they do get hurricanes and tropical storms and floods from time to time. Animals go missing. You ever seen the size of a baby green iguana or a freshly hatched burmese python. They don't exactly stick out, almost as if nature intended them to blend in. But that's neither here nor there. Better start packing your bags. Invasives, green muscles, iguanas, tegos, brown and knoles, cane toads, water hyacinth, lion fish, arapaima to lappy a nile monitors, indian pythons, burmese pythons, North African pythons, South African pythons. I messed the teen python, scrub pythons, green anacondas uh. To be fair, some of these invasives aren't even on the list. But you know, with such a strong message being sent by the State of Florida, clock is ticking is just shy A three years away done in a flat circle. This week we've got crime, good Bill, bad Bill, see cucumbers, and so much more. But first, I'm going to tell you about my week. In my week as well as this podcast is brought to you by Steel Power Equipment. The more the snow recedes, the more stuff you forgot about last year is exposed, and the more you are going to want reliable, clean, quiet tools from Steel to get after that mess. The only problem is by the time you commit to going down to one of Steel's ten thousand dependent dealers, they're gonna be sold out. Most of you are driving while listening, altercourse and get ahead of spring with the new chain for the saw and a fresh jug bio plus bar and chain. If nothing else. Hey, whatever you heard it here, I'm not your mother. I uh fished Pyramid Lake for a quick afternoon, caught one La haunt and cut throat and broke another off. Our group of five anglers all touched fish and three hours of fishing, which I call very good. If you're not familiar with Pyramid Lake is a classic Cinderella story and one we shouldn't be too comfortable with getting used to over exploitation. The commoditization of wildlife leads to a full collapse of a fishery and the eradication of a species. Fast forward, darn near three quarters of a century and someone finds the lost now near mythical fish. Mythical because La haunt and cut throat grow huge. A recent catch went towards the thirty pound category. She is insane landlocked England high desert cutthroat trout that miners and ranchers mistook for salmon and sold by the barrel to fancy restaurants over the mountains in San Francisco. The pie You tribe manages the fishery and a hatchery program have repopulated the lahunt and cut throat to Pyramid Lake. From conservation failure comes conservation success. Can't have just a boring old giant fish story, now, can we snort? Report I'm working on snort on whistle commands and multiple dummies. Turns out she is a puppy after all, not necessarily the Prodigy had crept her up to be. She knows exactly what I'm doing, challenging her mentally, mixing the game up with multiple dummies on the ground, et cetera. Eventually she just takes off, ignores me, rounds everything up, and looks at me like, why make this so complicated? As with all training, the failures that we have in the field are largely due to the human and not the dog. Got a crawl before we can walk. Thank you to everyone who keeps sending in simple recipes for waterfowl so we can teach these waterfowl wasters how to cook. Michael Mancini writes in with maple bourbon glaze. Dis glaze can be added to anything, but I really like it on cubed duck breast served on a skewer. Maple syrup, good quality bourbon, black peppercorns, and bacon to hold duck breasts. Chris the bacon sear the duck breast medium rare cube wrap with crisp bacon skewer set aside. Add the maple syrup and bourbon and peppercorn to a saucepan. Bring the sauce to a roll, Let it cook until thickened and the alcohol has burned off. Coat the skewers and the glaze, and serve. Now, the original intent of this segment was for college kids who wasted a bunch of waterfowl outside of boise. So the bourbon may not make it through to the recipe, but thank you anyway, Michael. Here's a quick one from yours, truly beer butt goose or fat Mallard. I have a trigger like you know, pellet grill, not just name dropping. I've been using them for a long time. Indirect heat with lots of air circulation is great for like making crispy skin and rendering fat, and it's just good for wild game for fat birds like ducks and geese. Get the blackened Saskatchewan rub from trigger, then score you're plucked fat duck or goose with a sharp knife wherever it's super fatty. Tried just to cut the skin without exposing the meat. Rubbed liberally with the black and Saskatchewan rub, which contains enough salt d ice I ninety here in the Montana winter. Let it sit uncovered and well circulated, like on a cooling rack and the refrigerator for an hour or two, not much longer than that. Get your pellet grill up to three fifty Put a beer can in the cavity of the bird. This is, in my opinion, and a kickstand for the bird and does nothing really for flavor. However, the bird standing upright with no real contact points gets maximum air circulation. Ducks will take anywhere from fifteen to twenty five minutes, geese anywhere from forty five to an hour, maybe an hour and fifteen. Get him to medium rare. Use an instant read thermometer right next to the bone center of the brass thickest part. You should be pulling that bird off at one thirty one thirty five degrees and letting it rest. I should mention you'll need to pull the beer can from the bird cavity, use the thermometer. Nobody likes overcooked duck. It will look awesome, it will taste awesome. It is all us carnivorous folks really want fat and salt. Word of caution, don't salt any of the other side dishes. You may come up with that RUBB will carry over. Moving on good bill Good the state of Wyoming, House Bill zero one to two would create an account to fund the Access YES Program, which is a private land public access program more access to quality opportunity. Landowners who would like to participate can get some cash for doing so. I hunt a ton of this type of stuff. The funds would be provided for by an increase of nine dollars to the state Conservation Stamp, of which somewhere in the neighborhood of one and eighty five thousand stamps are sold each year. The price of the conservation stamp has not seen an increase in more than a decade, meaning it isn't even keeping up with inflation. This is a good bill. If you recreate in the state of Wyoming, it would be great to tell folks you do and would love to see HB zero one to two pass without amendment. Resident or nonresident would benefit from more access to quality ground. If you need a helping hand on who to contact ACT, go to Wyoming Wildlife dot org. You'll find it there because it is so easy to find. Balance This legislative session s F zero one zero three, also in the state of Wyoming, would increase the cost of nonresident tags to the point where instead of pickup trucks heading for the Cowboys state, you'd only see Bentley's and Rolls Royces. That's right, the whole damn state would turn into Jackson Hole. Just get SFO one zero three would further limit the ability for non residents to draw coveted tags like moose, goat, and sheep by providing zero nonresident opportunities in units that have ten tags or less and the aforementioned price increase six hundred bucks for an antelope tag, which, Hey, if I'm a resident in the state of Wyoming, I'm thinking, you know this is great for me. But if you expand your circle out beyond yourself, let's say, to your brother, your sister, cousin, or somebody who lives out of state, this is very, very limiting. Moving on to the state of Iowa, if you are a law abiding citizen, doesn't matter if you fish or hunt. Senate File four six four, introduced by Senator Ken Rosenboom, is something you should pay attention to. If enacted by the General Assembly, Senate File four six four would reimburse poachers for any fines they paid for illegally killing white tailed does it doesn't matter if they were killed from a road, across a road at night with the spotlight over bait or over your gate. If Senate File four six four were successful, poachers would be reimbursed for any fines they received and would receive no fines in the future if caught killing for whatever reasons poachers kill. Most importantly that meat that delicious Iowa GMO corn fed whitetail can just along the road. We're in the field with no restitution to the state. This is great, makes total sense, and is even less work for us. We fully support four or six four said poachers has Senator Rosenboom seriously never heard of crime doesn't pay. I guess to be fair, four or six four would be crime gets reimbursed. I didn't see in the bill anywhere where it tells you to submit for reimbursement. Hey, you remember me, that guy in the paper killing all the deer. Yeah, I need to get reimbursed for that. Is there a poacher's lobby or caucus in the state of Iowa that I'm just not aware of, or any law enforcement for that matter. Yes, lawmakers of the State Iowa I'm representing the Poacher's Caucus today. Have you heard of crime doesn't pay? Well, I'm here to ask what if it did? No, you guys don't like that one. How about crime breaks? Even? Really, you want to give us poachers who are criminals, our money back for breaking the law on stealing from you? This has been a great day, a historic day for the Poacher's Caucus in Iowa. If you believe in law and order and visit the state of Iowa, I would consider giving Senator Rosen Boom a call. Moving on South Dakota, Bill hbo we mentioned here at the weekend review that would restrict a game warden's ability to observe or enter private land has been squashed. Well done, South Dakota. Now, I did have a few folks right in questioning my values in regards to private property and illegal search and seizure. Wildlife in America belongs to all of us. It is managed in trust by the states. There are a ton of examples that make this difficult. One is, how do you police an animal that has no respect for private property? Now we can, for the sake of argument, even though I don't like to call that animal an asset it is unfortunate, but we do put price tags on animals. A trophy bull elk, for instance, has a dollar value assigned to it. When taken illegally. A trophy bull in the state of Montana is an eight thousand dollar bill. Now eight thousand dollar bills I don't believe exists. If they do, haven't seen one. But let's call an elk and eight thousand dollar bill walking around, right, that we all own that eight thousand dollar bill can jump from your place to the neighbor's place back again, and then onto public land whenever it so chooses. So imagine that we collectively own this eight thousand dollar bill, and we only get to keep people who want to steal it for themselves accountable on one side of the fence. In this little make believe scenario I brought up would be one third of the time. That'd be pretty unsettling, right. You gotta keep in mind, right the context of wildlife in America, like most of these elk that we're hunting in the state of Montana, we're gone from the state of Montana. The aforementioned Jackson Hole supply to elk just about everywhere we hunt them today. We're just like spitting distance from a time, we're just seeing an elk was something extraordinary because they just did not exist. But anyway, the Fourth Amendment has an exception called the open field Doctrine, which in a very general interpretation means open fields. Not your house yard, behind the picket fence, truck, or even detached garage, but the private property beyond that the open field, which is where you would more than likely be hunting, fishing, and engaging with the state's wildlife, which it manages in trust for us. And when we talk about these bills that would limit state wildlife officers from entering property with do cause right with the intention of protecting this public trust, that is what we are referring to the open field. It's trick, he isn't it? Alright? One last bad bill, this one sponsored by one Wiley Galt here in the state of Montana. I had previously mentioned this one, but it was not an actual bill yet, and all I could do was just hope it would die before it came out of the shadows. I am inevitable. H B five zero five would up the anti for land owner either sex elk tags from a possible two per sixty contiguous acres to a possible ten and give five bonus points to landowners sponsored cow elk tag holders. If we want to be old timey here, I think we could safely call this bill crony is m he who has the gold makes the rules. Only in this case, if you control the elk, you make the rules. HB five oh five is turning the public's elk into future favors or compensation. Here is just one for instance for you if you have been wanting to get a special draw permit and saving those bonus points of which you get one per year, for ten or fifteen years, to make that dream of you know, some super hard to draw bulltag happen. If HP five oh five were to be successful in pass, what took you ten years would only take someone else with landowner cow elk sponsorship two years. What took you fifteen years would take somebody with landowner cow elk sponsorship three years to achieve. Meanwhile, they get to hunt cow elk on private ranches. Now I just want to ask the question, do you think this is to incentivize cow elk cutters or maybe certainly makes my imagination run wild. If you live in Montana or recreating the state of Montana. I'd call your duly elected officials and let them know this is not the way you want your wildlife managed. This bill goes in front of the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee March nine, which means you need to pull over and make a phone call to all members of the committee, who can be found at four zero six four four four to five five four. You can always contact Wiley Gult directly four oh six to two zero zero or email at Wiley w y L I G A L T F O R M T at gmail dot com. I'd probably just start by asking how is this supposed to benefit the state of Montana. Moving on to the monumental digestion desk, the lowly c cucumber that unglamorous hose like bottom feeder. Listen, we've moved off politics, I swear, just pay attention. The c cucumber, that hose like bottom feeder has been getting some richly deserved attention recently. A study published in the journal Coral Reefs puts it in perspective just how much the c cucumber attributes to its overall ecosystem. Now, fans of the Mediator TV show will be familiar with the red sea cucumber, which Steve Ronnella is very fond of diving up in Alaska. The study in question, however, looks at a different c cucumber species, Hollotheria atra, which is native to the Harron Island Reef in Queensland, Australia. If the variety of in Alaska resembles at Kilbasso with radioactive spikes growing out of it, then Hallotheriatra is much more plain. It looks like an enormous black earthworm, and the resemblance to the earthworm is not coincidental. Both c cucumbers and earthworms carry out something called bioturbation, which is like the million dollar word of the day. You guys remember Peewee's Playhouse. You all remember what to do whenever anyone says the seca word, right right anyway. Bioturbation is the turning over or beneficial disruption of soil in an ecosystem. The sea cucumber and just sediment along the ocean floor, drawing out nutrients and then poops that sediment out. Here's where it gets fun. The papers authors calculate that all the sea cucumbers on the Harron island reef generate over sixty four thousand metric tons of poop per year, the equivalent of five Eiffel towers, That is just in one particular seven square mile reef. To be clear, this is a metaphor, right, a poop metaphor for quantity. They didn't actually eat a Niffel tower. Interestingly enough, the literal eating of objects is a condition known as pika, not that cute little high alpine squirrel. One particularly ambitious man afflicted with pika. Michael Lotito once eight and excreted an entire Cessina one fifty airplane over the course of two years. That's just a fun side fact for you. Now, the sheer scale of the excretory accomplishment should be given its due. And I'm back to sea cucumbers here. To be clear, If sea cucumbers poop out five Eiffel towers a year, just on this one small reef, think of the turnover or bioturbation that is happening across the ocean. The ocean floor is estimated at one forty million square miles multiplied by sixty four thousand metric tons. Hold the one uh by By Eiffel tower uh that's a lot of sea cucumber poop kids. By turning over that much earth, the sea cucumber makes nutrients available to a huge number of other species in the ecosystem. Bioturbation allows oxygen to penetrate the sediment, and it makes the ocean floor less dense, allowing burrowing fish and crustaceans to find shelter. Charles Darwin himself knew the importance of this dynamic in transforming the landscape. The last book Darwin wrote was about worms, whose bioturbation allows grasses to grow, animals to graze, soils to be produced from the bodies of those animals once they die, and on and on on worms. Darwin wrote, It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as have these lowly organized creatures. And so is not much of an overstatement to say that if the sea cucumbers were gone, the reef itself would be gone too. And this is what the scientists want to emphasize with this study. Even though the sea cucumber might not look like it's doing much, and even though it's starting to get more popular as seafood. Keeping its numbers healthy is an absolute necessity. So no more making fun of sea cucumbers by calling them the ocean's cola. No more jokes about five Eiffel towers worth poop, And no more giggling when you find out that another species, the eel like pearl fish, often takes shelter by slithering into the sea cucumber's rectum. This is serious stuff here, It's the future of the planet. Good screaming, everybody moving on. Alligators handle the cold tamps experienced in the Gulf surprisingly well. As reported in the Oklahoma newspaper, several eyewitnesses reported alligators snouts poking up through ice in the Red Slew wetlands in the southeast part of the state. These weren't scenes of alligators tragically frozen while trying to escape the water, but rather a strategy by alligators to calmly wait out the cold. It is a phenomenon known as broomation, in which reptiles slow their metabolism in order to conserve energy and survive the cold. In this state, reptiles don't need to eat, defecate, or move, and their oxygen intake and heart rate plunge This is similar to hibernation in mammals, but in hibernation a mouse or a bear will become fully unconscious for the duration of the period of slow metabolism during broomation. In contrast, reptiles are still conscious and continue to drink, and they will begin to move to find food if the temperature around them increases. A third kind of metabolism, slow down estivation, takes place in extreme heat. Reptiles, insects, and mammals will bring their heart rate and breathing to a near stand still in order to remain cool while saving energy. And so our Oklahoma alligators with their snouts through the ice, we're just setting themselves up with everything they needed for broomation, a little bit of oxygen, in a stable place to rest in less extreme cold. Alligators typically broomate in dens or burrows, but during a hard freeze like this one, that would put them at risk of being frozen in place, so they set up an open water and snorkele their snouts through the ice. Another advantage alligators have their exteriors are made of cartilage, which requires much less blood flow than skin, so there are no danger of frostbite, which kind of makes me jealous. It also makes me ask the question, if you had to identify as one, would you be a broomader, a hibernator, or a estivator. I have fancy myself kind of an estivation type of guy. That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. We're almost through with this legislative session and we'll get back to fun facts and bad criminals. I swear thanks again. I'll talk to you next week

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