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Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cow’s Week in Review with Ryan cow Calah Here’s cal a Vermont man nearly became the new smallmouth bass record holder last month after landing a seven pounds six ounce lunker, which would have been a full ten ounces heavier than the previous state record. The problem was Andrew Ostringer ate the fish before he had a chance to have it officially weighed. He told Meat Eaters Kooby Brown that he tried to release the fish back into the pond, but it was clearly about to die, so he did the responsible thing, took it home filaid it for dinner. He knew it was a giant, which is why he weighed before he cooked it. But it wasn’t until after those delicious filays were sitting comfortably in his stomach that he thought to look up the current smallmouth record in Vermont. Sure enough, he was shot to learn that he could have been the new record holder if not for the grumblings of his stomach. Andrew actually joins a long line of anglers who ate potential record breaking fish, As Koob points out in his article the World Record at Walleye co host Salmon, Northern Pike, and several others were all consumed after being weighed and measured, including the world record Largemouth Pass, which was famously eaten for three straight days by the angler’s family. This week Oklahoma, the judicial shut her down DC and so much more of it. First, I’m going to tell you about my week, and my week has been great impactful, even because I am basically out living on BLM Land. This is the stuff some in DC are telling everyone is valueless. There’s nothing out here. It would be better off if we sold it or developed it, put a big old data center out there next to the wind farm and solar array. BLM Land isn’t doing anything for us. They’ll tell you, well, my bear hunt that I told you about, and I’ll you know, I’ll get to more of that later was on BLM Land. My girlfriend Sam and I just had a great couple of days chasing the most American of animals, the American prong horn antelope or antelo capra americana. There is nothing like it anywhere else on the planet. The theories about how it evolved to be so stinking fast don’t really stack up, as the old American cheetah was long since gone before this guy made its debut on North America. It’s desert dwelling, tasty as all get out, American misfit which is found on you guessed it, lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management more so than private ground populations. Nothing against the brown bear, but you can stroll out of Rome, Italy, and probably not all that far from Moscow, Russia, and run into a brown bear. But the prong horn is American, as American as the greater sage grouse, another misfit of the planes, charismatic representative of the land we the United States tried given away to anyone who is willing to try to live on it for one hundred years, then ended up with it. It’s pure American freedom out here. No ticket chios, no tour guides, just amazing amounts of awesome nothingness. The other night I had thousands of sandhill cranes migrating overhead. I watched mallards and wigeon and teal dump into livestock ponds that have replaced the buffalo wallows that started them. Seen sharp tail grouse and coyotes, even a pair of moose that stuck out like alien beings. Amongst the sage, we hunters are uniquely suited to speak to the value of these lands. The dinosaur bones, the artifacts, the fossilized sea beds, the migratory bird life, and the American pronghorn antelope. We can lose it if we don’t start sticking up for it. Confusing as it may be, but the congress National Review Act, the cancelation of Resource Management plants, the proposed rollback of the roadless Rule, the proposed rollback of the Public Lands Rule. All of this stuff stacks up, and we may be sitting here thinking of how fortunate we are to be able to recreate and spend quality time on these places as they’re being chunked up on the auction block because they have no value. It’s odd that some of these folks in DC, like Mike Lee, for instance, want valueless land so badly. Moving on to the Sooner State Desk over in Oklahoma, there’s a fight simmering between the state of Oklahoma and the five tribes whose reservation lands cover the eastern part of the state. On October eighth, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation issued a statement saying that game wardens would be enforcing hunting and fishing regulations on anyone in the state, even tribe members on reservation lands. On October ten, the Intertribal Council responded with their own statement, writing, quote, Tribal law is clear. Each nation has a sovereign right to regulate and manage these natural resources. Importantly, this means no other entity, including the State of Oklahoma, has the right to prosecute our members or members of other federally recognized tribes for hunting or fishing on tribal land. There’s some serious history to this one. Before Oklahoma became a state in nineteen nint to seven, the lands granted to the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole nations or sovereign quote unquote Indian country declared by US Congress. Once Oklahoma became a state, it began to enforce state law within those reservations. But in twenty twenty, the US Supreme Court ruled in McGirt the Oklahoma that Jimmy McGirt, a registered member of the Seminole tribe, would not be prosecuted by the State of Oklahoma for crimes committed within the Muscogee Nation. This decision re established that the reservations are Indian country and only indigenous judicial cists or US federal authorities can prosecute major crimes like robbery or murder there. However, a later case established that Oklahoma civil law, like paying taxes, still does apply for tribal members within Indian country. That’s the precedent the state sites for acquiring everyone within its borders to buy a hunting and fishing license. The tribes, in turn cite the Oklahoma Enabling Act, which says that as a coalition of becoming a state way back in nineteen oh seven, Oklahoma had to seed authority over Indian Country, which should include collecting license fees. When I said there’s a lot of history here, I meant to add yet another twist. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and the Five Tribes have several ongoing feuds over gambling revenue and other sovereignty issues. In twenty twenty one, Stitt declined to renew existing compacts that let the five tribes purchase hunting and fishing licenses in bulk at a discounted price, which allowed their members to hunt on and off reservation in Oklahoma Stitt, who is himself a Cherokee Nation citizen, justified canceling those compacts by saying all Oklahomas should pay the same license fees, but the state will continue to lose out on the revenue from those compacts. If a court finds that, in fact, indigenous hunters don’t have to buy state licenses when hunting on tribal lands, there’s sure to be a lot more fighting on this one. Balancing native sovereignty, paying for conservation, and protecting wildlife from bad actors. Adds some turf wars and personal vendettas in there, and it’s all a real mind bender. But this is far from my neck of the woods. So if you got a point of view here right in to askca l at the meeater dot com or call four h six two two zero six four four one and let me know what you think. Moving over to the judicial desk, which has been busy lately. First up, the Supreme Court officially declined to hear the case of Iron Bar Holdings Llc. Versus Cape at All more familiar to you and me as the Wyoming Corner Crossing case. The Court gave no reasoning behind the decision. It was just on a list of denied cases that the Court had been petitioned to take up. The very very good news is that this particular case is officially over, and the four Missouri hunters who passed through the airspace over Pharma exec Fred Eshlman’s property to go from one piece of public land to another are officially off the hook. The other piece of good news is that corner crossing is as it always has been, legal in Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, the states in the jurisdiction of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The lower court which ruled in the corner Crossers favored this past March. The less good news is that corner crossing remains in a legal gray area and the rest of the US, including my home state of Montana, and there’s no guarantee that the Supreme Court wouldn’t hear a different case from Nevada or Idaho at some point in the future and rule against corner crossing. Then maybe they were just too busy this time around. Out However, legal precedent is set. Corner crossing is legal according to the near highest state in the land. The only way to really breathe a sigh of relief on this issue is for the legislative branch to pass a law explicitly affirming the right to corner cross, which they basically have if you guys remember the Unlawful Enclosures Act. But there’s also state level politics to think about, so start lobbying your state lawmakers right now. This decision by the Supreme Court gives a green light to public lands groups who might help draft those laws, So we’ll be sure to bring those efforts to your attention to get behind if and when they start appearing. But before we rushed to the future too fast, let’s bask in a little public lands good news for a second. Huge thanks to all you groups who came to the defense of the Missouri IV, especially Wyoming BHA, and all of you who contributed to their legal defense. With all the other garbage we’re trying to fend off week after week, it’s nice to get a big w on the board. Moving over to New Jersey, a few weeks ago we let you know that the state’s bear hunt had survived one lawsuit filed by State Senator Ray Lesniak, while last week the hunt survived the other pending lawsuit, this one filed by a group calling itself the New Jersey black Bear Animal Protection League. This was a real kitchen sink style attack, and the ruling by the Appellate Division of the State Superior Court went point by point in refuting the suit. The Animal Protection League had cherry picked a black bear population count from a truncated late season study in twenty twenty two, had wrongly claimed that the management plan gave no end point for the hunt, claimed that a minor change to the plan that eliminated a summary paragraph had changed key provisions, and so on a real grasping at straws type effort. This decision comes just as the first segment of the twenty twenty five New Jersey bear hunt wrapped up on October eighteen. From the thirteenth to the eighteenth, hunters were able to go after bears with a bow, and from the sixteenth to the eighteenth muzzleloaders were also allowed. Hunters killed three hundred and sixty seven bears, ten percent fewer than were taken in last year’s October hunt. That gets the state to fifteen point seven percent of its estimated bear population, and the management plan calls for twenty percent of the bear’s population to be harvested each year to keep numbers manageable. Segment B of the season runs from December eighth to the thirteenth, and his shotgun and muzzleloader only. If the state doesn’t get to the twenty percent threshold at the end of Segment B, a third period will be added from the seventeenth to the twentieth, and if the take gets to thirty percent at any point, the hunt ends twenty four hours after the end of hunting light on the day the end of the hunt is announced. All these rules exist after the hard experience of previous year’s hunts going over quota and making for bad public relations. Anyway, congratulations to all you Garden State hunters out there who got your bear. Enjoy those hams, and maybe head over to the Meat eater dot com and find Clay Newcomb’s tutorial on rendering bear fat into bear oil, A real delicacy and once upon a time, a staple of life in America. Also consider the bear meat version of venison diplomacy. We give the antis a hard time with the spurious lawsuits they file and so on, but in their minds they are motivated by love for bears and the desire to protect them, And because bear hunts are often justified by pointing to nuisance bears and bear human conflict, it makes it seem like hunters are the adversaries of the bear instead of the ones conserving their habitat, paying for their population studies, telling stories about them until late at night, and so on. So if there’s someone in your life who might be on the fence about the bear hunt out there, invite them over. And as I like to call black bears the roast beef of the woods, you can use any roast beef recipe, including all those pot roast recipes from the Joy of Cooking. The Italian pot roast is a real winner. Make yourself some homemade French bread. You’ll be knocking some socks off. Gang shifting over the executive branches of this riding. On October twenty one, we are now three weeks into the government shutdown. We’re seeing the consequences for the out of doors. Over in Yosemite National Park staff has been furloughed and so there’s no one around to enforce park regulations. As result, squatters have been filling up campgrounds, climbers are using cables to climb half Dome without paying for permits, and base jumpers have illegally leapt off the three thousand foot granite face of l Cap. Listen. If I were a base jumper, no doubt I would be tempted to do the same. But it’s not hard to imagine a rough ending to that story. On a more mundane level, visitors centers are closed, trash is overflowing and the wildlife is eating it. The bathrooms are filthy. All the small ways that allow people to access the land they own are breaking down, and small problems quickly become big problems on all kinds of public lands, park’s wilderness areas, BLM, you name it. If part of a trail washes out during a rainstorm with no one there to repair it, it quickly spreads and can soon take years to fully correct. Habitat maintenance that you can only do before snowfall gets delayed by a full year and risks permanent damage. Still, the Trump administration has instructed US Fish and Wildlife staff to continue to allow hunting in the nation’s five hundred and eighty eight national wildlife refuges. Of course, I’m all for every opportunity possible for people to get out and hunt in the fall. But as you know, hunting is a responsibility game, so you better be taking care of those bathrooms, public blinds, packing out your own trash kids. Moving on to the crime desk, it’s been a few weeks since we hit the crime beat, but I’m sorry to say that’s not due to a change of heart among our nation’s poachers. As of this recording, game wardens in Colorado and Idaho are asking for the public’s help apprehending the people responsible for poaching elk and moose in Colorado. Hooror Bowl elk reproached in Los Animus County back in September. The animals were illegally shot on September thirteenth, twenty sixth, and twenty seventh near the communities of Stonewall and picket Wire, Colorado. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials say one of the four balls was shot an abandoned hole, one was wounded and had to be put down, one was shot with the backstraps removed, and one had its head removed with no meat taken. There is one thousand dollars reward for anyone who sends in a tip that leads to an arrest, So if you know anything about these incidents, give CPW a call up. In Idaho, the Department of Fishing Game is seeking information about four moose that were illegally killed in the Elk River and Clarkia areas. Officials believe the moose were killed on Potlatch Deltic corporate timber lands between October three and five. Moose are considered a trophy animal in Idaho, and successful hunters are only allowed one tag their entire lives. Poaching a moose takes away a potential tag from a legal hunter, a tag that someone may have waited decades to draw. Anyone with information on these incidents is encouraged to call the Citizens Against Poaching hotline at one eight hundred sixty three two five nine nine nine. At Tennessee man was recently convicted for illegally killing a deer in Kansas and then tagging it in Missouri. This tri state wildlife criminal has pled guilty to his crimes and been ordered to pay more than nine thousand dollars in fines, restitution, and court costs. The exact circumstances of the crime are still a little unclear. I assume he was near the Missouri Kansas border and he had a tag for Missouri. But when the opportunity presented itself to take down one of those Kansas giants we hear so much about, he just couldn’t help himself. Shot the deer, moved it back across the border to Missouri, and tried to have his venison and need it too. I don’t know for sure what’s happening, but that seems plausible. Game Warden’s heard about the incident while investigating an unrelated case, but they were able to pin him for the caper after getting access to his phone. They confiscated the deer in Nashville in the summer of twothy twenty four, at which point the man confessed to his crime. Speaking of successful investigations, Montana game Wardens recently charged three Big Horn County men with ten felonies and twenty three misdemeanors for poaching eight bull elk and one mule deer buck between twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. Case began when wardens received a tip about a headless bull elk in an area that was closed to hunting. After an extensive investigation, wardens found that the group allegedly killed and possessed the elk in Hunting District seven oh two during a closed season without landowner permission. The group also allegedly killed one mule deer buck without hunting licenses and without landowner permission. The individuals have not been named and their case is still ongoing. Last one for you this one from the Great State of Rhode Island, where two hunters were charged with wildlife crimes after a year long investigation. Game wardens first learned of one hunter after stumbling upon a tree stand and game camera beside a large pile of corn in the woods. Further investigation proved that the man was illegally hunting over bait, and he’d also illegally killed the deer. In Gloucester, game wardens searched his phone as part of their investigation, which led them to the second hunter. Whatever they found on the first hunter’s phone resulted in a charge for his body of hunting without a license or tag. That second hunter’s muzzleoder, and cell phone were seized, and the illegally taken deer was confiscated for educational use. The first hunter lost his hunting privileges for a year, had his gear seized and must pay a thousand dollars fine. Just goes to show you, kids, your mom was right when she said not to fall in with the wrong crowd. Not only will they lead you to a life of poaching, they also might keep evidence on their phone that will send you to the clink. You’ve been warned. Moving on to the legislative desk, lawmakers in Utah are debating whether to force hikers and bird watchers to purchase hunting licenses to access state owned land. You may remember that earlier this year there was a big kerfluffal when a new law went into effect that did exactly that. But when a hiker was given a citation for not having a hunting license in a popular wildlife management area, the general public pretty much lost it. Utah officials backtracked on that requirement and promised to revisit the issue this legislative session. Well, now that the session has started, they’re debating exactly what to do. One proposal would keep the hunting license requirement in place, but allow Utahns to access a free license in exchange for volunteer work or taking educational classes about public land. The other proposal would simply remove the requirement and return to the previous system. Both proposals are being pushed right now in the legislature, So if you have an opinion, get on the horn with your duly elected and let them know what you think. Moving on to the voicemail desk. This week, I got a call from a fellow named Jason McCall about some trouble with animal rights activists in his neck of the woods.
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Speaker 2: A buddy of mine and I run a trap line through state land in southeast Michigan. One day he met a person out on the line that was somebody that founded a rehab or a like a wildlife rescue. They said, hey, we got to call about this raccoon. We work with the DNR, so if there’s unmarked traps, we deal with that, YadA YadA. He’s like, don’t touch my traps. I’m completely legal. You know, this is none of your concern. So they offered to buy the release of a couple of raccoons, which he did it admittedly, which is not necessarily legal here in Michigan. There’s no there’s no live market, and she did transport him, so that’s besides the point. DNR already is on his butt about that. But we got a hold of the conservation officers in the sheriffs of our area and there is an ongoing investigation. So if our forty five traps have come up missing, we believe it is the rehab the wildlife rescue, and they are urging people to get a hold of city council to try and ban trapping in this area. So me making my livelihood, like my whole career is trapping. I do it every day all year. I love hunting, trapping, fishing, all that stuff. So I’m wondering what I can do to get ahead of them, and I’ve already made a video and posted it on Facebook kind of trying to get the attention of hunters and stuff, and so far I’m getting some people, But beyond calling city council and say hey, we don’t want trapping banned, is there anything else that I can do? I know I can, there’s probably some people I can call. I just don’t really know. So I really appreciate you guys’ help. If you could give me some guidance, I appreciate it.
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Speaker 1: Thanks for the call, Jason. Good news is that you’re doing exactly what you should be calling public attention to this problem and letting your elected officials know how you feel. The bad news is that there’s no magic bullet to defeat this effort by the animal rights crowd. If the city council is the body responsible for making this decision, they’re the ones you need to convince. But that’s totally doable. Usually only a handful of people show up to a city council meeting. If you can gather fifty hundreds and trappers to attend the meeting when they discuss this issue, you can send a powerful message that if the council members don’t make the wrong decision, they’ll face consequences in the next election. It doesn’t take that many people to sway local and state officials, so that’s where I would be focusing my time in the weeks and months ahead. If you’re not a member of Hook and Bullet groups local or national, you don’t have to be, but you know we’d love you at BHA. Get a hold of those groups and see if they have the bandwidth to help rally some folks to show up to those meetings. Should be just a quick email on the old email list. It’s an important thing to do at a minimum. Your city council needs to be asked why law enforcement isn’t doing their jobs on this particular case. That’s a lot of traps gone missing, a lot of cash, your livelihood. That’s a crime. Keep me posted on this one. Love to know how I can help a little bit more. That’s all I got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write into a sk C a L that’s an ASCAL at the meeteater dot com or call me at four oh six two two zero six four four one and leave a message. I’d love to hear what’s going on in your neck of the woods. Thanks again, I’ll talk to you next week.
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