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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 Klahan. Here’s cal.
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Speaker 2: A new development with a now famous Montana man just popped up. This is a little roundabout, so stick with me. John Edward Luten is a licensed big game outfitter here in the home state. According to our friends over at the Missoulian, his case dates back to an October twenty nineteen public land hunt for a Rocky Mountain big horn sheep in the famed Missouri Breaks. The hunter client in this case has not been disclosed, but he did kill a Ram and Luton the guy had pocketed the rams testicles or testes. Luton then went on to sell the Rocky Mountain sheep oysters to a fellow by the name of Arthur Jack Schubart for four hundred. That’s a classic four hundred for the set price. No news as to what a single big horn test he would run. Shoe Barth is the famous one. If that name rings a bell, This guy has already been sentenced to twenty five thousand dollars and fines in six months in jail. His case garnered national attention, not just because of his crimes involving native wildlife, but because he illegally imported parts of Marco polo our golly sheep from Central Asia and then was cloning them to create a purebread our gully sheep. He called quote the Montana Mountain King. He went on to cross breed the sheep to create Frankin sheep. That’s a terrible name to create a breed a sheep that would live behind tall fences. Of course, you may have heard this before right here on episode two sixty recorded that one back in March at twenty four Shoe Barth extracted the semen from the testicles of the big Horn sheep and sold it to exotic game farm owners in Texas. As you know from listening to the show, the trade of wild game across state lines is banned under the Lacy Act. In this case is a pretty cut and dry violation of it. Looting pled guilty in US District Court, and the maximum punishment for his crimes include a year of prison and up to one hundred thousand dollars in fines. I expect he’ll get a much lighter sentence, and I’ll probably start eating those sheep testicles instead of trying to sell them sliney satisflid. This week we’ve got coyotes, wolves, ticks, and smoky mountain bears. But first, I’m going to tell you about my week, and my week has been a cranking. You got a bill out of Wyoming that would not only end the roadless rule but make road building mandatory. Nobody’s saying who’s going to pay for that? We got folks pushing like hell to start ripping up tundra to build a two hundred and eleven mile road across caribou migration corridors and spawning streams. And for those of us who were dancing a jig over the reauthorization and fun a VPA hip, which is the voluntary public access and habitat improvement program commonly found associated with the farm bill, well, as it turns out some of the provisions in this new version are so restrictive states will not be able to apply for those funds. In other words, we got a lot of work to do if you like your hunting and fishing and access to it just one small example of what VPA hip funds do. And since we’ve been bringing up Texas a bunch already, we’ll just stick with that as an example. One hundred percent of the public river access programs which are through private ground are funded through VPA hip. That’s roughly half of the usage in the whole state goes to providing public access to rivers across private ground. So Texicans, if you’re feeling like your public access is scarce, might be good to ask your senator to contact the Egg Committee and nrcs to tell them that this new language around the VPA hip program requires state agencies to submit to such intense eligibility requirements that many states aren’t actually allowed to disclose that level of financial information, such as adjusted gross income from individual landowners. Not only that, but there’s a twenty five percent admin fee attached to applications, which kicks back to the Fed. The whole program was only funded at fifty two million dollars. We’re still digging into this one. It may be a clerical error, it should be. It’s typically a pretty non partisan type of deal. But nonetheless, hunting season is right around the corner. Plus I hear it just gets hot in Old Texas in the summer. Would be a real bummer to only stare at that river just for fun. I also looked real quick at Iowa, another great hunting state with very little public land. Iowa typically draws one point five million dollars out of VPA hip for that state’s private land public access program. Now, you’d typically have groups like Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited that would have people on the ground doing technical assistance to help individual operators work through the bureaucracy and apply for these funds. But that technical assistance funding has also gone out the window, so in many cases those staffs just don’t exist anymore. Still, great folks over there, it’s worth giving a call if you want to try to work through this stuff between tariffs and the price of diesel. Our friends on the egg side of the fence could use an easy button, not a fifty two million dollar pot minus the juice, of course that they can’t access, or perhaps instead of juice here you’re familiar with the vig anyway, Arkansas Senator Boozeman or Bozeman is the chair of the Senate agg Committee, may be worth giving his office a shout and asking politely for them to check into this. You razorbacks pulled two point one million dollars out last cycle for private land public access in Arkansas. Moving on or backwards rather in time, Remember Wayne’s world when they did like the deli. Anyway, all the way back to January, the beginning of the year bright Eyed Bushy tailed first down the job as the new President CEO of b H A whole world ahead of them. Anyway. Back in January, surveillance video out of none other than the Rock Alcatraz captured a coyote climbing out of the water onto the former prison island. Alcatraz is, of course, famously the most secure and miserable penitentiary in history. It’s a mile away from the closest mainland, and that coyote had to navigate notoriously cold and fast running currents to get out there. Biologists, of course, were fascinated, speculating that the coyote had made the swim to try to find a mate after getting boxed out of a home pack in San Francisco. They collected scat samples and sent them out for analysis at UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory. When those results came back, they revealed something even more incredible. This Michael Phelps of cannids did not come from San fran but was instead part of the pack from Angel Island further north in the Bay, which means that this coyote swam almost two full miles through some of the most treacherous water in North America to get to Alcatraz, which is not a destination pretty good for a dog paddler. Two. Angel Island itself is three quarters of a mile away from the nearest land mass, which scientists at one time thought was way too far for coyotes to make that huck. This mail apparently found out pretty quick that there were no dating prospects out on the island, because soon after the scientists set up their trail cams and other monitoring equipment, the coyote had vanished. So in addition to making it out to Alcatraz, he also seems to have escaped. How in the name of Zeus’s ball did you get out of yourself? If biologists are right that this male was trying to find a mate, I have to imagine the ladies back on Angel Island were very, very impressed with this feat of daring. Maybe in a couple of months we’ll see a litter of coyote puppies born who will one day swim the English Channel speaking of disappeared canids. The state of Wyoming has proposed cutting its wolf hunting objectives in half in response to an outbreak of canine distemper affecting the wolves in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem or the guye. The distemper virus affects the respiratory, digestive, and nervous systems of animals and is almost always fatal for juvenile wolves. Sixty four percent of the wolves that be Wyoming biologists caught and released last year tested positive. The outbreak has led to a significant drop in wolf numbers. This year, two hundred and fifty three wolves and fourteen breeding pairs retality in the Cowboy State as a whole, down from three hundred and thirty wolves and twenty four breeding pairs at the end of twenty twenty five. However, in the region of Wyoming around a Yellowstone, the so called trophy Game area, population counts found just ten breeding pairs. The terms of removing this population of gray wolves from the federal Endangered Species list included a requirement to maintain at least ten breeding pairs in the trophy game area, so Wyoming is right up against that threshold. The smaller hunt. Wyoming this year aims to increase the number of wolves in this zone from one thirty two to one sixty, which is the state objective to stay in line with the delisting agreement. Wyoming Game and Fish Department wolf biologist Ken Mills told wyofile quote, we want to grow the population by twenty eight wolves. To accomplish that, Wyoming is limiting hunters to twenty two wolves this season in the Trophy area, down from forty four last year. Of course, some of you listeners out there will say maybe it’s a better idea to take a hiatus from the hunt altogether until the distemper outbreak is over to avoid these animals potentially going back on the e SA. Some others might say we should keep hunt objectives right where they are since hunters haven’t hit those limits in the past and wolves are extremely difficult to hunt well. No matter what you believe, you’re in luck, Wyoming Fishing Game is taking public comments on these changes through June ten. Head over to WGFD dot Yo dot gov to find the details about submitting comments online and in person, and if you have a take on this one. You’d like me to consider right in to ask c Al. That’s Ascal at the meeteater dot com. And I’ve been neglecting to tell people about the darn phone number, so you you don’t have to bruise those dainty typing fingers and just give me a hauler at four oh six two two oh six four four one four oh six two two zero six four four one and just leave me a message jumping over to the TIIC desk. Last week, the state of Pennsylvania began tracking cases of alpha gal syndrome after disc covering hundreds of positive tests. The Keystone State is absolutely crawling with ticks, so public health officials are hoping to educate their populace about alpha gal or AGS so it can be treated before people have severe reactions. According to several recent surveys, most doctors aren’t familiar with AGS and are therefore unlikely to diagnose it despite warning signs. Although Pennsylvania is now collecting this information, the state’s blood testing labs aren’t legally required to test for AGS or report positive cases. Arkansas, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are the only states that currently mandate reporting of AGS, but we will definitely start seeing more states adopt those rules as the condition spreads. Interestingly, the problem of AGS today is started with the solution to a much bigger problem about twenty eight million years ago. According to geneticis our primate ancestors evolved this strong immune response to the alpha gal compound because deadly viruses and bacterial infections were attacked to those sugars to make it past the host’s immune defenses. Although scientists can’t tell what those diseases were, they seem to have wiped out the majority of our lineage of primates all those years ago. The individuals who adapted by rejecting alpha gal particles entirely were able to avoid these diseases. Unfortunately, that inheritance now ruins eating a cheeseburger once the alpha gal sugar enters your system and prompts that same immune response to red meat, which is all interesting context but doesn’t change the game plan for all of you in tick heavy states, wear long pants tucked into socks, spray all your outdoor clothes with permethron, check yourself and your pets once you get home, mention AGS to your friends and your doctor, and maybe most importantly, don’t let this keep you inside. You can still get out there. You just need to stay vigilant, on top of your game. Frosty, maybe when it comes to those little hangers on who think your blood tastes delicious. Jumping over to the DC, Trump’s number three official at the Department of the Interior, Karen bud Fallon, is facing a series of corruption charges over her handling of several land use issues in the West. First up, while serving at the DOI in twenty nineteen, bud Fallon met with the leadership of a lithium mining company that was trying to get a permit for a new mine, which it did later receive. However, bud Fallon’s husband had sold water rights to this same mind for three point five million dollars, a sum that would only be paid if the approval were granted. Although there’s no documentation of bud Fallon putting her thumb on the scale to push the permit through, it was a clear conflict of interest and she never listed that direct financial benefit on any of her financial disclosure forms. Additionally, there is a recent video recording of bud Fallon where she discusses participating in revisions to grazing policy in the West to benefit her own ranching operation and those like it. She states in the video quote, if you have place, this is like in northern Nevada where my father in law’s place is. We added categorical exclusions so you can move cattle in there. According to reporting by the news outlet Public Domain, Bud Fallon’s father in law passed away several years ago, so the ranch she mentions is now owned by her husband. She goes on. The thing that probably was the closest to my heart was grazing regulations. This is an interesting one, right because you kind of want people who know what grazing is to be dealing with grazing regulations. But the way the system set up is you are supposed to put yourself in a position to where you aren’t directly dealing with things that are going to personally benefit you. You just got to abstain, sit back, and let somebody else take care of that one. During the first Trump administration, when Bud Fallon had a much narrower role, she barred herself from working on grazing policy or even discussing it due to these severe conflict of interest. What has changed, we don’t know. Additionally, the BLM has just revoked a grazing allotment by an operation here in Montana called American Prairie. The owner of one of those allotments was a client of Bud fallonce when she was a private lawyer, at which time she requested that exact permit be revoked back in twenty twenty two. So you know, there’s just like a lot there that many people would say, what’s the uh, you know, shame on you, shame on me type of thing. It fooled me.
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Speaker 1: We can’t get fooled again, you.
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Speaker 2: Guys, get it. Moving on to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which has closed down certain trails after several visitors had dangerous encounters with black bears there. Access was suspended to the Ramsey Cascades trail after two separate incidents of bears stealing backpacks and one of a bear chasing a group of hikers. The Abrams Falls trail was closed after a bear attacked person who had gone into an off limits area. Great Smoking Mountains Park is the most visited national park in the country and has almost two thousand black bears, many of whom know very well that where there are people, there are easy calories. Most of the time, you don’t have to worry about attacks when you’re in a black bear country because they’re much less aggressive than grizzlies. But this is an exception. This is what you call habituated bears. If you’re headed out there, stay alert, stay together with your hiking companions, and make sure your food is secure. Keep yourself and the gritters safe. Moving on to the highway desk, two senators recently unveiled a bill that would put an interstate smack dab in the middle of one of the most scenic and wildlife filled valleys in North America. Submitted by John Cornyan of Texas with support from Cynthia Loomis or Lummas of Wyoming, the I forty seven Future Interstate Act is a proposal to create a four lane thoroughfare that would extend eighteen hundred miles from Shoto, Montana, down to the Gulf Coast city of Port Arthur. Quote. By upgrading one of our nation’s longest highways to a future interstate, the legislation will increase economic growth and improve safety, all while honoring the most consequential president of our lifetime, said Corner. However, the impact on wildlife of the upgraded road could be consequential, particularly in the Madison Valley of southwest Montana, which is considered a critical crossroads for all kinds of critters in the Greater Yellstone ecosystem, not to mention the location of the world famous trout fishery the Madison River, and in that area, some of the wildlife, such as elk, are migratory, which could make the potential disruption from the interstate even more severe of an issue. As it stands, the proposed interstate is a long way off, and as things sit right now, I just think, boy, I have a hard time seeing folks spending money on something like that and knowing all this beautiful country as a mind. Ontana kid, I think we’re fine without it. Moving on to the poison control desk, the Golden State is experiencing an unprecedented rash of poisonings from wild mushrooms. According to the California Department of Public Health, there have been some forty seven poisonings since last November, including four deaths and four liver transplants. The scale of the poisonings is prompting experts to call it the largest known outbreak of deadly mushroom poisonings in US history. In the past, California typically recorded fewer than five wild mushroom poisoning cases each year. There are likely a couple factors at play in the recent outbreak. Public health officials say that spring rains have created an abnormally high amount of aptly named destroying angels and death cap mushrooms on the landscape. Those mushrooms can be confused for popular eaten mushrooms such as matsutaki, amanita, verna, kokora, small puffballs, buttons, and more. Both destroying angels and death caps are known to cause organ failure. The increased presence of the mushrooms on the landscape likely doesn’t fully account for why the spate of poisonings is happening at such an unusually large scale. Several victims were international visitors who did not have a good understanding of English. Additionally, some folks worry that people are using AI powered applications to identify wild mushrooms, and that those apps are not accurate enough to base life threatening decisions on. I’ll be darned AI is not here to save us. The California Department of Public Health has issued warnings urging people not to forage mushrooms, and there are many many public lands in the state where mushroom foraging is strictly forbidden, ostensibly to prevent poisonings from happening. This abstinence only approach reminds me of sixth grade sex ed and this tactic doesn’t have the best track record of success in my opinion. A better approach might be to increase access to reputable resources for safe foraging practices. Regardless, though, the ration of poisonings is a mortal reminder of the risk that you face if you aren’t able to add accurately identify wild mushrooms before you consume them. We’ll keep an eye on this outbreak going forward, though hopefully people learn from the mistakes of others and avoid chopping down on deadly mushrooms in the weeks, months, and years to come. Not all smallmouth bass are the same here at the fish Desk. This coming from researcher Joe C. Gunn and Andrew T. Taylor, who reviewed decades of genetic and genomic science on one of America’s favorite sport fish. The result gun and tailor. That’s a G and T by the way, So that smallmouth bass should more appropriately be called the quote smallmouth bass species complex.
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Speaker 1: Fill the engineer here. Cowl’s audio recording had a small glitch in it, so I’m just going to fill in a few seconds of what was corrupted here. Under the small mouth bass species complex nomenclature, there are four distinct lineages of smallies, the widespread northern smallmouth bass, as well as the Neoshio bass, the Watchitah bass, and the little River bass.
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Speaker 2: Gun and Taylor say that despite serious similarities, the lineages started evolving separately over a million years ago. While the research likely won’t change what most anglers call good olds smallies, it may have important implications for conservation practices. Further work is still needed before the new taxonomy is officially implemented. That’s all I got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write into ask c Al. That’s Asscal at the meat eater dot Com. Let me know what’s going on in your neck of the woods. You know I appreciate it. Once again. The number if you want to just give me a holler, it’s four oh six two two zero six four four one. Leave me a message. Thanks again. We’ll talk to you next week,
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