00:00:02 Speaker 1: From Mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cal's weekend review, presented by Steel. Steel products are available only at authorized dealers. For more, go to steel Dealers dot com. Now Here's your host ran Cal Callahan. A freight train killed an entire herd of elk and Washington State last week and what officials described as an extremely unusual and disturbing accident. The incident occurred near the town of Washougle, about twenty miles northeast of Portland. Local media reports that the train's crew sounded the whistle, but they couldn't stop in time. The trains stayed on the tracks and no humans were injured. I can't say the same for the elk. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reports that between twenty four and twenty six elk were killed in the accident. Officials believe they may have been using the tracks as a travel corridor to navigate through the steep landscape. Elk are frequently in the area around the tracks, but it's uncommon for there to be so many elk on the tracks at the same time. The fact that the officials were unable to determine exactly how many elk were killed. Helps explain why officials also said the animals were not salvageable, and also why they say don't stand on the tracks when the train's coming through. My mom always said, thanks to Isaiah McDonald for sending this one in. This week, we've got legislation crime in California salmon. But first I'm going to tell you about my week. And my week was, well, it hasn't really happened yet, if I'm being honest, I'm writing this little fire in advance in order to be at the BHA rendezvous. By the time you hear this, rendezvous will be over, but the BHA auction will still be live. This year, I donated a trip for one person to get set up for hunting season. The best way I know. I teamed up with Weatherbye and we are giving away a meat Eater Edition, three hundred Weatherbee rifle boxes, AMMO, a Vortex viper LHT scope mounts. We're flying in for a day of shooting with the pros at Weatherbee. We'll get your rifle set up, then we'll bust a bunch of clay pigeons with some fancy new shotguns. I'll drive you around I'll pick you up from the airport and I'll do as much shooting as I can get into. All you need to do is show up with a rifle case to get your goods home. Still time to bid on that trip. It'll be fun and productive. Just head over to the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers website or to the Cows we Can review page at the meteater dot com. Thank you in advance for bidding high for conservation, and I'll see you in Sheridan, Wyoming, hopefully sometimes this summer. Moving on to the legislation desk, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission voted unanimously last week to cap the number of nonresident deer and antelope licenses for archery hunters on public land. South Dakota joins many other states and limiting the number of nonresident public land hunters. However, there is still no limit on the number of nonresident private land licenses that can be sold. A spokesperson for South Dakota bow Hunters Incorporated told The South Dakota Searchlight that this quote hands off approach to private land hunting fails to consider wildlife as a public resource. Staying in the Dakotas. The North Dakota House passed a bill late last month that would limit the authority of the Game and Fish Department to ban deer baiting on private land. Current law allows the department to ban baiting within twenty five miles of a detection of chronic waste disease. This bill, HB eleven fifty one would allow hunting big game overbait on private property from August twenty five through January seventh. Bait could not exceed fifty gallons and it must be set back one hundred and fifty feet from a landowner's property line. The bill now heads to the Senate, so anyone concerned about the legislature eliminating the management tool of regulating bait in North Dakota should contact their state senators. As I've said many many times on this show, game regulations are easy to change. Laws are not. Connecticut and hunters are in a fight to allow black bear hunting in the state as the bear population grows alongside conflicts between bears and humans. Senate Bill eleven forty eight would allow the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection to establish an annual bear hunt in Litchfield county. Permits would be issued by lottery, and no more than fifty bears would be allowed to be taken in a year. Nearly one thousand people testified in person or via written comment at the bill's first hearing before the Committee on Environment. Supporters of the bill, which include Governor Ned Lamont and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, argue that a bear hunt will help reduce human bear conflicts. Opponents say the state should focus on non lethal deterrent methods and a don't feed the bear's public relations campaign seems like there's some compromise there by doing all of the above. To get involved, contact your Connecticut state legislators. In Wisconsin, two Republican legislators are circulating a bill that would require Wisconsin Wildlife officials to establish a new population goal for wolves in the state in their next management plan. The current wolf management plan is supposed to limit the wolf population to three hundred and fifty wolves, but the Department of Natural Resources estimates that the actual population is closer to one thousand. The DNR's draft management plan, released in November, doesn't call for any specific population size. This bill, which has not yet beneficially introduced would require the DNA to set a population goal, but it does not say what the goal should be. Thanks to Andrew Whitman for sending that one. In. The Florida legislature is considering a bill that would enshrine the right to hunt and fish in the states constitution if passed, Senate Bill one two three four. That's right. It's not the combination to your luggage anymore. It's Senate Bill one two three four. What's your password of Michael, Oh, that's one two three four. Would bring Florida in line with at least twenty three other states that have adopted the right to hunt and fish in their state constitution. Maine is once again in the news for attempts to legalize sunday hunting. A group called main Hunters United for Sunday Hunting held a press conference last week announcing their flagship legislation. Instead of allowing Sunday hunting across the board, this bill would create a Sunday hunting permit, which those with an archery or crossbow hunting license could purchase for thirty one dollars. The money generated would be distributed among the Land for Maine's Future fund. The Department of England, Fisheries and Wildlife, the Bureau of Warden Service and youth hunter Education programs. A poll commissioned by main Hunters United for Sunday Hunting found that forty eight percent of residents support the proposal, while twenty seven percent oppose. Twenty five percent expressed a neutral position. The bill has not yet been given a number, but you can bet that Mainers will have a chance to weigh in once it has one. The Louisiana Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking a public input on new red drum fishing regulations they plan to present the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission. Thanks to Connor Ackerman for sending this one in, as well as a bunch of other folks. The department says that while the spawning stock is still above limits, too few fish are surviving to join the offshore spawning population. The percentage of fish that escape offshore is called the escapement rate, and the department says that that rate should be at least thirty percent, but the current rate is only twenty percent, which is why they're considering several potential management options. They would like to reduce the total red drum harvest by thirty five percent, which means adjusting creole limits and slot sizes at the starting minimum slot size eighteen inches. For example, the creole limit can be set at three fish if zero fish are allowed over the maximum slot size. There are several other scenarios you can view at the department's website or by visiting the meat eater dot com forward slash ow if you like to fish for red drum off the Louisiana Coast. I've only been once and it's pretty darn fun. The Department of Fish and Wildlife wants to hear from you. What kind of creole limits and slot sizes would you be happy with? Let them know by filling out the survey, which you can find at the meat eater dot com forward slash cow. Texans earned a temporary victory last week when the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced that Fairfield State Park will be open for day use beginning March fourteenth. The fourteen hundred acre park had been sold to a developer, but Texas Parks and Wildlife worked out this temporary deal after massive public outcry. Since closing the park in February, we have heard an outpouring from Texans who would love to visit their park, said Texas Parks and Wildlife Department State Parks Director Rodney Franklin. While we still stand committed to reaching a compromise that would save Fairfield Lake State Park for future use, our team will be working hard to keep this gem as accessible as possible for as long as po The park will be open on a first come, first served basis until the park reaches daily capacity. Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission Chairman Arch Applin has avowed to continue negotiations with the parks new owner to allow for future public use. In national news, President Joe Biden announced last week a new executive order aimed at curbing gun related violence. The wide ranging order proposes policies supposedly designed to keep guns away from criminals, hold the gun industry accountable, and tweak federal law enforcement efforts to trace guns and ammunition. The order directs Attorney General Merrick Garland to quote move the US as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation. The administration hopes to do that by clarifying who is and engaged in business of selling firearms and is therefore required to obtain a federal firearms license and run background checks on gun purchases. Under current law, private parties can buy and sell gun without a background check unless a state has passed a law banning those sales. Private parties must obtain a federal firearms license if they are quote engaged in the business of selling guns, which the Feds have so far refused to define clearly. They say that if a person repetitively buys and sells firearms for the principal motive of making a profit, that person needs to obtain a license, but they do not define repetitively or how they might determine someone's motive. We'll see how the Attorney General decides to word the new regulations, but the President clearly wants him to ban as many private sales as possible. If that happens, hunters may need to think twice before selling rifle to a buddy. Moving on to the fishing desk, California's banned ocean salmon fishing along its entire eight hundred and forty mile coast. State officials made the decision to close the salmon fishery this year after a sustained drought wreaked havoc on the fish population. This is only the second time in history the state has closed the fishery. The last closure occurred in two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine after another period of sustained drought. The actions were taken to protect Sacramento River Fall Chinook, which returned to the Central Valley in two twenty two at near record low numbers, and the Klamath River Fall Chanook, which had the second lowest abundance forecast since the current assessment method began in nineteen ninety seven. The Sport fishery was set up to open on April first, but will now be closed through May fifteenth. The Pacific Fishery Management Council has proposed three options for what the state will do between May sixteenth of this year and May fifteenth of next year. Unfortunately for California anglers, and none of these three alternatives will any ocean salmon fishing be open along the Golden State coastline. Oregon Washington will still allow salmon fishing to varying degrees, but the Pacific Fishery Management Council has already decided to close California. But that doesn't mean you can sit on the sidelines. On March twenty one, two twenty three, the Management Council will hold a public hearing in Santa Rosa to receive public comment on those three alternatives. These management plans contain varying season dates and CREO limits for the fish reason Washington and Oregon, So California anglers who planned to travel north to fish should still get involved. The public can also submit comments online and we'll post a link to that website at the meat eater dot com forward slash col Moving on to an unfortunately packed edition of the Crime Desk. Remember that woman who accidentally shot and skinned to husky then bragged on Facebook about killing a wolf. There's been an update in that case. Amber Rose Barnes pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty and was given a six month the third sentence. According to TMZ, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks did not charge her with a hunting violation because dogs are not under their jurisdiction, but the Montana Animal Crew status prohibits killing an animal quote negligently and quote without justification. I don't believe Barnes was trying to be cruel to domestic dogs, but that's what the laws sets. She must take an online hunter safety course and she won't be allowed to use her hunting rifle for the next six months. As she completes those requirements and doesn't skin anymore dogs during this probationary period, her entire case will be dismissed. This might sound like a light sentence for an infraction that jumped the outdoor media barrier and swept across the country, but I think she's probably learned her lesson. She claimed the dog was barking and growling at her, and she didn't have any reason to expect to see a husky and flathead National Forest, but she was still hammered on social media, mainstream media, and pretty much everywhere else speaking of skinning dogs, and I hope to never use that transition again. A different hunter in Connecticut has been criminally charged after he shot and skinned a pair of German shepherds. Sixty one year old Michael Konchak told a judge that he believed the dogs were kyo when he killed them with a crossbow while deer hunting. He skinned both dogs and cut off their heads, which still haven't been found. The dog's owners say the shepherds escaped through a damaged fence, and they launched a petition to have contact criminally charged. They say that the quote murder of their dogs has caused unimaginable trauma, suffering an exhaustion for the family. Looking at the images of the shepherds, whose names were Simo and Leban, I can understand why someone would think they were big highoats from a distance, But like Barnes, Contracts should have realized what he'd done upon closer inspection and turned himself in. Two Nebraska men hunting and killed the bald eagle and tried to eat it. According to the Stanton County Sheriff's Office, officials received a report of a suspicious vehicle parked in a field near the Wood Duck Recreation Area in the northeastern part of the state. When they went to investigate, they found two twenty year old Honduran nationals with a North American bald eagle in their possession. The Sheriff's office cited both men for unlawful possession of the eagle, but they have since been released. Sheriff Mike Unger told the Washington Free Beacon that he's tried to contact the US Fishing and Wildlife Service about the case, but as yet to receive a response. Under the Eagle Protection Act, wounding or killing an eagle can result in a fine of one hundred thousand dollars and one year in prison for a first offense. And speaking of killing birds of prey, a Michigan man recently pled no contest after shooting and killing three young Cooper's hawks earlier last year. Officials say that sixty five year old Arthur Anderson of Maccombe Township had hired a utility company to come cut down trees on his property. When the utility company refused to disturb the trees due to the bird's habitat, Anderson retrieved a shotgun from his house and shot the nest at least five times. Three dead hawks then fell to the ground. Anderson os forty five hundred dollars in reimbursements to the state and four hundred and seventy five dollars in fines and costs. He will also be on probation for six months, and the shotgun he used to shoot the birds was confiscated. Over in Hawaii, poachers killed what the media described as eight beloved piglets at a Hawaiian country club. Sorry, I can't say that without laughing. Local media reports that members of the country club in Wahiwa are mourning after they say poachers trespassed onto the property and killed a litter of baby pigs. The mother and piglets moved onto the golf course about eight months ago, and patrons say they became an immediate sensation. Eight month old pigs are pigs, not piglets. Golfers kept them safe along golf cart paths and presumably yelled four whenever the animals wandered onto the fairway. Unfortunately, for this pack of peaceful porkers, their paradise was soon shattered by two poachers, who, in full view of patrons and groundskeepers, set hunting dogs loose on the golf course and gunned down all eight piglets. Police reports have been filed and country club patrons are vowing to fight for tighter hunting restrictions in the state legislature. I don't think tighter hunting restrictions would have anything to do with this situation. That's trespassing. Game wardens in Louisiana cited ten hunters ranging from nineteen to fifty four years of age for possessing pods while bow hunting. That's pods. Agents were on patrol along the Mississippi River earlier this year when they initiated compliance checks on hunters south of Lake Providence. Agents found all ten hunters in possession of pods, and they confirmed that one of them had taken an antlerless deer using a pod. For those unfamiliar, pods are attached to an arrow and contained poison that causes death even after a poorly placed shot. Archery hunters have debated the ethics of aeropods, and Fred Baer famously developed and held patents for these devices, but every major bow hunting organization opposes their use, and I'd guess that the vast majority of hunters feel the same way. Aeropods are illegal in forty nine states, the exception Mississippi. Last stop at the crime desk, three East Texas men have been accused of running a multi state poaching ring that officials say are responsible for illegally killing over one hundred white tailed deer. Twenty one year old Carson Bottoms, twenty four year old Drake Cannon, and eighteen year old Reagan farquistson. Yeah, We're gonna go with farquistson Scotch Farcas staring out at us with his yellow eyes allegedly poacher deer in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Iowa. Texas Parks and Wildlife says the men trespassed and shot deer at night and then took them home to process them. Well, hats off to them for processing them. I guess more arrests could be made and officials say they've contacted US Fish and Wildlife or possible federal charges. Moving on to the urban encroachment desk, a new study from the polling and research company Pew has found that most states are seeing explosive growth in urban areas, both in terms of people and land. Hunters, anglers, and wildlife officials have long been concerned about the acceleration of urbanization in our country, but this study puts some hard numbers on those fares. Between two ten and twenty twenty, thirty six states increased the percentage of residents living in urban environments as defined by the US Census Bureau. This change was led by booming suburbs in the south, Southwest, Midwest, in California, Austin, Texas saw the biggest change. Austin's population grew by thirty three percent in the last decade, and the urban sprawl added almost one hundred square miles of formerly rural land. That's sixty four thousand acres no longer available for quality wildlife habitat or outdoor recreation. Other cities that saw big population booms include Raleigh, Charleston, Orlando, Provo Oorum, which is the greater Salt Lake City area, and Des Moines. All of these city southern urban areas grow between twenty one and twenty five percent. This might not come as a surprise to most hunters, but it's still a helpful reminder. Our country doesn't look like it did thirty or even ten years ago. Increased urbanization means that fewer people have access to places to hunt fish, which is why the percentage of hunters is about half of what it was forty years ago. That means we should be working twice as hard to show that urban dwelling population the truth about the sport we love. The vast majority of hunters follow the rules, take ethical shots, and harvest all the meat they can. The money from filled or unfilled tags and licenses goes to protect wild places and animals, and not just the animals we hunt. As more and more folks move to cities and suburbs, telling those stories will be more important than ever before. That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening, as per usual, right in to ask Al that's ask Cal at the Meat Eater dot com and let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. You know I appreciate it. Also, if you're trying to figure out where to pile your pennies, dial up www dot steel Dealers dot com and find a local, knowledgeable steel dealer near you. They're gonna get you set up to what you need and they won't try to send you home with what you don't. Thanks again, and I'll talk to you next week.