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, Ryan cal Callahan. 00:00:22 Speaker 2: New hires in the Elee, Minnesota Police Department will get a brand new kevlar canoe. Similar to law enforcement departments nationwide, the Elee Minnesota Force is having a hard time recruiting new officers and filling old positions. So if you are currently a law enforcement officer elsewhere, perhaps you're feeling frustrated like you're stuck in the eddy of an unsatisfying job, or maybe you have a superior who makes you feel as if you're going against the flow. Or maybe you feel up a creek with no paddle in site. Join the e and you can be upcreek with a new canoe. At the very least, paddles were not mentioned. Currently, four spots on the forests are open. Eely is a gateway to the famed Boundary Waters Canoe Area, where fantastic excursions into America's most visited wilderness area are provided for and planned. Most of these trips involve paddling multiple lakes which are connected by small portages. That's how we say in Montana. I'm not French, Canadian, or else, I'd say portage for anyway. A portage is where you empty your canoe of gear and pack everything to the next lake, then reload everything in your gear in that canoe that you also had to pack to the next lake. Which is why in Ely, Minnesota, home to the Mighty Eely Timberwolves, police officers are incentivized with kevlar, making a nice, lightweight, durable canoe skin rather than a vest. This week we've got fire bat damn salmon legislation, and so much more. But first I'm going to tell you about my week. And my week has been a wild road tour. Landed in Seattle where we joined the gridlock traffic and picked up parking ticket before heading south to pl Washington, where I joined Jason Phelps. PL, if you don't know, is the world headquarters of Phelps Game Calls. Met up with Jason just in time for four inches of rain in a twenty four hour time period. Our goal that week was not to remain dry, but to try to kill a Roosevelt elk during the late archery season. Killing elk with bo is not typically a gimme, so our hopes were higher than our actual expectations. And to make things even more difficult, we were actually trying to specifically target limping elk elk inflicted with hoof disease, which is super nasty stuff. Now, the main reason that I was targeting diseased elk was honestly to talk about it more with all of you. Hoof disease is nasty. Like I said, it's very sad to see in real life. And the reality is that it's creeping from west to east western Washington, and really the pl region is the epicenter, but cases have been confirmed in Idaho, California, and Oregon just so far. Typically starting as a small red bump blister lesion in the interdigital space, interdigital being a great word for between the toes, hoof disease eventually causes the keratin on the hoof to malform into what the locals call an elfshoe. Imagine the curly toe on buddy of the elf. Anyway, this breaks off and nothing is left for the elk to walk on but exposed bone. During the progression of this disease, the hoof foot and leg gets progressively more painful. The elk don't walk or stand on the affected limb to the point where that limb becomes paralyzed. It also stinks. We watched ravens continually harass infected animals by nipping at the stinking hoofs. This is another fatal disease. So why again would you try to kill an animal that you want to eat with this infection? Well, a couple reasons. As far as we know, hoof disease is transmitted animal to animal, so by removing an infected animal from a herd, we may be breaking the chain of transmission. And as an additional incentive, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has created a special drawing for hunters who harvest infected animals, in which special tags can be drawn for trophy opportunities. So you win twice. Man more to come on this one, lots more. Who's a real eye opener. We got to talk with a lot of the people involved in the research. It was amazing. In the meantime, if you want to help with this, be on the lookout for lesions, blisters, and red spots in that space between your elk toes, you know, the inner digital zone, moving on to the conflagration desk. Two hunters died this month and separate incidents involving propane heaters and hunting blinds, and Pennsylvania's seventy six year old Raymond Seville Junior died from smoke inhalation after the propane heater he was using leaked the flammable liquid and caught on fire. The Fulton County coroner told local media he believes an animal had chewed the hose that connected the heater to the propane tank, and the fuel spread to Seville's clothes. Seville's wife tried to get her husband out of the blind, but he had mobility issues and she wasn't able to overcome the smoke and the heat. In a separate incident, this one in Michigan, a seventy five year old man died in a similar accident. He and his grandson were hunting on the opening day of white tail rifle season in Sanilac County. The grandson was hunting in a different part of the property when he heard popping sounds he thought were rifle shots, but then he saw smoke, so he hurried over to the blind where his grandfather was hunting. He found his grandfather lying dead outside the blind while the structure was still on fire. An investigation is ongoing, but authority say a propane heater likely cause the blaze. If you plan to use a propane heater in a hunting blind or ice fishing shack, here's a couple of tips. First, brand new can of propane. Check all the connections for leaks. Use little soapy water. Splash it on there. If it makes bubbles, tighten up those connections or start all over again. Don't leave the heater in the blind unattended, especially not for an extended period of time. Also, be sure the blind is properly ventilated. Dying in a fire will get you on the news, but the real threat from propane heaters is carbon monoxide poisoning. Heaters designed for hunting blind still produce carbon monoxide, which is a poisonous, odorless gas that can kill you in minutes. Be sure your blind has a window or roof vent You can also install a carbon monoxide detector to make sure the levels don't get too high. For more on this story, check out the article on the meat eater dot com. Moving on to the Damn Desk, a document recently leaked by Republican members of Congress reveals that the Biden administration would support tearing down the Lower Snake River dams in eastern Washington. The proposed agreement between four native tribes, Washington, Oregon, and the federal government would spend more than one billion dollars to prepare for breaching the four hydro electric dams and to promote fish populations. The agreement does not go so far as to approve the removal of these dams, but it does propose ways to replace the services they provide and a plan to restore salmon and steelhead populations. The four hydro electric dams along the Lower Snake River have been a source of controversy for years. Anglers and conservationists have called for their removal in order to save dwindling numbers of salmon and steelhead that make their way up the river into Idaho. In twenty eighteen, the Idaho Department of Fishing Game temporarily close their popular and economically important steelhead fishery across the entire state due to small runs coming up the Snake. In twenty nineteen, they closed the entire Clearwater River basinto Chinook Salmon fishing, and a few months later they closed it to steelheading as well. While the state used to see more than one hundred thousand wild steelhead every year, these days the figures are closer to ten thousand. The dams aren't the only reason for this decline. Pollution, overfishing, ocean conditions, and growing predator populations have also played a role, but a lot of those issues are exacerbated by the dams being there. Those who argue for the removal of the dam say the structures do far more harm than good. Stagnant water raises the water temperature, and predators like smallmouth bass and northern pike minto have proliferated. Native tribes in the area have been requesting for decades that the dams be removed, and as the fish populations continue to decline, anglers have joined the call. But removing the dams is much more difficult than it sounds. For one thing, these dams produce an enormous amount of electricity, enough to power a city about the size of Seattle. The dams were originally built to allow barge traffic from Lewiston that's Lewiston, Idaho, to reach the Pacific Ocean, and they still perform that function. They also provide irrigation for farmers and ranchers. The Leaked plan poses to answer some of these objections by setting aside money to identify the best ways to meet the region's energy resource needs and clean energy goals. The Department of Energy would, for example, pay for the four Lower Columbia River tribes to develop clean and renewable energy projects. The Pacific Northwest Tribal Energy Program would theoretically replace the power lost by the removal of the dams. On the conservation side, salmon would be reintroduced into the Upper Columbia River basin, and improvements would be made in the basins to support lamprey, white sturgeon, bowl trout, and other native fish and shellfish. It's unclear what affects this Leak proposal will have if any legal experts disagree about whether the dams can be removed by federal agencies or whether it requires an Act of Congress. So it's not like the Biden administration can move forward with their plan immediately, but it does give us a window into what they're thinking. If control of Congress changes, but the White House doesn't, the Lower Snake River dams may not be around much longer. Moving on to the corner crossing desk, the landowner at the center of the corner crossing controversy in Wyoming says the judge got it wrong when he sided with the four hunters who had the temerity to cross into his airspace. In our last update on this case, Judge Scott Skovdahl ruled that there is no civil liability if someone crosses from public land to public land at the corners where the parcels meet, as long as they do not touch the surface of private land or damage private property. This was a big win for public land users in Wyoming, but we always knew the landowner, a fellow named Fred Eshlman, would likely appeal the ruling. Letting the public access their own property would likely diminish the value of Eshlman's ranch because he purchased the property with the understanding that he'd have exclusive access to those public parcels. Now he's filed an appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Eshlman argues that the judge relied on bad precedent when he made his decision. If you read Judge Gobdal's ruling, which I encourage you to do. It's great. You'll notice that he faces much of his argument on a nineteen fourteen case called Macki v. Yuinta development company. In that case, a federal appeals court ruled that a sheep farmer could graze his sheep across private land in order to access public property. If the court sided with the sheep farmer in that case, surely a few hunters who never even touched private property should be allowed to corner cross. But Eshlman's lawyers called that line of reasoning an error. McKay is not binding, persuasive, or even good law, they say in their appeal. The reason gets a little complicated, but basically it comes down to jurisdiction. US appeals courts all have jurisdiction over different regions of the country. McKay was decided by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, but in nineteen twenty nine, Congress split the Eighth Circuit Court into two courts to create the new Tenth Circuit. The Tenth Circuit, according to Eshlman, has never held that rulings of the former Eighth Circuit are controlling. There's just one problem. The case originated in Wyoming. At the time of McKay, Wyoming was part of the Eighth Circuit. Scobdahll wrote, because McKay originated from the district of Wyoming, this court can find no reasonable basis to believe it is not bound by McKay's decision. We'll see whether the Tenth Circuit Court buys Eshelman's argument. If they don't, and they decide to uphold Scobdall's ruling, it could remove civil liability for corner crossing in even more western states. Scobdall's decision only applies to Wyoming, but the full Tenth Circuit governs Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, and Oklahoma. A win at the Tenth Circuit might open up landlocked public land in those states as well, if the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise, as they say. Moving on to the mistaken identity desk or is it you be the judge? A sixty two year old hunter in Wisconsin shot a woman during deer season this year because he thought her dog was a doe. The Wisconsin d and R reports that his forty seven year old woman was walking her dog on private property in Big Flats Township on the opening weekend of rifle deer season. The woman was struck in the abdomen and had to be transported to the hospital in a helicopter. I haven't been able to get an update on her condition, but media reports at the time indicated she was receiving treatment. The DNR is investigating the incident, and no charges have been filed as of yet. A DNR official said the hunter was disabled and mentioned that some disabled hunters are allowed to hunt from their vehicles. It's unclear whether that's what's happened in this case, and the DNR hasn't named either individual. The DNR also recommended that non hunters wear bright colors during gun season. I'm sure better safe than sorry, but we know hunting is a responsibility game, and we id our target. We know what we're shooting at always and what's beyond. Another case of mistaken identity unfolded this month in Pennsylvania, where a hunter was shot by another hunter who mistook him for a coyoke. Officials with the Pennsylvany Any Game Commission say the victim had wrapped up an evening of deer hunting and was packing things in his car when he heard a rifle shot. He walked back into the field to see if the deer were being pushed his way, but the shot he heard had been made by another hunter who had fired at a coyote. When the coyote hunter saw the victim in the field, he thought it was the coyote, so he pulled the trigger and hit the victim in the shoulder. The coyote hunter rendered aid and called nine to one one around five thirty pm. The incident is still under investigation. It occurred on private land, but it's unclear if the men knew each other. The Pennsylvania Game Commission notes that the man had taken off his hunter's orange vest when he went back to his vehicle. I'm sure wearing orange would have helped prevent the incident, but if you mistake a person for a coyote, it means you're shooting at movement or shadows. Let's not do that, Okay, Moving on to the legislative desk. We'll start this legislative update in Washington. 00:14:56 Speaker 1: D C. 00:14:56 Speaker 2: Where the House Natural Resources Committee is considering a bill that would digitize information on federal waterways. The bill is called the Map Waters Act, which should sound familiar. In twenty twenty two, Congress passed and the President signed the Map Land Act, which required federal agencies to digitize public land mapping data so it could be accessed on apps like on x. The Map Waters Act does exactly the same thing. The Act directs federal agencies to digitize water and fishing, access and recreational use information on federal waterways and make those resources readily available to the public. This information would include things like which waterways are open to watercraft, watercraft restrictions, the location and boundaries of fishing zones, and fishing restrictions on tackle. If the waterway is controlled by the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, or the Forest Service, the federal government would be required to digitize this information. Obviously, this is a great piece of legislation. We should know about all the waterways we have accessed, and it should be easy to find information about rules and regulations on those bodies of water. The Map Waters Act takes advantage of modern technology to make it easier for anglers to do what they love safely and legally, and that sounds like a great idea to me sticking around in our nation's capital. Leaders of the House Natural Resources Committee recently unveiled a bipartisan bill intended to support the outdoor recreation movement that's been going gangbusters since the pandemic. Republican Bruce Westerman joined forces with Democrat Raoul Raalva to write the bill, and it includes fifteen proposals from both sides of the aisle. These proposals would do everything from build more adaptive trails for disabled people to require agencies to identify opportunities for target shooting. Other proposals would try to address overcrowding at national parks by creating a pilot program to track visitation data in real time for the most used areas. The bill would also modernize the process for obtaining permits to act says federal lands and declare that it is the policy of the federal government to quote, foster, and encourage recreation on federal recreational lands and waters. The bill has been dubbed the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences or EXPLORE Act. Its authors hope to pass it by the end of the year. In North Carolina, the Wildlife Resource Commission is asking for public comment on a raft of new rules and regulations for hunting and fishing. Most of the regulations only impact certain game lands or recreation areas, but some apply to the entire state. One regulation, for example, would prohibit hunting under the influence of quote and impairing substance. The current REGs prohibit hunting under the influence of alcohol or a narcotic drug, but marijuana doesn't fall into either of those categories, and wildlife enforcement officers routinely encounter individuals high on the herb as they say, how do you do, fellow kids? What the new regulation would prohib at that activity. Another proposal would move the Western black powder and gun season until later in the year, while another would remove certain bear baiting restrictions during the second segment of Mountain bear season. For a full list of all the eggs and how to weigh in, visit the meat eater dot com forward slash col and for everyone who doesn't live in the tire Heel state, be looking for similar proposals in your neck of the woods. It's the time of the year when game commissions start identifying things they'd like to change before next season rolls around. In Utah, for example, the Wildlife Board just voted on several new changes to the state's big game hunting rules. First, they remove the length restrictions on arrows and bolts for air gun archery and crossbow hunting. Second, they prohibited the use of scope stronger than one power on muzzleloaders for all muzzleloader hunts. Hunters can use greater magnification on muzzleloaders during general gun season, but during muzzleloader season they can only use iron sights or red dots and scopes with a one x magnification. Moving on to the wolverine desk, the US Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule last month that adds wolverines to the endangered Species list. The agency says that the species warrants listing quote due primarily to the ongoing and increasing impacts of climate change and associated habitat degradation and fragmentation. They're an estimated three hundred wolverines across the Northwest and Northern Rockies, though the animals are so elusive and widely dispersed and exact number is hard to pin down. The decision to list wolverines as endangered has been finalized, but the regulations and restrictions that result from that listing have not. The Fish and Wildlife Service also issued an interim rule that spells out those regulations, and they're accepting comments on that interim rule through January twenty ninth, twenty twenty four. Of particular concern to outdoorsmen is how this new designation will impact legal trapping. Wolverines were already protect on the state level, but adding them to the Endangered Species list increases federal protections and penalties. Fortunately, the proposed rule does contain some exceptions. Wolverines can be trapped by state and federal biologists for conservation purposes, as well as by legal trappers who are targeting other animals and are following restrictions designed to minimize wolverine take. Those sound like reasonable exceptions, but the rule also contains a qualifier. Incidental take will only be allowed if it occurs quote at minimal levels not likely to impact the species conservation right now. The agency says that incidental take is minimal. Wolverines are usually taken by wolf trappers. There have been ten wolverines taken in Montana since twenty twelve, which resulted in three mortalities. In Idaho. Between November of twenty seventeen in August of twenty twenty two, there were nine wolverines trapped, which resulted in two mortalities. All states have regulations that seek to prevent the incidental trapping of wolverines, and the Fish and Wildlife Service says that incidtident take that does occur isn't likely to impact conservation efforts. However, anti trapping groups will almost certainly use this new designation to argue that all wolf trapping should be prohibited. As we covered in a recent episode, several of these groups are suing to stop wolf trapping because they say it endangers grizzly bears. The grizzly bear population in the Northern Rockies is far more robust than the wolverine population. If animal rights groups can argue that trapping threatens the grizzly population, you can bet that they'll say the same about wolverines. In fact, they already are. Bethany Cotton, conservation director at Cascadia wild Lands, told Utah Public Radio that she doesn't think trapping should be allowed in the new rule. She called the trapping exceptions quote unfortunate and wants to see a rule that quote really protects wolverines. Wolverine trapping is already illegal and the current incidental take is minimal. I can only assume that the kind of rule Cotton would be happy with is one that outlaws all trapping. If wolverines are in dangered, they should be added to the list. But there's a way to protect wolverines as well as our outdoor heritage. Hopefully the Fish and Wildlife Service understands that if you'd like to weigh in on this new rule, we'll post a link at the meteater dot com forward slash col. That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening, and remember to write in to a s K C A L. That's Askcal at the meat Eater dot com and let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. On top of that, don't forget to head on over to www dot steel Dealers dot com to find a local, knowledgeable steel dealer near you. They're gonna get you set up with 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.