Ep. 149: Sage Grouse, Ivory, and Poaching

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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. Blacktailed deer living in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington State have disappeared, and biologists think they know why. Big thanks to James for sending this one in. Since the extirpation of wolves in the mid nineteenth century, the blacktailed deer living on the San Juan Islands have had few natural predators. Populations have been controlled by food, limited hunting, collisions with vehicles, fond predation by coyotes, and disease. That's according to Ken Beavers of the Washington State d n R. None of these threats were serious enough to limit deer numbers, and the population boomed until two thousand twenty one. This year, however, residents and biologists are reporting that the deer have all but disappeared. The Washington State DNR believes the culprit is a deadly and contagious disease known as adnovirus hemorrhagic disease or a h D. A h D is usually fatal, and fawns seem especially susceptible. It's spread through close contact or exposure to bodily fluids like saliba or feces. It poses no threat to people, pets, or livestock, but it looks like it's done a number on this deer population. Dense vegetation makes population estimates difficult, but Beavis reports that he usually sees dozens of deer around homes or in fields along the road. This year, he didn't spot a single deer during his four day trip to the islands. Residents he spoke with reported a similar drop in sightings. A h D was first identified in California all the way back in but as of two thousand twenty, it's only been found in West During State. It's like Oregon, Washington State, and Wyoming. Unlike c w D, it's not always fatal. It can kill both adults and fawns, but adults sometimes survive about with the disease. Biologists aren't sure how ah D arrived on the San Juan Islands, but they hypothesize it traveled in infected deer from the nearby Canadian Gulf Islands. Once in Washington State, the dense deer populations provided the perfect environment for the disease to spread. Hunters on the San Juan Islands may find success even more elusive than usual over the next few years, but I do have a few pieces of good news. First, the herd will probably recover. The Washington State d NR said that the healthier deer may have an innate resistance, and even though future outbreaks may occur, the lead vet for Washington Fish and Wildlife said the population will recover eventually. It's unclear how long that recovery process will take or what the population will look like, but the situation isn't hopeless. Second, for those hunters who do manage to bag a deer in the coming years, you should know that people can't contract a h D by consuming meat. Proper meat handling and preparation is always a good idea, but you shouldn't worry about coming down with the hemorrhagic disease after eating a San Juan Islands deer. To help spread the recovery process, the Washington Department of Natural Resources advises hunters to avoid concentrating deer with food plots or water, and report sick or dead animals. Colin Symptoms of h D include rapid or open mouth breathing, foaming or drooling at the mouth, diarrhea, weakness, and emaciation. Doesn't that sound pleasant? This week we've got you guessed at legislation good and bad, as well as the crime desk. But first, I'm gonna tell you about my week. And my week was, you know solid. I'm actually prepping to head down to the Land of Enchantment a k New Mexico, one of my all time favorite states to take a look at firsthand the feral cattle and sometimes wildcattle situation. As we've covered here, New Mexico recently authorized the removal of wild cattle and the Helo Wilderness by aerial gunning, as in shooting from a helicopter. I won't be doing that. Instead, I'll be saddling up with a couple of cowboys who specialize in live removal of beef and I'm really looking forward to it and you should be too. We'll have this captured, hopefully in a future episode of Cal in the Field, the YouTube series that really comes from you ask Cal listener emails, so right in and let me know what you want to get A deeper dive into and i'll, you know, see about checking it out. Moving on to the legislation, desk Alaskans, we are returning to an issue we mentioned previously, the proposed amendment of Regulation five A A C. Chapter nine two, which would allow the release of trapped wildlife back into the wild. That sounds pretty innocent, but the rule change would make trap nowter release programs for feral cats legal in your state. As we've covered so many times, the cats aren't having sex with songbirds and small mammals, they're eating them, sometimes into extinction. These programs sustained feral cat populations and all the damage they do. You have one week left in the comment period, which ends March twelve. Keep calling and emailing the Department of Fish and Game against changing regulations five A A C. Chapter two. A J from Ontario recently sent in an email asking us to include more Canadian calls to action. The British Columbia Chapter of back Country Hunters and Anglers recently called on the Provinces Minister of Forest Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development not to move bighorn sheep to a limited entry hunt system in Region four. This is the Kote Neat region of British Columbia. According to backcountry hunters and anglers, there's not enough scientific evidence to show that a limited entry hunt would benefit sheep populations. So if you'd like to weigh in on this subject, send an email to the honorable that's honorable with an oh you, Catron Conroy, the minister overseeing the matter at f l N R dot Minister at g o V dot BC dot c A. Moving on, Mississippians, keep your eye out for the House version of Senate Bill to five zero six, which would create a three day traditional archery or crossbow only antler deer hunt every September in the Magnolia State. I don't personally understand the apples two come quats weapons combination, but I don't spend a lot of time in Mississippi. This bill passed the Senate and as of this recording is in committee in the House. So call your reps in support of SB two five zero six if you want a few more days of going after deer with bow and arrow, or you know bow and arrow that you turn sideways and sit on your lap. Nebraskans watch out for LB one five, which would limit conservation easements in the corn Husker State to a period of ninety nine years and significantly expand the authority of local planning agencies to reject proposed ease months. If you want to put your land into conservation easement and you don't consider ninety nine years a legacy, call your reps to oppose LB. New Yorkers S seven seven four seven would allow youth hunters ages twelve through sixteen and senior hunters ages fifty five and over to hunt with a crossbow during special archery seasons. This bill's target is to reduce the barrier to entry for older and younger hunters. That one is S seven seven four seven. Oregonians forgive us, I mean neglected. What's happening over there in the middle upper left hand corner of the country. And the legislature session ends tomorrow. Row better late than never, call tomorrow right and early on the following bills. H B four one three zero will fund wildlife corridors. S B six establishes the Elliott State Research for US. HB four one to seven requests a general fund appropriation to the Wolf Management Compensation and Proactive Trust Fund, and HB four zero eight zero would renew the Predator Controlled District program. Finally, Initiative Petition three a k a I P Three would make hunting, fishing, trapping, and raising livestock against the law in the Beaver State. It might sound absurd, but the fringe becomes mainstream with enough time and energy and money. So make sure you know what you're up against. Get registered to vote if you haven't been already, And when this initiative pops up, make sure you get out there and vote against it. I don't understand how they want people to eat food. If you like food, be prepared to vote Vermonters. The Department of Fish and Wildlife has proposed issuing one moose hunting paramits in Wildlife Management Unit three to thin the herd and bring the number of winter ticks down, which would make life a lot better for the moose. If you want to learn all about ticks and moose, go back to episode one seventeen of the Week in Review and get ready to shut her. This new hunt would be up in an area called the Northeast Kingdom. Now doesn't that sound whimsical. In order to get there, you have to climb up Rapunzel's hair, hunting moose in a place called the Northeast Kingdom. Um, you know you gotta cross a drawbridge to get there. I've had enough fun with this. I wouldn't met. You have until March thirty one to email an R dot f W public comment at Vermont dot g o V or call eight zero two eight to eight in support of this hunt. And let's finish up not what's called action, but with a job well done for you folks in Arkansas who last month celebrated the decision by the state legislature to keep the Pine Tree Research Station, a key piece of public lands in the state, open to hunting. While you're back there in episode one seventeen listening to the deep dive on moose tick and how many ticks makes up a pound and gross stuff like that, you'll also get the full story on the epic campaign to prevent Pine Tree Research Station from being sold by the University of Arkansas. I would say, illegally, this battle to hold onto this sixty acres of public hunting and to keep it open for hunters to use and enjoy has been years in the making. So I know you can take two minutes and make at least one phone call by the end of the show and just say thank you, you did something good. Moving on the poaching desk has been busy. In February last year, twenty two year old Trevor Istrae of Jennings, Louisiana, chose to celebrate Mardi Gras, not by you know, like bearing his chest for strangers plastic beads, but by going out and shooting geese from a parked car on a public road. The geese happened to be on private ground to a member of the u S Fish and Wildlife Canine team, happened to be in the vicinity, and after pursuit, Istrae and three other subjects managed to get away. Investigators eventually caught up with the group. In Istra pled guilty this month to taking migratory birds with the aid of a motor vehicle during a close season and in violation of state law. He will pay three thousand dollars in fines, serve five years of probation, and lose hunting privileges for three years. Whether he wants to or not. Looks like Istrae is giving up hunting for lent. Istra and his crew are small potatoes compared to Richard LeBlanc and company, a group of poachers recently sentenced in Montana's District Court. LeBlanc started racking up wildlife and fractions in two thousand five, and Fish Wildlife and Parks built a case against him in twenty three out of state buddies who took at least forty eight game animals illegally in and around a ranch owned by one of the individuals. Investigators Steve Marks of FWP said, quote, their main focus was the unlawful hunting of mule deer bucks in Hunting District six fifty two. To those of you out there who have applied for mule deer tags here in the great state of Montana and you've been denied, think about these jackwagons stealing your opportunities. Are opportunities. The reason things like this happen is because these little groups of folks get together and they start telling each other how unfair it is that they can't go hunt when they want, whenever they want, and it's just, you know, the world coming down on them unfairly, and they refuse to think about all of us who apply for the opportunity to go hunt. It's theft, and it's incredibly selfish, and think about the fact that they waste game. Mule deer is delicious my favorite meat. Well Blanc will pay fifty dollars in restitution and service six month suspended sentence. Moving on to the international scene, DNA evidence is now being used to track elephant poaching networks running from West Africa around the globe. Until now, when law enforcement officials caught one ivory smuggler, they had to rely just on the limited physical evidence in front of them. But now an international team of scientists and wildlife crime investigators has built a DNA sampling database to match seesed ivory back to the individual animals it was poached from, even identifying single elephants whose tusks have been traded multiple times. This has allowed them too i D poaching hotspots and trace transit and distribution routes. They are now using this info to disrupt and prosecute much larger, more coordinated poaching operations, rather than just playing whack a mole with indie visual parts of those networks. Over in Zambia, a new analysis of the wear patterns in lion teeth has revealed the widespread use of snares to poast the big cats in two thousand seven u c l A biologist Paula White noticed captive lions gnawing on the wires of their caged enclosures, and when she examined their teeth, she recognized a distinctive groove she had observed in the canine teeth of several wild lions skulls. If you think about that, it's pretty wild, right, canines inside of big cats skulls. It's a terrible joke, but I thought i'd pointed out anyway. White and her team determined that the grooves and the teeth of the wild cats came from attempting to chew themselves free from wire snares. In a recently published study in the journal Frontiers and Conservation Science, they write that thirty seven percent of adult male lions and of adult male leopards in the study area showed this toothware pattern. Suggest widespread non lethal snaring, and it's hard not to think that a lot of lions were also killed this way and not recovered. Next up, some poaching that you may not think about exotic cactuses. Cactus theft has been exploding across the West, especially West Texas, home to some of the world's rarest and most exotic specimens. Tending plants has of course become a huge hobby during the pandemic, and even though you can get hundreds of different cactus species from your local greenhouse, Former US Fish and Wildlife plant poaching investigator Eric Jumper told the NPRS Marketplace that many people are driven to possess exactly the species that illegal collecting has almost driven extinct. He said, quote the demand is so strong, I don't think you can keep up with the supply. Areas of the Chihuahua Desert are so hard hit that Jumper fears the complete loss of several endangered species in the coming decade. One particularly desirable threatened cactus is that Ariocarpus facerratas. One of these in good condition can fetch several thousand dollars on the international market. The common name for this species is false peyote, which you know, if you're gonna go spend thousands of dollars on peyote and then discover it was both psychoactively inert and also an endangered species, well that would you know, seriously harsh your mellow man, and you know, probably put you in a prickly situation. Yeah, returning state side to our bread and butter. Forty one year old Shiloh Berry of Helena, Montana, was recently sentenced to twelve thousand dollars and fines in restitution a five year suspended prison sentence and a lifetime hunting band for poaching a trophy moose in two thousand nineteen. Montana is a state that uses Boone and Crockett scoring to calibrate its punishments. High you're scoring bulls, bucks and bears lead to a stiffer penalty. The moose Berry poached had a rack fifty inches wide, which you know, if you stood that up, would be as tall as gymnast Simone Biles and a gross score of net score. You could say, in the state of Montana, you let the punishment fit the taxidermy Berry was caught with the help of two anonymous tips to the f w P poaching hotline that's tip mont t I P M O n T. One of the tips alerted officials to the site of the decapitated bowl, and one pointing to Barry as someone in possession of some antlers that seemed too good for Barry to honestly come by, So maybe We'll end the poaching round up with the p s A. That's public service announcement. Those hotlines are there for a reason. If you see something fishy, call it in and maybe you'll bag a trophy sized poacher. The tipsters do get a reward for information that leads to prosecution. Side note on this one, This dude who poached this moose is only forty one years old. Just for the record, I'm thirty nine. I feel I have my entire life ahead of me and I just cannot fathom a world in which I could not hunt. It would be devastating. So think twice about this. Uh, you know, trophy in hand if you're not coming by it honestly. Moving on to the ice desk, The opening day of Pennsylvania's trout season is still weeks away, but many lakes throughout the state have been closed to all fishing of any species. Thanks to Ryan from Pennsylvania for bringing this one to our attention. Every year, Pennsylvania's Fish and Boat Commission stock streams and lakes with trout in preparation for opening day. If you live in the Keystone State, you know that opening day is a big deal. Ryan says, he and his family consider this event a holiday and a tradition. They call it fish Muss. As you can imagine, Pennsylvania fisheries managers want to make sure folks have a great experience on fish mus. Towards that end, they've prohibited all fishing on trout stocked waters for six weeks prior to opening day, from February one to April two. Some lakes are accepted from this policy, but many are not. This bars anglers from fishing for other species on bodies of water stocked with trout. In addition, these lakes are still iced over at this time of year, so ice anglers are losing a large portion of their season. Ryan reached out to his area fisheries manager Timothy Wilson for further explanation. Wilson told him that the state had previously allowed anglers to target other species in the lead up to the trout opener. Under this policy, if anglers caught a trout by mistake, they could throw it back without getting in trouble. Unfortunately, according to Wilson, a small number of people would intentionally target trout for catching release. The state's theory is that the heavy catch and release action acclimated trout to lures, and anglers on opening day reported not being able to catch as many fish in lakes across the state, like an empty stocking on fish moss. You get it. That one's a thinker. This quote is from Pennsylvania Fisheries manager Wilson. We were producing outstanding fishing for a few anglers at the cost of very poor fishing for everyone else, Wilson told Ryan in his email. This is not the purpose of our stocked trout program. I can see both sides of this one. As Ryan pointed out, this is sort of like banning archery hunting so that rifle hunters will have a better opening day experience. Not a perfect analogy, but you get the idea. It also seems unfair to prohibit fishing for six weeks so people can have a good experience on a single day. Maybe Pennsylvania wildlife officials should focus on catching the bad apples rather than punishing anglers who want to fish as often as possible while targeting the appropriate species. But to do that, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission needs funding. Where do they get that funding by selling fishing licenses. In two thousand one, fishing licenses generated a revenue of twenty one million dollars in Pennsylvania. I don't know how many of those licenses were sold to people hoping to catch a bunch of trout on opening day, but I bet my hat it's a decent percentage. Furthermore, what percentage of opening day anglers are not after opening day anglers? Does a poor opener affect next season's license sales. Wildlife officials are responsible for managing wild animal populations and habitat in a science based manner, but if they want to keep their jobs, they must also make sure people have a good time in the outdoors. People have good times in the outdoors by hunting and fishing licenses, which provide part of the funding for their conservation work. So what's the right call. If you live in Pennsylvania, that's up to you. Do what Ryan didn't. Get in touch with your fisheries manager, let them know where you fall on this issue, and be a part of the wildlife management process in the Keystone State. I don't totally by this reasoning. I am thinking that the answer likely lies in a bum batch, a hatchery stock, or even a serious predator invasion in some of these lakes. But perhaps The other thing that you can do is, you know, if you're listening and you're like, boy, Cotton released a bunch of trout and some of my buddies, um, you know, maybe say like, hey, we should just target perch, bluegill and other real good eating fish when trout seasons closed. Moving on prairie chickens. Back in two thousand twenty one, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act. They proposed listing one of these grouse populations as threatened in Kansas and Oklahoma, while the population in New Mexico and West Texas is set to be listed as endangered. When a species is listed under the Endangered Species Act, it's illegal to kill that animal obviously, so companies doing work that might harm and endangered species must apply for an incidental take permit. When they apply, it has to be supported by a habitat conservation plan. Basically, this means that if a bulldozer owned by an oil company mos down a covey of grouse, that company is shielded from penalties and lawsuits. That doesn't mean they get away with it's got free. They're shielded from penalties because they've made an investment in the continuation of that species. In the case of the lesser prairie chicken, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking for public comment on a new habitat recovery plan for the oil and gas industry to help conserve the chicken in New Mexico and Texas. I'll spare you the details, but these are the basics. Under the rule, oil and gas companies would sign up for the habitat Conservation Plan developed by another company called LCP Conservation. This company is responsible for administering the plan, which consists of storing and enhancing habitat for the lesser prairie chicken. For every two acres of chicken habitat affected, the HP would require l c P Conservation to restore one acre and enhance another acre. Restoration includes removing woody vegetation and infrastructure, as well as the conversion of crop land to grassland. Enhancement includes maintaining quality chicken habitat using methods like prescribed burning and grazing. The guy in charge of l c P Conservation, Wayne Walker, told the AP he wants to identify ideal chicken habitat and pay landowners a fair market price to conserve that habitat. He's also looking to conserve a continuous chunk of land rather than a patchwork of regions. There's more to unpack here, but at first glance, I like this plan because it focuses on lesser prairie chicken habitat rather than sheer population numbers. There's a thirty day comment period on this new rule which ends a Arch fourteen. To check out the rule and post a comment, visit Federal Register dot gov and search to zero to one dash in Now. I don't want you to get confused with something I brought up in previous episodes, which is a similar plan but very different for the sage grouse and wyoming. That plan allows companies to mitigate the destruction of sage grouse by raising and releasing birds. As you can imagine, hardly any of these birds survive long enough to make it to the wild, let alone long enough in the wild to make new birds. This completely ineffective approach allows industry to kick the can or this incredibly awesome bird down the road until quite possibly we get to a point where people cannot hunt for any species. Let alone, shed antlers, run cattle on, or disturb in any general way an area where sage grouse may possibly be. Why because we sat back until the incredibly cool tasty bird was on the endangered species list instead of being proactive about it. Stupid Wyoming. I love the state of Wyoming, but this is just jackassery. I have pulled some punches previously on this podcast, but boy, if you like to rip around on a motorbike hunt, or even make a living grazing cattle out in the big prairies of Wyoming, you've got to call right in and make a stink over s F six one. To be crystal clear, this bill, if allowed to continue, allows people to go out and take sage grouse eggs off the ground and keep in mind these are game birds and attempt to rear them to a releasable size then place them back on the landscape, which is completely foreign to these birds. They have no education in regards to predators. A similar study done in the state of Idaho proves that even for a short period of time, only four to eight per cent of captive birds released on the landscape will survive as long as six months, which if you believe in math, you could just say they don't survive in the wild long enough to bolster a population, they cannot be replaced. You absolutely should not be stealing wild bird eggs. Again, vote no on s F sixte. That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening, and remember springs coming on. Go to www dot steel Dealers dot com to find a local, knowledgeable, fantastic steel dealer nearer you. He's gonna tell you how to trim those nasty cottonwood trees, get you set up with what you need and won't send you home with what you don't. And most importantly, right in to a s k C a L that's asked cal at the Meat Theater dot com and let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. Thanks again, and I'll talk to you next week. Book A ton of a m as com