Ep. 190: Invasives, Wildlife Disease, and Citizen Science

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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. Virginia held its first regulated elk count in over sixty years in October, marking the beginning of what hunters hope will be a new annual tradition. Six hunters participated in this inaugural hunt, all of whom successfully harvested a mature bull. Thanks to Kyle Moser for sending this one in. Elk lived throughout Virginia prior to the arrival of European settlers, but the species was over harvested in the eighteenth and nineteen centuries. Colonel G. Tooley harvested the last known elk in eighteen fifty five. The state attempted a reintroduction in the early decades of the twentieth century, but poor habit to a poor release locations, and over harvest meant that only two elk herds remained by nineteen six Elk hunting continued until nineteen sixty, when the state held its final regulated hunt. Fast forward to two thousand ten, and the state decided to revamp its elk restoration efforts by importing seventy one elk from Kentucky and releasing them in Buchanan County. The state adopted an elk management plan over the next few years, and the herd grew into more than two hundred and fifty individuals by two thousand twenty. Biologists determined that even though the elk herd has plenty of room to grow, it's large enough to support a highly regulated hunt for a small number of bulls. A whopping thirty one thousand, nine hundred and fifty one hunters applied for only five tags. The sixth tag was given to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which it raffled off to raise money for elk conservation. Between that raffle and the lottery, this hunt generated over six hundred thousand for elk conservation. It sounds like a great time was had by all, and I want to especially highlight the role that landowners played. Twenty different landowners gave hunters access to seventeen thousand acres, and several of them even lent the hunters a hand by accompanying them on the hunt. Other landowners didn't participate in the hunts, but they donated their time and resources to help the hunters retrieve their harvested elk. According to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, the role that landowners played cannot be overstated. The six bowls harvested wade between six pounds and eight hundred and fifty two pounds, which is a very big bull elk. All bowls were at least three and a half years old, and one clock him at eleven and a half. The largest bowl harvested was an eight by nine that green scored over four hundred inches. The term green essentially means premature in the antler horns scoring world. To be officially scored, a drying period of sixty days must take play. Said quote room temperature according to the Boone and Crocket Club, which means I'll probably never get anything officially scored because you know, skulls can stink. But no matter that, because if you like to score things or don't like to score things, a trophy is a trophy to you the person who harvested it. So if this person who killed the bowl that green scored over foes and then it officially scores a well that's a hell of a bowl. Match it with the fact that you drew one of six tags in Virginia. I don't even know why you'd tape the thing. It's a harvest of a lifetime. Congrats to those lucky six hunters. A big thanks to the willing landowners, and hopefully this will be the first of many moral accounts to come in Virginia. This week we've got crime invasive and cal to action. But first I'm gonna tell you about my week. My week was interesting. I'm currently packing for Kansas, where we'll have attempted another hunt for waterfowl in that state. Last year we showed up to seventy plus degrees t shirt wear and weather, and it was darned near too hot to run the dog. This year, the forecast is for nasty weather, which hopefully means duck luck on the water. Also, and obviously, if you have ventured to the Meat Eater dot Com or first Light or f h F for Phelps game calls, we are matching all donations to the Land Access Initiative. This year's big push is for the Montana Great Outdoors Project, which is a series of permanent ease months in northwest Montana, just east of Glacier National Park. These ease months will total about a hundred and thirteen thousand acres of timber company land. Permanent ease months will ensure that this working timber ground is not lost to development and we will be able to access the properties and the public ground beyond those properties in perpetuity. I know it's December and you are probably spending too much cash already, but if you want to throw some money at the land access initiative will double it. Getting back to the waterfowl topic, I just had a really interesting phone call with the waterfowl guide buddy of mine in the Pacific Flyway. He was letting me know about some bird behavior he's been witnessing recently that would most likely be explained through avian bird flu. If you haven't forgotten, we are still in the worst outbreak of avian bird flu in recent memory. According to the c d C, we currently have confirmed cases in forty seven states and three hundred forty six counties in domestic flocks. These cases have affected to date fifty three million, eighteen thousand, seven hundred forty one birds. This includes backyard flocks and commercial flocks. Again, just one example, on December six, Cherokee County, Iowa, one hundred and five thousand turkeys at one facility, hundred and five thousand Thanksgiving turkeys. Now, in wild birds, the flu has been confirmed in forty eight states, seven hundred ten counties in a total of four worth thousand, three hundred and sixty two birds. Very notable that almost without exception, the source of these wild birds that have been turned in for testing are from hunters. Now, we can assume that there are far more wild birds affected than those turned in right, But I think it is also fair to assume that wild birds will fare much better in areas with avian flu outbreaks than domestic flocks because of the conditions in which wild birds live. Yes, birds flocked together, but they have a heck of a lot more elbow room on the big lakes, the stock ponds, the timber holes, and refuges than mass produced or even hobby flock raised poultry. We hunters that are spending a lot of time in the field or traveling to multiple areas, states, etcetera. Can help prevent the spread of avian influenza by taking some basic precautions. Be suspicious of the birds. My Buddy the Waterfowl Guide described today where upon a coaching the blind, an adult snow goose was swimming circles around the decoys. The bird's eyes were glazed over and it was obviously not right, most likely sick. Later, at the same blind, three adult snow geese. And if you've ever hunted snow geese, the adults are the ones that you want to kill, but often you do not. Old snow geese are notoriously hard to decoy and kill. This group flew directly over the top of their spread and really low, and he and his hunters killed the birds. They did not look right. He's seen a lot of waterfowl behavior and he just thought they didn't behave right Prior to being dead. They kept the birds separated from the other birds that they had harvested that morning. Then they bagged and removed the birds to a landfill after consulting with a game warden. Not a great story, not an ideal day, but where appropriate, it's a good idea to have your local wardens number handy. On top of that, here's some precautions. Harvest only water foul that look and behave healthy, which can be hard to do. Do not handle or eat sick game. Do not handle wild birds that are obviously sick or found dead field Dress and prepare game outdoors in a well ventilated area where rubber gloves or other impermeable disposable gloves. While handling and cleaning game, remove and discard intestines soon after harvesting, and avoid direct contact with intestinal contents. Place waste in a plastic bag and dispose in a garbage container that is protected from scavengers. Do not eat, drink, smoke, or vape while handling dead game. When done handling game, wash hands thoroughly with soap and water, and clean knives, equipment, and surfaces that came in contact with game. Wash hands before and after handling the meat. Keep your harvested waterfoul cool below forty five degrees fahrenheit, and then, obviously, if you're gonna keep it for the long haul, freezing Thoroughly. Cook all game to an internal temperature of one sixty five before consuming, which is a tough pill to swallow. Clean and disinfect clothing, footwear, and hunting gear before traveling to other areas as appropriate. Footwear and gear maybe washed with soap and water than disinfected in household bleach diluted with a one to ten ratio that's with water for at least ten minutes. Bathed dogs with pet shampoo after hunting outings, and do not feed dogs raw meat, organs, or other tissues from harvested waterfowl. Falconers should avoid hunting waterfowl and other water birds during the hp AI outbreak. Hp AI is avian bird flu, but it's highly pathogenic avian influenza. You gotta h p AI now. If you think that's a giant pain in the ass and overly precautious, listen to the domestic side of things, and this is from the National Chicken Council. Quarantine. First, the farmer ensures that the affected flock stays but in one area, along with any equipment that has been near the birds. Step two eradicate. The affected flock is then quickly and humanely euthanized. It's important to note it doesn't matter if it's a bird or twenty birds in your flock. The flock is considered affected and all of them are killed. Three monitor the region. At the same time, both wild and domestic birds in a broad surrounding control area are tested and monitored. For avian influenza. Step four, disinfect the farm where the flock was housed to ensure any traces of the virus is killed. This includes machinery, personal gear, the literal chicken coop, water trobs, feeding trobs, anything that a new bird could come in contact with. Step five, the entire poultry farm is carefully tested for twenty one days to confirm it is free of bird flu before allowing a new flock of birds to arrive. No birds from hp AI infected flocks are ever allowed to enter the food chain. So you gotta kill all your birds that you've invested money in and then be out of business twenty one days. In addition to all the time it took to eradicate your previous flock, clean everything, disinfect everything, dispose of things, and restock. That's a pain in the ass. And I'm bringing all this up because I've seen a lot of commentary that's pretty shitty. If I'm being um, you know, still talking chickens, I guess that'd be appropriate. Kids, cover your ears. Anyway, Folks find that there's some sort of political agenda between wildlife diseases and uh, you know, our experience with COVID But just like I talked about last week, friends and neighbors, I had a very long, fun, super healthy hunting season and I didn't get COVID again until I went to the big big city and congregated in places to eat drink, And you know, I guess party. I don't think that's a coincidence. So when it comes to avian fluenza chronic wasting disease, I just urge folks who are very skeptical to think about what we do on the agricultural side of things, and agriculture and hunting are tied together more than we want to care about. But it's the truth. Okay. When he went out and shot deer in a big c w D zone this year, it was a pain in the ass way more than I wanted to write. We had a deal bone everything on the spot. I love my opportunities to take all those deer bones out of the woods and make stock with them. But because I don't have a commercial freezer or refrigeration set up here at home, I couldn't hang the deer until I got the c w D results back and then process it. On top of that, you're taking that contaminated or possibly contaminated stuff across county lines and you have to properly dispose of it in a landfill. But the further you travel with stuff, the greater risk you run of spreading things that you don't want to spread around. Right, So, when we talk about things like chronic wasting disease or avian influenza and where those two things cross with hunting, I often see it's because it's a pain in the ass, right, Or sometimes we feel like because we are such responsible stewards of these resources and have been for such a long time that when a government agency suggests that we need to do things differently, we take that as a personal slight. Right, Like when it comes to bating, Okay, there's still a lot of places where you can bait deer, and that becomes, you know, a great way for kids to kill stuff. It becomes like a good way to hedge your bets. Let's say, if you only have one weekend to hunt, or it just becomes a tradition and you love the people you hunt with, you love the people that you learn to hunt with, and it's this personal slight where you're like, oh, well, if grandpa did it, nothing that guy did was ever wrong? How could this be wrong? The state doesn't know what it's talking about, and guess what when it comes to c w D, we don't entirely know what we're talking about. We're trying to find that out. But if you could fast forward a few generations and either have to explain to your great grandkids that, oh, my god, we didn't want to give up baiting for a couple of seasons and now deer only lived about two years old. This horrible worst case scenario or c w D eventually jumped to people or something you know, way down the road that could be like truly catastrophic, or you explain to your great grandkids that like, oh, yeah, we didn't know a lot about this disease. So in order to help out and try to figure this stuff out, because we love deer hunting, we gave up shooting deer over cracked corn for a couple of seasons, turned in deer lymph nodes. Now we know a lot about it and we fixed the issue, or some other scenario where it's like, oh, now we know ton about it, and you know, life just went on as normal and we prevented some worst case scenario like I I just don't. I do not understand why it's more fun or better for you to avoid the citizen science part of this. I do not get it. But please right in to a s K c A L that's asked cal at the Meat Eater dot com and let me know your side of the story. I'm dying to hear how it makes sense. Moving on to the invasive desk, Natural ecosystems in the United States dodged a bullet recently when border inspections discovered a dangerous, highly destructive moth that had pitched a ride on a commercial boat. Agriculture specialist with US Customs and Border Protection recently discovered four Asian gypsy moth egg masses on a Panamanian bulk carrier off the coast of Louisiana. The ship has been targeted for inspection because a month previously, it had docked in a port in China that's considered a high risk area for Asian gypsy moths. Officials found egg masses on the exterior of the vessel on both lower and main decks. They ordered the ship to move outside US waters, where it underwent extensive cleaning and inspection. If you're wondering what the big deal is, You're listening to the right podcast. According to the u s d AS Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Asian gypsy mas are invasive species that could cause quote serious, widespread damage to our country's landscape and natural resources. Asian gypsy mas are similar to European gypsy mos, already found in the northeastern United States, but they can be far more destructive. They have a broader host range than their European cousins. Because the females are considered active flyers. They can cover a wide area, which means they could easily sweep across the entire country. Once they settle in a place, they can lay hundreds of eggs, which, if you recall from your elementary school science class, all turn into caterpillars. Those caterpillars are a lot like that children's book. They're very hungry, except instead of ice cream and smoked meats, these caterpillars can feed on more than five hundred tree and shrub species. Infestations can totally defoliate trees, and multiple years of defoliation can lead to the death of large sections forests orchards and landscaping. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of our Border Patrol agents. Asian gypsy moths have already been discovered in Washington State, Oregon, Georgia, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Ongoing surveys in those states will help determine whether infestations are present and what follow up actions may be needed to address them. In the meantime, the USDA encourages concerned citizens to learn what egg masses look like and report them if found. If the Asian gypsy moth wants to be successful, it could take a page out of the Ferrell Hoggs playbook. Since the USDA began tracking the Ferrell hog population in those facund little porkers have expanded and solidified their range across the southern US. They now cover the majority of twelve states and have been reported in a whopping thirty five. Their latest conquest, according to an article sent in by listener Eric Hill, is the northern state of Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources was called in recently to round up some feral pigs found roaming the southern portion of the state. Several adults and some piglets were found in Ferrebault County, which officials later learned had escaped from a nearby farm. This is obviously better news than if feral pigs had migrated from another state. Still, Minnesota wildlife officials took it seriously. All feral pigs in the US are descended from domesticated pigs that have gone wild. Ferrell swine were first brought to the United States and the fifteen hundreds by early explorers and settlers as a source of food. Escaped individuals adapted well to the local environment, where they caused extensive damage to agriculture and native species. It's extremely difficult to eradicate pigs an area once the population has taken hold, but wildlife officials in recent decades have done a good job contained the population to its current boundaries. If you look at the distribution maps between two thousand four and two thousand eighteen, they look pretty familiar. The southern states in California are solidly covered, but comparatively speaking, the north and Midwest are still relatively pig free. Now. One thing we have going against the Asian gypsy moth that we lost the battle on in regards to pigs a long time ago is the fact that we don't have a massive recreational hunting industry built around moths. As everybody knows. If you ask a pig hunter whether they're really trying to eradicate them, uh, you're gonna hear him say no. Moving on to the public lands desk, you may remember last year when our friends at the Center for Biological Diversities sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service for opening two point three million acres of public land to hunting and fishing. They claim that the Fish and Wildlife Service hadn't considered or the effect of their decision on endangered species, and they specifically took issue with the continued use of lead tackle and ammunition. Late last month we got a statement the two sides started talking to the public again. Access is not restricted in any way to two point three million acres of the Fishing Wildlife Service ground that had previously been opened. All those new hunting opportunities and fishing opportunities are moving forward, which is great news. However, the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to respond to a separate petition made by the Center of Biological Diversity in June of this year. That petition asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to phase out the use of all traditional ammunition in the National Wildlife refuge system. The settlement requires the Service to respond to that petition by June of two thousand twenty three. Now here's our opportunity right. The Center for Biological Diversity is claiming this as a bay win already, even though the US Fish and Wildlife Service has not issued their statement or official response to the petition. We have seen US Fish and Wildlife ban the use of lead tackle and ammo at certain refuges, specifically about seven or eight, but that's a lot different than banning lead across the country. You have tons of time for your opinion to be heard. The Service has to respond to the CBDs petition by June of two thousand twenty three, which gives you just over six months to contact the US Fish and Wildlife Service visit FWS dot g o V forward slash contact dash US. That's us moving on to an overseas edition of the Crime Desk. The war in Ukraine is still raging, but the overachieving Ukrainian Army has made headway against Russian forces. They've made so much progress, in fact, that they're allegedly shelling Russian soldiers for poaching geese. According to a video and a statement released by the State Border Service of Ukraine. The Ukrainian drones by a group of Russian soldiers shooting and killing geese near a village in the southern portion of the country. The video appears to show three or four soldiers in a field, one of whom has a dead goose at his feet. Another soldier fires at a group of birds, which scatter it sound the gun shot. The video cuts the footage of a soldier entering a nearby home, which the Border Service claims has been occupied by the Russians, who were preparing a goose feast. Now, politics aside, nobody likes a poacher. The Ukrainians responded by shelling the house that the Russians were occupying. Now, it's worth noting that not everything the Ukrainian government says about the war is, you know, accurate, But as a counter poaching measure, you have to admit that artillery would be pretty darned effective. And speaking of tough poacher sentencing, eleven people have been sentenced to death by a Tanzanian court for their role in the murder of anti poaching activist Wayne Latter. Lauter was the director and co founder of the Palms Foundation, an NGO that trained Tanzanian came scouts and developed an intelligence based approach to anti poaching. He was from South Africa but had been working on counter poaching projects in Tanzania since two thousand eight, focusing specifically on elephant poaching. Poaching in Tanzania is big business, and later apparently received multiple death threats. Prior to his assassination in two thousand seventeen, he was riding in taxi and Tanzania has commercial capital of Dara Salam when the car was ambushed. Subsequent five year police investigation determined that the two men who performed the killing were aided by nine others, and all eleven were given death sentences. However, since Tanzania doesn't carry out executions, the eleven convicts will spend the rest of their lives in jail. Moving on to the legislative desk. If you live in Oklahoma, Missouri, or Utah, your state has made or is considering significant changes to hunting regulations. This is your job to be involved. Now is the time to be informed and make sure you understand these new rules. The Oklahoma depart When a fishing wildlife is proposing sixteen rule changes, one would extend squirrel season by an extra month, Another would authorize air powered arrow rifles for deer hunting, and yet another would require duck hunters to remove their blinds at the end of each day. The final major rule change would prohibit the transport of deer and elk carcasses out of designated areas where those animals are at risk of carrying chronic wasting disease. If you have opinions about these or any of the other twelve proposals, you can submit comments online through January six, two three. Google the Oklahoma Department of Natural Resources or go to the meat eater dot com forward slash cow for the link to the survey. Residents can also submit comments at the January fifth hearing in Oklahoma City. In Missouri, the Department of Conservation recently set turkey and deer hunting dates for the two thousand, twenty three through twenty four seasons, along with deer hunting regulation changes. The regulation changes include a new firearms early antlerless portion, a new firearms c w D portion, and changes to firearms antlerless permit numbers in most counties. These changes were largely motivated by the increasing number of deer on the landscape and a desire to control the spread of c w D. The Missouri Conservation Commission approved the changes at their December second meeting, but it's still worth reaching out. If you love these new opportunities for antlerless deer, let them know if you don't be sure they hear from Missouri hunters. You can find contact info at MDC, dot MO dot go o v forward slash contact dash us. Utah has also announced changes to its big game hunting rigs. The Utah Wildlife Board approved a new tenure Utah statewide elk Management Plan, which includes several changes to elk hunting in the state. These changes will take effect in two thousand twenty three. They include removing multi season permits for the any Bowl elk hunt, adding six additional general season hunting units to that elk hunt, and dividing the current general season thirteen day any legal weapon any Bowl hunt into two separate seven day hunts. There are quite a few other changes, which you can check out by googling new Elk Regulations Utah or again visit the Meat Eater dot com forward slash Cattle Virginia is considering some major changes to its fishing regulations. Back in episode, we covered a controversy about a man Haden fishing operation working along the Virginia coast. Man Hadan or bunka are small oily forage fish scooped up nets by large fishing boats and reduced down to fish oil and fish meal. Virginia is the only state along the East Coast that allows this kind of reduction fishing, and many recreational anglers believe the practice should be outlawed. Virginia Marine Resources Commission is thinking about doing just that sort of. A new proposal would create a no fishing buffer one nautical mile wide around Virginia shorelines and Virginia Beach and a half nautical mile wide around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Another proposal would expand the days around holidays when fishing is prohibited. Neither side is happy with the proposals. The man Hayden fishing operations don't want their activities hampered at all, and the recreational anglers don't believe a one mile buffer zone is going to do much good. If you live in Virginia and one to weigh in, you can get in touch with the Virginia Marine Resource Commission through their website or find a link at the meat eater dot com forward slash cow. There are also several legislative proposals on this topic that will be covering in the coming weeks, so be sure to keep an eye out for those. Over In Iowa, legislators will consider a bill this year that would make it much easier for farmers and other property owners to kill raccoons outside the states three month raccoon hunting season as in men areas of the country. The raccoon population in Iowa has skyrocketed. Urbanization combined with reduced fur prices, have made raccoon hunting and trapping far less common, and those masked mammals have wreaked havoc in both urban and rural areas. You may have seen a viral video where a possibly rabid raccoon attacks a young girl. Mom comes out, grabs the raccoon by the scruff of the neck and a total power move and chucks it like a furry little shot put Anyway, Raccoons are native to North America, and like dogs and cats, they're part of the ordered Carnivora, but they're more closely related to bears than our domestic friends and I wouldn't recommend trying to, you know, domesticate one. They get in too much trouble. They're too dextrous. If you can open up, they can open up. It's a bad deal anyway. This new bill, proposed by State Rep. Dean Fisher, would allow anyone to kill a raccoon without obtaining permission if it's for quote nuisance control purposes. He argues that the hunting season isn't enough to control the population, and farmers should be allowed to proactively reduce their raccoon population before their crops become attractive. It's certainly true that raccoon hunting and trapping has become less effective in recent years. Data reported by the Desmoin Register shows that the number of raccoons trapped has dramatically declined from about three eight thousand and two thousand eleven to about thirty four thousand, five hundred and two thousand twenty one. For those counting, that's a reduction in the raccoon harvest in just the last ten years. Now, you may be saying, well, obviously, fewer animals and traps means the population must be going down. Well. In this case, the state's raccoon population has surged two hundred sixty eight percent in the last sixteen years. To get involved, get in touch with your Iowa state representative at LEGS. That's l e. G. I S dot Iowa dot gov forward slash contacts. Yes, we'll have the link for you to. The other thing that you can do is start begging right now for a genuine, authentic Iowa coonskin cap for Christmas. Do your part, start looking hip, and the last one for you. The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced last month that after years of deliberation, they have decided to list two distinct population segments of the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act. This is a terrible and horrible thing. The southern population of the lesser prairie chicken is being listed as endangered, while the northern population is being listed as threatened. The Service said in a press release that due to habitat loss and fragmentation, the population of this grassland bird has dropped from hundreds of thousands to about thirty two thousand in two thousand twenty two. This is happening on our watch. This is a problem for the species, but it's also bad for grasslands in general. The lesser prairie chicken needs large, unfragmented parcels of intact native grasslands to maintain self sustaining population, and they obviously haven't been able to find that. The southern endangered population encompasses eastern New Mexico and across the southwest Texas Panhandle. The Northern region encompasses southeastern Colorado, south central to western Kansas, western Oklahoma, and the northeast Texas Panhandle. Listing a species under the Endangered Species Act comes with a host of complications for farmers and ranchers, and I'm sure we'll come back to this story in the future. For now, it's a sobering reminder that our best efforts aren't always enough to keep animals off the es A, and little to no effort damn sure doesn't help either. Grasslands encompass a wide variety of what we consider prairie or sage brush step ecosystems. These ecosystems are essential for a lot more than prairie chickens. Think big awesome mule deer, antelope, even nesting habitat for ducks and a ton of other migratory bird species and pollinators just so happens there's a ton of helpful tools and provisions in the North American Grasslands Conservation Act. Thanks so much for listening. That's all I got for you this week. Remember to write in to a s k c a L. That's asked Cal at the Meat Eater dot com and let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. Also, if the snow is piling up and you need a good project, maybe type in www dot steel Dealers dot com and find a local, knowledgeable steel dealer near you. You can go down to a dealer talk about a project. They're gonna get you set up with what you need, not try to send you home with what you don't. Thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you next week.