00:00:09 Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World headquarters in Bozeman, Montana, this is Cal's Week in Review with Ryan Cal Callahan, presented by First Light. Here's Cal. Wile E. Coyote wins. That, at least, is the main takeaway from a recent New York Times article that was published with the headline proudly proclaiming, that cartoons were a lie. The story is about a photo that was recently captured by photographer Alexander DeBarros in Chatsworth Nature Preserve near Los Angeles. It shows a coyote with, of course, a dead roadrunner stuffed in its maw. This outcome is basically the opposite of what happens in every episode of the classic Looney Tunes cartoon, in which Wile E. Coyote is repeatedly hoodwinked, bamboozled by a speedy roadrunner. Quote, there is no indication that this coyote affected the capture of this roadrunner through the use of an Acme jet-propelled pogo stick, Acme rocket-powered roller skates, or Acme dehydrated boulder, wrote New York Times journalist Victor Mather. Also, there were no reports of the roadrunner, saying, cartoons aside, wildlife experts say it is very rare to see a coyote eating a roadrunner. considering the desert-dwelling birds can run up to 20 miles per hour and also fly into trees to evade predators. It's possible that the coyote was scavenging a dead bird. However, coyote expert Stanley D. Gert of THE Ohio State University says that he has learned to never underestimate coyotes. They can do anything, he says. Even catch a roadrunner. This week, we've got easements, grizz, lions, and the EPA, but first I'm going to tell you about my week, and my week was a whirlwind of travel. Starting off in the Bay Area and ending up in D.C., that's nowhere near the archery elk hunting I should be doing, just for the record. September comes but once a year, and unfortunately this September, so does a pile of things we should all be paying attention to, like, of course, roadless rule rescission and travel management rule revision, but also a couple of potentially positive and overly positive things. In the potentially positive category, out of the Southwest, the Northern Nevada Economic Development Act just passed out of the House. There's some federal land sell-off and swap in this, but it does a good job of consolidating a bunch of checkerboard. into bigger contiguous chunks of public with access. The original version included additional capital W wilderness in the Ruby Mountains. The House version, which just passed on Monday, did not. But we are working to see that wilderness is included in the Senate version. We'll keep you posted there. The next positive thing is the River Runs Through It Act, which Congressman Ryan Zinke introduced on Wednesday of last week. This one merges two long-running, locally-driven initiatives, the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Proposal and the Lincoln Prosperity Proposal. It aims to strike a grand compromise between strict conservation, expanded motorized and non-motorized recreation, and active timber management. You get 130,000 acres of wilderness, including 100,000 acres added to the Bob Marshall and the scapegoat wilderness complexes. and the creation of a brand new wilderness area on Nevada Mountain. Active logging and fire mitigation. It establishes six forest restoration areas covering 181,000 acres geared toward timber harvest, thinning, and prescribed burns to boost the local logging economy and mitigate wildfire risks near communities like Lincoln, Montana. Recreation and motorized access. The bill locks in 60,000 acres for designated recreation, guaranteeing permanent winter access for snowmobiles, adding mountain biking paths, and creating a connected 70-mile off-highway vehicle loop. 23,000 acres of existing wilderness study area, which would be found in the Hoodoo Mountain and Wales Creek WSAs, will be no longer WSA. Both of these long-standing efforts, Lincoln Prosperity Proposal, Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act, had what it takes, right? Big coalitions, broad coalitions, loggers, ranchers, outfitters, mountain bikers, hunters, anglers, the hikers and the hippies, as we say. Lots of groups have been involved with this one. Wild Montana, the Wilderness Society, TRCP, BHA, Trout Unlimited, many, many more. We've been working on this for a long time, 20-year slog. Representative Zinke had to announce this. We talked to him just yesterday, in fact. He needed to get it in, so it's got a shot of making it through. We only have a three-month sprint to get the rest of the Montana delegation on board and see this thing get passed through committee. This is a big one, and we're going to darn sure do everything we can to make it happen. Another highlight from our trip, Senator Risch out of Idaho, co-sponsored the Great American Outdoors Act. So big thanks to the senator there and his staff for that one. One of my primary reasons for heading back to D.C. was to meet with the Undersecretary of Agriculture over there at the Forest Service, Michael Boren, and talk, you know, primarily travel management rule. I'll tell you, the undersecretary and the staff were passionate about their intent to provide access and that America's public lands are awesome. I'm not saying we're perfectly aligned on the how, what, and where, but there's a lot of alignment in the fact that these places are special. And I'm looking forward to going back for another meeting and providing additional information on a lot of the things that we were talking about. Lots more to come here. But you got to keep in mind, the Department of Ag is literally asking right now to hear from you on this topic. And they have got to hear from hunters. This is open for comment. So please read the notice of intent in full and or go to backcountryhunters.org and you can go through our breakdown that we've provided. There are definitely areas here that need further clarification and hashing out. So when you write in, let them know your preferred mode of travel. Let them know your perspective as an end user, an actual honest-to-God public lands owner who is out on the landscape. Be very specific. You're not going to spot burn yourself. Tell them what state, what area. Drop some pins for them. You know, write your lat long in there. And say, what do you need in terms of access? More, less, different. Where might we have too much? And in specifically, what form of too much? Where are you seeing illegal trails or roads? Where are you seeing legal trails and roads that are not being maintained? Where are you seeing travel management not being enforced? And do you happen to own a class one e-bike that happens to have more power and goes faster than what is currently defined as a class one e-bike? I will tell you, Randy Newberg and TRCP did a wonderful video. Check out TRCP's YouTube channel for that one. They did a really good job of breaking this down very succinctly. And I think for hunting organizations and for people who just like hunting and fishing, if you look at this from the lens of hunting and having sustainable and good opportunity during your hunting season, ask that the Forest Service include the fact that travel management is wildlife management. It is the main way that we mitigate human impact to wildlife habitat and mitigate how we move species around. We've covered this. It is not hyperbole. Travel management handled in the wrong way will put our public wildlife on private land during hunting season, right? It will diminish our opportunity. It may increase access, specifically motorized access, but it will decrease access to wildlife. Ask that local managers retain seasonal management tools to support vehicle class restrictions or seasonal closures when needed to conserve winter range, big game migrations, and other resource needs. Most importantly, retain the closed unless open designation. The open unless closed designation just is going to open everything up to everything everywhere. And if we need to open additional routes to motorized, let's not make it a broad change. Let's make it a local-led initiative. Ask that they retain coordination with state and tribal governments, specifically regarding cooperation for state and tribal fish and wildlife management. Again, that's important because travel management is a huge tool in wildlife management. I'm being redundant, but it's important. We do not need, and this is a major theme here at Cal's Week in Review, we don't have to choose, okay? It doesn't have to be this or that. We're Americans, darn it. We can have it all. We don't have to choose between quality access and healthy fish and wildlife habitat. And I got a couple other bones to pick in here. They're looking at the possibility of expanding big game retrieval off of roads. Um, most forests have somewhere between a hundred yards, 900 feet, 300 feet from an established road that you can already drive off road. And as we've all seen those little cutaways to go retrieve firewood or camp or park for the day can be taken by the next vehicle and the next vehicle and the next vehicle. And all of a sudden you have a road. So how much further do we want these things to extend? if we're being honest with each other, right? Like I said, read this stuff, go to thefederalregister.gov. There's action alerts over there at our good friends at TRCP, as well as backcountryhunters.org. This is a big one. Do not sleep. Get on it. All right, moving on. Here in the home state, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks and the Trust for Public Lands have announced that it has completed a conservation easement of 20,629 acres owned by the Stimson Lumber Company in western Montana. The easement not only permanently prevents the land from being developed or subdivided, but it also secures free year-round access to the public, both for the private property and for adjacent public lands, such as the Wanless Lake Trailhead, which is a popular entry point to the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area. What's especially notable about the news is that it's the final easement in a 15-year effort by the Stimson Lumber Company to put its entire Montana deeded land portfolio, private land, under conservation easements. In total, that's 130,000 acres of timberlands conserved and open to the public. Many of those parcels are checkerboarded, which makes securing public easements especially important for accessing adjacent public lands that could otherwise be locked in the checkerboard pattern. Feasements were paid for with federal grant money and private donations. The most recent one, for instance, included $ 10. 2 million from the U.S. Forest Service's Forest Legacy Program, $ 250, 000 from Avista Utilities, $ 150, 000 from Northwest Energy, $ 1, 015, 000 raised privately by the Trust for Public Lands, a whole meat-eater land access initiative we kicked into this one, 80K, I think. Stimson donated the remaining balance of the easement's value, which was estimated over $ 17 million. The effort will also benefit the Treasure State's wildlife populations with the property encompassing wildlife habitats and migration corridors for elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and moose, as well as critical habitat for bull trout, grizzly bear, and Canada lynx. Stimson, of course, will continue to log these properties, their active working lands with conservation easements. It's a great deal, which is why perpetual easements that give security to landowners like this are an absolutely critical tool in the tool belt. In a state where forest land faces continued risks of subdivision and sell-off and fragmentation, conservation easements like this permanently protect and benefit working forests, clean water, wildlife, the local economy, and public access to the out-of-doors, said Trust for Public Lands Northern Rockies Director David Weinstein. Moving on to the cowboy state. We've got a lawsuit on our hands. Two conservation groups are suing the feds over 430 square miles of oil and gas drilling leases in Wyoming and Colorado. The Wilderness Society and Wilderness Workshop are pushing for the revocation of leases by arguing that federal agencies violated both their own regulations and other environmental laws to prioritize fossil fuel development. They also say that the energy development could significantly threaten the bags, mule deer, and sublet pronghorn migration corridors in central Wyoming. Essentially, the lawsuit makes the case that by giving these leases, most of which at discounted rates, the feds are unfairly prioritizing one use of public lands over other important uses. It also alleges that the BLM did not follow its own requirement to lease areas outside of critical winter areas and migration corridors before leasing areas inside of them. On the other hand, energy development companies say that the lawsuit mischaracterizes the oil and natural gas leasing process, which still requires environmental reviews prior to starting drilling. Like most news relating to our public lands, the lawsuit does not exist in a vacuum, and it's not the first or the last time I'll say that. While our public lands are governed by the doctrine of multiple uses, this doesn't mean that it should be a free-for-all when it comes to resource extraction. Those uses are important, but they need to be balanced with other factors. such as winter habitats and migration corridors, which are critical for maintaining healthy big game populations into the future. Jumping over to the salt desk, the Map Oceans Act is headed to the President's desk to be signed into law. The bipartisan bill directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to standardize, consolidate, and digitize boating and recreational fishing information for federally managed marine waters and federal fisheries, It's the latest in a series of similarly named bills, including the Map Land Act and the Map Waters Act, which did similar things for public lands and inland waterways. Ultimately, the bills modernize and make accessible pertinent public information to hunters, anglers, and other public recreational users across the country. The bills were pushed forward by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, which is comprised of 64 diverse partner groups, including backcountry hunters and anglers. Good job, team. Lots of people work on this stuff, but I think it's safe to say that old Joel is the powerhouse behind the map series of legislative action. Good job there, buddy. Jumping over to the critter desk. Two famous Americans have recently been honored with their own public statues. And no, I'm not talking about Bill Murray or Alfonso Ribeiro, the actor who played Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Anyway. both of whom have a birthday on the day this podcast comes out, September 21. No, the two stars I'm talking about were notably less talkative, but the camera loved them. Grizzly 399, the sow brown bear, who was known as the queen of the Tetons, and P22, the so-called Hollywood cat, a mountain lion who lived most of his adult life on an island alone in Griffith Park, LA. These were some of the most photographed animals on the planet before both of them were hit by cars. A life-size brown statue of Grizzly 399 titled Against All Odds was unveiled this month at the National Museum of Wildlife Art near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, sculptor Jocelyn Russell said, She was an amazing mother. The range, how she navigated through the canyons and got her cubs safely that far is just phenomenal. Russell spent two years on the artwork and hundreds of people showed up for the ceremony. I talked to a bunch of biologists over several beers one night down in the Jackson side of the GYE, and habituated as shoot was repeated often when discussing Bear 399. Part of her survival strategy was to use humans as a deterrent to competing male grizzly bears from coming in, killing her cubs, giving her a hard time too, so. The statue of P-22, the lion, is entitled Earth to City, Rhapsody of the Wild King. This one is still under construction, but conservation groups, including the National Wildlife Federation, announced that it will be installed at the Griffith Park Visitor Center once it's completed. Works of art are supposed to generate complex feelings, so I'll admit I'm pretty conflicted about some of this. On one hand, people should honor wild animals. Without great photos, paintings, sculptures of wildlife, and landscapes, The conservation movement may never have gotten started. Audubon's Birds of America, the Hudson River School of Nature paintings, and many other things. Old Sand County Almanac, or Thoreau, talking about his golden ponds and whatnot. So I'll admit that the influence of these two particular animals has done some good things. P-22 was a fundraiser for the wildlife crossing over the 101, the largest of its kind. That will save thousands of animals and provide much-needed genetic diversity to other islands of cats out there. At the same time, naming and fawning over and creating stuffed animals of animals puts them in an un-animal-like category. And it makes it hard for people to understand how wild wildlife is. Now, the Wildlife Art Museum's highest honor is called the Carl Rungius Medal. named after America's most important big game painter and wildlife artist whose work helped propel the reforms of the early 20th century. And wouldn't you know it, Carl Rungius himself was an avid hunter whose pursuit of animals fed his passion for painting them. He hunted moose in Maine, bighorn sheep in Wyoming, and bears outside of Banff in Alberta. So I'm not sorry that these sculptures exist, or the arts and maybe fawning over wildlife exist. I'm glad that they do. I just don't like the wild being sucked out of the wildlife, especially without their SACE. Give me a call. We can talk about it. 406-220-6441 or askcal at themeateater.com. Jumping over to Colorado. Speaking of bears at the population level, troubling news out of Colorado recently, where the Parks and Wildlife Commission have killed 296 black bears as of the end of August, almost four times as many as this time last year. The reason for the spike is plain. The record-breaking low snowpack, drought, and wildfire seasons have led to a catastrophic crash in acorn and berry production, which is driving bears into populated areas to get the calories they need, especially at this time of year when bears enter hyperphagia. the extreme eating that lets them prepare for denning over the winter. Their motivation for calories is extreme and gets them into sticky situations, knocking over bird feeders, jumping into dumpsters, and breaking into houses. To give you a sense of how important this period of eating is for the life cycle of the bear, consider what a sow has to accomplish while denning. She will not eat or drink the entire time, but she must also provide around 24 pounds of milk per cub in the first 12 weeks. This isn't just any milk. Black bear milk has a higher fat content than any other terrestrial mammal we know of. When cubs are first born, the milk is 9% fat, but it increases to a staggering 30% later in the den cycle, equal to whipping cream. Cow's milk, by contrast, tops out at just 5% milk fat. Again, the sow does not drink anything during this period. She's also losing water through respiration. and she doesn't have even close to all the water she'll need stored in her stomach before she enters the den. Miraculously, she produces new water through the process of burning fat. Urine is produced daily, but it's reabsorbed through the bladder wall for reuse. She may also drink the urine of her cubs to recover that water as well. Whatever it takes, right? But all these miracles don't come cheap. Mother bears can expend almost a million calories while denning and tending young, all of which has to be stored as fat in the fall. So if bears don't risk at all to eat as much as they can, their reproduction rate can crash. This year's black bear problem is most definitely not limited to Colorado. Lee Knox, the Game and Fish Regional Wildlife Coordinator based in Laramie, Wyoming, said, To find a bear in town once or twice a summer wouldn't be crazy, but this summer was unprecedented. It's at least three times as bad as the last bad year, and the majority of the conflicts have been more aggressive bear behavior. Bears eating trash doesn't just lead to conflict with people. Colorado Parks and Wildlife Southwest region spokesman John Livingston described what happened to one unlucky bear before it died, saying, quote, its upper intestines were completely blocked with trash, with plastic bags and those personal wipes they tell you not to flush. Its lower intestine was completely empty. Thankfully, Colorado has recently passed House Bill 1342, which lets authorities issue tickets to anyone who leaves out food sources, bird seeds, dirty grills, you name it, that can bring in bears. HB 1342 makes a key change to Colorado statute, changing the language of the violation from intentionally leaving food out to doing so knowingly. That change means that law enforcement can just see an open garbage can or a bowl of dog food on a porch and issue a violation. They don't have to prove that the person wanted a bear to come and get that food. The maximum fine for leaving food out was also increased from $ 2, 000 to $ 5, 000. Let's hope it makes a dent. Until then, tell your friends and neighbors to lock everything down for everyone's safety. Jumping over to the EPA, specifically the coal desk. The EPA announced this week that it will remove any limits on carbon pollution from power plants. If your primary concern is air quality rather than climate impact, this decision will simply make the air we breathe dirtier. Power plant pollution controls have been estimated to prevent up to 1,200 premature deaths per year, 870 hospital and emergency room visits, 360,000 asthma attacks, 48,000 school absence days, and 57,000 lost work days. but the EPA had stopped tracking the public health benefits of reducing pollution in its evaluation of clean air regulations. Reacting to the change, Travis Detty, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, said, If we're going to meet the needs going forward for the projected build-out of data centers, artificial intelligence, and electric vehicles, we're going to need a lot more energy in this country. You just can't do it with wind and solar. But Texas, the state whose electricity system is run almost entirely according to which power sources are most profitable and reliable, leads the nation in terawatt hours of renewable energy generated. And if we need all the electricity we can get from any possible sources, why is the Trump administration paying offshore wind developers to abandon their projects? We need diverse energy streams where they make sense. That's all I got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write in to askcal, that's askcal, at themeateater.com. Let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. You know we appreciate it. Big news over at the BHA employment desk. We have some exciting new employment opportunities. So head on over to backcountryhunters.org. We're talking Western policy. We're talking a really cool opportunity from... The Wiese Foundation, we have a Wiese Fellow Grant. These are going to be pretty competitive, but great ways to roll up your sleeves and jump in the conservation game. And right there in Missoula, Montana, we have an operations and customer service position there too, which is super, super critical. You get to interact with awesome folks every single day and let them know what we do. For you. And us. And me. All right. That's all I got for you this week. Remember to hit those comment periods. It is critical. Bellwether moment. It just is. Let's keep public wildlife on public land. Thanks again. We'll talk to you next week.