WEBVTT - Ep. 488: Fictional Graves, Fracking in Ohio, and Fights over Tungsten 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:12.719 From Meat Eaters World Headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.640 Col's Week in Review with Ryan cal Callahan, presented by 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:21.960 First Light. Here's cal. If you're going to criticize the 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.920 conservation community for something, it might be nimbiism. We hunters 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:28.800 and anglers can be quick to say no to a 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.120 new energy development, or a mining project or condo expansion 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.840 on our favorite piece of land. But no matter how 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.919 oppositional we might be, another community has beat us by 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.879 a mile. Across the Atlantic, activists defeated the routing of 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:47.320 an electrical transmission line from England to Ireland through Freshwater 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.199 West Beach in Pembrokeshire. That's in Wales. Now you may 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:53.360 be asking what are they trying to protect? Does the 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:57.240 beach hold a fragile population of seabirds? Are there archaeological 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:01.080 artifacts beneath the ground? No, this is where the fictional 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:04.959 character Dobby was buried in the fictional movie Harry Potter 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.560 and the Deathly Hallows. That's right. The UK National Grid 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:12.640 decided to reroute the very real Green Link Interconnector power 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:16.480 line with the cost of five hundred eighty one million dollars, 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.199 so that it won't go underneath a pile of rocks 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.440 Harry Potter fans have stacked on the beach to commemorate 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.640 the make believe resting place of a house Elf from 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.199 a children's novel. After a project manager mentioned the route 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.440 of the interconnector on an energy and industry podcast, the 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:36.200 utility provider was flooded with protest calls. Planners created a 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.280 new route for the line that passes close to a 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:42.240 Bronze Age archaeological site that exists in reality, where real 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:46.120 human remains are buried. I'm no Harry Potter scholar, but 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.200 researching old Dobby on Wikipedia, I'm seeing that he was 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.960 a pretty selfless fellow who saved Harry and the crew 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:55.560 from a horde of death eaters. If you know any 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.080 of that was real, which it is not, you know, 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.800 there could be some consideration for his fictional resting place. 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.720 Maybe we can use this as an example of people 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.240 coming together around real things in the real world and 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:14.080 emphasizing habitat and wilderness in the long term over the 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.040 short term gains. Maybe even just go out and pick 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:19.840 up some trash off the ground, you know, probably a 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:24.000 little more productive than rerouting a cable around a fictional 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:31.160 house Healthscrave, Dopey hash no Masta Dopey is a free LM. 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.800 This week we've got bears, We've got the Public Lands Desk, 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:40.240 Dog Hunting Update, NASA and what is it worth? But first, 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:41.680 I'm going to tell you about my week. And my 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.680 week was spent in the smoke of the fire season 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:48.960 working on my public comments to submit for the wilderness 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.160 review being conducted by the BLM, US Fish, Wildlife Service 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.680 and National Park Service. We are not told why this 0:02:55.720 --> 0:03:00.160 review is happening, but it does provide an opportunity for 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.320 us to weigh in now. Comments were due last Friday, 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.240 the fourteenth, and there's a ton of speculation out out 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.400 there as to why this administration is conducting the review. 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:15.639 Here are the titles of the policies reviewed again BLM, 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.800 Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:22.400 the National Park Service are the agencies. The policies in 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:27.480 question include the management of Wilderness study areas that's BLM, 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:33.239 Considering lands with wilderness characteristics that's BLM, Management of Designated 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:38.800 Wilderness areas BLM, Wilderness Stewardship, National Park Service and Wilderness 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:43.920 Administration and Resource stewardship that's Fish and Wildlife Service. It's 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:50.280 vague and with a broad deregulation agenda that the intent 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:56.200 here is to get public comments supporting dismantling wilderness basically 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.400 in the name of access. So as we've talked about 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.400 many times on the show and many times here in 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.960 the last six months. Access is great, but it comes 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.839 in many, many forms, and we lose if we let 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:12.520 one form of access become the definition for all access. 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.800 Access is a management tool, not just in terms of 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.920 where people go, but where people don't go, really efficiently 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:25.120 and fast, right, So implications as to how we manage 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:29.320 wildlife and keep wildlife around specifically, we had that great 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.640 example on the Blue Mountains Travel Management Plan last week, 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.560 and we've talked a lot when we've spoken about the 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:39.400 ESA here. The return to grizzly bears to state management 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.320 for example, which again I think is a great thing, 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.920 and I would be putting in for the well regulated 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:49.800 opportunity to hunt grizzly bears in the lower forty eight. 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:54.479 But in order to have that well regulated, sustainable hunt, 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:59.440 we need wilderness areas, and we need lands with wilderness 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:05.240 characteristic sticks, inventoried road lists, wilderness study areas, so as 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:09.400 you can imagine I weighed in on the importance of wilderness, 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.839 both for me and for all of us, and for 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:18.480 folks who think that wilderness is anti access, good news 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:22.560 for you. There just is not very much wilderness out there. 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:27.320 That's the capital w wilderness designation. The United States has 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.880 a little over one hundred and eleven million acres of 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:36.360 congressionally designated federal wilderness. The National Park Service manages about 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:40.400 forty three point nine million acres across sixty one locations, 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.000 US four AT Service thirty six point one million across 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:47.480 four hundred and forty seven units, US Fish and Wildlife 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:51.120 Service twenty point seven million acres across seventy one areas, 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.240 and the Bureau of Land Management about eight point seven 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:58.280 million acres over two hundred and twenty four sites. So 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:02.320 that one hundred and eleven million acres is obviously not contiguous. 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:06.039 There's little bits of wilderness spread all across the United States, 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.479 and then there's a couple of big, beautiful chunks, one 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:14.680 of which is absolutely core to grizzly bear and a 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.400 bunch of other species. But that esa conversation, the Bob 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.839 Marshall Wilderness Here in Montana, we would not have a 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:28.200 sustainable huntable population of grizzly bears if the BOB lost 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.640 its wilderness characteristics. And you know, we talk about this 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:35.880 relationship between a road and trail density and just how 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.880 fast people move into and out of areas and what 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:44.600 the implications are for keeping wildlife around. So wilderness is 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:49.600 absolutely integral to hunting in the United States. Wilderness areas 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:55.159 create literal reservoirs of habitat and game species. They provide 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.200 a completely different experience than a lot of our roaded 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.680 areas and can be some of the last holdouts in 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.880 terms of areas free of noxious weeds, and just a 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.120 great opportunity to have something where things move a little 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.440 slower and that's a good thing. So I spent years 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:15.720 and years guiding and running around wilderness areas, and if 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.760 I can do one hunting thing a year, it's a big, 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:22.920 long backpack trip through wilderness areas, toting and the rifle 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.040 around looking for big old mule deer. So we're gonna 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:31.480 jump over to Ohio. The Public Lands Desk Federal officials 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.920 have announced plans to open some two eight and forty 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.760 acres of Ohio's only National forest two fracking. According to 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.720 local news reports. The FEDS announced the opportunity for companies 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.640 to bid on oil and gas extraction leases in Wayne 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.320 National Forest on September fifteenth. As with attempts to mine 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.080 the headwaters of the Boundary Waters and the recent reduction 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.040 of the national monuments in Utah, this news is part 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.800 of a year's long back and forth pitting the interests 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:01.360 of executive industries against environmentalists and conservationists over how to 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.920 best manage our public lands. The first Trump administration first 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.160 approved an attempt to open the wine to increased fracking 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.640 in twenty seventeen, but in twenty twenty a district judge 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:13.760 blocked it on the grounds that it did not fully 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.880 consider threats to the public health or environment. But a 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:20.239 new environmental assessment released in twenty twenty five is providing 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.560 grounds of the latest attempt to sell fracking leases on 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.080 the National Forest. Fracking uses chemicals and high pressure to 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.400 remove oil and natural gas from underground shale deposits. The 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.800 practice is known to contribute to groundwater pollution and cause 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.640 dangerous methane leaks. Whether it's a good fit for the 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.400 wain depends on your perspective. Some folks say it could 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.040 be a benefit to the local economy, while others worry 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.640 about its impact wildlife habitats and existing recreational uses. Ohio 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.720 based public land hunter Ricky Jackson told Field and Stream 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.320 that the proposed areas for fracking leases are great habitat 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.480 for white tails and turkeys and hold some of the 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.960 state's last remaining populations of rough grouse. The southern half 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.200 of the state has the most to out of state hunters, 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.839 he added, We're inundated with hunters every year. To lose 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.680 twenty eight hundred acres of habitat, that's going to be 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.000 detrimental for us. The lease sale is the first step 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:13.280 to fracking, as companies would still need to secure the 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:17.240 appropriate permits to begin operating. Unfortunately, the public comment period 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.079 has passed, but the BLM, which manages the mineral rights 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:23.599 of the National Forest, is accepting hard copy written protests 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.760 mailed to its office in Falls Church, VA. I'll go 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.120 ahead and give you the address in case this doesn't 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.520 sit right with you. Bureau of Land Management, Eastern State 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:38.240 State's Office five two seven five Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.920 Virginia two two zero four to one. That's Falls Church, VA. 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:47.520 Two two zero four to one. Jumping over to the 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:52.160 prairie pothole aka the duck factory. The US Fish and 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.760 Wildlife Service is considering messing with regulations that would impact 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.120 what's known as drain tile setbacks. To put it simply, 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.079 these tile set are part of a nineteen fifty eight 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.560 amendment to the duck Stamp that allowed the Service to 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.760 purchase easements conserving small wetland and pothole areas with one 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:13.360 time payments. The easements prevent farmers from intentionally draining those wetlands, 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:15.640 but don't keep them from cropping them if they dry 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:19.920 up naturally. Cropping is in planning a crop well. Drain 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.480 tile setbacks play a key role in preventing the draining 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:26.000 of those wetlands, and removing or shortening them could cause 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:29.720 serious damage to the most significant waterfowl production region for 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.800 the Central and Mississippi River flyways, not to mention the 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.320 fact that it would negate the money that waterfowl hunters 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:39.360 directly contributed to those conservation efforts through duck Stamp purchases. 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.160 The comment period that the Fish and Wildlife Service held 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:44.839 on this lasted only two weeks, which didn't even give 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:46.839 us enough time to cover it here on the podcast, 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.680 the conservation groups including backhuntry Hunters and Anglers, Ducks Unlimited, 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:54.239 Delta Waterfowl rallied hard to make the voices of sportsmen 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.520 heard on this. According to the Federal Register, two hundred nineteen, 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:00.400 four hundred and twenty eight comments were submitted, and a 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.120 brief look at some of the comments shows that the vast, 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.080 vast majority were submitted by conservation minded sportsmen and women 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:09.840 across the country. So we did a good job responding 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.680 to this urgent threat as a community, and we'll see 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.400 what happens from here. If you have more to add 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.319 to this conversation, give me a call four h six 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.040 two two zero six four four one, or leave me 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:25.760 an email at asksc al that's Ascal at themeaeater dot com. 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.800 This has to do with way, hey, more than our 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:36.160 migratory waterfowl species. We're talking migratory songbirds and raptors and 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:41.000 big old narley mule deer bucks and pollinators. These intermittent 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:44.360 wetlands out there on the prairie are like the biggest 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.920 sources of biodiversity in life. These are willing seller, willing 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:53.319 buyer agreements, and we're not making any more wetlands the 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:57.120 small ones are the ones that matter arguably the most. 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:01.360 So those big wetland complexes are are fantastic, and we 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.760 need those two. But those little guys spread all over 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:10.200 inconvenient places are where our duck's nest and then go 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:15.440 to eat invertebrates, so absolutely crucial, and we've lost roughly 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.040 eighty percent of those across the US already. So I 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:23.440 think only one percent of folks who buy a duck 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:26.440 stamp took the time to write a comment on this, right, 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.240 I think there's roughly a million duck hunters in the US. 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.959 What's the deal, gang, Take the rubber band off those bills, 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.680 get in there, make some commotion for what you love, 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:40.360 or somebody else will. Here's one that's near and dear 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:44.720 to my heart. Tungsten. If you're anything like me, you 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:48.560 cringe at the cost of tungsten shotgun AMMO, which I 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:53.320 use exclusively for turkeys now. For decades, hundreds appealed lots 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:55.800 of turkeys with a good old fashioned lad But once 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.600 you've reached out a further with super dense TSS, the 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:03.840 result are pretty fricking fantastic. Tungsten is not just useful 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.160 for killing long beards, of chorus. It's also excellent for 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:10.400 making high tech cutting and drilling tools, armour piercing artillery shells, 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:15.880 rocket nozzles, advanced magnets, nuclear fusion reactors, electron microscopes, and 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.760 even ballast for race cars. Unfortunately, not much tungsten is 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.000 produced in the US, which makes US vulnerable to restrictions 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:25.520 from countries like China and Russia. That kind of squeeze 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.520 earlier this year caused a six hundred percent increase in 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:30.480 the cost of the metal, and a single round of 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.080 turkey AAMO was selling for as much as twenty two dollars. However, 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.240 a one point seventy eight million ton load of tungsten 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.720 was recently identified in Nevada, five times bigger than the 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.240 next biggest known US deposit, which sounds like a good 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:48.280 way to get cheap TURKYAMO. But NASA has a land 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:51.320 withdrawal established over a large portion of the land where 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.520 the tungsten is located. It seems this extremely flat Nevada 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:57.760 desert is one of the few places that the agency 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.720 can calibrate its satellite instruments. As recently as twenty twenty three, 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.640 the BLM removed about seventeen square miles of this exact 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.880 stretch from mining and exploration and NASA's request. I think 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:14.480 even Turkey hunters can agree that NASA's recalibrating instruments out 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:18.440 there is also extremely beneficial to habitat, and there's probably 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.200 some quail kicking around out there, So I, for one, 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.200 I'm happy to adjust to that market and keep that 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:30.040 habitat intack. Moving on to the large cat desk, deer 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:32.600 hunters tend to have strong opinions about mountain lions, and 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:34.920 most of them aren't good. If you could just turn 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:36.840 down the number of lions, you'd turn up the number 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.680 of deer right well. A new study out of Washington 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.600 State puts some very interesting wrinkles in that way of thinking. 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.720 The study analyzed a huge amount of data from lions 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:49.200 fitted with radio colors on the Olympic Peninsula, then crunch 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.760 those numbers along with similar data on the area's blacktail 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:56.120 deer population. Clear patterns emerged most dramatically. The study found 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.240 a seventy six percent drop in car accidents involving deer 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:02.280 in areas with high puma activity. Deer stayed away from 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.960 roads and stuck to more remote areas in response to 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:09.040 lion pressure, which keeps deer alive and front fenders straight. Further, 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.480 when deer co exists with lions, they shift more of 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:15.120 their activity to daytime to avoid the nocturnal predator. More 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.560 deer movement during shooting light is definitely a good thing 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:21.240 for hunters. That also meant that although overall car accidents 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:25.640 went way down, accidents during the day increased slightly, notably 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.720 through reduction in car deer collisions. Weren't just the results 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.760 of lions reducing deer numbers. The deer were altering their 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.280 behavior because they were living in fear of lions, but 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.600 they were staying alive. Of course, lions prey on deer. 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:40.280 That's how they make a living. That's not a zero 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.800 sum game, and a lot of these white tails stays. 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.120 There's plenty of deer to go around for both cats 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.760 and hunters, and it seems like we're working together to 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.600 keep those insurance premiums down, which is a good deal, 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:58.240 a mutualistic relationship, you might say. Also, mountain lion stakes 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:04.200 are absolutely the other white meat. Moving over to the 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:06.720 accounting desk, time for me to give credit to the 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:09.760 team that keeps back country hunters and anglers kicking butt 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.400 In the fight to protect public land. We tend to 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:14.960 use the same arguments again and again. We say the 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.120 land is priceless. They say the land is just sitting 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.560 there idle instead of generating jobs and revenue. When people 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.240 outside of this world hear both sides, the anti public 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.240 land argument seems to make sense well. To change up 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.520 the debate, BHA commissioned an economic report to quantify the 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.960 money that public lands generate and the costs that transferring 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.520 them to the states or privatizing them would incur. To 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.640 keep it focused, the study shows Idaho as its test case. 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:44.560 That analysis found that federal land management brings eight hundred 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.880 and thirty seven million dollars into Idaho's economy. If land 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.360 were transferred to state ownership, that federal funding would be gone, 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.200 and Idaho would also lose nine hundred and fifty four 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:58.760 million dollars in economic output, over seventy four hundred jobs, 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:01.640 and around sixty one mins billion dollars in tax revenue 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.119 at the state and local level. All that in the 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.000 state would have to take on all the costs of 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:10.120 maintaining that land, most notably fighting fires, maintaining roads, managing 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.320 habitat and there's no real way for the state to 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.760 cover those costs. Two very similar reports found the same 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.919 outcomes in Arizona and Montana. One key difference between federal 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.200 and state control is that when a state faces a 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.560 budget shortfall, it is often required to cover that shortfall 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.760 in any way it can, and those solutions usually fall 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:34.560 into four categories, raising taxes, cutting services, increasing development and extraction, and, 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.160 most importantly for us, selling land. Here I'm quoting from 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.320 the excellent article that BHA's Western Policy and Conservation manager 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.240 wrote on this issue, Old Devin od. When budgets tightened, 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.480 land becomes an asset and assets can be sold. This 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:50.399 is the part of the story that rarely appears in 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:55.480 legislative findings or campaign messaging. We need to keep beating 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.280 this drum. Keeping public lands in public hands keeps money 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.600 flowing into the states, keep states from being tempted or 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.359 forced to sell that land. Spread the message to the 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.520 people around you every opportunity you get. Good job to 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:13.480 the team at BHA for balancing passion with facts. Okay, 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:18.960 onto the hot topic corner. We covered dog hunting in 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.480 South Carolina. That's hunting with dogs for deer, and this 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.080 week Chris from South Carolina wrote in with a video 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.280 of a huge turnout for a public meeting on the 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.199 issue in Florence. There were trucks parked as far as 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.320 the eye could see so that people could make their 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:37.000 concerns heard and reach some better solutions. Good participation like 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:41.399 that is inspiring. We want that in every county. But 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:43.360 I'm kicking myself a bit that I didn't dig into 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:46.200 this earlier. The South Carolina dn R recently held three 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.080 public meetings together input on the issue, one in Florence, 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.800 one in Orangeburg, and one in Walterborough. Unfortunately, the last 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:55.399 one happened on August ten, at least a week before 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:57.560 you're hearing this. The good news is that you can 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.879 still use the online form that the scd NR has 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.080 set up to gather comments. If you care about dog hunting, 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.439 this is the only way you're likely to see changes 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.280 happen that you care about. The online form is just 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:11.120 a bunch of random letters, so it doesn't make sense 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.879 for me to read that to you. However, this brings 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.440 me to my final point. We're now going to start 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.240 using the podcast show notes for each episode to include 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:22.000 details and links for calls to action, So if you 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.919 want to comment on South Carolina's dog hunting rules, scroll 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.720 down on your device and you'll see a direct link there. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.080 Stay tuned in weeks to come as we put more 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.199 links and info in there. One less excuse to not 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:37.280 get involved. I'll say it again, just because you're not 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.399 weighing in doesn't mean somebody else who you may not 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:44.840 agree with won't. Your best shot is getting in there 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:50.919 and making your opinion heard, passions and facts. Let them 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:52.960 know where you're coming from, let them know where you're 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.399 spending your cash and your time. Let them know what 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.200 this stuff means to you. All Right, That's all I 0:19:58.240 --> 0:19:59.760 got for you this week. Thank you so much for 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:02.159 listen stening. Remember to write in to a s k 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:05.040 C A L. That's Ascal at the meeater dot com 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.240 or leave me a voicemail at four oh six two 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:10.959 two zero six four four one. We love hearing from you. 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:12.840 Gotta know what's gonna happen in your neck of the woods. 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:25.080 We appreciate thanks again. We'll talk to you next week.