WEBVTT - Ep. 196: BEAR GREASE [RENDER] - Live from the Black Bear Bonanza 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.239 My name is Clay Nukeleman. This is a production of 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.400 the Bear Grease podcast called The Bear Grease Render, where 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:25.760 we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:31.320 of the actual bear Grease podcast, presented by f HF Gear, 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:36.520 American Maid, purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:39.320 to be as rugged as the place as we explore. 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:45.720 We've got some big news that Meat Eater. We're going 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:50.720 on another live tour from April twenty third through May 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:55.360 the fifth. Me and Steve Vanella and the team are 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:57.760 going to be all over the country. We're gonna be 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:02.840 in Mace, Arizona, San Diego, California, Anaheim, California, Sacramento, California, 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.200 Salt Lake City, Utah, Boise, Idaho, Missoula, Spokane, Portland, Tacoma. 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.839 I know we need to come to the South. It's 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.880 gonna happen one day, folks, But right now our live 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:18.640 tour tickets are on sale. I'll be there, Steve will 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:20.640 be there, a bunch of the team will be there. 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:22.800 It's gonna be a lot of fun. Get your tickets 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:28.640 today at the meeteater dot com slash events. The meeteater 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:33.760 dot com slash Events Live tour tickets. We're hitting the 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:50.400 American West. How's everybody doing great to see everybody. Hey, 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:53.640 thank you guys so much for coming out today. This 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.520 is a big deal, big deal for me, big deal 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:01.800 for everybody that loves Arkansas bear and uh, it just 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.200 means a lot to me that y'all y'all came out today. 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.520 These guys at b h A do a ton of work, 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.119 they really do. I don't do anything. I just show up, 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:13.200 so you don't have to thank me for anything. But uh, 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:17.080 these BHA guys that you've seen, James Brandenburg being the 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.160 head of them here in Arkansas, doing a great job. 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:24.920 Myron means is gonna open us up with a banjo tune. Hey, 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:27.440 you guys may have been out here just a minute ago. 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.680 This is the world's greatest bear biologist right here. He 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.000 plays a banjo to Mayron, open us up with a 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:36.840 banjo tune, and then we'll get started. 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.400 All right, we'll do now. 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.320 I'm gonna dance, No, I'm not. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.280 I don't know which one will train and work work. 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.120 This is uh called cripple Cree. You leave us about 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:57.760 the first banjo song most banjo players learn, and uh 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.120 it goes kind of like this. Y'all help me out 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:00.600 keep rhythm. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.160 That's right, that's. 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:51.080 All right, all right, excellent. 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:53.600 I recognize Taylor Swift anywhere. 0:03:55.080 --> 0:04:00.680 That was excellent. Well, welcome to the bears Render Podcast. 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.880 This is our This is our live podcast. So this 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:05.800 will go out to the world here in a couple 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:11.760 of weeks. What we so this podcast is the we 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:15.080 have the bear Grease podcast, which is our documentary style podcast, 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:19.120 and then this one is where we gather up a 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.880 group of folks and we typically would talk about the 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:28.440 last documentary style Beargrease podcast. Y'all familiar with the Bargerags podcast. 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.640 Y'all know what I'm talking about. Okay, just check it. It 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.920 wasn't sure, It wasn't sure. So this and this is 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.479 a little bit different because we got all you guys here, 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:40.080 We got a group of people I can't wait to 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.400 introduce you to. But usually we would spend a little 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:48.080 more time talking about the Wilderness podcast. Say hi to 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:54.280 Brent's Instagram following there, but both of them. First of all, 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:56.800 I gotta get things started off right. If you listen 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.760 to the Bear Grease Render, you know that a couple 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:03.120 of months ago, I was petitioning the world for a 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:08.839 banjo player to come to the Render podcast and just 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:13.360 stand there and wait for like fun one liners. Uh, 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.080 you know, kind of like a like a side Well, 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:18.600 I want you to come to I want the Arkansas 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.240 Game and Fish Commission to finance you to come to 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.440 every Render and play your banjo. That's what I want. 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:25.000 I'm gonna work with your boss on that. 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.159 I think I think Director Booth is here. Maybe Director 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:28.839 Booth is here. 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:35.279 I'm not sure it's possible that he's here. No, let 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.839 me look. I want to introduce to a few people 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:43.120 that are in the audience. First of all, my wife, Misty, 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.800 who's on the stage here. But uh, my son Bear 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:48.000 nukemb is in the back. 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:48.440 Bear. 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:53.039 Wave your hand. That's Bear. My daughter River is here. 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:57.120 Where's the river at River? There's River dukem My mom 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:01.760 and dad? Uh, Gary the Believer, New and Juju were here. 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.000 Where are they at? 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:04.760 There? 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:10.080 They are? There's mom and dad back there. Uh, let's 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:14.600 see who else was I gonna introduce? Yeah, where's director 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.320 Booth at Austin Booth and his wife are they here? 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:18.320 Oh? 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:22.359 If they're gone, he's he gone, he gone. 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.080 They were wrangling their entire family, which a lot of 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:26.480 people here are doing as well. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:28.440 So I was glad. I was glad he came for 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.760 the time that he did. Now I'm gonna really embarrass somebody. 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.599 If if you've been listening to barger I hope he's here. 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.599 I think he's here. If you listen to the Bargeras podcast. 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.640 In the last couple episodes you heard are our Donnie 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:45.400 Baker episode? Do you guys, did you guys listen to 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.760 the Donnie Baker story? Yeah? Yeah, incredible, really was an 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:53.560 incredible story. Donnie's here, Donnie, Where are you? Where's Donnie 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.120 Baker at? There's Donnie Baker. 0:06:57.560 --> 0:06:57.920 Donnie. 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.840 I'm sorry, man. Misty was like, you should tell him 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.640 that you're gonna do that, and I was like, nah, 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:05.719 but that's Donnie Baker. 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:05.960 Man. 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:10.280 Everybody I've been I've traveled quite a bit since that podcast, 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:12.480 and that's all people want to talk to me about, 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:15.760 is uh is that story. So it's good to have 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:22.920 Donnie here. Good to see you man. Yeah, and uh, 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.920 you guys have met. I hope you went by the 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:28.920 Bear Hunting Magazine booth back here. 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:29.840 Uh. 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:36.000 Colby moorehead owner Bear Hunting Magazine's Colby in here Colby Morehead. 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:38.559 He may he may still be out of his booth, 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.520 but uh, I don't, I don't. I don't work with 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:44.960 Bear Hunting Magazine anymore. I mean I owned and operated 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:48.040 the business, and Kolby was working for me, and he 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:50.880 he he now owns it and runs it and doing 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.960 a great job. And they do a lot help him 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.320 to put all this on too. So I wanted to 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.520 introduce Kolby, but he's not here either is director Booth. 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:00.680 Where are these people up? 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:01.920 Who knows? 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:06.080 Let me introduce you to my guests on the far 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:08.720 right here. This is Bernie Barringer, came all the way 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:16.520 from Minnesota, Bernie Bernie. When I back years and years ago, 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.480 when I wasn't even in the outdoor industry. This is 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.680 the embarrassing story I'm gonna tell about, Joe. I applied 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:29.280 to be the editor of Bear Hunting Magazine, which I 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.880 laughed at the literally when I had the thought, in 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:37.280 about two thousand and ten, maybe when I was the editor, 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.079 well you weren't yet. Hold on, that's the punchline of 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:44.880 the joke. Okay, I wasn't even in the outdoor industry, 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.400 and I saw that Bear Hunting Magazine needed an editor. 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:53.160 I was completely unqualified, and I applied to be the editor, 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.880 and Jeff Folsom called me and interviewed me on the phone, 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.600 and I mean I gave him both barrels full about 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:01.800 what I would do if I was the editor, and 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:05.040 I mean was basically compensating for having no experience with 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:10.640 just just passion. And he also interviewed another guy named 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:16.240 Bernie Bearinger. Bernie got his John, Bernie got the job, 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:20.520 and UH and so and then as things went on, 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.000 I ended up owning the magazine. 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.640 And for me, he demoted me as to a columnist 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:28.160 from the editor when he bought it. 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:28.800 Yeah. 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:34.760 Now, Bernie is a truly a macro scale bear hunting expert, 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:38.199 hunted all over the country. UH is an outfitter in 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.439 Minnesota and just a knowledgeable bear guy. He wanted to 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.240 come down today. I wanted to have Bernie on the podcast. 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:47.760 So thanks for coming. Brent Reeves. Everybody knows Brent Reeves 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:53.120 this Country Life podcast. Were you last year at this 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.360 time you were doing this right? Yep, you just started. No, 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.800 it was actually fixing to come out Octo or a 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:03.439 first Okay, so last week couldn't we couldn't even talk 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.959 about it this. Yeah, his podcast hadn't even started. And 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.120 uh man, Brent, y'all know Jerry Klower. We did a 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:14.559 series on Jerry Clower. Jerry Klower became famous uh in 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.560 night when he was fifty seven years old. Jerry Klower 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.079 was a fertilizer salesman. Brent is kind of like that 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:21.720 in a way. 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:23.800 He uh fertilized. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:28.120 He he's still an undercover agent, I'm pretty sure, but 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:32.760 uh no, just Brent does a phenomenal job at what 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.400 he does. There's very few people that are as good 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.000 at their craft as what Brent does with his podcast. 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:44.360 This is my wife, Misty nukeom who uh who's introduction 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:51.080 needs no introduction, No man, So much of the any 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:55.160 any amount of I want to say intellectual power, but 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.000 that word sounds pretty big and fancy. But if there 0:10:58.120 --> 0:10:59.559 is any of that in Bear Grease, a lot of 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.480 it comes from doctor Nukom here, who constantly talk with 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.640 about everything that's going on. So thank you for being here, 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:11.080 Happy to be here. To my left, Myron means known 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:15.600 Myron for a long time, and Myron's the large carnivore. 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.600 That's right, how coordinator. We known each other well, we've 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.160 known each other long enough that when you call me 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:25.520 up at the office one day and you said, hey, Maron, 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.319 I want to do a podcast, And I said, well, what, 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:31.640 that's how long we've known four people? 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:36.240 Do what podcasts? Or Yeah, that's right, that's right now. 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:38.040 Myern's been working for the Game and Fish for a 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:40.679 long long time and been working specifically with bears for 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:46.680 fifteen years, seventeen years, and he does an incredible job, 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.000 and so it's great to have you here. We may 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.120 overlap a little bit with some of the things he 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:55.559 talked about earlier, but we're going to talk a lot 0:11:55.600 --> 0:12:00.199 about Arkansas bears. To his left James Brandenburg, who is 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.319 the head of the Arkansas Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Association 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:10.040 the chapter YEP, and James is from Northwest Arkansas. YEP 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.079 killed a bear before YEP. 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:16.400 And previously was you know, uninitiated in that stuff. 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:21.120 Yeah, yeah, I kind of went from zero to competent 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.960 in the bear world on public land, Sam I yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.160 Well it's good to have you, Maan. And to your 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:32.479 left it's Patrick Barry, who's the new president and CEO 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:34.160 of back Country Hunters and Anglers. 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:36.880 Yeah, thanks for having me on where do you live, Patrick, 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.280 I live in the middle of nowhere in rural Vermont. 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.080 In Vermont, Yes, sir, I'll be daring. 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:42.760 Well. 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:47.160 So, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is a national organization, And 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.199 so how long have you been president and CEO? 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.679 I just finally learned how to use my computer, so 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:55.880 I'm making progress. I've only been on for a little 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:56.520 over two months. 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.640 Okay, you're right right right up, beginning. Great, great to 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:05.120 have you. We're gonna do two things today. We're gonna 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.839 talk about Arkansas bears, but we're also going to talk 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:14.080 about wilderness. We've been the last three episodes, which Brent 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:20.199 thinks we're extremely boring of bear grease. We're about American wilderness, 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.559 and Brent is dead wrong, man. This is the best 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.599 stuff we've ever done in our lives. We're going to 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:31.839 talk about We're going to talk about wilderness at the 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.280 last part of this, but I want to talk about 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:41.240 bears at first. Myron, give me a what kind of 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:45.800 research is going on right now in the state for bears. 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.720 Well, we have a lot of it is like spatial 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.240 habitat use research that we're doing. We have the GPS 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.720 project going on down in South central Arkansas and if 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:02.000 you're familiar with the bear zones as a Bear Zone 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:06.000 three and four, and summer of twenty twenty one, we 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:10.360 started putting GPS callers on those females down there to 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:15.559 try and get an idea of home range, size, habitat use, 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.120 seasonal habitat use, and everything like that. And that was 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.560 really kind of coming on the heels of finishing a 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.200 population study that we were doing with you of a 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.960 Monticello down there, and it's basically trying to gather all 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.560 the information that we could about the Gulf Coastal Plain 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:35.640 population because we knew relatively nothing about it, and it 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.760 is a young population. It's a small population. It's a 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.440 young population, probably no more than five hundred bears across 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:47.880 all of it, but it's a growing population. We also 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:51.440 have we've had the MAINS research kind of ongoing now 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:55.560 for five years, looking at collecting samples, working with squid 0:14:55.680 --> 0:15:01.160 US South South Southern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study Group in Georgia, 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.280 and uh, you know, US and a lot of Eastern 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.200 states are trying to find out what the cause of Maine. 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:09.760 Main's a pretty big deal here. 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:12.680 It's not a big deal here. But in certain states 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.000 like Pennsylvania and some of the Northeast states, it's a 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.400 very big deal. Well, I mean sconsin up in yeah, 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:23.440 Wisconsin too. Yeah, Pennsylvania has some areas of the state 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.040 that have as high as a thirty percent prevalence rate. 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.000 Does that mean thirty percent of them are showing the 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.680 signs of heavy main and its sarcoptic mange. 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:36.680 Yes, it is sarcoptic mange. And so we're looking at that. 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:41.120 We just started this year on a on a Denning 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.760 chronology study of our what I call our mountain bears. 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.280 Those aren't in the Washstaw bears, and we're replacing the 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:53.000 old VHF callers with bright shiny GPS callers which come 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.640 with a bright shiny price tag. But we're looking to 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.320 try and determine, you know, the Dennings timing or the 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:05.480 Denning chronology of those mountain populations to get a better 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.520 understanding of, you know, what's going on in the fall, 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:11.560 especially with our females. I mean, it doesn't make a 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:13.520 whole lot of sense to have a bear season when 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:15.320 a lot of the bears are in the den right, 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.680 So it is relative to the hunting and our harvest 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:21.280 strategies and everything. The seasons that we set and the 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.760 frameworks and those are really kind of the big ones 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:26.840 right now. But you know, some of the other kind 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.960 of underlying research that we're doing is the bear hunter 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.880 survey that our social science division is doing and all 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.400 that with, you know, with successful bear hunters looking at 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.680 the social science portion of our of our customer base, 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:43.000 and what. 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.080 Kind of questions are you asking people. I probably took 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:46.800 the survey, but. 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:51.000 You probably did, a lot of the questions are geared around, 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:56.480 you know, age dynamics. Well, I think the average age 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.920 of bear hunters today's forty eight forty eight, some other 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.680 questions about how did you learn about bear hunting? Did 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.560 you learn about it through podcasts or television or newspaper 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.280 or gaming, Phish employees or whatever. Some of the other 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.200 questions are, you know, what do you use a bear 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.919 for if you have harvested the bear and that. 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:20.240 Why is that information important to y'all? 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:22.480 Well, it just kind of falls into the you know, 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:27.520 just getting to know your customer money, y'all just ask me, well, 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.600 you are a customer base, but you know, I mean 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.600 that's just an area a lot of natural resource agencies 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.680 are kind of using social science to not necessarily drive 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:42.600 their harvest strategies or hunting seasons, but certainly maybe amplify 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.639 how you may adjust something one way or another. And 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.639 you know, it's a valuable part of knowing what who 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:53.520 your customer base is and why they're hunting bears, how 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:55.800 long they've been hunting bears. You know, have you been 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.879 hunting two three years, have you been hunting fifteen years? 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.240 And all that. So it's just getting to know the 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:02.000 customer better. 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:06.160 Now, do we know how many bear hunters are in Arkansas? 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:06.399 Now? 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.960 Is there is there a way? Every state's different in 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:13.000 the way that they assigned licenses. A lot of states 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:17.000 you would buy bear tag you in Arkansas, if you're 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:20.720 an Arkansas resident, you get an Arkansas Sportsman's Combo license, 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.840 you get a bear tag. But this year didn't you 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.760 have to get a free like bear hunter. 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:29.040 Right. 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.760 We changed over our entire license system this past year 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.880 and there were some growing pains with it, but we'll 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.119 eventually get all the kinks worked out. And one of 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:42.160 the unique things about this new license system is if 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:46.360 you intended to hunt or harvest a bear, you had 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:50.119 to obtain a quote bear permit. The bear permit was 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.320 free to residents, which means if you had a hunting license, 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:55.440 all you had to do was go on the on 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:58.960 the on your profile on your page and just click 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.240 the box that gave you a free bear permit. Non 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.200 residents had to purchase. That was three hundred dollars for 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:10.160 a non resident bear permit. But for the first time 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:15.399 in our management history, Game and Fish Eye Bear Program 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:20.800 Coordinator is able to determine with a reasonable accuracy, how 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:22.119 many bear hunters will we have in. 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:23.720 This Do you know that number? Don't say it? 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:27.080 Do you know that number? Well, I know an approximate. 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.600 Can you? Could you say it if I wanted you to? Okay, 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:33.320 how many bear hunters do you think are in Arkansas? 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:34.640 If you go over, you're out. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:36.640 It's like the price is right now wait wait wait 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:40.520 wait wait, okay, there's the caveat Okay, this included the 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.960 number that I got, included resident bear permit holders and 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.840 non resident everybody that's hunting, everybody else hunting, baron ard. 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.720 Okay, if you go over, you're out. Closest closest the. 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.119 Number, the price is right, twenty eight hundred. 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:57.840 Okay, good bear or bear brand whatever. It's like my 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:02.280 son Waite outer end. Well, we don't know, we don't 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:04.400 know the number. Twenty eight hundred. Just remember you number? 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.080 How many bear hunters in Arkansas plus non residents? 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:08.160 Twenty eight oh one? 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:12.680 Ooh, price is right, six hundred and thirty eight. 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:17.560 Okay, remember your number. Okay, I'm I'm going last at 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:21.080 what's Oh that's not fair, it's not go ahead, you 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:22.920 could if you're Bob Barker, you get. 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:24.359 To do what you want, right if you say twenty 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:25.639 seven ninety nine, I'm. 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.320 You bear hunters in Arkansas? 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:34.800 Now, this is the state wide d gets their help 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.600 from the crowd. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, what yell out 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:39.119 your numbers? 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:39.200 It? 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:42.800 Oh she says higher higher, higher. 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.760 More than more than five thousand, more than ten thousand. 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.120 I think they're really optimistic. I'm gonna go for ten thousand. 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:52.760 Ten thousand. 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:56.200 Oh he's mmmm Patrick. 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:58.919 Not my my h My question though, Myron is Oh, 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:01.440 youse a question? Come on, man, I got a question 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:01.959 now too. 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:07.800 If this was irid, I'm gonna give you one question. 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:13.480 Are these folks that aren't saying that they're taking opportunity 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:16.200 to bear hunt but like this is their thing? 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:17.200 This is what they do. 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:19.720 It's just a legal requirement to hunt a bear. 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.240 You if I was going go ahead, ma, if you 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:27.920 intend to hunt or harvest a bear, either directly bear 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.680 hunt or incidental harvest of a bear. 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:31.480 That was my question. 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:33.639 You're deer hunting and the bear walks by, you can 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:36.280 shoot it if so that counts that you bet? 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:36.679 All right? 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.080 So before you said that, if this were the price 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:40.720 is right, I would have said one dollar. 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:41.600 Hmm. 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:44.480 There have been a good move maybe right. 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:46.679 But since you're going last, I can't do that anyway. 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:53.360 I would say, Uh, I'd say eighty five hundred eighty five. 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:54.000 That's fair. 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:56.439 Good pha. Guys are optimistic down here. 0:21:56.680 --> 0:21:59.440 Yeah, but the incident, the opportunistic part is the part. 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:00.720 Yeah, that's a tricky one. 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:01.520 That's a tricky one. 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:03.440 What was yours? Twenty eight? 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:07.440 I can't remember, but I think I might. What was 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:08.480 that twenty eighth? 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:13.120 Twenty eight? No, I actually think, uh, I'm gonna say 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:16.560 four thousand? What is the number over? 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:17.679 Twenty five thousand? 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:22.960 Whoa, my goodness, wo wow, Okay, should have listened to 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:26.240 the crowd though, Yeah, oh that they knew that, Okay, 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:30.600 that's wow. Twenty five thousand people bought bear twenty five thousand. Wow, 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:32.160 that's that's surprising to me. Man. 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:32.440 Yeah. 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:33.120 Yeah. 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:43.440 Can can we say how many bears we had harvested 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:45.119 in Arkansas last year? 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.159 Yeah, seven hundred and sixty five record harvest year. 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:50.760 For our record harvest year in twenty twenty three. 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:51.200 Yep. 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:54.480 And is that what third consecutive bear season? 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:54.760 Yeah. 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:57.399 I mean we're actually getting up there and harvesting the 0:22:57.480 --> 0:22:59.880 number of bears we need to. I mean, that's why 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:02.200 we've liberalized the season a little bit more the last 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:05.760 couple of years and brought it earlier, and we do. 0:23:05.960 --> 0:23:07.800 That's about where we need to be. We need to 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:11.280 be between somewhere between five hundred and fifty and eight 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:12.439 hundred bears probably. 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:12.880 Wow. 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:16.159 But I mean, if we got time to dig into it, 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:18.520 There's a couple of other things I would like to 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:19.119 mention about it. 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:19.440 Yeah. 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:24.400 In the bear world, bear management, you know, sustainable harvest 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:28.080 rates often falls on the female component of a population. 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:31.480 You can only harvest so many females in a population 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:36.320 and those practices be sustainable. Well, if bears the magic 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:41.600 numbers around forty six percent of the female component of 0:23:41.680 --> 0:23:45.560 a harvest, you start harvesting over forty six percent in 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:48.440 a you know, in a given year, and if that 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:52.520 is sustained long term, it's not sustainable. 0:23:53.880 --> 0:23:57.960 In the son it does that, okay. So if the 0:23:58.040 --> 0:24:02.400 harvest is over forty six percent SAL, you're the long 0:24:02.520 --> 0:24:05.480 term trajectory of your population is going to be decreasing. 0:24:05.720 --> 0:24:06.200 That's correct. 0:24:06.200 --> 0:24:07.879 Forty six percent SAL, okay. 0:24:08.040 --> 0:24:10.480 And that's just kind of the rule of thumb, you know, Arkansas. 0:24:10.520 --> 0:24:13.240 It may be a couple of percent here and there otherwise, 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:16.919 but just across the board, because the reproductive rates are 0:24:17.000 --> 0:24:20.800 pretty general across the board with bears and everything else. 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:24.919 So with this past year, even though knowing we're going 0:24:25.000 --> 0:24:27.280 to harvest more bears and get up there where we want, 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:30.520 our female harvest rate was forty eight percent this year, okay. 0:24:31.200 --> 0:24:33.760 And in the past when we've had earlier openers, you 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:37.080 and I've talked about years and years ago, you know 0:24:37.200 --> 0:24:39.760 that we saw the same thing. So we expected that 0:24:40.440 --> 0:24:43.440 as an agency, we expected to have elevated harvest rates 0:24:43.480 --> 0:24:46.800 of females and not to be one to run around 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:51.320 and say, chicken, little disguise falling. But you know something, 0:24:51.480 --> 0:24:56.400 forty eight forty nine fifty female harvest rates isn't really sustainable, 0:24:56.720 --> 0:24:59.639 not only in Arkansas's bear population, but any bear. 0:24:59.560 --> 0:25:04.920 Popular you understand, son, I do that, and so you know, part. 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:08.040 Of part of having a season earlier opener, the earlier 0:25:08.119 --> 0:25:10.480 opener and all that stuff. You know, it does come 0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:14.520 with some some downsides to liberalize in those seasons. And 0:25:14.600 --> 0:25:16.320 one of the downsides we knew we were gonna have 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:20.760 elevated female harvest rates. So you know, we'll kind of 0:25:20.800 --> 0:25:24.240 see how it ferrets out. You know, I'm sure you know, 0:25:24.400 --> 0:25:29.639 through different podcasts and a rigorous education campaign, you know, 0:25:29.760 --> 0:25:32.600 I'm sure we can kind of convince people that. Yeah, 0:25:32.600 --> 0:25:33.800 so we need to be all let. 0:25:33.720 --> 0:25:37.960 Me give a little spiel about so the earlier season 0:25:38.080 --> 0:25:40.239 dates for those of you who hunt bears, whether you're 0:25:40.320 --> 0:25:43.400 hunting the national forest or you're hunting overbait on private land, 0:25:44.600 --> 0:25:49.600 earlier season dates greatly increase your chance, first of all, 0:25:49.800 --> 0:25:52.560 killing the bear. But what I always say number two 0:25:52.680 --> 0:25:55.000 is it increases your chance of killing the target bear. 0:25:55.640 --> 0:25:58.240 I mean, if you've baited bears at all, you know 0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:02.480 that in early September, I mean you've got your big 0:26:02.680 --> 0:26:06.680 mails coming in during the daylight, doing stuff that just 0:26:06.840 --> 0:26:09.560 makes you think you're gonna have that bear's gonna be 0:26:09.560 --> 0:26:13.040 standing there on opening day. Closer you get to October, 0:26:13.680 --> 0:26:18.399 every single day, those particularly the big bears, start to 0:26:18.520 --> 0:26:21.600 fall off debates, and a lot of times, you know, 0:26:21.760 --> 0:26:24.359 if we have the later season date means it's just 0:26:24.480 --> 0:26:26.800 more difficult to harvest to bear. So the Game and 0:26:26.840 --> 0:26:30.200 Fish has done us the hunters. The hunter at least 0:26:30.280 --> 0:26:35.159 in the inside of the hunter opportunity side of management. 0:26:35.600 --> 0:26:38.879 They've done us a big solid by moving the season 0:26:39.040 --> 0:26:42.400 back to the third Saturday in October or September. 0:26:42.400 --> 0:26:46.280 Excuse me, well, he's actually calculated the fourth Saturday back 0:26:46.359 --> 0:26:47.080 up ten days. 0:26:47.400 --> 0:26:51.560 Fourth Saturday back up ten days. Okay, so any given 0:26:51.640 --> 0:26:55.800 year that could be from like the thirteenth to the twentieth. Basically, 0:26:56.760 --> 0:26:59.720 the difference between a thirteenth opener and a twentieth opener 0:26:59.840 --> 0:27:04.240 is miles incredible. It's hard to understand, but it's it's miles. 0:27:04.600 --> 0:27:07.359 So here's what I The charge that I want to 0:27:07.440 --> 0:27:09.760 give people that are that are hunting bears in the 0:27:09.880 --> 0:27:15.720 state is that if we can self regulate not shooting soals, 0:27:16.600 --> 0:27:20.080 we win because that that overall cell harvest number goes 0:27:20.200 --> 0:27:23.520 down and we can keep our earlier season date and 0:27:23.640 --> 0:27:28.359 so that the impetus really falls on the hunters to 0:27:28.520 --> 0:27:32.760 self regulate and try to avoid shooting juveniles and females 0:27:32.840 --> 0:27:35.960 and target these older age class males or just males 0:27:36.040 --> 0:27:39.359 in general. And if we can do that, Meyron and 0:27:39.400 --> 0:27:43.200 I were doing the math earlier, the difference between forty 0:27:43.280 --> 0:27:47.639 eight percent and forty three percent is probably less than 0:27:47.760 --> 0:27:51.359 fifty animals. So that's the way I'm talking to Myron 0:27:51.400 --> 0:27:53.520 about it. It's like, hey, if we and he's thinking 0:27:53.560 --> 0:27:56.960 about it too. You know, if if we could have people, 0:27:57.359 --> 0:28:00.800 by their own choice not shoot fifty fifty sALS in 0:28:00.880 --> 0:28:02.960 the state, we get to keep our season opener. But 0:28:03.080 --> 0:28:06.800 if we keep bumping up towards that fifty percent sal harvest, 0:28:07.520 --> 0:28:09.560 they're going to have no choice to protect the resource, 0:28:09.640 --> 0:28:12.800 to bump the season way back, which makes it way harder. 0:28:13.400 --> 0:28:16.679 And it's it's and so anyway, man, I've been preaching 0:28:16.760 --> 0:28:19.480 this for so long, and it's hard not to shoot 0:28:19.520 --> 0:28:22.119 a soal. And there's nothing wrong. I mean, we realize 0:28:22.200 --> 0:28:24.760 sALS are going to be harvested, and that's a component 0:28:24.920 --> 0:28:28.000 of the management, absolutely, But if you're setting in it, 0:28:28.359 --> 0:28:30.840 if you've got six bears coming to your bait, you 0:28:31.000 --> 0:28:33.760 know what these bears are. I mean, you might have 0:28:33.880 --> 0:28:36.520 to eat a tag one year because maybe your males 0:28:36.560 --> 0:28:39.080 for whatever have peeled off and there's that one big 0:28:39.200 --> 0:28:41.760 female that's been coming in. And that's what we're asking 0:28:41.840 --> 0:28:44.960 people to do. It's like, hey, do your best to 0:28:45.120 --> 0:28:49.120 not shoot a soal. And obviously we can't. We can't 0:28:49.160 --> 0:28:52.520 shoot sALS with cubs, which that, yeah, you want to 0:28:52.560 --> 0:28:53.200 talk about. 0:28:53.000 --> 0:28:55.520 That, I mean I can. It's uh, you know, it's 0:28:56.640 --> 0:28:59.120 it's uh one of the big deal about game and Fish. 0:28:59.160 --> 0:29:00.720 I mean a lot of people think we just will 0:29:00.760 --> 0:29:03.120 and only throw regulations out there. And you know when 0:29:03.160 --> 0:29:07.560 you start talking about harvesting females or harvesting sALS with cubs, 0:29:08.200 --> 0:29:10.360 you know, present or something like that, I mean, really 0:29:10.480 --> 0:29:13.480 that kind of boils down to ethics rule. It's really 0:29:13.560 --> 0:29:17.160 not enforceable, and it kind of falls more on the 0:29:17.280 --> 0:29:20.600 ethics side of something rather than it does, you know, 0:29:20.720 --> 0:29:24.320 an enforceable legal side of something. And you know, I 0:29:24.400 --> 0:29:27.200 mean gaming fish. I can speak for our director and 0:29:27.280 --> 0:29:30.640 our director and all of our commission. We just we're 0:29:30.680 --> 0:29:34.760 not in the business to regulate ethics. However, I can 0:29:34.920 --> 0:29:38.480 tell you that, you know, something would have to happen 0:29:38.520 --> 0:29:40.840 if we had two or three or four years of 0:29:41.240 --> 0:29:45.520 you know, female harvest rates in the upper fifties one. 0:29:45.840 --> 0:29:47.960 You know, just one of the things that's an easy 0:29:48.080 --> 0:29:50.960 identifier is if you have a soul with cubs coming 0:29:51.000 --> 0:29:53.440 to abate site and even though those cubs have been 0:29:53.520 --> 0:29:57.120 with her all year and the likelihood of them going 0:29:57.160 --> 0:29:59.880 ahead and surviving is probably pretty good at that point, 0:30:00.520 --> 0:30:03.320 but still, I mean, you know, I tell people all 0:30:03.400 --> 0:30:06.520 the time, you know, the reason why those cubs go 0:30:06.640 --> 0:30:09.520 into that den cycle again with the mother when they're 0:30:09.600 --> 0:30:11.680 quote a year old in a month or two from 0:30:11.760 --> 0:30:14.120 marchery season. You know, that's just kind of the way 0:30:14.280 --> 0:30:18.120 Mother Nature designed it. And there's no doubt there's an 0:30:18.200 --> 0:30:22.920 added measure of knowledge and everything else that comes with that. 0:30:23.280 --> 0:30:26.040 So you know, if it if it boils down to hey, 0:30:26.360 --> 0:30:28.840 you know, don't harvest a sow with cubs. If that 0:30:29.000 --> 0:30:32.040 makes one or two or three percent difference over all statewide, 0:30:33.120 --> 0:30:36.480 you know, that's the thing it can help if you 0:30:36.640 --> 0:30:39.160 knowingly have a sow. You know, I mean, it's like 0:30:39.280 --> 0:30:42.240 Clay said, there's nothing wrong with harvesting seals. It's gonna happen, 0:30:43.200 --> 0:30:47.720 and it's fair game, but just kind of keep it 0:30:47.800 --> 0:30:51.080 in the back of your mind that, you know, unless 0:30:51.320 --> 0:30:56.080 the public makes that change, you know, game and fish 0:30:56.360 --> 0:30:59.480 charged with protecting the resource will have to do something 0:30:59.560 --> 0:31:02.960 different some point in the future, whether that means institute 0:31:03.200 --> 0:31:06.680 at regulations like not allowing us south with cubs to 0:31:06.760 --> 0:31:10.040 be harvested, or I'm bumping the season back another week, 0:31:10.360 --> 0:31:12.920 you know, to try and ensure more males are harvested. 0:31:13.720 --> 0:31:17.840 It's just, you know, that's the charge of the resource. 0:31:17.960 --> 0:31:21.400 Yeah, I think I think people can get behind that. 0:31:21.640 --> 0:31:26.800 Oh yeah, I think so. Hey, what's a a little 0:31:26.920 --> 0:31:30.480 change is a subject here, but uh, let's talk about 0:31:30.640 --> 0:31:32.760 let's talk about eating bear for a second. Should we 0:31:32.840 --> 0:31:33.040 do that? 0:31:33.320 --> 0:31:33.520 Yeah? 0:31:33.640 --> 0:31:37.120 Can we go from from harvesting bear to eating bear? Bernie, 0:31:37.120 --> 0:31:38.600 what's your favorite way to cook a bear? 0:31:40.000 --> 0:31:41.800 I make a breakfast sausage at all. 0:31:42.280 --> 0:31:44.280 It's a killer breakfast sausage. Yeah. 0:31:44.480 --> 0:31:47.760 And I take the bear meat and grind it with 0:31:47.960 --> 0:31:51.000 twenty five percent bacon ins and pieces, and then I 0:31:51.360 --> 0:31:52.240 put a what. 0:31:52.360 --> 0:31:55.080 Brand bacon ins? You don't get that bar s stuff, 0:31:55.120 --> 0:31:55.240 do you? 0:31:55.440 --> 0:31:55.960 I don't care. 0:31:56.880 --> 0:31:57.880 I don't know what I'm talking about. 0:31:58.680 --> 0:32:01.120 I don't think we have bars Minnesota. We're a little 0:32:01.160 --> 0:32:02.600 bit higher class than yeah. 0:32:03.520 --> 0:32:10.840 Oh well yeah yeah and then yeah right right, they'll 0:32:10.880 --> 0:32:11.640 throw me out of here. 0:32:11.720 --> 0:32:11.880 Man. 0:32:12.800 --> 0:32:17.280 Yeah, I like chordsas it's yeah pretty country here. Yeah, 0:32:18.920 --> 0:32:21.680 bacon ins and pieces and then a seasoning that's uh, 0:32:21.880 --> 0:32:26.520 it's a Cabella's German breakfast sausage seasoning. And it's it's like, 0:32:26.640 --> 0:32:30.400 I don't know, if you're familiar with Johnsonville sausages, breakfast sausage. 0:32:30.480 --> 0:32:32.720 It's at least that good. There may be better. 0:32:32.800 --> 0:32:34.680 And hey, let me ask you a question. So in 0:32:34.800 --> 0:32:37.560 the in the deer hunting world, elk hunting, any kind 0:32:37.600 --> 0:32:41.320 of ungulate, you know, usually the big males are not 0:32:41.480 --> 0:32:43.760 gonna taste as good as female Like a big buck's 0:32:43.800 --> 0:32:47.160 not gonna taste as good as a dough. Have you 0:32:47.400 --> 0:32:52.120 found that a big, old male bear would taste different 0:32:52.200 --> 0:32:52.920 than a young bear? 0:32:53.480 --> 0:32:54.040 Not really? 0:32:54.320 --> 0:32:54.440 Uh. 0:32:55.440 --> 0:32:57.720 The difference that you will notice in bears is what 0:32:57.840 --> 0:33:00.600 they've been eating. And if you take really good care 0:33:00.720 --> 0:33:02.400 of the meat when you first get it, get it 0:33:02.480 --> 0:33:06.720 cooled off quickly, that's the difference. I've shot five hundred 0:33:06.760 --> 0:33:09.880 pound bears and one hundred and five pound bears and 0:33:10.160 --> 0:33:11.200 there's not much difference. 0:33:11.520 --> 0:33:13.960 That's that's that's what I was going to I hadn't 0:33:13.960 --> 0:33:16.040 talked to him about that. That's been my experience, which 0:33:16.120 --> 0:33:18.680 is not intuitive mine too. I mean, man, you kill 0:33:18.720 --> 0:33:21.920 a five hundred pound bear, it's gonna be in my 0:33:22.640 --> 0:33:25.560 what I've seen, the meat is just as good as 0:33:25.600 --> 0:33:27.920 if you'd kill the young one. You wouldn't think that 0:33:28.040 --> 0:33:30.320 that wouldn't be the same way with hogs, wouldn't be 0:33:30.360 --> 0:33:33.280 the same way with elk or deer. But Brian, what's 0:33:33.280 --> 0:33:34.240 your favorite way to cook a bear? 0:33:34.600 --> 0:33:35.600 Chili? Chili? 0:33:35.720 --> 0:33:38.600 Bear chili? Yeah, my little girl Bailey would rather eat 0:33:38.680 --> 0:33:40.040 bear chili than ice cream. 0:33:40.160 --> 0:33:41.160 Well that maybe not. 0:33:41.360 --> 0:33:44.440 Ice cream, but bear flavored ice cream. 0:33:44.520 --> 0:33:46.800 But that bear chili, that's that's a big thing. 0:33:47.000 --> 0:33:49.280 Very chili, Yeah, anything special, just. 0:33:50.160 --> 0:33:54.080 Yeah, towns and chili season in it. Where's them folks at? 0:33:54.840 --> 0:33:57.720 Where's my man with the towns and spice? 0:33:58.880 --> 0:33:59.040 Right? 0:33:59.360 --> 0:34:02.320 Big caboy Misty loves cooking bear. 0:34:02.440 --> 0:34:03.400 I do love cooking bear. 0:34:03.520 --> 0:34:05.440 And my favorite way to cook bear is any way 0:34:05.560 --> 0:34:06.920 that you cook it and it can be ready in 0:34:06.960 --> 0:34:07.720 about thirty. 0:34:07.520 --> 0:34:10.680 Minutes and so, and that's kind of really hungry. 0:34:11.000 --> 0:34:11.880 That's kind of hard to do. 0:34:12.120 --> 0:34:15.080 And if we've got a family, We've got four kids 0:34:15.320 --> 0:34:17.160 that have been raised on bear meat, and for us, 0:34:17.600 --> 0:34:20.200 it really we both have always worked and so it 0:34:20.320 --> 0:34:22.200 has to I can give about thirty minutes a day 0:34:22.239 --> 0:34:24.000 to get dinner on the table, and that's kind of 0:34:24.040 --> 0:34:26.839 hard with wild game. So we've figured out a couple 0:34:26.880 --> 0:34:28.640 of ways to do it. One is Carnita's and a 0:34:28.680 --> 0:34:32.040 slow cooker, and that's about so Clay and Bear and 0:34:32.160 --> 0:34:35.200 River when they harvest their bears, they have to cube 0:34:35.200 --> 0:34:36.759 a whole bunch of it for me, and they're very 0:34:36.840 --> 0:34:40.160 good at doing that. And so I'd love to cook it, 0:34:40.400 --> 0:34:41.879 put it in a slow cooker and have it ready 0:34:41.880 --> 0:34:44.239 when I get home if it's a special day like 0:34:44.320 --> 0:34:46.600 a Saturday or a Sunday, and I've got more than 0:34:46.640 --> 0:34:47.240 thirty minutes. 0:34:47.600 --> 0:34:48.919 We love bear meat loaf. 0:34:49.520 --> 0:34:50.480 We love meat. 0:34:51.200 --> 0:34:54.600 You put onions, peppers, jalapenos, all that good stuff in 0:34:54.640 --> 0:34:55.480 a food processor. 0:34:55.560 --> 0:34:58.399 So it's really really fine. Mix it all together really well. 0:34:59.080 --> 0:35:01.720 Hey, tell them about the research you were doing about 0:35:01.840 --> 0:35:05.120 the nutrient content of bear meat. 0:35:05.200 --> 0:35:07.040 Well of meat of wild games. 0:35:07.640 --> 0:35:09.399 Yeah, it wasn't just bear, It wasn't just bear. 0:35:10.360 --> 0:35:14.000 And I've just been researching a wild game because you know, 0:35:14.040 --> 0:35:15.920 there's a lot of people out there who are you know, 0:35:15.960 --> 0:35:19.520 there's some anti meat people in this world, and it's 0:35:19.560 --> 0:35:24.680 really an uneducated stance to take because we pretty much 0:35:24.800 --> 0:35:27.680 all of the world's B twelve, which you've got to 0:35:27.719 --> 0:35:30.560 have to have energy and to have you know, to 0:35:30.640 --> 0:35:33.440 be healthy, comes from meat. And so we really need 0:35:33.520 --> 0:35:35.520 to eat meat. And there's no amount you can get 0:35:35.640 --> 0:35:38.440 some of the vitamins that you need from vegetables that 0:35:38.600 --> 0:35:41.279 meat provides, but you would have to eat so many 0:35:41.480 --> 0:35:43.880 of those vegetables to get it, and not all of 0:35:43.920 --> 0:35:46.319 it is immediately available. And so one of the things 0:35:46.400 --> 0:35:48.160 you hear a lot about meat is that it's. 0:35:48.080 --> 0:35:48.919 Bad for your heart. 0:35:49.160 --> 0:35:52.200 That you know, they they's got a you know, it'll 0:35:52.520 --> 0:35:55.839 result in heart disease, and that's only They've done these 0:35:55.920 --> 0:36:00.320 lipid analysis on wild game, and it turns out that 0:36:00.920 --> 0:36:03.839 God made our bodies to consume wild game and there 0:36:04.040 --> 0:36:06.800 is an exactly perfect ratio inside of wild game and 0:36:06.840 --> 0:36:09.440 grass fed meat for your body that it actually does 0:36:09.560 --> 0:36:13.200 not result in heart disease and it does actually help 0:36:13.239 --> 0:36:14.239 you manage there we go. 0:36:14.800 --> 0:36:17.600 All of the cardiovascular disease, arthritis. 0:36:17.160 --> 0:36:20.239 All of these things. Yeah, I mean, I'm preaching to 0:36:20.280 --> 0:36:22.200 the choir. But these are things I think that need 0:36:22.320 --> 0:36:25.600 to be on our tongues and just an under we 0:36:25.680 --> 0:36:28.040 have an understanding of it. I mean, the wild game 0:36:28.160 --> 0:36:31.120 is the most incredible meat on planet Earth. But from 0:36:31.200 --> 0:36:34.480 every from every angle, from the environmental angle to the 0:36:34.560 --> 0:36:41.280 sustainable angle, to human health angle to social the social angle. Incredible. Okay, 0:36:41.480 --> 0:36:43.680 we're gonna go around. We'll make it quick. To me, 0:36:43.960 --> 0:36:50.080 there's a big five for for bear meat, burgers, spaghetti, 0:36:51.160 --> 0:36:56.280 taco meat, meat loaf, and what am I missing? 0:36:56.360 --> 0:36:56.880 Ice cream? 0:36:57.400 --> 0:37:00.640 Ice cream? The big five be nachos? 0:37:00.719 --> 0:37:04.200 Is what Clay makes? You've missed chili? 0:37:04.719 --> 0:37:06.520 I missed? What now chili? I'm chili? 0:37:06.640 --> 0:37:06.839 Yeah? 0:37:06.960 --> 0:37:12.000 Big five? Man bear meat Yeah, bear meats incredible, Mara, 0:37:12.040 --> 0:37:12.640 what's your favorway? 0:37:12.680 --> 0:37:16.719 Cook it bear tips over us? Really no doubt about it. Really? 0:37:16.760 --> 0:37:17.759 How do you do it? Uh? 0:37:18.280 --> 0:37:21.399 Usually just separate out a nice big muscle chunk, put 0:37:21.440 --> 0:37:23.560 it in a crock pot, a couple of cans of 0:37:23.680 --> 0:37:26.880 cream and mushroom soup. Let it, let it cook for 0:37:27.840 --> 0:37:32.640 six seven hours. Put it over rice. That sounds good, 0:37:32.880 --> 0:37:35.000 plenty of plenty of pepper, salt. 0:37:35.120 --> 0:37:35.959 What time is dinner? 0:37:36.280 --> 0:37:38.400 Yeah? I like it? 0:37:38.520 --> 0:37:40.800 Any way, I've had it every single way I've had it. 0:37:41.080 --> 0:37:42.440 I couldn't tell you a favorite. 0:37:42.520 --> 0:37:45.120 I love it all right, Patrick, have you eaten much bear? 0:37:45.480 --> 0:37:45.879 Oh yeah? 0:37:46.280 --> 0:37:48.920 So every for a couple of years, every fall we 0:37:48.960 --> 0:37:51.160 would have the Patrick Killed It Game Feast. 0:37:51.320 --> 0:37:53.680 Oh wow. Yeah it was awesome because I I, you. 0:37:53.680 --> 0:37:55.960 Know, I live in a community even if they don't hunt, like, 0:37:56.000 --> 0:37:59.120 they're all about wild game and so you know, in 0:37:59.239 --> 0:38:02.080 the fall, you know, i'd have you know, a bunch 0:38:02.120 --> 0:38:04.400 of you know, ducks and geese and grouse and woodcock. 0:38:04.440 --> 0:38:07.200 Where I live, we had a fall turkey season, plenty 0:38:07.239 --> 0:38:10.160 of deer meat to go around. But my one of 0:38:10.200 --> 0:38:12.560 my buddies would always get a bear every year. And 0:38:12.760 --> 0:38:16.080 I am such a lazy cook. I would give out 0:38:16.239 --> 0:38:18.520 while the wild game to all my friends that would 0:38:18.560 --> 0:38:21.080 come to the Patrick Killed It Game feast, so that 0:38:21.280 --> 0:38:22.680 I didn't have to worry about cooking that. 0:38:23.560 --> 0:38:23.719 You know. 0:38:23.920 --> 0:38:27.080 My only rule for everybody was, like any wild game 0:38:27.640 --> 0:38:30.360 is I trying to grill everything. As soon as you 0:38:30.520 --> 0:38:34.840 overcook it in general, you're done, right. You've got to 0:38:34.920 --> 0:38:38.800 be able to deal with you know, not overcooking it. 0:38:38.880 --> 0:38:41.680 No matter what you think your preferences, I'll invite you 0:38:41.719 --> 0:38:43.120 to the Patrick killed It game feast. 0:38:43.840 --> 0:38:46.719 I wish I had a clay killed its. Yeah, we don't. 0:38:46.840 --> 0:38:47.960 I think you need to start that. 0:38:48.200 --> 0:39:01.040 Yeah, yeah, Bernie. So, Bernie's hunted bears all over North Maurya. 0:39:01.040 --> 0:39:04.319 You've never hunted Arkansas, though. We need to choose mad 0:39:04.400 --> 0:39:06.800 at you because you were You got the job over me, 0:39:06.920 --> 0:39:08.279 so I never invited you down here. 0:39:08.560 --> 0:39:09.680 Well, are you still mad at me? 0:39:09.680 --> 0:39:11.359 I want to bring out that and bring that up now. 0:39:11.440 --> 0:39:14.640 I definitely want to hunt Arkansas. I got a long 0:39:14.719 --> 0:39:16.719 list of places I've hunted, and it's this. 0:39:16.920 --> 0:39:18.040 Is a hole in the map. 0:39:18.600 --> 0:39:20.120 Pretty bad that this ain't one of them. 0:39:20.239 --> 0:39:23.719 Well, uh, my question to you though, is I hear 0:39:23.760 --> 0:39:25.799 your son's probably a really good guy bear. 0:39:26.480 --> 0:39:27.879 Will you take me hunting here? 0:39:29.680 --> 0:39:31.600 What do he say? What do he say? Oh? He 0:39:31.640 --> 0:39:33.799 gives the thumbs up. All right, you have to find 0:39:33.800 --> 0:39:37.279 a new spot. Bernie's not setting in my spot. I'm 0:39:37.400 --> 0:39:38.520 teasing Bernie. 0:39:38.360 --> 0:39:39.600 Takes me where you took Colby. 0:39:39.920 --> 0:39:44.080 Yeah, where's your favorite place to bear hunt? 0:39:44.200 --> 0:39:44.399 Yeah? 0:39:44.440 --> 0:39:48.320 All yeah, I mean Bernie's hunted probably all the Canadian provinces. 0:39:48.360 --> 0:39:53.520 Except for a couple of Eastern ones. Yeah. Wow, you know, 0:39:53.680 --> 0:39:54.839 can I give you like three each. 0:39:54.880 --> 0:39:55.040 Sure. 0:39:55.280 --> 0:39:55.600 Okay. 0:39:56.200 --> 0:39:58.680 So my favorite di i Y hunt, where I just 0:39:58.800 --> 0:40:01.719 went and hunted on my own, was in Wyoming and 0:40:02.160 --> 0:40:05.479 really really cool, really fun chocolate. All the bears are brown. 0:40:06.000 --> 0:40:08.319 I got like nine bears on baits. They're all brown, 0:40:08.440 --> 0:40:09.839 no black ones. That was pretty cool. 0:40:11.440 --> 0:40:13.880 So you were doing it, you were baiting bears. 0:40:13.640 --> 0:40:16.600 And yeah, I mean yeah on a four wheeler and 0:40:16.880 --> 0:40:19.719 public land in the mountains and beautiful country. It was 0:40:19.800 --> 0:40:23.200 really fun. I killed a really nice bear. I did 0:40:23.280 --> 0:40:27.399 that in Idaho too, which was pretty cool. But man, 0:40:28.280 --> 0:40:31.040 I love Maine. Maine is a fun place to hunt bears. 0:40:34.239 --> 0:40:37.520 Boy, I'll tell you what. Where's Todd? Todd? 0:40:38.480 --> 0:40:39.359 Todd? Yeah, Todd. 0:40:40.440 --> 0:40:43.239 What I'm about to say. If you said you can 0:40:43.400 --> 0:40:45.680 only hunt one place for the rest of your life, 0:40:45.719 --> 0:40:48.400 it would be a spring bear hunt in the Baldy Mountain. 0:40:48.719 --> 0:40:49.440 Baldy Mountain. 0:40:50.120 --> 0:40:55.520 Yeah there, Manitoba, the Duck Mountains, Baldy Mountain Outfitters, he's here. 0:40:55.760 --> 0:40:58.680 I've killed some nice bears with him. But the Duck 0:40:58.760 --> 0:41:01.160 Mountains of Manitoba they got at all. They got big bears, 0:41:01.160 --> 0:41:02.920 they got lots of bears, they got. 0:41:04.760 --> 0:41:07.760 Yeah, all that, and you're not just saying that because 0:41:07.880 --> 0:41:11.120 Todd's our friend. I mean, for real, I've hunted there. 0:41:11.640 --> 0:41:14.600 I mean that part of Manitoba is special. It is, 0:41:14.760 --> 0:41:16.920 and there's a lot of other great places in Canada too, 0:41:17.000 --> 0:41:18.319 but that's a cool place to hunt them. 0:41:18.560 --> 0:41:18.759 Yeah. 0:41:19.400 --> 0:41:21.800 Yeah, cool, I'm going there in June. 0:41:22.640 --> 0:41:26.880 Okay, Todd, I owe you a bow and I forgot it. 0:41:27.640 --> 0:41:30.680 Bear forgot it. I told Todd I was going to 0:41:30.760 --> 0:41:32.560 give him a you know, the bow. I don't know 0:41:32.600 --> 0:41:35.240 if you guys saw it, but on the Meat either episode, 0:41:35.480 --> 0:41:39.439 the bow that I used in Alaska on the wake board, Yeah, 0:41:39.640 --> 0:41:40.359 the boogie board. 0:41:40.440 --> 0:41:40.640 Bear. 0:41:41.560 --> 0:41:44.439 Well, Todd, that's your bow. I told Todd's my friend. 0:41:44.480 --> 0:41:45.799 I told him I was going to give him a bow. 0:41:46.200 --> 0:41:48.279 I forgot to bring it, Todd. I guess we're kind 0:41:48.280 --> 0:41:50.279 of having a private conversation here. I'll get it to you. 0:41:53.040 --> 0:41:55.520 He's just a clear Bears name. He had nothing to 0:41:55.600 --> 0:41:55.920 do with that. 0:41:56.560 --> 0:41:59.920 Bears should have known that I needed that bow here. 0:42:00.160 --> 0:42:01.600 I blame Bear new Com for this. 0:42:03.600 --> 0:42:05.880 He drove all the way down here just for that class. 0:42:06.040 --> 0:42:09.880 Just ye, just to get scolded. Brent. Where's your favorite 0:42:09.880 --> 0:42:10.640 place to bear hunt? 0:42:11.239 --> 0:42:12.560 You missed that out loud? No? 0:42:17.200 --> 0:42:20.160 Well, it had to be here. I mean, this is 0:42:20.280 --> 0:42:22.799 you have such a connection with the land here, even 0:42:22.840 --> 0:42:26.239 though I didn't grow up in in western Arkansas, where 0:42:26.600 --> 0:42:28.720 you know where I've killed all three of the bears 0:42:28.760 --> 0:42:31.279 that I've killed is over there. I have such a 0:42:31.360 --> 0:42:35.759 connection with this state and and what's going on here 0:42:35.960 --> 0:42:40.040 and seeing seeing bears now where I grew up. I 0:42:40.160 --> 0:42:45.560 cannot wait to kill a bear legally and where I 0:42:45.640 --> 0:42:48.600 grew up, and the efforts that admiring, and all the 0:42:48.640 --> 0:42:50.399 folks at the Game and Fish are doing down there, 0:42:50.400 --> 0:42:55.000 and they they did those collaring projects last summer, wasn't 0:42:55.400 --> 0:42:59.000 it last summer. It's it's I'm anxious to see where 0:42:59.040 --> 0:43:01.279 it goes. Because the first exposure I ever had with 0:43:01.360 --> 0:43:04.239 a bear, I was about ten years old, so in 0:43:04.360 --> 0:43:08.080 nineteen seventy six in Cleveland County, Arkansas, and I was 0:43:08.360 --> 0:43:11.200 cold hunting with my dad and the dogs had bade 0:43:11.239 --> 0:43:13.200 what we thought was a cold out in the middle 0:43:13.200 --> 0:43:16.560 of this beanfield, and I dad said, we got to 0:43:16.600 --> 0:43:18.440 go out there and get the dogs off and let 0:43:18.520 --> 0:43:21.160 this code he go. And I said, can I go? 0:43:21.320 --> 0:43:23.160 He said, no, it's real muddy. It's kind of thick 0:43:23.280 --> 0:43:24.960 right there, So you just stay here at the truck, 0:43:25.680 --> 0:43:27.920 and he was out there about five minutes and he 0:43:27.960 --> 0:43:28.879 come running. 0:43:28.640 --> 0:43:31.400 Back for another light and I said, can I go 0:43:31.480 --> 0:43:32.960 with you this name? He said, no, it's a bear. 0:43:33.120 --> 0:43:35.920 Stay here. And I'm like, okay, I'll stay here. But 0:43:36.239 --> 0:43:40.640 that was the first introduction I'd had with a bearer 0:43:40.719 --> 0:43:41.640 in that part of the world. 0:43:41.840 --> 0:43:42.680 And then now. 0:43:44.000 --> 0:43:46.359 Forty years later there are people that are seeing them 0:43:46.400 --> 0:43:48.520 there in that same place. It's pretty cool. 0:43:48.600 --> 0:43:52.399 That's cool, you know when you look at years ago, 0:43:52.600 --> 0:43:57.840 fifteen going on twenty years ago that I turned my 0:43:58.000 --> 0:44:01.840 focus to bears in our really started learning about bears. 0:44:02.320 --> 0:44:05.719 I remember the first time I saw a map of 0:44:05.880 --> 0:44:10.640 North America that showed where we had bears. Okay, so 0:44:10.719 --> 0:44:13.520 imagine a map of North America and Canada that had 0:44:13.719 --> 0:44:17.279 colored sections that showed where bears were well, from the 0:44:17.320 --> 0:44:21.279 Appalachian Mountains to the east, from Florida to Maine. You know, 0:44:21.320 --> 0:44:24.440 there's this big swath on the east coast that had 0:44:24.480 --> 0:44:33.000 bears in the west, from the Rocky Mountains west into California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, 0:44:33.800 --> 0:44:37.879 all the way up into Canada, Washington. You know, all 0:44:37.920 --> 0:44:41.840 this western US and then the swath covers all of 0:44:42.000 --> 0:44:45.480 Canada and all of Alaska. Okay, So if you're following me, 0:44:45.960 --> 0:44:50.279 there's a giant hole with no bears. Hold with me, 0:44:50.760 --> 0:44:56.160 between the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains except for this 0:44:56.440 --> 0:44:59.919 one little spot about that big on a map, about 0:45:00.120 --> 0:45:02.640 that big that was Arkansas. 0:45:03.120 --> 0:45:03.319 Yep. 0:45:03.960 --> 0:45:08.440 And I remember fifteen years ago in the literature twenty 0:45:08.480 --> 0:45:09.880 whenever it was. I was when I was at the 0:45:09.960 --> 0:45:12.680 University of Arkansas between two thousand and one and two 0:45:12.719 --> 0:45:15.319 thousand and five. When I was seeing these maps, there 0:45:15.440 --> 0:45:18.879 was this little population of bears that was right here 0:45:19.080 --> 0:45:21.920 where we lived. And at the time, I was like, 0:45:22.239 --> 0:45:26.560 that is incredibly cool that of all this landscape that's 0:45:26.560 --> 0:45:31.040 absent of bears, we have this population and today that 0:45:31.239 --> 0:45:34.640 population of bears that was. You know, we could talk 0:45:34.800 --> 0:45:37.440 this whole time about the reintroduction of bears into Arkansas. 0:45:37.520 --> 0:45:39.879 You know, between nineteen fifty four and nineteen sixty four, 0:45:39.920 --> 0:45:42.600 two hundred and fifty four bears were brought in from 0:45:43.040 --> 0:45:47.440 different places, released in three locations in Arkansas and became 0:45:47.680 --> 0:45:50.800 the most successful reintroduction of large carnivores in the world. 0:45:51.239 --> 0:45:55.200 Has spread out and now covers southern Missouri. Missouri now 0:45:55.239 --> 0:45:59.279 has a bear season eastern Oklahoma. Oklahoma now is a 0:45:59.320 --> 0:46:03.080 bear season North Louisiana. They're gonna have their first official 0:46:03.160 --> 0:46:06.480 bear hunt this year, which is major. Brent and I 0:46:06.719 --> 0:46:09.359 two days ago we're in Mississippi on a bear den 0:46:09.520 --> 0:46:14.759 study in southwest Mississippi. And basically that little spot that 0:46:14.920 --> 0:46:18.640 fifteen years ago basically covered the Washtaws and ozarks is 0:46:18.760 --> 0:46:22.320 now spreading out. And I'm telling you, in today's world 0:46:23.080 --> 0:46:28.120 where all we hear about is ecological crisis on every front, 0:46:28.680 --> 0:46:31.600 it's a major deal that black bears are expanding like 0:46:31.719 --> 0:46:35.080 they are. And it all started right here, right here 0:46:35.120 --> 0:46:38.800 in Arcas. This here for us, Yeah, yeah, no, it's incredible, 0:46:39.239 --> 0:46:44.759 and it's incredible, and one day I'm gonna go into more. 0:46:45.800 --> 0:46:47.640 We'll have a whole render up here about this. But 0:46:47.760 --> 0:46:51.400 I mean, the incredible cultural history that Arkansas has with 0:46:51.520 --> 0:46:54.839 bears is unreal. I mean, you know, we were once 0:46:54.960 --> 0:46:57.520 knows the bear state, and when you really dig down 0:46:57.600 --> 0:47:01.839 into that, you see all of wild stuff that happened here. 0:47:02.320 --> 0:47:05.120 But uh, it's such a and that's what this event 0:47:05.320 --> 0:47:08.800 is about, is is really a celebration of a wild beast. 0:47:09.120 --> 0:47:12.120 That wild beast, though, is only here because of wild 0:47:12.280 --> 0:47:18.319 habitat wild lands, and when you the reason that little 0:47:18.440 --> 0:47:20.840 population of bears was here is because this is the 0:47:20.920 --> 0:47:24.560 wildest country in any direction for long ways. By wildest country, 0:47:24.600 --> 0:47:28.120 I mean just most amount of public land, most amounted 0:47:28.280 --> 0:47:32.640 unfragmented sections of timber. And I'm going to use the 0:47:32.680 --> 0:47:37.440 quotes wilderness, not federal wilderness. But I mean what we 0:47:37.600 --> 0:47:39.440 have here is cool. Don't tell anybody. 0:47:40.760 --> 0:47:41.880 Nobody's gonna cut that out. 0:47:42.120 --> 0:47:47.120 Nobody cut that out. But James, this would be a 0:47:47.200 --> 0:47:50.680 great moment for you to Yeah, yeah, tell me what 0:47:50.760 --> 0:47:51.320 you're gonna tell me. 0:47:51.480 --> 0:47:57.399 So, uh is everybody here loves bears, right, we want 0:47:57.440 --> 0:47:59.200 to we want to have some more bears, and we 0:47:59.280 --> 0:48:01.480 want to help get a fish commission do what they're. 0:48:01.320 --> 0:48:06.560 Doing yep with the bears. Yes, okay, all right. 0:48:07.400 --> 0:48:11.279 So as a thank you to you all for being 0:48:11.360 --> 0:48:14.400 here today, the Arkansas Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers 0:48:14.520 --> 0:48:16.520 is going to donate five thousand dollars to the Game 0:48:16.560 --> 0:48:17.640 and Fish Commission today. 0:48:17.760 --> 0:48:19.719 All right, And. 0:48:21.680 --> 0:48:29.279 Myron justish the bear the bear program specifically I was 0:48:29.320 --> 0:48:29.759 getting there. 0:48:30.760 --> 0:48:32.719 So Myron is going to put that to work on 0:48:32.840 --> 0:48:34.719 some of the things that they were talking about and 0:48:34.800 --> 0:48:36.800 he's been talking about with his research studies. 0:48:36.880 --> 0:48:40.040 So, you know, in order to put a collar on 0:48:40.120 --> 0:48:41.000 a bear, what do you got to do? 0:48:41.120 --> 0:48:41.400 First? 0:48:42.640 --> 0:48:43.560 Got to catch that bear. 0:48:43.760 --> 0:48:48.160 So Myron and I were talking and he's he needs 0:48:48.200 --> 0:48:51.040 some equipment to help with that. And because of the 0:48:51.120 --> 0:48:54.760 generosity of the people here, they have bought their tickets 0:48:54.800 --> 0:48:57.320 to be here, they're participating in our raffles. They're just 0:48:57.480 --> 0:49:01.120 they're just here supporting conservation. And what we do as 0:49:01.200 --> 0:49:05.560 an organization, Patrick, is we turn around and do good 0:49:05.640 --> 0:49:09.600 work with the resources that people trust to us, their 0:49:09.680 --> 0:49:12.879 time and their treasure. And so we're gonna we're gonna 0:49:12.880 --> 0:49:14.000 trust some of that tomorrown. 0:49:14.239 --> 0:49:16.399 You don't appreciate it. You don't have a big check 0:49:16.480 --> 0:49:17.800 with you don't. 0:49:17.640 --> 0:49:20.880 How much a big check costs. We're giving that to 0:49:20.960 --> 0:49:21.440 the bears. 0:49:22.520 --> 0:49:23.920 That's right. What do you do? 0:49:24.000 --> 0:49:25.040 You know what you're gonna do with that much? 0:49:25.080 --> 0:49:25.200 Oh? 0:49:25.280 --> 0:49:26.440 Yeah, what do you what are you gonna do with that? 0:49:26.760 --> 0:49:28.960 Well, lately, what we the last couple of years, what 0:49:29.120 --> 0:49:32.799 we've been doing is, uh, we've been taking of course, 0:49:32.880 --> 0:49:36.360 we we've got a new mouse trap you know that 0:49:36.480 --> 0:49:38.520 we've kind of developed over the years, and it's a 0:49:38.600 --> 0:49:42.200 pipe snare that we're using. But we also use live 0:49:42.320 --> 0:49:46.319 catch traps. And uh, I'm sure most of you are 0:49:46.360 --> 0:49:51.080 probably familiar with the big culvert traps catch trailer, right, 0:49:51.320 --> 0:49:54.360 that's on a trailer. Well, we also have big basically 0:49:54.480 --> 0:49:56.840 it looks like a great, big giant have a heart trap. 0:49:57.320 --> 0:49:59.840 It's like a four by four by seven. And the 0:50:00.239 --> 0:50:03.200 for so live catch traps, Well, the last couple of 0:50:03.320 --> 0:50:08.800 years we have developed a way to put some of 0:50:08.840 --> 0:50:11.480 the holl guy cameras or some of the live feed 0:50:11.719 --> 0:50:15.040 cameras and put a release selinoid on them to where 0:50:15.080 --> 0:50:19.840 we can close the gate on those traps on target animals. 0:50:20.200 --> 0:50:22.520 He say, well, why is that such a big deal. Well, 0:50:23.680 --> 0:50:25.600 you know, when you put the trap in a place 0:50:25.640 --> 0:50:27.480 where you know there's a female, but all you can 0:50:27.560 --> 0:50:30.280 catch are males. You don't really care about catching males. 0:50:31.280 --> 0:50:34.279 You don't want to catch a female and a year 0:50:34.400 --> 0:50:36.720 line in the trap. You want to catch the whole family. 0:50:37.480 --> 0:50:39.960 And really it's allowed us to do that. I mean, 0:50:40.000 --> 0:50:42.920 I've caught whole family groups in the trap when you're 0:50:43.080 --> 0:50:46.600 watching it, I'm watching and when a female goes in 0:50:46.719 --> 0:50:50.239 there a target female or the target female and one 0:50:50.640 --> 0:50:53.400 or two or three of her cubs or year lines 0:50:53.440 --> 0:50:56.080 that are with her. I know exactly when I can 0:50:56.200 --> 0:50:59.040 drop that door and it's not a miss. And it 0:50:59.239 --> 0:51:04.640 has red evolutionized how we trap bears and uh, I'm 0:51:04.719 --> 0:51:08.360 telling you it's it truly has revolutioniz. 0:51:07.800 --> 0:51:10.560 So you have an app on your phone that has 0:51:10.640 --> 0:51:12.839 a it gives you a notification. 0:51:12.480 --> 0:51:16.239 Yep, when you have it's motion activated camera system and 0:51:16.600 --> 0:51:19.239 we we have a sellinoid that can release the gate. 0:51:19.480 --> 0:51:21.080 Are you the one that has on your app or 0:51:21.080 --> 0:51:22.320 don't you have people that do that? 0:51:23.000 --> 0:51:25.120 Well, we have a network a bill just that PEO 0:51:25.120 --> 0:51:27.960 will help us. Peeps. Do you need people? 0:51:28.080 --> 0:51:30.120 Do you need more people in the middle of the night? 0:51:30.520 --> 0:51:35.040 Is it like and your wife's like, wow, traps? 0:51:35.320 --> 0:51:37.239 Well, I mean we have a network of people and 0:51:37.400 --> 0:51:39.840 usually it involves you know, a text from this person 0:51:40.000 --> 0:51:42.520 that person, that person. Bear Bear Bear Bear, and so 0:51:42.680 --> 0:51:44.239 you're trying to get on there and you're trying to 0:51:44.280 --> 0:51:46.000 watch it, you know, and everything else. 0:51:46.080 --> 0:51:48.759 There's Bear's only coming the traps between nine and five, 0:51:48.920 --> 0:51:51.120 right working hours weekdays. 0:51:51.840 --> 0:51:55.120 That's when they never come into the trap. But yeah, 0:51:55.200 --> 0:51:57.239 I mean stuff like that. But you know, I mean 0:51:57.360 --> 0:51:59.799 that that technology comes at the price I mean one 0:51:59.800 --> 0:52:02.840 of the those camera systems is about twenty five hundred dollars. 0:52:03.520 --> 0:52:06.279 And even though you know we have money and we 0:52:06.440 --> 0:52:10.239 use it. Hey, anytime we can, you know, get more 0:52:10.320 --> 0:52:12.840 money for stuff like that, it's great. Well, and this 0:52:12.960 --> 0:52:14.160 is a ate appreciate it. 0:52:14.200 --> 0:52:17.600 And this is a chance for people to directly influence 0:52:18.080 --> 0:52:22.160 conservation work right here in Arkansas by supporting things like 0:52:22.320 --> 0:52:24.919 this coming out with their families. And you know, we're 0:52:24.960 --> 0:52:27.719 appreciative that they have chosen to spend time with us, 0:52:27.800 --> 0:52:30.200 and we want to take that and and invest that 0:52:30.520 --> 0:52:32.560 in the things that we love in our wild places. 0:52:33.400 --> 0:52:33.839 That's great. 0:52:35.360 --> 0:52:40.520 Another thing that the Arkansas Bear Program is pioneering is 0:52:40.560 --> 0:52:42.239 this new drug. You want to talk about that for 0:52:42.320 --> 0:52:42.680 a second. 0:52:42.880 --> 0:52:45.120 I can't talk about it for a second. You know, 0:52:45.200 --> 0:52:48.799 we started a couple of years ago. The one drug 0:52:48.920 --> 0:52:51.520 combination that we have been using for the last couple 0:52:51.520 --> 0:52:53.960 of years is called BAM. That's the accuracy and this is. 0:52:54.000 --> 0:52:56.400 What when they do their den studies, so they how 0:52:56.440 --> 0:52:58.520 many bears females do you have a collared right now? 0:52:58.640 --> 0:52:59.360 About sixty? 0:52:59.480 --> 0:53:02.600 This is o sixty females that are collared right now 0:53:02.719 --> 0:53:06.160 that they're have a circuit of going in every year 0:53:06.360 --> 0:53:09.600 and checking for cubs, and they're able to analyze, you know, 0:53:10.200 --> 0:53:12.480 what's going on with reproduction, right, so every one of 0:53:12.520 --> 0:53:15.160 those bears, they've got to tranquilize to be able to 0:53:15.719 --> 0:53:16.799 work the cubs. 0:53:16.600 --> 0:53:18.880 That's right. They don't just give up their cubs willingness, 0:53:18.920 --> 0:53:23.440 like check these guys out. So but you know, we've 0:53:23.520 --> 0:53:25.880 moved to a new drug that basically had a reversal 0:53:25.920 --> 0:53:28.240 a couple of years ago, and it is a great drug, 0:53:28.719 --> 0:53:32.520 four bears, and it's scheduled to use four bears, but 0:53:32.680 --> 0:53:36.040 it has a drawback. During the winter time, when females 0:53:36.080 --> 0:53:40.080 are in a dense cycle, they lower their respiratory rates, 0:53:40.600 --> 0:53:44.120 metabolic rates, and all those physiological processes to the point 0:53:44.480 --> 0:53:47.400 that an average female may in a dense cycle, may 0:53:47.520 --> 0:53:51.239 have four breasts a minute. Well, if you give them 0:53:51.320 --> 0:53:54.399 a drug that suppresses that even further to have two 0:53:54.560 --> 0:53:56.880 breasts a minute, they're not going to be able to 0:53:57.000 --> 0:54:00.200 maintain blood oxygen levels and everything else like that they're 0:54:00.239 --> 0:54:03.040 under anaesthesia. So we kind of started a little pilot 0:54:03.080 --> 0:54:05.800 project a couple of years ago with some beta testers 0:54:05.920 --> 0:54:09.520 for the pharmacy, and they developed a new drug instead 0:54:09.560 --> 0:54:15.759 of BAM butrophenol as prone and medatomidine it's nam or 0:54:15.920 --> 0:54:20.279 now MEDA now beufeen as a perune and metatomidine. It's 0:54:20.400 --> 0:54:21.920 basically the same drugs. 0:54:22.600 --> 0:54:23.080 Remember that. 0:54:24.840 --> 0:54:34.239 BAM NAM before it was BAM, now it's NAM. But 0:54:34.400 --> 0:54:36.960 the great thing about this new drug is that it 0:54:37.080 --> 0:54:41.200 does not suppress respiration rates as much during a dim cycle, 0:54:41.600 --> 0:54:44.719 which is a key feature of why this drug is 0:54:44.840 --> 0:54:50.000 so good, especially uh in the dinning scenario. And you know, 0:54:50.080 --> 0:54:52.640 if we get it approved, we're kind of the tip 0:54:52.680 --> 0:54:53.240 of the spirit. 0:54:53.520 --> 0:54:57.720 We organization using it for bears right now in the country. 0:54:57.920 --> 0:55:01.320 Well, there's other organizations using it for bears, but I 0:55:01.400 --> 0:55:03.120 mean they're kind of doing it under the cloak of 0:55:03.200 --> 0:55:05.359 darkness so to speak. I'm not going to throw any 0:55:05.360 --> 0:55:07.960 of them under the bus. But if we do get 0:55:08.000 --> 0:55:11.080 it to prove four bears for on label use, then 0:55:12.000 --> 0:55:14.160 you know, all the bear researchers in the country will 0:55:14.160 --> 0:55:16.120 be able to use this drug, which is a much 0:55:16.200 --> 0:55:18.120 better drug in a dim cycle. 0:55:18.640 --> 0:55:22.320 That's good. So like it, like Bear steff, tip of 0:55:22.360 --> 0:55:24.400 the spear, tip of the spirit, tip of the spirit. 0:55:26.800 --> 0:55:29.200 You know, I was gonna mention something also, you know 0:55:29.360 --> 0:55:31.840 you mentioned twenty years ago when you were looking at maps, 0:55:32.080 --> 0:55:34.839 and I'm going to make this real quick looking back 0:55:34.920 --> 0:55:38.960 at bear conservation history in Arkansas. You talked about the 0:55:39.040 --> 0:55:44.000 reintroduction effort. Let's say nineteen sixty, Fast forward twenty years 0:55:44.040 --> 0:55:47.560 from that, nineteen eighty. What was the significance of that 0:55:48.040 --> 0:55:51.240 first bear seasons, first modern day bear season in Arkansas? 0:55:51.320 --> 0:55:53.800 Teen eighty, fast forward twenty years from that, what do 0:55:53.840 --> 0:55:54.000 you have? 0:55:54.560 --> 0:55:57.560 First legalized bear baiting on private land? 0:55:57.719 --> 0:56:00.440 That's right, fast forward twenty years from that, what do 0:56:00.480 --> 0:56:00.680 you have? 0:56:01.719 --> 0:56:04.000 We moved the season back so we can kill big boars. 0:56:05.080 --> 0:56:08.640 I think statewide, Gulf coastal, playing coast. 0:56:10.000 --> 0:56:11.359 Sorry guys, I was thinking big bear. 0:56:11.800 --> 0:56:15.280 Yeah, basically we you know, we reopened the bear season 0:56:15.360 --> 0:56:20.440 and basically four fifths of the bear state. So if 0:56:20.480 --> 0:56:22.960 you look at the conservation, you know, it's kind of 0:56:23.000 --> 0:56:24.920 twenty year milestones into conservation. 0:56:25.160 --> 0:56:27.239 Yeah, that's that's that's really interesting. 0:56:27.840 --> 0:56:32.360 You've been here since the beginning nineteen sixty you were working, right, what's. 0:56:32.200 --> 0:56:35.279 Going to happen is eighty seven, twenty years from now, 0:56:35.840 --> 0:56:36.680 what's the next day? 0:56:36.760 --> 0:56:39.200 Yeah, good question, Bernie, that is a good question. 0:56:40.360 --> 0:56:43.359 Hopefully robust healthy bear populations. 0:56:44.000 --> 0:56:46.400 Do we do you think the bear population is going 0:56:46.520 --> 0:56:50.239 to expand into I mean, so the bears are in 0:56:50.280 --> 0:56:52.880 the Gulf coastal plane right now five hundred. We know 0:56:53.040 --> 0:56:57.160 the ozarks and Washtalls are maybe not saturated, but close 0:56:57.239 --> 0:57:00.160 to the carrying capacity of the land. Yeah, what's Are 0:57:00.160 --> 0:57:02.120 there going to be as many bears down the Gulf 0:57:02.160 --> 0:57:05.120 Coastal Plain as there are in the Washtalls or what's 0:57:05.200 --> 0:57:05.680 gonna happen. 0:57:06.320 --> 0:57:08.759 I don't know if those densities will ever mirror the 0:57:08.840 --> 0:57:12.080 mountain densities, you know, but I certainly think there is 0:57:12.160 --> 0:57:16.520 a lot of room for bears for that population to grow. Now, 0:57:16.600 --> 0:57:18.920 whether or not they're gonna, you know, disperse from the 0:57:19.080 --> 0:57:22.960 Washtalls into the Gulf Coastal Plain, from Felson Thaw area 0:57:23.160 --> 0:57:26.479 up into the northwest portion of the Gulf Coastal Plain 0:57:27.000 --> 0:57:29.080 where they're gonna come from. I mean, it's probably a 0:57:29.120 --> 0:57:31.760 mixed bag of everything. But I have no doubt that 0:57:31.880 --> 0:57:36.520 population will to continue to grow with good conservation strategies. Uh. 0:57:36.960 --> 0:57:40.440 And you know, I think you hit it right. I 0:57:40.520 --> 0:57:43.560 think our mountain populations are probably at our peak densities. 0:57:43.640 --> 0:57:49.880 Certainly what we can carry statewide sociological carrying capacity, which 0:57:50.000 --> 0:57:52.320 is a lot different than the ecological carrying capacity. 0:57:52.640 --> 0:57:58.640 You know what that means, son, No, explain it? Okay, Well, 0:57:59.560 --> 0:58:03.200 social carrying capacity is what the people of a certain 0:58:03.240 --> 0:58:06.400 region are willing to tolerate many how many times a year? 0:58:06.480 --> 0:58:08.280 They willing to have a bear come up and eat 0:58:08.440 --> 0:58:11.520 their bird feeders and mess with their That's exactly trash 0:58:11.600 --> 0:58:15.480 cans versus what the land could hold. And almost always 0:58:15.800 --> 0:58:19.640 the social carrying capacity is less than the lands carrying capacity. 0:58:19.880 --> 0:58:24.280 And that's where management organizations come in and they manage 0:58:24.360 --> 0:58:28.360 bears typically for social carrying capacity. That's right, because they've 0:58:28.440 --> 0:58:32.360 got to manage this resource based upon the best good 0:58:32.440 --> 0:58:35.000 of the animals but also people. 0:58:35.320 --> 0:58:37.439 That's right, and it's up to it's up to game 0:58:37.480 --> 0:58:40.160 and fish and d nrs to really find that balance 0:58:40.880 --> 0:58:44.160 in between. I mean, certainly Arkansas could sustain a whole 0:58:44.200 --> 0:58:47.120 lot more bears than we have now. But you know 0:58:47.280 --> 0:58:50.600 when you when when mother nature doesn't provide and all 0:58:50.640 --> 0:58:52.960 those bears go to bird feeders and dog food and 0:58:53.040 --> 0:58:56.640 cat food on someone's porch, that's when the public really 0:58:56.880 --> 0:59:01.800 become so excited about having bears everywhere. And so you know, 0:59:01.960 --> 0:59:04.400 that's been the charge of game and fish for the 0:59:04.960 --> 0:59:08.560 sixty year conservation story is to find that balance. 0:59:08.800 --> 0:59:09.000 Yeah. 0:59:09.800 --> 0:59:22.560 Interesting, so interesting. We've been going an hour for the 0:59:22.840 --> 0:59:27.600 integrity of this institution of bear grease. We have to 0:59:27.680 --> 0:59:30.760 talk about wilderness. We always do this if you listen 0:59:30.760 --> 0:59:32.720 to the render, you know this, right, We like talk 0:59:32.720 --> 0:59:34.960 about something for a while and then we stop, and 0:59:35.000 --> 0:59:38.200 then we talk about what we've been talking about. Maybe 0:59:38.280 --> 0:59:40.560 I'm the only person in the world that's interested in 0:59:40.600 --> 0:59:42.120 the wilderness. That's not true. 0:59:42.160 --> 0:59:42.800 It is not true. 0:59:43.400 --> 0:59:45.800 No, we did a three part We did a three 0:59:45.840 --> 0:59:49.080 part series. I kind of joke that it was boring. 0:59:49.320 --> 0:59:49.600 It was. 0:59:52.240 --> 0:59:56.280 My buddy Steve Vernella told me that, which, yeah, kind 0:59:56.320 --> 1:00:01.200 of kind of stuck me hard. It was more or 1:00:01.280 --> 1:00:03.760 less more or less the future Gift. 1:00:04.200 --> 1:00:04.880 He was on it. 1:00:05.080 --> 1:00:08.200 Yeah, I was like, well, it's your fault. No, we 1:00:08.280 --> 1:00:11.240 did a three part series on American wilderness, and if 1:00:11.280 --> 1:00:12.959 you listen to it, you're gonna be up to speed. 1:00:13.040 --> 1:00:15.240 If you're not, if you didn't, you're gonna have to 1:00:15.440 --> 1:00:18.920 you have to catch up. But basically, man in modern 1:00:19.040 --> 1:00:23.400 times and the time we live in, wilderness is an 1:00:23.480 --> 1:00:27.360 incredible it's an incredible word, but it's an incredible concept. 1:00:27.720 --> 1:00:30.240 That's going to become more and more important. And basically 1:00:30.360 --> 1:00:32.480 we talked about how there's two things when you say 1:00:32.520 --> 1:00:35.800 the wilderness. There's the idea of wilderness, and then there's 1:00:35.880 --> 1:00:39.520 the reality of wilderness, which is actually federally regulated wilderness 1:00:39.600 --> 1:00:42.600 with a capital W, which is the most regulated land 1:00:42.680 --> 1:00:47.120 designation from our federal government. The idea of wilderness would 1:00:47.160 --> 1:00:50.480 be that that you could you could have a feeling 1:00:50.560 --> 1:00:53.800 of wilderness anywhere. You could go down here to the creek, 1:00:54.520 --> 1:00:58.440 across the highway here and be in a wooded setting 1:00:58.880 --> 1:01:02.680 and have a wilderness feeling, you know, being in a 1:01:02.760 --> 1:01:05.920 landscape that's dominated by natural systems without the marks of 1:01:06.080 --> 1:01:08.960 man on it. Right, So that could happen anywhere. That 1:01:08.960 --> 1:01:11.040 could happen on national forests, that could happen on your 1:01:11.120 --> 1:01:16.160 private land, that could happen anywhere. Federally regulated wilderness is. 1:01:16.880 --> 1:01:20.160 There are one hundred and eleven million acres of federal 1:01:20.200 --> 1:01:25.960 wilderness in America. Roughly seventeen percent of America is federally 1:01:26.040 --> 1:01:28.480 regulated wilderness, which is a huge chunk of land. What 1:01:28.560 --> 1:01:31.760 did I say that, say seventeen percent, not say five percent, 1:01:31.920 --> 1:01:32.800 not seventeen percent? 1:01:32.920 --> 1:01:33.600 Where come from? 1:01:33.640 --> 1:01:37.320 I don't know. Five percent excuse me, pardon me, five 1:01:37.440 --> 1:01:43.640 percent of America is federally regulated public land with a 1:01:43.760 --> 1:01:47.320 capital W. And in this last episode we talked about 1:01:47.360 --> 1:01:51.120 two things. I talked with Steve Vernella about the personal 1:01:51.320 --> 1:01:54.720 impacts of being in wild places, like all of us 1:01:54.840 --> 1:02:00.640 have inherited this really a cultural inheritance of a particular 1:02:00.760 --> 1:02:03.360 way that we view wild places. Like if you went 1:02:03.400 --> 1:02:07.280 to anywhere in Asia or anywhere in Africa or even Europe, 1:02:07.400 --> 1:02:09.560 and you set people down and you talk to them 1:02:09.600 --> 1:02:14.360 about wild spaces unaltered by man, a person would have 1:02:14.520 --> 1:02:17.480 a sense in a way they would handle it, a 1:02:17.560 --> 1:02:19.840 way that they would intellectually think about it, the way 1:02:19.920 --> 1:02:23.120 that they would value it. That would be a product 1:02:23.160 --> 1:02:26.960 of them being in a culture here in America. And 1:02:27.040 --> 1:02:29.600 the whole series talked about this, but so much of 1:02:29.720 --> 1:02:34.640 our national heritage came from this idea of this place 1:02:34.760 --> 1:02:38.400 being forged out of a wilderness. And we talked about 1:02:38.480 --> 1:02:41.960 all the pitfalls of that. Oh, it's an incredible series 1:02:43.080 --> 1:02:46.000 for real, boring as it may be to some people, 1:02:46.160 --> 1:02:53.600 rent but we dove into some really wild stuff. So 1:02:55.120 --> 1:02:57.439 the great I'm given like a summary is this okay, 1:02:57.760 --> 1:03:05.920 little summary inspiration? Okay, Yeah, if you if you get 1:03:06.000 --> 1:03:08.200 hired on to come play, this is when you start 1:03:08.240 --> 1:03:11.480 playing when you hear me kind of get going. No, 1:03:11.800 --> 1:03:16.560 So the the early American wilderness prophets, all these guys 1:03:17.000 --> 1:03:21.600 mirror Throw, all these all these guys. They believed that 1:03:21.880 --> 1:03:27.880 wilderness impacted the the the the deep fiber of a man. 1:03:28.400 --> 1:03:32.360 Like Threau said that that wild places where the nourishment, 1:03:32.480 --> 1:03:36.040 the intellectual nourishment of civilized men, which is an interesting thought, 1:03:36.320 --> 1:03:39.280 Like what think about about for yourself? You guys are hunters, 1:03:39.400 --> 1:03:42.080 ladies or hunters, Like what happens to you when you're 1:03:42.080 --> 1:03:44.000 in a wild place? Like why do you go there? 1:03:44.120 --> 1:03:46.760 Why do you sacrifice to be there when you could 1:03:46.840 --> 1:03:48.800 be in the comfort of your own home you could 1:03:48.920 --> 1:03:52.280 be having all this, uh, the things we live in 1:03:52.400 --> 1:03:55.200 most of the time. What really happens when you're in 1:03:55.240 --> 1:03:59.440 a wild place. That's something to think about. Throw believe 1:03:59.560 --> 1:04:03.160 that it that it impacted him far beyond. I'm not 1:04:03.240 --> 1:04:05.600 a fan of Throw necessarily. Neither is Steve or Noa. 1:04:05.840 --> 1:04:09.480 If you heard our little spat about it, but we 1:04:09.680 --> 1:04:13.280 talked about that. I'm not necessarily interested in that as much. 1:04:13.880 --> 1:04:15.840 The second part that we talked about on this last 1:04:15.880 --> 1:04:20.160 episode was the criticisms of Federal Wilderness, which was interesting. 1:04:20.240 --> 1:04:24.440 There's an idea that federal wilderness is an elitist idea 1:04:24.840 --> 1:04:27.320 because Federal Wilderness can't drive a four wheeler, can't drive 1:04:27.320 --> 1:04:31.080 a willed vehicle. It's ridiculous. You can't take a hang glider. 1:04:31.120 --> 1:04:32.880 I always thought it was a hand glider. It's not 1:04:32.920 --> 1:04:36.760 a hand gliter, it's a hang glider. Can't take one 1:04:36.760 --> 1:04:38.520 of those in the wilderness. It says on the sign 1:04:39.360 --> 1:04:43.800 our government spent that much money on the on the signs. Yeah, 1:04:44.480 --> 1:04:49.280 I always thought that was funny. But it's the most 1:04:50.120 --> 1:04:54.920 restricted amount of land and all you can do is 1:04:54.960 --> 1:04:57.680 walk in there, ride horses and mules essentially. I mean, 1:04:57.680 --> 1:05:01.919 that's the only options. And so there's a some people 1:05:01.960 --> 1:05:05.840 would say that that land is then only for the 1:05:05.960 --> 1:05:08.200 people who can physically go in there, which is true, 1:05:09.000 --> 1:05:12.480 and they would say, well, that's not making it accessible 1:05:12.520 --> 1:05:17.280 to everybody else, which we talked about that. We also 1:05:17.480 --> 1:05:23.000 talked about primarily the management strategies. I had a good 1:05:23.000 --> 1:05:25.320 friend of mine named Adam Keith, real sharp guy. He 1:05:25.520 --> 1:05:28.880 I thought he gave it a really compelling argument. He's 1:05:28.960 --> 1:05:32.520 a land manager, and he he said Clay. When I 1:05:32.560 --> 1:05:35.000 hear somebody say federal wilderness, he said, I think of 1:05:35.240 --> 1:05:39.240 unmanaged land. He said, I'm all for wilderness, wild places, 1:05:39.920 --> 1:05:45.440 places that are untouched by man. But those federal wildernesses 1:05:45.600 --> 1:05:48.240 that don't get fire, that don't get any kind of 1:05:49.160 --> 1:05:55.160 management at all. He's like, they're wastelands like for by 1:05:55.800 --> 1:06:01.960 for flora and fauna, both invasives are taken over these wildernesses. 1:06:02.000 --> 1:06:05.720 And so there's this kind of irony that wildernesses often 1:06:05.840 --> 1:06:09.000 have a much more heavy invasive load than and this 1:06:09.160 --> 1:06:11.600 isn't across the board, but in a lot of our 1:06:11.640 --> 1:06:15.800 eastern wildernesses, they have more invasive loads in the wilderness 1:06:15.880 --> 1:06:21.640 than than places that are managed like national forest. So, James, 1:06:22.600 --> 1:06:26.160 what do you think, Well, it was a quick review. 1:06:26.320 --> 1:06:28.680 That was a quick review better with banjo music in 1:06:28.720 --> 1:06:29.000 the back. 1:06:29.040 --> 1:06:30.640 You know, There's there's a couple of things that really 1:06:30.680 --> 1:06:33.160 stood out to me. And and so when I look 1:06:33.200 --> 1:06:34.880 out here and see all these folks, and I wish, 1:06:35.040 --> 1:06:36.960 I wish that the people who are listening to this 1:06:37.120 --> 1:06:39.560 on their phones or whatever could see the cross section 1:06:39.680 --> 1:06:40.440 that we have out here. 1:06:40.560 --> 1:06:42.560 But I see a lot of people who like wild 1:06:42.680 --> 1:06:45.640 places and and for me. 1:06:45.920 --> 1:06:48.400 The thing that stood out was right at the end 1:06:48.440 --> 1:06:51.800 when you when Howe was talking about, you know, trusting 1:06:51.840 --> 1:06:56.080 the federal government or not, and and he made this 1:06:56.320 --> 1:07:02.400 point and and it was in order for us to 1:07:03.320 --> 1:07:06.640 have those if we want those places managed differently, we're 1:07:06.720 --> 1:07:09.400 going to have to ask the federal government to do 1:07:09.560 --> 1:07:12.880 that or trust them to do that or whatever. And 1:07:13.000 --> 1:07:15.120 so the thing that struck me and I went back 1:07:15.160 --> 1:07:17.480 to the to Roderi Nash's book and I looked this up. 1:07:18.200 --> 1:07:21.760 So the first Wilderness with the Capitol w bill was 1:07:21.840 --> 1:07:26.680 introduced in nineteen thirty nine, and it took until nineteen 1:07:26.920 --> 1:07:30.280 sixty four for that to finally get passed. Now that's 1:07:30.400 --> 1:07:34.360 twenty five years. There's a lot of people in this 1:07:34.560 --> 1:07:38.160 room who are not twenty five years old yet. And 1:07:40.240 --> 1:07:44.160 what we backcountry hunters and anglers, you know, we try 1:07:44.200 --> 1:07:48.480 to inspire people to get involved in the outdoors and 1:07:48.600 --> 1:07:51.920 get involved in how we think about the outdoors and 1:07:52.040 --> 1:07:54.880 how we how we engage with the outdoors and some 1:07:55.000 --> 1:07:58.080 of that. Frankly, it kind of it's not fun, but 1:07:58.200 --> 1:08:01.240 it's asking the federal government to do stuff for us 1:08:01.760 --> 1:08:02.880 on our public lands. 1:08:03.280 --> 1:08:05.800 And so the takeaway for me and then I'll quit talking. 1:08:06.640 --> 1:08:11.160 Is if we want something done differently, we the people 1:08:11.320 --> 1:08:14.040 here have to do it. We have to ask for it. 1:08:15.080 --> 1:08:18.240 And we've been involved in things here in Arkansas where 1:08:18.320 --> 1:08:21.120 we asked for things to be done U as our 1:08:21.280 --> 1:08:23.720 as our particular BHA chapter, and we were able to 1:08:23.760 --> 1:08:26.880 be successful with that. For people to think that their 1:08:27.000 --> 1:08:31.880 voice doesn't matter, I promise you it matters. It might 1:08:32.000 --> 1:08:35.719 take a lot of us, but it matters. So that's 1:08:35.840 --> 1:08:37.760 the that's what I took away from it. 1:08:37.880 --> 1:08:41.280 I was standing up problems with it. Then then it's 1:08:41.520 --> 1:08:46.160 then it's our problem. The system could work, Yes we did. Yeah, Yeah, 1:08:46.280 --> 1:08:46.880 that makes sense. 1:08:47.320 --> 1:08:50.519 That's that's my that's my I loved it. 1:08:51.640 --> 1:08:53.320 I was telling you that because we're here in front 1:08:53.320 --> 1:08:54.080 of a thousand people. 1:08:54.920 --> 1:08:58.760 I love wild places and I fell in love with 1:08:58.920 --> 1:09:02.240 Arkansas when I started go into the wild places. So 1:09:02.760 --> 1:09:05.400 and I bet you for any any people in here 1:09:05.439 --> 1:09:07.479 who are from Arkansas, I would probably say the same thing, 1:09:07.600 --> 1:09:10.360 like our wild places are unique and we need to 1:09:10.439 --> 1:09:11.719 keep those wild places wild. 1:09:12.240 --> 1:09:16.720 Yeah. Patrick, Well, I do. 1:09:16.840 --> 1:09:21.360 Want to underscore what you're saying about the series, because 1:09:21.840 --> 1:09:24.640 if you thought you had an idea of what wilderness 1:09:24.800 --> 1:09:27.960 is or isn't. It will be very clear after they 1:09:28.080 --> 1:09:31.840 listen to it, and it'll it'll just enlighten all of us. 1:09:31.920 --> 1:09:33.240 I think in a lot of ways about what it 1:09:33.320 --> 1:09:35.040 is what it is, and I mean, you know, I 1:09:35.120 --> 1:09:38.720 know on a personal level, like, for example, I have 1:09:38.840 --> 1:09:40.479 a rule that I don't know if anybody else has it, 1:09:40.560 --> 1:09:43.880 but like if I can see turkeys anywhere from a road, 1:09:44.240 --> 1:09:46.559 I am not hunting there because that means everybody else 1:09:46.560 --> 1:09:48.720 can see them and I want to get as far 1:09:48.800 --> 1:09:52.200 away as possible and have my own experience. And by extension, 1:09:52.880 --> 1:09:55.519 that's kind of everything that I love to do would 1:09:55.560 --> 1:09:58.599 sort of be in those wild places, just as James said, 1:09:59.120 --> 1:10:03.479 is a magical thing, right. I think what's important with 1:10:03.600 --> 1:10:07.160 the discussion is the distinction between that feeling of being 1:10:07.240 --> 1:10:10.200 in a wild place in wilderness, because you don't have 1:10:10.360 --> 1:10:13.799 to live next to a big w federally designated wilderness 1:10:13.840 --> 1:10:16.400 ere have that experience. There could be a town forest 1:10:16.640 --> 1:10:20.280 or a state wildlife management area or some other place 1:10:20.400 --> 1:10:22.479 where you're in the middle of it and you feel 1:10:22.560 --> 1:10:25.760 like you are a million miles away from civilization. And 1:10:26.439 --> 1:10:31.960 what was really well explained in that third episode to 1:10:32.080 --> 1:10:35.760 me was how we kind of miss the mark on 1:10:36.200 --> 1:10:40.040 the wilderness designation in parts of the country, especially in 1:10:40.160 --> 1:10:44.240 the Midwest in the East, because the whole forests have changed. 1:10:44.760 --> 1:10:47.320 There aren't the same critters on the landscape, how they 1:10:47.400 --> 1:10:50.800 interact with one another. There aren't even the same things 1:10:50.840 --> 1:10:54.040 that grow on the landscape anymore. It's not just invasives, 1:10:54.200 --> 1:10:58.800 it's just how the trees and plants have changed over time. 1:10:59.360 --> 1:11:02.479 And to have this idea that we can just shut 1:11:02.560 --> 1:11:05.680 them off from everything and it'll go back to what 1:11:05.840 --> 1:11:09.880 it was like post ice age is it's just it's 1:11:09.920 --> 1:11:12.840 a fantasy. It would be like going into your cell 1:11:12.880 --> 1:11:16.080 phone store and where they have the latest gadgets of 1:11:16.200 --> 1:11:20.400 like iPhones and Samsung whatever's and saying I would like 1:11:20.479 --> 1:11:25.120 a rotary phone, right, that's which analogy right, which it's 1:11:25.400 --> 1:11:27.200 you know, I don't even know if those things work 1:11:27.240 --> 1:11:28.880 anymore through modern phone lines. 1:11:28.920 --> 1:11:32.479 But it's just not reletive. I know. 1:11:32.640 --> 1:11:36.400 Actually I called them on it, right, It's just it's 1:11:36.479 --> 1:11:39.760 just some of our ideas are coming from a good, 1:11:39.920 --> 1:11:43.479 well meaning place, but they've just missed the mark on 1:11:43.640 --> 1:11:46.639 how practical they are for certain places in the country 1:11:47.120 --> 1:11:49.240 that we will never be able to go back to 1:11:49.320 --> 1:11:51.559 what it was before, and that's one of the arguments 1:11:51.880 --> 1:11:54.640 of designating an area in wilderness. And I can tell 1:11:54.640 --> 1:11:58.280 you quickly from personal experience that one of my favorite 1:11:58.320 --> 1:12:00.920 places to go grousing would cock hunting. Up in the 1:12:01.000 --> 1:12:04.519 mountains was an area that had been managed over time. 1:12:04.640 --> 1:12:06.640 I mean, it was up in the mountains, and what 1:12:06.760 --> 1:12:08.840 I loved about it is that I got it. I 1:12:08.880 --> 1:12:11.680 got away from everybody and everything. It has since been 1:12:11.760 --> 1:12:15.960 designated as a wilderness area, which would be fine if, 1:12:16.720 --> 1:12:18.200 like your third episode. 1:12:18.120 --> 1:12:20.799 They don't have management there anymore and it's. 1:12:20.720 --> 1:12:23.800 Not the same place anymore. And I've gone back there 1:12:23.960 --> 1:12:27.800 years later and it's it's done. Wow, there's there's no 1:12:28.680 --> 1:12:33.880 the the limiting factor on the biodiversity or the number 1:12:33.960 --> 1:12:36.720 and type of critters that are still on the landscape. 1:12:36.920 --> 1:12:39.240 It's just not the same and it never will be 1:12:39.560 --> 1:12:41.160 because we can't go back to where we were. 1:12:41.600 --> 1:12:41.760 You know. 1:12:41.920 --> 1:12:43.800 So if you listen to the whole series, you would 1:12:43.840 --> 1:12:47.639 hear that I'm very pro wilderness. I mean, I think 1:12:47.720 --> 1:12:51.040 the wilderness designation and we all I think we all 1:12:51.200 --> 1:12:53.320 are on here. We're just trying to be open about 1:12:53.360 --> 1:12:58.439 the criticisms to it. The whole series. I mean the 1:12:58.560 --> 1:13:03.240 way America has handled wilderness has been has been monumental 1:13:03.760 --> 1:13:06.640 globally for how other countries have done it. We were 1:13:06.680 --> 1:13:09.400 the first place to have federally designated wilderness. I mean, 1:13:09.439 --> 1:13:13.560 so it's a an ingenious plan, an ingenious idea that 1:13:13.640 --> 1:13:16.000 I'm that we're four and I know Patrick is four too, 1:13:16.080 --> 1:13:18.280 but we're talking to I don't want anybody to get 1:13:18.280 --> 1:13:20.600 the wrong idea that we're saying wilderness is bad. No, 1:13:20.760 --> 1:13:26.600 we're just saying the wilderness model has been don't touch it. 1:13:27.240 --> 1:13:31.120 And I you know, I hear what you said is 1:13:31.160 --> 1:13:33.839 such a great example. I don't know that I trust 1:13:34.040 --> 1:13:35.799 what I said on the last part of the podcast 1:13:35.920 --> 1:13:39.680 was I said, yeah, these wildernesses would do better if 1:13:39.720 --> 1:13:42.000 they had management. But I don't know that I trust 1:13:42.520 --> 1:13:45.320 the people opening the gate necessarily, well, not the people. 1:13:45.720 --> 1:13:47.800 Just you know, if you if you open up the 1:13:47.880 --> 1:13:51.519 ability for that to be changed, will it go too far? 1:13:51.840 --> 1:13:52.040 Yeah? 1:13:52.160 --> 1:13:55.440 And that's that's the problem, just with any any institution, 1:13:55.880 --> 1:13:59.120 is like, would it be better to just keep it 1:13:59.240 --> 1:14:01.160 as is and it be a sacrifice? 1:14:01.360 --> 1:14:04.800 Well, Clay, the thing is with that, if we don't 1:14:04.800 --> 1:14:08.320 get involved in it and ask for it, it might 1:14:08.439 --> 1:14:14.200 just get changed without our input. That's why we you 1:14:14.320 --> 1:14:16.720 had I mean, I heard you saying this on a 1:14:16.720 --> 1:14:19.200 different podcast here recently. If we don't tell our story, 1:14:19.280 --> 1:14:21.000 somebody else going to tell it the way they want 1:14:21.040 --> 1:14:23.160 to tell it. And if we don't ask for management 1:14:23.200 --> 1:14:24.840 the way we'd like to see it, somebody else is 1:14:24.880 --> 1:14:26.519 going to ask for it, and it might be like 1:14:27.160 --> 1:14:29.600 you can't even go in there. Not only can you 1:14:29.680 --> 1:14:31.400 not ride a bike in there, but you can't walk, 1:14:32.080 --> 1:14:35.120 you know. So that's why we have to be involved, 1:14:35.439 --> 1:14:38.000 you know it. It doesn't take every single person here 1:14:38.080 --> 1:14:39.960 to be involved. It would be great if every person 1:14:40.160 --> 1:14:44.240 was involved, but it takes it takes dedicated groups who 1:14:44.320 --> 1:14:48.240 do want that kind of stuff, conservation organizations like ours 1:14:48.320 --> 1:14:51.839 and other good ones that do that work to be involved, 1:14:51.880 --> 1:14:53.920 and then people have to pay attention when it's time, 1:14:54.320 --> 1:14:55.200 and that's what we need. 1:14:55.880 --> 1:15:00.080 That's my that's my stump speech, yeap, just to you. 1:15:00.040 --> 1:15:01.400 Know, add to that too. 1:15:01.520 --> 1:15:04.439 I mean, and I really appreciate you making the point that, look, 1:15:04.479 --> 1:15:07.080 we all care about wild places, right and you know, 1:15:07.400 --> 1:15:10.120 I know Aldo Leopold gets over quoted, but like this 1:15:10.280 --> 1:15:13.040 is really stuck with me. You know, he said, wilderness 1:15:13.160 --> 1:15:16.440 is the raw artifact out of which mankind has hammered civilization. 1:15:17.120 --> 1:15:19.439 There's not a whole lot of raw artifact that's left 1:15:19.479 --> 1:15:21.760 in a lot of places in the country, and so 1:15:22.040 --> 1:15:26.720 it's incredibly appropriate to cherish wilderness and wild places and 1:15:27.120 --> 1:15:30.719 even wilderness designations where you still have that raw artifact 1:15:30.800 --> 1:15:33.800 or that opportunity where it can be what it once was. 1:15:34.400 --> 1:15:37.160 And so this is where pragmatic people have to have 1:15:37.240 --> 1:15:41.080 a conversation about where it's appropriate and where it's not, 1:15:41.400 --> 1:15:46.240 and that this you can't just plunk down some management prescription, 1:15:46.640 --> 1:15:50.280 which could be zero management, because it sounds like the 1:15:50.400 --> 1:15:52.600 right thing to do, and you love the concept of it, 1:15:52.960 --> 1:15:55.280 even though like that's probably not the best place for it, 1:15:55.600 --> 1:15:58.360 even if it's very appropriate over here in these stays 1:15:58.400 --> 1:15:59.400 of this region of the country. 1:16:00.000 --> 1:16:01.960 But at Adam's point, it was so well taken. As 1:16:02.040 --> 1:16:06.559 you can't manage these big, giant wilderness areas. I mean, 1:16:06.600 --> 1:16:09.479 there's wilderness areas that are millions of acres in the 1:16:09.560 --> 1:16:12.080 West compared to some of these smaller wildernesses that we 1:16:12.160 --> 1:16:15.280 have in the East. It's just're just not managed the same. Misty, 1:16:15.320 --> 1:16:15.880 what did you think. 1:16:16.680 --> 1:16:19.439 I thought it was really good and very very exciting. 1:16:19.560 --> 1:16:22.720 I couldn't I couldn't disagree with Steve Vanilla Moore. 1:16:23.720 --> 1:16:23.760 No. 1:16:23.920 --> 1:16:25.519 I thought it was I thought it was a very 1:16:26.000 --> 1:16:30.000 very interesting and I think it's important to just realize 1:16:30.160 --> 1:16:31.759 kind of what James was saying. It takes like twenty 1:16:31.800 --> 1:16:35.080 five years to make change happen and to sustain change, 1:16:35.240 --> 1:16:37.960 and it's really important to me when you think about wilderness. 1:16:37.960 --> 1:16:39.479 And what I kept thinking as I was listening to 1:16:39.600 --> 1:16:42.120 that podcast was how important it is to get our 1:16:42.280 --> 1:16:45.839 kids out in the wild places. You can't outsource your values. 1:16:45.920 --> 1:16:47.760 You can't just assume that they're going to get this, 1:16:47.920 --> 1:16:50.760 that they're gonna they're gonna appreciate the wilderness areas just 1:16:50.840 --> 1:16:52.519 because you do. You have to get them out there, 1:16:52.560 --> 1:16:54.719 and you have to talk to them about the value 1:16:54.960 --> 1:16:57.800 of this so that twenty five years from now they 1:16:57.880 --> 1:17:00.400 can fight the battles that need to be fought when. 1:17:00.280 --> 1:17:03.680 Maybe we're too well too. Yeah, we probably won't be 1:17:03.720 --> 1:17:05.000 too well to in twenty five years. 1:17:07.360 --> 1:17:07.439 Now. 1:17:08.040 --> 1:17:13.800 There's there's never been, you know, the revolution in the 1:17:13.840 --> 1:17:17.360 world that came with social media, which expanded the networks 1:17:17.400 --> 1:17:20.240 of people to be able to communicate at an exponential 1:17:20.320 --> 1:17:22.680 level that has never happened before in human history, Like 1:17:22.800 --> 1:17:24.360 this is what we're doing right now, is like this 1:17:24.520 --> 1:17:28.320 total experiment with people being able to connect and communicate 1:17:28.360 --> 1:17:32.360 the way that they do. And there's never been I 1:17:32.680 --> 1:17:34.439 believe this was all my heart. There's never been a 1:17:34.520 --> 1:17:39.920 more powerful time for sportsmen and women, conservation minded people 1:17:40.439 --> 1:17:45.320 to stand up and tell the narrative of our culture 1:17:45.680 --> 1:17:50.599 are the way we do things and and and that's 1:17:50.640 --> 1:17:52.800 what I hear a lot of these guys saying, whether 1:17:52.800 --> 1:17:56.160 it's being involved politically in different ways or or just 1:17:56.280 --> 1:17:59.680 even inside of your own your own groups, uh, just 1:18:00.200 --> 1:18:05.120 of influence in your life, just being uh, telling our story. 1:18:05.560 --> 1:18:07.920 It's powerful, and I mean that's what that's what we try. 1:18:07.960 --> 1:18:09.560 That's what I try to do on Bear Greece is 1:18:09.680 --> 1:18:13.720 just like tell tell our story, interpret our our way 1:18:13.800 --> 1:18:19.400 of thinking to the world and goly Man. Time is 1:18:19.439 --> 1:18:22.439 such a deceptive thing because like we wake up and 1:18:22.600 --> 1:18:26.400 we just we're born and we come into consciousness and 1:18:26.439 --> 1:18:28.599 become adults, and we think this is just the way 1:18:28.640 --> 1:18:34.479 it's always been. But we live in unprecedented times when 1:18:34.520 --> 1:18:37.680 it comes to so many things. I mean, you know, 1:18:37.920 --> 1:18:43.840 expansion of human population in the earth, the urban sprawl, like, 1:18:43.920 --> 1:18:48.200 if we're talking about landscape level stuff, and holy cow, 1:18:48.560 --> 1:18:52.840 is our wild places wild places will be the most 1:18:53.600 --> 1:18:56.840 scarce resource on the earth. I mean, in a way 1:18:56.920 --> 1:19:01.840 it already is. But I mean, I mean, and the 1:19:02.000 --> 1:19:04.960 way the system works right now, it's such a unique 1:19:05.000 --> 1:19:07.640 thing in the world. But the but the hunters are 1:19:07.720 --> 1:19:10.080 the ones who have a lot of say right now 1:19:10.439 --> 1:19:13.720 in wild lands and how they're managed. That's the way 1:19:13.760 --> 1:19:16.479 it's been and and and we can't take that for granted. 1:19:17.280 --> 1:19:21.800 And anyway, I'm just kind of amazed the more I 1:19:22.000 --> 1:19:27.080 learn about how unique this American hunting culture that we 1:19:27.120 --> 1:19:29.240 all grew up in that just seems like it's normal. 1:19:29.600 --> 1:19:32.720 It's not normal. This is not normal. This is this 1:19:32.920 --> 1:19:35.519 is this is wild. We can't take it for granted. 1:19:35.600 --> 1:19:38.639 That's that's why I'm so passionate about knowledge and history. 1:19:39.040 --> 1:19:41.640 Like you, you have no you have no right to 1:19:41.680 --> 1:19:45.040 have an opinion about what something's gonna how something's gonna 1:19:45.439 --> 1:19:48.280 turn out. If you don't know history of what happened before. 1:19:48.439 --> 1:19:51.360 I mean, you don't really have an intelligent position to 1:19:51.439 --> 1:19:53.760 have a really strong opinion. I mean, that's why I 1:19:54.360 --> 1:19:57.120 that's why the stories that I like to learn and 1:19:57.400 --> 1:19:59.439 most of the stuff we do on bear grees. I'm learning, 1:20:00.000 --> 1:20:02.240 I mean, it's a process of learning. But we're talking 1:20:02.280 --> 1:20:05.800 about history, we're and we're we're talking about we're learning 1:20:05.800 --> 1:20:09.320 about wild landscapes and animals, but we're also dealing a 1:20:09.400 --> 1:20:13.840 lot with the social aspects of life, I mean, which 1:20:13.880 --> 1:20:16.320 are equally as important. Like, if you want to be 1:20:16.479 --> 1:20:18.519 in control of wild lands, you also got to know 1:20:18.560 --> 1:20:22.439 how to deal with people, you know, And is that true? 1:20:23.120 --> 1:20:26.880 I mean, Myron, Myron will tell you that probably the 1:20:26.960 --> 1:20:29.040 biggest part of your job is dealing with people, not bears. 1:20:29.920 --> 1:20:32.919 It's not wildlife managements. People management. 1:20:33.080 --> 1:20:38.880 Yeah, And I mean so as a as a and 1:20:39.560 --> 1:20:41.120 I like to use this word. I don't know if 1:20:41.160 --> 1:20:43.280 it's politically correct or not, but I mean, I think 1:20:43.320 --> 1:20:45.600 the hunters in America are a people group. Let's go 1:20:45.840 --> 1:20:47.880 do it, Let's go people. I mean, we're like, we're 1:20:47.960 --> 1:20:50.120 like a We're like a people group, We're like a tribe. 1:20:50.400 --> 1:20:53.320 And honey doesn't totally define us. Like I'm not totally 1:20:53.400 --> 1:20:56.840 defined by hunting. I mean, it's a part of my 1:20:56.960 --> 1:20:59.519 life that's visible. There are other things that define me 1:20:59.600 --> 1:21:03.439 much more than this. But at a pretty high level, 1:21:03.920 --> 1:21:07.800 as a hunter, that that that's my identity, something I 1:21:07.920 --> 1:21:10.200 grab on to. Not the most important thing, but most 1:21:10.240 --> 1:21:12.360 most important thing would be my faith in my family, 1:21:12.680 --> 1:21:16.760 which I put action behind making that be true. But 1:21:17.520 --> 1:21:21.479 down there ways on external kind of earthly stuff, being 1:21:21.520 --> 1:21:24.320 a hunter is is, it's like it is part of 1:21:24.400 --> 1:21:30.479 my identity. And uh and every generation, I mean, we're 1:21:30.520 --> 1:21:34.160 being swamped by the world really trying to squeeze us 1:21:34.160 --> 1:21:38.479 out of this culture. And what what what I'm trying 1:21:38.520 --> 1:21:41.000 to do. What's so many of us in this in 1:21:41.080 --> 1:21:42.680 this room trying to do. What we're trying to do 1:21:42.760 --> 1:21:45.280 with meat eater I feel like, is we're trying to 1:21:45.720 --> 1:21:50.240 carve out a cultural space. I like to I like 1:21:50.360 --> 1:21:54.719 to say, we're we're asking America for a cultural tenure. 1:21:55.720 --> 1:21:58.519 Like a tenure means that you're granted this place in 1:21:58.600 --> 1:22:02.320 the culture that never goes away. Way for the American backwoodsman, 1:22:02.439 --> 1:22:04.840 the hunter, to be able to to be able to hunt, 1:22:05.000 --> 1:22:09.240 to be able to have some jurisdiction over wild lands, 1:22:09.520 --> 1:22:12.320 to be able to go and harvest wild game, for 1:22:12.400 --> 1:22:14.280 our families, to be able to take our children into 1:22:14.320 --> 1:22:18.280 wild places. And man, that that means the world to me. 1:22:19.000 --> 1:22:22.559 And I want that my sons and daughters have already 1:22:22.560 --> 1:22:25.400 had that opportunity and will continue. But their kids and 1:22:25.520 --> 1:22:29.439 their kids kids, you know what's going to happen twenty 1:22:29.520 --> 1:22:32.240 years from now, forty years from now, sixty years from now, 1:22:32.960 --> 1:22:35.040 and we just can't take it for granted. Do you 1:22:35.080 --> 1:22:37.160 guys agree with that? We got to be We've got 1:22:37.240 --> 1:22:40.000 to be educated. And that's part of what education of 1:22:40.520 --> 1:22:43.559 even just learning about bears, learning the cultural significance if 1:22:43.560 --> 1:22:45.360 you got bears in your yard, if you ever killed 1:22:45.360 --> 1:22:48.439 a bear in Arkansas, man, that's a pretty major thing. 1:22:49.200 --> 1:22:53.559 And to not take that for granted. I think that's 1:22:53.600 --> 1:22:57.680 the That's the thing I'm most passionate about is just 1:22:58.280 --> 1:23:01.640 I'm grateful for what we for we have in so 1:23:01.760 --> 1:23:02.560 many ways. 1:23:02.479 --> 1:23:05.439 And so what we do here at Black Bear Bonanza celebrate, 1:23:05.840 --> 1:23:09.240 celebrate the black bears. You know, I've heard you say 1:23:09.360 --> 1:23:13.840 the icon of North American wilderness, and you know, we're 1:23:13.920 --> 1:23:17.760 thankful to have all of y'all here to celebrate it 1:23:17.840 --> 1:23:19.679 with us, all of y'all out here in the crowd, 1:23:19.760 --> 1:23:20.640 to celebrate with us. 1:23:20.720 --> 1:23:24.920 Patrick here. This is incredibly. 1:23:24.400 --> 1:23:28.200 Meaningful, not just for us personally, but it's meaningful for 1:23:28.360 --> 1:23:31.880 conservation to see to see all of you all come 1:23:32.000 --> 1:23:34.559 here and support it and bring We've got a little 1:23:34.560 --> 1:23:36.000 guy asleep here in the front row. 1:23:36.720 --> 1:23:38.599 You know, we've got the little ones down here. 1:23:39.360 --> 1:23:43.920 We have people in wheelchairs who you know, made an 1:23:43.960 --> 1:23:45.040 extra effort to get here. 1:23:45.640 --> 1:23:47.160 We have men and women. 1:23:47.920 --> 1:23:51.320 It's it's amazing to see all this and see y'all's 1:23:51.360 --> 1:23:57.320 commitment to helping us celebrate bears, celebrate wild places. And 1:23:58.479 --> 1:24:00.240 I think, what did you say on the podcast that 1:24:00.920 --> 1:24:06.800 or somebody said it that wilderness made Americans right, right, 1:24:07.200 --> 1:24:09.320 and so that's that's what we're celebrating. 1:24:09.400 --> 1:24:10.640 Yeah, man, it's fantastic. 1:24:10.840 --> 1:24:11.320 That's great. 1:24:12.000 --> 1:24:16.599 Well, thank you guys so much. Hey, we're gonna clue Andrew. Andrew, 1:24:16.680 --> 1:24:19.800 come on up, all right, we're gonna we're gonna close 1:24:19.880 --> 1:24:22.920 out the Bear Grey Shrender. This is my buddy Andrew Wills. 1:24:23.120 --> 1:24:28.559 He's gonna sing a song that, uh, that he wrote. 1:24:28.640 --> 1:24:29.960 I had a little bit to do with it. 1:24:30.320 --> 1:24:31.960 Andrew's also known as Hawking Horse. 1:24:32.120 --> 1:24:32.280 Yeah. 1:24:33.040 --> 1:24:36.000 Oh, he came all the way from Nashville, Tennessee. You guys, 1:24:36.120 --> 1:24:39.360 Andrew's been on the podcast before, and uh he he 1:24:39.760 --> 1:24:42.679 sent me this song the other day and I was like, dude, 1:24:42.720 --> 1:24:45.479 you gotta come to Arkansas and sing it. So, I 1:24:45.520 --> 1:24:51.519 guess never sang publicly before, is that right? Yeah? This 1:24:51.600 --> 1:24:55.800 is hawking horse all right, buddy, Well you need me 1:24:55.880 --> 1:24:59.559 to dance up here, probably that'd be good. Yeah, yeah, 1:25:00.000 --> 1:25:01.320 it's a little little dancing. 1:25:01.520 --> 1:25:03.920 Don't get too don't get too far away from your 1:25:04.040 --> 1:25:05.280 stuff back here, you'll. 1:25:07.360 --> 1:25:13.080 Jerky right out of there. Andrew Andrew is a professional 1:25:13.200 --> 1:25:17.519 songwriter in uh Nashville, Tennessee, a little town called Nashville, Tennessee. 1:25:17.800 --> 1:25:21.680 And he's a big bear grease man, literally, a big 1:25:21.760 --> 1:25:22.439 bear grease man. 1:25:25.120 --> 1:25:25.960 Could I say something? 1:25:26.360 --> 1:25:29.000 Yeah, go ahead, just yeah, keep talking while Andrew's getting 1:25:29.000 --> 1:25:29.360 set up. 1:25:29.760 --> 1:25:31.880 Patrick the turkeys is next to the road. 1:25:32.640 --> 1:25:33.960 Can you tell me where that's at? 1:25:34.120 --> 1:25:36.639 Yeah, Brent likes those close to the road. 1:25:37.400 --> 1:25:39.000 I'll tell you what. I'll call you up on your 1:25:39.080 --> 1:25:40.720 rotary phone and we'll talk about it. Here. 1:25:40.760 --> 1:25:42.360 You go drop him a rotary. 1:25:42.400 --> 1:25:44.360 He'll send you the GPS coordinates. 1:25:44.560 --> 1:25:45.839 I'll send you the GPS cordinates. 1:25:45.960 --> 1:25:48.400 Just just holler at Sarah say give me Brent's. 1:25:48.880 --> 1:25:50.960 Andrew give us a little background on this song. 1:25:51.360 --> 1:25:54.080 Yeah. So, so this is a song. 1:25:54.479 --> 1:25:56.240 Clay texted me one day and he says, I have 1:25:56.280 --> 1:26:00.519 a song idea, and I was like, what is it? 1:26:00.600 --> 1:26:03.000 And when he told me idea, my instant thought was, 1:26:03.920 --> 1:26:06.880 that is the most Clay Newkem song idea I've ever heard. 1:26:08.360 --> 1:26:12.519 And uh, he gives me a little too much credit. 1:26:12.640 --> 1:26:15.000 He had quite a few lines that he forgot. He 1:26:15.040 --> 1:26:18.880 even wrote, so, uh, we're pretty fifty to fifty on 1:26:19.000 --> 1:26:23.280 this one. But I don't know if there's anything else 1:26:23.320 --> 1:26:24.240 you want to mention about it. 1:26:24.360 --> 1:26:26.200 I mean, we just wrote it. 1:26:26.280 --> 1:26:29.560 It's pretty new, it's it's it's a lighthearted. So I 1:26:29.640 --> 1:26:32.680 told Andrew, I said, anytime I hear a song that 1:26:32.840 --> 1:26:36.360 has Arkansas in it, I just am like, yeah. I 1:26:36.400 --> 1:26:41.200 mean like Tennessee Stud. You remember song Tennessee Stud when 1:26:41.240 --> 1:26:43.240 he came through Arkansas. You know he had to fight 1:26:43.400 --> 1:26:45.160 this girl's dad from Arkansas. 1:26:45.280 --> 1:26:47.560 Then woo heard nor her Paul, I promise. 1:26:47.240 --> 1:26:51.080 You yeah, yeah, or her bro any song other than 1:26:52.640 --> 1:26:56.439 some there's yeah. Anyway, he wrote a song that has 1:26:56.800 --> 1:26:58.759 the word Arkansas in it and the word. 1:26:58.720 --> 1:26:59.439 Mule in it. 1:27:00.400 --> 1:27:03.000 Arkansas Mule, that's the name of the song. 1:27:04.080 --> 1:27:08.960 I said, that's pretty Clay Newcome sounding, and it's kind 1:27:09.000 --> 1:27:14.280 of a cowboy song, right, I mean yeah, I'm not 1:27:14.400 --> 1:27:18.240 a cowboy, but I like cowboys anyway. This is called 1:27:18.320 --> 1:27:20.360 Arkansas Mule, and I've got the lyrics because we just 1:27:20.439 --> 1:27:22.880 wrote this so and it goes like this. 1:27:32.920 --> 1:27:35.360 They said he killed a man in West Fork. 1:27:35.800 --> 1:27:39.680 He had no choice but to run. They'd hanging in 1:27:40.120 --> 1:27:44.240 the gallows for the seiding of the evening sun. He 1:27:44.479 --> 1:27:49.280 wasn't innocent man, but he got framed out of the truth. 1:27:50.040 --> 1:27:52.960 So he threw his saddle bag on the back of 1:27:53.040 --> 1:27:55.160 that Arkansas buckskin mule. 1:27:55.760 --> 1:27:55.960 Right. 1:27:56.560 --> 1:28:01.280 She was tall and strong, lean, long, sturdy, has an iron. 1:28:01.439 --> 1:28:01.639 Two. 1:28:02.520 --> 1:28:06.080 They're inn't a horse alive. They would draw his eye 1:28:06.120 --> 1:28:08.719 from that Arkansas buckskin us. 1:28:08.960 --> 1:28:12.800 Right, go ahead, you playing man Joe on. 1:28:13.439 --> 1:28:17.320 In the heat of nos Ark night, they forded the 1:28:17.520 --> 1:28:23.880 river white Man, and the flowing steered deep under the 1:28:23.960 --> 1:28:28.800 glow of the moon light. Headed east into the bluffs 1:28:29.439 --> 1:28:33.439 where the bear suck gold. They're young. Made her walk 1:28:33.600 --> 1:28:38.000 backwards on the track and then looked it south. She 1:28:38.280 --> 1:28:43.160 was tall and strong, lean along, flashy. Yes, she was cool. 1:28:43.840 --> 1:28:46.880 They'rein't a horse alive that you could draw his eye 1:28:46.920 --> 1:28:49.160 from that Arkansas buckskin mule. 1:28:49.760 --> 1:28:57.320 Right, This would be a great place. 1:28:57.360 --> 1:28:58.439 God Andrew solo. 1:29:00.040 --> 1:29:02.559 That's good, sounds good, y'all like the song. 1:29:13.280 --> 1:29:13.639 All right. 1:29:15.560 --> 1:29:18.439 In the month of May, they were cutting hay on 1:29:18.640 --> 1:29:22.400 the banks of the Fouish to Faith, and they waved 1:29:22.479 --> 1:29:26.439 him down for a bite of chow and to sit 1:29:26.560 --> 1:29:31.639 around flame. And that's when he heard the welcome word 1:29:32.080 --> 1:29:34.320 that his name had been cleared. 1:29:34.520 --> 1:29:35.360 He didn't kill him. 1:29:36.120 --> 1:29:38.759 And then he turned and grinned at his old friend 1:29:38.800 --> 1:29:42.120 and gave her a scratch behind the ear. And she's 1:29:42.360 --> 1:29:46.920 tom Strong leaned along faith to the last of rule. 1:29:47.680 --> 1:29:50.160 They read a horse alive, if I could draw his 1:29:50.320 --> 1:29:56.599 eye from down, Arkansas buckskin, horse alive, that he trade 1:29:56.720 --> 1:30:01.200 or by for that Arkansas bucks can and music all 1:30:01.360 --> 1:30:02.439 ride right. 1:30:06.439 --> 1:30:11.680 Thank you, Thank you, Andrew Hawking Horse. Thanks buddy. That 1:30:11.800 --> 1:30:15.960 was awesome, awesome, awesome, Thank you guys so much.