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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the

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Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter and now your host, Mark Kenyon.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and today in the show, I'm joined by

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Speaker 1: Kip Adams of the National Deer Association to explore the

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Speaker 1: current state of deer and deer hunting across the country

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Speaker 1: and the news trends and issues we need to pay

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Speaker 1: attention to. In all right, welcome to the Wired Hunt Podcast,

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Speaker 1: brought to you by First Light. Today we are beginning,

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Speaker 1: I guess what you can loosely call conservation Month here

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Speaker 1: on the Wired Hunt podcast, starting this week and over

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Speaker 1: the next three four five weeks, maybe I want to

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Speaker 1: explore a series of different ideas and topics where related

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Speaker 1: to how we have this awesome thing we call deer hunting.

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Speaker 1: How it is that we have deer and wild places

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Speaker 1: to chase him, and the good fortune to enjoy this

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Speaker 1: lifestyle that we love so much. I want to, you know,

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Speaker 1: take a little time here in the off season to

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Speaker 1: talk about those things, to talk about how we got here,

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Speaker 1: to talk about what we need to do now to

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Speaker 1: make sure we can keep having these great things. So

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Speaker 1: that's the game plan. It's gonna be interesting. I'm excited

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Speaker 1: about it, and starts today with Kip Adams. Most of

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Speaker 1: you probably know Kip. Kip is the chief Conservation Officer

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Speaker 1: for the National Deer Association and he's a part of

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Speaker 1: an annual project in which the NBA puts together their

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Speaker 1: Deer Report, their White Tail Report they've been doing for

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Speaker 1: years now, in which they break down all sorts of

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Speaker 1: different trends as far as deer harvest, as far as

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Speaker 1: different things going on with regulations, with participation, UH, basically

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Speaker 1: getting a census of what's happening in the world of

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Speaker 1: deer hunting across the country over the past year. So

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Speaker 1: they just released their version of this and today we're

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Speaker 1: gonna take a little bit of time to walk through

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Speaker 1: some of the key findings here. How things are going

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Speaker 1: as far as deer harvest, as far as the deer

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Speaker 1: age structure, as far as you know, different trends related

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Speaker 1: to how we as hunters are doing and how the

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Speaker 1: herd is doing across the country. We get some updates

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Speaker 1: and where things stand with disease. We break down different

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Speaker 1: upcoming legislation that will be important for deer and deer hunters,

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit about you know, kIPS overall feelings

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Speaker 1: on how we are doing in the world of white

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Speaker 1: tails now compared to where we were ten years ago

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Speaker 1: or twenty years ago. We explore where he sees things headed,

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Speaker 1: what's keeping him up at night, what's got him excited,

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Speaker 1: and what are the things that we all as deer

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Speaker 1: hunters on the ground, need to be doing this year

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Speaker 1: to make sure we've got great deer hunting in the future.

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Speaker 1: So this is a pretty quick one that I think

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Speaker 1: is important for all of us to just get a

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Speaker 1: general sense of what's happening, what do I need to

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Speaker 1: pay attention to, and what can I do. That's our

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Speaker 1: game plan for today. That's our mission, I think is

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Speaker 1: deer hunters right. We have to go out there and

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Speaker 1: enjoy this incredible fun activity. We get to harvest deer.

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Speaker 1: We put deer in the freezer and antlers on the wall.

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Speaker 1: But if we're gonna take stuff from the land, we

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Speaker 1: got to give something back. And this is the first

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Speaker 1: step in learning how exactly to do that by making

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Speaker 1: sure we are informed on what the hell is going on.

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Speaker 1: So that's the plan for today. Appreciate you listening, Thanks

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Speaker 1: for being here and i'd say, now, let's just get

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Speaker 1: to chat with Kip here we go. All right, I've

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Speaker 1: got Kip Adams with me here now again on the show. Kip,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for making a return appearance. Absolutely, Mark,

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Speaker 1: always good to talk with you. I feel like you

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Speaker 1: may be one of the very most visited guests I've

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Speaker 1: had on the show over the years. I mean, we've

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Speaker 1: done at least one every year, if not multiple some years,

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Speaker 1: and we're approaching, gosh, approaching not quite there, but almost

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Speaker 1: ten years of the show. So jeez, I appreciate you

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Speaker 1: having patience to keep on coming on here and talking

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Speaker 1: with me. Well, I'm honored, and how I'm glad that

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Speaker 1: I at least have something that's I guess a little

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Speaker 1: interesting to say that you keep invite me back and

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Speaker 1: you always given how many we've done, I guess that

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Speaker 1: that that's starting to date both of us. I guess, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's true. We've we've been around a while, and uh,

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Speaker 1: I don't know how that happened, Like like we were

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Speaker 1: just talking about before we started recording. It's it's crazy

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Speaker 1: how fast stuff goes. I uh, it's kind of bizarre.

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Speaker 1: Looking over the last ten fifteen years, and seeing seeing

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Speaker 1: everything that's happened. But I'm glad we're here still. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: me too. A lot of a lot of good stuff.

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Speaker 1: So and I always enjoyed talking with you, so well,

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Speaker 1: we got good stuff to talk about today. Yeah, I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm excited to dig in here because, as we've done

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Speaker 1: every year, right around this time of year, I wanted

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Speaker 1: to kind of have you help us get a sense of,

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Speaker 1: I guess, a pulse on the white tail nation. You know,

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Speaker 1: how things are going across the country when it comes

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Speaker 1: to white tails, How are we as hunters positioned moving

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Speaker 1: into the future. What are the things we need to

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Speaker 1: be thinking about in the future. You know, you guys

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Speaker 1: at the National Deer Association have done such a good

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Speaker 1: job of um not only educating folks and advocating for folks,

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Speaker 1: but really keeping us up to date on on what's

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Speaker 1: happening and what's important and what we need to be

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Speaker 1: focusing on. So that's kind of what I'm hoping we

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Speaker 1: can do here again, Kip. And you've got the new

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Speaker 1: white Tail Report that you guys put out every year

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Speaker 1: that's out now, right, And I guess what I would

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Speaker 1: be curious to start with is the same question. We

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Speaker 1: actually started with the last year. You probably don't remember this,

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Speaker 1: but um, if you were to take a step back

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Speaker 1: and look at the general state of affairs for white

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Speaker 1: tailed deer and deer hunters across the country right now,

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Speaker 1: and if you could write that from a scale of

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Speaker 1: one to ten, one being we're on a deep pit

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Speaker 1: of a spare and ten being we are flying high

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Speaker 1: times there as good as ever been. Where would you

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Speaker 1: say we where are we coming on that scoreboard? We're

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Speaker 1: we're about an eight and uh, and there's some really

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Speaker 1: positive things mark that that would likely have that a

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Speaker 1: little bit higher, but that that don't c w d

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Speaker 1: that there continues to plague us UH is going to

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Speaker 1: pull us down a little bit. But man, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of positive things going on. So at least a

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Speaker 1: seven for sure, and I think closer to and eight.

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Speaker 1: I like it. Now. You talked about the fact that

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Speaker 1: you and I are dating ourselves, and we've been around

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Speaker 1: for quite a while doing this. How would you how

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Speaker 1: would you say we sit compared to let's say, ten

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Speaker 1: years ago, when you and I were having conversations back

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Speaker 1: when I was still in my old day job, sitting

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Speaker 1: in the office all day Um, how would you say

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Speaker 1: things stand now so versus the majority of things in

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Speaker 1: the dear world today are far better than they were

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Speaker 1: a decade ago, um, c w D being the one

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Speaker 1: big exception to that. But overall we have we have

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Speaker 1: some really healthy deer hurts from an age structure standpoint,

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Speaker 1: you know, we have some some great harvest from both

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Speaker 1: of the buck and the a On the side, we

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Speaker 1: have more habitat weren't going on than ever before. We

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Speaker 1: have more hunters that are engaged than ever before. So

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Speaker 1: most of what's going on in the deer world is

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Speaker 1: really really good and continues to improve decade over decade.

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Speaker 1: That that whole c w D thing is pulling us

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Speaker 1: back some and I'm sure we'll address that at some

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Speaker 1: point here. But other than that, Uh, yeah, we we've

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Speaker 1: moved forward in the past decade. And that's a testament

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Speaker 1: to America's deer hunters and in our state will life agencies.

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Speaker 1: So then let's look the other direction. If you were

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Speaker 1: to read the tea leaves and look, you know, we

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Speaker 1: know what's happened over the last ten years. We know

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Speaker 1: where we are right now. UM. Knowing the things that

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Speaker 1: you know in the various conservation legislation late legis relative

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Speaker 1: issues you're part of and seeing the trajectory of our

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Speaker 1: culture and habitat and wildlife populations, how good do you

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Speaker 1: feel about ten years from now? So how do you

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Speaker 1: think things are gonna look in I think that we're

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Speaker 1: going to be way better relative to the disease game

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Speaker 1: than we are today. Um. I think there's some federal legislation,

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Speaker 1: UH that we've been working with that's going to provide

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Speaker 1: a bunch of relief for state wilife agencies to help

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Speaker 1: provide more funds to battle c w D. UM that

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Speaker 1: the trend relative to people wanting to enhance habitat for

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Speaker 1: dear another wildlife continues to increase. So I think that's

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Speaker 1: going to play out very well for us. And of

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Speaker 1: course there's so much good research going on around the

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Speaker 1: country right now about deer that uh it's positioning state

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Speaker 1: wildlife agencies very well that to have the tools that

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Speaker 1: they need to continue to implement wise hunting seasons and

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Speaker 1: enhance health of deer hurts. So M I think that

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Speaker 1: we are We're poised, you know, for the next decade UM,

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Speaker 1: partly because of hunter engagement, but also partly because of

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Speaker 1: programs mark that are looking at and increasing the knowledge

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Speaker 1: around the value of deer um. This year's Southeast Your

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Speaker 1: Study group is a perfect example. You know, we're hosting

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Speaker 1: this and the theme is the value of deer and

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Speaker 1: deer hunting to the American public um. Only about four

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Speaker 1: percent of the US population buy the hunting license. And

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Speaker 1: what we see today is that while hunters fund the

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Speaker 1: lion's share of wildlife management and all of our programs,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's going to take more than just hunters

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Speaker 1: to continue to keep wildlife healthy. UM. So as we

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Speaker 1: start showing more of the impacts and in the value

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Speaker 1: of deer and deer hunters to all society at large.

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Speaker 1: And you have done a great job of this, you know,

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Speaker 1: with your work and just making people realize how important

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Speaker 1: deer are. As that continues to grow, I think it

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Speaker 1: just paints a better picture for the future of dear,

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Speaker 1: dear management and then a ball the waller species a

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Speaker 1: dear impact. So so I see the next ten years

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Speaker 1: as an exciting time for for managers and sportsmen and women,

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Speaker 1: and I'm looking forward to it. I'm glad to hear it.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear that that that you're feeling good

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Speaker 1: about where we're headed. Um I can see a lot

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Speaker 1: of those same things, and that's that's exciting. That's that's

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Speaker 1: I remember. I don't know what year this was, maybe

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Speaker 1: two thousand and thirteen, so almost ten years ago, twous

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Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen. Somewhere around the twelve thirteen fourteen, when we

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Speaker 1: had a little bit of a scare I felt within

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Speaker 1: the hunting community. You know, everyone started seeing herds dropping

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Speaker 1: across some states with e h D really popping up,

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Speaker 1: and there was you know, more concerns of course around

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Speaker 1: c w D and hunter numbers were plummeting, and there

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Speaker 1: was this this period of oh have we lost the

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Speaker 1: good old days? And it seems like we recovered from

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Speaker 1: that pretty nicely. I think if if you had been

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Speaker 1: if we've been talking that year when we all got

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Speaker 1: together and the National Deer Alliance was started, you know,

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Speaker 1: right around that time, given some of those concerns, I

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Speaker 1: think if you told us, well, it's gonna be an

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Speaker 1: eight and we're gonna be feeling pretty good about two,

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Speaker 1: I think both of us would have been pretty pleased

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Speaker 1: to see, you know, where things have gone since that period.

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Speaker 1: Um ah am, I right on that do have. We

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Speaker 1: made a strong, a strong stride there. Yeah, you are

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Speaker 1: spot on, you know that two thousand fifteen, two sixteen,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of that era, we had several variables

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Speaker 1: come together to really kick deer in the seat of

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Speaker 1: the pants. So we had terrible hemorrhagic disease outbreaks here,

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Speaker 1: but we had to one hundred year disease outbreaks within

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Speaker 1: a five year period. That's when all that land come

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Speaker 1: out of CRP and you know, in the Midwest lost

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Speaker 1: like seven million acres of wildlife habitat. We had increasing

219
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Speaker 1: predator popular labbertain areas and plummeting falling the cooper rates.

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Speaker 1: So there was a lot went out at that time

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Speaker 1: that we're really you know, hitting dear hard and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, true to their form, you know, deer or

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Speaker 1: one of the most resilient species there are. And so

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Speaker 1: with some good manager programs, with hunters stepping in, those

225
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Speaker 1: deer herbs have have really recovered since then. And uh, heck,

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Speaker 1: looking season, Uh we shot over six million white tails,

227
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Speaker 1: which which is you know, the most that we have

228
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Speaker 1: shot in a long long time. So yeah, things are

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Speaker 1: far far brighter today than they were back somewhere around

230
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Speaker 1: So what do you think? What do you think the

231
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Speaker 1: what do you think? The headline then is if we're

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Speaker 1: we're coming off of this banner year in what's what

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Speaker 1: stands out to you is you've gone through, You've scanned

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Speaker 1: through the numbers, You've interviewed and talked to various people

235
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Speaker 1: across wildlife agencies. You guys have compiled the data, You've

236
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Speaker 1: put together two white tail report. What stands out for

237
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Speaker 1: you as as the big takeaways as we look back

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Speaker 1: on this past year or two. I think that this

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Speaker 1: past hunting season one that we just came out of

240
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Speaker 1: and uh, and and there are some states that literally

241
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Speaker 1: are just ending the season right now. So I think

242
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Speaker 1: the harvest is going to be down, you know, once

243
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Speaker 1: all those numbers are in. This past year, UM, much

244
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Speaker 1: of the US had unseasonably warm temperatures through you know,

245
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Speaker 1: much the firearms seasons, you know, well into December, and UH,

246
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Speaker 1: if you have the early reports that you know, the

247
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Speaker 1: agencies that can compili dated very quickly or any um

248
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Speaker 1: product of what all the states are going to see

249
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Speaker 1: a lot of states were down a little bit, but

250
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Speaker 1: we have to remember the reporting that they were down,

251
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Speaker 1: you know from the twenty into te season of which

252
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Speaker 1: was a historic season where you know, we shot all

253
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Speaker 1: those dewers. So what that means is, as hunters, we

254
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Speaker 1: tend to look at the headlines and allow that to

255
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Speaker 1: dictate whether last season was good or not. Well, we're

256
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Speaker 1: a historically high numbers going into this past season. So

257
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Speaker 1: even if it was down it and I think it

258
00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:05,880
Speaker 1: probably will have a show to be down. Um, it

259
00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:08,640
Speaker 1: was still a really high harvest this last year. So

260
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Speaker 1: that means is we have a lot of deer in

261
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Speaker 1: the landscape. There are tremendous opportunities for for hunters across

262
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Speaker 1: the United States to go afield, you know, and and

263
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Speaker 1: fill the freezers with deer. So so that's good and

264
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Speaker 1: uh so I'm gonna have to remind myself but even

265
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Speaker 1: though maybe we didn't see quite as many dear this

266
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Speaker 1: past year as the year before, I think that was

267
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Speaker 1: a lot more related to just, uh, you know those

268
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Speaker 1: weather patterns, you know, those uncommon weather patterns, more so

269
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Speaker 1: than actual deer numbers. Yeah, you know it. We're so

270
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Speaker 1: it's so human to get wrapped up in like what

271
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Speaker 1: have you done for me lately? And numbers like what's

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Speaker 1: the population number or what's the harvest number of this

273
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Speaker 1: past year, and then we have a tendency to maybe

274
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Speaker 1: overact sometimes to that probably just like you know, we

275
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Speaker 1: might overreact about, well, how do my stock portfolio perform

276
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Speaker 1: over the last quarter, and if it's down six percent

277
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Speaker 1: this quarter or this year, you know, it's a hannock.

278
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Speaker 1: But if you look at the long term trajectory of

279
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Speaker 1: the tao or whatever over the course of ten years,

280
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Speaker 1: if you can weather the storms every once in a while,

281
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Speaker 1: it's still going to keep on going. And I imagine

282
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Speaker 1: oftentimes that's what we see with wildlife populations, is that

283
00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:17,400
Speaker 1: they will be these little blips, but general trends are

284
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Speaker 1: maybe more important. But I'm curious, you know, if if

285
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Speaker 1: we well, maybe that's not I'm trying to what I'm

286
00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:30,040
Speaker 1: trying to ask here, Kip, is is our harvest? So

287
00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:33,160
Speaker 1: total harvest number for a state or for the country,

288
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Speaker 1: is that a good way to measure the quality of

289
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Speaker 1: our dear herd? Or is there a better way that

290
00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:44,600
Speaker 1: we can look at either are states or nation or

291
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Speaker 1: region and determined like, hey, is this in a good

292
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Speaker 1: place or not? Because it's easy to say more is better,

293
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Speaker 1: but I don't know if that's necessarily case, is something

294
00:15:53,200 --> 00:15:57,200
Speaker 1: like age, structure or or something else a better comparometer

295
00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:01,920
Speaker 1: of how good things are. M it really is. And

296
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Speaker 1: of course we want to look at what the total

297
00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:06,320
Speaker 1: harvest is, and that's an important number to look at.

298
00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:09,720
Speaker 1: Does not tell the whole story at all. As you

299
00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:12,920
Speaker 1: alluded to, Um, there are some states that are trying

300
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Speaker 1: to dramatically reduce deer herds. You know, they just have

301
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:18,600
Speaker 1: deer hers are way higher than what the habitats can support,

302
00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:22,760
Speaker 1: so really high buck harvest there. You know. While some

303
00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:24,560
Speaker 1: hunters will look at that say, man, this is great,

304
00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:27,920
Speaker 1: the reality of it is that's not creating a healthy situation,

305
00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,360
Speaker 1: you know, because those deer herbs continue to climb, you know,

306
00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:33,960
Speaker 1: higher than you know than they should be, you know.

307
00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:36,240
Speaker 1: So what's what's the better way to look at is sure,

308
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Speaker 1: let's look the whole number. That's fun, but let's dig

309
00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:41,440
Speaker 1: into it a little bit and say, okay, let's break

310
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Speaker 1: that total harvest down by ant limd bucks and antalysts deer.

311
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Speaker 1: Let's make sure that those are balanced. Most states need

312
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Speaker 1: to harvest more antalyst dear than bucks, you know, otherwise

313
00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:57,480
Speaker 1: deer herds grow too abundant. So there are certain exceptions

314
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Speaker 1: to that deer you know in nearer northern New Englan

315
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Speaker 1: and some of the deer in the western US kind

316
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Speaker 1: of at the fringes of good white tail habitat. But

317
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Speaker 1: for the most part, we do be shooting more those

318
00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:11,640
Speaker 1: that we do bucks each year. So take a look

319
00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:13,600
Speaker 1: at that total harvest. But then let's break it down

320
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Speaker 1: into the sex ratio of the harvest. That alone can

321
00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:18,919
Speaker 1: can give us some good information on health of that

322
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Speaker 1: dear hurt. And then if we can add in the

323
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Speaker 1: age structure on both sides of that, that really gives

324
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Speaker 1: us a good feel for what's going on. And unfortunately,

325
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Speaker 1: most state walife agencies you do, estimate the age structure

326
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Speaker 1: of both the bucks and the analyst side, so that

327
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Speaker 1: gives us a good thing to be able to measure

328
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Speaker 1: year after year after year. And it's the trends in

329
00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:41,800
Speaker 1: those that are most important. You know, that lets us

330
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Speaker 1: know are we getting to where we need to be

331
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Speaker 1: or not? And if so, man, that's great, and if not, hey,

332
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Speaker 1: then let's correct that. Let's make some changes and then

333
00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:52,160
Speaker 1: they will allow hunters, you know, to help us meet

334
00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:54,159
Speaker 1: that plan and get us to where we need to

335
00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:57,080
Speaker 1: be so that we do have very healthy dear hurts. Yeah,

336
00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:00,359
Speaker 1: and all of those trends seem to be pointing in

337
00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:03,879
Speaker 1: the right direction as of this last report. Right. Um.

338
00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:05,560
Speaker 1: I know one of the things we talked about last

339
00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:09,679
Speaker 1: year was that the doe harvest was down from in

340
00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:11,719
Speaker 1: that last year we discussed that the doll harvest was down,

341
00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:14,040
Speaker 1: but it seems like that rebounded back above buck harvest

342
00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:18,080
Speaker 1: this year, right, So that's a good thing, absolutely, And yeah,

343
00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:20,560
Speaker 1: that the doe harvest had been down for several years

344
00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:23,960
Speaker 1: in a row, and that was very concerned, extremely concerning,

345
00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:27,800
Speaker 1: and but yeah, the most recent one it has rebounded

346
00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:30,880
Speaker 1: and for the first time in the past three hunting seasons,

347
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,720
Speaker 1: we have now shot more analysts deer than than amil

348
00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:36,320
Speaker 1: and bucks again, which is very good. That is a

349
00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:39,600
Speaker 1: good situation for us. So, uh, yeah, there was there

350
00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:41,520
Speaker 1: was a lot of very positive things that came out

351
00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:45,240
Speaker 1: of that harvest. So numbers were good, the sex ratio

352
00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:47,960
Speaker 1: of the harvest was good, and age structure for both

353
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:50,879
Speaker 1: bucks and does was good. So that that lets us

354
00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:52,639
Speaker 1: know that in many places, you know, we're in a

355
00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:56,080
Speaker 1: really good spot relative to those gears. Yeah, so what

356
00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:59,000
Speaker 1: do you think about the whole buck age structure story.

357
00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:02,080
Speaker 1: I remember handful of years ago we talked about how

358
00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,199
Speaker 1: yearling buck harvest was at the lowest rate ever. It

359
00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:07,720
Speaker 1: was something like thirty two percent or thirty three or

360
00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:11,040
Speaker 1: somewhere in that ballpark. And you remember you thinking that

361
00:19:11,119 --> 00:19:13,639
Speaker 1: we likely we're going to plateau there. Let's be stuck

362
00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:16,800
Speaker 1: around like that low thirties, give or take um. But

363
00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:19,880
Speaker 1: now we're several years past that and it keeps dropping.

364
00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:23,479
Speaker 1: What do you think about that? I think that I

365
00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:27,439
Speaker 1: totally blew that one when we was gotten before. I

366
00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:31,879
Speaker 1: I vividly remember, because we've been monitoring this since, you know,

367
00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:34,560
Speaker 1: when it was over six of all the buckshot rolling

368
00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:36,359
Speaker 1: in one and a half, and I've watched it just

369
00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:38,800
Speaker 1: steadily det dropped and dropped and dropped, and man, what

370
00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:42,480
Speaker 1: it hit about thirty I remember thinking, you know, it's

371
00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:44,600
Speaker 1: it's just it just can't go any lower. You know,

372
00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,080
Speaker 1: hunters just won't let it go lower. You know, they're

373
00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:49,439
Speaker 1: going to continue to take some yearling bucks. And you know,

374
00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:52,240
Speaker 1: youth hunters, of course, all had the ability to do that.

375
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:56,399
Speaker 1: So from from just a hunting culture standpoint, I really

376
00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:58,800
Speaker 1: didn't think that would go below that. And I remember

377
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,639
Speaker 1: telling you that and all others as well, and and

378
00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,080
Speaker 1: it turned out I was wrong, It was very wrong.

379
00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:06,960
Speaker 1: It has continued to drop to where it is now,

380
00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:11,800
Speaker 1: to the lowest ever. Uh So, essentially, of all the

381
00:20:12,119 --> 00:20:15,200
Speaker 1: antlered bucks that we shoot today, you know, three out

382
00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:16,840
Speaker 1: of four of them or at least two and a

383
00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:19,720
Speaker 1: half years old, only one is a year land And

384
00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:22,240
Speaker 1: that is an incredible testament, you know, to to what

385
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:25,440
Speaker 1: hunters have done to really move dear into older age

386
00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:28,560
Speaker 1: classes and you know, provide a much more natural age

387
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 1: structure for bucks. And uh man, you know, you don't

388
00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:33,560
Speaker 1: have to be in South Texas or the Golden Triangle

389
00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:37,280
Speaker 1: of Illinois anymore to have the opportunity to hunt mature bucks.

390
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,800
Speaker 1: You literally can do that in every single state in

391
00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:45,919
Speaker 1: the country that has white tails today. How satisfying is

392
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:48,719
Speaker 1: that for you? Kip as some who who has been

393
00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:52,400
Speaker 1: a part of that transformation over the last you know,

394
00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,320
Speaker 1: a couple of decades really and everything that the Quality

395
00:20:55,359 --> 00:20:59,119
Speaker 1: Deer Management Association had been sharing and educating with people

396
00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:01,760
Speaker 1: for so many years. I mean, so much of this

397
00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:04,600
Speaker 1: can can be pointed as as you guys having a

398
00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:07,399
Speaker 1: direct impact on How how does that make you feel

399
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:09,919
Speaker 1: to see what a night and day change has happened.

400
00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:15,320
Speaker 1: Oh it's extremely gratifying. Um, mostly because you know, I'm

401
00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:17,960
Speaker 1: I'm first and foremost of deer hunter, you know, and

402
00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:21,040
Speaker 1: I love to reap the benefits of that. And and

403
00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:23,760
Speaker 1: it's so nice as I travel the country and and

404
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:25,680
Speaker 1: work with hunters, you know that that they get to

405
00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:29,000
Speaker 1: see that as well. And I can vividly remember back

406
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:31,120
Speaker 1: in the early two thousand's, you know, when I would

407
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:34,520
Speaker 1: give talks about q DM and you know, and people

408
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:36,040
Speaker 1: it's wherever I was, I say, was in the No,

409
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:38,359
Speaker 1: it was in Michigan, and people say, oh, that works

410
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:40,440
Speaker 1: in the South, it doesn't work up here. I said, well, no,

411
00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:42,520
Speaker 1: that's not true. You know, it can work here. I

412
00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:44,359
Speaker 1: just need to you know, apply it to you know,

413
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:46,919
Speaker 1: the state's you know, variables and you know. And then

414
00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:48,720
Speaker 1: i'd go to two Maine and they say, how it

415
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:50,399
Speaker 1: works in the stuff, it doesn't work in New England.

416
00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:54,720
Speaker 1: That's not true. And I vividly remember I was in Nacodoches, Texas,

417
00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:58,600
Speaker 1: and UH speaking at Stephen F. Austin UH State University,

418
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:01,919
Speaker 1: and UH talking about QTM. You know, QTM was bored

419
00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:05,399
Speaker 1: and and I davidly remember a guy the artist raised

420
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:08,080
Speaker 1: his hand and I said, yes, sir, and he said, yeah,

421
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,280
Speaker 1: you know, you Yankee, what you're talking about that might

422
00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:12,439
Speaker 1: work up north and that doesn't work down here. And

423
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,120
Speaker 1: I stopped and I said, I have absolutely heard it all.

424
00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:18,199
Speaker 1: Now I have traveled this country. It had people in

425
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:21,280
Speaker 1: the north Tella, you know, but now this is the

426
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:25,000
Speaker 1: birthplace of the whole qt m ol Brothers, the wildlife

427
00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:28,480
Speaker 1: wildist in Florida. You know who who is responsible for

428
00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:30,560
Speaker 1: for starting this And now you're telling me it doesn't

429
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,119
Speaker 1: work here. So you know what it was. It just,

430
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:35,480
Speaker 1: you know, hunters just didn't want to change the way

431
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,440
Speaker 1: that they their mindset was about hunting or their approach

432
00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:39,960
Speaker 1: to what they were going to shoot or not. And

433
00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:43,000
Speaker 1: you know, fast forward twenty years and you know, if

434
00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:44,720
Speaker 1: you look at kids that are hunting today, or you

435
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 1: can look at adults, you know through our field of

436
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:49,600
Speaker 1: fork programs, you know, adults who are starting now. You know,

437
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:51,840
Speaker 1: they can't even imagine, you know, when we talked to

438
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,480
Speaker 1: him about what it was like and thirty years ago

439
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,119
Speaker 1: that that seems like, you know, we're talking about you know,

440
00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,760
Speaker 1: aliens or something, because it's so different than the standing

441
00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:04,240
Speaker 1: crop of deer that we have today. So yeah, it's gratifying,

442
00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:07,000
Speaker 1: and it's mostly gratified just because I love seeing people

443
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:09,399
Speaker 1: you'll have success in the woods and uh, you know,

444
00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:12,760
Speaker 1: and just be so excited about the opportunities they have. Yeah.

445
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:16,439
Speaker 1: So so twenty years ago, obviously these numbers looked so different,

446
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 1: and now over the last couple of decades, we've seen

447
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:21,760
Speaker 1: this massive shift to now where like he was described,

448
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,600
Speaker 1: only one out of every four bucks harvested across the

449
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:27,480
Speaker 1: country on averages a year and a half old, the

450
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:29,720
Speaker 1: rate of three and a half plus old bucks is

451
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,679
Speaker 1: higher than ever as well. So in a lot of ways,

452
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 1: you know, I think people might be able to say, hey,

453
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:38,840
Speaker 1: you know, implementing some form of quality deer management or

454
00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:42,320
Speaker 1: improving the age structure of deer across America mission accomplished.

455
00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:45,600
Speaker 1: We've we've really improved it to a degree. Um So

456
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 1: when you guys at the n d A, you know,

457
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 1: obviously a couple of years ago, the q d m

458
00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:53,720
Speaker 1: A and the NDA merged. You guys start rethinking some

459
00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:56,399
Speaker 1: of your goals and issues and things you want to

460
00:23:56,440 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 1: focus on. And now you've been doing that for a

461
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 1: couple of years now. When you look forward. Now, Kip,

462
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:03,959
Speaker 1: and you're looking at Okay, what's the next big mission?

463
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:07,919
Speaker 1: I know you have a handful of different priorities, but

464
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,399
Speaker 1: for you personally, Kip, what do you see as is

465
00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:16,240
Speaker 1: that most important or most um most interesting moving forward?

466
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:19,000
Speaker 1: If if we can say mission accomplished on improving AID

467
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:22,400
Speaker 1: structure and all the trickle down positive impacts of that,

468
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:25,919
Speaker 1: what's the next big mission that you hope that you

469
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:29,600
Speaker 1: guys and us as a community can start really driving forward?

470
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:34,560
Speaker 1: Is there something there is? And the two that are

471
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:36,920
Speaker 1: right at the tip of my fingers that I enjoy

472
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 1: working on. A one is making the general population uh

473
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:46,400
Speaker 1: knowledgeable about the value of deer and then to ensuring

474
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:50,760
Speaker 1: that we have a sustainable hunter based coming forward, you know,

475
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 1: through our our three efforts in our field of fork programs.

476
00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:57,080
Speaker 1: So you know, as as hunter numbers continue to decline,

477
00:24:57,400 --> 00:24:59,360
Speaker 1: you know, we just have a few families that are

478
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:02,040
Speaker 1: bringing hunt or's into the fold. So like fortunately I

479
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 1: do and you do, but you know, you and I

480
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,160
Speaker 1: are the you know, becoming the exceptions. So I get

481
00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 1: very excited about developing programs and working to ensure that

482
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:13,199
Speaker 1: people that didn't grow up the way you did or

483
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,359
Speaker 1: I did have an ability to be able to go hunting,

484
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:20,560
Speaker 1: you know, uh later in life. And then ensuring that

485
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 1: folks understand just how important deer are to uh, you know,

486
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 1: to America. You know, not just the hunters or but

487
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,440
Speaker 1: truly how we are to America. Uh. Those are two

488
00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:33,960
Speaker 1: big initiatives that we have and those thanks getting me

489
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:48,680
Speaker 1: really excited to start work each day. Let's talk a

490
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 1: little more about that whole idea of the value of Dear.

491
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 1: You mentioned that this is going to be one of

492
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 1: the big priorities that the upcoming Dear study group. UM,

493
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:01,679
Speaker 1: What's what's the angle with that? Or how how do

494
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 1: you see us as a community being able to do

495
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 1: that better? Or how as an organization is the NDA

496
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:11,880
Speaker 1: plan to do that? UM? I guess I'm curious number one,

497
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:13,520
Speaker 1: if you want to elaborate just a little bit more

498
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:17,919
Speaker 1: about why that's important. Um. And then secondly, how do

499
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,960
Speaker 1: you think we can do that? I think it's important

500
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,800
Speaker 1: because you know, wildlife has such uh an impact on

501
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:28,960
Speaker 1: all Americans. You know, whether you live in rural America

502
00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:33,000
Speaker 1: or urban America, you know, wildlife has an impact, and

503
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:36,040
Speaker 1: for the most part, it's a very positive impact. You know,

504
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 1: maybe somebody you know loves watching birds at a feeder.

505
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:40,159
Speaker 1: Maybe they're not a hunter, you know, but they like

506
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:44,440
Speaker 1: that where they enjoy you know, seeing wildlife, just wildlife viewing. Well,

507
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:48,800
Speaker 1: so much of that painful by deer hunters. Uh. We

508
00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:51,600
Speaker 1: know that about of all hunters in the United States

509
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: hunt deer, and most of all of our wildlife manager

510
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:57,880
Speaker 1: programs are paid for by hunters and in large part

511
00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 1: of deer hunters. So that's in orton. And as we

512
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: lose hunters, we lose funding for all of that wildlife.

513
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:08,520
Speaker 1: So you know, whether you care about your mobile links

514
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,320
Speaker 1: or you know, Kirkland's wardlers or spotted salamanders or whatever

515
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:15,920
Speaker 1: it is, it's important to understand that they have direct

516
00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:20,600
Speaker 1: tie to like tail deer. And so it's we're reaching

517
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,800
Speaker 1: a critical mass in the United States where we need

518
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:27,359
Speaker 1: more people to understand the value of those deer to

519
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:32,040
Speaker 1: ensure that we have sound funding programs moving forward. And

520
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:34,920
Speaker 1: and this is especially true as c w D continues

521
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 1: to spread. You know, given the film, we have ten

522
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 1: to eleven million deer hunters in the US. What we

523
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:43,160
Speaker 1: are not going to solve c w D with ten

524
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 1: to eleven million people. However, there's far larger base of

525
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:49,359
Speaker 1: people out there who who are dear enthusiasts, you know,

526
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:52,040
Speaker 1: the like the c deer that like the photograph deer.

527
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:56,359
Speaker 1: So as more of a base understands the value that

528
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 1: deer have, um, that is how we will defeat things

529
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:05,200
Speaker 1: like CPD, like the funding issues relative to habitat management

530
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:08,760
Speaker 1: and hunter access, all of the stuff is intertwined. And uh,

531
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 1: at one point there was enough Americans that hunted that

532
00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: the hunter base is large enough to handle all these issues.

533
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:18,479
Speaker 1: And that's not the case anymore, and and it actually

534
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:20,919
Speaker 1: hasn't been the case for a while. So the timing

535
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:24,480
Speaker 1: is is extremely important right now that we start showing,

536
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,800
Speaker 1: you know, just how valuable deer are two Americans, so

537
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:31,680
Speaker 1: that more people can then basically step up and help

538
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 1: in this battle, whether it's disease, habitat loss, or anything else.

539
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 1: So so that that's why we see this as being

540
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 1: so critical and why we made it the theme of

541
00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:43,080
Speaker 1: the Dear Study Group meeting next week, and and why

542
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 1: we'll put so much emphasis into this. Does does the

543
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:51,080
Speaker 1: value of deer hunting factor into that too? Is that

544
00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 1: part of what we need to help communicate as well.

545
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 1: It's not just the deer that are valuable, but also

546
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:58,320
Speaker 1: our engagement with them and on our side of things,

547
00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:01,000
Speaker 1: is that part of the store we need to tell Oh,

548
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:04,520
Speaker 1: it absolutely is. And uh, you know, I have some

549
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:08,000
Speaker 1: friends you know that that love butterflies, say, um, and

550
00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 1: I think that's cool. I like butterflies too, But none

551
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:14,000
Speaker 1: of my friends will like butterflies, plant any type of

552
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 1: food plot specifically form or at least nothing that's larger,

553
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:19,000
Speaker 1: you know than you know, a ten square foot area

554
00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:23,000
Speaker 1: around their house. You know, those people are managing old fields.

555
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 1: None of them were managing and force at areas. None

556
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: of them are pumping money into our wildlife program by

557
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:32,440
Speaker 1: buying guns or you know, other hunting equipment. So this

558
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 1: is not a knock on you know, those users at all.

559
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 1: You know, God bless them. I'm glad they like that.

560
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:40,320
Speaker 1: But hunters are the ones, you know, to do the

561
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 1: majority of this conservation work to ensure that we have

562
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 1: the funding available and that we have these management programs.

563
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 1: So yeah, so hunters play a huge role in this um.

564
00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 1: You know, most people would realize that, you know that

565
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 1: deer hunting. Just in the Southeastern United States, deer hunters

566
00:29:56,360 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: there spent over a billion dollars a year on laying

567
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,320
Speaker 1: at least to deer hunt. That is a tremendous amount

568
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:06,560
Speaker 1: of money that's pumped into those local economies. You know,

569
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 1: that fund a whole bunch of other things. You know,

570
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 1: now to those people also turkey hunt and scorel hunt

571
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 1: and duck hut. Yeah, probably, but that is those are

572
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: moneys that can be identified specifically for deer hunting. So yeah,

573
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 1: I mean, hunters have provided this free public service to

574
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 1: society for so long, and we're glad to do it.

575
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,360
Speaker 1: You know, it's time that they get recognized for some

576
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: of the refforts like that, particularly at a time where hey,

577
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 1: you know, we need a larger recognition of those efforts

578
00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:37,960
Speaker 1: and some more help in many ways to make sure

579
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 1: that we can continue to fund O wildlife management programs

580
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 1: adequately as we go into the future. Yeah. So then

581
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 1: what's what's our role in that moving forward? People like

582
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 1: you and me as hunters, or or maybe the organizations

583
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: like the NDA, what all can we do collectively to

584
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: try to start, you know, making sure that narrative is

585
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:01,719
Speaker 1: understood in showcase in the value of deer and deer hunters.

586
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 1: Is there is there any kind of accent items that

587
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 1: we can really rally aroun Yeah, there are. And you

588
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 1: know it's about taking the information you know, and being

589
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:12,959
Speaker 1: able to share it with with with our friends, you know,

590
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:16,560
Speaker 1: and others you know that that we know and hunters

591
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:18,840
Speaker 1: are you know, they like to share good information. But

592
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,000
Speaker 1: in many cases, you know, it's hard, but we don't

593
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:23,360
Speaker 1: have good white sized pieces, you know, for them to

594
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 1: be able to share. You know. Now you obviously you're

595
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 1: grapple about this and you can you know, describe this

596
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:33,040
Speaker 1: to people. We need to provide that information for all

597
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:36,480
Speaker 1: hunters to easily be able to share where the neighbors,

598
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 1: others at schools and sports teams and that type of thing.

599
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 1: And uh. And that's one of the reasons why we

600
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:47,600
Speaker 1: have helped start the Southeast Dear Partnership, which is which

601
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 1: is a collection of state and federal agencies NGOs like

602
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 1: n d A and some private entities that is looking

603
00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:59,720
Speaker 1: at this project too and um promote the value of

604
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:02,920
Speaker 1: your hunting in the Southeastern US. UM. This is actually

605
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 1: what my presentation at the Southeastern Study Group is going

606
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:09,440
Speaker 1: to be talking about this project. And essentially this has

607
00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: three phases. One is to as a research phase where

608
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 1: collect all the information that's possibly out there on the

609
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:20,640
Speaker 1: value of deer, the value of deer hunting, economic data,

610
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 1: habitat data, et cetera. Let's get this all in one place,

611
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: so we have and actually we are just finishing phase

612
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 1: one of that right now. Phase two then is develop

613
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:33,080
Speaker 1: a PR and a marketing campaign to be able to

614
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:35,959
Speaker 1: share all this information, and that's what we are just

615
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 1: moving into that, and then phase three will be all right,

616
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: let's actually implement that so that we can share this

617
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 1: information with the general public, you know, not just hunters,

618
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 1: and we're not trying to convince you know, people who

619
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: don't hunt to hunt. We just want them to understand

620
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,920
Speaker 1: the value of deer and hunters what they provide to

621
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 1: all of our WALLEFE programs. So that is the action

622
00:32:56,320 --> 00:33:00,080
Speaker 1: item is, Hey, let's let's create these PR campaigns so

623
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:04,120
Speaker 1: that we had this information care and then let's broadcast

624
00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 1: it as widely as possible. So you know, whether you know,

625
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:09,680
Speaker 1: if you're a non hunter or maybe you know you

626
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:11,360
Speaker 1: like to look at merds or you like to look

627
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:14,239
Speaker 1: at wildlife or whatever, let's at least understand how this

628
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:16,880
Speaker 1: is all tied, you know, or the role that deer

629
00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: habit this and so, so that's pretty cool, and uh,

630
00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 1: you know we're an exciting place of that right now.

631
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:24,479
Speaker 1: Over the next twelve months, you're going to see a

632
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,760
Speaker 1: lot of these public press releases and you know, this

633
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:33,400
Speaker 1: whole PR campaign start to unroll. Very cool. So you know,

634
00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:36,600
Speaker 1: the second priority you mentioned, the second really important thing

635
00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 1: was was participation, Right, So making sure people understand how

636
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:44,480
Speaker 1: valuable dear and deer hunting is important for that massive

637
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 1: percentage of the UM of our country that doesn't hunt.

638
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: But then also we want to try to increase the

639
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 1: number of actual participants UM. And you know that's been

640
00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:56,280
Speaker 1: something that that we've all talked about for a lot

641
00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: of years now, UM, and I think most everyone knows

642
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 1: was the basic story, like why it's important for us

643
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,640
Speaker 1: to continue passing while on the hunting heritage and keeping

644
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:09,600
Speaker 1: folks engaged and making sure that our numbers don't plummet

645
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:14,520
Speaker 1: and that our our voice doesn't disappear. UM. But over

646
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:16,480
Speaker 1: the last i don't know, the last year or so,

647
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:23,040
Speaker 1: there have been a a few somewhat high profile UM

648
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 1: rebuttals to that story, some of them within my own

649
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:32,520
Speaker 1: company at mediator UM, people kind of saying, hey, it's

650
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:35,399
Speaker 1: actually getting too crowded. There's too many people out there.

651
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:38,000
Speaker 1: Why are we trying to get more hunters out there?

652
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 1: Whenever where you go, there's people bumping into people, COVID

653
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:45,360
Speaker 1: scent and if everybody the outdoors, it's a mess. Uh,

654
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 1: we're actually making things worse. Um what's your take on

655
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:54,040
Speaker 1: those kind of contrarian opinions that I think are definitely

656
00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 1: the minority, But but it's a it's a thing we're

657
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:00,440
Speaker 1: starting to hear from people now, Um, what see your

658
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:05,359
Speaker 1: take on that? Yeah? Um, um, I know exactly what

659
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,600
Speaker 1: you're you're saying there. And I've lived that information, you know,

660
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 1: from media on this podcasts and and heard those people

661
00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:14,719
Speaker 1: debate that and and and you know, I'm I understand

662
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:17,840
Speaker 1: that the crowding issue. Um as hunters are like, we

663
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:20,400
Speaker 1: don't want to be crowded when we're hunting, you know.

664
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:22,320
Speaker 1: Week part of the reason we go, you know, is

665
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:24,600
Speaker 1: to get away from crowds, you know, and and to

666
00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:26,839
Speaker 1: be with nature, to be a field and you know,

667
00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:29,239
Speaker 1: so it's quiet and serene. So you know, we don't

668
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 1: want to have a bunch of other hunters around us.

669
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:33,520
Speaker 1: And and I'm the same way, you know, I never

670
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:35,399
Speaker 1: go out and thinking, Man, I hope I just run

671
00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:40,600
Speaker 1: into hunters all day to UM. But you know, understanding

672
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: the necessity of hunters and why fewer hunters means less

673
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:49,440
Speaker 1: advocates for hunting and less you know, dollars for funding

674
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:52,080
Speaker 1: that that's not good for any wildlife. So I think

675
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 1: that if we start talking about, you know, hey, less

676
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 1: hunters is better, I think that's that's pretty shortsighted on

677
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:01,280
Speaker 1: our party and pretty selfish. Um. We have fewer hunters

678
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:03,560
Speaker 1: today did in the past. So if today, if say

679
00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:05,960
Speaker 1: we had you know, twice as many hunters as we

680
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:09,920
Speaker 1: had twenty years ago, okay, and I I can see

681
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:12,719
Speaker 1: some of the arguments about crowding and let's have that conversation.

682
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:15,880
Speaker 1: But given the fact that we have way fewer hunters

683
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,440
Speaker 1: today than in the past, But to talk about crowding today,

684
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:23,920
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't buy that at all, um, partly

685
00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:27,560
Speaker 1: because it's very different across the US. UM. And actually

686
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:31,160
Speaker 1: I just finished an article looking at deer hunter densities

687
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:33,600
Speaker 1: on a per square mile basis for for for all

688
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:35,520
Speaker 1: the states in the country, or at least every state

689
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:38,960
Speaker 1: that would provide us there hundred deer hunter numbers. And uh,

690
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:43,000
Speaker 1: you know, as a region, the western US only averages

691
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:47,280
Speaker 1: one deer hunter per square mile, So I mean that's

692
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:50,800
Speaker 1: that's not that many people um com prepared to speaking

693
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,520
Speaker 1: of the Southeast has about four hundreds per square mile,

694
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:57,520
Speaker 1: the Midwest has about five, the Northeast has nine. So

695
00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:01,160
Speaker 1: it's hard for me hunting in the north East, where

696
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:03,520
Speaker 1: while my home state of Pennsylvania leads the country with

697
00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 1: fifteen deer hunters per square mile. So it's hard, you know,

698
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 1: for anybody, particularly east or the Midwest, at those densities

699
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,200
Speaker 1: to them. Look at the western US and thing man,

700
00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:17,359
Speaker 1: you only have you know, one deer hunter for squre

701
00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:19,799
Speaker 1: a mile, you know, so suddenly there appears to be

702
00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:22,400
Speaker 1: a lot of room for, you know, for more. And

703
00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 1: and hey, I've hunted out West. I love it. I've

704
00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 1: ran into people there too and thought, gosh, I wish

705
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:28,920
Speaker 1: I could just get away from him. So I'm not

706
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 1: saying it's a non issue, but I'm saying, for the

707
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 1: future of our wireless manager programs, in the future of hunting,

708
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:39,040
Speaker 1: uh more hunters is the answer, not fuor hunters. Yeah, now,

709
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:42,800
Speaker 1: I know. When we chatted last year, there were these

710
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:47,640
Speaker 1: um initial reports of the COVID impact and sending more

711
00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:51,440
Speaker 1: hunters to the woods. UM. Seemingly at least we're hearing

712
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 1: early reports of that, same for fishing and all sorts

713
00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:59,279
Speaker 1: of different outdoor recreation. Um. Have you been able to

714
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:02,080
Speaker 1: get any sense of how that's continued to trend? Does

715
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:05,600
Speaker 1: that seem to be something that has continued on this year? Um?

716
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,120
Speaker 1: Does that seem to be something that has reverted back

717
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: to the mean? What's what's your take on that? Have

718
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:14,600
Speaker 1: you heard anything more in there? Um? And not much,

719
00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:16,719
Speaker 1: you know, and I think the data is not in

720
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:20,160
Speaker 1: on that yet. So last year, the big bump because

721
00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:23,719
Speaker 1: of COVID, some states you know, sold a lot more licenses.

722
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:27,520
Speaker 1: Participation was up. UM. But it's it's it's funny because

723
00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:30,440
Speaker 1: we need to realize it's it's up relatively speaking. So

724
00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:33,560
Speaker 1: it was up from the year before, nowhere near what

725
00:38:33,719 --> 00:38:36,440
Speaker 1: it was a decade ago or two decades ago. So

726
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:39,479
Speaker 1: I mean, that's all relative to that. But right now,

727
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:41,759
Speaker 1: you know, many of these states are hoping that they

728
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:44,520
Speaker 1: could keep those hunters that they got in that bump. Um.

729
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:46,640
Speaker 1: They're waiting to see if that actually pans out or not.

730
00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:49,399
Speaker 1: So you know, later this year we'll have a better

731
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:52,360
Speaker 1: understanding once all that license sail data comes out, you know,

732
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:54,799
Speaker 1: and how many permits they sold and and all that.

733
00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:57,480
Speaker 1: But fingers crossed, I hope that we were able to

734
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:00,960
Speaker 1: retain a bunch of those hunters. So the time will yeah,

735
00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:03,120
Speaker 1: now do you know, Kip, I don't know this. I'm

736
00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 1: sure the dad is out there. I just have I

737
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:07,719
Speaker 1: can't remember what it shows. Do you know what the

738
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:11,600
Speaker 1: trend is with bow hunter numbers? Is that rising specifically

739
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:15,560
Speaker 1: or is that going down as well? That is rising,

740
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:22,239
Speaker 1: and it's really in part because of increased opportunities for crossbows.

741
00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:25,040
Speaker 1: You know, there's the majority of states today you can

742
00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:28,480
Speaker 1: use a crossbow in the archery season, so that has

743
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 1: played into that as well as just some of the

744
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:34,840
Speaker 1: expanded opportunities you know for archery seasons and states. Uh my,

745
00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:37,839
Speaker 1: my home state is a good example. Historically, almost all

746
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:40,080
Speaker 1: the deer were killed during you know, the two week

747
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:42,839
Speaker 1: buck or rifle season, and most of those were killed

748
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:46,600
Speaker 1: on opening day in the first Saturday. Well, today, you know,

749
00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:51,360
Speaker 1: we have a long pason you can use crossbows in that,

750
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:56,280
Speaker 1: and today almost of our total deer harvest is taken

751
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:59,239
Speaker 1: during the archery season. So you know what you have,

752
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:01,120
Speaker 1: and many of them though it's not like it's a

753
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:02,960
Speaker 1: whole bunch of new hunters. A lot of them are

754
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:06,799
Speaker 1: the same hunters, just choosing to take advantage of opportunities

755
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:08,839
Speaker 1: to hunt when it's a little warmer and you had

756
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:11,840
Speaker 1: longer seasons, and so you know, they're they're putting venison

757
00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:14,720
Speaker 1: in the freezer a little sooner. It hasn't dramatically changed,

758
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:17,399
Speaker 1: you know, the number of deer they get shot. They're

759
00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 1: just shooting more of them a little earlier in the year.

760
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 1: So uh So, anyway, bow hunter numbers have climbed, but

761
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:27,960
Speaker 1: we monitor the percentage of the total deer harvest that's

762
00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:31,560
Speaker 1: taken by bow hunters every year, and that's it's the pasture.

763
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:35,800
Speaker 1: That number has stayed pretty stable the last few years.

764
00:40:36,239 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 1: Uh fifteen years ago that number was only so it

765
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,120
Speaker 1: grew to about a quarter of the total deer harvest.

766
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 1: But it's really leveled out right there, and it hasn't

767
00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:49,600
Speaker 1: changed much at all in the last four or five years. Yeah,

768
00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:53,280
Speaker 1: So here's the hypothesis I have that I think maybe

769
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:59,680
Speaker 1: maybe can can speak to the feeling that many people

770
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:02,200
Speaker 1: have that the pressure is so much higher out there

771
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: on deer and I wonder that overall hunter numbers have

772
00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:13,000
Speaker 1: declined pretty precipitously, but has the number of avid deer hunters,

773
00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:15,520
Speaker 1: So like the die hard people like like me or

774
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:17,680
Speaker 1: you who spend days and days and days and days

775
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:21,239
Speaker 1: out there, has that number increased significantly? So maybe we

776
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:25,879
Speaker 1: have way fewer in general, but what number of those

777
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:27,920
Speaker 1: people only headed out for the first two days a

778
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:31,359
Speaker 1: gun season? Um, But then you've got more people like

779
00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:34,680
Speaker 1: me who hunt fifty days a year or seventy days

780
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:38,160
Speaker 1: a year. So the number of days hunted actually is

781
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:41,239
Speaker 1: higher because a smaller number is just doing it at

782
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:44,239
Speaker 1: a much more intense level. So that's why I asked

783
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:46,920
Speaker 1: about bow hunting, because I I think usually folks at

784
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:48,960
Speaker 1: bow hunt are spending more days in the field and

785
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 1: folks at gun hunt. That's kind of a many times,

786
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:53,440
Speaker 1: those are people that want to add time to their season,

787
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:54,960
Speaker 1: They want to hunt all year round, they want to

788
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: go more, they want to invest in it more. And

789
00:41:56,680 --> 00:42:00,320
Speaker 1: so now compared to we we're twenty years ago, I

790
00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:04,919
Speaker 1: I'm assuming my assumption, based on just general sense of

791
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,319
Speaker 1: where things are, is that there's a whole lot more

792
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:12,120
Speaker 1: people today that their life revolves are un deer and

793
00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:15,960
Speaker 1: they're spending habits revolve around deer and they buy land,

794
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:20,919
Speaker 1: or buy equipment or by vacation days all around. Can

795
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 1: I get out deer hunt more and do this more?

796
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:26,440
Speaker 1: I'm I'm wondering if that is part of why people

797
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:28,920
Speaker 1: feel like it's so much different now. That's why they

798
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:31,720
Speaker 1: feels like when they go on public land it's crowded

799
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:34,719
Speaker 1: with tons of guys with saddles or mobile hang ons

800
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:36,399
Speaker 1: on their back because there's so many people that are

801
00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:39,439
Speaker 1: die hard about it compared to years ago, even though

802
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:42,800
Speaker 1: we have lower total numbers. Does does anything that resonate

803
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:46,160
Speaker 1: with you? Do you think there's anything to that? That's

804
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:49,240
Speaker 1: a great question. Um, the US Fish and Wilife Service

805
00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 1: and in the big national survey that they do every

806
00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 1: four or five years, they always measure that or provide

807
00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:59,040
Speaker 1: data on you know, you know hunt or avidity, you

808
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 1: know in the super ad it's and all that. Um,

809
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 1: what's that's coming out right here later this year? I guess. Um,

810
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:07,960
Speaker 1: So anyway, I think that's a great theory. I think

811
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:10,960
Speaker 1: it's a really cool question. Uh that is the data

812
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:13,279
Speaker 1: set are the only data set that I'm aware of

813
00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 1: that that could answer that. So once that comes out,

814
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:17,840
Speaker 1: We'll have to take a look and see if that

815
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:21,359
Speaker 1: percentage of you know, superrabbit hunters or abbot hunters has

816
00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:25,279
Speaker 1: changed over time, because that that certainly could, given that

817
00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:27,880
Speaker 1: you know, there's more bow hunting opportunity now and in

818
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:31,000
Speaker 1: that bow hunter spends far more days a field than

819
00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:35,480
Speaker 1: the average fire arm hunter does. Yeah, I'll be curious

820
00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 1: to see that. So so kind of okay. Taking the

821
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:42,520
Speaker 1: next step from that, then if there is a general

822
00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:47,040
Speaker 1: sense from some folks that stuff is I think this

823
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:49,759
Speaker 1: is fair to say. I think most deer hunters. I'm

824
00:43:49,760 --> 00:43:53,800
Speaker 1: gonna this is anecdotal, but I think generally there are

825
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:59,040
Speaker 1: complaints or concerns around. You know, no matter where you are,

826
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:01,319
Speaker 1: everyone complains about there being too much hunting pressure. Whether

827
00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:03,960
Speaker 1: it's in Pennsylvania where there's square a mile or in

828
00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:06,919
Speaker 1: Montana where there's one. Right, everyone's gonna everyone's complaining about

829
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:10,239
Speaker 1: it in one form or fashion, whether it's warranted or not. Um,

830
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:12,799
Speaker 1: but this goes to, Okay, whether or not you're happy

831
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:15,239
Speaker 1: with the number of hunters that there are. One thing

832
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:18,080
Speaker 1: that definitely would be good is if we could have

833
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:22,880
Speaker 1: more access more public land or higher quality habitat in

834
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:24,759
Speaker 1: any of those places that you can get out to

835
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:27,640
Speaker 1: make sure that people still have good places to go. UM,

836
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:29,799
Speaker 1: since you know, access is one of those things that's

837
00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:31,399
Speaker 1: been hard or hard or come by over the last

838
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:34,160
Speaker 1: couple of decades. As more land is being bought up

839
00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:37,080
Speaker 1: for hunting, more land is leased out for hunting, and

840
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:39,400
Speaker 1: if you're not in those couple groups, you might be

841
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:42,440
Speaker 1: left out in the cold. As free permission is shrinking

842
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:46,960
Speaker 1: UM and public land is increasingly being utilized. So I

843
00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:49,600
Speaker 1: know that one of the goals Correct me if I'm

844
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,360
Speaker 1: wrong on this, but I believe one of the stated

845
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:56,839
Speaker 1: kind of objectives for the NDA is to help improve access,

846
00:44:56,920 --> 00:45:00,480
Speaker 1: habitat and deer hunting on at least one million acres

847
00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:04,839
Speaker 1: of public land? Am I right on that? And then

848
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:07,719
Speaker 1: number two, what's what's the game plan to do that?

849
00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:11,520
Speaker 1: How are we doing that? How are you guys doing that? So, yes,

850
00:45:11,719 --> 00:45:15,480
Speaker 1: you are correct that that is our goal a million acres, uh,

851
00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:18,560
Speaker 1: you know, within that five year period, and we're accomplishing

852
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:21,600
Speaker 1: that by working with the U. S Force Service and

853
00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:25,319
Speaker 1: some other partners. And essentially what happens is, you know,

854
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:28,239
Speaker 1: we are able to get contracts to go in and

855
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:32,120
Speaker 1: cut timber on us force land UM and then use

856
00:45:32,200 --> 00:45:36,120
Speaker 1: the money from the timber sale to chance the habitat

857
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:39,400
Speaker 1: that's there and the access. So while we don't have

858
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:41,319
Speaker 1: the ability as an organization to go out, you know,

859
00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:44,200
Speaker 1: and buy a million acres of land and say hey,

860
00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:46,759
Speaker 1: you know, here's here's public land, or we want you

861
00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:49,160
Speaker 1: to be able to go and use this UM, we

862
00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:52,640
Speaker 1: do have the ability to work with the four Service

863
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:54,879
Speaker 1: and others and take that public land and just make

864
00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:59,879
Speaker 1: it far better for hunting. You know, older mature hardwoods

865
00:45:59,880 --> 00:46:03,360
Speaker 1: and over mature software force and provide very little for deer,

866
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 1: but the good management we can make those you know,

867
00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 1: extremely high quality deer habitats. So that's what we're doing here.

868
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:14,760
Speaker 1: You know, with that, you're changing up the age structure

869
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:18,000
Speaker 1: on some of those forests, enhancing uh, you know, the woods,

870
00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:21,200
Speaker 1: which then also allows us to do some stream work, uh,

871
00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:24,640
Speaker 1: some roadwork to enhance access in and And the goal is,

872
00:46:24,719 --> 00:46:27,360
Speaker 1: let's take what is there that's already public land hunters

873
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:30,399
Speaker 1: can use. It's just not real valuable. Let's take that

874
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:33,520
Speaker 1: and just make it better and then provide ways that

875
00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:36,160
Speaker 1: hunters can get in and actually use it. So this

876
00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:39,839
Speaker 1: can absolutely help the crowding issue where you know, hey,

877
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:42,120
Speaker 1: if you're in an area hunting public land and you

878
00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:44,120
Speaker 1: know we all want to go to there, that that's

879
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:46,719
Speaker 1: the best habitat. Well, you know, if all of a

880
00:46:46,760 --> 00:46:50,080
Speaker 1: sudden you have a lot of good habitat that's spread out,

881
00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:52,799
Speaker 1: that just naturally is going to spread out some of

882
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:56,719
Speaker 1: that pressure hunting pressure, hiking pressure, biking pressure, whatever the

883
00:46:56,719 --> 00:47:00,000
Speaker 1: case is. So that's going to be better for wildlife,

884
00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:03,799
Speaker 1: it's going to be better for hunters, and it's gonna

885
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:06,280
Speaker 1: be better for all the users on those public lands.

886
00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:09,160
Speaker 1: So yeah, what we're super excited about that project that

887
00:47:09,239 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 1: started this past year and uh, you know, the first

888
00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:16,360
Speaker 1: contract was in actually in Mississippi last fall to start cutting.

889
00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:19,280
Speaker 1: We expect to be cutting in six to seven different

890
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:22,400
Speaker 1: states during two and we would just keep that number

891
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:24,880
Speaker 1: growing and spreading across the US to be able to

892
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:29,200
Speaker 1: impact hunters in more states and eventually be all the

893
00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:32,520
Speaker 1: way across the US. So very excited. Now. Is that

894
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:36,640
Speaker 1: something that regular people like me or anyone listening can

895
00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:41,040
Speaker 1: in any way positively positively contribute to or is this

896
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:47,200
Speaker 1: outside of the influence of of the average person. I

897
00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 1: know they absolutely can that can be involved with that

898
00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:52,360
Speaker 1: and and the best way to be involved is one

899
00:47:52,680 --> 00:47:55,799
Speaker 1: u by being an NDA member because you know, they

900
00:47:55,800 --> 00:47:58,880
Speaker 1: can then contact us, we can have a dialogue relative

901
00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:02,680
Speaker 1: to whatever a certain forests in their area. Uh. Matt Ross,

902
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:05,319
Speaker 1: our director of Conservation, is the one the spear has

903
00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:07,720
Speaker 1: this project for us, and he's the one that works

904
00:48:07,719 --> 00:48:11,719
Speaker 1: with all of these four service for supervisors you know,

905
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:14,359
Speaker 1: on these different areas. Well. Matt lives in New York.

906
00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:17,520
Speaker 1: Matt travels the country Force, but you know he doesn't

907
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:20,480
Speaker 1: know you know, all of the national forces in pick

908
00:48:20,560 --> 00:48:23,280
Speaker 1: a state, whereas you know our members in these different

909
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:27,120
Speaker 1: states or other deer enthusiasts, they certainly can contact Matt,

910
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:30,600
Speaker 1: share information with him, gives him their you know, opinions

911
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:33,200
Speaker 1: on different things. So that's a great way for them

912
00:48:33,239 --> 00:48:35,279
Speaker 1: to be involved. Of course they can also then be

913
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 1: involved with that national forest because those those four so

914
00:48:39,239 --> 00:48:42,000
Speaker 1: they want that engagement, they want to hear for the public.

915
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,400
Speaker 1: So in the more input that they have in or

916
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:48,040
Speaker 1: the more engagement by hunt hearing people say, man, this

917
00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:50,360
Speaker 1: is great, thank you for cutting this you know timber

918
00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:53,239
Speaker 1: in my backyard or in my state. You know, that

919
00:48:53,400 --> 00:48:56,360
Speaker 1: is just more encouragement for the forced service to continue

920
00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:58,839
Speaker 1: to increase this program and then amount of acres that's

921
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:02,520
Speaker 1: in it. So there's there's lots of opportunity for folks

922
00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:04,759
Speaker 1: who who want to get involved to do so and

923
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:08,239
Speaker 1: have a positive impact on the resource. Awesome. So I

924
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,960
Speaker 1: wanna pivot. I want to make a hard pivot to

925
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:17,960
Speaker 1: a piece of less exciting news. I suppose maybe not news,

926
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:20,399
Speaker 1: but it's a topic that's not often fun to talk

927
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:24,240
Speaker 1: about but still important. UM. And that's the disease front

928
00:49:24,280 --> 00:49:27,839
Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier about where things you know, have been

929
00:49:27,880 --> 00:49:30,560
Speaker 1: pretty bad with e h D, you know, seven years

930
00:49:30,560 --> 00:49:32,960
Speaker 1: ago or so. We haven't had as bad of about

931
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:35,840
Speaker 1: break like that recently. But of course there's the looming

932
00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:39,680
Speaker 1: c w D cloud that continues to kind of rain

933
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:42,800
Speaker 1: down on us slowly but surely year after year. UM,

934
00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:47,080
Speaker 1: can you give us the the cliff notes on what's

935
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:51,400
Speaker 1: new on the c w D front, both good and bad? Um,

936
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 1: where do you see things headed in that direction as well?

937
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:58,839
Speaker 1: Sure h c w D is now in twenty nine

938
00:49:58,920 --> 00:50:02,040
Speaker 1: states in the US. Um that we ended the year

939
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 1: with twenty seven states, and right off the bed in

940
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:09,320
Speaker 1: two we added two more, Alabama and Louisiana. So twenty

941
00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:13,200
Speaker 1: nine states continuing to spread UM. That's that's kind of

942
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 1: the bad side of that. UM. The good side is

943
00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:19,239
Speaker 1: we need to know more about the disease today than

944
00:50:19,280 --> 00:50:21,440
Speaker 1: we have in the past, and you know that's encouraging.

945
00:50:21,719 --> 00:50:23,520
Speaker 1: There's a lot we don't know yet, but you know,

946
00:50:23,600 --> 00:50:27,600
Speaker 1: we continue to learn more. UM. Hunters understand more about

947
00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:29,880
Speaker 1: it today than in the past, and that is good

948
00:50:29,920 --> 00:50:33,239
Speaker 1: because the best things that we can do to keep

949
00:50:33,239 --> 00:50:36,479
Speaker 1: the disease from spreading is to stop moving live deer

950
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:39,080
Speaker 1: and stop moving the high risk parts of deer that

951
00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:42,080
Speaker 1: we shoot. The high risk parts are the eyes, the brain,

952
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:46,520
Speaker 1: explaining the backbone. So you know, as the hunters can

953
00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:49,200
Speaker 1: do absolutely. You know, there's something that hunters we can

954
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:52,560
Speaker 1: do every single day, and that's do not move those parts.

955
00:50:52,600 --> 00:50:55,319
Speaker 1: And to make sure that all of our hunt buddies know, hey,

956
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:58,520
Speaker 1: don't move these parts. And and for folks listening, if

957
00:50:58,520 --> 00:51:00,640
Speaker 1: they're if they're not sure why the it's a big deal.

958
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:03,400
Speaker 1: You know, say you go to uh to Wisconsin, you

959
00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:05,480
Speaker 1: shoot a deer, say it has c w D, and

960
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:08,400
Speaker 1: you take the whole thing back home to Michigan. You

961
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:10,799
Speaker 1: you know, you process that at your house, throw the

962
00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:14,959
Speaker 1: carcass out back. Well, that carcass, that's the higher risk parts,

963
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:17,920
Speaker 1: the backbone, et cetera. Other deer that come in contact

964
00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:21,319
Speaker 1: with that can then contract the disease. So that's why

965
00:51:21,360 --> 00:51:23,560
Speaker 1: it's a big deal and we should not be moving

966
00:51:23,560 --> 00:51:26,319
Speaker 1: those parts. So there was a time a few years

967
00:51:26,360 --> 00:51:28,680
Speaker 1: ago when it was pretty bleak in the CDWD front.

968
00:51:28,719 --> 00:51:30,600
Speaker 1: There was no good news coming out. There was no

969
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:34,400
Speaker 1: positive results from any research and that and that's starting

970
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:36,560
Speaker 1: to change now. You know, we are seeing some small

971
00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:40,839
Speaker 1: victories relative to states holding prevalence rates very low. That's

972
00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:43,440
Speaker 1: a good thing. We know that more hunters now abide

973
00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:45,520
Speaker 1: by the rules and they're not moving those parts, and

974
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:48,560
Speaker 1: that's a good thing. So, uh, you know, is it

975
00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:51,440
Speaker 1: is it a difficult fight? Heck yeah, that's what difficult

976
00:51:51,480 --> 00:51:54,239
Speaker 1: fighters and we've ever had for deer. But but man,

977
00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:56,400
Speaker 1: take a look at our forefathers, you know, back you

978
00:51:56,440 --> 00:51:58,240
Speaker 1: know when there was only a couple of hundred thousand

979
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:00,560
Speaker 1: white tails in the whole country. You know, that was

980
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:03,680
Speaker 1: a big deal, and the hunters solve that. So I

981
00:52:03,719 --> 00:52:06,040
Speaker 1: think we're gonna solve the c w D issue. I do.

982
00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:09,280
Speaker 1: I'm a firm believe it that we are. So um,

983
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:12,520
Speaker 1: I think it's the single biggest challenge right now facing

984
00:52:12,520 --> 00:52:15,880
Speaker 1: the future of deer hunting. And um, that's not just

985
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:19,719
Speaker 1: my opinion, the vast majority of wildlife managers that is

986
00:52:19,719 --> 00:52:22,200
Speaker 1: what they believe. The US I'm out there who will

987
00:52:22,239 --> 00:52:24,600
Speaker 1: still think this is fake news and that you know,

988
00:52:24,719 --> 00:52:27,200
Speaker 1: it's not a big deal. But it's very clear c

989
00:52:27,520 --> 00:52:29,440
Speaker 1: w D is a huge deal for the for the

990
00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:32,680
Speaker 1: future of deer hunting. And fortunately we are you know,

991
00:52:32,800 --> 00:52:34,839
Speaker 1: starting to get our hands around it a little bit

992
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:37,520
Speaker 1: in a few states, and that provides hopeful for all

993
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:40,719
Speaker 1: those others out there. So, UM, I think we will

994
00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:42,600
Speaker 1: get it. I think we're gonna beat it. It's just

995
00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:44,560
Speaker 1: gonna be a long fight. That this is not something

996
00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:46,120
Speaker 1: that will defeat you know, in the next year or two.

997
00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:48,920
Speaker 1: We're in this for the long haul. But as we

998
00:52:48,960 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 1: continue to learn more, um and get more hunters engaged

999
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:55,880
Speaker 1: on this, I think that is the path to beating it. Yeah.

1000
00:52:56,200 --> 00:52:57,680
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things I've heard over the

1001
00:52:57,760 --> 00:53:00,839
Speaker 1: years has been, you know, the fact we don't have

1002
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:03,600
Speaker 1: a ultimate solution yet, right, we don't have a cure,

1003
00:53:03,719 --> 00:53:06,200
Speaker 1: we don't have a way to really stop it. All

1004
00:53:06,239 --> 00:53:08,920
Speaker 1: we can hope to do is slow it UM until

1005
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:11,239
Speaker 1: we figure something out right. The thing has always been like,

1006
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:13,399
Speaker 1: we need more funding, we need more research, we need

1007
00:53:13,440 --> 00:53:17,439
Speaker 1: to get answers because there's still so much we don't know. Um,

1008
00:53:17,600 --> 00:53:20,840
Speaker 1: there's there's possibly some hope on the horizon when it

1009
00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:22,759
Speaker 1: comes to new funding. Right, can you talk to me

1010
00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:26,480
Speaker 1: about where we stand with the CDBD Research and Management Act?

1011
00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:29,239
Speaker 1: I believe is the correct titles that right? And where

1012
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,439
Speaker 1: does that standards? What do we need to know there?

1013
00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:34,520
Speaker 1: That is a big one, you know, and this would

1014
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:38,239
Speaker 1: be a huge win for for for wildlife, for hunters,

1015
00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:43,200
Speaker 1: for for wildlife agencies. Representative kind Um has been a

1016
00:53:43,200 --> 00:53:45,840
Speaker 1: big advocate for this for a while and UH we

1017
00:53:45,840 --> 00:53:49,319
Speaker 1: we have worked straight with him helping UH draft some

1018
00:53:49,400 --> 00:53:52,920
Speaker 1: of this and some of the other partner organizations. Essentially,

1019
00:53:53,000 --> 00:53:57,320
Speaker 1: what this would do is um cwds. Very state widlife

1020
00:53:57,360 --> 00:54:00,440
Speaker 1: agencies don't have specific budgets and they don't have federal

1021
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:04,799
Speaker 1: funding to pay for testing, for monitoring, for surveillance, that

1022
00:54:04,880 --> 00:54:07,640
Speaker 1: type of thing. So what this act would do is

1023
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:11,480
Speaker 1: dedicate funding to the states for that UM because think

1024
00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:13,760
Speaker 1: about this, you know, every state that has the business

1025
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:15,959
Speaker 1: you need to monitor for it. But when you spend

1026
00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:17,960
Speaker 1: the money to do so, you know, there's not an

1027
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:20,000
Speaker 1: extra pool of money for it, so you're taking money

1028
00:54:20,040 --> 00:54:24,319
Speaker 1: away from other programs like habitat work or access or

1029
00:54:24,480 --> 00:54:27,680
Speaker 1: land acquisition or or what the case is. Well, the

1030
00:54:27,719 --> 00:54:31,840
Speaker 1: CTBD Management Act would provide funding to help monitor the

1031
00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:34,960
Speaker 1: disease and allow agencies to use some of the other

1032
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:37,920
Speaker 1: budgets for all of those other things that as hunters,

1033
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:41,000
Speaker 1: we want them to use that money for. So this

1034
00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:44,239
Speaker 1: is closer than ever to be in pass. And that's

1035
00:54:44,280 --> 00:54:46,799
Speaker 1: something that all sportsmen and women can get behind and

1036
00:54:46,960 --> 00:54:50,400
Speaker 1: encourage the legislators to support that because if that has

1037
00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:52,759
Speaker 1: passed and that has voted in, that would be a

1038
00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:57,080
Speaker 1: huge win for anybody that cares about wildlife. And and

1039
00:54:57,200 --> 00:55:02,000
Speaker 1: how close is that to come up to vote? How

1040
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:04,399
Speaker 1: how can we make a difference on that front if

1041
00:55:04,440 --> 00:55:09,080
Speaker 1: that's come up here pretty soon. Yeah, I don't know

1042
00:55:09,160 --> 00:55:12,279
Speaker 1: exactly how close it is to a vote. Um, it's

1043
00:55:12,320 --> 00:55:15,239
Speaker 1: a you know, anything that's legislative can be can be

1044
00:55:15,239 --> 00:55:18,359
Speaker 1: difficult to follow like that. UM I do know that,

1045
00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:21,600
Speaker 1: you know, it is something that's on the radar right now. Um,

1046
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:24,200
Speaker 1: there's time for for all sports and many women you know,

1047
00:55:24,239 --> 00:55:26,920
Speaker 1: to let their legislator all that they support that UM

1048
00:55:27,239 --> 00:55:30,000
Speaker 1: and sooner rather than later would be good. I'm not

1049
00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:32,000
Speaker 1: saying they don't they have to do it today, but hey,

1050
00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:33,680
Speaker 1: let's do it this week or this month, you know,

1051
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:36,759
Speaker 1: and not wait any longer. The more support that that

1052
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:39,480
Speaker 1: we have from our American public about this, the more

1053
00:55:39,560 --> 00:55:42,600
Speaker 1: likeliness to pass. You know, there's no downside to to

1054
00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:46,800
Speaker 1: any of our wildlife agencies or any funding mechanism because

1055
00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:50,000
Speaker 1: of it. So this is something that that's very much needed.

1056
00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:53,799
Speaker 1: Has not been done UM for almost twenty years now,

1057
00:55:54,160 --> 00:55:56,479
Speaker 1: and so if we could get this past, this would

1058
00:55:56,520 --> 00:55:58,800
Speaker 1: be a huge win for all of us. That's great.

1059
00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:01,439
Speaker 1: Is there anything else on the you know, coming down

1060
00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:04,680
Speaker 1: the legislative pipeline this year that you guys are really

1061
00:56:04,719 --> 00:56:07,080
Speaker 1: focusing on that that we as hunters should be paying

1062
00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:11,319
Speaker 1: attention to. We are huge advocates of the National of

1063
00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:14,719
Speaker 1: the Grasslands Act UM. We talked earlier about all that

1064
00:56:14,880 --> 00:56:17,640
Speaker 1: CRP land that was lost, the habitat that was lost,

1065
00:56:17,640 --> 00:56:20,319
Speaker 1: you know, that would be grasslands is a huge thing

1066
00:56:20,440 --> 00:56:23,520
Speaker 1: for a wildlife you know, across the US. So that's

1067
00:56:23,560 --> 00:56:27,520
Speaker 1: another big piece of federal legislation that we're working hard

1068
00:56:27,719 --> 00:56:31,120
Speaker 1: to get past. So Uh that's Uh. If if if

1069
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,560
Speaker 1: anybody person here wants to get involved with something else

1070
00:56:33,640 --> 00:56:36,000
Speaker 1: or engage or let their legislator no, hey, make one

1071
00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:38,400
Speaker 1: phone call let them know you support both of those. Uh.

1072
00:56:38,719 --> 00:56:43,080
Speaker 1: Wildlife will thank you for it. Excellent. So so speaking

1073
00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:45,240
Speaker 1: of then, you know, making that phone call or email,

1074
00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:48,160
Speaker 1: you know, as we're looking forward into the rest of

1075
00:56:50,239 --> 00:56:52,160
Speaker 1: you know, we do this every year. There's always a

1076
00:56:52,200 --> 00:56:55,040
Speaker 1: few action nymes. I like to try to put in

1077
00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:57,680
Speaker 1: front of folks and and offer up as ideas for

1078
00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:00,080
Speaker 1: things that we could be doing. What are a few

1079
00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:04,399
Speaker 1: ideas that you have for hunters this year in uh

1080
00:57:04,440 --> 00:57:06,719
Speaker 1: to make a positive impact on the future of deer

1081
00:57:06,719 --> 00:57:08,800
Speaker 1: and deer hunting. Can you give us some some ideas,

1082
00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:14,400
Speaker 1: some inspirations, some some action items. Sure, um, call your

1083
00:57:14,480 --> 00:57:18,600
Speaker 1: legislator and uh and support the seat d and Grasslands acts.

1084
00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:21,320
Speaker 1: That would be great. Uh. Plan to take somebody to

1085
00:57:21,360 --> 00:57:24,880
Speaker 1: the woods, you know, somebody that hasn't had that opportunity before. Uh.

1086
00:57:24,880 --> 00:57:26,760
Speaker 1: It doesn't even have to be during deer season. Just

1087
00:57:26,800 --> 00:57:29,240
Speaker 1: invite them out, you know, for a walk. Um, you know,

1088
00:57:29,360 --> 00:57:31,840
Speaker 1: share some of your knowledge of nature with them. Uh.

1089
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:34,479
Speaker 1: Some people get so nervous about oh, I couldn't mentor

1090
00:57:34,520 --> 00:57:37,080
Speaker 1: somebody because I don't know enough or well, you know what.

1091
00:57:37,160 --> 00:57:40,400
Speaker 1: In many cases, you know, you absolutely do. Yeah, you

1092
00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:42,919
Speaker 1: don't have to know everything, you know, just the fact

1093
00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:44,800
Speaker 1: that you can take somebody out and talk to them,

1094
00:57:44,800 --> 00:57:47,280
Speaker 1: you know about this, you know, describe what a tree

1095
00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:49,640
Speaker 1: is to him or you know a certain tree, or

1096
00:57:49,640 --> 00:57:51,680
Speaker 1: talk to him about something you know about the stream

1097
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:54,680
Speaker 1: or about a certain bird that you see. In many cases,

1098
00:57:54,920 --> 00:57:57,960
Speaker 1: it just takes something simple like that to show for them.

1099
00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:00,440
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, how interesting this can be, how coolest

1100
00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:02,520
Speaker 1: can be, and hey we can we can gain another

1101
00:58:02,560 --> 00:58:05,840
Speaker 1: advocate for for our wildlife programs. So that is a

1102
00:58:05,920 --> 00:58:09,560
Speaker 1: is a great thing to do. And lastly, get engaged

1103
00:58:09,560 --> 00:58:11,120
Speaker 1: with there was something that's going on in the state

1104
00:58:11,120 --> 00:58:14,160
Speaker 1: wildlife agency. You know, can let the local biologists know

1105
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:17,600
Speaker 1: about the certain rules that they like or dislike, um

1106
00:58:17,600 --> 00:58:20,560
Speaker 1: share maybe a sighting of a special animal or bird

1107
00:58:20,600 --> 00:58:23,400
Speaker 1: that they've seen, you know, anything like that. To be

1108
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:26,720
Speaker 1: involved or being engaged is good. Uh. There was a

1109
00:58:26,760 --> 00:58:29,000
Speaker 1: point in time where you know, there was very little

1110
00:58:29,040 --> 00:58:32,200
Speaker 1: engagement with our state wildlife agencies at all. Uh. That's

1111
00:58:32,360 --> 00:58:34,560
Speaker 1: very different today, and that's a good thing. We're in

1112
00:58:34,600 --> 00:58:37,840
Speaker 1: a much better place today with how our locologists and

1113
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:41,720
Speaker 1: technicians on lawforcement agent you know, deal with the public

1114
00:58:41,720 --> 00:58:43,960
Speaker 1: on a much more regular basis, you know, and hear

1115
00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:46,320
Speaker 1: about you know, maybe they saw, you know, I saw

1116
00:58:46,320 --> 00:58:47,960
Speaker 1: a baald eagle here today. You know, it's the first

1117
00:58:47,960 --> 00:58:50,240
Speaker 1: time we've seen one, you know ever, or you know,

1118
00:58:50,280 --> 00:58:52,880
Speaker 1: I saw this other bird or whatever the case is.

1119
00:58:52,920 --> 00:58:55,920
Speaker 1: You know, any type of relationship, of of a working

1120
00:58:55,920 --> 00:58:59,000
Speaker 1: relationship like that can go a long long way, you know,

1121
00:58:59,080 --> 00:59:02,080
Speaker 1: to to help and our wildlife programs. So yeah, so

1122
00:59:02,160 --> 00:59:06,120
Speaker 1: get involved, you know, support some legislation, take somebody to

1123
00:59:06,160 --> 00:59:09,520
Speaker 1: the wounds, and uh um, get involved the state WILFE agency.

1124
00:59:09,800 --> 00:59:12,200
Speaker 1: Those would be three great things that we could do. Yeah,

1125
00:59:12,240 --> 00:59:14,280
Speaker 1: I love it. It's funny. I was just looking into

1126
00:59:14,320 --> 00:59:16,880
Speaker 1: this myself, and I was just googling what kind of

1127
00:59:17,440 --> 00:59:22,400
Speaker 1: volunteer opportunities there are within Michigan with with our Department

1128
00:59:22,400 --> 00:59:25,880
Speaker 1: of Natural Resources and see if there's any opportunities to help,

1129
00:59:26,120 --> 00:59:28,560
Speaker 1: you know, work on public land or improve habitat anywhere

1130
00:59:28,600 --> 00:59:30,640
Speaker 1: or something like that. I think there was something like

1131
00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:35,120
Speaker 1: fifteen different projects like that looking for volunteers just within

1132
00:59:35,120 --> 00:59:37,920
Speaker 1: like a three month window. There was that many different

1133
00:59:37,920 --> 00:59:40,200
Speaker 1: opportunities all across the state where they were looking for

1134
00:59:40,240 --> 00:59:42,680
Speaker 1: people to help out. Um, that was just very eye

1135
00:59:42,720 --> 00:59:45,440
Speaker 1: opening to me that hey, there's there's stuff going on

1136
00:59:45,760 --> 00:59:49,200
Speaker 1: and people, you know, people are needed, so you know,

1137
00:59:49,400 --> 00:59:52,000
Speaker 1: that's a great way to get out there kind of

1138
00:59:52,200 --> 00:59:55,480
Speaker 1: really dig your hands into the dirt and get involved,

1139
00:59:55,600 --> 00:59:59,680
Speaker 1: make a real, a real difference tangibly, and meet some

1140
00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:02,800
Speaker 1: like minded people too that will who knows, maybe make

1141
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:05,560
Speaker 1: new friends, new hunting buddies, something cool like that down

1142
01:00:05,600 --> 01:00:07,480
Speaker 1: the road. So it seems like like a win win

1143
01:00:07,560 --> 01:00:12,880
Speaker 1: and in a lot of ways. Well, Kim, I uh,

1144
01:00:14,040 --> 01:00:16,160
Speaker 1: I just I'm always appreciative of your time. I always

1145
01:00:16,200 --> 01:00:19,160
Speaker 1: appreciative of of getting this insight from you and and

1146
01:00:19,200 --> 01:00:21,760
Speaker 1: knowing that there are people like you on the inside

1147
01:00:21,800 --> 01:00:23,840
Speaker 1: fighting the good fight to make sure we've got deer

1148
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:26,680
Speaker 1: and good places to deer hunt and uh and leaders

1149
01:00:26,720 --> 01:00:29,240
Speaker 1: within the deer hunting community. So so thanks for that, Kip,

1150
01:00:29,240 --> 01:00:31,560
Speaker 1: And I guess the last thing would just be, can

1151
01:00:31,600 --> 01:00:34,320
Speaker 1: you give us a reminder on exactly how we can

1152
01:00:34,320 --> 01:00:40,520
Speaker 1: get involved with the National Deer Association. Sure you can

1153
01:00:40,600 --> 01:00:44,920
Speaker 1: go right to to deer associations, UM, take advantage of

1154
01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:47,320
Speaker 1: any of the free resources that we have their you know,

1155
01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:51,800
Speaker 1: relative to hunting or or habitat enhancement. Um. Hopefully we

1156
01:00:51,800 --> 01:00:53,800
Speaker 1: could we could convince somebody to join and become a

1157
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:56,200
Speaker 1: member and help us out. At the very least, they

1158
01:00:56,200 --> 01:01:00,800
Speaker 1: can go there and and download our deer reports free download,

1159
01:01:01,200 --> 01:01:03,200
Speaker 1: take a look at how their state compares to the

1160
01:01:03,200 --> 01:01:06,240
Speaker 1: neighboring states or others in their region, or or others

1161
01:01:06,280 --> 01:01:10,280
Speaker 1: anywhere in the country relative to deer hunting. So we'd

1162
01:01:10,280 --> 01:01:12,840
Speaker 1: like to share the information, you know, more information in

1163
01:01:12,880 --> 01:01:15,960
Speaker 1: the hunter's hands. We see as as a great opportunity.

1164
01:01:16,080 --> 01:01:18,920
Speaker 1: So yeah, we encourage anybody to go there and take

1165
01:01:18,960 --> 01:01:21,560
Speaker 1: a look at what we got and use anything that

1166
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:26,400
Speaker 1: can help them and enhance other opportunities the field. Terrific.

1167
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:29,160
Speaker 1: Kip Well, I took a look at that report of

1168
01:01:29,160 --> 01:01:32,480
Speaker 1: course myself and uh my ugly mug is on the cover,

1169
01:01:32,600 --> 01:01:35,600
Speaker 1: so I warned everyone that's not that's not a highlight.

1170
01:01:35,800 --> 01:01:38,680
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of great information there. I definitely

1171
01:01:38,760 --> 01:01:41,280
Speaker 1: encourage folks to go and check it out. Um, a

1172
01:01:41,360 --> 01:01:43,920
Speaker 1: wealth of a wealth of resource there. So thank you

1173
01:01:43,960 --> 01:01:48,040
Speaker 1: kid for that work and for chatting today. Absolutely, and

1174
01:01:48,280 --> 01:01:50,720
Speaker 1: now I think that's a perfect cover you know, over

1175
01:01:50,720 --> 01:01:53,440
Speaker 1: the years we have done different covers, you know, with

1176
01:01:53,600 --> 01:01:56,439
Speaker 1: big Bucks and smaller Bucks and does and phones. There's

1177
01:01:56,440 --> 01:01:58,720
Speaker 1: been lots there and you know, and I thought that

1178
01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:01,680
Speaker 1: one captures perfectly like really where we are today as

1179
01:02:01,680 --> 01:02:04,520
Speaker 1: a deer hunting community. You know, where where you are

1180
01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:07,480
Speaker 1: mentoring somebody else, you're bringing a new hunter into the fold.

1181
01:02:07,800 --> 01:02:10,800
Speaker 1: You know, it's the harvest opportunity, but the focus isn't

1182
01:02:10,840 --> 01:02:12,920
Speaker 1: just on the animal, you know, what it's on, you know,

1183
01:02:13,000 --> 01:02:16,800
Speaker 1: the actual involvement of YouTube in your field that deers

1184
01:02:16,800 --> 01:02:19,200
Speaker 1: there with you. So there's a lot of pieces of

1185
01:02:19,240 --> 01:02:22,600
Speaker 1: that that that cover that that we're chosen specifically because

1186
01:02:22,640 --> 01:02:25,479
Speaker 1: of what they embrace. And so I think that puts

1187
01:02:25,520 --> 01:02:27,760
Speaker 1: deer hunting and deer management in a really good light

1188
01:02:27,880 --> 01:02:31,400
Speaker 1: for a for where we are. Yeah, it did capture

1189
01:02:31,440 --> 01:02:34,280
Speaker 1: a great moment that that certainly is representative of a

1190
01:02:35,040 --> 01:02:37,600
Speaker 1: lot of good in uh where we are in deer hunting.

1191
01:02:37,680 --> 01:02:40,720
Speaker 1: So I feel super thankful I could have could be

1192
01:02:40,760 --> 01:02:45,680
Speaker 1: involved with that. All right, Well, thank you for obviously

1193
01:02:45,800 --> 01:02:48,680
Speaker 1: being involved with that, and UH for for what you

1194
01:02:48,760 --> 01:02:50,960
Speaker 1: do for wildlife Mark and it's always good to talk

1195
01:02:50,960 --> 01:02:53,240
Speaker 1: to you, my friend. Absolutely kid, let's do it against soon,

1196
01:02:54,720 --> 01:02:58,200
Speaker 1: all right, that's a rap. Good stuff. Make sure, as

1197
01:02:58,280 --> 01:03:00,600
Speaker 1: Kip mentioned, if you're not already a member of the

1198
01:03:00,680 --> 01:03:03,800
Speaker 1: National Deer Association, I highly recommend it. They do a

1199
01:03:03,800 --> 01:03:06,920
Speaker 1: great job of keeping informed. We've got a terrific magazine.

1200
01:03:07,280 --> 01:03:09,800
Speaker 1: They send action alerts when they are important issues in

1201
01:03:09,840 --> 01:03:13,480
Speaker 1: which we need to make our voices heard. All good stuff.

1202
01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:16,080
Speaker 1: Easy to get signed up, just head to Deer Association

1203
01:03:16,280 --> 01:03:20,480
Speaker 1: dot com. So thank you again, and until next time,

1204
01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:23,640
Speaker 1: stay wired to hunt.