WEBVTT - Ep. 224: Render - Four Oklahoma Game Wardens and Black Market Caviar 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.239 My name is Clay Nukeleman. This is a production of 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.400 the bear Grease podcast called The Bear Grease Render, where 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:25.760 we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:30.600 of the actual bear Grease podcast presented by f h 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:35.360 F Gear, American Maid, purpose built hunting and fishing gear 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.559 that's designed to be as rugged as the place as 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:45.640 we explore. Welcome to the Bear Grease Render Podcast. Brent, 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.240 what have we done to deserve such a such a noble, 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:50.800 noble crowd here? 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:55.320 I don't know, man, it's with good effort, you get 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:56.320 good results. 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.400 Good effort gets good results. Yeah, Okay, it's good to 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:00.960 see you, Brent. 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:01.400 Thank you. 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:02.080 It's been a while. 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:04.000 It has been anything. 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.360 You'd like to dress the audience about, just like, uh, 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.320 you know, just like where you've been, what you've been 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:11.479 doing that could be more important than being on the render. 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:17.639 Well, I've been catching catfish, yeah, commercial fishing with my brother, 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:23.000 commercial in the Arkansas River and we've been doing pretty good. Yeah. 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.960 In Arkansas, if you put your nets out, you got 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.039 you gotta check them every forty eight hours during this 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.440 time of year, Yeah, cause the water temperature and they 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.080 get fish gets stressed and you don't want to lose 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.200 the resource, so we put them out. You got to 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:37.760 go get them. You know, in the winter time, you 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.760 can leave them out five, six, seven days and it 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:42.800 usually takes that long to catch a good mess of fish. 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:44.960 But this time you got to go. So that's what happened. 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.480 I've been missing, yeah, a couple and Cody's in my chair. 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:51.800 So there's that. The audience needs to know that if 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:53.680 I sound a little off, I'm. 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:54.000 Out of you. 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:56.080 You're out of the chair. 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:58.960 It didn't off. He told me to stay away. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:01.560 Well, got to come back to the commercial fishing. But 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.360 let's let's introduce our Let's introduce our guests. We have 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:08.519 we have four employees of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:13.000 with us. All happened to be game wardens. Uh, Austin, 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:17.119 why don't you just introduce yourself? Tell me where you 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:19.960 where you work, and how long you been with the 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:21.359 departments stuff like that. 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.360 My name's Austin Jackson. I'm the Craig Kenny game Orden. 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:29.000 I've been employed with Oklahoma Department Whilelife since twenty fifteen. 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:36.720 Okay, So Austin was the guy that contacted me that said, hey, 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.480 you need to do a podcast. I was wondering how 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.880 you Keith Green and uh and and just this paddlefish, 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.520 the whole paddlefish story awesome and man, you don't know 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.080 how many people do that and it and it just 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.880 never plays out like there's a lot of great ideas. 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.000 There's no there's no limit to the amount of good 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.120 ideas that people talk to me about. But there's got 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:00.680 to be like ten things that lie up for it 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.680 to work. And it worked. So thanks a ton good 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.840 for the tip, you know, but that's great. 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.720 Hank, Yes, sir, I'm Hank Jinks. I'm the actually the 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.399 captain over kind of the northeast corner of Oklahoma over 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:19.320 to around the tuls Areas ten counties. I'll just throw 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.240 it out. I've got kind of a weird history. I've 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.600 spent ten years as a game warden back and started 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.360 in ninety two and then left and went to the 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.519 highway patrol and the flying helicopters for them for most 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:38.320 of my career, and then came back in about a 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:39.200 year and a half ago. 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.040 So really, yeah, so you're a helicopter pilot, Yes, sir, 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:44.760 you can catch them on foot in the car and 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:46.280 a helicopter or whatever it takes. 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:46.640 Yep. 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:51.240 So you've now what kind of stuff would you be 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:53.400 would you have been doing in a helicopter for the 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:54.120 state police. 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.920 So we we did a lot of weird stuff, the 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.240 things you would probably think about, like, man, huh some 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:05.600 search and rescues. Oklahoma had a really robust uh traffic. 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.480 We would fly if you've ever seen the little white 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:12.240 crosses on the side of the interstate their they're known distances. 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:14.960 So we would take airplanes out, usually in airplanes and 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.000 not helicopters on there. When we would we had chronographs 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.400 in the cockpit and we would we would measure, we 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.279 would time people whatever. You know, it's it's a given 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.080 that radar detectors had no bearing on it, so they 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.279 you know, we would time them from one point to 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:29.920 the to. 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:30.679 Them from the air. 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.440 From the air traffic, you can write tickets just as 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:34.480 fast as you can get. 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:36.800 So then you have somebody on the ground that yeah, it. 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:37.279 Was a setup. 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:39.640 You know, it was a scheduled deal. We would have one, two, 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:43.360 three troopers there and uh, and we would we would 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:45.440 just have it. You know, it's kind of a scheduled deal. 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.800 And always thought that was hype when I saw its signs, 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.760 it's true and it works. Speeds monitored by air. 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:56.000 We we would write on the interstates twenty thirty forty 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.080 tickets you know an hour were just normal. 0:04:59.520 --> 0:04:59.640 Wo. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.040 We did we did that. We did a lot of 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.560 uh like if the governor needed a ride somewhere, and 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:06.920 we would, we would. We were the ones tasked with that, 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.800 and I did. I stayed true to my roots and 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.640 worked with these guys a lot, and UH did a 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.279 lot of you know, night hunt activities. The highway troller. 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:18.279 I didn't do that a lot of that until I 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:21.600 coaxed him into to doing that. And so and I've 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.520 actually worked some of these cases working we would fly 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.359 rivers and stuff at night looking for all these croatures 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:30.360 back when they were really hot and heaver kind of 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:32.400 kind of when it was in its heyday. 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:38.479 So yeah, yeah, wow, that's really neat, really neat. Lieutenant Joe. 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.839 Yeah. So I'm Joe Alexander game Warden supervisor up in 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:47.120 northeast Oklahoma. All the northern counties are kind of my counties, 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.800 and I represent these these fellows here in the room 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.720 and uh, you know, I've been doing that since two 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.800 thousand and six and uh spent a little time in 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.800 the police department before that, like my good friend Brent here, 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:03.680 but we can't talk about that. 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.000 There was a long secret information being traded between Joe 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:12.279 and Brent earlier that that that I've not been able to. 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:14.640 Man were like Mason's we got signs going over here 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:16.520 than nobody. 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.320 Yeah, thanks for being here. 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:24.239 Yes, sir, I'm Cody Moore. I've been with the Wildlife 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.279 Department since two thousand and eight. I was actually in 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:31.359 fish Division for two years as the battlefish biologist for Oklahoma. 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.640 And I've been in law enforcement since twenty ten. Okay, 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:38.720 and I'm in Prior, which is forty five minutes north 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:39.839 and east of Tulsa. 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:46.400 Man, I gotta say I love Oklahoma. Oklahoma is like, 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:52.039 is different than Arkansas. It's really it's it really is interesting. 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.320 It's hard to articulate the differences in states. But if 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.880 you go into Mississippi, like it's just different. You go 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:05.279 into Oklahoma, it's just different. But I'm a big Oklahoma fan. 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.320 Oklahoma feels like the West to me, Like when you 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:13.040 cross into Oklahoma, you're actually kind of out of the South. 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.640 You you guys would are you Southerners? 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:18.440 Yes? 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:21.760 Yeah, I would say so, sure. Yeah, Oklahoma's unique because 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:24.360 it's so different the topography. You can you know, you've 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.160 got mountains in one part of it, You've got deserts 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.240 in another part. You've got the Ozarks. In one part 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.320 of it, You've got the southeast, which is you know, 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.160 rolling hills, beautiful country. Then you get into some swampy 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.280 country once you get down in McCurtain County and stuff. 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.520 So it's you know, we really got it all. 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.520 You know, you're right on the the echo tone between 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.040 the Eastern deciduous forests and the Great Plains, you know. 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.760 I mean it's like you get like probably fifty miles 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.960 like pure eastern deciduous forests or maybe more. Yes, yea, 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:55.120 that is that about right? Yeah, and you kind of 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:58.680 get like west of Tulsa and it really starts to 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:03.000 flatten now and kind of naturally have less trees. I mean, 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:03.680 is that about right? 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:04.000 Yeah. 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:05.880 It's almost like it's kind of a hub with those 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.840 ecosystems too, because I never had really thought about it, 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.040 but like you were saying, like in the northeast corner, 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.720 you know, you have oak hickory, and you get into 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.480 cherry trees not like they have in Pennsylvania. But and 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:20.040 you go northeast for ten states and it looks almost 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.240 just like that. And then you get in the southeast 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.160 corner and you have the delta that you know, you 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.840 take off and it stays like that for several You 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.120 get out west and you get into that that prairie 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:31.680 and you take off west and go across ten states 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.000 and they're not ten but you know, and it's just 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:35.960 kind of it all starts right in Oklahoma. 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.839 All of those yeffer, yeah, yeah, football teams aren't any good, 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:45.600 but we're about to find out, as the guy from Arkansas, like, 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.400 we hadn't won a game in like four years. Let's 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.240 not talk about that now. It's so great to have 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:54.640 you guys, truly is I got. I got to tell 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.480 the story Brent that I told all these guys before 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:59.839 we introduce everybody. I'm so sorry. 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:01.840 I didn't think that he would let her talk. 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:09.360 Yes, I should have. Hello. 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.240 I walked in today and there was Brent, who I 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.480 haven't seen in a while, and a room full of 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.200 game wardens, and I thought the sting operation is up. 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:23.480 I'm not sure what I didn't. I don't think you 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.280 did it on purpose, but Brent's undercover work has finally 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.880 got to f and them trading secrets isn't helping. 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:33.520 It operation pour out the grease. 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.560 It Actually, this is not a joke. I kind of 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:44.000 thought Brent was undercover for a while. I truly did, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.240 because I was in a period of time. I was 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.040 in a period of time when I was hype. I 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:55.040 don't know why, because really I've just always been pretty 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.520 straight laced. Now I'm not saying I have accidentally broken laws, 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:03.600 because I have the the but it was in a 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:05.480 period of time. And I'm also going to tell about 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.120 what I did when I crossed into Oklahoma. But I 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:13.120 was like hyper paranoid about all this stuff, and uh, 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:15.520 Brent called me and he was just like, hey, I'd 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.040 love to fill me. And I was like, this is 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.600 this guy? Why does he have so much time? Why 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:21.959 is he so willing to help? 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:26.120 And uh, I'm too lazy to work. I like to 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:26.880 be outside. 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.679 No, but I gotta I gotta tell the story that 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.000 that I already told you guys, so Misty wouldn't have 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.559 heard it. When I first started baiting bears in Oklahoma, 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.800 I was I was hunting in Arkansas as well, but 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.720 crossing into Oklahoma and there were different season dates and 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.560 uh and and actually this would have happened before season, 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:49.200 so I didn't have my hunting stuff with me. But 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:53.560 I remember one time coming from Arkansas, stopping at the 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:58.240 state line, hiding a gun in the woods, and then 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:01.480 driving into Oklahoma because I was so paranoid to be 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:05.000 in a different state, you know, out of state tags, 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.839 having a gun in my truck, going to a bear bait, 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.000 and I just didn't want to deal with it. And 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.320 so I hit a gun off in the woods, which 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.960 sounds pretty suspicious, but I was just trying to be 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:20.719 straight laced. And then I called one of these guys colleagues, 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:22.760 and I told him. I was like, hey, I just 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.120 want to be I just I just want you to 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:27.800 know what's going on. I'm bait, I'm hunting in Arkansas 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.319 and Oklahoma, and there's different season dates and when I 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.280 go down there, I've got to go back and forth. 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.360 And they were just like it's fine. They act like 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:37.520 it was no big deal. I called the Arkansas guys too, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.800 and they were like, why are you telling me this? 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:42.600 I Like, they were just like, there was like no 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:43.319 big deal, you. 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.280 Know, but a bigger deal to hide a gun in 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:45.680 the woods. 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:52.600 Yeah that was probably yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, who knows. 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:58.640 But uh, well the man, So you guys are like 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:05.040 paddlefish paddlefish experts in terms of law enforcement. You heard 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.240 the you heard the podcast. I'd kind of like to 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:12.240 just go around and just get your general impressions of 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.800 of you know, obviously you know these stories, but just 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.400 kind of I don't know if you have any background 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.920 on Keith or or Jeff that which were those guys 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.240 such great guys, just incredible guys. But what do you 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:27.640 think about the podcast? Austin? 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:30.040 I thought the episode was great. So a little bit 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.319 of history. I moved into Craig County a couple of 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.200 months after I got hired and transferred up there, and 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.600 that was Keith Green's old county. That's where he worked 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:44.520 his whole entire career, and he'd been retired at that time. 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.360 So Day one, I get in the truck with Jeff Brown, 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.000 who's he was the captain at that time, and the 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.360 first thing out of his mouth is welcome to District one. 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.920 Paddlefish is king. That's what people learn to work, and 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.320 you did. That's that's what you had to do. That 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.560 was primarily what we spent a lot of time on 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.560 m M, so it's a I got to hear all 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:12.079 the old war stories from from Keith and Jeff. Me 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:15.960 and Keith have become really good friends. Super neat guy. 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.560 Very interesting. You described me to a tee with him 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:24.160 with his big smile after the sentence. Yep, yep, that's 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:27.439 I'd heard all the stories about Keith before I had 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.880 moved up there, and I had never seen him, so 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.480 I didn't know what to expect. I thought he was 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:37.079 going to be about six ' four, probably a big 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:38.959 beer belly with a dip of snuff in. 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:39.640 Yeah. 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:41.880 And when I knocked on his door that first time 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:44.240 and he opened it up, I had to look down 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:46.640 to him. He's a little bitty, scrawny guy. Yeah, But 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:50.680 I mean he is wiry, and he's a very good wrestler. 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.920 He's extremely tough. He's one of the toughest guys I've 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:55.400 ever met. 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:57.920 Yeah, I believe that. Now, why do you say that, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.000 like like tough and like is it from his hunting, 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.840 Because that's what I picked up quick. Jeff gave us 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.080 a little bit of a heads up. He said, Man, 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.200 Keith is one of the best elk hunters that you know, 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:15.560 he says, I know, but meeting Keith within ten minutes 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.000 of talking to him, and it's not because he was 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.000 telling me all his accolades. It's not like that. But 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:22.280 you know, I just like read this guy is a 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:28.920 is a master just outdoorsman. Yeah, nine year dogs. 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:30.800 And so me and Austin have a joke that we 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:32.680 really want to go l hunting with him one of 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:34.960 these days. And keep in mind he's in his seventies 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.600 and I'm thinking we still have another fifteen years before 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:38.560 we can keep up with him. 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:39.000 Yeah. 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:44.120 Yeah, and he's he's sixty nine. Oh there, he actually 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:49.080 corrected me, mister Keith, So sorry, Keith is sixty nine. 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.280 I said he was in his early seventies. But yeah, 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:57.440 he's he's he's longer. Yeah, sixteen years, Yeah, sixteen. 0:14:57.680 --> 0:14:59.800 He's one of the hardest working guys I've ever been around. 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.880 You know, Jeff, Joe, Hank both can tell you that 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.760 in every aspect of his life he was like that. 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:09.560 He was all the way in, He's going to do 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:13.640 everything one hundred and ten percent. He did his game 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:16.640 warden job that way, he did the paddle for Center 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.520 that way. And I don't think anybody else could have 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:22.680 done that paddle for center and made it work the way. 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.240 Yeah, I think the thing that stands out about him, 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.440 and I've told him this and that if you look 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:33.760 at literally when he was working and even now, you 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:38.240 could say the name Keith Green in eastern Oklahoma, everybody 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:42.080 knew it. All the poachers knew him, all of you know, everybody, 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:44.720 and he has that he and it was because of 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.520 his work ethic, And it's one of those things that 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.320 I've told younger guys. I'm like, if when you retire, 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.720 if you can have name recognition like Keith Green, did 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:56.600 you know? And I'm sure he told you he has 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.240 a brother that still is a game warden okay with 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.640 us and the Green Boys. You know, that's that's what 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:03.920 everybody referred him to him as. But Keith was just 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.200 he's just that kind of guy that that everybody knew him. 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.160 And uh, and not always in a good way. I 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.240 mean he caught lots of bad guys and and and 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:15.560 you go work with him, you know. When I came 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:20.040 on in ninety two, Uh, he was about two counties away, 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.480 but I did every every day I could go work 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:24.440 with him, I would and you would learn more in 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:28.640 a day with him than you would with ten game warnings. Yes, 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:29.600 that kind of guy. 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.040 I appreciated a story that he told about his dad, 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.680 you know, and it it it fits so well in 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.400 with a lot of the stories that we've told here 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.440 about you know, he just said, my dad, my dad 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.320 was a poacher and and uh, and he he clarified 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:49.640 more some things he kind of had to take out 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:52.200 just for time. But you know, his dad wasn't wasn't 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:56.440 a bad guy. It was just the time period. And 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.880 and but but the fact that he he said that 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:03.320 was such a important piece of his career, was understanding 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:05.560 that just because somebody breaks the game law, they're not 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:06.520 a terrible person. 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:07.560 And uh. 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:11.840 And that that theme, I mean, Keith, I never listened 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:14.720 to Bargerags podcast, I'm sure, but that theme has been 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:17.879 inside of so much stuff that we've done, and not 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.880 even on purpose, like I've not set out to make 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.080 that point to people. It just feels like it comes 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.639 up and inside the climate of today, like with like 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:31.680 extreme polarization, in every possible scenario, it's like either good 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:36.040 or you are terrible. And it's like there's there's quite 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.640 a bit of there's some gray area in there, not 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.400 not gray with the law, not not not okay, you're 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:43.359 not okay to break the law. That's not what I'm saying, 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:47.639 but just in terms of you know, him saying you 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.359 could be a decent person to make a mistake, but 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.639 how how that informed the way that he dealt with people, 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:58.000 which I think is good for us to hear about 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.240 you guys, because I mean a lot of times game 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.040 boardens have I mean, whether they earned it or not, 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.320 the reputation is there that you know get you know, 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:10.440 any law enforcement is just out to just tack people 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.320 down to the ground, which is not true, right, I mean, 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:15.600 I've not found that to be true in my life 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:16.040 at all. 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:16.399 You know. 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.480 One of the unique phenomena that comes out sometimes in 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.199 your podcast, like you were saying, is that when we 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:27.159 start doing these investigations and they go for days on end, 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:29.880 weeks on end, months on end, or maybe even a year, 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:31.919 you know, you have a lot of time invested in 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:36.359 these investigations and you really get into the weeds with 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:39.400 these people as far as their you know, their habits, 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:41.840 what they do, what they don't do. Sometimes you know, 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:44.480 you're you're proven to a lot of information that's outside 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.879 of the realm of wildlife, and you become you know, 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:51.600 after a while, you get a glimpse into their lives 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.240 and you realize that they're they're the same as you 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.680 and I. You know, they they live their lives. It's 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:58.840 just that they've made some choices along the way that 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.359 has let them down this path that you know makes you, 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:04.520 you know, have to come in contact with them. And 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.400 it doesn't make them a bad person at all, if 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:11.320 in fact, anything, you're you're more drawn into them as 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.399 a as a you know, you I know, it sounds 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.119 weird that you you care for that person after a 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:21.679 while because you've spent so much time investigating and working 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.560 on the case, and you know, in the end, after 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:28.000 they've been adjudicated, it seems like, uh, you know, you 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:30.640 want to keep And there's lots of folks that I've 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.320 come in contact with the past that have investigations and 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.439 things like that, and still to this day, I consider 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:39.359 my friend just the same way that Keith, you know, 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.600 saw Billy was the same way. Yeah, and uh, And 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:44.960 it's just I think that's one phenomena as far, and 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:46.760 I think it's in all in law enforcement. I don't 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.199 think it's unique in game board work that you know, 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.520 the more time you spend undercover or the more time 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.679 you spend with someone or investigating someone, you know, you 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.760 get a glimpse into that, into their line, and I 0:19:57.840 --> 0:19:59.199 just I think it's unique, you know. 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:10.760 Yeah, yeah, So I hired on, I said, I hired 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:14.520 On into Fish Division, right, and talking about Keith, when 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:15.920 I met him, he was in game Ward and he 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:18.440 was already moved over and he was running the Battlefish Center. 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.040 So I started February first of two thousand and eight 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:25.200 and the Paddlefish I knew nothing about. I'd seen Paddlefish before, 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:28.000 but on February fifteenth of two thousand and eighties when 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:32.440 the Paddlefish Center opened and they said go to Miama 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:33.879 and you're going to be up there for three months, 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:36.080 and I mean we were there from daylight to dark 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:41.240 every day. Keith again, Austin said it, and you said 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.680 it on the podcast last week that or I think 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:46.280 Jeff Brown said that that program would not have made 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:49.200 it without Keith. He was one hundred and ten percent. 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.280