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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to

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Speaker 1: the whitetail Woods, presented by First Light, creating proven versatile

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Speaker 1: hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light

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Speaker 1: Go farther, stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on

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Speaker 2: the show, I'm joined by Ryan Callahan to recap our

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Speaker 2: recent visit to Washington, d C. To advocate for our

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Speaker 2: public lands and wildlife. All Right, welcome back to the

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Speaker 2: Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Light,

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Speaker 2: and today we are recapping for you a recent trip

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Speaker 2: that I took just last week actually with mister Ryan

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Speaker 2: Callahan to visit Washington, d C. We were speaking there

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Speaker 2: with our elected officials about the importance of our public lands,

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Speaker 2: our wildlife, hunting and fishing opportunities, and everything in between.

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Speaker 2: And if you have been following the news and various

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Speaker 2: outlets that cover conservation and public lands and wildlife related issues,

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Speaker 2: then you're probably aware of some of the things going on.

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Speaker 2: If not, maybe you're a little bit out of the loop.

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Speaker 2: We've tried to cover some of this here on Wired

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Speaker 2: to Hunt. We actually just had cal on the podcast

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Speaker 2: maybe a month and a half two months ago to

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Speaker 2: talk about some things, But since then there have been

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Speaker 2: all sorts of new issues and updates when it comes

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Speaker 2: to what's happening with environmental protections, with public land related

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Speaker 2: regulations and protections. There have been a number of proposals

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Speaker 2: that raise some red flags when it comes to the

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Speaker 2: future of these things. Take, for example, proposals from the

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Speaker 2: current administration to possibly sell public lands for housing. There

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Speaker 2: have been other serious discussions within Congress about using the

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Speaker 2: sale of public lands to fund some of our budget

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Speaker 2: issues at the moment that are being debated within the

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Speaker 2: budget reconciliation process. And that's something that's particularly dangerous and

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Speaker 2: concerning because this whole reconciliation process. To forgive me for

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Speaker 2: getting some jargon here, but when a bill is passed

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Speaker 2: through reconciliation, it does not require the sixty votes that

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Speaker 2: most bills require. It can be passed with a simple majority,

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Speaker 2: so fifty one votes could get something passed. And oftentimes

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Speaker 2: in this reconciliation process, they lump a whole bunch of

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Speaker 2: issues into these budget focused bills, so stuff can get

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Speaker 2: passed as part of one of these budget considerations that

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Speaker 2: just kind of gets tacked on to the end that

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Speaker 2: could have far reaching implications. So in this case, a

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Speaker 2: serious sale of public lands, something that would have generational

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Speaker 2: impact for many of us, could possibly be slipped into

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Speaker 2: this thing and then have to get passed because it's

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Speaker 2: a party line kind of thing. So that's why this

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Speaker 2: stuff is really getting a lot of people's attention right now.

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Speaker 2: There's countless other specifics that we could get into that

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Speaker 2: we won't, but rest assured there's been more news and

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Speaker 2: proposals and action item type emails and action alerts sent

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Speaker 2: out over the last few months that I've seen in

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Speaker 2: years and years and years. And we've got to be

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Speaker 2: paying attention to these things, and we've got to let

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Speaker 2: our voices be heard and letting people know, whether they

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Speaker 2: are Democrats or Republicans or something in between, let them

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Speaker 2: know that we care about our public lands, we care

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Speaker 2: about wildlife, we care about conserving these things and protecting

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Speaker 2: these things for the future, for a sustainable, long term future.

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Speaker 2: And that is why me and Cal and a whole

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Speaker 2: lot of other folks visited Washington, d C. Last week

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Speaker 2: to make sure that those kinds of ideas, that those

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Speaker 2: causes and values are represented there in the halls of Congress.

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Speaker 2: So today's podcast is me and Cale recapping that trip.

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Speaker 2: We discussed what we did there, why we were there,

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Speaker 2: the issues we talked about, the people we spoke with,

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Speaker 2: some of these broader things going on. There was a

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Speaker 2: number of kind of conservation related events going on there.

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Speaker 2: We talked about that a little bit, but I think

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Speaker 2: most interesting to you guys will be kind of the

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Speaker 2: takeaways we had from these conversations. You know, what do

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Speaker 2: these meetings with a congressional representative look like. We visited

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Speaker 2: the offices of the House representatives, and we visited offices

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Speaker 2: of senators. We met with everything from senior staff members

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Speaker 2: to sometimes the senator or representative themselves. We talked to

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Speaker 2: a lot of people. We got a very interesting kind

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Speaker 2: of look behind the curtain when it comes to what's

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Speaker 2: happening right now related to the issues we care about.

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Speaker 2: So we wanted to report back to you on what

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Speaker 2: we learned on kind of what the vibe is there

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Speaker 2: right now, how concerned people are about these issues, or

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Speaker 2: are not concerned about these issues, and lots in between.

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Speaker 2: So we're going to talk about that. We're going to

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Speaker 2: talk about tactics a little bit about how you can

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Speaker 2: use some of the strategies and framing ideas that we

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Speaker 2: used to advocate for these things to these people how

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Speaker 2: you might be able to use that yourself when making

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Speaker 2: a phone call or having a meeting of your own.

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Speaker 2: And we talk about some of the things that all

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Speaker 2: of this has made us realize about the future. What

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Speaker 2: this entails we do in the coming months and years

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Speaker 2: to make sure that we've got wildlife and wild places

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Speaker 2: where we can hunt and fish and camp or climb

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Speaker 2: or bike or whatever does he like to do. We

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Speaker 2: want to make sure that can continue to happen. And

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Speaker 2: if we want that to be the case, it's going

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Speaker 2: to require not just me and Cale going to Washington, DC,

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Speaker 2: but all of us doing our part, having meetings, making

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Speaker 2: phone calls, sending emails, letting our elected officials know that

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Speaker 2: this stuff really matters. So that is our podcast here today,

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Speaker 2: and it's a special joint episode. So Cal and I

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Speaker 2: we're both hosting this one and we're both releasing it

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Speaker 2: on our individual podcast channel. So hopefully you know that

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Speaker 2: Ryan Callahan has his own podcast. It's called Cal's Weekend Review.

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Speaker 2: It's another show on the media or network just like mine.

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Speaker 2: And you definitely should go over there and tune into

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Speaker 2: that show and subscribe if you're not already. His show

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Speaker 2: every week is a recap of the most important public

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Speaker 2: land and wildlife and conservation related news and issues and updates.

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Speaker 2: So it's a great place to stay aware of everything

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Speaker 2: going on, so make sure you do that. And speaking

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Speaker 2: of you know, back in the day, when I first

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Speaker 2: started this podcast some like twelve thirteen years ago, I

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Speaker 2: frequently reminded people to subscribe to the podcast, to leave

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Speaker 2: a review, to share it with their friends and family.

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Speaker 2: But I have not done that for a long time,

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Speaker 2: and I've kind of gotten complacent on that because I

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Speaker 2: just sort of assumed that everyone knows that and does that.

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Speaker 2: But you know, this is a great reminder as I'm

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Speaker 2: plugging Kale to also plug this one. If you're not already,

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Speaker 2: please subscribe to this podcast. You can get every single

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Speaker 2: new episode popped right up into your podcast app, so

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Speaker 2: you don't miss one. If that's something you're interested in doing.

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Speaker 2: Price to subscribe or follow, please leave a review if

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Speaker 2: you haven't yet. We've been doing this podcast for free

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Speaker 2: for more than a decade and if that has in

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Speaker 2: any way benefited your life, which which I really hope

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Speaker 2: it has. That's been the goal all these all these years.

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Speaker 2: If that's the case, I would love to hear about that.

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Speaker 2: I'd love to see your feedback there in the reviews

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Speaker 2: and share with a friend, share it with a friend,

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Speaker 2: excuse me, share with a family member. Anything along those

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Speaker 2: lines would would be rific. So thanks to that in advance.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning into this one. Thank you for joining

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Speaker 2: me and Cal and trying to fight the good fight

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Speaker 2: to make sure we have these incredible opportunities and places

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Speaker 2: and critters that make our way of life possible. So

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Speaker 2: that's what today is all about. That's what our visit

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Speaker 2: last week was about. And I hope you enjoyed this one.

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Speaker 3: Hey, what's happening in Meat Eater universe. This is Ryan

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Speaker 3: cal Callahan, Cal's We Can Review Cal the wilde Podcast Channel.

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Speaker 3: I'm joined Todave for another special interview series with the

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Speaker 3: one and only Mark Kenyon of Wired to Hunt Fame.

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Speaker 3: This guy's been on the front page of Field and Stream.

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Speaker 3: He's a cover boy, as they say in the biz.

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Speaker 2: That's a deep cut. That's an old, old reference there.

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Speaker 2: It's been quite a while, so you're digging out the archives.

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Speaker 2: My friend, Well you got.

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Speaker 3: I mean, you're I guess in the zeitgeist. I guess

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Speaker 3: is what they'd say. He's a well cataloged human. He's

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Speaker 3: been putting out content informing folks, I would say, primarily

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Speaker 3: on the white Tail front for a lot of years.

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Speaker 3: He's also an author working on book number two. I'm

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Speaker 3: not sure if that's public knowledge yet, but it is

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Speaker 3: now and today we're going to talk about being advocates,

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Speaker 3: following through with our duties as citizens and voters in

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Speaker 3: these United States taxpayers to inform our duly elected, let

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Speaker 3: them know what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong,

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Speaker 3: and what they could do better from are very specific

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Speaker 3: points of view.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I got to jump into kil and just say that,

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Speaker 2: if you've got free time once a week, I would

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Speaker 2: for you to introduce me on every one of my

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Speaker 2: podcast episodes too, like that. I could really use a

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Speaker 2: hype man. You do a hell of a job, So

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Speaker 2: thanks for that.

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Speaker 4: Well, let's hear your let's hear your Wired to Hunt intro.

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Speaker 2: Let's go the Wired to Hunt intro. I would, uh,

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Speaker 2: you know, I'd open it up with the typical welcome

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Speaker 2: to Wired to Hunt this week on the show and

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Speaker 2: then what I would say is something along the lines

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Speaker 2: of the fact that you and I crashed Washington, d C.

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Speaker 2: Last week and had a lot of really interesting conversations

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Speaker 2: about a lot of interesting things with people all throughout

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Speaker 2: the nonprofit conservation ranks, the government, and points in between

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Speaker 2: that that were a, I thought really interesting and important.

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Speaker 2: But B and here's my hype man moment for you,

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Speaker 2: kal H. We're just really eye opening for me with

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Speaker 2: what you bring to the table as far as a

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Speaker 2: leader in this space. So I really appreciated how you

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Speaker 2: were able to communicate with some of our elected officials

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Speaker 2: and the representatives and advocate for the stuff we care about,

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Speaker 2: which is, you know what we're going to talk about

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Speaker 2: here today. But long story short, I liked seeing how

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Speaker 2: the sausage is made, I think, is what I'm getting to.

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Speaker 2: I liked the fact that we're able to kind of

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Speaker 2: see both inside the gears of our government a little bit.

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Speaker 2: And then I also got to see into the world

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Speaker 2: of Ryan cale Callahan, the fearless leader of Cal's We

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Speaker 2: Can Review, and saw how you not just talk the talk,

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Speaker 2: but walk it. So yeah, man, I'm glad we can

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Speaker 2: catch back up here today to talk about everything that

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Speaker 2: happened to talk about you know what? I have always

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Speaker 2: watched from Afar and wondered, you know, what's really happening there?

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Speaker 2: Does a visit there matter? Does it actually make a difference?

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Speaker 2: What's that? You know? What could that lead to? I've

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Speaker 2: had a lot of questions over the years, and so

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Speaker 2: finally getting to be a part of that myself was

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Speaker 2: very eye opening. I guess I've said a couple of times,

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Speaker 2: but eye opening. So how do you want to do this?

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Speaker 2: Where should we start?

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Speaker 4: Cail, Let's say, what what were we there to do? What?

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Speaker 4: What did we hope to accomplish?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? What about you got there a day before me? Right,

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Speaker 2: so I'll let you, uh, I'll let you lead with

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Speaker 2: what you thought you were going to accomplish and what

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Speaker 2: you wanted to do.

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Speaker 3: I had a very, as it turns out, fortunate travel

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Speaker 3: schedule where I and I really haven't even got around

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Speaker 3: to talking about this elsewhere, but I got to join

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Speaker 3: West Virginia Backhuntry Hunters and Anglers, the West Virginia Chapter,

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Speaker 3: as well as several members of the West Virginia Department

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Speaker 3: of Natural Resources on a about a fifty to fifty

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Speaker 3: split private land, public land turkey hunt, and we floated

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Speaker 3: the New River Gorge just gorgeous and awesome and super fun,

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Speaker 3: and camped out on the river and hunted public land

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Speaker 3: birds and public land off of the New River, and

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Speaker 3: we got skunked on the birds. I had some fun

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Speaker 3: encounters in there, busting through some West Virginia rainforest and

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Speaker 3: then essentially in a not efficient route, went directly to

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Speaker 3: d C. I had a firearm which I had needed

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Speaker 3: to return back to my home, but anyway, so I

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Speaker 3: landed in DC, went directly to Senator she He, which

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Speaker 3: Tim she is our freshman senator here in Montana. He

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Speaker 3: won the tightest race that we had this past election

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Speaker 3: series with an incumbent Democrat, John Tester.

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Speaker 4: Who has been.

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Speaker 3: Really really solid on public lands, public access, and wildlife

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Speaker 3: habitat issues during during his run as a senator here

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Speaker 3: in Montana. And Senator Tim Shee is a freshman, he's

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Speaker 3: brand new. So we had him on the Mediator podcast

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Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago. I think he did a

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Speaker 3: good job. We talked about fire management, land management, and

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Speaker 3: you know, kind of got to know him and his

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Speaker 3: perspective a bit, which is always valuable, especially when you

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Speaker 3: want to do what we're going to talk about, which

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Speaker 3: is get your prerogatives across, right, And I met with

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Speaker 3: one of his staffers with folks need to understand, like

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Speaker 3: you don't always get to meet with the elected official,

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Speaker 3: you get to meet with their staff quite often, and

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Speaker 3: that you need to treat as valuable time because I

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Speaker 3: know lots and lots of stories of it's it's.

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Speaker 4: Like a mini government.

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Speaker 3: Okay, So like your senator is your your head of state,

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Speaker 3: and their staff is there to cover certain spheres of

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Speaker 3: interest and then inform the head of state as to

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Speaker 3: the whole situation, the feedback that they're getting, and probably

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Speaker 3: more than likely offer an opinion as to what they

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Speaker 3: think they should do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the gate keeper, the prioritizer, right.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And you know, I've talked to folks who have been

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Speaker 3: staffers for a lot of different elected officials and they

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Speaker 3: all have stories of this is why you need to

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Speaker 3: take a staff position seriously. And one person in particular,

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Speaker 3: they're working for an elected official in Colorado who had

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Speaker 3: no hunting and fishing experience, but they're well aware that

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Speaker 3: there are many hunters and anglers in the state of Colorado,

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Speaker 3: and despite having zero hunting and fishing experience. That elected

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Speaker 3: official had staffers who had hunting and fishing experience in spades.

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Speaker 3: That's part of what he was rounding out in his cabinet,

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Speaker 3: if you will. And they were able to pass a

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Speaker 3: series of really good wildlife bills through that office, and

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Speaker 3: largely on behalf of around on the shoulders of the

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Speaker 3: staffers in that office. It looks good for the elected official.

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Speaker 3: They're not tied to it in the way that that

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Speaker 3: folks who hunt and fish all the time are. But

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Speaker 3: they were good enough, smart enough to understand that they

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Speaker 3: needed those people in their office. And so if you

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Speaker 3: go in and you talk above their heads and you

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Speaker 3: don't try to get to know them and treat them

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Speaker 3: with respect, you can imagine like the type of report

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Speaker 3: that's going to go back to the elected official right

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Speaker 3: at the head of state, it's not not going to

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Speaker 3: be a good one. And these are people that are

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Speaker 3: in their orbit there, they are intimately familiar with each other. So,

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Speaker 3: and I guess while we're on this topic, I will

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Speaker 3: also throw out this something I was reminded of on

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Speaker 3: this trip. DC is a very expensive place to live.

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Speaker 3: As such, there's people who just stay in DC. So

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Speaker 3: your staff are for your home state or state representative

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Speaker 3: that you want to speak with you, it's you shouldn't

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Speaker 3: assume that they are from the state that they're representing,

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Speaker 3: which is an odd things go. So I like to say, hey,

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Speaker 3: this is what I want to talk to you about today.

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Speaker 3: How familiar with this topic are you, and again trying

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Speaker 3: to approach things in a non confrontational, friendly way of like,

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Speaker 3: we're here to exchange some knowledge, hopefully for the collective benefit.

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Speaker 3: So if you tell me you don't know, I'm not

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Speaker 3: going to be like, Okay, dumb ass, find me somebody else.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 2: One thing I did find in my experience too, and

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Speaker 2: talking with some other folks, was that the educational side

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Speaker 2: of things is just as important as trying to influence

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Speaker 2: because in a lot of these cases, they simply, you know,

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Speaker 2: especially with staffers, don't know about some of these specific

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Speaker 2: issues that we're talking about, or maybe don't understand the

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Speaker 2: full story. So yeah, just starting with that building a

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Speaker 2: foundation is if that's all you did in these types

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Speaker 2: of visits, that would probably still be worthwhile, just to

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Speaker 2: make sure we're all looking at the same set of facts,

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Speaker 2: at looking at the same deck of cards.

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Speaker 3: You know, absolutely absolutely, and you know, I mean we're

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Speaker 3: all subject to headlines, and there's a lot of headlines

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Speaker 3: I would say the majority out there that aren't getting

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Speaker 3: the real story across. And it's like you said, probably

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Speaker 3: worthwhile to make a phone call, shoot an email over

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Speaker 3: and just provide some some real facts and wildlife management

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Speaker 3: is not a casual thing to read up on unless

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Speaker 3: you're actually interested in them. Yeah, so so, yeah, I

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Speaker 3: met with the Josh guy in Chihi's staff. We had

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Speaker 3: a good conversation about a number of things. And this

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Speaker 3: is kind of like to our goals of what we

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Speaker 3: were trying to do encourage elected officials to stand strong

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Speaker 3: on public lands, meaning we don't want to see public

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Speaker 3: lands sold off. If we have to sell public lands

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Speaker 3: at Darnshire, better go through the system that's in place

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Speaker 3: so the American people understand exactly what they stand to lose,

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Speaker 3: so they can make a better decision.

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Speaker 4: During the public comment period as to.

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Speaker 3: If they think the juice is worth the squeeze, which

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Speaker 3: is something we heard a lot last week. And uh,

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Speaker 3: by standing strong, we mean co sponsor Ryan Zinke's Public

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Speaker 3: Lands in Public Hands Act. If you can't co sponsor.

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Speaker 3: You should sign up and join the caucus public caucus. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 3: make a statement and in return, we are more than

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Speaker 3: happy to support you back. Let people know that you

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Speaker 3: did a really good thing, and then you know, there's

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Speaker 3: lots of data that we can provide as to why

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Speaker 3: this matters, uh, financially and just in the American interest level.

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Speaker 3: Something I did consistently across the board with everybody I

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Speaker 3: spoke with was talk about the Grasslands Act, and as

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Speaker 3: you and I discussed a little bit, one way that

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Speaker 3: I did that was through talking about the Lesser Prairie

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Speaker 3: Chicken Landowner Alliance, which is, you know, I'll just say,

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Speaker 3: like a bunch of conservative ranchers who are trying to

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Speaker 3: save ranching, and by saving ranching, they're going to save

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Speaker 3: our most recently added used to be huntable species, the

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Speaker 3: lesser prairie chicken, something that happened on our watch as hunters.

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Speaker 3: It's sickening to me, but the lesser prairie chicken used

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Speaker 3: to be a huntable species. Now it is not, and

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Speaker 3: ninety percent of that population lives on private land. If

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Speaker 3: they want to save ranching and do a good thing

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Speaker 3: in turn for this endangered speed which I think a

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Speaker 3: lot of Republicans perked up their ears on because the

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Speaker 3: ESA is is quote unquote under attack right now, they

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Speaker 3: can support the North American Grasslands Conservation Act, and in

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Speaker 3: so doing they'll provide a funding mechanism directed specifically at

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Speaker 3: ranchers who are trying to improve native grassland habitat which

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Speaker 3: the lesser prairie chicken needs. So that was a big ass.

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Speaker 3: And then another one that I think is a softball

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Speaker 3: and something that a staffer could take immediate action on

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Speaker 3: was and this is something that came up through chapter

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Speaker 3: feedback at the BHA level, our chapters at Backcountry Hunter's names,

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Speaker 3: they work a lot with state agencies, volunteering for different

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Speaker 3: habitat projects and certainly lobbying for good bills when their

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Speaker 3: states are in session, lobbying hard for good state management

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Speaker 3: species and habitat.

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Speaker 4: Well.

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Speaker 3: The feedback that we're getting from our state agencies is

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Speaker 3: that because of staffing shortages created by DOJE actions or

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Speaker 3: through DOJE actions, either the early termination fork in the

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Speaker 3: Road email which allowed for early retirement, early termination with

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Speaker 3: some benefits to federal employees, or elimination of positions the

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Speaker 3: office that approves and cuts the checks out of the

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Speaker 3: Wildlife Fund, which is funded through Pittman, Robertson and Dingle

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Speaker 3: Johnson dollars, excise tax dollars and then matched three to

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Speaker 3: one with our license and tag fees at the state level.

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Speaker 3: And these are are on the ground state projects that

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Speaker 3: this administration is supposed to prioritize. They are not getting

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Speaker 3: those funds.

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Speaker 4: That the rank and file.

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Speaker 3: State citizen wants and the state agency wants to make happen.

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Speaker 3: They're not getting that cash to make these projects happen

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Speaker 3: because there's nobody in that federal office to approve the project.

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Speaker 3: Slash cut the check for the project that's already been approved.

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Speaker 3: And that's a major issue, and that's how we're already

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Speaker 3: seeing some impacts of some of these layoffs. So that's

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Speaker 3: a really good one because it's some phone calls, some

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Speaker 3: pressure that needs to be put on, said, hey, we

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Speaker 3: need people back in this office.

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Speaker 4: You're hurting your voters.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And.

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Speaker 3: It's cash that doesn't need to be appropriated. It's a

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Speaker 3: separate fund. It's our money, our sportsman angler dollars and

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Speaker 3: our recreational shooting dollars and our hunting dollars that are

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Speaker 3: going to hunt to fund our you know, more habitat

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Speaker 3: and more access work. So those are three consistent ones

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Speaker 3: across the board.

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Speaker 2: So I guess to kind of recap with every one

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Speaker 2: of these meetings, it seemed like there was there was

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Speaker 2: like a three or four part framework. It was, you know,

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Speaker 2: we came in number one, established you know, who we are,

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Speaker 2: and then what we wanted to speak about, which was

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Speaker 2: generally public lands and wildlife related issues. And then we

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Speaker 2: spent some time more establishing Okay, you know this is

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Speaker 2: who we represent. We represent mediator or first light or

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Speaker 2: backcountry hunters and anglers, and you know, these are the things,

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Speaker 2: These are the kinds of things that we care about.

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Speaker 2: This is the kind of scale we have, This is

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Speaker 2: the the community that we represent and reach. So that

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Speaker 2: I think that was just setting the stage for hey,

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Speaker 2: we represent a lot of interest, and we also we

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Speaker 2: are worth listening to. I suppose would be a little

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Speaker 2: bit of what some of that framing would be at

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Speaker 2: the beginning. And then it was okay, now, given all that,

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Speaker 2: here is why public lands and wildlife and these things

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Speaker 2: we just mentioned, this is why they matter to our community.

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Speaker 2: This is why they matter to your constituents. People that

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Speaker 2: live in your state or your district, so we tried to,

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Speaker 2: you know, share a little bit that would help connect

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Speaker 2: those dots. And then finally what you just described there

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Speaker 2: was the ask, so here's a specific way that we

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Speaker 2: would like you to take action on this issue for us.

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Speaker 2: And then finally, I guess, so this is more like

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Speaker 2: a five part piece. We typically always ended with a

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Speaker 2: little bit of that relationship building back and forth, which was, hey,

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Speaker 2: how can we help you If you are willing to

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Speaker 2: support these things, what can we do to make that

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Speaker 2: easier for you? Or how can we support that? Or

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Speaker 2: what can we further educate you on or what materials

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Speaker 2: do you need or whatever it might be to help

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Speaker 2: make this stuff happen. Because I can't remember if it

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Speaker 2: was you who said this or somebody else, but you know,

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Speaker 2: oftentimes these meetings are just a step one. This is

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Speaker 2: that foot in the door which hopefully leads to maybe

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00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,280
Speaker 2: an email back and forth or another visit down the

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Speaker 2: road or whatever it is that leads to you know,

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Speaker 2: you getting one step closer to actually seeing the kind

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Speaker 2: of action that you want to see happen. And so

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Speaker 2: it was it was that basic recipe for every one

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Speaker 2: of these meetings right, Kill, and I had let me

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Speaker 2: see what my numbers are here. I had eight of these,

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Speaker 2: and I think you had something pretty similar. So so

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Speaker 2: I'll run through the list of the offices I met with,

436
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 2: and then I want to hear what yours were. I

437
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:19,920
Speaker 2: met with Senator Risch's office from Idaho, Senator Heinrich from

438
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:24,680
Speaker 2: New Mexico, Senator Danes from Montana, Representative Zinki from Montana,

439
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:31,160
Speaker 2: Representative More from Alabama. Rep. Latta from Ohio, Salazar from Florida,

440
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 2: and Malyotakis from New York. Who all was on your list?

441
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 2: You mentioned Shehi already? Who else or what other offices

442
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 2: did you hit? Kil?

443
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:49,560
Speaker 4: Let's see, I guess in order. Well, I had that evening.

444
00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 3: I went to the Ducks Unlimited Bank what they're in DC,

445
00:29:53,400 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 3: and fat with you know, the new in our CS team,

446
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:10,080
Speaker 3: so freshly appointed National Resource Conservation Service team, which I

447
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 3: thought was was great to get to know some of

448
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 3: those folks, a lot of hunters and some ag backgrounds there.

449
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 2: There.

450
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,200
Speaker 3: There are a couple of folks that I spoke with.

451
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 3: They're definitely coming from different backgrounds in a lot of ways,

452
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:31,520
Speaker 3: but the similar parts were great.

453
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 4: In the fact that.

454
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:38,640
Speaker 3: They have some bag background, there's some bird dog owners

455
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 3: in there, there's some hunters in there. And you know,

456
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:50,200
Speaker 3: the National Resource Conservation Service is the largest conservation org.

457
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 4: Would be.

458
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 3: Agency, would be the largest conservation agency in the world,

459
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:59,960
Speaker 3: and they got hit pretty hard during the DOGE process.

460
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:07,400
Speaker 3: So I'm optimistic that these folks are going to be

461
00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 3: able to understand the benefits that they can provide to

462
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 3: our egg producers, and we need as sportsmen and women,

463
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 3: we need to understand that making sure our egg producers

464
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:33,000
Speaker 3: stay producing also keeps, quite selfishly, all that open space open,

465
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:37,960
Speaker 3: as in not developed. And they're going to do some

466
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:42,720
Speaker 3: habitat and some drought tolerance and fire tolerance work, and

467
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 3: work on native species and work against noxious weeds and

468
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 3: all those things that nrcs can do good good habitat work,

469
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 3: providing perpetual ease months and keeping producing land producing while

470
00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 3: all also producing good habitat benefits.

471
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:03,320
Speaker 4: So that was great.

472
00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:07,640
Speaker 3: I spoke with a bunch of folks in the Department

473
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 3: of Agriculture on the topic of are we going to

474
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 3: get a new farm bill and how can we help

475
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:22,360
Speaker 3: make that happen? Farm bill For everybody listening, it's not

476
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 3: just for farmers like, there is a ton of conservation

477
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:30,720
Speaker 3: work that's balled up in the Farm Bill. Everybody thinks

478
00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 3: about CRP, but you also need to think about there's

479
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 3: a private land hunting, private land public access program in there, and.

480
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:48,720
Speaker 4: More habitat work, more water development work.

481
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 2: The EQUICK program is huge for getting cost share out

482
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:57,520
Speaker 2: there for habitat projects and technical expertise. Yeah, it's the

483
00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 2: biggest source of conservation dollars on a basis across the government.

484
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:07,480
Speaker 3: Huge, and it's getting long in the tooth. We're on

485
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:11,120
Speaker 3: our second extension and it needs to get updated and

486
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:18,080
Speaker 3: put into some more modern terms here, so super interested

487
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 3: in that. Everybody listening should be interested in that, and

488
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:25,600
Speaker 3: you know, we'll do our follow ups and see what

489
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:30,200
Speaker 3: we can provide more information wise. Brings us to a

490
00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 3: next point. It's great to walk into somebody's office and say, hey,

491
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,000
Speaker 3: love your position on this, thank you so much for

492
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:42,440
Speaker 3: making it happen, which we did with Senator Danes and

493
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:47,280
Speaker 3: Danes's office, he has stepped in and been a big

494
00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:53,920
Speaker 3: proponent of getting cash authorized for the VPA hip program,

495
00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 3: which is something that's buried within the Farm Bill. But

496
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:02,200
Speaker 3: that's a good access program and dollars for these private producers.

497
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:07,280
Speaker 3: So thank you to Senator Danes on that one. And

498
00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:13,919
Speaker 3: I met with Crapo's office, which would be Idaho, and

499
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:19,439
Speaker 3: same deal, talked about public Lands, just kind of laid

500
00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:23,600
Speaker 3: some things out there, made them aware of.

501
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:23,839
Speaker 4: Who we are.

502
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:27,840
Speaker 3: It's probably a little unclear, but I was kind of

503
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:30,680
Speaker 3: wearing two hats. I was there as the North American

504
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:33,400
Speaker 3: board chair for back Country Hunters and Anglers, So I

505
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 3: would talk about our network of chapters, our diverse membership,

506
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:46,200
Speaker 3: how we're broken down politically, which I just said is diverse.

507
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:48,839
Speaker 3: So we have a lot of Independents, a lot of Republicans,

508
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:53,560
Speaker 3: a lot of Democrats, and it were hard to pin down,

509
00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:57,239
Speaker 3: which is great. So we lean quite a bit independent,

510
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:03,840
Speaker 3: and we're right across all fifty states, and you know,

511
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 3: our membership's just a little over north of thirty thousand,

512
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 3: but it's growing like crazy right now, with you know,

513
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 3: public Lands being so squarely in the headlines. It's kind

514
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 3: of waking folks up again. So if you're not a

515
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:20,000
Speaker 3: member of BHA, please become a member of BHA. And

516
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:24,720
Speaker 3: I'll tell you why over and over again. But it's

517
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:27,480
Speaker 3: so you can have somebody in the room advocating for

518
00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:31,680
Speaker 3: things like this, and then on the other side of

519
00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:34,560
Speaker 3: my head, my bald head, I was representing meat Eater

520
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 3: as the director of conservation and the fact that we

521
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:46,120
Speaker 3: have a office of business in four states. We have

522
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:49,839
Speaker 3: Phelps in Washington, Dave Smith Decoys in Oregon, First Light

523
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 3: in Idaho, Meat Eater, and FHF based right here in

524
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 3: bos Angeles, and we depend on public lands, public wall,

525
00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:05,240
Speaker 3: public wildlife, and access to those things in order to

526
00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:09,359
Speaker 3: sustain our business. And even going all the way back

527
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:14,360
Speaker 3: to like early days first Light sales, it wasn't just

528
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:18,719
Speaker 3: people in Idaho buying our gear, as people from all

529
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:25,080
Speaker 3: across the US, and their dream, if not reality, is

530
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 3: to buy this stuff and wear it when they're when

531
00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:32,840
Speaker 3: they're hunting or fishing or exploring our public lands and

532
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 3: public waters in pursuit of public wildlife. And then I

533
00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:40,160
Speaker 3: would throw some some business stats at them, how big

534
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 3: our reach is, our podcast network, how many people we

535
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:47,000
Speaker 3: talk to, how many how much feedback we get get

536
00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:52,160
Speaker 3: back from the outdoor population here in the United States,

537
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:58,160
Speaker 3: And you know, drive home the fact that even though

538
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:02,719
Speaker 3: some recent headlines have said, had oh Western states love

539
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 3: public land or just Montana loves public land. That's not

540
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:10,720
Speaker 3: what our data says. Yeah, this is a national issue

541
00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:14,359
Speaker 3: and we need you to stand firm on this because

542
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:18,480
Speaker 3: if you don't, you're going to be on the wrong side.

543
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:27,440
Speaker 3: So that was Crapo's office, and then I met with

544
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:33,880
Speaker 3: Senator Kramer's office. Can't remember what day that was at

545
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:37,360
Speaker 3: this point over there in North Dakota, And you know,

546
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 3: I had a great conversation over there. Lots of overlap.

547
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:45,840
Speaker 3: Senator Kramer's done a lot of good things for national

548
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:51,000
Speaker 3: parks and we need to see that kind of same

549
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:56,840
Speaker 3: passion on just the regular old public land side of things.

550
00:37:56,880 --> 00:38:01,680
Speaker 3: And had had a good, good conversation over there, but

551
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 3: need to follow up.

552
00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:04,960
Speaker 4: And then.

553
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:11,799
Speaker 3: Had the TRCP dinner that night. And so the Teddy

554
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:16,840
Speaker 3: Roosevelt Conservation Partnership of which Steve is well, Steven Ronelle

555
00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:19,399
Speaker 3: is a board member, and he likes to host that

556
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:20,239
Speaker 3: thing mc it.

557
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:23,640
Speaker 2: Does he like to or does he get roped into it?

558
00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 3: I think he likes to do it because you know,

559
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:32,279
Speaker 3: when you're on a board, as you know, everybody kind

560
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:37,120
Speaker 3: of has their strengths and you want to play to

561
00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 3: those strengths when you volunteer. And so This is like

562
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:44,239
Speaker 3: one of the ways that Steve gets to publicly volunteer

563
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:49,520
Speaker 3: for the conservation organization that he sits on the board with.

564
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 2: It's a good point. He does a good job. He

565
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:56,239
Speaker 2: did a good job. You and I got to kick

566
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:59,360
Speaker 2: back and enjoy our dinner while while poor Steve was

567
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:00,319
Speaker 2: up there working the room.

568
00:39:01,200 --> 00:39:03,600
Speaker 4: Yep, yeah exactly.

569
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:12,880
Speaker 3: But that room is so they always give one of

570
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 3: the Capital Conservation awards to a Democrat, a Republican, and then.

571
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:23,800
Speaker 4: Uh someone in in.

572
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:28,759
Speaker 3: In the field that's probably not an elected representative. And

573
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:33,520
Speaker 3: so it's a really good diverse room. There's lots of

574
00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:38,440
Speaker 3: different organizations present. There's lots of lobbying groups present. There's

575
00:39:40,239 --> 00:39:48,840
Speaker 3: lots of newly confirmed for for this year anyway, positions

576
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:52,279
Speaker 3: of leaders leadership. The Chief of the Forest Service was there.

577
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:53,320
Speaker 4: I did not get.

578
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:57,760
Speaker 3: A chance to talk with mister Schultz there. I really

579
00:39:57,840 --> 00:40:04,480
Speaker 3: would have liked that. Lots of kind of movers and shakers.

580
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:09,799
Speaker 3: So when you're in that room, your you know, your

581
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:13,880
Speaker 3: job is is really to have those conversations, introduce yourself,

582
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:20,720
Speaker 3: speak to people, say hey, you know, thanks for joining

583
00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:23,280
Speaker 3: the civil service. Being the chief of the Forest Service.

584
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:27,319
Speaker 3: These are the things that really matter to us. I'd

585
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:28,879
Speaker 3: love to sit down and talk with you more about

586
00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 3: it later, try to get a meeting that way, at

587
00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:37,839
Speaker 3: least make the introduction. And it's also a great information

588
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 3: gossip circle, especially if folks get a little couple of

589
00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:42,200
Speaker 3: cocktails in.

590
00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 2: Them and start getting the real scoop.

591
00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:47,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can hear like, well, what are you hearing

592
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:51,200
Speaker 3: and what's happening on this topic and the topic reconciliation

593
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:56,040
Speaker 3: and it it does matter, And.

594
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:01,279
Speaker 2: You hear about this networking bus word right, And that's

595
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:04,560
Speaker 2: one of those things they say in business or whatever.

596
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:07,319
Speaker 2: You got a network, You got a network. But man,

597
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:11,160
Speaker 2: it's it's so true that oftentimes relationships and who you

598
00:41:11,239 --> 00:41:14,360
Speaker 2: know or if you know this person, that stuff matters

599
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:17,200
Speaker 2: even in this world too, just with you know, having

600
00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:19,319
Speaker 2: someone you can call who might know the guy who

601
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,120
Speaker 2: understands what's actually happening, or might know the woman who

602
00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:24,880
Speaker 2: can get you up, you know, some face time with

603
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:27,879
Speaker 2: such and such persons. So yeah, an event like that

604
00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:30,839
Speaker 2: awards dinner is about as good as you can get.

605
00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:33,280
Speaker 2: And I'm sure the du dinner the night before was similar.

606
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:37,720
Speaker 2: Just being around people who are involved with the decision

607
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 2: making that impacts our public LANs and wildlife and all

608
00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:45,919
Speaker 2: those people in that room have you know, really really

609
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:50,160
Speaker 2: important touch points to those things. So, just like you,

610
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:52,200
Speaker 2: it was all about talking to as many people as

611
00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:55,799
Speaker 2: you can, building those connections because you never know when

612
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:58,520
Speaker 2: there might be when there might be cause to give

613
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:01,160
Speaker 2: that person a call or also, you know, making sure

614
00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:02,840
Speaker 2: that people know that you're available, right. That was a

615
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:05,040
Speaker 2: big thing for me too. I was talking to folks

616
00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:07,719
Speaker 2: in different organizations and you'd figure out, oh, we care

617
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,040
Speaker 2: about some similar things, or there might be something that

618
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:12,560
Speaker 2: I could do to help them out that I would

619
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:15,160
Speaker 2: like to help with that I never knew about. So

620
00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:18,560
Speaker 2: lots of stuff kind of comes out of those random

621
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:21,319
Speaker 2: meetings at an event like that, And I think that

622
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 2: for anyone listening, there's going to be like local versions

623
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:29,319
Speaker 2: of that, whether it's like a BHA pint night or

624
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:34,400
Speaker 2: a Ducks Unlimited banquet or a volunteer event with a

625
00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:37,880
Speaker 2: state game agency, like any one of those events is

626
00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:41,400
Speaker 2: worth being at because of that community you might be

627
00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:43,920
Speaker 2: able to build, because of those connections you might need,

628
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:46,879
Speaker 2: you might be able to foster that who knows, might

629
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 2: help you someday down the road, whether it be you

630
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:52,640
Speaker 2: know as an advocate for these places or who knows what?

631
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:56,680
Speaker 3: Oh, and I mean if we're thinking, we're talking really

632
00:42:56,719 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 3: about something that's huge, right, We're talking about the National

633
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 3: Day and the idea that our federally managed lands could

634
00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:11,680
Speaker 3: be sold in order to somehow satiate the national debt somehow.

635
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:17,280
Speaker 3: It's going to take a broad, diverse coalition of people

636
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:21,520
Speaker 3: to get on the same page and kind of have

637
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:26,960
Speaker 3: the same language and make the same statement, No, this

638
00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:27,479
Speaker 3: is not.

639
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:29,120
Speaker 4: Going to do it. What else you got?

640
00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, don't you think having these lands working on our

641
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:37,560
Speaker 3: behalf is going to pay more dividends in the long

642
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,080
Speaker 3: run than selling them right now and never getting them back.

643
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:42,560
Speaker 4: Things like that.

644
00:43:42,719 --> 00:43:49,280
Speaker 3: So yeah, you know, talking with those folks that aren't

645
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:52,600
Speaker 3: in the hook and bullet community and letting them know that, yeah,

646
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:58,040
Speaker 3: you're available. We're absolutely on the same page, like very

647
00:43:58,160 --> 00:43:59,280
Speaker 3: very valuable.

648
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 4: And you know, just like you and I do. Folks

649
00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:06,240
Speaker 4: listening do when.

650
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:11,000
Speaker 3: You know, like I see somebody in a three piece

651
00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:15,800
Speaker 3: suit and fancy shoes with you know, those no sock

652
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:18,680
Speaker 3: thing that's going around, you know, I'm like, oh, this

653
00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:23,560
Speaker 3: person's not necessarily one of my folks. How are we

654
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 3: going to handle this? I see somebody coming in a

655
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:33,680
Speaker 3: plaid shirt, jeans and flip flops. It's an easy approach,

656
00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:38,640
Speaker 3: it's an easy conversation. You know, folks in DC are

657
00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:46,839
Speaker 3: the exact exact same, So when they know your name,

658
00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:51,879
Speaker 3: when when anybody knows somebody's name, they're eighty percent more

659
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:54,799
Speaker 3: likely to open that email instead of blow right past it.

660
00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 3: This So you got to make these connections. You got

661
00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:02,480
Speaker 3: to reach out to folks that don't look like you,

662
00:45:02,640 --> 00:45:06,719
Speaker 3: act like you, dress like you, and say, yeah, this

663
00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:08,960
Speaker 3: is this is where we overlap. We'd love to work

664
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 3: with you on this. And my point also is you

665
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:23,480
Speaker 3: may not divulge as much to somebody who visibly doesn't

666
00:45:23,719 --> 00:45:26,239
Speaker 3: look like they care about the same stuff you do.

667
00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:31,040
Speaker 3: So when you're in these gossip circles, you can be like, oh,

668
00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 3: that's interesting. I met with them today too, and they

669
00:45:35,719 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 3: actually told me this. And if you and I are

670
00:45:40,719 --> 00:45:43,640
Speaker 3: on the same page on this public lands thing, I

671
00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:47,759
Speaker 3: have no problem sharing that with you. And I had

672
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:52,560
Speaker 3: several versions of that conversation last week, and you know

673
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:54,760
Speaker 3: I'm here to win on this public lands deal.

674
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:54,920
Speaker 4: So.

675
00:45:56,920 --> 00:46:10,960
Speaker 2: Whatever it takes. Yeah, So cal out of all these

676
00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:14,520
Speaker 2: conversations and you had you know, all these various dinners

677
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:17,840
Speaker 2: and press conferences and then the office visits, like we

678
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:23,719
Speaker 2: were just discussing, you know, I had a few things

679
00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:26,040
Speaker 2: that stood out to me as far as like high

680
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 2: level takeaways or I guess lessons or vibes that I

681
00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:32,760
Speaker 2: kind of picked up. And I'm curious if you felt

682
00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:36,799
Speaker 2: anything similar. But one of the things that was a

683
00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:39,399
Speaker 2: this was a little bit more personal for me, less

684
00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:42,799
Speaker 2: so probably for you. But going and doing this, this

685
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:44,960
Speaker 2: is my first set of hill visits like this. I

686
00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:48,800
Speaker 2: came out of it much more confident in my ability

687
00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 2: to do more of that kind of thing. I think

688
00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:52,839
Speaker 2: before you go into this, there's a certain level of

689
00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:56,160
Speaker 2: intimidation or this idea like, oh gosh, this is going

690
00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:59,719
Speaker 2: to be like an interrogation. You're going to go in

691
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:02,040
Speaker 2: there and they're going to be like arguing with you

692
00:47:02,239 --> 00:47:04,759
Speaker 2: or trying to make you feel stupid, or you know,

693
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 2: it could be confrontational in some kind of way. And

694
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:10,120
Speaker 2: every one of these meetings was was so far from that.

695
00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:13,000
Speaker 2: All of these were much more low key than maybe

696
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:18,640
Speaker 2: the average person thinks. This is literally showing up walking

697
00:47:18,640 --> 00:47:20,959
Speaker 2: into an office saying, hey, I'm here to see Kate

698
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:25,600
Speaker 2: and sitting down for a nice chat, and they all

699
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:30,080
Speaker 2: you know, were polite, interested, maybe ask a few follow

700
00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:32,840
Speaker 2: up questions. In every single one of these meetings, I

701
00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:36,120
Speaker 2: generally felt like I knew more or just as much as,

702
00:47:36,239 --> 00:47:38,400
Speaker 2: if not more than they did about these issues. I

703
00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:41,120
Speaker 2: came in, We came in as the subject matter experts.

704
00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:44,120
Speaker 2: And I think most anyone who's into this kind of

705
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:46,960
Speaker 2: stuff and wanted to make a phone call like this

706
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:49,200
Speaker 2: or go in person to a state capital or the

707
00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:52,120
Speaker 2: nation's capital or whatever it might be, they're probably going

708
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:54,319
Speaker 2: to be in a similar boat because again, like we

709
00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:58,080
Speaker 2: talked about the beginning, we're meeting with staffers. We are

710
00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:01,560
Speaker 2: not meeting with the you know, secretary of the interior

711
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:04,680
Speaker 2: or something in most cases who is entrenched in these things.

712
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 2: So you can go into this again feeling pretty confident

713
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:10,320
Speaker 2: that you know what you're talking about. This is your issue,

714
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:13,560
Speaker 2: this is your passion project. And so this was a

715
00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:15,440
Speaker 2: great reminder, and what I want to pass on to

716
00:48:15,480 --> 00:48:18,440
Speaker 2: people listening is that, you know, do not feel like

717
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:21,719
Speaker 2: this is above you or beyond your capabilities. If you

718
00:48:21,800 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 2: care about this stuff enough to listen to a podcast

719
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:27,560
Speaker 2: like this, you are probably armed and ready to go

720
00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:29,960
Speaker 2: and have a chat like this with someone in one

721
00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:34,399
Speaker 2: of these offices. So that's number one and number two,

722
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:36,480
Speaker 2: And this is something that I'm I think that you

723
00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:40,759
Speaker 2: heard as well. But from the outside looking in, over

724
00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:42,360
Speaker 2: the last handful of months, I think a lot of

725
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:45,799
Speaker 2: us have said like, oh wow, this feels crazy right now,

726
00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:49,480
Speaker 2: this moment feels unprecedented. There's been a lot of that

727
00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:52,479
Speaker 2: kind of terminology thrown around the news, and I felt

728
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:55,759
Speaker 2: that way myself. What was interesting was that I was

729
00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:59,719
Speaker 2: hearing that from people in these offices too, So this

730
00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:02,160
Speaker 2: wasn't just like an outside Oh it seems crazy from

731
00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:05,439
Speaker 2: the outside. Everyone on the inside said the same thing,

732
00:49:05,600 --> 00:49:07,239
Speaker 2: both sides of they all too. This was I was

733
00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:12,480
Speaker 2: hearing this from Republicans and Democrats, things like everything's so

734
00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:17,400
Speaker 2: uncertain right now, this is wild, this is unprecedented. Anything

735
00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:21,480
Speaker 2: seems possible, nothing's off the table. Oh I thought this

736
00:49:21,560 --> 00:49:24,200
Speaker 2: kind of thing would never be possible, but now anything is.

737
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:27,680
Speaker 2: I heard so many versions of that from many different

738
00:49:27,719 --> 00:49:31,880
Speaker 2: people that, again, I think, just shines a spotlet on

739
00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:35,120
Speaker 2: how important what we're talking about right now is. Because

740
00:49:35,160 --> 00:49:38,800
Speaker 2: if anything's possible, then these issues that we care about,

741
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:41,719
Speaker 2: it's more important than ever to make sure that we're

742
00:49:41,719 --> 00:49:44,799
Speaker 2: on the right side of them. So anything else for

743
00:49:44,920 --> 00:49:48,239
Speaker 2: you stand out from all your conversations, or was there

744
00:49:48,239 --> 00:49:51,640
Speaker 2: a big like consistent through line across the border or

745
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:52,480
Speaker 2: anything else for you.

746
00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:58,040
Speaker 3: We definitely heard a lot of I mean, I'll definitely

747
00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:02,640
Speaker 3: back you up on that. There's a great quote of

748
00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:10,800
Speaker 3: and this is coming coming from a senior policy person

749
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:15,960
Speaker 3: in a Republican office saying, Uh, guys, I'll be honest

750
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:20,560
Speaker 3: with you. Trump has been really shaking the snow globe here.

751
00:50:22,640 --> 00:50:26,839
Speaker 3: Our job is not easy right now, and you may

752
00:50:26,880 --> 00:50:29,279
Speaker 3: have more information than than we do on some of

753
00:50:29,280 --> 00:50:36,759
Speaker 3: this stuff. So that is interesting. And I will tell

754
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:45,839
Speaker 3: you and the listeners past administrations, including Trump's first term,

755
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:52,279
Speaker 3: there was way more information and way more access purposely

756
00:50:53,239 --> 00:50:57,640
Speaker 3: coming out of the administration to get people on the

757
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:01,880
Speaker 3: same page, get them informed early so they can be

758
00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:09,160
Speaker 3: prepared for to make next steps. That is largely not

759
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:14,319
Speaker 3: going on. It's it's kind of stealed rooms at the

760
00:51:14,360 --> 00:51:23,200
Speaker 3: top top. And just from my experience, I did notice

761
00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:30,560
Speaker 3: a lot of people who are way more informed paid

762
00:51:30,560 --> 00:51:34,959
Speaker 3: to be way more informed than I am, taking real

763
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:39,520
Speaker 3: notes of what I was saying. After recapping a meeting

764
00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:48,840
Speaker 3: because as we've already discussed, like different communicators get different

765
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:55,360
Speaker 3: information and slightly different versions and different levels of access,

766
00:51:55,760 --> 00:51:59,840
Speaker 3: and that could be based off of that representative or

767
00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:03,439
Speaker 3: to offfer just being tired and later in the day,

768
00:52:04,080 --> 00:52:08,520
Speaker 3: or they're more energized and earlier in the day, or

769
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:16,279
Speaker 3: you know them or their family member, or you have

770
00:52:16,440 --> 00:52:21,040
Speaker 3: some sort of a personal connection to a place or

771
00:52:21,160 --> 00:52:24,120
Speaker 3: resource or something that connects with them and they go,

772
00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:25,879
Speaker 3: all right, I got to tell you what's going on.

773
00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:33,799
Speaker 3: So it is an interesting time. I will say that.

774
00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:41,839
Speaker 3: I would say one of the other themes that we

775
00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:51,000
Speaker 3: heard was working in a bipartisan manner, trying to work

776
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:57,880
Speaker 3: across the aisle. And we definitely saw this in Trump's

777
00:52:57,880 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 3: first administration, where things kind of deadlocked after midterms, and

778
00:53:04,080 --> 00:53:10,400
Speaker 3: you know, really the things that moved were the outdoor bills,

779
00:53:10,440 --> 00:53:16,000
Speaker 3: like positive things because those are largely nonpartisan issues and

780
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:18,560
Speaker 3: folks want to get some stuff done and get some wins.

781
00:53:19,200 --> 00:53:21,480
Speaker 3: And there's a lot of that talk going on right

782
00:53:21,480 --> 00:53:27,120
Speaker 3: now too, which is like, yeah, we are working Zinky,

783
00:53:27,280 --> 00:53:30,960
Speaker 3: working with Gabe Vasquez, Congressman Vasquez out of New Mexico,

784
00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:40,320
Speaker 3: Danes making some positive statements on some some Democrat led things.

785
00:53:40,360 --> 00:53:43,680
Speaker 3: Heinrich may making some great statements. Heinrich, a Democrat of

786
00:53:43,760 --> 00:53:50,440
Speaker 3: New Mexico, making some some very positive statements about Danes

787
00:53:50,680 --> 00:53:53,800
Speaker 3: and and Zinki as well.

788
00:53:54,400 --> 00:53:59,040
Speaker 2: So you know something that yeah, speaking of that, something

789
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:02,240
Speaker 2: that I just was remind kind of which I hadn't

790
00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:04,600
Speaker 2: heard as much about in recent months, but it was

791
00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:07,359
Speaker 2: nice to hear. When you and I sat down with

792
00:54:07,440 --> 00:54:12,080
Speaker 2: Senator Heinrich and you guys were recording that podcast. One

793
00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:14,040
Speaker 2: thing he mentioned that I was really excited about was

794
00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:18,719
Speaker 2: that he is definitely feeling bullish about the prospects of

795
00:54:18,760 --> 00:54:23,520
Speaker 2: getting recovering America's Wildlife Act, you know, reintroduced and pushed

796
00:54:23,520 --> 00:54:25,800
Speaker 2: forward again in this Congress, and that there was energy

797
00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:29,239
Speaker 2: from both sides of the aisle again supposedly, and that's

798
00:54:29,280 --> 00:54:33,000
Speaker 2: something that again would be a really important funding source

799
00:54:33,040 --> 00:54:38,040
Speaker 2: for state wildlife agencies and their wildlife management plans. So

800
00:54:38,800 --> 00:54:42,040
Speaker 2: you mentioned the Endangered Species Act earlier and how that's

801
00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:44,040
Speaker 2: something that gets a lot of people really fired up.

802
00:54:44,719 --> 00:54:47,759
Speaker 2: That's kind of like an emergency room for wildlife. Well,

803
00:54:48,680 --> 00:54:51,920
Speaker 2: REIWA would be, you know, as Senator Heinrich said, is

804
00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:53,759
Speaker 2: more like the primary care So like that's where we

805
00:54:53,800 --> 00:54:56,520
Speaker 2: can deal with wildlife issues before they're at serious risk

806
00:54:56,600 --> 00:54:59,760
Speaker 2: of death or in this case, you know, extinction species wide.

807
00:55:00,719 --> 00:55:03,880
Speaker 2: So that's a bipartisan one right there. That would be

808
00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:06,400
Speaker 2: a huge win if we could somehow get that to

809
00:55:06,440 --> 00:55:09,480
Speaker 2: move forward at this time, given all the other things

810
00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:12,839
Speaker 2: and cuts being met other places, I think that securing

811
00:55:12,880 --> 00:55:15,719
Speaker 2: some kind of funding like this for wildlife would be

812
00:55:16,280 --> 00:55:20,160
Speaker 2: really important. And then the one other thing I'll add

813
00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:23,520
Speaker 2: on that front was that on my first day there,

814
00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:26,080
Speaker 2: you had I think your press conference and stuff like

815
00:55:26,160 --> 00:55:31,479
Speaker 2: that during the TRCP Joint Corporate Council and Policy meeting,

816
00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:34,120
Speaker 2: and that was something that I did attend. And during

817
00:55:34,160 --> 00:55:37,560
Speaker 2: that we basically had a bunch of representatives from conservation

818
00:55:37,680 --> 00:55:42,080
Speaker 2: organizations and from the hunting and fishing industry, so representatives

819
00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:45,319
Speaker 2: from companies, and then we were all meeting together with

820
00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:49,000
Speaker 2: a number of different speakers talking about issues impacting hunting

821
00:55:49,040 --> 00:55:53,520
Speaker 2: and fishing and conservation and all the stuff going on

822
00:55:53,560 --> 00:55:57,520
Speaker 2: with the current administration and politics and ramifications for hunting

823
00:55:57,520 --> 00:56:00,960
Speaker 2: and fishing and public lands, YadA YadA. One big stand

824
00:56:01,040 --> 00:56:03,600
Speaker 2: up point there too was just what you said, which

825
00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:07,840
Speaker 2: was the importance of trying to have a non partisan

826
00:56:07,840 --> 00:56:12,960
Speaker 2: angle on this because you know, there certainly are things

827
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:16,040
Speaker 2: coming out right now that most of us would say

828
00:56:16,200 --> 00:56:18,239
Speaker 2: is not good for hunting or fishing or wildlife for

829
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:21,759
Speaker 2: public lands. Right. But if all you ever do is

830
00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:26,120
Speaker 2: scream bloody murder about those things and villainize the administration

831
00:56:26,239 --> 00:56:28,799
Speaker 2: for all that, you would never have an opportunity to

832
00:56:28,800 --> 00:56:31,400
Speaker 2: work with them on anything good too, or to establish

833
00:56:31,400 --> 00:56:34,520
Speaker 2: communications or to help, you know, inform these people about

834
00:56:34,520 --> 00:56:37,120
Speaker 2: different ways to think about things. And so a key

835
00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:40,440
Speaker 2: theme of the TIERCP meeting was how do we address

836
00:56:40,520 --> 00:56:42,600
Speaker 2: these issues in a way that's good for hunting and

837
00:56:42,640 --> 00:56:45,000
Speaker 2: fishing and wildlife and public lands, but at the same

838
00:56:45,040 --> 00:56:49,319
Speaker 2: time gives us an opportunity still to have influence with

839
00:56:49,480 --> 00:56:53,240
Speaker 2: whoever is that the is at the levers these days,

840
00:56:53,239 --> 00:56:57,239
Speaker 2: no matter if it's a democratic administration or Republican administration.

841
00:56:57,360 --> 00:56:59,800
Speaker 2: We want our issues to be at the table. We

842
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:03,920
Speaker 2: want our voices to be heard. So, you know, I

843
00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:06,319
Speaker 2: think that's an important thing. Whether you are an individual

844
00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:10,520
Speaker 2: or a conservation organization or a larger group like the TRCP,

845
00:57:11,239 --> 00:57:13,319
Speaker 2: or a business that's thinking about how to engage in

846
00:57:13,360 --> 00:57:17,480
Speaker 2: this stuff, I at least certainly think that you can

847
00:57:17,560 --> 00:57:20,000
Speaker 2: be more effective for the things you care about. If

848
00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:21,920
Speaker 2: you simply say, hey, I'm going to work with whoever.

849
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:25,919
Speaker 2: I don't care who's doing things. Let's just make sure

850
00:57:25,960 --> 00:57:28,480
Speaker 2: we are being heard, and then we have some ability

851
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:31,040
Speaker 2: to have some kind of influence to move you know,

852
00:57:31,920 --> 00:57:34,480
Speaker 2: maybe it's five yards down the football field right now.

853
00:57:34,880 --> 00:57:37,600
Speaker 2: That's certainly much better than going twenty yards backwards. And

854
00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:40,479
Speaker 2: you have no chance to do that at all if

855
00:57:40,520 --> 00:57:42,760
Speaker 2: you are not even in the rooms and not even

856
00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:46,120
Speaker 2: having your phone calls answered or your emails read or

857
00:57:46,120 --> 00:57:49,600
Speaker 2: whatever it is. So that really stood out to me.

858
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:53,080
Speaker 2: And you know, coming out of this, you know, handful

859
00:57:53,080 --> 00:57:56,360
Speaker 2: of days there, I guess it gives me maybe a

860
00:57:56,400 --> 00:57:58,360
Speaker 2: little bit more hope that those kinds of things are

861
00:57:58,400 --> 00:58:02,600
Speaker 2: possible because there was, you know, some degree of talking

862
00:58:02,600 --> 00:58:05,720
Speaker 2: about it. So I don't know, I certainly hope that

863
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:07,080
Speaker 2: there's more momentum there to be had.

864
00:58:08,600 --> 00:58:11,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd hope as well. And you know, it's just

865
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:17,560
Speaker 3: a consistency game, right. You can't let people think that

866
00:58:19,680 --> 00:58:22,160
Speaker 3: you're going to ease up or this is no longer

867
00:58:22,200 --> 00:58:26,400
Speaker 3: an issue, because there's always issues popping up and there's

868
00:58:26,400 --> 00:58:31,840
Speaker 3: so many things that will fill that space if you

869
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:40,080
Speaker 3: aren't being consistent on these asks or educational moments or

870
00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:41,200
Speaker 3: whatever you want to call them.

871
00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:41,760
Speaker 1: You know, So.

872
00:58:43,680 --> 00:58:46,200
Speaker 2: That was the single biggest thing, and started jumping on

873
00:58:46,240 --> 00:58:49,480
Speaker 2: you again, kill But the biggest eye opener, like the

874
00:58:49,480 --> 00:58:52,720
Speaker 2: biggest takeaway from my entire visit was this. It was

875
00:58:52,840 --> 00:58:56,520
Speaker 2: walking through the hallways of the Senate office buildings and

876
00:58:56,640 --> 00:59:00,520
Speaker 2: the House office buildings, and especially saw on the House

877
00:59:00,520 --> 00:59:05,040
Speaker 2: side there were just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of

878
00:59:05,080 --> 00:59:08,160
Speaker 2: people all walking around these same hallways as you and

879
00:59:08,200 --> 00:59:12,000
Speaker 2: I were flooding all of these offices with their own

880
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:14,800
Speaker 2: issues and with their own pet causes and with their

881
00:59:14,840 --> 00:59:17,560
Speaker 2: own concerns. I mean, there were thousands of other people,

882
00:59:18,160 --> 00:59:20,640
Speaker 2: and I'm sure this is happening every single day, day

883
00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:24,160
Speaker 2: after day after day, talking to these elected officials about Hey,

884
00:59:24,320 --> 00:59:26,280
Speaker 2: pay attention to this, Hey, listen to me on this.

885
00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:28,360
Speaker 2: Hey be careful about this. Hey watch out for this.

886
00:59:28,440 --> 00:59:31,720
Speaker 2: Hey please advocate for this. Hey a b CD e

887
00:59:31,800 --> 00:59:36,080
Speaker 2: FG right. They're getting it from Sony different angles on

888
00:59:36,160 --> 00:59:40,840
Speaker 2: so many different issues that you know, any one single

889
00:59:40,920 --> 00:59:44,840
Speaker 2: phone call, any one single meeting, it's going to get

890
00:59:44,840 --> 00:59:47,600
Speaker 2: lost in the noise. It has to be, you know,

891
00:59:47,800 --> 00:59:49,520
Speaker 2: to move the needle on this kind of stuff. I

892
00:59:50,520 --> 00:59:53,880
Speaker 2: this like just I knew it intellectually, but it became

893
00:59:53,920 --> 00:59:56,560
Speaker 2: like real in a tangible way after seeing this. It's

894
00:59:56,640 --> 00:59:59,120
Speaker 2: like you have to be doing this over and over

895
00:59:59,280 --> 01:00:02,479
Speaker 2: and over again, and with so many different people doing

896
01:00:02,520 --> 01:00:05,760
Speaker 2: it from so many different angles, all kind of beating

897
01:00:05,760 --> 01:00:08,800
Speaker 2: the drum for the same cause, and only in that

898
01:00:08,920 --> 01:00:11,160
Speaker 2: kind of way. Like if you if you imagine like

899
01:00:11,160 --> 01:00:13,680
Speaker 2: a snowball, like what you and I did the other

900
01:00:13,760 --> 01:00:16,120
Speaker 2: day was we got a little snowball kind of rolling

901
01:00:16,160 --> 01:00:17,880
Speaker 2: down a hill, and then someone later in the day

902
01:00:17,920 --> 01:00:19,720
Speaker 2: was hopefully going to take that same snowball and keep

903
01:00:19,760 --> 01:00:21,040
Speaker 2: rolling it down the hill, so it got a little

904
01:00:21,040 --> 01:00:23,000
Speaker 2: bit bigger, and the next day, the hope is that

905
01:00:23,040 --> 01:00:25,800
Speaker 2: there was somebody else there from another similar organization who's

906
01:00:26,080 --> 01:00:27,800
Speaker 2: rolling that snowball a little bit more, and it gets

907
01:00:27,800 --> 01:00:31,040
Speaker 2: bigger and bigger, and over days and weeks and months

908
01:00:31,080 --> 01:00:34,480
Speaker 2: and years, you finally break through the noise and people

909
01:00:34,560 --> 01:00:38,280
Speaker 2: can't ignore you anymore, or you stand out above all

910
01:00:38,320 --> 01:00:43,040
Speaker 2: of these other things. It just seems like this is

911
01:00:44,240 --> 01:00:48,880
Speaker 2: this is even more I don't want to say daunting,

912
01:00:48,920 --> 01:00:54,200
Speaker 2: because daunting sounds disheartening, but this requires all of us,

913
01:00:54,520 --> 01:00:56,720
Speaker 2: This really requires all of us. And it's not something

914
01:00:56,760 --> 01:01:00,400
Speaker 2: we're going to solve with one thing. It's it's just

915
01:01:00,520 --> 01:01:03,360
Speaker 2: one straw on the camel's back and you just got

916
01:01:03,360 --> 01:01:06,560
Speaker 2: to keep on stacking them. And that was my big takeaway.

917
01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:08,360
Speaker 2: I realized like, oh wow, this can't be a one

918
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:10,800
Speaker 2: time thing. I'm going to have to come again, and

919
01:01:10,840 --> 01:01:12,160
Speaker 2: I have to come again. And actually, when I was

920
01:01:12,200 --> 01:01:15,919
Speaker 2: in the airport flying home, I called my representative because

921
01:01:15,920 --> 01:01:17,959
Speaker 2: I'd wanted to stop in his office and we didn't

922
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:19,880
Speaker 2: get to. So I left a voicemail and said, Hey,

923
01:01:19,920 --> 01:01:23,000
Speaker 2: I was just walking by your office earlier today wasn't

924
01:01:23,040 --> 01:01:24,520
Speaker 2: able to stop, and but hey, want to remind you

925
01:01:24,520 --> 01:01:27,480
Speaker 2: about AB and C and and something you said to

926
01:01:27,520 --> 01:01:32,840
Speaker 2: me earlier this year cal on this issue was that

927
01:01:33,040 --> 01:01:35,160
Speaker 2: we should be making plans to check in with our

928
01:01:35,200 --> 01:01:38,600
Speaker 2: elected officials on a weekly basis. And I remember thinking, like, WHOA,

929
01:01:38,720 --> 01:01:42,480
Speaker 2: I'm not doing it that much. I thought I was

930
01:01:42,520 --> 01:01:46,040
Speaker 2: annoying with how many times I was emailing or leaving voicemails.

931
01:01:46,160 --> 01:01:49,240
Speaker 2: But now I realized that you weren't kidding. We really

932
01:01:49,240 --> 01:01:51,920
Speaker 2: do need to ramp it up. Whatever level you're at,

933
01:01:52,520 --> 01:01:54,480
Speaker 2: it's you got to go up another level. If we

934
01:01:54,520 --> 01:01:58,720
Speaker 2: want to stand out in this moment. I saw a

935
01:01:58,720 --> 01:02:01,439
Speaker 2: whole lot of folks walking around with last week killer.

936
01:02:02,360 --> 01:02:04,680
Speaker 2: We got to make sure that somehow our folders are

937
01:02:04,720 --> 01:02:07,640
Speaker 2: a little bit more attention worthy, is what I'm trying

938
01:02:07,640 --> 01:02:08,040
Speaker 2: to say.

939
01:02:08,400 --> 01:02:15,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, and man, trying to get across it's not a

940
01:02:16,120 --> 01:02:18,920
Speaker 3: trope cliche.

941
01:02:20,440 --> 01:02:20,680
Speaker 2: Thing.

942
01:02:20,840 --> 01:02:26,640
Speaker 3: It's like everybody does have a voice, and people are

943
01:02:26,720 --> 01:02:31,680
Speaker 3: checking those boxes. Right. So when we go into an

944
01:02:31,720 --> 01:02:39,000
Speaker 3: office and we talk about managing for fire, they're like, oh, okay, yeah,

945
01:02:39,040 --> 01:02:45,480
Speaker 3: you guys know your stuff, and that's that's great. A

946
01:02:45,560 --> 01:02:50,480
Speaker 3: couple of hunting guys don't really understand what you do.

947
01:02:50,560 --> 01:02:51,880
Speaker 4: Podcast people cool.

948
01:02:54,520 --> 01:02:59,000
Speaker 3: They need to hear that from a couple of dudes

949
01:02:59,040 --> 01:03:02,960
Speaker 3: who are like, yeah, hey, we're plumbers in you know,

950
01:03:03,040 --> 01:03:07,439
Speaker 3: the Gallatin Valley making money hand over fist right now

951
01:03:07,480 --> 01:03:12,520
Speaker 3: with the crazy housing boom. What we do with our cash.

952
01:03:12,600 --> 01:03:15,360
Speaker 3: The only reason that we suffer through being on call

953
01:03:15,640 --> 01:03:19,400
Speaker 3: and working crazy hours and going from job to job

954
01:03:19,400 --> 01:03:24,200
Speaker 3: to job is because we want to hunt. And good

955
01:03:24,240 --> 01:03:27,640
Speaker 3: fire management provides excellent hunting opportunity.

956
01:03:27,640 --> 01:03:28,640
Speaker 4: This is super important.

957
01:03:29,360 --> 01:03:33,240
Speaker 3: And you know, like the law and care people and

958
01:03:33,520 --> 01:03:40,360
Speaker 3: every single order of society, right, like, hey, I'm a

959
01:03:40,440 --> 01:03:43,280
Speaker 3: childcare specialist. This is what I do. I work in

960
01:03:43,280 --> 01:03:49,280
Speaker 3: the hospital. All everybody has a voice. And by making

961
01:03:49,320 --> 01:03:55,320
Speaker 3: these phone calls and emails and visits, pretty soon like

962
01:03:55,360 --> 01:03:59,680
Speaker 3: that spreadsheet of interests is going to be filled out.

963
01:04:00,560 --> 01:04:01,680
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be like Jesus.

964
01:04:02,400 --> 01:04:04,520
Speaker 3: People are spending a lot of their own time, own

965
01:04:04,600 --> 01:04:08,560
Speaker 3: money to get here or make a phone caller or

966
01:04:08,560 --> 01:04:11,800
Speaker 3: write an email, and they're coming from all walks of life,

967
01:04:11,920 --> 01:04:15,200
Speaker 3: and they're all basically saying the same thing. I should

968
01:04:15,240 --> 01:04:18,480
Speaker 3: probably think really carefully before we sell off public land

969
01:04:19,000 --> 01:04:22,840
Speaker 3: or we don't sign on to this bill.

970
01:04:23,240 --> 01:04:29,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll give one encouraging anecdote on that front. When

971
01:04:29,200 --> 01:04:31,240
Speaker 2: you and I were going to visit with a Senator

972
01:04:31,480 --> 01:04:34,880
Speaker 2: Risch's office there from Idaho, you had to bounce for

973
01:04:35,000 --> 01:04:37,240
Speaker 2: the Zincy podcast, and so I took that meeting on

974
01:04:37,240 --> 01:04:40,600
Speaker 2: my own. And something that stood out is I kind

975
01:04:40,600 --> 01:04:42,840
Speaker 2: of gave the I kind of ran through our bit

976
01:04:43,080 --> 01:04:45,920
Speaker 2: talking about the importance of public lands and you know,

977
01:04:46,120 --> 01:04:49,000
Speaker 2: the value that they provide to hunters and anglers and

978
01:04:49,080 --> 01:04:52,560
Speaker 2: our community and our business audience and all these different things.

979
01:04:52,800 --> 01:04:55,400
Speaker 2: And I made some kind of line or kind of

980
01:04:55,400 --> 01:04:57,720
Speaker 2: common at the end, just something on the lines of you,

981
01:04:58,160 --> 01:05:00,560
Speaker 2: I hope you've heard something like that from many other people.

982
01:05:01,080 --> 01:05:05,240
Speaker 2: And she stopped and she's like, oh, trust me, we

983
01:05:05,320 --> 01:05:09,080
Speaker 2: have heard this from a lot of people lately. So

984
01:05:09,840 --> 01:05:11,520
Speaker 2: she looked over like there was an intern with her

985
01:05:11,560 --> 01:05:13,040
Speaker 2: and like they kind of looked at eyes. So I

986
01:05:13,080 --> 01:05:15,919
Speaker 2: feel like we are not alone in this right now,

987
01:05:15,960 --> 01:05:18,560
Speaker 2: like there has been a lot of that. And you know,

988
01:05:18,720 --> 01:05:21,960
Speaker 2: a good example, this is what there were several different

989
01:05:23,640 --> 01:05:26,919
Speaker 2: groups of conservation organizations. They are around the same time

990
01:05:26,960 --> 01:05:29,360
Speaker 2: that we were, so like the outdoor industry like not

991
01:05:29,440 --> 01:05:32,040
Speaker 2: hooking Bullet, but more of like your ARII crowd, the

992
01:05:32,080 --> 01:05:36,800
Speaker 2: Outdoor Industry Association and the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, a bunch

993
01:05:36,840 --> 01:05:39,120
Speaker 2: of these groups that bring together those industries. I know

994
01:05:39,160 --> 01:05:42,000
Speaker 2: that they were there in town recently around the same time,

995
01:05:42,040 --> 01:05:44,880
Speaker 2: probably talking about some of these same things. So you know,

996
01:05:44,920 --> 01:05:47,680
Speaker 2: when we work across the board in that kind of way,

997
01:05:47,720 --> 01:05:51,000
Speaker 2: it's it's good. It's gonna do just like what you said,

998
01:05:51,200 --> 01:05:54,600
Speaker 2: spread our message from many different angles to the point

999
01:05:54,640 --> 01:05:57,480
Speaker 2: it's it's undeniable. You can't ignore it anymore.

1000
01:05:57,480 --> 01:06:02,080
Speaker 3: When that happens, that's right, that's right. So we got

1001
01:06:02,080 --> 01:06:11,960
Speaker 3: to just keep on keep on trucking, all right, have

1002
01:06:12,000 --> 01:06:14,280
Speaker 3: a b h A meeting that I'm four minutes late for.

1003
01:06:16,080 --> 01:06:18,800
Speaker 2: On that note, then you better, you better get out

1004
01:06:18,840 --> 01:06:20,640
Speaker 2: of here. It's not as bad as the time I

1005
01:06:20,680 --> 01:06:23,360
Speaker 2: forgot to pick up my kid during our last podcast.

1006
01:06:23,520 --> 01:06:26,960
Speaker 3: So oh, I know, I know, But yeah, Mark, We're

1007
01:06:26,960 --> 01:06:30,880
Speaker 3: gonna do more of this. We're gonna, i think, hopefully

1008
01:06:30,960 --> 01:06:34,200
Speaker 3: get across to more people that just because we're a

1009
01:06:34,240 --> 01:06:37,480
Speaker 3: for profit business doesn't mean that we can't be in

1010
01:06:37,520 --> 01:06:45,000
Speaker 3: the business of advocating for our customers and ourselves and

1011
01:06:45,280 --> 01:06:50,640
Speaker 3: public lands, waters and wildlife access to them. And you

1012
01:06:50,680 --> 01:06:53,680
Speaker 3: know that brings a certain something to the table. And

1013
01:06:53,680 --> 01:06:56,920
Speaker 3: and when we do our jobs as volunteers for n

1014
01:06:57,000 --> 01:07:00,320
Speaker 3: d A or b h A, that brings us certain

1015
01:07:00,320 --> 01:07:03,320
Speaker 3: something to the table. And then our personal experiences bring

1016
01:07:03,360 --> 01:07:04,560
Speaker 3: a certain something to the table.

1017
01:07:05,120 --> 01:07:08,640
Speaker 4: And I have no doubt.

1018
01:07:08,840 --> 01:07:16,320
Speaker 3: Even if we made zero impact last week, that what

1019
01:07:16,480 --> 01:07:22,120
Speaker 3: we're doing advocating for these things matters. And even if

1020
01:07:22,080 --> 01:07:24,480
Speaker 3: it made zero impact, we did get her foot in

1021
01:07:24,520 --> 01:07:27,920
Speaker 3: the door. We got on a first name basis with

1022
01:07:27,960 --> 01:07:31,680
Speaker 3: some folks. We got to follow up and our next

1023
01:07:31,720 --> 01:07:35,480
Speaker 3: trip or next round of emails or phone calls is

1024
01:07:35,520 --> 01:07:36,720
Speaker 3: going to carry a little more weight.

1025
01:07:38,040 --> 01:07:40,720
Speaker 2: Absolutely, we're gonna keep on pushing that snowball down the hill.

1026
01:07:41,280 --> 01:07:43,920
Speaker 2: And I'm glad you're you're there right there alongside me

1027
01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:44,440
Speaker 2: doing a kill.

1028
01:07:44,640 --> 01:07:47,640
Speaker 3: Thank you, No, buddy, man, you're you're leading the charge.

1029
01:07:47,680 --> 01:07:47,840
Speaker 2: Man.

1030
01:07:47,880 --> 01:07:51,680
Speaker 4: I love love the communication. You're you're you're crushing it.

1031
01:07:52,040 --> 01:07:55,720
Speaker 3: So if folks have anything to ask old Mark Kenyon,

1032
01:07:57,400 --> 01:08:00,880
Speaker 3: ask him yourself, go over listen to his podcast. If

1033
01:08:00,920 --> 01:08:02,480
Speaker 3: you really need to, you can write me.

1034
01:08:02,440 --> 01:08:05,720
Speaker 4: At ask c Al that's Askkal at the meeater dot com.

1035
01:08:05,920 --> 01:08:07,240
Speaker 3: Let me know what's going on in your neck of

1036
01:08:07,280 --> 01:08:11,320
Speaker 3: the woods. And uh, you know, I like hearing that.

1037
01:08:11,440 --> 01:08:12,280
Speaker 4: I'll get back here.

1038
01:08:12,840 --> 01:08:14,480
Speaker 2: And if you're listening to this on Wired to Hunt,

1039
01:08:14,480 --> 01:08:17,160
Speaker 2: make sure you go over to Cal's Week in Review,

1040
01:08:17,240 --> 01:08:20,200
Speaker 2: subscribe to his podcast, set him an email, do all

1041
01:08:20,200 --> 01:08:23,120
Speaker 2: those things you just said, and get your weekly dose

1042
01:08:23,160 --> 01:08:26,559
Speaker 2: of conservation news and whatnot for mister Ryan Cale here.

1043
01:08:28,240 --> 01:08:30,479
Speaker 4: Thanks a bunch. We'll talk to you next week.

1044
01:08:35,320 --> 01:08:38,760
Speaker 2: All right, And that's a wrap for our episode. Thank

1045
01:08:38,760 --> 01:08:42,080
Speaker 2: you for tuning in to this special joint meeting of

1046
01:08:42,120 --> 01:08:45,280
Speaker 2: the minds with me and Cal discussing our DC trip.

1047
01:08:45,960 --> 01:08:48,880
Speaker 2: Hopefully that was eye opening for you and insightful and

1048
01:08:49,040 --> 01:08:51,160
Speaker 2: like we said there at the end, please subscribe to

1049
01:08:51,280 --> 01:08:54,880
Speaker 2: Cale's podcast. Tune into him every week, Subscribe to this

1050
01:08:54,920 --> 01:08:58,639
Speaker 2: podcast if you haven't yet, and uh until next week.

1051
01:08:59,000 --> 01:09:05,560
Speaker 2: Thank you for being here, and stay wired to Hunt.