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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for

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Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,

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Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number four seventeen,

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Speaker 1: and today the show, I'm joined by Sam Soholt, the

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Speaker 1: co founder of public Land Teas and well known for

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Speaker 1: his public land bus adventures, and we're diving into ten

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Speaker 1: very specific actions you can take today for conservation. All right,

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Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you

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Speaker 1: by First Light, and today we have got Sam so

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Speaker 1: hold and Sam is most well known for his public

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Speaker 1: land bus and public land van adventures. If you follow

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Speaker 1: those at all on YouTube or social media or in

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Speaker 1: the countless other media places he's shown up, you probably

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Speaker 1: know what he's been up to. He also is one

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Speaker 1: of the co owners of public Land Tease. And Sam's

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Speaker 1: story is really cool because you know, Sam was just

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Speaker 1: a regular hunter. He's just a guy like you or

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Speaker 1: me who would love to chase deer and get outside

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Speaker 1: and and hunt critters and enjoy the great outdoors. And

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Speaker 1: after doing that for a whole lot of years, though,

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Speaker 1: he realized that he wanted to do more. He realized

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Speaker 1: that he could do more to help protect public lands

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Speaker 1: and wildlife and healthy habitats, and so he decided, you

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Speaker 1: know what, I'm gonna go from just being a person

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Speaker 1: that goes out there and hunts and takes pictures and

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Speaker 1: does this kind of stuff, and instead I'm gonna try

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Speaker 1: to make a difference. And since that point he's been

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Speaker 1: doing it. He's been living that mission and making a

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Speaker 1: big difference. And so it seems to me that he

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Speaker 1: is the perfect person to help us wrap up our

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Speaker 1: month long conservation series because you know, we've talked about

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Speaker 1: a lot. Talked to Randy about public lands. We talked

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Speaker 1: to madd and Adam about private land management work that

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Speaker 1: you can do in your own ground. We talked to

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Speaker 1: Wit about a lot of different public and private land

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Speaker 1: related conservation policies, regulations, laws that might be considered. Uh

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Speaker 1: So we've kind of covered all of that stuff, and

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Speaker 1: there's there's been a lot to talk about the question

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Speaker 1: though that I think I had coming out of this,

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Speaker 1: and maybe some of you guys too, is okay, now

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Speaker 1: what you know, there's so many different things that were discussed.

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Speaker 1: It's I think it's fair to say that could be overwhelming.

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Speaker 1: There's so many different issues you could worry about, our

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Speaker 1: things you could do or actions you could take. And

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Speaker 1: I think what I wanted to try to do today

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Speaker 1: here was to talk through some concrete ideas, give you, guys,

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Speaker 1: ten specific ideas for how you could take action to

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Speaker 1: help conservation efforts to do something good for the wildlife.

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Speaker 1: We love chasing for the wild places, we love to

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Speaker 1: spend time in uh and way that we can give back.

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Speaker 1: And so what Sam and I have done as we've

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Speaker 1: brainstormed kind of looking at our own experiences and then

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Speaker 1: also looking back at the conversations we've had already this

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Speaker 1: month about these topics with Randy Wit and Adam and

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Speaker 1: Keith or Adam and Matt, and we've put together our

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Speaker 1: top ten action items. So this is a bunch of

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Speaker 1: different ideas. Some of these will be realistic for some

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Speaker 1: of you, some of you not so much, So pick

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Speaker 1: and choose, but my my encouragement to you is to

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Speaker 1: give this a listen and see if there's one or

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Speaker 1: two things here that is a good fit for you

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Speaker 1: that you could try to take some action on and

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Speaker 1: move that needle. I think we can all do it.

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Speaker 1: I'm if nothing else, this is for me. I guess

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Speaker 1: this is a great way I'm trying to remind myself. Okay,

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Speaker 1: here some tangible things you can do to to do

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Speaker 1: something that's going to help. Because it's it's easy to

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Speaker 1: see the news or see something pop up online and think, damn,

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Speaker 1: another bad thing happened in this place I care about,

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Speaker 1: or another you know, public land thing that's gonna go

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Speaker 1: down the tube, and it can seem so overwhelming or

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Speaker 1: out of our hands, and sometimes it just feels really

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Speaker 1: good to do something about it. And so today our

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Speaker 1: hope is to give you a few ideas for how

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Speaker 1: you could do that. So we're gonna dive into Sam's

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Speaker 1: story a little bit, learn a little bit about this history,

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Speaker 1: learn a little bit about what it was for him

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Speaker 1: that took him from being a hunter to being a

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Speaker 1: hunter advocate, conservationist, public land promoter and uh protector and

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Speaker 1: all that kind of good stuff, and then we dive

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Speaker 1: into these ten specific ideas. So I hope you enjoyed

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Speaker 1: this one. I hope this is a helpful way to

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Speaker 1: wrap up this series. I think it is. Uh, it

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Speaker 1: definitely was helpful for me, and I'm excited for you

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Speaker 1: guys to give it a listen and then for all

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Speaker 1: of us to get after it. So with that, I

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Speaker 1: appreciate you being here. Thank you for here, for tuning

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Speaker 1: into this Conservation Month series. And now let's get to

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Speaker 1: my conversation with Sam so Whole. All right, I've got

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Speaker 1: with me on the line now Sam So hold Sam,

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Speaker 1: welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. It's

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Speaker 1: been I feel like it's been a long time coming. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I just was thinking the very same thing, like, why

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Speaker 1: hasn't this happened yet? It is? It is one and

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Speaker 1: oversight on my part, and uh, I know we've talked

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Speaker 1: in the past about making it happen and then logistics

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Speaker 1: and different things ended up getting in the way. So

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Speaker 1: I'm glad it all worked out. And thanks for making

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Speaker 1: the time to do it. Yeah. Absolutely. I just you know,

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Speaker 1: appreciate you having me on. And you know, during the spring,

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Speaker 1: it's you know, it seems like a very good time

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Speaker 1: to to sit down and do this before the craziness

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Speaker 1: of that is the rest of the year. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: that's definitely the truth. So you know, I I briefly

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Speaker 1: introduced folks to you in the little introduction that I

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Speaker 1: record before these conversations, but I got to hear it

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Speaker 1: from the horse's mouth. You know, when when people ask

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Speaker 1: you what you do, how do you answer that question?

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Speaker 1: Because it's not as easy as someone who says, like

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Speaker 1: I'm a doctor, or you know, I work on cars.

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Speaker 1: You kind of have a complicated answer. What do you

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Speaker 1: tell people? You know? For a long long time, I

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Speaker 1: just told people that I was a photographer, freelance photographer,

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Speaker 1: a videographer. Um, but I'm trying. I've been trying to

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Speaker 1: figure out what a better a better explanation of what

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Speaker 1: I do, and it would probably just be like content creators,

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Speaker 1: slash public land and conservation advocate. Well that rolls off

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Speaker 1: the tongue really nice. But but okay, I kid um

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Speaker 1: way too long. But yeah, so it's been in the

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Speaker 1: whatever quote unquote hunting industry for ten years now, and

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Speaker 1: uh yeah, I started off as just doing mostly videography,

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Speaker 1: kind of transitioned into a lot more photography, and then

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Speaker 1: about four years ago, uh started down this journey of

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Speaker 1: kind of transitioning and using everything that I had learned

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Speaker 1: in photography and video to to really promote and raise

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Speaker 1: awareness and raise money around conservation and help educate people

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Speaker 1: on how they can get involved, and so it's yeah,

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Speaker 1: what started as was you know, just a passion for

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Speaker 1: the outdoors and the love for hunting and uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: photography and videography was away from me to get paid

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Speaker 1: to do those things. Transition into doing what I can

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Speaker 1: and what we can as a company to to protect

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Speaker 1: those resources so that future generations have those same opportunities. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can definitely relate to that kind of transition. But

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Speaker 1: was there any was there any one thing or moment

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Speaker 1: or time period that was like the catalyst for that

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Speaker 1: jump or was this just a slow evolution for you? Now,

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Speaker 1: the big catalyst was the fall of two sixteen when

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Speaker 1: it was a transition year for politics and there was

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Speaker 1: a lot of legislation that was coming down the pipeline

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Speaker 1: that was threatening our public land system. And to be

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Speaker 1: completely honest, like I really had no idea, Like I

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Speaker 1: didn't I was uneducated myself about all how all of

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Speaker 1: that worked, all the finances and everything, and how potentially

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Speaker 1: easily that could all disappear. And so there was this

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Speaker 1: moment like when I started to learn about all this

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Speaker 1: stuff that it just like, you know, it's like getting

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Speaker 1: punched in the gut. I just felt like I needed

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Speaker 1: to do my part to speak up and and talk

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Speaker 1: about it. At least, you know, I have very small platform,

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Speaker 1: but at least do something that would maybe help a

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Speaker 1: few other people learn about it and speak up about it.

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Speaker 1: And no, it just knew that collectively, like the hunting

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Speaker 1: industry as a whole, there's a lot of people out

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Speaker 1: there have been doing this for decades. But just you know,

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Speaker 1: the more people that knew about it, the more people

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Speaker 1: that would speak up, would help protect public lands and

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Speaker 1: conservation going forward. And so yeah, it was. It was

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Speaker 1: that fall of two thousand and sixteen. I just got

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Speaker 1: all inspired and fired up, and it was I was

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Speaker 1: coming off of a really good year on photography and

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Speaker 1: videography and just was kind of looking for that next

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Speaker 1: big project and this one, this one was. It was

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Speaker 1: a combination of perfect timing and inspiration all at once. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And this sounds a lot like what I went through

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Speaker 1: leading up to my book project. Same kind of deal

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Speaker 1: where I realized, like, wow, this stuff is not as

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Speaker 1: guaranteed as I thought, and uh, and I have so

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Speaker 1: much to learn, like what can I do to help?

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Speaker 1: And it's sent us both down that path, I guess.

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Speaker 1: But what what I mean when people look at what

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Speaker 1: you've done in those years, since there's been a lot,

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Speaker 1: how would you describe like what that journey looked like

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Speaker 1: for you? I mean, tell tell us about the public

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Speaker 1: land bus and the van and everything since, Like, what

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Speaker 1: have been the stand up moments for you? Now that

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Speaker 1: you've taken this this detour for um, just hunting photography

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Speaker 1: and videography to now, Uh, you know, content producer conservationist.

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Speaker 1: There's your name, your content producer conservationist. Yeah, that's perfect. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so you know, of course, you know got all fired

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Speaker 1: up and you know, wanted to raise awareness about all

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Speaker 1: these issues, and you know the most obvious solution to

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Speaker 1: that is to purchase a school bus. And yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean it's just total makes total sense. And actually the

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Speaker 1: school bus idea had been around for a while. Um,

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Speaker 1: I was previous to my photography career. I had worked

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Speaker 1: with my brother in his back country hunting store and

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Speaker 1: he had kicked around the idea of getting the bus

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Speaker 1: and using it as like a marketing vehicle for their company,

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Speaker 1: or a mobile archery shop or you know, some different ideas.

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Speaker 1: And uh, so that the school bus itself had kind

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Speaker 1: of been floating around my brain and like all the

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Speaker 1: possibilities of what you could do with that type of vehicle.

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Speaker 1: But it wasn't until this this idea for this project

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Speaker 1: came about that I was like, Oh, that's that's it.

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Speaker 1: That's what you use a bus for. It's the it's

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Speaker 1: a rolling billboard to raise awareness, like what the vehicle

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Speaker 1: would get more attention than something that you know, basically

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Speaker 1: every person in the country has written on a school

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Speaker 1: bus at one point in time, like whether it be

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Speaker 1: going to school or going to events? Are all these

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Speaker 1: things like has all this nostalgia built into this vehicle?

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Speaker 1: And so I was off and running. I was looking

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Speaker 1: for busses on Craigslist and Facebook and uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: like newspaper ads, anywhere I could look. And my my

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Speaker 1: brother Josh found one on Craig's list out in Colorado,

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Speaker 1: and I called on it and just you know offered.

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Speaker 1: I was, you know, a bit of a barter. So

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Speaker 1: I was trying to trade gear for it. Asked if

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Speaker 1: he asked the guy hunted and fished, and I was like, well,

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Speaker 1: what do you need to need? Coolers? You need guns,

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Speaker 1: you need what you know, what are you looking for

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Speaker 1: I think I finally just wore him down and he

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Speaker 1: had it listed for fifty dollars and UH just was

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Speaker 1: finally like, I'll just I'll take and so yeah, so

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Speaker 1: I said, yep, that sounds good, drove down or it

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Speaker 1: was out in Colorado for New Year's and drove down

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Speaker 1: on New Year's Eve and bought the bus and and

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Speaker 1: then um, yeah, proceeded to you know, basically plan the

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Speaker 1: interior build and uh from there on out. But like,

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Speaker 1: you know, bought the bus New Year's And then obviously

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Speaker 1: in my photography career, I would go to Archer Trade

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Speaker 1: Association show, the A t A Show and the Shot Show,

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Speaker 1: and every year I would go talk to my former

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Speaker 1: clients and talk to potential new clients. And I went

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Speaker 1: to both of those shows with all just jacked up

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Speaker 1: that I had just you know, bought this thirty seven

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Speaker 1: foot piece of steel, and I was like, Hey, here's

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Speaker 1: what I'm doing, here's the idea, here's what I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: do with it, like and um, all of these companies

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Speaker 1: were all fired up about it, and then not a

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Speaker 1: single one of them came through on actually support for

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Speaker 1: the for the bus project. So that which was which

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Speaker 1: I think in the end was was even better because

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Speaker 1: year one I just spent every dime I had basically

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Speaker 1: ever made and put it into this bus idea and

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Speaker 1: it started to get some traction towards the end of

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Speaker 1: that first year. So um, yeah, I had the school bus,

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Speaker 1: ripped the whole interior out of it, all the seats,

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Speaker 1: pulled the flooring up, and then um, Memorial Day weekend

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Speaker 1: of was the very first like actual thing that I

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Speaker 1: did on the bus, which was a buddy and I

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Speaker 1: painted the ceiling inside and then I laid the floor

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Speaker 1: in the bus. And so I just got to work.

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Speaker 1: And my parents had graciously allowed me to park the

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Speaker 1: bus at their little lake cabin for the summer and

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Speaker 1: sleep at the lake and wake up in the morning

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Speaker 1: and make a pot of coffee and start working on

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Speaker 1: the bus. Every day, so for you know, a little

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Speaker 1: over two months, I would wake up, make a pot

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Speaker 1: of coffee, walk out to the big yellow school bus

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Speaker 1: in the driveway, and and just start working on stuff.

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Speaker 1: And I just, uh, it was it was whatever, you know,

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Speaker 1: start working at seven am and work till dark and

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Speaker 1: then do it over again. Um. And so from Memorial

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Speaker 1: Day weekend until August I believe it was August seven,

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Speaker 1: was the day I hit the road. I transformed it

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Speaker 1: from just your standard yellow school bus into what it

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Speaker 1: is today, which it's kind of a makes I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's a camper, but like without all of the like

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Speaker 1: no running water, no toilet, um, just like bunk beds,

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Speaker 1: bed storage, little kitchen area and uh yeah, just a

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Speaker 1: big giant green and white bus that says public land

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Speaker 1: bus on the side. Yeah. I can attest from when

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Speaker 1: I saw it a handful of years ago that it

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Speaker 1: it definitely turned out really cool. I mean it's it's

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Speaker 1: uh every nomad hunter's dream of of a mobile office

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Speaker 1: home hunting camp. It. Man, it turned up pretty sweet.

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Speaker 1: What did you do from there? From like, it's one

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Speaker 1: thing to transform a bus, it's another thing to use

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Speaker 1: that as a tool to get attention on public lands

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Speaker 1: and advocacy for them. So how did you go about

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Speaker 1: figuring out how to do that? That seems like the

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Speaker 1: trickler one almost, Yeah for sure. So the you know,

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Speaker 1: obviously through my social channels like just continue to kind

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Speaker 1: of like preach that message. But one of the connections

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Speaker 1: that I made at I believe it was at a

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Speaker 1: t a show. Um, a friend of mine introduced me

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Speaker 1: to um an editor at outdoor Life, and then he

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Speaker 1: introduced me to Andrew McKean, who was also at outdoor Life.

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Speaker 1: And McKeen and I started talking back and forth about

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Speaker 1: the project, and you know, he was working on getting

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Speaker 1: sponsors for it and stuff, and that just didn't really work.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, well, I'm doing this project regardless,

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Speaker 1: and so we put together a deal where created four

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Speaker 1: videos for this public land bus project. And to be

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Speaker 1: totally honest, like by the of the first year, like

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Speaker 1: I really wasn't getting at the end of that first

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Speaker 1: fall that I had the bus it like you know,

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Speaker 1: it was it was cool, and people liked it, and

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Speaker 1: you know, like you know, it's kind of this whatever

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Speaker 1: fun rig or whatever. But I was almost ready to

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Speaker 1: be done with, you know, driving a school bus around

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Speaker 1: the country. And then all of the videos and articles

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Speaker 1: and everything for outdoor Life hit and that's when it

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Speaker 1: really picked up the pace and like just the number

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Speaker 1: of the just the amount of traction for lack of

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Speaker 1: better terms, that that project got and kind of like

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Speaker 1: escalated and and pushed it to the forefront. And like

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Speaker 1: this now this bus has become a symbol for public Lands.

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Speaker 1: It led to all sorts of other projects, including a

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Speaker 1: whole series for on x maps, and a bunch of

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Speaker 1: my former clients who were excited about it and didn't

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Speaker 1: come through like jumped on board and wanted to be

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Speaker 1: part of it and wanted to push it and wanted

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Speaker 1: to help about it and wanted to talk about it.

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Speaker 1: And so you know, this this initial project turned you

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Speaker 1: know that my original goal was to have the bus

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Speaker 1: for a year and that ended up turning into about

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Speaker 1: three years UM and you know a lot of time

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Speaker 1: spent the school bus driving around the country. But it

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Speaker 1: it just took one, you know, it just took Andrew

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Speaker 1: McKean believing in this whole idea and helping push it

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Speaker 1: out there for me to to spread the word. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's awesome. Now. I know you've you've talked about bust

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Speaker 1: life and all those trips and the different things you've

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Speaker 1: done since, you know, on a lot of different podcasts

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Speaker 1: in different places. So I know you don't want to

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Speaker 1: belabor that too much, but if you look back on

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Speaker 1: those years from this vantage point, like what's the biggest

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Speaker 1: what was the biggest takeaway for you? Just on like

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Speaker 1: the adventure side, or the bus life side. Uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: like what stands out now today as either something you

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Speaker 1: would that you love the memory or you hate the

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Speaker 1: memory of, or that you would tell people to think

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Speaker 1: about if they ever consider something crazy like this, what

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Speaker 1: would that be? You know? I think, like looking back

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Speaker 1: at it all now, it like it's it's some of

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Speaker 1: the best years of that I've had in my short life.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I definitely do not regret doing it

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Speaker 1: at all. I think the biggest shift in my own

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Speaker 1: brain that I had to make was the the time

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Speaker 1: and just the the the time it took to a

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Speaker 1: one get from A to B, and then just the

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Speaker 1: time that it took to like kind of let this

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Speaker 1: whole thing organically grow. Um. And so you know, my

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Speaker 1: brother put it a good ways, like just remember when

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Speaker 1: you're driving that thing, like it's more like sailing, Like

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Speaker 1: you're just you're not gonna get anywhere fast. You're just

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Speaker 1: kind of letting the world pass you by, like you're

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Speaker 1: not really passing the world, Like you're just kind of

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Speaker 1: out there cruising doing this thing. And I think just

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Speaker 1: through the course of like you know, many many road

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Speaker 1: trips in the bus and just getting you know, like

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Speaker 1: really soaking in each and every one of these experiences.

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Speaker 1: It just it taught me to kind of slow down,

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Speaker 1: and you know, everything in our life is so fast paced.

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Speaker 1: I think the bus taught me is slowed down and

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Speaker 1: just really see what was going around on around me

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Speaker 1: more so than then. I mean even now, like I'll

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Speaker 1: admit that I'm guilty of, you know, getting lost in

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Speaker 1: my phone or whatever it might be. Those the time

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Speaker 1: that I was focused on this project definitely helped me. Um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: just see the world around me a little bit better. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can see that for sure. So so what happened

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Speaker 1: from there? You you moved on from the public Land

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Speaker 1: bus eventually to the public Land van. Yes, and what's

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Speaker 1: that next step? Yeah, so that was pretty exciting because it's, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, Josh and I have always been in the

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Speaker 1: you know, hunting together and he owned the store and

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Speaker 1: I was doing all the content stuff, and the transitioning

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Speaker 1: from the bus to the van was an opportunity for

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Speaker 1: us to do more stuff together. And so not only

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Speaker 1: is it that, you know, going from a full size

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Speaker 1: bus to a van, like you can drive a lot

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Speaker 1: more places, but you can get there quicker, a little quieter,

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Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of positives to going from

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Speaker 1: a forty ft vehicle down to a twenty one ft

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Speaker 1: vehicle that has four wheel drive, but um, yeah, it

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Speaker 1: was just it was kind of a way to continue

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Speaker 1: the mission and continue the idea and behind you know,

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Speaker 1: creating awareness around public lands and and um, all things conservation.

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Speaker 1: And it gave us, Josh and I the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: have this project together and build out kind of the

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Speaker 1: the ultimate hunting van for lack of a better term.

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Speaker 1: So it was it was since we've been you know,

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Speaker 1: grew up in this whole thing together, it was kind

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00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:43,359
Speaker 1: of a cool way to um bring our paths back

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Speaker 1: to the same road and uh and build the band together.

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Speaker 1: And then you know, Josh and I have been owners

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Speaker 1: of public landees together since its inception, when the bus

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Speaker 1: project launched, and so to have him kind of come

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Speaker 1: on full time and do this all together has been

385
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Speaker 1: pretty cool. So the van is you know, same color scheme,

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00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:03,520
Speaker 1: a lot of the same elements that came from the bus.

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00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:05,840
Speaker 1: We we brought over into the into the van, the

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Speaker 1: pine and the um, you know, some tin and some

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00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:10,600
Speaker 1: different stuff that we used in the bus to kind

390
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:14,720
Speaker 1: of like continue that message and create that awareness around

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Speaker 1: all the things that we're trying to educate people on. Yeah, so,

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Speaker 1: so on that education front, like, what have the other

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00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:24,080
Speaker 1: things been? What are some highlights of of what you

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00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,399
Speaker 1: guys have been pushing over these years both you know,

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Speaker 1: I know you started with a lot around simply public

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00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:31,880
Speaker 1: lands and that was during the land transfer movement and everything.

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Speaker 1: Since then, as things have evolved, I know you've talked

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Speaker 1: about other things. You've talked about duck stamps, a lot

399
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Speaker 1: um and more. What what are some of the where

400
00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:45,119
Speaker 1: are the highlights there since? Yeah, so we when we

401
00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:47,600
Speaker 1: started the company, obviously you're right, it was it was

402
00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:50,879
Speaker 1: very surrounding that the land transfer legislation and all that

403
00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:54,440
Speaker 1: type of stuff. But as we've evolved, like it, I

404
00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,159
Speaker 1: think the most fun that we've had is creating some

405
00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:02,240
Speaker 1: of these initiatives that leverage UM systems that are already

406
00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,239
Speaker 1: in place to kind of bring awareness to like, like

407
00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:07,440
Speaker 1: you said, like the duck stamp. We started the Stamp

408
00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,200
Speaker 1: It Forward project, which is a way to UM basically

409
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,439
Speaker 1: raise a whole pile of money to purchase federal duck stamps,

410
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:17,640
Speaker 1: which by law of that money has to go towards

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Speaker 1: habitat conservation, wetland purchase, extension of the National Refuge System

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00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:27,439
Speaker 1: and like that has been a very cool project. And

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Speaker 1: then uh, you know are I don't know if you

414
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Speaker 1: want me to talk about our most recent initiative right now,

415
00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:35,200
Speaker 1: but um, we've we just continue to try to find

416
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:39,400
Speaker 1: new and creative ways in the conservation space to raise

417
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 1: money to give back to all these organizations that fight

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Speaker 1: to improve habitat, improve access and protect hunting heritage every

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00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:49,680
Speaker 1: single day. Yeah, you've been doing a really good job

420
00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:52,120
Speaker 1: of it too. I mean it has been really fun

421
00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:54,080
Speaker 1: to watch from Afar and see what you're doing and

422
00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:58,439
Speaker 1: see the see the real impact you're having. Um. And

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00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:01,840
Speaker 1: that's that's that's the funny thing. I think when you

424
00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:04,720
Speaker 1: get involved in this kind of stuff, it's easy to

425
00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:08,520
Speaker 1: think so often like oh what can I do? Um?

426
00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:12,080
Speaker 1: These problems seems so big and so above me? And

427
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 1: so you know it's something that you watch on TV,

428
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 1: you read about in the news. But I think for

429
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:19,399
Speaker 1: for a lot of us, you know, myself included, at

430
00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:22,399
Speaker 1: times you can feel like, geez, what can little little

431
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:25,359
Speaker 1: all I do? And what's that been? I mean, what's

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00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:28,080
Speaker 1: this period been like for you? Now? That you've seen

433
00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:30,320
Speaker 1: what you have been able to do. I mean, what

434
00:23:30,359 --> 00:23:32,560
Speaker 1: have you learned about yourself for the I don't know,

435
00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:36,560
Speaker 1: conservation as a as a calling, or or as the

436
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:38,760
Speaker 1: hunting community. I don't know what what on that front

437
00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:41,600
Speaker 1: stands out to you. Yeah, I think that's been the

438
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:44,800
Speaker 1: biggest The biggest thing, one of the biggest things I've

439
00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:49,080
Speaker 1: learned is is how much impact each individual person can have.

440
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:53,399
Speaker 1: So like our company public Land Tease, five dollars from

441
00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:56,480
Speaker 1: every single item we sell, which is in the purchase price,

442
00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:59,000
Speaker 1: five dollars from every item we sell is donated back

443
00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:04,199
Speaker 1: to different conservation organizations or projects, and you know, so

444
00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:08,639
Speaker 1: we couldn't do anything that we do without our customer base. So, like,

445
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 1: the real hero of this whole story is people that

446
00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 1: have been following this journey and have chosen to support us,

447
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 1: like through the purchase of merchandise, which then we turn

448
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 1: and take that money and we we donate it back

449
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:24,200
Speaker 1: into into different causes, different projects, different organizations that need

450
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,720
Speaker 1: this critical funding to do all these things. Um and

451
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:30,199
Speaker 1: so I but when I when we first started this

452
00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:32,960
Speaker 1: whole thing, like I was totally overwhelmed, Like I really

453
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:35,920
Speaker 1: didn't know much about how the system all worked, you know,

454
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:40,120
Speaker 1: is learning Like as I went UM really felt like

455
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:42,239
Speaker 1: I was like, man, is this are we actually going

456
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:44,040
Speaker 1: to be able to do anything? Like? Are there enough

457
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,760
Speaker 1: people that care about this stuff? Is there enough like

458
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:49,960
Speaker 1: our I mean, do I have a big enough platform

459
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:54,520
Speaker 1: to even like like change anything. And that's been the

460
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,879
Speaker 1: coolest thing to watch is the people that have been

461
00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 1: following along with everything that we're up to, the people

462
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:03,240
Speaker 1: that have chosen to donate, support, jump in share all

463
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:07,879
Speaker 1: this stuff, Like it only takes a few people to

464
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:11,040
Speaker 1: kind of get the ball rolling. And and as that

465
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:13,679
Speaker 1: ball grows, as that snowball just keeps moving and growing

466
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:15,560
Speaker 1: and growing and more people are sharing it and talking

467
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 1: about whatever it is. It blows me away every single

468
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:23,680
Speaker 1: day to watch this collective community make a difference time

469
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:26,960
Speaker 1: and time again, whether it be UM, you know, raising

470
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,080
Speaker 1: money for a specific project or simply picking up the

471
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 1: phone and calling or emailing about, you know, in favor

472
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:37,600
Speaker 1: of or against the specific bill UM you know, people

473
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:42,480
Speaker 1: just educating themselves on you know, or receiving whatever a

474
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 1: newsletter or whatever it is from these organizations, all these

475
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:49,240
Speaker 1: different things, and people like jumping on board individually and

476
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:55,600
Speaker 1: watching that snowball into this massive wave of impact um

477
00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 1: as we go forward, and you know, I can't tell

478
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:01,879
Speaker 1: you how many times I've seen the sportsmen and women

479
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 1: of this country rally together around issues and I mean

480
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:10,920
Speaker 1: really cause massive change in a hurry. Yeah. Yeah, man,

481
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,840
Speaker 1: It's been a heck of a five six year period

482
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: now where we've we've been seeing some strong examples like

483
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:20,639
Speaker 1: that that have been really cool to to watch and

484
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:22,440
Speaker 1: to be a part of. And and like you said,

485
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:27,040
Speaker 1: it's that snowball effect is kind of crazy when you

486
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 1: realize it's happening and you step in, like, whoa, there's something,

487
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:35,359
Speaker 1: there's a movement here, there's some fire here, and uh,

488
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:38,959
Speaker 1: when that happens, good things, good things tend to follow.

489
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:45,119
Speaker 1: So I think that's a perfect segue too to the

490
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: larger reason why I thought you'd be the perfect I

491
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 1: to talk to here, because it's this whole idea of like,

492
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:53,320
Speaker 1: what can you do that I wanted to talk about

493
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 1: today because you know, this is this is week four

494
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 1: of what I was calling Conservation Month here on the

495
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 1: wire Tunt podcast is the spring. You know, there's not

496
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:03,240
Speaker 1: a whole lot of crazy stuff going on in the

497
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:05,920
Speaker 1: white tail world. It's a great time to step back

498
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:09,320
Speaker 1: and think about, you know, how do we ensure that

499
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:13,000
Speaker 1: the resources, the places, the critters that we care about

500
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:15,360
Speaker 1: so much are around in the future so that we

501
00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 1: we can still hunt, so that we can share this

502
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:21,120
Speaker 1: with our kids or grandkids someday. And we've talked public lands,

503
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 1: We've talked private lands, We've talked policy and legislation and

504
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:30,359
Speaker 1: all these different ideas and concepts and debates. But through

505
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: a lot of this stuff, and and you talked about it,

506
00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:35,200
Speaker 1: and I felt it too, Like you can so many

507
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:40,359
Speaker 1: times feel like, Okay, yeah that makes sense. Okay, yeah

508
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:41,960
Speaker 1: that's a bad thing, or you know, that's a good thing.

509
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,399
Speaker 1: I'd love to see that move forward. But what in

510
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: the world can I do today or what can I

511
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:50,439
Speaker 1: actually do here in Michigan or Montana or Maine or

512
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,879
Speaker 1: wherever it is. So my idea, if you're game for

513
00:27:53,920 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 1: the SAM, is for us to layout ten specific ways,

514
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:06,560
Speaker 1: ten specific actions that folks could take, you know, today

515
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:08,840
Speaker 1: or over the next few weeks or this year that

516
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,719
Speaker 1: could actually make a positive difference for conservation. And this

517
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:13,919
Speaker 1: could be private land, it could be public land, it

518
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:17,080
Speaker 1: could be a lot of different things. Um, So I've

519
00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:19,679
Speaker 1: got a handful of that of ideas. Do you have

520
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 1: a handful that we could run through and see if

521
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 1: we can come up with with ten real slid action

522
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 1: will take aways today? Yeah, I think I'm totally game

523
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 1: for that. All right? Do you wanna? I was thinking

524
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:36,679
Speaker 1: maybe we we just pitch one out, talk about it,

525
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 1: and then go back and forth. You want to lead

526
00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 1: the way? Do you've got a great do you have

527
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:44,880
Speaker 1: a good opener for us? Well? Pressures on here because

528
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: if it's a bad one, then I think I do

529
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:50,959
Speaker 1: because this, I mean obviously, this, this one is what

530
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: I've been focusing all my all my efforts on for

531
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:56,440
Speaker 1: you know, the better part of like three or four

532
00:28:56,440 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 1: months now. So, um, if people are looking at getting

533
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 1: involved in conservation, like, hands down, the easiest way to

534
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:11,480
Speaker 1: do it is to join uh an organization and the

535
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 1: you can you can stop me anytime, but that you

536
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,400
Speaker 1: can join an organization. And one of our our latest

537
00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:20,719
Speaker 1: initiative is a way for people to get involved on

538
00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:23,680
Speaker 1: a on a bigger level. So obviously one go out

539
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: and join any organization, find a species you're passionate about.

540
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:29,080
Speaker 1: I can almost guarantee there's a conservation group that is

541
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 1: dedicated to protecting that species. But our initiative that we

542
00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:36,680
Speaker 1: just came out with a few weeks ago now is

543
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,240
Speaker 1: the Conservation Crossing Initiative, and it allows people to go

544
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 1: to our website by a single T shirt and automatically

545
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: be enrolled in an annual membership for five organizations, which

546
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:51,880
Speaker 1: include back Country Hunters and Anglers, Delta Waterfowl, National Wild

547
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:55,479
Speaker 1: Turkey Federation, the Mule They Foundation, and Pheasants Forever all

548
00:29:55,520 --> 00:30:00,480
Speaker 1: at one time. It's bucks so um but yeah, so

549
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 1: so that's I love it. I love the idea. I'm

550
00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to getting my T shirt here and

551
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: the mail sometimes soon. I finally I finally signed up

552
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 1: and and got in on it. Um, What's I mean?

553
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 1: This is an obvious one, right, but it's also one

554
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 1: that probably a lot of people pay lip service to

555
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:21,479
Speaker 1: more than they actually do. I mean, I've been guilty

556
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:23,440
Speaker 1: of that at times. I've always been a member of

557
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,360
Speaker 1: a couple. But there's so many great organizations out there

558
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:28,920
Speaker 1: that it's easy to forget this one or that one,

559
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:32,600
Speaker 1: and easy to forget how important it is for people

560
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,480
Speaker 1: to be doing that and sending in their money. I mean,

561
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 1: as you've gone through this project, yourself. What have you

562
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:42,680
Speaker 1: learned about the importance of people just getting signed up

563
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:45,920
Speaker 1: and how much that helps these these organizations. Yeah, I

564
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 1: think the cool part is understanding that when you become

565
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:51,120
Speaker 1: a member of one of these organizations, so typical typical

566
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 1: annual membership to a conservation group is thirty five dollars. So,

567
00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 1: but that thirty five dollars, it goes a whole lot

568
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 1: further than just getting you those benefits which every single

569
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,800
Speaker 1: group has, whether it be there you know, a magazine

570
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: five or six times a year, or you know, you

571
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 1: get the membership card and a decal, and a lot

572
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 1: of times there's discounts to their partners and that type

573
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:15,120
Speaker 1: of stuff. But what these organizations are able to do

574
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,600
Speaker 1: is because they're so membership based. Let's say, let's take

575
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:22,560
Speaker 1: the National Wale Turkey Federation. It's spring, its spring Turkey season.

576
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:26,400
Speaker 1: So if you join the National Wald Turkey Federation, whether

577
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,760
Speaker 1: it be an individual you know, membership or through our

578
00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 1: conservation crossing program, n BTF can leverage those funds to

579
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:39,680
Speaker 1: work with partners or grants and all of these things

580
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:45,080
Speaker 1: to basically take that thirty five dollar donation and triple it,

581
00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:49,360
Speaker 1: quadruple it or five exit based on people matching donations.

582
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 1: So you know, the more members that each group has,

583
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 1: the more the more money overall they can raise because

584
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:58,200
Speaker 1: they have these partners that are like, okay, if you

585
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 1: get you know, a hundred thousand members, I will match

586
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,200
Speaker 1: up to X number of dollars for you know, like

587
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:06,240
Speaker 1: to add to the pot. And so I think that's

588
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:08,840
Speaker 1: been kind of the biggest eye opener to me, is

589
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:12,920
Speaker 1: like that thirty five dollars or that through conservation crossing,

590
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:17,560
Speaker 1: Like it goes so much further than that initial investment. Yeah,

591
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 1: that's a great point. And you know, from a benefit

592
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:24,080
Speaker 1: standpoint for like the individual, maybe the biggest thing I

593
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:26,960
Speaker 1: found is is, yeah, the magazines are nice, and it's

594
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:30,000
Speaker 1: it's great to donate that money and help from a

595
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 1: financial perspective. But what I've found might be the biggest

596
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 1: benefit with this membership is just like the pipeline of

597
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: information and opportunities that comes from joining one of these groups.

598
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:47,720
Speaker 1: So when whenever I hear folks wondering or emailing me

599
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:50,040
Speaker 1: or messaging me like hey, how how can I get involved?

600
00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:51,960
Speaker 1: How can I do something? This is always the first

601
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,720
Speaker 1: thing I mentioned too, because by doing this one action

602
00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:58,000
Speaker 1: becoming a member, you you do what you just described,

603
00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:01,200
Speaker 1: you financially, you know, benefit these groups in a big

604
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 1: way and they can then use those dollars and have

605
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 1: exponential impacts. But then you get all this information that

606
00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:10,680
Speaker 1: is so important and actually being able to do anything,

607
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 1: like if you don't know the issues, if you don't

608
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:17,719
Speaker 1: know about this action or this you know, opportunity, or

609
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 1: this piece of property that's threatened, Like if you can't

610
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:23,160
Speaker 1: be aware of those things, you can't do anything about it.

611
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:26,360
Speaker 1: And it's so hard to keep track of all this stuff,

612
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:30,120
Speaker 1: like any one of us is so busy in our

613
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:32,600
Speaker 1: everyday lives, Like how in the world can I keep

614
00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:35,480
Speaker 1: track of every important issue when it comes to deer

615
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:38,920
Speaker 1: or pheasants or public lands or the rivers that I

616
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:41,360
Speaker 1: care about, or trout or turkeys or whatever it is.

617
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,240
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's impossible to scan the web every

618
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 1: day all day and read all those things and stay

619
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,800
Speaker 1: up on it. And so these organizations they do that

620
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 1: for you, right, I mean, h v h A is

621
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 1: a great example, and that they're you know, sending out

622
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:58,120
Speaker 1: their newsletters giving the information, or they're sharing stuff on

623
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:01,320
Speaker 1: social media, or you know, they have action alerts to

624
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 1: get you going on specific things. And and many of

625
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:07,200
Speaker 1: these organizations do the same thing. Um, you know, it's

626
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 1: the pipeline for all these other things, don't you think?

627
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:13,879
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely? And then I think in addition to that,

628
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:17,360
Speaker 1: like so you get all of this information that you

629
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 1: can act on. But the other thing that it does

630
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:23,360
Speaker 1: is regardless of which organization you join, it immediately connects

631
00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 1: you to the local community because there's always a local

632
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 1: chapter of whatever national chapter you're joining. So let's you know,

633
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 1: if it's b h A, they'll send you an email

634
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:34,760
Speaker 1: with oh you could you know, here's the local chapter,

635
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:36,839
Speaker 1: here's the events that they have in your area, here's

636
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:40,000
Speaker 1: the people that are involved with that. And so anybody

637
00:34:40,040 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: that joins one of these organizations UH is immediately connected

638
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:48,799
Speaker 1: to like minded people that live near them. So you know,

639
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:51,200
Speaker 1: maybe you don't go hunting together, and maybe you don't

640
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:54,040
Speaker 1: you know, like share you share your honey hoole spots

641
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:56,200
Speaker 1: or whatever, but it does put you in touch with

642
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,439
Speaker 1: people that you could go do a river clean up day,

643
00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:02,040
Speaker 1: or you could go volunteer together and pull fence out

644
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 1: and you know on some mulder project, or you could

645
00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 1: you know, go grab a beer together and talk about

646
00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 1: hunting tactics or you know, you name it. There's a

647
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:13,440
Speaker 1: million things that happen once you get plugged into that

648
00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:17,560
Speaker 1: community that surrounds all of these different groups too. Yeah,

649
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:20,560
Speaker 1: so true and man for for new hunters. This is

650
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:22,359
Speaker 1: another one I get all the time. I'm a new

651
00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:24,799
Speaker 1: hunter and I want to meet you know, I want

652
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:26,800
Speaker 1: to meet other people that do this kind of stuff

653
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:28,680
Speaker 1: because no one in my family or friends does. Right,

654
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:31,400
Speaker 1: I need a mentor or I just want to be

655
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:33,839
Speaker 1: around like minded people and I'm a new in town

656
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,520
Speaker 1: or something like. Right here, join one of these groups,

657
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:40,399
Speaker 1: connect with the local chapter branch, and bam, just like that,

658
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,960
Speaker 1: You're You're in. You're in right right, You've got an

659
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:46,720
Speaker 1: opportunity for mentorship. You've got an opportunity for new buddies

660
00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 1: that you know, maybe you do get a beer, you

661
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 1: go hunting or fishing together, maybe you do actually have

662
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,279
Speaker 1: ways now to do some work on the ground. It's

663
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,800
Speaker 1: it's kind of like the super like the silver bullet

664
00:35:57,920 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 1: for this kind of stuff, that this is the gateway

665
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 1: that gets you into so many different things. I mean,

666
00:36:02,239 --> 00:36:05,319
Speaker 1: right there, if you're not a member of you know,

667
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:09,000
Speaker 1: a handful of these you do it. That's it's such

668
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,319
Speaker 1: an easy way to get started, and so many of

669
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 1: the good things come from it. Um Why why was

670
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 1: it these five organizations that are part of the conservation

671
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:19,239
Speaker 1: crossing any particular reason or is it just that they

672
00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:22,200
Speaker 1: were the ones willing to do this? What was what's

673
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 1: the story there? No that Uh, we definitely picked them

674
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:28,520
Speaker 1: out intentionally, and it's a way. It was a way

675
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:31,920
Speaker 1: to kind of cover the masses, right, so, like not

676
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,239
Speaker 1: only species wise but country wise. So you have the

677
00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:38,120
Speaker 1: Mucler Foundation and you know, Backcountry Owners and Anglers is

678
00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:41,520
Speaker 1: primarily focused on a lot of Western type stuff. Even

679
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,520
Speaker 1: though there's local chapters nationwide, there's still a lot of Montana.

680
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:47,320
Speaker 1: So you have a couple of you have an advocacy

681
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:49,920
Speaker 1: public Land and Water group Backcountry Owners and Anglers, so

682
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:54,560
Speaker 1: you kind of cover that western um like western focus

683
00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:56,759
Speaker 1: as well as the mule deer, which is you know,

684
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,800
Speaker 1: a Western big game animal and aspirational hunt for a

685
00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 1: lot of people that are in the East. And then

686
00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:05,759
Speaker 1: you have National Wild Turkey Federation, which if I did

687
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:09,600
Speaker 1: the research last spring, and second to the white tailed deer,

688
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:14,520
Speaker 1: turkeys are the second most pursued species of game, so

689
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:18,120
Speaker 1: you have you know, literally millions of people that turkey

690
00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:22,400
Speaker 1: hunt and uh so it only made sense to reach

691
00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 1: out to the n b TF as they are the

692
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 1: foremost organization when it comes to turkey hunting, heritage, turkey

693
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:34,560
Speaker 1: habitat restoration, all those things. Um, you have Pheasants Forever,

694
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:37,839
Speaker 1: which we've collaborated within the past and worked on their

695
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 1: build wildlife area campaigns. They do a lot of amazing

696
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:44,440
Speaker 1: habitat work and they have a really unique model when

697
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:47,880
Speaker 1: it comes to their conservation group where the local chapters

698
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,760
Speaker 1: have they get to choose where one of the locally

699
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:55,360
Speaker 1: raised funds go for projects, and so they have thousands

700
00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:58,440
Speaker 1: and thousands of volunteers. And so we cover that upland

701
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:02,120
Speaker 1: side of things, which not only helps upland bird species,

702
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:06,000
Speaker 1: but every other species because most of what Pheasants Forever

703
00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:09,120
Speaker 1: is doing on these landscapes is planning more grass, working

704
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:13,960
Speaker 1: on riparian areas, adding water sources, which not only you know,

705
00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:16,480
Speaker 1: of course is going to help upland game species, but

706
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:21,480
Speaker 1: everything else. Um. And then delta waterfowl and we've collaborated

707
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:24,080
Speaker 1: with delta waterfowl in the past as well. But I mean,

708
00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:27,440
Speaker 1: you can't have one of you can't have this massive

709
00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:33,319
Speaker 1: collaboration without a organization that's focused on a migrating species um,

710
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:35,920
Speaker 1: and so we really try to kind of spread it

711
00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:39,240
Speaker 1: out and cover as much ground and as much different

712
00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 1: influence as possible to really highlight like how important each

713
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:47,520
Speaker 1: group is individually, but more so like kind of that

714
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:50,319
Speaker 1: old analogy that you know, a high tide raises all

715
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:53,120
Speaker 1: ships type of thing that if you can kind of

716
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:56,160
Speaker 1: spread that wealth out and collaborate together, like it's going

717
00:38:56,200 --> 00:39:01,239
Speaker 1: to help every single person, every single species across the board. Yeah, yeah,

718
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:03,960
Speaker 1: very true. You know another thing I kind of noticed,

719
00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:06,319
Speaker 1: and I don't know if this was by design or not,

720
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:10,319
Speaker 1: but you know, when you look at something like mule

721
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:15,840
Speaker 1: deer or pheasants um or even turkeys, you're for you.

722
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:18,080
Speaker 1: For a handful of years now, I've been hearing rumblings

723
00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:20,920
Speaker 1: about turkey populations declining in different parts of the country

724
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:24,920
Speaker 1: and some issues there um mule deer especially, but pheasants

725
00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:27,279
Speaker 1: with with CRP declining in a lot of states and

726
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:29,640
Speaker 1: all the different things pressuring mule You're like, these are

727
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:32,080
Speaker 1: some species that needs some extra love right now too,

728
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:36,080
Speaker 1: and sometimes don't get as much attention as you know,

729
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 1: I mean white tailed deer soak up a lot of

730
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 1: attention in the room. So I love the fact that

731
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:44,799
Speaker 1: by looping in some of these other groups, it's it's

732
00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:47,240
Speaker 1: given the love where there's a little bit extra needed,

733
00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:51,759
Speaker 1: and uh, it makes it easy, you know. Sometimes it's oh,

734
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:54,440
Speaker 1: it's what do they call the opt in effect or

735
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:58,600
Speaker 1: the opt out effect? Like if you were to, you know,

736
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:02,920
Speaker 1: send someone, oh, I don't know, an email in which

737
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:07,920
Speaker 1: they are automatically if the button is already pressed, like

738
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:11,719
Speaker 1: to opt into becoming a member of something, or to

739
00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:15,400
Speaker 1: sign up for a newsletter, you'll get way more people

740
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,879
Speaker 1: to sign up for that newsletter then if you sent

741
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:21,680
Speaker 1: them that same thing, but the button for it says,

742
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 1: you know, you have to actually select the button to

743
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:26,759
Speaker 1: opt in versus select the button opt out. Like if

744
00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:29,000
Speaker 1: you make it a default choice people, it just becomes

745
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:30,840
Speaker 1: easier for folks is to go along with it. And

746
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:33,200
Speaker 1: so in this case, you made it really easy for

747
00:40:33,239 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: people to go along with something that's good. Excuse me,

748
00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:38,960
Speaker 1: that's good and that is um you know, if you

749
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:43,400
Speaker 1: ed instead said, hey, pick however many conservation groups you

750
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:45,440
Speaker 1: want to join with the purchase of this shirt and

751
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:47,440
Speaker 1: make it a lot more challenging for people and make

752
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:50,240
Speaker 1: it a little bit more inconvenient, and people probably wouldn't

753
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:52,640
Speaker 1: sign up for, you know, some of these other species

754
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:55,120
Speaker 1: maybe that they don't you know, don't chase every day,

755
00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:57,960
Speaker 1: or don't have experience with. So it was just a smart,

756
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,320
Speaker 1: well put together idea, and I love that it's happening.

757
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:04,000
Speaker 1: And um, you know, i'd say go out there, get

758
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 1: the shirt, become a member, and then tack on some

759
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:10,160
Speaker 1: other memberships too. I mean, ah, there's so many great

760
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:12,960
Speaker 1: organizations out there. The National Deer Association, of course is

761
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 1: a great one. Um, there's plenty of good places to

762
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:20,319
Speaker 1: send your your time and attention and funding you know,

763
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:23,359
Speaker 1: as as available. So I love it. It's a great

764
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:29,719
Speaker 1: one to start with. Sam, Yeah, awesome. So I think

765
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:31,920
Speaker 1: that the one I would pitch next is a is

766
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:35,000
Speaker 1: a very clear kind of next step from what you

767
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: just suggested. You know, you said join the organization, and

768
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:40,320
Speaker 1: I'm going to say, do the next step after you

769
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:43,719
Speaker 1: join the organization, which is something you you mentioned a

770
00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:49,200
Speaker 1: little bit, which is volunteering. So this year i'd encourage everyone,

771
00:41:49,239 --> 00:41:52,960
Speaker 1: if you haven't before, volunteer for your first on the

772
00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:57,880
Speaker 1: ground conservation project. And this is something that is, you know,

773
00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:02,279
Speaker 1: a lot easier to do you if you're involved in

774
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:05,200
Speaker 1: one of these groups, because I think it comes back

775
00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:08,800
Speaker 1: to what we talked about earlier. It's the knowing excuse

776
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:13,319
Speaker 1: me had had one too many lunchtime bubbly drinks. I

777
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:18,359
Speaker 1: guess what I'm trying to say here is knowing when

778
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 1: those opportunities come up, like where can I volunteer? When

779
00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 1: can I volunteer? That's the hard part. A lot of

780
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:26,640
Speaker 1: people want to do something, but knowing like, Okay, this Saturday,

781
00:42:26,719 --> 00:42:29,080
Speaker 1: there's a thing within an hour of me, I can

782
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,960
Speaker 1: go do it. That's the trick. So when you sign up,

783
00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:39,960
Speaker 1: get ahold of a local branch or chapter or regional

784
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,160
Speaker 1: director or whoever it is, and just let them know that, Hey,

785
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:48,240
Speaker 1: I'm a member now i'd love to know about volunteer opportunities. UM.

786
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:50,560
Speaker 1: I think that's the easiest way because it's it's hard

787
00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:53,839
Speaker 1: to otherwise track these things down. So just send out

788
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:56,680
Speaker 1: a note saying hey, I'd like to do something, and

789
00:42:57,040 --> 00:42:59,279
Speaker 1: you're gonna be amazed, I think by how many opportunities

790
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:01,040
Speaker 1: there are to do it. I can tell you that

791
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:06,680
Speaker 1: I I reached out to our national Deer Association Regional director,

792
00:43:06,719 --> 00:43:08,359
Speaker 1: or he used to be called the regional director. He's

793
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:11,160
Speaker 1: got some other fancy titled now about grassroots or something.

794
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:14,520
Speaker 1: His name is Josh Hilliard. You might know him. UM.

795
00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:16,560
Speaker 1: And I asked him like, hey, what kind of things

796
00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:19,400
Speaker 1: are available here in our home state right now? And

797
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:21,759
Speaker 1: he sent me a whole list of different opportunities for

798
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,720
Speaker 1: people in Michigan. And I'm sure there's something similar in

799
00:43:24,719 --> 00:43:27,279
Speaker 1: in all sorts of different states. So, for example, in

800
00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:30,520
Speaker 1: May fifteenth, there's a big river clean up being put

801
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:33,560
Speaker 1: on by Michigan's Chapter of back Country Hunters and Anglers.

802
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:37,360
Speaker 1: There's going to be volunteer opportunities at the Back forty

803
00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:40,719
Speaker 1: property here in Michigan, put on by the National Deer Association.

804
00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:43,319
Speaker 1: Of course, everyone listening to this knows all about the

805
00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 1: Back forty. Um. There's an organization called the muc SE

806
00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:54,600
Speaker 1: Michigan United Conservation Uh. Jeez, I'm blanking on my acronyms here,

807
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:57,520
Speaker 1: but they've got this uh on the ground and on

808
00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:00,920
Speaker 1: the water volunteer programs where they've got i mean, dozens

809
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:03,719
Speaker 1: of different habitat projects like this where you can go

810
00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:06,919
Speaker 1: out and you know, help plant something or help put

811
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:10,560
Speaker 1: treason or help burn or help do different things on

812
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: the ground to to actually make a difference. So this

813
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:16,640
Speaker 1: is one of those things that I think ties into

814
00:44:16,719 --> 00:44:20,480
Speaker 1: what you said to Sam, the whole connecting with people thing,

815
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:22,520
Speaker 1: because if you go out and do one of these

816
00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:26,120
Speaker 1: volunteer opportunities, there's another great opportunity to meet folks, to

817
00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:31,120
Speaker 1: get tapped into the community, and who knows where that leads. So, um,

818
00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:34,359
Speaker 1: so that's my second My second action is this year,

819
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:36,719
Speaker 1: try to actually go do one of those on the

820
00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:39,840
Speaker 1: ground projects. If we all do that, there's a whole

821
00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:42,160
Speaker 1: lot of good stuff happening out there. And and I guess,

822
00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 1: you know, if you don't want to do that, or

823
00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:46,600
Speaker 1: if for some reason your schedule is crazy and you

824
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:50,919
Speaker 1: just can't commit to someone else's you know, calendar, plan

825
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:53,719
Speaker 1: a day on the property you hunt to go pick

826
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:56,520
Speaker 1: up trash or something like that. Like one on the

827
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:59,319
Speaker 1: ground thing, I think is a really great goal for

828
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,360
Speaker 1: all of us that a in them this year. Um

829
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:05,920
Speaker 1: that would be my first suggestion. Yeah, No, I like

830
00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:08,960
Speaker 1: that a lot. And I you know, I've spent so

831
00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:14,160
Speaker 1: much time kind of doing like these big, huge projects

832
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:17,440
Speaker 1: raising awareness that I haven't done as much like volunteer

833
00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:20,880
Speaker 1: boots on the groundwork as I want, So like going forward,

834
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:24,000
Speaker 1: that's definitely gonna be high on my priority list of

835
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:28,080
Speaker 1: like really getting into these things and uh, you know,

836
00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:30,040
Speaker 1: showing how awesome it is just to go out there

837
00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:32,879
Speaker 1: and and do these boots on the ground activities. But yeah,

838
00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:34,840
Speaker 1: I like that one a lot. Yeah, what are you

839
00:45:34,840 --> 00:45:38,880
Speaker 1: going next? So I touched on a little bit earlier

840
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:41,480
Speaker 1: and he said that I talked a lot about duck stamps,

841
00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:43,439
Speaker 1: and so I think that's I think that's a way

842
00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:46,280
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the duck stamp and how

843
00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:50,279
Speaker 1: that's a no brainer for anybody who is looking to

844
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:54,440
Speaker 1: be involved at a very simple level. Um, so for

845
00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:57,600
Speaker 1: anybody that doesn't know what the federal duck stamp is,

846
00:45:57,680 --> 00:46:00,799
Speaker 1: it is a if you water found hunt. By law,

847
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:03,880
Speaker 1: you have to purchase a federal duck stamp. And the

848
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:07,919
Speaker 1: cool thing about that is it was started in it's

849
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:13,400
Speaker 1: the Federal Migratory Bird Act, and by law of the

850
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:16,239
Speaker 1: purchase price of a federal duck stamp has to be

851
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:21,920
Speaker 1: allocated to improving or purchasing more wetlands, which obviously helps

852
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:24,960
Speaker 1: with migratory bird species, but also helps with soil erosion,

853
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:30,480
Speaker 1: water quality, flooding, um and and helps roughly seven hundred

854
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:36,440
Speaker 1: species overall, like through just improving or maintaining current wetlands

855
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:39,600
Speaker 1: or adding more wetlands. So the cool thing about the

856
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:45,320
Speaker 1: duck stamp, though, is it's you. I think my favorite

857
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:47,399
Speaker 1: thing about it is you don't have to be a

858
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:49,439
Speaker 1: member of something. You don't have to have a hunter

859
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:52,480
Speaker 1: safety card, you don't have to have a license before

860
00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:55,960
Speaker 1: you buy it. There is the barrier to entry to

861
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 1: purchasing this and having and knowing that almost of the

862
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:03,720
Speaker 1: money you just spent is going to conservation is is amazing,

863
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:07,480
Speaker 1: Like there's there's really nothing other There's no other like

864
00:47:08,040 --> 00:47:11,279
Speaker 1: system put in place that that much money is designated

865
00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:14,920
Speaker 1: to conservations. So it's just a very simple way for

866
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:17,280
Speaker 1: people that are looking for a way to get involved

867
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:20,680
Speaker 1: in conservation just to know that they did a major

868
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:23,319
Speaker 1: thing simply by either going to the post office and

869
00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:26,960
Speaker 1: by a duck stamp or hopping on the US Fish

870
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:30,840
Speaker 1: and Wildlife Service website and buying one online. UM, the

871
00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:33,560
Speaker 1: barrier to entry, the hurdles that you have to cross

872
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:36,560
Speaker 1: are so low to take that step. I think it's

873
00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:39,240
Speaker 1: one of my favorite programs that we talk a lot about.

874
00:47:40,239 --> 00:47:43,600
Speaker 1: And even if you I mean you said it, even

875
00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:46,839
Speaker 1: if you don't duck hunt, it's it's still something you

876
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:50,200
Speaker 1: can and and it's worth doing, right, Yeah, I think

877
00:47:50,280 --> 00:47:52,600
Speaker 1: especially if you don't duck hunt, I mean, if you're

878
00:47:52,640 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 1: a waterfowl hunter, you have to buy one. So it's

879
00:47:54,760 --> 00:47:57,319
Speaker 1: it's something that you know, like you don't really think

880
00:47:57,320 --> 00:47:59,200
Speaker 1: about it. You're like, oh, it's just part of my tag.

881
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:01,479
Speaker 1: But if you're an if you're not a waterfowl hunter,

882
00:48:01,600 --> 00:48:04,400
Speaker 1: it's just as important, if not more important, to purchase it.

883
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:08,080
Speaker 1: Because if we could get like collectively, anybody who goes

884
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:10,600
Speaker 1: and hunts anything to buy a duck stamp every year,

885
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:15,120
Speaker 1: like the funding for these massive tracks of wetlands, like

886
00:48:15,320 --> 00:48:17,160
Speaker 1: the funding would not be a problem, and there would

887
00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:21,000
Speaker 1: be more waterfowl and more birds and more animals than

888
00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:23,200
Speaker 1: we would know what to do with. Yeah, you know,

889
00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:27,360
Speaker 1: it's such a good idea. I wonder why there isn't

890
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:31,080
Speaker 1: something like this for other projects, other species, you know,

891
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:36,279
Speaker 1: Like why isn't there a public land stamp? It's super cool. Yeah.

892
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:40,640
Speaker 1: I think what it comes down to is the people

893
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:44,040
Speaker 1: in that hunt or fish. I think they feel they

894
00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:48,080
Speaker 1: don't see it as an investment in the future. I

895
00:48:48,120 --> 00:48:51,600
Speaker 1: think we have done a badge. Like feels like a tax,

896
00:48:51,719 --> 00:48:54,080
Speaker 1: you know, it feels like a tax on this activity

897
00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:57,520
Speaker 1: that we all do. And I think that's just poor edge,

898
00:48:57,680 --> 00:49:00,879
Speaker 1: Like you know, the assist I'm doing a bad job

899
00:49:00,920 --> 00:49:03,920
Speaker 1: on educating people about how important all of these things are.

900
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:07,440
Speaker 1: So it's, uh, it's the same reason that every time

901
00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:10,600
Speaker 1: license prices and everything go up, it's you know, you

902
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:13,080
Speaker 1: hear a lot of griping about that, but every time

903
00:49:13,120 --> 00:49:15,359
Speaker 1: I buy a hunting or fishing license, I just look

904
00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:17,479
Speaker 1: at it as a concert ticket to the greatest show

905
00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:20,359
Speaker 1: that I get to attend every single day. Yeah, yeah,

906
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:22,880
Speaker 1: I think that's I think that's spot on. And like

907
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:24,880
Speaker 1: there's a lot of taxes we can grape about and

908
00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:27,200
Speaker 1: we want to, and it's it's that's fair. I mean,

909
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:30,080
Speaker 1: I get it, I've done it. I'm there. But if

910
00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:32,239
Speaker 1: there's anything on the pay extra for, Like if there's

911
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:34,239
Speaker 1: anything in the world I'd be happy to pay a

912
00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:38,760
Speaker 1: little extra for, it's this stuff. I mean, anyone who's

913
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:41,200
Speaker 1: listening to this has a love for the outdoors and

914
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:45,520
Speaker 1: hunting and wild things, and I don't know, you can't

915
00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 1: put a price tag on that stuff. As far as

916
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:50,120
Speaker 1: I'm concerned, I'll, you know, whatever I've got to do

917
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:53,160
Speaker 1: to to to pony up to keep this stuff around

918
00:49:53,239 --> 00:49:58,319
Speaker 1: and and inaccessible and healthy, and gosh, I'd much rather

919
00:49:58,360 --> 00:50:01,160
Speaker 1: spending money on that than an xbox or a new

920
00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:04,960
Speaker 1: TV or whatever, a bunch of beer. I mean, this

921
00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:07,440
Speaker 1: is this is money well spent. As much as I like,

922
00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:13,880
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more. Um So what else. Let's see

923
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:17,160
Speaker 1: what would be another good one. So here's here's one,

924
00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:21,719
Speaker 1: and this is this is a much more This is

925
00:50:21,800 --> 00:50:24,040
Speaker 1: much more of a commitment. The first couple of things

926
00:50:24,080 --> 00:50:28,240
Speaker 1: we've talked here are pretty easy to tackle for anyone

927
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:30,919
Speaker 1: out there. It's a low lift. I mean, I think

928
00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:33,600
Speaker 1: everyone could go and do those first three things today.

929
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:36,319
Speaker 1: My next suggestion is going to be one that is

930
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:39,799
Speaker 1: applicable to a much smaller portion of folks listening, and

931
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:41,879
Speaker 1: it was going to take a lot more thought. It's

932
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:45,960
Speaker 1: going to take some serious planning and some legal work

933
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:48,680
Speaker 1: and thinking. So take this with a grain of salt.

934
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:53,799
Speaker 1: But something that we've talked about over the last few

935
00:50:53,800 --> 00:51:00,560
Speaker 1: weeks has just been this endless um cycle of developed right.

936
00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:03,480
Speaker 1: I mean, every year, more and more wild places and

937
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:08,320
Speaker 1: open spaces are paved over, their subdivide and built up. Um,

938
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:11,960
Speaker 1: they disappear. I'm sure, Sam, there's places from your childhood that,

939
00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:14,879
Speaker 1: like you can remember playing in or exploring that. Now

940
00:51:14,880 --> 00:51:18,719
Speaker 1: we're a Walmart or a housing development or who knows what,

941
00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:22,160
Speaker 1: right I mean, that's it's just happening. Um. There's actually

942
00:51:22,200 --> 00:51:25,840
Speaker 1: a new feature that Google Earth just put out last

943
00:51:25,880 --> 00:51:30,880
Speaker 1: week which allows you to go back almost thirty years.

944
00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:33,960
Speaker 1: You can do like a time lapse feature of I

945
00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:36,959
Speaker 1: Think anywhere in America, in anywhere in the world I think,

946
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:40,239
Speaker 1: and you can see how the aerial photography. Can look

947
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:42,440
Speaker 1: at the aerial photography of a place and see how

948
00:51:42,440 --> 00:51:45,360
Speaker 1: it changes over the last thirty years. And if you

949
00:51:45,480 --> 00:51:48,560
Speaker 1: go and and look at your favorite hunting spot, or

950
00:51:48,640 --> 00:51:51,239
Speaker 1: look at some place that you care about, or look

951
00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:53,880
Speaker 1: at anywhere randomly in America, if you zoom back to

952
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:56,520
Speaker 1: what it looked like in nineteen eight or whatever that

953
00:51:56,560 --> 00:51:59,080
Speaker 1: first date is, and then you start fast forwarding through time,

954
00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:01,799
Speaker 1: I can tell you what you're gonna see. You're gonna

955
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:06,080
Speaker 1: see more buildings, more roads, more pavement, and less and

956
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:10,040
Speaker 1: less green, less and less grasslands and forests and water

957
00:52:10,680 --> 00:52:13,680
Speaker 1: and rivers and wetlands and and all that good stuff

958
00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:16,040
Speaker 1: that we care about, Like, that's just the reality of

959
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:19,480
Speaker 1: what's happening. So I think that one of the big

960
00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:22,000
Speaker 1: big things that we as hunters and anglers and outdoors

961
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:24,799
Speaker 1: people can do is is try to be one of

962
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:29,960
Speaker 1: those positive forces to slow that tide. There's a bunch

963
00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:32,600
Speaker 1: of ways we can do it, um but one that

964
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:34,759
Speaker 1: has been discussed a little bit over the last couple

965
00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:38,799
Speaker 1: of weeks is this idea of a conservation easement, and

966
00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:42,719
Speaker 1: so conservation easement, if you miss those earlier episodes, these

967
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:44,840
Speaker 1: are there's a bunch of different ways this can happen,

968
00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:46,840
Speaker 1: a bunch of different programs you can go through, but

969
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:50,719
Speaker 1: basically there are voluntary programs in which if you own land,

970
00:52:50,840 --> 00:52:53,520
Speaker 1: if you've got a hunting camp or a back forward

971
00:52:53,600 --> 00:52:57,080
Speaker 1: of your own um or or whatever, if you own land,

972
00:52:57,640 --> 00:53:01,000
Speaker 1: you can voluntarily sell the develop mint rights to that

973
00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:06,120
Speaker 1: property so that in the future it can't be developed. Basically,

974
00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:08,239
Speaker 1: you are saying like, hey, this is a place that's

975
00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:10,520
Speaker 1: really special to me, and I want to make sure

976
00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:12,880
Speaker 1: that after I'm dead and gone, it's not gonna be

977
00:53:13,040 --> 00:53:15,600
Speaker 1: turned into a shopping mall. I want to make sure

978
00:53:15,600 --> 00:53:17,640
Speaker 1: that after I'm dead and gone, this is still wild.

979
00:53:17,719 --> 00:53:20,279
Speaker 1: There's still deer out here, there's still pheasants out here,

980
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:23,200
Speaker 1: or whatever it is. Um, I want to keep it,

981
00:53:23,640 --> 00:53:26,800
Speaker 1: you know, this wild special place that's been so important

982
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:28,680
Speaker 1: to me and my kids and whatever it is in

983
00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:32,440
Speaker 1: your situation. So these programs allow you to enter a

984
00:53:32,560 --> 00:53:35,920
Speaker 1: legal contract in which you maintain ownership of the property.

985
00:53:36,239 --> 00:53:39,200
Speaker 1: You maintain all your same world rights that to do

986
00:53:39,239 --> 00:53:41,439
Speaker 1: what you want to do there. It's not like you're

987
00:53:41,680 --> 00:53:44,080
Speaker 1: giving free access to the property or anything. It's just

988
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:47,880
Speaker 1: basically saying like, hey, we're putting this regulation on this

989
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:52,360
Speaker 1: property that into perpetuity. Um. You know, there will be

990
00:53:52,360 --> 00:53:54,600
Speaker 1: no development of this property, there will no be no

991
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:57,239
Speaker 1: subdivision of this property. There will not be any kind

992
00:53:57,280 --> 00:54:00,320
Speaker 1: of um impacts to this that would remove the natural

993
00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:02,720
Speaker 1: qualities of the property. And there's there's all such different

994
00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:05,040
Speaker 1: little caveats you can throw in there. You can say,

995
00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:07,520
Speaker 1: you know, I want to keep this ten acres available

996
00:54:07,560 --> 00:54:09,600
Speaker 1: to still build or add onto my house or build

997
00:54:09,600 --> 00:54:12,120
Speaker 1: a cabin or whatever. Like. There's you can set all

998
00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:14,120
Speaker 1: these things ahead of time. But what it allows you

999
00:54:14,160 --> 00:54:16,640
Speaker 1: to do is to make sure that the next people

1000
00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:19,640
Speaker 1: fifty years from now, maybe you don't know if they're

1001
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:22,120
Speaker 1: gonna care about conservation. You don't know if they're gonna

1002
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:25,880
Speaker 1: um care about the white tails or the ducks or whatever.

1003
00:54:26,239 --> 00:54:28,440
Speaker 1: But you since you own this place right now, you

1004
00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:33,560
Speaker 1: have this special opportunity to put your lasting kind of

1005
00:54:33,640 --> 00:54:37,360
Speaker 1: fingerprints on that wild space. And so you can do this.

1006
00:54:37,400 --> 00:54:39,759
Speaker 1: There's some government programs you can do these. There's some

1007
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:43,960
Speaker 1: private land conservation trusts. UM. There's a lot of different

1008
00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:46,799
Speaker 1: ways to do it. UM. Sometimes you can be compensated

1009
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:49,439
Speaker 1: and paid for this. They'll actually buy the rights, they'll

1010
00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:52,520
Speaker 1: buy this conservation easement. UM. You can also do this

1011
00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:56,160
Speaker 1: as a donation, like for example, Ducks Unlimited has a

1012
00:54:56,239 --> 00:55:00,239
Speaker 1: conservation easement program where you can donate the conservation asian

1013
00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:03,760
Speaker 1: excuse me, you can donate the conservation easement two du

1014
00:55:04,280 --> 00:55:07,279
Speaker 1: and then they kind of manage the monitoring of it

1015
00:55:07,360 --> 00:55:10,279
Speaker 1: and the some of the logistics of it. Uh. And

1016
00:55:10,320 --> 00:55:12,279
Speaker 1: it's it's just a really cool way to make sure

1017
00:55:12,360 --> 00:55:16,560
Speaker 1: that your special place stay special and conserved into the future.

1018
00:55:16,960 --> 00:55:19,040
Speaker 1: Not saying this is for everyone, I understand there's like

1019
00:55:19,080 --> 00:55:21,640
Speaker 1: a lot of logistics they have to go around this.

1020
00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:25,400
Speaker 1: But if you own land, my encouragement would be for

1021
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:29,279
Speaker 1: you to look into it, do a little googling, read

1022
00:55:29,360 --> 00:55:33,799
Speaker 1: up on the conservation easement programs available where your property is. Uh.

1023
00:55:33,840 --> 00:55:36,280
Speaker 1: This is something that I'm going to start looking into,

1024
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:38,640
Speaker 1: um and seeing if this is a good fit maybe

1025
00:55:38,680 --> 00:55:42,279
Speaker 1: for our family camp. Um. And I mean there's there's

1026
00:55:42,280 --> 00:55:44,400
Speaker 1: a lot to it, but I'm just gonna pitch you

1027
00:55:44,440 --> 00:55:47,160
Speaker 1: on learn more, do some reading, do some googling, see

1028
00:55:47,200 --> 00:55:48,960
Speaker 1: if this is a good fit, because I think it's

1029
00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:52,719
Speaker 1: a great way that us as hunters that that have

1030
00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:54,520
Speaker 1: a lot of land. I mean the number that I

1031
00:55:54,600 --> 00:55:57,239
Speaker 1: keep on bringing up is something like three fifties some

1032
00:55:57,360 --> 00:56:01,200
Speaker 1: million acres across the country are either owned or least

1033
00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:06,799
Speaker 1: or managed for hunting. Million plus acres of land are

1034
00:56:07,800 --> 00:56:10,359
Speaker 1: kind of underneath our influence of sorts. So that's a

1035
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:14,680
Speaker 1: big footprint that we could have a lasting impact on. Uh.

1036
00:56:14,719 --> 00:56:19,880
Speaker 1: So there's my pitch, consider conservation easement. Um. And I

1037
00:56:19,880 --> 00:56:22,759
Speaker 1: think it's I just think it's one of those special

1038
00:56:22,960 --> 00:56:25,000
Speaker 1: kinds of ways we can make a long term impact

1039
00:56:25,160 --> 00:56:29,480
Speaker 1: that takes a little time but could last a long time. Um.

1040
00:56:29,560 --> 00:56:31,960
Speaker 1: What do you think about that one? Sam? I think

1041
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:35,280
Speaker 1: that's awesome. You know, if it's always been a dream

1042
00:56:35,280 --> 00:56:37,400
Speaker 1: of mine to have a piece of property at some point.

1043
00:56:37,920 --> 00:56:41,279
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, if I ever actually make

1044
00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:43,200
Speaker 1: it happen and be able to go down that road,

1045
00:56:43,239 --> 00:56:46,200
Speaker 1: I think the conservation easement thing is is something I'll

1046
00:56:46,239 --> 00:56:48,880
Speaker 1: definitely look into, uh, you know, to protect it for

1047
00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:51,480
Speaker 1: the future, and like you said, like I would have,

1048
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:53,800
Speaker 1: you know, set it up in a way where, you know,

1049
00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:55,960
Speaker 1: if I pass it on to my kids or their

1050
00:56:56,040 --> 00:56:58,239
Speaker 1: kids or however it works down the road, like make

1051
00:56:58,320 --> 00:57:00,960
Speaker 1: it so it's still available for them to you know,

1052
00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:03,400
Speaker 1: have areas where they can build a new cabin or

1053
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:07,239
Speaker 1: whatever it might be, um but but protected in perpetuity

1054
00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:09,480
Speaker 1: so it's always going to be a wild place. That's

1055
00:57:09,560 --> 00:57:13,520
Speaker 1: that's really cool. Yeah, I mean talk about the worst nightmare.

1056
00:57:13,719 --> 00:57:16,200
Speaker 1: Can you imagine being like you have someplace that you've

1057
00:57:16,520 --> 00:57:19,080
Speaker 1: that you've loved and steward it and worked on and

1058
00:57:19,120 --> 00:57:22,040
Speaker 1: spend all this time building up, and then you pass

1059
00:57:22,120 --> 00:57:24,040
Speaker 1: away and if you were watching it from the grave,

1060
00:57:24,200 --> 00:57:26,560
Speaker 1: can I can just I mean, when I think about

1061
00:57:26,560 --> 00:57:28,960
Speaker 1: it myself, I think about our family hunting camp up

1062
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:31,200
Speaker 1: in northern Michigan. We call it ken Rov and it's

1063
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:34,600
Speaker 1: it's the forty acres that like formed me. It is

1064
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:38,040
Speaker 1: foundational to I who I am, and the idea of

1065
00:57:38,360 --> 00:57:41,560
Speaker 1: fifty years from now, someone coming in there and who

1066
00:57:41,560 --> 00:57:43,120
Speaker 1: knows what the world's gonna look like in fifty years.

1067
00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:45,200
Speaker 1: But what if there was a big city kind of

1068
00:57:45,200 --> 00:57:47,320
Speaker 1: slowly easing its way towards there, and all of a

1069
00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:49,479
Speaker 1: sudden someday they said, you know, we're gonna we're gonna

1070
00:57:49,520 --> 00:57:51,919
Speaker 1: chop us all up into one acre lots and put

1071
00:57:51,960 --> 00:57:54,440
Speaker 1: houses there. I mean, I would be rolling over in

1072
00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:57,320
Speaker 1: my grave for two thousand years if that were to happen.

1073
00:57:58,080 --> 00:58:01,520
Speaker 1: So so this is this is just a great way

1074
00:58:01,560 --> 00:58:05,160
Speaker 1: to make sure something that doesn't UM. So there's there's

1075
00:58:05,200 --> 00:58:10,800
Speaker 1: my idea. What what's next for you saying, let's see,

1076
00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:13,840
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back to something that's not quite so

1077
00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:18,520
Speaker 1: heavy lifting like you said, but this one is just

1078
00:58:18,760 --> 00:58:20,760
Speaker 1: go I'm sure you've talked about this before, but just

1079
00:58:20,880 --> 00:58:24,840
Speaker 1: go shopping and it's gonna sound weird, but more specifically

1080
00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:29,400
Speaker 1: for specifically, you know, if we're talking you know, a stimulus,

1081
00:58:29,480 --> 00:58:32,960
Speaker 1: all this stuff get the economy going. But more more specifically,

1082
00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:36,680
Speaker 1: go shopping for guns, ammo if you can find it,

1083
00:58:37,480 --> 00:58:41,480
Speaker 1: archery equipment, fishing gear, um anything with it kind of

1084
00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:44,360
Speaker 1: held in that space. And I'm sure you've talked about

1085
00:58:44,360 --> 00:58:49,400
Speaker 1: this before on the podcast, but anytime you buy a gun,

1086
00:58:49,640 --> 00:58:52,360
Speaker 1: you buy Ammo, you buy a bow, you buy arrows,

1087
00:58:53,000 --> 00:58:55,800
Speaker 1: all of those things have a federal excise tax on

1088
00:58:55,880 --> 00:58:59,840
Speaker 1: them which goes into the Pitman Robertson Fund and it's

1089
00:59:00,200 --> 00:59:03,720
Speaker 1: somewhere between ten and eleven depending on what the item is,

1090
00:59:04,320 --> 00:59:07,720
Speaker 1: and that is taxed at the manufacturer level, So I mean,

1091
00:59:07,720 --> 00:59:10,080
Speaker 1: obviously that cost is just passed down to the consumer,

1092
00:59:10,120 --> 00:59:13,360
Speaker 1: but it's a self inflicted tax from way back that

1093
00:59:13,560 --> 00:59:16,360
Speaker 1: goes into a fund, and then those funds can be

1094
00:59:16,400 --> 00:59:21,440
Speaker 1: applied for by state agencies, organizations, all of these people

1095
00:59:21,440 --> 00:59:25,240
Speaker 1: that are working on habitat access easements, all these different things,

1096
00:59:25,720 --> 00:59:28,280
Speaker 1: and every time you go out and purchase one of

1097
00:59:28,320 --> 00:59:30,160
Speaker 1: these things, that money goes in there, and then that

1098
00:59:30,200 --> 00:59:34,400
Speaker 1: money gets funneled to these projects to help improve habitat management,

1099
00:59:34,400 --> 00:59:39,040
Speaker 1: wildlife management, hunting heritage all across the country. So that's

1100
00:59:39,080 --> 00:59:40,880
Speaker 1: a pretty easy one. Most people that are listening to

1101
00:59:40,880 --> 00:59:44,760
Speaker 1: this probably like purchasing new guns, you know, new bows, Ammo,

1102
00:59:44,880 --> 00:59:47,320
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and you can you can rest a

1103
00:59:47,320 --> 00:59:50,040
Speaker 1: little easier knowing that you know, a chunk of that

1104
00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:54,200
Speaker 1: is going to protect the places and and you know,

1105
00:59:54,320 --> 00:59:57,640
Speaker 1: give back to the places that you want to protect. Yeah,

1106
00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:00,800
Speaker 1: this is what I call the significant other silver bullet.

1107
01:00:01,000 --> 01:00:02,840
Speaker 1: So you can say, you can you can tell your

1108
01:00:02,880 --> 01:00:05,600
Speaker 1: wife or or whatever that, hey, you know what, I

1109
01:00:05,680 --> 01:00:08,000
Speaker 1: had to buy that new gun because I care about

1110
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:11,160
Speaker 1: conservation and this is a way to do that. Um

1111
01:00:11,280 --> 01:00:13,439
Speaker 1: right there. It's all about the story. And this gives

1112
01:00:13,440 --> 01:00:16,080
Speaker 1: you great story because it is a really great program

1113
01:00:16,200 --> 01:00:20,520
Speaker 1: and and Pittman Robbers Robertson. I mean, it's it's another

1114
01:00:20,560 --> 01:00:25,280
Speaker 1: example of of how, you know, we hunters have kind

1115
01:00:25,320 --> 01:00:28,240
Speaker 1: of agreed to self taxation of assorts. You know, back

1116
01:00:28,280 --> 01:00:30,680
Speaker 1: in the in the forties, when this stuff was all

1117
01:00:30,720 --> 01:00:33,120
Speaker 1: coming around thirties and forties, you know, it was it

1118
01:00:33,240 --> 01:00:35,720
Speaker 1: was folks at that time being willing to say, all right,

1119
01:00:35,760 --> 01:00:38,560
Speaker 1: you know, we'll get behind a piece of legislation like

1120
01:00:38,640 --> 01:00:41,240
Speaker 1: this because we care about this stuff and we're willing

1121
01:00:41,280 --> 01:00:44,200
Speaker 1: to pay a little extra. And um man, I'm glad

1122
01:00:44,240 --> 01:00:45,880
Speaker 1: that folks were willing to do it back then because

1123
01:00:45,920 --> 01:00:49,200
Speaker 1: it's I mean, it's paying for the lion's share of

1124
01:00:49,240 --> 01:00:52,680
Speaker 1: a lot of this management work that needs to be done.

1125
01:00:53,000 --> 01:00:55,840
Speaker 1: These programs on the ground. I mean a lot of

1126
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:58,960
Speaker 1: that comes from these PR dollars. So so yeah, pat

1127
01:00:59,040 --> 01:01:02,960
Speaker 1: yourself on the backs, be easy, feel good about it. Um.

1128
01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:04,720
Speaker 1: And I guess if you're out there doing that, if

1129
01:01:04,760 --> 01:01:07,880
Speaker 1: you're shopping someplace that allows you to round up for conservation,

1130
01:01:08,040 --> 01:01:09,680
Speaker 1: which a lot of companies are doing these days, a

1131
01:01:09,720 --> 01:01:12,320
Speaker 1: lot of stories are doing. Um, go ahead and do

1132
01:01:12,360 --> 01:01:15,480
Speaker 1: that too. That's another one, right, yep, yep, that is

1133
01:01:15,480 --> 01:01:18,640
Speaker 1: another one, so perfect. I like it. I'm going shopping.

1134
01:01:19,120 --> 01:01:23,960
Speaker 1: Um all right, here's another one. And this is this

1135
01:01:23,960 --> 01:01:27,120
Speaker 1: one's gonna be easy to do. Uh, take a little

1136
01:01:27,120 --> 01:01:28,680
Speaker 1: bit of time just to think about it. But this

1137
01:01:28,760 --> 01:01:31,120
Speaker 1: is related to that same idea of how we're losing

1138
01:01:31,160 --> 01:01:34,120
Speaker 1: wild places, right, And this is related to one of

1139
01:01:34,160 --> 01:01:36,520
Speaker 1: the ideas that we talked about with Randy a couple

1140
01:01:36,560 --> 01:01:38,400
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and we talked about this with Witt

1141
01:01:38,480 --> 01:01:44,880
Speaker 1: Fostburgh last week. And this is the thirty by thirty initiative. Sam,

1142
01:01:44,920 --> 01:01:47,240
Speaker 1: have you heard anything about that, read anything about thirty

1143
01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:50,160
Speaker 1: by thirty? Familiar with that? I am a little bit.

1144
01:01:50,200 --> 01:01:52,720
Speaker 1: I haven't done the deep dive into it because it's

1145
01:01:52,760 --> 01:01:55,960
Speaker 1: so fresh. Yep. So anyone who's listened to those other

1146
01:01:56,000 --> 01:01:58,280
Speaker 1: episodes already knows the basic gist, so I don't want

1147
01:01:58,320 --> 01:02:01,880
Speaker 1: to preach about too much, but basically, it's this top

1148
01:02:01,960 --> 01:02:06,160
Speaker 1: level goal that kind of started internationally within the scientific

1149
01:02:06,160 --> 01:02:09,680
Speaker 1: community and has been picked up now in America by

1150
01:02:10,360 --> 01:02:14,520
Speaker 1: by a variety different conservationists, environmental and conservation organizations, and

1151
01:02:14,560 --> 01:02:19,640
Speaker 1: now some politicians basically pitching that to prevent you know,

1152
01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:23,080
Speaker 1: the series of extinctions and declining wildlife populations that we've

1153
01:02:23,120 --> 01:02:27,120
Speaker 1: been seeing and that that are are absolutely happening across

1154
01:02:27,160 --> 01:02:29,960
Speaker 1: the world and even here in America, to prevent that

1155
01:02:30,040 --> 01:02:32,800
Speaker 1: from getting worse, we need to set a goal of

1156
01:02:32,920 --> 01:02:39,479
Speaker 1: conserving of our land and water by twenty So it's

1157
01:02:39,800 --> 01:02:43,240
Speaker 1: setting like a big audacious goal and something to work towards.

1158
01:02:43,280 --> 01:02:46,120
Speaker 1: And so uh, as you guys have heard me talk about,

1159
01:02:46,160 --> 01:02:50,360
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about kind of the opportunity this presents

1160
01:02:50,840 --> 01:02:53,760
Speaker 1: folks like us in the conservation community community to get

1161
01:02:53,800 --> 01:02:57,040
Speaker 1: on the offensive. So much of the time, you know, Sam,

1162
01:02:57,120 --> 01:02:59,360
Speaker 1: like with the whole land transfer movement and all that

1163
01:02:59,440 --> 01:03:02,240
Speaker 1: five years, it was defense, like these guys are trying

1164
01:03:02,240 --> 01:03:04,360
Speaker 1: to come and take away our land. They're trying to

1165
01:03:04,680 --> 01:03:07,760
Speaker 1: sell these places or transfer them and denude them and

1166
01:03:07,840 --> 01:03:11,680
Speaker 1: deteriorate them. So we gotta play defense. This is the opposite.

1167
01:03:11,720 --> 01:03:13,600
Speaker 1: This is like, hey, you know what, we stopped that.

1168
01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:17,080
Speaker 1: Now let's go out and make sure that more places

1169
01:03:17,120 --> 01:03:19,560
Speaker 1: have some form of conservation and protection on them to

1170
01:03:19,600 --> 01:03:22,720
Speaker 1: make sure that we don't lose more. Um So, who

1171
01:03:22,960 --> 01:03:25,640
Speaker 1: better to take a leadership position in this than us

1172
01:03:25,760 --> 01:03:28,400
Speaker 1: than hunters. I would rather like us. We should be

1173
01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:32,360
Speaker 1: in that conversation. The hunters and anglers should be part

1174
01:03:32,440 --> 01:03:35,680
Speaker 1: of this. Um you know, I know there's some concern

1175
01:03:35,800 --> 01:03:40,320
Speaker 1: around you know what if some folks within you know,

1176
01:03:40,440 --> 01:03:44,040
Speaker 1: different sides of the environmental movement have too much of

1177
01:03:44,120 --> 01:03:46,000
Speaker 1: us say on things and they're gonna make it this

1178
01:03:46,080 --> 01:03:47,600
Speaker 1: and that, and we're not gonna like it, or they're

1179
01:03:47,600 --> 01:03:49,840
Speaker 1: not gonna allow hunting, or they're not gonna whatever. I mean,

1180
01:03:49,840 --> 01:03:52,680
Speaker 1: there's all sorts of things you could say. So let's

1181
01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:55,080
Speaker 1: just be a part of the conversation and make sure

1182
01:03:55,160 --> 01:03:58,760
Speaker 1: that those things don't happen. So my suggestion, my action

1183
01:03:58,800 --> 01:04:02,440
Speaker 1: and for people is to number one, learn about this

1184
01:04:02,440 --> 01:04:06,600
Speaker 1: stuff some more. Go to hunt fish thirty dot com.

1185
01:04:06,680 --> 01:04:10,840
Speaker 1: That's this website that's been put together that features basically

1186
01:04:11,040 --> 01:04:14,600
Speaker 1: a a position statement from the hunting and fishing community

1187
01:04:14,600 --> 01:04:18,000
Speaker 1: that's been approved and signed off on by basically name

1188
01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:21,840
Speaker 1: any hunting or fishing conservation organization out there and they're

1189
01:04:21,880 --> 01:04:25,560
Speaker 1: on this list, And this position statement basically says, hey,

1190
01:04:26,200 --> 01:04:29,520
Speaker 1: we see thirty by thirty as a great opportunity. We

1191
01:04:29,800 --> 01:04:32,160
Speaker 1: the hunting and fishing community have been leaders in the

1192
01:04:32,200 --> 01:04:37,040
Speaker 1: conservation space for decades and we want to support this

1193
01:04:37,120 --> 01:04:40,120
Speaker 1: and see this as a great opportunity to protect more places.

1194
01:04:40,160 --> 01:04:42,200
Speaker 1: But we want to make sure our voice is hurt.

1195
01:04:42,280 --> 01:04:44,600
Speaker 1: So let's make sure we're thinking about some important things

1196
01:04:44,680 --> 01:04:48,800
Speaker 1: like maintaining hunting and fishing access in these newly conservative

1197
01:04:48,800 --> 01:04:52,560
Speaker 1: protected lands, um making sure there's clear ways to define

1198
01:04:53,160 --> 01:04:56,480
Speaker 1: what counts as conservator protected, and making sure things like

1199
01:04:56,560 --> 01:05:00,360
Speaker 1: private land conservation easements would be counted, because hey, there's

1200
01:05:00,360 --> 01:05:02,960
Speaker 1: a huge opportunity with those types of things. So my

1201
01:05:03,040 --> 01:05:06,240
Speaker 1: suggestion is one, go to the website hunt Phish thirty

1202
01:05:06,280 --> 01:05:09,240
Speaker 1: thirty dot com, read up on this stuff, and then

1203
01:05:09,320 --> 01:05:13,880
Speaker 1: number two, email your two senators and say, hey, I

1204
01:05:13,920 --> 01:05:16,120
Speaker 1: want to make sure you know about thirty by thirty

1205
01:05:16,160 --> 01:05:17,880
Speaker 1: and I want to make sure you're listening to hunting

1206
01:05:17,880 --> 01:05:20,640
Speaker 1: and Fishing position on it and copy and pay some

1207
01:05:20,680 --> 01:05:23,200
Speaker 1: stuff out of that website. That position statement I'm talking

1208
01:05:23,200 --> 01:05:25,680
Speaker 1: about really easy. All you gotta do is punching your

1209
01:05:25,680 --> 01:05:29,960
Speaker 1: centator's names, copying some information from that position statement, shoot

1210
01:05:30,000 --> 01:05:32,480
Speaker 1: it on out. I think this is one of those

1211
01:05:32,520 --> 01:05:34,600
Speaker 1: things that over the next you know, eight nine years,

1212
01:05:35,160 --> 01:05:38,280
Speaker 1: could be one of these big success stories we're talking about,

1213
01:05:38,360 --> 01:05:40,520
Speaker 1: just like you know, you and I Sam can talk

1214
01:05:40,520 --> 01:05:42,720
Speaker 1: about the success that we had, you know, as a

1215
01:05:42,760 --> 01:05:46,480
Speaker 1: community with the land transfer movement and you know, the

1216
01:05:46,480 --> 01:05:49,080
Speaker 1: whole Chavet's Bill and how we shut that down. All

1217
01:05:49,120 --> 01:05:52,120
Speaker 1: the different good things have come out of the public

1218
01:05:52,240 --> 01:05:55,840
Speaker 1: land awareness renaissance. Why don't we go and go on

1219
01:05:55,840 --> 01:05:58,600
Speaker 1: the offensive with that same energy and be able to

1220
01:05:58,600 --> 01:06:02,040
Speaker 1: look back, you know, onies and same man over that

1221
01:06:02,080 --> 01:06:05,320
Speaker 1: eight nine year period, look at all of the progress

1222
01:06:05,360 --> 01:06:07,479
Speaker 1: we made, look at how we made sure that there's

1223
01:06:07,560 --> 01:06:09,600
Speaker 1: gonna be more wild places around that we're not going

1224
01:06:09,640 --> 01:06:11,400
Speaker 1: to lose all these spots that we care about. That

1225
01:06:11,880 --> 01:06:13,960
Speaker 1: your old fishing hole isn't going to disappear, That that

1226
01:06:14,040 --> 01:06:16,680
Speaker 1: spot you learned duck hunt isn't going to be gone,

1227
01:06:16,880 --> 01:06:20,160
Speaker 1: That that patch of pines that I taught my son

1228
01:06:20,200 --> 01:06:24,160
Speaker 1: to turkey hunt, is going to be here down the road. Um.

1229
01:06:24,280 --> 01:06:26,800
Speaker 1: That stuff really gets me excited. And I think this

1230
01:06:26,880 --> 01:06:29,800
Speaker 1: is there's this momentum around this idea, in this goal.

1231
01:06:30,640 --> 01:06:33,040
Speaker 1: Let's latch onto it and be a part of it

1232
01:06:33,240 --> 01:06:38,400
Speaker 1: versus just watching someone else here it. Um that's my idea, Sam. Yeah, no,

1233
01:06:38,560 --> 01:06:41,080
Speaker 1: I I love that. And like you said, I mean

1234
01:06:41,160 --> 01:06:44,200
Speaker 1: just go on the offensive. I mean so like again,

1235
01:06:44,560 --> 01:06:49,200
Speaker 1: like so often, our whole industry community is reactive and

1236
01:06:49,280 --> 01:06:52,120
Speaker 1: not you know, not planning for the future. I mean

1237
01:06:52,200 --> 01:06:55,120
Speaker 1: they are to some extent, but again it's mostly like

1238
01:06:55,520 --> 01:06:58,320
Speaker 1: something happens and we have to you know, the world's

1239
01:06:58,320 --> 01:07:01,280
Speaker 1: on fire, we have to react to it. So um, yeah, no,

1240
01:07:01,400 --> 01:07:04,360
Speaker 1: I think that. I think that's great. So, like Mark said,

1241
01:07:04,400 --> 01:07:07,360
Speaker 1: go to that website, learn about that, and get involved.

1242
01:07:07,880 --> 01:07:09,960
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I think it's I think it's gonna be

1243
01:07:10,000 --> 01:07:11,800
Speaker 1: a really interesting thing to follow and be a part of.

1244
01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:16,800
Speaker 1: So stay tuned more on that. What are you go next? So, uh,

1245
01:07:16,840 --> 01:07:21,360
Speaker 1: this one is something that is pretty easy to do. Um,

1246
01:07:21,400 --> 01:07:23,480
Speaker 1: but I I'm gonna talk a little bit about it.

1247
01:07:23,520 --> 01:07:26,800
Speaker 1: And it's it's all of us are so involved these

1248
01:07:26,880 --> 01:07:31,760
Speaker 1: days on social media, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,

1249
01:07:32,280 --> 01:07:36,280
Speaker 1: you name it. There's a million different platforms or you know, blogs, podcasts,

1250
01:07:36,280 --> 01:07:40,960
Speaker 1: all those things. I would encourage people to spend more

1251
01:07:41,000 --> 01:07:47,000
Speaker 1: time and effort posting about and talking about conservation issues. Now,

1252
01:07:47,040 --> 01:07:50,040
Speaker 1: I will warn you when you post about these things,

1253
01:07:50,040 --> 01:07:52,440
Speaker 1: when you talk about these things, you will get about

1254
01:07:52,600 --> 01:07:58,400
Speaker 1: zero engagement. And that's not as exciting as the big

1255
01:07:58,440 --> 01:08:00,960
Speaker 1: buck picture. Huh No, it's not. It's not. It's not

1256
01:08:01,000 --> 01:08:03,160
Speaker 1: as exciting, but as the big buck picture, it's not.

1257
01:08:03,400 --> 01:08:06,280
Speaker 1: It's it's not sexy conservation. It's not a sexy thing.

1258
01:08:06,920 --> 01:08:10,080
Speaker 1: Uh And so you know, I've seen it time and

1259
01:08:10,080 --> 01:08:13,320
Speaker 1: time again. The more I talk and preach about conservation like,

1260
01:08:13,400 --> 01:08:16,800
Speaker 1: the lower my engagement rate is. But I'm going to

1261
01:08:16,880 --> 01:08:18,720
Speaker 1: continue to do it. And I think that if we

1262
01:08:18,800 --> 01:08:21,559
Speaker 1: can get more people on board talking about it. You know,

1263
01:08:21,680 --> 01:08:24,320
Speaker 1: whether it be a volunteer weekend that you went and

1264
01:08:24,360 --> 01:08:27,439
Speaker 1: participated in, or you know, something that you just donated to,

1265
01:08:27,840 --> 01:08:30,000
Speaker 1: or you know, you went to a banquet and you

1266
01:08:30,040 --> 01:08:31,720
Speaker 1: did this, or you know it helped raise money for

1267
01:08:31,720 --> 01:08:34,240
Speaker 1: this project, whatever it might be, talk about it, Tell

1268
01:08:34,240 --> 01:08:36,280
Speaker 1: your friends, tell your buddies, because you never know who

1269
01:08:36,320 --> 01:08:39,240
Speaker 1: you might inspire to also do something like that. So

1270
01:08:39,600 --> 01:08:44,160
Speaker 1: I think just posting about these things that you can

1271
01:08:44,200 --> 01:08:47,400
Speaker 1: do in a positive light, like you're going to be

1272
01:08:47,400 --> 01:08:50,360
Speaker 1: posting something anyway, maybe splashing a little bit of conservation.

1273
01:08:50,400 --> 01:08:53,360
Speaker 1: It's a pretty easy way for everyone to get involved

1274
01:08:53,439 --> 01:08:56,120
Speaker 1: and to kind of keep that message moving forward. Yeah,

1275
01:08:56,240 --> 01:08:58,040
Speaker 1: now you've done this more than most. Do you have

1276
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:01,320
Speaker 1: any suggestions on I don't know how to do it right,

1277
01:09:01,640 --> 01:09:03,800
Speaker 1: because there should you. I don't know whether that be

1278
01:09:04,600 --> 01:09:08,040
Speaker 1: the medium that you use like picture or video or written,

1279
01:09:08,200 --> 01:09:10,080
Speaker 1: or how you talk about this stuff or what you

1280
01:09:10,120 --> 01:09:12,960
Speaker 1: share is I don't know anything you've learned about telling

1281
01:09:13,000 --> 01:09:15,720
Speaker 1: these stories, sharing these things online that that's useful or

1282
01:09:15,760 --> 01:09:18,760
Speaker 1: helpful to do it in a better way. Yeah, I

1283
01:09:18,760 --> 01:09:20,960
Speaker 1: think the most important part is to just not be

1284
01:09:21,320 --> 01:09:23,920
Speaker 1: like trying it to be too preachy about it, because

1285
01:09:23,960 --> 01:09:26,880
Speaker 1: the last thing, you know, like he nobody likes just

1286
01:09:26,960 --> 01:09:30,280
Speaker 1: getting talked at um. But maybe just talk about like

1287
01:09:30,360 --> 01:09:32,800
Speaker 1: your involvement in it, Like if you're posting about it,

1288
01:09:32,840 --> 01:09:35,880
Speaker 1: just be like, oh, you know, I joined this organization

1289
01:09:35,960 --> 01:09:37,680
Speaker 1: and I went out and I you know, did a

1290
01:09:37,800 --> 01:09:40,439
Speaker 1: river clean up over the weekend, and you know, like

1291
01:09:40,479 --> 01:09:43,639
Speaker 1: collectively we hauled out you know, like thirty seven bags

1292
01:09:43,640 --> 01:09:46,800
Speaker 1: of trash or whatever, like anything like that just kind

1293
01:09:46,800 --> 01:09:49,160
Speaker 1: of always just posted in a positive light. I think

1294
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:52,000
Speaker 1: that's probably the best way to do it without being like, oh,

1295
01:09:52,120 --> 01:09:53,720
Speaker 1: I did this, why aren't you all? You know, like,

1296
01:09:53,800 --> 01:09:57,280
Speaker 1: don't try to condemn anybody for for not speaking up

1297
01:09:57,320 --> 01:09:59,600
Speaker 1: about it. I guess it's probably the best way to

1298
01:09:59,600 --> 01:10:03,960
Speaker 1: go about that's good. Yeah, yeah, it's it's funny. There's

1299
01:10:04,080 --> 01:10:07,920
Speaker 1: there's this it's it's present in a lot of different communities.

1300
01:10:07,920 --> 01:10:11,040
Speaker 1: But there's this kind of like social proof for social

1301
01:10:11,080 --> 01:10:13,280
Speaker 1: momentum kind of thing that happens with this type of

1302
01:10:13,320 --> 01:10:18,040
Speaker 1: deal where if you if enough folks, like the public

1303
01:10:18,080 --> 01:10:21,719
Speaker 1: lands thing is a perfect example, Like during that whole

1304
01:10:21,800 --> 01:10:24,639
Speaker 1: period or on the land transfer movement, so many people

1305
01:10:24,720 --> 01:10:29,200
Speaker 1: started talking about public land and public land access issues

1306
01:10:29,720 --> 01:10:31,960
Speaker 1: that it all of a sudden became like the thing.

1307
01:10:32,560 --> 01:10:34,880
Speaker 1: It became like, if you're not tapped in on this,

1308
01:10:34,960 --> 01:10:36,920
Speaker 1: if you don't realize what's going on, if you're not

1309
01:10:37,360 --> 01:10:39,960
Speaker 1: you know, doing your part, you're missing out, Like you're

1310
01:10:40,080 --> 01:10:42,960
Speaker 1: you're outside of the of the community. Now, if you

1311
01:10:43,040 --> 01:10:46,000
Speaker 1: weren't kind of involved in that, there's a certain I mean,

1312
01:10:46,080 --> 01:10:49,559
Speaker 1: saying it's trendy is kind of negative, but I guess

1313
01:10:49,560 --> 01:10:53,360
Speaker 1: if you if some if being trendy could ever be good,

1314
01:10:53,680 --> 01:10:57,240
Speaker 1: I would say, like making conservation trendy is a damn

1315
01:10:57,280 --> 01:11:00,720
Speaker 1: good place to do it. Um. So, if enough of

1316
01:11:00,800 --> 01:11:03,280
Speaker 1: us are talking about like, yeah, I'm doing stuff, Yeah

1317
01:11:03,320 --> 01:11:05,439
Speaker 1: I did this. Yeah, I think this is an issue

1318
01:11:05,479 --> 01:11:07,879
Speaker 1: that I'm I'm keeping tabs and I think it's pretty interesting.

1319
01:11:08,360 --> 01:11:11,920
Speaker 1: If enough of us do that, the people that wouldn't

1320
01:11:12,080 --> 01:11:15,479
Speaker 1: normally get involved in these things will probably take notice,

1321
01:11:16,120 --> 01:11:18,760
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, when it becomes the quote

1322
01:11:18,840 --> 01:11:22,479
Speaker 1: unquote like thing to do. Uh, then you're then you're

1323
01:11:22,479 --> 01:11:27,360
Speaker 1: talking about some real cool stuff happening. Um. Yeah, well

1324
01:11:27,360 --> 01:11:29,920
Speaker 1: it's the tipping point, right. It's just like it's it's

1325
01:11:29,960 --> 01:11:32,160
Speaker 1: like the video of that one weird dude dancing at

1326
01:11:32,160 --> 01:11:37,160
Speaker 1: the concert and if you haven't seen it, just go YouTube.

1327
01:11:37,200 --> 01:11:40,479
Speaker 1: You know, weird dude dancing at a concert. But like

1328
01:11:40,840 --> 01:11:43,040
Speaker 1: you know, it starts out with just one person at

1329
01:11:43,120 --> 01:11:46,240
Speaker 1: the in the video, there's one person that's dancing just crazy,

1330
01:11:46,400 --> 01:11:49,640
Speaker 1: and then you have one other guy that decides to

1331
01:11:49,640 --> 01:11:51,840
Speaker 1: go like I'm just gonna go, you know, get wild too,

1332
01:11:51,880 --> 01:11:53,599
Speaker 1: and just dance and like then all of a sudden

1333
01:11:53,640 --> 01:11:55,800
Speaker 1: you have a few more adopters and a few more

1334
01:11:55,840 --> 01:11:57,840
Speaker 1: adopters and the next thing, you know, there's hundreds of

1335
01:11:57,880 --> 01:12:00,600
Speaker 1: people that are just going nuts uh uh and and

1336
01:12:00,720 --> 01:12:03,800
Speaker 1: joining in all this stuff. So it takes a little while,

1337
01:12:03,880 --> 01:12:05,479
Speaker 1: but like if you, like you said, if you can

1338
01:12:05,479 --> 01:12:07,320
Speaker 1: get enough people talking about it, you can get enough

1339
01:12:07,360 --> 01:12:10,559
Speaker 1: people thinking it's trendy to be a conservationist and and

1340
01:12:10,640 --> 01:12:14,679
Speaker 1: preach about conservation and really you know, be passionate about it. Yeah,

1341
01:12:14,840 --> 01:12:16,920
Speaker 1: there's no there's no end to what we can do

1342
01:12:17,080 --> 01:12:21,200
Speaker 1: as a community in that space. Yeah. And social media definitely,

1343
01:12:21,920 --> 01:12:25,920
Speaker 1: for all of its downfalls, one thing that it has

1344
01:12:26,000 --> 01:12:28,679
Speaker 1: done that is pretty darn cool is it has made

1345
01:12:28,800 --> 01:12:32,920
Speaker 1: that kind of like community building or sharing just so

1346
01:12:33,040 --> 01:12:37,360
Speaker 1: much easier. Um, I mean, you could you can mobilize

1347
01:12:37,360 --> 01:12:41,080
Speaker 1: a group of like people, like minded people in a

1348
01:12:41,200 --> 01:12:43,000
Speaker 1: in a crazy way compared to what it would have

1349
01:12:43,040 --> 01:12:46,960
Speaker 1: taken twenty years ago. So you know, if there was one,

1350
01:12:47,040 --> 01:12:49,439
Speaker 1: I mean, we've seen it a handful of times with

1351
01:12:49,600 --> 01:12:52,200
Speaker 1: big issues or big bills, Like when there is a

1352
01:12:52,200 --> 01:12:54,360
Speaker 1: concerted thing that we're all going to double down on

1353
01:12:54,960 --> 01:12:56,840
Speaker 1: and you can get the word out there enough people

1354
01:12:56,880 --> 01:13:01,320
Speaker 1: start doing it, that snowball effect is can be assive. Um.

1355
01:13:01,320 --> 01:13:04,320
Speaker 1: And we've we've got that power at our fingertips now,

1356
01:13:04,360 --> 01:13:07,160
Speaker 1: So that's that's pretty cool. So if, yeah, I love it.

1357
01:13:07,200 --> 01:13:10,560
Speaker 1: If ever one of us started doing that, that absolutely

1358
01:13:10,600 --> 01:13:17,479
Speaker 1: makes a big difference. Yeah. Um yeah, I'm wondering here,

1359
01:13:17,520 --> 01:13:21,519
Speaker 1: what do I have? All Right, here's one, Um, this

1360
01:13:21,600 --> 01:13:25,639
Speaker 1: is gonna be another on the ground thing. Um. My

1361
01:13:26,439 --> 01:13:31,240
Speaker 1: challenge for folks listening within the deer hunting community is

1362
01:13:31,439 --> 01:13:38,519
Speaker 1: to take action on one non dear focused habitat project

1363
01:13:38,600 --> 01:13:41,840
Speaker 1: this year. Um. We talked a lot about this two

1364
01:13:41,840 --> 01:13:46,240
Speaker 1: episodes ago with Adam Keith and Matt die um. So

1365
01:13:46,400 --> 01:13:49,320
Speaker 1: there was tons of ideas mentioned in that one. My

1366
01:13:49,320 --> 01:13:53,880
Speaker 1: my challenge, my my hope is that every one of

1367
01:13:53,960 --> 01:13:56,559
Speaker 1: us that has a piece of ground that either released

1368
01:13:56,680 --> 01:13:59,000
Speaker 1: or we own it, um, and then we can do

1369
01:13:59,160 --> 01:14:01,759
Speaker 1: some kind of stuff. Let's all try to do one

1370
01:14:02,000 --> 01:14:07,000
Speaker 1: thing that's not solely dear focused. Um. It's it's obviously

1371
01:14:07,080 --> 01:14:09,559
Speaker 1: that we always want to do those projects that are

1372
01:14:09,560 --> 01:14:12,040
Speaker 1: gonna make the deer hunting better. For those of us

1373
01:14:12,040 --> 01:14:14,720
Speaker 1: that are nuts about white tails, it's I mean, I'm

1374
01:14:14,800 --> 01:14:17,240
Speaker 1: guilty of it a ton Like if I'm gonna do something,

1375
01:14:17,280 --> 01:14:19,280
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna put money and time and energy into it.

1376
01:14:19,479 --> 01:14:21,760
Speaker 1: Of course, I wanted to lead to you know, an

1377
01:14:21,920 --> 01:14:25,400
Speaker 1: awesome encounter with a great, big giant buck on November one. Um,

1378
01:14:25,439 --> 01:14:28,200
Speaker 1: I've got that beautiful green clover plot for that, right.

1379
01:14:28,680 --> 01:14:32,640
Speaker 1: But but you know, we have these places, we have

1380
01:14:32,720 --> 01:14:36,240
Speaker 1: these landscapes that we have the privilege to either own

1381
01:14:36,280 --> 01:14:38,880
Speaker 1: at least or to use, and uh, you know, there's

1382
01:14:38,880 --> 01:14:40,800
Speaker 1: there's a lot of power that we have on those

1383
01:14:40,840 --> 01:14:43,400
Speaker 1: places to to do good stuff for other critters out there.

1384
01:14:43,680 --> 01:14:45,439
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, there's a lot of stuff out there that

1385
01:14:45,600 --> 01:14:49,240
Speaker 1: is struggling compared to dear deer doing pretty darn great

1386
01:14:49,320 --> 01:14:52,160
Speaker 1: across the landscape. We've done an awesome job as deer

1387
01:14:52,200 --> 01:14:56,640
Speaker 1: hunters and managers of of managing them and providing you know,

1388
01:14:56,760 --> 01:15:00,519
Speaker 1: landscapes that they benefit from. But you know, talked about

1389
01:15:00,520 --> 01:15:03,560
Speaker 1: this throughout the whole Back forty project. Things like butterflies

1390
01:15:03,600 --> 01:15:08,200
Speaker 1: and bees are seriously struggling. Songbirds are declining rapidly across

1391
01:15:08,240 --> 01:15:11,639
Speaker 1: a lot of different places. Um, you know, rough grouse

1392
01:15:11,880 --> 01:15:14,320
Speaker 1: are in a bad, bad place across a lot of

1393
01:15:14,360 --> 01:15:17,240
Speaker 1: their landscape. There's all sorts of these other animals out

1394
01:15:17,280 --> 01:15:21,559
Speaker 1: there that could use, uh some help, that could use

1395
01:15:21,640 --> 01:15:25,320
Speaker 1: more wildlife habitat that you know. Shoot, pheasants across a

1396
01:15:25,320 --> 01:15:28,200
Speaker 1: lot of the Midwest now are declining because of more

1397
01:15:28,200 --> 01:15:30,080
Speaker 1: and more fence, and I was getting tore out more

1398
01:15:30,080 --> 01:15:33,280
Speaker 1: and more grasslands and CRP stuff being put into crops.

1399
01:15:33,840 --> 01:15:35,639
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many examples of this kind of stuff.

1400
01:15:35,640 --> 01:15:39,280
Speaker 1: I know. I'm sure you've seen a sam um. So

1401
01:15:40,000 --> 01:15:42,200
Speaker 1: you know, if you can find one thing, it could

1402
01:15:42,200 --> 01:15:44,320
Speaker 1: be small, it could be just a test, it could

1403
01:15:44,320 --> 01:15:47,479
Speaker 1: be man you know, maybe this year, instead of planting

1404
01:15:47,520 --> 01:15:50,240
Speaker 1: five food plots, I'm gonna do four food plots, and

1405
01:15:50,280 --> 01:15:52,599
Speaker 1: one of those spots, that one acre that usually goes

1406
01:15:52,640 --> 01:15:55,760
Speaker 1: into straight clover, Maybe now let's try to manage that

1407
01:15:55,840 --> 01:15:58,839
Speaker 1: as an old field and promote native plants and weeds

1408
01:15:58,840 --> 01:16:01,600
Speaker 1: and different things like that that be great for pollinators

1409
01:16:01,600 --> 01:16:05,400
Speaker 1: and butterflies and bees and rabbits and all that stuff. Maybe,

1410
01:16:06,040 --> 01:16:10,040
Speaker 1: you know, instead of I don't know, maybe instead of

1411
01:16:10,080 --> 01:16:13,160
Speaker 1: investing a thousand bucks or five bucks in the new

1412
01:16:13,360 --> 01:16:17,040
Speaker 1: box blind, maybe you take five bucks and get a

1413
01:16:17,160 --> 01:16:20,439
Speaker 1: cheap chainsaw and some safety gear and do some kind

1414
01:16:20,439 --> 01:16:23,080
Speaker 1: of timber management. Cut a little d I Y project

1415
01:16:23,160 --> 01:16:26,960
Speaker 1: on a half acre that brings some sunlight to the ground. Um,

1416
01:16:27,120 --> 01:16:29,200
Speaker 1: look at those ideas. There's tons of stuff out there.

1417
01:16:29,880 --> 01:16:33,760
Speaker 1: Try something. My idea is one non deer project. See

1418
01:16:33,760 --> 01:16:35,800
Speaker 1: what it does on the landscape. It's it's probably gonna

1419
01:16:35,840 --> 01:16:38,640
Speaker 1: end up helping your deer hunting too. But if we

1420
01:16:38,680 --> 01:16:41,160
Speaker 1: can do this and and give some love to these

1421
01:16:41,160 --> 01:16:44,360
Speaker 1: other animals, these other landscapes, I think, I think everything

1422
01:16:44,439 --> 01:16:47,840
Speaker 1: that's connected benefits and um, I think that'd be a

1423
01:16:47,840 --> 01:16:49,479
Speaker 1: great place for us to spend a little time as

1424
01:16:49,600 --> 01:16:53,760
Speaker 1: as deer hunters and managers. So that's that's my next one. Yeah, no,

1425
01:16:53,920 --> 01:16:55,880
Speaker 1: that's that's perfect. I like that a lot. And like

1426
01:16:56,000 --> 01:16:59,800
Speaker 1: you said, uh, you might be focusing on something that

1427
01:16:59,880 --> 01:17:02,920
Speaker 1: is quote unquote not deer related, but it's almost guaranteed

1428
01:17:02,920 --> 01:17:05,360
Speaker 1: that it's going to help your your deer herd as well.

1429
01:17:06,360 --> 01:17:14,880
Speaker 1: So yeah, um, let's see here, I've got a little list. Now.

1430
01:17:15,000 --> 01:17:17,760
Speaker 1: This one is going to take a little bit more

1431
01:17:17,880 --> 01:17:21,680
Speaker 1: uh more people educating themselves on it. But this one

1432
01:17:21,760 --> 01:17:25,559
Speaker 1: is just vote for conservation. Um. You know, so much

1433
01:17:25,560 --> 01:17:27,800
Speaker 1: of what happens, you know, you kind of touched on

1434
01:17:27,840 --> 01:17:30,960
Speaker 1: stuff like the Farm Bill and CRP and and these

1435
01:17:31,080 --> 01:17:35,480
Speaker 1: major government programs. Um, a lot of that happens in Washington.

1436
01:17:35,600 --> 01:17:38,640
Speaker 1: The decisions that you know affect your local herd or

1437
01:17:38,720 --> 01:17:41,800
Speaker 1: your local flock or your local you know, like habitat

1438
01:17:42,479 --> 01:17:47,120
Speaker 1: improvement stuff is it comes from Washington, and it comes

1439
01:17:47,200 --> 01:17:50,320
Speaker 1: from you know, being educated about who's running for what

1440
01:17:50,479 --> 01:17:53,519
Speaker 1: seats and then you know, like kind of looking back

1441
01:17:53,560 --> 01:17:56,760
Speaker 1: on their track record or at least looking back at

1442
01:17:56,840 --> 01:17:59,599
Speaker 1: like what they have where they have positioned themselves, you know,

1443
01:18:00,320 --> 01:18:04,200
Speaker 1: on conservation issues. And so it's it's just you know,

1444
01:18:04,600 --> 01:18:07,840
Speaker 1: whether it be researching the voting records or you know,

1445
01:18:07,920 --> 01:18:10,960
Speaker 1: asking those questions, two different organizations that are keeping an

1446
01:18:10,960 --> 01:18:14,559
Speaker 1: eye on anybody that's you know, running for certain positions

1447
01:18:14,640 --> 01:18:19,000
Speaker 1: or whatever within the government. Educate yourselves on you know,

1448
01:18:19,040 --> 01:18:23,920
Speaker 1: who's going to be pro habitat conservation public lands uh,

1449
01:18:24,200 --> 01:18:27,960
Speaker 1: you know, or conservation easements or private land improvement. Uh.

1450
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:30,479
Speaker 1: And and know who you should vote for in the

1451
01:18:30,520 --> 01:18:34,360
Speaker 1: election because that makes a huge difference. Um. Yeah, but

1452
01:18:34,400 --> 01:18:36,800
Speaker 1: that you know, it takes time. That one takes a

1453
01:18:36,840 --> 01:18:39,559
Speaker 1: lot of there's a lot there's not one great, you know,

1454
01:18:39,800 --> 01:18:43,920
Speaker 1: central location for all of that information, and unfortunately a

1455
01:18:44,000 --> 01:18:48,120
Speaker 1: lot of the organizations can't really like you know, tell

1456
01:18:48,200 --> 01:18:51,920
Speaker 1: you you know, um, right, or wrong, like who has

1457
01:18:52,040 --> 01:18:54,560
Speaker 1: voted for what because you know, because they have a

1458
01:18:55,120 --> 01:18:59,599
Speaker 1: nonprofit um status and so they're not able to really

1459
01:18:59,640 --> 01:19:02,160
Speaker 1: you know, you can't have a political view because they're

1460
01:19:02,600 --> 01:19:06,080
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be unbiased and objective about everything. So

1461
01:19:06,439 --> 01:19:08,479
Speaker 1: it's uh, yeah, that when you've got to take on

1462
01:19:08,560 --> 01:19:10,800
Speaker 1: for yourself and learn about who you're voting for and

1463
01:19:10,800 --> 01:19:13,000
Speaker 1: and and where they stand on all those issues. So

1464
01:19:13,280 --> 01:19:15,599
Speaker 1: it takes a little time, but believe me, it's it's

1465
01:19:15,600 --> 01:19:17,400
Speaker 1: worth it once you once you start to learn all

1466
01:19:17,439 --> 01:19:21,719
Speaker 1: that stuff. Yeah, Now here's the rub though, Sam, how

1467
01:19:21,760 --> 01:19:26,480
Speaker 1: do you personally go about like figuring out the balance?

1468
01:19:27,120 --> 01:19:30,320
Speaker 1: Because you know, I think something that plagues a lot

1469
01:19:30,400 --> 01:19:34,360
Speaker 1: of our plagues our political situation a lot of these

1470
01:19:34,400 --> 01:19:37,519
Speaker 1: times that it's hard to find candidates that are good

1471
01:19:37,560 --> 01:19:42,080
Speaker 1: on habitat and conservation and also good on hunting rights

1472
01:19:42,400 --> 01:19:45,320
Speaker 1: or firearm rights things like that that are important to

1473
01:19:45,320 --> 01:19:47,400
Speaker 1: what we do. Um. I mean, this is the thing

1474
01:19:47,439 --> 01:19:50,280
Speaker 1: that I'm constantly wrestling with, like how do I how

1475
01:19:50,280 --> 01:19:52,680
Speaker 1: do I do this right? How do I get the

1476
01:19:52,720 --> 01:19:55,799
Speaker 1: best of both worlds. It's like every year I'm constantly

1477
01:19:55,880 --> 01:19:58,080
Speaker 1: trying to figure this out and trying to read up

1478
01:19:58,120 --> 01:20:00,760
Speaker 1: on who's best on these different things and all that.

1479
01:20:00,880 --> 01:20:02,680
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you how do you manage that?

1480
01:20:02,720 --> 01:20:05,640
Speaker 1: How do you think about that? Oh? It's not easy.

1481
01:20:06,200 --> 01:20:09,240
Speaker 1: I think for me, what it boils down to is

1482
01:20:09,280 --> 01:20:11,960
Speaker 1: I have a list of priorities, you know, for whether

1483
01:20:12,000 --> 01:20:14,880
Speaker 1: it be for my my personal views and then like

1484
01:20:15,000 --> 01:20:18,280
Speaker 1: the much grander view when it comes to all things

1485
01:20:18,400 --> 01:20:23,040
Speaker 1: conservation related. And I think it's just trying to pick

1486
01:20:23,040 --> 01:20:26,120
Speaker 1: and choose what's going to fit that bill as best

1487
01:20:26,160 --> 01:20:29,040
Speaker 1: as I can. I'm never going to get right of

1488
01:20:29,120 --> 01:20:32,559
Speaker 1: the time, but I do know that, um, you know,

1489
01:20:32,640 --> 01:20:35,360
Speaker 1: for our country to continue to progress and do the

1490
01:20:35,439 --> 01:20:38,000
Speaker 1: right things, we need a balance of both sides of

1491
01:20:38,040 --> 01:20:41,160
Speaker 1: the aisle and people that are you know, maybe maybe

1492
01:20:41,160 --> 01:20:42,920
Speaker 1: the best thing is trying to find people who are

1493
01:20:42,920 --> 01:20:45,960
Speaker 1: willing to work with each other, uh and get them

1494
01:20:46,000 --> 01:20:49,519
Speaker 1: in office. And so you know, it's not also one

1495
01:20:49,560 --> 01:20:53,200
Speaker 1: sided one way or another, because I think, you know,

1496
01:20:53,479 --> 01:20:56,280
Speaker 1: as a as a country as a whole, we have, um,

1497
01:20:56,320 --> 01:20:59,280
Speaker 1: you know, people that lean really far one way and

1498
01:20:59,320 --> 01:21:00,960
Speaker 1: really far the other way, and there's a lot of

1499
01:21:01,000 --> 01:21:04,639
Speaker 1: us that are kind of in that more central, essentially

1500
01:21:04,680 --> 01:21:07,880
Speaker 1: minded common sense stuff. So I think it's just picking

1501
01:21:07,880 --> 01:21:11,800
Speaker 1: and choosing um as best you can on how all

1502
01:21:11,840 --> 01:21:15,479
Speaker 1: that fits into you know, both your personal and worldviews. Yeah, yeah,

1503
01:21:15,479 --> 01:21:17,560
Speaker 1: I'm right there with you on that one, and that's

1504
01:21:17,600 --> 01:21:19,680
Speaker 1: so so true. I wish we could get more of

1505
01:21:19,680 --> 01:21:26,040
Speaker 1: that middle ground represented um and get some working together happening. UM.

1506
01:21:26,120 --> 01:21:30,880
Speaker 1: You know, I would add on that, which is like vote,

1507
01:21:31,160 --> 01:21:33,840
Speaker 1: vote for conservation, vote for these things you care about.

1508
01:21:34,240 --> 01:21:37,640
Speaker 1: But then I would say my, my, my, yes, but

1509
01:21:38,000 --> 01:21:42,160
Speaker 1: or yes, and would be yes, do that and after

1510
01:21:42,200 --> 01:21:47,599
Speaker 1: the elections, regardless of who won, then pressure the hell

1511
01:21:47,640 --> 01:21:51,439
Speaker 1: out of whoever did win. Two represent the thing that

1512
01:21:51,479 --> 01:21:54,280
Speaker 1: still matters to you. So you know, if if the

1513
01:21:54,320 --> 01:21:57,360
Speaker 1: person who's good on I mean again, this isn't always

1514
01:21:57,360 --> 01:21:59,160
Speaker 1: the case. Sometimes there's people that are good on all

1515
01:21:59,200 --> 01:22:01,560
Speaker 1: things that we care about. But let's just say, hypothetically,

1516
01:22:01,600 --> 01:22:05,080
Speaker 1: like the person who's good on the environment but not

1517
01:22:05,200 --> 01:22:08,040
Speaker 1: good on guns or good on hunting rights, say that

1518
01:22:08,080 --> 01:22:10,920
Speaker 1: person wins in that case, they said, all right, let's

1519
01:22:11,000 --> 01:22:13,360
Speaker 1: get ahold that person and say yes please on that

1520
01:22:13,439 --> 01:22:16,000
Speaker 1: environment stuff, and yes please on that conservation public land

1521
01:22:16,000 --> 01:22:17,640
Speaker 1: stuff and say a great job at a boy, at

1522
01:22:17,640 --> 01:22:21,200
Speaker 1: a girl whatever, But then really raise a ruckus about

1523
01:22:21,280 --> 01:22:24,040
Speaker 1: like K but we we still need this and this,

1524
01:22:24,120 --> 01:22:26,720
Speaker 1: and we have these really important hunting rates. You gotta

1525
01:22:26,720 --> 01:22:28,639
Speaker 1: support that. You gotta support that. You can't be good

1526
01:22:28,640 --> 01:22:31,080
Speaker 1: on conservation but bad on this, so we gotta like

1527
01:22:31,160 --> 01:22:33,320
Speaker 1: the onus is on us to keep making a racket

1528
01:22:33,320 --> 01:22:35,519
Speaker 1: on that thing. Or on the flip side, if the

1529
01:22:35,560 --> 01:22:38,559
Speaker 1: person that's great on our firearm rights are great on hunting.

1530
01:22:39,000 --> 01:22:41,040
Speaker 1: If they win, but then they want to start doing

1531
01:22:41,040 --> 01:22:43,360
Speaker 1: some wonky stuff with our public lands, or they start

1532
01:22:43,400 --> 01:22:48,360
Speaker 1: promoting some bad stuff for wildlife, then same thing, like, hey, buddy,

1533
01:22:48,400 --> 01:22:51,280
Speaker 1: I voted for you, but you cannot wreck it by

1534
01:22:51,280 --> 01:22:54,680
Speaker 1: doing this bad stuff for the other things. Um. That

1535
01:22:54,840 --> 01:22:58,360
Speaker 1: pressure that those emails and those calls, even after the election,

1536
01:22:59,240 --> 01:23:01,439
Speaker 1: I think that can still make a difference too. So

1537
01:23:02,080 --> 01:23:05,800
Speaker 1: be the squeaky wheel vote and then be the squeaky wheel. Yeah.

1538
01:23:05,880 --> 01:23:08,120
Speaker 1: I like that a lot. Just hold all of those

1539
01:23:08,160 --> 01:23:12,680
Speaker 1: people accountable, um, and you know, potentially even sway their

1540
01:23:12,720 --> 01:23:16,000
Speaker 1: mind to you know, go down the path that we

1541
01:23:16,040 --> 01:23:18,400
Speaker 1: wanted to go down, because they are after all, elected

1542
01:23:18,439 --> 01:23:24,240
Speaker 1: officials elected by the people. Yeah. Yeah, it's uh, it's

1543
01:23:24,400 --> 01:23:26,840
Speaker 1: it's possible. I mean we've seen examples over the last

1544
01:23:26,920 --> 01:23:29,280
Speaker 1: five years of how we've been able to do it right. Shot.

1545
01:23:29,360 --> 01:23:34,280
Speaker 1: That's example A. So, um, there's definitely that that power

1546
01:23:34,320 --> 01:23:39,200
Speaker 1: we have, UM that takes us to number ten, And

1547
01:23:40,360 --> 01:23:45,280
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say my number ten is going to be

1548
01:23:45,320 --> 01:23:47,720
Speaker 1: this one. This is gonna be way different than most

1549
01:23:47,800 --> 01:23:51,920
Speaker 1: everything else we've said. I'm going to say that. And

1550
01:23:51,960 --> 01:23:54,360
Speaker 1: I've talked about this in the past before. But if

1551
01:23:54,680 --> 01:23:56,599
Speaker 1: we're looking for something, if you haven't done this yet,

1552
01:23:57,920 --> 01:24:01,120
Speaker 1: you gotta pick it up. You gotta read a Sand

1553
01:24:01,320 --> 01:24:06,360
Speaker 1: County Almanac. That's gonna be my last suggestion. I just

1554
01:24:06,479 --> 01:24:09,320
Speaker 1: think it's one of those it's short, it's an easy read,

1555
01:24:10,040 --> 01:24:14,920
Speaker 1: and it's one of those just foundational sets of ideas

1556
01:24:15,000 --> 01:24:21,240
Speaker 1: about conservation and protecting and conserving these places and animals. Uh,

1557
01:24:21,240 --> 01:24:24,240
Speaker 1: there's so much in there that Aldo Leopold talks about

1558
01:24:24,280 --> 01:24:27,880
Speaker 1: that resonates true still today. If you read that whole

1559
01:24:27,880 --> 01:24:30,960
Speaker 1: book through and don't feel inspired to take action on

1560
01:24:31,080 --> 01:24:34,920
Speaker 1: items one through nine, I don't know what will um

1561
01:24:35,040 --> 01:24:37,040
Speaker 1: so read that one. The first half of the book

1562
01:24:37,160 --> 01:24:39,640
Speaker 1: is kind of like little anecdotes and stories, and he

1563
01:24:39,760 --> 01:24:41,840
Speaker 1: might be like, oh, this is interesting stuff, but I

1564
01:24:41,880 --> 01:24:45,000
Speaker 1: don't get how it ties directly to conservation and the

1565
01:24:45,120 --> 01:24:48,519
Speaker 1: land ethic of stuff. But read that because the second

1566
01:24:48,560 --> 01:24:51,160
Speaker 1: half of the book gets into the real meat and

1567
01:24:51,160 --> 01:24:54,760
Speaker 1: potatoes of these ideas, and you're not close the book

1568
01:24:54,800 --> 01:24:58,679
Speaker 1: on that last page and be like wow, yeah, alright,

1569
01:24:58,800 --> 01:25:02,880
Speaker 1: we've got work to do. So that's that's my last one. Sam.

1570
01:25:02,920 --> 01:25:04,400
Speaker 1: Have you have you read a Sam kind of Almanac?

1571
01:25:05,360 --> 01:25:09,960
Speaker 1: I have not, Sam. No, just listen, wait wait, it

1572
01:25:10,080 --> 01:25:16,000
Speaker 1: is ordered perfect Okay, I literally just ordered it on Amazon.

1573
01:25:16,200 --> 01:25:19,639
Speaker 1: So good, good, good, you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna

1574
01:25:19,640 --> 01:25:21,720
Speaker 1: thank me for that one. You're gonna like that. I'll

1575
01:25:21,720 --> 01:25:24,920
Speaker 1: probably have it read by the time this podcast goes live.

1576
01:25:25,000 --> 01:25:27,479
Speaker 1: So yes, I've read it. Okay. Yeah, we'll edit this

1577
01:25:27,520 --> 01:25:31,040
Speaker 1: out and just say yeah, I've read it. Yeah, I

1578
01:25:31,080 --> 01:25:33,920
Speaker 1: have read it. Oh man, I think and it's it's

1579
01:25:33,960 --> 01:25:37,120
Speaker 1: a it's an easy quick read, but it's um man,

1580
01:25:37,640 --> 01:25:41,880
Speaker 1: it's just full of the good stuff. So I don't know, Sam,

1581
01:25:42,000 --> 01:25:44,000
Speaker 1: I know we each we each had more ideas, but

1582
01:25:44,080 --> 01:25:46,479
Speaker 1: I figure if we if we overload people, it's probably

1583
01:25:46,479 --> 01:25:50,280
Speaker 1: more than anything than anyone could handle. Um But I

1584
01:25:50,280 --> 01:25:52,799
Speaker 1: think there's some good stuff here we've got. I'll recap

1585
01:25:52,840 --> 01:25:56,400
Speaker 1: the list and my my idea here is like, obviously

1586
01:25:56,400 --> 01:25:58,519
Speaker 1: none of us can do all this stuff, but if

1587
01:25:58,640 --> 01:26:00,680
Speaker 1: but if each one of us maybe could do a

1588
01:26:00,720 --> 01:26:02,920
Speaker 1: couple of these things. We figure out what's the right

1589
01:26:02,920 --> 01:26:04,280
Speaker 1: fit for us, and what do we have the time

1590
01:26:04,280 --> 01:26:07,240
Speaker 1: for the or the money or the what's the right situation,

1591
01:26:07,240 --> 01:26:09,760
Speaker 1: whatever it is that works for you. If each one

1592
01:26:09,760 --> 01:26:14,200
Speaker 1: of us could tackle a couple of things, um, that's

1593
01:26:14,280 --> 01:26:17,280
Speaker 1: that's a really good step in the right direction for

1594
01:26:17,320 --> 01:26:20,760
Speaker 1: this this these places, these animals that we that we

1595
01:26:20,800 --> 01:26:23,120
Speaker 1: care about so much, that make you know, all the

1596
01:26:23,120 --> 01:26:26,160
Speaker 1: rest of the podcast topics. We've had all these conversations

1597
01:26:26,160 --> 01:26:28,639
Speaker 1: about how to hunt Donald buck on foot, or how

1598
01:26:28,680 --> 01:26:31,040
Speaker 1: to plant food plots that will lead to better our

1599
01:26:31,080 --> 01:26:34,000
Speaker 1: tree kills in November, or you know whatever it is

1600
01:26:34,040 --> 01:26:35,800
Speaker 1: that stuff that we love that gets us pumped up

1601
01:26:35,840 --> 01:26:38,840
Speaker 1: to be out there in the tree all day in November. Um,

1602
01:26:38,880 --> 01:26:43,719
Speaker 1: it's these little projects, these little emails and phone calls,

1603
01:26:44,720 --> 01:26:47,600
Speaker 1: reading these books, getting this information, all this stuff is

1604
01:26:47,680 --> 01:26:51,679
Speaker 1: what makes that possible. So a recap of our ten ideas.

1605
01:26:52,560 --> 01:26:55,960
Speaker 1: Our number one, join a conservation group or a bunch

1606
01:26:56,560 --> 01:27:00,759
Speaker 1: definitely check out the conservation crossing shirt and initiative number two,

1607
01:27:01,280 --> 01:27:05,200
Speaker 1: try to do your first volunteer project for a conservation group.

1608
01:27:05,280 --> 01:27:08,160
Speaker 1: Go out there and do a little something. Number three.

1609
01:27:08,360 --> 01:27:10,599
Speaker 1: Get a duck stamp. Buy some duck stamps. It's an

1610
01:27:10,640 --> 01:27:15,040
Speaker 1: easy way to send money directly to habitat work. Number four.

1611
01:27:15,360 --> 01:27:18,640
Speaker 1: If you own land, learn a little bit about conservation

1612
01:27:18,680 --> 01:27:20,720
Speaker 1: easements and see if that might be a good fit

1613
01:27:20,760 --> 01:27:25,919
Speaker 1: for your special place. Number five go shopping for hunting

1614
01:27:26,000 --> 01:27:28,280
Speaker 1: and firearms and Ammo and all that good stuff and

1615
01:27:28,320 --> 01:27:30,400
Speaker 1: feel good about it and tell your significant other that

1616
01:27:30,439 --> 01:27:33,720
Speaker 1: you're making a positive difference and not just spending your

1617
01:27:33,760 --> 01:27:37,240
Speaker 1: family's money. UH Number six, learn a little bit more

1618
01:27:37,280 --> 01:27:40,080
Speaker 1: about this thirty by thirty initiative. Go to hunt fish

1619
01:27:40,160 --> 01:27:44,400
Speaker 1: thirty thirty dot com to learn about that. UH Number seven.

1620
01:27:44,840 --> 01:27:48,360
Speaker 1: Talk more about this stuff on social media. Yeah, post

1621
01:27:48,400 --> 01:27:50,919
Speaker 1: your big buck pictures. Yeah, post your big fish pictures,

1622
01:27:51,400 --> 01:27:54,160
Speaker 1: but tossing a couple where you talk about the habit

1623
01:27:54,200 --> 01:27:57,280
Speaker 1: at work you did, or that volunteer project or some

1624
01:27:57,320 --> 01:28:01,720
Speaker 1: important issue that you care about. Number eight is if

1625
01:28:01,760 --> 01:28:03,720
Speaker 1: you own at least land and you can manage and

1626
01:28:03,760 --> 01:28:07,240
Speaker 1: do habit at work, let's try one non dear project

1627
01:28:07,280 --> 01:28:09,280
Speaker 1: this year. Consider that as an idea to add to

1628
01:28:09,320 --> 01:28:14,280
Speaker 1: your list. Number nine was vote for conservation, take the

1629
01:28:14,320 --> 01:28:16,879
Speaker 1: time to learn about these people and what they support,

1630
01:28:17,439 --> 01:28:21,200
Speaker 1: and and pay you attention to that in the ballot box,

1631
01:28:21,280 --> 01:28:24,519
Speaker 1: and then also be the squeaky wheel afterwards. And then

1632
01:28:24,520 --> 01:28:27,840
Speaker 1: the last number ten read a Sand County Almanac and

1633
01:28:27,880 --> 01:28:32,559
Speaker 1: get inspired by the wisdom of Eldo Leopold. Uh, that's

1634
01:28:32,560 --> 01:28:35,040
Speaker 1: what we got, Sam. What do you think, I'd say

1635
01:28:35,040 --> 01:28:37,840
Speaker 1: that's a pretty good list. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm

1636
01:28:37,880 --> 01:28:40,360
Speaker 1: happy with it. I feel I feel like there's a

1637
01:28:40,360 --> 01:28:42,400
Speaker 1: good number of these things I can do myself right now.

1638
01:28:42,439 --> 01:28:45,280
Speaker 1: So I'm excited about that. Yeah, me too. And there's

1639
01:28:45,320 --> 01:28:47,759
Speaker 1: definitely some things in there that you know, I'm gonna

1640
01:28:47,760 --> 01:28:52,120
Speaker 1: try to you know, do and and use going forward. Man,

1641
01:28:52,280 --> 01:28:54,839
Speaker 1: this is uh, this is a good stuff. I'm glad.

1642
01:28:55,840 --> 01:28:58,000
Speaker 1: I'm glad that we could just get to talk about

1643
01:28:58,000 --> 01:29:00,920
Speaker 1: this stuff and uh and think about these things. And

1644
01:29:00,960 --> 01:29:07,960
Speaker 1: it's it's just, you know, it's sometimes easy to look

1645
01:29:07,960 --> 01:29:11,720
Speaker 1: at the news or see some documentary or whatever. And

1646
01:29:11,840 --> 01:29:14,479
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier like feel overwhelmed. That's another thing. But

1647
01:29:14,840 --> 01:29:18,000
Speaker 1: it's also easy to see this barrage of bad news

1648
01:29:18,080 --> 01:29:21,320
Speaker 1: related to this animal going extinct or this amount of

1649
01:29:21,320 --> 01:29:24,759
Speaker 1: the landscape is gone, or this place is in danger,

1650
01:29:24,840 --> 01:29:26,920
Speaker 1: or this place got burned to the ground, or this

1651
01:29:27,520 --> 01:29:30,600
Speaker 1: lake has polluted. I mean, it could get depressing. It

1652
01:29:30,680 --> 01:29:35,639
Speaker 1: can get depressing. Um. And so I always go back

1653
01:29:35,680 --> 01:29:40,000
Speaker 1: to what Avan Shinnard often says, which is the best

1654
01:29:40,040 --> 01:29:44,799
Speaker 1: cure for depression is action. So whenever I start seeing

1655
01:29:44,840 --> 01:29:47,680
Speaker 1: that stuff and I'm like, damn, like, what are my

1656
01:29:47,760 --> 01:29:52,120
Speaker 1: kids going to be left with? That feeling always leads

1657
01:29:52,120 --> 01:29:54,800
Speaker 1: me to think, next, Okay, what can I do right now?

1658
01:29:55,040 --> 01:29:56,800
Speaker 1: Is there some little bit of action I can take?

1659
01:29:56,840 --> 01:29:59,120
Speaker 1: And that's I think that's the most important thing I

1660
01:29:59,160 --> 01:30:02,040
Speaker 1: can I can add to this conversation. I guess today

1661
01:30:02,160 --> 01:30:05,080
Speaker 1: is just the best cure for depressions. Action. So if

1662
01:30:05,080 --> 01:30:08,679
Speaker 1: you start bumming out about something you're seeing out there, um,

1663
01:30:09,320 --> 01:30:12,360
Speaker 1: do something. And Sam, you're a great example of someone

1664
01:30:12,400 --> 01:30:15,559
Speaker 1: doing that. Well thank you. But yeah, like you said,

1665
01:30:15,600 --> 01:30:17,679
Speaker 1: then you know, just take action. Pick one of those

1666
01:30:17,680 --> 01:30:22,000
Speaker 1: things on this list and just get after it. So

1667
01:30:22,160 --> 01:30:25,519
Speaker 1: if people, if people want to follow what you're doing,

1668
01:30:25,760 --> 01:30:29,120
Speaker 1: if they want to stay in touching up to date

1669
01:30:29,200 --> 01:30:31,320
Speaker 1: on your projects, those that are going right now or

1670
01:30:31,360 --> 01:30:33,280
Speaker 1: those in the future, where where should they go? Where

1671
01:30:33,280 --> 01:30:37,920
Speaker 1: can they tap into that? So, yeah, personal page mostly

1672
01:30:38,040 --> 01:30:43,360
Speaker 1: post Instagram is just at Sam Soholt, and then public

1673
01:30:43,400 --> 01:30:47,559
Speaker 1: land Tease pages are public land Tease dot com and

1674
01:30:47,680 --> 01:30:51,400
Speaker 1: the Instagram page is at public land Tease. And then

1675
01:30:51,439 --> 01:30:54,040
Speaker 1: we have, you know, starting to grow the content on

1676
01:30:54,120 --> 01:30:57,679
Speaker 1: the sohol Brothers YouTube channel. So, um yeah, that's pretty

1677
01:30:57,720 --> 01:30:59,439
Speaker 1: much where you can find everything that we're up to.

1678
01:31:00,040 --> 01:31:04,400
Speaker 1: We well, yeah, is there anything importantly we left off?

1679
01:31:04,479 --> 01:31:06,799
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you were dying to talk about

1680
01:31:06,840 --> 01:31:11,800
Speaker 1: that I've horribly mismanaged this conversation and missed him? No, man,

1681
01:31:11,840 --> 01:31:14,040
Speaker 1: I think uh, I think we covered it. I just

1682
01:31:14,160 --> 01:31:16,679
Speaker 1: really appreciate you letting me hop on and talk about

1683
01:31:16,680 --> 01:31:18,960
Speaker 1: everything that we're up to, all the initiatives and kind

1684
01:31:18,960 --> 01:31:21,960
Speaker 1: of the the journey that led to that point. And

1685
01:31:22,520 --> 01:31:25,560
Speaker 1: um yeah, I mean the goal is just to continue

1686
01:31:25,600 --> 01:31:28,439
Speaker 1: to figure out ways to do more of that. Yeah, well,

1687
01:31:28,479 --> 01:31:30,680
Speaker 1: I love it. I appreciate making the time to do this.

1688
01:31:30,880 --> 01:31:34,439
Speaker 1: And and also, like I mentioned a second ago, you

1689
01:31:34,520 --> 01:31:38,040
Speaker 1: are you are the example that people can look to

1690
01:31:38,280 --> 01:31:42,920
Speaker 1: of what can happen when folks make conservation cool and

1691
01:31:42,960 --> 01:31:44,960
Speaker 1: make it trendy and make it out there. Right, You've

1692
01:31:45,040 --> 01:31:48,240
Speaker 1: you've used your platform to share these initiatives, these stories,

1693
01:31:48,360 --> 01:31:51,880
Speaker 1: these experiences, these learnings you've had, and it's gotten a

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01:31:51,880 --> 01:31:55,360
Speaker 1: lot of people interested in it. So I mean, keep

1695
01:31:55,400 --> 01:31:58,080
Speaker 1: fighting the good fight, man, and uh, you know, I'm

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01:31:58,080 --> 01:32:01,160
Speaker 1: gonna gonna keep looking to you and being inspired and

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01:32:01,360 --> 01:32:04,400
Speaker 1: trying to do a few things myself. So thank you,

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01:32:04,439 --> 01:32:08,080
Speaker 1: Sam Well. I appreciate the kind words, but you know,

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01:32:08,120 --> 01:32:10,200
Speaker 1: a long way to go. But yeah, again, thank you,

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01:32:11,160 --> 01:32:15,200
Speaker 1: and that i'd say is a rap. All right, that's

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01:32:15,240 --> 01:32:18,080
Speaker 1: gonna do it. Appreciate you guys listening. Thank you for

1702
01:32:18,120 --> 01:32:20,559
Speaker 1: following along for this whole series. I hope you've learned

1703
01:32:20,560 --> 01:32:23,080
Speaker 1: a few things. I hope you've come away with some

1704
01:32:23,160 --> 01:32:25,920
Speaker 1: new ideas of of what you could do yourself when

1705
01:32:25,960 --> 01:32:28,839
Speaker 1: it comes to keeping these wild places and wild animals

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01:32:28,880 --> 01:32:31,280
Speaker 1: around so we can have a whole lot of great

1707
01:32:31,320 --> 01:32:34,240
Speaker 1: times in the future, good hunts, good memories, things that

1708
01:32:34,280 --> 01:32:37,639
Speaker 1: take our kids out there to enjoy, opportunities, to fill

1709
01:32:37,680 --> 01:32:40,840
Speaker 1: our freezer, all that good stuff. I want to make

1710
01:32:40,880 --> 01:32:44,160
Speaker 1: sure it's around for a long long time. So I'm

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01:32:44,200 --> 01:32:47,200
Speaker 1: excited that many of you are going to be doing

1712
01:32:47,240 --> 01:32:49,360
Speaker 1: the good work to help make that happen. And I'm

1713
01:32:49,360 --> 01:32:51,519
Speaker 1: gonna do my best to be right there alongside you.

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01:32:51,800 --> 01:32:57,000
Speaker 1: So thanks again and until next time, stay wired to Hunt.