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Speaker 1: Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife,

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Speaker 1: wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to

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Speaker 1: conserving both. Big shout out to onex Hunt for their

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Speaker 1: support of this podcast. I'm your host of Lake Pickle.

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Speaker 1: On this episode, we're going back to a topic that

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Speaker 1: we recently discussed on this show, the notable decline of

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Speaker 1: wintering mallards in the lower portion of the Mississippi Flyway.

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Speaker 1: We just did an episode on this back in December,

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Speaker 1: and it got quite a bit of feedback, so much

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Speaker 1: so that it's earned itself another look, which is great.

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Speaker 1: And when we dive back in this time, we're going

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Speaker 1: to be hearing about this subject from folks just like you.

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Speaker 1: The hunters, the duck stamp holders, the folks that are

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Speaker 1: out there in the marshes and muddy backwater every single

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Speaker 1: chance they get. The folks that love to duck hunt

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Speaker 1: more than they love the next breath they breathe. It's

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Speaker 1: time to learn what those folks think of all this.

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Speaker 1: Let's dive in before we meet our first diehard duck hunter.

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Speaker 1: Allow me to set the stage a bit. The format

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Speaker 1: of this episode is going to be a bit different

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Speaker 1: than many of the other Backwoods University episodes that you

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Speaker 1: may have heard in the past. I'm going to go

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Speaker 1: ahead and say I can't take credit for this idea.

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Speaker 1: Steve Ronella actually prompted me to do this before we

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Speaker 1: ever officially launched this show. He called it Bar Biology,

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Speaker 1: and the premise was to go around to local hangout

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Speaker 1: spots for hunters and get their honest opinions on different

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Speaker 1: sorts of wildlife issues, deer management, wild turkey declines, law

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Speaker 1: or regulation changes, or in this case, the decline of

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Speaker 1: the Mallard duck. And while I didn't go to any

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Speaker 1: bars for these interviews, Mom, just so you know, I

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Speaker 1: did seek out ardent duck hunters that love waterfowl and

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Speaker 1: love hunting them. Some of these folks I've known for

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Speaker 1: a long while, and some of these folks I met

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Speaker 1: for the first time the day we were court of

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Speaker 1: the interview. Hearing from a wildlife biologist is great, and

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Speaker 1: believe me, if you continue to listen to this show,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna hear from more of them. But I also

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Speaker 1: think it's extremely important to hear what the average hunter thinks,

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Speaker 1: the citizen scientist, the common man. What does he have

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Speaker 1: to say what does he thinks going on? What's their

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Speaker 1: opinions based on their experience out there? Well, let's find out.

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Speaker 1: Our first duck hunter has been hunting in the Mississippi

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Speaker 1: Delta for decades, and while I had not had the

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Speaker 1: pleasure of meeting him until this interview, I had heard

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Speaker 1: of him in several duck hunting circles. His name is

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Speaker 1: Jim Cruz. He's a lifelong duck hunter and an author

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Speaker 1: of a book called Amid the Cypress. I'm sitting in

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Speaker 1: Jim's office and on the walls hang several framed pictures

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Speaker 1: of successful duck hunts that took place throughout the years.

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Speaker 1: I want to start this conversation off hearing about one

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Speaker 1: of these very photos. What about this one right here,

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Speaker 1: the top one on the on you right.

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Speaker 2: That top right, Yes, sir, that was just for whatever reason.

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Speaker 2: Remember that was opening day of two thousand and three.

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Speaker 2: That's a picture of my wife and me and my

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Speaker 2: dad and one of our girlfriends were along and we

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Speaker 2: had killed a limit of mallards and gadwalls in very

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Speaker 2: short order.

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Speaker 1: That looks like a pretty great hunt.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a super hunt. My dad was a

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Speaker 2: passionate sportsman, he grew up in a time when duck

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Speaker 2: hunting really was the hunting that was available. He lived

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Speaker 2: in Memphis, hunting the Mississippi Delta in eastern Arkansas both

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Speaker 2: and that's what he did growing up, And by the

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Speaker 2: I guess the nineteen sixties, he had gained access to

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Speaker 2: some of the property along the Mississippi River that we

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Speaker 2: still hunt today. Well, as I grew older, I had

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Speaker 2: a friend move in next door. He was a little

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Speaker 2: bit older than me. He was old enough to drive.

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Speaker 2: I wasn't, but he was nice enough to tag along

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Speaker 2: with a younger or a little younger guy tag along

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Speaker 2: and hunt. He loved a duck hunt, so I got

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Speaker 2: into that. So we spent many, many, many years hunting

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Speaker 2: ducks together, and other things too, but tons of duck hunt.

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Speaker 1: Right, So you're pretty much whole origin of duck hunting

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Speaker 1: started in the Mississippi Delta.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, for sure, the great majority in Mississippi Delta.

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Speaker 2: But I've hunted ducks in every flyway, Atlantic, Mississippi, Central,

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Speaker 2: and Pacific. I've hunted I don't know how many states,

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Speaker 2: a lot, and then several other countries as well.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: Waterfolon is a big part of life for my family

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Speaker 2: and me.

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Speaker 1: We'd established that Jim Cruz has been duck hunting for

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Speaker 1: a while, there's no question there. Before we start talking,

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Speaker 1: Mallard declines, I want to get a better understanding of

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Speaker 1: what duck hunting means to him.

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Speaker 2: The things that still stay with me. We had, I

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Speaker 2: guess my first duck hunts. My father and some of

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Speaker 2: his friends had a lease on what's now the famous

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Speaker 2: York Woods in Tallahatchie County, and that those are really

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Speaker 2: my very first duck hunting memories. And what I specifically

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Speaker 2: remember is the sound of those wings overhead, that whistling

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Speaker 2: in the darkness as we waited for the sun to

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Speaker 2: come up, which incidentally I can't hear anymore, but I

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Speaker 2: still remember how that sounded, and the colors on those ducks.

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Speaker 2: Somebody had shot a drake wigeon with that bold green

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Speaker 2: iridescent stripe on his head, and I just remember picking

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Speaker 2: up that duck and thinking out I was holding a miracle,

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Speaker 2: and you know, as I want, but I remember that.

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Speaker 2: I remember the smell of the wet burlapp that we

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Speaker 2: used to camouflage the boat, smell of the outboard motor exhausts,

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Speaker 2: These just things that come back to me. This was,

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Speaker 2: you know, probably my first season. Yeah, stopping and getting

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Speaker 2: potato logs and chicken nuggets at the gas station in Charleston.

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Speaker 2: Just everything about it got to me and never got

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Speaker 2: out of me.

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Speaker 1: It's always fascinating to me to learn the things that

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Speaker 1: stick with us so tightly that don't involve the actual hunt,

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Speaker 1: like the smell of wet burlap or the brilliant colors

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Speaker 1: on a duck. I feel like it's often those tiny

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Speaker 1: details that add up over time and help develop the

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Speaker 1: love for a particular type of hunting that I'm sure

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Speaker 1: many of you can relate with. I now want to

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Speaker 1: turn the conversation to what we see today. I'm curious

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Speaker 1: what changes Jim has seen in the Mississippi Delta throughout

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Speaker 1: his time hunting here.

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Speaker 2: One of the greatest changes I've seen in the Delta

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Speaker 2: is the way the land is laid out. You know,

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Speaker 2: when I was a kid, we would travel Highway forty

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Speaker 2: nine or Highway sixty one, depending on where we were

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Speaker 2: going to go hunting, and one of my favorite things

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Speaker 2: to do was look for ducks out in the fields,

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Speaker 2: and I knew where every wetland was on every highway,

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Speaker 2: whether they were permanent wetlands or femeral wetlands that were

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Speaker 2: just low places out in fields that would flood if

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Speaker 2: you got a good rain. Those are mostly gone now

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Speaker 2: and you don't see the ducks on the landscape that

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Speaker 2: you used to back in those days. And that's you know,

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Speaker 2: that's just a product of more efficient farming practices and

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Speaker 2: land leveling, and you know, goodness those I can't blame

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Speaker 2: a farmer for wanting to get water off his fields

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Speaker 2: so he can have them ready to plant in the springtime.

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Speaker 2: But it has changed the landscape for the water. So

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Speaker 2: that's a big change. I think we all read these

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Speaker 2: statistics that say numbers of duck hunters are in decline. I,

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Speaker 2: based on my anecdotal observations, have a hard time believing

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Speaker 2: that it just seems more popular now, which is not

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Speaker 2: a bad thing. I mean, it's an activity that I

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Speaker 2: sure love and I can understand how people are attracted

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Speaker 2: to it. But again, I read the numbers that say

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Speaker 2: hunter license sales are constantly declining, so I don't know

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Speaker 2: how to reconcile those with what I see. I just

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Speaker 2: make that observation, right, So that's a big change. Another

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Speaker 2: one that I've seen them in my own lifetime in

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Speaker 2: a big way is to change migration patterns of geese,

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Speaker 2: snow geese, and specklebellies, to be precise. When I was

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Speaker 2: in high school, it was a big deal for us

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Speaker 2: to see a flock of snows or specs. And I

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Speaker 2: was hunting all over eastern Arkansas northwest Delta, and if

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Speaker 2: I saw a flock of snows on the ground, I

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Speaker 2: would actually put a line in my journal noting that fact.

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Speaker 2: That's how special that was. And I don't know how

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Speaker 2: many trips we made a bunch to Texas to go

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Speaker 2: hunt snows and specs in Little Canada's Richardson's Canada's. The

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Speaker 2: limit on them was five light geese and two dark geese.

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Speaker 2: At that time, we would go down there for that purpose.

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Speaker 2: In Texas was the promised land for geese. At that time,

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Speaker 2: it looked like the Jonesboro, Arkansas area does now. So

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Speaker 2: the geese migration has changed drastically from what I understand,

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Speaker 2: and they just don't really get down there southwest of

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Speaker 2: Houston in any significant numbers anymore. They've moved northward. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so that's changed, and it raises the worry that what

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Speaker 2: other northward shifts are going to happen with waterfowl. That's

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Speaker 2: no secret. That's a big topic among a lot of

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Speaker 2: duck hunters, is or flyway patterns shifting.

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Speaker 1: I mean, do you think that mallards have been declining

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Speaker 1: down here over the past couple of years? Do you

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Speaker 1: think there's less mallards that make it down here.

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Speaker 2: I don't have a good answer for that.

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Speaker 1: Okay.

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Speaker 2: I know people who are killing mallards just like they

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Speaker 2: always did, and I know others who are saying they're

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Speaker 2: just not here like they used to be. So I'm

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Speaker 2: not trying to dodge the question, but I just I

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Speaker 2: don't have a pad answer for that one. I will

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Speaker 2: tell you this. I have a really good friend who

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Speaker 2: lives over in Cameron Paris, Louisiana, which historically, I don't

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Speaker 2: know if it still is, but historically was the number

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Speaker 2: one county in the United States as far as duck kill,

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Speaker 2: and back in time when he started duck hunting back

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Speaker 2: in the eighties or early nineties, they killed tons of mallards,

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Speaker 2: tons of pintails, tons of specklebellies. I've hunted down there

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Speaker 2: now five consecutive opening days and I've seen two mallards

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Speaker 2: and all those trips, a little handful of pintails and

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Speaker 2: a few specks here and there. Now they still get

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Speaker 2: plenty of gadwalls, plenty tel spoons, but they don't the

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Speaker 2: mallards and the pentails just don't get there in any numbers.

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Speaker 2: And of course that's a lot of folks over there

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Speaker 2: rightfully upset about.

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Speaker 1: That's the big question mark, you know, like, what is

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Speaker 1: it's causing that? Right, That's what a lot of folks,

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Speaker 1: and even the folks and I'm talking about personally here,

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Speaker 1: I've had. You know, some folks, they'll get angry when

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Speaker 1: you start talking different theories. And from what I have deduced,

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Speaker 1: even the folks that get angry, sometimes they get angry

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Speaker 1: with me if I share an opinion, I have to

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Speaker 1: do something like, look, these guys. One thing we have

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Speaker 1: in common. They love waterfowl. They love to duck hunt.

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Speaker 1: So even what about it, when they get angry, it's

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Speaker 1: coming from a good place, and I can appreciate that.

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Speaker 1: And so that's that's why again it's like I'm curious.

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Speaker 1: I've heard from the biologists, and so I'm just trying

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Speaker 1: to gather opinions. What do you think's going on? You know,

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Speaker 1: but in your opinion, there's no right or wrong answer,

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Speaker 1: it's just what do you think is happening.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'll say this, this flooded corn phenomenon is not

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Speaker 2: something that's been going on for decades and decades on

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Speaker 2: a widespread basis, And that is the huge ticket item.

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Speaker 2: Are all these private flooded corn reservoirs significant enough to

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Speaker 2: affect migration? I have friends who have some, and I've seen,

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Speaker 2: you know, the roost flights there, and you wonder, are

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Speaker 2: all these ducks coming in here? Ducks that used to

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Speaker 2: go somewhere else.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.

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Speaker 2: I was told. Well, I know that there are a

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Speaker 2: huge number of duck clubs up in the Saint Louis area.

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Speaker 2: That's a very historic duck hunting area where the I

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Speaker 2: think it's a Missouri and the Mississippi come together. And

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Speaker 2: from what I understand, every club plant's corn. And one

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Speaker 2: logical conclusion is that if you have thousands of acres

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Speaker 2: of corn, you could affect the migration to some degree.

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Speaker 2: So for what it's worth, I know in one of

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Speaker 2: your prior podcast episodes, you'll touched on the global warming

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Speaker 2: issue a little bit and made me think I really

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Speaker 2: ought to take the time to go back through my journals,

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Speaker 2: which go back all the way to nineteen seventy six,

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Speaker 2: and I have every hunt written down from then to now,

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Speaker 2: and I would be able to tell you the days

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Speaker 2: we were frozen up on a day to day, year

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Speaker 2: to year basis. That would be It would be interesting

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Speaker 2: to look at that and see what truth was versus

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Speaker 2: remembered perception. Sure, we've had very hard freezes in the

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Speaker 2: last few years, just like the ones that everybody remembers

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Speaker 2: in the good old days. So you know, by the

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Speaker 2: same token, I hadn't broken any ice this year. We've

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Speaker 2: had a lot of cold days, but I hadn't had

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Speaker 2: to break ice yet.

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Speaker 1: What about locally, You know, you've spent a lot of

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Speaker 1: time hunting around the Mississippi Delta, even between you know,

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Speaker 1: your family land that you still hunt to, maybe some

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Speaker 1: other local places around there. What have you seen Have

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Speaker 1: you seen any changes over the years through there abound

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Speaker 1: abundance of mallards.

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Speaker 2: I would say our mallards have pretty much stayed about

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Speaker 2: the same now. Number wise, they're up and down. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know, some years are better than others that's just

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Speaker 2: duck hut. But percentage wise, I think our mallards about

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Speaker 2: like they always have been. Personal observation on specific places.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good.

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Speaker 2: You know, we don't go out and just there are

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Speaker 2: no mallards. Yeah, some days there may.

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Speaker 3: Not be mallards. But overall, if.

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Speaker 2: I look across the course of a season or ten seasons,

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Speaker 2: I'd say percentage they're about the same.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I like hearing that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Because again, some folks that you know, they're ready

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Speaker 1: to wave a red flag like, yeah, this is bad.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I get that, and I know people I have

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Speaker 2: friends who who feel that way.

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Speaker 1: How do you feel about the future of duck hunting.

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Speaker 1: Do you think we have an optimistic future?

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Speaker 2: I think we have to be optimistic. If we're not,

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Speaker 2: what do we have left?

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Speaker 1: I like that answer.

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Speaker 2: You know, I can say for myself, as long as

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Speaker 2: I am able and have the opportunity to hunt those ducks,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna be going out there and trying for them.

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Speaker 2: My approach has always been if I'm not here in

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Speaker 2: this office behind this desk and duck seasons open, I'm

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Speaker 2: gonna be hunting ducks. And it's been that way for decades. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and without regard to the weather. I'll be out there

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Speaker 2: every second I can get there.

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you, speaking candidly here, this was such a

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Speaker 1: fun interview. I love hearing from guys like Jim. You

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Speaker 1: can hear the deep appreciation and respect for waterfowl and

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Speaker 1: waterfowl hunting in everything that he said. How cool would

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Speaker 1: it be to go back and look through some of

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Speaker 1: those duck hunting journals he mentioned that go all the

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Speaker 1: way back to nineteen seventy six. I also was interesting

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Speaker 1: by some of the potential factors he listed off for

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Speaker 1: what could be affecting these negative changes in hunting quality

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Speaker 1: or mallard abundance. Changes in agricultural practices, whether potentially or

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Speaker 1: the perceived boom of flooded unharvested corn. That is definitely

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Speaker 1: a hot topic these days, and I have my own

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Speaker 1: opinions on that, but this episode is not about my opinions.

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Speaker 1: So I hope you enjoyed hearing from mister Jim Cruise.

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Speaker 1: I know I sure did. But now it's time to

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Speaker 1: move on to our next duck hunter. My dear friend B. C. Rogers,

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Speaker 1: a lifelong duck hunter owner of Wren and Ivy sporting

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Speaker 1: and travel gear and an all around good guy. How

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Speaker 1: old were you when you started duck hunting.

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Speaker 4: The answer to that question, there wasn't a beginning, because

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Speaker 4: my mom and dad have always duck on it, and

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Speaker 4: they duck on it together when I was born, and

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Speaker 4: but you know, starting in the seventies and so we don't.

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Speaker 4: People have asked me that question a lot of times.

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Speaker 4: I don't have any memory of not going.

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Speaker 1: You don't really remember life before duck hunt No, I

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Speaker 1: mean I remember when I was able to take my gun,

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Speaker 1: a gun myself.

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Speaker 4: I was seven, a single shot four ten. Yeah, I

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Speaker 4: took a BB gun before that. But I don't ever

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Speaker 4: remember not going to the blind Yeah, and my kids

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Speaker 4: running ivy, don't. I mean, I mean, I literally have

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Speaker 4: pictures of them where you're they're in Papoosa's. Yeah. I

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Speaker 4: have also a picture of Wren. She's the oldest, and

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Speaker 4: she's in that baby beyorn thing you wear in the front,

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Speaker 4: zipped up in my hunting jacket. Of course I can't

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Speaker 4: shoot because I got a babe with like little camouflage

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Speaker 4: cups on her ears, you know, like yeah, you know,

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Speaker 4: and the same way. Of course, back then, my dad

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Speaker 4: was a smoker when I was a kid, and he

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Speaker 4: would tear off cigarette butts and stick them in me

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Speaker 4: in my sister's ears because they weren't the earplugs like

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Speaker 4: he would tell, smoke a cigarette and tear the filters

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Speaker 4: off and stick them in our ears.

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Speaker 1: That's fantastic.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't have I think I probably killed my

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Speaker 4: first duck when I was but I don't have a

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Speaker 4: memory of starting hunting.

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Speaker 1: So I don't want to assume here would that have

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Speaker 1: taken place that all that would that have been majority

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Speaker 1: happened in the Mississippi Delta.

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Speaker 4: No, one hundred percent of it?

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Speaker 1: Was it?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, at our family place that we've had my entire life. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: in the blind that my mother and father and I

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Speaker 4: will go to tomorrow morning.

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Speaker 1: That's awesome.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, And they're seventy eight and seventy six.

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Speaker 1: That's pretty dad gum awesome. To start duck hunting so

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Speaker 1: early that you can't really remember the beginning, and the

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Speaker 1: memory of his dad using cigarette butts his ear plugs

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Speaker 1: for them as kids, BC taking his own kids to

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Speaker 1: duck hunt, his infants and papoosas and Camo earmuffs. And

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Speaker 1: to know that he took his parents at age seventy

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Speaker 1: eight and seventy six the day after I recorded this

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Speaker 1: interview with him. Man, what a story. This guy has

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Speaker 1: some history with duck hunting, with the Mississippi Delta and

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Speaker 1: with their family hunting land. Let's dive in more. People

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Speaker 1: talk about Man, the duck hunting in the seventies and

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Speaker 1: the eighties and nineties. Talk to me about some of that,

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Speaker 1: some of the ebb and flows that you saw with

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Speaker 1: the changes in numbers perceived from where you were hunting

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Speaker 1: that spot.

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Speaker 4: What's interesting with my life as a waterfowler is that

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Speaker 4: because my parents took us as babies and little bitty kids,

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Speaker 4: and we were always at the camp our whole life,

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Speaker 4: my sister and I. I mean I was there for

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Speaker 4: the end of the point system. I was there for

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Speaker 4: three ducks and thirty days. I was there for the

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Speaker 4: conversion between lead and steel. I like to think of

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Speaker 4: myself as not a very old guy. I was there

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Speaker 4: for those things and got to see him, and it

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Speaker 4: gives me an interesting perspective when people when we have

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Speaker 4: a little bit of a drop in population like we're

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Speaker 4: going through right now. I don't get too worked up

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Speaker 4: about that because a few years of good conditions in

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Speaker 4: the breeding grounds and it comes right back. And I

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Speaker 4: was there to see that happened. I was there to

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Speaker 4: see my dad and his buddies in the early eighties

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Speaker 4: not realized that it was a resource that you could overutilize.

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Speaker 4: They didn't know. You know, these guys love ducks more

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Speaker 4: than anybody, but they definitely shot over the limit and

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Speaker 4: they didn't realize it could go away. And then when

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Speaker 4: the drought happened in the late eighties in the early nineties,

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Speaker 4: I guess, and you know, y'all can fact check me,

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Speaker 4: but that was my memory of when it happened. I

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Speaker 4: saw them realize, wait a minute, this can all go away.

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Speaker 4: And I saw them get really dialed in on we're

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Speaker 4: not going to overutilize this resource, and we're going to

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Speaker 4: do everything we can to send money where ducks are hatching,

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Speaker 4: and we're going to take care of them when they

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Speaker 4: get here. I think that happened all over the continent,

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Speaker 4: and it happened in that age group. You know, those

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Speaker 4: guys are now all dying, but those guys that are

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Speaker 4: in their seventies, sit them down and ask them about

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Speaker 4: it is, they'll tell you it'll go away and a

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Speaker 4: lot of people. Another thing I saw in the late eighties,

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Speaker 4: I guess lots of people quit duck hunting. You know,

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Speaker 4: when it went to three ducks in thirty days, there

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Speaker 4: were a lot of guys you know that were you know,

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Speaker 4: they were duck shooters, you know, you know, they like

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Speaker 4: to eat ducks, they like to make gumbo, they go

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Speaker 4: shoot some ducks. Those guys all quit, they went to

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Speaker 4: deer hunting. As I'm telling you that, I'm thinking of

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Speaker 4: all these guys that used to hunt with us, that

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Speaker 4: they just quit duck hunting and it wasn't worth the time, effort,

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Speaker 4: or money to go, you know, shoot one duck, sure,

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Speaker 4: two mallards, you know, for a period of time there.

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Speaker 4: I hope that we don't get back to that, and

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Speaker 4: I think it's really important that we do everything we

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Speaker 4: can to keep from getting back to that, because we'll

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Speaker 4: lose all of this great community. I say, we'll lose them.

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Speaker 4: We lost them before.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you just don't want let that happen again.

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Speaker 4: I really don't.

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Speaker 1: What do you remember the Delta looking like back then? Oh?

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Speaker 4: Man, I'm so glad you asked me that question. So

404
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Speaker 4: the amount of land that is cleared Now you just

405
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Speaker 4: can't imagine how much less it was. We're talking about Mississippi,

406
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Speaker 4: how many more rice fields there were, and how fewer

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Speaker 4: cornfields there were. Of course there was no maybe there was,

408
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Speaker 4: but I'd never seen a precision leveled field. So there

409
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Speaker 4: was grass and crop that didn't get harvested in every field.

410
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Speaker 4: There were little swags of water that had grass, and

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Speaker 4: it was a part of the field that they couldn't plant,

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Speaker 4: so grass grew up in it, or they couldn't harvest,

413
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Speaker 4: so there was standing crop in it. And there was

414
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Speaker 4: just little pockets of habitat everywhere. If you drive through

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Speaker 4: the Delta yesterday, before this good rain that we're finally getting,

416
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Speaker 4: it looked like a moonscape. Now I've been driving around

417
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Speaker 4: for the last two months and every field you passed

418
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Speaker 4: by it looks like a Walmart parking lot. I mean,

419
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Speaker 4: it's flat, there's zero water. Great for the farmers, and

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Speaker 4: certainly I understand why we do that, But the Delta

421
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Speaker 4: looked so different twenty five years ago and even fifteen

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Speaker 4: years ago than it does today. And that's not even

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Speaker 4: talking about what it looked like in the eighties. There

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Speaker 4: was just a lot of.

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Speaker 1: Habitat so you think, and this may seem like an

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Speaker 1: obvious question, but I just I don't want to assume anything.

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Speaker 1: So would you think that we have a habitat problem

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Speaker 1: down here?

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Speaker 4: We have a continuity of habitat problem? In my opinion,

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Speaker 4: there's a lot of people who are spending a lot

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Speaker 4: of money and effort to make their be habitat, much

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Speaker 4: more so than there used to be. Duck hunters used

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Speaker 4: to be much more opportunistic. You had a bunch of

434
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Speaker 4: land that you deer hunted and turkey hunted and duck hunted.

435
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Speaker 4: When the water backed up into your field, then you

436
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:55,560
Speaker 4: got ducks and you shot some ducks. Now it seems

437
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:59,200
Speaker 4: that it's more focused around these habitat blocks where people

438
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:02,239
Speaker 4: are really made making it perfect for ducks, which is

439
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 4: really great for ducks, but it doesn't have a lot

440
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,560
Speaker 4: of continuity across the landscape. So on a really dry

441
00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:11,680
Speaker 4: year like this year, ducks are going to find those

442
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,960
Speaker 4: places that were able to pump water and have some food,

443
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 4: whether they grew that food or it's some moist soil

444
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:21,680
Speaker 4: or however they do it. And ducks know God created them,

445
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,800
Speaker 4: so he doesn't mess up ducks. No, it hadn't rained

446
00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 4: i've got water, I've got food. There's no continuity of

447
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:31,800
Speaker 4: that habitat from here to the next place that has

448
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 4: water and food. I'm going to stay right here. And

449
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:37,200
Speaker 4: that's why when you drive around you don't see ducks

450
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,399
Speaker 4: trading around because it's been so dry here. Less so

451
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:43,120
Speaker 4: in other states in the Southeast and certainly in other

452
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 4: states of other places. But that for sure has affected

453
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 4: this year in Mississippi. In affects mallards every year because

454
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:55,159
Speaker 4: the continuity of habitat is more spaced out, and you

455
00:25:55,200 --> 00:26:00,159
Speaker 4: get these areas where there's a bunch of big landowners

456
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,119
Speaker 4: and WMA's that are all kind of in one area,

457
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:07,399
Speaker 4: and then that becomes the duck area. Twenty five years ago,

458
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:10,840
Speaker 4: the whole Delta was a duck area because there were

459
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:14,280
Speaker 4: these pockets. There's a tupla gum break right there, and

460
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:16,720
Speaker 4: there's a cyper slew over there, and in between them

461
00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:20,720
Speaker 4: are one hundred different swags of leftover grass and crop,

462
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:23,159
Speaker 4: and the continuity is what's changed.

463
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:25,520
Speaker 1: A lot of folks would say, right now, we have

464
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,360
Speaker 1: a duck decline that we're going through right now. Would

465
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:29,040
Speaker 1: you agree with that?

466
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:32,119
Speaker 4: I don't think there's any way to disagree with.

467
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:34,800
Speaker 1: That, just just making sure, yeah, I making sure.

468
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:38,800
Speaker 4: Yeah. I am not a duck expert. Most of what

469
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,840
Speaker 4: I can tell you is anecdotal. Sure, it's my observations,

470
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 4: but I don't subscribe to the idea that I can

471
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:50,800
Speaker 4: judge an entire flyway by the three thousand acres. I

472
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 4: pay attention to my little place that I get to

473
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 4: hunt and the three thousand acres that surround it, and

474
00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:58,640
Speaker 4: I think a lot of people do that. I think

475
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:03,399
Speaker 4: that's very dangerous. But there's no question that we have

476
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:07,640
Speaker 4: a measurable percentage less ducks right now than we did

477
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 4: at the peak, which wasn't very long ago. So something

478
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 4: that's a challenge right now is that the young and

479
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:17,639
Speaker 4: when I say young, people who can still actively duck hunt,

480
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:22,439
Speaker 4: were duck hunting at the peak of the population, and

481
00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:25,960
Speaker 4: they weren't duck hunting in the eighties and early nineties

482
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 4: when we saw those big declines. Those people who have

483
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:32,720
Speaker 4: been here long enough to have seen the big decline

484
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:36,679
Speaker 4: and see it come back are less reactionary than these

485
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 4: air quote newer people who started hunting at the peak

486
00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:45,320
Speaker 4: of the population and now they're seeing sixty percent of

487
00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:48,800
Speaker 4: that is what I'm hearing and they're thinking, oh, man,

488
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:52,959
Speaker 4: the sky is falling. I don't subscribe to that. I

489
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 4: think that we have to continue to do the things

490
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 4: that we're doing to make sure that when the weather

491
00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:03,119
Speaker 4: can conditions cooperate in the breeding grounds, that we're ready

492
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:07,520
Speaker 4: to take care of those birds. You don't change, you

493
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 4: make sure that you got it ready for him when

494
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:11,160
Speaker 4: they get here.

495
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:16,520
Speaker 1: I really appreciate BC's perspective and attitude here because of

496
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 1: his literal lifetime spent duck hunting. He's seen declines before,

497
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 1: He's seen the good and the bad. He's seen duck

498
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 1: numbers and duck hunters go down and rally and be

499
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,399
Speaker 1: able to recover, and man can I sure appreciate his

500
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,879
Speaker 1: optimism and his message of stay the course, keep the

501
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:37,360
Speaker 1: habitat here, because when things do change back for the positive,

502
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:43,840
Speaker 1: we need to be ready. Before I wrap up with BC,

503
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:45,920
Speaker 1: I want to make sure I ask him about some

504
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: of the topics that you hear come up these days,

505
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: the alleged shortstopping of the migration or the shifting of

506
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 1: the migration, the flooded cornfield topic, etc.

507
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:59,360
Speaker 4: Now, certainly I hear those opinions that are not science

508
00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:03,280
Speaker 4: based in many cases, what is science based is that

509
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,680
Speaker 4: in our lifetime the freeze line was three or four

510
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 4: hundred miles further south than it is now, and that

511
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 4: happened in mid December. That's not opinion. You can look

512
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 4: it up. So when everything is frozen and covered in snow,

513
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 4: ducks have to go past it, and when it's not

514
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:24,240
Speaker 4: frozen and covered in snow, they stay there. That duck

515
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 4: is only going to migrate as far as he has to,

516
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:30,440
Speaker 4: and if it warms up, he'll go back. So the

517
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:35,120
Speaker 4: idea of short stopping, I think that that's people saying

518
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:39,480
Speaker 4: that they've created a lot of habitat in an area

519
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,920
Speaker 4: that didn't have habitat. I don't know that that is

520
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 4: statistically true. That habitat was there, it was frozen and

521
00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:51,840
Speaker 4: covered in snow. Now is there a lot more habitat

522
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:55,960
Speaker 4: throughout the flyway? That's probably true. But you have to

523
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 4: decide as a waterfowl or do I want to kill

524
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 4: more ducks or do I want want there to be

525
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 4: more ducks and a healthy duck in Missouri. I'm still

526
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,040
Speaker 4: happy he's there. I would love to see him land

527
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:11,520
Speaker 4: in my decoys someday, But if he's not healthy, he's

528
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 4: never going to do that, So I'm never going to

529
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 4: be upset about somebody making happy, healthy ducks north of me.

530
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:21,480
Speaker 4: I think that's short sighted because I want there to

531
00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 4: be more ducks, and when the weather pattern changes again,

532
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:30,640
Speaker 4: which it almost inevitably will, they'll be more ducks. You

533
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 4: don't change with the weather, keep the plan, make sure

534
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 4: when they get here in February. It can be very

535
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 4: frustrating for me and all of my friends when you

536
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:44,480
Speaker 4: go three weeks after the season is closed, or on

537
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,280
Speaker 4: Easter morning and all your duckholes are slammed full of

538
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:50,400
Speaker 4: mallards and you didn't have a great season. But I

539
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:52,720
Speaker 4: like to try to think to myself, Yeah, but they're

540
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 4: going to be really happy and healthy when they're headed back.

541
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 4: So it's just a mindset. If you're unhappy because they

542
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,840
Speaker 4: are not ducks in your specific spot, it's important for

543
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 4: you to expand what you're looking at. Are you looking

544
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 4: at your one duck hole that's you know, forty acres?

545
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:13,280
Speaker 4: Are you looking at your county? Are you looking at

546
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:18,160
Speaker 4: your the delta, your state, the entire Mississippi Flyway? Because

547
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 4: what's most important is are there is there a healthy

548
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:26,800
Speaker 4: breeding population on the entire landscape. Now we can get

549
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:31,360
Speaker 4: into the venutia of why there's ducks here and not there.

550
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 4: But the most important thing is that there are ducks.

551
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 4: And we're still in a liberal frame work. Even though

552
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:41,640
Speaker 4: the duck numbers are down forty percent. That tells you

553
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:44,400
Speaker 4: how great it was fifteen years ago. Because we're still

554
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:46,960
Speaker 4: in the liberal framework and we're down forty percent, that

555
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 4: says to you there are plenty of very healthy breeding

556
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 4: population of ducks and every species, and they're gonna let

557
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 4: us continue to hunt them. That should be more important

558
00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:58,480
Speaker 4: than the forty acres.

559
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 1: That was some good stuff, and I'm going to quote

560
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 1: him directly here. He said, the most important thing is

561
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:09,240
Speaker 1: that there are ducks, and frankly I agree. I hope

562
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,880
Speaker 1: every duck hunter out there would to hear from our

563
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:14,960
Speaker 1: next duck hunter. We're gonna have to hop a state

564
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:18,080
Speaker 1: line and head over to Louisiana. Wade Shoemaker is one

565
00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:20,240
Speaker 1: of those guys who can pretty much be described by

566
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:22,480
Speaker 1: how much he likes to duck hunt. And also, in

567
00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:24,920
Speaker 1: the name of getting some different perspectives, I thought it

568
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 1: would be important that we hear from a Louisiana man

569
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,680
Speaker 1: about this Mallard decline subject as well. Here's Wade.

570
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:34,200
Speaker 5: I would tell you that we killed more then not

571
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:36,800
Speaker 5: knowing what we were doing. I want to say more,

572
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:38,480
Speaker 5: but we killed a lot more than we should have

573
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:41,440
Speaker 5: not known what we were doing than we do now, you know,

574
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:44,479
Speaker 5: even knowing halfway what's going on. I mean, I can

575
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 5: tell you just in the last ten years, people would

576
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,200
Speaker 5: call that I'm friends with it. I met over the internet,

577
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:51,280
Speaker 5: you know, for the most part, and we would compals

578
00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:53,720
Speaker 5: and we met each other other places. But they wanted

579
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 5: to come hunt and they'd never killed a Mallard or

580
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:58,959
Speaker 5: something like that, you know. And I said, well, if

581
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:00,840
Speaker 5: you ever come down, come on to go hout and

582
00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 5: we'll for sure get that, you know. Well, now I

583
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 5: don't really tell them that anymore. I'm like, look, we'll

584
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 5: go and we'll try, you know, but like, we don't

585
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 5: know where the water is gonna be, we don't know

586
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 5: what the weather's gonna be like. And used to, it

587
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:16,320
Speaker 5: didn't matter. Used to, You're gonna go shoot some, you matter,

588
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,040
Speaker 5: shoot a lot, but we're gonna shoot some. And now

589
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:22,360
Speaker 5: and now I don't. I mean, I'm optimistic about it,

590
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 5: but I'm also realistic that it the likelihood of it

591
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:30,000
Speaker 5: is way way less than it used to be. Yeah,

592
00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 5: we shot, we shot some this year, a few, but

593
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:36,040
Speaker 5: like last year, year before last, we didn't hardly shoot

594
00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:39,160
Speaker 5: what we did six, eight, ten years ago, you know.

595
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:42,880
Speaker 5: And this is a lake like it's a floating blind

596
00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:44,920
Speaker 5: that stays there with decoys out the whole year. You

597
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 5: basically are running traffic or waiting on a flight day,

598
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:51,600
Speaker 5: you know, and even on the days like the flight days,

599
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:52,760
Speaker 5: it's just not what it was.

600
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:56,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we know that Wade has seen and felt

601
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:58,680
Speaker 1: the effects of less mallards making it down to the

602
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:02,719
Speaker 1: lower portion of the mississipp Flatway. No surprise there. I

603
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,560
Speaker 1: now want to know what he thinks is causing it.

604
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 5: I think it's climate. I think it's pressure, and I

605
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:11,360
Speaker 5: think it's development. I think those are the three things

606
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 5: that play a larger role than any of it. You've

607
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:15,759
Speaker 5: got to you know, it's not I mean, dude, we

608
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:19,719
Speaker 5: run over a snake today on the road. I asked

609
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:22,040
Speaker 5: my buddy Hunter, he's filming. We're on boat Ram two

610
00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:23,759
Speaker 5: or so. We were filming and we were just going.

611
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:25,279
Speaker 5: We weren't filming at this point, but we were going

612
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 5: on the road and Hunter was beside me, a camera guy,

613
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 5: and I'm like, did I just run over a snake?

614
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:30,000
Speaker 1: You know?

615
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:31,680
Speaker 5: I thought it was a stick and then I saw

616
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 5: and he's like, I think you did. So we got

617
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,719
Speaker 5: out to look at it. Sure enough, snake and it's

618
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:40,439
Speaker 5: what January the ninth. So that plays a role.

619
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:40,759
Speaker 2: Man.

620
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,279
Speaker 5: Birds aren't gonna come down for a summer vacation, you know,

621
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:46,839
Speaker 5: They're going to roll out and go back home where

622
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:48,920
Speaker 5: they're comfortable and do their thing or back towards that way.

623
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:49,320
Speaker 4: Anyway.

624
00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:52,879
Speaker 5: I think pressure is a large piece of it you've got,

625
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 5: And this is like no shot at anybody, Like I'm

626
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:57,040
Speaker 5: not trying to knock anybody doing it because I hunt

627
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:00,040
Speaker 5: as near days as I can. Everybody does, and I

628
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,040
Speaker 5: can't blame them for it, you know. But on top

629
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 5: of that, you've also got an exponent of outfitters than

630
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:08,799
Speaker 5: you did twenty years ago. I don't know about thirty

631
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:11,479
Speaker 5: there probably wasn't hardly any, you know, but now you've

632
00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:14,200
Speaker 5: got them everywhere. And I get asked a lot of like, hey, well,

633
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:15,759
Speaker 5: where should I go with when I go here? And

634
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:19,359
Speaker 5: I'm like, well, dude, there's so many in that area that,

635
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:21,120
Speaker 5: like I can't I can give you a couple guys

636
00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:23,279
Speaker 5: that I know, but there's so many I don't even

637
00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 5: I can't keep up with them. So and I'm just

638
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:27,920
Speaker 5: giving you a very high level of that, Like I

639
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 5: don't want to get real granular with it, but it's that.

640
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:33,000
Speaker 5: But then also I think it's development. And I'm going

641
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:35,440
Speaker 5: to put this together, but development and lack of management,

642
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:37,840
Speaker 5: and I don't know where that blame lies, but I

643
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:40,280
Speaker 5: think that's a big part of it. And it's crazy

644
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:43,960
Speaker 5: because the development part, you can't stop. That's progress, right,

645
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,640
Speaker 5: Like you've got to build buildings, You've got to create jobs,

646
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:49,759
Speaker 5: you've got to keep moving things, and people build houses.

647
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:52,440
Speaker 5: There's more people than there was now and they've got

648
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 5: to live somewhere. So I think there's a lot more

649
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:57,480
Speaker 5: concrete than there used to be. There's a lot more

650
00:35:57,520 --> 00:36:00,360
Speaker 5: buildings than there used to be. And just like local

651
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,239
Speaker 5: i'm where I live, solar panels are a big thing,

652
00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:06,879
Speaker 5: and I consider that part of development, right, I think

653
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:10,000
Speaker 5: solar panels or whatever that is, whether whatever it does,

654
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:11,600
Speaker 5: I'm not going to get into that because I don't

655
00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:13,960
Speaker 5: have it. I don't know enough to talk about it, right,

656
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:16,400
Speaker 5: but I do know that it takes away from a

657
00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:18,239
Speaker 5: field that birds used to go hang out in and

658
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:21,359
Speaker 5: eat and whatever they do. So that's a big part

659
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 5: of it. And then right up the road from all

660
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 5: these solar panels that have been put in by where

661
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:29,279
Speaker 5: I live, there's Meta just bought two thousand acres in

662
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 5: a very important part of where birds fly over. It's

663
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:35,600
Speaker 5: a Meta AI facility. And then I was told a

664
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:37,719
Speaker 5: month or two ago that Google just put a bid

665
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 5: in on another large piece of property over there. We're

666
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 5: talking northeast Louisiana. Dude, ain't nothing out there, like you know,

667
00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:47,719
Speaker 5: farms and all this stuff, and like lowland anyway, you

668
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:49,600
Speaker 5: get what I'm saying. So, and then the lack of

669
00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:52,160
Speaker 5: management part is just like on the public land that

670
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,719
Speaker 5: we do hunt, you know, like Dode. We used to

671
00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:58,120
Speaker 5: go hunt these holes and all these all these things

672
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,520
Speaker 5: at home. You go in and say, in a hole

673
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:02,680
Speaker 5: and you shot ducks because it was a hole. But

674
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,360
Speaker 5: now you go in those places and they're either growed

675
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:08,560
Speaker 5: up with coffee bean that you can't even get in

676
00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:10,880
Speaker 5: a hole anymore, there's buck brush all over it or whatever.

677
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,200
Speaker 5: It is just crap, dude, Like I mean, there's a lot,

678
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 5: a lot better agive to describe it, but to sit

679
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,920
Speaker 5: in the place and it's not good. There's holes that

680
00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:24,000
Speaker 5: we can hunt anymore, and then there's sanctuaries or revenue

681
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 5: no hunt zones that aren't no hunt zones anymore, or

682
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:30,200
Speaker 5: they create no hunt zones that are literally just a

683
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,719
Speaker 5: tennis match of just like back and forth over the

684
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 5: hunt zone. Yeah, you know, and I'm going on a

685
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:38,560
Speaker 5: rabbit track, like I'm going like way off now. But

686
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:40,400
Speaker 5: the birds we used to hunt when you only had

687
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:42,399
Speaker 5: one part of that refuge, they had plenty of room

688
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:44,759
Speaker 5: they could hang out, but as the water rose up,

689
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 5: it would force them to go somewhere else and use

690
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:50,239
Speaker 5: the rest of the refuge and create more opportunities for hunters.

691
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 5: And at the end of the day, the goal is

692
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 5: to have more ducks. But if you have people that

693
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:58,000
Speaker 5: aren't enthusiastic or excited to go hunting anymore, then you're

694
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,120
Speaker 5: gonna lose the funding that pays for those things that

695
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:03,480
Speaker 5: helped create more ducks. Yeah, anyway, that's a domino thing.

696
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 5: But yeah, I think it's climate, I think it's pressure,

697
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 5: and I think it's development with lack of management. On

698
00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:12,560
Speaker 5: the other side, is you've got private landowners who are

699
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,680
Speaker 5: managing the crap out of their stuff, and it shows

700
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:17,600
Speaker 5: like that's why they got ducks.

701
00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:20,320
Speaker 1: You know. I feel like a lot of what Wade

702
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:23,320
Speaker 1: is saying aligns with what we heard from our previous guests,

703
00:38:23,719 --> 00:38:27,200
Speaker 1: climate habitat losses, and he also brings up a good

704
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,400
Speaker 1: point about hunting pressure. Could that be a significant factor

705
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,880
Speaker 1: moving forward with Wade? I feel like there's one specific

706
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:36,759
Speaker 1: topic that I just have to bring up, especially with

707
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 1: him being a Louisiana resident. Earlier this month, Louisiana Senator

708
00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:44,320
Speaker 1: John Kennedy called upon the US Fish and Wildlife Service

709
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 1: to study the impact of what he referred to as

710
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:52,680
Speaker 1: unfair legal baiting, otherwise known as a flooded cornfield and

711
00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:56,279
Speaker 1: its alleged effects on waterfowl migration. Some of you have

712
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:58,800
Speaker 1: probably heard of this already because it's a hot topic

713
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:01,480
Speaker 1: right now. Want to hear Wade's take on this.

714
00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:04,279
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna say, like I have a really hard

715
00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:07,239
Speaker 5: time of telling anybody, anybody what they can do with

716
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 5: the property they own. You can talk about flooding the

717
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:12,640
Speaker 5: corn or whatever other extreme you want to talk about,

718
00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:15,440
Speaker 5: when it comes to ducks and food. You know, I

719
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:17,440
Speaker 5: have a hard time saying they can't do something on

720
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:21,279
Speaker 5: their property because they own it right now, as long

721
00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:24,080
Speaker 5: as everything they're doing with whatever they're doing is legal

722
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:26,880
Speaker 5: when it comes to shooting those birds, like, don't go

723
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:29,239
Speaker 5: crazy and go over your limit every day. But if

724
00:39:29,239 --> 00:39:32,520
Speaker 5: you're shooting your limit, that's why there's a limit, right,

725
00:39:33,200 --> 00:39:36,040
Speaker 5: So I guess mine is if you got it and

726
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:38,759
Speaker 5: you're doing it, more power to you, Like I, you know,

727
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:41,040
Speaker 5: sure you might shoot ducks when I'm not or hold

728
00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:44,279
Speaker 5: ducks when we're not, but like you're holding ducks and

729
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:48,600
Speaker 5: feeding ducks, dude, like, thank you, but they're you know.

730
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:51,879
Speaker 5: The downside is, well there's a lesson we're not gonna

731
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:53,480
Speaker 5: shoo as many because they're holding man and I don't

732
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:55,680
Speaker 5: have a problem with that. But Kennedy man and I

733
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,480
Speaker 5: generally like enjoy listening to him talk because I think

734
00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:00,600
Speaker 5: he's one of those guys is no none sense and

735
00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 5: likes to say things. It's honestly pretty hilarious if you

736
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:05,760
Speaker 5: listen to some of the things that he lets come out.

737
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:07,799
Speaker 5: But I think he's got some people in his ear

738
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:10,440
Speaker 5: that's telling him things and he's just trying to appease.

739
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:12,200
Speaker 5: Maybe he believes it I don't know, but I think

740
00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:16,040
Speaker 5: it's an appeasing thing. But also I think it's kind

741
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:18,839
Speaker 5: of short sighted. If I can say that you're looking

742
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 5: at a thing that's been developing over thirty years and

743
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:23,839
Speaker 5: early two albums Louisiana, I was shooting three to four

744
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:26,760
Speaker 5: million birds on the harvest report, and now we're shooting

745
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:30,440
Speaker 5: under a million. That's a you know, two plus decade decline.

746
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:33,799
Speaker 5: And corn's not what caused that over two decades. There's

747
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 5: several things that come into that come into play there,

748
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:38,799
Speaker 5: and I say, I call it short sighted because there's

749
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 5: obviously other things. But also, man, I didn't see anything

750
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:45,719
Speaker 5: in his letter that talked about what we would do

751
00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 5: as a state to help improve what happens when we

752
00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:51,439
Speaker 5: get them. If we want to force people to hey,

753
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:54,239
Speaker 5: to quit doing what you're doing because you're doing really good,

754
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:57,520
Speaker 5: we have to also say you can trust us with

755
00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:00,400
Speaker 5: the resource once we get it right. And that up

756
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:03,960
Speaker 5: to the lack of management side, Like you've got saltwater

757
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:06,840
Speaker 5: intrusion down here, You've got you know, development, you've got crops.

758
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:11,160
Speaker 5: There's a bunch of sugar cane down there now, and

759
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 5: it's like, dude, ducks don't eat sugarcane, but they did

760
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:16,319
Speaker 5: eat what was in that field before you plant sugar cane,

761
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:18,320
Speaker 5: you know. And I'm not mad at a farmer for

762
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:20,759
Speaker 5: chasing a commodity. You got to you got to get paid.

763
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:23,200
Speaker 5: I'm not, But I mean, let's let's look at ourselves first,

764
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:25,440
Speaker 5: like what can we do to be better if we're

765
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:29,360
Speaker 5: expecting these people to change what they're doing, you know,

766
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:31,600
Speaker 5: let's change what we're doing first, and then let's let's

767
00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 5: let's talk about what we can do collaboratively to make

768
00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:36,920
Speaker 5: sure we all have that opportunity.

769
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,840
Speaker 1: Right, This topic brings out a lot of different opinions.

770
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 1: I know that, y'all know that. I think what's important

771
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:46,800
Speaker 1: to keeping focus here is that we as a hunting

772
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:51,000
Speaker 1: community all want good duck hunting and most importantly, healthy

773
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:56,480
Speaker 1: waterfowl populations, regardless of how our opinions may differ. For

774
00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:59,360
Speaker 1: our final interview of this episode, I want to introduce

775
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 1: y'all to my good friend Jay janis a man who

776
00:42:02,719 --> 00:42:05,759
Speaker 1: helds from the Mississippi Delta and loves ducks and duck

777
00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:08,320
Speaker 1: dogs as much as anyone you could ever hope to find.

778
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,359
Speaker 1: If you hear some odd background noise during any of this.

779
00:42:11,719 --> 00:42:14,360
Speaker 1: It might be because I conducted this interview in Jay's

780
00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:17,799
Speaker 1: mudroom slash storage building, and the wind was blowing pretty good,

781
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:19,919
Speaker 1: and our two dogs were playing with one another while

782
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:23,239
Speaker 1: we talked. This one's as real as it gets. I

783
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:25,760
Speaker 1: talked to Jay about his early memories from duck hunting

784
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:28,640
Speaker 1: in the eighties and nineties, and honestly, it pretty much

785
00:42:28,719 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 1: mirrored identically what we've heard from earlier guests. More ducks

786
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,000
Speaker 1: and geese around the land looked a lot different. There

787
00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:38,520
Speaker 1: was more water, more habitat, colder weather. Where I want

788
00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:41,160
Speaker 1: to pick up this conversation with Jay is when he's

789
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:43,879
Speaker 1: talking about a factor that we've not brought up yet.

790
00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:47,319
Speaker 3: When I moved away from here eighteen nineteen years ago,

791
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:49,960
Speaker 3: I started hunting with a group of guys in that

792
00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:53,359
Speaker 3: area where I moved. And the main guy who's got

793
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:57,759
Speaker 3: the land, he does it right, and he's on the X.

794
00:42:58,080 --> 00:42:59,840
Speaker 3: You know, I just so fortunate that he asked me

795
00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:03,160
Speaker 3: to go. And man, we we were doing very well

796
00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:05,960
Speaker 3: for many, many, many many years, like when we were

797
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:08,840
Speaker 3: killing when other people weren't killing, and he had a

798
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:12,440
Speaker 3: there was a refuge not far from him.

799
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:12,640
Speaker 1: Like no hunting.

800
00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:19,360
Speaker 3: You know, the government flooded up for ducks, planted corn

801
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:22,960
Speaker 3: and all that, and I'm telling you we stood on them.

802
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,680
Speaker 3: We had five men, we were killing five men, mount

803
00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:28,520
Speaker 3: of limits. Just it was like some of mine ever seen.

804
00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:30,840
Speaker 3: I've been down here. I was like, my god, we

805
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:34,200
Speaker 3: had it good out here. Yeah, that was something. And

806
00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:42,520
Speaker 3: they stopped flooding that refuge. We still killed, but it's

807
00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:46,400
Speaker 3: nothing like it used to be. You know, But the

808
00:43:46,480 --> 00:43:49,440
Speaker 3: last several years have been tough for everybody. But they

809
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:51,279
Speaker 3: don't see the ducks. I mean, you just don't see

810
00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:51,600
Speaker 3: them in the.

811
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:53,920
Speaker 1: Air they were. I mean, was there ever any clarity

812
00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 1: as to why they stopped flowing flooding that refuge.

813
00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 3: I think there's some people involved finding out what would

814
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:01,360
Speaker 3: happened and if they're going to start doing it again

815
00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:04,120
Speaker 3: and all that. But I'm not involved enough in that

816
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:04,759
Speaker 3: to even know.

817
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:08,440
Speaker 1: Because well, there's talking about ducks and the state of

818
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:11,960
Speaker 1: duck cutting down here. One thing that I do stand on,

819
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:15,360
Speaker 1: there's a lot of factors in there right of what's

820
00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:18,919
Speaker 1: causing it. And I do hear folks, because folks back man,

821
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:21,719
Speaker 1: our refuge systems are WMA's. They need to be in

822
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:24,040
Speaker 1: better shape, they need to be flooded. One thing I

823
00:44:24,040 --> 00:44:27,480
Speaker 1: do say is I'm like, I agree with that, but

824
00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:29,319
Speaker 1: also you got to realize if you took all the

825
00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:33,120
Speaker 1: refuges in WMA's in the Mississippi Delta, you wouldn't. I

826
00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:35,439
Speaker 1: don't think you'd account for ten percent of the land

827
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:36,760
Speaker 1: mass of the Mississippi Delta.

828
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 3: However, every little bit helps.

829
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:43,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's I don't know the why. And like

830
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:47,680
Speaker 1: I said, I'm I'm a fan of most biologists. I'm

831
00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:50,040
Speaker 1: a fan of our of our wildlife department. So I

832
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:51,520
Speaker 1: don't you know, I'm not trying to throw any one

833
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,560
Speaker 1: of the under the bus here, but because maybe there's

834
00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:58,319
Speaker 1: some legitimate reasons as to why. But if it's a

835
00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:02,240
Speaker 1: waterfol refuge or a waterf o WMA, if I would

836
00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:04,520
Speaker 1: be starting to ask why doesn't it have water on it?

837
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:06,319
Speaker 1: As a as a resident here.

838
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:10,240
Speaker 3: You know, let's take this situation we're talking about unless

839
00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:13,400
Speaker 3: and yes, you can put weather in it and everything

840
00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:16,920
Speaker 3: else on the Poe chart in there, right, but to

841
00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:21,239
Speaker 3: see the decline in numbers of the ducks from when

842
00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:28,040
Speaker 3: that refuge was managed to when it's not, it was immediate. Really, yeah,

843
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:31,680
Speaker 3: it was an immediate decline, and that what you saw

844
00:45:31,719 --> 00:45:34,320
Speaker 3: in the air, because we would have, you know, several

845
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 3: hundred circle like this. We called it the curse because

846
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:39,360
Speaker 3: nobody wanted to be first to come down because you

847
00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:41,600
Speaker 3: were field hunting, you know, and it's tough. That's a

848
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:43,319
Speaker 3: tough environment to get a big group down.

849
00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:46,239
Speaker 1: Oh for sure. My conversation with Jay went on for

850
00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 1: quite some time, and I wish I had time to

851
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:50,920
Speaker 1: share all of it. But he does bring up an

852
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:53,160
Speaker 1: interesting point in terms of how some of our public

853
00:45:53,239 --> 00:45:56,120
Speaker 1: lands set aside for waterfowl are managed. I've seen this

854
00:45:56,200 --> 00:45:58,960
Speaker 1: topic come up a lot, and could that be a factor.

855
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:02,719
Speaker 1: I don't have all the answers, but perhaps that's worth

856
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:06,200
Speaker 1: looking into. To wrap this conversation up, I'm going to

857
00:46:06,239 --> 00:46:08,399
Speaker 1: go back to Jay for something I know I can

858
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:11,000
Speaker 1: always count on him for optimism.

859
00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:14,560
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's amazing, man, how it's changed. I just

860
00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:17,960
Speaker 3: keep thinking. Man. I do know, like two years ago,

861
00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:21,080
Speaker 3: when the weather got right there for just a little bit,

862
00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:25,359
Speaker 3: it got right in Missouri, Arkansas. Everything it got right right,

863
00:46:26,719 --> 00:46:29,040
Speaker 3: but everything in the fields were locked up, shallow water

864
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:31,120
Speaker 3: was locked up. They still come down here when the

865
00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:34,000
Speaker 3: weather gets right. I saw them on the river. It

866
00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:37,759
Speaker 3: was as many as I've ever seen as many I've

867
00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:41,319
Speaker 3: ever seen out there. Yeah, and I mean it was

868
00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:46,080
Speaker 3: just I couldn't believe it. Yeah, you know, it's got

869
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:49,399
Speaker 3: to get better. Yeah, yeah, gotta get better, you would think.

870
00:46:49,440 --> 00:46:51,680
Speaker 1: But I tell you one thing that has been encouraging

871
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:54,640
Speaker 1: every one of the every one of these duck hunters

872
00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:58,440
Speaker 1: that I've talked to. Everyone's acknowledged that it's not great

873
00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:01,400
Speaker 1: right now, but I haven't met anybody that's been like,

874
00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:06,839
Speaker 1: this is the end. We're screwed. Everyone's still holding on to.

875
00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:12,000
Speaker 3: I'm a friend of mine from North Carolina. He's eighty

876
00:47:12,040 --> 00:47:15,400
Speaker 3: two now or eighty one, I don't know. His name's Ritchie.

877
00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:19,120
Speaker 3: He told me this a long time ago. I love

878
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:21,799
Speaker 3: that man. I started hunting with him a long time ago,

879
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:26,040
Speaker 3: another one of my best friends here, and every time

880
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 3: we were on a bad hunter or something, he would say, Jay,

881
00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:36,200
Speaker 3: hope springs eternal in a duck hunter's heart. So that's

882
00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:39,640
Speaker 3: what you got, man. There's always next year. Yeah, always

883
00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:43,560
Speaker 3: next year. I like that, and uh because a lot

884
00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:45,360
Speaker 3: of times next year happens.

885
00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:49,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, next year happens. But hope springs eternal in a

886
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:50,640
Speaker 1: duck hunter's heart.

887
00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:52,960
Speaker 3: That's correct, that's correct.

888
00:47:53,080 --> 00:47:57,200
Speaker 1: I like that hope springs eternal in a duck hunter's heart.

889
00:47:57,719 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 1: I'm going to hold on to that one. That's good stuff,

890
00:48:00,239 --> 00:48:05,279
Speaker 1: Jay and I think we'll end on that. I want

891
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,799
Speaker 1: to thank all of you for listening to Backwoods University

892
00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:10,640
Speaker 1: as well as Bear Grease in this country life. I

893
00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:14,480
Speaker 1: cannot overemphasize how much we all appreciate you tuning in.

894
00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:17,240
Speaker 1: If you liked this episode, share it with a friend

895
00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:19,919
Speaker 1: this week and stick around because there's a whole lot

896
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:21,600
Speaker 1: more on the way.