Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, they got me off to
Speaker 1: the side that first evening said, Man, don't know how
Speaker 1: you know this guy, but be careful. You seem like
Speaker 1: a pretty good guy. Just gonna let you know. Don't
Speaker 1: know how you know this guy, but you need to
Speaker 1: be careful.
Speaker 2: And I like you're telling you. On this episode, we
Speaker 2: will again join United States Forest Service Special Agent Russ
Speaker 2: Arthur as he works a very unique case involving illegal
Speaker 2: elk outfitting in Montana. On our last episode, Russ told
Speaker 2: us about the early part of his career in North
Speaker 2: Carolina and the wild string of circumstances involving him being
Speaker 2: run over which led to the imprisonment of a bad,
Speaker 2: bad dude. This story is just as Wild Boys, but
Speaker 2: in a different way, and at the risk of foreshadowing
Speaker 2: too much, I'm just gonna say, I really doubt that
Speaker 2: you're gonna want to miss the one, and don't forget that.
Speaker 2: You can watch The Bear Grease Render our every other
Speaker 2: week podcast on Meet Eater's new YouTube channel just dedicated
Speaker 2: to podcasts. You can see old Brenton is overalls.
Speaker 1: As fate would have it, We're walking around this ridgetop
Speaker 1: and we run across this sign and it says you
Speaker 1: are entering the Allstone National Park, no guns. And there's
Speaker 1: an elk bugling about one hundred yards other side of
Speaker 1: that sign. And I said, wait a minut Wait minute,
Speaker 1: wait minute. I said, I got a video of this sign.
Speaker 1: And he said hold on, hold on, and he gets
Speaker 1: in front of the sign and I said, hey, O man,
Speaker 1: look at this. And I video him as he reads
Speaker 1: the sign, and then he says, and where do you
Speaker 1: think we're going to go? Come on?
Speaker 2: My name is Clay Nukem, and this is the Bear
Speaker 2: Grease podcas Cast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant,
Speaker 2: search for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell
Speaker 2: the story of Americans who lived their lives close to
Speaker 2: the land, presented by f HF gear, American made purpose
Speaker 2: built hunting and fishing gear as designed to be as
Speaker 2: rugged as the places we explore.
Speaker 1: Back in ninety six, ninety seven, I was a special agent,
Speaker 1: you know, again with a forest service, and I was
Speaker 1: here in Tennessee and I got a call from an
Speaker 1: agent friend of mine from Montana, and he had had
Speaker 1: an unusual encounter with an informant and he began to
Speaker 1: tell me this story to see if I could help
Speaker 1: him with a case.
Speaker 2: This story took place in the early nineteen nineties. Email
Speaker 2: was hardly a thing, no cell phones and text messages.
Speaker 2: And I like it when a story starts with a
Speaker 2: landline phone ringing with somebody asking for help.
Speaker 3: I've got my attention, Russ.
Speaker 1: It's kind of funny how this case came about. So
Speaker 1: you got an agent sitting in Montana that had a
Speaker 1: young lady come and knock on the door and said,
Speaker 1: I need to turn my ex husband in. By the way,
Speaker 1: those are usually pretty good informants.
Speaker 2: This was about to say, that's somebody you probably listened to,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 1: Yes, And evidently he and her had property together in Montana,
Speaker 1: but they lived in North Carolina and he had a
Speaker 1: scam going where he was taking hunters into the Absorba
Speaker 1: Mountain Range help cunting, and he didn't have a permit,
Speaker 1: and which that's not a big deal if you're setting
Speaker 1: out Montana and you have somebody come in and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I know somebody that's hunting and guiding people without a permit.
Speaker 1: I mean that's not the worst, you know, most egregious
Speaker 1: case you know in the world. But it's not good
Speaker 1: because it takes away other opportunities from forest users and
Speaker 1: legal good outfitters and guides. But she began to tell more.
Speaker 1: He picks his own clients. He don't advertise. He charges
Speaker 1: minimum of five thousand ahead and he'll do seven r
Speaker 1: eight clients a year and it's cash money only, So
Speaker 1: you do the math. You know, thirty five forty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars cash over a month for two period of time.
Speaker 1: And he also is he's into trading stolen guns. So
Speaker 1: now then you're an agent sitting there, listen to this. Now,
Speaker 1: then this may be a case worthy of opening. Of course,
Speaker 1: the first thing that the agent did was he pulled
Speaker 1: the records. He found out exactly with a map where
Speaker 1: this guy hunted, and she knew exactly or he hunted,
Speaker 1: and it was right on the edge of the Yellowstone
Speaker 1: National Park. And she told him it's not uncommon for
Speaker 1: him to take people into the park. So now you're
Speaker 1: you got a little more heightened.
Speaker 2: Either this woman is vindictive and creative in her story
Speaker 2: about her ex husband, or she's the perfect informant. Illegal
Speaker 2: guiding is one thing, but illegal guiding in Yellowstone National
Speaker 2: Park is something completely different. Russ I'm all ears well.
Speaker 1: Found out that there was a couple of really good,
Speaker 1: reputable guides you know, that already had permits in that area,
Speaker 1: and that as a matter of fact, they had been
Speaker 1: turning down people applying for permits from that are because
Speaker 1: he just didn't need anymore. Now, whether or not that
Speaker 1: had anything to do with him, he had never applied
Speaker 1: for a permit first of all, so it wasn't like
Speaker 1: he had tried the process and couldn't get in. So
Speaker 1: we with that agent's helped from Montana, we laid an
Speaker 1: investigative plan and set up a time for me to
Speaker 1: talk to this ex wife. So at the time, we
Speaker 1: had one of the best agents in North Carolina that
Speaker 1: I've ever worked with, is a female, top notch, best
Speaker 1: you've ever better had. I mean, she is the best
Speaker 1: at surveillance, best at the interview, and she was good.
Speaker 1: So we meet her and we interview her and she
Speaker 1: basically told us exactly how to catch her ex husband.
Speaker 1: She said, he sets up there is a huge expo
Speaker 1: in Raleigh, North Carolina called the Dixie Deer Classic. But
Speaker 1: she said, he will go the Dixie Deer Classic and
Speaker 1: he set up this big, huge, display of old Winchester guns.
Speaker 1: But he's not selling Winchester's. He's looking for clients and
Speaker 1: he'll pick you. And so you need to go to
Speaker 1: the Dixie Deer Classic and devise away for him to
Speaker 1: engage you in a conversation on this illegal hunt. So
Speaker 1: we immediately knew what to do.
Speaker 2: This this ex wife. When you're interviewing her, how could
Speaker 2: you tell that she was telling the truth and not
Speaker 2: just vindictive?
Speaker 1: She knew too much about the area, She do too
Speaker 1: many details. You could tell that she was put out,
Speaker 1: and you just knew.
Speaker 2: She just seemed credible, right, seemed very credible.
Speaker 1: And you've got a good point. You've got to watch
Speaker 1: out for that because you could be a setup. And
Speaker 1: you've also got to be careful because let's say you
Speaker 1: set up this and then two months later they get
Speaker 1: back together, right, so you got to you gotta stay
Speaker 1: in contact with her this whole time. So basically the
Speaker 1: plan was simple, Me and the female agent from Asheville.
Speaker 1: We loaded up and we went to the Dixie Deer Classic.
Speaker 1: Obviously just covert. It wasn't a large undercover, but nobody
Speaker 1: knew who we were. We're just dressed like hunters. And
Speaker 1: we walked around that whole it's huge arena. We walked
Speaker 1: around that whole place and we and there was a
Speaker 1: lot of outfitters set up from whitetail hunts to hunts
Speaker 1: in Canada. Very few gun dealers there, but he was
Speaker 1: one there. Well, you know, I've got a passion with
Speaker 1: Old Winchester's. So I see his booth and she and
Speaker 1: I put forth the plan that we had talked about.
Speaker 1: We go up as a couple. We're looking I'm looking
Speaker 1: at the guns. She's saying, where are you from? And
Speaker 1: he's saying Montana? And you know, what do you do
Speaker 1: out there? And you know, he's talking to her and
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the guns and talking about this model
Speaker 1: in that model, and I just looked at her and said, Hey,
Speaker 1: when you finish up here, I'm gonna go over here
Speaker 1: at this outfitter and check them out. Well, immediately when
Speaker 1: I went out, he approached her and said what's he
Speaker 1: interested in? And she tells him, well, we're kind of
Speaker 1: on our anniversary and I promised him an elk hunt
Speaker 1: next year.
Speaker 2: He took it the hook line and say.
Speaker 1: I mean it was it was a gut hook And
Speaker 1: I looked over there, and within thirty seconds or a
Speaker 1: minute after I'd walked away, she's behind the booth with
Speaker 1: him looking at a photo album, you know, big l.
Speaker 1: So I come back over there and the guy tells me, look,
Speaker 1: I've got you set up twenty five hundred down right now.
Speaker 1: Cash is all I'll take. But the only stipulation we're
Speaker 1: gonna be hunting public land. I don't like to advertise
Speaker 1: a lot. If we run into anybody while we're hunting,
Speaker 1: you just tell them that many you are good friends.
Speaker 1: I said, you got it. I said, I think I understand.
Speaker 3: I think I understand.
Speaker 2: They're planned to get invited to be guided by this
Speaker 2: guy was perfect and it sounds like it took all
Speaker 2: of five minutes. It turns out the Dixie Deer Classic
Speaker 2: is the nation's oldest white tail expo and it's held
Speaker 2: in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Speaker 3: This ex wife was on point, so we got the
Speaker 3: hunt plan.
Speaker 1: So we go out to this place, Montana for the hunt.
Speaker 2: Now, this is this app Dixie Deer Classics in the summer,
Speaker 2: So you got a couple of months going out there
Speaker 2: in September US I suspected.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was whenever the gun season opening of the
Speaker 1: gun season whenever it was. I think it was end
Speaker 1: of September one October, and he had not even told
Speaker 1: me yet where we'd be hunting. He just said we
Speaker 1: had a long horseback ride. The agent out there coordinated
Speaker 1: with you know, the Game and Fish told me how
Speaker 1: to get my permit and back then you could get
Speaker 1: over the counter stuff. So the agent out there coordinated
Speaker 1: the end with Game and Fish from Montana, you know,
Speaker 1: so they knew, you know, what was going on, and
Speaker 1: evidently they'd been after this guy for quite some time.
Speaker 1: So we go out there, he does horseback and you know,
Speaker 1: I've been studying maps of that area because I'm a
Speaker 1: I'm a map freak. Anyway, I've been studying maps the
Speaker 1: potential areas, and we actually laid a plan because, contrary
Speaker 1: to proper belief, these are not comfortable hunts. There is
Speaker 1: usually not good eating, it's usually not good sleeping, it's
Speaker 1: usually not people knowledgeable of the resources. These are just
Speaker 1: not comfortable hunts.
Speaker 2: Like when when you're going with somebody that's doing something wrong, right.
Speaker 1: You know, I have a lot of friends that claim, man,
Speaker 1: you got it made, you got to go hunting free. No,
Speaker 1: you don't understand. These conditions are not they're not ideal,
Speaker 1: and you have to be on edge the whole time.
Speaker 1: And you know it's just you know, you're not with
Speaker 1: friends as you can discuss things openly. You got to
Speaker 1: watch everything you do, say and act. So we I
Speaker 1: always would lay a plan if I went on a
Speaker 1: back country undercover to get out early, whether the conditions
Speaker 1: were just unbearable or whether you've got enough evidence that
Speaker 1: it's time to leave. Well, my plan on this one
Speaker 1: was we made up a story that my dad was sick,
Speaker 1: and I even asked the guide, I said, who could
Speaker 1: we leave a message with that if something happens? Then
Speaker 1: he said, we'll stop by the forig Service office. So
Speaker 1: on the way in, we stopped by the forest Service
Speaker 1: office and I told these people didn't know me. They
Speaker 1: just thought I was legit. And I told the person
Speaker 1: that they directed me to. I said, I'm getting ready
Speaker 1: to go into the absorbers, and this is the parking
Speaker 1: lot we're going to be at. We were doing two
Speaker 1: things here. We're also letting game and fish know exactly
Speaker 1: where we were two and we're going to be there
Speaker 1: ten days. I don't know if y'all got any way,
Speaker 1: or any contact with radio with people. But if I
Speaker 1: lack a phone number for this ranger station, something were
Speaker 1: to happen to my dad while I'm in there. Well
Speaker 1: they were very nice. So now then we're going in
Speaker 1: the back country, no sell service, no phone, no radio.
Speaker 1: How am I going to communicate out?
Speaker 2: You're by yourself too, Yeah, Well.
Speaker 1: The agent out there had set it up. There's a
Speaker 1: remote guard station out there, and there were going to
Speaker 1: be two wild life officers that knew my situation. So
Speaker 1: if I needed out, all I had to do was
Speaker 1: somehow get a message to hell Roin Creek. Well, there
Speaker 1: was another client that was in camp with us, so
Speaker 1: I knew where hell Roying Creek was. We passed it
Speaker 1: on the way to our camp, so I had that
Speaker 1: in my mind I can get back there, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't two three miles if I needed to.
Speaker 2: The plan is set and things are about to get real.
Speaker 2: I want to add two. Something that Russ commented on.
Speaker 2: It might be easy to think that this would be
Speaker 2: an enjoyable thing, like in the same way that a
Speaker 2: legal hunt would be. After all, he is in a
Speaker 2: beautiful place, and in a way he is hunting, though
Speaker 2: he's hoping not to kill one, but to pretend like
Speaker 2: he wants to kill one, but he can if it's
Speaker 2: absolutely necessary to not blow his cover. The level of
Speaker 2: stress would be almost hard to comprehend. The potential of
Speaker 2: being found out and the repercussions of that, coupled with
Speaker 2: a lifetime of reverence for wildlife and the law, like
Speaker 2: we know, Russ has made this a cringe worthy, difficult situation.
Speaker 1: So the hunt started off terrible. First of all, we
Speaker 1: camped right next to two guys from Colorado that were
Speaker 1: what I would consider very good hunters, very respectable hunters.
Speaker 1: This guy knew those two guys, and you could tell
Speaker 1: those two guys didn't like my guide. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, they got me off to the side that
Speaker 1: first evening said, man, don't know how you know this guy,
Speaker 1: but be careful. You seem like a pretty good guy.
Speaker 1: Just gonna let you know. Don't know how you know this.
Speaker 3: Guy, but you need to be careful and telling you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So that night that when we first got there,
Speaker 1: I know it was going to be a bad, bad trip.
Speaker 1: When he walked over up into the trees and he
Speaker 1: had some bags that he had hung up in the
Speaker 1: in the trees, with ropes, and he started letting them down,
Speaker 1: and it was food that he had stashed from the
Speaker 1: year before, and he started going through it. And he'd
Speaker 1: open a jar of peanut butter and smell it. I
Speaker 1: think that'll be okay. He'd open up something, Oh, this
Speaker 1: is still good, and I'm thinking this is gonna be terrible.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. He had a bunch of tang. Remember
Speaker 1: that the drink orange dry tang. Well, I'm wondering, what's
Speaker 1: he doing all that? Well that was for his vodka.
Speaker 1: So that night I had to sit there by that
Speaker 1: fire and watch him and the other client that he
Speaker 1: had there with him just just get drunk. And of
Speaker 1: course I'm not drinking and uh, and I'm thinking, man,
Speaker 1: this is going to be terrible. And I'm trying to
Speaker 1: talk hunting. Hey, where are we going tomorrow morning? You know?
Speaker 1: Have you been in here scouting? You know? And it
Speaker 1: was just yeah, yeah, you know it just like I
Speaker 1: was with a drunk and I was. So I sat
Speaker 1: there that night and I do it. The next morning's
Speaker 1: opening morning. So I wake up and I'm out there
Speaker 1: drinking coffee and it's breaking daylight and I literally hear
Speaker 1: five or six different elk bugling, and I watched the
Speaker 1: guys and come up the trail that had camped right
Speaker 1: below us, come back and start leading or pack up
Speaker 1: up towards the bugling elk. And I'm wondering, when are
Speaker 1: we going now? I need to back up and clarify something.
Speaker 1: You do not have to kill an elk on an
Speaker 1: illegal outfitting and guide to prove illegal outfitting, and God
Speaker 1: got to prove the intent. So being so close to
Speaker 1: the park, we had met with obviously park officials and
Speaker 1: we met with prosecutors on where do you draw the line?
Speaker 1: You know, because you never want to be accused of
Speaker 1: you being the one that's depleting the resources.
Speaker 2: Right, like as like as an undercover guy, right if
Speaker 2: you killed an elk being criticized for right.
Speaker 1: So you want to minimize that as best you can.
Speaker 1: And in the perfect world you don't kill one. I mean,
Speaker 1: in the perfect world, you don't kill one. So you
Speaker 1: got to have that in the back of your mind
Speaker 1: all this time. So these guys, this guy gets up,
Speaker 1: you know, he's hung over, and he's stumbling around there
Speaker 1: and we're hear an elk bugle, and we hear a
Speaker 1: gunshot and then it's probably not three hundred yards from
Speaker 1: our camp. And he says, well, that's a probably, that's
Speaker 1: probably so and so and that's the guys with the
Speaker 1: camp right blow us. And he said, let's go see
Speaker 1: what they got. So we got a couple of stock
Speaker 1: and we went up there and they had a nice
Speaker 1: five by five down and uh. And he actually helped
Speaker 1: him get it caped out and spent half the day
Speaker 1: helping those guys. And I'm thinking, is you know, is
Speaker 1: he going to take me hunting or not? You know?
Speaker 2: And what do you need gathering evidence? Like just your word,
Speaker 2: Like you could just come out and just say he
Speaker 2: took me hunting, we did this, or you do you
Speaker 2: have recording devices on you?
Speaker 1: What I did on this case is I took a
Speaker 1: video camera and I prepped him and it worked that
Speaker 1: I'm wanting to video this hunt. My dad has never
Speaker 1: seen this part of the country. He's getting up an
Speaker 1: age and I don't know if he'll ever get out here.
Speaker 1: I'd lock to document all this country with a video camera.
Speaker 1: And he welcomed that. He was these guys have a
Speaker 1: big ego, and if you play on their ego and
Speaker 1: say I'm getting ready to make you a movie star
Speaker 1: back to somebody in another state. You know. He ate
Speaker 1: it up, he said, he said, that's fine. So I
Speaker 1: would continually video stuff. I really didn't even want need
Speaker 1: the video, but getting him used to my video, and
Speaker 1: I'd always talk in it. Everybody called my dad the
Speaker 1: old man, and I'd always hey, old man, take a
Speaker 1: look at this, you know, like I was talking to
Speaker 1: my dad. So a lot of that to help with intent.
Speaker 1: So finally the next morning he said, we're gonna go
Speaker 1: right back up past with guy Kim. There's more elk bungling,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna we're gonna get them. It's okay, Well,
Speaker 1: same thing night before. Stayed out and drunk by the
Speaker 1: fire and I laid in the tent just uncomfortable, you know,
Speaker 1: just want this to be over. He takes me out
Speaker 1: the next morning, right out of the box an elk bugling.
Speaker 1: I would consider him probably a mediocre caller, and he
Speaker 1: calls up this. It was a pretty good probably a
Speaker 1: probably a five by five. I couldn't it never got close,
Speaker 1: but it would have been close enough to shoot, and
Speaker 1: I threw the gun up. I was shooting the pre
Speaker 1: sixty four model seventy Winchester. He uh, he stepped out
Speaker 1: two or three times, got to cross arizonh and I
Speaker 1: purposely let him go, and he was like, man, what
Speaker 1: is wrong? I said, Man, I just there's too much
Speaker 1: brush in a way, you know. So about an hour later,
Speaker 1: we're walking and he's calling every now and then another one.
Speaker 2: Do you think at this point you've got what you
Speaker 2: need or.
Speaker 1: Not all the way?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Not all the way, and he's filming you.
Speaker 1: Well I didn't feel that, Okay, I didn't feel that.
Speaker 1: Ok So the next stap he calls in. It's like
Speaker 1: a it's a raghorn. And so that was my excuse.
Speaker 1: Too small, too small, so too thick, too small. I'm thinking, man,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna have to maybe have to
Speaker 1: kill one because I've given two excuses, and I don't
Speaker 1: want it to say, hey, what's wrong with you buddy?
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: So, as fate would have it, we're walking around this
Speaker 1: ridge top and we run across this sign and I
Speaker 1: stopped and I'm reading it and it says you are
Speaker 1: entering they Allstone National Park, No guns, et cetera, et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Loud mental violators will be prosecuted, you know,
Speaker 1: siting lego law. And there's an elk bugling about one
Speaker 1: hundred yards other side of that sign, and I said,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, wait minut, wait minute. I said, I
Speaker 1: got a video of this sign. And he said hold on,
Speaker 1: hold on, And he gets in front of the sign
Speaker 1: and I video him and I said, hey, o, man,
Speaker 1: look at this. And I video him as he reads
Speaker 1: the sign, and then he says, and where do you
Speaker 1: think we're going to go? Come on. So we get
Speaker 1: in there and he calls us up and it's a
Speaker 1: it's a good five by five and it's about twenty
Speaker 1: five yards from us, and he says, man, take him,
Speaker 1: take him down. Well, it stomped all around us for
Speaker 1: five minutes, it seems line. And so finally, you know,
Speaker 1: I shot it.
Speaker 2: Wow, things just escalated a lot. I was not expecting that.
Speaker 2: With two other fake bumbles on elk encounters and Russ
Speaker 2: not shooting, he felt that he had no choice but
Speaker 2: to take the elk. In these situations, it takes a
Speaker 2: ton of confidence and quick in the field decisions that
Speaker 2: will impact the case when it goes to court, but
Speaker 2: also the personal safety of the agent and Also, Russ's
Speaker 2: team at the National Forest Service had been in communication
Speaker 2: with the National Park Service and the Montana Fish and
Speaker 2: Wildlife people and some lawyers, and all of them knew
Speaker 2: that it was a possibility that he would actually have
Speaker 2: to take an elk on this hunt, and potentially even
Speaker 2: in the park. The cost of one elk was worth
Speaker 2: putting this bad guy out of business for good. But
Speaker 2: do not think for a second that Russ was happy
Speaker 2: about or enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: It just wasn't like that.
Speaker 2: And it's not lost on me that in some cases
Speaker 2: authorities have taken flak for being participants, even to the
Speaker 2: point of pulling the trigger into illegal hunting. But I've
Speaker 2: personally never heard a situation where this power was abused.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it has been.
Speaker 1: We we get to elp down, he processes it, We
Speaker 1: get it back to camp. Of course we don't. You know,
Speaker 1: we're not talking to anybody else, you know, we just
Speaker 1: we killed it up on up on the mountain up
Speaker 1: there was.
Speaker 2: He was he nervous about it being down there?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, a little bit, but not bad.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like, hey, we gotta we gotta get
Speaker 2: this thing across the line.
Speaker 1: Right, yep. So we get it out of there and
Speaker 1: get it back to camp, and I'm thinking, how can
Speaker 1: I get out of here? So the next day he's
Speaker 1: going to take the client from Kentucky. He's got a
Speaker 1: client from Kentucky with him. So the next morning, when
Speaker 1: they go hunting, I beat feet back to hell Roaring
Speaker 1: Guard station to where the wildlife officers were supposed to
Speaker 1: be at. Well, they were out on patrol and weren't there. Well,
Speaker 1: all I did was I put them a note under
Speaker 1: the door, and I kind of wrote it in code.
Speaker 1: I said, hey, guys, this is and I use my
Speaker 1: undercover name, just want to let you know this has
Speaker 1: been a great hunt and we have gotten what I
Speaker 1: came here for. Thank you. That's in case somebody else
Speaker 1: found the note. Yeah, and I'm wondering, I hope they
Speaker 1: read that and crier.
Speaker 2: They know you're looking for a way out, right, and
Speaker 2: they have an excuse right right, your dad's sick there
Speaker 2: to say that, we're going to communicate that to your camp, right,
Speaker 2: so they should read this note and be like, right,
Speaker 2: we're going to get We got to get him out
Speaker 2: of there, right.
Speaker 1: So I go back to camp and I'm wondering, I'm
Speaker 1: hoping that resonated, because I really don't want to stay
Speaker 1: eight more days in here under these conditions. The very
Speaker 1: next day, almost at dark, a park ranger come riding
Speaker 1: in on a horse. Not a Forest Service but a
Speaker 1: park ranger. And what those guys did, they eate took
Speaker 1: it a step further. They facilitated a phone call the
Speaker 1: agent out there. The agent called the district for the
Speaker 1: Forest Service and said, hey, you've got a guy out
Speaker 1: there hunting. We've been contacted by his family that he
Speaker 1: needs to come home. So the wildlife officers didn't deliver
Speaker 1: the message.
Speaker 2: So this guy that's coming in really thinks it's yeah.
Speaker 1: And it was a girl. It's a female park ranger,
Speaker 1: and so she really thinking this is real. And she
Speaker 1: did a great job. She pulled me off to the
Speaker 1: side and said, you know, I need to let you
Speaker 1: know there's been a term for your worst on your dad.
Speaker 1: You know, the word came into the Force Service office.
Speaker 1: They knew I was going to be in patrol over
Speaker 1: here today and I'm the one delivering it, and so
Speaker 1: I had to act like I was, you know, a
Speaker 1: little distraught over that. But before she broke the news,
Speaker 1: she was talking about, hey, it looks like you've had
Speaker 1: some luck. And it was one of my favorite photos.
Speaker 1: I got my picture with her in the elk, you know.
Speaker 1: And so they over the message and after she left.
Speaker 2: So would the outfitter would have seen this.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he saw the whole scenario.
Speaker 2: So he sees this lady right up. Yes, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: so legit. Yeah, she doesn't know, so she's not acting right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's really there for her and that's why how
Speaker 1: we had it set up that way. Yeah, So soon
Speaker 1: as she leaves, I says, well, you know, I hate it,
Speaker 1: but I need to be out here tomorrow. And he says, well,
Speaker 1: you know we can't do that. I said, yeah we can.
Speaker 1: And he said, well, I've got another client I need
Speaker 1: to finish with and maybe we'll get up tomorrow then
Speaker 1: we can leave. I said no. I said, here's the deal.
Speaker 1: I said, I'm leaving five to walk out here. And
Speaker 1: he said, well, he said, I guess I could. We
Speaker 1: could go out through the park because his wife had
Speaker 1: somehow shuttled a vehicle over to a parking lot that
Speaker 1: was a shorter distance. It wasn't the twenty miles.
Speaker 2: It was like six or eight miles.
Speaker 1: But it was through the park, and you can't trans
Speaker 1: can't do any guide him, can't transport any gun or
Speaker 1: any meat across the park. He said, we could go
Speaker 1: through the park, but if we get caught, we've be
Speaker 1: in trouble. And I said, well, I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: I'll do. You keep the meat, You keep the horns.
Speaker 1: I'll come back out here next summer go fishing, and
Speaker 1: I'll get them. And he said, okay, I'll keep your
Speaker 1: gun too. I said, no, I'll keep my gun. He said, no,
Speaker 1: if they if they catch us with that gun. I
Speaker 1: knew what he wanted to do with that gun. He
Speaker 1: had already had his eye on that old model seventy.
Speaker 1: And I said, no, I'll take it. I said, tell
Speaker 1: you what, I'm taking the gun. If we get caught,
Speaker 1: I'll put it on my horse. He said, okay, he said,
Speaker 1: but I'd rather just you pick that up.
Speaker 2: When is this actually your gun?
Speaker 1: Yes, it's actually my gun.
Speaker 2: You weren't about to let him steal it from No.
Speaker 1: No, And he he had been known of doing people
Speaker 1: that way, and then when they had contact him, he
Speaker 1: would make up lies, like one of the cases was
Speaker 1: somebody broke into my house and stole all those guns,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, but he was selling them. So
Speaker 1: this guy was bad all the way around. So that's
Speaker 1: what we did. We packed out across the park, left
Speaker 1: the meat.
Speaker 2: No get Now, what would you have done if you'd
Speaker 2: have got caught back there? Would you just had to
Speaker 2: kind of gone through the system for a lot to
Speaker 2: go one through the system. I mean they probably would have.
Speaker 2: Would they have arrested you, probably arrested me and you
Speaker 2: just had to kind of.
Speaker 1: Go through the process. But the park superintendent knew, so
Speaker 1: once it reached.
Speaker 2: The search lace at some point they would have been like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this guy's so they.
Speaker 1: Get me out and I come home. So time passes.
Speaker 1: Of course, I send all the evidence, the video, your
Speaker 1: video camera, Yeah, I sent it there, and I had
Speaker 1: an undercover phone at my house. And uh, two days
Speaker 1: before they served the search warrant, I was notified by
Speaker 1: State of Montana and the Forest Service. It was a
Speaker 1: federal search warrant. They seize all his records, you know,
Speaker 1: any evidence associated legal outfitting, and try to find out
Speaker 1: other clients. So I knew the day that the search
Speaker 1: forant was getting ready to happen, So I stayed around
Speaker 1: undercover phone that day. Of course, he.
Speaker 2: Still didn't know, so he left on good terms.
Speaker 1: Well, I left on good terms, and I was gonna
Speaker 1: come back out and get my horns and get my
Speaker 1: meat and do some fishing next summer. Yeah about let's
Speaker 1: see that. That would have probably been February or March
Speaker 1: when they served the warrant. They waited, you know, a
Speaker 1: good while. They let the season right on, and my
Speaker 1: phone rings and it was him and he begins to
Speaker 1: tell me. He said, manam I got bad news. What
Speaker 1: is it? I don't know how this happened. You know,
Speaker 1: my house just got raided and they took your horns,
Speaker 1: They took your meat, they took everything. And I acted
Speaker 1: mad and I said, but how why you know this
Speaker 1: isn't right? He said, well they got some other people's
Speaker 1: meat and their horns too, And he said, took all
Speaker 1: my records. And he said they may be able to
Speaker 1: look you up, because I'd written some records down in
Speaker 1: some notebooks of mine. But if they look you up,
Speaker 1: you need to do me a favor. And I said,
Speaker 1: what's that? He said, you remember that video that you took.
Speaker 1: I said, oh yeah. He said, make sure you get
Speaker 1: rid of that I'll never forget. I told him, I
Speaker 1: said that video is in a safe place.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: So he was really hammered. The courts really hammered him good.
Speaker 1: And I don't remember the exact but it was ten
Speaker 1: thousand dollars fine and lost a hunt license for like
Speaker 1: five years. So it turned out to be a pretty
Speaker 1: good case in that area. I was so glad to
Speaker 1: get him removed because we have so few areas that
Speaker 1: are prestine and they need to be protected. Those legal
Speaker 1: outfitters have the right to take people and have a
Speaker 1: good experience with that the interference of somebody like that.
Speaker 1: I didn't enjoy the hunt, but I enjoyed the outcome.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So did you take any flag for killing an elk?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: None, none. They just just you just had to do.
Speaker 1: It, yep, And I'd stand by it today.
Speaker 3: That was a wild story.
Speaker 2: It's hard to imagine the complexity of being in a
Speaker 2: situation like Russ was, in the added stress of no
Speaker 2: modern communication aids. These two stories of him getting run
Speaker 2: over in this Yellowstone case were just two that stood
Speaker 2: out to him in all these years, and we know
Speaker 2: that there were many many more. As a little foreshadowing
Speaker 2: there will actually be one more story that'll be dropped
Speaker 2: on this feed as an extra bear grease drop, which
Speaker 2: we've never done before, so be looking out for that.
Speaker 2: Russ would retire as the Assistant Special Agent in charge
Speaker 2: of the Southern Region of the US for the Forest Service,
Speaker 2: which encompassed all the national forests in thirteen states.
Speaker 3: He had thirty years of.
Speaker 2: Service from nineteen eighty five to twenty fifteen. But that
Speaker 2: wouldn't be the end, and unexpectedly things seemed to get
Speaker 2: even more complex. Here's the final chapter of Russ's career.
Speaker 2: In overtime, you might say.
Speaker 1: So, I had a great career, had a tough last year.
Speaker 1: In twenty fourteen, I lost my dad. It's my best friend.
Speaker 1: Part of me was kind of lost then because I
Speaker 1: always loved sharing my stories and that was a bond
Speaker 1: I had with my dad that a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't understand that and he loved here in the glories
Speaker 1: of all these things that we've talked about. And retired
Speaker 1: in two thousand and fifteen, and you know, I had
Speaker 1: plans to just kind of you know, I've got a
Speaker 1: little farm down in North Georgia on the Conasauga river,
Speaker 1: and I had plans of fulfilling building a wood shop
Speaker 1: down there. I love piddling woodworking. You know, I've made
Speaker 1: a few turkey calls I wanted to get back into that.
Speaker 1: I hadn't had time, and so I was kind of
Speaker 1: working on cleaning the farm up and getting ready to
Speaker 1: start this project when I got a got a call
Speaker 1: from my old boss and he said, Russ Man, would
Speaker 1: you be interested in doing some international travel? And he said,
Speaker 1: the international programs within the Forest Services starting up a
Speaker 1: program on training some of these Southeast Asian countries on
Speaker 1: conservation law enforcement.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how all this went down, but I
Speaker 2: envision a hardened team of gray haired men in a
Speaker 2: small dark room looking at a map of the world,
Speaker 2: discussing the various and sundry wildlife problems a form of
Speaker 2: plan of action that.
Speaker 3: They need a man for the job.
Speaker 2: Many names are thrown out, but all of them disqualified
Speaker 2: until a man seated in the back who hadn't spoken
Speaker 2: up yet, says, I may know a guy and his
Speaker 2: name is Russ Arthur, but by now he's probably huddled
Speaker 2: around a woodstove making turkey calls, drinking coffee in the
Speaker 2: hills of East Tennessee.
Speaker 3: There's no way he'll take the job.
Speaker 2: But will you call him, they say, and he says, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll call Russ. That is probably not the way that
Speaker 2: it happened. And Russ is probably going to be mad
Speaker 2: at me and embarrassed that I'm trying to make him
Speaker 2: look like a hero, because I think that he is.
Speaker 2: That was never his intent with telling these stories. I
Speaker 2: had to pride these stories out of him, but we did.
Speaker 2: And Russ was the man for this job. Here's what
Speaker 2: the mission entailed.
Speaker 1: Well, tell me more about it. And he explained to
Speaker 1: me that it's kind of a new program. You know,
Speaker 1: the international programs with the Forest Service has been around
Speaker 1: for a long time, very well respected arm of the agency.
Speaker 1: Some of these other countries had been depleted, just like
Speaker 1: our country had been depleted from the timber industry back
Speaker 1: in the twenties, thirties, and forties. These countries have gone
Speaker 1: through it in more recent times, so it was kind
Speaker 1: of a natural fit. Some of the things that we
Speaker 1: experienced that were during negatives we learned from and our
Speaker 1: agency worked with these other countries to help mitigate some
Speaker 1: of their losses and get their resources back manageable and
Speaker 1: once they got their resources back manageable and they started
Speaker 1: establishing areas or parks or whatever the respective country called that,
Speaker 1: then they they looked and said, well, you know now,
Speaker 1: then we need to train a workforce.
Speaker 3: To protect those He took the job.
Speaker 1: Our first trip was to Cambodia, and Cambodia was a
Speaker 1: It was an eye opener. I had never traveled that
Speaker 1: extent in my life and for a country boar from
Speaker 1: East Tennessee, just going through customs was a was an experience.
Speaker 1: And we trained eighteen rangers men the other two and
Speaker 1: it was it was called a pilot program. It was
Speaker 1: a one week training only, and the training consisted of
Speaker 1: just basic skills that we use in America for negotiating
Speaker 1: the woods, if you will, kind of field craft things,
Speaker 1: how to how to get from point A to point
Speaker 1: B with a map and a compass, how to communicate silently,
Speaker 1: how who work as a team. You'd teach a skill
Speaker 1: set in the class and then go out and practice it.
Speaker 1: The next day. You'd add another skill set on top
Speaker 1: of that, and you'd go practice both those skill sets,
Speaker 1: and by the end of the week you put all
Speaker 1: the skill sets together to where they have to go
Speaker 1: through the woods quietly, use a map and compass, locate
Speaker 1: a fake poacher's camp, surround it quietly, and take down
Speaker 1: a role player that's in the camp as a poacher.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of and they had never worked in
Speaker 1: that concept before, so that was very interesting. The guys
Speaker 1: there appreciating the training so much. It was very rewarding.
Speaker 1: They wanted more handouts, you know, they wanted more material
Speaker 1: on it, they wanted more field time, they wanted more exercises.
Speaker 1: Could we stay another week and do it again? And
Speaker 1: I get it. This was new to them. A lot
Speaker 1: of this was new to them, but it was very
Speaker 1: rewarding that that training was that appreciated.
Speaker 2: What kind of stuff are these guys up against?
Speaker 1: Well, each country has a different and I've been to
Speaker 1: five different countries now, and each country has a unique
Speaker 1: and different challenge and it's all based on, you know,
Speaker 1: the type of force they have and the type of
Speaker 1: wildlife that they have. In Sri Lanka, there's four thousand
Speaker 1: elephants over there, and Sri Lanka is a country the
Speaker 1: size of West Virginia, so that's a pretty good population
Speaker 1: and there's no honey, but they have a lot of
Speaker 1: issues and conflicts, and they have a lot of human
Speaker 1: and elephant interactions, and they have some poaching, but it's
Speaker 1: it is a completely protected species. In Sri Lanka, they
Speaker 1: have a several protected areas and parks set aside where
Speaker 1: people can go visit, but you have to stay on
Speaker 1: designated trails, you have to go with a guide. And
Speaker 1: they have species like a leopard. There's four hundred leopards
Speaker 1: in Sri Lanka. That's not many leopards if you think
Speaker 1: about it. It's a very important challenge for that country
Speaker 1: to continue to protect that species. So you know, like
Speaker 1: I said, each country has has a different set of challenges.
Speaker 1: The exportation of illegal wood in some countries is big,
Speaker 1: a lot of illegal wildlife trade. It could be it
Speaker 1: could be turtles, it could be reptiles, it could be snakes.
Speaker 1: There's there's a huge illegal you know trade and wildlife
Speaker 1: h That first class we taught really got humbled. Uh.
Speaker 1: We learned that not only do these guys have very
Speaker 1: long shifts in the jungle by themselves or with a
Speaker 1: team of five, well, this particular country they only allowed
Speaker 1: one firearm per team. That that was their policy, and
Speaker 1: they lose two to four officers a year to poachers.
Speaker 1: That's just that's just unacceptable, and it's and it's really
Speaker 1: it really hurts because when you when you leave there
Speaker 1: and you look there, there's eighteen, which one or two
Speaker 1: is going to be gone next year, and you've developed
Speaker 1: this bond with them, in this relationship, and you're thinking, gosh,
Speaker 1: these guys are just so dedicated. But it was a
Speaker 1: it's a prestigious job to have over there. It's but
Speaker 1: it's a very, very dangerous job.
Speaker 2: In the United States, wildlife officers killed in the line
Speaker 2: of duty isn't unheard of, but thankfully it's not common.
Speaker 2: When you consider the small number of officers over there
Speaker 2: compared with the thousands that are here, that statistic of
Speaker 2: these guys getting killed over there really hits home.
Speaker 1: The involvements that I've had in the overseas has been
Speaker 1: Sri Lanka, Whuzbekistan, Vietnam, Nepaul, and in every one of
Speaker 1: those countries, they they've got a huge passion for protecting resources.
Speaker 1: They have they have done a tremendous job independently of
Speaker 1: establishing protected areas. They've done a tremendous job of establishing agencies.
Speaker 1: They've done a tremendous job of education on wildlife practices
Speaker 1: and management practices, and some very good surveys and studies
Speaker 1: and population you know, densities, and so they're they're doing
Speaker 1: all of that, but it's relatively new to have these
Speaker 1: areas set aside that's being restricted now. And imagine if
Speaker 1: our national parks in America and our National forest in
Speaker 1: America were just established fifteen or twenty years ago, the
Speaker 1: problems that we would face with amount of population that's
Speaker 1: been accustomed to using that land, with those villages over
Speaker 1: there have been accustomed to using that land for their fuel, wood,
Speaker 1: using that land for their food, using that land for
Speaker 1: you know, whatever it provided. And they have a lot
Speaker 1: of unique plant species and medicinal things that can be
Speaker 1: collected out there that are sensitive, and so the agencies
Speaker 1: are now having to protect that. And they do have
Speaker 1: an advantage in most of these countries that would be
Speaker 1: a disadvantage to us. And that advantage is in most
Speaker 1: of these countries they allow honey m and if they do,
Speaker 1: it's a very specific species with a very specific amount
Speaker 1: of that can be taken and very very regulated, you know,
Speaker 1: so so it comes with a cost. They're protected areas
Speaker 1: you can't just enter. They're national parks, you can't. You
Speaker 1: have to go with a licensed guide on a trail
Speaker 1: or a road, and there's no wandering if you will
Speaker 1: into a lot of these areas. So it's very regulated
Speaker 1: and they're pretty cut and dry. Either you can't be
Speaker 1: in there, you can't be in there.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess that makes for some bad criminals though.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean it's like if I can imagine, if I
Speaker 2: imagine if a Yellowstone you could not be in there, well,
Speaker 2: you'd either be legal beagle when you were in there,
Speaker 2: or you'd be an absolute outlaw.
Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 2: What makes you appreciate the way things are here?
Speaker 1: Is it after my first trip and I have this
Speaker 1: feeling and I've been over there, I think ten different
Speaker 1: countries now, I've made ten trips, and I feel the same.
Speaker 1: On my way home. I feel proud of being America,
Speaker 1: and I have an unprecedented of respect for what those
Speaker 1: guys and girls are going through right now. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it almost saddens me because they're so passionate and
Speaker 1: they got such an upheld battle.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine having vast areas of wilderness? Probably some
Speaker 2: of the only wilderness in that country that the access
Speaker 2: was that tight and there was no hunting. Now I
Speaker 2: realize we can't hunt in national parks, but they are
Speaker 2: designed for access. It does make me appreciate America and
Speaker 2: our model of wildlife management, which strives to give access
Speaker 2: and incentive for stewardship to the common man. Even though
Speaker 2: there are challenges to this model. Today we still got
Speaker 2: pretty good, but we're gonna have to fight to keep
Speaker 2: it that way.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: As we come to a close of this two part
Speaker 2: series about Russ Arthur and some of his stories, I'm
Speaker 2: grateful for guys like Russ. And he was so clear
Speaker 2: that these stories weren't about him. He had to tell
Speaker 2: him from his perspective. But he always had teams of
Speaker 2: great people around him, great supervisors and great friends that
Speaker 2: had his back. And hey, here's one last thing before
Speaker 2: you go. Here's a good squirrel and turkey story from
Speaker 2: Russ's nine year old grandson. I thought you guys might
Speaker 2: enjoy this.
Speaker 4: So we saw a squirrel in the front of the cabin.
Speaker 4: He kind of ran all around, couldn't get him because
Speaker 4: I shot eyed once and then he went to the
Speaker 4: back of the cabin. Who circled all around the cabin
Speaker 4: couldn't find him. Then we went to the back we
Speaker 4: found him. I shot him about three times before I
Speaker 4: actually hit him. Then I hit him twice and he fell.
Speaker 4: And then right after that we realized there was a
Speaker 4: lot bigger squirrel right in front of him, and we
Speaker 4: named him Fatty because he was huge. So we've tried
Speaker 4: to get him since, but we still haven't. We've not
Speaker 4: seen him, the.
Speaker 2: One that got away, big one. Yes, Now, I got
Speaker 2: a story that I want to hear. I heard about
Speaker 2: your turkey season.
Speaker 4: Well, we got invited to this private property that seemed
Speaker 4: a really good spot, so we went up there early
Speaker 4: in the morning sometime. We went up there, we got
Speaker 4: in our spot, we didn't hear anything much, so we
Speaker 4: moved down to below the mountain thing, and then we heard,
Speaker 4: uh we heard two of them, So I tried to
Speaker 4: call him up, like, uh yeah, pretty similar to that.
Speaker 4: We called him up. We saw him coming from the
Speaker 4: top of the mountain where we were just before we moved,
Speaker 4: so we called him down to where we were and
Speaker 4: we figured out there were two of them, and once
Speaker 4: they got close enough, I shot at them. I missed
Speaker 4: both of them, they jumped up and when they landed
Speaker 4: they gobbled.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was That was a good morning. And I
Speaker 1: told him that if he were to be given a
Speaker 1: score on hunting, he would have got ninety eight that morning.
Speaker 1: And he wanted to of why ninety eight so high
Speaker 1: and he didn't kill anything. I said, well, we planned
Speaker 1: this hunt. We met with a landowner. There's work that
Speaker 1: went into getting ready for the hunt. He got all
Speaker 1: this stuff ready the night before. We got up two
Speaker 1: hours before daylight, and we walked up on that mount
Speaker 1: before daylight. We stayed camoflaged. So you did ninety eight
Speaker 1: percent of the things.
Speaker 2: Right, just right at the end. Miss, that's it.
Speaker 1: I asked him why he was breathing so hard.
Speaker 4: It was more like I was so excited. I was
Speaker 4: so excited because I've never seen a turkey up so
Speaker 4: close and never actually got a chance to shoot one.
Speaker 2: So your heart was beating pretty fast.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was pretty nervous, felt like that before kind of.
Speaker 2: Maybe with that big old fat square Yeah, with a squirrell.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening to Bear Grease and Brent's
Speaker 2: This Tree Life podcast. You can help us in three
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Speaker 2: and don't forget about watching the bear grease render on
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Speaker 3: See you next week.