WEBVTT - Ep. 407: Backwoods University - New Year's Conservation 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:08.360 Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife, 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:11.720 wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.800 conserving both. Big shout out to aax Hunt for their 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.840 support of this podcast. I'm your host, Lake Pickle, and Hey, 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.320 Happy New Year twenty twenty six. Already, man, who could 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.000 have seen this coming. With the new year comes all 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:29.920 kinds of exciting possibilities and opportunities. It's also around the 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:32.440 start of a new year that you always hear folks 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.279 making their so called New Year's resolutions. Well, today I'm 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.320 going to challenge all of us, myself included, to a 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:43.560 wildlife conservation mind in new Year's resolution. In this episode, 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.320 we're going to be focusing in on the conserving wild 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.880 places mantra of this podcast as we dive into learning 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.440 about how you, yes, you and me can make a 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.320 real intangible difference on the ground that we hunt, fish, 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:01.640 or recreate on by learning about things like conservation programs, 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.800 the farm bill, easy ways to get involved with both, 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:08.679 and learning from folks that have walked to this path themselves. 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:21.560 Let's dive in. It's a picture perfect winter day in 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:26.520 central Mississippi, bright clear, sunny skies, crisp air. It's the 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:28.560 kind of day that when you step outside and the 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:31.400 wind hits you, you immediately start thinking about how you 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:33.640 can get into the woods in some form or fashion. 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.559 And I'm with my longtime friend Josh Thrash. We're riding 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.480 through his property and he's showing me the various amounts 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:43.399 of wildlife habitat work that he's done on his place. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.880 I'm asking about his prescribed burning and how the Bob 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.480 White quill have responded to it. It was around this 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:51.720 time that we pulled up on something that I don't 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:53.240 believe I've seen in my lifetime. 0:01:54.160 --> 0:02:00.280 Yeah, those are long leaves, and we were assisted through 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:06.920 the EQUIP Program EQIP in planting and sight prepping and 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:11.160 planting those, and I just kind of had an inkling 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.320 that I don't know, I just always liked the story 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:16.000 of the long leaf because all this used to be 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.720 long leaf before the number companies came in and cut 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.799 it for timber and turpentine. And there's still some long 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:27.919 leaves around these perimeters, but it's been I guess a 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.240 couple of generation of lib lollies in here since, and 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.840 I've just always kind of thought it was neat to 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.280 see the long leafs on the property lines and stuff. 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.000 So I got to thinking about it, and I knew 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.120 you could burn long leaves at a young age, and 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.400 I thought, well, that'd be cool to have for wildlife. 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:45.280 Yeah. 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.040 I got to looking into it, and this is the 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.200 far northern end of the long leaf territory. 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.520 You don't that's I'm saying. If you hear about long 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:56.880 leafs in Mississippi these days, it's typically South Mississippi. You 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.760 don't hear about them this far north. And we're not north, 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.000 we're central, but it's north for long leafs. 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:07.800 But we decided to pull the trigger. And you know, 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.440 I won't probably won't ever see any monetary benefit from 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.320 these long leaves in my lifetime. But I also thought 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.960 it would be something unique for the next generation to 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.200 have here that a lot of people wouldn't have. It's 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:25.120 five hundred acres of yeah, plantation long leaf that had 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:27.560 been well taken care of. So what you see out 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:32.280 there right now is I would say ninety nine percent 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:34.440 ninety eight percent long leaf. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:42.000 Yeah. Man, that's uh, that's time machine type stuff out there. 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:45.920 It really is. The long leaf pine was once a 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.440 keystone tree in the southeastern US a tree that at 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:53.200 one time covered over ninety million acres, stretching all the 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:57.320 way from Virginia to Texas. They're exceptionally adapted to fire, 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.400 and they're part of critical habitat for all kinds of 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:04.800 native animal and plant species like gopher, tortoises, red cockaded woodpeckers, 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.240 bob white quail, and all kinds of grasses and wildflowers. 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.120 When you see a long leaf pine, it's almost like 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.360 seeing a relic, a lingering remnant of a time period 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.520 when open prairie and savannah was much more prolific in 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.160 this region of the country. They were heavily logged in 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.520 the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and were heavily reduced to 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:27.320 roughly five percent of their original range. That's why when 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.839 we came upon Josh's five hundred acres of planted long leafs, 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:33.560 it was pretty much a showstopper for me. What was 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.800 even better was hearing him talk about how positively he 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.640 had seen all the wildlife respond to it, the deer, 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.760 the quail, the turkeys, the incredible hunts he had been 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.120 able to enjoy with his kids out there. What an 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.240 awesome thing. One more thing to point out before we 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.839 dive back in. You heard Josh say that he was 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.799 able to get these long leafs planted through the EQUIP 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.800 program e q IP. Remember that we're going to dive 0:04:57.839 --> 0:04:58.600 into that later on. 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.039 So I've killed turkey's in this, I believe it. I 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:07.240 killed a turkey right out there. Big turkey out there, 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.000 not this past spring, but spring. 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.800 Of twenty four, hanging out in this stuff. 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:13.320 Yeah, he was. 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:15.360 I got a long lane that goes down through there, 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:17.359 and he was in that lane with a hen. But 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:19.560 after I burned this stuff in February, it's like a 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:21.839 big green field here and they'll get out here. 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:23.520 It's you, nayk. 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:28.440 I've it's ended up probably being more than I ever 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.320 thought it would be, far as your the ability to 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:33.880 use them, to manage and hunt in them, and all that. 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.440 It's really been. It's really been fun. 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:39.880 As I spent the rest of the time going through 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.719 Josh's property, it was really quite a sight to see 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.160 the amount of effort and care he and his family 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.480 have in that place is very evident. And the proof, well, 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.440 it's right there in front of you from the sites, 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:53.080 the stories of the good hunts, quail flushing off the 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:55.800 side of the road. It's good land stewardship in motion, 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:57.520 the kind of thing I want all of us to 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.200 think about as we move through this episode. We're going 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:02.160 to put a pause on the tour of Josh's property 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.800 and his conservation work, but I promise we'll come back 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:07.080 to it. For now, I want us to start getting 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.920 a better understanding of some of these conservation programs that 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.360 are out there, what they are and what they do. 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:14.719 We're going to start big and work our way down 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.600 to do these topics justice. I needed to call in 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.760 subject to experts, and I think we found the perfect folks. 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.560 My name's Aaron Field. I'm the director of Private Lands 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:28.200 Conservation for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. Live up here 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:34.720 in western Minnesota, but we're Washington, DC based national nonprofit, 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:39.560 and I cover the ag conservation portion of that portfolio, 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:45.880 so everything from farm built conservation programs especially, and then 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:49.200 looking for ways to get some private lands conservation work 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.200 done in ways that benefit the adjacent public lands as well. 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:54.760 The first thing I want Aaron to walk us through 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.279 is the farm Bill. I would wager that most of 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.440 you listening to this show have at least heard of 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.800 the farm Bil but how many of us out there 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.400 are actually tuned in to what impacts it can have 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.920 on wildlife and wild habitats, hunting quality even I'll put 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.200 myself on the chopping block here. When I was younger, 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:13.720 I didn't know the Farm Bill had impacts much outside 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:15.960 of commercial and row crop farming, so I didn't really 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.800 pay that much attention to it. However, we're about to 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.640 learn that in many ways it can shape the future 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:23.360 for hunters and outdoors men and women. 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.400 The Farm Bill is a huge package of the legislation 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.119 that we've been passing in this country for oh ninety 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:34.080 years or so, we could call it. And originally it 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.760 was purely a farming ranch egg policy in that package, 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.120 and in about nineteen eighty five Farm Bills when we 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.240 really added a big chunk of conservation to the bill. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.680 And so the chunk of the farm Bill that I 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.040 pay most of my attention to is called Title II. 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.760 It's the conservation title, and the reason that hunters and 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.440 anglers should be paying attention to it are multiple. One 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.400 of the things I think people might not realize, or 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.360 maybe they do but haven't thought about as much as 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:06.040 they could have, is on private land in this country. 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.400 If we see good conservation work done on private land 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.600 in the United States, the reason that got done is 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:16.720 because the private landowner decided to do it. It's almost 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:21.560 never because a regulation forced them to. It's almost never 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.200 because somebody else had influence over It's because the private 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.720 landowner decided to do it. Farmer or the rancher, the 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:32.760 forest landowner made that choice, and oftentimes that choice is 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.040 pretty expensive. Takes time and money to get that work done, 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:42.240 whether it's you establishing native vegetation, whether it's controlling invasive species, 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.679 whether it's managing a forest so that is more productive 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.840 in terms of both timber and wildlife. And actions like that, 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.800 especially over a nationwide scale, make a big impact on 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.120 things that the rest of us benefit from, So things 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:02.839 like improving water quality, things like clean air air, things 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:07.960 like biodiversity maintenance or improvement, and then things like producing 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:12.280 healthy wildlife populations, which you know as a hunter and 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.880 I'm sure most of the listeners here hunters and anglers 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:16.360 really care about. 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:17.120 And so the. 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.920 System we've created in this country largely supported through the 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.600 Farm Bill, but also through various state and local programs 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.320 as well to encourage more landowners to do work like 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.560 that is a set of voluntary and incentive based programs 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.800 administered by the United States Department of Agriculture that help 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.720 offset some of the cost of doing good conservation work 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:44.840 on those lands and hopefully encourage more people to get involved. 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:47.480 So there's a whole lot to go through here, but 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.520 this is the main dot that I want to connect 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.040 right now. Remember Josh's long Leaf pine plantation that we 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.360 rode through and he said he was able to get 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:59.679 this planet through the EQUIP program. EQUIP stands for Environmental 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:04.040 qual Incentives Program, and in short, it's a USDA program 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:08.320 that provides financial incentives and assistance in helping landowners implement 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:12.800 conservation practices. Josh's long Leaf Pine plantation is a perfect 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.720 example of this, and EQUIP is not the only program 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.319 like this. There's also CRP, which I'm sure many of 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:21.600 you have heard of. It stands for Conservation Reserve Program 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:26.200 and CSP which stands for Conservation Stewardship Program. All of 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:30.600 these directly effect conservation being put back into the ground, 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.200 and all of these fall under the Farm Bill, which 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.439 is why it's in our best interest as hunters and 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.120 anglers and conservationists to pay attention to. 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:41.760 It where I live. If somebody drives past grass that 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:43.840 doesn't have cows on it, it's they're going to call 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.640 it CRP, whether it's actually enrolled in a program or not, 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:49.800 and that's just its testament to the influence that that 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.520 program has. So the farm bill is the vehicle that 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.960 one reauthorizes all the programs you listed so that they 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.640 continue to be funded and continue to function. Typically we 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.200 do that every five years. That we're ways off of 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.200 that right now, we're in a little different process currently, 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.120 but the Farm Build reauthorizes those programs so they can 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.000 continue to function, and it also provides the opportunity to 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:17.160 make policy changes within the programs. And so in the 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:19.280 normal process, what we would do is you'd pass a 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:21.760 farm Build and then over the next five years, we'd 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.480 be working with the agencies that are administering those programs. 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:28.800 We'd be talking to landowners, we'd be talking to ag 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:32.360 and commodity groups about the programs as well as other 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.640 groups in the hunt Fish wildlife conservation space, and we'd 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:37.960 be looking for ways that these programs aren't working quite 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.120 as well as they should be. And then we can 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.680 take that to Congress and say CRP the Conservation Reserve Program. 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.240 Awesome program. Here is five tweaks that you could make 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.560 to CRP that would make it work even better or 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.200 equips been great the Environmental Quality and Centives program, but 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.480 we'd really like to see some additional wildlife habitat happen 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:02.400 through that program. Here's some suggestions for how those programs 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:04.760 could be improved. And that's what would happen when we 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.560 pass a farm bill. We've been working since about twenty 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:13.199 twenty two here at TRCP to try to provide those recommendations, 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.199 but those changes don't happen unless a farm bill passes. 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:20.199 In short, the farm bill allows these programs to exist, 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:22.959 to stay funded, and to be tweaked and changed around 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:25.080 here and there if needed. And if you're listening to 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:27.559 this show and you're not fully bought in on how 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.880 this could affect hunting quality or even you directly, I 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.800 can assure you it does. But allow me to share 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.160 one example. Remember just a few episodes back, when we 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:39.840 were talking, Mallard Duck declines, I want to let er 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.439 explain from his perspective how the farm bill and conservation 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.079 incentive programs affect that directly. 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:51.120 So CRP specifically again Conservation Reserve Program. What that program 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:55.080 does is it provides an opportunity if a farmer has 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:59.400 a crop field that is eroding, that is vulnerable, that 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:04.440 is not very productive, typically that would essentially provide a 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.760 great a lot more good ecological goods and services, things 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.880 like clean water, clean air, habitat if it were planted 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:14.320 to perennial vegetation. This is a program that it provides 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:16.720 funding to do that, and it does that over a 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.600 ten or a fifteen year contract, which is another big thing, 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.400 because once we get that grass established or those trees established, 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.160 we don't want it to come out again in three years. 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:26.960 We want it to stick around for a little while. 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.960 But in the Prairie Pothole region, both the Conservation Reserve 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:35.800 Program as it as it sit, those enrollments in that 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:38.360 part of the country would have peaked somewhere in that 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.679 twenty ten to twenty fifteen range. And actually that's when 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.360 I was in college out in Jamestown, North Dakota, at 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.839 the peak of CRP and the peak of pheasant populations 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:49.559 in North Dakota, and I didn't even know how good 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:54.600 I had it. But yes, the enrollment in that program 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.800 has gone down a lot in that state. I'm speaking 0:13:57.840 --> 0:13:59.679 specifically to North Dakota. That's just where I've got the 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:01.360 number in my head a little better. But that's a 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.560 bigger chunk of the Prairie Pohole region as you're aware. Yeah, 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:06.920 for a few reasons. One, there's been some tweaks to 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.440 the program in the twenty eighteen Farm Bill that made 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.160 it a little bit less attractive in terms of enrollment, 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.920 but also just broader, we saw corn and soybean prices 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:18.240 go way up during that period of time as well, 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:20.760 and so if you're making a business decision as a 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.960 farmer and a renal rate through CRP has gone down 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:27.040 and the amount of money I can make on corn 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.440 and soybeans has gone up, it makes it a little 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:31.560 harder to make the business decision to keep that in 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.680 grass and that definitely makes an impact on things like 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.880 waterfowl populations, upland populations. And then also for deer, if 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:39.640 you look at the number of deer tags that those 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.240 states in the PPR have been able to issue a 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:46.080 hunter's they've gone down precipitously, and I would lay a 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:47.800 lot of that at the feet of a loss of CRP. 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.960 Yeah, somewhere around like four point eight million acres lost. 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:56.640 And to quantify that, I mean the entire Mississippi Delta, 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:00.440 which is like if you live in Mississippi and you 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:02.560 duck hunt, I mean there's other pockets here and there 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:03.920 where you can do it, but the Mississippi Delta is 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:05.360 where you're going to go, you know, like that's the 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.680 most historically good area to do it. It's right around 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.240 four million acres. So it's like, imagine that just gone, 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.440 like no longer habitat. So it's like trying to paint 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.920 the picture to someone that you know, maybe doesn't in 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:22.840 this world how important these conservation programs are, like, how 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:28.360 how much it can affect wildlife and wildlife populations. It's 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:29.360 crazy to me. 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:34.520 Yeah, And right now we're right at the enrollment cap 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.440 for the CRP. We're at about twenty seven million acres 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.640 enrolled in CRP, and that program does look a little 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.040 different than it did years ago. We've got more acres 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.160 in something called grassland CRP than we've had in the past, 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:50.080 which has sort of shifted where that enrollment sits in 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:52.560 the country a little bit. But we're at the cap. 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.120 Commodity prices are not what they once were, and we're 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.320 starting to hear from farmers that, man, we could really 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.120 use some additional acres in this program, and we could 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.040 really use some improved incentives in this program. So what 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:06.600 we've got to do is get a farm bill pass 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:07.920 so that we can make those changes. 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.800 Believe me, I didn't ask Aaron to share that story 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.240 and information with us just so we could lament on 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.120 the days of more ducks, upland birds and even deer 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.000 in the prairie Pothole region. I asked him to share 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.239 it so we could all begin to understand how important 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:27.320 this stuff is. Here's the basic truth. If you want wildlife, 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.160 you have to have wildlife habitat. So understanding this stuff, 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.640 like the farm bill, these incentive programs like CRP, CSP 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:38.600 and EQUIP, I think it's very important both on public 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.960 and private land. I might add, we need wildlife conservation 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:43.080 happening on both. 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:46.720 You look at a state like Minnesota. We've got quite 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:48.920 a lot of public land, but it's concentrated in the 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:51.640 northeast part of the state. It's not where I live. 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:54.760 So if we don't have good habitsat on the ground 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:58.040 on private land, or access as well on private land, 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.760 or missing the boat. And then when you look further west, 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.560 even in a state like Nevada where you're something like 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:07.600 ninety five percent public, that five percent that's where the 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:09.520 water is, that's where a lot of the feed is. 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.600 It's incredibly important for wildlife in the West to have 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.760 those private lands in good shape and providing good habitat 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:18.720 as well, even if you've got tons of public land 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.879 that you can manage. There's a program called the Voluntary 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:25.600 Public Access and Habitat and Centives Program. It's the only 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:29.520 federal program that incentivizes hunting and fishing access on private land, 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:32.240 which is a big deal to folks like me in 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.760 the Midwest and especially in the East, but also touches 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.359 down in the West in some really really interesting ways. 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.320 There's lots of opportunities to make these things work better. 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.520 I've made this example about my home state of Mississippi 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:48.040 as to why conservation programs are important both on public 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:52.520 and private land. Mississippi is roughly ninety percent private land. 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.719 If we only did focused conservation work only available public lands, 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.320 then we would have really really good wildlife habitat ten 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:02.960 percent of the state, leaving the vast majority of the 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.880 rest of the state finn for itself. Personally, I want 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:11.159 wildlife habitat anywhere I can get it. There's also voluntary 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:16.040 public access and habitat incentive programs. These programs create public 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:20.600 access through privately owned properties. This includes some of the 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.479 walk in hunting access programs. And all of us know 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:25.040 we need all of that we can get. 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.080 Yeah, and I mean all of us are doing. Hunters especially, 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.160 but anglers too. When you're driving across the country wherever 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.400 you're going, or even in your backyard, you're looking out 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:39.040 the window and you're looking at the landscape and thinking about, man, 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:41.159 that could be some really good turkey habitat, or that 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:43.040 could really do a lot more for deer if it 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:45.560 was X, Y and z, or whether you're thinking about 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.000 it on your own property, the same thing. And this 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.840 is a pretty powerful tool. These programs are a really 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:54.040 powerful tool to do more of that kind of work. 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.680 I think we get intimidated as just the average hunter 0:18:57.720 --> 0:18:59.240 and angler. And you know, I don't know all the 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.960 details of that program. I don't know all the ins 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.320 and outs, and so I'm not gonna you know, I 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.240 won't speak up. I'm not going to get engaged in 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:11.680 the process. But honestly, a simple phone call that says, Hey, 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:16.200 I am a hunter, I'm an angler private lands conservation 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.600 ad Conservation makes my hunting and fishing better. I care 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.040 about this stuff. Can you please support it? Can you 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:25.840 please make it happen? It doesn't have to be Hey, 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.159 we need to tweak to page thirty seven US Code 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.600 thirty three point. You know it doesn't. That's we can 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.400 do that. I can handle that part. What we need 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.320 is decision makers hearing from people in their state, in 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.320 their district about why this stuff is important to them. 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:44.720 Hey, call your representative and tell them that you care 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:47.760 about this stuff. If we learned anything this past summer 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.239 after the public land sell off attempt, it's that our 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:56.919 voices do matter. Okay, we now have a better understanding 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.639 of the farm bill, the conservation programs. I feel like 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.080 we got that down. Now it's time to dig in 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.479 even further and learn how we can get in on 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.800 this ourselves. And for that, we're going to quickly return 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:10.400 to the tour of the Thrash property. So like when 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:12.600 you were going through the equip program to do the 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.639 long leaf, Huh is that a pretty easy process or no? 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:18.240 Not a easy process? 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:20.639 Nope, I don't see how the NRCS and the people 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:24.520 that do it keep it all together with all the paperwork. 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.480 But it is a world of paperwork, you know. It 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.000 wasn't It wasn't easy to me. If you were just 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:31.760 gonna do it by yourself and you didn't have an 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:37.160 extremely knowledgeable NRCS person helping you, the average person. 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:38.359 Couldn't couldn't get it done. 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.680 You probably could somebody, you know, younger with computer skills 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.200 to research everything. 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:45.439 You could probably get through it. 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:50.240 But I mean, I feel like the average person is 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.879 going to have to have some assistance. Yeah, you know, 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:54.720 with some of these people that are out there now 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.440 that are assisting landowners to get these contracts. 0:20:58.480 --> 0:20:59.520 And that's what we've done. 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:01.919 And I've done a lot of the work myself because 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.679 I started doing it before I actually had a contact 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:05.800 and had somebody helping me. 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:10.199 Gotcha, I'm gonna be real honest here. That's not what 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:11.960 I wanted to hear at all. 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:12.439 Really. 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.360 I wanted this part of the conversation to be like, yeah, man, 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:17.639 that was the easiest process I've ever been through. A 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:20.320 kid could do it. Putting conservation on my property has 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:22.439 never been easier. And you could do it too. Now 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.679