WEBVTT - Ep. 97: Bear Grease [Render] - Live at the Black Bear Bonanza 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.200 My name is Clay Nukeleman. This is a production of 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.400 the bear Grease podcast called The bear Grease Render where 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:25.680 we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:31.280 of the actual bear Grease podcast, presented by f HF Gear, 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:36.480 American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.280 to be as rugged as the place as we explore. 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.360 I love it. If there's one thing I love about 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.640 being having a bear Grease podcast and such is that 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:56.760 you guys have no choice if you show up of 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.960 what I get to say and do. And I am 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:04.600 not a talented musician, like that is not a secret, 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:10.160 but I love to play and sing, and so Misty 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:12.679 says that the only reason I do this is because 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:17.040 I make someone sit and listen to play. Well, you've 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.919 been trapped to hear us, But I do have something 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.840 pretty cool. We're gonna we're gonna play only two songs 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:27.200 and then we're gonna jump into the podcast. But the 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.880 first song we're gonna play has never been played publicly before. 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:34.720 It's a song that I wrote and it's called the 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:40.440 Ballot of a Backwoods Then yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:43.760 for those of you that fall along, you know that 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:47.400 we have a We have a hall of fame in 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.720 the Bear Grease world. Y'all know the Bear Grease Hall 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.280 of Fame. It's a real man, it's not a joke. 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.920 And the first, the first duct team to the Bear 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:01.080 Grease Hall of Fame, it was a man by the 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.360 name of James Lawrence says he is a man by 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:09.200 the name of James Lawrence. James Lawrence lives with Mina, Arkansas. Dear, 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:13.440 dear friend of mine. James Lawrence is a He's an 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:17.560 incredible mountain deer hunter. He's spent his whole life out 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.680 at the Washingtons and was killing deer when other people weren't, 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:25.560 killing deer when there weren't. Dear, and James has always 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:31.120 carried in my mind an intangible quality of the mountain 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:38.960 people of Arkansas. Humble, earnest, art working, independent. And what 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:42.680 I loved about James is nobody ever told him he 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:49.160 was cool until maybe me and his wife and James 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.120 was gonna be here today because the song is about 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.440 James Lawrence. He doesn't know there's been a song written 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.120 about him. He's never heard it before. So he was 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.840 gonna be here today that he he was not able 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:07.120 to come and so we're gonna introduce this song. Okay, 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:12.480 that's stage one. Stage two of stuff I gotta say 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:14.720 is that you gotta know a little bit about what 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:20.000 this song is about, because it's it's quite specific. There's 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.079 there's several reference points that are gonna help you understand it. 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:25.839 First of all, there's a reference of the Constatat River. 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:28.919 Y'all know where the Constat River is. It's gonna be 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:33.440 wood down in southwest Arkansas. Okay, James Lawrence was born 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.800 at the headwaters of the Constat River. There is you 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:42.760 will hear the term shock pouching in this song. Do 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.720 y'all know y'all know what a shock pouch is? Okay, 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.600 that's a that's when. That's an old mountain way that 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:54.120 James Lawrence's grandmother taught him how to do to carry 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:56.600 a deer out of the woods on your back by 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:01.120 cutting different parts of his legs off, tieing the deer's 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:03.760 legs and knots and using it like a backpack. Stroud. 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.640 James Lawrence hunted deep and still does hunts deep in 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.080 the mountains and shock pouched me in the deer. You're 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.400 gonna hear that phrase. You're gonna hear reference to the 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:20.040 sawdust pile. James hunted a particular area and they always 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.640 camped at what they called the sawdust pile, which was 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.080 deep in the mountains. You couldn't drive there, you had 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:29.400 to walk there, and it was the remnants of an 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:37.760 old sawmill where the sawdust stayed there for like seventy 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.839 five years. I mean they pulled the log and equipment 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:44.719 out of there forever and there's still remnants of that 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.240 sawdust pile. So they camped at the sawdust pole. Okay, 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:53.640 it's a complex song. Okay, we're complex people, right. So 0:04:55.080 --> 0:05:00.559 and then there's there's reference to bucking horses and motorcycle rex. 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.760 When you talk to James, he's seventy five and he's 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.480 doing great for seventy five, but he's pretty banged up 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.200 and he always says, man, it was those bucking horses 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.839 and motorcycle rex that that did me in. So that's 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.560 in the song. So I hope you enjoyed it. We're 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:42.760 gonna give it a go. Order the washingbas Market song. 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.800 He loved his Mama, and he loved his call raised 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.119 by his Grandma, The Chase of the Tree, the banks 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:52.200 of the cost. Time he was free. She taught him 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.120 out of hunting out to shock couch of deer. That's 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.240 Indian trick because you didn't hear very buck on your back. 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.240 Time's legs in the Nanso, you can get in their 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:04.520 deep and hunt his floods hot. James Florence says a 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:10.000 backwoods man by a living let his own to half 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.760 didn't work for the man. No serve I go, why 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:18.240 I tell fuck he loved the land, humbling Earnest, I 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.400 can kill you. I know it first day. I have 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.599 sawdust file. He wouldn't camp us a sign for a pillick. 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.279 He his head getting damp, beach stops gaps. He would 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:30.840 slip along and find a buck scrapy to be there 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:35.080 before dawn. He hunt three full days in the same 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.640 Spotty says he'll kill that buck if you sign it's hot. 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:39.919 When a big old sack will kill a slipping along 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:46.240 it three away would singing salt food. James Flawn says 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:52.160 a backwoods man may a living let his hand didn't 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.800 work for the man. No serve I go, why I 0:06:54.839 --> 0:07:00.400 tell fuck he loved the land, humbling Earnest, I can 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:05.040 tell you I know it first hand. I rarely met 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.360 a man, it's can you wine? He sends his toe 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.560 wrong as a long leave finding the bucking horses hold 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:15.760 a cycle, recks about Dinny man broke his neck, tell 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.320 me what was? But now he's old, still got fire 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:20.240 in his books like Time to Gold and when you 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.480 need a friend to be by your side and you 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:27.679 kill a bird, do help your skin the high Damn 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:33.480 Lawrence is a backwood fan. He live with his own 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.040 two hands, didn't work with a band. I go and 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:42.400 tell the buck you love the land, humbling earnest, I 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:48.120 can tell you I know it first hand. Dame Lawrence 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:54.000 is a backwoods man. Ain't living with his own two hands, 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.800 didn't work in the fan, No serve, I go, I 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:14.400 tell Buck you love the lambright Great time guy. Welcome 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:22.920 to the Live Beargreas Render Podcast. Thank you guys so 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.840 much for coming. It means a lot to me and 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.760 Misty and I know all of Beargrease people for for 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:32.400 everybody to come out. I know a lot of people 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:34.360 travel the long ways to get here, all the way 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.800 across the country. Have we done the whole like who 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.720 traveled the furthest thing? Yet? Has that happened? We did 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:42.240 a little bit of that earlier this morning. Okay, yeah, 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:46.840 so we got tickets from North Dakota, South Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:52.480 down in the tip of Florida, out west Montana. Yeah, 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:57.679 young lady from Minnesota. Yea, Minnesota's here. Yeah. So it 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:00.240 means a lot to me that everybody would would drive 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:04.359 that far to come to a black bear event in Arkansas. 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:10.040 So that's awesome. And I don't I don't do this 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:15.680 kind of stuff very often. I feel like, I feel 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:21.280 like my community has supported us, you guys, and and 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.600 and wider people not from Arkansas, but really northwest Arkansas 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:29.080 has been really good to me. And so I wanted 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.920 to do an event where, you know, we just came 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:35.960 together and had a good time. And so I'm thrilled 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:40.240 that everybody's here, and everybody knows who's here. This is 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:47.200 Brent Reeves. Brent's from down in the swamps. Brent does 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:51.120 not like being called a hillbilly. I mean, he's like, well, 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:54.000 I'm not a hillbilly. I literally live in like flat ground. 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.200 So and on the next Bear Grease podcast you're gonna 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.320 learn why he doesn't want to be called a hillbilly. 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:07.200 Like the Deep, the Deep anthropological science of why, being 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:12.479 from the flat lands Delta of Arkansas, he is opposed 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.920 to being called at learn something about yourself here. I'm 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:21.040 fiting to teach you. So the superficial reason is because 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.240 if a cat had kittens in the oven, you wouldn't 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:29.560 call him biscuits. One time I called Brenda hillbilly and 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.560 he said, don't call me a hillbilly. We had hillbilly's 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:37.280 mowing our grass. This is my This is my wife, 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:45.800 Misty Nucam. Yeah, yeah, man, I think it's pretty cool 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:51.199 that I can have my wife with me on my podcast. 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:53.920 Misty do you know anybody else that puts their wife 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:58.120 on their podcasts. I use this to my advantage, asking 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.200 to be on the podcast. She didn't want to be. No, 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.800 it's it's so great to have Misty. And then everybody 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.280 has met Myron means he's been up here earlier. Myer 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:12.000 and I, Myron and I have been really we've known 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.800 each other for a lot of years now. And uh, 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.680 I mean when you first got the job as the 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.040 as the bear coordinator, which you were the bear coordinator 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.600 of the state. Correct, Yes, that changed, but I think 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:26.800 I talked to you within a month of you having 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:33.240 that job. Yeah, probably so too long, too long, yeah, yeah, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.920 but now it's great to have Myron here for real. 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:43.240 James Brandenburg, James is uh, he's he's a big wig 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:47.400 here in Arkansas with for Arkansas BHA. James would and 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.959 his team are responsible for this and I don't really 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:54.640 have anything to do with this other than just show up. 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.679 And so James has one doing all the work and 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.120 in his team A got you, thank you. There it's 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.040 the guys, it's the everybody else is doing all the work. 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:12.880 And Josh Landbridge is still yeah, Josh's Uh. Josh has 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.000 been one of my best friends for a long long 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:20.160 time and uh and his mustache inspired me in two 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.080 thousand and six to learn about the Bearing Landbridge So 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:29.080 h that's a different story. But no, you're welcome. Yeah, yeah, 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.839 we have. I think we live in an incredible We 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.640 live in an incredible state. Did you guys hear the 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.959 podcast that just came out about the Bear State and 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:43.280 the Arkansas the Big Bear of Arkansas. That story. Man, 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.480 what's so wild about this place that we live not 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.559 this place being Arkansas, but this world that we live 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:54.360 in is that humans are only here for just like 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.800 a really short period of time, So we typically gather 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:02.679 information that seems pertinent to our to our best interests 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:07.280 in the moment, and we can lose the bigger picture 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.839 of why stuff is the way that it is. And 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:16.760 there's life is so complex, stories are so complex. And 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:19.840 I love it when you can almost any single thing 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:23.520 that you wanted to mind down into, like why is Arkansas? 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.760 Why were we called the bear state? Why did we 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.640 move away from that? Man? There's like deep stories inside 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:35.320 of it, deep deep stories. And it's so interesting because 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:41.360 because we now get to script who we are, what 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:44.200 our identity is, and we look back at history and 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.559 see how things happened, it's like you can you can 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.280 you can begin to say, Okay, we are active partakers 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:53.800 in something that's happening right now that we get to 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:58.440 build on purpose. And I don't know why, and I 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.560 think everybody up here would agree. Admiring for sure, someone 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.000 who's dedicated a big part of his life to bears. 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:06.840 From the first time that I killed a bear in 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.720 Arkansas in two thousand and one is the first year 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.880 that it was legal debate in Arkansas. And I've said 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.160 it before, I think I said it last year. I 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.240 claim to have killed the first legal bear in the 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.840 state of Arkansas over bait because October first, two thousand 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.920 and one, at the crack of dawn, me and Gary 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:32.440 Nucom were, where's dad at? Is he over there? Where's 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.400 Dad at? He's somewhere? Me and my dad were hunting 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:38.520 and killed a bear. I mean, I'm serious, Like it 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:43.360 was heartily daylight and killed a bear heartily daylight. It was. 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:54.840 It was bear legal statutes of limitations, and I was 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.800 perfectly legal. And at that time I was twenty one 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.640 years old, and I it hunted a fair bit, I 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.520 mean I was. I killed deer and turkeys and had 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.840 been involved in honey my whole life. And when I 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:12.320 walked up to this bear that I had just killed, 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:17.080 I realized that I knew nothing about it, like nothing. 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:19.760 I didn't know. I didn't know what it ate, I 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.400 didn't know where it wanted to bed, I didn't know 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:25.080 when it dinned. I didn't know about its reproduction cycle, 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:30.880 and it it felt hollow. At twenty one years old, 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.720 I was like, man, this is this is a great 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.640 beast and I know nothing about it. And something was 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.200 happening inside of me that I couldn't have calculated. I 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:46.600 wouldn't have it was just unconscious. But really what was 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:51.320 being said and demonstrated is that the hunt and partaking 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.560 inside of taking wildlife is so much bigger than just 0:15:55.960 --> 0:16:01.080 taking an animals. There is a powerful component of connection 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.680 that we have with hunting and this. And from that point, 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:07.560 I was going to the u of A. At that time, 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.840 I was living in Faddeville, and I started going to 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.080 the University of Arkansas library and found these old dusty 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:18.040 books of the of all the research that had been 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.720 done in Arkansas at that time by Clark and who 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:26.920 else was it Clark, Kimberly Smith, Joe Clark, Dan Clapp, 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:30.840 Stephen Hayes. They kind of did all the you know, 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:34.560 a lot of the research we based our managements on 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.560 for thirty years. Yeah, they did that work back in 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.960 the mid to late eighties, right, And so I started 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.120 I started reading that stuff and that's where that was 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.760 the first time that I read that Arkansas was formerly 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.400 known as the Bear State. And to be honest with it, 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:53.200 there's been a couple of times in my life when 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:56.080 I was upset at all the people around me because 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.360 they didn't teach me something. And that was a moment 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:04.360 when I was like, why didn't they tell me? Why 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:06.280 didn't they tell me that this was the bear state? 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.359 And uh? And I was just fascinated by that and 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.680 began to just study about bears and continue to hunt 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:19.440 bears and and we I'll tell you another thing. When 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.439 I first started getting y'all mind, if I just have 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:28.840 my own little podcast, I can hear y'all breathing. Ye. No. 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:33.200 When I when I first started getting interested in bears 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:38.199 and in media as well, I had I had some 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:42.320 pretty legitimate people who had my best interest in mind, 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:46.439 advised me not to get into bears. Like there's a 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.840 lot of different things I could have done. I started 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.880 with in the white tail world, writing articles for North 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.359 American white tail and different things. And that's what me 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.880 and dad did. That's what my dad mainly we did 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.720 grown up. Were we white tail bow hunted public land 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.560 in Arkansas. It's just what we did. And then twenty 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.680 one killed a bear, and then you know, a lot 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:07.600 of stuff was going on. But I started tiptoeing in 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:12.400 outdoor media and started just like leaning into this bear stuff. 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.359 And I remember one guy, a good friend of mine, 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:18.800 he was like, what are you doing? Man? Why are 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.159 you focusing on bears. He's like, you kind of focus 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:27.600 on deer. Yet it's exactly what he said. And and 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.520 and I just I just said, I don't know, man, 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:33.960 I just I just like him. And I kept going 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:39.600 that direction and it ended up being the best thing 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.120 that I ever did for a lot of different reasons. 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.520 But I but I felt like and I wasn't the 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:48.280 only one doing this, But I mean, I can just 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:51.760 talk from what I experienced. I felt like I started 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:56.320 to mine into stuff that people hadn't talked about or 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.480 thought about, or brought to the surface in a long time. 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:04.520 Because bear hunting was pretty much stamped out of our 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:09.919 culture for about eighty years, almost entirely. When you go 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:15.160 to the Appalachian Mountains, you go to East Tennessee in 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:20.359 North Carolina, they never lost their bears and they maintained 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:24.920 a bear hunting culture all through that time. Arkansas, our 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.280 bears were extirpated, like Myron told us about earlier in 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:31.159 the early by the turn of the twentieth century nineteen 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.600 hunt well, nineteen forty, pretty much our bears were gone. 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:39.520 People forgot about bears. They did they forgot how to 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:41.760 use them, They forgot about bear grease. They forgot that 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.679 bear meat was incredibly good tasting meat. They forgot how 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:49.320 to hunt bears. Literally, dads didn't teach their sons how 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:55.560 to hunt bears because there weren't bears here. And then 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:59.480 in nineteen eighty was of our first bear hunt, first 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:03.480 modern day Our first modern day bear hunt was in 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:08.000 nineteen eighty and the bear population just continued to climb, 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.040 continue to climb, continue to climb, continue to climb. And 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.760 then two thousand and one is when the Game and 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:17.040 Fish made the decision, the management decision that we were 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:22.200 going to manage our bears using primarily using bow hunters 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:29.439 on private land over bait, which is genius. Never if 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:31.800 you're from Arkansas and you've ever looked to be in 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:35.160 the eye, never ever talked bad about baiting a bear. 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:39.760 It is God's gift to us to be able to 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.160 bait a bear, because I can tell you something, they're 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.040 hard to find out in the mountains by themselves. When 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.000 I bait bears for a month in Arkansas, it is 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:50.600 I call it my month with the bears because you 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.520 see stuff that you never see any other time of year. 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.240 And it's a fantastic management tool that allows us to 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.119 be selective, allows us to shoot older age mails, all 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:08.520 kinds of stuff. Are y'all my monologue? Yeah, I love 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.720 it when I get people cornered him. We may play 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.440 some more music. No, I'm trying to set the context 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:21.960 for opening this up for no, because it's it's it's bigger. 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.439 It's bigger than just all we can hunt bears. No, 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:29.600 And there's there's there is no doubt, there's no doubt 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:32.000 a trend in our society today. And it's not ever 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:35.240 gonna come to Arkansas. Never. Never is it gonna come 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.040 to Arkansas because we're not gonna let it right where 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:41.439 people would say, you shouldn't be hunting predators, you shouldn't be, 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:43.879 you shouldn't be using bait, you shouldn't be you know, 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:46.840 telling like someone who doesn't know telling us what we 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:52.639 should do. Um, And it's it's it's a fantastic and 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:56.800 incredible opportunity that we have. But when they opened up 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.880 bear season, it opened up the floodgates for Arkansas bear 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:03.480 hunters to be able to partake of something that had 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:10.680 been culturally forgotten for generations, for real. And now we're 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:15.760 twenty three years into having a bear baiting season. And 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:19.280 we're now like fifty years into having a bear season, 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:24.760 fifty three years into nineteen three to have a bear season. 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:29.240 And I mean there's a there's a revival of the 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:32.760 bear state. That's what I want to proclaim to the world. 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:35.600 And it's and and it's uh and it's not just 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:41.439 in Arkansas, man. Whatever is happening ecologically in this in 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:45.440 North America, whatever it is, there's there. They're drastic weather 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:47.480 pattern changes that have been going on for the last 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:50.679 fifteen twenty years. A lot of wild stuff is happening. 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:54.920 For whatever reason, it has been highly beneficial to the 0:22:55.600 --> 0:23:00.280 generalist omnivores and specifically the black bear. You will not 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:03.400 here about a population of bears anywhere in the country 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:08.240 that isn't expanding. And that's massive inside of a country 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:13.800 with as much urban sprawl, habitat loss, civilizations spread, all 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:16.760 kind of habitat fragmentation. For us to be able to 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:20.080 stand up and say, man, the icon of North American wilderness, 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:23.840 the black bear is coming back, you know, and it's 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:28.560 it's it's coming back all over the country. You know, 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:32.399 Our our game and fish brought in these bears in 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:35.160 the nineteen fifties and sixties two hundred and fifty four 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:40.240 bears and transplanted them here in Arkansas, three different places. 0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:45.760 And now we got a hunting season in Oklahoma. There's 0:23:45.760 --> 0:23:49.800 a hunting season in Missouri. There are bears in northern Louisiana. 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:53.239 There are bears in these Texas. There are bears on 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:56.040 the other side of the Mississippi River in Mississippi. Not 0:23:56.080 --> 0:23:59.879 a lot, but they're there. And you look at this 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:03.200 one little place, it's one little dot on the map, 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:07.679 and it's in that range is growing like this. And 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:14.600 while I have you, this is so important from a 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:20.040 social perspective because bear numbers are increasing all over the country. 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:23.080 People that didn't know we had bears have them in 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:26.439 their backyard, urban people maybe, people who don't have a 0:24:26.480 --> 0:24:32.359 connection to rural America and hunting. They don't understand how 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:36.840 someone would want to kill an animal. And with the 0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:40.680 increase of bears across the country, there's never been a 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:44.439 more opportune time for the bear hunters of America to 0:24:44.520 --> 0:24:48.920 become educated, to become passionate, to know how to utilize 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:51.320 the resource at the highest level. When it comes to 0:24:51.520 --> 0:24:56.560 utilization of the commodities that a bear gives us, There's 0:24:56.560 --> 0:24:58.400 never been a better time for us to learn how 0:24:58.440 --> 0:25:02.680 to talk about predator hunting in a way that that 0:25:02.680 --> 0:25:06.640 that dominant. Somebody wants to talk to me about bear 0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:09.800 hunting and have and challenge me, and I'd be nice 0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:14.280 to him, Probably I wouldn't. I just don't want one 0:25:14.440 --> 0:25:17.800 self help. Yes for you, Yes, you need to work 0:25:17.800 --> 0:25:23.080 on the passion party. Pop it down a little passionate man. 0:25:23.119 --> 0:25:27.919 I know about him. Well, what I'm saying is is 0:25:27.960 --> 0:25:33.120 that this is not an argument of of of right 0:25:33.160 --> 0:25:39.120 and wrong, and we're trying to decide we're right and uh, 0:25:39.160 --> 0:25:42.720 but we're not. We're not in a battle against people. 0:25:42.880 --> 0:25:45.520 We're we're in a we're in a battle against ignorance 0:25:45.600 --> 0:25:47.359 at the most, at the high, at the at the 0:25:47.480 --> 0:25:51.880 very definition of the word ignorance, not not the derogatory thing. 0:25:52.320 --> 0:25:55.200 But that's what we can do, is educate people and 0:25:55.760 --> 0:26:00.640 learn how to us really value respect and love the bear. 0:26:00.760 --> 0:26:04.840 Like in that Big Bear of Arkansas story, this short 0:26:04.880 --> 0:26:09.320 story written in eighteen forty one, he said, Uh, the 0:26:09.480 --> 0:26:13.439 fictitious character Jim Doggett, Okay, if you listened, you'll know. 0:26:13.600 --> 0:26:15.760 If you didn't, you should have. You should have known 0:26:15.920 --> 0:26:19.320 coming here. You should listen to Last Bearer's podcast. This 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:24.320 fictitious character. He's an Arkansas bear hunter and he says 0:26:24.359 --> 0:26:27.760 he sees a bear being bade by hounds walking across 0:26:27.760 --> 0:26:31.000 the hill and he said, oh, wasn't he a beauty? 0:26:31.280 --> 0:26:35.919 I loved him like a brother. And man, that's the 0:26:36.040 --> 0:26:41.160 North American hunter. What we do inside of the North 0:26:41.200 --> 0:26:46.119 American model of wildlife conservation is a functionalization of a 0:26:46.359 --> 0:26:50.600 love for wildlife and a love for wild places. Yeah, 0:26:50.960 --> 0:26:53.960 I mean, that's what it is. And we have a 0:26:54.040 --> 0:26:56.919 track record in this country of where we messed up 0:26:56.960 --> 0:26:59.959 pretty bad for a while, like the market hunting here 0:27:00.000 --> 0:27:06.239 era and just rampant exploitation of wildlife. Like yep, that 0:27:06.280 --> 0:27:09.240 did happen, and we knew when we saw we messed up. 0:27:09.720 --> 0:27:15.280 But then we rebounded and have have escorted onto planet 0:27:15.320 --> 0:27:20.959 Earth the most robust endeavor for wildlife husbandry ever in 0:27:21.000 --> 0:27:24.280 the history of the planet. For real, what's happened in 0:27:24.280 --> 0:27:27.119