WEBVTT - Ep. 45: Bear Grease [Render] - LIVE at the Bonanza 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:17.080 Yeah, my name is Clay Nukeleman. This is a production 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.680 of the Bear Grease podcast called the bear Grease Render 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:25.200 where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:30.040 scenes of the actual bear Grease podcast, presented by f 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:35.320 HF Gear, American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.280 that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:48.400 All right, man, this is uh, this is like groundbreaking stuff. 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.240 This has never happened before in the in the bear 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:56.880 Grease podcast. We're all doing a live podcast. So we're 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:01.720 in um just outside of Bentonville, our console at the 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.440 Black Bear Bonanzas. So for all the people that are 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.959 here live, we're gonna be, We're gonna be. Yeah, there 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:11.920 we go. We got we got a pretty good crowd here, 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.560 way way more people than we thought we'd had. Yeah, 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:21.959 we love you all. Yeah. So we uh this this 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:25.360 podcast will go out on the bear Grease platform here 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:29.119 in a couple of weeks, assuming that these guys don't 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:33.200 just say like ridiculous stuff that makes me just like 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.039 cancel the whole thing. So maybe you guys just get 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.920 to hear it all on your own. I don't know. Um, 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:41.959 we this has been so much fun. This is This 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.240 event has been in the making for several years. Yeah, 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.800 we were, we were just about to pull the trigger 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:51.680 on it two years ago. And uh, I know most 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:53.520 of you hill Billies don't get out much, but there 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.720 was a global pandemic. We didn't hear about it much here, 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.240 but there was a global pandemic that, uh kind of 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.640 shut the world down. And I think the event was 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.640 planned for March. Was the end of March? It was, yeah, 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:11.480 And where were you then? Yeah? Yeah, So we have 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.960 this like identical event plan. Myron was gonna come and 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:19.400 we were gonna have a live recording of what at 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.720 that time was the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. So maybe 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:24.520 I think it's better. I think we're all probably better 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:30.520 than we were two years ago, hopefully. Yeah. Um, I 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:33.120 want to introduce my guests, and each one of them 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.720 are here for very particular reason, and that reason will 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.840 become clear maybe as we go further. Um. This is 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:45.280 James Brandenburg. James is the lead man for the Arkansas 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.720 chapter of the back Country Hunters and Anglers. Hello, James, 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.840 He's James. Has been MC and today and H. James 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:58.160 was on the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast with me several times, 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:02.919 and uh, he always did. I like talking at James, 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:05.320 Like I don't. I don't know how much that he 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.520 says that it's like really profound, but I find them 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.240 when I'm within arms reach of the guy that like, 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.079 I like talking at him, So that's a big compliment. 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.280 I feel like that basically what I am is just 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.400 there as a wall for you to bounce things off of, 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.480 and you solve most of your own problems without me, 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.600 if I'm being honest with you. The first time we 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:29.720 said guard the gate in the context of guarding the 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.560 gate and predator hunting being the gate for the anti 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.720 hunting community to step into our space as North American 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:38.720 hunters was when I was talking to James. And it 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.600 was only after that that I was like, we gotta 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.360 guard the gate, guard the gate. And then since that time, 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:46.760 you know, we've we've talked more and more on that 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:50.800 and and built this idea that I think it's catching 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:55.240 on in the country is that we have an incredible, 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.800 incredible thing in North America that nobody else has with 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.960 just this this this opportunity to hunt wildlife, to hunt 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:09.000 on public lands, and that we have the most successful 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.400 wildlife management system of anywhere on planet Earth, and the 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:17.560 history of planet Earth, and the way that those who 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:22.240 are would be against us for whatever reason. The platform 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.360 that they often target to enter into our beautiful space 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.080 that works so well is through predator hunting and sometimes 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:32.360 through bear hunting. And so I feel like our job 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.160 is to tell the story of the bear hunter, give 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.599 context to it. You know, why would somebody want to 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.080 shoot a bear? We like bears, and you know our 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:43.560 messages we love We love bears more than anybody. We 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.120 want bears to thrive more than anybody does. There's nobody 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.560 on planet Earth that wants there to be more bears 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.000 in Arkansas than me and Myron Means and a bunch 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.839 of you guys. And that's the truth and when and 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.719 it's a it's a difficult sell. It's a multi steps 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:03.320 cell to convin someone with no history, no connection to hunting, 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.479 to say killing a bear is actually a good thing 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.440 for the big picture. I mean, that's a multi step cell. 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.679 It's like, well, yeah, we are taking one individual out, 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.000 but you know, for the habitat that we have, that 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.440 animal needs to be taken out. And there's selective measures 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.320 and the gaming fish is monitoring, you know, multi steps cell. 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.880 It's a very easy sell for someone with no even 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.799 emotional connection to hunting, like most of us here would 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:34.440 have historical connection to go man killing bear equals bad 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:40.279 done deal. So here in Arkansas, thank goodness, we do 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.360 not have that problem. And we're here today because we 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.720 plan on never having that problem here. But we live 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.359 in such a world that is so interconnected. UM. In 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.599 my work with Bear Hunting Magazine, I was introduced to 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:58.120 a world I was absolutely unfamiliar with, which is a 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:04.320 world that is well just that the hunting community is 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:06.720 is under attack and other places. Twenty years ago, growing 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:08.280 up in Arkansas, if you told me that, I would 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.880 have said, man, you're just crying wolf. I mean, who's 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.240 coming to Arkansas telling us we can't hunt? And you 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.039 guys know what the world is changing quickly, And what 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:21.120 we can do now is build a foundation of understanding 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:25.320 the context knowledge base. And we're not mad at anybody. 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.240 The people that might be against us, we're not against them. 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:30.800 We're not trying to be ugly and stomp our feet. 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.240 We're trying to be the smart wise guys. By wise guy, 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.560 Brent's kind of a wise guy in the negative way. UM. Now, 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.520 we're the guy with the most knowledge, the guy with 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:45.000 the most wisdom, the guy with the most understanding of 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.640 the big picture, I think wins inside of this. And 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:49.480 so that's what we're trying to do, is just educate 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.680 people and why we're doing we're doing so James Brandenburg, 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:59.200 when we talked about that make it, did you see 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:06.800 how that went up? Quiet? He wouldn't welcome I will, 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:10.480 I will not go in sequential order. Here to my left, 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:14.760 this is Myron means. Myron means is I've known Myron 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:19.400 since uh two thousand eight or nine or somewhere somewhere. 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:24.800 The Myron is the large carnivore lead large carnival biologist 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:26.120 for the state of Arkansas. Is that the way you 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.520 say that? The only one in them? He leads yourself. 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.400 I have a small to medium sized personnel staff of 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:36.560 me myself and I. Yeah. So Myron has worked with 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.600 the game fish his whole career out of out of 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:44.520 college five years agency this year, yeah, twenty seven years 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:49.520 working with black bears in Arkansas. So Myron is is 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:55.520 the the resource for knowledge about Arkansas bears. And uh, 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:57.680 I'm gonna get Myron a little bit to give us, 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.760 give us the story of Arkansas all bears, because if 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:04.040 you're here today, no matter if you're from Oklahoma or Missouri, 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:09.880 you need to know the story of how bears got here. Um, 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:14.240 this is my wife, Misty newcom Misty is a is 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:19.280 a classic on the barg Reas Render. Um because she 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:24.280 keeps us in line and I get I get more comments, 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.040 she keeps me in line. I get more comments about 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.640 Misty being on the render, and so I just keep 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.120 bringing her on, not because the comments, but because I 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.200 like her. But I hear there is confusion today that 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:39.680 someone tried to sell themselves as me. Yeah, is that 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:45.240 that someone trying to steal my identity today? As how 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.200 you tell us a far Britt and I we often 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:51.559 get mistaken for one another. I don't ever mistaken for 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:58.840 one another. Um, Brent Reeves. Everybody would know Brent Reeves 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.960 from the Beargrease Render. And uh, Brent and I have 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:06.199 been friends for a long time, and uh we've been 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.280 hunted a lot together in different places. And uh, Brent 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.439 is here for the Southern wit and charm. So if 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:14.800 you have a little meter and you're taking the only 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.199 reason I keep him around. Brent says stuff to me 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.319 every single time I'm around him that I say, did 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.360 you just make that up? And did somebody tell you that? 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:26.040 What I have noticed is the stories are often inconsistent, though, 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.160 because sometimes he's like, my dad told me that, and 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.240 the next time I'll be like, my uncle told me that, 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:31.960 And the next time I'd be like, I made that up. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.559 So I don't know. It's hard to know the truth. 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:41.719 I keep it around a great friend of mine. And 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:45.400 then final, and definitely not least on the end, here 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.360 is my friend Mo Shephard and Mo is here for 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.040 a various specific reasons. I've got a story I want 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:56.160 him to tell you, uh later. But mo is Mo 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:59.199 is like a mountain man. If I think about Arkansas 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:03.440 guys that are just woodsman, just real deal woodsman. Uh. 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.320 Mo was one of the most accomplished big woods mountain 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.640 hunters that I know, and he and I have corresponded 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.360 a lot with bear hunting when I was really trying 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.439 to learn how to bear hunt in national forest without 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:18.959 the use of bait, which we can talk about a 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.400 little bit today. Me and Mo. I mean, Mo was 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.680 a resource for me because he spent his whole life 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.000 in the mountains and killed bears on purpose in national forest, 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:29.800 you know, not an incidental deer kill. Some of them 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.000 were incident. I think he got lucky on you know, 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:37.320 probably a third of them, but not your opinion. Uh no, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.360 But I just have a lot of respect for mo 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:44.640 as a as a woodsman. But uh hey, okay, I 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:46.640 got a little ahead of myself here, which I tend 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:48.960 to do sometimes. Do you know what the bear Grease 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.560 render is? We got a lot of not in head. 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:56.280 So the bear Grease podcast is our documentary style podcast 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.600 that is not like this. It's where we have you know, 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:03.680 we have specific topics if you hadn't heard it, specific topics, 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.000 and we really dive in deep and it's a well 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:10.600 put together, like polished um podcast. This, I'll tell you 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:12.560 the truth. A lot of it is because we couldn't 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.839 do that every single week. It was just too much work. 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.040 We had to figure out a way to do something else. 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.320 So we put together in the colectic group every week 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:27.199 on the off weeks typically talk about what the podcast 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.079 topic was about the week before, so you'll understand the format. 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:32.520 That's what We're not going to do that this week 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:34.800 because this is a special one. We're gonna we're gonna 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.040 talk about bears, Marian, why don't you give us a 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:43.840 rundown of just bears in Arkansas and kind of just 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.200 a historical look. You know how much time we have left. 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.920 You know that's good. I know you can talk this 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.839 real abbreviated, real quick. I'm sure most of you know 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.360 that Arkansas at one time we used to unofficially be 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.600 known as the bear State. Bring it back, yeah, bring 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.240 back before we were the natural state or the land 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:07.800 of Opportunity. At the time of settlement, we were called 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:11.440 the bear State. And uh, it was thought at the 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:14.640 time of settlement in Arkansas that we may have had 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:17.240 as many as fifty thousand black bears in the state. 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.920 And of course, the landscape was completely different than it 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:24.400 is now. I mean, we had vast expanses of bottom 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:30.080 land hardwood, mature forest upland hardwood pine mix, and it's 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:34.600 just a different different ecosystem than it is today. Uh. 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:40.040 At the time of settlement, very briefly, bears had one 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:47.600 very sought after commodity that was plentiful in Arkansas. And 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.320 that's that right there. He's holding up a jar bear grease, 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.720 bar oil, and we all know kind of what happened 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:56.800 with the uh demise of the whales. You know, the 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.960 whales were sought and hunted for their blubber to rent 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.520 are down the fat for oils. Well, the same thing 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:06.360 happened with bear of their oil or their fat was 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.160 highly coveted a market hunting wise, So what better place 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:13.880 to get oil bear fat than in the bear state, right, 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.959 And so at the time of settlement, through settlement into Arkansas, 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.560 it became a you know, a really sought after commodity. 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:27.800 Bears were market hunted, uh, you know, unceasingly or without 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:32.240 any regulation or anything, and so uh they were almost 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.920 extirpated from the state completely. In fact, by nineteen fifty one, 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.400 a man named trust and Holder did a land survey 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:43.359 of the state of Arkansas, and uh found that the 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.680 only remaining population that he had evidence of was in 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:50.280 the lower White River drainage scrub Grass Bayou. And it 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:52.559 was thought that we may have had as many as 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.320 fifty bears left in the entire state. Now, if you're 0:13:56.360 --> 0:14:00.679 a big Clay Newcomb podcast fan, and if you've listened 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.360 to this podcast with Dori Province, UH, some of those 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:08.680 really old timers that lived in the Washtalls of the Ozarks. 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.040 They'll tell you, Hey, when I was a kid back 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.000 in the thirties or forties, we saw a bear. So 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.719 is it likely that there were some remnants of the 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:23.600 mountain bear population still out there? Sure? Uh. But nineteen 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.720 Game and Fish embarked what is still to this day 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.600 a historical reintroduction effort. In over a ten year period, 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:35.440 they reintroduced two hundred and fifty four bears from Minnesota 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:39.520 and Manitoba, Canada into the Ozarks and wash tolls of 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:41.920 the state and the forest were grown back up at 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:45.960 that time, and it was really perfect bear habitat, and 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.280 there wasn't a season on at that time. Interject something. 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:52.200 I think this is a compelling part of the story 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.080 that gives a little more context. Is that you know, 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.400 from from the time of white European settlement of this 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:01.520 part of the world world, which would have been you know, 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.000 in the early eighteen hundreds, the first people were getting 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.880 here pretty much and starting to settle by the turn 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:11.520 of the century. By nineteen hundred, in in and on 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.440 a little bit further, almost all of Arkansas would have 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.840 been cut for timber to build the Eastern US. I mean, 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.440 they were sending timber from here and in marketing back, 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:26.080 especially after the railroads, they would have done that. But basically, 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:30.160 by the nineteen fifties and sixties, well go back the 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:35.520 national forest. Um, the what am I looking for? The 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:41.640 the federal government protection of national forest started with Teddy Roosevelt, 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:45.960 I want to say in the teens, uh when was 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:55.080 before Teddy Roosevelt set up the Forest Service. And so 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:59.520 they started protecting these big blocks of what became public land. 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:04.880 And so for sixty years the timber was able to regrow. 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.280 So in the fifties and sixties, for the first time 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.440 a bunch of our habitat all of a sudden had 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:12.480 this big timber and was good for bear habitats. So 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.080 it was like the right time. Habitat was right. Everything 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:18.520 was right, and so that's why it was a success. 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:21.480 That's that's exactly right. And you know, the force were 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.880 coming back, bears were protected, so it was I mean, 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.040 it was just excellent bear habitat. And you know, bears 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:31.240 have proven one thing, not only here in Arkansas but 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:34.080 about anywhere else, but giving the opportunity and the right 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:38.520 kind of habitat and circumstances, their populations will flourish. And 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:42.200 so the population flourished, and actually flourished to the point 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:47.120 that by night gaming fish reopened bear season in the state. 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.240 And uh we've had a bear season this last year 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:54.360 mark the forty one modern day bear season. If you 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.280 look at our bear harvest since nineteen eighty, it's just 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.800 been a steady increase all the way up. We think 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.760 we probably have around six thousand bears in the state now, 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.480 you know, give or take a few hundred or maybe 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:11.600 even a thousand, But I mean, the probably one of 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:16.000 the most unique things about bears in Arkansas is we 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:21.280 seem to be looping through these twenty years cycles. You know, 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.680 the bears are reintroduced back around nineteen sixty, give or 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.120 take a few years. By nineteen eighty, twenty years later, 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.199 we're able to reopen bear season in the state. And 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.720 from nineteen eighty to two thousand, you know, our bear 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.880 population had increased in such a way that we were 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.840 we're not harvesting the number of bears we needed. Incidentally, 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.200 so what do we do in two thousand one to 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:50.159 increase harvest rates? We had abating to the regime harvest 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:55.280 strategy or to our regulation strategies, and then uh so 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.040 here we are twenty years later in the same bear 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:03.199 population in what are we talking about now? Reintroducing a 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.240 bare season to the Gulf coastal plaine of Arkansas. That's 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:11.880 a big deal deal and so I mean it's uh, 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.920 it's just a good testament to great uh conservation efforts 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.800 by game and fish. Uh and you know, land use 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:25.160 patterns change, uh, everything changes, you know, over time. But uh, 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:29.280 it's something that I've certainly feel privileged to be a 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:33.720 part of, to be in a state that has done 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.600 this so successfully, reintroduced bear so successfully. You may have 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.640 said it, but in the biological community, the reintroduction, which 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:48.040 a reintroduction is different than a uh that that's specific 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:54.520 terminology to describe taking adult wild animals and relocating them 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:56.760 in turn and loose. But that is it's considered the 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:01.080 most successful reintroduction of large carnivores in the world. That 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.080 still stands. That's right, it still stands. I mean, no 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:08.119 other natural resource agency anywhere in the world has done 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:12.879 what Arkansas has done so successfully with a large carnivore. 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:18.240 That's something to be proud of, it really is. And 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:22.239 to put it into context too, when you look at 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.959 a you top in your phone and for a for 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.679 like a heat map of the of North America for 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.840 where our bear populations are, and you'll see a bunch 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.479 of red in the eastern United States, I mean, one 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:36.879 of the strongholds of the black bear is in the east, 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.040 you know, the southern Appalachians, all the way up in 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.199 the UH, up in the main into Canada, all the 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.840 way down to Florida. I mean, the eastern US has 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.720 some incredible bear populations more than US. I mean, you 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:53.400 go into West Virginia, North Carolina, Uh Virginia, Man, they 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:57.960 have some incredible bear populations. Okay, So imagine all these 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:01.440 bears here, and then all of Canada is just Canada 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:05.639 is bear central, I mean, Canada is The wilderness that 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:10.600 they actually have in Canada is just remarkable in terms 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:14.520 of actual definition of wilderness being places where people in 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.080 civilization and roads are not. So Canada still has very 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.800 much a strong bearer population. And then it loops into 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.200 the Rocky Mountain West. And remember I'm painting a picture 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:26.320 of a heat map. The Rocky Mountain West all the 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.080 way down to Old Mexico has black bears, and all 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:31.640 the Western states, a lot of them have pretty good 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:39.760 bear populations, very good bear populations in the northwest, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana. 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.639 So there's a big hole in our map though in 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:47.600 the central US, from about middle Kentucky over to the 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:51.240 Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes have bears too. So 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.840 from like Michigan down the whole mid South and South, 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:59.919 no bears except for this one little red dot about 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.240 that big which is the Arkansas bear population. So I 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:05.879 mean think about that. I mean, when you're looking at 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.360 this as a as a as a continental resource, it's 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.159 pretty wild that we've got bears here and now. And 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:16.080 what Myron could tell you better than me is that 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:19.480 from the reintroduction of those two and fifty four bears 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:24.080 now Missouri, these bears are moving into Missouri such that 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.160 Missouri has had their first bear season. And we're gonna 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.159 talk I believe Laura Connley will be here later right 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:34.840 here now, Um, they're going into Missouri. They they've moved 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:37.680 over into Oklahoma just this week. Did you hear about 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.480 the legislation where in Louisiana they're proposing the bear season 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:42.919 in northern Louisiana. I kind of got wind of that 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:47.080 a few months ago talking to Louisiana's bear ball just 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:49.679 but she thought it might be coming so well, they 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:53.960 put it out as an official composal. But I mean, 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:58.119 that's massive conservation success in two when we live in 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:02.000 such an urbanized world and whatever is this is what 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.640 I always say, whatever is happening ecologically in North America 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.520 for some wild reason has been beneficial to black bears, 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.960 I mean, And so to me, it's kind of it's 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:17.639 kind of poetic in a sense that the you know, 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:22.320 the American frontier truly was fueled by bear meat and 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:25.560 bear grease. That that is not that is not hyperbolic. 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:28.199 I mean people used to not eat dear meat, just 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:31.200 keep their hides, and they killed bears for their meat 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:33.600 and for their hide. Well they use their hides too, 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:37.639 but for their oil. I mean, so this bear was 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:40.920 so important. And then there was a time when the 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:43.320 bears were extrapated, just like you know, Arkansas is a 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:47.760 great a small microcosm of what happened in bigger places too. 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:52.040 The bears were gone. People forgot, I mean literally in Arkansas, 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:56.359 people forgot. I mean it's like bears weren't here basically 0:22:56.520 --> 0:22:59.800 in a functional way for seventy years, sixty years, and 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:02.159 then all of a sudden in the eighties it was like, 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:05.400 holy cow, we got bears. And then while Myron walked 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:07.919 through from us having a bear season in nineteen eighty 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:11.119 until two thousand one. And I'm about to make a 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:14.159 claim here that if somebody can dispute me, they will, uh, 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:19.880 I'll give them jar beargers. So during that period of time, 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:22.720 Arkansas was probably killing less than a hundred fifty bears 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:27.720 a year. Maybe there was no baiting, so from around 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:32.359 and there, I think it was harvest was yeah, it was. 0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:35.440 It was just pretty amnemic. I mean, because most people 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:37.920 had to do it. It was most of the harvest 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:41.800 at that time was incidental to deer honting. Deer season 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:45.520 and bear seasons ranking current, and so you know, most 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:48.760 people didn't actively hunt bears. They were out deer hunting. 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:51.640 I see a bears, shoot a bear. Uh so bear 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:55.520 seasons open. So really, up until two thousand one, I 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:58.400 would say the majority of the bear harvest was incident. 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:02.520 And that's that's exactly my point is that guys, there 0:24:02.520 --> 0:24:05.240 were some, but there weren't a lot of people really 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:09.119 targeting bears. Two thousand one, they decide I'm building to 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:11.600 a point here that I want everybody to hear is 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:16.080 that in two thousand one, they said, we have so 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:18.960 many bears in Arkansas. We need an effective way to 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:24.000 manage these bears because to take out typically in bear management, 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:26.720 to take out ten percent of the bear population per 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:31.480 year is gonna equate to that population remaining stable for 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:33.800 the most part. And Myron could tell us a spot 0:24:33.840 --> 0:24:36.320 about that in general, that would be a true statement. 0:24:36.680 --> 0:24:39.560 And so they said, we cannot harvest the number of 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:42.360