WEBVTT - Ep. 53: Andrew McKean 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:06.440 Hey, everybody, Welcome to another episode of The Hunting Collective. 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:10.080 I've been O'Brien and today I am standing in the 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:15.000 middle of an icy lake at Fort Peck in Montana. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.040 A good friend Andrew McKeen, who's most recently the editor 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:23.360 in chief Outdoor Life, one of the better writers thinkers 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.079 that I know in our industry, and a good friend 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:30.080 of mine. We've traveled the world together and we're here 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.880 in his hometown of Glasgow to do a little ice fishing. 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:37.239 So this whole podcast we were sitting kneeling around an 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:39.879 ice hole. In fact, his legs fell asleep during the podcast, 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:42.879 kneeling around an ice hole trying to catch a big 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.800 lake trout. So that was a huge part of it. 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:48.920 But the other part we wanted to talk about was recruiting, retention, 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:53.680 and reactivation, our three model of getting hunters in our 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.160 bucket keeping them there. So it was a great conversation, 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.280 a lot of fun here on the lake. We haven't 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:04.840 caught any fish, but I've been happy to just be 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:09.479 in this beautiful country and talk about hunting. So the 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:13.679 first ever ice fishing podcast with Hunting Collective an unsuccessful one, 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:22.080 but fun nonetheless, enjoy it. Oh here we're going. Hey, 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.160 Andrew McKeene, I've been on bran. What's going? That's good? 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:28.959 Oh man, my hands are warmed up. Let me take 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.440 a quick swig of this old Milwaukee light as we 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:37.119 get going here. I don't warm you right up. It's 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.840 a little bit frozen. You's got a little slush in it, 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:43.280 which it's not a big deal at all for me 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.000 at this point. We are did you know it's a 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.880 good way to always started these podcasts? What you describe 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:54.680 where we are? We are sitting on our knees in 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.560 a desolate expanse of frozen lake. We very much are 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.920 joining that. We're we're off a shaft house point on 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.680 Fort Peck Reservoir. I got a fishing rod here that's 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:14.240 about eighteen inches long in five ft of water. Okay, 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:15.880 maybe it's only a hundred ft of water, but it 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:19.120 might as well be five. Same amount of fish come 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.880 out of either one. It's a it's a it's amazing country. 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.200 I here, man, this is the homeland. You live here. 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.160 I am so excited that you're here. I'm so excited 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:31.320 to be here. I am so excited to be here. 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.000 It like I said, you just moving to Montana and 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:40.440 and you know you're always worthy, intrepid outdoor editor who 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:45.480 found the found the perfect spot to live. So the 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.360 rest of us are jealous. Well, now you've been so 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.560 you haven't been here through all of winter or mosquito season, 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:53.640 and there's only about a week and a half in 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.400 between the two. It's i can be a challenge of 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.760 place to live. But yeah, So my hometown is Glasgow, 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.000 mont Hannah. This is Fort Peck Reservoir, which is the 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:08.880 largest body of water in the state of Montana. It's uh, 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:10.720 you know, what do you say? It has as much 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.040 shoreline as the state of California. That's right, Uh, and 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:20.519 far fewer rockfish and far more ice fish and rednecks. 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:22.520 There's we're sitting in the middle of kind of a 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:25.959 shanty town of sorts. Not the kind of shanty town 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:27.400 that you don't really think of, but this is an 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:31.120 ice shanty town. It's not Leech Lake level, but it's 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.200 pretty cool. Like there's a little community here. Yeah, there's 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.200 a little community people most most, I believe in my 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.800 briefing ice fishing experience, it feels as if ice fishing 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:46.560 and mostly just standing around drinking. You look at a rod, 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.720 like nothing's happening over there, and then the guys will 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.320 be like, no, they're not biting. Were like, well, how 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.440 much work have you done? And it seems like right 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:56.320 now we're just sitting around. There's a bunch of dudes 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:01.120 just talking and fishing. Maybe is set and dry. Although 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.560 you notice, I am I'm continuing to jig. You are 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:07.680 jigging as we're talking. You are jigging. And uh, if 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:09.520 we catch a fish that might be live, I'll give 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.920 the live commentary on your on your ability to pull 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.040 this these giant things, and what what kind of fish 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.240 are in here? Some people know what we might be 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.440 pulling in. Well. Fort Peck is known for walleye. It's 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:27.239 a pretty good walleye fishery. Maybe the second most famous 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:30.000 or known fish is northern pike. There's a good small 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:33.960 mouth bass fishery here. But today we are heard in 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.200 deep water fishing for lake trout. Yeah, they've caught a 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:38.880 couple of big old lake trout here. Huh before we 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:40.760 got here, as the guys that were already set up 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.080 a couple of big lakes on the ice. And they're 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:47.960 good looking fish deep there. How they eat they well, 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:50.480 they're a little bit fishy, a little bit, a little 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.600 bit oily, but smoke them or yeah, I mean they're good. 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:58.040 Put them in the oil, fryme up up, always fram up. 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:00.279 The thing I like about this so far is we 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.080 haven't gone to that the third level of ice fishing, 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:11.039 which is you doubt everything your lure, you're constantly changing up. Well, uh, 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.039 Steven Ronnella has this ice this camera. They dropped down 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:15.760 and then you can see the fish we were in. 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.240 He was describing watching the perch just like swim up 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:21.320 to the bay, just gently put their mouth on it 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.600 and then decided, no, I'm back off. And I feel 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.320 like that makes you even more paranoid. Let you know 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:29.480 that the fish are noncommittal in the way that they are. 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:33.360 So if I just just this this different jig, different 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:37.240 weren't different weight, different leader, I wouldn't want that much information. 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:39.120 The thing of the beauty of ice fishing is you 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:41.039 have no idea what's going on out there, so you 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.359 could just make it up. Oh, I know, you're like, 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:45.040 you know what, I think this is where I think 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.160 we just it's just about persistence at this juncture, which 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.480 it often is. It's often is, but it's the feeling 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.159 that you get, you know, when you're sitting out on 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.520 the ice. We don't have any fancy stuff here, but 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.679 you're just we're drinking. I'm drinking and you're drinking Old 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:05.240 mill walky light. This is the American pinup series. Can 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:09.440 you know? Not sponsored? Not sponsored? But if hey listen, 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:11.760 Old Milwaukee, if you're listening to this, any of your 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.440 marketing executives, are you in your agency? People hit us 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.280 up here the Hunting Collective. We'd love to be sponsored 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.000 by Old Milwaukee. Like this ship is delicious and I 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:22.800 kind of feel like we would bring our own new 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.400 pin up series to it. Yes, yeah, but up ice 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:32.440 Fisherman here suit. This is the other just dudes in 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:38.720 fur Well, I mean your hat. So Ben O'Brien today 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.400 at the gas station in Glasgow, he comes out with 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.760 this Dakota Dan hats and it's like a it's a 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:49.040 rabbit mad rabbit bomber hat. I thought he'd had it 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:51.720 like it was a family heirloom, and he wore it 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.479 like in that kind of subtle way like yeah, my 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.000 great granddad broke this in. Yeah. No, I didn't announce 0:06:58.040 --> 0:06:59.440 that I was putting it on or anything. I just 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.280 slipped it on and during conversation you must have said them, 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.200 you certainly got fuzzier in the last twenty minutes. Yeah, well, 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.800 part of it was just your Johnny attitude. Yeah yeah, 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.280 but my attitude change immediately. You wanted me to look 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:14.160 at it and notice it. But I didn't put it 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:16.520 together that it was a brand new purchase. It was 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:21.160 only shout outs to the Glasgow Jiffy Lub where we were. 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:23.640 That was it was a good good purchase. It's it's 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.520 proven to be um, it's made in China course and 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.480 it but it's proven to be synthetic for I imagine, 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.920 but proven to be a good good purchase. The thing 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:35.600 I like about the setup and you can kind of 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:37.920 hear it maybe in the background the soundtrack to this. 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.680 Oh yeah, we don't need no stinking ice shanty. We 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.800 don't need We're out in the elements here. We're literally 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:50.600 on our knees. I can't feel my feet of the 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:54.560 saddest podcast ever. Our backs are to the wind, which 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.920 isn't helping. And I'm so distracted by my dog, who 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.720 is just she's we call her the resident dumbass. She 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:07.440 just chased Uh. The loneliest snow goose in America into 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.080 the only open water on the lake. And she went in. 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.040 She went in, and that water is cold. We thought 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:14.440 we were gonna have to go over there and rescue her. 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.080 But Nellie be and Nellie she found her way out 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:21.200 of there. Man. She she is standing beside us now, 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:26.200 probably waiting to crop to us. This wind. You never 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.800 but yeah, I mean this country, you know, talk a 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:31.840 little bit about your home country here, because it is 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.360 you know, the Missouri Breaks, it is Fort Pack. I mean, 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:36.440 there's some pretty popular names. Like I was saying before 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:41.720 we're driving over here, I do feel like Fort Pack 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.719 is something, at least Montane's talking about it. But I mean, 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.640 I think the Missouri Breaks are something that all hunters understand, 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.440 you know, as as a destination. I think this is 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.720 you know, I moved here twenty years ago, worked for 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.200 fish Wilife from Parks, and I kind of thought this 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:02.120 is gonna be kind of a fun little hiatus on 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.400 the way to somewhere else. And there's a couple of 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.040 things I know it is. One is you nailed you 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.560 nailed it. I mean, these sort of legendary locations. The 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.080 Missouri River Breaks is you know, kind of synonymous with 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.400 big mule deer and all com big horn sheep, and 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.240 it's all real. That is in my backyard. The Milk 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.400 River is just over our shoulder, which was kind of 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:25.240 lost a little bit of its luster, but synonymous with 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.640 big white tails. Oh yeah, pheasant hunting. I mean, if 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:32.320 you're if you're a sportsman, this is a pretty nice place. 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:34.199 Back in the day when I was coming up, the 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.960 real Tree monster bucks man Bill Jordan was out there 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:40.199 just bringing like Mike, Mike Waddell's coming out here every 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.160 year and killing bucks. And that's what I knew of it. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.360 So when I thought of the river, I thought of this, 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:49.520 you know, hollow ground, this destination that that is, you know, 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.280 a kin to Pike County, Illinois for white It was 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:56.240 popularizing that way, and I mean it's still is. So 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:58.440 the thing that has kept me here is, yeah, there's 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.600 to me. It's as I said to have been on 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:04.840 the way out here. We really don't have an access problem. 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:09.520 There's abundant public land, there's block management everywhere. In some ways, 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.280 it's going back in time to nineteen fifties America, where 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.000 if you know somebody is certainly if you live here, 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.240 you get asked if you want to hunt their place, 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:21.440 you don't have to ask the locals. They ask, Um, 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:27.199 that's pretty nice. Yeah, it's it's rolling country, it's black hills, 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.640 it's you know, river bottoms. Is I mean, you know 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:32.880 the view out your back porch, I said, made me 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:38.440 feel like when Captain Woodrow f Call was in drove 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.920 all his cattle from He's not a real person, his 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.880 fictional character, but he drove all those cattle from Texas spontanity. 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.560 He came up when this region he goes, boys, we're here, 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.079 this is the place it in your place feels much 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.440 like that, and uh you know that. No, No, people 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.199 that listen to this podcast. No, I've wax and waxed 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:01.160 about Montana. Well enough book this this area. I mean, 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.360 it's such a diverse state. This area just feels a 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.680 lot different then than many that I've spent time. Well, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:09.440 now I gotta bring in the other part of it. 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.080 There's a reason there aren't very, very very many people here. 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:14.360 It's a it's a hard place to live. I mean, 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:18.400 you've had a tough, long winter. We have h long, 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.760 hot summers with the biggest mosquitoes you've ever seen. The 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:26.480 Washington Post just did a analysis of every ZIP code 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:30.720 in in the country last year looking at infrastructure in 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:36.400 the distance between towns and services, and they named Glasgow 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:41.200 the loneliest town in America when it comes to accessibility 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.640 to to public services. So it's the middle of nowhere, 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:47.600 and I can really feel like it's sometimes it's it's 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:53.480 two eight five miles to the airport, so you know 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:54.880 you can do it. You can get to know yourself 0:11:54.960 --> 0:12:00.160 pretty well and really to the airport. So anytime any 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.600 listening complains about the airport run minds like five minutes, 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.320 um more like five miles. But I think it's it's 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.320 safe to say that this is tough country. Man. It 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.679 makes for tough people, but hardy in good people too. 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.520 I find just from my brief time out here. The 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:17.920 thing I like about it, and also it greaves me 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.360 a little bit, is it is like the best in 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.600 nineteen fifties America, where everybody's watching out for you. It's 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.400 been a great place to raise kids, but it's also 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.560 the worst of nineteen fifties America where and people are 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:31.560 kind of trapped in time in terms of like there's 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:35.640 not a lot of ethnic diversity or culinary diversity and 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:42.360 everybody knows your business. Everybody knows your business. I like it, um, 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:44.560 but it makes going to the grocery store kind of 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:46.880 a long You got to prepare for it because they're 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:52.480 gonna make small talk. Yeah, I think I think both. 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.079 I think I think I yearned for both things, right. 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:57.640 I think I yearned for like that small town fiel 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.880 where you know everybody, but also like so yearned to 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.079 be connected and be you know, in a place where 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.920 lots going on. Like I yearned for that bee hive 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.280 of activity. But I also at the same time, I 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:10.360 don't want to you know, pass by a bunch of 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.240 strangers on the street, go to the grocer shore and 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.440 not know a soul. So there's there's you know, there's 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:17.640 gifts and takes, but you try to find a place 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:19.760 where you can get both of those things. I kind 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.400 of feel like Bozeman though, is we were talking. Yeah, 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.239 what's like Paris in the twenties. It's like the epicenter 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.240 right now, a lot of cool stuff. So I think 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.120 I've actually got that. Yeah, I think it's close, but 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:35.079 so nobody else moved there. Full I'm already like that 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.800 old one say here's this is my favorite. Like, if 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:39.960 anybody wants to go and read the reviews of my podcast, 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:43.600 there's like, there's someone stars in there's there's a couple 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.160 of dozen of those in there. And one guy just 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:48.880 wrote this is after I had already moved to Montana. 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:56.200 Stay in Montana. It's full one star. It's like, yeah, well, 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:00.480 sound review of this media product. Well, you know, I 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:02.640 don't want to denigrate my hometown too much, but I'll 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:04.840 tell you this. So we've lived here, We've lived your 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:08.560 nineteen years, we've raised. My daughter was born here, we raised. 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:14.199 It will take another eighties seven years before we're like 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:21.800 residents generations, at least three or four generations. People always say, oh, 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.800 aren't were you actually from Yeah, you don't have you 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.880 don't sound like you're from here. I feel like, oh, yeah, 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.280 I've got a lot long ways to go. But you know, 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:34.480 and in the effort of transition, and speaking of raising kids, 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.600 your kids are you know, high school age, right, and 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.440 your two twin sons are ready to go off to college, 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:44.720 and and I think all three of your kids are 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:46.880 you know, hunters at some level, right. I Mean you 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.200 don't call them all avid hunters, but they certainly live 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.400 in in the mecca um to take up out there 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.600 pursuits you you know, you were for folks that don't 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.120 know Andrew's background, you know, you were editor in chief 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.480 and Outdoor Life for how many years prior to seven years? 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.520 Seven years um? And I have been in the outdoor 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:10.040 industry and in wildlife management and such for many years 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.680 prior to that. And so I mean you've involved yourself 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:18.200 in a lot of you know, hunter recruitment and hunter 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:22.160 retention types of activities and and written about it for 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:23.760 Outdoor Life and been a part of a lot of 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:27.600 editorial products that that spoke about it in a broad 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.520 and microsense. You know, what what do you feel like 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:34.200 for your kids their generation? Like, what's the you know, 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:35.840 I want to call it their plight, but what's their 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.720 biggest challenge to you know, maintain what they've got here 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.640 in Glasgow? That's a good question. I mean one of 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:46.760 the I guess motivators for me being involved in you 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:48.920 know kind of would say kind of the greater pass 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.840 it on movement is So my daughter is a freshman 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.400 in high school in Glasgow, Montana. She's fifteen. She took 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.080 hunter education when she was eleven year old, Like a 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.880 lot of Montana kids. It's not these are not big classes. 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.800 I think she's got fifty kids kids in her grade. 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.720 There's only two girls who hunt and maybe three or 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.720 four boys who hunt. This is possibly the hunting out 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.520 in America. This is what I said. This is the mecca. 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:17.760 If anybody thinks of like a place where you have 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.040 access to a plethora of game, you know, and just 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.760 a culture that supports it, this is it. Man. So 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.160 it's I mean, it's not a given that just because 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.320 you are raised here and maybe your folks have always 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.600 done this, that you're going to So that was kind 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:32.920 of the first thing. It's like, we got to really 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.240 work on that the funnel, you know, the throat of 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.280 the funnel, and getting more kids involved it. But then 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:43.200 I started looking at my buddies in the generation above me. Hell, 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:44.640 there's a couple of out here on the ice. We 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:48.760 just saw they don't do it much anymore. They're aging out. 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.360 And so the big kind of the national perspective is 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:56.320 tying those two things together. We're an aging population. All 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.480 the statistics say at about age sixty six, you just 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.280 don't do this much anymore, even though you may have 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.120 the interest and and you know maybe now the financial 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.240 ability and the time to do it, you just don't 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.480 have the physical desire to do it. And so the 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.879 big problem is we're not replacing ourselves as we age 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:18.640 out with a new generation coming in issue. Yeah right, 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.360 it's the you know that that will post World War 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:27.080 two boom and hunters and we're in the decline. And 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:29.320 I think I think it's this's is no news to anybody. 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.600 There's been a concern about it for a long time, 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.160 which is why there have been all the kids programs 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.480 that state agencies and the NGOs think about the Turkey Federations, 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.560 Jake's program, like all we gotta work on really making 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.840 it attractive to kids. The fallacy with that whole thing 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.479 has been and I've participated in this fallacy myself, is 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.159 typically you think about kids who go to like a 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.560 field day for a Turkey Federation, they're the kids of 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.000 the parents who are already involved in that. Those are 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.520 the most likely kids to be involved just as a 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:02.280 family tradition. And so it's I don't think it's follows 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:04.640 that kids just because they're exposed to it are gonna 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:06.639 do it. There's just a lot of distractions, A lot 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.800 of other choices that they have. Yeah, and I think 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.240 it comes to like there's another part of it. Another 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:17.080 part of the dichotomy is very much that uh, and 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:19.800 I was this way to some extent. I don't know 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:21.840 if your kids will be this way. We'll see. But 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:26.760 you know, you your your parents teach you hunting. Your 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.919 dad is normally the the way that that goes. But 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.200 you know, somebody in your family or some close friend 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:36.879 becomes your mentor teaches you hunting. And then you turn eighteen, 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.960 you go to high school. Um, you discover the opposite sex, 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:46.800 you discover um parties, you discover other things. Sports Milwaukee 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.000 Light shout out to Old Milwaukee Light hashtag pin up 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:58.040 can American series not hashtag not sponsored. The ship is good, um, 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.399 but I think it it. I dropped off during college 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:02.879 a good bit because I had a job, I had 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.000 an internship. I was taking full of course twelve course 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.840 or twelve credit three courses, and I dropped off of 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.400 honey at least as you know, when when I wasn't 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.359 with my dad. So the danger is that that's what 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:19.840 we focus on the youth, right, we gotta get him in, 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.080 we gotta get him in well we gotta retain them 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:25.239 to right, got to keep them in UM. And so 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.720 I think that's something that is starting to be recognized 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.440 as well because there's a lot of a lot of 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:32.960 drop off. Well you think about kids too, I mean, 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.480 there may be that avidity, there's not a lot of 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.000 other things in their lives, but you start to think 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:42.680 about what how to build a self perpetuating machine. Kids 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:46.240 don't have disposable income, they don't have disposable time, they 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.560 don't have disposable transportation, so they're totally dependent. And so 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.720 you're exactly right, what we're what we're looking at. Do 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.240 you explain let's let's look explain our three and kind 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:58.879 of involvement in and give people an idea what's going on. 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:02.880 This isn't an isolated, you know, thought that we've got 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:05.639 to do something to really perpetuate these traditions, and we 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:08.480 kind of talk about what's dependent on that perpetuation ship. 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:14.320 It's shoot, it's the entire funding structure for wildlife management 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:19.600 in America is participants fund wildlife management, game wardens, the 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:22.280 whole system. And so once we start to see big 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:27.399 drop off, there's meaningful impacts in terms of there's not 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:29.639 enough funding to get this stuff. They'll say most I 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.320 think the average is and this changes. So this is 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:36.400 not a direct uh stat that I'm quoting, but it's 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:39.760 it's around six of most state agencies funding comes from 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:43.159 tags and Pittman robbers and type funds, you know, excise 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:47.640 tax type revenues. And so that's a huge number. Um. 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:49.639 And that's, like I said, that's all dependent on these 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.119 user groups going on and buying licenses and spending the 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:54.320 money and doing the things that's required to go hunting. 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:57.560 So we we've created this in this system that's beautiful 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:02.720 and is beautifully intertwined, but it also hinges on participation. 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.000 So the there there have been a lot of demographic 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:09.520 studies and just looking at kind of cultural changes over 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:11.639 time that have have taken the national look at this 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:14.840 and said, okay, so there's the throw to the funnel 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:20.040 we talked about. That's the recruitment side. There's the um 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:24.280 retention side, which is, if you've started hunting like you 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:26.119 in college, like an awful lot of people, how do 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:28.160 we bring these people back and kind of keep them 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.600 in the fold? Yeah, I mean, and in the term 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:34.359 you know where did the term like our three is 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:39.240 the term that we that it was coined. Um, you 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:40.960 know something I think people need to know, and it's 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:44.440 it's more of an industry term. But take people through 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:46.520 where where that first started and kind where you first 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:49.879 heard it, and what you think of that model or 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:53.479 at least that articulation of the needs for that funnel. 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:59.199 So the just to be um clear, are three is 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.080 So it's recruiting, retention, and then reactivation. And that's that 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:05.439 idea that you may have had some exposure to this 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:07.360 at some point in your life, you fell out of it. 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:09.320 How do you we bring those people back in? So 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:11.280 we're not starting from scratch with a whole bunch of 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:14.320