Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #155: 2017 North American Deer Summit & Latest Deer Issues

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #155: 2017 North American Deer Summit & Latest Deer Issues · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan. This is episode number one Tannis Show.
0:20
Speaker 1: We are joined by Nick Penzoto, the President CEO of
0:23
Speaker 1: the National Deer Lines and we're going to be discussing
0:26
Speaker 1: the North American Deer Summit and the most pressing issues
0:30
Speaker 1: currently facing deer and deer hunting. Welcome to the Wire
0:49
Speaker 1: to Hunt podcast, brought to you by sit Kin Gear
0:52
Speaker 1: and as I just mentioned, joining us here shortly is
0:55
Speaker 1: Nick Penzotto of the National Deer Alliance And as of
1:00
Speaker 1: this recording, tomorrow, the two thousand seventeen North American Deer
1:04
Speaker 1: Summit will be kicking off in Austin, Texas, and when
1:07
Speaker 1: you're listening to this, it will have actually just ended.
1:10
Speaker 1: But Nick was kind enough to block off a little
1:13
Speaker 1: bit of time today just before the event kicks off
1:15
Speaker 1: to talk to us about what's going to be covered
1:18
Speaker 1: at this event over the coming days, why this summit
1:21
Speaker 1: is so important, and then we'll dive into some of
1:23
Speaker 1: the most important issues actually facing the deer, counting the
1:25
Speaker 1: deer hunting community right now, excuse me, stuff like the
1:29
Speaker 1: latest on c w D Hunter Access, the Farm, bill Um,
1:34
Speaker 1: and a whole lot more. And I feel pretty strongly
1:36
Speaker 1: that as deer hunters and members of this community, you know,
1:40
Speaker 1: it's a responsibility each and everr one of us to
1:42
Speaker 1: to be doing at least our very best to stay
1:44
Speaker 1: up to date and what's going on out there when
1:46
Speaker 1: it comes to deer and deer hunting, and when needed,
1:48
Speaker 1: to step up and make sure that our wildlife and
1:51
Speaker 1: wild places and our rights to do this, that those
1:54
Speaker 1: things are taken care of. So with all that said,
1:57
Speaker 1: I think episodes like this are pretty important in helping
1:59
Speaker 1: us all be able to do that, and that's why
2:01
Speaker 1: I'm excited about this today. So what do you think
2:03
Speaker 1: about that? Dan? I agree? Yeah, dude, I uh. Anything
2:08
Speaker 1: that has to do with spreading a positive message and
2:11
Speaker 1: a good word I'm all for. Right on, So talking
2:15
Speaker 1: about a positive message and the good word, how are
2:18
Speaker 1: you doing today? Do you have a positive message today?
2:22
Speaker 1: I think the the five or ten minute conversation we
2:26
Speaker 1: had on before this before this recording started, We'll let
2:32
Speaker 1: you know that. But you know, out of out of
2:34
Speaker 1: all the days I've lived my life this this day
2:38
Speaker 1: here is not my best day ever. I'll put it
2:41
Speaker 1: to you that way. But I'll tell you what, coming
2:44
Speaker 1: and recording this shines a little light on my day
2:48
Speaker 1: brings me a little positive you know, like positive attitude.
2:51
Speaker 1: Some gives me some well needed good voodoo. I guess
2:57
Speaker 1: you could say, as opposed to all the other. Yes,
3:00
Speaker 1: I've been dealing with so I here. So are you
3:02
Speaker 1: saying that I'm the sunshine in your life? In a way?
3:06
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to sound like you know, fruitcakey,
3:11
Speaker 1: but you are in a way. Just just I want
3:14
Speaker 1: to hear you say that you're a beacon of hope. Mark,
3:17
Speaker 1: You're a beacon of hope. It's a beautiful thing. Yeah.
3:21
Speaker 1: I just heard I'm not going to say who you
3:22
Speaker 1: were talking to, but I just heard Dan throw down
3:25
Speaker 1: a little bit before we got on this. He goes,
3:27
Speaker 1: you are on my time now, so you're gonna wait.
3:33
Speaker 1: And you were talking to your two year old son
3:35
Speaker 1: right now, Yeah, right right. I had he ate too
3:38
Speaker 1: many popsicles and I had you on my time now.
3:45
Speaker 1: I gotta remember to shut the microphone off before I
3:49
Speaker 1: talked to anybody else outside of the of the podcast,
3:52
Speaker 1: you heard me yell at my dog, and then you
3:54
Speaker 1: heard me yell at somebody else. So that's so funny.
3:56
Speaker 1: The dog was awesome. I do remember that one. That
3:59
Speaker 1: was a right. So what else is new other than
4:01
Speaker 1: a rough day? Oh man, I got a honey do
4:04
Speaker 1: list done for my wife. I saw that on Instagram.
4:07
Speaker 1: That looks good. I'll tell you what. Our back deck
4:10
Speaker 1: has no shade, right, And I was watching a little
4:15
Speaker 1: d I Y Network, which is bad, you know, because
4:19
Speaker 1: not only was that this, my wife has always been like, hey,
4:24
Speaker 1: I want some shade. We can never use our back deck.
4:26
Speaker 1: It's so hot back there. So I build this little
4:29
Speaker 1: basically a shade wall. Right, it's not connected, it's connected
4:33
Speaker 1: to the deck, and I strung some lights up on
4:35
Speaker 1: it and made it look real cute. And my wife
4:39
Speaker 1: is happy, and I think, I just think that might
4:43
Speaker 1: equal one or two extra days those Brownie points in
4:48
Speaker 1: the tree stand this year. That's awesome. You should like
4:50
Speaker 1: keep track of all the different projects and brownie point
4:53
Speaker 1: and things you do, and then what you believe the
4:55
Speaker 1: estimated return investment in deer hunting leads to. We should
5:00
Speaker 1: look at that the end of the year. That would
5:02
Speaker 1: be like an insurance claim where the body shop says, uh,
5:06
Speaker 1: it's gonna cost eight thousand dollars and the insurance company goes, uh,
5:10
Speaker 1: we're gonna pay you a thousand. So so I could
5:13
Speaker 1: just okay, well, honey, based off all the projects I've
5:16
Speaker 1: completed this year, I'm gonna need about fifty four days
5:19
Speaker 1: off to hunt. It's just gonna go okay. Nice initial offer. Uh,
5:24
Speaker 1: And then she turns back said you're going to only
5:26
Speaker 1: get five. Uh. Gotta try that right. Oh yeah, it's
5:35
Speaker 1: funny life. Just it's a roller coaster. Dude, Just hold on.
5:40
Speaker 1: That's that's the truth. Do you do uh? Do you
5:43
Speaker 1: do any deer stuff lately? You got any progress made
5:45
Speaker 1: other than the honeydew? No? Um, I did. However, you
5:50
Speaker 1: know that gift that I'm talking about. You're gonna get that.
5:52
Speaker 1: You have to open up on the podcast. Yeah, yeah,
5:55
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna be picking that up here pretty soon. Wow,
5:58
Speaker 1: this is like, all right, something you have to pick up, man, Yeah,
6:02
Speaker 1: I gotta pick it up. There is a potential for
6:07
Speaker 1: this to meet be uh a mental orgasm. Wow. Wow.
6:14
Speaker 1: I don't even know how to respond to that. There's
6:17
Speaker 1: also a chance that I'm building this up to a
6:19
Speaker 1: way greater proportion than it deserves to be, Like that
6:23
Speaker 1: one time I built you up like that on an
6:24
Speaker 1: episode in the beginning, and I totally, I totally let
6:27
Speaker 1: you down. And that's my fault. Uh, none of us
6:32
Speaker 1: can be perfect in no, no, but what so I
6:35
Speaker 1: mean on my end, I haven't really done any type
6:38
Speaker 1: of dear stuff. I'll just be honest to you. So
6:41
Speaker 1: I'm gonna like flip the script and I'm gonna ask you,
6:44
Speaker 1: what have you done? I have I have continued continued
6:49
Speaker 1: checking or working through the checklist. Um. The big stuff
6:52
Speaker 1: I had done this weekend was Friday afternoon, got my
6:58
Speaker 1: food plat screens planted and fertilized and already to go.
7:02
Speaker 1: So that was good. I got that one area of
7:05
Speaker 1: my front food plot that now I've got a nice
7:07
Speaker 1: ten yard wide strip planet all the way around the outside.
7:11
Speaker 1: It's gonna block that off from the bigger field and
7:13
Speaker 1: from a road and some stuff like that. So a
7:16
Speaker 1: little nervous about that though, because I decided to plant
7:20
Speaker 1: that day because they're supposed to be rain on Saturday
7:23
Speaker 1: and Sunday and then again this week Tuesday and Thursday. Well,
7:28
Speaker 1: I've been I've been gone since Saturday, but I'm pretty
7:30
Speaker 1: sure when I looked at the weather, we didn't end
7:32
Speaker 1: up getting the rain we're supposed to get down there
7:34
Speaker 1: Saturday or Sunday, and now it's out of the forecast
7:37
Speaker 1: for the restless week. So now I'm I'm getting concerned
7:42
Speaker 1: about some rain issues and whether that's going to germinate
7:45
Speaker 1: and take or not. So I gotta keep an eye
7:48
Speaker 1: on that. And UM. The good thing is I'm around
7:50
Speaker 1: for a while longer. So worst case scenario, I guess
7:52
Speaker 1: I could I could replana to buy new seed and
7:55
Speaker 1: redo the whole stupid thing. But hopefully that's not the case.
7:58
Speaker 1: Hopefully we end up getting some rain this week and
7:59
Speaker 1: it'll be okay. But uh, we got that in and UM.
8:05
Speaker 1: Then I went to our northern Michigan property with my
8:07
Speaker 1: dad this weekend. R and UM did some food plot
8:12
Speaker 1: and habitat work up there. Um. You know, last year
8:15
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about how we made our
8:17
Speaker 1: first food plot up there. UM, so our goal this
8:20
Speaker 1: year was to improve that food plot and then expand
8:22
Speaker 1: into another area. We had a friend up there who
8:25
Speaker 1: had a tractor and he helped us kind of pull
8:27
Speaker 1: some stumps from the old spot and open up a
8:29
Speaker 1: couple other areas a little bit more. Um. So we
8:33
Speaker 1: went in there this weekend and cut out some more trees,
8:37
Speaker 1: sprayed the food plots to kill off the weed growth.
8:39
Speaker 1: There are lots of ferns and stuff. Um. And then
8:42
Speaker 1: we lined it all and we brought up like pounds
8:44
Speaker 1: or thousand pounds of lime, so put that on there
8:47
Speaker 1: because of vary acidic soil up there, super acidic, very sandy. Um.
8:50
Speaker 1: So we're just slowly over time trying to improve that
8:53
Speaker 1: pH level. So I got all that done and um.
8:56
Speaker 1: Then I hung a new tree stand up on one
8:58
Speaker 1: of those food plot areas, excuse me. And that's a
9:02
Speaker 1: great spot. It's tucked into like a a swath of
9:06
Speaker 1: pine trees, and I'm up in a pine tree and
9:09
Speaker 1: there's no anything that's gonna see me up there. Um.
9:11
Speaker 1: I had to carve out so many limbs just to
9:13
Speaker 1: be able to get the tree stand in there, and
9:15
Speaker 1: then to get a few shooting lanes. But it's it's
9:17
Speaker 1: blended in really nicely. So I've got a good setup
9:19
Speaker 1: on what's like the only food plot in the area.
9:22
Speaker 1: The only like high quality food in the area. Um,
9:25
Speaker 1: right on the edge of where this swampy stuff transitions
9:28
Speaker 1: out towards some fields out in the adjacent property. So
9:33
Speaker 1: you know, last year, you know, we saw deer activity
9:36
Speaker 1: on trail camera and a few times I hunted it there,
9:39
Speaker 1: unlike we've seen in decades out there. Um. So I'm
9:43
Speaker 1: really encouraged and excited by that, and I'm glad to
9:45
Speaker 1: be improving it. We we added probably will double the
9:48
Speaker 1: size of the food plot now with the new stuff
9:50
Speaker 1: we've got opened up. So it's been pretty sweet. I'm hoping,
9:54
Speaker 1: uh man. Of course I want to get it done
9:56
Speaker 1: in southern Michigan on holy Field. But if I could
9:59
Speaker 1: fill my second Michigan tag either on a public land
10:01
Speaker 1: buck down here or on a Northern Michigan buck, I mean,
10:03
Speaker 1: that would be just the coolest Michigan hunting season ever
10:06
Speaker 1: for me. So, and that's kind of crazy because you mentioned, um,
10:10
Speaker 1: you know, all the tradition you have with this deer
10:12
Speaker 1: camp up north. I think it would be And didn't
10:16
Speaker 1: you say you had a mature buck come on trail
10:19
Speaker 1: camera on your northern Michigan, Michigan property visiting that food plot. Yeah,
10:23
Speaker 1: several Like it's it's like, I mean, and we've we've
10:26
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about this, but I mean before this,
10:29
Speaker 1: there hadn't been anything but year and a half old's
10:31
Speaker 1: killed for like twenty years, and since like two thousand,
10:35
Speaker 1: Since two thousand, I think there's only been like two
10:37
Speaker 1: or three deer killed up there at all. Um. So,
10:40
Speaker 1: I mean it's been really really bad, but the last
10:42
Speaker 1: few years it seems to be getting a little better.
10:45
Speaker 1: Um And and yeah, I mean, but I think it
10:49
Speaker 1: would be awesome if Yeah, I think it'd be awesome
10:52
Speaker 1: if you could capitalize on that. Like I'm almost just
10:56
Speaker 1: as excited about the work that you've done on the
11:01
Speaker 1: Northern Michigan property because up there there's nothing right, that's
11:05
Speaker 1: just big woods, and that's your that's your typical high
11:08
Speaker 1: pressure rifle hunting type of scenario, right. And if you can,
11:13
Speaker 1: if you can be successful just with a couple terrain
11:16
Speaker 1: alter alterations food plots, that's that's just a testament for
11:22
Speaker 1: all that other you know, all that all that work
11:24
Speaker 1: that you've done from a you know, from a tree
11:27
Speaker 1: trimming and food plot planning kind of kind of thing,
11:30
Speaker 1: that that does equal you know, more dear or Bigger Box. Yeah,
11:36
Speaker 1: it would be. It would be incredibly um fulfilling to
11:41
Speaker 1: to be able to do that up there, because that
11:43
Speaker 1: is like the place where my very best moments as
11:46
Speaker 1: a hunter and all these formative moments in my life,
11:49
Speaker 1: um in the outdoors happened up there. So it'd be
11:51
Speaker 1: really cool to you know, to be able to have,
11:55
Speaker 1: you know, the hunting success that I'm looking for actually
11:58
Speaker 1: in a place like that. That means so much to me.
12:00
Speaker 1: And I think it's possible now that were you know,
12:02
Speaker 1: there's a couple bucks out there, I would actually want
12:04
Speaker 1: to shoot, um, which is incredible. And I'm you know,
12:08
Speaker 1: I think we're making some improvements. We're figuring it out
12:10
Speaker 1: up there. Yeah, I don't know, it would be. It
12:13
Speaker 1: would be cool. So I'm gonna try to devote some
12:14
Speaker 1: time and like early to mid October to go up there.
12:17
Speaker 1: Usually I just go up for gun hunting season up there,
12:20
Speaker 1: but I don't try to bow hunt it a little bit. Um,
12:22
Speaker 1: you know, I'll probably spend the best days down here,
12:24
Speaker 1: but maybe some other times, a couple off days, a
12:28
Speaker 1: weekend or something, get up there and give it a shot.
12:31
Speaker 1: So it's just it's so so different. Like you said,
12:34
Speaker 1: it's just big, big woods and swamp and there's not
12:37
Speaker 1: like eagg fields or anything. So um, when you open
12:41
Speaker 1: up a little spot like this like we did and
12:42
Speaker 1: put in something that's tasty, you know, it's the one
12:46
Speaker 1: little bit of ice cream in a large area, So
12:49
Speaker 1: it really pulls in deer. And I think what we
12:51
Speaker 1: had last year is a dope family group was consistently
12:56
Speaker 1: betting nearby and hitting this food plot. And in the
12:59
Speaker 1: past there was nothing like that, so we we didn't
13:01
Speaker 1: see hardly any deer at all. I mean, you'd have
13:03
Speaker 1: the whole group of guys, you know, four or five guys,
13:05
Speaker 1: and you'd hunt for a couple of weekends and like
13:07
Speaker 1: there might be like two dear scene for the whole group. Um,
13:11
Speaker 1: and now it's it's it's looking like it's going to change.
13:13
Speaker 1: So with that, with that dope family group or two
13:16
Speaker 1: in the area now that's hitting this food plot, there
13:18
Speaker 1: was a reason for bucks to come cruising through and
13:20
Speaker 1: stop by, and we had there were two different bucks
13:23
Speaker 1: during the hunting season that were definitely mature like bucks.
13:27
Speaker 1: There were there were two that were at least four
13:29
Speaker 1: There were two four year old bucks or older that
13:32
Speaker 1: had passed through that area. Um. I think one was
13:35
Speaker 1: during daylight. UM, that I would absolutely shoot. So if
13:40
Speaker 1: I put in a little more talent with there, it
13:42
Speaker 1: could be it could be pretty special. It would be cool.
13:44
Speaker 1: Is if I mean it's already cool. You're getting You're
13:49
Speaker 1: getting deer that you didn't think existed up there on
13:52
Speaker 1: on trail camera, just with some you know, with you know,
13:55
Speaker 1: a day or two of work. I think, Uh, I
13:58
Speaker 1: think it's only going to get better, especially if the
14:00
Speaker 1: neighbors or whoever owns the property around you doesn't do anything.
14:05
Speaker 1: And you know I should I should note. Um, it's
14:08
Speaker 1: important point out that another one of the reasons why
14:10
Speaker 1: I think we are starting to see some more mature bucks.
14:13
Speaker 1: Not only am I making habitat improvements, but also coinciding
14:16
Speaker 1: with that, a couple of years ago, this part of
14:19
Speaker 1: Michigan instituted Antler point restrictions. So this is the one
14:24
Speaker 1: part of Michigan where there is a minimum of three
14:28
Speaker 1: points per side, um to shoot a buck. And that
14:31
Speaker 1: had to work going into like the fourth year of
14:33
Speaker 1: that or something like that somewhere around there. Um, And
14:36
Speaker 1: I think I think that's certainly made a difference because
14:38
Speaker 1: there are other hunters around here, and if they're not
14:40
Speaker 1: shooting all the year and half old's like used to happen. Um,
14:43
Speaker 1: you know, it's certainly like I mean, I never would
14:46
Speaker 1: have imagined that I'd see a buck like we did
14:48
Speaker 1: on trail camera last year up there. Never ever would
14:50
Speaker 1: have thought that would be possible. And I gotta believe
14:53
Speaker 1: that that these restrictions has helped, have helped a little bit, right,
14:58
Speaker 1: that's awesome. I'm I am a huge supporter of antler restrictions. Yeah,
15:03
Speaker 1: it's a tough one. I um, I uh, this is
15:07
Speaker 1: a topic that I talked about, like, like I always say,
15:09
Speaker 1: like me and my buddies were talking about this just
15:12
Speaker 1: hanging out the other day that I like personally really
15:15
Speaker 1: liked them from my own personal goals. But then I
15:18
Speaker 1: also understand like why some people, you know want to
15:21
Speaker 1: go about it in their own way. And I also
15:23
Speaker 1: I'm starting thinking, well, I don't want to impose the
15:25
Speaker 1: fact that I want to be targeting the sure bucks
15:26
Speaker 1: onto you know someone else who maybe just wants to
15:30
Speaker 1: you know, go out once a year and that's a
15:32
Speaker 1: special time for them. So I understand both sides of
15:34
Speaker 1: the argument. But I do think there's a lot of
15:38
Speaker 1: benefits to the angler point restrictions. They've shown. There's been
15:41
Speaker 1: a lot of studies and surveys done up here in
15:43
Speaker 1: this part of northern Michigan, UM asking hunters, you know,
15:46
Speaker 1: what they thought about it, how it's impacted their hunting
15:48
Speaker 1: after three seasons or four seasons whatever, and hunter satisfaction
15:53
Speaker 1: UM took a noticeable increase since since implementing that, people
15:56
Speaker 1: have been enjoying it. They've been seeing more dear, more
15:59
Speaker 1: mature dear. Their experience has improved. It hasn't reduced the
16:03
Speaker 1: number of total harvest, I don't think, because there's been
16:06
Speaker 1: an increase in dough kill. UM. So people are still
16:08
Speaker 1: putting deer in the fraser, they're just seeing more mature bucks.
16:12
Speaker 1: They're seeing a more um, a better rut. And I
16:16
Speaker 1: think that's that's probably a net net good thing, UM Right.
16:20
Speaker 1: So it's a tricky one, but I personally would not
16:24
Speaker 1: mind seeing that implemented more so around us. So we'll
16:26
Speaker 1: see what happ right, amen, brother. Yeah, So unfortunately, uh,
16:33
Speaker 1: you cannot stick with us for our guests. I can't you, No,
16:36
Speaker 1: I got some conflict of interests to I don't think.
16:40
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the right term or not right.
16:42
Speaker 1: But time conflict scheduling, I have a time I have
16:45
Speaker 1: a scheduling conflict that popped up and I can't I
16:50
Speaker 1: can't make it. But uh, National Deer Alliance, man, they're
16:53
Speaker 1: doing some great things. Uh, and it's it's definitely an
16:57
Speaker 1: organization that I am. I am trying into support as
17:00
Speaker 1: much as possible. Yeah, man, and tell tell our listeners
17:03
Speaker 1: about your T shirts and your little donation program to
17:06
Speaker 1: the NDA. Oh yeah, Um, so I made a T
17:11
Speaker 1: shirt for the Nine Finger Chronicles. Um uh with my
17:16
Speaker 1: good buddy Justin Tsar, who um owns a T shirt
17:19
Speaker 1: company called busted Rack. Right, so he he helped me.
17:23
Speaker 1: He took care of all of all the costs to
17:26
Speaker 1: make the T shirt and we're selling it and all
17:29
Speaker 1: of my profits are going to be donated to the
17:33
Speaker 1: National Deer Alliance. What's cool about that is two of
17:39
Speaker 1: my partners, this is kind of new today, two of
17:41
Speaker 1: my partners, Deer Lab and Exodus Trail Cameras, have decided
17:46
Speaker 1: to match my donation to the National Deer Alliance as well.
17:51
Speaker 1: Uh so um that's just more money into the pocket
17:56
Speaker 1: of the organization so they can help, you know, do
18:01
Speaker 1: research on c w D or whatever they do to
18:05
Speaker 1: help benefit the deer hunters all across the nation. Very cool. Well,
18:10
Speaker 1: I think that's a that's a great idea and I'm
18:12
Speaker 1: excited to see that moving forward and people people matching
18:15
Speaker 1: it and making it happen. And uh that's the kind
18:18
Speaker 1: of thing that makes events like we're gonna be talking
18:20
Speaker 1: about here possible. And hopefully Nick will help shine a
18:23
Speaker 1: light on some of the different things that are going
18:25
Speaker 1: on since we talked to them last time. And uh,
18:28
Speaker 1: and I will let him know that you wish you
18:30
Speaker 1: could be here. So now let's take a quick break
18:34
Speaker 1: for a word from our good friends at sick Gear
18:37
Speaker 1: and our sickst story, and then we will dive right
18:41
Speaker 1: into our conversation with Nick. Here's producer Spencer new Hearth
18:45
Speaker 1: for this week's Sitka story. We're joined by Mark Butler,
18:48
Speaker 1: a Sitka White Tail ambassador, who tells us about an
18:51
Speaker 1: enlightening archery hunt, whereas Cammel fool that does eyes and knows.
18:57
Speaker 1: So I, uh, I tried to hunt a set that
19:00
Speaker 1: I've been waiting about a month to get into, and uh,
19:03
Speaker 1: I finally got the conditions right, I had to win
19:06
Speaker 1: that I needed and I slipped into this stand, and
19:10
Speaker 1: as the sun started to set, I noticed that the
19:13
Speaker 1: thermals were working against me, and uh, I was a
19:17
Speaker 1: little bit concerned at that point that, you know, the
19:19
Speaker 1: rest of my hunt might be a failure. A few
19:21
Speaker 1: minutes later, I have a mature dough step out and
19:25
Speaker 1: she has a couple of yearlings with her, and you know,
19:27
Speaker 1: through her time around me, she noticed that something wasn't right,
19:31
Speaker 1: and I think that she started to pick up my
19:34
Speaker 1: sin a little bit on the grass, and she proceeded
19:37
Speaker 1: to investigate, as those mature animals do, and she ended
19:40
Speaker 1: up working herself all the way over to the base
19:43
Speaker 1: of my tree and actually smelling one of the tree steps,
19:47
Speaker 1: to which she then proceeded to to stare up into
19:50
Speaker 1: the tree at me in the stand. Um, but I
19:53
Speaker 1: was wearing my sit elevated two opt to fate pattern
19:57
Speaker 1: and um, you know, I had my head tucked down
20:01
Speaker 1: with my chin against my chest and I was barely
20:03
Speaker 1: looking out underneath my hat brim and and she stared
20:06
Speaker 1: right at me a couple of times and turned around
20:07
Speaker 1: and walked away and took a couple of double takes,
20:12
Speaker 1: you know, to make sure that what she was seeing,
20:14
Speaker 1: you know, was was okay, And uh, she ended up
20:17
Speaker 1: hanging around, and um, you know, I attribute that to
20:21
Speaker 1: the effectiveness as the elevated two pattern, you know. Later
20:24
Speaker 1: on in the hunt there twenty minutes later, Uh, I
20:27
Speaker 1: have a mature buck step out about a hundred fifty
20:30
Speaker 1: yards away in a bean field. He proceeded to work
20:33
Speaker 1: his way down to us. And although I didn't get
20:35
Speaker 1: a shot, uh, you know, our harvest the animal I
20:37
Speaker 1: considered the hunt of success I do to the effectiveness
20:41
Speaker 1: of you know, the sick of gear pattern, and uh,
20:43
Speaker 1: you know, it was still very enjoyable and a great evening.
20:47
Speaker 1: On Mark's hunt, which took place in eastern Maryland, he
20:51
Speaker 1: was wearing Sitka's equalox system. If you'd like to create
20:55
Speaker 1: a story of your own, or to learn more about
20:57
Speaker 1: Sitka's technical hunting apparel, you can visit sick a gear
21:01
Speaker 1: dot com. All right here with this now on the
21:04
Speaker 1: show is Nick Penzotto from the National Deer Lions. Welcome back, Nick,
21:10
Speaker 1: glad to be here. Mark appreciate it. Yeah, and uh
21:13
Speaker 1: and I really appreciate you carving out some time in
21:15
Speaker 1: your schedule because you are a very very busy man
21:18
Speaker 1: this week. I gotta imagine and U currently if I'm wrong,
21:21
Speaker 1: but you're already You're down in Texas right now, getting
21:24
Speaker 1: ready for the summit to kick off. Is that right? Yeah?
21:28
Speaker 1: I'm actually down here attending the National Shooting Sports Foundation
21:32
Speaker 1: Industry Summit, which is something up's done in the last
21:35
Speaker 1: several years because it's an outstanding program, and when they
21:39
Speaker 1: were setting their schedule, we kind of teamed up and said,
21:41
Speaker 1: let's do the Deer Summit right after that event to
21:44
Speaker 1: try to capture some of each other's attendees, and with
21:47
Speaker 1: Chris Dolnac from NSSF being on the board of directors
21:50
Speaker 1: for NDA, that was a pretty easy thing to accomplish. So, yeah,
21:54
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in my hotel room having just packed up
21:58
Speaker 1: the last participant bag for the Deer Summit, so we're
22:02
Speaker 1: ready to launch here. That I was gonna ask, I
22:04
Speaker 1: was gonna say, so are you Are you ready and
22:06
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable to where you're at? Yeah? Absolutely. We
22:11
Speaker 1: had most everything in order, I think by the end
22:14
Speaker 1: of the previous week, which is a good thing. I
22:16
Speaker 1: had a busy personal schedule, so I wanted to get
22:19
Speaker 1: everything pretty much set and then I'm here early, A
22:22
Speaker 1: couple of the board members are here, and I've got
22:24
Speaker 1: some other folks I noticed starting to trickle in from
22:27
Speaker 1: the airport, and some other people that are helping just
22:31
Speaker 1: with logistics and and getting things pulled together are rolling in.
22:34
Speaker 1: So it's it's about go time, and it's it's one
22:38
Speaker 1: of those things where I'm really excited to have this event.
22:43
Speaker 1: I think we're going to get into some really intriguing
22:45
Speaker 1: topics with some really great people. But at the same time,
22:49
Speaker 1: I'll be relieved when it's over because you know, you're
22:53
Speaker 1: well aware that the NBA is still a pretty small shop,
22:56
Speaker 1: and it has dominated our time over the last well
23:00
Speaker 1: row months, but particularly the last six state weeks trying
23:02
Speaker 1: to get things lined up. So yeah, this is this
23:05
Speaker 1: is gonna be a big day for us to start tomorrow.
23:07
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So I wanna I'm hoping we can dive
23:12
Speaker 1: into a number of different things because you know, as
23:16
Speaker 1: I know, this is this is an important event and
23:19
Speaker 1: it's going to be relevant to to all deer and
23:22
Speaker 1: deer hunters. So my hope was that unfortunately I can't
23:25
Speaker 1: I can't be there the event with scheduling, but I
23:27
Speaker 1: was hoping we could at least bring some of the
23:31
Speaker 1: major topics that are going to discussed over the coming
23:33
Speaker 1: days to the attention of our listeners into this community,
23:36
Speaker 1: because of course, you know, if we're not informed of
23:38
Speaker 1: what's going on and aware of how we can actually
23:40
Speaker 1: do things to to make sure things are moving the
23:42
Speaker 1: right direction, you know, we we lose that control, we
23:45
Speaker 1: lose our influence, and that's not a good thing when
23:47
Speaker 1: it comes to the deer hunting community. And what I'm
23:50
Speaker 1: hoping then is is to cover a whole lot on
23:52
Speaker 1: the summit. But before all that, we talked with you,
23:55
Speaker 1: I think last maybe August or September. UM, maybe it
23:59
Speaker 1: was a little earlier than that, I'm not sure. But
24:01
Speaker 1: when it comes to the National Deer Alliance as a whole,
24:04
Speaker 1: above and beyond what's going on with the summit right now,
24:06
Speaker 1: I was curious, what's what's going on with the organization lately,
24:09
Speaker 1: what's kind of the state of the union, Um, anything
24:12
Speaker 1: particularly interesting as far as action as you guys have
24:15
Speaker 1: been taking or things you guys are moving forward on
24:17
Speaker 1: that would be of notre of interest to people. Yeah,
24:21
Speaker 1: I think big picture, you know, the National Deer Alliance
24:25
Speaker 1: is a real organization though, and not that, not that
24:29
Speaker 1: we weren't the last time we talked, and not that
24:31
Speaker 1: we weren't when the organization officially incorporated. But this is
24:39
Speaker 1: the first Dear Summit. For example, this is the third one.
24:42
Speaker 1: First it was one, now this one. But this is
24:47
Speaker 1: the first one that is fully hosted and run by
24:49
Speaker 1: the National Deer Alliance, which is pretty monumental because I
24:57
Speaker 1: think that's that's in our This is an arrival point
24:59
Speaker 1: for us. This is an opportunity to share with people
25:04
Speaker 1: who were at the initial summit before the words and
25:06
Speaker 1: National Deer Alliance, who were ever put together. The organization
25:09
Speaker 1: had no name then, it was just an idea someone
25:12
Speaker 1: you know, it's not someone, but about three people came
25:16
Speaker 1: to a consensus that we needed a national Deer Group.
25:18
Speaker 1: Than the Second Deer Summit was about, Okay, we have
25:22
Speaker 1: a we have a name, and now we have to
25:24
Speaker 1: put together an organization. And as you know, having been there,
25:27
Speaker 1: and a matter of fact, you handed me an NBA
25:29
Speaker 1: had at the time because I was using the ear
25:31
Speaker 1: Dear Summit hashtag. Yeah, that's right. I didn't know that
25:38
Speaker 1: was going to be the captains hat but at any rate,
25:42
Speaker 1: you know, we were participants in that, and as you know,
25:44
Speaker 1: at that time, it was still much and more as
25:47
Speaker 1: much of an idea as it was a real thing.
25:50
Speaker 1: So this is a big deal, you know. It it
25:53
Speaker 1: the things we'll talk about and I know we'll talk
25:55
Speaker 1: about this here later on the show are core elements
26:00
Speaker 1: of why the National Deer Alliance was formed. And we're
26:05
Speaker 1: holding very very closely to our mission and very very
26:08
Speaker 1: closely to the things that we determined to be key issues,
26:13
Speaker 1: and being a small organization, we have to do that,
26:16
Speaker 1: but we're doing it with you know, we're bringing in
26:19
Speaker 1: thirty plus experts from across the country to cover these
26:22
Speaker 1: topics and it's it's going to be different than what
26:25
Speaker 1: I think most people are used to, but I think
26:27
Speaker 1: in a good way. So that's the that's a big
26:30
Speaker 1: picture n DA. We're we're a real organization, and we've
26:33
Speaker 1: found out that we're needed, and we found out that
26:35
Speaker 1: there's more work than we can even keep up with.
26:37
Speaker 1: So that's good. Uh. You know, specifically, it's been a
26:40
Speaker 1: little bit of a slow time in the last couple
26:42
Speaker 1: of months with legislation across the country, and I think
26:46
Speaker 1: When a lot of average hunters think of legislation, they
26:50
Speaker 1: think of things that are specific to deer like and
26:53
Speaker 1: they may look at it's a change, and you see
26:54
Speaker 1: a lot of at this time of year, you see
26:55
Speaker 1: state setting their seasons and bag limits and which you
26:59
Speaker 1: can and can't do, And to a lot of I
27:01
Speaker 1: think average deer hunters, that's that's deer legislation. But there's
27:04
Speaker 1: so many other things that that impact deer like. I
27:07
Speaker 1: always tell people at any one time, there's probably a
27:09
Speaker 1: hundred different bills across the country that are impact deer hunters.
27:13
Speaker 1: So we could be talking about predator management for example,
27:16
Speaker 1: where you have states to try to limit hunting things
27:19
Speaker 1: like coyotes or mountain lions or Bobcastle. These are all
27:22
Speaker 1: deer issues. Habitat working in the farm bill is something
27:26
Speaker 1: we've We've got great partners with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation
27:30
Speaker 1: Partnership and Pheasants Forever who we haven't. We work on
27:33
Speaker 1: a program called CRP works, and a lot of deer
27:37
Speaker 1: hunters might not even know what CRP really is. What's
27:39
Speaker 1: a farm bill program and it's a very important one
27:42
Speaker 1: because it provides habitat and right now fonds are being dropped,
27:44
Speaker 1: or there are a lot of small fonds on the
27:46
Speaker 1: landscape and they're living in CRP. Well, if you start
27:49
Speaker 1: taking away CRP, or you cap the amount of area
27:52
Speaker 1: that those have for fawning, for example, that's a deer issue.
27:56
Speaker 1: So we get into these issues that are I don't
27:59
Speaker 1: want to call non traditional, but they're ones that I
28:02
Speaker 1: think that the the average deer hunter out there doesn't
28:04
Speaker 1: think a whole lot about or know a lot about.
28:06
Speaker 1: So these are ongoing and when you're working on the
28:08
Speaker 1: farm bill, for example, this is an ongoing thing. So
28:11
Speaker 1: someone might have raised an eyebrow and they heard me
28:13
Speaker 1: say pheasants forever as a partner. Well, you know, pheasants
28:19
Speaker 1: and deers share a lot of very important habitats, and
28:21
Speaker 1: we find ourselves being very very strong partners. And so
28:25
Speaker 1: they've got folks working on Capitol Hill all of the time,
28:29
Speaker 1: and we try to involve ourselves the best we can
28:31
Speaker 1: do that and most importantly informed deer hunters that you know,
28:34
Speaker 1: this impacts them as well. So a lot of issues
28:38
Speaker 1: we worked on I think thirty nine when I did
28:40
Speaker 1: my annual report last year, I think with thirty nine
28:42
Speaker 1: different issues across the country that we were involved in,
28:45
Speaker 1: which I think exceeded expectations because our our goal in
28:48
Speaker 1: year one and when we last talked was let's just
28:51
Speaker 1: get the organization put together and let's have a real
28:54
Speaker 1: infrastructure and have a have a uh strategic plan and
28:59
Speaker 1: have real goal and we accomplished all that, and then
29:01
Speaker 1: we built the brand new website, which I know you
29:03
Speaker 1: were a huge proponent of when you and I first
29:07
Speaker 1: started talking a couple of years ago about this, and
29:10
Speaker 1: I'm I think I'm pretty satisfied with our results there
29:15
Speaker 1: and we got this year, we're spending more time on
29:19
Speaker 1: promotion to the organization, so just trying to get the
29:22
Speaker 1: word out a little bit more. We launched a new
29:25
Speaker 1: program which I'm sure you saw with the Facebook live
29:28
Speaker 1: program Coffee and Dear as an example, to try to
29:31
Speaker 1: reach more people and answer more questions on a whole
29:34
Speaker 1: host of different issues. Getting on programs like Years which
29:38
Speaker 1: have huge followings is helpful to us. I mean, you're
29:42
Speaker 1: as a as a follower of your show myself, you
29:46
Speaker 1: know as well as I do. If you don't do
29:49
Speaker 1: of your shows at least on tactics and new gear
29:52
Speaker 1: and and the actual hunting of the animal. You're gonna
29:55
Speaker 1: be a dead show pretty quickly. But what we appreciate
29:59
Speaker 1: that you understand the importance of that ten you have
30:02
Speaker 1: to leave in the conservation and bigger issues like we're
30:04
Speaker 1: talking about here today. And so we're doing a lot
30:07
Speaker 1: of that, trying to trying to be on shows like
30:08
Speaker 1: yours and others to spread the word about the National
30:11
Speaker 1: Deer Lines and to get people involved. Now when I
30:16
Speaker 1: you know, as I worked to the National Deer Lines
30:18
Speaker 1: over the years, one of the questions that I was
30:20
Speaker 1: always getting from people was, you know, what what does
30:24
Speaker 1: the National Deer Lines do? Like there's all these ideas,
30:27
Speaker 1: but like what does the actual action being taken? And
30:30
Speaker 1: I think that's becoming more and more clear. But to
30:33
Speaker 1: your point a second ago, you were talking about some
30:35
Speaker 1: of these specific issues, whether it be the farm bill, um,
30:38
Speaker 1: you know, dealing with CRP or predator management and things
30:41
Speaker 1: like that. UM. Just to kind of flesh things out, um,
30:45
Speaker 1: to help people better kind of put all this in
30:47
Speaker 1: context or understand how does an organization like the n
30:50
Speaker 1: d A, you know, what kind of action actually can
30:53
Speaker 1: be taken? Is it is it just is it just
30:55
Speaker 1: putting the word out there because I know that's an
30:56
Speaker 1: important thing, but I think there's also some behind the
30:59
Speaker 1: scenes stuff going on, um too. Can you just elaborate
31:02
Speaker 1: on a little bit to add some color. Sure, Yeah,
31:06
Speaker 1: I talked about the farm bill already. Is one thing
31:08
Speaker 1: that we work on, have been working on pretty hard.
31:12
Speaker 1: Hunter access. We're gonna talk about that in the Deer Summit,
31:16
Speaker 1: and I'm sure we'll get into the topics here later.
31:18
Speaker 1: But um, you know, and unfortunately none of this tends
31:21
Speaker 1: to be exciting. It tends to be meetings and working
31:23
Speaker 1: with stay at lunch today with the state Wildlife director
31:26
Speaker 1: from Indiana, for example. It takes a lot of effort
31:29
Speaker 1: to get around all fifty states and to try to
31:32
Speaker 1: try to get things accomplished in a lot of relationships.
31:34
Speaker 1: As there's some of that work, you know, NDA is
31:36
Speaker 1: still very much trying to be looked upon as a
31:41
Speaker 1: real authority in the deer world by state agencies, for example,
31:44
Speaker 1: so that we can take messages to them from sportsmen
31:47
Speaker 1: and try to get good things accomplished. So, you know,
31:50
Speaker 1: there's that part of it. We haven't even talked yet
31:52
Speaker 1: about chronic wasting disease, but that has been Other than
31:57
Speaker 1: the deer sum in recent weeks, that has consumed most
31:59
Speaker 1: of my time and the Beer Alliance is time. And
32:02
Speaker 1: one thing we've we've been doing is positioning ourselves as
32:05
Speaker 1: a lead convener on that issue. So what I mean
32:08
Speaker 1: by that is we're not the scientists, so we're not
32:10
Speaker 1: the one solving cw D. We're not the ones studying it,
32:13
Speaker 1: but we're convening the people who are studying it. We're
32:15
Speaker 1: convening the state agencies, other non government organizations like ours,
32:21
Speaker 1: so that number one, we have a we have a
32:24
Speaker 1: strong unified position, so that we're not out there spreading
32:28
Speaker 1: different types of information and confusing people. Um and sometimes
32:33
Speaker 1: you just need somebody that serves as the conduit for
32:36
Speaker 1: these important conversations that happened. So we've been doing a
32:39
Speaker 1: lot of that. We submitted comments to the U. S
32:42
Speaker 1: d A last year regarding their regarding their c w
32:47
Speaker 1: D program. For example, We've convened meetings at Shot Show
32:51
Speaker 1: with key individuals and stakeholders on the disease. Um. It's uh,
32:58
Speaker 1: I know, I know I'm missing stuff because you know
33:00
Speaker 1: that my head is kind of spending with all the
33:02
Speaker 1: things we've done. But those are things that the we
33:06
Speaker 1: try to report on the best we can. We try
33:08
Speaker 1: to get it on our website and in our newsletter,
33:10
Speaker 1: but largely a lot of the stuff we're doing on
33:13
Speaker 1: a daily basis not everyone sees. So it's appreciate you
33:17
Speaker 1: giving me the opportunity to kind of, you know, layout
33:20
Speaker 1: how a week in the life of the National Deer
33:23
Speaker 1: a lines for example, might might unfold. And to your point,
33:27
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's not always the kind of thing
33:30
Speaker 1: that is like super sexy or like sounds like all
33:35
Speaker 1: this is like it's hard to say, well, you know,
33:38
Speaker 1: we influenced X with this specific thing and it resulted
33:43
Speaker 1: in this massive change. You know it's gonna help dear
33:45
Speaker 1: and deer hunters. But I can tell you from you know,
33:47
Speaker 1: just my personal involvement over the years, especially last year,
33:51
Speaker 1: just talking to you every week and here, okay, Nick's
33:54
Speaker 1: going to this meeting, Nick is at this convention, Nick
33:57
Speaker 1: is speaking at this thing. Nick is I mean you
33:59
Speaker 1: were all over the country, you know, being a part
34:02
Speaker 1: of important discussions related to deer or speaking and um
34:06
Speaker 1: sharing your expertise or bringing people together to talk about
34:09
Speaker 1: all these different issues. I mean, it's very apparent, at
34:11
Speaker 1: least from the inside seeing um, the increased reach of
34:15
Speaker 1: of the n D A by way of some of
34:17
Speaker 1: the things you're working on. Um. And I'm sure while
34:21
Speaker 1: there may not be and there probably already are some things,
34:23
Speaker 1: but it may not be as easy to point and say,
34:26
Speaker 1: you know, this action created this big difference yet, but
34:29
Speaker 1: I know that all of this groundwork you're laying, all
34:32
Speaker 1: these relationships, you're building, all this building of influence and
34:35
Speaker 1: uh um, I guess yeah, influence with all these different parties,
34:40
Speaker 1: it's going to translate to positive things because as you said,
34:43
Speaker 1: you know, you are established in the National Deer Alliance
34:45
Speaker 1: as a as a resource, as an expert, as as
34:48
Speaker 1: a an organization that can be turned to when people
34:52
Speaker 1: needed help making decisions about things, or when they need
34:55
Speaker 1: help pushing something forward. Um. So that's I see that
34:58
Speaker 1: as as super positive encourage jink and I've been excited
35:01
Speaker 1: to see that, and I think from what it sounds like,
35:03
Speaker 1: we're only going to start seeing more and more results
35:05
Speaker 1: in the future. Yeah, and I hope so. And that's
35:09
Speaker 1: that's really the theme of what the Deer Someone is about. Mark,
35:12
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna you know, one of the first things
35:14
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say at the podium as we kicked this
35:17
Speaker 1: thing off tomorrow is uh, you know, the this is
35:22
Speaker 1: the time of talking about talking about it is over.
35:24
Speaker 1: You know, we used the first two deer some much
35:26
Speaker 1: to talk about the issues to get them out there.
35:28
Speaker 1: But this is the time too. You know, when we
35:31
Speaker 1: leave this, dear someone, we're gonna set the path forward
35:34
Speaker 1: for real action, really doing things. You know, We're gonna
35:38
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about what do we really know about
35:41
Speaker 1: CW doing, What do we really need to do to
35:43
Speaker 1: get the message to hunters so that they understand it
35:46
Speaker 1: and to respect it, not necessarily be fearful of it.
35:48
Speaker 1: We don't scare people from the sport. So messaging is
35:51
Speaker 1: so important, and that's why we're bringing in people from
35:54
Speaker 1: universities and you're not necessarily you're likely suspects that you
35:57
Speaker 1: would see at a deer conference to talk to us
36:00
Speaker 1: about messaging because at the end of the day, even myself,
36:02
Speaker 1: I mean, I find myself in these meetings and like
36:05
Speaker 1: you know, I'd rather be flipping through my outdoor life
36:08
Speaker 1: or built and stream and you know, thinking about where
36:11
Speaker 1: to hang my trail cameras and all this stuff. Because
36:14
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. I'm a I'm a hunter,
36:16
Speaker 1: you know, That's that's what I gets me excited. And
36:19
Speaker 1: somehow I ended up, you know, being on this end
36:21
Speaker 1: of things. But someone, someone has to do that, and
36:24
Speaker 1: then that's what the the NBA is all about. So
36:26
Speaker 1: you know, we had we had one good example I
36:28
Speaker 1: should have mentioned earlier, and that was we made a
36:30
Speaker 1: call to the Minnesota Department of Animal Health too taking
36:35
Speaker 1: a look for that for that organization to be investigated
36:39
Speaker 1: because of continual issues they're having with captive deer management
36:42
Speaker 1: in that state. And that spurred some real action. You know,
36:46
Speaker 1: we know that there are some people looking closely at
36:48
Speaker 1: things and at his open some eyes that we would
36:52
Speaker 1: put that strong of a message out there. And I
36:53
Speaker 1: think as the NBA grows, um, you know, gains tracks
37:00
Speaker 1: in gains respect, you're going to see I think more
37:04
Speaker 1: of that stuff where there'll be an issue we're going
37:08
Speaker 1: to weigh in on. It might take a hard stance
37:11
Speaker 1: and it will result in some type of action. So
37:13
Speaker 1: that was probably a real tangible example I should have
37:17
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier. That's a great example. So so let's let's
37:21
Speaker 1: dive in further there. When it comes to the summit, you.
37:24
Speaker 1: We've kind of talked high level um, but what exactly
37:27
Speaker 1: is happening at the summit? I mean, can you walk
37:29
Speaker 1: us through, like maybe maybe even almost what the agenda
37:32
Speaker 1: looks like. I mean if people you know, however many
37:34
Speaker 1: people are tending, what are they actually in for these
37:36
Speaker 1: next few days. Yeah? Absolutely, and I'll just walk right
37:40
Speaker 1: through the program. So you we'll kick off tomorrow at
37:43
Speaker 1: two o'clock, right after the NSSF Industry Summit finishes up,
37:48
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna do just a kickoff and much of
37:54
Speaker 1: what I talked about earlier in this call, give people
37:56
Speaker 1: an update on what the NBA has been doing. So
37:59
Speaker 1: that'll be mine presentation, and then we'll have Kip Adams
38:03
Speaker 1: from q d m A doing the State of the
38:04
Speaker 1: White Tail Report, and he nobody does that better than him,
38:09
Speaker 1: So it's great to have kick from the q d
38:11
Speaker 1: m A partners here. And then I'm gonna have Jim
38:14
Speaker 1: heppel Finger from the Mule Deer Foundation or I'm sorry,
38:16
Speaker 1: not the Hull Deer Foundation, from the Mule Deer Working Group.
38:19
Speaker 1: They work closely with the Mule Deer Foundation. He's going
38:22
Speaker 1: to give the State of the Mule Deer Report. So
38:23
Speaker 1: I've got to really top notch people to to lead
38:27
Speaker 1: us off and talk about what is the state of
38:29
Speaker 1: white tails and mule deer in the country. And then
38:32
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about the farm Bill. And I mentioned
38:34
Speaker 1: Theodore Is about conservation partnership earlier with Horsburg. Their CEO
38:38
Speaker 1: is is going to be here to give a presentation
38:41
Speaker 1: on farm bill and and why deer hunters need to
38:43
Speaker 1: care about it. A matter of fact, the title of
38:45
Speaker 1: his talk is a Deer hunters slash Manager's Guide to
38:47
Speaker 1: the Farm Bill. And then our friends at Eddie, since
38:51
Speaker 1: we're in Austin and they're literally a mile away from here,
38:55
Speaker 1: they've invited us down to their shop, to their new flagship,
38:58
Speaker 1: and we're gonna have a nicer ouption down there. And
39:00
Speaker 1: we'll have Nick Wiley, the the executive director of Florida
39:05
Speaker 1: Fish and Wildlife and Conservation Commission. He's also the president
39:08
Speaker 1: of the Associate Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. He's
39:11
Speaker 1: gonna be our our dinner speaker. Nick's a just such
39:14
Speaker 1: a positive guy and a and a strong speaker, and
39:16
Speaker 1: he works and probably I don't even have probably not
39:20
Speaker 1: even fair. I'm gonna just say the most difficult state
39:22
Speaker 1: to work and when you look at all of the
39:24
Speaker 1: myriad of issues that the state Wildlife Agency would face
39:27
Speaker 1: in a state like Florida, from uh, you know, the
39:30
Speaker 1: oceanic issues to the to all the things they've got
39:34
Speaker 1: on land there that are different than in a lot
39:36
Speaker 1: of states, and uh, you know, everything from alligators to
39:39
Speaker 1: keep here. They've got They've got it all. And Nick
39:42
Speaker 1: has done just a great job. They're so excited to
39:44
Speaker 1: have him from it and talk. And then the second day,
39:47
Speaker 1: and this is something that I'm that I'm doing that
39:50
Speaker 1: I think is really unique, and that is the entire
39:52
Speaker 1: day is panel discussions. And I did that for a
39:55
Speaker 1: couple of reasons. One it's a bit selfish because I
39:58
Speaker 1: I can't stand sitting in an all day meeting and
40:00
Speaker 1: being talked at, So I think it keeps the program
40:04
Speaker 1: going and flowing in a little more exciting fashion. And
40:07
Speaker 1: the other thing is it allows you to get so
40:10
Speaker 1: many more experts in the room. So every one of
40:12
Speaker 1: these panel discussions, and I'll go through them here, will
40:15
Speaker 1: have a moderator who's knowledgeable and five panelists. So you're
40:21
Speaker 1: looking at six people that are going to be on
40:23
Speaker 1: the panel and then we'll open it up to questions
40:26
Speaker 1: from the audience, and each of these panels are an
40:27
Speaker 1: hour long. So we're gonna start off with how do
40:29
Speaker 1: we improve hunter access, a key key issue in in
40:33
Speaker 1: deer hunting, and why we lose hunters because people don't
40:35
Speaker 1: have a place to go. And I've got folks from
40:38
Speaker 1: a couple of state a couple of states that have
40:40
Speaker 1: really good programs in North Dakota and Kansas. I've got
40:44
Speaker 1: Land Honey from backcountry Hunters and Anglers and that organization
40:48
Speaker 1: and RAND have been very much in the forefront. And
40:50
Speaker 1: I know you've done your best to get the word
40:52
Speaker 1: out about the public land issue, particularly in the West.
40:56
Speaker 1: Larry Williams from US Fish and Wildlife Service and Dan
40:59
Speaker 1: Forster from the Archery Trade Association of former state director
41:02
Speaker 1: and George is going to moderate that one. So that's
41:05
Speaker 1: gonna be a really good topic for sure. And then
41:08
Speaker 1: we're gonna jump into c w D, and we have
41:11
Speaker 1: we have two panels specific to c w D because
41:13
Speaker 1: it really is the biggest issue I think in the
41:15
Speaker 1: deer world right now. We're gonna start off with what
41:17
Speaker 1: do we actually know about c w D. We have
41:20
Speaker 1: Dr John Fisher from the University of Georgia. Here one
41:23
Speaker 1: of the top experts on the disease. Sara Rolla is
41:26
Speaker 1: coming from Preventative Safety Research Inc. Out of Canada, and
41:30
Speaker 1: Daryl is a nationally internationally known speaker on this disease
41:33
Speaker 1: and is excited to be here to participate. Cornell University,
41:37
Speaker 1: Dr Christian Schuler, Dr Kelly Stroka from Michigan D and R,
41:40
Speaker 1: and Dr Marywood from Wyoming Game and Fish. That's a
41:43
Speaker 1: panel of doctors, an expert state vets. I mean, I'm
41:46
Speaker 1: just really excited to hear those folks talk talk and
41:49
Speaker 1: Kip Adams is going to moderate that one. Uh, We're
41:53
Speaker 1: then we're gonna go into c w D and the
41:55
Speaker 1: challenge is States by state Wildlife Agency because it's not
41:57
Speaker 1: just the disease itself is a huge issue, it's how
42:01
Speaker 1: to states manage it. And we've got every one of
42:03
Speaker 1: the states that are represented on this panel are states
42:06
Speaker 1: that have c w D and they all have very
42:08
Speaker 1: unique issues. So Wisconsin, for example, has had the knee
42:13
Speaker 1: deep in c w D forever. They unfortunately sort of
42:16
Speaker 1: led led the way into the c w D awareness
42:20
Speaker 1: with that whenever they had the outbreak there. So they've
42:22
Speaker 1: been at it probably the longest, and we've about Colorado, Arkansas, Wyoming,
42:25
Speaker 1: and Texas all represented on that panel, and they all,
42:28
Speaker 1: like I said, face varying challenges because of it. And
42:34
Speaker 1: then you know, I haven't been shy about telling people
42:37
Speaker 1: this is the one and most excited about, and that's
42:39
Speaker 1: why I chose to moderate this one, and that is
42:42
Speaker 1: navigating the political and social science of deer management. One
42:46
Speaker 1: of the themes that came out of the first Dear
42:49
Speaker 1: Summit and into the second one was this idea that
42:51
Speaker 1: so few deer hunters involved themselves, are aware of issues
42:55
Speaker 1: or join national de organizations. So we've got the ore
43:00
Speaker 1: hunting industry or deer hunters, but one percent or less
43:03
Speaker 1: will actually join and get active in things. And that's
43:05
Speaker 1: a that's a scary thing. So we're gonna have some
43:08
Speaker 1: human dimensions Yeah, I mean, we're gonna have some human
43:10
Speaker 1: dimensions experts on this panel, myself with the psychology background,
43:16
Speaker 1: to talk about how do we get to these folks
43:18
Speaker 1: and how do we get your listeners, for example, to
43:21
Speaker 1: care about the issues. So we have Dr Luke corn
43:24
Speaker 1: Asli from the Minnesota d n R, Anthony Locatta, from
43:28
Speaker 1: UH from Bond your corporation. You'll know him mostly from
43:32
Speaker 1: the Outdoor Life and Field and Stream right are two
43:34
Speaker 1: biggest outdoor hunting magazines. You know. Anthony's in charge of
43:37
Speaker 1: those and I think his perspective is someone that has
43:40
Speaker 1: to They have to be pretty good at messaging and
43:42
Speaker 1: getting their getting hunters interested in things, and they wouldn't
43:45
Speaker 1: be in business. We have a doctor and Dr Katherine
43:49
Speaker 1: McComas from Cornell University. We've been working quite a bit
43:52
Speaker 1: with Cornell, trying to lean on some of their expertise.
43:55
Speaker 1: We are are members that may be your listeners as well,
43:59
Speaker 1: hopefully participated in Cornell's study that we're a survey that
44:02
Speaker 1: we put out a couple of weeks ago. Dr Craig
44:05
Speaker 1: Miller from the Illinois Natural History Survey and Dr Grant
44:07
Speaker 1: Wood's who I know a lot of your listeners know
44:09
Speaker 1: from Growing Deer. These are all people that deal with
44:12
Speaker 1: messaging and communicating with hunters and we have to figure out,
44:17
Speaker 1: for example, I mentioned, how do we inform hunters about
44:20
Speaker 1: c w D with good information by the way, but
44:24
Speaker 1: not scare them from the sport. You know, how do
44:25
Speaker 1: we get them involved in a positive way and I
44:27
Speaker 1: hope those are some of the things that we get
44:29
Speaker 1: to and then our final panel will be NDA and
44:32
Speaker 1: Partnership of Hunters, Industry and State Wildlife Agencies, and it's
44:35
Speaker 1: talking about how can NDA be most effective working with
44:40
Speaker 1: all these groups. So we have a fellow by the
44:43
Speaker 1: name of Tim don Just who is a I'll just
44:45
Speaker 1: describe him as a hardcore hunter. This is a guy
44:48
Speaker 1: who lived in Pennsylvania and moved to Kansas just because
44:50
Speaker 1: the deer hunting was better. Uh yeah, So he's hardcore,
44:55
Speaker 1: very active in t d m A. We have a
44:58
Speaker 1: representation from the Congressional Sports This Foundation who we have
45:01
Speaker 1: a good relationship with a matter of fact, with a
45:03
Speaker 1: memorandum of understanding with them. We work on issues together.
45:06
Speaker 1: Chip Honeycut from Marcus Hunting. That's a company that owned
45:09
Speaker 1: several archery products that people were familiar with. Wayne Laroche
45:14
Speaker 1: from the Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pennsylvania obviously being one of
45:18
Speaker 1: the top deer hunting states in the country. And Andrew
45:20
Speaker 1: McKean from Bonnier and the executive editor of Outdoor Life magazine.
45:24
Speaker 1: Andrew as your recall, Mark was one of the big
45:27
Speaker 1: proponents for a national Deer organization, So we've brought him
45:30
Speaker 1: back and we're gonna get his take and his perspective.
45:33
Speaker 1: So to have people like Lakata and McKean together in
45:36
Speaker 1: the same room, I think the only place we've ever
45:39
Speaker 1: accomplished that before was its Shot show. You know, it's
45:42
Speaker 1: a social gatherings in the evenings. They're just so such
45:45
Speaker 1: busy guys, and for them to take time out of
45:48
Speaker 1: their schedule to travel down here and do this, I
45:50
Speaker 1: think says a lot. So we're excited about that. And
45:53
Speaker 1: then I'll wrap it up after that, and I'm gonna
45:56
Speaker 1: take the information we've gained and form my final talk,
45:59
Speaker 1: which I don't know what it'll be yet because I'm
46:01
Speaker 1: gonna wait and just pull in the themes from the
46:03
Speaker 1: event and then sum it up. So I feel really
46:07
Speaker 1: good about it. Like I said, over thirty national international
46:11
Speaker 1: experts on deer and deer management and the hunting. I
46:15
Speaker 1: don't know if I've ever seen such a what I
46:17
Speaker 1: would call a powerhouse program to talk about deer issues
46:21
Speaker 1: like we're going to do it. So I'm pretty excited.
46:24
Speaker 1: It's a heck of a slate. I listening to you
46:27
Speaker 1: list all those names off and all the topics again,
46:29
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking I'm like, gosh, I would love to
46:31
Speaker 1: be able to be there. Um And you know, speaking
46:34
Speaker 1: of that, do you guys have plans to to record
46:38
Speaker 1: anything share anything through social media? I mean, for those
46:41
Speaker 1: of us that aren't there, is there going to be
46:43
Speaker 1: any way that we can see or hear any portions
46:46
Speaker 1: of it? Yeah? And I think the biggest thing you
46:49
Speaker 1: can do is follow our social channels. We're going to
46:51
Speaker 1: do our best too, the active on Twitter and Instagram
46:55
Speaker 1: and Facebook. Tomorrow morning we're going to do a Facebook
46:58
Speaker 1: live are Pockey and deer prob him at our normal
47:00
Speaker 1: time and my guests will be Ben O'Brien from Yettie
47:04
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about some issues. Ben's a big time
47:06
Speaker 1: hunter on top of being a marketing two route down
47:10
Speaker 1: there at Yetie, such a good partner over the years,
47:13
Speaker 1: so I have him on. That will be pre summit,
47:15
Speaker 1: but we'll be going over some of the things you
47:17
Speaker 1: and I are talking about here, and again, just our
47:20
Speaker 1: social channels. We're not going to stream the whole thing.
47:22
Speaker 1: We're not really prepared with technology at the stream the
47:26
Speaker 1: whole thing on Facebook Live for example. Maybe by the
47:28
Speaker 1: next time it will be a little a little more
47:30
Speaker 1: prepared to do that. So, um, that's probably the best
47:34
Speaker 1: way to follow what's happening. Okay, cool, So what ultimately,
47:39
Speaker 1: when this thing is all said and done, what is
47:42
Speaker 1: your hope? What what's the goal of all this going
47:44
Speaker 1: to be? What's the the action item or the final
47:48
Speaker 1: piece of tangible something at the end of all this.
47:51
Speaker 1: What do you want that to be? I think the
47:54
Speaker 1: first thing is I want to make sure that we
47:55
Speaker 1: paint a picture of what's going on in the dear world,
47:58
Speaker 1: the real picture. And when I say the real picture,
48:02
Speaker 1: that is the picture that is way bigger than just
48:06
Speaker 1: when does deer season start and end in my state?
48:08
Speaker 1: And what can I use to shoot them? Or you know,
48:12
Speaker 1: that's that's the hunting, right, but the deer, the whole
48:14
Speaker 1: picture of what's going on in the deer world. You
48:17
Speaker 1: know what? What an end from there? We need to
48:20
Speaker 1: point to real actions to make a difference. So great,
48:25
Speaker 1: we've had this great discussion on deer hunting and access.
48:30
Speaker 1: What are we gonna do about it? And I think
48:32
Speaker 1: people will hear me say that throughout the event. This
48:34
Speaker 1: is great, but what are we gonna do about it?
48:35
Speaker 1: So to force people to start thinking about what the
48:37
Speaker 1: next steps are. And it's not gonna be fair to
48:40
Speaker 1: us just here at the summit to develop those but
48:43
Speaker 1: I think we'll take the information back, we'll look at it,
48:46
Speaker 1: and we'll push out some of these things as as
48:49
Speaker 1: time goes on. But I think it's a real called action.
48:51
Speaker 1: It's a it's a call to action to what I
48:54
Speaker 1: refer to as being a well rounded hunter. And a
48:58
Speaker 1: well rounded hunter nowadays is not what we grew up with,
49:02
Speaker 1: which was, you know, I know how to hunt with
49:06
Speaker 1: a bow and a gun, and I know how to
49:09
Speaker 1: hang a trail camera, build grow food plot. It's it's
49:13
Speaker 1: that's not a well rounded deer hunter. A well rounded
49:16
Speaker 1: deer hunter is also being ware of the issues because
49:19
Speaker 1: in the at this time in our society, it's required.
49:24
Speaker 1: There's so many issues and so many people trying to
49:27
Speaker 1: skew what deer hunting is and even to some extent,
49:30
Speaker 1: take away our ability to hunt deer. We need to
49:34
Speaker 1: be more well rounded and we all have that responsibility.
49:36
Speaker 1: It's no longer good enough to just say, well, I'm
49:39
Speaker 1: a hunter, and yeah, you have to find time. I
49:42
Speaker 1: did gave a talk. It's not all that long ago.
49:44
Speaker 1: In Pennsylvania. I told the group, you know, if you
49:46
Speaker 1: can do one thing for him, you find time to
49:48
Speaker 1: at least get involved in one issue, just one issue
49:50
Speaker 1: that you may not have before, right, one letter to
49:53
Speaker 1: a legislator that you maybe had never done that before,
49:56
Speaker 1: and that'll get the ball rolling and help get people
49:58
Speaker 1: to understand if there's it's much bigger than just going
50:01
Speaker 1: out an opening day and hoping for good luck. Yeah.
50:05
Speaker 1: So true and and to your point, for whatever reason, unfortunately,
50:09
Speaker 1: as a deer hunting community, it's been relatively I don't
50:13
Speaker 1: know if it's apathetic um or or something, but to
50:17
Speaker 1: that that number you you mentioned earlier than only only
50:20
Speaker 1: one per cent of the largest group of hunters in
50:23
Speaker 1: the country is actually involved in a deer related organization
50:26
Speaker 1: like this. I mean there's so much runway, there's so
50:29
Speaker 1: much um that what am I trying to say? There's
50:32
Speaker 1: so much potential for action and things we can do
50:35
Speaker 1: if if a larger proportion of that group does somebody saying,
50:38
Speaker 1: gets involved and starts paying attention um and and we
50:42
Speaker 1: have to do it right. I mean, it's it's required,
50:45
Speaker 1: like you said, yeah, because to be honest with you,
50:49
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't mean crap. If I just go
50:51
Speaker 1: in personally, and let's say I'm sitting across the desk
50:55
Speaker 1: from a high ranking legislator in d C. I if
51:00
Speaker 1: I'm just sitting there talking about we need to do this,
51:02
Speaker 1: we need to do that, that's not going to move
51:04
Speaker 1: the needle. You know what moves the needle is me
51:08
Speaker 1: saying on behalf of our x number of members and
51:12
Speaker 1: this is why, this is why this is important, and
51:14
Speaker 1: why we need you to do something about it. And
51:16
Speaker 1: then on the back end of that, he or she
51:19
Speaker 1: is hearing from people who care about the issues. Whether
51:22
Speaker 1: whether it be through our grassroots advocacy system on our website,
51:26
Speaker 1: phone calls, letters, even tweets, it doesn't matter. They just
51:30
Speaker 1: need to hear the noise from the group of people
51:32
Speaker 1: that care about it. So that's what moves the needle.
51:35
Speaker 1: The constituents move the needle. The masses moved the needle.
51:38
Speaker 1: So we really need the National Deer Lines will only
51:40
Speaker 1: be as strong any of our dear organizations, will only
51:43
Speaker 1: be as strong as our membership allows us to be,
51:46
Speaker 1: and we need people to to really do that. I
51:50
Speaker 1: I would like to ask you some unfair questions, Nick,
51:54
Speaker 1: So forgive me in advance. But you just listed a
51:59
Speaker 1: handful of different issues there that are going to be
52:01
Speaker 1: covered at the summit, that are going to be discussed
52:04
Speaker 1: and covered by a panel of five or six different
52:06
Speaker 1: people per issue. I'm going to ask you to take
52:09
Speaker 1: the unfair burden of trying to cover each of those
52:12
Speaker 1: issues solo, UM as best as you possibly can, to
52:15
Speaker 1: give us at least a primery if you can, on
52:18
Speaker 1: what you expect to be discussed or what you've been
52:21
Speaker 1: involved in leading up to this point. And I'd like
52:23
Speaker 1: to start with c w D, since you mentioned that
52:25
Speaker 1: might be the very most important issue right now in
52:27
Speaker 1: the deer hunting world. UM, where do things stand on
52:31
Speaker 1: c w D? What have what have we been learning
52:34
Speaker 1: over recent months, in last year? UM? What do we
52:37
Speaker 1: need to know right now? You know? I think and
52:43
Speaker 1: this is why we're starting off. What we know about
52:46
Speaker 1: c w D, And I think what we need to
52:49
Speaker 1: know right now is that there's a lot of information
52:51
Speaker 1: out there about the disease and at least half of
52:54
Speaker 1: it is bad. Okay, at least half of it is
52:57
Speaker 1: bad information. At least half of it is being driven
52:59
Speaker 1: by people who have agendas to make it not seem
53:02
Speaker 1: like it's an important issue, and that's unfortunate. So we
53:10
Speaker 1: need to put out we need to say what we
53:12
Speaker 1: know about the disease. And and by the way, people
53:14
Speaker 1: who have an opposing view, and they're not only they're
53:16
Speaker 1: not necessarily wrong on everything, okay, but when they whenever
53:19
Speaker 1: you characterize it as something we shouldn't be concerned about
53:22
Speaker 1: and it's something that will weed its way out of
53:23
Speaker 1: that's that's irresponsible because we don't know. I'd be great,
53:26
Speaker 1: I'd be great, by the way, if that was the case,
53:29
Speaker 1: that'd be wonderful, But that's very likely not the case. Okay.
53:33
Speaker 1: We want to get out there what we actually know
53:34
Speaker 1: for sure about the disease. And there are some things
53:36
Speaker 1: that we do know for sure, and we need to
53:38
Speaker 1: make sure that people that hunters know what those things are, Okay,
53:42
Speaker 1: And then we also I'm hoping that leads to hope
53:46
Speaker 1: bringing everyone needs to work together on this. We can
53:49
Speaker 1: all benefit from more research, better information, better ways to
53:53
Speaker 1: handle the disease. And this is it's it's it's in
53:56
Speaker 1: very much in the best interest of a of a
53:58
Speaker 1: person that raises captive dear is it as a deer hunter?
54:01
Speaker 1: Two people that just care about wild life. It's in
54:04
Speaker 1: all of our best interests to figure this thing out.
54:06
Speaker 1: So I'm hopeful that we get what we know out there,
54:10
Speaker 1: that we can agree on what we really know for
54:12
Speaker 1: the most part, and that we can get on a
54:14
Speaker 1: uniform message and actually it actually leads to solutions and
54:17
Speaker 1: not conjecture and misleading information and fake news. It's not
54:22
Speaker 1: hot hot hot being you here all the time. We
54:25
Speaker 1: we can't. You know, deer deserve better than that. Frankly,
54:28
Speaker 1: our wild life deserves better than that. And that's what
54:30
Speaker 1: I'm hoping we get to a c w D. Can
54:33
Speaker 1: you can you summarize for us some of the things
54:35
Speaker 1: that we know, um, when it comes to CWD, is
54:38
Speaker 1: that something you can speak to a few of the
54:40
Speaker 1: core things that now because it's like every time I
54:42
Speaker 1: talk to someone on this topic, there's some new perspective
54:45
Speaker 1: or there's some new research or some new theory about
54:49
Speaker 1: how to deal with it or what's going on? Um,
54:52
Speaker 1: can you give us some kind of update as where
54:54
Speaker 1: things stand now? What's what do we believe as firm
54:59
Speaker 1: what do we be believe it's from? Or what sorry,
55:02
Speaker 1: what do we what do we firmly know what can
55:04
Speaker 1: we say now that we do know I think we
55:06
Speaker 1: know sure well. Number one, we know that it's out there.
55:09
Speaker 1: We know that it's spreading, Okay, that's for sure. We
55:11
Speaker 1: know that deer definitely die. Any deer that gets c
55:14
Speaker 1: w D, that deer is on his way to die. Now,
55:17
Speaker 1: when you hear the argument sometimes that well, not all,
55:21
Speaker 1: not all deer that have c w D die from
55:23
Speaker 1: c w D, now that's that's absolutely correct, because a
55:25
Speaker 1: lot of times they meet up with a bullet or
55:28
Speaker 1: the front end of someone's Mercedes Benz or whatever, um
55:32
Speaker 1: and they die of other reasons for sure. But a
55:33
Speaker 1: deer with c w D is a death sense that
55:35
Speaker 1: deer will die. That deer will also, while it's alive,
55:38
Speaker 1: spread prions to other deer. We know that you can't
55:42
Speaker 1: just and disinfect the site that had c w D,
55:46
Speaker 1: for example. You can't just go in and bleach down
55:48
Speaker 1: a deer pen, for example, that had it. Or let's
55:51
Speaker 1: say you have a property where there was some c
55:54
Speaker 1: w D positive deer found. That's a scary thing. We
55:57
Speaker 1: don't we do not know how to completely get rid
55:59
Speaker 1: of it. It's there and it can be passed on
56:01
Speaker 1: for years. We know that. We know that moving deer
56:04
Speaker 1: dead or alive is really bad for the spread of
56:07
Speaker 1: c w D. So I think as hunters, you're going
56:10
Speaker 1: to see more things coming down as to how you
56:12
Speaker 1: can handle that carcass. After you shoot a deer, you
56:14
Speaker 1: know you can. A lot of hunters may not know.
56:16
Speaker 1: For example, if you shoot just to pick a state.
56:18
Speaker 1: Let's say Illinois is a popular destination. Let's say you
56:22
Speaker 1: live in Pennsylvania and you go to Illinois for a
56:24
Speaker 1: deer hunt and you shoot a deer. You can't just
56:26
Speaker 1: throw it in the back of the truck and drive
56:27
Speaker 1: it back to Pennsylvania because you're breaking laws in every
56:29
Speaker 1: state you drive on the way. Um, we need to
56:33
Speaker 1: get that information out the hunter. So we know moving
56:35
Speaker 1: deer is bad, We know that that it can have
56:37
Speaker 1: population impacts based on the science. To your point, though,
56:41
Speaker 1: is that there is continually new information coming out, which
56:44
Speaker 1: is good. The more studies we have, the better. There
56:47
Speaker 1: are different arguments about how much does what deer yearn
56:51
Speaker 1: For example, what is the what is the real what
56:55
Speaker 1: is it? How realistic is it that you could spread
56:58
Speaker 1: c w D by buying a bottle of d aarrear
57:00
Speaker 1: and then using it for example, Those are all things
57:03
Speaker 1: that are up for further study and debate, and there's
57:05
Speaker 1: you know, people you can agree with and see points
57:08
Speaker 1: on both sides of the issue. So it's not all clear.
57:11
Speaker 1: We need to make sure we don't make clear statements
57:13
Speaker 1: for the information is not clear. We need to say
57:14
Speaker 1: what we do know for sure. And I think I
57:17
Speaker 1: went through some of those things. So, uh, there's as
57:20
Speaker 1: much as we do know about it, there's an awful
57:22
Speaker 1: lot we don't know. But the irresponsible thing is to
57:24
Speaker 1: say it's not something to worry about. I would love
57:27
Speaker 1: to be proven wrong down the road and we find
57:29
Speaker 1: out that this isn't something to be that worried about.
57:32
Speaker 1: That'd be great. But to sit here and hope for that,
57:35
Speaker 1: As I've said in other talks, hope is not a strategy.
57:38
Speaker 1: We need to be proactive and do the best we can.
57:40
Speaker 1: We'll make mistakes, but we need to learn from them
57:43
Speaker 1: and we need to get better. Yeah. Yea. So is
57:45
Speaker 1: there any tangible um at least from from your perspective,
57:50
Speaker 1: Having you know, talked to a lot of people I
57:52
Speaker 1: believe that are an expert positions with when it comes
57:55
Speaker 1: to this topic, and I'm sure You've been talking to
57:57
Speaker 1: a lot of people that are on the forefront of
57:59
Speaker 1: the research. Um, do we have any clear guidance as
58:03
Speaker 1: far as what the new best practices are for dealing
58:06
Speaker 1: with this? You mentioned a couple of things I'm sure
58:08
Speaker 1: are part of that. UM. But if you had to
58:10
Speaker 1: say today, given what we do know, given all those
58:13
Speaker 1: things you just mentioned, you know these three things or
58:16
Speaker 1: something are seemed to be the best practice for for
58:19
Speaker 1: dealing with it right now. Is there anything like that
58:21
Speaker 1: that you can come in on. Well, I know that
58:23
Speaker 1: the States are working together through the Association for Fish
58:26
Speaker 1: and Wildlife Agencies to develop a list of best management practices. UM,
58:34
Speaker 1: you know a lot of this. I know the States
58:36
Speaker 1: as someone that works with the States, and a lot
58:38
Speaker 1: of the state directors. I know they coordinate with each other,
58:40
Speaker 1: they talk. That's part of what we're trying to help
58:42
Speaker 1: with to help be a convener. They're going to put
58:46
Speaker 1: together a list of best management practices. I expect that
58:50
Speaker 1: list of change over time, and it should as we
58:51
Speaker 1: learn more, as we see what works and what doesn't.
58:54
Speaker 1: You know, and sometimes sometimes an approaching taken Wyoming, for example,
58:57
Speaker 1: may not work in Ohio, Okay, so you have to
59:01
Speaker 1: be Sometimes these approaches are site specific, but there are
59:05
Speaker 1: some management practices that are pretty solid. And the moving
59:08
Speaker 1: deer one is a is an example. Um, you know,
59:11
Speaker 1: state shooting deer in when they find an effective deer
59:14
Speaker 1: and and going in and shooting a certain number of
59:16
Speaker 1: deer and testing to understand how where the outbreak is
59:19
Speaker 1: or what the boundaries are. That I think you're going
59:22
Speaker 1: to see continue to an extent. I think that's been
59:25
Speaker 1: scaled back from some of the early I think we
59:27
Speaker 1: have learned from things we've done in the past. We've
59:29
Speaker 1: learned from I don't want to pick on Wisconsin, but
59:32
Speaker 1: the problem with being first a lot of times is
59:34
Speaker 1: that you the other people get to learn from your
59:37
Speaker 1: mistakes and you've got to carry things around with you.
59:39
Speaker 1: So um, like I said, we can't expect this to
59:44
Speaker 1: be perfect. We can't expect our state agencies to be perfect.
59:47
Speaker 1: We just have to know and believe that we're all
59:49
Speaker 1: trying to work toward a common goal here, and that
59:51
Speaker 1: is to find a way to deal with this disease.
59:54
Speaker 1: And that's that's really our hope I think going forward
59:58
Speaker 1: is that let's find a way to work together on
1:00:00
Speaker 1: this thing and do something that's going to be really
1:00:02
Speaker 1: good for deer and hunters in the long run. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
1:00:05
Speaker 1: it's been one of those topics that has been man
1:00:09
Speaker 1: I mean for more than a decade now. It's been
1:00:11
Speaker 1: one of those hot button issues. And you know you
1:00:15
Speaker 1: said early on with the things that Wisconsin was doing,
1:00:18
Speaker 1: trying to trial by fire figuring things out, and now
1:00:21
Speaker 1: more and more and more states keep discovering c w D. Um,
1:00:24
Speaker 1: it's going to be obviously increasingly important for everyone to
1:00:28
Speaker 1: be educated on what's going on, and hopefully there'll be
1:00:30
Speaker 1: some answers coming here soon, um, because to your point earlier,
1:00:34
Speaker 1: there's been a whole lot of unknowns that make it
1:00:37
Speaker 1: difficult to find a solution. Yeah. Absolutely, all right, Well,
1:00:42
Speaker 1: this seems like a good place for us to pause
1:00:43
Speaker 1: briefly for our weekly White Tail Wisdoms segment from our
1:00:47
Speaker 1: friends at White Tailed Properties, and Spencer will take it
1:00:50
Speaker 1: from here. This week. With White Tailed Properties, we are
1:00:53
Speaker 1: joined by Steve Purviance, a land specialists out of northwestern Oklahoma,
1:00:58
Speaker 1: and Steve is going to be telling us about it
1:01:00
Speaker 1: steps to take once you've decided to sell a piece
1:01:02
Speaker 1: of land. The first they need to come up with
1:01:06
Speaker 1: an idea of exactly what category it falls in. You know,
1:01:10
Speaker 1: a lot of the sellers seems to be UM that
1:01:14
Speaker 1: I get. Really, I would say a good half of
1:01:17
Speaker 1: them anyway, come from how the state maybe UM airs
1:01:21
Speaker 1: the property that they really don't have lots to do
1:01:24
Speaker 1: with yor not on a lot um. You know, maybe
1:01:27
Speaker 1: they got it in a you know, in a wheel,
1:01:29
Speaker 1: and they really need to know a little about it.
1:01:32
Speaker 1: You know. Of course, once they call me, I can look,
1:01:34
Speaker 1: I can do some research on the computer on area
1:01:36
Speaker 1: photos and then of course quite look at it. But
1:01:39
Speaker 1: they really need to know what it is. I mean,
1:01:41
Speaker 1: is it agg ground, is it good grass that's really
1:01:44
Speaker 1: just going to cater to u you know, local ranchers,
1:01:47
Speaker 1: or is it going to be a recreational piece with
1:01:49
Speaker 1: good hunting potentially fishing that would cater to a big wide,
1:01:54
Speaker 1: you know scale of people, you know, out of staters,
1:01:57
Speaker 1: non residents, people looking for UM for proper to enjoy
1:02:01
Speaker 1: and invest in it. So that's that's one of the
1:02:04
Speaker 1: first things they need to do. And then they need
1:02:06
Speaker 1: to find an agent UM somebody local that really specializes
1:02:11
Speaker 1: in that. You know, of course we specialize in the
1:02:13
Speaker 1: recreational land hunting UM. We can sell any of it
1:02:17
Speaker 1: and do you know, every month, but we we actually
1:02:21
Speaker 1: specialize in the hunting land. UM. But that's that that
1:02:24
Speaker 1: would be the first steps, UM to coming up with
1:02:27
Speaker 1: an idea of really what they've got to begin with.
1:02:31
Speaker 1: If you'd like to learn more and to see the
1:02:32
Speaker 1: properties that Steve currently has listed for sale, visit white
1:02:36
Speaker 1: tail properties dot com. Backslash purviance. That's p U R
1:02:41
Speaker 1: B I A n C E. So continuing on UM,
1:02:47
Speaker 1: how about the farm bill? What did deer hunters need
1:02:50
Speaker 1: to know about the farm bill? Why does that matter
1:02:52
Speaker 1: to deer hunters? You touched on a little bit with CRP,
1:02:54
Speaker 1: but can you expand on that UM as far as
1:02:57
Speaker 1: is how that's an important issue moving forward? Yeah, I
1:03:00
Speaker 1: think one of the things that I think people followed
1:03:05
Speaker 1: politics and a general level, and nowadays there's it's almost
1:03:08
Speaker 1: like watching reality TV, and some of it doesn't even
1:03:12
Speaker 1: seem like reality with all the different things going on
1:03:14
Speaker 1: and the device of politics that we have. But the
1:03:17
Speaker 1: reality is is that the programs like the farm Bill
1:03:21
Speaker 1: are decided upon by our government ultimately, and when they're
1:03:25
Speaker 1: deciding who gets what piece of the pie. A lot
1:03:27
Speaker 1: of times, conservation is one of the first things that
1:03:29
Speaker 1: gets cut, and we at the expense of that then,
1:03:32
Speaker 1: of course is our wildlife, our hunting lifestyle, and a
1:03:35
Speaker 1: whole post of other things. So we're gonna talk about that.
1:03:39
Speaker 1: We're gonna have wit Foresburg is gonna is gonna get
1:03:42
Speaker 1: into CRP, for example, is one of those programs that
1:03:48
Speaker 1: for every acre you don't get in that program, that's
1:03:52
Speaker 1: another you know, fond is probably gonna get predated or
1:03:55
Speaker 1: another thing that's going to impact deer in the landscape
1:03:59
Speaker 1: among other wild So it's important for hunters to be
1:04:03
Speaker 1: a little more aware of what that program is and
1:04:05
Speaker 1: that it is a farm bill program and if they
1:04:06
Speaker 1: can influence that by contacting legislators, and you know, imagine
1:04:10
Speaker 1: of our eleven million or whatever the you know, eleven
1:04:13
Speaker 1: twelve million deer hunters across the country. If if even
1:04:17
Speaker 1: five of those contacted or legislators and said CRP is
1:04:22
Speaker 1: important to us as a constituent, I'd really not to
1:04:25
Speaker 1: like to not see that cut. Well, that can actually
1:04:28
Speaker 1: have an impact. Yeah, I think a perfect example something
1:04:33
Speaker 1: kind of like that. Um And we were talking earlier
1:04:36
Speaker 1: about again the influence you can have when you have
1:04:38
Speaker 1: a large number of people you can activate on issues
1:04:40
Speaker 1: like this. UM. This is kind of skipping a little
1:04:42
Speaker 1: bit ahead to the topic of hunter access UM. But
1:04:45
Speaker 1: as you know, earlier this year there had been a
1:04:47
Speaker 1: bill brought to the House asking to to sell a large,
1:04:53
Speaker 1: large number million three point three million acres of public land,
1:04:57
Speaker 1: and the hunting community and many others out there said
1:05:00
Speaker 1: we are not okay with that, and really turned up
1:05:03
Speaker 1: the temperature on legislators, calling, sending emails, and that got
1:05:07
Speaker 1: that got pulled off. And I think that's a perfect
1:05:09
Speaker 1: example of the impact we could have on other things
1:05:12
Speaker 1: like the farm bill, hunter access in the future, all
1:05:14
Speaker 1: these different things, right, Yeah, And you and others covered
1:05:18
Speaker 1: that exceptionally well, and I hope people were paying attention
1:05:23
Speaker 1: and can and see that this is real. We can
1:05:27
Speaker 1: really have an impact on these issues. And like you said,
1:05:32
Speaker 1: it was the heat was turned up and you saw
1:05:34
Speaker 1: that eventually getting pulled And you know, if you're even
1:05:38
Speaker 1: if you're a deer hunter in Georgia, well you better
1:05:41
Speaker 1: darn well care about a land issue in Utah, Okay,
1:05:44
Speaker 1: Because when some of these precedents are set in, it's
1:05:46
Speaker 1: allowed to happen. It's not far fetched that it's going
1:05:49
Speaker 1: to happen in your state. So because a deer hunting community,
1:05:52
Speaker 1: whether you're a person that likes to chase mule deer
1:05:54
Speaker 1: or white tails or black tails, we need to we
1:05:57
Speaker 1: need to really stick together and and we're together on
1:06:00
Speaker 1: these issues, regardless of it's in our own backyard or not. Yeah,
1:06:04
Speaker 1: very true on that topic. Then hunter access is there anything?
1:06:08
Speaker 1: Is there anything else top of mind when it comes
1:06:10
Speaker 1: to the access issue other than the kind of big
1:06:14
Speaker 1: um elephant the room which has been this whole land
1:06:16
Speaker 1: transfer movement and things like that. Um, anything else when
1:06:18
Speaker 1: it comes to hunter access, whether it be East, West, Midwest,
1:06:22
Speaker 1: anywhere that we should be aware over, that's going to
1:06:24
Speaker 1: be important in the discussions coming up. Yeah. And I
1:06:28
Speaker 1: think the reason I brought in Kansas and North Dakota
1:06:31
Speaker 1: is because they have really good programs that are run
1:06:33
Speaker 1: through the state. Having lived in North Dakota myself at
1:06:36
Speaker 1: one time, there's a program called UM Private Lands Open
1:06:41
Speaker 1: to Sportsman Plots That was a great program that I
1:06:44
Speaker 1: took advantage of when I was there, and many others
1:06:46
Speaker 1: do as well. Kansas has their walking only hunting program
1:06:50
Speaker 1: where these are places you can drive down the road
1:06:52
Speaker 1: and see one of these farms that are signed that
1:06:55
Speaker 1: they're part of that program, and you can literally pull
1:06:57
Speaker 1: over and go hunt. It's a that's a good program.
1:07:00
Speaker 1: We need to make it that easy for people. So
1:07:01
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful that this these programs are the types of
1:07:05
Speaker 1: things we can replicate. But we also brought in the
1:07:07
Speaker 1: other end of the spectrum, which I think will make
1:07:09
Speaker 1: it interesting, and that is we have a representation from
1:07:13
Speaker 1: a group there on the panel that does this on
1:07:16
Speaker 1: a more private level. So it's almost a private leasing
1:07:19
Speaker 1: aspect of getting people access, because you know, leasing is
1:07:22
Speaker 1: not going to go away, But how does that play
1:07:25
Speaker 1: into the bigger need for access because leasing is another
1:07:28
Speaker 1: form of access. Access isn't just knock on the door
1:07:32
Speaker 1: and gain permission, And then there's the whole bigger picture.
1:07:35
Speaker 1: I know, you know, for example, you took advantage of
1:07:38
Speaker 1: public access public land to shoot a nice buck in
1:07:41
Speaker 1: Montanel last year, So you know, you know as well
1:07:44
Speaker 1: as anybody the importance of these issues, and we're gonna
1:07:48
Speaker 1: try to try to hit it from from every angle
1:07:51
Speaker 1: and hopefully get to some solutions in some states that
1:07:55
Speaker 1: have really really DP access problems. Yeah, and to your
1:07:59
Speaker 1: to your point earlier, the whole hunter access thing is
1:08:02
Speaker 1: incredibly important because like the transitive property, because hunter access
1:08:08
Speaker 1: is key to hunter retention and recruitment. Hunter retention recruitment
1:08:12
Speaker 1: is key to you know, having a voter base that
1:08:15
Speaker 1: stands up and supports what we're trying to do here.
1:08:18
Speaker 1: So you know that is so not only is it
1:08:21
Speaker 1: important just selfishly for like me as an individual, I
1:08:23
Speaker 1: want someone to hunt, but it's also really important in
1:08:25
Speaker 1: the big picture, for we need to have people need
1:08:29
Speaker 1: the ability to get out and do this so they
1:08:31
Speaker 1: care about this, so that all of us can continue
1:08:33
Speaker 1: to enjoy this resource and this activity. Um. It all
1:08:36
Speaker 1: is linked together, um, which makes it hard to kind
1:08:40
Speaker 1: of say, Okay, what do we focus our time on
1:08:41
Speaker 1: when all these things all matter so much to each other. Right, Yeah,
1:08:45
Speaker 1: it's a big it's a big pie. But I mean,
1:08:47
Speaker 1: imagine just boil it down very simply. Imagine teaching your
1:08:51
Speaker 1: child all the fundamentals of basketball, and you dribble a
1:08:53
Speaker 1: lot around the the house or in the backyard or whatever,
1:08:56
Speaker 1: and you get really great at the fundamentals and finally
1:08:59
Speaker 1: the kids say, is okay, now I want to go
1:09:01
Speaker 1: play basketball. Well, we don't really have a hoop, and
1:09:04
Speaker 1: we don't have a court to play on, and we
1:09:06
Speaker 1: really don't have any any place to play. Well, how
1:09:08
Speaker 1: long is that kid going to stay interested in basketball?
1:09:11
Speaker 1: So it's very much the same thing. Yeah, yeah, very true.
1:09:16
Speaker 1: So then your your pet um. You mentioned your particularly
1:09:19
Speaker 1: interested in this because of your your background the political
1:09:23
Speaker 1: and social science of dear management. What exactly do you
1:09:27
Speaker 1: mean by that and what what can you share as
1:09:30
Speaker 1: far as is where we are with this kind of
1:09:32
Speaker 1: topic of white matters. Yeah. I think the first thing
1:09:36
Speaker 1: is the reality of today is the political science will
1:09:41
Speaker 1: outweigh the biological science on issues. So dear biologists, for example,
1:09:48
Speaker 1: can't just say, well, because of this science, then we
1:09:50
Speaker 1: need to do this. Well, the legislator gets ahold of
1:09:54
Speaker 1: that and it doesn't meet their agenda for example, or
1:09:58
Speaker 1: not even just the legislator, I'm gonn always point the
1:10:00
Speaker 1: finger at them. Even a group of deer hunters who
1:10:02
Speaker 1: can make a lot of noise that don't want to
1:10:04
Speaker 1: do X or Y. It might be bad for deer,
1:10:08
Speaker 1: but it's it's it might be good for dear, but
1:10:10
Speaker 1: it's bad for their personal agendas. That tends to get
1:10:14
Speaker 1: more play than the actual science itself. So we'll talk
1:10:16
Speaker 1: about that a little bit. But then there's this whole
1:10:19
Speaker 1: dynamic of getting hunters motivated and interested in the issues.
1:10:26
Speaker 1: We know that most hunters really they just want to hunt,
1:10:30
Speaker 1: and they do it because it's something they enjoy and
1:10:31
Speaker 1: they want to get away from stuff that seems like work. Right,
1:10:35
Speaker 1: how do we get our messages formulated in a way
1:10:41
Speaker 1: that number one gets their attention but motivates them to action.
1:10:46
Speaker 1: So the psychology of the hunter is so interesting because,
1:10:48
Speaker 1: like I said, you know, if you stop doing Wired
1:10:53
Speaker 1: to Hunt and you quit talking about tactics and how
1:10:56
Speaker 1: to hunt this or hunting stories, you're gonna not have
1:10:58
Speaker 1: a lot of followers pretty quickly. So I think it's
1:11:02
Speaker 1: the most important that people are excited in those types
1:11:04
Speaker 1: of topics because that's the passion that drives. But again,
1:11:08
Speaker 1: I asked people to just give back a little bit more.
1:11:10
Speaker 1: How do we how do we get the message right
1:11:11
Speaker 1: to give people to become to get people to become
1:11:14
Speaker 1: more well rounded and more likely to participate in an issue,
1:11:19
Speaker 1: and even even a one percent change, let's say we
1:11:23
Speaker 1: go if we if we go from one percent to
1:11:25
Speaker 1: two percent of the people are active on issues. We
1:11:27
Speaker 1: just doubled. So I think we have some realistic opportunity
1:11:33
Speaker 1: out there to get people engaged. But as an outdoor industry,
1:11:37
Speaker 1: and I've said this many times, I've been very critical
1:11:39
Speaker 1: of our industry in terms of how how we message
1:11:44
Speaker 1: about our support to everybody, and how the focus is
1:11:47
Speaker 1: always is first, how do we get somebody out there
1:11:49
Speaker 1: as a hunter? Whenever we skipped the whole step of
1:11:52
Speaker 1: explaining why hunting is important and why you might want
1:11:54
Speaker 1: to be a participant. Um, we're terrible as an industry
1:11:59
Speaker 1: at getting this message out ourselves because we don't understand
1:12:02
Speaker 1: it because most of us are hunters and we just
1:12:04
Speaker 1: grew up with it. So let's bring in some people
1:12:06
Speaker 1: from some universities and human dimensions experts to understand this
1:12:10
Speaker 1: better to us, to help us get the message right.
1:12:12
Speaker 1: So this is a this is a reach out for help,
1:12:14
Speaker 1: I think, to other people that can help us understand
1:12:18
Speaker 1: something that that we're not great at. Yeah, two people, Okay,
1:12:23
Speaker 1: So selfishly myself and the position I'm in, you know,
1:12:28
Speaker 1: I believe in what you're talking about very much, and
1:12:31
Speaker 1: I would love to find a way to to try
1:12:34
Speaker 1: to engage people more so in these issues. So for
1:12:37
Speaker 1: someone like me or for someone listening who himself for herself,
1:12:41
Speaker 1: they agree with this, they want to try to get
1:12:44
Speaker 1: their friends and family members to care about this stuff more,
1:12:47
Speaker 1: to engage more. Is there any tangible advice um to
1:12:51
Speaker 1: me or someone listening about how to do our own
1:12:53
Speaker 1: little part on this, I mean, other than you know,
1:12:56
Speaker 1: bringing up more often. Is there anything that from your
1:12:59
Speaker 1: background or from conversation with other people on this topic,
1:13:02
Speaker 1: Are there any actual different ideas for how we can
1:13:04
Speaker 1: do a better job of activating people and engaging people
1:13:07
Speaker 1: in these things. Yeah, I mean, I think that's one
1:13:10
Speaker 1: of the things we want to we want to get
1:13:12
Speaker 1: to out of this panel. I don't have I don't
1:13:15
Speaker 1: have the best answer. I can tell you that one thing.
1:13:18
Speaker 1: Number one, this show, for example, you taking time to
1:13:21
Speaker 1: have me on your program. That helps because you cover
1:13:28
Speaker 1: a variety of different issues and you're you know, you're
1:13:30
Speaker 1: following here's this. They know it's important to you, who's
1:13:33
Speaker 1: very plugged into the industry and important things. So that
1:13:36
Speaker 1: helps some More things like this, for sure. We it
1:13:41
Speaker 1: just has to come up in conversation. Is when you
1:13:43
Speaker 1: get to deer camp obviously a lot of the conversation
1:13:48
Speaker 1: is about past deer hunting, and I think that's critical,
1:13:52
Speaker 1: you know, to have that the heritage and to continue
1:13:54
Speaker 1: to pass that on and the excitement of deer hunting.
1:13:58
Speaker 1: I think, I think we need to have deer issues
1:14:01
Speaker 1: and conservation issues be more of a topic of conversation
1:14:05
Speaker 1: around deer camps. And in one way, I think it's
1:14:07
Speaker 1: going to happen naturally, and that is again I mentioned
1:14:09
Speaker 1: earlier that so many people and most of most deer
1:14:12
Speaker 1: hunters are older. I forget the exact age of the
1:14:14
Speaker 1: average hunter, but it's older, might even be, might even
1:14:18
Speaker 1: be in the fifties. Actually, well, none of those people
1:14:21
Speaker 1: in including myself, really grew up having to worry a
1:14:23
Speaker 1: whole lot about the issues. Our biggest concern was if
1:14:26
Speaker 1: they you know, if they change the way you could
1:14:28
Speaker 1: hunt those for example. Um, that was your big issue
1:14:32
Speaker 1: to deal with. So I think the younger people now
1:14:35
Speaker 1: that are coming up and will eventually replace the folks
1:14:39
Speaker 1: and the older age brackets are, they're growing up with
1:14:41
Speaker 1: this more now, so much the same way that we had.
1:14:44
Speaker 1: We had a great talk today at the NSSS someone
1:14:47
Speaker 1: about millennials. Okay, term that gets thrown around a lot,
1:14:51
Speaker 1: and but the reality is yeah, yeah, I know the speakers,
1:14:57
Speaker 1: but the speaker says Mark, He says, you know what
1:15:00
Speaker 1: you need to understand is my kids growing up, and
1:15:03
Speaker 1: he said their age, I think one, three and six,
1:15:05
Speaker 1: something like that. They grow up never having never seen
1:15:09
Speaker 1: a phone with a cord that was attached to something.
1:15:13
Speaker 1: So to them, what they see is that's just how
1:15:16
Speaker 1: it's always been, because that's how it's been to them,
1:15:18
Speaker 1: And that the light went off in my head. And
1:15:20
Speaker 1: then I think about deer issues and that now I
1:15:23
Speaker 1: think people coming into the sport. It's not enough to
1:15:26
Speaker 1: just teach someone hunter education in terms of safety, and
1:15:29
Speaker 1: I mean that's important obviously, but we also need to
1:15:32
Speaker 1: start injecting into that the idea that you need to
1:15:35
Speaker 1: be aware of issues. And that's part of hunter education.
1:15:38
Speaker 1: It's not just how do I kill an animal, It's
1:15:40
Speaker 1: how do I make sure as part of that process
1:15:43
Speaker 1: that I give back and that I'm a tentative to
1:15:45
Speaker 1: issues that are important to wildlife conservation. So I'm hopeful
1:15:50
Speaker 1: that people are now growing up with this will be
1:15:52
Speaker 1: able to carry that message better than what folks who
1:15:55
Speaker 1: haven't frankly had to deal with it. It's hard to
1:15:57
Speaker 1: get them activated and interested. Yeah, yeah, very true. Well
1:16:02
Speaker 1: we are, we're coming up on our on our time.
1:16:04
Speaker 1: So I want to ask you one final question. I
1:16:07
Speaker 1: guess here before before you've got to run off to
1:16:10
Speaker 1: your myriad of different things on the schedule. But what
1:16:13
Speaker 1: is And we might have already covered it, but I'm
1:16:15
Speaker 1: just curious, of all things we talked about or other things,
1:16:18
Speaker 1: what's the one thing that is keeping you up at
1:16:20
Speaker 1: night the most? What concerns you the most as far
1:16:23
Speaker 1: as issues facing deer or deer hunters? And then number two,
1:16:27
Speaker 1: what encourages you the most? Yeah, and and I've answered
1:16:31
Speaker 1: this question many times and then my answer hasn't changed.
1:16:34
Speaker 1: And my biggest concern other than I mean people, I
1:16:37
Speaker 1: think expect me to say, it's chronic wasting disease. Actually
1:16:40
Speaker 1: it's apathy. It's people only caring about their own personal
1:16:47
Speaker 1: deer hunt or their own personal situation and taking a
1:16:51
Speaker 1: bit of a selfish approach to it. That's that's what
1:16:54
Speaker 1: keeps me up at night. I want to have I
1:16:58
Speaker 1: want people to be informed. I want them to be
1:16:59
Speaker 1: an formed with good information, and I want to want
1:17:02
Speaker 1: them to be active and not just spend all their
1:17:04
Speaker 1: time fighting with their state wildlife agency or you know
1:17:08
Speaker 1: whoever it may be. That's the biggest issue that keeps
1:17:11
Speaker 1: me up at night. And I hope that's where over time,
1:17:15
Speaker 1: the National Deer Alliance will be able to bring hunters together.
1:17:21
Speaker 1: And we may not always agree on everything. We're not
1:17:24
Speaker 1: going to always agree on everything, but let's at least
1:17:26
Speaker 1: agree that we're all on the same team, and that
1:17:28
Speaker 1: we need to work together, and that we all need
1:17:30
Speaker 1: to be well rounded hunters and conservationists. Yeah, and then
1:17:36
Speaker 1: what what encourages you? I see traction. I see even
1:17:43
Speaker 1: with just not quite two years with the Deer Alliance,
1:17:47
Speaker 1: I see I can already see people taking the next
1:17:52
Speaker 1: or second to think about issues. So I think that
1:17:54
Speaker 1: there's hope. I see states talking together about deer issues
1:18:00
Speaker 1: at a higher level than it has probably ever been
1:18:02
Speaker 1: seen in terms of state wildlife agencies. Um, and what
1:18:08
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier about young people getting into hunting who
1:18:13
Speaker 1: are learning about these things as they're becoming hunters. So
1:18:18
Speaker 1: it's not all gloom and doom. And I don't want
1:18:21
Speaker 1: to give people that impression. Deer herds are strong for
1:18:24
Speaker 1: the most part, We're we have older H class deer
1:18:28
Speaker 1: most for the most part across the landscape. If you
1:18:30
Speaker 1: read the q DM as dear report that they put out, um,
1:18:36
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a good time to be a
1:18:39
Speaker 1: deer hunter, but it's also a challenging time in terms
1:18:44
Speaker 1: of needing to be aware of the issues. So let's
1:18:47
Speaker 1: not get twenty years down the road and say, oh,
1:18:49
Speaker 1: you know what, I wish I would have been more
1:18:50
Speaker 1: active on this. Let's be active now while it's still
1:18:53
Speaker 1: good as opposed to trying to correct something that could
1:18:56
Speaker 1: potentially go really wrong down the road. Yeah. Yeah, that's
1:18:59
Speaker 1: a that's a great point. And um, and I think
1:19:02
Speaker 1: what you guys are doing with the National Deer Lines
1:19:04
Speaker 1: and um, you know there's all the things behind the scenes,
1:19:06
Speaker 1: but front and center for everyone just on a personal level,
1:19:10
Speaker 1: the information you guys are putting out through the newsletter,
1:19:12
Speaker 1: social media, all these different things. That's a really easy
1:19:15
Speaker 1: first step to to help move forward and these things
1:19:17
Speaker 1: is just being informed. And um, you know, we're trying
1:19:20
Speaker 1: to do our part here with Wired Hunt, and UM,
1:19:22
Speaker 1: you know some of that also those falls on falls
1:19:24
Speaker 1: on each of us as individuals. To to engage with
1:19:27
Speaker 1: that stuff and take the extra ten minutes of data
1:19:29
Speaker 1: to read that article, or you know, tap into things
1:19:32
Speaker 1: when they when they pop up. So I'm appreciab what
1:19:35
Speaker 1: you guys are doing and the fact that there's a
1:19:37
Speaker 1: lot of good people in organizations standing up for wildlife
1:19:40
Speaker 1: and wild places and and our rights as hunters and
1:19:43
Speaker 1: and I'm encouraged by that too. So so Nick, thank
1:19:45
Speaker 1: you for taking the time to do this. Do you
1:19:48
Speaker 1: have one action item you want to give our listeners
1:19:51
Speaker 1: to take away from this? Yes, join the National Deera Line.
1:19:55
Speaker 1: There you go. It doesn't cost you anything. It's pretty
1:19:59
Speaker 1: good and ash with deer lines dot com. Sign up.
1:20:01
Speaker 1: You'll get our newsletter that Mark mentioned, and we try
1:20:04
Speaker 1: to do our best pick up the nationals, the bigger
1:20:08
Speaker 1: national deer stories on a weekly basis. We pull you
1:20:11
Speaker 1: for your opinion. Sign up, it's free. Uh, you don't
1:20:14
Speaker 1: even have to read all the newsletters, just read most
1:20:16
Speaker 1: of them. There you go. It's it's easy to do
1:20:19
Speaker 1: and and good stuff always. So appreciate your time, Nick,
1:20:22
Speaker 1: and best of luck with the summit. I can't wait
1:20:25
Speaker 1: to hear about things. How things go all right? Thanks
1:20:27
Speaker 1: again for the opportunity and uh yeah, I think it's
1:20:30
Speaker 1: gonna be a good thing. It sounds like it. And
1:20:33
Speaker 1: there you go. But before you go, I've got a
1:20:37
Speaker 1: couple of quick things on my end that I want
1:20:40
Speaker 1: to mention to you. And for those of you have
1:20:42
Speaker 1: stuck around here to the end, I've got a special
1:20:44
Speaker 1: deal I want to try out today. I'm going to
1:20:47
Speaker 1: give away five wired to Hunt hats this week and
1:20:50
Speaker 1: I'm going to do that through Instagram. So if you'd
1:20:53
Speaker 1: like to be one of those hat winners, all you
1:20:55
Speaker 1: to do is follow wired to Hunt on Instagram and
1:20:58
Speaker 1: then send me a direct message to the saying that
1:21:00
Speaker 1: you heard this and that you want to win a hat.
1:21:02
Speaker 1: That's all you gotta do, really easy. Follow wire down
1:21:05
Speaker 1: on Instagram and send a message about this. I'll then
1:21:08
Speaker 1: take everyone that participates and pull five random winners and
1:21:12
Speaker 1: ship you guys a hat. So head over to Instagram
1:21:15
Speaker 1: and get some free swag. It's that It's that easy.
1:21:17
Speaker 1: And if you're not already following wired to Hunt there
1:21:19
Speaker 1: and Insta, the user name is the at sign and
1:21:22
Speaker 1: then wired to Hunt. That's all one word, so check
1:21:26
Speaker 1: it out and uh appreciate you guys doing that. We'll
1:21:29
Speaker 1: get some prizes. Send out a SAP. My second ask
1:21:32
Speaker 1: is for a rating or review on iTunes. I know
1:21:35
Speaker 1: many of you have already done that, and they just
1:21:37
Speaker 1: make such a big difference. I think more than six
1:21:40
Speaker 1: hundred and seventies some of you have been kind enough
1:21:43
Speaker 1: to take the time and do that already, and I
1:21:45
Speaker 1: can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Thank you,
1:21:48
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. In fact, actually, let's uh, let's
1:21:51
Speaker 1: take a look here. Here's one from someone by the
1:21:55
Speaker 1: name of T. Chamberlain who left a review just a
1:21:58
Speaker 1: couple of days ago, and they gave us five stars
1:22:01
Speaker 1: and said, this podcast is going to completely change the
1:22:05
Speaker 1: way I hunt after making the decision to pursue mature
1:22:08
Speaker 1: white tails two years ago, this is the perfect podcast
1:22:11
Speaker 1: for me and my addiction. That is awesome. Thanks so much, Chamberlain.
1:22:16
Speaker 1: And next, of course, we want to thank our partners
1:22:19
Speaker 1: who have stood up and supported what we're doing here,
1:22:21
Speaker 1: so big. Thank you too. Sick of gear YETI Cooler's
1:22:24
Speaker 1: Matthew's Archery may have an optics white Tail Institute of
1:22:27
Speaker 1: North America, Trophy Ridge and hunt Terra maps. And finally,
1:22:32
Speaker 1: thank you all for listening. I hope you found value
1:22:34
Speaker 1: in this one. I hope you'll continue to join me
1:22:36
Speaker 1: in standing up for deer and deer hunting, and I
1:22:38
Speaker 1: hope you'll stay wired to hunt