Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / Ep. 651 - Hunting the Great Salt Lake with Barstool Outdoors: Thrills and Conservation

Transcript

Ep. 651 - Hunting the Great Salt Lake with Barstool Outdoors: Thrills and Conservation · Ducks Unlimited Podcast

• Matt Harrison: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host Matt Harrison and today we have with us Sydney Wells with Barstool Outdoors. We have Jack Orlandi also with Barstool Outdoors and we also have with us Mr. Luke who has all three been with us the past couple days chasing waterfowl on the Great Salt Lake and how much fun has it been for y'all? Sydney Wells: Well, one, Matt, it's Jack Rolandi. Matt Harrison: He really went there. I knew once I said, I was like, ah, man. Jack Orlandi: Well, this is also the guy that calls Ramen, Raymon. You can't expect the right last name on this guy. Sydney Wells: Oh my gosh, no. On a serious note, though, what Matt's saying is these past two days have been incredible on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Matt Harrison: It's been incredible. Not even just the waterfowl hunting, but the scenery, the whole nine. What's been y'all's favorite part of the trip so far? Jack Orlandi: The airboats. The duck hunt on the airboats, like getting on the airboat in the morning, going out to set a duck spread. That's the coolest thing to me. That was so awesome. That's better than shooting the ducks. The scenery and taking the airboats out, that was my favorite. Sydney Wells: Yeah, B-Dub's going to be buying an airboat now, and he's going to Minnesota with an airboat to all of his local spots. Jack Orlandi: I'm going to be bankrupt and have a ticket because I'm not supposed to use an airboat, so I don't think I can have one there. But if I could have one there, I would. Or I'm just going to move to Utah so I can buy an airboat. Deal with all that salt. Yeah, that is the only thing. The salt water on everything. After every hunt, the guys would take their boats and they'd wash them off. They'd have to go to the car wash. And yeah, that's the only thing I think that would get annoying is washing all your gear, just that sticky salt. Luke Corniea : Yeah. But it's been really cool. It's been super unique being able to wake up at 630, take a shower, leave by 730. You're rolling out on the airboats and the sun's already up and shooting ducks with the mountains in the background. It's just a really cool, awesome experience. And the amount of ducks, the amount of teal was insane. When you're riding out, there's just tens of thousands. of rafts just getting up as you're driving into them, basically. Matt Harrison: Yeah, I've never seen so many teal. Luke Corniea : Yeah. Matt Harrison: That's crazy. And what's crazy, like you said, is kind of the style of hunting that we're used to. It's waking up at 3.30, 4 a.m., making sure you're out there 30 minutes to an hour before shooting time, making sure you have everything set up the way these guys wait till it's daylight to even start heading in that direction, because they've kind of figured out, hey, these birds don't fly till later. And it's just been really cool to see how they hunt and their style of hunting over here. Like, I mean, have y'all ever done that? Like, do y'all get up that late and go chase ducks? You do? Sydney Wells: Because you're Slovenian? Michelle Moore No, it kind of reminds me of the Midwest, though. It's like they're flying on the warmest part of the day. Have you noticed that? They started flying really well at 1130 AM right when it started to warm up. So it kind of reminded me of the Midwest. Jack, what do you think? Luke Corniea : Yeah. I mean, when it gets super cold, that's a lot of the times you go out in the afternoon because that's when there's the warmest part of the day. But yeah, usually if you're on public land, you got to get up at like Matt's early 30, 33 AM. It's not horrible, but being able to just roll out of bed at six 30 and roll to the launch is super nice. Matt Harrison: For CID 717. It was great. Sydney Wells: I'm like, this is… Yeah, Matt's like, hey, we're leaving at 730. I'm like, great. See you in 720. Matt Harrison: To pour your coffee. One other really cool thing that's been cool with this experience is what we have been doing as in how we've been hunting. For example, we're not in layout blinds. We're not in pit blinds. We've been in these coffin blinds. Right. How we concealed ourselves was with these silhouette decoys that just allowed us to kind of hide and barricade ourselves in to hide from the ducks. And it was really cool for me because, one, I don't ever even hardly hunt in a layout bind, much less something like a coffin. It's been, it was crazy just to be able to lay kind of in the middle of the decoys, have these ducks. There was a lot of times, there was some teal that buzzed us. I mean, I told Luke a couple times, like, man, they're like two foot from you. Like, I mean, it was insane to see how close some of these ducks got, but if you think about it, we were sitting in the decoys. Yeah, we were in the water. That was crazy. In the water with the decoys. Sydney Wells: And then silhouettes were black. They're all blacked out, so they're mimicking just a whole couple hundred, maybe a thousand teal that are usually like laying around, hanging out. Matt Harrison: And if you hear it for the first time, for example, like myself, you know, you hear him say, Hey, you know, we're just going to put out these silhouettes. We're going to put them around our coffin. And you're like, is this going to work? You know what I mean? But he's like, look from a distance, if you look at a raft of ducks, it just looks like a black blob. And these ducks think that it's a raft and they just fly over to it, check it out, and boom, there you are. And that's exactly what happened. We, you know, concealed ourselves with all these silhouettes, threw out a couple dozen normal decoys out in front of us, and lo and behold, here come the droves of Bring Wing 2. Like, I've never experienced anything like that. Sydney Wells: No, it was crazy. I was curious though, because we had two days that it was super sunny. So, I wonder if that's a game changer when it comes to the cloud, because the cloud coverage, I wonder if it doesn't blind them as much. So, when I was filming, I got a little, what is it? I was out of the blind. I was on my knees. My eye was not hidden at all. I'm like, well, these guys definitely don't see me. So, I'm curious if that would have worked though on a cloudy day. Jack Orlandi: Yeah, that's a good point. I wonder if those decoys look, those black decoys, I wonder how much those pop, how much more in the sun too, you know? And every day we were looking into the sun, so those birds coming in, I mean, they're getting a good visible decoy when they're coming in with that sun. That's a good point. But you don't need anything special with those decoys. Some look like teal, some look like pelicans. Some look like a piece of cardboard in the trash can. Just a big black piece of cardboard, anything, I think. Luke Corniea : anything. Chad was running and setting those decoys. They were sitting at like 45 degree angles. It was awesome. Sydney Wells: They were all facing the same direction. Matt Harrison: Literally, we get out of the airboat and he's just like grabbing all these things, these cardboard cutouts, and I'm like, hey, you know, kind of what's your strategy? He's like, just put them out. Take two steps and stick one in. And I was like, yes, sir. Even when I was putting them out though, I'm like, there's got to be like some type of science to this. Jack Orlandi: And I turn and look, and that sucker's just running. I think the funniest part to me was like when they were placing the floaters, like the first day we were out there, they would take like, they'd come out, they're all like Texas rigged, you know, super short because the water is so shallow, but they would just take a wad of like 8, 10, however many were in their hands, and they would just chuck them, like 10 decoys, and wherever they landed, he's like, yep, you just throw them out. I'm like, perfect. And it worked. Matt Harrison: Like a lot of the people I hunt with, you know, in Arkansas or Mississippi, like, you know, they take one off and they put it, they'll throw it, they'll look at it for five seconds and then they'll go move it six inches. Well, right. His feet didn't even hardly hit the water and he's just grabbing handfuls of decoys, just like, like a lasso throwing eight at a time and they just land and you're like, well. Sydney Wells: I know we were looking at each other like, is this going to work? Jack Orlandi: I know that's what I told him. I'm like, you know, and I'm targeting mallards or something back home. It's like, I got three dozen tops floaters and like, I'll try to get strategic with them and like place them in certain areas. Like I'm like, I've never done this before, but if you look at the teal out there though, that's how they all sit. I mean, it's just rafts and they're just piled everywhere. Matt Harrison: And I think one thing with that is too, and I got to thinking about this is, you know, when we're chasing Mallards, a lot of times wind plays a massive factor. You know, they want to finish into the wind. You know, a lot of times, a lot of different scenarios matter when it comes to chasing Mallards or big ducks like that, that you do have to get strategic of where you put your decoys because some Mallards want to get down in a certain area. Well, if you've got three dozen decoys there, they don't want to finish. Well, we had teal. finishing on our left, over the top, in front, to the side, to the back. I mean, it was nuts. Like, you would have one group finish to the left, one group finish to the right, and it was like they did not even care which way. And we didn't have much of a win, but still, I mean, we had two groups this morning come in, and I told Sidney before we even sat down, or it may have been you, Luke, I was like, we need to be facing that way. And one group came in, and I was like, we need to be facing that way. And sure enough, one more group, and then that's when Chad said, spin your coffin. Jack Orlandi: Which was weird too because what you were saying of how we should turn the coffins is how we had them yesterday. Matt Harrison: Yeah. Jack Orlandi: And the wind was different. Different. And it was like straight in our face a little more out of the north today. Yeah. Which it was more out of the south yesterday. And they were still working up that same shoreline doing the same thing. Yeah. So it's kind of weird. Like, you know, you can have the wind two different directions two days and they're still working in the same way. Matt Harrison: So Jack is the producer and cameraman for Barstool Outdoors. Jack, was it kind of tough for you? He's already laughing because I know the answer to this. But I, whenever, you know, I was able to shoot my limit, I backed out and I said, look, let me film and let you hop in, shoot your limit. I took over the camera and there for like two minutes, I was trying to get focused, get turned around. But with the silhouettes around your coffin, we're not talking about a normal silhouette. Some of those look like a swan. Yeah, like pelicans. They're mad. And you're already level with the ground, then you're level with these silhouettes. So, like, to get your camera to where you can see the ducks, and then on top of that, a teal flying, trying to focus on a teal. And then you got groups of 30 and 40, and you're like, which group are we focusing on? Like, that was a challenge. So, was that not extremely difficult? Luke Corniea : it's difficult. Luckily I have experience, which I'm lucky for. But when you get those big flocks, like I was telling Cindy, Cindy took over the camera. There was about 200 looking like they're coming in. I just yell, Cindy go wide. Cause you never know really where they're going to go. Cause after that first shot, when you have that many birds, some will split, right? Some will split left. Some will go straight up. And with teal, they're so fast. You never really know who's going to like what duck they're going to shoot. Unless you got three, or five, but even then they'll split right. They'll split left, but like puddle ducks, big ducks, they tend to, once you shoot, they kind of tend to all go one way a little bit and scatter, but teal, teal and the rockets, you know, they're super fast. They don't really care. They'll be coming in really fast and yeah. Pulling focus isn't, isn't too fun on them, especially when the sun was kind of out in your face a little bit. Jack Orlandi: I was just going to say the sun is the worst of it all. Luke Corniea : But I've done it enough, so I'm lucky for that. Matt Harrison: Well, Sidney, you've gotten to hunt a lot of cool places, chasing ducks, chasing deer. How cool was this scenery and how cool was this opportunity to be able to come and chase ducks on the Great Salt Lake? Sydney Wells: It was so cool. I mean, you look around and you hear our two biologists also talk about the Great Salt Lake and the Greenwing Teal and even Cinnamon Teal that we didn't have an opportunity to shoot at, but people come out west to do that. At the Great Salt Lake, we were looking around on the airboat and you can just see where the water used to be. And so I don't know why, but I was really thinking about it and it really impacted me that I get to experience this and hopefully it's around forever. But unfortunately, who knows what can happen with the world and our environment, but the ecosystem is just magical and like the mountains and all the birds coming in on airboats. And just seeing there was nobody else out there when we were there. So one, it was like we were in the middle of nowhere, untouched. So untouched. And unfortunately, a lot in our world is very touched by humans. So just seeing that. And hearing what Ducks Unlimited is doing for our ecosystem and the wetlands and just, it's kind of impactful when you're out there and experience something that some people will never experience. I was just at the Hoyt headquarters and talking to some of the guys there that are locals, and they're like, you're seeing things that locals dream of. That they're, you know, usually- Yeah, they're just going on the banks. They don't have access with an airboat. Not a lot of people have airboats out here. A lot of people that I know have airboats usually are bow fishermen that do competitive tournaments for bow fishing. So not everybody has a bow fishing rig or an airboat. So we got to see something or experience something that'll locals don't ever get to experience. So we're just feeling very lucky and fortunate in the teal, obviously, just seeing the abundance of birds. It's not like you're seeing a hundred mallards working into a field. It's just like there was hundreds of thousands of teal looked like. Because teals are small and you just see black lifting into the sky. It was pretty incredible and it was pretty cool to hunt over the spread we hunted over and like the guys were explaining it was pretty, it was crazy. I wasn't sure what to expect. Chad tried to explain it to us at roosters the night before and we're like, okay guys, stop. I'm like, everybody, can you guys all stop being so like, um, going into this hunt with high expectations? Cause that's what the vibe was. And while the expectations were, um, set low to what we seen, it was crazy. Luke Corniea : I was going to say kind of bouncing off that one thing that hit me yesterday was when I first got into duck hunting, I was getting the DU magazines and the first picture that ever that like stuck with me from a DU magazine was a guy on the salt lake. popping up and there's like 10,000 birds in the background. Who knows if he shot at him or whatever. But then I'm lucky enough, Sid picked up the camera yesterday and got a shot of me with about a hundred teal in the background and me pulling up on him. I'm like, this is pretty crazy. Sydney Wells: We posted that on Barstow Outdoors and people were like, this is Photoshopped. I'm like, I have the video, the beautiful video that I recorded of Jack. No, that is, that is really hard. I was asking Jack so many questions. : It is an unbelievable picture. I was just like, this is crazy. Sydney Wells: But it was crazy. And Jack is, so we finished our, um, we had, I don't even know how many people, we're all limited out. So Jack had a solo hunt and this is when the birds were flying like crazy. And I'm in awe. I can't even believe this is when I'm not, I got out of the coffin blind. I'm just popping out, practically just standing at that point. Just like, Sydney Wells: they keep coming and Jack's just 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Sydney Wells: I'm like, this is incredible. I don't even know what to say. I'm in disbelief. Matt Harrison: You deserved it, Jack. Luke Corniea : Yeah. I don't know if I did. That was awesome of you guys to do. Matt Harrison: And Sydney, you talked a little bit about, you know, how special it is to see and how it almost makes you emotional to build experience things that people don't get to see on an everyday basis. And we also want to thank Chad Yamani, regional director here in Utah, for taking us out. His buddy Rob as well. We couldn't have done it without him. They had two airboats. They helped us get to the spot, were great, great, great help for us during these couple days. And I was actually talking to Rob, because he's hunted the Great Salt Lake for like 20 years. And you talked a little bit about how thousands and thousands of years ago, Corinna was talking about it, how the water was at a certain level. And I even asked Rob, who's only been around, you know, 20 years, I asked him, hey, have you kind of seen where maybe some of the water levels aren't what they used to be? And he was like, man, absolutely. And that just makes me really sit back and think, like, how blessed and lucky we are to be able to experience this. But it also impacts me and motivates me to say, hey, we're the future. We're working now for the future. We're working for our kids' kids to be able to experience this. And that's how important it wetlands conservation is for waterfowl and for other wildlife species, for us to play our part, we all are conservationists, we all play our part, and if we don't do that, what's gonna happen to these resources? And that, like, I mean, it gives me chill bumps, and that's the God's honest truth, because how blessed we are to get to experience, but what's another 50 years if we don't play our part? You know, and that's why, that's why we're here at this table right now. Yes, we want to have great content, we want to get good pictures, we want to get good videos, we want to have fun, we want to laugh, but we want to express to people how important the work that Ducks Unlimited is doing on wetlands to help conserve and restore and manage wetlands and waterfowl habitat. And so it makes me emotional, and Sydney's brought it up numerous times, how she's kind of on the airboat ride, just kind of sat back and is like, man, like, this is awesome, but it also makes you just kind of sad because you're like, how much longer do we have this? And it really motivates me to do a better job than what I'm doing to say, hey, how can I help people understand? And that's the sole purpose of this camp, this media camp with Barstool Outdoors, is to bring an awareness to your followers, to our followers. This is the work we're doing on the Great Salt Lake, and not just the Great Salt Lake, but around the United States, into Canada, Mexico. The work that we're doing is impacting and making a difference for waterfowl habitat. Jack Orlandi: Yeah, which is definitely huge, especially out here. Like, I mean, how many miles of that boat ride do you think was only an inch or two of water from the launch? You know, like seven, eight miles? Like how long until you can't even launch in those certain areas and make it onto the lake? You know, like it's not even accessible by anyone. Yeah, there's water in the middle, but you're riding an airboat in a couple inches of water, you know, you need something to get out there. how long until you can't even do that. Like, I was surprised, you know, looking down, some of that water was clear, and like, we're going 20 miles an hour, and it's just sand, you know, an inch or two under the top of the water. That was crazy to me, just for miles, how shallow that lake is, just to get out to the deeper spots. Like, if you don't have an airboat, you're not hunting. Matt Harrison: We're re-hunting. Sydney Wells: No, I don't think anybody does. That's why you don't see anybody. You see maybe a couple, you see a couple other trucks at the boat ramp. Matt Harrison: But not one was as far as we were. Sydney Wells: No, no. So yeah, it's pretty sad because you do go out there. Yes, it was unbelievable, the hunting, but that's because there's thousands of hundreds of thousands of all types of species of birds that are on that lake and that ecosystem is very important. Yeah, it's just very impactful when you think about it. And I just think about that a lot of places I go to, and it's not just birds, it's deer, not first Salt Lake, but you go to places that are not touched by humans and you think, wow, this is amazing that we get to experience this. And I hope that my grandkids can experience it. And I hear my grandparents and my father talk to me about their experiences and about some things that I'll never experience because it doesn't happen anymore. It's like the birds in the Midwest, like the pheasants and the quail, and we don't do that in Illinois anymore. So it's just like, this is very impactful. And this was a very, very, very… incredible hunt and an experience and just learning about, especially talking to, again, to our biologists. It's just, they are so educated on the birds and the wildlife and the habitat and learning about them and the Great Salt Lake. It's very impactful. So, I'm excited for them to come on when they do and talk about it because it kind of makes you emotional. I'm a lover of animals in general and the world. Matt Harrison: No doubt. And here in just a minute, we're going to have Dr. Mike Brasher and Coryna Hebert join in. But before we do that, what is each one of y'all's most favorite part of the past two days? And I'm putting you on the spot here. What has been your favorite part of the past two days? Luke Corniea : I know. The traditional style of hunting. Coffin blinds, silhouettes. Airboat. Airboat. That's as cool as it gets. You're right. Yeah. Jack Orlandi: Yeah, I would say number one is just how cool that airboat ride is. And you're just everywhere you look, it's just so beautiful around the lake. I'm used to flatland, cattails, and just marsh. So I'm like, that was the coolest to me. And also, like Jack said, I mean, you can go out there. Yeah, you need an airboat to get there, which is huge. But like, the little amount of gear that you could use. Like, I could spray paint cardboard black, stick it like squares of cardboard, and stick it up in the sand, and you could go shoot ducks out there. Like, you know, nowadays, I mean, you need decent gear, you need to strategize, you need to have a good spot, like most of the other places in the U.S. to hunt, and like somewhere you can just come out and spray paint cardboard and go shoot a limited teal. That's kind of cool to me. Yeah, no doubt. Sydney Wells: My favorite part was probably picking up the camera, to be honest. I had so much fun shooting ducks, but I love filming. Jack knows that too. Jack Orlandi: I heard you back there. And you did a really good job. She did. Sydney Wells: But I mean, I've also had, I mean, I'm not like a, when it comes to deer hunting and stuff, I'm really good with the camera. When it comes to birds, I had asked Jack a couple, like, Hey, should I zoom out when this happens? What do you think? What's your opinion here? But I loved it. It was so much fun filming Jack. One, I think I got more excited when I was behind the camera. Jack was getting mad at me. When she had the gun I didn't hear a peep but when she had the camera she was like a kid with candy back there Definitely having the camera in my hands after shooting my limit was really fun, especially filming the girls and and coming Jack it was really fun and just seeing their excitement and I actually feeling good when I got it on camera which I got a lot on camera Jack you're gonna have to review and give me some tips but it was fun I it's like an art I think filming is it's an art and everybody has their own kind of strokes and so it's pretty fun to film. : Sid holds it down. She does. She holds it down. Yeah I saw your footage it was good. Sydney Wells: Well, I mean, not like Jack's, but it was, it worked. He'll insert maybe some clips. No, it was fun. I got way too hyped though. And I definitely start yelling at people when I probably shouldn't. Um, but it's okay. It was really cool. Jack also, I don't know. He's so lucky. He's got a horseshoe because every time we all let it out, it's like one after the other and I can't hold it together. Sydney Wells: I'm like, load your gun now! It was fun. That was my favorite part. Jack Orlandi: Except for when we put the left-handed guy on the left side and he couldn't spin. He was getting a little heated. Luke Corniea : I was kicking to the left. That was not fun. The first shot, I was literally like, hope and pray, and then I'll line up on the second and third. Sydney Wells: I was very proud of everybody because everybody like shooting out of the coffins, like shooting out of a layup line, it's dangerous. You know, it's the most dangerous, I would say, style of hunting almost because you're on your back and everybody did a really good job at being pretty safe and staying in their lanes. I'm very paranoid and look at everybody and like, I'm a safety girl. Safety, safety. Jack Orlandi: Yeah. And now mix that with laying in a tub in the water. Sydney Wells: No, and everybody was so good. I was very proud. Jack Orlandi: Very lucky. Thank you. Absolutely. Luke Corniea : Yeah. Jack Orlandi: Thank you everyone at DU for making this happen. This was awesome. Sydney Wells: Yeah, we would not have been able to do this or experience it or share it with our friends and family. So thank you to you guys. Matt Harrison: Well, Jack and Luke, thank y'all both so much for hopping in. At this time, we're now going to have Dr. Mike Brasher, Senior Waterfowl Scientist for Ducks Unlimited, and then also Coryna Hebert hop in, who is a biologist here in Utah. We're going to give them half a second to swap out the headset and we'll get back going. Matt Harrison: Coryna Dr. Mike, how we doing? I think we're doing well. Mike Brasher: This is fun. It's fun times. It's fun to sit over there and listen and watch and do a little few videos. No doubt. You're like a proud big brother. Matt Harrison: So, here with the podcast, we have the on the road podcast studio here, which only has four mics, so we kind of had to rotate in and out. So, at this time, like I just mentioned, Dr. Mike Brasher and Coryna Hebert will be joining in to talk a little bit about the work that Ducks Unlimited is doing in and around the Great Salt Lake in Utah. We've talked about it the past couple days. We've shared some videos via social media about the work that DU has doing. But Dr. Mike and Karina both are more educated in that aspect of it. So, if you will, Karina, just give us a little bit of background, kind of about yourself, your role with Ducks Unlimited. Dr. Mike is a host of the podcast, so a lot of our- Yeah, they hear enough of me already. So if you will kind of give us just a rundown of kind of, you know, your job with Ducks Unlimited. Coryna Hebert : Sure, yeah. At DU, my title is regional biologist, which is kind of the general title they give for their conservation staff that kind of help lead their conservation efforts on the ground and priority habitat areas. So I cover Utah, which is really mostly Great Salt Lake. Great Salt Lake is about 80% of the state's wetlands, so it's kind of the big ecosystem for migratory waterfowl. But I didn't really come from a waterfowl background. I studied wetland ecology in grad school. Matt Harrison: Wow. Coryna Hebert : Specifically, Great Salt Lake wetlands and restoration of native plant communities following containment of invasive species, which is also a big issue out here that I think we talked about a couple days ago. Matt Harrison: Yeah, and I want to hit on that in just a little bit. But that's awesome, and you know, working for Ducks Unlimited myself, of course I hear a lot of the work that we're doing on the ground. the places that we impact with our work, but being able to kind of actually come out to Utah for the first time, especially on the Great Salt Lake, and be able to see, you know, the visual aspect of it, then also talking about some of the things that DU is working on, and we've talked about that, and it's just been so cool to see and hear about all the work that's being done, and a lot of that is due to yourself and our volunteers and our whole aspect, and Dr. Mike, You know, it's been good to have you the past couple of days with us as well to kind of break down some of the, the ducky stuff and the scientific side of things. And have you had fun the past couple of days? Mike Brasher: Man, I have had a blast. It's been awesome being part of this. Thank you, Sydney, to you and your entire team for, for allowing us to to talk with you all and share these messages with your audience and for being part of that, for sharing our interest, our message, and hearing you talk this week off camera, off audio. You truly mean it, we get it, we hear it, and so thank you for that. I'll probably say that five or six more times, but every time is deserved. This was, personally for me, a fabulous trip because it was the first time I'd ever hunted here. Earlier this year, I came out to Salt Lake City for a meeting. It was the first time I'd ever been to this location. Obviously, I know its importance for Waterfowl, as we talked about a couple of times today. Not a lot of people think of the Great Salt Lake as being a really important area for waterfowl. We are here in Ducks Unlimited's Western Region. I had to step away for just a moment. Did you talk about it being one of the top three, one of the big three here in the Western Region? Coryna Hebert : Not yet. Mike Brasher: Okay. So it is one of our highest priority landscapes here in the Western Region and to get to experience it and see it and feel why it is so important to do the work that we do to rejuvenate this initiative was a breath of fresh air. to experience it with and to share it with y'all was really, really special. And the hunting, we were listening to y'all telling the stories over there, and it was amazing. I was laughing and smiling as we were doing that. There is one story that I wanted to tell. My favorite and funniest moment over the past two days, it was this morning. You were to my left. Sydney Wells: Okay, I'm nervous. Mike Brasher: And you had, we're always scanning for birds, and I think we had just finished a volley or something, and then the dog had retrieved a bird. And I looked over at Sid, and she was looking hard to the right, and she said, guys, there's a group coming from the left. I mean, you were committed. I remember that. Sydney Wells: I know what you're talking about. Mike Brasher: You were committed visually to the right. I mean, 2.30, 3 o'clock, you were looking, guys, hard from the left, hard from the left. And we're all like… Everybody's looking at you, and you're like… Do you mean to the left? Sydney Wells: And you're like, to the right? Yeah, I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, to the right. Mike Brasher: Oh, that's right. So you saw the birds, but you were calling it to the left. It was like a dog locked in on birds. Sydney Wells: And you know, you look at the dog when you don't want to show your face? And I was the dog, and I'm like, to the left, and I'm looking hard to the right. Mike Brasher: We had a couple of funny moments like that. Oh, my goodness. It was so much fun. The first time I'd ever experienced the coffin hunting, coffin blind hunting as well. The silhouettes, the skinny teal, as I like to joke with Dr. Scott Stevens about. Had a lot of them, and I did show him, I sent him, took a photo and texted it to him, and he said, they're just black. They don't even paint anything on them. They don't even paint the feathers or anything. I said, yeah, it's just black, just as you were saying, Sidney. It just sort of emulates that flock of teal on the water. So that was really, really cool to do that, and I will echo the appreciation to Chad and Rob for for making this happen for us. The green wings on this lake, right? And it was really interesting. Like, when we talk about the teal, we only shot at teal, which is remarkable to see as many birds as we did. For two straight days, too. And we only pulled the trigger on teal. We saw a few shovelers. I don't know if I… We saw a few mallards and other puddle ducks. In the distance. Well, and when we drove in through some of the fresher areas, some of the inflows there from the rivers. But when you get out there in that I mean, the salty water where we were, only green-winged teal were the ones that we shot into. And that's the case right now. They're gonna, they're here by the, I don't know, hundreds of thousands if you look across the entire lake probably. The golden eyes are starting, common golden eyes are starting to come in. There's a number of shovelers out there as well, but they didn't come into where we were. Um, and so we, uh, could, uh, Coryna, maybe, you know, talk about why that is the, like, what's the food source. I mentioned that we don't really think about the Great Salt Lake as being important for waterfowl, but these teal were fat, super fat. I mean, just loaded with fat. So what are they eating? Coryna Hebert : They are eating the cysts of brine shrimp. So Great Salt Lake is very salty because it is a terminal lake system. So it gets all these freshwater inflows, but there's no outlet. And so minerals accumulate over time. And so where we were, I don't know what the exact salinity of that area is, but certainly a lot saltier than the ocean. So salty that the only things that can really survive in that water are brine shrimp. And we also have brine flies that can be an important food source for birds as well. But in the wintertime, like you said, we kind of have these three waterfowl species that can use the lake and do use the lake that eat the brine shrimp cysts or the brine fly larvae, which are green-winged teal, shovelers, and goldeneye. But then we didn't really get to experience kind of a complete picture of the ecosystem for waterfowl because all along the eastern shorelines of the Great Salt Lake where the freshwater rivers flow into Great Salt Lake, we have these massive complexes of managed wetlands as well. Matt Harrison: That's awesome. I mean, just to build it, like I said, visually see it, has been remarkable. And you talked a little bit about the past couple days, the Great Salt Lake Initiative. Can you talk a little bit about that and kind of where that is now and the future of that? Can you speak on that just a little bit? Coryna Hebert : Yeah, definitely. So we've talked about this over the last couple of days, but Ducks Unlimited, you know, we didn't have a conservation program here for a while, not because we didn't want one, but just because there wasn't a great funding landscape to support one. And Great Salt Lake kind of had this near ecosystem collapse a couple of years ago when the lake hit record low levels due to years of water diversions coupled with a mega drought, you know, augmented by the impacts of climate change. And I think that was a moment for everyone to be like, OK, we all really need to come together. We need to make changes to our water policy. The state legislature passed a lot of legislation that is going to impact Great Salt Lake. The state has invested a lot of funding and that really kind of gave us a window of opportunity to really rebuild our conservation program here. And I think the opportunities have been in many ways more immense than what we could have ever imagined. So it's it's kind of a silver lining. Like there's a lot of really positive synergistic energy around saving Great Salt Lake, you know, between us and other nonprofits and state entities and corporate partners. And also, I mean, the general public, you know, there's definitely an increased hyper-awareness around this environmental issue. Mike Brasher: And there's no silver bullet for, quote, fixing the problem, fixing the issue. It's a lot of different pieces. It's policy, it's infrastructure. So, I mean, and it's not a quick solution either. Coryna Hebert : No, absolutely not. I mean, we have to fundamentally change how we think about water, how we use water, what our water laws and policies are. Irrigators, agriculture has to shift. The way that we develop has to change. And it also just has to snow more, really. I mean, we have to get out of excessive mega drought. Matt Harrison: I find it so fascinating how the snow impacts so much of the water and the whole nine. Can you kind of just break down a little bit how snow impacts water levels and the Great Salt Lake? Because I find that fascinating. Coryna Hebert : Yeah, definitely. So I mean, I think this is generally true across the arid west that most of our water comes from seasonal snowpack. So it snows a bunch in the mountains. The mountains kind of hold the snow throughout the season. And then ideally it kind of melts more slowly. Sometimes with these faster, hotter spring temperatures, it'll melt faster and you have a faster runoff. But, you know, that's our water for the year, really. The snow pack feeds our rivers that, you know, we get all of our water from, and eventually the rivers flow into Great Salt Lake. Mike Brasher: Wow. And did you say like two years ago, where we are right now, it's up about four feet from where it was about two years ago? Coryna Hebert : Currently, as of today, we are about four feet above the record low level. We had two good snow years. I mean, it was really just excessively fortunate what happened after the record low. We had an insane snow year. It was actually a record-breaking snow year. And it just kind of bought us some time really to implement some water saving and conservation efforts, which was great. However, we're still not at a place where the lake is at an elevation that's generally considered healthy or like a target elevation set by the state of Utah, which is 4,198 feet above sea level. So we're still four feet below that. And for me, like, you know, I've lived in Utah almost eight years and it just occurred to me the other day, oh, it's never been at a healthy level the entire time I've lived here. And I'm trying to remember the last time it was at that elevation. I want to say it's been at least 10 to 15 years. Matt Harrison: Wow. So, sorry, go ahead. Sydney Wells: So is the lake on a trend of decline? Coryna Hebert : Yes. The lake has been generally, like if you look at the, you know, of course there's inter-annual variability, there's been really high water years, that it is close to that healthy elevation or above it, but over time, since the 1980s, there's been a general trend downwards. Matt Harrison: So you talked about two years ago how we were at record lows and it was just a bad time for the Great Salt Lake. Where we hunted the past two days, would we have been able to get in there since it was four feet lower than what it is today? No. Wow. Coryna Hebert : Well, I mean, because look at how low it was, right? So, if it was four feet lower than it was today, it wouldn't have been accessible. A lot of the boat launches just weren't accessible at that level. I don't know about the Pintel Flats launch, like if there were some airboat channels you could get through. I think that's one that is more accessible when the lake is at a really low elevation. Better question for Chad. Matt Harrison: But where we launched the past two days, there's no possible way because we were in four inches of water in the airboat. Sydney Wells: Well, airboats can go on land. Matt Harrison: Yeah. Sydney Wells: That's the only reason why the airboats can go somewhere was because if you don't know generally an airboat, this is why I know my bow fishing, people use airboats because they can go on land and just drive around on land and get right back to the water. Matt Harrison: As far as we were hunting though, eight miles probably would have been tough on the motor. Sydney Wells: Yeah. Matt Harrison: They'd be able to push through that. Mike Brasher: You know, one of the things, the reason why lake levels in the Great Salt Lake are important, it extends beyond just waterfowl habitat, right? So there's the brine shrimp industry, which I don't know what the dollar figure is, but that's really, really important. But Sydney, I think you also picked up on this and mentioned this one of these days. The health of the Great Salt Lake is also critically important for the human population in this area, and not just because of the economies and things of that nature that the Great Salt Lake helps drive, but because of its impact on the health of the air, healthiness of the air. Talk about that a little bit. Coryna Hebert : Yeah, absolutely. So when Great Salt Lake dries out, especially these areas like Farmington Bay and Bear River Bay, where the water flowing in is a lot fresher, if the main body of Great Salt Lake dried out, it would probably leave a salt crust behind, like the Bonneville salt flats. And that crust takes a lot longer to erode. But in these fresher water areas where you're just kind of, you know, we're kind of stepping on it, right? These like fine sediments, when those dry out, they're really susceptible to dust storms. And, you know, Great Salt Lake, I think it's an interesting thing. It's often kind of framed as this future problem, like, oh, if Great Salt Lake dries out, there's going to be all these… It's drying out. But there are parts of it that are dry and are absolutely contributing to air quality issues currently. Mike Brasher: Do you have air quality warnings on occasion here? Did you a couple years ago? Was that a more sort of a more notable thing? Coryna Hebert : Uh, well, so this is the kind of a complicated topic and I'm, I'm certainly not an air quality expert, but a lot of the sensors that we have are PM 2.5 sensors. And so that's, we're getting technical here. Sydney Wells: I'm interested in this because when I was at the Hoyt, the locals were talking about it drying up and how if the thing dries up, all the toxins are coming out. Coryna Hebert : Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a, that's a good point, right? So we're talking about a terminal lake system, so nothing flows out of the lake. So everything that's ever flowed into the lake is still there. Matt Harrison: Wow. Coryna Hebert : Yeah. So heavy metals, synthetic organics, like PCBs and things like that, that have been, you know, illegal for years, but we know they don't break down in the environment. You know, there's probably some of that in the lake bed, where it is, what concentrations it is, how it's going to bind to the particles in the air. I can't really speak to that. There's certainly lots of experts looking into it. But yeah, so a lot of the sediments potentially are kind of larger particles as well. We don't have a lot of PM10 sensors. We don't really have any on the lake bed. So, you know, how much of it is coming off the lake, I think we don't totally know. Matt Harrison: But it's just crazy to take a step back and look at all what the Great Salt Lake is impacting. From waterfowl to humans to the shrimp in business to the, I mean, the whole nine. There's so many different variables that benefit, or aspects that benefit off the Great Salt Lake and how important that is. And if we don't do our part, where is it going to be in another 50 years? Because we saw what happened two years ago. Yeah. Two years ago. Coryna Hebert : Yeah. It's a concern. And I've had people ask me like, would you buy a house here? I mean, that's really how concerned some citizens are about Great Salt Lake drying up. I mean, it would immensely impact the quality of life here. And I mean, it's not just waterfowl too, lots of other species. There are some species of birds that the whole North American population, eared grebes is one, is reliant on Great Salt Lake. Mike Brasher: And these messages are really, really important because if anyone has heard messages in the recent years about the status of bird populations in general across North America, one of the common refrains that we hear is that waterfowl populations or waterfowl and other wetland birds are one of the few groups, if not the only group, that has increased since the 1970s. that leads people into this sense of complacency that, oh, waterfowl are fine and we don't really need to worry about them. Well, it is true that waterfowl and other wetland birds have benefited from the immense partner-driven conservation efforts going on across North America, funded by a host of different different pieces of legislation and private fundraising and NGOs, etc. But this is a perfect example, along with others that we could point to in various geographies that are of critical importance to Ducks Unlimited, whether we're talking about the Prairie Pothole region, the Central Valley of California, the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, there are ever-present threats and challenges to maintaining that legacy of success for waterfowl and wetland bird populations. And it is no more sort of in our face than right here. And again, it's doubly important to share this message because not a lot of people think about the Great Salt Lake as being as important as it is for continental waterfowl populations. Somewhere between 2 to 5 million ducks will winter here or travel through here during fall and winter. Some will continue on to the Central Valley of California, about 75% of the western tundra swan population will migrate through the Great Salt Lake. in route ultimately to the Central Valley of California. This area, if I'm remembering correctly, the Great Salt Lake region supports about 10% of total wintering waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway. So it is super important that we do the work that we do, and it's super important that we help people understand what it is that we're doing. Sydney Wells: I think that's why this particular trip has impacted me the most because you go to other states and you hunt and you don't fully grasp the idea of, oh, it's really important to maintain this area X, Y, and Z because it seems to flourish. But here you're on the lake and you see it in real life, the drought or the decline in water levels and you see it with your own eyes and that's why it's so impactful because it's in your face, like Dr. Mike said. Other places, you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, until it's too late and you're like, wait a minute, this was actually declining and this was very impactful. And now it's too late. You don't want that to get to that spot like it necessarily is here, unfortunately. Mike Brasher: Yeah. You know, Aldo Leopold, I think I'm going to get this quote right. Aldo Leopold was responsible for a number of quotes, and he's the father of ecology in North America. And one of the quotes that sticks with me the most, and I think this conversation sort of typifies that, goes something along the lines of the cost of an ecological education is that we live in a world of wounds. You understand the ecological – you understand ecology and you see the damage that – the changes that are occurring, the damages that are occurring in some areas. and you're able to understand that and you're able to sort of experience that hurt by knowing those things. And so that's the cost of an ecological education is that you live in a world of wounds. But we can't necessarily think of it and always in sort of the negative light because we have shown success in various places for various species. One of the things that Jack was saying earlier today, somewhat joking, I think Luke, looked up and said, man, look at the bald eagle over here doing it. We've seen so many bald eagles. Jack sort of jokingly said, I am so sick of people saying, look at that bald eagle. They are everywhere. And so I understand that because Because if you see bald eagles so many times, then again, Jack's like, of course you see a lot, you see a bald eagle. They're everywhere. Coryna Hebert : Well, you're also seeing a lot because it is a very important area for wintering bald eagles. Well, I think Jack is also talking about other places. Mike Brasher: And so I had to remind Jack, I said, look, That's a conservation success story, and it shows that we can figure things out and make a difference if we commit to it. So that was a pretty cool moment. Like the turkey. He loves turkey hunting now. Sydney Wells: There's a lot of turkeys in certain locations now, buddy, because certain things happen. Coryna Hebert : It was so cool to hear you guys express your experience of Great Salt Lake and going out there today. Because for me, going out there in the winter and seeing the teal rafts for the first time on the lake was kind of new for me this year. And the first time I saw that, And it was like the first day after it had been a big freeze up overnight, and so there were just a raft of probably 40 or 50,000 green-winged teal, and I nearly cried. I was just like, this is insane. You know, there's so much to still protect and save here. Mike Brasher: And so you're a fairly new hunter. Very new hunter. Coryna Hebert : Fairly new. Generous. Mike Brasher: being out there in that setting and interacting birds in that way changed anything about the way you changed your, is it added a level of appreciation or a different type of appreciation? I'm just kind of curious. Coryna Hebert : Yeah, I would say it's definitely additive in that, you know, most of my experiences out in the wetlands Historically, for me, I've just been in the summertime doing plant surveys and there's still lots of birds out there, but it changes too, the types of birds that are out there at different times of year. And being out there in the winter during hunting season is just a totally different thing when there's just a storm and all this fresh snow on the mountains. I mean, it's pretty incredible. And I think it just deepens my appreciation and working for DU now. I know so many people who are just passionate lifelong waterfowlers and it's cool to be able to connect in that way as well. Mike Brasher: How many times prior to becoming a hunter did you go out and lay in a coffin blind and experience what we did the past two days? Coryna Hebert : That was about zero. Mike Brasher: Zero times for me. That's an interesting thing. You know, we talk about that. That's one of the reasons why we love hunting so much is it gives us that reason to wake up so early to do these crits. Well, we didn't wake up so early. But in those instances. But to do those things, to ride on an airboat for 30 minutes and to get really cold and endure that feeling. because you know the reward at the other end of it is going to be so amazing and so unique and put it in the context of Do you know how many—there aren't a whole lot of people that get to experience that. And so, yeah, it's a pretty cool thing. It gives us that reason to go out and do that. I love it. Matt Harrison: And a minute ago, Dr. Mike, you thanked Sidney, and I want to do the same because, you know, Sidney has an amazing platform, millions of followers. You have a lot of people that look up to you. Sidney gets opportunities to go all over to hunt certain places, yet She chooses to use her platform in an educational standpoint from duck science to help promote wetlands conservation and the importance of that. So I personally want to thank you. I know Dr. Mike has done it. I know a lot of people have thank you. Dr. Limited in a whole wants to thank you because, again, a lot of people in your shoes don't realize the importance. And it was just me, Dr. Mike, and Coryna riding in our rental minivan today talking. And literally one of the points Karina made was a very kind comment towards you of how genuine you are off camera, how kind you are, how true you are, and how motivated you are. as in a standpoint of truly wanting to make a difference. And people notice that. So again, I want to thank you. Dunks Unlimited wants to thank you for using your platform to help spread awareness. Because again, we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, yes, we want to have fun. Yes, we want to get really cool pictures, good content. And a lot of people may have a misunderstanding of what media camps are for, but this right here, what we have talked about for the past 25 minutes of how passionate we are for conserving waterfowl habitat is why we do these camps. That is the sole purpose is to spread that awareness and to help people realize just One part of it being the Great Salt Lake, like Dr. Mike mentioned, from Louisiana to the Prairie Pothole, there's all these high-priority landscapes across the U.S. that are very important, but you're helping us get that message out there of how important it is for us to play our part. So I want to say thank you, you know, again, from me personally and also on the part of Ducks Unlimited, we want to say thank you for helping us spread the awareness. Sydney Wells: Well, thank you. I'm also not trying to make this podcast. You're the best. No, you're the best. Yeah, give me a compliment now. But like, I want to say thank you to all of you, you know, especially you two. This is our third hunt together. Three years in a row. And everybody I've met at Darts Unlimited, Mallory, Dr. Karen, Chuck. I hope he's not listening to this. Who's our buddy who we played darts with? Matt Harrison: Jeremy and Doug. Sydney Wells: They are so great. Like, and then like, you know, we've made new friends and it's just like, makes me so happy because I personally, and this is for people who are listening, you know, who even, You learn a lot about Ducks Unlimited through the podcast. In the first ever hunt that I've ever done with you guys, my dad and I were very intrigued because we learned so much more about what Ducks Unlimited actually does. Mike Brasher: We didn't know what we were getting into. We didn't know. There was a lot of anxiety, let's say, about what kind of conversation, what kind of questions they're going to ask us. Yeah. Sydney Wells: Well, the thing is, was there? Mike Brasher: No, no, no. I made that up. Sydney Wells: Okay. Well, um, if you watch the balls family, you know, we're straight shooters and especially my father, I'm a little bit more, um, I listen and then I'll talk. No, he will tell you, uh, what he's thinking. Yes. And that, I, that's why people love him. That's why I love him. But I, back to Ducks Unlimited. Um, I, this is my third hunt with y'all and it's, you guys are friends now to me and Truly, I've learned so much the past three years and the different places we've gone to. I love listening to you two talk because you guys are so full of duck knowledge and waterfowl knowledge and habitat. And I'm like, this is great. I can't wait to go talk and sound super smart to my friends. Listen to what I know because of you guys. But you guys are very genuine as well and everybody at Ducks Unlimited is very genuine. what they strive for and what they believe in and what they're trying to do for our ecosystem, wetlands and our ducks and just everything just means a lot to me. It's very impactful and I would not be coming on every, I wouldn't be coming on another hunt with y'all. If I didn't truly believe that, I would have been like, okay, these guys are full of it. I'm going back. That's not the case. So, be realistic. I think that's pretty obvious about you. Mike Brasher: It is. And we had that… That you're not… That you wouldn't be here if you didn't believe in what we were doing. That you're genuine. And if you… Yeah. You're not gonna fake it. Matt Harrison: And we had that conversation today about how, again, Sydney has all these amazing places, but there's some group that has premier hunting. And Sydney does not want to go back because of a way that she felt afterwards. And Sydney is that type of genuine person that Hey, you know, I'm not in it just to get the cool content. I'm going to check that box and get out. She's in it for the right reasons. And I truly mean that, you know, from the conservation standpoint, from the friend standpoint, I've never felt like she's in it to get, you know, just the cool shot. It's in it for the right reasons. And everybody notices that. Mike Brasher: I did have someone message you. I had someone message me and say, uh, Sydney is great. They saw that we were with, with your team, you and your team. said, Sydney is great. Love her content. She's great for our, for the resource. You should try to get her on a podcast sometime. And I said, well, actually we've had Sydney on twice before and stay tuned. I think we're going to do another one this week. Sydney Wells: Well, tell that person I'm going to go on another one too, because I'm feeling really good after this podcast listening to you guys' compliments. Mike Brasher: Also, I'm glad that you mentioned our friend and colleague, Mallory Murphy, who was not able to join us this time, but she's been providing support back in Memphis, helping us this week, and so she hates that she can't be here. She said hey multiple times. Sydney Wells: A big shout out to Mallory, because to be honest, I probably wouldn't be here on this hunt, because she actually saw me at NWTF talking about all the turkey fun things we did the man on the street. Actually Matt and I did. Matt Harrison: I wouldn't be employed with Ducks Unlimited if it weren't for Mallory Murphy. Sydney Wells: Because yeah she saw us doing man on the street stuff and it honestly like the man on the street stuff so much fun but also promotes the different conventions that we're at and it gets people to be very interested. Like at NWTF we did one at Ducks when you guys did in Dallas. Yep and then we did I did some SCI because I love to go to these conventions and we love to do a man on the street to promote where we're at, what we're doing, what these conventions are all about. And yeah, she reached out on Ducks Unlimited social media. Mike Brasher: She slid into your DMs. Yeah. We've heard that story. Yeah. Sydney Wells: So that's great. So I'm just big shout out to Mallory. She's also a great person there. And yeah, you guys are the best. I love Ducks Unlimited. I've learned so much. I honestly, didn't know much about your organization until I started to get to know you guys personally and the compassion and the genuineness and what you guys are all about. Everybody should learn and listen because it's very impactful and I'm very glad that I met you all. So this is great. I'm happy as could be and I love the compliments. Matt Harrison: And huge thanks to the conservation team from Dr. Karen down to Dr. Mike to Coryna. You know we invite you on these media accounts because we want that knowledge to be displayed to all the people listening and watching. So, huge thanks to the conservation team, Dr. Karen Down, also thanks to Doug Barnes as well for allowing us to host these media camps, and everybody at Ducks Unlimited. I don't want to get off into all the names, but from everybody, thanks for the opportunity. I want to thank everybody that joined in on the podcast this evening. It has been a True, true blast the past two days. I'm sad it's over. We're all gonna depart tomorrow, but Karina, Dr. Mike, Sydney, Jack, and Luke, Chad Yamani, Rob, the whole nine, thank you to everybody. It has been a true blast. And y'all have any final remarks before we sign off for the night? Sydney Wells: Just shout out to Coryna for getting into duck hunting. Like, she is such a sport. She's… I want everybody to listen to this. She's starting out her duck hunting career with teal. Okay. Matt Harrison: Teal. The toughest bird, in my opinion, to hit. Absolutely. Coryna Hebert : Yeah, I think it was behind him being like, don't get discouraged. Yeah, because I'm like, girl, I've missed a lot of teal. Sydney Wells: They're so fast. And you're learning. When you get a mallard in your face, girl, you're gonna be like, wow, I'm gonna smoke it. Yeah, she's gonna be like, I'm actually really good at this. Matt Harrison: Another compliment to you, and we're not just passing out brownie points here, but I truly noticed it today is, She was out there placing decoys, picking up decoys at the end of the hunt, truly helping too. And like I even noticed, I've been around the waterfowl game for a long time, but that's something people look for, you know. Without hesitation. Mike Brasher: Without a hesitation. Matt Harrison: Not even really knowing probably what you're doing, you know what I mean? But just, you know, it's been cool to kind of see you you know, enjoying it and kind of learning some of it. And we've talked a little bit about it, the shooting aspect, the hiding aspect, and you've done amazing. If it would have been my first ever time to be out here, come out and shoot, I probably would embarrass myself, but you fit right in. Sydney Wells: Yeah, I probably wouldn't have honestly been like, I'm just not going to shoot because this is just… Can I hold the camera? Yeah. Yeah, I had one practice hunt before. Yeah, good steal. Well, you're awesome. And you know so much about the Great Salt Lake. It's just very intriguing. I love listening to you talk, to be honest. You have a great voice. Matt Harrison: You do. Sydney Wells: You have a podcast voice. Matt Harrison: Much better than the Southern drawl. Coryna Hebert : Oh, I don't know about that. Matt Harrison: Or whatever I have. Well, thank you all so much for joining in. It's been a great time these past couple days getting to spend time with you all. We also want to do a huge shout out to Browning, Apps, and Winchester providing us gear, ammo, We want to thank Shondi for attending the past two days with us. She was awesome. Came with a smile and left with a smile. Was so kind. We want to thank all of them so much. They play a part in making this happen as well. And what did you say, Sydney, about Clicks for Conservation? Make sure… Sydney Wells: Make sure you like, comment, and share all the Ducks Unlimited posts because that's just one way to share about conservation for wetlands without spending a dime. So go do it. Matt Harrison: Clicks for conservation. So thank you all so much. Y'all take care and God bless.