The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 726: East Coast Fishing and Killing Oaks | MeatEater Radio Live!

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

Hosts Janis Putelis, Spencer Neuharth, and Austin "Chilly" Chleborad discuss the outdoor win in Pennsylvania and Jani's upcoming 100 mile run, chat with Tony Jackson about the bite in NC, play another round of Fake News, and talk with Jacob Hernandez and Bo Hendrickson of the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program about the oak work they're doing on Jani's Wisconsin property. Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel. Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. long lost treasure chest. While you cook the lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Yar. Discover bestselling adventure stories on Audible. Ever wonder what happened to the hundreds of thousands of buffalo that used to call the Eastern United States home? Or what caused the rise and fall of Bob White Quail? Backwoods University, hosted by me, Lake Pickle,

is the latest addition to the Bear Gryse feed on Meat Eaters podcast network. Together, we'll seek out a deeper understanding of wildlife, wild places, and the people who dedicate their lives to conserving both. After all, you can't love what you don't understand. Search Bear Gryse on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast and hit that follow button to enroll in Backwoods University now.

Smell us now, lady. Welcome to Meat Eater Trivia's Meat Eater podcast. Welcome to Meat Eater Radio Live coming to you live from Meat Eater's world headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. It's 11 a.m. Mountain Time on July 3rd. That's 8 p.m. for Steven Rinella, who's currently in Tanzania. I'm your host, Giannis Battellis,

and I'm here today with Spencer Neuharth, aka Boof, and Austin Kleberad, aka Chili. On today's show, we've got big news out of Pennsylvania. I'll bring you up to speed on my training for the Crazy Mountain 100. We're getting a fishing report from Tony Jackson on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina. Tony's also playing one-minute fishing. In the studio we'll be playing fake news brought to you by Spencer Neuharth. And lastly we'll talk to Jacob Hernandez and Bo Hendrickson from the US Fish and Wildlife Services,

Partners for Fish and Wildlife program, who are on site at my soon to be Oak Savannah in central Wisconsin. So let's get right to it. Spencer, how did you get the nickname Booth? You've been fascinated by this ever since you heard that was my high school nickname. Well, I asked everybody their nicknames from high school

for intros for doing roasts, but then they never really became part of the show. And yeah, I think that you actually told me this story, but I feel like we should tell the world. It was just born out of teen or baseball. It was like every single player had to have a nickname. And I happened to resemble a pitcher for the Minnesota twins named Booth Bonser. Uh, we both had shaggy haircuts through an average curve ball.

Um, you were a pitcher. Uh, I mean, you played every, everyone is a pitcher in teenager baseball in a town of 600 people. So yeah, anyway, just everyone got a nickname. I was Boof, named after Boof Bonser. And I don't think that was his real nickname either. He came over in one of the Minnesota Twins' best trades in franchise history.

Yeah, they got Francisco Liriano, Boof Bonser, and Joe Nathan totally, like, changed the trajectory of their franchise for a few years my favorite era of Minnesota Twins baseball so that that nickname booth if I go back home to where I'm from that's that's what I'll get called Oh, oh, so it has kind of stuck. Yeah, it sticks. Mm-hmm like my my old Coaches and teachers will call me that my high school buddies But I don't hear it in Montana, besides Yanni. Chilly, maybe we should bring that around.

We should, we should, definitely, call him Boof, I'd do it. Okay, we all know how Chilly got his nickname. He's so cold. What's that? Because he's so cold. So cold. They used to call me something different back in high school.

Oh, what's that? They used to just call me club. Mmm. And like so. I kinda like that. Yeah, called me club and then so when I go home like Spencer was saying it's just like All like the coaches and it's like clubby club Nobody calls me chili from back home Club. I like it. Chili's better Onwards, um, Phil, you're up now. He's going to do a quick plug for the kids show, which is back in action. Kids show is back in action. We have a kids show. It's called the meat eater kids podcast. It's fitting. Uh, season three just

started. There is one episode out so far. Uh, it's, and, but the most important thing is that it's on its own feed, not dropping any episodes on the MeatEater podcast feed, so you just have to do the incredibly hard work of typing in MeatEater kids into whatever app you use and then follow or subscribe. And yeah, we've got Clay doing the first segment instead of Steve. The Why It's The Way It Is segment, Maggie Hedlow's doing Guess That Critter, and Spencer still in the host chair for trivia, as is appropriate. So check it out. Another thing, oh yeah, we're doing five episodes, they drop on Mondays.

That's important. This isn't a dig at anything else we do. I think it's the best thing we make on the podcast front. It's so much fun. Yeah, it stands on its own. It's fun for me to work on. I like it a lot as well. Similar to radio, Phil gets to really

flex his engineering audio muscles because there's all sorts of fun sounds in there. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of it. I just either, I felt something on my neck and I just went to go smack it and then, you see that? A mosquito? Oh, I got a skater. That's the second one here today.

It's filled with blood. Filled with blood. Probably not, I don't think that's all mine. Could be though. Oh, we're sharing diseases probably now in this room. Two mosquitoes in the podcast studio. Yeah, there's a very short time period, I feel like, in and around Bozeman that it's Skeeter season.

Like one to two weeks. And I noticed it last night on, I was shooting some arrows right at dusk at my house and I was getting annoyed. I was thinking, this will last another few days. It'll be over. You feel that way too? I feel like I don't encounter it in the valley

as much as if I like get near water in the mountains. Then it's like the worst mosquitoes of my life. Oh yeah. But again, I don't think it doesn't last forever, because as soon as it sort of starts to get dry, they tend to just, I don't know, beat her out. And I've got one other thing to mention before we move on, some housekeeping.

We're going through some internet woes here at Bozeman HQ. Internet's been dropping out actually around this time, almost every single day. If the internet does drop out, I mean, you lose the feed. We will be back in about two to three minutes. So don't go anywhere. We're talking to tech people trying to fix it. But if that does happen, the show's not over.

We'll just disappear for about two minutes and then pop back up. Phil, you know technology. Why 11 a.m.? Like what's going on there? It's 11 a.m. when the internet drops out. I know technology. I've got no clue, Spencer.

I have no idea, no. It should be fixed though, Phil. We should be good to go. Yeah, Chile made some calls, and so hopefully everything's working well. We're kind of just troubleshooting and seeing if it works. But thank you, Chile. So far, so good. Let's keep it going and get everything knocked out in case it does drop out.

At least we'll get most of the show done. All right, huge win in Pennsylvania. A statement released by the Pennsylvania Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers reads, for over a century, Pennsylvania hunters have been shut out of the woods for half the weekend. With the passage of House Bill 1431, that can finally change, putting decisions about hunting seasons in the hands of wildlife managers,

not outdated blue laws. Since 2017 Pennsylvania backcountry hunters in anglos has led the charge for the long overdue reform. It's a major win for access especially for working families and public land hunters. Yeah if you were living under a rock you could not hunt on Sundays in Pennsylvania. I don't know exactly how many years that law has been around, but a long time, many generations of Pennsylvania hunters. So insane that, uh, it's, it's just incredibly antiquated that in 2025 that would still exist.

And I felt like they've been creeping towards this. Like they allowed it. I don't know their history totally, but it was like one Sunday all of a sudden. And then it was like on private land or something. But now it seems on July 1st, a few days ago, it reached Governor Josh Shapiro's desk. And if he signs it, then it seems like Sunday hunting is fully in action in Pennsylvania. Really the only pushback on it, and I only know this

because I just got done editing Cal's podcast that's dropping on Monday, is just people, other recreation, old people, like people who don't hunt, but are outdoors, like hikers being like, oh, I'm going to feel unsafe in the woods on Sundays. Like Sunday has been my safe day to go hiking. And that's that's kind of the only knock that. Well, they will realize that Sunday will still be a safe day to go. I think they will. Yeah. Chill, you got anything to say about that?

Have you ever hunted in Pennsylvania? I have not, no. I mean the only experience I had with Pennsylvania was when we did the Meat Eater live tour. And we just went over to Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, but like, yeah, never got to explore outside. I want to. Seth keeps talking about whitetail hunting over there.

Sounds pretty appealing. Yeah, now that we can hunt on Sundays, I'm definitely more interested. 100%. Yeah. Oh, we got a Slack message saying the internet is down. Are you noticing that, Phil? Uh-oh. Uh, nope. I'm not. As far as I can tell, we're still live.

Okay. And I think the viewers will let us know in the chat. I think Cory's just trying to stir the pot. Mmm. Because he's not here. Tried to scare us. Alright, Crazy mountain 100. Exactly three days, three weeks, one day from today.

I'm gonna start on my little endeavor of trying to run a hundred miles in a row. I got 40 miles with a bunch of elevation this weekend, and then I'm tapering all the way to the finish. That's how I'm looking at it. You guys know what taper means? I'm tapering all the way to the finish. That's how I'm looking at it. You guys know what taper means? Taper when you're like like Where it tapers and it gets skinnier at the end, yeah, that's right to me It's actually the hardest part of this whole business. I've done this is like I don't know three or four of these longer distances and After this weekend, I'm gonna basically be,

after a couple days of rest, I'll be at the peak, sort of performance peak feeling that I'll be the whole time. Okay. And your brain's ready to run, your legs are ready to run, and then you're like, oh, I have to just chill for two weeks basically and wait. Because the hope is that you're going to rest some more and just

really come into it full, uh, you know, full, full speed ahead. But Brad is asking if this is your first ultra, Yannis is a 50 considered an ultra is a hundred. I think I've Googled it once. And, um, I was told we don't Google anymore. Now you gotta, what's the new thing that you gotta do instead of Googling GPC. Yeah, chat GPT Yeah, but anything over 26 point 2 so anything over a marathon. I think is considered ultra

So this will be my third I've done 250s. Sorry fourth. I've done a 31 Mylar 250s and a this will be my first hundred. How often do you check in with your coach? Oh And they this would be my first hundred. How often do you check in with your coach? Oh Once every two weeks probably but she you know, she has my schedule training schedule, you know written out Usually one to two weeks out. Do you pay her? Yes Oh, I pay her and get a gym membership at the same time at the Mountain Project Okay, how many other people is she coaching for a run like this? and get a gym membership at the same time at the Mountain Project. Okay. How many other people is she coaching for a run like this? You know, I don't know if she has,

I know for sure she has one other guy that's doing 100, but I don't know how many total, so they call them online clients because they have like in-house clients too, but I'm what they call an online client. So I don't get that much really one-on-one time with them. Like we've never been on a run together. We've been trying to kind of plan one but we've never done it. Okay. All right so I'm

feeling good I'll let you guys know how it goes. My goal is to finish. Look good look strong today Yanni. Look yeah well I'd like to feel I like to be that way at the end of this race. Okay. All right A couple of meat eaters store highlights if you're into the gnome t-shirt thing that we got going We've just released a gnome angling a megalodon t-shirt, but it's almost sold out So if you're looking to get one get after it the next no t-shirt will launch at the end of end of July Let's keep your eyes open for that. The Meat Eaters store is having a summer sale July 8 to 11, and the theme is summer cooking.

Some of the items that are gonna be on sale, select cookbooks, 25% off. This is the deal of the century right here. Benchmade Meat Crafter 2.0, 40% off. It's almost half off, Spencer. and fire breather hot sauces are half off which I really I really like that's one of the cooking like seasoning cooking things I'm a huge fan of it as well right yeah it's like got a really nice flavor yeah kind of a hot sauce snob I wouldn't say snob I am repping I am

repping a hook and arrow hot sauce shirt today shout out to those guys because the last time I complained about having to pay for the fire breather sauce, the hook and arrow guys who are fans of the show heard me and sent me a bunch of hot sauce. So thank you. And they've got a hot sauce on hot ones this season. Very exciting. Oh, wow. Oh, good. Oh, I never thought about how that could be really, uh, Oh, hugely beneficial.

Influential for a hot sauce company. I like that show. One of our hot sauce companies. You like that? Yeah. When I see clips from that, I wonder, I say, I says to myself, I say, who watches this? Have you ever watched it?

Millions of people? I know, I know, that's what blows my mind, Phil, is it's like the most popular online series right now. I think it's great. Yeah, do you see the caliber of people they have on there too? Yes, I see all the clips from it. Have you not sat through like a whole episode though?

No. It's made really, really well. And Sean asked like some really interesting questions. Okay, I trust you, Phil. Now I'm gonna check out your episode., because it's made really, really well. And Sean asked like some really interesting questions. Okay. I trust you, Phil. Now I'm gonna check out your episode. I see the clips online. Yeah, and I think the key is to watch it all the way through because you get to see the progression

and just how the two things that interview and then like the effect of hot sauce intermingle. And it's just like a weird, wacky idea, and they execute it so well. I've seen Sean on other shows where he gets interviewed and he had talked about famously DJ Khaled. Did he have an episode? One of the first episodes he chickened out after two or three hot sauces. I don't remember if he walked off the set but basically was just like no I'm done. Yeah I think I think he had said

he ate like a big-ass lunch before that and then rolled in they like warned him they're like do not do that and then he did it anyway and just did not participate hardly. That specific episode I would be interested in. Yeah well if you find it, share it with me please. Alright finally end of our little chitchat here up top Some of you might be wondering where's Randall? How is Randall? What's he up to? Were you thinking that? Well, let me tell you folks. He's on vacation in Germany and today we have our first installment of Randall does Europe our first installment of Randall Does Europe. Let's see the clip, Phil.

Hello, friends. This is your old pal, Dr. Randall, reporting live on tape delay from Europe. Got a Wozniak here. It's a lovely Austrian treat and just wanted to give you a quick update on how my vacation is going so follow along and I think you'll enjoy this. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm trying to get a little bit of a sense of humor. Off we to Zane. Incredible. What a treasure that man is. Not much audio in that.

So for folks who are only listening, that was two minutes of Randall just eating hot dogs and sausages in Europe. Yes, Cody says that Randall is the most successful homeless person in history. I noticed some of those clips he was wearing the same outfit so he was going double meal of sausage in some of those days. Yeah, I think he's gonna have to have a five to seven day recovery period when he comes back. But you I think he's gonna have to have a five to seven day recovery period if he comes back. Oh, but you gotta remember, he's traveling Europe, so he's probably wearing the same outfit

several days in a row. Well, then he styled his hair the same, he did everything the same on those. True. It was funny, because we were slacking with Randall, and I think, Chile, you asked him if he had hiked those hot dogs up to the top of that mountain. Yeah, well like I

He texted us that video One in the little montage he had there and I was like did you hike that thing up there cuz I could definitely see you Packing a hot dog hiking to the top of a mountain and then sitting down and eating it. Mm-hmm But now there's like a little little stand up there. Yeah, and his answer was no, Europe is the best place ever. They just have cabins on top of mountains that serve beer and sausages. Yeah, which is makes me want to go now. No, hey, wherever he is, I 100% want to go and experience that. That looks delicious. Does Latvia have a real sausage culture? No, no. They make some sausages for sure. What is there? Like dumpling adjacent things? Pierogies? A little bit, man. It's bland food. Oh, that's not nice. It's very, yeah, like sauerkraut giant hunks of pork cooked slow. It's not too exciting.

But I think also like the same way it was for hunting over there in the hunting traditions, right? Like having, being, you know, not Latvia and being occupied for so many years, like they kind of just beat that stuff out of you, right? So you're not allowed to celebrate being a Latvian. You can't sing your own songs. You can't eat your own food.

You can't, you know, pray in church in your own language, right? All that stuff is beaten out of you. And so now they've been free since 91. It's sort of probably like, hopefully that stuff will come back around and somebody will find old versions of, you know, Latvian food and it'll become a thing again, but it takes time, man. Like that place is, they sort of lose your identity when you're occupied for so long, you know?

It's on you, you gotta help do that. Totally, totally. Luckily I have peers that are over there doing that. Okay, our next segment is One Minute Fishing, Phil. Do I feel lucky? Well, do you, punk? Go ahead, make my cast. One Minute Fishing is where we go live to someone who's fishing and they have one minute

to catch a fish. And if they're successful, we'll make a $500 donation to a conservation group. This week our angler is Tony Jackson from Finchasers USA in North Carolina, and he's fishing for a donation to the Coastal Conservation Association. Tony, welcome to the show. Hey, what's going on guys? Thanks for having me. Tony Yonis here. Has it been two years or three years since we fished together? I would say it's been at least two. It could be three.

Yeah, I had the pleasure of fishing with Tony and my father-in-law's neighbor, Steve Pfeiffer. Shout out to Steve who's, according to Steve, he's still out there hammering away. Have you seen him lately? Yeah, he's still catching fish. Yeah. At the ripe old age of 80, multiple back surgeries and he's still, he's not letting down, man.

He likes to set the hook. I feel bad for the local panfish population. Tell me about your day of fishing with Tony, Yanni. We were, I think pretty much solely targeting redfish and we were using cut bait under, were we fishing poppin' corks, Tony, I believe. Yeah, cut bait under poppin' corks. Yep, and yeah, it was, like often it is with redfish, if you're off the mark by 10 feet with your cast,

there's like no bite, but if you put it in the spot, man, it was fish almost every single cast. So I don't know how many we caught that day, but it was quite a few How's the fishing been lately out there? Redfish fights just now starting to pick up it started off a little slow for us this year Typically by May we're wide open and and this year it kind of they trickled in but The shrimp shrimp are pretty thick in the river and this full shad and mullet. So

What do you think? What do you think caused that slow start? I'm, not real sure. I know we had a we had a pretty cold winter. We had a big freeze I don't know if that put a dent into it or if it's just one of those years where that happens Um, I i think it's possibly the freeze because we did have other areas like out in the Neuse River the bite was a little bit better so they were a little less impacted but here inshore it was kind of slow. So if someone's out there trying to go get into some redfish themselves or anything else I guess for that matter in that area what what would you recommend

they fish with? Well if they wanted wanted to fish with artificial baits, it's hard to pass up a topwater. I'd rather catch one fish on topwater than 10 on a soft plastic or live bait, personally. I'm a big fan of the MiraLure topwater baits, and you can kind of get away with just two. You have the top pup and then you have the sheep pup. The top pup being a quiet version

and then the sheep pup being very loud. Tony, is there any conventional wisdom about what redfish do like before, during, after a hurricane? Does the fishing improve or does it get worse? What happens? The fishing definitely improves before and leading right up to it and even during it if it's not that significant of a storm.

I think you're following barometric pressure just like any other animal movements. It turns them on, it sets them on to feed. Now the post storm once it goes by, you have the rise in pressure, it can shut them down. But then after it's gone by, then passed for a couple days, I've had some really good experiences. So what are we fishing for today then? Well, this morning our trip was for redfish, but for my one minute I'm going to try to catch any fish. Okay, and using what to do it?

Some cutmenhaden. All right, so what are our possibilities there when you say catch any fish? Pinfish, spot, croaker, possibly a redfish. Those would be the most likely. Have you prefished this spot? Are you feeling pretty confident? I feel pretty good about it. I haven't pre-fished it.

We did fish it this morning and there were a lot of pinfish and croakers here. Picked up one redfish out of it. Okay Tony, well your one minute of fishing starts when you make that first cast. Alright. He's decked out for the 4th of July. A minute of fishing starts when you make that first cast. All right. He's decked out for the 4th of July. I got a red, white and blue hat on. Does this look familiar to you, Yanni? Is this where you went fishing? Man, I'm sure it's not too far.

Oh, he's got a cast in. Okay. Timer started. There's no retrieve happening. Oh He set the hook. Oh, he got it. He's got one! We are ten seconds in and he has set the hook on a fish. Oh, we got a little video hitch. Oh He's actually fighting a little. He's taking drag Maybe that's just for the drama. Does he have to land it in it within the minute I just long as you hook up you can fight the same for the next 10 minutes. Okay here and watch it

All right, I don't see a net appearing. He's gonna swing it into the boat Come on. Oh, what did he get? Oh, what is that? Well, those oysters? Yeah. That doesn't count. Oh no. We thought he had a fish and it was just a stack of clams. He's got about 10 seconds left here.

Come on, Tony. 10 seconds. Let's go. You just got to hook him. All right, Tony, tell us what happened there. We couldn't see it very well. What did you reel in? Well, I reeled in an oyster.

I cast out and got the pinfish for all over it as soon as it hit the water. We're pecking away at it. I set the hook and it jerked back, but it ended up not being a fish. Damn. At what point did you know those were oysters on there? When you saw them? No, whenever I felt the rod Just a heavy slow pullback

damn One minute fishing There was even some drag being taken we thought we had a big fishing Yeah, those oysters will get in the get in the current with the tide and they'll pull back and clean. All right well Tony, tell us if someone wants to get out on a charter with you, if they're in that Beaufort, North Carolina area, how do they find you? They can find me on Facebook at FinnChasersUSA, Instagram at FinnChasersUSA, and I have a website it's www.finnchacersusa.com and they can reach

out to me on my phone it's 252-876-2815. Alright you got any openings coming up in the next couple weeks? I'm guessing you're pretty booked. I am pretty booked the next couple weeks but there's some openings sprinkled in. Alright cool well thanks for participating thanks for the fishing report Tony. Thanks Tony. Thanks for having me. I saw some folks in the chat asking if anyone has ever been successful. The answer is yes Yanni was successful. That's right he was also chubbing pretty hard. That's okay we'll take it for the good of conservation. Pat Durkin was successful in Idaho. We had Chester was successful ice fishing in Wisconsin.

So it has happened. We've got a lot of people in the chat saying that that should count. Says there's, there's nothing in the rule book that says it needs to be pelagics. Shellfish has fish in the name. I don't know. MeatEater hasn't made a donation for this in a while. So we could probably make that happen. Yeah.

My vote's for Tony. Your vote's for Tony? You're the host, Yana. Spencer, what do you think? Yeah, let's do it. $500. But does anybody remember what he told me now? It was... The Coastal Conservation Association. No, no, it was something for fishing with kids. It was catching for kids. Catching for kids, yeah. Catching for kids. I believe that's what he said. Okay, we'll have to let him know cuz he's gone. Yeah 500 Tony you are the chat room says you should win So we're gonna give it to your it was a live animal that has that's true the word fish The only person that's against it right now is Cory Calkins. I you know get out of here Cory Yeah, it was on the end of a hook on his fishing rod.

$500 for the shellfish catch going to Huyani. Catching for kids. And yeah, it looks like they are out of that same area of, of, uh, Beaufort, North Carolina, the crystal coast there. And, um, yeah, you can help them out. It looks like they take donations, purchase rods, reels, tackle. They give out like they do like adopt a family for Christmas and give out that kind of stuff. On that note some kid would have

been very excited to catch that hunk of clams. Oh yeah. Because it wasn't just one. Okay it says right here their, children spending quality time outdoors, enjoying fishing and all the water has to offer. Can't say no to that. That's right. Uh, meat eater can't take it back now. $500. Corey says chat.

GPT says a shellfish is not a fish. That's more of a reason to stay away from chat. That's right. I wonder where Corey is right now. Probably on a river. He's just jealous that he's after his embarrassing look on the pond in the back these last few weeks. You searched for your informant who disappeared without a trace.

You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth, while curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. Ever wonder what happened to the hundreds of thousands of buffalo that used to call the eastern United States home? Or what caused the rise and fall of Bob White Quail?

Backwoods University, hosted by me, Lake Pickle, is the latest addition to the Bear Gryce Feed on Meat Eaters podcast network. Together, we'll seek out a deeper understanding of wildlife, wild places, and the people who dedicate their lives to conserving both. After all, you can't love what you don't understand. Search Bear Gryse on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast, and hit that follow button to enroll in Backwoods University now. What else we got, Phil, for listener feedback?

Got some feedback here. Let's do it. Titus asks, here's a question for the crew, which is harder, finding a matching set of shed antlers, an antler deadhead, or shooting a buck? If I were to rank those things, shooting a buck, easiest. Finding an antler deadhead, second easiest. Finding a matching set of shed antlers third. I agree with you. I've found many of dead heads that have

both antlers but as far as matching sets go I have three I think. I've never found one. Is your Wisconsin property good for shed hunting? Some properties are set up real well. They're not. I'm This is this would be a nice segue if we were going right to this but the my oak savanna Supposedly they love dropping their antlers in that tall in that tall grass So maybe it'll become that way. I think that we've, I found one shed this year when I was there turkey hunting. I would overall say no, although my dad did find a matching set. It took him over the course of a whole year to find the other side, but he did find both sides. And that was that big old giant that you know just the antlers themselves no spread credit was

like almost 180 Wow, yeah 180 without spread yeah, you gotta show me these antlers. Yeah, I don't have they're in My dad's house, but I can show you some pictures. I can show you 180 without spread mm-hmm So if he had an 18 inch spread He's almost a 200 inch deer. Yeah, he's a giant. He was we haven't seen him now for a couple three years Who measured this deer you I did Wow

180 How have you not shown me these things I figured I have I've shown all my white self fanatic friends Not all but I guess not you what's what's he got going on? How many points? He's actually just a mainframe 8, but he's got incredible brow tines the year that we found the shed. Mainframe 8 going 180 inches. Almost impossible. I mean he's got like... You're certain. I mean he's... Well again, it depends on what counts as mainframe and what you'd count as like an inline sticker. But like, yeah, when you look at him, you're like, oh no, he's not a 10 point.

It's just like, but he looks incredibly massive because he's like, his brow times are probably almost as long as his longest, you know, regular times. His G2 and three. But he could have 10 inches of stickers and that would still be like an unbelievable 4x4. Oh I'm happy to show you these multiple pictures of him. Yeah I'm I am mildly skeptical. Okay. 180 inches. Yeah. Without spread. Yeah. Okay. I hope you're accurate. I hope it's right. Blow my mind. I even went through a scoring app with the buck and like an app that scores it.

Now I'm more skeptical. And I came up with roughly the same answer. Okay. Will asks, have you guys ever battered and fried trout fillets? He says everyone tells him he's crazy to do it. I have not. I have. They're crazy to think that you can't batter and fry anything out there. I recently heard that, you know, Greece is the great American equalizer. I love that saying. Who said that? I don't know where I picked that up.

Who said that? I don't know where I where I pick that up but Yeah, man. I've totally done just straight-up deep-fried trout nothing wrong with it You know just make sure you do a good job getting your getting the The bones out of it, and you'll have a tasty meal Now we move on to Spencer's accessory corner first Spencer Version 2.0 asks Spencer, where can I buy that hat?

That thing is awesome. Oh, the meat eater store, uh, the meat eater.com, uh, maybe, maybe store.the meat eater.com. This is one of our new offerings. I think our merch has gotten so strong. Oh yeah. It's improved tenfold the last couple of years. This hat is a good example of that.

Uh, it's got a bison on it Yanni said this is what the cool kids wear now these hats. Mm-hmm the little rope on it. Mm-hmm kind of sits a little bit high Yeah, I don't really like the way they fit on me, but Laura Mascari believe that's how you say her name was running our merch program these days She said it made me look young. here I am again there you go I think of our of our improved merch offerings hat is at the top of the list and we all three have some of our new hats on today mm-hmm the second question in the Spencer accessory corner comes from Mogor yeah Spencer my girlfriend says you've got the coolest notebook sticker she's ever seen oh wow she

thinks Teddy was the greatest president of all time. I think you can let Mogor know where people can get that. Seth Morris, his wife is an artist, Kelsey, and she sells a variety of stickers and prints on her website. I'm not certain what that is, but that sticker is one of Kelsey's stickers. I think we even sell them in our brick-and-mortar meat eater store in Bozeman So if you type in I think it's like I've seen them there K Ray arts Something like that That is where you could get that sticker Let's see We don't have meat eater menu on this on the docket today, but Freddie Rick and the Mons asks

Just what you guys have been cooking wild game dishes. You've been cooking Oh, I got a hot answer for you ready recently did a My first ever birria dish and I just used a bunch of like neck shanks and Lots of lots to learn from this. Ronell and I always go back and forth because he still likes to grind like the stuff that has all the sinew meat in it.

And I just think that's crazy because then you have to eat a burger and you gotta pick stuff out of your teeth. And that stuff doesn't do you any good in the burger, but where it does do you so much good is in a dish like birria, which basically it's very simple. I use the New

York Times cooking app. I think we have a version of it on the MeatEater. But I just chunked up the neck and these shanks into, I don't know, two to three inch pieces. I did a very quick brine in just water with a half cup of vinegar and some salt. That's it. You do that for 30 minutes and it's amazing how much that actually changes sort of the feel and texture of the meat. Then put it into a slow braising pot like Dutch oven style, cover it with cold water, and again a little bit of salt. I don't think there's any spices yet. You let that roll for like two hours until it starts to cook down. As that's going, you rehydrate some chili peppers. I forget exactly

what kind, but not too spicy. Cojillo maybe or something like that. Once they're rehydrated, you take them in a cup of the water you used to rehydrate, put them in your blender, buzz it up until you just get this like saucy pasty thing. Dump that into the braising liquid and basically just let it cook until it's shreddable and then you serve it. You actually take the meat out of the broth while it's still warm. Season it, salt and pepper and then corn tortillas, lots of white onion, cilantro. That's the basic. You can just leave it as is But then I also did some pineapple chunks on there. We had some of that Cotija cheese. And then you make your taco,

and the recipe said to actually eat the taco and then chase it with the broth. But what we started doing is actually doing like almost a French dip style. Yeah, taking that taco and dunking it in that cup and Absolutely delicious. My wife and I made a pot last week and I think we've had that For dinner four out of the last five nights. No kids around though to review it. No kids around Are you cooking differently now that your girls are off at camp for a little while? Oh, a hundred percent Oh, tell me what's different

Well, just that that we just we ate the same dinner four out of five nights. Girls would not, they wouldn't let that fly. You know what? I don't know, because I don't think we've ever tried them, but I just feel I'm compelled to cook them different foods and do different dinners every night. I mean, I don't know, I usually make enough to have a leftover a few nights later, but never four out of five, like I'm rolling with right now.

But it's just very simple. We're not like, a lot of times we're just sitting there in the kitchen is standing and eating so that we can just like clean it up real fast and get back to whatever we're doing. Spencer what's this? I made elk steaks last night I love summer grilling weather so what had those on the camp chef with some potatoes and asparagus. What cut did you make those out of? That was... I don't remember what it was.

I don't recall now. I pulled it out of the freezer like a week ago and then instantly put them into a Ziploc bag. So I don't even recall. Was it like a whole muscle and then you cut it up into steaks? No, these were already staked by our friend Anna Borgman. I don't know if Anna did this specifically for me because she knows my family size is just me and my wife,

but I got very petite sized portions of steaks and roasts and I really appreciated that. Maybe she does that for everyone, but I imagine if you're like a family of five and she knows that, that you'd get, you know, six steaks in one of your packages instead of mine came two at a time. I really liked that. It felt like I was getting some, uh, some boutique butchery by Anna there. Mm hmm. Which you are. Yes, that's right.

Um, how is that bull eaten overall? Oh, very good. Yeah. I got no, no issues with it. Um, my favorite thing, what makes me more motivated to kill more elk, uh, are just the sizes of the roasts. I'm so used to working with deer that, you know, are 160 pounds or whatever. Um, and I'm just like very familiar with all the steaks and roasts that you get from that.

Um, but the, the size of the steaks and the roasts off an elk, um, very different, very fun to work with. I like that. All right. I'll do one more question and we'll move along here. Uh, Oh, and eggs 82 says Phil hoarder Alliance. Uh, the answer is Alliance. Shout out to my night elf druid and my human warrior, crentest.

I missed you guys. All right. That's it. Uh, and then to, to circle back to the sticker, it is krayartworks.com. That's K-R-A-E-artworks.com. And she has that sticker there. Thanks for that Spencer. All right. Our next segment is fake news, a P-Taping rush, a pizza, a balloon, working for lighting a UFO

Steven's a better shot than Yannis, so is that so? This opportunity comes once every few weeks You can do anything you set your minds to, guys Does the general public know that it is you that is singing those songs? I believe so Okay, good Now that we actually got Eminem to do that. Right. He's such a big fan being from Michigan and all. He said I could do this. That's where the entire

podcast budget went to this year. All right, fake news is where I read a series of headlines in which a real one is hiding among three imposters. Your job is to figure out which one is true. So grab your whiteboard, Yanni, grab your whiteboard, Chilly. Don't be cheating, looking at my computer. Just headlines. Just headlines. The first headline, why scientists are horrified by the world's first blank farm.

Is it octopus, panda, mosquito, or crocodile? Why scientists are horrified by the world's first octopus farm? Why scientists are horrified by the world's first panda farm? Why scientists are horrified by the world's first mosquito farm? Why scientists are horrified by the world's first crocodile farm? One of those is real, The other three are fake. Chilly very quick to answer. It's almost as though you know it. You know it, Chilly? No, it's the first time I'm seeing this question. I didn't catch this in the news either.

But I have a I have a good train of thought as to why I think this is right. Why scientists are horrified by the world's first blank farm. Octopus, panda, mosquito, crocodile. I'm ready. Boys ready? Go ahead and reveal your answers. We have Janus saying mosquito farm. We have Chilly saying octopus farm.

One of you is right. The correct answer is octopus. Why scientists are horrified by the world's first octopus farm. That headline was from Vegout on July 2nd, 2025. The Spanish seafood giant Nueva Pescanova is currently working on the world's first commercial octopus farm. Animal activists are flatly against the operation, especially since the octopi are killed. By getting dumped into tanks of ice water where they slowly freeze to death, this has captured the attention of American lawmakers, who are working on legislation that would ban commercial octopus farming in the United States. Senators from

Rhode Island and Alaska are drafting the bill, saying, Science has shown that octopuses are sentient emotionally complex animals and the conditions required to farm them are inherently cruel and incompatible with their basic needs. Have you ever eaten octopus Yanni? Oh yeah. I have not. Where'd you eat it at? You have not? I've just never had the opportunity I'm not I haven't turned down the chance to eat octopus. Well I I mean, you could order it anytime. You go to a sushi joint usually. Really?

Yeah. Okay. How have you eaten your octopus? You like it? Well, yeah, love it. Yeah, I've had it at sushi joints, probably a couple of different ways, but I think in the end,

it's probably always cooked somewhat similarly where it can be tough, and so it has to have sort of the tenderness beaten into it. But I think it's usually served cold when you do it over, like nigiri, over rice. You know you're eating octopus when you're served octopus. Oh yeah, and it's delicious.

It looks just like octopus. Chili, do you have eating octopus when you're served octopus. Oh, yeah, it's delicious. Yeah, chili. Do you have an octopus review? Yeah, there is a Documentary out there called my octopus teacher and it's on Netflix and that's kind of like where like as soon as the question popped up That's where my head went and there's a lot of good information about it and like octopus are a lot more I mean, there's much more to them than we'll probably have you eating it though have I eating it oh oh that's what we're talking about okay no I'm fine with farming all sorts of stuff that makes it to our dinner plate but you know what I'd maybe side with the animal activists here that octopi we could just leave alone let them do their own thing what do you think of that

that's fine but I would ask you then is it still okay to then just you know Drag them up out of the depths or grab them out of their little hole and Passionate about this. I haven't thought a lot about it I would say as of now you can ask me tomorrow against octopi farming for Harvesting octopus in the wild though. That's my stance official stance as of today Okay. Yeah, I can get down with that. I got to Read into it a little bit more but you love eating octopus I think I I swear I have but I can't remember when or where so this is a I shouldn't have even said anything

Yeah, and he was making me feel bad for never having it in Alaska You know they smoke it often and then preserve it is is how I've had it a lot too. It's delicious All right headline two It's the end of an era the US National Parks prepare to ban blank is it glass horses skateboards or cash It's the end of an era the US National Parks prepare to ban glass horses, skateboards, or cash. It's the end of an era.

The US national parks prepare to ban glass. It's the end of an era. The US national parks prepare to ban horses. It's the end of an era. The US national parks prepare to ban skateboards or it's the end of an era. The US national parks prepared to ban cash Our producer Jake just popped into our private chat here and said he's eaten live octopus. Whoa That works. It must have been small, right?

Let us know Jake. Okay, we'll update the audience. Whoa Our players are slower to answer this time. Chilly got that first question, right? He did not have an answer It's the end of an era the US National Parks prepared to ban is it glass? horses skateboards or cash I could see two out of four Okay, like the the beginning of this question. It's the end of an era So it has to be something that that has been around for a long time. Are you boys ready? All four of those things have been around for a long time. Well, I know they've

been around, but it's something that's like, it'll be shocking once it goes away. Are you boys ready? I'm ready. Go ahead and reveal your answers. We have Yannis saying horses. You're both wrong. No, what would be your next guess? Cash. Skateboards? Cash is correct. Oh wow. It's the end of an era. The US national parks prepare to ban cash. This headline was from the travel on July 2nd, 2025. The national park service has been slowly moving toward card only for a few years and plans to be totally cashless soon. NPS says it's been quote, an overwhelmingly positive experience for both visitors and employers so far. They claim it reduces transaction time at entrances, creates fewer accounting errors, and lessens the risk of theft.

Critics say this will directly impact international visitors who want to avoid overseas card fees as well as youth who don't have their own bank accounts. Some senators are pushing back on the new policy questioning how the federal government can legally refuse currency that was created by the federal government. You both seem like cash guys to me. I bet Yanni's got like $60 in cash on him right now or chili chili I bet you got $60 in cash Yeah, I've got I've got ten on me and then I think I've probably got a couple of 20s out in the car I do like to have a little bit around

But man, it's just becoming like you used to always use that Emergency cash and now I feel like those 20s in the car They maybe have been there for years My dad's gonna be upset why because he's a cash guy Yeah, like we go through this how many national parks is he go to though? Not that much No, no, but I think just in in what am I trying to say like the idea of it, right? Yeah, he's not gonna be into it. We go through this at hunting camp every year.

He's the guy that pays for the lodging and then has to collect the money from the rest of the group. And so there's cash, there's checks. Yeah, and I'm like, dude, if you had Venmo, all the money would already be in your bank account. Instead you have to deal with this and like add and subtract. And's just yeah you know lately I'm a late adopter I think but I've really come to embrace and love the Apple wallet. Oh it is convenient I think at first it wasn't because not enough yeah places would accept it but now it's

like almost universal. So smooth. So smooth. Chilly, what are you doing with all that cash on you? Oh, you know, I just, I kind of say, like when I go on trips, it's like good to have some cash that you can like, I don't know, spend it on stuff that like souvenirs, whatever.

It's free money at that point. Right. Yeah, you're not spending your own money. Yeah, no, for sure. Do you guys still have the change jars? Is that a thing still? There's one in my house, but it does it's not filling up anymore Stagnant I have one that I always go and do the change exchange thing Walk away with about a hundred bucks. Yeah

I like to keep some cash in like my tackle box in case something were to happen while I'm fishing where I need help from a fellow angler. It came in handy. One time I helped out a guy one time and I jumped his pickup form. And then I kept that 20 in my tackle box until I had to use it. Like four years later, I got stuck in a snowdrift ice fishing and someone came and pulled me out.

Um, so it's like the, the brotherhood of the traveling $20 bill at this point. There's only one thing I use cash for anymore and that's it. Headline three, Florida fisherman is charged in shark blank. Is it robbery, meat fraud, stabbing, or drug smuggling.

Florida Fisherman is charged in shark robbery. Florida Fisherman is charged in shark meat fraud. Florida Fisherman is charged in shark stabbing. Florida Fisherman is charged in shark drug smuggling. I'm liking this version of it, but when you first explained the game to me, I thought that you were going to have just three completely different headlines. Oh, okay. And one of them was gonna be real. Yeah, we're just swapping out. Or one was gonna be the imposter. Florida fisherman is charged in shark. Is it robbery meat fraud?

Stabbing or drug smuggling you both got question two wrong only chili got question one, right? Are you ready? I'm ready go ahead and reveal your answers. We have We have Yanis saying meat fraud and chili saying stabbing Correct answer. I feel like that stabbing is what a Florida person might chili saying stabbing. Correct answer. I feel like that would stabbing is what a Florida person might do. Is stabbing, chili got it right. That's not the right slide.

He got two of these. I forgot to put the headline in there. That's from the old game. Fake news, it's a stabbing. Chili got two of these right. This headline was from the New York Times on June 6th, 2025. It's about Zane Garrett, a charter fisherman who is being charged with animal cruelty.

The 26-year-old was shown in a viral video repeatedly stabbing a shark and then cutting the line. The Florida man told authorities that it was revenge for the shark stealing his fish. His business's website, Second Nature Charters, says, quote, with Captain Zane at the helm, every fishing excursion becomes an unforgettable journey filled with camaraderie, I don't know what that next word is I wrote down and most importantly epic catches that will be cherished for a lifetime. This comes just one month after a different Florida fishing guide was sentenced to 30

days in jail for shooting and poisoning dolphins. This Florida man. Meat fraud has been in the news lately. On what, what example? Specifically, you know, seafood meat fraud. Oh, I'm gonna try to get a future guest to talk about in South Carolina. Is this what you're referring to?

I thought that it was West Coast where I had read about it recently. What I'm referring to is in South Carolina, they sort of just did a big sting operation with a DNA tested all the shrimp in these businesses that were saying they're selling locally caught shrimp. And they identified, I think it was 25 places, which is a crap load that the DNA showed

those shrimp came from overseas. From like farms in Thailand. Because the local shrimp is so much more expensive. Yeah, that bothered me a lot when I saw that. That would bum me out. When I go somewhere and it like elevates the experience thinking I'm eating one thing, and then to find out it's just shrimp that came from Costco,

what a bummer. May be a bummer. So in a future episode we're going to interview somebody about that shrimp fraud. Putting it out there right now. Do it. All right, that's the end of fake news. Chili's the big winner today. Good job, Chili. Thank you. I'm impressed. Thank you. Knowledge of current events there. Current events, yeah. Yeah. You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map.

You battled crackens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna, there's more to imagine when you listen. Discover bestselling adventure stories on Audible. All right. We saved the best for last. Just kidding. Second to best because Randall obviously stole the show today.

But we're now going to chat with Jacob Hernandez, private lands biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Partners for Fish and Wildlife program and his colleague Bo Hendrickson, a habitat restoration technician that works for Golden Sands Resource Conservation and Development. Man, it's a mouthful. The two of them have been helping me execute the Oak Savannah project on our land in Wisconsin. Jacob and Bo, welcome to the show. Hey, how are you guys doing? We're doing great.

Not standing outside in a soon-to-be Oak Savannah like you guys though, so I'm jealous for sure. Yeah, it's a bit warm out today, but we're doing alright. It's nice. Yeah looks like a nice day. What is the temp? It's been hot there lately. 87. Yeah. Oh that's not too bad at all. Unless the humidity is 97 then it could be it could be bad. But it looks like you guys are enjoying, you guys are enjoying the shade of one of my oak trees that are left standing, huh?

You bet. Smart. Yeah, we are. All right, first, tell me about the program that you two help administer, and then sort of explain how that program is, you know, working the project that you guys are helping my dad and I with. Yeah, so our program is, you know, working the project that you guys are helping my dad and I with? Yeah, so our program is the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program like Yanni introduced.

We're with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or specifically I am with that program. And our program was designed or born out of the late 80s under the National Wildlife Refuge System. And our program is designed to help private landowners. So we define private landowners as anything non-state or federal owned. So city, county land, obviously our biggest bread and butter is private landowners. We can help with these restoration projects via cost share and technical assistance. We also have several partners that we work with collaboratively to try to implement those restoration projects. And I'll let Beau talk a little bit more specifically

about the project here that we're working on with you. Yeah, so if my memory jogs me right, Yannis reached out to us. So a lot of landowners approach us with these potential projects to invite us out onto the property to do a site visit. So we came out, checked out the site before we came out here.

We actually did a little bit of homework looking up in the 1937 aerial photos that are posted for Wisconsin. So that this specific area that we're working in here was a little bit more open growing, a little bit less tree density, not agriculture, and kind of gave us the signs of an oak savanna remanence, or potential for an oak savanna remanent. And so that's pretty much exactly what we're doing out here. Trying to restore an oak savanna. This area historically was a mix of, you know, brush, oak

savannas, prairies, back when the indigenous people were here. And so we're just trying to restore the native habitat back to that time to benefit, you know, the wildlife species that are out here. All right. So take me through the timeline, which I got to say, people have asked me how efficient this process has been. And out of all the work that I've been doing out there, your project specifically has been like the most efficient and like we've been moving extremely fast, which has been awesome to see because a lot of this stuff just

takes forever but take me through this sort of the timeline and the different steps and take us up to present day. Yeah well we appreciate the kudos on that for sure we're a pretty small and nimble program and so we are pretty flexible and can act pretty quickly when the situation presents itself but like Bo said Yanni had gotten a hold of us about a year ago, logging operations were happening. So there was timber being cut, hauled off deck to the whole nine yards. We came in and the property was covered in timber slash.

So when we had the area identified, the unit identified, we got a hold of Yanni, made sure we had all the objectives correct and everything like that. And then our first step was, okay, if we're going to seed this thing down to a more herbaceous understory cover, um, kind of like a, you know, an O Savannah, um, we needed to get some of that timber slash cleaned up. So we had a contractor come out. Um, we hired him, worked through that process, oversaw those operations, um, especially cause the honest being an absentee landowner, that's kind of something we can help with, obviously, from a technical standpoint.

Oversaw that operation, got it, everything piled and cleaned up. And then it's kind of a waiting game to see what comes back on that in that seed bed. We saw a host of species coming back, some good, some less desirable, incredibly nothing, insanely wild. A lot of times when we do that, it can be a flush of buckthorn or a multiflora rose or several other invasive species that we see across the site. So it wasn't too bad in that regard. Um, at that point we then said, okay, we're gonna, we're going to

prescribe a herbicide application. We have some limitations out here with stumps and the tree stems that still exists, so we're kind of limited on like mechanical treatments and stuff. So herbicide was our best go-to tool. I know it's not always the most popular treatment and we try to work with individual landowners based on those objectives accordingly. But in this scenario, we agreed that herbicide was the right option. So we prescribed glyphosate and 2,4-D and when used correctly, following all safety, following timing, all that kind of stuff, we can get a good general kill on this.

What we're seeing today is that there's a kill out here from a spray that was done about two weeks ago or so. There are some missed spots, but that happens, not the end of the world. We'll come back and do one more treatment towards the end of the summer, and then hopefully that's the means to the end. There will hopefully be no more spraying, or if so, be very limited and very targeted. And the idea is we're setting our native species up

that we plan to plant this fall or winter for the most success with the least competition as they get going. Okay, so my neighbor and I, I was there two weeks ago, my neighbor and I did the spraying on a scale of one to 10. How good of a job did we do as herbicide applicators? There's always going to be misses. You know, nobody can get it all in the first round. I'd probably say, you know, between an eight and a nine. Hey, it's just about, I'm going to cross the board though. That's what you get with, especially with these stumps, a little bit of uneven topography from that logging operation, leaving

some ruts and locations kind of made it probably a little bit difficult for you to do, you know, a full complete application here. That's why people always just come back out and, you know, reapply the spots that you missed are really easy to see. And so you can just touch those up at a later time. Do you guys feel like the, the touch-up can be done with a backpack sprayer or is it going to take another round of, of driving around on the ATV?

Oh, it only looked like there was maybe one or two small strips and honestly, we don't need a hundred percent burn down to the idea is just to reduce competition. So, you know, in my opinion, I think the second round of application that we do later in the fall, um, targeting some of the woody species that are out here. I think that's going to take care of it. And I think you guys will be set up really good.

Um, we'll still have enough seed bed, uh, exposed for us to broadcast seed and get good seed to soil contact for the, the winner to, to do its work with, with, uh, freeze thaw action. So yeah, I mean, there's no need to do more than we winter to do its work with freeze thaw action. So yeah, I mean, there's no need to do more than we need to do, right? So I think one more treatment has planned at the end of the season and we should be in good shape.

Right, right. Okay, so I think a lot of people, including myself, when I first heard about this program, I was sort of wondering like, well, why would the American government spend taxpayer money to be doing this kind of work on private lands? Tell me a little bit, how does it benefit just like the taxpayer that is probably never going to get to step foot on that land? Yeah, so the program, you know, is a car share program.

So we're putting, you know, the American taxpayers dollar back into habitat, trying to improve habitat. Our program's designed around trust species, federal trust species that are threatened, endangered, declining in population. That's our big focus out here. And so all that, you know, the taxpayer dollars that's going, you know, back into the ground, trying to improve the habitat for local wildlife and also migratory birds, you know, any wildlife, I guess, in the area.

Also, you know, it's really great. We try and use local contractors to boost the local economy out here. A lot of the areas that we're working in is rural Wisconsin. And so we try and find ways to boost that local economy, find ways to fit in with the community. Sometimes we'll have community fire departments help us out on these properties. So we're trying to find a way to almost,

kind of get back to these local communities and support financially with them and also collaborate with them, such as fire departments and other partners that we use out here. So all in all, it all goes back to good habitat just to improve a you know, a better climate resilient habitat out here versus just a bunch of invasives that,

you know, it's kind of degrading for the wildlife species that we see. I think I would just add a clean water, a healthy soil, local healthy ecosystems, as he mentioned carbon sequestration, right? All of those really great things that occur with healthy ecosystems. That's what the American public has benefited on with the help here. So, yeah. All right, obviously I'm way interested in the, what the habitat is going to do for deer and turkey. But tell me from your viewpoint, like what other, what sort of special species are you guys hoping to help out with this and possibly like us being able

to get to see in the coming years from this work that we're doing? Yeah. So like I mentioned earlier, kind of designed around those threatening federal, federally endangered species out here. We're actually in a high potential range for the federally endangered carner blue butterfly. Also the rusty patch bumblebee. So these you know might not be number one hitters that people think of you know but they're very important to us in our program. And so we're hoping to see some of those. We've already seen some monarchs out here using the property when we're about doing site assessments and monitoring to kind of check in on the project. Outside of that you know migratory birds are going to hopefully be using this.

outside of that, you know, migratory birds are going to hopefully be using this. Red-headed woodpeckers, a species of concern for us. We're hoping to see a couple of those out here. We leave dead standing snags to kind of provide that wildlife habitat for them. So across the board, we're trying to hit a whole spectrum, whether it's the pollinators, the birds, the deer, the turkey, all in all, our program is driven towards those threatened and endangered species, but we recognize and understand that a lot of these projects that we do are going to benefit that local wildlife, such as the deer, the turkey, bear, grouse, you name it. It's just kind of a whole umbrella

restoration here. We're kind of just directing it towards one thing, but understand and know that those other species are definitely going to be benefiting from it. What kind of upkeep is going to be involved for Janus? Is this a place that he's going to need to mess with next year and five years from now and ten years from now? Yeah habitat restoration is definitely not something that happens overnight. I mean we've we've let these ecosystems slide into invasive species peril and unchecked systems for hundreds of years.

So it's definitely not something that happens overnight. Yeah, future management will likely include prescribed fire. That's not an option for everybody always. So there are other alternatives, sometimes mowing, spot mowing, some stuff like that to try to keep things, keep things in check. But prescribed fire is gonna be a big one. Spot spraying might be required

depending on how the system responds. But the hope is that honestly, the biggest maintenance tool going forward on the three to six year fire return interval would be prescribed fire. Part of what we did with this project was, and Yanis, to his credit, was very adamant that we made sure that we accounted for, you know, some of the trail systems being considered as as burn breaks. So, which is a huge thing. So that'll

help with implementation of that prescribed fire. Yeah, and I'll add to that. The prescribed fire, it's a great tool because that kind of helps reduce that need for herbicide out here, you know, in terms of long-term. So, you know, that's going to cut down on your woody invasives that might be coming in. It's going to help rejuvenate that prairie or the oak savanna, kind of clean up the thatch a little bit as, you know, obviously we have snow here in Wisconsin, things lay down,

gets matted down over time, kind of makes it harder over a long-term for those seeds to kind of makes it harder over a long term for those seeds to kind of work their way into the soil and keep expressing themselves within the prairie, which then kind of turns away from the wildlife benefit that we're trying to provide out here. So all in all it does, you know, a number I guess of wonders for us out here and that's why Jacob, you know, we're kind of hitting on it so hard just because it really helps reduce that herbicide use, rejuvenates it and just, you know, keeps the habitat what it is. Awesome. Thanks guys. We appreciate you guys taking the time. I look forward to reading the report today and hearing the follow-up later. But thank you again. And oh, I guess if anyone's interested in doing this on their own property,

or just wanting to find out more about this program, how do they do that? Yeah, I would suggest people just Google the US Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife program. You'll find the state that you're located in and typically there's a point of contact. Typically, it's our state coordinators or someone acting in that role. And they'll get you in touch with the local biologists that would service your counties or your area. When you do touch base with them,

obviously contact information, property description, kind of your habitat objectives, that kind of stuff helps streamline some of that communication and keep us moving at a pretty quick pace. Alternatively, your local conservation departments, your nonprofits, natural resource conservation service, farm service agency, all those folks are collaborators that would know about us and can refer us to. But word of mouth is how we spread our name.

So yeah, hopefully we get some calls. All right, I love it, man. This gets me fired up. Thanks, Jake. Thanks, Beau. We'll talk to you guys soon. Yeah, thank you. Take care, guys. All right, that gets me super excited

just because I'm into it. I'm in the rabbit hole. And they just sort of like, they just mix me up in the mud down there and get me all fired up. Does that at all interest you guys? Like that's hearing about doing that kind of work? The the prospects of me owning a property are so distant that it Interests me less. Yeah, because I am jealous of you that you get to make those decisions and

Participate in those things. All right. Well, you're invited though So you might get the opportunity to go hunt that oak savanna. So okay, I like that McKilladere there Yeah, see all them them pretty endangered butterflies Oh, man, that's be my like would be the best thing ever is if I could be there one summer and show my girls the monarch butterfly and So because I don't know if they've actually seen one yet and I think there's gonna be a lot of a lot of kids yeah there's gonna be a lot of kids that are in that that age right now you know whatever 15 and under that will maybe never see a monarch butterfly in their lives that

sounds insane right doesn't it it's a terrible thing to think about so that's why I'm pumped on this is maybe we'll just give them a little bit longer shot at keep sticking around I liked your question about why the government would like spend money or like, you know Take a haircut on helping out a private landowner like you and that's not it's like not a new concept at all We're chilly and I grew up in the Great Plains There was the the great shelter belt project which restored all kinds of habitats and created all sorts of new habitat CRP that's one of the biggest programs in the Great Plains and and wildlife don't know borders

They don't know they don't care if it's public or private it benefits everybody. Yeah. Yeah, especially, you know And you can read this on their website right east of the Mississippi, it's like 80% of the land is private. So if you don't have people doing this kind of stuff on that amount of land, those little public vestiges, just they can't do it on their own, right? It's got to be a bigger ecosystem. All right, Phil, let's wrap it up with a few more questions. Sure, I don't know if you have an answer to this or if this even would have been a good question for Jacob or Bo, but Kevin Morse asks, How do you stop deer from eating the good tree tops after logging, leaving nothing but less desirable underbrush?

We're having that issue on our logged property. Yeah, I think Kevin's asking when he says the good tree tops, meaning like probably new growth of young desirable trees that they want to keep. Yeah, we haven't had that problem yet because we're getting such a flush of the desirable trees that there's enough and our deer population is low enough that they're not hammering them. I mean, they do nibble on them, but in places like that, where you have to go to more extreme measures, I've been reading up on it. It's a lot.

You can basically cage them out. There's people that have done fencing, literally. There's also a thing that after you've done the logging, you can use the logging slash slash itself to build basically a perimeter around certain zones and those will keep the deer out but again it takes time and money and effort to you know build these you know literally you know 10 foot tall 10 foot wide walls of slash to keep deer out of zones like that. Yeah that's that's kind of what I've seen so far.

I know that it's a, I guess you can shoot deer. That's a good way to do it is shoot a lot of does, try to limit your deer population a little bit. But I know there's certain, definitely certain places in the United States where it's a big issue is to kind of keep the deer back from eating all the good trees. Cool. Let's see here. Andrew is asking Spencer, how was the trip to Isle Royale? I think you

might have covered this a little on trivia, possibly. I don't remember, but have you talked about this at all? I don't think I have. I loved it, Andrew. It was super cool. It's a part of the world I'm very interested in, specifically because of the world's longest predator prey study that's been taking place there for the last 75 years. If you're not familiar, there are wolves on the island and there are moose on the island. And it's one of the best ways that biologists can study how those two animals interact. And so to get to be in that place in the middle of Lake Superior was a lot of fun. Got to spend four hours out there

and it's referred to as an island, but it's so big that the island has enormous lakes on them that have enormous islands that have lakes on them. So when you're there, it doesn't register that you're on an island. It's 45 miles long and I think like five miles wide. So it's a cool spot. If you live in that part of the country, you should go check it out. And it's not necessarily easy to get to. I booked my ferry tickets in January for a trip in June. And I think come February, they were sold out.

So start planning ahead. Oh, wow. If that's something that you've sold out for the entire summer. Yes. It's a short window. They only run those ferries for like three months or something. Um, a couple of times a day. So, uh, start planning that now, if you ever want to go there.

Cool. Yanni, I think we've gotten some spring hunting stories from you, but Chilly or Spencer, Canadian Hunter asks, how were the guys spring bear and or turkey seasons? Mine was non-existent, at least for back here in Montana, cause I took that New Zealand trip, hunted tar down there, which would have been the beginning of, you know, the spring season up here.

So for the first two and a half weeks I was out and then got back into work and then took a trip to Alaska for a production shoot with Steve and the crew. So I didn't, I got zero days for bear and I had one day for Turkey. Uh, I, I bear hunted four days, did not kill one. Um, turkey hunted zero days. Um, my spring was really focused on, uh, planting some stuff in my yard this year. You're not a big turkey guy. Are you Spencer?

Um, I'm not. No, I travel enough hunting in the fall that when spring comes around, I'm interested in fish and rocks, so I looked for a lot of fish and rocks this spring instead. Cool. Last call for questions. We're gonna take a couple more if you get them in here. But Noah asks, Spencer, will you ever take the opportunity to bow hunt whitetail instead of using a rifle?

Yeah, I used to bow hunt a lot. I bow hunted last season. I bow hunted the season before that. I did not kill anything either time. I got away from bow hunting when I moved to Montana and I didn't have like a property that set up really well to do that. To be successful bow hunting deer,

you either like need a place that you're very familiar with like Yannis has in Wisconsin, or you're just like a really badass traveling bow hunter who is willing to commit 10 days to going somewhere and setting up stands or doing hanging hunts. Right now I value just like traveling to different places and hunting, and so I could do two rifle deer hunts in that 10 days. In the same amount of time, I could do one whitetail bow hunt.

You're also then doing a lot more scouting in the summer. The pendulum will swing back the other way someday. I'm not there right now. Right now, I just really love traveling to new states and rifle hunting whitetails. He's also gonna be so successful that he's gonna end up having his own whitetail property that he's gonna manage and turn into a big old oak savanna and then he'll be bow hunting a bunch. I used to live you know 10 miles from

where I would bow hunt a lot and I would bow hunt 35 days a year. My biggest deer ever killed was with a bow. I think my third biggest year ever killed is with a bow. It'll happen again someday. Cool. I think we're out of questions here, but let's see. Someone had a question for me that I was gonna make a joke about, but it's not worth it. Oh yeah, Hotlines Tribe asked, Phil, what editing software for video do you recommend to get into making content? Content, please and thank you. I am NOT you recommend to get into making contact content, please? And thank you. I am not the guy to ask this.

I've, I've been doing audio since right out of college. And so everything that I learned in college around video editing and software, I mean, I'm completely out of touch on everything's moved on. And I haven't really done any video editing for 12 years. So honestly, you tell me, please. I'd love to know. Chat GPT. Chat, exactly.

Just generative AI. I'm a huge proponent of that. Well, thank you all for tuning in and listening to us banter along. Tune in again next week when there's gonna be Mark Kenyon, Ryan Callahan, and Spencer Newhart in the host chair. Is that right? That's right. Happy 4th of July everyone. That's right Yeah, have a great time celebrating and stay safe be smart out there this weekend and we'll catch you next week. Bye now Ever wonder what happened to the hundreds of thousands of buffalo that used to call the eastern United States home?

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