Beaver State Podcast

All-depth halibut seasons were recently set for the Oregon coast, and soon commercial and sport anglers will head out looking for this much sough-after flatfish with that mild-flavored but firm meat that can fetch quite a price as seafood goes. We explore the history of the fishery, how to fish for halibut and some amazing ways to prepare them with ODFW biologist Lynn Mattes, Yaquina Bay Charters captain Shannon Hunter and Local Ocean restaurant and fish market owner Laura Anderson. 

Believe it or not, ODFW has been stocking ponds and freeway lakes with channel catfish in Western Oregon for more than 30 years. Certified disease-free fish were often flown in from other parts of the country and the fingerlings were released and a few might get to size but many didn't make it. When the supplier could no longer provide them, ODFW warmwater fish biologists found a new supplier and used an old warmwater fish hatchery in St. Paul, Oregon to grow them to a larger and more sustainable size before release. We go visit that hatchery in this episode. 

We're right in the middle of spring turkey season, so we sat down with ODFW's upland gamebird biologist Mikal Cline to talk turkeys. We cover their biology, geography, a new tool for hunters to access turkey hunting on private land and why turkeys gobble in this episode. 

In this week's episode, we talk to Dr. Allen Molina, senior economist at ODFW, about the hunting and fishing economy in Oregon, the changing demographics of hunters and anglers and what the future might look as the state grows and new hunters and anglers enter the mix. 

Fishing and hunting remain open in Oregon during the Covid-19 crisis, but closures of parks, popular recreation spots and other public lands have made it difficult to find places to recreate. In this episode, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Spokesperson Chris Havel talks about the process of deciding to close state parks and what that mean for recreation opportunities in Oregon during the duration of this crisis. 

This week spring black bear season opened amidst shelter-in-place orders from the governor to help stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus. We talked to ODFW Wildlife Division Deputy Administrator Kevin Blakely and Carnivore biologist Derek Broman about some of the changes to hunting seasons as well as all about black bears in Oregon. We cover their biology, social habits and habitat needs in a wide-ranging conversation about one of our favorite critters. 

We're living through a global pandemic right now, and the chief culprit is a virus called coronavirus. What's that have to do with wildlife? Well, quite a bit it turns out. This particular coronavirus likely jumped to humans through contact with wildlife. To better understand this concept, we spent some time at ODFW's Wildlife Health and Population Lab Program with state wildlife veterinarian Dr. Colin Gillin and wildlife veterinarian Dr. Julia Burco talking about zoonotic diseases, those that jump from animals to humans as well as wildlife diseases that they monitor here in Oregon. 

This is a listener's guide to the Beaver State Podcast. If you're a podcast pro, go ahead and skip ahead. If you don't listen to podcasts very often and you want to know what this podcast is about, how it came to be and why you might be interested, this short episode will explain it all to you through an interview with hosts Tim Akimoff and Nicole Stuttgen.  

In this episode, we introduce the host of The Beaver State Podcast, Tim Akimoff, and talk to ODFW Director Curt Melcher about the history of the agency, his own family's deep history in the state and where the agency is after his five years as the director. It's also the 161st birthday of Oregon.

Zane Grey introduced the world to Oregon winter steelhead fishing in 1919, creating the mythos of these legendary fish. In this special, one-off episode of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's new The Beaver State Podcast, we talk to ODFW Fish Chief Ed Bowles about steelhead. What they are, how they are managed and what the future holds for these amazing fish.