Hunt To Eat Show

On this episode, I chat with Dr. Bathsheba Demuth. Bathsheba is the Dean’s Associate Professor of History and Environment and Society at Brown University, where she specializes in the lands and seas of the Russian and North American Arctic. We chat about her multiple prize-winning first book, Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait. Floating Coast is required reading for anyone who is interested in the intersection of political systems and the environment – which everyone should be because that intersection is where we find and do conservation. Bathsheba is currently working on a book about the environmental pasts of the Yukon River. Thank you to everyone for joining us on this show!

On today’s episode, I chat with Brad Brooks, the co-founder of Argali, a hunting gear and equipment company specializing in lightweight, functional gear made by and for hunters. Brad tells me about how he got into the hunting industry and was inspired, initially, to innovate by making his own game bags, and how Argali then expanded out to knives, a belt, and now a line of tents. We also chat about Argali’s approach to creating stunning hunting video content and how they choose the landscapes and stories they tell. In the conservation segment, I talk about the links between wildlife disease and human health, including the emerging One Health approach and how addressing increasing concerns about zoonotic diseases will be increasingly important in the context of climate change (42:26). I also cover some new research on bison that tells us more about both their historical range and the current state of their genetics, and what this means for ongoing conservation efforts (53:39).

On this episode, we discuss:

• Argali: https://argalioutdoors.com/
• The Wildlife Society: “House Committee Discusses Wildlife Disease”: https://wildlife.org/house-committee-discusses-wildlife-disease/
• The Wildlife Society: “Wildlife biologists can learn from One Health”: https://wildlife.org/wildlife-biologists-can-learn-from-one-health/
• The Wildlife Society: “Changing climate may worsen wildlife disease outbreaks”: https://wildlife.org/changing-climate-may-worsen-wildlife-disease-outbreaks/
• CBC News: “Thousands of blood-sucking ticks found on bodies of Canadian moose”: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/winter-ticks-climate-change-moose-1.5452694
• The Atlantic: “Climate Change Enters Its Blood-Sucking Phase”: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/ticks-can-take-down-800-pound-moose/583189/
• Landscapes and Letters: “Genetically Pure Bison in North America”: https://landscapesandletters.com/2015/12/27/genetically-pure-bison-in-north-america/
• Science Daily: “New research documents domestic cattle genetics in modern bison herds”: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220510163401.htm
• Bozeman Daily Chronicle: “MSU study: Bison inhabited large portion of North America over past 20,000 years”: https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/environment/msu-study-bison-inhabited-large-portion-of-north-america-over-past-20-000-years/article_6412bf9a-6111-5c41-8e60-bb69832c7ff9.html

On this episode, I chat with Dr. Gregory Thiemann, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University. Greg has studied the ecology and conservation of polar bears and Arctic marine mammals for the past 21 years and talks to me about his research on trophic interactions, foraging ecology, and the use of biochemical markers to investigate predator diets. He has also been a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Polar Bear Specialist Group since 2008. We chat about Arctic ecology, climate change, and the complexities around polar bear hunting, including the blurry line between subsistence and economics in the Arctic.

On today’s episode we discuss:

• Species At Risk Registry: Polar Bears: https://species-registry.canada.ca/index-en.html#/species/167-284
• Article: “Arctic Habitat Conservation Requires Climate Change Action”: https://landscapesandletters.com/2022/05/03/arctic-habitat-conservation-requires-climate-change-action/
• Article: “U.S. bans import of polar bear trophies: official”: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/u-s-bans-import-of-polar-bear-trophies-official-1.712686

On today’s episode, I chat with Caleb Musgrave, a Mississauga Anishinaabe man from Rice Lake Ontario, who has been training in wilderness survival, bushcraft and traditional woodcraft since he was a child. Caleb is the owner and director of Canadian Bushcraft, a wilderness skills and training company in Ontario that teaches courses ranging from blacksmithing and homesteading, to weeklong survival training courses, to guiding long trips into the backcountry. Caleb is also the host of the Canadian Bushcraft Podcast and the Aboriginal People's Television Network's Wilderness and Cultural Survival series "Merchants of the Wild." Caleb and I chat about how he brings Western and Indigenous understandings of hunting and conservation into his pedagogy and practice. We talk about the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, some of its strengths and weaknesses, and the need for efforts to decolonize the model. In the conservation segment, I review some recent Indigenous-led conservation efforts around boreal songbird monitoring (35:33) and provide some updates on recent hunting policy and legislative initiatives across the U.S., from Virginia to Mississippi to California, including what should be the final update on the black bear hunting petition in California (39:58).

On today’s episode, we discuss:

• The Canadian Bushcraft Podcast: https://anchor.fm/canadianbushcraft
• Canadian Bushcraft on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canadian.bushcraft/
• Article: “Boreal birds are vanishing, and with them, their songs. How can we conserve Canada’s soundscape?”: https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/vanishing-birdsong
• Seal River Watershed Alliance: https://sealriverwatershed.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Seal-Brochure-8.0-Sept-2021-3-min.pdf
• Bill SB 8: Hunting on Sundays; permits hunting on public or private land, etc.: https://openstates.org/va/bills/2022/SB8/
• Article: “Younger: Effort to make Black Prairie WMA private ‘dead issue’”: https://cdispatch.com/news/2022-03-01/younger-effort-to-make-black-prairie-wma-private-dead-issue/
• HOWL updates on BPWMA: https://www.howlforwildlife.org/bpwma
• Article: “California Fish and Game Commission Firmly Rejects Petition to Suspend Bear Hunting”: https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/california-rejects-bear-hunting-ban-petition/
• Article: "Bear Hunt Ban: Science Wins, but Values Matter": https://tothebone.substack.com/p/bear-hunt-ban-science-wins-but-values?r=13nlk5&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web 

On today's food episode, we have Tristan Henry back to chat about an age old question that has persisted from campfires to modern kitchens: choosing when to cook something with low heat for a long time or high heat for a short time. Tristan breaks down some of the science underlying cooking times and temperatures and give some great tips on achieving the Maillard reaction (named after the French physician and chemist Louis Camille Maillard, who lived from 1878-1936). Tune in for some insight into cooking venison, fish, and waterfowl with methods ranging from braising, searing, and sous vide.

On today’s episode, I chat with Dr. Sophie Gilbert, a wildlife biologist, hunter, mom, and grateful heterotroph living in Moscow, Idaho. For the past six years, she’s been a professor at the University of Idaho, where she’s worked on all kinds of projects, from deer in the coastal temperate rainforest of Alaska to the conjoined effects of drought and carnivores on wildlife-ranching systems in the west. Now, Sophie is joining a forest ecosystem services start-up, NCX, where she’ll work to make sure that wildlife habitat and biodiversity are valued alongside forest carbon in the fight against climate change. Sophie and I chat about what it means to ensure that hunting is both biologically renewable and socially sustainable, how we come to a deeper understanding of death as human beings and consumers, and the need for more deliberate and patient communication about the rich and complex issues related to hunting and conservation. In the conservation segment, I give an update on two stories related to funding for conservation: a recent announcement by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and the next steps for the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Department of the Interior press release: https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-haaland-announces-progress-toward-conservation-and-restoration-wildlife#:~:text=Secretary%20Haaland%20announced%20%242.5%20million,Corridors%20and%20Habitat%20Connectivity%20program
• “Western Big Game Seasonal Habitat and Migration Corridors Fund”: https://www.nfwf.org/sites/default/files/2022-04/NFWF-WesternBigGameMigration-20220330-GS.pdf
• Report: “Ungulate Migrations of the Western United States, Volume 2”: https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/sir20225008
• Blog: "Habitat Connectivity is a Critical Part of Wildlife Conservation": https://landscapesandletters.com/2017/06/10/habitat-connectivity-is-a-critical-part-of-wildlife-conservation/
• Blog: "Cooperative Conservation Defines the Hunting Narrative": https://landscapesandletters.com/2021/02/17/cooperative-conservation-defines-the-hunting-narrative/
• The Wildlife Society: “Recovering America’s Wildlife Act”: https://wildlife.org/policy/recovering-americas-wildlife-act/
• The Wildlife Society: “Recovering America’s Wildlife Act heads to Senate floor”: https://wildlife.org/recovering-americas-wildlife-act-heads-to-senate-floor/

On this week's food episode, we continue the wild turkey theme from last week. Dr. Brian Bird is back to cover field, prep, and cooking techniques to bring your bird from field to table and ensure the meat stays high quality. He goes over the wet plucking method that will make sure you are able to keep that delicious turkey skin on the bird, gives some tips on how to get maximum mileage out of turkey legs and wings, and covers a simple and crowd-pleasing grilling process.

On today’s episode, we take a deep dive into wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo). It’s coming on turkey season throughout Canada and the United States, and we thought this would be a great time to answer your turkey questions. To do that, we brought in Fred Bird, a wild turkey junkie and aficionado. Fred answers the questions you submitted to us on everything from wild turkey biology and ecology to hunting techniques. He also literally tells you why turkeys cross roads. In the conservation segment, we keep the wild turkey focus going and I give an overview of three recent scientific studies on wild turkey habitat use, including the effects of prescribed burns, and the potential impacts of climate change on the northward expansion of wild turkey populations.

In this episode, we discuss:

• National Wild Turkey Federation: https://www.nwtf.org/
• Canadian Wild Turkey Federation: https://cwtf.ca/
• NWTF Podcast – Turkey Call All Access: https://turkeycallnwtf.libsyn.com/
• Article: “Wild turkeys need a mosaic of fire”: https://wildlife.org/wild-turkeys-need-a-mosaic-of-fire/
• Paper: “Pyrodiversity matters: Wild turkey habitat selection in a fire managed landscape”: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112721003157
• Paper: “Extreme climate events limit northern range expansion of wild turkeys”: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00442-021-05055-x
• Paper: “Gobbling across landscapes: Eastern wild turkey distribution and occupancy–habitat associations”: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.8419

In today's food episode, Tristan Henry chats about training his new bird dog and getting after upland birds. He tells us about some of his favorite species to hunt and runs us through a recipe for cooking chukar to take advantage of the unique aspects of upland birds. In short: keep the skin, take advantage of the delicious fat, and cook them hot and fast. Check out all of Tristan's recipes on the Hunt To Eat website: https://hunttoeat.com/author/tristanhenry/

On today’s episode, I chat with Wendy Keefover, Senior Strategist of Native Carnivore Protection with the Wildlife Protection Department at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). This episode was a chance for all of us to pause and spend some time listening to each other to better understand different, sometimes opposing, perspectives. It was an opportunity for us to use this platform as a table for discussion and not head-butting argument. The HSUS recently submitted a petition to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to close the black bear hunt in California and calling on the CDFW to enhance the science around black bear abundance in the state and update their black bear management plan. Hunters mobilized leading up to the California Fish and Game Commission meeting that heard the petition on February 17 to advocate for the continuation of the hunt. At the same time, some hunters recognize the need for better science on black bears and up to date population estimates. What does it mean for hunters and the HSUS to agree on the need for better science? What happens if we get that science, and it inevitably supports one perspective and not the other? Wendy and I chat about the idea of collaboration, dialogue, how we navigate temporary convergence in goals between groups, and try to disentangle social understandings of “trophy hunting.” In the conservation segment, I review a new expert panel report that finds our current approach to global conservation will not be enough to avoid continued biodiversity decline (53:00); cover a proposed regulation change in British Columbia that will drastically reduce moose and caribou hunting opportunities (1:02:23); and give a couple quick reading recommendations relevant to hunter-conservationists (1:07:25).

In this episode, we discuss:

• Article: “Editorial: Are California’s bears in peril? Suspend hunting season until we know”: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-02-05/lets-not-hunt-more-bears-until-we-know-how-many-are-there
• Paper: Estes et al. “Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth”: https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.1205106
• Paper: “Population reduction by hunting helps control human–wildlife conflicts for a species that is a conservation success story”: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237274
• Paper: “Sustainability of the Grizzly Bear Hunt in British Columbia, Canada”: https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jwmg.21189
• Paper: “The Polar Bear Management Agreement for the Southern Beaufort Sea: An Evaluation of the First Ten Years of a Unique Conservation Agreement”: https://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic55-4-362.pdf
• Article: “Global conservation goals are insufficient to avoid mass extinction event, report finds”: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-countries-must-broaden-scope-to-meet-conservation-goals-report-says/
• Report: “Expert Input to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”: https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/16b6/e126/9d46160048cfcf74cadcf46d/wg2020-03-inf-11-en.pdf
• C. government negotiations agreement: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021IRR0063-001940
• C. regulation proposal: https://apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca/ahte/content/close-peace-caribou-hunts-and-reduce-peace-moose-hunts-region-wide
• University of Calgary Faculty of Law blog on Yahey v British Columbia: https://ablawg.ca/2021/09/24/yahey-v-british-columbia-and-the-clarification-of-the-standard-for-a-treaty-infringement/
• Action: BC Wildlife Federation Peace Region Hunting Regulations campaign: https://bcwf.bc.ca/peace-region-hunting-regulations/
• My Goodreads page for all my book recommendations: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/69758704-paul-mccarney?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=conservation