The MeatEater

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, the two hunters have been found dead. We will update as more information is released. Our thoughts are with the friends and families of the deceased.

A substantial search and rescue effort is underway in Southern Colorado after two elk hunters went missing. The hunters—Andrew Porter, a 25-year-old from Asheville, North Carolina, and Ian Stasko, a 25-year-old from Salt Lake City, Utah—have not been heard from since September 11, according to a Facebook post from Porter’s fiancée, Bridget Murphy.

“They were hunting in Unit 81 of the Rio Grande National Forest off of the Los Pinos Trailhead and have lost use of [their] Garmin,” wrote Murphy. “While they are experienced hunters, bad storms and fog came in quickly and continuously until Sunday morning.”

The hunters were reported overdue on September 13. In a press release, the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office said that it promptly located Porter and Stasko’s vehicle at the trailhead and that “camping gear and backpackers were located” inside of it—but the hunters have yet to be located. “We assume they probably thought they were going out for a quick evening hunt with clear weather,” wrote Murphy.

The Conejos County Sheriff’s Office quickly initiated a “massive” search effort involving “air operations, multi-county and state ground teams, dog teams, drone teams, ATVs, and local volunteers.”

In a separate Facebook Post, Murphy announced a $10,000 reward for whoever finds Porter and Stasko. “We need more able and willing searchers and crews right now,” said Murphy on September 16. “These two are very savvy and resourceful. I pray every minute they are trying their best to survive.”

Feature image via Bridget Murphy’s Facebook.

Mark Kenyon kicks off the 2024 Working for Wildlife Tour in Kentucky. This tour highlights just a few of the many wildlife habitat restoration projects led by leading conservation organizations across the US. In the spring, with help from the National Deer Association, Mark and other public land loving volunteers, head to a section of Kentucky's public forest for a thinning project. Fast forward to November and Mark returns to the same area to hunt for a whitetail buck. Presented by RAM

Phil Taylor guest hosts MeatEater Trivia with Spencer Neuharth, Brody Henderson, Seth Morris, Ryan Callaghan, Reva Hansen, and Shelby Huber.

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In this episode of the Bear Grease Render, host Clay Newcomb is joined by Bear Newcomb and Josh “Landbridge” Spielmaker for a conversation with renowned Arkansas artist and fly fisherman, Duane Hada. Together, they dive into Duane’s deep-rooted love for the natural world, his artistic journey, and his passion for chasing smallmouth bass in the wild waters of the Ozarks.

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Deer hunting has come a long way over the last few decades, but what about the next 25 years? In this episode, Jake Hofer sits down with Steve Hanson, Don Higgins, Skip Sligh, Mark Kenyon, Jeff Sturgis, Bobby Kendall, Thomas Mlsna, and Bill Winke to explore one big question: What can every hunter do right now to help ensure the future of deer hunting is stronger than ever? What can every hunter do right now to help ensure the future of deer hunting is stronger than ever? From habitat work and passing on knowledge to protecting access and preserving hunting culture, the group shares honest takes on what it’ll take to leave the woods better than we found them. Whether you’re new to hunting or a seasoned vet, this episode is a reminder that the future starts with us.

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Thanks to our sponsor Land.com

Last week, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum signed an order that could drastically remake the Public Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)—an account created by Congress in 1964, using revenue from offshore oil and gas leasing to assist in public-land management. The new directives, as outlined in Secretarial Order 3442, alter the priorities and usage of the money on lands managed by the Department of the Interior. (The order does not apply to National Forest lands, which are managed under the Department of Agriculture).

Specifically, the order limits the scope of public land acquisitions by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), sidelining the agency from using LWCF money unless it provides public access to an otherwise inaccessible parcel. In lieu of BLM usage, the order calls for new acquisitions to prioritize the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Park Service (NPS) instead.

While the order is effective immediately, it’s unclear what impact it will have on BLM acquisitions that are already in the works. In Fiscal Year 2025, which runs through the end of this September, the BLM requested funding for nine acquisition projects totaling 33,764 acres and $39.9 million. That includes a 7,500-acre wildlife corridor in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, 30 acres of mule deer winter range in the Boise, Idaho, foothills, and 5,600 acres for recreational use in Montana’s Blackfoot River Watershed near Missoula.

Most of those nine projects are pieces of multi-year acquisitions that have added public land in small chunks using LWCF money. In the Blackfoot Watershed project, for instance, the BLM has been working with the Nature Conservancy and a private timber company for nearly 27 years to slowly transfer over 37,000 acres of land. The proposed 2025 acquisition is just the latest puzzle piece—one built on years of groundwork already completed by a half-dozen agencies and nonprofit partners in the area.

The Blackfoot project’s fate, along with that of others on the list, has been drawn into question following Burgum’s order. The process of transferring land can sometimes take years to complete, pushing the timeline for projects funded in Fiscal Year 2025 well into 2026 or beyond, leaving their outcomes uncertain.

On the flip side, however, the step back from BLM projects could increase the ability of the NPS and the FWS to expand access, the latter of which manages the hunter-friendly National Wildlife Refuge network. Together, new acquisitions from both agencies could add up to a substantial amount of public land. In Fiscal Year 2025, for instance, the FWS requested funding for 30 projects totaling 28,019 acres and $64.8 million, and the NPS sought approval for 9 projects totaling 2,448 acres and $57.8 million.

Those initiatives are expected to continue, but with one additional stipulation: they must now receive written support from both the relevant state governor and local county leadership. Previously, neither were explicitly required. The additional hurdle has the potential to be insurmountable in states like Utah, where much of the leadership opposes federal land ownership (though none of the current FWS or NPS projects are in Utah).

On top of the federal-level changes, the secretarial order also alters the complementary state-level LWCF program, which provides a pool of money that state agencies can dip into for habitat and recreation enhancement projects. The most impactful change is a clause mandating that the state acquisition of “federal surplus property” may now be supported by LWCF money. “Surplus property” is not defined in the order.

In response, some conservation groups have raised the alarm, painting it as another step toward the privatization of federal land. But that reaction may be jumping the gun.

“Any time federal land is transferred to states, it raises red flags, as those lands are often privatized or sold,” Devin O’Dea, the Western Policy & Conservation Manager for BHA, told MeatEater. “But with LWCF acquisitions, there are a few more hoops to jump through before those lands could actually be sold. So right now, it’s just something that we are keeping a close eye on, particularly considering all the cuts to federal agency staff and capacity.”

Overall, the secretarial order isn’t as bad as some sportsmen’s groups, including BHA, were anticipating. Over the last few months, there were concerns circulating that it could have siphoned away some of the $900 million appropriated annually to the LWCF by Trump’s 2020 Great American Outdoors Act. Fortunately, that never materialized.

But as always, nothing is off the table for good. “We’re still tracking potential roadblocks, and we want to stay vigilant against any future attempts to siphon away LWCF money or to erode the legacy of the Great American Outdoors Act,” O’Dea said. “We want to give credit where credit’s due with the first Trump administration, and make sure that we can continue this movement in a bipartisan way. Let’s double down on that and keep using this money to expand public access to public lands.”

That expansion may be in different areas, geographically, than it’s been in the past, but the silver lining is that the LWCF money is still available. The impact of the new order will likely take several years to pan out, but it’ll be a mixed bag for hunters, anglers, and public-land users alike.

Anti-hunting organizations have launched a campaign to ruin Florida’s black bear hunt by flooding the lottery with entries in the hopes of winning a permit and sitting out the hunt. But state officials tell MeatEater that their efforts may well backfire: if this year’s harvest goals aren’t met, bear hunting opportunities may increase in future years.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission decided to hold a black bear hunt this year for the first time since 2015. There are 187 bear permits available, and would-be hunters (or non-hunters) can enter to win one of the permits by purchasing a $5 lottery ticket.

Because residents and non-residents can purchase as many tickets as they want, buying more tickets increases the odds of success. Various animal rights and anti-hunting organizations in the Sunshine State have encouraged their members to purchase as many $5 entries as they can afford. Then, if they win a permit, they plan to sit out the hunt and “save” a bear that would have otherwise been killed.

Most notably, the Florida chapter of the Sierra Club has launched a campaign to “Protect Florida’s Black Bears!”

“Under FWC's approved bear hunt rules, 187 bear hunting permits will be issued this year through a lottery. Our goal? Keep those permits out of hunters’ hands. Let’s buy them up and protect Florida’s bears!” the group writes on its website.

Rhonda Roff, a local chairman for a Florida Sierra Club chapter, insists that the “Sierra Club is not anti-hunting” but believes the black bear hunting population is too vulnerable to survive a hunt.

Florida wildlife biologists disagree. The Commission heard testimony that the black bear population has increased by 50% between 2002 and 2015 to a total of about 4,000 today. Bears have also expanded their occupied range from 17% to 51% in Florida since 1992.

What’s more, the hunt only allows bears to be killed in four distinct hunt zones where the populations are strong (some local residents would say too strong).

It’s clear that the bear population can sustain a hunt, but no one knows exactly how the Sierra Club’s efforts will impact this year’s opportunities. Anti-hunters have tried this tactic in Florida in the past, but this year’s efforts have gained more traction.

"We've seen something similar with the alligator hunting lottery many years ago, but there's much more attention around the bear hunt this year, so we'll have to wait and see whether this effort has any impact on hunter success rates," George Warthen, the Chief Conservation Officer for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told MeatEater.

He said sportsmen’s groups in Florida haven’t voiced a great deal of concern, but are instead happy that anti-hunters are contributing to conservation and wildlife management.

That sentiment was echoed by Mark Lance, the Assistant Manager of Southeastern States for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation.

“It's my opinion that hunters who are interested in putting in for a Florida black bear permit should not be concerned about the anti-hunting community's efforts to flood the lottery,” he said.

“Honestly, having the anti-hunters paying into conservation through entering the lottery is a win-win,” he continued. “They're actually paying into conservation, and if they are somewhat successful in their plan to obtain bear tags then the allocation will just be adjusted next year if a bunch of tags are left unfilled. That would in turn create more opportunities in future years.”

Warthen confirmed that if the FWC fails to meet their harvest goals this year, they will adjust the quotas for next year to hit those objectives.

“When the season ends, we'll look through the data that comes back and see what our harvest success rates were, and whether we reached the harvest objectives we set in each management zone,” he said. “If we didn't reach those harvest objectives this year, we may consider increasing the number of permits available for next year. But we can't say exactly what we'll do until that data comes in from this season.”

Of course, hunters might still miss out on opportunities this year thanks to the Sierra Club’s efforts. There isn’t much that can be done to mitigate the impact of their campaign, but Lance is skeptical that many Sierra Club members will be willing to jump through the hoops necessary to obtain a permit if they are selected.

Residents and non-residents can purchase a $5 lottery ticket, but they must also have a valid hunting license. Residents will also have to pay $100 and non-residents will have to pay $300 to claim their permit. If they don’t, the permit goes to the next selected applicant.

“The antis can buy as many $5 chances as they like, but will that actually result in their being successful in the draw? Not likely in my opinion, but at least they paid into conservation,” Lance said.

It’s impossible to know how many entries anti-hunting organizations have purchased so far. But a MeatEater review of the Sierra Club’s social media posts announcing the campaign doesn’t indicate the number is enormous. The post with the most engagement only generated 92 comments, and many of those are from people debating the merits of the hunt. Commenters on other posts claim to have purchased 20 or 40 entries, but it’s hard to imagine that will tip the scales in a state with an estimated 217,000 hunters.

Bear harvest permit applications for the 2025 bear hunting season opened at 10 a.m. EDT on Sept. 12 and can be submitted through Sept. 22 at 11:59 p.m. Click here to log in and purchase an application.

This week, Tony breaks down how to take advantage of the early season by keeping bucks unaware of your presence, all while utilizing your in-field time efficiently.

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This week Reid and Dan host CCMA entertainer of the year and hit songwriter, Josh Ross, out in God’s Country. The three dive in on what they’re mad at, and it includes the guys being jealous of how Josh gets to start his mornings, every day. They dive in the on Josh’s Nashville journey from Canada, and the unconventional parking lot he lived in for months before he got his first deal. Josh shares the labor-intensive process of pond management at his new farm and how throwing a line gives him solace from the road. He shares the similarities of fishing up north versus the south, and some of his favorite tactics he’s carried to the states from his upbringing. The episode ends with a Gravorite flex the boys didn’t see coming, but lands at one of the top ones GCP has seen.

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I can still smell the gravy. It would wake me up in the early morning darkness, causing me to scramble out from beneath the itchy wool blanket on my cot and shuffle into the kitchen of the cabin. My grandmother would be there, bent over the stove as she stirred the bubbling pan. She’d smile at me and then hand me a plate of biscuits and sausage smothered in the white, tar-thick culinary magic she created. I’d wolf down my plate and with the gravy sticking to my ribs and the first rays of sunlight sparkling in the air, I’d go outside and join the others.

It was usually a smattering of my uncles, older cousins, and, of course, my grandfather. They would be standing around in a circle in the yard, clutching shotguns and smoking as they waited for me. I’d walk into the circle carrying the old 12-gauge I was slightly afraid of, and as soon as I did, they would all turn and head down the hill to the river. From there, we would pile into an old, leaky johnboat and launch downstream just as the sun cleared the horizon.

Floating in a serene silence with our eyes searching the trees for the slightest sign of movement among the branches of the hardwoods, we’d all wait for the stillness to be broken by the first blast of a shotgun. Outwardly, I’d be as calm and quiet as everyone else, but inwardly, I was bouncing with excitement. This was squirrel camp, and though I didn’t know it at the time, it was shaping me into the hunter I am today.

Small game camps were once a long-standing tradition that, like deer camps, seem to be falling out of fashion in the modern age. With so much emphasis being put on challenging big game hunts in exotic locations, the idea of a group of hunters gathering together to fill a truck bed with multiple limits of rabbits or squirrels goes against the grain of contemporary hunting society. Yet the value of these collaborative small game efforts cannot be understated, especially when it comes to young hunters.

Small game hunting is high work for low yield in the sense that it often takes a lot of effort to gather very little meat. But that combination of effort and results instills the values and morals that shape a good hunter.

At squirrel camp, I remember my uncle having me cut down a dead tree to retrieve a squirrel I shot that had fallen and gotten stuck in the branches. I also remember my grandfather stripping down and diving into a creek to find a squirrel that had sunk beneath the surface of the water. Those events taught me the value of the game I was hunting and the importance of respecting the life I was taking. These were lessons I took into my hunting life, which I believe made me a better, more responsible hunter.

Small game camps can impart these values and morals to hunters at a very young age. While going out to get your first deer requires a certain maturity so that you can handle a weapon and have the patience to wait for or find such skittish and wary quarry, the often fast and nearly constant action of small game hunting can be enjoyed at earlier ages. This is especially true when going with a group of older, experienced campaigners who can find game quickly and be there to help you be successful.

I was seven years old the first time I went to squirrel camp, managing to take my first squirrel with my grandfather’s .22 (a weapon he later gave me on my 18th birthday) with that wonderful old man by my side. As I added my squirrel to the pile, I distinctly remember feeling a part of something bigger than myself, a sensation that increased dramatically when we returned home and went through the process of cleaning and eating our woodland bounty.

The simplicity of small game hunting extends far beyond just shooting a couple of rabbits or squirrels for a young hunter. Small game animals are generally easy to skin and process, and it is in that informal and relaxed process that you can teach young hunters the blood and guts realities of the hunt.

I remember gathering around a pile of squirrels and a couple of rabbits with my uncles and grandfather and learning to skin and process the animals in several different ways. One of my uncles insisted on tail skinning all his squirrels and showed me where to make the cuts and how hard to pull on the animal’s legs. Another uncle showed me the shirt and pants style for both squirrels and rabbits, where you make a cut through the hide on the animal's back and then pull the hide off the front and rear quarters simultaneously.

The entire process was made into a fun and slightly competitive activity which quickly helped me get past any squeamishness and made processing game into something I enjoyed. This was especially true after I’d gone on a couple hunts because I knew what came next.

Perhaps the best thing about small game hunting is that the mild flavor and delicate meat of animals like rabbits and squirrels can be easily made into dozens of kid-friendly recipes. From chicken-fried squirrel, to rabbit pot-pie, to squirrel roll-ups, it’s almost as if squirrel and rabbit meat was made for kids.

The animals are an excellent way to introduce young hunters to the joys and rewards of game meat, especially when shared with friends and family. It allows them to become part of the tradition of the harvest and to enjoy the fruits of what can often be a lot of labor for little reward.

Starting your own small game camp can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. With millions of acres of public and private land available to hunters, with nearly all of it having some form of delicious critter running around its woods and fields, your options for creating your own small game camp are open-ended. However, before you gather a group of friends or young hunters and head into the woods to start your own tradition, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind.

To make it a successful and enjoyable experience for a young hunter, you want to make sure you’re doing your small game hunting in a productive area. Like all other forms of hunting, it can require a bit of scouting. If you’re after squirrels, try to find a spot with large swaths of hardwood trees like beech, oak, and hickory, or even fruit or pine trees.

Once you’ve found a likely spot, go in and search the treetops for the tell-tale signs of squirrel activity, such as nests of leaves and twigs in the tree tops and the gnawed husks of nuts around stumps and logs that act as feeding platforms. You want to make sure there are plenty of squirrels around these areas before hunting them, especially if you plan on taking young hunters into these areas, as you want to ensure they’ll be rewarded for their efforts.

If you’re hunting for rabbits, you’ll want to find an area with a lot of low-thick brush and rocky outcroppings where the animals can make their dens. Hunt around for rabbit tracks and their tell-tale pellet droppings as well as networks of trails through the brush and grass, and you’re sure to find a few bunnies somewhere.

In addition to animals, small game camps with young hunters should be as comfortable and kid-friendly as possible. Very few young children will enjoy sleeping in the back of a truck bed or a tiny tent like most of us do on rough country big game hunts. However, most will be more than willing to “glamp out” a bit in a large, family-sized tent with an air mattress or a bunk bed-strewn cabin.

Finally, if you’re taking a young hunter out after small game, you want to ensure they have the proper weapon. As I previously mentioned, I was terrified of shooting a 12-gauge shotgun when I was a kid, but a .410 or .22 rifle with little to no recoil is an easy weapon for almost any age kid to learn to comfortably use. Make sure young hunters have the proper safety training and can shoot accurately before taking them in the field.

Since those early years in squirrel camp, I’ve evolved into quite an accomplished hunter. From chasing waterfowl and upland birds in the waters and fields around my home, to traveling around the country in pursuit of whitetail, elk, mule deer, and black bear in fields, forests, and mountains across the U.S, I hunt a little bit of everything. Yet, no matter where I am or what I’m hunting, when I pull the trigger and walk up to a downed animal, for a brief second, I’m instantly transported back to squirrel camp.

I feel the same coiled excitement I felt in the gray dawn of those early mornings as I stepped into the boat and launched downstream, surrounded by hunters I cared about and who cared about me. I smell the same blend of pine pitch and woodsmoke, hear the same silence broken by gentle birdsong, and feel the same love for the hunt I felt all those years ago. I let those feelings envelope me whenever I step into the woods, and when I return home as a successful hunter and begin to process my game, I plan that first satisfying meal with the meat I worked to claim, knowing I won’t skimp on the gravy.