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Dominant bucks command the best resources, which allows them to survive and thrive. Thinkiing about them as wealthy is a unique way to understand their motivations and daily habits, and can help you become a more lethal big buck hunter.

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Over a decade ago, I worked as a line cook in a really fantastic Indian restaurant for a summer. My job included manning the fryers and salad station, but more importantly I was in charge of everything that was cooked in the giant tandoor oven. Slapping naan bread onto the scorching hot walls while maneuvering around giant, sizzling skewers of meat was a dance that left my arms with plenty of burn scars.

Those scars have faded, but the flavors of that kitchen have remained ingrained in me. This is my way of bringing the flavors of the tandoor home—with a charcoal grill and fragrant spices.

I recommend serving with the yogurt sauce below, which comes together in less than a minute and offers a nice, bright contrast to the savory kebabs.

If you want to make your own naan or flatbread to serve the kofta on, this is a great recipe. Heat a low-sided cast iron on the grill to cook once the dough is ready, keeping the temperature of the grill hot. If you don’t want to make your own flatbreads, buy some ready-made, brush with oil, and toast directly over the grates.

Sitting on the border of Quebec and Vermont, Lake Memphremagog is one of the largest lakes in the Green Mountain State and a true angler’s paradise. With over 20 species of gamefish found in Memphremagog’s glacial waters, anglers flock to its shorelines to catch everything and anything from perch to salmon.

However, the recent discovery of a contagious melanoma that’s been discovered among Memphremagog’s brown bullhead population has tainted this fishing oasis.

Back in 2011, anglers started reporting “black, tar-like” marks on the faces and bodies of bullhead they regularly caught in Lake Memphremagog, said Vermont Fish and Wildlife (VTFW) biologist Tom Jones.

As VTFW began to receive more photos from anglers reporting the strange marks, they decided to launch a study in 2013. The illness continued to spread, and by 2014, nearly one in three brown bullheads in Memphremagog were found with black lesions on their bodies. As brown bullheads are considered indicators of environmental quality, researchers originally believed that the black marks were caused by a pathogen or some sort of contamination that was possibly linked to pollution. However, they quickly discovered that the black marks were a form of contagious skin cancer.

“It’s pretty wild,” said VTFW Fish Health Biologist Matt Bodnar. “The only other contagious cancers known in the animal kingdom are found in dogs, Tasmanian devils, and one in bivalves. However, the tumor types are different for each, so this is the first one ever discovered that’s a melanoma.”

Once it was discovered that the black lesions found on the bullhead were cancer, VTFW and other researchers from the University of Vermont set out to find a potential cause and what could be done about it.

Unfortunately, the cancerous fish in Lake Memphremagog don’t seem to be fighting off the disease. This has led researchers to believe that this specific type of cancer is more complicated and even contagious.

“This cancer is contagious, so the cancer cells are acting much more like a parasite,” said Dr. Julie Dragon, a scientist at the University of Vermont and co-leader of a new study on the bullhead. “For this to happen and the immune system to not do anything about it, something else, some root cause, has happened as well. This could be pollutants suppressing the bullhead’s immune system. It could also be other mutations that make the fish unable to fight off the disease. We’re just not sure yet.”

Dr. Julie Dragon and other researchers have discovered that the cancer probably spreads among the fish when bullheads rub up against one another during spawning season. Generally, the cancer cells are found in larger fish of spawning age, which attributes to the theory.

The contagious nature of the cancer worries many of Memphremagog’s anglers, who fear the cancer could be spread to other popular gamefish in the lake, such as trout, bass, and landlocked salmon. But researchers have found, so far, that other species aren’t contracting it, and it isn’t transferable to humans.

“We’ve only found the melanoma in brown bullhead so far,” Bodnar told MeatEater. “BUT, so far the lakes we have confirmed the disease in don’t have other closely related species, like yellow bullhead, in them. It’s still an open question about whether this cancer affects different species, but it doesn’t appear to jump to any less related fish like bass or salmon.”

While this news should come as a relief for local anglers, the sudden emergence of the cancer is still incredibly disturbing. Research on this cancer is still underway, but it is possible that the disease isn’t exactly new.

“From what we’ve done so far, it looks like this cancer may have been noticed in the past,” Dragon told MeatEater. “We have past reports, even from as far back as 100 years ago, of similar lesions in the catfish but cannot absolutely confirm it’s the same thing at the time.”

Regardless of the cancer’s origins, researchers are working to get to the bottom of it.

Currently, VTFW is planning on a cohabitation study in the spring of 2027. Diseased bullhead will be cohabited with disease-free bullhead and observed and tested for disease transfer. Scientists will also study the survival of these melanistic cells in water.

“It will be critically important to follow through with these additional studies,” Jones told MeatEater. “We want to establish the role of potential environmental stressors and pollutants, both natural and human-induced.”

This week, Cal focuses on a slew of recent policy news, from border wall construction in Big Bend to the latest on Bears Ears, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and more.

This week’s Calls to Action:

Write to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton to stop the border wall through Big Bend National Park once and for all: https://gov.texas.gov/contact  https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/contact-us

Weigh in on updated primitive camping rules in Vermont: https://fpr.vermont.gov/primitive-camping-rule-amendment

Demand a travel management plan as part of the Blue Mountains forest management plan update: https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=301397

Tell the Forest Service to keep our roadless areas wild, productive and accessible for generations to come and support the No Action Alternative. Get more info and take action here: https://takeaction.io/bha/maintain-national-forest-roadless-areas/

Presented by First Lite

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Steven Rinella and Janis Putelis speak with olfactory specialist Dr. Lucia Jacobs on: types of smell; scent control; human, deer, fish, and dog olfaction; gray squirrels; and more.

Presented by Can-Am, the leader in ATVs, SxS, and Utility Vehicles www.can-am.brp.com

Find more of Lucia's work at https://jacobs.berkeley.edu

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The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) just announced that they’ll be moving forward to revise the existing Travel Management Rule (36 CFR 212). According to the press release, the revision “simplifies the regulatory requirements to enhance quicker local decision-making and increase access, including for motorized vehicles, e-bikes, and other mobility devices.”

Now to translate these rule changes into what that will actually mean, you have to understand what the Travel Management Rule does first.

Local forest managers need a framework to determine where motorized vehicles can drive within national forests. This ruling is designed to maintain access while preventing excess erosion, water pollution, and habitat destruction.

The rule requires every national forest to have a designated transportation system that specifies where motorized vehicles can be based on forest wildlife and resources, maintenance needs, and conflicts with other recreational uses. It also requires that the public be allowed to participate in the planning process for designating roads, trails, and other areas for motorized use.

Additionally, the ruling demands every national forest publish a Motor Vehicle Use Map and Over-Snow Vehicle Use Map to show designated areas where it is allowed or not allowed to drive motorized vehicles. Motorized vehicles can only drive off these designated areas in prescribed situations.

The ruling was finalized in 2005. Before that there was no consistency and little constraint on motorized use in national forests. Motorized vehicles could drive through sensitive habitats like wetlands, fish-bearing streams, and other fragile ecosystems without repercussions. Without clear maps or rules, even well-intentioned off-road users were unable to determine where they should or shouldn’t drive their vehicles, and USFS law enforcement officers had no means to hold bad actors accountable.

Currently, the USFS is seeking comments to form an environmental impact statement (EIS). The proposed draft of that is expected in the spring of 2027, with a final ruling in early 2028.

The changes they are proposing include establishing a national presumption that unless closed, all existing roads and trails are appropriate to public use unless justified by other circumstances.

It prompts each national forest to annually identify closed or restricted routes and access points that might warrant reconsideration but would not require them to consider areas where closures may be necessary. The chances would also remove the current nationwide criteria used by the USFS to minimize damage to watersheds, vegetation, soil, and other habitat disturbances, as well as wildlife harassment and recreational conflicts.

On a more granular level, the changes would replace the current requirement to identify a “minimum road system” with an “adequate and appropriate” transportation system and streamline requirements for changing travel designations, potentially including changes to existing public participation, governmental coordination, and monitoring.

It also seeks to establish processes for limited off-route motorized use for activities such as downed big-game retrieval, firewood collection, and dispersed camping. While that might sound appealing at first glance, the implementation of specialized use like this would be difficult to enforce and could lead to more off-route traffic in fragile environments.

Finally, it would remove e-bikes from motor vehicle classification. So any trails where bicycles are allowed, e-bikes would be too.

Importantly, the USFS recently repealed the regulation that requires public input and engagement on the majority of its projects. Without the travel management rule, which in its current state, explicitly requires public participation on travel management decisions, there is no guarantee that the public will know of or be able to engage in decisions regarding the future of motorized vehicles on public lands.

The comment period just opened today, August 24, and will be open for 30 days. Click here to leave your comment.

In the meantime, if you’re using motorized vehicles on public lands, the rules haven’t changed yet.

“The motorized community needs to step up and regulate itself, or we’re going to lose access in the long run,” CEO of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Ryan Callaghan cautioned. “Ride responsibly; travel management is still in place. Get your Motor Vehicle Use Map out and go have fun.”

Louisiana waterfowl hunters will have a new opportunity in the marsh this fall after the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission approved the state's first-ever experimental black-bellied whistling duck season. Announced by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the new nine-day season will run October 3 to 11 and give hunters an opportunity to pursue one of the state's fastest-growing waterfowl species before the regular duck season opens in November.

The experimental season will come with a few regulations that differ from Louisiana's traditional duck seasons. Shooting hours will run from sunrise to sunset, rather than the standard one-half hour before sunrise until sunset. Hunters will be limited to four black-bellied whistling ducks per day with a possession limit of 12 birds.

To participate, hunters must obtain a free Black-bellied Whistling Duck hunting permit from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries before heading afield. Participants will also be required to report their hunting effort and harvest within 15 days of the season's closure, allowing wildlife biologists to collect data as they evaluate the experimental season.

Black-bellied whistling ducks have long been common throughout Mexico, Central America, and parts of South Texas, but over the past few decades they have steadily expanded their range across the Gulf Coast, becoming an increasingly common sight in Louisiana.

The birds are hard to mistake. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, they stand taller than most dabbling ducks thanks to their long necks and pink legs. They also sport a bright pink bill, chestnut-colored body, black belly, and bold white wing patch that's especially noticeable in flight.

Unlike many duck species, black-bellied whistling ducks lack sexual dimorphism, meaning males and females look nearly identical. Another defining characteristic is the high-pitched whistling noise they use to communicate. If you’re unfamiliar, you can check out some of their sounds here.

So why create an entirely new season for black-bellied whistling ducks?

The answer comes down to timing. According to Ducks Unlimited, black-bellied whistling ducks are abundant across much of Louisiana in the spring and summer during their breeding season, but they depart the grounds between August and October. By the time Louisiana's regular duck season opens in November, many have already dispersed or migrated south, limiting hunting opportunities even though the species is legal to harvest during the regular season.

Unlike mallards, pintails, and other highly sought-after waterfowl, black-bellied whistling ducks have never been a primary target for most duck hunters looking to fill their bag limits, despite being considered good table fare. Wildlife officials believe the new October season will provide sportsmen with another quality hunting opportunity while also giving biologists valuable harvest and participation data to help evaluate future management of the species.

For now, Louisiana hunters will have a unique opportunity to pursue a species that has become an increasingly common part of the state's waterfowl landscape. The experimental season not only fills a gap in the hunting calendar but also provides wildlife managers with valuable information to guide future decisions. Whether it becomes a permanent addition remains to be seen, but this fall marks the beginning of a new chapter in Louisiana waterfowl management.

Feature Image via Ducks Unlimited

You never truly know the impact your words can have on another person. On the rare occasion when you do it can sometimes be overwhelming. Our words can carry weight and meaning especially for those searching for answers. Brent had a unique opportunity to meet some new friends recently in a casual setting where he learned firsthand how impactful those words can be. We think you're really gonna like this episode of MeatEater's "This Country Life" podcast.

Cast and Blast Outdoors:

https://www.instagram.com/castnblast__outdoors?igsh=MW9vY2lnaWt6NnliZg==

https://youtube.com/@cnb-outdoors?si=4RRWDbgc3vbQJ4-O

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