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Before planting food plots or cutting a single tree, where should you focus your attention? Adam Keith, Aaron Warbritton, Bill Winke, and Jeff Sturgis explain how they evaluate a raw hunting property from the ground up. You'll hear how they identify the natural features that consistently produce mature bucks, avoid common mistakes, and decide where future improvements will have the biggest impact. Whether you're buying your first farm or leasing new ground, this episode provides a repeatable system for breaking down any property.

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The MeatEater Crew discuss: state management of grizzly bears; a forward facing sonar study; treating Alpha-Gal Syndrome with acupuncture; wolf watchers are at it again; a carp for the record books; and more!

Presented by Can-Am: maker of the best ATVs, SxS, and Utility Vehicles www.can-am.brp.com

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On July 31, the Bureau of Reclamation released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the future management of the Colorado River through Lake Powell and Lake Mead. This 10-year plan will replace the 2007 operating guidelines currently in effect.

This marks the first instance of the federal government stepping in to manage the waterway. Previously the seven basin states, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, have collaborated on creating long-term plans for the river. But the last three years of negotiations have failed to yield an agreement.

The twenty-year-long “megadrought” currently plaguing the west is likely to blame for the inability to decide on a path forward between the basin states. The Colorado River provides water for more than 40 million people. It also fuels hydropower resources in seven states, serves 30 tribes and two Mexican states, provides for 5.5 million acres of agricultural land, and supports critical ecosystems and species in the West.

Year after year of lower snowpacks and less rainfall are adding up for the Colorado. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, Lake Powell is currently at 22% capacity, and Lake Mead is sitting at 27%—the lowest the levels have been in these two key reservoirs since 1957.

These two reservoirs were built following the Colorado Compact—a 1922 agreement to equally divide the water between the upper basin states (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico) and lower basin states (Arizona, Nevada, and California.)

This new plan will cut water availability from the lower basin states exclusively, even though they currently use the majority of the water.

According to the DOI, between 2020 and 2024, the average consumptive use was 13.1 million acre-feet. Of that total, the three lower basin states used 6.5 million acre-feet (49%) of the flows, while upper basin states used only 3.8 million feet (29%). Additionally, Mexico and evaporation each account for 1.4 million acre-feet (11%).

Currently, the Colorado is collectively managed by “The Law of the River," a mishmash of compacts, federal laws, court decisions and decrees, contracts, and regulatory guidelines. The Colorado Compact was the first agreement among many to form the Law of the River.

Its biggest flaw? The Law of the River over-allocates how much water is available in the river to both upper and lower basin states as well as Mexico. When flows were originally measured, primitive stream gauges were used during an especially wet decade, leading lawmakers to believe the Colorado had more to offer. It’s estimated that baseline flows average around 13.5 million acre-feet, but the legal framework is based on baseline flows of 16 to 20 million.

This means the states currently have the legal right to use more water than is actually available in the river. The new plan seeks to address this and modify water allocations accordingly.

“While the final details are still being analyzed by Upper Division States, we are encouraged that new operating guidelines will better reflect existing water supply, which must underpin any practicable plan going forward,” the governors of the upper basin states said in a joint statement.

On the flip side of the coin, the lower basin states aren’t as excited about the new restrictions they’ll likely face in the near future.

An article from the Arizona Mirror called the new regs “draconian,” claiming the federal plan could mean water cuts of up to 77% for the Grand Canyon State. “Such reductions would devastate Arizona’s water users and its economy,” the Arizona Department of Water Resources said in a statement.

Arizona is likely to be the hardest hit in these new guidelines because water law functions on a general understanding of “who had the water first gets to keep the water last.” The canal system built to carry water from the Colorado over to big cities like Tucson and Phoenix is at the crux of this issue. The 336-mile concrete-lined aqueduct stretching from Lake Havasu to Tucson was declared complete in 1993, making the two desert cities some of the last places with access to the water.

California and Nevada won’t be left out of reductions, either.

“If carried forward, the plan outlined in the FEIS could have devastating economic and environmental impacts on Nevada,” Governor Joe Lombardo said in a press release.

“Nevada has consistently demonstrated that economic growth and responsible water management can go hand in hand, and I remain committed to working with our federal partners and the other basin states to reach enduring solutions that strengthen the river system while protecting Nevada’s future.”

This year, the Flaming Gorge reservoir on the Wyoming/Utah border sent one million acre-feet of water downstream to Lake Powell to ensure it didn’t reach the critical low-level minimum power pool threshold of 3,490 feet required to keep the Glen Canyon Dam generating hydropower.

The 91-mile-long reservoir has dropped over 12 feet over the course of the summer, and the Bureau of Reclamation estimates water levels to fall a total of 35 feet by next April. Flaming Gorge is a famed fishery known for trophy lake trout and kokanee. These are cold-water species that rely on deep lake water to remain cold throughout the year.

And that’s only one example of one reservoir slowly being drained to sustain the behemoth water system that is the Colorado.

Before the Colorado Compact, the use was unchecked to the point that the river would dry up before even reaching the Gulf of California. While dams and years of legal fanagling prevent this from happening nowadays, we know that fish and dams don’t get along.

Even with the new management plan, the Law of the Water is designed to allocate the entirety of the river’s resources based on human needs. It fails to take fish, waterfowl, and other wildlife into consideration when dispersing flows.

“The story continues to be about water supply and water management, and how to continue to drain the river to support the growth economy,” Gary Wockner, executive director of the nonprofit Save the Colorado said. “There’s been very little discussion about the ecological health, wildlife, and habitat.”

Persistent drought conditions in the area impact so much more than the flows of the river. Wildfires are more common and intense. Birds might skip breeding cycles without sufficient water available. Springs are drying up, threatening the existence of local invertebrate and amphibian species. Mammals may be forced into areas with increased predation or human conflict in search of water.

The ramifications of a limited water supply reach far beyond the legal battle of who is entitled to how much. While this new plan is a step towards modernizing Colorado River water management, the inevitable impacts of this drought cycle will continue to emerge over time.

Spencer Neuharth hosts MeatEater Trivia with Randall Williams, Seth Morris, Cory Calkins, Maggie Smith, and Omar Lopez.

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This week on Future Wild, Mark's joined by Jim Dau, a former caribou biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, to discuss his unique life lived close to caribou and the alarmingly widespread decline of these animals across the world.

Thanks to our sponsor, Conservation First Bank.

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It's the end of Civil War Summer, and things close out in classic Bear Grease fashion as host Clay Newcomb along with Bear Newcomb and Josh "Landbridge" Spielmaker talk history with live venomous snakes in the same room. Returning guest and "Advanced Snake Enthusiast" Brad Birchfield joins in as the crew breaks down the real story behind Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House which, it turns out, wasn't actually a courthouse. Along the way, stories of a rattlesnake that survived 26 months without eating, some wild tales from the Amazon rainforest, and much more.

Thank you to our sponsor, Tecovas.

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We’re very excited to announce the most recent installment of MeatEater’s American History. In this new audiobook original listeners will plunge into the frozen vastness of the Last Frontier, where a diehard breed of hunters and trappers carved out a living from the Alaskan wilderness in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Steven Rinella tells the story of these remarkable frontiersmen. Lured north by the promise of the Klondike Gold Rush, this generation of hunters and trappers stayed put long after their dreams of striking it rich had faded away. Instead, they vanished into the wilderness and took up the rawboned and dangerous occupation of hunting and trapping for a living—shooting caribou to feed themselves, fishing salmon to feed their dogs, and trapping just enough wolf and lynx pelts to sustain their wilderness lifestyle.

Known to some as "sourdoughs," they traveled by dogsled, snowshoes, and homemade river boats, running their traplines in temperatures that routinely dropped to sixty below zero through a landscape where many streams and mountains remain unnamed today. Unlike the generations of rapacious market hunters who came before them, these solitary woodsmen weren't responsible for pushing wildlife resources toward ecological collapse; instead, they dreamed of creating a sustainable existence where they could live for decades in harmony with the wilderness.

Their feats of grit, self-reliance, and bushcraft defined a golden era along the distant edges of the American map—an era that, in many respects, lives on today in America's last pure wilderness.

Available October 20, but you can preorder right here.

Ask any angler about their favorite lures, and most of them will have a jerkbait at the top of their list. These versatile lures work for everything from panfish to muskie. Jerkbaits rose to prominence after anglers realized these lures could consistently outperform live bait, completely changing the face of angling. Despite their popularity, most anglers don’t know how to fully work them.

Jerkbaits are more than a simple cast and crank lure—they’re versatile tools. With the right technique, you can use jerkbaits to catch fish throughout the entire water column. Here are a few ways to use them to catch more fish.

Part of what makes jerkbaits so effective is that many of them float. They’re designed to dive and then rise back to the surface when they’re not under tension, making them look like a wounded baitfish. Most anglers utilize this floating action to pause during the retrieve, but you can also get a lot of strikes by not allowing the lure to sink at all.

Bass, pike, crappie, and trout are notorious topwater feeders. With a floating hard-bodied jerkbait, like a Rapala Floating Minnow, you can give your lure some float time before beginning your retrieve. Let it rest on the water for a few seconds until the ripples around it completely disappear. Once the ripples fade, give the lure a couple of quick twitches, and then let it rest again.

Often, the initial splash from the lure hitting the water will attract fish to the floating jerkbait, and the following twitches will trigger a strike. This is an especially effective technique whenever you’re fishing jerkbaits around a hatch of large insects like stoneflies or cicadas.

Most anglers only fish jerkbaits in three to 10 feet of water because that’s how far the lures will dive without extra weight. But, if you want to target larger fish like lake trout, pike, and other deep-dwelling predators, you’ll need to sink it deeper.

While jerkbaits, like the Rapala Countdown and Shadow Rap will sink, they don’t always get into the strike zone quickly enough. To speed up the sink rate, I’ll add a bit of weight to my line to get the baits down deep fast.

Tie one end of a barrel swivel to your mainline. Next, add 18- to 24-inches of extra line to the other end of the swivel, leaving a long 3- to 4-inch tag end of line off the knot, and tie on your jerkbait. Depending on how deep you’re fishing, you can add one to three split shot to the tag end of line off the swivel. Once the weights sink your jerkbait, you can bounce them off the bottom as you reel to attract deep water fish.

You can also use this method to target suspended bass, walleye, and trout during the peak of summer when the fish are holding in the cooler water below the thermocline.

Traditionally, you slowly and methodically reel a jerkbait through the water with small jerks and pauses along the way. Sometimes, though, you’ll get more strikes by fishing a jerkbait as fast as you can. This is especially effective when you’re targeting fish around baitfish schools or when gamefish are hunting in extremely shallow water after the spawn.

To speed fish a jerkbait, cast the lure towards your target and then start reeling as fast as you can as soon as it hits the water. Once you start retrieving, add a bit of English to your presentation by rapidly jerking your rod as you reel so that the lure darts and bucks like a wounded baitfish. Try to reel fast enough so that your jerkbait mimics a panicked minnow running for cover.

This aggressive presentation is designed to trigger aggressive behavior in fish. If you spot a fish chasing your lure, keep reeling. If you slow down, that fish might lose interest and quit chasing.

Jerkbaits are designed to swim, dart, sink, and pop. This versatility should help you avoid one-dimensional fishing tactics and, hopefully, getting skunked. Don't be afraid to mix it up.

Montana officials are warning residents and visitors of unusually high bear activity, resulting from two key factors: drought conditions and a failed berry flush. According to a recent Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) press release, bear specialists across the state have been receiving reports of “bears that should be foraging for berries in the mountains...getting into trouble around homes and communities looking for something to eat.”

What’s pushing grizzly and black bears away from their typical habitats for this time of the year stems from a below-average snowpack. “We started seeing spring green-up in January and February, and the bears don’t normally come out until the last week in April and the first week in May,” longtime FWP bear conflict specialist Jamie Jonkel told MeatEater. “So, when the bears came out, they missed out on that important nutritional period.”

In other words, the bears essentially started their years in catch-up mode, and are now facing a significant lack of berries, which they depend on during late summer and early fall. Jonkel says that late frosts in May led to a dismal year for wild berry yields, impacting several types of berries important for bears including chokecherries, service berries, and mid-elevation huckleberries. The failed crop is so bad that Jonkel is calling it “one of the worst natural food failure years on record.”

The lack of natural options is causing bears to look elsewhere for food. “It’s kind of like a hard winter for elk and deer, when cold, deep snow stresses them and causes them to come down into low-elevations and subdivisions to try to feed on grass,” he said. “A bad food year is like that for bears. In the last two months in Region 2, we had almost 300 reports of bears either getting into human-related foods, like garbage, bird feeders, etc., or being observed next to houses. This is crisis behavior.”

While increased bear activity near developed areas seems to be heightened across much of Montana’s bear country, it’s not clear how wide the issue may extend into the broader region. Jennifer Sepulveda, communications manager for the Washington Department of Fish, says that her agency has not “noticed an anecdotal correlation” of a decreased berry yield causing increased bear conflict so far, but that “this is a well-known correlation that occurs.”

In neighboring Gem State, Idaho Fish and Game regional communications manager James Brower said his agency does not consider bear conflict in the state escalated from recent years, except for in the McCall region, where experts have linked “dry conditions to some increased bear conflict.”

In Montana, Jonkel worries that the situation could worsen in the coming months as bears enter a period known as hyperphagia when they begin feeding to put on weight before hibernation, though he’s hopeful that the upcoming high-elevation huckleberry yield will be better than those in mid elevations. He said the bears most susceptible to the negative impacts of the reduced berry yield so far have been female bears with cubs and younger bears in general.

Bear experts stress that the best way to reduce human-bear conflict during periods like this is to secure food, including things like chicken coops. For hunters this fall, this means keeping a clean camp and being quick at field dressing and removing game from the field after killing it.

“This has been a hard year for bears,” Jonkel said. “They’re in desperation mode. They will be more curious than usual about a camp where bacon is frying or where people have been gutting fish down by the creek.”

Feature image via Great Smokey Mountains National Park.