Roundup 169 || NH RHTF, Hunter Education Bills in TN, A Predator Bill in AZ, LA Recreational Gator Season, and more!

Summary

---

The Origins Foundation Podcast

Episode: Roundup 169

Date: March 18, 2026

Hosts: Robbie & Ashley

---

Episode Overview

In this fast-paced legislative roundup, Robbie and Ashley break down recent state and national developments in hunting and conservation policy. They provide updates on bills affecting hunter education, predator management, harvest reporting, and controversial wildlife management decisions across multiple states. The conversation is peppered with candid insights, moments of humor, and a few passionate rants, embodying the Origins Foundation's commitment to transparency and changing the narrative around hunting and conservation funding.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mississippi Harvest Reporting & Bear Season Bills

[10:11–23:02]

• Mandatory Deer Harvest Reporting Bill

  • For at least 12 years, Mississippi has tried and failed to make deer harvest reporting mandatory ([10:34]).
  • The latest bill passed the House but died in the Senate Wildlife Committee.
  • Reasons for opposition appear vague; some cite fears of government overreach ([11:08]).
  • Ashley highlighted the agency's desperate need for harvest data and lamented public mistrust of wildlife professionals:
    "Nobody becomes a wildlife biologist because they want to kill a resource or keep people from hunting... it's the weirdest thing to me." – Ashley ([13:56])
  • Bill was watered down: would have been almost voluntary, with multiple ways to report and little to no enforcement ([12:18]).
  • Ashley calls the lack of trust in wildlife agencies a problem everywhere.

• Bear Season Bill

  • The proposed bear harvest and tag lottery bill also died; their lack of clear population estimates contributed to concern ([17:36–21:10]).
  • The vote in the House was surprisingly close: 60 (yay), 50 (nay), 6 present but not voting—Ashley and Robbie both express frustration over abstentions ([19:39–20:36]).
  • "How dare you not vote? What is that? How is that legal?" – Robbie ([20:05])
  • Agency ambivalence and uncertainty contributed to legislators’ hesitancy.

2. New Hampshire’s Failed Constitutional Amendment

[23:03–26:08]

• Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment
  • A ballot-initiated constitutional amendment for the right to hunt and fish failed in New Hampshire ([23:03]).
  • Absences and abstentions from supposed ‘yes’ votes played a role.
  • The campaign faced significant disinformation, misleading floor speeches, and lack of proactive communication:
    "There was a major disinformation campaign... The big member who was against it... just straight up lied and made [stuff] up about the bill..." – Ashley ([24:18])
  • Lesson: The hunting/conservation community must get ahead of misinformation with proactive, clear communication.

3. Arizona: Predator Bill and Commissioner Appointment

[27:18–28:36]

• Commissioner News

  • Jessica Manuel confirmed as one of Arizona’s five wildlife commissioners, a victory after four years of advocacy ([27:18]).

• Apex Predator Bill

  • A bill sought to reclassify apex predators (except wolves) as 'predators' aka ‘vermin’, allowing unlimited, unregulated take.
  • The commission voted to oppose, and Robbie/Ashley approve:
    "Black bears and mountain lions should not be viewed as vermin." – Robbie ([28:13])
  • Bill (as written) would allow the public to treat mountain lions and black bears like coyotes, which would be a significant misstep in wildlife management.

4. Louisiana’s Proposed Recreational Alligator Season

[28:36–29:35]

• New legislation is advancing to allow a recreational alligator harvest season, expanding beyond the existing commercial system.
• Bill passed Senate Natural Resources; strong conservation record cited as support.
• Little opposition reported; seen as a logical expansion given population success.

5. Tennessee’s Unanimously-Passed Hunter Education Bill

[29:35–30:52]

• House Bill 2588 authorizes hunter education as part of public and charter school curricula.
• Unanimous passage in both chambers (rare bipartisan support):
  "That's a huge win. Republicans, Democrats, everybody coming together saying, this is important." – Ashley ([30:21])
• Both hosts praise Tennessee, awarding it their “A+ of the week.”

6. Florida: Gubernatorial Powers Curtailed Post-Everglades Controversy

[32:55–35:53]

• Governor DeSantis’ emergency spending power was limited by the legislature in response to the “Alligator Alcatraz” infrastructure/environmental debacle in the Everglades.
• Robbie and Ashley critique the wasteful spending and environmental harm, also expressing concern that the changes might hinder true emergency response in the future.

7. Colorado: Wolf Reform Chaos, Fur Ban, and Depredation Compensation Issues

[35:53–39:31]

• Fur ban rulemaking coming up in May, situation remains politically fraught.
• Center for Biological Diversity and other orgs have petitioned to halt compensation for wolf depredation claims due to budget overages and alleged unverified claims.
• Only 44% survival rate for introduced wolves; comparable to some of the lowest reintroduction success rates ([36:43–37:06]).
• Robbie shares that their team is currently producing a documentary on the issue, confirming substantial real-world economic and ecological impacts as described by ranchers ([38:31]).

8. Other Quick Hits

• New York: Trophy hunting bill still in Senate, not yet voted on ([40:16–40:39]).
• Georgia: Brief reference to their legislative precedent on hunter education ([29:56]).

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "It's the weirdest thing to me... nobody's doing [wildlife management] for the pay, I promise you." – Ashley ([13:56])
• "If you are a politician in this country... and you're present and a vote is called, how dare you not vote?" – Robbie ([20:05])
• "You'd think in a state that has a license plate that says live free or die that they would vote something like this in." – Robbie on New Hampshire defeat ([24:08])
• "Black bears and mountain lions should not be viewed as vermin." – Robbie ([28:13])
• "That's a huge win. Republicans, Democrats, everybody coming together." – Ashley on Tennessee hunter ed bill ([30:21])
• "The wolf depredation fund was absolutely decimated last year." – Robbie ([38:02])
• "Current survivable [wolf] percentage is 44% in Colorado." – Robbie ([36:46])

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Mississippi deer/bear bills: [10:11–23:02]
• New Hampshire amendment failure: [23:03–26:08]
• Arizona (commissioner & predator bill): [27:18–28:36]
• Louisiana gator season bill: [28:36–29:35]
• Tennessee hunter education: [29:35–30:52]
• Florida Alligator Alcatraz, emergency spending bill: [32:55–35:53]
• Colorado (fur ban, wolves): [35:53–39:31]
• New York trophy bill quick hit: [40:16–40:39]

---

Tone & Style

The hosts blend deep policy knowledge with unvarnished opinions, relatable jokes, and a touch of exasperation about legislative inertia and misinformation in conservation. Regular audience engagement via call-ins and texts, along with mutual teasing, keep the conversation lively but mission-focused.

---

Summary for New Listeners

If you missed the episode, you’ll come away understanding the stakes and politics of recent conservation legislation—why some states are advancing national models for hunter safety or recreational seasons, while others struggle with trust, misinformation, or political gridlock. Robbie and Ashley illustrate how the practical, often messy world of state wildlife law shapes the future of hunting, conservation, and the culture that surrounds them.

Transcript

[Robbie]

Planning a fishing trip shouldn't feel like a full time job. With fishingbooker.com you can find and book the perfect fishing trip within minutes. FishingBooker.com connects you with trusted fishing captains around the world. Booking is fast, easy and secure with access to verified customer reviews, loyalty rewards, and around the clock customer support. Everything you need to book with confidence is in one place. So head to fishingbooker.com and start planning your next fishing fishing adventure today. If you're a serious hunter and you haven't tried hex yet, this is the edge you're missing. Hunters have always talked about animals having a sixth sense, feeling you before they ever see you. Hex works by completely blocking your body's natural energy, helping you get closer without tipping them off. Most hunters don't believe it at first until they hunt in it. And once they do, it makes them believers fast. Go to hexhunting.com that's hecshunting.com and use code waypoint to save $20 on a full hex system. So five years ago, there was a reason why I started this movement. And the truth then is the truth now that we need to champion our narrative. We need to champion the truth around what we do and who we are. There's a sweet spot where they got, you know, too heavy and it's a burden to. To walk with. Too light and you whipping it. Why is the project so important to the hunting community? I think it's not only important, I think it's vital. I think it's just in time. It's like snakes and ladders. You guys are climbing the ladder and then somebody does something stupid and you just slide down. That is such an amazing analogy. Snakes and ladders. Yeah. You know, ivory, in my opinion, was the plastic of its age. Okay.

[Ashley]

The expenses are going up. It goes a long way with families. We have families that do need it.

[Robbie]

Me close this door because I have a little wiener dog. What? You are. You're laughing because I said wiener.

[Ashley]

I'm really glad you finished the sentence out. I'm sorry, the first happen. What are we doing here today?

[Robbie]

You're telling the whole world. I think we're setting some sort of record right now. What's this? Three in a row? Three roundups in a row?

[Ashley]

I don't think it's three.

[Robbie]

Oh, two then.

[Ashley]

Actually, it's not even. This is one.

[Robbie]

Oh, did we have a guy.

[Ashley]

Did you do it, Charles, last week?

[Robbie]

Oh, no, no. But I mean, we put a roundup out three times in a row now. Three or four times in a row, which is pretty amazing. Keep this up. Got to keep up the streak.

[Ashley]

Good for us. Good for us. But not me and not you and I, because this is. We're restarting over at one.

[Robbie]

Yeah, what's that? Like, how many, how many accident free days have you had at work? We're back to one.

[Ashley]

Accident free.

[Robbie]

Have you not seen that when you go into a big industrial complex, they have like this big board or they have a computer screen that says accident free days and they've got this tally of days like us Roundup.

[Ashley]

Mine should probably be sick free sick, not been sick.

[Robbie]

Absolutely. You should have that counter going because we may not hit 12.

[Ashley]

But my last week I was on vacation, so technically those were not sick days on work, they were sick vacation days.

[Robbie]

I think you should just track, like number of days you're sick because you got sick last, as you said, stomach bug for two days.

[Ashley]

So you're on vacation, on spring break. Two days of stomach bug. That may have been food poisoning because it was so short.

[Robbie]

Listen, you've been complaining about, like, you know, needing to drop weight and stuff like that.

[Ashley]

I know I did. I did. Does my face look thin? Until I made up for it the last few days. And I think I never compensated for it.

[Robbie]

I've always told somebody I said the quickest way to weight loss is a can of tuna. Open it up, stick it outside, let it go rancid and eat it.

[Ashley]

Oh, I thought you were gonna give me like some new diet with.

[Robbie]

It is a new diet somebody should take up. Take it up because you'll drop £10 in a week. It's not gonna be pleasant, but.

[Ashley]

Oh, gosh, no, let's not do that. Nope.

[Robbie]

Anyway, any text messages? I guess not. Come on, people, text us.

[Ashley]

I got just some nice, like, hey, we're out here. We hear you.

[Robbie]

Oh, cool. 601-790-0607. You can text us 601-790-607.

[Ashley]

Well, we got one from Dave from Wisconsin who is such a great listener. And I appreciate your feedback, Dave, because you're so kind with an idea to talk about why houndsmen and trappers have issues getting along.

[Robbie]

Oh. In Utah right now. But as I understand, they are starting to get along more. I spoke with John Behr a little bit and they are having meetings. So meetings are happening between the houndsmen and the trappers. There's also meetings happening between Utah Department of Wildlife Resources. I think it's DWR in. In Utah. And the houndsman and the Trappers and the whole controversy if you remember is that it's now full blown do whatever you want for mountain lions to remove them. And they've got this experiment in these couple of watersheds that wild sheep has found has funded and some others, ffw, SFW has funded it too to go into these, into these watersheds and trap the heck out of mountain lions to see if it has a response on mu deer populations in these watersheds.

[Ashley]

You think it all comes down to mountain lion hunting or do you think this is sort of a general all over? In general they don't get along with it?

[Robbie]

No, no, no, it's a good question. And mule deer, specifically mule deer are not like the most resilient species in the world. Whitetail will probably take them over if you ask Jim Heffelfinger. 5,000 years from now we won't have mule deer. They just are going to be extirpated because whitetail compete better with them. They're just not a hardy species. They're not a very clever species either. So who knows. But mildew are down across the range, not just in Utah. Right. And there's wild horses issues, there's climate issues, there's fencing issues, there's all sorts of things.

[Ashley]

So.

[Robbie]

Yeah, good question Dave. Yeah, good question.

[Ashley]

Thanks. People are getting appreciate the feedback. Keeping our Google voice text.

[Robbie]

Yeah for us 790607 text us us a voice note, let us know what you want us to talk about. Happy to talk about it. Yeah, let's stay home right now Mississippi. You two or three weeks ago we had a bunch of things that are happening in Mississippi and now they're all gone.

[Ashley]

They're. They're all dead.

[Robbie]

All dead. Look guys, I'm a hunter, right? And when I go hunting I like to figure out how to get my trophies back home as expeditiously as possible. Well, you don't have to look much further than Safari Specialty Importers. We know that trophy importation can be quite a headache. That's why Safari Specialty Importers strives to make it as easy and hassle free as possible. They have access to a bonded warehouse, you won't be charged storage fees and you get a dedicated team that's readily available and will update you at every step in the process. They'll even go one step further. Safari Specialty Importers is working with us and they are going to donate $100 from every shipment that they work with to conservation projects that include anti poaching, community development and wildlife conservation. At the end of the day, choose to spend your money with a team that's dedicated to you and is dedicated to helping show how hunting is a great conservation model. Hassle free logistics, fuel and conservation go with safari specialty importers. It is 2026 and my friends, big changes have happened in the world of firearm suppressors. The $200 tax stamp fee is now gone. Huge win for hunters, huge win for shooters, and a huge win for your wallets. If you're thinking about elevating your shooting experience and adding a suppressor, Silence Essential is the best way to shop. And you don't even have to get off your couch to do it. Go to silenceessential.com, browse hundreds of suppressor options. They literally have all of the popular makes and models. Then their experts will walk you through setting up your account, creating a free NFA trust, and then submitting your application to the atf. Once approved, Silencer Central ships your new suppressor directly to your door. That's when you're going to have to essentially get off the couch. It's a game changer guys. You haven't done it yet. Do it. The old days of waiting eight to 10 months on a suppressor are gone. It's more like two weeks. Some have even gotten their suppressors in shorter timeframes. It's never been easier to start shooting suppressed. Get started today by visiting silencer central.com it's really the simplest way to get your suppressors. Bushnell is eager to help you get set up for conservation success. That's right. They want to help you. The conservation and research community is dominated by good people doing good things and investing significant time and effort for the benefit of habitat and the species. So what do you need to do? Pretty simple. Send us your conservation story and or your conservation wish. Could be managing whitetails, could be understanding your environment or species or something else related to conservation. What would you be able to do if you had a great trail camera setup? We will select the best story every other month and send you a camera bundle. Cell camera, normal SD camera, SD cards as well as optics. Everything you need to get set up for success. I can't wait to see what you submit. You can email us, DM us, message us whatever you want. We are not hard to find. Good luck.

[Ashley]

It's very interesting. I A lot of times in Mississippi things don't die necessarily on their merits. Sometimes they die just because the House and the Senate can't get along. I don't know that that is necessarily the case here, but for about the 12th year in a row, there has been an attempt to pass the mandatory deer harvest reporting.

[Robbie]

12 years they've tried to get this through.

[Ashley]

It's at least 12. It's at least 12.

[Robbie]

And it failed again.

[Ashley]

Well, it passed the House. Passed the House and it died because it did not come out of the Senate Wildlife Committee.

[Robbie]

Do we know why?

[Ashley]

Well, Chairman Suber said he just did not have the votes. I've got a list of some names. It's about five names, about five senators who are opposed to it. And.

[Robbie]

And they're opposed to it. I remember you said something along the lines of overregulation of government. Is this.

[Ashley]

That's all. That's all any. That's all anyone can. Like. I haven't heard any good reasons why. I mean, the agency has been begging for this bill for years and they so desperately need the data.

[Robbie]

Why call the. Why call the agency, do this through the commission? Why can't the commission say that tied to tags. We need you to tell us what deer you kill.

[Ashley]

I. I think then stat. I think it has to be done statutorily. All of the. If it's going to be mandatory. I mean, the other. The other type of reporting requirements have been set through the legislature. So I have to feel like the commission would have done it because this has the support of the commission and the agency.

[Robbie]

Hmm.

[Ashley]

So I think that they would have done it if they could have in this situation.

[Robbie]

And maybe they need to come up with some crazy prize and do it voluntarily. Well, crazy prize at the end of the video for the people who report

[Ashley]

this bill had been. Initially, the language of the bill was going to have penalties attached if you didn't turn in the harvest, you know, report and blah, blah, blah. And it had been watered down so drastically. I mean, you could turn in your tag with your, you know, there would be an app on your cell phone. You could do it via computer. You could do it written with paper, all sorts of different ways. And it basically ended up that there weren't going to be any enforcement penalties or violations. In the beginning. It was almost going to be a voluntary program. I mean, it was like not a fully voluntary program, but close enough. Like, it was just to get it started. Like, let's just get this going to make it palatable for everyone. And there's just such a distrust for some reason of. I don't know if it's agency motives. I don't. I don't honestly understand it. Which I think is. Is a problem that we have everywhere right now that there has been an erosion of trust on behalf of the public, in our wildlife agencies and our wildlife officials and these guys that are going to school to learn to be in this profession because they love it. Because nobody's doing it for the pay, I promise you. I mean, they're in it. Look, you were a teaching wildlife biologist practicing at one point, and you did it because you're passionate about it. Nobody goes into this to manage our

[Robbie]

resources for us, you know?

[Ashley]

Right, right. Because you believe in what you're doing. You believe in the sustainability of these resources. You want them to be there for your kids and their kids and for generations to come. You want these species to survive. Nobody becomes a wildlife biologist because they want to kill a resource or they want to keep people from hunting or fishing or enjoying them. So it's the weirdest thing to me. And nobody goes into this thinking they're going to make a lot of money.

[Robbie]

And so how many of these like wildlife? And I almost know the answer to this question, but how many of these wildlife laws have to go through the legislature versus can be done at the commission level?

[Ashley]

There is no way for me to answer that question. That 100% depends on the state and how their wildlife laws are written. So it all. It all goes. It all comes down to one, how their constitution's written, and then one, how their state code is written. You'll hear Mississippi code annotated, Tennessee code annotated. So there's a set of wildlife laws, and then also each state. Each state has its own judicial code that are laws handed down by judges. But so. So the wildlife laws are initially set first, constitution that prevails over everything. And then you have your code, your statutory law, and then you have your regulations and rules that the commissions can set. So constitution gives laws, sort of. That's the overarching umbrella. And then you have your state codes, and that gives the authority to set everything. And that's what delineates the authority to each wildlife agency and their commission. And it tells what they can and can do. And it varies wildly within each state. It also tells things like who appoints the state wildlife agency director, how they're appointed, how they're removed, how long their term is, things like that. And that varies wildly between each state. It sets up each state's wildlife agency, and those look different within each state. Even the names of them are different. So it all depends on what state you're talking about. If somebody has a question about it, like we could say, okay, well, Illinois does this, and here's the delineation of powers between the legislature and the commission. And sometimes legislatures will take power away from the state wildlife agency or their commission. Like remember this past year when we were talking about. I believe it was Minnesota. That was when they were. When they were. Was it Minnesota or was it Massachusetts? It was Minnesota where they were taking away the power of the state wildlife agency to make any rules regarding restricting they weren't allowed to do, like cwd, education, you know, like, things like that. So. So like they were taking away powers that the agency had always had and then they were restricting their power. So sometimes legislatures get in there and take it away. Sometimes they delineate it. Like right now, this Mississippi law was going to give the commission the power to set a bear harvest and issue the number of tags and start a lottery system.

[Robbie]

The bear bill also died, right?

[Ashley]

The bear bill died in the House. Yeah. So the harvest bill, now it actually went on the floor of the House and. But it did not pass. The Senate bill didn't even make it to the Senate floor because it did not come out of the Senate committee.

[Robbie]

Do we know what it failed at in the House at? Do we know the numbers?

[Ashley]

I was just trying to pull up the number to get the vote and

[Robbie]

how many people in the House of Miss. In the House of Representatives in Mississippi.

[Ashley]

Sorry, you. You got to. You know what? If you're going to ask me these types of questions, you need to give them to me ahead of time.

[Robbie]

I don't know what you're going to talk about specifically.

[Ashley]

I don't. I keep a lot of stuff up here, but I don't keep it all.

[Robbie]

All right, hold on. We'll use Google.

[Ashley]

I'll have to look it up. I'll look up the vote and you look up how many people are in this Mississippi house.

[Robbie]

Easy, easy. 122. Look at that.

[Ashley]

There you go.

[Robbie]

I want to know what. I'd love to know what the split was for.122 for the black.

[Ashley]

Hold on. And I'll give it to you.

[Robbie]

But yeah, look, we thought it was a good build. The bil. It's not surprising that it didn't make it. It's okay. The science isn't there. They're still working really hard. Honestly, I think a bit of a year reprieve is going to set us up in the future for being in a very, very much better position for advocating for the bil. Because at the end of the day, what we're worried about is. Is simply the. The anti. You side. The anti bear Hunting side saying, okay, you're going to pass this legislation and we're going to sue you just like they did in Louisiana. And that's going to stymie things up until we have the appropriate population models and the appropriate population estimates with the conservative harvest. Take that they'll put forward and let the courts decide and. And move forward.

[Ashley]

60, nay. 50. Yay.

[Robbie]

Whoa.

[Ashley]

Six absent are not voting.

[Robbie]

And what did they need?

[Ashley]

50%, six present, not voting. They had to have 66 to pass.

[Robbie]

And they got how many?

[Ashley]

60.

[Robbie]

What?

[Ashley]

And six people were there and didn't vote.

[Robbie]

How that is. That's. That is atrocious. I'm sorry. If you are a politician in. In this country, not just Mississippi, and you're present and a vote is called, how dare you not vote? What is that? How is that legal? How is it legal that you are. That you are not. That you. I thought you would have to vote.

[Ashley]

They abstain. They abstain, and they do that because they don't want to get. They don't want to get tagged. But to me, that is so weak.

[Robbie]

That's weak. Super weak. Who have six. Call them out.

[Ashley]

Black men. Oh, you're real blackman. You called Butler from Washington, Crudup, Holloway, James, Jones, Williams. Now, there were six that were absent that day. They didn't vote. They weren't there.

[Robbie]

We. We lost. Not lost. Well, it just shows you. You're six away in 2027. Gosh, that is so close. That's way closer than I thought. That's way closer than you thought, too, based on your situation.

[Ashley]

I'm actually surprised. I'm actually a little surprised. I'm looking at the nays, and there's quite a few members of the Sportsman's caucus who voted no. But look, we've talked about this. I thought this was a good bill. You thought it was a good bill. It could have gone either way. And I think there was a lot of confusion about this bill. It was not widely shopped around ahead of time. This was a bill that originated in the Senate, and so this was before the House floor for passage. The agency remained pretty ambivalent on this bill, and they're not, to my knowledge, did not take a formal stand on it. This would have set the season starting in two years, not now. And so it's. It is hard, I think, probably, for legislators to vote on a bill establishing a harvest season two years away, not knowing what the numbers are going to be at that time. So there. There was. There were a lot of unknowns. There are A lot of unknowns. I mean, you and I know we're working on the bear documentary right now here in Mississippi. We are going to know what the bear numbers in Mississippi are at that time, but nobody has a crystal ball, so we can't say here what they're going to be. What I liked about the bill was that it gives all discretion and authority to the agency and to the commission at that time to set the tag numbers based on what those numbers are going to be at that time. So I felt comfortable with it. I can understand how some legislators may not have felt comfortable with it. Now, the harvest mill, that. That's just a big F minus. Big F minus for not passing that bill.

[Robbie]

All right.

[Ashley]

Another F minus. Huge F minus. New Hampshire, you just failed. Failed, failed big time. And I wish we had a way to play a floor speech from a politician up there and just this was a big initiative for a bunch of partners up there for the constitutional right to hunt and fish amendment. This was going to be a legislatively referred ballot initiative where. So a lot of states have a mechanism by which the legislature. Legislature votes to refer it to the people. Then it goes to. So, so basically the legislature passes what

[Robbie]

the language November was whether. Yes, they want this or not. Okay.

[Ashley]

Yes. Yeah. It's called a legislatively referred ballot amendment.

[Robbie]

And you'd think in a state that has a license plate that says live free or die that they would vote something like this in.

[Ashley]

You would think. So apparently they lost. And these are our friends from the Congressional Sportsman's Foundation. And, and we have. We've had Fred Bird on here as a guest host several times. He's highly knowledgeable. He lives in New Hampshire. This is very personal to him. But apparently there was several legislators her who should have been yes votes, weren't there. So again, another, you know, people not voting. And then there was a major disinformation. This is sounded funny. A major disinformation campaign that occurred up there, which is no big surprise. We are seeing them all the time right now. And the big dim member who was against it apparently just straight up lied and made up about the bill despite already having answers and gave this huge floor speech where it was just insanely and patently false.

[Robbie]

We should get that floor speech. Can I find it?

[Ashley]

I have the floor speech.

[Robbie]

Can you send it to me, please?

[Ashley]

I can send it to you.

[Robbie]

Thank you.

[Ashley]

I'll send it to you right now.

[Robbie]

Thank you.

[Ashley]

Okay, so Chris, so that's, you know, sad. And so next year we all as a community need to get out in front of this ahead of time so that there is so much information, truth out ahead of time that people like her cannot discredit it. So that when someone hears something, they're going to say, that's not true. I know that's not true. That's what we've got to start doing as a community. We can't. We can't always play defense, and we can't always play defense at the last minute. And sometimes it's too late.

[Robbie]

No. A hundred percent. We are seeing that across the board. We're not going to talk about it, but I told you a little bit about earlier about somebody attacking somebody. Yeah. It's time. No. And that's, you know, it's what we're good at. It's what we're good at.

[Ashley]

Yep.

[Robbie]

Your IP28 video is still going bananas. Have you seen it lately?

[Ashley]

I have not checked lately.

[Robbie]

325,000 views.

[Ashley]

I got kicked out of our Instagram and so I'm waiting. We're trying to navigate which version of our Instagram password is current.

[Robbie]

Oh, my. I need it technologically. Technologically.

[Ashley]

No, no, no, no, no. You know, it did a reset. Asked me if I wanted to whatever, connect accounts, and so it logged me out. And so you continually.

[Robbie]

Whenever it does that little. Connect the accounts, just swipe out of Instagram and log back in. It'll be fine. Don't ever say not now.

[Ashley]

Can't log back in without password.

[Robbie]

Click the accounts thing. I'm just saying in the future. Oh. I probably ground up material.

[Ashley]

If you would tell me the password so I can get back in and check. Anyway. It's good.

[Robbie]

Tell the whole world our Instagram password right now. Yes.

[Ashley]

No, no, don't tell me now. I wasn't asking for it. Now,

[Robbie]

Arizona, our lady, our friend, our champion, Jessica Manuel, confirmed by the Senate.

[Ashley]

Awesome.

[Robbie]

She is now the one of the five Arizona wildlife commissioners. And she was. We championed her for four years. So big congrats, Jessica. What else happening in Arizona?

[Ashley]

There's one other thing right on that bill moving through to classify all of the apex predators as vermin.

[Robbie]

Yeah.

[Ashley]

Vermin, basically. Yes. Yes. That's not the official word. Yes. They. The animals to be labeled as predators, which basically means that they're all.

[Robbie]

Something like that.

[Ashley]

Yeah. They. They removed wolves from the list. So the commission voted to oppose the bill.

[Robbie]

Good. They should.

[Ashley]

Which is good. Yeah.

[Robbie]

Yeah. Black bears and mountain lions should not be viewed as vermin.

[Ashley]

It. It gives. It would give the public the right to treat all of These species the same way coyotes are treated.

[Robbie]

Yeah. You can take them whenever you want, however you want, however many want. That is not how you treat big game animals.

[Ashley]

That's right. That's right. Now, in Louisiana, they have always had. Not always, but for a long time, they have had a commercial alligator harvest season. That's the only way you can hunt alligators down there. You have to have a commercial tag. Now you see a lot of people hunting them, but that's because they go somewhere.

[Robbie]

Private land tags. Yep.

[Ashley]

Yes. Yeah. So they are trying to pass. And we talked about this on a little bit. We talked about this on the podcast with Secretary Bosworth. They. They knew. And we're going to try to run a bill through the legislature to begin a. What do you want to call recreational, recreational alligator harvest season. So that is moving.

[Robbie]

Cool.

[Ashley]

And it passed Senate Natural Resources.

[Robbie]

Well, it should. They've got an amazing conservation success story. They've got an amazing population estimate down there. There's no reason why they should have limited recreational tags for alligator hunting in Louisiana.

[Ashley]

That's right. That's right. And I haven't seen much about it in opposition. I've seen a lot of news about it, but I haven't really seen much in opposition to it. So that's. That's good. Tennessee passed a hunter education act similar to the one that Georgia passed. Passed both chambers. So it passed the House. It passed. The Senate is going to be signed into law. House Bill 2588.

[Robbie]

Wow.

[Ashley]

Authorizes LEAs and Public Charter schools to offer students in any of the grades a hunter education course approved by the Wildlife Resources Agency as part of PE health or safety instruction. Passed. This is what I think is exciting. Is it passed unanimously?

[Robbie]

Nobody said no.

[Ashley]

Unanimously in both chambers.

[Robbie]

Damn.

[Ashley]

Nobody said no.

[Robbie]

When does that happen?

[Ashley]

That is a huge. That's a huge win. Republicans, Democrats, everybody coming together saying, this is important. We get it. I mean, I honestly think that that is pretty amazing. That's pretty amazing. When's the last time anything passed unanimously in the entire. An entire state legislature? It does not happen very often. So big shout out to Tennessee. Tennessee gets our A plus of the week.

[Robbie]

Thank you. I live in Tennessee. I'll take it.

[Ashley]

Yeah. I am a Tennessean.

[Robbie]

Ah, you take the Mississippian.

[Ashley]

Little Rocky talk. Rocky top Tennessee.

[Robbie]

Nobody wants to hear you singing and dancing on the roundup, Ashley.

[Ashley]

I think they do. Go balls if you gotta get with it, Robbie. If you're going to live in Memphis, Tennessee, you got to cheer for either. You got to cheer for The Tigers or the Vols. Pick a team. Or Vanderbilt. Gosh, no. Don't cheer for them.

[Robbie]

If you. If you. Let's let the people speak. If the people want to hear Ashley sing and dance, text us. 601-790-0-607 if you want to hear more singing from Ashley, you do sing in a choir, the church choir. So it could be pretty good. But 601.

[Ashley]

I was 7, 9 06. UT singers too. I sang in UT singers. There was choreography to Rocky Top. It was bad. So were the outfits.

[Robbie]

They were worse.

[Ashley]

Hopefully that was all destroyed. Last time you asked the people's opinion, do you remember what it was

[Robbie]

that I was right when it comes to bear hunting. And every answer yes.

[Ashley]

You asked if everyone wanted to see me go to Africa and you had an overwhelming yes, multiple responses.

[Robbie]

You're too busy to go to Africa, Miguel.

[Ashley]

No, I'm not here in my schedule. Listen, it might take spring.

[Robbie]

You must be in Africa right now. You best in mind that you weren't in Africa right now, but you were in. You were on spring break. You're on spring break.

[Ashley]

This whole week is open. Whole week is open.

[Robbie]

You needed to have left in the middle of spring break, which you said was essential.

[Ashley]

If I had done that, I wouldn't have the summit flu. I would. I would have totally done that.

[Robbie]

You would have gotten some African disease, probably.

[Ashley]

Oh, I do get those.

[Robbie]

Yeah.

[Ashley]

But I can. I can muscle through it.

[Robbie]

What else is on the docket?

[Ashley]

So Florida did a few interesting things. They're kind of. So they. They took away the authority of the governor, who of course right now is DeSantis. They took away the governor's ability to spend in emergency settings. So that sounds very general. Right. But they did it in response to and directly because of the alligator Alcatraz situation.

[Robbie]

Yeah. I was wondering how that. Because that was a big blow up and then we haven't heard anything about it lately.

[Ashley]

Well, because I. It all got clawed back. I mean, apparently it was all ruled. And I have. I need to take a new look at the exact status of everything.

[Robbie]

Nobody's there. Nothing's happening right now.

[Ashley]

Which, I mean, you know, they had already spent what, 200 million, 300 million. Remember? I was like, I was raising hell about this. I was so pissed. One because it seemed so unconstitutional. They were using like FEMA funding, I mean, all this stuff. And it was like emergency and the state was paying for it. And supposedly they were going to be paid back by some federal funds, but who knows? And nobody's Getting federal funds for anything right now anyway. And then. And they were like, saying, oh, well, it's not going to hurt the environment. Meanwhile, they were clean, clearing all the roads and messing up the tribes and messing up the wildlife. All the stuff. I mean, it was just big fat environmental disaster right in the middle of the Everglades. Well, and then it. And then the judge halted it, and. But, I mean, they'd already spent, like, $200 million, so. Okay, great. So we've created a big, fat environmental mess and spent all this money. That's amazing. Good job, guys. So now the legislature has taken matters into their own hands and limited the governor's ability. And look, I'm a. I'm a big DeSantis fan, so I don't want to sound critical of him in general. I just thought, you know, sometimes people make mistakes and nobody's immune, including me. So they have limited his ability, which the problem is, like, I hate that they had to do that, because hopefully. I mean, what happens if we have another Ian come through and. And he needs to be able to spend money in an emergency situation for some kind of natural disaster? I mean, I haven't read that law that they passed, but because they did something so bad, they had to go limit it, and hopefully it won't cause irreparable harm in the future when they actually need to use that kind of stuff. So. You know what? Politicians don't do bad stuff and get your hands tied for the future. Sorry.

[Robbie]

It's a little rant. A little soapbox.

[Ashley]

No, no. Little rant. Yeah. You know, I don't. Alligator Alcatraz. Just. That has nothing to do with the ice part. That's totally side. This is all because of the environmental part. All right, so

[Robbie]

we know that Colorado is still a mess. Colorado, the fur ban, May 5th and 6th is when it's coming back up for rulemaking. And everyone says that it's just like nobody knows what's happening. Here's the other thing that's crazy that has slipped under the radar because that whole meeting was so crazy. Charles and I talked about the fur ban. There was a citizen petition to the commission from the center of Biological diversity and either 17 or 27 other organizations telling the commission they need to halt paying wolf depredation claims from ranchers, which was the thing that they stood on in the beginning, saying, we are going to compensate. This thing is going to be tied in with everything that we do.

[Ashley]

Yeah, we posted something about that, didn't we?

[Robbie]

Another wolf died on Friday.

[Ashley]

I know. I know the 14th.

[Robbie]

14th. Yeah. 14th Wolf. Current survivable died survivability percentage is 44% in Colorado.

[Ashley]

Can you imagine if we had only had. What did you say the percentage was?

[Robbie]

44% survival.

[Ashley]

What would you be doing right now if we'd only had 44% survival of our cheetahs?

[Robbie]

Oh, I would be dead.

[Ashley]

I would have had to send somebody to check on you at like 70% drinking heavily. You would have an old Fashioned sitting in front of you right now.

[Robbie]

Yeah, yeah. So Colorado is just continuing to be the next Oregon. Really?

[Ashley]

So all these. So what was their basis for halting the depredation payouts? That they just can't afford it anymore and there's been too much.

[Robbie]

I don't know. I didn't look into it enough. But I think it was something tied to like abuse of the system or the, you know, more evidence needs to be shown, which is crazy, right? It's just. It's just.

[Ashley]

Well, they were already like. Hadn't they gone like seven times over their budget already?

[Robbie]

Yeah, yeah. No, the wolf depredation fund was absolutely decimated last year.

[Ashley]

That'd be a great thing. If I could remember things that I had previously reported on stay in my head figures past that date. I feel like they had already gone over their budget like seven times this past year. And the depred. They blew the depredation budget way back when. They blew the whole budget. I mean, the whole entire budget has been okay, so here it's just a debacle. And, and.

[Robbie]

And like, all right, Governor, March 26th citizen position regarding wolf depredation. Colorado intensely focused on modifying rules for lethal control and compensation. They wanted to strengthen lethal controls. Petitions argue that current Colorado Parks and Wildlife rules on compensating for indirect losses, that is reduced weight, lower conception rates, lack scientific backing, sightings that payouts have reached double the funding due to unverified claims. Crazy. And here's the other thing that's so cool about this whole thing is we are building a documentary in Colorado with all of this stuff happening at the same time. Talking to all the farmers, all talking about weights, all talking about conception rates. They have all the data. This isn't fictitious. The farmers are like, our carbs are down 20% in weight from previous years.

[Ashley]

There's also a built in set of rules that these farmers have to satisfy to receive the compensation. Like there has to be carcasses. Their pictures like, satisfy, like, you know, because wolves kill a certain way and it's different from an animal dying by other means, so. I mean, it's not like they've been getting paid for just random. Cow fell in the river and broke its ankle. Whatever.

[Robbie]

Yep. Anyway. It's crazy. It's crazy. Well, I need to cut our roundup short because I am running up against a hard deadline of a board meeting.

[Ashley]

Well, we covered a lot of states.

[Robbie]

There's a lot of things happening. New York, the trophy hunting bill. I'll say the last thing. New York trophy hunting bill seems to still be in the Senate. It came out of committee. It has not been, based on what I can see online, has not been voted on at all yet, so. And that's what happened last year. I think it just ran out of time. So we'll see. We'll keep watching.

[Ashley]

Hopefully. Hopefully, it will happen again.

[Robbie]

Yep. All right. Stay healthy. Do not get sick this week.

[Ashley]

I will. I will stay very well this week. Hopefully.

[Robbie]

Ciao.

[Ashley]

Ciao.

[Robbie]

Well, that's it for today. I appreciate you listening, as always, leave a review, share it with your friends, and most importantly, do what's right to convey the truth around hunting.