Meet the adventurous, accomplished women who are redefining conservation through their lives in the field and on the water. Filled with humor, audacity, empathy, and intelligence, Artemis brings you new voices from our public lands. Whether you're snagging flies or tracking big bucks, Artemis introduces you to women from all walks of the sporting community. We discuss hunting, fishing, public lands, and conservation. Join us to be a part of the movement.
Long-time Artemis host and friend of the podcast Ashley Chance returns this week to talk about upland birds. As the new hunting heritage program manager at Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, Ashley is working to conserve upland bird habitat and recruit and retain new hunters. She introduces us to a new film series called How to Hunt Upland Birds, and also tells us about the Hunter Mentor pledge, which has some sweet prizes attached to it this year. (Pssst... want more bird stuff? Check out past episodes with the grouse lady, Ashley Peters, and an episode on bobwhite quail with Brittney Viers.) 2:00 Wingshooting in wild weather - an Artemis event goes on undeterred 6:00 New town, new job, new childcare... but same passions 8:00 Deerhide in the freezer = endless possibilities 10:00 Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever - working to put more birds on the ground through habitat conservation 11:00 Minority Outdoor Alliance 14:00 Getting into upland bird hunting behind a dog named Rocky in high school 17:00 Road trip adventures with a bird dog buddy (in this case, a pudelpointer nicknamed Leo) 20:00 Registered dog names that make a statement 23:00 The thrill of finding quail in unlikely places 25:00 Steep decline in quail habitat with the rise of mechanization in agriculture 30:00 Development and suburban sprawl is a huge threat to upland bird habitat 32:00 How to Hunt Upland Birds course, like 'upland bird hunting for Netflix,' filmed and produced by Modern Carnivore 39:00 The video series portrays a variety of hunters, hunting cultures, and birds 41:00 Hunting with babies and kids - do what works for you 44:00 "Approaching hunting in the way that felt right for me was a revelation that's been valuable moving forward." 47:00 From the Artemis archives on hunting while pregnant and/or with kids: Motherhood and Traditional Bow Hunting with Beka Garris; Melody Haege on Traditional Bow Hunting with Kids; and Hunting While Pregnant with Emily Ledergerber and Kyla West 49:00 Access is a big barrier for new hunters (or new-to-a-place hunters), especially in states with lots of private land 51:00 "What if there was a lease that was all women? That would be cool" - introducing the private hunting lease in Tennessee that Ashley worked on and secured (with A LOT of sheer tenacity and letter-writing) 55:00 Food plots vs. baiting 59:00 Consider taking the Hunter Mentor Pledge at Pheasants Forever - take a new hunter in the field, snap a pic, and be entered to win a guided upland bird hunt for two Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alisa Davis took her partner's military career as a chance to fly-fish the waters of several states, including Hawaii, Colorado and North Carolina, while also pursuing advanced education in science. Alisa is an avid outdoors educator and fly-fishing instructor. In her words, "The more we teach fly-fishing, the more people are going to get into fly-fishing... which is always good for conservation." Alisa also a Type I diabetic, and in the second half of the program she shares how she naviates her outdoor pursuits while managing chronic illness. 2:00 Squirrel cacciatore and other adventures in eating! 6:00 Harvesting rainbows in cutthroat country -- smoke them, eat them, and if not... they're hearty fare at a local raptor center 8:00 Military life, moving across the country, cramming in an education... and getting hooked on fly-fishing 13:00 Southeastern states = fly-fishing powerhouse 16:00 Fly-fishing - not as gear-intensive as elitist as outsiders sometimes think 18:00 Laying off on fishing trout if water temperatures get high 21:00 Little fish with big fight: bass and panfish are hard to beat 25:00 The Joan Wulff method of fly-casting 26:00 "The more we teach fly-fishing, the more people are going to get into fly-fishing... which is always good for conservation." 27:00 North Carolina's John E. Pechmann Fishing Education Center 30:00 Getting into conservation careers; Volunteering is a great way to start 34:00 Volunteers are the engine of conservation work 36:00 Hawaii: the devastating fire and the adventures that preceded it 45:00 Managing diabetes (or any chronic illness) in the field... dealing with fatigue, preparing for emergencies, cultivating grit 48:00 Knowing your body, developing a routine, staying hydrated 56:00 Find Alisa on Instagram @starryeyedandoutdoorsy 1:02:00 Sharing nature with kids and families... #warmfuzzyfeelings 1:08:00 The joys of preparing for hunting season Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week, Artemis program manager Carlee Koutnik tells us about her summer trip aboard a fishing boat called the Warthog in Bristol Bay. The sockeye fishery is a frenzy of activity, and Carlee got to work aboard a 32-foot fishing boat schlepping salmon. We get an inside look at the fishery, the regulations that keep it viable, and the business of commercial fishing. Plus... how do you go make a poo on a small fishing boat? Stay tuned. 4:00 Storytelling = mankind's earliest form of entertainment 6:00 Offering to help on an Alaskan salmon boat solely for the experience, getting the 'yes' from a fishing captain, and then... "Planning for Alaska is a different type of planning." 10:00 How the sockeye fishery works 12:00 Xtratuf boots in the habitat they were designed for 15:00 Fisheries regulation in Alaska 20:00 When fishing is on, it gets hectic -- lots of boats in the water are vying for a limited quarry 21:00 Gillnet fishing 25:00 "Picking, bleeding, chilling and floating" 32:00 From Bristol Bay to your dinner table 35:00 Finding a $20 gallon of ice cream at sea... #bliss 40:00 Preparing salmon 44:00 The life cycle of salmon -- it's a pretty amazing feat of biology 50:00 Managing fear in high-consequence environments; Leaning into discomfort/risk 54:00 "Be bold, stay curious, and get outside"... words to live by 57:00 "The Brilliant Abyss" by Helen Scales 1:02 Biden creates new national monument to protect Grand Canyon 1:04 So... how DO you poop on a 32-foot fishing boat? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mandela van Eeden is an outdoors communicator, an educator, a yoga instructor, a podcast host, and... a raft guide. She's recently back from an expedition on the Alsek River in the Yukon and Alaska. On this episode, we discuss how wild places rejuvenate us and give us perspective -- and they can even inspire us to act on behalf of the marvelous places we get to visit. Plus: Wool socks, glacial lakes, and riverboarding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What is Artemis? This week we're revisiting one of our earliest episodes, featuring two of the brilliant minds who spearheaded the effort to make a space for sportswomen and conservationists. We'll hear from Maggie Heumann and Jess Johnson about how Artemis got going and why this work matters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tracy Shaw might be best known as the @arkansasoutdoorswoman, but she's also a single mom, a bush pilot, a mentor to others, and an Artemis ambassador. This week on the podcast, Tracy shares with us the joy of being a mentor to others -- even when it means being lured into gator hunting by your friends and fan base. Plus: magical waterfowl hunts, sticking to your long-term goals, and saying 'yes' to being a mentor. 2:00 - Goose and duck jerky #droolemoji 4:30 - Opening the invite to women and children in the outdoors through mentorship 8:00 "I get to be a part of so many firsts. And I just feel so blessed and honored." 9:00 The 65-year-old who wonders if she can do a goose hunt... then shoots her first goose and has it literally fall in her lap 12:00 Landowner arrangements surrounding gator tags 14:00 When your Instagram fan base begs for a gator hunt 16:00 Checking gator lines after they've been baited -- excitement like never before! Could be a 4-footer, could be a 12-footer 19:00 Encouraging others around you during high-adrenaline hunts 20:00 Gator meat can taste kind of swampy, but dressing the animal thoroughly helps 22:00 Slipping game meat past your kids 25:00 Getting the family hooked on wild turkey 28:00 Finding the family balance between kids/work/outdoors time 30:00 "I decided I wanted to be a bush pilot" - adventures in the air, and never surrendering your dreams 34:00 A 10-year-old's first goose hunt 36:00 Setting goals and slaying them 40:00 Mentoring newbies... safety should come first 45:00 "You can do anything you want to do... you don't have to be the best at it" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week... fire! Artemis is joined by Jaidyn Hranicka in Wisconsin, who works as a prescribed burn specialist. Wisconsin has a multitude of different ecosystems -- deep dark woods brush up against prairie-like oak savannas. Jaidyn talks to us about what it's like to work in the fire industry. Plus: Turkey misses, brook trout, and trail baloney.
2:00 Trail baloney: A mixed-game, smoked, and pan-fried treat (also a great friend-maker) 4:30 Wisconsin's varied ecotypes 7:00 Fishing for native brook trout in small streams 8:00 Reintroducing fire to oak savannas 13:00 Prescribed fire as a surrogate for natural fire; It's a management tool for fire-adapted ecosystems 18:00 Burning different ecotypes at different times of the year, but generally in a March-May window 22:00 The effect of Rx burn on wetlands 25:00 The nuts and bolts of a day of prescribed burning 29:00 "Dot ignition" and low-intensity fire strategies (plus, sleepover duty for one crew member) 32:00 Fire stories: the one that got away... #nostructuresharmed 38:00 "Burn boss" ... might be the best job title ever 42:00 Loving where you live
Crystal C. Shaw is the Chief Operating Officer for the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation. She previously served as the Executive Director and CEO of the Illinois Conservation Foundation. Ms. Shaw spent her earlier career in real estate and executive search advisory and consulting assisting search firms and businesses with c-level recruitment within privately held and PE-backed companies across industries.
Ms. Shaw holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Human Environmental Sciences from the University of Missouri, Columbia. She currently serves as a committee member of the Chicago Downtown Chapter of Ducks Unlimited and co-founder of Shane’s Anglers, benefitting Cal’s Angels. She is a life sponsor of Ducks Unlimited and the Ruffed Grouse Society. She formerly served as an Auxiliary Board Member of the Sue Duncan Children’s Center. Ms. Shaw enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, fly fishing and hunting.
Links:
www.mcgraw.org
www.annieoakleyshootersni.org
Show notes:
0:52 – What is inside Crystal’s freezer?
1:51 – Overview of Crystal’s background (three countries and eight states).
4:45 – Childhood adventures, hunting, fishing and upbringing.
8:13 – Hunting and fishing in Australia.
10:26 – Path to cofounding a nonprofit.
12:15 - Best path to obtaining a job in wildlife conservation?
14:00 - Tips for folks who want to reach and grow in the field of conservation. NETWORK!
14:52 - The Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation.
20:52 – Ding Darling was friends with Max McGraw! AND they both have a women’s incitive!
22:46 - What is CLfT?
24:44 - Short break for a message from our partner, Prois, and our partner program, NWF Outdoors. Be sure to follow and support both on social media.
26:07 - Favorite field experiences. #DesertQuailHunting
29:20 - Biology, research and the urban coyote project!
32:15 – Fellowship and internship opportunities… reach out to Crystal directly!
33:08 – Crystal looks to the future of conservation.
39:08 – www.annieoakleyshootersni.org (Fall classic is Sunday, September 24th)
41:43 – Closing statements… hits and misses!
Ashley Chance worked as the southeast program cordinator for Artemis over the past two and a half years. She is intelligent, kind, humble, empathetic, skilled and incredibly talented at everything she does. She made an impact on every single ambassador and leader she came into contact with and her leadership will be greatly missed. Ashley is now advancing onto the next stage of her incredible career in wildlife conseration.
Ashley lives in east Tennessee with her husband and two dogs. She spends time outdoors as a hunter, angler, and horseback rider. Ashley was raised on a farm in Minnesota and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin. After graduation, she traveled around the country working as a wildlife technician on numerous research projects. In 2013 she boarded a plane for Ghana, West Africa, where she spent two years serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a rural village. Ashley fell in love with a scraggly little puppy during her time in Ghana and managed to bring him all the way back home with her. Upon her return to the United States, she began a master’s program at Mississippi State University to determine how hunting pressure influences deer movements. While there, she met her husband and they acquired an English Springer Spaniel that is the most versatile (and crazy!) hunting dog you’ll ever meet.
Ashley’s role as the South East Regional Coordinator was to extend the work of Artemis to southern states by supporting sportswomen as conservation leaders and helping them to build community. She did this... and so much more.
Show Notes:
1:22 – What’s in Ashley’s freezer?
7:01 – Special message from an Artemis ambassador based in Alaska!
7:42 – Ashley takes about her background as an equestrian enthusiast.
14:27 – Special message from an Artemis ambassador based in Tennessee!
16:02 – Ashley talks about growing up on a farm and her relationship to food.
41:20 – Special message from an Artemis ambassador based in Georgia!
24:28 -- Special message from an Artemis ambassador based in TN! MARY LYNN!
27:54 -- Special message from an Artemis ambassador based in Oklahoma!
30:22 -- Special message from Marcia – YES, that Marcia!!!
32:52 – Ashley talks about having a baby and working and being mom and all the good things!
36:07 -- Special message from an Artemis ambassador based in Florida!
44:38 -- Special message from a duck hunter extraordinaire!
46:08 -- Special message from an Artemis ambassador based in New York!!
48:01 -- Special message from an(other) Artemis ambassador based in Tennessee!
50:27 – Ashley shares a conservation tid-bit.
54:41 -- Special message from an Artemis ambassador based in Ohio!
57:20 – Closing from Ashley…
Ashley, we love you! Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for our community and wildlife.
Gina De Bernardis, an Argentine hunting guide, was introduced to hunting and fishing by her father Héctor, who has been a hunting guide since his youth. Gina and her brother, Laureano, now run the family business with their father and they hunt all around Argentina. During this episode, Gina reflects on being a female hunting guide in her country, how conservation works in Argentina, struggles with poachers, invasive species and the interesting sounds produced by red stags!
Suggested Links:
https://www.instagram.com/g.huntress/
https://www.instagram.com/debernardishunting/ https://debernardishunting.com/ Gina's email:info@debernardishunting.com
Show notes:
1:17 – What’s in your freezer??
1:41 – Why so much red stag meat?
4:23 – Gina shares a little about her background and upbringing.
5:14 – Getting into the guiding business, successes, and challenges.
8:01 - Transitioning from wanting to be an artist to wanting to be a hunting guide.
10:35 – Merging art and hunting through photography.
11:32 - What is it like to be a female hunter in Argentina?
14:06 – Hunting is part of the “underground” in Argentina?
16:07 – Gina takes friends out but it is difficult to folks to understand.
20:07 - Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus.
22:02 - Signs and symptoms of dengue fever!
25:20 – A day in the life of a Argentina based hunting guide. It’s a BIG COUNTRY!
29:27 – Where does Gina guide hunting trips in Argentina?
32:12 - How does conservation work in Argentina? Is there anything similar to the North American model of conservation?
37:26 – What does it mean to be a “fielder”?
38:25 - Lands management in Argentina.
41:10 – Cutting the grass or mowing and how this can hurt partridge.
44:03 – Gina shares one of her favorite stories from the field.
50:40 – What does the stag roar sound like and what is the season?
52:20 - Do the animals experience a lot of pressure in the areas Gina hunts? What about poachers?
54:25 – Do women come and hunt in Argentina? What are Gina’s hopes and dreams in this realm for the future?
56:46 – Weekly closer: hits and misses!
Few legacies can impact the amount of people, organizations, species and habitats that Becky Humphries has.
Starting as an employee of the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the 1970s, she quickly transitioned to state wildlife work the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and grew through the ranks culminating in her being appointed Director of the Department of Natural Resources and then in 2010 of the newly-developed Department of Natural Resources and Environment, which combined the DNR and state’s environmental agency.
She was the first woman to hold either director role in Michigan.
Humphries’ leadership saw the department through some of the most trying and uncertain times – including the discovery of Bovine Tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease in the state.
Humphries’ work with the DNR elevated her to leadership roles within Association of Fish and Wild Agencies. She not only won their two most prestigious awards for her work, but she was named chair of the Fish and Wild Health Committee and led the National Fish and Wildlife Health Initiative.
After more than 30 years with the DNR, Humphries left in 2011 to join Ducks Unlimited as the director of conservation partnerships. In 2013, Humphries joined the National Wild Turkey Federation as its chief conservation officer before being named chief executive officer in 2017 (Sourced from Michigan United Conservation Clubs).
Suggested Links:
https://www.nwtf.org/
http://www.peddersolutions.com/
Show Notes:
0:36 – Becky talks about where this episode was recorded at the North American Fish and Wildlife Conference. It has been happening since 1911!!
1:22 – A little on Becky’s background and start in conservation.
6:10 – Mentorship. Becky talks about some of her mentors during her career.
10:52 – Discussing professional courage and steps in moving up the ladder and picking your battles.
13:14 – “You always want to work around people who are very ethical.”
15:45 – Becky talks about some of the biggest projects she was involved with during her career. Notable projects at each stage.
28:00 – Becky reflects on where it has worked in her advantage to be a female in this industry.
33:28 - Pathways and pipelines to leadership. Did Becky set her intention to be the CEO of the DNR?
35:41 - Short break for a message from our partner, Prios, and the NWF Outdoors Outdoors podcast.
37:07 - What’s in Becky’s freezers?! Better late than never ;)
39:48 - Becky reflects on her passion for turkey hunting, bird hunting and her bird dogs.
41:33 - What projects has Becky worked on over the years?
49:50 – The conversation regarding hunting, taking a life, spirituality, remorse, and conservation.
51:33 - Becky to continue to stay engaged in the conservation community.
52:28- Closing statements and final advice for women who want to work in conservation and the out of doors.
54:39 - Becky’s plans for the future after retirement.
57:10 – Sam, Carlee and Becky share their hits and misses.
Few legacies can impact the amount of people, organizations, species and habitats that Becky Humphries has.
Starting as an employee of the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the 1970s, she quickly transitioned to state wildlife work the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and grew through the ranks culminating in her being appointed Director of the Department of Natural Resources and then in 2010 of the newly-developed Department of Natural Resources and Environment, which combined the DNR and state’s environmental agency.
She was the first woman to hold either director role in Michigan.
Humphries’ leadership saw the department through some of the most trying and uncertain times – including the discovery of Bovine Tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease in the state.
Humphries’ work with the DNR elevated her to leadership roles within Association of Fish and Wild Agencies. She not only won their two most prestigious awards for her work, but she was named chair of the Fish and Wild Health Committee and led the National Fish and Wildlife Health Initiative.
After more than 30 years with the DNR, Humphries left in 2011 to join Ducks Unlimited as the director of conservation partnerships. In 2013, Humphries joined the National Wild Turkey Federation as its chief conservation officer before being named chief executive officer in 2017 (Sourced from Michigan United Conservation Clubs).
Suggested Links:
https://www.nwtf.org/
http://www.peddersolutions.com/
Show Notes:
0:36 – Becky talks about where this episode was recorded at the North American Fish and Wildlife Conference. It has been happening since 1911!!
1:22 – A little on Becky’s background and start in conservation.
6:10 – Mentorship. Becky talks about some of her mentors during her career.
10:52 – Discussing professional courage and steps in moving up the ladder and picking your battles.
13:14 – “You always want to work around people who are very ethical.”
15:45 – Becky talks about some of the biggest projects she was involved with during her career. Notable projects at each stage.
28:00 – Becky reflects on where it has worked in her advantage to be a female in this industry.
33:28 - Pathways and pipelines to leadership. Did Becky set her intention to be the CEO of the DNR?
35:41 - Short break for a message from our partner, Prios, and the NWF Outdoors Outdoors podcast.
37:07 - What’s in Becky’s freezers?! Better late than never ;)
39:48 - Becky reflects on her passion for turkey hunting, bird hunting and her bird dogs.
41:33 - What projects has Becky worked on over the years?
49:50 – The conversation regarding hunting, taking a life, spirituality, remorse, and conservation.
51:33 - Becky to continue to stay engaged in the conservation community.
52:28- Closing statements and final advice for women who want to work in conservation and the out of doors.
54:39 - Becky’s plans for the future after retirement.
57:10 – Sam, Carlee and Becky share their hits and misses.
Kate Crump owns and operates Frigate Adventure Travel with her husband, Justin. Kate is a fishing guide based in Bristol Bay, Alaska and Oregon’s North Coast.
Kate serves on the board of Pacific Rivers and is a member of the North Coast Citizens for Watershed Protection, promoting and protecting healthy watersheds. Her writing has been featured in the Fly Fish Journal, Trout Magazine, Patagonia Fly Fishing catalog, and the Salmon Steelhead Journal.
Links:
Pacific Rivers Films: https://www.pacificrivers.org/storytelling.html
Short Lesson on Snake River Dams: https://www.columbiariverkeeper.org/our-work/saving-salmon/snake-river-dams
Our lodge: www.thelodgeat58north.com
Show notes:
1:02 – Kate shares what is in her freezer… Bristol Bay salmon, lincod, blackcod, elk and pig!
2:25 – How do you ship a pig to/from Alaska?
3:31 – Alaskan Airlines is unlike any other airline; they transport a lot of interesting supplies.
6:12 – Kate shares some background on her business and adventures in life as a fishing guide.
9:38 – Kate talks about her upbringing and start in fishing.
14:24 - Kate reflects on the value of being super present when fishing and how spirituality plays a role in her angling pursuits.
17:17 - What lead Kate to Washington and her first-time fishing?
21:31 – The awesomeness of Kate learning to love fishing and then moving to Alaska to become a fishing guide.
23:48 – Carlee asks Kate how she creates a safe and fun environment for kids to learn how to fish.
27:01 – Short break for a message from one of our partners, PRIOS, and our partner podcast NWF Outdoors. Be sure to follow Artemis and NWF Outdoors on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
28:22 – Kate talks about the Bristol Bay Defense Fund and why we need to protect Bristol Bay.
32:45 – A crash course on the Snake River Dams and the story of the Columbia River salmon.
36:05 – How are we still talking about building dams in 2023?
39:35 – Genetic differences between spring and fall chinook salmon.
42:32 - How can people engage and contribute to these efforts (salmon and steelhead recovery). Take the time to sign your name and check the box on ACTION ALERTS!
45:19 – “I definitely and truly believe that the best way to heal our world is to start with ourselves… just being very kind to everyone you run into.”
47:47 – Kate reflects on hard questions and one of her favorite moments on the water.
53:45 – Hits and Misses of the week! Goose hunting, fishing with babies and travels to Chile!
Acting Director at Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Heather Disney Dugan, shares her career path, favorite State Parks, her adult onset hunting stories with friends and family, and recognizes her mentors.
“From sunrises at eleven mile and seeing the sunlight shining through the crystals that are hanging frozen from evergreen trees…I'm one of the luckiest people in the world to be able to have experiences like that and get paid for it.”
Artemis Ambassador applications are still open, apply here before March 13th!
Join Ashley and Mandela as they interview Carlee, the new Artemis Program Manager, and delve into details of her career, education, and path to becoming part of the Artemis Team. AND…our 2023 Ambassador Applications are open until March 13th, 2023. Apply Here!
A program of the National Wildlife Federation, Artemis seeks build a community of bold sportswomen who can articulate conservation issues to their legislators as well as skin a deer. Check out Artemis events in-person and online and connect with extraordinary sportswomen in your state.
Part highlight reel, part blooper episode: Artemis's end-of-year special is back. Hear the most memorable clips from our THIRD year on the airwaves. As always, thank you for being here. 1:00 Artemis's Women in Conservation Leadership series aired this spring, an 8-episode dive into the stuff strong leadership is made of 4:00 Check out Artemis's field episodes: A rabbit hunt with Mary Lynn and turkey camp in South Carolina 6:00 This year we brought you field events, book clubs, tactics courses, a year's worth of podcasts, and more. If Artemis has meant something to you, please share the show with a friend or leave us a review wherever you listen. If you're able to donate, all financial contributions are put toward expanding access for women in sporting.
Artemis is revisiting one of its most popular series ever: A deep dive into ungulate biology with the scientists of the Montieth Shop. Mule deer are remarkably faithful to the geographies they were raised in... until they're not. Ungulate ecologist Rhiannon Jakopak talks with us about rogue individuals, migration fidelity, the rose petal hypothesis, and more. Plus, the emotions of harvesting your first animal (slash ANY animal).
4:00 From vegetarianism to wildlife science to becoming a hunter with your sci-pals in tow
6:00 Taking a life... you process it while you're literally processing it. The complicated feelings are normal; they don't need to go away
12:00 Those hunting mentors who make you feel encouraged, not pressured
14:00 A first-time mule deer harvest: Watching an individual deer for weeks before getting a shot on it at 28 yards.... and just like that, a life is changed
17:00 Knowing your local mule deer as individuals... so much so that you recognize certain animals in friends' harvest photos
19:00 Transition from bow- to rifle-hunting... there's a different feel to the hunt
23:00 The Rose Petal Hypothesis - this idea that female deer establish home ranges that are adjacent to and overlapping those of the female parent and sisters in a manner that looks like the petals unfolding on a rose
24:00 Mule deer have high fidelity (faithfulness to preferred geographies) and philopatry (those places near where they were born/reared)
28:00 Because of high site fidelity/philopatry, mule deer are especially slow to fill habitat vacuums... if we inadvertently remove them from a landscape, it can take a long time for new deer to show up
31:00 Combining knowledge from the science world with the place-based experience of hunters, ranchers, and other intimate land users
32:00 Rogue deer do colonize new habitats! They completely buck the fidelity/philopatry pattern, especially with their winter range
36:00 The first year of an animal's life is crucial for establishing the behaviors that'll govern behavior later on - rogue deer go rogue as yearlings
39:00 Mule deer have generally low fawn survival... but they also typically have two fawns per year
41:00 Scientist #facepalm: when all 50 collared fawns in your study die
45:00 Why is it so fun to pick on bird people? Jokes aside, they have some SOLID science on taught vs. inherent migration
48:00 Do relatively common species lose their mystique for us? Heck no. Next time you see a deer on the side of the highway, ask yourself how many mountain ranges it crossed in the past year
52:00 Those big antlers on your buck? They're a symbol of an intelligent species on healthy, connected habitat... be reverent, everyone!
57:00 How do we tell compelling science stories?
1:02 We're in an unprecedented era of everyone caring how we communicate/reach each other
1:06 The good news: Everyone cares about mule deer. The bad news: We disagree what's going on with them
1:08 Scientists as arbiters of information for policymakers
1:13 MontiethShop.org - a place to get involved and be in the loop on new science; Also @Monteith.Shop on Insta
This week we're revisiting one of Artemis's best-loved series of all time - Chasing Ungulate Tales with the scientists at the Montieth Shop at the University of Wyoming. You've heard it before: "If we kill the animals with the biggest horns, aren't we selecting for smaller horns over time?" This week we take a deep dive into that question with ungulate biologist Tayler LaSharr in the third episode of our special series with The Monteith Shop. We'll also talk about her research into how mule deer behaviors are affected by harsh winter events.
2:30 Squirrels... the gateway drug to hunting?
4:00 A Wyoming antelope hunt with all the science gals, creeping in for that 150-yard shot
7:30 Autopsy is to human what Necropsy (NEE-kraap-see) is to animals
9:00 Antelope heart pastrami (!!!) - get the how-to right here
10:00 Jess's Wyoming tag line-up: Three antelope, three elk, three deer, and one bear
13:00 Research deep-dive: The effects of hunter harvest on horn size in sheep. It started with a paper that used Boone & Crockett data to assess changes in horn size over time
14:30 Bighorn sheep harvested by hunters anywhere are required to be checked into a Fish and Game station… which means there's a treasure trove of data on size/ages of in every state
16:00 Horn size is a function of age + nutrition + genetics
19:00 Mom's nutrition affects her son's antler size
21:00 Does the removal of big males (by hunter harvest) change a population's genetics over time? A lot of it has to do with the average age of rams being harvested in different years
23:00 Alberta harvests sheep by a different standard -- the four-fifths curl. When you have management scenarios where harvest is determined by horns and not age (the annuli), there is evidence that it leads to decreased horn size over time. For example, if a five-year-old grows fast and gets to that four-fifths curl before other individuals his age, he stands to be harvested sooner from his population and may not have adequate chance to breed and pass on his genetics
25:00 How do you age a bighorn sheep?
27:00 One hedge against the overharvest of big-horned young animals is a conservative tag system... it's still a once-in-a-lifetime hunt in many states
29:00 "Evolution reverse" is this theory (/misunderstanding) that hunter harvest of big-horned animals selects out those traits in a population over time. In reality, it's way more complicated than that... management strategy plays a big role in how traits persist over time. Many factors are involved, and broad generalizations generally don't hold up all the time.
31:00 Changes in game management aren't often reflected in an animal population for years/decades
37:00 Rhiannon Jakopak's digest of Tayler's horn size work in layman's terms
38:00 Connecting sheep scientists with sheep hunters
40:00 The Wyoming Range Mule Deer Project - a long-term study following deer individuals throughout their lives AND their offspring
42:00 Looking at the after-effect of harsh winters on mule deer. Differences in behavioral strategies? Migration routes? Reproductive strategies/mothering behavior? What allowed them to survive when other deer succumbed to winterkill?
48:00 Fish and Game departments have to balance immediate hunter desire against the long-term, ever-changing health/hardiness of game populations
57:00 The genesis of an ungulate biologist!
59:00 Check out more of the Monteith shop at UngulateCompendium.org
Artemis is revisiting its best-loved series of all time: A deep dive into ungulate ecology with the scientists at the Montieth Shop. This week we're surfing the green wave! Seasonal mule deer migration is based on food availability. Deer move across the landscape to maximize their access to high-quality food resources. We're joined by migration ecologist Ellen Aikens to learn more about Wyoming's mule deer populations and how they're challenged by drought, climate change, and energy development.
PLUS: Artemis's long-time partner, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks is offering an incredible giveaway that includes a guided pheasant hunting trip in South Dakota, a travel voucher to get there, and a $4,000 gift card to Scheel's. Don't miss out!
3:00 - Artemis's first guest to connect from overseas! Plus, moving to Germany during the pandemic
6:30 - Animal research: A generally rewarding endeavor with LOTS of challenges
8:00 A new scientist asks her peers/mentors, What's one of the most important fields to be savvy in? "GIS/remote sensing" comes up again and again
11:00 GPS collars let us see where an individual animal is going, year after year -- it's a bonafide jackpot of data. This field is called "movement ecology"
12:30 Marcia's sage advice: "Do what you enjoy doing until you don't enjoy doing it anymore. Then go do something else."
13:30 Sampling the field April-August to survey which plants are available and when. Documenting the seasonal change from green to brown was revelatory! Plus, KNOWING the place.
17:00 Dynamics in plant growth and seasonal transition influence how animals move
18:00 To study mule deer you need to become versed in the world they live in
20:00 "The green wave" - this idea that for deer and other species, young/emergent plant species are the most nutritious growth. That stage is staggered across an elevational gradient -- and this is the 'green wave' -- moving to find that nutritious feed
22:00 Most mule deer move from a low-elevation winter range to a higher elevation spring/summer range. This is colloquially called 'surfing the green wave'
24:00 Migration isn't a continuous line from Point A to Point B. Mule deer spend about 90% of their time on migration at stopover sites, foraging and eating
27:00 What makes a good stopover? It totally depends. Elevation plays a big role. They're generally places that are more lush than the surrounding area.
30:00 Fall migration: A combination of fleeing cold/snow, plus finding the lushest feed given the season... the "residual greenness"
33:00 Drought has an effect on how well mule deer can surf the green wave, which is shorter; Energy development also affects that migration
35:00 Mule deer in the West have high fidelity to their migration routes
38:00 Mule deer DO move through energy development sites... but they're not able to use those areas to the degree they would if there was no resource development there
39:00 A high-quality study would collect data BEFORE an energy project, DURING it, and AFTER reclamation
45:00 Being migratory is key for mule deer in the Wyoming Range. There ARE resident deer populations, but it's a small fraction (
We're revisiting Artemis's most-downloaded series ever, Chasing Ungulate Tales, featuring scientists from the Monteith Shop, an ungulate research lab at the University of Wyoming. This week we're joined by Rebecca Levine, whose research is focused on understanding the thermal ecology of moose. More than half of southern moose populations in the Lower 48 are in decline. We talk parasite loads, chronic wasting disease, the mysterious moose of New Zealand's fjordlands, and what habitat a moose needs to stay cool. Also: bear spray works for moose, too.
PLUS... Artemis's long-time partner, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks is offering an incredible giveaway, which includes a guided pheasant hunting trip, a travel voucher to get there, a $4,000 gift card to Scheel's, and loads of other gear. Check it out and be sure to enter.
4:00 When do you get to call yourself a 'hunter'?
5:00 In the southern half of moose's range, about half of populations are in decline
7:00 Why is heat stress so particular to moose versus other cervids? The skinny: They're big, they're dark, and they don't sweat.
10:00 How do moose find those spots to cool off in?
12:00 Collaring MOOSE... it's a PROCESS. But the video collars? SO COOL
15:00 Moose = tick paradise
16:00 Moose are intermingling with more ungulates that they ordinarily may not have overlapped with, which is one vector for parasite spread
18:00 Preg-checking a female moose
21:00 Twin prevalence in moose
24:00 Different subspecies of moose and their historic ranges... they're unique in that moose are circumpolar. They're in Russia, China, Canada, Alaska, etc.
28:00 Moose are relative newcomers to Wyoming/Utah/Colorado
32:00 Moose reach heat stress above 55 degrees... and they indulge in a number of behaviors to mitigate heat -- bedding down in marshes, traveling to higher altitudes, etc
36:00 Chronic wasting disease effects all cervids, including moose
37:00 Wyoming Chronic Disease Management plan
44:00 Bilingual fishing/game regs - Kansas just did this, and the results are great
46:00 Monteith Shop on Insta (@Monteith.shop)
47:00 Funding is a limiting resource on the production of high-quality science
47:40 Monteith Shop website, UngulateCompendium.org
52:00 Moose encounters in the Brooks Range... MONSTERS RISING FROM THE WILLOWS! Bear spray doesn't help you feel brave in that moment
53:00 "Don't run" is the general advice for wildlife encounters... EXCEPT with moose
54:00 National Park Service project to preserve big-horn sheep in Grand Teton National Park
55:00 Charismatic megafauna vs charismatic megafauna... eliminating mountain goats to preserve bighorn sheep
56:00 Three hours to go a mile in canyon/bog/swamp... great chance for a somewhat scary moose encounter! Also, that moment when your scientist friend hears something and says, "Hmm... that sounds like a large mammal."
59:00 Two cans of bear spray deployed... which totally got the target animal, but also the person in flight
1:01 Bear spray is oil-based, and thus very sticky
1:04 In 1910 moose were introduced into New Zealand's fjordlands. The population never really took off... the last sighting was in 1980, BUT, it's led to a Sasquatch type of fervor, with the occasional wingnut moose sighting in that area. #moosetrivia
1:06 Moose = swamp donkeys
Karlin Gill grew up among her family's outfitting business... in Karlin's words, "Food is our love language." Hunting was always a part of her life, but hunting and foraging came to take on new meaning for Karlin as an adult as she grappled with Crohn's disease. This week we talk about actually wanting to eat what you hunt -- making exquisite food from the wild. Plus: Big bucks, missing the shot, field to fork, and TWO giveaways on the table.
2:00 Tanner crabs from Alaska & transporting your bounty on a passenger flight #carryoncrabs
4:00 Growing up in a subsistence-centric household
6:00 Artemis's foraging outing was a huge success!
7:00 Wanting to eat the bounty you forage/harvest (versus choking it down)
9:00 New to foraging? Start with something easy to identify: Pawpaws, acorns, etc.
10:00 Acorn flour, acorn milk (and mushroom flour, ya'll)
14:00 A hunting season where you just can't get into the deer
18:00 I like big bucks and I cannot lie #buckfever
21:00 National Deer Association's Field to Fork program
24:00 TWO GIVEAWAYS, everyone! First, Artemis is teaming up with Prios for the month of November to offer a full outfit of swag. Check out the Artemis Instagram or Facebook feeds for all the details on how to enter. Also, Artemis's long-time partner, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks is offering another giveaway, including a guided pheasant hunting trip, a travel voucher, and a $4,000 gift card to Scheel's. Don't miss either chance!
26:00 Crohn's disease
27:00 Safari Unlimited hosts an incredible dinner for Artemis's deer camp... "Food is our love language"
31:00 Being a hunter's ed instructor, and generally having a love for outreach/education
37:00 White belly dance
40:00 Hits and misses... the only way to never miss is to never shoot
44:00 Why can't we easily pop the deers raiding our gardens.... WHYYY!?
Ashley Peters works at both The Ruffed Grouse Society and The American Woodcock Society -- groups that aim to preserve upland bird habitat across the country. Members of both groups are heavy on sporting tradition (cue the bird dog talk), and part of Ashley's job is to build bridges outside that arena. On this episode we talk about forest health, disturbance, people management, and the future of our forests.
We have a giveaway going for the month of November! It's from Prois, and we're giving away a full outfit -- a Trial Pack, Torai Pants, Torai Jacket, Cap, AND a Tintri 2.0 shirt!! Check out the Artemis Instagram or Facebook feeds for all the details on how to enter.
4:00 Crop-share/produce share arrangements
6:00 Combining fish/game with what's in season around us (even acorns)
9:00 Connect with Ashley @grouse.lady, or listen to her previous episode of the Artemis podcast
12:00 When do adult-onset hunters finally identify as just "hunters"... ?
14:00 The culture of sporting dogs is a source of camaraderie among grouse conservationists
15:00 The crop: A peek into what your grouse has been eating
19:00 Bird digestion 101: Sooo... what's the point of the crop?
25:00 Grouse rely on a mosaic of different forest types to hack it year round
28:00 Disturbance (logging, Rx fire) can be a boon to long-term forest health
32:00 It's more difficult to restore a species that's gone from a landscape than it is to prevent its demise
38:00 Conservation best practices are always changing, but how well we talk to each other will always be paramount
43:00 "Wildlife management is people management"
45:00 The Women's Forest Congress
49:00 All of us influence the future of our forests
53:00 Bird dogs make our forays into the forests more colorful
59:00 Pudelpointers as bird/family/companion dogs... zeroing in on your breed? Try a NAVHDA hunt test
1:05 Her Upland Grouse Camp
1:08 Upland hunting might be the most baby friendly
After Tanya Dowdy and her husband sold their veterinary practice, she started working at a tackle shop. That led to a boater safety job, requiring Tanya to get her captain's license. Before she knew it, she was elbows-deep in Reel Chica Charters, which takes anglers of all abilities on fishing trips off the coast of South Carolina. Tanya is on a mission to make angling and boating more accessible to everyone -- especially women.
3:00 A freezer portrait from a woman who gets to fish 12 months of the year
5:00 From a family business to working in a tackle shop... then an invite to get your captain's license... then, "Why don't you do fishing charters?"
8:00 The process of getting your captain's license
13:00 Girl meets redfish
16:00 What to expect on a fishing charter
17:00 The smell of "pluff mud" -- sulfurish and smells like home
23:00 Charters can tailor a day of fishing to most experience levels on board
25:26 Pssst... we're doing another giveaway! This time it's from Prois to give away a full outfit! Yes, that’s correct, we are giving away a Triall Pack, Torai Pants, Torai Jacket, Cap, AND a Tintri 2.0 shirt!! Check out the Artemis Instagram or Facebook feeds for all the details.
27:00 When a rodmaker asks you to join a photoshoot in Alabama, you say YES (St. Croix Rods)
29:00 The catch of a lifetime
32:00 Conflict over redfish breeding and easy catching conditions
33:00 "Covid did crazy things for the fishing and water industry."
35:00 Be a conscious angler/guide with responsible fish-handling
37:00 Ventilating a fish
39:00 Sharks... the 'tax collector' of the seas
42:00 SaferBoater.org ... We all have to do driver's ed for cars, but no so for boats! (That said, it's still a good idea)
50:00 Getting a kid his first saltwater fish... "This is why I do this and I love doing this."
54:00 Find Tanya on Instagram or at Reel Chica Charters
58:00 Companies buoying female charter captains (and anglers): Aftco, St. Croix Rods, Z-Man Fishing, Eye Strike Fishing, Rheos glasses, Shimano
Bethany Bethard grew up knowing that her grandfather was a hunting fiend, but hunting wasn't a big part of her own upbringing. As an adult, though, she got curious and started getting in the field more. Bethany is a homeschool mom of five kids, and a military spouse, and she's adamant that just because you're a mom doesn't mean you don't get to have your own identity. Plus: Hunting military lands, representation in the field ("You can't be it if you can't see it"), Oklahoma elk hunting, jerky methods, and bison.
Pssst... we're doing another giveaway! This time it's from Prois to give away a full outfit! Yes, that’s correct, we are giving away a Trial Pack, Torai Pants, Torai Jacket, Cap, AND a Tintri 2.0 shirt!! Check out the Artemis Instagram or Facebook feeds for all the details.
3:00 Oklahoma IS an elk-hunting destination... check our our episode with Alyssa Bowen to hear more about it
5:00 Hunting on military property... like public lands with way more rules
7:00 Making time to hunt with five kids in the mix
8:00 Aaaand a deer-hunting fail with young kids
10:00 Absorbing family hunting knowledge, but not having it as a regular part of your upbringing
12:00 Jerky making au natural
18:00 Tracking down your family's sporting history
19:00 "Just because we're a mom doesn't mean we lose our identity."
22:00 Incorporating indigenous heritage into a modern sporting tradition
25:00 "The Time of the Buffalo" by Tom McHugh
27:00 Using homeschool to follow family passions/interests
30:00 Representation in the outdoors matters... "You can't be it if you can't see it"
34:00 'Earn a buck' regulations... you have to harvest does before you're issued a buck tag
38:00 Bison hunting
44:00 Hunting is a service to family
47:00 Striving to be a well-rounded hunter
Outsiders might think of Long Island as a suburb of New York, but it's also a remarkable place to be a hunter and angler. Two years ago, bow-hunter Jacqueline Molina was featured in the New York Times as part of a growing movement of women taking to the woods on Long Island, which struggles with deer overpopulation. That exposure led her and some friends to start a women's hunting group. This week on the program: Blowfish, pandemic hobbies, Euro mounts, and solo hunts. Plus, don't forget to take the Artemis podcast listener survey for a chance to win a $100 gift card to Isle Royale Outfitters.
2:00 Fishing for blowfish... the other "chicken of the sea"
6:00 Long Island Babes and Bucks @longislandbabesandbucks Email: libabesandbucks@gmail.com
8:00 Long Island... sportswoman's paradise!
11:00 The DIY approach to teaching yourself how to hunt
12:00 Sitting in the tree stand with your nursing school books on your lap, trying to turn pages as quietly as possible
14:00 Look at Hunter You from three years ago... have you changed?
18:00 In case you missed Ashley's Artemis deer camp report from Tennessee... it's still there!
21:00 Pandemic hobbies... how about turning those skulls into art?
24:00 See Jacqueline’s work on her Instagram @jmolina319
26:00 How-to on Euro mounts - use a salon product that seems to make bone shine bright
31:00 "Deer Overpopulation Meets Its Match: Women Who Hunt" New York Times
36:00 Hunting headspace... especially if you're solo
39:00 Going into a hunt thinking you won't see anything... then... EVERYTHING
43:00 Hunting snacks & snack faux-pas (and tuna hearts)
48:00 Matthews V3 bow
49:00 Retire and old bow, lighten the draw weight, and save it for those super-frigid days
This week we're revisiting one of our favorite episodes from the Artemis archives... Beavers are amazing! Artemis is diving straight into the beaver pond with Dr. Emily Fairfax, ecohydrologist, science story teller, and beaver dam enthusiast. Join us to hear how this keystone species shapes our landscape, supports wildlife, and improves our watershed wherever they slap a tail. Plus, don't forget to take our podcast listener survey for a chance to win a $100 gift card to Isle Royale Outfitters. The giveaway closes on Nov. 2.
2:00 "Beavers are a keystone species, which means they modify their environment in a way that influences the whole ecosystem."
3:30 First beaver experience... when your animal guide finds you
5:30 Idaho's beaver reintroduction efforts involved parachuting them in the Frank Church
7:00 Hauling a canoe over a beaver dam (over and over) in the Boundary Waters makes you realize what incredible engineers beavers are
9:00 Beavers are masters at helping lands retain water longer, which benefits a slew of other animal species – including fish, birds and ungulates!
11:00 In Nevada, beavers started improving cattle grazing land... but their real hero moment was during a drought, when areas with beavers stayed greener longer.
14:30 Now there's just two species of beaver: North American Beaver and the Eurasian Beaver. They're different enough that they can't interbreed, but both are dam-builders
15:00 There used to be 20-odd beaver species... some dug spiral burrows into the earth, others were Pleistocene-size beavers as big as linebackers
16:00 Dam-building was a hugely advantageous skill, evolutionary-wise... it meant beavers could build their own habitat pretty much anywhere there was water
17:00 Beaver populations remained stable pre-settlement, when some indigenous cultures had ways of self-regulating harvest. The European fur trade marked the start of beaver decline
19:30 "Ecological amnesia"... when people can't remember whether or not an animal is native to a landscape
21:15 Beaver dams generally don't stop the flow of water completely. Beavers then dig channels out from the dam, dispersing water, and also giving them routes back to the dam (so they're not just chicken nuggets waddling around on land). This is the chief mechanism of how beavers turn streams into wetlands.
26:00 Water retention, water temperature, and soil health in beaver habitat
28:00 How beavers overwinter... it's brilliant
31:30 Beaver family units... they mate for life!
33:00 Adult beavers can be enormous... up to 110 pounds, especially in northern climates. (They're also a favorite food for some wolf packs.)
38:00 BDA = beaver dam analog (basically a human-constructed beaver dam to replicate the species' effect on the landscape)
39:00 Beavers and people/private lands... we have some tricks for management, like the "beaver deceiver"
41:00 Beaver presence in Nevada... it's a big of a mystery how they got there. Beaver dispersal is difficult because they're not well-adapted to moving over land
45:00 Beaver misconceptions are a huge obstacle for beaver conservation. Education is an important arm of conservation.
48:00 Beaver ponds are remarkable fire deterrent, and they're refuges for wildlife, "emerald sanctuaries"
51:00 The West has lost 60-90 percent of its natural wetlands... this has likely affected how fire behaves on the landscape
52:00 Beaver ponds = duck city!
53:45 "Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter" by Ben Goldfarb
55:00 How accurate is our perception of what a Western stream looks like? Those smooth-banked places we like to fish? They're not as natural as they look.
58:00 Find Emily @emilyfairfax on Twitter, or by email emily.fairfax@csuci.edu
59:00 Emily's film on beavers and wildfires
59:30 Beaver ponds are full of pointy sticks! But they're very stable to walk across
Tice Supplee has had a remarkable career in wildlife management and conservation. She served as a game warden in Arizona, and after retirement she became active in conservation groups like the Arizona Antelope Foundation and the Arizona Elk Society. These days she works in bird conservation, and we discuss habitat restoration. What's good for elk is often good for birds - it's a win-win. Plus: Zuni bowls, sourdough victories, condor reintroduction and more. Also: Artemis has a giveaway going on! Take our podcast listener survey for a chance to win a $100 gift card to Isle Royale Outfitters.
3:00 Archery elk hunt
4:00 Coues deer in southeast Arizona
7:00 Hunting in your 70s, being a game warden & game manager
8:00 Audubon Southwest
9:00 When respectable, nice people violate wildlife laws (and busting in on an illegal elk camp)
14:00 Why people violate game laws
16:00 Arizona Elk Society, Arizona Antelope Foundation and board service
19:00 Bringing veterans into conservation, starting with a hunt
20:00 Auctioning off game tags to fundraise for conservation, perks and drawbacks to the program
24:00 Grassland restoration work for bird habitat (plus... the pinyon jay!)
26:00 Habitat improvements for some ungulates/birds often benefit others... but not always
29:00 On southeast Arizona: "We don't have a lot of anything, but we have a little bit of just about everything."
31:00 Condor reintroduction and lead ammo
32:00 90% of captive doves force-fed two size 8 lead pellets died, compared to 0% of doves that were not fed lead shot
34:00 Arizona's yellow-billed cuckoos
35:00 Zuni bowls: an old-school method for increasing water retention on the landscape
39:00 New to conservation? Join an organization. If you can't join, volunteer. You can help no matter where you are in your sporting journey, and you'll meet a lot of people
44:00 An archery elk hunt turns into a recovery mission, then getting the abrupt whiff of elk after hearing an unusual bark
51:00 Vacuum-sealing your meat... it KEEPS
53:00 You've earned a travel trailer when you're in the field as much as Tice
54:00 #sourdoughvictories and a rabbit hole on heirloom flour
1:00 "The Time of the Buffalo" by Tom McHugh
Beth Johnson has 15 chest freezers, 2 walk-in coolers, and 3 added walk-in freezers. Johnson's taxidermy shop is predominantly women, and they specialize in hunting mounts of all kinds (from bison to zebras), and doing the odd job for Hollywood here and there. This week we hear from a taxidermist with 35 years of experience on how you can best ready your harvest to be mounted by a taxidermist. Don't forget to take the Artemis podcast listener survey for a chance to win a $100 gift card to Isle Royale Outfitters. 2:00 We've got some serious freezer real estate on hand 3:00 Hollywood's need for taxidermy (those roadkill items you see in movies aren't fresh carcasses) 4:00 Doing a taxidermy job out of someone's favorite mule #foreverfriend 5:00 Getting your science degree, becoming a teacher... then realizing your path is elsewhere 7:30 A predominantly female taxidermy shop 9:00 How you take care of an animal before bringing it to a taxidermist influences the quality of the final mount 10:00 That duck whose feathers got blown off? Maybe not the keeper to mount 12:00 The "pantyhose" trick for keeping feathers flush and lifelike on bird mounts 14:00 The scoop on freezer temps 17:00 Odds are you don't gut/skin the same way a taxidermist does; Tips for getting your quarry from the field and into the taxidermy shop 19:00 Multi-species displays... it's a dream job where science and artistry blend 23:00 Plant/vegetative elements in displays 26:00 Turn-around times 34:00 Comparing mounts from the '60s versus present day - the forms are completely different 37:00 Prepping a hide for tanning 40:00 Yep, you can get the hide of a favorite dog tanned up for your couch 43:00 Salting a hide properly (birds included!) 48:00 Taxidermist vs. catfish 51:00 Embracing trial and error 53:00 Recreating illegal-to-harvest species like eagle and owls using chicken/goose feathers 54:00 A drawer of chicken feathers also comes in handy when Hollywood needs a parrot doing a specific thing 55:00 Feather, Finn and Fur Taxidermy & Red Barn Processing (and Atlanta Poultry Processing for all things chicken) 56:00 "I just can't sleep fast enough to get back to work"... when you love what you do
Tiffiny Sanders is a mother of four, an avid sportswoman, and an ambassador who aims to connect others with the outdoors. Tiffiny is an adult-onset hunter who got into sporting when she got together with her husband. In this episode: waterfowl retrieval in gator country, food as medicine, the tension between loving animals and harvesting them, race and identity, and building a community of hunters.
2:00 Hunting in the Florida heat: stay cool, acclimated to the heat, and covered up from insects
4:00 Gator bait trivia: Which body part floats and rots nicely?
7:00 "I'm definitely an outdoors grocery shopper."
9:00 Waterfowl hunting in Florida & retrieving ducks in gator country
13:00 Adult-onset hunting, large families, and sticking with it through small kids
14:00 Acquiring hunting knowledge online (YouTube, podcasts, articles, etc) and distilling the useful parts
19:00 Outdoors & natural foods as medicine
23:00 Nontypical Outdorsman- promoting outdoor diversity and inclusion by education and outreach
27:00 @lolaofthesouth
29:00 The tension between loving animals and also harvesting them for food
32:00 Choosing your role in the food system
33:00 Looking different than your family (both natal and family by marriage)
36:00 When farm children go vegetarian & embracing the freedom of choice for your kids
41:00 The JOY of watching your kids succeed in the field, and anticipating a similar journey with your grandkids
43:00 Teaching hunter's ed, becoming an Artemis ambassador... SHARING the wisdom/power/knowledge of sporting with others = a joy in and of itself
46:00 Artemis waterfowl hunt on the horizon in Florida toward the end of January, keep an eye out for registration
47:00 Franchi Affinity Catalyst, a shotgun designed for women
This week we're headed to Mississippi with Leah Robinson, an Artemis ambassador and sportswoman of the South. She fills us in on what alligator season is like (gator nuggets, anyone?), the tradition of froggin', and some of the finest waterfowl hunting in the U.S.
2:00 Alligator season in Mississippi
3:00 So... how much meat do you get off a 10.5-foot alligator? #gatornuggets
6:00 Getting to the BIG gators (catch and release is harder than it is with fish)
9:00 Two lines and a snare
11:00 Feisty female gators
12:00 Dispatch, hauling into the boat, then a hot tip for quickly measuring a gator's length
15:00 Mississippi Wildlife Federation
16:00 Childhood sweetheart, gator wrangling BFF... #allinahusband
18:00 Getting hooked on bird hunting (and getting your first turkey five years in)
21:00 Building a community of sportswomen by starting with camaraderie and education
23:00 A hunter-to-bird ratio on the rise in the Mississippi Delta
29:00 Academics Afield
31:00 Nurturing a family culture of hunting, even as the family grows up
35:00 Hey Yeti, you ready to sponsor the Artemis pod?
38:00 Memorable duck hunts
40:00 Game warden encounters
42:00 "There's just something so special to me about froggin'"
48:00 Doing something new (like pheasants) as a family
52:00 The kind of turkey hunt that's worth waiting five years for
1:02 Gun/ammo incompatibility
Bailey Petersen helps facilitate Minnesota's woodcock banding program, which enlists the help of volunteer dog handlers. Dogs have to pass a control test before they're approved to join. We talk about steadiness in a bird dog, protective vests, and breeds - from Münsterländers to Llewellin setters. Plus: Grouse hunting in Minnesota... what to look for and what differentiates grouse habitat from woodcock habitat.
1:30 A little woodcock 'splash' for your sniffing pleasure, everyone
3:30 Harvesting wild rice... it involves a 'ricing buddy', a canoe, and tools called 'knockers'
7:00 Agencies working hand-in-hand with non-profits on habitat restoration
10:00 When a professional interest in healthy lakes leads you to appreciate waterfowl in a new way
11:00 Small Münsterländer; Llewellin Setter
13:00 Finding 'your' dog breed
15:00 Skijoring with your dogs
22:00 Minnesota's woodcock banding program
24:00 Recruiting new human/dog woodcock-banding teams
28:00 Testing dogs: It's about steadiness and control
32:00 The 2-week banding season overlaps with hatching
34:00 Finding a nest is an exercise in extreme caution
38:00 Steadiness training... start with "whoa," then add a temptation
43:00 Band return rates on woodcock are 11%, which isn't too bad
45:00 "If you have a cooperative dog, then it's really just an exercise of repetition."
46:00 Grouse hunting Minnesota, a pep talk
47:00 Hunter walking trails on OnX
50:00 Woodcock cover vs. grouse cover... "It becomes grouse cover after it's been prime woodcock cover."
52:00 For grouse, look for fruiting shrubs (chokecherries, highbush cranberries, hazel, birch)
58:00 Protective dog vests
1:05 Seeds embedded in dogs... #problems
For Tina Dokken, hunting started with a chocolate lab. She was determined to be the best fur-parent she could be, and took her dog all over. She met her husband at a dog festival, and that's when her journey into sporting started in earnest. Tina is a gifted teacher -- both in person and over her YouTube Channel, Tina DokkenUnleashed. She talks about how learning is a mindset, and being curious and willing is the path to an adventurous life with your animals.
3:00 Tina's Mexican pheasant recipe
5:30 Getting your chocolate lab into hunting
6:00 GameFair festival (like a state fair for dogs... also a place to find a husband!)
9:00 The freeze-thaw longevity of a single duck used for scent training
13:00 Being a great learner carries over to being a great teacher
15:00 Visual vs. verbal learning
18:00 When your dog chooses your husband
21:00 Learning from people who aren't your spouse/partner
23:00 Eye dominance
25:00 Shooting stance
30:00 Developing a mount technique
34:00 Progressing to other shots (and clays vs. real-life hunting)
36:00 Franchi shotguns and short-stock guns
41:00 Bridging the dog work with hunting
46:00 Hunting by yourself means following your dog (versus the others in your party)
49:00 Trusting your dog
53:00 Pheasant tricks
55:00 Hunting quietly with dogs
56:00 Snare-prepared... "you never know"
58:00 Gun safety... it's a journey, and you never stop improving; show off your empty barrel
1:00 "Tina Dokken Unleashed" YouTube channel
1:05 Archery hunting with a baby -- balancing that counterweight on your back as you draw
Adult-onset hunter... traditional bows... five kids... would you guess those things add up to having six deer in the freezer? This week we're joined by Melody Haege, who talks to us about how she settled on traditional bowhunting when she began her sporting journey, and what it looks like today.
2:00 Living in the Minnesota 'big woods'
3:00 Six deer doesn't last that long for a family of seven; Keeping the blood to train a scent-tracking dog
4:00 Pig procurement & fat rendering tips
8:00 Deer hunting with a traditional bow (you need to hear about this 27-yard shot)
14:00 Adult-onset hunting & going all in
15:00 Being an excellent shooter isn't always synonymous with being an excellent hunter
16:00 You don't know what you don't know
18:00 Crossbow to traditional bow transition
20:00 Hunting/archery isn't one parent's "thing"... it's the family's thing
23:00 Making hunting a shared joy among family sometimes means putting the brakes on your own journey
24:00 Tree stands vs. ground blinds when hunting with kids
25:00 Judging snacks by how loud they are to unwrap
27:00 Stalking with a 7-year-old #buckfever
30:00 Building bridges with farmers
37:00 Hunting styles/methods vary by geography/culture... "Even if it is legal, that doesn't mean it's respectful to the animal"
40:00 Homeschooling & time management (say, during deer season)
47:00 Finding a balance when it comes to engaging your kids; Going by their cues
51:00 Family hardship... there's significance/meaning in doing hard things
54:00 The 75 Hard challenge
Marcia Brownlee is leaving Artemis after four years as the program's manager. (Sad faces!) Artemis is housed under the National Wildlife Federation's public lands team, but its leadership team is made up of women from women across the country. Under Marcia's wings, the program has grown from a feeble idea tossed around at a campfire to a program with 71 ambassadors in 35 states. Artemis hosts events in-person and online, and connects sportswomen across the country. Artemis also seeks to foster a the kind of community where women can articulate conservation issues to their legislators as well as they can skin a deer. Today on the program: A deep dive into Marcia's work the past four years and where Artemis stands.
3:00 Marcia's #freezerconfessional leads us down a coffee-routine rabbit hole [pssst... want to hear from Artemis's coffee queen? You need to listen to the Sharenda episodes 1 & 2]
7:00 Coffee processes in the home vs. the field
9:00 The real Marcia Brownlee, ya'll... how do you describe yourself to people who know you?
13:00 Getting into hunting with the help of great people + the merits of DOING something with our loved ones
14:00 "I applied for the job with Artemis and was kind of shocked when I got it, but obviously very excited."
17:00 A nod to the NWF/Artemis work community
21:00 The back channels of conservation work... it's invigorating to be in the know
22:00 Pssst... the Artemis program manager job is accepting applications on a rolling basis until September 5th!
23:00 "You may have what they don't know they need" - never take yourself out of the running for an opportunity you're interested in
27:00 Shaking the outside expectations and defining your life/goals/mojo for yourself
33:00 Mentors in conservation -- they shape us, buoy us, and build us into better versions of ourselves
35:00 "Your Mountain" podcast with David Willms
37:00 Mentoring people you may never meet in real life
41:00 Intimacy between virtual-only co-workers
43:00 The self-declared adult sabbatical
48:00 "It's all about people. If we want to fix things -- we need to start with people."
51:00 Hunting brings us a sense of self-efficacy, confidence, independence... there's a strong mental health thread woven through sporting
58:00 Artemis is changing... but the core values remain the same #futureisbright
1:01 Conservation needs more engaged sportswomen
1:07 When you're social skills are fine-tuned for an in-person workplace, then switching to entirely remote work
Dr. Ellen Candler's career track in predator biology is full of riveting stories -- from trapping a mountain lion under the famous 'Hollywood' sign outside LA, to working on cougar and wolf studies in Yellowstone. Candler has always been interested in how added resources influence the wildlife in their vicinity -- whether it's a hunter's bait pile for bears, or a leftover gut pile from someone's deer kill.
2:00 A how-to on freezing morels
5:00 First-time hunting emotions
6:00 Remembering wolf introductions as a child growing up in Idaho
7:00 Predator field work outside LA (like riiight under the famous 'Hollywood' sign)
10:00 Work as a cougar/wolf field tech
12:00 When you say "hey bear!" and a bear pops its head up #whoa
15:00 Becoming a mother... defending your PhD... #nbd
17:00 Does wolf behavior change when bear bait piles are available?
22:00 ...so, where DO you get wolf urine?
25:00 Diabetic bears
30:00 The Offal Wildlife Watching Project ... which scavengers are the gut-eaters?
33:00 The longevity of gut piles as a food source varies depending on the season
37:00 Every time something dies, it's a resource pulse for the surrounding environment (hunters = gut piles)
43:00 Residual lead from ammunition + public education
48:00 "Hunters need to realize that what they're leaving on the landscape is eaten by other things"
Ellen is always happy to take more hunter volunteers for Offal Wildlife Watching. Current research is focused in Minnesota, but if you’re outside the state and are interested in participating, reach out to Ellen: belle130@umn.edu
Jillian Kilborn is a wildlife biologist in Vermont whose species of focus include pine marten and lynx. Jillian is also a mother, and watching her kids fledge as sportsmen and women has been a rewarding journey. The fulfillment she feels in watching them forge their own paths is part of what drew her to Artemis. What it means to be a hunter looks different for every person -- sometimes it's about the quarry, or the camaraderie, or just being outside. All 'whys' are valid here.
1:00 That moment when you say, 'You know what? I'm good with a little AC in my life.'
3:30 Bird parts in the freezer for training a bird dog
5:00 Ground sniffers vs. air sniffers
7:00 Lab-griffon mix
10:00 Pine marten recovery in Vermont after the trapping boom a century ago
11:00 Lynx recovery in the Northeast (yep, also in Vermont!)
12:00 Trapping pine marten
14:00 Handling the "furry vipers"
17:00 Building the Artemis community
22:00 Being an add-on vs. an integral member of the hunting crew
25:00 The 'why' of hunting varies person to person
30:00 Baby's innate berry radar
35:00 Being an active outdoorsman/woman and then having kids -- sometimes you have to split your time in the field so someone can tend to the offspring
36:00 Watching your kids fledge as their own selves in the hunting world
37:00 The most epic, 90-minute turkey show... at 80 yards
40:00 How many sporting lessons do we learn in hindsight? #somany
41:00 Turkey breast marinated in pickle juice
43:00 Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) program
46:00 Introducing women to trapping
48:00 NTA Convention in Ohio
53:00 Ground blind visibility... like Harry Potter's invisibility cloak
56:00 Temperature tolerance
1:01 Artemis program manager job
This week we do a deep-dive into the latest avian flu outbreak with Dr. Jennifer Ramsey, the state wildlife veterinarian for Montana. The latest outbreak was notable for its severity and the breadth of species it reached -- from waterfowl to raptors to turkeys. Dr. Ramsay said they would sometimes even find an entire nest, adults and fledglings, that had succumbed to the virus. Plus: Going from a traditional veterinary practice to wildlife veterinary medicine; ornery moose, and what biologists are watching for during the fall migration.
2:00 A peek inside a scientist's work freezer
5:00 Wildlife CSI
6:00 Marcia's stuffed zucchini recipe
10:00 Regular veterinary medicine to wildlife veterinary medicine
15:00 Avian influenza + wildlife... not all influenzas are created equal
17:00 The current avian flu is hitting snow and Canada geese especially hard; raptors are also struggling
20:00 Transmission by nasal secretions, saliva, feces (...but how did the turkeys get it!?)
21:00 Avian flu symptoms in birds
22:00 So... can you eat them?
25:00 Seeing an entire nest of raptors (adults + chicks) succumbed to avian flu
27:00 Proximity to people influences the degree to which birds are tested/detected
29:00 The role of the public in avian flu detection
34:00 Communicating a wildlife pandemic with the public
40:00 The timing of migrations and avian flu outbreak
42:00 Transmission between domestic and wild birds
49:00 Mortality in bad bird flu outbreaks can be severe
52:00 Darting an ornery moose at a campground
56:00 Darted animals... you're safe with us!
The Southeast has lost about 99% of its native grasslands. When Brittney Viers started working as a biologist on northern bobwhite quail conservation, she realized being a botanist would was critical to revelaing the bird's relationship to its habitat. Brittany works for Quail Forever, which strives to preserve remnant grassland habitat and restore degraded habitat for quail in Tennessee. Plus: Making biologists talk to landowners, the North America Grasslands Act, ticks-on-baby problems, and mountain "balds."
3:00 Botany, biology + grasslands
6:00 Studying bird health by studying plant/grassland health
8:00 Quail Forever
11:00 Coordinating regional conservation partnership programs for grassland health (ecosystem-level conservation = doesn't give a hoot about state lines)
13:00 Northern bobwhites in the East: Challenges with successional environments, lack of escape cover, thermal cover for the winter... habitat is paramount
16:00 Invasive species and herbicide use
17:00 Predators are not the main reason for quail decline
19:00 "Quail" to Westerners vs. Easterners
21:00 When biologists are REQUIRED to do landowner workshops... and the power of grassroots outreach (pssst... it can happen over a tailgate)
25:00 Hosting quail habitat workshops in places where land management is working
26:00 North America Grasslands Act
27:00 Southeastern grasslands... not the same as the tall-grass prairie of the Midwest
28:00 Many grassland birds are struggling
30:00 Grasslands in the Southeast have declined by 99%
34:00 It's hard being a grassland specialist in an area with dwindling grasslands -- they're fountains of biodiversity
36:00 There's something special about grasslands for the human soul
37:00 "Balds" - mysterious open areas on the tops of mountains
39:00 Southern grasslands -- rhododendron to cacti (they can vary greatly in makeup)
42:00 Woody encroachment: The timbered look isn't natural in a lot of parts of the Southeast
44:00 The absence of fire on the landscape
46:00 Blackbelt Prairie in Mississippi
52:00 Blueberry hunting with babies, then de-ticking your baby in the car
54:00 Listeners... a special Artemis announcement! #nospoilersintheshownotes
56:00 Artemis Program Manager job... share it with the best people in your sphere!
Kacey Edwards moved to Tennessee from Florida for a nursing job at the start of the pandemic. Despite the timing, she found a husband and a welcoming trapping community in her new state. While Kacey was working night shifts as a nurse, she made an effort to get her young dog out for exercise during the day, usually at the farm she was trapping on. That led her down the path of training a bird dog, which Kacey talks about in this episode. Plus: bobcat meatballs, coyote recipes, shopping for "dog bones" in Ghana, and boykin spaniels.
3:00 There IS husband material on Tinder, everyone... especially if your profile pic is you holding up a 10-foot gator you harvested
6:00 "I just kept showing up" - a trapping workshop leads to a trapping job
9:00 Night-shift as a nurse during the pandemic, trapping during the day
12:00 Who's watching "Alone" on Netflix right now?
14:00 Competition from other predators on a trap line
17:00 Valentine's Day coyotes + how you eat/prepare a coyote
19:00 Procuring "dog bones" in Ghana
20:00 Bobcat meatballs
23:00 Boykin spaniels - dual-purpose bird dogs
24:00 Dogs can change the trajectories of our lives - being on the trapping farm led to training a duck dog
26:00 Cornerstone Gundog Academy
27:00 Tools for training a new duck dog: clickers, e-collars
28:00 Dogs who'll eat anything... saltwater, pots of oil
30:00 Puppy's first goose retrieval
34:00 Artemis: The thing we didn't realize we were all missing
36:00 Snarfing a PBJ right as a buck comes in; Taking a shot, losing the animal, praying for sign before dark, and then.... VOILA
41:00 Blood-tracking dogs
47:00 Full October, full heart
Madi Shaheen literally helps bring trout into school classrooms. She's a science educator with a non-profit learning center in Colorado that serves underprivileged communities in the greater Denver area. Bringing kids into the outdoors (and bringing the outdoors to kids) has been a priceless way to connect Madi's background in teaching with her personal love for the outdoors. Plus... calling all adults: Have you ever had that moment where you're burnt out on your career and wondering what to do next? Crossroads... dead ahead.
3:00 In a busy outdoors, finding your secret spots and holding them tight
4:00 A fork in life's road: Do you keep a job you're burnt out on, or forge a new path?
7:00 Let's hear it for educators! You get those amazing school breaks, but it's a very demanding job.
10:00 Lincoln Hills Cares
13:00 Bringing place-based science/outdoor ed to underprivileged communities
15:00 Trout in the Classroom curriculum
17:00 Teaching kids HOW to fish versus taking them fishing once
18:00 Lady Anglers Fishing 101
23:00 Turning the classroom into a trout hatchery
26:00 That internal revelation... 'wait, maybe I am a science person'
31:00 Hands-on inquiry is different than classroom-based learning
36:00 Organic growth takes time; Good programs catch on, and the buy-in of a few enthusiastic teachers helps tremendously
39:00 Having multiple aspects of your life combine into a single professional role
42:00 When your job nudges you toward something like fly-fishing, how far do you dive in?
43:00 Tenkara rods
50:00 Fishing: it helps to feel content in one place
53:00 That moment as an educator when the learning feels electric
54:00 Maroinvertebrates and microscope views... mind-blowing!
59:00 Why do mushrooms sometimes feel different than other foraged foods? Learning something new! "The fear level can be tricky and the consequences dire."
1:02 Experimenting with bear meat
Christina McAntire got hunting-curious around the same time she became a parent. The first time she shot a squirrel, Christina couldn't bring herself to touch it. She ended up flagging down another squirrel hunter and asking if he wanted her harvest (because, you know, you have to touch it to be able to take it home). Since then, a switch has flipped and Christina has been hunting turkey, rabbit, squirrel, and even iguanas in Florida. She's been able to make time to hunt, even as time is precious on the home front. Having a great mentor has helped Christina's journey along immensely.
4:00 Growing up around hunting without being a part of it
5:00 For a lot of us, Covid helped us take stock of our values
6:00 Going on a first hunt and becoming obsessed... like, watching-YouTube-at-night obsessed
9:00 Pssst... did you catch the South Carolina rabbit hunt with Mary Lynn? Mud baths, bull fights, dog antics... all the fun
11:00 Dead animals... more scary than live animals!
13:00 The universe sends a signal in the form of a run-away squirrel dog
14:00 "I know this is going to sound crazy... but I killed a squirrel and it's my first one, and I can't pick it up." (Tell me you need a mentor without telling me you need a mentor.)
18:00 Artemis also had a turkey camp in South Carolina - be sure to listen to the episode if you missed it!
19:00 Iguana hunting in Florida (yep, you eat them)
23:00 #iguanaproblems
28:00 The satisfaction of being a mentor
29:00 Getting into hunting when you have small children... it's HARD making the time; Eventually you hope to bring them with you in the field
34:00 Knowing your "why" when it comes to hunting
38:00 The enthusiasm is contagious in group hunts
42:00 Fellowship and community... "it's just something I connect with"
43:00 Mary's "Dog Days" event is on the horizon will feature multiple breeds of sporting dogs -- duck dogs, rabbit dogs, coon dogs, etc
47:00 Fixer-upper OR baby... but not both
49:00 Can we get a round of applause for our mentors in the sporting world?
Kate Ahnstrom is a falconer, a bird-hunter, an avid wing-shooter, and an instructor for wing-shooting and sporting clays. She's also an amazing instructor who asks you about you and tailors her shooting lesson to what you have going on -- whether it's your gun-fit, your headspace, or something else. How many of us muddle along in something like bird hunting or wing-shooting without ever receiving instruction? Kate gives us a couple hot tips anyone can put to use.
2:00 Who has a freezer full of rats? #falconers
3:00 Falconry is a major lifestyle undertaking
4:00 Faces looking at you from the freezer
6:00 Redtail hawks have a very low recruitment rate in the wild
8:00 Obtaining a bird for falconry; trapping falcons vs hawks
11:00 Raptor poop details: muting vs slicing
12:30 Goshawks
15:00 The "Winged Wisdom" podcast. Listen here!
16:00 Virginia Shooting Sports - a school for sporting clays and wing shooting
18:00 Demographics of sport shooting: it errs on the side of older, white, men…
22:00 When 20-somethings tell you, "You need to up your social media game"
24:00 The meandering path of an outdoorswoman, then... CLAYS!
26:00 "I could not eat, breathe, and just sleep enough about clays and wing-shooting."
28:00 From clays only to live animals... it's a huge transition
31:00 Becoming an instructor/teacher of the things you love; Being a leader and a sharer
37:00 Three hot tips: 1) Stop looking at the gun, 2) Stop looking at your muzzle so much, and 3) Know what the bird is doing in front of you
38:00 "One inch of movement with two foot of steel at the end of your nose equates to an 8-foot swing out at 30 yards." (Translate: Birds can't outrun you... but they can best you.)
39:00 Gun fit and patterning... it matters
42:00 Being "cross-dominant" is to have a dominant eye that's different from your dominant hand... and, the fix
48:00 Ashley's shooting book rec: "Core Archery: Shooting with Proper Back Tension" by Larry Wise
50:00 You're never too experienced to benefit from a class with a great instructor
52:00 Find a Paragon instructor near you at ParagonSchool.com
56:00 #havegunswilltravel
57:00 VirginiaShootingSports.com, also on Facebook @VirginiaShootingSports and Instagram @vashootingsports
59:00 Why have 1-2 bird dogs when you could have 5-6?
1:01 Chukar problems
1:02 July 14, 16, and 19 - Artemis Advocacy Training: Register here!
This week we're bringing you an episode of the Chronic Wasting Disease Chronicles - a special mini-series produced by Artemis and NWF Outdoors. On this episode we hear from Dr. Kelly Straka, a wildlife manager in Minnesota. We talk about the financial toll on state agencies, cross-border management... aaaand, the "E" word. Tune in for more!
2:51 – Introduction on Dr. Kelly Straka, Wildlife Section Manager for Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
4:10 – Kelly talks about her career path to working with CWD.
7:10 – Kelly frames the issue with CWD from the perspective of state agencies. “CWD might be the most pressing issue facing cervid populations across the country right now.”
10:40 - The barriers to effective management of CWD.
17:11 - How hunters can help or hinder efforts to manage CWD.
23:29 - The Federal – State intersection of CWD. The regulatory and jurisdiction issues that have a bearing on how we deal with CWD.
33:15 - Minnesota’s approach and how it got us to where we are today.
39:07 - Minnesota’s response plan, management applications in different zones and various strategies.
43:10 – The “E” word!
48:21 - If we cannot eradicate CWD, how do we live with it in the future?
52:57 - The challenges around CWD surveillance and how hard it is to detect the disease when it is present in low numbers.
58:13 - What do the agencies wish the public knew about CWD management?
1:00:44 - What is one thing that could have been done differently?
1:03:33 - Closing statements. Stay engaged, stay aware, stay involved.
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Hunting elk in Oklahoma (yes, Oklahoma) is a relatively new opportunity for sportswomen and men there. Alyssa Bowen joins us to talk about finally drawing a tag in her home state, and she tells us what her elk hunt was like. Spoiler alert: Bowen's hunt was the kind most of us dream about. She spotted elk almost right away, and hunted in a party that included her husband and a close female friend.
1:00 Those three-figure temps... #eeep
3:00 Sand bass (pssst... Bass Tactics just finished! Keep an eye out for more tactics courses from Artemis)
6:00 "Mrs. Coach" - food support, emotional support, and ripping the occasional umpire
7:00 The return of elk to Oklahoma
8:00 Controlled elk hunts (and roadside service from management officials!)
11:00 Elk hunts are still very controlled in Oklahoma
12:00 Spoiler alert: Oklahoma has mountains!
15:00 The physical prep for an elk hunt where you're packing out an animal on foot
19:00 The play-by-play of a controlled elk hunt in a state where it's a non-typical quarry... it starts with a meeting
23:00 Oklahoma has bison, too!
24:00 Finding elk right away... the BEST start to a hunt
27:00 Taking a pass on the first shot opportunity (and the emotional aftermath)
29:00 You can hunt in totally different states and still completely understand another person's elk-hunting scenario
31:00 The physical nature of an elk hunt... hoofing it valley to valley #theycantravel
33:00 Elk upon elk! It's kind of a dream hunt... when you're aiming for one elk, and another one shows up even closer
36:00 If you're going to shoot again, make sure you know which one you've hit
39:00 Emotional waves... "It just really affected me in a way I was not expecting."
42:00 Knives to packout... about three hours; plus, it helps to have friends
47:00 Elk hide... decisions! (And heavy.)
49:00 Watching a friend's hunt from an opposing ridge, seeing elk all around them and wondering, "DO THEY EVEN KNOW!?"
53:00 Let's celebrate with an ibuprofen, ok?
56:00 E-scouting: validation for your topography skills
57:00 First fish on the fly! (Pssst... want some fly-fishing tips? Check out last week's episode, where we give you Fly Fishing Tactics for free!)
Have you experienced the Artemis Tactics courses yet? We're letting you in on last year's Fly-Fishing Tactics webinar for FREE. If you like what you hear, join us for Bass Tactics. The final webinar is on June 14, and you can register online for as little as $5. Artemis brings you experts from the field... and if you join a Tactics course, you have access to a special Slack channel with other participants, Q&A time with the experts, and more (schwag boxes, everyone!). Keep an eye out for Whitetail Tactics this fall.
The spring of 2022 marked the second annual Artemis turkey camp in South Carolina... and in this episode, we GO there! Join us in the field to hear from new hunters and seasoned experts alike as they stalk birds in South Carolina's Piedmont. Plus: female friendship, epic campfire charcuterie, lukewarm coffee, soggy burritos, and other vignettes from turkey camp.
Angie Scott is a committed bass fisherwoman, and she's a fellow podcaster! "The Woman Angler and Adventurer" shares stories of women in the fishing world. Angie tells us how she got into bass fishing, the excitement of the quarry, and the lifestyle that comes when you're willing to schlep a truck camper and a boat to different lakes and geographies of the Southern U.S. It's a passion and a lifestyle, and we're stoked that Angie shared her story with us.
1:30 Babies on boats
4:00 Angie Scott's podcast, "The Woman Angler and Adventurer". Check out this episode with Marcia and Artemis co-founder Kara Armano
5:00 Moving to Nashville for the music business, getting a foot in the door, and then finding one's way to the fishing world
7:00 Getting hooked on bass; Joining the local Bassmasters club
8:00 Fishing as a team in a bass tournament -- it opens doors to learning from others
8:30 Lady Bass Anglers Association
12:00 School-centric fishing teams
13:00 "I thought... 'Hmm, maybe I could start a podcast about fishing." #podcastgenesisstories
16:00 TheWomanAngler.com - 200+ episodes with the all kinds of women in the fishing industry (pssst... start with the most recent episode with Captain Betty Stahl
20:00 Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF... it's the best acronym ever)
21:00 Live programming (ah!) + a series for complete beginners
23:00 The longer you spend on the water, the better you figure out what works best for you
24:00 Catching a bass on a fly line?! Plus, conventional anglers fishing alongside fly anglers
27:00 Bass fishing with a senko set-up
31:00 Tips for targeting bass
33:00 Co-angling vs. pro-angling (and the big picture view of bass tournaments)
38:00 Practice fishing for tournaments
40:00 Dynamics of hunting/fishing solo versus going in a group
41:00 Deterring anglers from your elbow space on riverside fishing (will a crying baby help?)
44:00 Nickajack Lake's moment in cultural history
48:00 A fisherwoman's seasonal life in Florida + peacock bass
55:00 Bass Tactics isn't over yet! The final session is on June 14. Register here!
Phoebe Stoner has done advocacy a number of different ways: She's worked at non-profits, embedded in the field, and she's also sometimes separated her conservation-life from her professional life. Advocacy doesn't have to be a full-time job for you to make a difference. Stoner is currently on the board of the Northwest Steelheaders, a panel her board colleagues joke errs on the side of male, pale and stale. So... how do you fix that?
2:00 Artemis Podcast – April 22,2021: Saying 'Yes' to Serving on a Board with Phoebe Stoner
7:00 From volunteering to advocacy as a professional life, and back to a side hustle again
11:00 Prioritizing your battles: You can't win them all, so choose where to devote your energies wisely
12:00 Sometimes the most invigorating thing for your conservation/advocacy life is to detach it from your career
13:00 "If you can't advocate for yourself, how can you advocate for anyone or anything else?"
15:00 Conservation is not a sprint, and it's important not to take on the burden of success or failure
16:00 Count your small victories and celebrate them
18:00 Keeping your focus on the long game versus existing in reaction mode
20:00 Sometimes imposter thoughts just don't go away
21:00 Storytelling as a communication strategy
23:00 Northwest Steelheaders, NWF affiliate in Oregon
26:00 Data versus story-driven advocacy; Each has a place
32:00 "The culture in hunting revolves around storytelling... it's the #1 thing people do."
34:00 Storytelling = let's get vulnerable
37:00 Storytelling School with the Moth: How to tell a good story
43:00 Knowing when your group skews male/pale/stale... how do we get more people involved?
48:00 Recruiting would-be leaders into the pipeline is hard work; It takes foresight and planning to help someone step into a bigger role
When Pennsylvania game commissioner Kristen Schnepp-Giger is confronted with a decision, she takes stock of her gut feeling and then goes to the other side and lets them try to convince her. It's her way of making sure she's hearing all sides to a particular issue, and what the consequences of her decisions mean to others. In the seventh installment of the Artemis Leadership Series, we talk about having hard discussions, building relationships, keeping your composure, and knowing your own limits. For instance, whenever you tell yourself something like, "I don't have time for that" -- are you really trying to say, "I don't want to do that"?
2:00 Turkey talk - how's your turkey season going? Gobble and cluck with us in the Artemis Facebook group
6:00 A suburban upbringing takes a rural turn with a loving nudge from a high-school biology teacher
10:00 Cold call + "I'm interested in taxidermy"... words that open doors
14:00 Pennsylvania to Yellowstone
16:00 If you're 'meh' on applying to a Fish and Game commission and others are urging you to apply, why not call the existing commissioners to see how they like the job
18:00 "What's the culture of your board like?"
20:00 Life changes = professional changes; Adjusting to a single-parent household makes you see your time differently
23:00 Being strategic with where you devote your time
24:00 Listen to your internal compass: If you keep telling yourself, "I don't have the time," you may actually be feeling: "I don't want to do that"
26:00 Let's not glorify toxic productivity
30:00 "Extreme Ownership: How Navy Seals Lead and Win" by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
35:00 Detaching emotional response from sound decision-making/problem-solving
40:00 New ideas: See them through a lens of possibility versus negativity
42:00 Bringing up others around you through mentorship
45:00 Learning how to have hard conversations is crucial to effective board leadership
46:00 Keeping your composure is key to building relationships
50:00 We don't have to agree with each other, but we need to listen to each other
55:00 Be open-minded; Let the other side try to convince you
When Kathy Hadley was living in New York, one of her nephews got unexpectedly sick. Several kids in the neighborhood were experiencing the same thing, and it turned out that the town's school was built on a toxic waste site. Being involved in the Love Canal environmental disaster kickstarted Hadley's career in conservation. When she moved to Montana and noticed that plants wouldn't grow on certain parts along the Clark Fork River (places now called "slickens"), she recognized a similar situation. Hadley has been a long-standing leader and board member for the Montana Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation. In the sixth installment of the Artemis Women in Conservation Leadership Series, we talk about meaningful service and how you can doggedly pursue change that matters.
4:00 Growing up on an island in the middle of the Niagara River
10:00 Changing from an outdoorswoman to a conservationist
12:00 Sharing mom duties with your sister
13:00 An interest in activism... it started with sick kids at the Love Canal contamination site in New York
16:00 Sick children, homes with no value, and a meeting with President Carter
20:00 Finding another contamination site after a cross-country move to Montana
21:00 "Slickens" on the Clark Fork, spots where nothing grows
22:00 A flood plain catches many contaminants; eventually the Clark Fork River was designated as a Superfund site
23:00 The Clark Fork Coalition
24:00 "Sometimes change takes decades when you're talking about landscapes and bureaucracies."
30:00 Board service and the institutional knowledge in a strong board
35:00 Montana Wildlife Federation - longest standing conservation org in Montana
36:00 In the 80s there was a rise in conservation orgs (especially species-specific ones)
37:00 Did you catch Artemis' episode on RAWA with Sara Parker Pauley?
38:00 Rise in coalition-building between conservation groups
41:00 Has the era of connectivity threatened more meaningful communication with one another?
43:00 On successful teams, everyone contributes -- even if it's making coffee for the group, we all do all the jobs/chores
46:00 Starting meetings with a set of expectations for group conduct
52:00 Small organizational changes, like replacing vice chairs with co-chairs
56:00 So... how about you run for secretary?
58:00 Detaching emotions from work that matters; You don't need to have deep personal relationships with colleagues to do meaningful work with them
1:01 The rise of self-directed learning in sporting pursuits
We're taking a one-week break from the Artemis Leadership Series to talk with Sara Parker Pauley, the director of Missouri's Department of Conservation. Like many state agency leaders, Sara is gearing up in the hopes that Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) is passed into law. RAWA funding is earmarked specifically for species of special concern, aimed at preventing the kind of decline that might land a species on the Endangered Species List. Stay tuned for details on Artemis's "Conservation & Cocktails" event, where you can add your voice to the mix in helping RAWA coming to fruition.
2:00 Artemis Wisconsin IN DA HOUUUUSE!
4:00 Spring bounty: Turkeys and morels
5:00 Sara is the director of the Missouri Department of Conservation, formerly the director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and past President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
8:00 We all want to work for the kind of leaders who appreciate their teams
10:00 How do agencies draft their wildlife conservation plans/priorities?
12:00 States have identified over 12,000 species in conservation need
13:00 Endangered Species Act, what happens when a species gets "listed"
15:00 The point of the Recovering America's Wildlife Act is to keep species off the Endangered Species List -- to conserve and recover them before they're severely imperiled
17:00 How does revenue from sporting get allocated to conservation?
18:00 Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program
20:00 In some states, sales taxes can also contribute to conservation funding
21:00 Federal duck stamp program = an example of the power of dedicated habitat funding for waterfowl recovery
28:00 RAWA's model: Federal money with a state match; Projects to focus on habitat preservation/restoration; Cost-share projects on private lands; Expanding recreation opportunities -- any projects that tie back to the state's wildlife action plan and protecting species of concern
34:00 RAWA aims to fully fund state wildlife projects that aim to recover imperiled species
36:00 In a state like Missouri that's more than 90% private, you need more workers reaching out to landowners to execute desired habitat projects
38:00 "Are you RAWA-ready?" vs. "We'll believe it when we see it."
40:00 States that are RAWA-ready stand to use their funds more quickly
44:00 Hunters/anglers have traditionally paid for conservation, but more resources are needed
49:00 Leadership tactics when you're at the top
52:00 Don't miss our episode with Dr. Wini Kessler, the first woman to receive professional membership with the Boone and Crockett Club
54:00 "Antifragile: Things that gain from disorder" by Nassim Taleb
57:00 Take Action on RAWA
58:00 Forthcoming: "Artemis' Conservation & Cocktails" events to write/rally to support RAWA as it nears fruition. Or email us at artemis@nwf.org for more.
In the fifth installment of the Artemis Women in Conservation Leadership series, we're joined by Flora Csontos, who used to work for the governor's office in Wisconsin. Her job was to recommend people to serve on the state's boards and commissions. She tells us about what that process is like, and how you can put your name into the proverbial slush pile for leadership roles in public service. Plus: Ego-driven ambition versus the desire to do good in the world; turkey hunting; and being a leadership enabler.
3:00 Cunning California turkeys
5:00 Embarking on a Turkey Grand Slam(!)
10:00 Wisconsin has phenomenal programming for adult-onset hunters
11:00 How often do you have reason to sit under a tree and do nothing? #reasonstohunt
14:00 In any given state there are dozens (if not hundreds) of boards/commissions a governor's office can appoint to
17:00 Commission, council, working group, task force = these are bodies of citizens lending their expertise on a particular issue
19:00 Try attending a meeting: Most commission meetings are open to the public, or they're available streaming. Start by showing up.
24:00 Artemis: Game Commissions 101 with Michelle Zimmerman
27:00 Marcia's experience as a governor-appointee on a board
30:00 Getting "the call" (almost like a surprise birthday party)
32:00 Getting into the governor's slush pile of board candidates (a pool that may be drained whenever a new governor is elected)
36:00 Armchair Expert with Adam Grant - imposter syndrome vs. imposter thoughts
40:00 Ego-driven ambition vs. the desire to do good in the world
46:00 "If you have good things to give, you should just show up."
49:00 Enabling leadership for those around you
52:00 These service opportunities are HARD... but it's the good, growth kind of hard (versus the toxic hard)
59:00 Progress, not perfection
1:01 Artemis' 2022 ambassadors have been chosen - we have 36 women from 28 states; with our 2021 ambassadors, that's 70+ women out there expanding access for women in sporting/conservation. Stay tuned. We can’t wait to introduce them to you!
When Dr. Winifred Kessler started her career in wildlife biology, field positions weren't open to women. That changed when she was doing her PhD, and she went on to have a career that straddled academic and agency life. Wini was often "the first woman" on many different kinds of jobs. She talks about what that was like, and also shares stories of the women who came before us. There was Sheila Minor Huff, who was labeled "not identified" in a photo of other scientists taken during a whale conference. Wini also tells us about Annie Montague Alexander, a sugar heiress, explorer and naturalist whose collected specimens founded the University of California Museum of Paleontology and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
5:00 An era of wildlife biology when field jobs weren't open to women
9:00 The gender spread is far more equitable now, and that's (gradually) being reflected in the ranks of leadership
11:00 Serving as president of The Wildlife Society
13:00 "That's the best possible thing that I can hear, you know -- that it's made a difference."
16:00 Wini's article on Sheila Minor Huff: The Hidden Heroes in North American Conservation
18:00 When you set out to research/document the rise of women in conservation... where do you even start? Many exceptional women we omitted from early records of conservation/naturalism
20:00 Flashback: There was a time when studying the classics was in vogue, and science was the “lighter material”; Men studied classics and women (with their smaller brains, you know) were OK'd to study naturalism
21:00 Women often didn't get credit for the work they did
25:00 Speaking of exceptional women in conservation history: Annie Alexander was an intrepid explorer. The sugar heiress walked 700-some miles across modern-day Kenya collecting specimens and bringing meat to her entire party most days
28:00 Female friendship makes the world go ‘round, even in Victorian times
32:00 "Let's get the stories out there."
33:00 On being the first woman in a particular role
35:00 Women often play a role in changing the culture of teams within organizations; Different styles of leadership/engagement with colleagues
39:00 "Imposter syndrome is a real thing" - women are some of the best front-line soldiers when it comes to confronting imposter syndrome in other women
42:00 If you've done good work, moved the proverbial needle, and feel good with yourself -- the satisfaction is there. What's the value of being recognized for your work?
47:00 How we present ourselves to others
49:00 "Your knowledge takes you the farthest when you can back up your ideas."
54:00 The genesis story of the Women of Wildlife group - anyone is welcome if they're willing to advance women in the profession
1:00 Volunteer leadership in conservation... "I find it very hard to say no."
1:02 Volunteer work often informs what you know for broader, professional work opportunities
1:04 With any potential volunteer opportunity, ask yourself, "Is this going to help me grow?"
1:07 What do we work on next?
1:12 "Women in Wildlife Science" anthology edited by Carol Chambers and Kerry Nicholson – Coming Fall 2022 - Pre-Order your copy here!
1:12 "Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists" by Marcia Bonta
1:13 Speaking of books... don't miss the Artemis book club, everyone! Currently reading: "Hunting and Fishing in the New South" by Scott Giltner. Register here!
1:15 Bass Tactics! Registration is open.
Dr. Jennifer James did her dissertation research on women in the conservation field. This episode, we talk about some of the barriers to upward mobility in conservation leadership roles -- things like subtle gender bias or imposter syndrome. At the same time, Jennifer also saw positive influences that were elevating women in their field -- chiefly mentorship and collaborative relationships. Artemis is embarking on a series about women in conservation leadership. We hope you'll join us!
1:30 Alex Stokman has been with us before to talk about reactivation
4:30 Wildflower hunting
5:30 Sautéed morels, morel sauce, morel poppers, etc
6:00 Tony Chachere's creole seasoning
8:00 Personality tests and workplace culture
10:00 Mentorship of women in conservation
13:00 But first... finding women in conservation to speak with
18:00 Gender bias; imposter syndrome
21:00 Women empowering other women through mentorship
24:00 Lack of recognition is a barrier for women on an upward mobility track
27:00 Mentorship/professional development opportunities in cultivating independent leadership
30:00 What "leadership" looks like is evolving; The most powerful person within an organization may not be the one at the top
33:00 Combatting gender bias - continual training/workshops help
38:00 Ageism... AND, does the bias ever just age out? Do the promising leaders age up?
43:00 "Mentorship of Conservation Leadership in Women: A Phenomenological Study" by Dr. Jennifer James. Read it here!
45:00 Diversity of one isn't enough to reap the benefits of a diverse workplace
46:00 Venery workshop on e-scouting and registration vs. participation
50:00 Artemis and Venery are co-hosting a turkey tactics workshop... check it out! Register Here!
52:00 Bear barbacoa
56:00 Artemis's Bass Tactics course is open! Find registration here
56:30 The Artemis book club is currently reading "Hunting and Fishing in the New South: Black Labor and White Leisure After Civil War" by Scott E. Giltner. Register here!
57:20 Want to know more about the Artemis Leadership Program? Send a note to artemis@nwf.org to be in the loop
Inclusive conservation leadership is vital to the future of our hunting and fishing heritage. In February, Artemis hosted a leadership training series aimed at furnishing more women with the skills needed to step into leadership roles. You (yes, you!) have what it takes to play a meaningful part in conservation, and we hope you'll consider stepping up to the plate.
Inclusive conservation leadership is vital to the future of our hunting and fishing heritage. In February, Artemis hosted a leadership training series aimed at furnishing more women with the skills needed to step into leadership roles. Whether you're interested in serving on a state Fish and Game commission or a non-profit board, we aim to bring you the tools you need to be successful.
This week... hide tanning! Charlotte Sykes is a hunter from England who started keeping all her game hides the same year her husband decided he'd eat only game meat. Charlotte's journey has fledged into a business, Buckskyn, where she sells goods made from the hides she tans herself. Join us this week for a chat on how to get into hide tanning, an overview of the at-home process - plus springer spaniels, salt-marsh lamb, and more.
3:00 "Salt-marsh bred lamb"... the most delicious?
5:00 Kale, cabbages & brassicas all winter long
8:00 English springer spaniels on either side of the Atlantic
11:00 The year we only ate game
14:00 Learning curve of tanning hides
17:00 The play-by-play of hide tanning, starting with post-harvest
19:00 "You've got to be quite happy to put a bit of grunt behind it."
22:00 Meat prep room in your next house, anyone?
24:00 Can you sub anything for the tedious task of working a hide over a fleshing beam? Enter... YOUTUBE. (Spoiler: It's a pressure washer.)
27:00 Pickling stage
30:00 A non-traditional use for a sander!
31:00 One hide = three weeks start to finish
33:00 Traditional tanning vs commercial tanning products
35:00 Buckskyn - Charlotte's deerskin/hide accessory business, where each product comes with a hunting/harvest story
37:00 The ABCs of sewing with hides
40:00 Fleshing rabbits
44:00 Navigating the bullet hole
50:00 First trout!
52:00 Find Buckskyn on Insta; or online at Buckskyn.com
53:00 Artemis blog post, "What About the Hide?"
54:00 Matt Richards book on hide tanning: The Ultimate Guide to Skinning and Tanning
58:00 Artemis 'Go Confident' as an Advocate -- another program off the ground, which is off to a hot start
1:00:00 Past life: living in an Airstream by the river
This week we join Mary Lynn and five other women in the field on a rabbit hunt in east Tennessee. Follow along with us as we traverse quicksand, manage a hypoglycemic hound, and battle a bull for a downed rabbit. This episode is short and sweet and puts you right there in the middle of the action with us!
00:50 When your front-seat beagle leaves the truck before the rest of the pack
2:14 The dogs pickup rabbit scent
4:06 Wresting your rabbit from hounds
4:50 The challenge of dealing with game that’s not quite dead
5:51 Raising meat rabbits in the Peace Corps
7:12 Doc gets ‘sugar fits’ and needs treats to stay in fighting shape
9:00 A water retrieve by a dog that’s not meant to bring things back
10:30 Female rabbits move differently than males
11:30 Trying to find a rabbit in a haystack (and all the other things that get collected on a farm)
13:13 Robin’s rabbit – right into the bull pen
14:47 Mary’s favorite way to cook a rabbit – buffalo rabbit wings
15:34 When your hunting dog ends up on a boat in the middle of the lake
16:31 Canine first aid (bring Blu-Kote)
17:38 Hunting pants signal to the dogs that fun is about to happen
19:04 Back at the truck reflecting on the hunt
19:53 Getting started hunting with small game
20:36 Light ‘em up kennels
22:08 – STUCK in the mud
Linda White had zero experience with trapping when she started dating a trapper. She approached his passion with an open mind, and the more she learned, the more trapping became Linda's passion, too. Linda is a trapper in New York, and she and her husband also manufacture a line of scent and lure products through their company, Sawmill Creek Baits and Lures. On this episode, we discuss Linda's journey to becoming a trapper, and the hits and misses along the way.
1:00 Trapper Girl Inc.
2:00 Food freezer vs. furbearer freezer(s)
4:30 Reel Camo Girl & Kids for Catches
7:00 Bear-trapping is on the books in Maine
10:00 Conquering(/understanding) your own first impression of trapping/trappers... "Everybody has a right to explain themselves. So let's talk about it."
14:00 What IS a good death?
19:00 Seeing local changes in duck and rabbit populations after beginning to trap in a new area
20:00 Checking a coyote trap that's come unanchored
24:00 Being involved enough in a hunt/harvest that you seek to change it, to improve the process or our behaviors toward it
25:00 Did you catch our episode with Vanna Boccadori?
27:00 Foothold trapping 101 & lures and the senses engaged
35:00 Knowing a species well enough to get it to place a paw on a trap requires a major time investment
37:00 Transitioning from suburban, townhome lady to someone who can distinguish dog tracks from coyote tracks
41:00 Getting into the bait and lure business, and learning at trade shows and demos
43:00 Learning from failed trap sets
44:00 Reading the snow for what's happening among nearby wildlife
49:00 Canada Goose (the apparel maker) stops sourcing new fur for it's high-end jackets
50:00 Domestic vs. international fur markets
57:00 What attracts an animal to a trap is often a process of trial and error (p.s. try the snow angel!)
59:00 Find Linda on Facebook or Instagram
Holly Heyser works in waterfowl conservation by day -- but she might be best known in the sporting world for her words (To the Bone) and her amazing photos (Hunt Gather Cook). This week we talk about applying the Golden Rule to hunting -- how can we kill the way we'd like to be killed? We talk about hunting with dogs, the merits of the ambush versus the chase, and judging our hunts by the humaneness of a kill.
2:30 Nilgai in the freezer... you need SPACE
7:00 Matching your workout regimen to match your desired quarry
8:00 Hunting over golden retrievers
11:00 California Waterfowl
12:00 Hunter Angler Gardener Cook blog by Hank Shaw, where Holly is the chief photographer
13:00 To the Bone: a new blog launched by Holly and Hank
14:00 And the cookbooks! Everyone... Holly is one half of a wild-game empire
15:00 Hunt Gather Cook Facebook group
16:00 Holly's NorCal Cazadora blog (and word-sparring with Philip Loughlin of the Hog Blog)
19:00 "Killing How I'd Like to Be Killed" from To the Bone
20:00 A bear hunt with houndsmen; Putting yourself in the mindset of your prey... do you prefer the ambush? Or the chase, with a possible chance of escape?
24:00 CWD Chronicles... find it in your Podcasts app
28:00 "Killing isn't fair."
29:00 "Hunting Philosophy for Everyone" by Nathan Kowalsky
31:00 A not-so-perfect dispatch of a hen teal; And still choosing those imperfect kills over conventionally raised livestock
34:00 Hunting birds over dogs vs. hunting large mammals over dogs
37:00 "I don't judge myself, ethically speaking, by how challenging a shot is. I like to judge myself by the humaneness of my kill."
44:00 Measuring cortisol (stress) levels in deer under different kinds of duress
49:00 Two mergansers entwined in death
54:00 Do we feel differently about killing hogs than deer? What about fish? (Is it the eyelashes? An animal's ecological role?)
55:00 "Woman the Hunter" by Mary Zeiss Stange
1:00 Feelings/emotions do have a role in harvest
Holly will be traveling with Hank to Pheasant Fest, the big annual gathering of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, in Omaha March 11-13. If any listeners wanted to connect with her there, pick a bone, whatever, she'd love to say hi.
Last year marked the start of Artemis's "tactics" courses, where we hosted a virtual bootcamp for hunters interested in new disciplines. Our first event, Turkey Tactics, was a hit. We brought in four turkey hunters with more than 100 years of turkey hunting experience between them for our first webinar, Patt Dorsey, Mary Lynn, Kathy Stephens and Emily Ledergerber. We're sharing that audio with you today. Many of the women who participated in Turkey Tactics went on to bag their first turkeys, and we were tickled to share in their success. On the horizon in 2022: spin-fishing and deer hunting tactics courses. If Turkey Tactics or any of the Artemis programming has meant something to you, please consider giving to Artemis. Your support makes programs like this possible.
Wildlife biologist Amber Kornak had just started working on a bear study in Montana when she was abruptly attacked by one of her subjects - a large, male grizzly bear. Kornak stopped the attack when she deployed her bear spray, but she had to walk several miles out of the woods before making it to a hospital. The bear had chomped on her skull, and Kornak permanently lost hearing in one ear from the encounter. On this episode of Artemis, we talk about preparation when traveling in the backcountry. No amount of preparation can prevent what happened to Kornak, but being prepared did help ensure she escaped the encounter alive.
3:00 #bearpawproblems - freezer, kitchen table, reading nook, dog turds
7:00 A life/career focused on big-game species
11:00 Coat color variations in black/grizzly bears
15:00 A grizzly attack
21:00 "Excuse me... I just got attacked by a bear. Could you take me to the hospital?"
26:00 Later meeting the bear that chomped on your skull
28:00 Two cans of bear spray if you're by yourself in bear country & bear spray versus firearms
31:00 "The majority of time black bears run away... but not always."
33:00 Protecting your soft bits
34:00 Bear 399 near Yellowstone
42:00 Staying aware in bear country when you've lost hearing in one ear
43:00 Critter gitter
46:00 Grizzly vs. hunter conflicts over game carcasses
47:00 Pssst... grizzlies DO climb trees
49:00 ESA-delisting of recovered species
53:00 The role of hunting pressure in managing human-bear conflicts
59:00 Being afraid vs. being prepared
1:03 Artemis's "Go Confident as an Advocate" course
1:06 Let's hear it for gravity-assisted activities!
This week we hop on the horn with our Artemis ambassadors in Louisiana, Emily Heiman and Hannah Gray to talk about what it's like to be sportswomen in the state dubbed a 'sportsman's paradise.' We hear about kayak fishing (and kayak-specific bass tournaments), deer hunting, duck hunting, roadkill salvage, and the numerous names Louisianans have for their fish.
3:00 Louisiana gets its first case of CWD (pssst... in case you missed it, we have a special series airing right now called the CWD Chronicles)
5:00 Management changes on the horizon when CWD enters the landscape
7:00 Louisiana duck-hunting feuds, ya'll
9:00 If you build a blind on public land, is it yours exclusively?
10:00 Hunter harassment laws
15:00 Private lands access, permission for bucks vs. does
18:00 Offer to be helpful to private landowners in return for hunting permission, or share some meat, especially with the elderly
20:00 "I love roadkill"
22:00 Cooking ducks whole? Nuh-nuh
24:00 Changes to bag limits... hunters across the migration corridor are affected by any new regulatory change
28:00 Kayak-fishing... AND, kayak-specific bass-fishing tournaments
30:00 Duck-hunting from a kayak
36:00 Bass-fishing kayak tournaments -- judging is by length vs. weight, handling fish, and taking a picture against a ruler for the judges
38:00 Bream fishing (aka bluegill and friends)
39:00 Trash-laden fishing spots + impromptu clean-up
44:00 Trash stewardship among hunters/anglers
46:00 Getting into hunting as an adult (YouTube, books, friends, trial & error... a diverse information diet helps tremendously)
48:00 Being invisible to a doe = magical feeling
51:00 Taking time to fish solo on a family vacation
53:00 Rod-snapping perch (and STILL getting the fish)
54:00 Artemis events in Louisiana... what are you interested in? Find us in the Artemis Louisiana Facebook group , or drop us a note at artemis@nwf.org
Mina Campbell joins us from the Labrador region of Newfoundland. She lives in a small town where seal hunting season is a community endeavor. Mina tells us about what it's like to hunt and harvest seals, the cultural dimensions of the hunt, and how lake ice makes or breaks the season. Plus, she tells us how to make an ulu and how a traditional harpoon works. 1:00 An enviable #freezerselfie - ptarmigan, grouse, salmon, moose, trout, beaver 2:00 Life in a small community in the Newfoundland 3:00 Baked beaver tail 5:00 Growing up in a family & culture of hunting/foraging/trapping for subsistence 6:30 "My ancestors from time immemorial came from here -- and I think now, at my age, I will always be here." 8:00 A tradition of sharing harvests 9:00 Seal hunting - ecology, ice conditions, where to look, seasonality 11:00 Harpoon vs. rifle / How a harpoon works 14:00 Cleaning seal skins with an ulu & making boots from them 16:00 Ice conditions make or break spring seal season; Freeze-up in the fall can tell you a lot about spring ice conditions 19:00 Processing seal skins [19:00 I love it when Mina says, 'You know... an ulu? You must've seen them... even down there." This made me lol. I have 2 cherished ones that sit in a kitchen drawer. I need to start using them more] 23:00 Making an ulu (plural: uluit) 33:00 A year of seasonal harvest in Labrador 37:00 Abrupt decline in the George River caribou herd 38:00 "It's not only about the [seal] hunt... it's a communal gathering out on this big lake" 40:00 Skills, etiquette, and other values that pass person-to-person during a hunt 42:00 When hunts involve people of all ages 43:00 Waterfowl hunting in the far north
Some state game departments, like Dr. Lindsey Long's, employ veterinarians to help monitor and assess the health of wildlife populations. Dr. Long tells us about her day job as a state wildlife vet, but also about the rest of her life -- becoming a hunter, becoming a bird dog owner, and what it's like to sedate a giraffe. Plus, canning meat, de-feathering ducks, and what happens when your dog gets caught in a head snare.
3:00 Pressure-canning your own meat... "I grew up in a canning family"
9:00 State wildlife agencies have veterinarians on staff... but why?
11:00 Michigan Ice Fest on the Upper Peninsula + ice climbing 101
13:00 Artemis episodes with the U.S. Women's Spearfishing Team: Kelsea Albert; Melody Engle
16:00 Vegetarian to vegan to hunter
17:00 The moment it all clicks for a bird dog... #magic
19:00 Llewellin setters
23:00 Wildlife health: "How do we maintain healthy populations now and into the future?"
29:00 Healthy habitat isn't always enough to sustain healthy wildlife... there's more to the story
36:00 Anesthetizing a giraffe
41:00 The intimacy of handling a wild animal while it's alive but sedated for science purposes
48:00 What are your local wildlife grappling with? Mange, hoof disease, CWD... a lot of useful tips on wildlife health come from hunters
51:00 Duck fat over butter, baby
53:00 Best ways to de-feather ducks quickly... got a tip? Share it with us in the Artemis Facebook group
56:00 Artemis episode on ruffed grouse
58:00 When your dog gets caught in a neck snare... pack those wire cutters
59:00 Artemis Ambassador applications for 2022 are open for a couple more days, closing on Feb.7
Montana biologist Vanna Boccadori had seen pronghorn migration data from GPS-collared animals, but it was only when she put her own footsteps onto their trail did she understand the migration better. Vanna talks about the pronghorn migration and the suite of obstacles and solutions biologists are working on to keep habitat viable in Montana's Big Hole Valley. Plus -- trout-smoking, whale-butchering, and saving all those beaver and muskrat glands. Pssst... Artemis Ambassador applications for 2022 are still open! 2:00 Freezer picks: Backstrap, meats, fats... beaver/muskrat glands, which function as a sort of currency among trappers
4:00 Liver conundrums... how do you make it tasty? Try braunschweiger.
6:00 Harvesting kidney fat to render into tallow for soapmaking
8:00 Caught between the old ways and the new
9:00 Helping butcher a whale in Barrow, Alaska
11:00 Always be growing your hunting skills... what can I learn next? Smoking fish; mastering a recurve, building a cabin, "hand skills," etc
14:00 Montana pronghorn
17:00 What the data from collared animals teaches us about pronghorn in southwest Montana; migration & fawning grounds, summer range, barriers to movement, etc
19:00 Fencing improvement projects for pronghorn
23:00 When a biologist follows in the footsteps of one of her collared pronghorn... "it was incredibly informative"
26:00 Pronghorn prefer to go under fences versus hopping them
29:00 Migration bottlenecks & identifying areas in need of conservation efforts
31:00 Migration knowledge passed from does to fawns
36:00 GPS data... how long are antelope stalled at a fence line?
38:00 A helping hand from private landowners
41:00 Breaking down the migration (some days they're booking it)
50:00 Let's hear it for biologists!
52:00 Barred owl sighting
54:00 Trout smoking 101
55:00 Artemis gets a grant to build leadership skills in sporting women who want to serve on boards/game commissions!
Stacy Haughey is from a small town on Michigan's Upper Peninsula -- it's the kind of place where family is everywhere and traditions run deep. Hunting was something Stacy inherited from her maternal side. "Grandma's Hunting Training Academy" is what they jokingly called it when time at Grandma's was synonymous with time in a tree stand.
2:00 Wild game Christmas basket exchange, ya'll
3:30 Small-town life on Michigan's Upper Peninsula ("the U-P" to Michiganders)
6:00 Learning to hunt through your family's maternal side, where grandma's in charge... aka "Grandma's Hunting Training Academy"
8:00 How a Depression-era mentality influences ethos about food security
13:00 The UP Habitat Work Group
14:00 When species conservation depends on private lands habitat
18:00 Building connections... it's a time investment that pays dividends
21:00 Want to connect with Michigan’s DNR? It's 906-226-1330
24:00 Balancing a passion for the outdoors with raising kids... there is no mold of what it should look like
30:00 Michigan's Becoming an Outdoor Woman (or BOW) program
33:00 Artemis Ambassador applications are open through Feb. 7... if you care about seeing more women in the field and on the water, your time and expertise is needed. Please apply! Want more Artemis? Find our Facebook group for more great discussion.
35:00 Hunting with older cousins as an 8-year-old and being sworn to secrecy after one of them runs the rig into a fencepost
37:00 Learning to track
38:00 Volunteering at a deer check station (best place to see what's new in hunting... like the blaze-orange body suit)
41:00 Barefoot turkey hunting with Mary Lynn
43:00 Is there ever an ideal time to have a new dog? Mid-life rescue dogs and their "interesting" behaviors
An experienced hunter as a huge wealth of knowledge to offer newbies, so how can new hunters be poised to recieve this wisdom? In this episode we talk with Kathy Stevens and Erin Glen. Kathy has been hunting turkey and deer for more than 40 years. Erin's a brand-new hunter. The two of them met at an Artemis event, and a mentorship ensued. There are things new hunters can do to better their odds of landing under the wing of a more skilled hunter. Getting out there helps, but it also comes down to things like practicing using your firearm and being a good partner in the field. Also, Artemis is looking for its newest cohort of ambassadors! Apply here. This episode is brought to you by HuntTheGreatestSD.com.
2:00 Forty years of hunting experience... #huntergoals
5:00 Becoming a mentor
6:30 "Every spring since 1979 I've taken two weeks of vacation to go wild turkey hunting."
7:30 What inspires us to become hunters?
9:00 Artemis turkey camp - camp set-up, private versus public lands in South Carolina, and frigid temps in what's supposed to feel like spring
12:00 You can learn loads just by being in the field, even without seeing your quarry
16:00 Mentoring a new hunter when you haven't seen a deer on your last six hunts... THEN, back-to-back mentor/mentee shots
20:00 Friendship beyond the field - moving a mentorship from the woods to the tennis court
26:00 Mentors/mentees benefit from each other; it's a generous, giving spirit that makes the relationship work
27:00 It helps a mentor if a mentee comes as competent as possible - practice using your gun, log days at the shooting range, etc
28:00 You've got your hunter's ed certificate, you've watched some MeatEater... what's next?
30:00 As a new hunter, planning what you'll try next... "two new species a year"
36:00 Do you keep a journal of your hunts?
44:00 Hunting your favorite quarry (turkeys) in a new place
46:00 Learning to eat organ meats (pssst... deer liver? not like beef liver)
47:00 "Buck, Buck, Moose" cookbook by Hank Shaw (also check out the dirty rice recipe in "Duck, Duck, Goose" for liver ideas)
49:00 Olivia's turkey schnitzel recipe
DEER CAMP! Artemis hosted a fall deer camp at a tough-to-hunt WMA in Tennessee. Even though nobody left with a deer, everyone left with new friends, new experiences, and a new take on what it means to be at deer camp with all women. (Some also left with a UFO sighting that made the news.) Bringing women together in the field is one of Artemis's core missions, and on this episode, we get a firsthand look at the magic that can happen when you mix seasoned veterans with beginners on a no-frills public land deer hunt.
2:00 Artemis Tennessee Deer Camp - participants were seasoned hunters and first-timers alike
4:00 When Artemis ladies meet each other at other Artemis events and cross state boundaries to hunt together again
7:00 Hunting buddies... margarita/karaoke buddies... same-same!
8:00 Hunting solo for the first time & thoughts like, "Do I actually know what I'm doing?"
12:00 Hunting a new place with new people
14:00 Infant on a deer hunt & TWELVE HOURS with an infant in a ground blind
16:00 E-scouting; tree stands; ground blinds; jump shots
18:00 "Movement is the best way to ruin your deer hunt"
19:00 When choosing a site for a blind, ask yourself, "Would my horse spook at this?"
20:00 Deer acclimate to seeing blinds
21:00 Showing up to deer camp and having everyone say, "DID YOU SEE THE UFO?!" and thinking "OMG... who are these people!?"
24:00 The camaraderie and knowledge sharing that happens at hunt camp, even if everyone hunts separately
25:00 That UFO sighting? Others saw it, too.
28:00 When a hunt area has an infamous resident character... meet Fuzzy
37:00 Dryer lint = excellent fire starter & other camp tips and tricks
40:00 Bringing youth (including babies!) into the field & why that matters
45:00 Getting a deer is not the point of deer camp
49:00 Positive experiences with other hunters
52:00 Setting safety expectations early & confronting others exhibiting risky behavior
59:00 Self-dialogue: Is that a real owl hooting off the hook, or is another hunter trying to tell us something?
1:02 There's a 10-day archery season at the same WMA in Tennessee next spring... if you're interested in another Artemis deer camp, get in touch! Find Artemis in our Facebook group or on our website
Blooper reel or highlight reel? You decide. Either way, it's been another fun year and we're so grateful to have you along with us for the journey. If Artemis has meant something to you, please consider leaving the podcast a review or sharing it with a friend. If you're able to donate, all proceeds go to supporting women in the sporting community. We're glad you're here. Thank you, Arte-ladies!
Gwen Sanchez is the fire manager on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, a landscape that encompasses sagebrush habitat up to the high Sierras. Working in fire is different than it used to be. It's nearly a 12-month season across the country, and wildfires in the West are regularly breaking records for size and severity. Fire managers are also noticing that some landscapes aren't bouncing back from severe fire like they're supposed to. We talk about what makes a resilient landscape, and what role we play in keeping lands healthy (especially when 9 out of 10 fires are human-ignited).
1:30 Artemis has been on the air for TWO YEARS
3:00 Podcast ambitions? Everything helps!
6:00 Fire management on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, the largest forest in the Lower 48
14:00 Hard jobs = often very rewarding jobs
16:00 Career perk of working in fire: Being in the field often enough to get awesome sunrises and sunsets, to see places you wouldn't ordinarily see (Hawaii, Alaska, Australia)
20:00 On the Humboldt-Toiyabe, ALL types of ecosystems - from sage grouse habitat in the lowlands to 11,000-12,000 elevations in the high Sierra
23:00 "Run cards" are prepared plans that tell fire managers which resources are needed on different ecosystems for adequate initial response
24:00 Fire return intervals vary depending on the landscape; They can be relatively frequent in dry shrublands, and as long as 50-100 years in high-alpine areas that receive a lot of winter precipitation
27:00 Drought and climate change are generally compressing fire return intervals, making fire more frequent across most landscapes
29:00 "What we used to think was complex 20 years ago, that's not even close to what we're seeing as complex now."
30:00 Longer fire seasons; larger fires (in 2021 the country saw its first wildfire over a million acres); higher severity of wildfires; wildfire on new landscapes; fire altering habitat
32:00 "We're seeing things that we never thought we would see."
34:00 Fires are regularly out-performing predictive models
36:00 9 out of 10 wildfires are human-caused; How do we educate new lands users? Fire prevention can make a huge difference
42:00 Debris burns that move under the soil and pop up 50 feet away - it happens
46:00 Seeing climate change during hunting season: Less snow on the ground, less habitat resiliency, changing habitat
50:00 Resilient landscapes: How quickly can lands recover to healthy, thriving landscapes after fire? Climate change is altering resiliency
51:00 Fire treatments
53:00 Critical habitat: We can't always preserve it by leaving it alone
58:00 Forest treatments versus sagebrush treatments
1:02 Rangeland & sagebrush steppe; Sagebrush is often replaced by grass after major burn events -- it can change the makeup of those habitats; A cheatgrass burn cycle can happen as frequently as every three years
1:10 Wildfire... east vs. west; Climate change looks different depending on your geography
1:14 "We're fighting fire in different parts of the country almost 12 months out of the year right now."
1:16 Volunteer-run habitat restoration projects are a hugely beneficial use of volunteer time, add it to your 2022 resolutions to join one
1:23 Duty + service when talking about our relationship to the natural world
1:24 Hunter and Angler's Guide to Climate Change, and join us in the Artemis Facebook group to discuss more topics like this
This week we dive into disturbance ecology, looking at whole-forest health by zeroing in on the ruffed grouse. Grouse populations in some areas have experienced stark declines in recent decades. Some scientists call ruffed grouse a bellwether species -- what's good for the grouse is generally good for the forest. We talk about the difference between preservation and conservation, the mosaic make-up of healthy forests, and the potential of forests to be carbon sinks.
2:00 The Ruffed Grouse Society on Facebook - @RuffedGrouseSociety, Twitter - @rgs_aws, Instagram - @ruffedgrousesociety
3:00 Artemis Tennessee Deer Camp… stay tuned for the full story!
4:30 Ashley Peters, @grouse.lady
6:00 R3 conference in Minnesota + other programs for getting women into hunting
7:00 Merry Grouse-mas!
10:00 “Glunting”… like glamping, but for hunting… “Glamor is relative”
12:00 In windy grouse hunting conditions it helps to use sight over scent
15:00 Grouse mating display & their bass-y drumming sound (OR, what European settlers puzzled over as some strange ghostly heartbeat of the land)
19:00 Grouse as a bellwether for whole forest health
20:00 “Conservation Is Behavior”
21:00 Ruffed grouse listed as a species of greatest concern in 19 states & a decline in diverse healthy forests
24:00 Healthy forests: A variety of age classes and species, which help bolster a forest’s resilience against threats like pests, drought, fire, etc
28:00 In places with fragmented land ownership, conservation goals depend on collaboration
33:00 If all the public lands in the U.S. were lumped together, how would it compare (in size) to other countries of the world? ....[insert jeopardy music]... it'd be the TENTH (hypothetical) largest country in the world
35:00 Forest disturbances then and now; Disturbance-dependent species like grouse
40:00 Grouse stay in a relatively small proximity for most their lives compared to most birds
41:00 "Managing the landscape in a mosaic is the gold standard"
44:00 Healthy forests... "You can't just plant a bunch of trees and walk away"
48:00 Grouse are challenged by low-snow years... "We're not going to plant our way out of this problem"
50:00 Carbon programs to fund forest programs
54:00 The decline of grouse and woodcock has spurred RGS to change how it does conservation on the ground and added a sense of urgency to habitat improvement projects
57:00 Gene flow is limited for species who don't wander far from home
59:00 Woodcock - listed as a species of greatest conservation need
1:02 Recovering America's Wildlife Act
1:07 If you care about forests, do your research & learn as much as you can
1:10 Hunter and Angler's Guide to Climate Change
1:12 Join the Artemis community -- we have a Facebook group with great people and rich discussion, we have an awesome book club, and programs/events for female hunters (some online, some in person). If Artemis has meant something to you, please consider sharing it with a friend or making a donation
In the third installment of our climate series, Artemis travels to Florida with Lindsay Cross. Water quality is at the nexus of healthy ecosystems in Florida, and in years where there's high run-off or water pollution you see sea grasses dying off, which leads to manatees dying off, and a whole suite of cascading effects. Plus, Lindsay tells us about her decision to run for a seat in the Florida House.
4:00 How many people are experiencing atypical weather for the season?
9:00 Choosing a university based on a function of program quality and ski-slope proximity
12:00 Salt barren - it's a place that's dry most of the time, apart from the occasional influx of tidal water; the plant/animals that thrive in salt terns are remarkably unique
13:00 Carbon Reducing Anaerobic Processes... or CRAP
15:00 Weedon Island Preserve paddling trails
16:00 Mangrove tunnels (plus, mangrove crabs)
20:00 Getting people fired up on a natural place by staging a 5K through it, and using the proceeds to fund field trips there
24:00 Water quality & pollution issues in a water-rich ecosystem; The consequences are seagrass die-off, which leads to manatee mortality and other consequences
29:00 Fertilizer ordinances in the rainy season to stymie the run-off that fuels algal blooms; It's easier to prevent pollution than to remediate it
32:00 Nobody wants to see a manatee die - but do these die-off events of beloved animals sometimes spur us into action?
36:00 Human habitation of Florida relies on properly functioning ecology, especially with hurricane resistance
37:00 Sea grasses as carbon sinks
45:00 A voter-led effort to restore funding for the acquisition of lands for preservation
47:00 "People don't take action on things until they feel an emotional connection"
51:00 Running for state House office (!!) & the value of scientists in public office
54:00 Redefining/discussing some of the barriers to women in leadership roles... "One way I've been fortunate is that I've had some really phenomenal female bosses."
1:00 The more people who we get to experience wild places, the more we pave the way for transformational change
1:01 David Sobel: "You have to teach someone to love something before you can ask them to save it"
1:02 Florida scrub jay, an endemic species
1:05 Hunter and Angler's Guide to Climate Change
1:06 Join the Artemis community -- we have a Facebook group. If Artemis has meant something to you, please consider sharing it with a friend or making a donation.
In the second episode of Artemis' climate series, we're talking about solar energy. We need a portfolio of solutions to meet our ever-increasing energy demands. Ensuring that an increasing portion of those needs are met by clean energy is a vital part of a resilient grid and a resilient climate. We talk with Michelle Zimmerman, a community solar developer in Colorado. She tells us pretty much everything you want to know about solar energy development - how it works, how sites are chosen, the impact on neighboring wildlife, et cetera. Also: a challenging elk hunt and heated socks.
2:00 Michelle Zimmerman on a past episode about serving on your state's game commission: Game Commissions 101
4:00 Hunting by yourself for the first time
6:00 Stotting vs. pronking
8:00 Tracking a wounded elk all the way back to its herd
11:00 Sunrise should mean more warmth, right? Plus, heated vests
16:00 Sunshare - community solar "gardens"
19:00 Co-operative/community-owned solar projects
25:00 Energy consumption at a household level... do you need everything to be on, all the time?
26:00 NWF Eco-Schools program
30:00 The rise of clean energy isn't a death knell for fossil fuels
32:00 "Our reliance on energy is going up"
36:00 Energy development on private ag lands + wildlife considerations
42:00 Not every place is right for every project
49:00 Being neighbors with a solar field
53:00 Push/pull between energy developers, utilities, public services commissions, landowners - only a fraction of potential solar projects actually get developed
59:00 Build Back Better Act & the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill both expand clean energy opportunities
1:08 "You can't build solar on really expensive land because the return's not there"
1:10 Where personal impacts add up: Energy, transportation, water, food, waste and fashion
1:14 Heated socks
1:22 Hunter and Angler's Guide to Climate Change
1:24 Join the Artemis community - we have a Facebook group, a killer book club, and programs/events for female hunters. If Artemis has meant something to you, please consider sharing it with a friend or making a donation
Artemis is doing a deep-dive into climate science. In our opening episode we talk with Maddison Easley, a California biologist who straddles the divide between the conservation world and agency life. Much of Maddison's work is aimed at rangeland conservation. We talk about how birds, vegetation and soils are all indicators of ecosystem health - and what's changing with grasslands as the climate changes.
4:00 Point Blue Conservation Science
5:00 Growing up a rancher, becoming a biologist, returning to the ranch
7:00 Alaska caribou hunt & helping a nephew harvest his first turkey for Thanksgiving dinner
10:00 Caribou... the move FAST + a first-timer's take on a new species
14:00 #gohunterhippies
15:00 Rangeland Monitoring Network - "The primary goal is to preserve the ecological value of rangelands"
17:00 Birds, soil, vegetation... all indicators of ecosystem health
20:00 Soil carbon monitoring
22:00 About half of California is rangeland, and about half of those lands are privately owned
23:00 Grazing management tactics to put more carbon in the soil
25:00 Carbon sequestration 101
29:00 Not all soils are created equal for sequestration + ecological site descriptions
31:00 Drought affects carbon sequestration in soil
35:00 Co-operating with private landowners
36:00 EQIP program - Environmental Quality Incentive Program; California Department of Ag Healthy Soils program
41:00 Birds as an indicator species
43:00 White-breasted nuthatch
44:00 Changes in the last decade; wetland and grassland birds in decline
50:00 Tips to minimize the spread of invasive species... "Humans are the primary vector of invasive species"
56:00 Eradication isn't a reality for many invasive species... "but we can reduce the frequency and abundance in places, and increase diversity"
57:00 North American Grasslands Act - modeled after the North American Wetlands Conservation Act to conserve grasslands
1:02 Citizen science through apps like iNaturalist and eBird contributes to the massive data sets increasingly useful to scientists
1:08 Join the Artemis community -- we have a Facebook group, a killer book club, and programs/events for female hunters. If Artemis has meant something to you, please consider sharing it with a friend or making a donation.
1:09 The Hunter and Angler's Guide to Climate Change
Some of our favorite guests from podcasts past join us to talk about what they're wishing for this year. Hannah Marcom and Sharenda Birts have tips and tricks galore -- like giving the gift of not having to learn from someone you're related to, or how exactly you can enjoy a latte in the field, frothed milk and all -- OR, could your HSA pay for those electronic Bluetooth earplugs you've always wanted? Get the scoop in our second annual holiday gifts episode. 'Tis the season to be merry, Artemis!
2:00 Our gift gurus: You might remember Hannah from earlier this year on the program, and long-time guest Sharenda, from WildHERness.org is back on the mic, too!
4:00 Outdoor apparel in the fitting room versus the field
6:00 On being an underbuyer of gear
8:00 WildHERness "Go Wild" event, where one participant left for snacks, returned with a roadkill squirrel and asked if they could field dress it #yeswecan!
11:00 Sound Gear Phantom ear buds - you hear the stuff you want (animals, audiobooks) and minimize what you don't want (firearms, crickets)
13:50 Also... you miiiight be able to get those ear plugs covered on your HSA plan #winning
14:00 On to base layers... confessions of a recovering merino wool purist
15:00 FORLOH for good-quality, synthetic base layers. Base layer tops and Base Layer Bottoms. Want more options? Check out Badlands tops and bottoms, too
17:00 Lightweight foldable shooting stick in the $30 range
20:00 Different sticks for different chicks. Think about what’s right for you.
23:00 Range-finding binos -- many different products, the Bushnell Fusion is one of the more affordable out there; the Vortex Fury is also a great set
28:00 Orvis Women's Ultralight Wading Boot with studs - a big step up from the Chacos/neoprene socks combo
30:00 A nice knife saves a lot of time on sharpening; Try a Havalon Talon Hunt set with blades you can swap out (plus, getting those blades out!)
37:00 Invest in yourself & your competence; take the bow course, buy a membership at the range -- those things add up
39:00 There's something to be said for learning from people you're not related to
44:00 "If I'm questioning if I can make that, I'm just not going to do it." Taking a good shot is more important than taking a shot
45:00 Wild rags for EVERYTHING
46:00 Flashback to the Kula Cloth: 3Ps with Anastasia Allison of Kula Cloth
48:00 The Ember, a battery-powered coffee cup that keeps your joe WARM
50:00 In the field, the CamelBak Mag Insulated Bottle will keep coffee hot for about six hours; And you've got to have a Stanley thermos (or 10)... "the original Yeti;" Lastly, the sexy thermos, Mossy Oak Camo Thermo.
52:00 Serious coffee in the field - try the Mukka; or the Jet Boil has a French press attachment
58:00 #coolertalk... wheels, bear locks, bottle opener, etc (the Otterbox cooler is Sharenda's fav)
If this show has meant something to you, please consider giving to Artemis. You can donate here -- all money goes to support programs that get women on the water and in the field. #thankyou
"I thought you said this was food?" Shannon Waters found herself asking that question after someone made her an MRE in the backcountry. Shannon had been to culinary school and worked in fine dining for much of her adult life. As a hunter herself, she felt active people needed better in the field, and she was the right person to do it. Gastro Gnome was born. The Bozeman-based business has a storefront, a warm community of outdoorspeople, and many (MANY) gnomes.
2:00 Odd Fellows Bakery in Salmon, ID #gemsofthewest
3:00 "If you're not picking up rocks when you're hunting, I don't really know what you're doing."
8:00 Life story: economics + culinary school + brewery management + higher ed somehow all led to Gastro Gnome, upscale MREs for anywhere in the outdoors
13:00 Gourmet food in the wilderness is a creature comfort worth exploring - that value led to Gastro Gnome
14:00 Eating an MRE someone packed for you and feeling let down... "I thought you said this was food."
19:00 Going to Thailand to KNOW the curry-making process (pssst... it involves toasting)
20:00 Dehydrated Meals 101
21:00 Every ingredient has its own water content, which means they freeze dry differently
22:00 Gastro Gnome's Freeze-Dry 101
26:00 On the storefront in Bozeman... "People bring us a lot of gnomes" + the people-to-people vibes
33:00 Pack twice as much food as you need in the backcountry
36:00 The chemicals behind the scientifically long shelf life
40:00 @gastrognomemeals
45:00 Hunting in a team & collaborative decision-making
50:00 When you ask a friend, "Should I take this shot?" and they nod and go, "Don't worry, if it's down we'll get it out." #friendgoals
52:00 "Country Matters" by Michael Korda
55:00 "I shouldn't be doing anything else except exactly what I'm doing."
59:00 Hunting a new place with new people #winning
1:01 Tips for using bear fat in sausage
1:02 The Artemis Book Club is back! The seasonal read right now is "Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver
Missouri opened its first bear season this year in what turned out to be a tightly regulated hunt and a very competitive draw. Kelsie Wikoff was one of the hunters who drew a tag. This week we talk about how you hunt an area you've never been to for a prey you've seldom ever even seen. For Kelsie, it involved frequent scouting trips, trail cams, and talking to lots and lots of people. The verdict? She harvested one of Missouri's first black bears early in the season.
4:00 Growing up in a small town... like, 350 villagers kind of small
6:00 Missouri's first ever bear season
11:00 From drawing a tag to creating a hunt plan
13:00 How do you hunt a new-to-you area for a prey you've seldom ever seen? Talk to people; set up trail cams
14:00 Differentiating individual bears in trail cam photos
17:00 Waiting in a tree stand for three days before seeing THE bear
20:00 After the shot... bears aren't a bloody harvest due to their fat content
22:00 Bear fat soaps for your bridesmaids, anyone? Lip balms?
24:00 A scary bear run-in in Alaska
28:00 Finding your bear after the shot and safely approaching it
31:00 Bear fleeing bear... right into your tree stand
32:00 Being surrounded by ducks before shooting light... #magicinthefield
35:00 Geese executing a barrel roll
36:00 Watching your kids harvest their first deer
37:00 Mentoring a new hunter
41:00 Dog-on-vacation blunders, followed by hunting-pheasants-without-a-dog blunders
Artemis Missouri Facebook Group
Kathleen Zapletal was a new(ish) hunter when she noticed a lack of women-specific apparel in the sporting world. "Pink it and shrink it" seemed to be the motto of gear-makers. Zapletal founded Isle Royale Outfitters, which makes gear for women. She tells us about the place behind the name -- Isle Royale National Park in Michigan's Upper Peninsula -- and about how you make tactical gear... from odor reduction, to noiselessness in the materials. Want to win gear from Isle Royale Outfitters? Head on over to our @artemis_sportswomen for our Giveaway Contest!
2:00 Intro to Upland & Waterfowl Hunting in Minnesota
3:00 Michigander Self vs. Montana Self... it's an internal battle royale some days
4:00 Smoked trout dip recipe
5:00 Isle Royale Outfitters: women-specific hunting apparel
7:00 From hunting "snack manager" to harvester of the snacks
9:00 Isle Royale National Park on Michigan's Upper Peninsula... it's remote and wild: wolves, aurora, flies, no road access, etc
12:00 Isle roy-UL, or Isle roy-AL?
16:00 Family backpacking trip from hell
20:00. #findyourfield... cross-functional gear for all women
21:00 Tactical considerations in making gear: Odor suppressant, how loud is the material, mobility if you're back-casting or drawing a bow
24:00 "Camo is having a moment in the fashion world."
29:00 Scout in the clothes you plan to wear hunting
32:00 "Shrink it and pink it" - the old-school way of making hunting apparel for women
36:00 Grandmas = indispensable during hunting season
40:00 Two birds with one shot
45:00 New jobs, new sense of purpose (which may align with fishing time)
Want to win gear from Isle Royale Outfitters? Head on over to our @artemis_sportswomen for our Giveaway Contest!
This week we get the scoop on hunting in South Dakota with hunters Emily Kiel, Marketing and Outreach Director for the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks, and Taniya Bethke, Director of Operations for the Council to Advance the Hunting and Shooting Sports. South Dakota is most famous for its pheasant hunting (meet the ditch parrot, everyone!) -- but there's an abundance of sporting opportunities. Plus, we talk about some of the initiatives from the state's Game, Fish, and Parks department that aim to roll out the orange carpet for new and visiting hunters, like HuntTheGreatestSD.com.
3:00 An upbringing in the outdoors/sporting world can nudge you toward a career that values/protects those things
9:00 Starting a family and realizing you'd like to make hunting a part of your family's culture, even though it wasn't part of your own childhood
11:00 Finding your community of people in the sporting world
12:00 Sometimes "mentoring" can be as simple as inviting someone over for a wild-game dinner, or inviting them to process an elk quarter
13:00 South Dakota Second Century Habitat Fund, a non-profit works with private landowners and other stakeholders to support pheasant habitat (and other wildlife habitat, too)
14:00 "Habitat is the foundation of wildlife management."
16:00 Pheasant country
20:00 South Dakota lion hunting with a distressed rabbit call
27:00 The Artemis Podcast Facebook group... come hang with us for extras!
28:00 South Dakota's Learn to Hunt events
29:00 Pheasant 101 class: where we try EVERYTHING... breasts, thighs, feathers for fly-tying, gizzards, organs... it's an adventure :)
30:00 South Dakota's "apprentice tag" - it's a $5 OTC tag for beginners
36:00 Hunting out the back door with kids; plus, MOJO decoys
39:00 Bringing up the next generation of hunters
42:00 South Dakota as a destination hunt for pheasants; South Dakota Public Hunting Atlas ... over a million acres to explore!
45:00 Harvesting and preparing gizzards
52:00 "Be where my hands are"... or, to be present in the moment
Long-time Artemis guest (and co-founder) Jess Johnson returns to the podcast this week after a trip to the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation’s annual meeting in Budapest, Hungary. On her way back to Wyoming, Jess got the chance to stop in Scotland for several days to hunt red deer and roe deer. She shares that experience with us, plus what it's like to bump heads with hunters and conservationists from across the world.
3:00 International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation - aka "the CIC," which aims to preserve wild game and hunting across the world
6:00 Wolf perceptions worldwide
11:00 The rural-urban divide over predators
12:00 World Hunting Expo - an event that only happens every 50 years
17:00 Hungary's red stags in rut... it was a moving show for the world's sporting and wildlife advocates
21:00 Learning wildlife management models from neighbors abroad
28:00 The CIC has its own version of Artemis... and it's also called Artemis #twinningandwinning
29:00 And CIC's forthcoming cookbook featuring game recipes from around the world
33:00 The relationships/dialogue that comes from events like CIC are the real bounty
34:00 Modern Huntsman magazine & Into the Wilderness with Byron Pace podcast episode with Linzi Seivwright
35:00 Hunting Scotland's red deer and the rural-urban divide issue there; plus, values of the land-owners versus the public at large
42:00 Hunting with someone who's mastered being a predator on their own landscape
43:00 Hunting in tweed
45:00 Red stags "roar," they don't bugle
47:00 "We don't take long shots here... let's wait and get him in as close as we can."
49:00 You can buy red stag meat in Scotland's grocery stores, which means hunters can sell their bounty to butchers if they choose to
50:00 Sika deer - they sound like an elk bugle on helium
53:00 If someone wipes stag blood on your face, don't freak... it's a Scottish tradition called blooding
55:00 Scotland's roe deer
57:00 A landscape where humans are the only predator, and the ongoing discussion of whether you re-introduce eradicated predators
1:04 Converting other hunters to the cult of Those Who Eat Heart Meat
1:12 In lieu of agency-issued tags, hunting deer in Scotland is regulated by landowners, usually a partnership between the landowner and whomever leases the property for hunting
1:17 The U.K. (as yet) has no cases of CWD
1:22 NWF Outdoor Division's new climate report: A Hunter’s and Angler’s Guide to Climate Change
Lori Monday was raising three kids, going to school, and struggling to find herself when she had a life-changing encounter with a snake. It led her down a path chock full of reptiles. As an education ambassador for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Lori literally keeps a menagerie of reptiles and amphibians as a part of her job. Listen to find out what it means when someone says, "Hey... wanna go herping?"
1:30 "Herping" - to wander about and look for reptiles and amphibians
3:00 Freezer situation: frozen mice of all sizes, ya'll #portraitofasnakeowner
4:00 Authentic tacos. Find out more at our Artemis Podcast FB Group
7:00 Goose tacos. A new addition to your taco repertoire.
10:00 When someone asks, "Wanna go herping?" ...and that first snake encounter. "It was the most beautiful, gentle thing."
14:00 Getting into hunting/archery through a game and fish department, but also just by showing up
17:00 Deer lease 101 (effort + investment)
24:00 Herping isn't just about reptiles/amphibians... you'll see spider eyes catch the light, opossums, armadillos... all kinds of life at dawn or dusk
27:00 Project Wild from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
28:00 Lori's teaching menagerie (which lives in her bedroom at home)
29:00 "Hey, I gotta call you back... my alligator is trying to eat my turtle."
35:00 Seeing the world at night can open your eyes... plus, experiencing the natural world up close for the first time
38:00 Snake phobias + the mind-changing experience of a herping ed trip
42:00 The first time in a deer stand isn't entirely intuitive
45:00 Taking your kids hunting as an adult-onset hunter
48:00 Harvesting your first deer as your teenage son cheers you on #heartexplosion
52:00 Women's Outdoor Retreat hosted by the South Carolina Wildlife Federation
Traditional bowhunter Beka Garris joins Artemis this week to talk about what it's like bowhunting with a baby. Yes... literally WITH a small child. Beka tells us about harvesting two deer (and a squirrel) alongside her daughter. She also talks about traditional bowhunting, the skills involved, and how your experience in the outdoors changes when you have a little one in tow. This week's episode is brought to you by Isle Royale Outfitters, a women-specific hunting and apparel company. Check them out online, and use code Artemis20 for a 20% discount at check-out.
2:00 Tiny human podcast crashers... #momlife
3:00 The switch from bowhunting to traditional bowhunting... the trad bow range is more like <20 yards
5:00 "If anyone wants to put the work in, they CAN do it... it's just a lot more work than a compound bow."
6:00 Hunting with small children (yes... like, hunting with them literally on your back)
8:00 Bug repellent (AND... the Victoria's Secret scent that some anglers swear by (BeBe Episode)
10:00 A Thermacell for bugs
11:00 Shooting squirrels with a trad bow... "it's hard." (But also fun.)
12:00 Hunting rabbits with a trad bow AND a beagle -- you come to rely on the intuition of your shot. Here's an exercise: Throw a shoe box into the air and try to shoot it
15:00 Bow skills: Back tension and proper release (aaaand... release words!)
17:00 Fitting a trad bow & arrow selection
20:00 Bowfishing
23:00 Hunting outdoors with littles: Take it slow, make it short, just ease into it
26:00 The 'death' part of hunting for kids
30:00 Children playing with bows
35:00 "Are you willing to give up the idea of definitely filling your tags to take your kid?"
37:00 Every kid is different in how they handle the outdoors
39:00 "When deer-hunting, you can't really worry too much about being scent-free if you have a kid in diapers."
42:00 Harvesting, dressing, and dragging a deer back to the Jeep as your infant snoozes
45:00 Deer-sized cargo carriers on a vehicle
50:00 HERUpland podcast, BirdDog Babe podcast
52:00 Find Beka on Instagram (@bekagarris) and Facebook
When the pandemic hit, Bre Bashford returned to her home state of Colorado from Georgia, where she works as an R3 coordinator for the Georgia Wildlife Federation. She hunted elk and antelope, and she tells us what it was like to build up to those successful hunts after growing up in suburbia. For Bre, the journey started with a strong ethos about food, a generous mentor, and being willing to figure out what you don't know. Plus... what's it like when a group of vegans asks you to speak on the ethics of eating meat?
3:00 A pandemic-triggered change in geography
4:00 "Each year I have a goal to try something new... or to experience a new species, or a new technique."
5:00 Growing up in suburbia and learning your mountain literacy on the weekends
8:00 On knowing your food
12:00 R3 = the recruitment, retention, and reactivation of hunters, anglers and shooting-sport participants
13:00 When a pro-vegan crowd asks you to talk about the ethics of eating meat... #yowzers
15:00 Guns as weapons vs. guns as tools
18:00 Hunting is about more than meat... it's about the role humans play in the ecosystem
21:00 The power of a mentor to shepherd someone into hunting... squirrels to turkey to deer
23:00 "We all have something to give, and we all have something to learn."
27:00 Academics Afield & learning global perspectives on hunting
29:00 Are there benefits to people who interact with wildlife?
31:00 Why hunting gets to us: We're in the moment, our senses are elevated... "Lose your mind, find your soul."
33:00 Hunting pronghorn... their eyesight is superb
34:00 Kneepads can help you crawl/stalk through cacti... also, army-crawling with your rifle is worth practicing
37:00 Pronghorn evolved alongside very formidable predators
41:00 Colorado Parks and Wildlife's "Elk Hunting University" program
43:00 Elk hunting: doing the prep, finding your spot, then arriving to see a bunch of other hunters... and eventually teaming up with two to plan a day's hunt
45:00 Being married to a non-hunter has a few perks... hello, truck shuttle
54:00 Montana antelope hunting - trying for a new, harder-to-draw area... and getting four tags with your friends
56:00 Scouting a completely new area
59:00 Georgia Wildlife Federation
Kyley Caldwell and her husband run a bird dog breeding and training facility in central North Carolina. Kyley tells us about how she got into dogs, and what it's like to do dog trials through The North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association. We talk dog breeds, hardness tests, blind retrieves, and more. Upland game season is here, everyone!
2:30 When your freezer unexpectedly kicks it #facepalm
5:30 Rusty Guns Kennel (link) - a dog breeding and training facility in North Carolina
6:00 Meeting your husband by way of a dog
10:00 "We're here today because I'm getting you a puppy." #bestsurprise ... "but don't pick the first one that licks you." #puppycurmudgeon
11:00 AKC events... "dog show people" versus "gun dog people"
12:00 NAVDA (link) - North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association
17:00 Flushing vs. retrieving vs. pointing breeds
18:00 Quail/pheasants aren't as plentiful as they used to be in the Carolinas
20:00 Owning/managing a dog-training business with your husband
22:00 Training 10 dogs a month while still having full-time jobs; Growing the kennel to have kennel help and other trainers on staff
23:00 A life in the day of a dog trainer
25:00 Dogs sometimes stay with the trainer as long as six months
27:30 "A hardness test"... it's a prerequisite for some dogs before they can be breed eligible through their respective associations; a dog has to dispatch a fox or a raccoon
32:00 Dog trials + what to expect
36:00 The 100-yard blind retrieve... it's a feat of dog-handling
42:00 That moment you see a young dog just GET IT
43:00 "DK" in gun-dog speak is a Deutsch Kurzhaar, it's a slightly different breed than a German Short-Haired Pointer (which is a "GSP" in dog-speak)
45:00 The biggest dilemma for hunting vacations: "Which dogs are we bringing, and how many?"
49:00 Tracking a tricky bird (and getting it)
50:00 Check out a podcast Kyley hosts once a month, "Gun Dog It Yourself" (link) - a podcast for aspiring dog owners to train their dogs themselves; GDIY is also on Facebook (link) and Instagram (link)
54:00 Find Kyley on Facebook (link), Instagram (link) and RustyGunsKennel.com (link)
Sarah Tingey is one of the brains behind a small packrafting company called Alpacka Raft. It started as a basement type of operation, fueled by adventures in the Far North, including time spent in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Sarah tells us about her experiences on that incomparable landscape, plus what it's like to travel there with a small child (on a 10-day packrafting trip, of course). Taking kids into the backcountry isn't all puppies and unicorns, but it can be hugely rewarding when we do make the effort.
4:00 Career life at a small outdoor products company like Aplacka Rafts (you're a jill of all trades)
6:30 Packrafts - they started as a means for water travel in the deep backcountry, like -- say -- a 700-mile trip across Alaska's Brooks Range
9:00 From a basement sewing machine operation to a company that employs 45 people
10:00 "Design by Sheri" - a staple of the Warren Miller ski days, also what would be the skill base for a packraft company
14:00 Sheep hunting; New Mexico elk hunting
21:00 Visiting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and suddenly feeling like all those discussions about oil development weren't very abstract anymore
25:00 Check out a map of where ANWR is
26:00 Efforts to conserve ANWR predate Alaska's statehood
28:00 Would you rather visit a place called a 'petroleum reserve' or a 'wildlife refuge'?
30:00 Taking a BABY rafting on a 10-day trip in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (flash floods, weather delays, hustle hustle hustle)
33:00 Risk judgement when conditions change (leave the stress out of it)
36:00 Carrying a baby in the backcountry; hunting with a baby (or not)
42:00 Growing up in a hunting family, but not ever going along
43:00 Sharing the burden of all the extra energy that goes along with taking a kid outside
47:00 Taking kids into the wild isn't all unicorns and ponies
51:00 Catch the Emily Ledergerber episode on Hunting While Pregnant
53:00 An 185-mile overland trip over several drainages in Alaska, and getting to see a pristine salmon run
56:00 "The 'potted plant' phase [of babyhood]... soak it up."
Hunter, angler and conservationist Bianca McGrath-Martinez first drank the volunteerism Kool-Aid when she was serving with AmeriCorps. Today, her professional life (with MANY volunteer hours across different groups) is spent working towards an inclusive conservation movement with a program called Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors.
2:00 HECHO; Latino Outdoors Colorado
5:00 Growing up with a negative perception of hunting, and then the slow process of changing your mind as an adult
8:00 How you become comfortable with something that your family has traditionally been very cautious about, like firearms
13:00 Fly-fishing... can open the gate to other sporting disciplines
16:00 The backstory of the American conservation movement, it can sound rosy and peachy -- but there's also racism, censure, and genocide there, too
17:00 Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors - a policy-driven group that advocates for the conservation of wild lands in the Southwest
20:00 Parks podcast, Ashley's recommendation on a frank history of National Parks
23:00 Why it's important to re-teach ourselves American history through a historically accurate lens
28:00 The importance of bringing conservation (and sporting) to elected officials and other leaders
30:00 Find HECHO on Facebook, Instagram, and via their online newsletter
31:00 Cocktails and Conservation event in Utah in October. Keep track of HECHO events here.
32:00 Translating hunting/fishing regulations into Spanish
37:00 Bianca on the Your Mountain podcast, a great listen
38:00 Volunteerism accomplishes SO MUCH in the outdoors space. Check out Latino Outdoors' Yo Cuento blog, the group's job board, etc
43:00 Women's Wilderness (and their Trailblazers program)
45:00 "I did AmeriCorps... and I think I just sort of drank the Kool-Aid when it comes to volunteerism."
50:00 Tarpon fishing! Large, ancient, big-fighting fish
54:00 Colorado Parks and Wildlife's Ranching for Wildlife program -- an access program for new hunters on private lands
1:02 An upcoming Artemis episode... bowhunting with a baby or a toddler (yes... hunting WITH a baby/toddler, like, on your back)
Tia Shoemaker is a second-generation Alaskan who grew up at her family's remote hunting and fishing lodge in the Becharof National Wildlife Refuge. You might remember her from Artemis's episode on Traverse Mag, but today Tia comes to us from the NWF Outdoors podcast, where she talks about what it's like to see climate change on the front lines. The changes are very real, and alarming. Even Shoemaker's long-time fishing clients are noticing.
Texas hunter Hannah Marcom took up hunting with a bow before she ever reached for a firearm. She tells us about that journey in addition to the public-facing work she does in the hunting industry through her Instagram page, @Hannah.The.Plus.Size.Hunter. We talk about choosing gear for function over aesthetics, sweaty sports bras, and garden bounty galore. Plus, when you're from Texas and you tell someone you have "ground hog" in your freezer... sometimes they mistakenly think you mean groundhogs.
4:00 Texas wild hogs! Or "pigs" in Texas-speak... perennial freezer-fodder in the Lone Star State
6:00 "No matter what hunt I'm on... if I see a pig, it becomes a pig hunt." It's an invasive/abundant species
10:00 Two adult-onset hunters venture into bow-hunting
15:00 Even on non-harvest days in the field... you have the best seat for nature-watching. Plus, working up to your first harvest, step-by-step
18:00 What nudges some of us toward bows over guns?
22:00 Using the red light option on your headlamp heading to the tree stand (and sometimes finding an unexpected set of eyeballs in that light... AH!)
24:00 Ladies, totally ok to have a little cry in the treestand. That wasn't a chupacabra! (Right?)
25:00 Doing the observing vs. being the one who's observable
27:00 Find Hannah on Insta @hannah.the.plus.size.hunter and YouTube Hannah Marcom - there is so much good story and deep thought here
30:00 Realizing you need some camo and having a hard time finding something that fits #imnottheonlyone
34:00 "If you can't try it on, seeing it on someone else's body is the next best thing."
42:00 Sports bras! Check out Hannah's take on this Best Sports Bras... "I have been on a sports bra journey."
46:00 Padding? Zipper? Clasp? Razorback?
48:00 SheFit
50:00 Wool-blend bras for the sweaty hike followed by the cold sit at your hunting spot
59:00 McCall WildFest - Aug. 18
1:04 That expression "the bee's knees" ... it's about pollen pants!
The hunting landscape is about 89% male and 97% white. Although there are a number of recruitment/retention groups out there to add to the ranks, we talk about why we need groups for specific demographics -- like Artemis for women, or Hunters of Color for the BIPOC community. Lydia Parker joins us from Hunters of Color to talk about the group's mission -- how they aim to reach out to hunters of color and say, "Yes.. you. This table was made for YOU. Join us."
1:00 What someone names their chickens tells you a lot about them
3:30 Hunters of Color: HuntersOfColor.org, on Insta @huntersofcolor, FB - Hunters of Color
5:30 What being a play-by-play baseball commentator teaches you about the hunting scene (and what it's like when sports broadcasting runs in the family)
10:00 Becoming comfortable with firearms as an adult
14:00 How can you tactfully introduce sporting culture to communities traumatized by gun violence?
15:00 Reframing: Firearms as weapons vs. firearms as tools
16:00 Hunting demographics: about 89% male, 97% white
18:00 Empathy and education first
20:00 How do groups like Hunters of Color go from idea to fully-fleshed organization? Plus, the early stereotypes that got the ball rolling
23:00 "Is Hunting Too White" by Patrick Durkin
25:00 Community-building & recruiting ambassadors
30:00 There are so many groups/events/organizations that help recruit new hunters... everyone is welcome! So why do we NEED specific groups like Artemis/Hunters of Color? Hunters of Color FAQ
35:00 Author Angela Davis and thoughts on oppression/privilege/inclusivity
36:00 "Everyone can be a better ally to someone else."
40:00 "Generational wealth" also refers to things like family knowledge and culture
42:00 What's the responsibility that comes with owning/knowing your own privilege?
45:00 "Hunting and Fishing in the New South" by Scott Giltner - a book that looks into Black hunters pre- and post-slavery, exclusionary hunting laws, land ownership then and now, and more
54:00 There's value in having the hard/uncomfortable conversations
55:00 Mentor application on HOC website; And become a Member
58:00 Want to make a difference? Volunteer volunteer volunteer
59:00 Catch Hunters of Color co-founder Jimmy Flatt on NWF Outdoors: Breaking Down Barriers to Entering Hunting
1:02 Those hunts where you suffer? Sometimes they're the most memorable. Fern pollen to the face!
1:06 Sometimes the fish throw you a bone! Catching one as you're preoccupied elsewhere
1:08 Portugal. The Man
1:10 Artemis Fly Fishing Tactics... that's a wrap! What should we cover next? Send us a note: artemis@nwf.org. And as always, join our Artemis Podcast Facebook group to continue the conversation
Other groups for your radar: Brown Folks Fishing, Outdoor Afro, Queers and Camo , LGBTQ Outdoors
Melody Engle is the captain of the U.S. Women's Spearfishing team, which is headed to Sardinia next month for the Spearfishing World Championships. She tells us what it's like to condition for World's, how to master your mind as a freediver, and how her own headgame was influenced by a background in competitive figure skating and skydiving. Plus -- targeting fish, stone shots, and the ecology of the marine ecosystems we depend on.
3:00 The best tasting fish is a fresh fish
5:30 Speara - woman who spearfishes
8:00 A typical spearfishing outing; Determining 'drop' location based on quarry
10:00 Where to aim on a fish... a "stone shot"
11:00 Distance from fish when you shoot + you ARE the reel... you have to swim the fish to the surface
12:00 The quality of your shot can influence how quickly sharks pick up on that animal's demise
13:00 A good spearfishing friend fends off a shark (!) while you get your fish to the surface
15:00 Diving for a Cause + Ted Harty's freediving course
19:00 Getting into freediving in your 50s (with a background in figure skating and skydiving)
21:00 Being captain of the U.S. Women's Spearfishing team
24:00 U.S. Women's Spearfishing Team headed to World's in Italy in September: World Spearfishing Championship 2021; Plus, if you have any to spare, their GoFundMe page is still active. (Plus... it's a WINNING team!)
26:00 The U.S. Women's Spearfishing Team is relatively new compared to teams in other countries. Follow them on Insta @usa_spearfishing_womens_team and Facebook @USAWomensSpearfishingTeam
27:00 How team members are selected
27:30 U.S. Women's Spearfishing Alliance - conservation & camaraderie
33:00 Shooting a 68-pound yellowfin tuna in Costa Rica
37:00 Decline in Florida hogfish in the past couple years
38:00 Reef-safe sunscreens (like Stream2Sea)
43:00 A high-level competition mindset is about disciple, mastering your nerves, being present
46:00 What's the fate of the fish caught during spearfishing tournaments? Fresh fish are sacred to many
50:00 Ciguatera poisoning
55:00 Freediving + black out risk
58:00 Do you have a boat? It's an obstacle to entry for many
Kelsea Albert is on the U.S. Women's Spearfishing Team, which heads to Sardinia next month for the World Championships. This week on Artemis, she tells us how she got into the sport (it started with a freediving course), and how others can tap into the wonders of the ocean's bounty.
1:00 Did you catch Brianne Lauro on Artemis this winter? Diving for Tako and the Value of Community Knowledge.
2:30 Ain't no bettah' fish than raw fish
6:00 Spearfishing for meaningful subsistence during school
7:00 To harvest it helps to really get to know the species
9:00 Want to get into spearfishing? Start with freediving (there's classes for this stuff, everyone!)
11:00 The hardest fish to wrangle underwater? Basically, anything with red meat... that fish is athletic
13:00 Taking a scientist's methodic approach to learning a new skill
17:00 Spearfishing myth busting: You don't need a boat to be able to go. A kayak works. So does a jetski.
20:00 The wonderful solitude of a sunlit kelp bed... plus, the SOUND of fish
23:00 Tips for hunting sea bass
26:00 It's not about what you harvest, or what you take
27:00 Are some things too special for social media? (Or, do we protect what we love by NOT sharing it publicly?)
32:00 Spearfishing competitions
33:00 U.S. Women's Spearfishing Team headed to World's in Italy in September: World Spearfishing Championship 2021
38:00 Preparing to dive in the Mediterranean
39:00 Time underwater & cold- vs. warm-water conditioning
42:00 Shallow-water blackout
46:00 The headgame behind spearfishing (and life)
55:00 GoFundMe for women headed to the spearfishing world championship in Sardinia - https://www.gofundme.com/f/womens-team-usa-2021-spearfishing-worlds
1:00 U.S. Women's Spearfishing Team on Insta @usa_spearfishing_womens_team and Facebook @USAWomensSpearfishingTeam
1:05 Age/weight have little to do with someone's aptitude for freediving
1:14 Becoming a mentor (or "old salty mermaid" in the ocean world)... mentorship is a serious relationship. Don't ask for it lightly, and don't say 'yes' frivolously
Last time we spoke with Sharenda, we heard about how she got into shooting and reloading. This week, we get an update on where she's at in her journey being a hunter and angler. She's been dove-hunting and tying her own flies... AND, she's bringing other women along on the journey through a program called WildHERness. Becoming a hunter can feel like a long process. Sharenda breaks down her journey into simple steps, sometimes as concrete as "Next thing: buy tent."
2:00 WildHERness.org , a program to get women into sporting, @wildHERness_ on Insta and WildHERness on Facebook
4:00 Missouri's Pheasants Forever "Go Wild" program ... like a BOW program, but for women in Missouri/Kansas (September 24-26)
8:00 Imagine a weekend with arts & crafts AND reloading activities... #dreamcometrue
10:00 Girls with Guns "Upland" pants
12:00 Boots for female hunters: Danner "Wayfinder" boots, RedWing "Upland" boots, Timberland "Pros", plus... good 'ol Muck boots
13:00 Squeaky boot problems... is it the laces? The insoles?
17:00 DSG clothing line... hello, ladies! Adjustable inseams, plus-size and petite options, etc
20:00 Let's snow-boogie-board, y'all
21:00 Miss Sharenda on Artemis the first time? Add it to your listening queue
23:00 A first-time dove hunt... "those little boogers fly like bats!" #theyrequick
27:00 Hunt prep on YouTube... good idea? bad idea?
28:00 When your friends are literally your bird dogs
34:00 Coleman pop-up camping bed
36:00 Practicing your duck calling around the house can be rough on a relationship... but what if you did it every time you were at a stoplight?
37:00 Christopher Polk duck calls
41:00 Fly-tying, fly-casting... practice, practice, practice (whenever you can)
44:00 Taxidermists have a quagmire of regulatory hoops
51:00 The garage-centric chicken coop set-up
57:00 How antelope negotiate fences... it's fascinating
1:04 A keep-your-cooler-cool trick involving a wet towel
1:06 Find Artemis (and Sharenda) in our Facebook group ... Sharenda is also on Instagram @pinkshears
Emilie Cram worked for an outfitter in Wyoming -- where her jobs included packing mules, quartering elk, and pretty much anything else needed on guided hunting trips. When she took up a rifle herself, she found that even after so much time in the field, there are STILL questions it helps to be able to phone a friend for. Emilie also made good on a lifelong infatuation with Maine's seafaring culture by learning to lobster... which is fascinating. Trust us on this one!
2:00 "Hoot-owl restrictions" vary by state... some states close rivers to fishing when the river temp stays high. Others rely on anglers' judgement.
7:00 Winter scallops for year-round eating, plus berries galore
9:30 Tip for keeping turkey feathers: Freeze them so the mites don't deteriorate the feather
12:00 Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
13:00 Learning to hunt working at a family outfitting business out West, then bringing those skills back home to the Northeast
16:00 Becoming a lobsterwoman (+ lobster-bacon salads)
19:00 A lifelong crush on the state of Maine
20:00 The regulatory climate for Maine lobstering
24:00 Bait
25:00 A wee bit of lobster ecology
28:00 No keeping the monster lobsters... "keepers" are a function of lobster size (dimensions) and gender
33:00 A rule of thumb: If you get a pound of lobster per trap (about one keeper), you're in the black on your lobstering
36:00 Notching a lobster
40:00 Going from working for an outfitter to being the one who does everything on a personal hunt
43:00 The power of being able to phone a friend when an unforeseen hunting problem arises
45:00 Hunting East vs. West... dense private lands vs. open public lands
48:00 Density of deer versus density of hunters
51:00 The nuance of asking permission to hunt on private lands... and as a landowner, sometimes having to say 'no'
53:00 NWF Outdoors podcast
59:00 Turkey eggs
1:00:00 Pasta Grannies! If you missed it last week... now's the time to catch up
1:00:02 Fly FisHer Adventures in Helena, Mont.
Find Emilie on Insta @instahcram
"You get one physical vehicle for your entire life." Our bodies help us do ALL the things outside -- fishing, hunting... even moseying. Artemis Ambassador Sara Camiscioni reminds us that our daily happiness is often directly related to how we feel in our bodies. On this episode, we talk about becoming a hunter, tree stands, whether rivers are changing, and the general pursuit of a strong, functional, confident life.
2:00 Moving to a new place and feeling like you nailed it: "It's everything I've ever wanted in terms of recreation and lifestyle blended together while still being able to run my business."
3:30 Find Your Strong with Sara - a diet/exercise program for the athletic/adventurous (psst... that's us!) Plus, running a business the jives with who you are as a person
6:00 Fly-fishing as therapy
8:00 What fisher(wo)men notice about how rivers/fishing are changing in a changing climate... when did it become the norm for the season to go on hiatus for warm/low water? #newnorm?
11:00 What we look for in partners (... kind of!)
14:00 First hunt - antelope on cherished lands... plus, EMOTIONS! You feel like you can do anything... there's gratitude... there's depth. It's real out there
19:00 Randy Newberg... you need a sidekick?!
22:00 Connecting to your food
25:00 Tree stands 101 - Do you bring the coffee? Do you pee?
29:00 SheWee? #shewont
31:00 Doe pee vs human pee
34:00 Cutting a hunt short to not have to process meat or exit in the dark... it's a tough decision
40:00 In pursuit of a strong, functional, confident life
43:00 Boating body? Even out those muscles! Casting a lot? Forearm strength. You'd be amazed how surgically you use your body in the outdoors
47:00 "You have ONE body. You have ONE physical vehicle for your entire life"... "Your daily happiness is linked to your physical body."
54:00 Changing your health isn't a one-stop-shop... it takes habits and change that you can keep up for a lifetime
55:00 Find Sara on Insta @findyourstrongwithsara, OR the Find Your Strong podcast
58:00 What you learn about someone when they tell you what their chickens are named
59:00 The YouTube channel you didn't know you needed... Italian grandmas making pasta: Pasta Grannies
This week we're joined by biologist Nova Simpson, who works for the Nevada Department of Transportation to mitigate human-wildlife conflict in our travel corridors. We talk about wildlife overpasses and underpasses (even for things like snakes and toads), how those projects are funded, and whether they're effective at reducing vehicular collisions with wildlife. Plus: horses, whitefish dip, and HEAT.
4:00 "Large mammal mitigation specialist" - how can we help animals live more comfortably in our shadow? Also... state road departments have biologists on payroll!
6:00 "Road ecology": The study of how wildlife moves/adjusts to road infrastructure
7:00 Animal-vehicle collisions
12:00 There are 15-20 varieties of threatened animals for whom vehicular collision is a pretty significant source of mortality. Example: Florida panther
13:00 Roads fragment habitat. How can we restore connectivity?
14:00 (RE)CONNECTING WILD: Restoring Safe Passage Mitigation project over Nevada's I-80 on the species’ migration route. Win for drivers, win for deer
18:00 Conservation priority so often comes down to available funding and time resource
19:00 Roadkill collision app in the works
20:00 Overpasses/underpasses on highways, fencing projects, bridge crossings, "animal sidewalks," etc
26:00 Only about 2% of crashes in Nevada involve wildlife
32:00 Agency vs. private funding for wildlife crossings
34:00 How do animals safely cross a highway? New York Times article on wildlife crossings (including the rattlesnake underpass)
37:00 Toad crossings
38:00 Current transportation bill in D.C. includes funding for wildlife mitigation for the first time in U.S. history
41:00 Check out the NWF Outdoors podcast wherever you get your programming
42:00 Wildlife cams... THE THINGS YOU SEE!
47:00 Anyone apply for draw tags? Not drawing in an area with 90%+ draw odds... #darnit
51:00 Training our horse pals :)
55:00 Whitefish dip
Tia Shoemaker grew up in a remote Alaskan hunting lodge. Christine Cunningham didn't come to hunting until she was an adult. Both women found they had a passion for telling authentic stories from the hunt field, and together they launched the outdoor journal, "Traverse." The first issue is out now, and both women join us to talk about what makes for meaningful experience in the field.
1:00 Growing up on a historic homestead in Alaska at a family-owned hunting/fishing lodge. Pilot's license = mandatory
4:00 Hunting ptarmigan with a bow as a five-year-old... also, playing "guide and client" with a sibling
7:00 Traverse - an outdoor journal focused on hunting ethos, edited by Tia Shoemaker and Christine Cunningham
12:00 Christine Cunningham's book "Women Hunting Alaska"
13:00 "Ready? Fire!! Aim?"
15:00 Recovering from a surgery can make you zero in on what you'd most like to be doing
17:00 Feeling more "awake" in the hunt field + crawling at cockroach speed
22:00 Traverse = "the cave paintings of our time"... storytelling at the nexus of connection and place
28:00 Do hunting stories where everything goes right paint an authentic picture of the sport?
30:00 Celebrating experience as much as we celebrate success
32:00 First issue of Traverse is out now! TraverseJournal.com
36:00 "Be fearless and available to the moment"
41:00 Tia on NWF's "Vanishing Seasons" podcast ... "Wealth isn't about how much we have, it's about how much we enjoy it."
43:00 Pebble Mine prospect in Bristol Bay... it's been a long fight
48:00 Submissions at Traverse mag
50:00 Artemis Book Club - our first read is "Braiding Sweetgrass," virtual book club chats are on the horizon
51:00 Other book recs: "The End of the Game" by Peter Beard (LINK); "The Living Mountain" by Nan Shepherd; "The Old Ways" by Robert MacFarland; "Heartsblood" by David Peterson
58:00 2021 Artemis Ambassadors... you're going to meet them soon!
Have you heard of the Artemis book club? The club's summer read is "I Don't Know Why I Swallowed The Fly" by Jessica Maxwell. In the spirit of fly-fishing season, here's a treasure from the Artemis Archives -- Ali Bear giving us the play-by-play of casting. It's simply wonderful. Don't forget to join our community online in the Artemis Facebook group, or email us at artemis@nwf.org if you know of a book we should all read.
Kaitlin Barnhart is one of the co-founders of The Mayfly Project, an initiative to connect fly-fishing mentors with foster kids. A lot of the lessons we learn on the water carry over to the rest of our lives. Slow down and work out all the knots. Seek help from those with more experience. Kaitlin also tells us what it's like to grow a passion project into a national organization with employees and volunteers galore.
00:40 Remember Sarah Topp and Timberdoodle?
3:00 Ground-nesting bird species and dogs-always-leashed rules, even on public lands
5:00 Timberdoodle: The dog who pulled her owner on rollerblades six miles in 24 minutes... "It was terrifying, but I find that fun."
8:00 When you learn to fly-fish in Alaska and then return to Idaho... "Oh, I guess I'm not as awesome as I thought I was."
9:00 The Mayfly Project -- linking foster kids with fly-fishing
10:00 Foster kids and access to sports/the outdoors
12:00 Becoming a mentor with the Mayflly Project
14:00 From the genesis of an idea to 53 locations with mentorship projects in place
17:00 Teaching a conservation ethos alongside fishing
21:00 Fly-fishing gives us so much bounty
25:00 Slow down and work out the knots (Fishing lesson, or life lesson?)
28:00 When people are in and out of someone's life, the outdoors can be its own kind of steady relationship
32:00 When Mayfly project kids teach OTHERS to fly-fish
35:00 Making an investment of time into a kid is huge
38:00 Bringing a Mayfly type of project to a new place: it usually starts with a single invested, committed, connected person
41:00 When a non-profit grows from a self-motivated, two-person hustle to an organization with employees and volunteers galore
42:00 Find the Mayfly Project on Facebook and Instagram
45:00 Fly-fishing as a mom with three kids... and when fishing kids evolve from littles to teens
48:00 Fishing as a meditation / escape
52:00 Did you miss our fly-repellent tip on Amber Rose from Victoria's Secret?
56:00 Getting some instruction vs. teaching yourself
57:00 Hey, everyone... exciting news! Artemis's Fly-Fishing Tactics event is ON. There's a goodie bag, a storytelling contest, and loads of tips. Join us! Register here!
Artemis heads afield this week to talk with storyteller and adventurer Mandela van Eeden in Montana. Mandela's upbringing was split between South Africa, where her family harvested from the sea, and Montana - where they gratefully accepted the river's bounty. She went on to become a raft guide in the Grand Canyon and in New Zealand. Mandela talks to us about connecting to place, pursuing your dreams, and how we can care for what sustains us. Plus, a black bear walks in on Marcia and Mandela mid-way through the episode. (No jokes, folks!)
4:00 All the 'boks' in Africa, which is Afrikaans for 'deer' (springbok, bontebok, gemsbok)
5:00 A childhood split between the African bush and Montana, leaving your heart in both
11:00 Three Gorges Dam & the Yangtze River
12:00 Storytelling with sound and music AND raft guiding both hemispheres
16:00 What's the core value that makes us do what we do?
18:00 The Oily River Rendezvous and seeing an oil spill from the river's view
19:00 "If you think you're too little to make a difference, you've obviously not spent the night with a mosquito."
22:00 "Grand Canyon pink" - a rattlesnake endemic to that space
24:00 Getting Primitive program gets kids into bushcrafting
27:00 Fish in one hand, shark in the other
30:00 Fly-fishing as a family affair
32:00 Podcast interrupted by a black bear... yep, bonafide bear strolling through!
37:00 The myriad of ways in which people gather from the sea
38:00 NWF Outdoors podcast, Vanishing Seasons
41:00 If you want to connect with a place... BE there. Fully present. Cease the wandering mind.
42:00 Yoga sutras written by Pantanjali
49:00 Connection to the outdoors through harvest + patience and mindfulness
50:00 The value of a mentor
54:00 Riverboarding the Grand Canyon for 15 days... the dream started with a flip (link to article?)
56:00 Thalweg: the fastest current in the river
59:00 "Go into your dream closet and dust off some of those ones you've filed away."
1:03 Introducing family to game - antelope and bear... and recruiting a nephew into the ranks
1:06 Listen to what your body tells you to eat (plus, spearfishing)
BeBe Dalton Harrison was raised in a South Carolina fishing family. They often caught their supper from the salt marshes -- fish like large-mouthed bass, sea trout, and flounder. As an adult, Bebe now has the dream job of sharing her love for the salt marsh with other women, families and kids. Today on the show: A Carolina bug-battling tip straight outta Victoria's Secret, sea trout versus freshwater trout, and tackle-purses.
2:00 Tips for not scratching mosquito bites, other than willpower. A hot tip from Victoria's Secret (picked up at a tackle shop)... it's called Amber Romance
5:00 Other sensory vibes: The aroma of a salt marsh
7:00 South Carolina Wildlife Federation effort to restore a coastal bird rookery
10:00 Growing up in a fishing family on the South Carolina coast - sea trout, flounder, crab, sea bass, weakfish, etc
14:00 Taste test: Freshwater vs. sea trout
16:00 Hush-puppy fish fry
19:00 Growing up in fishing, growing away from it, then circling back around as an adult
21:00 Finding your path (however circuitously)
22:00 Want to break into an agency job? Persistence + volunteering + keep applying
25:00 R3 - Recruitment, Retention, Reactivation
26:00 Developing a salt marsh education program + Angling Women, a business to teach introductory marsh fishing to women and families
30:00 Poll: Who do you think asks for fishing lessons more often... men? Or women?
33:00 The tackle-purse! No, really. Plus, rod charms.
35:00 Environmental education bearing fruit: When a kid in a salt marsh ed program becomes a fishing guide
37:00 The $700 fish pic
42:00 From spin rods to fly rods + that first tug on a fly
45:00 Taking someone new? Especially a kid? Try leaving your rod at home. And maybe pack some non-fishing entertainment, too
50:00 "However you treat the trip is how they're going to remember it."
53:00 Find BeBe and Angling Women on Facebook and Instagram
59:00 Get in touch! artemis@nwf.org, or, check out our Facebook group
This week we're revisiting one of our favorite episodes - we're here to 'pick' the brain of mushroom expert Kristen Blizzard (see what we did there? Pick the brain? Har, har.) Kristen and her husband run ModernForager.com, an online resource for foragers across the country. Kristen tells us about everyone's favorite -- the morel -- plus other mushrooms you can easily add to your repertoire with a little extra know-how. We also discuss how to harvest for success in the kitchen. The culinary possibilities are endless!
3:40 - Harvesting arnica when the mushrooms aren't in
5:00 - Kristen and Trent Blizzard run ModernForager.com
9:40 - Mushrooms totally have a terroir, a sense of flavor imparted by the place they were harvested. It's simply lovely.
12:30 - What apple is to tree, mushroom is to mycelium. The mycelial network is everywhere! Under every forest floor. They're tree-like.
14:30 - "The Wood-Wide Web" – check it out
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/04/the-wood-wide-web/478224/; https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/from-tree-to-shining-tree
21:00 - Morel hunting wonderfully overlaps with spring bear season. Wild mushrooms complement wild game so beautifully.
23:00 - Adding a new mushroom to your foraging repertoire is a big deal! On posting a mushroom pic to an online forum, and having multiple different (very confident) answers on what it is
24:00 - Coral mushrooms are very hard to tell apart. Some cause gastric upset, others are fine. (Corals = mushroom jerky)
26:00 - Safe foraging is like any hobby: The more you do it, the better you get. Don't eat random mushrooms. Work on your ID skills
28:00 - People from Michigan = Michiganders
30:00 - Burn Morels vs. Anywhere Morels: You're collecting in a 5-gal. bucket versus just trying to find enough for dinner
32:00 - Do the time to find your spots, then those mushrooms come back over and over again. Black morels come out at higher elevation. The blonde ones often show up lower.
33:00 - Porcinis (boletes), chanterelles, and oyster mushrooms
39:00 - Start with a good mushroom book, then build your know-how. Chanterelles, for example, have a white interior. Less-edible look-alike have an orange-colored interior.
40:00 - Different geographies come with different look-alike of edible mushrooms. If you're foraging in California, waaaay more look-alike mushrooms than, say, in Colorado
41:00 - Timing of mushroom season is somewhat correlated to moisture... you can find mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest at Thanksgiving that might only be found in spring in Colorado
43:00 - On harvesting mushrooms sustainably - it's a hot topic! Cutting versus pulling is less important than protecting the environment where mycelium thrive
45:00 - On etiquette, pick what you'll use, and maybe consider leaving some for other pickers
46:00 - "Shrub" = A mushroom-infused drinking vinegar. Chanterelle shrub... fruity and delicious. Matsutaki shrub... cinnamon and socks. Pick your flavor, everyone!
48:00 - Mushroom confit
50:00 - Mushroom ice cream (candy caps, everyone! The maple flavor is astounding.)
51:00 - Chanterelle sorbet, chanterelle-apricot jam... the possibilities are truly endless
52:00 - Different mushrooms keep differently. Some don't keep their flavor when dehydrated, so try cooking and freezing those. It varies by the species.
53:00 - SAFETY... it's pretty intuitive, right? Don't eat something unless you know what it is. Apart from that, walking in circles looking at the ground is a great way to get lost. A GPS app helps.
58:00 - Check out the Modern Forager harvesting bag ... and LOTS of tips on how to harvest for success in the kitchen
1:05:00 - Getting started? Join a mycology society (yes, they actually exist) and meet some geeky mushroom people. Second thing: Find those mushroom groups on Facebook. They're great. (And all the #humblebragging totally tells you when certain mushrooms are in.) Lastly, get a mushroom book. The David Arora guide is a staple. Plus, "All That the Rain Promises and More"
This week we hear from South Carolina hunter Morgan Harrell, who checks in with us on Artemis's first turkey camp in the region. Plus, what's different about hunting with other women? Also in this episode: snow geese parts, what we remember from our childhoods, and eating the non-traditional cuts of meat.
2:00 "The only thing between Columbia and hell is a screen door."
4:00 Artemis South Carolina takes flight - women are coming together to share the sport
6:00 Nuts/flour/fish/moonshine... peek into thy freezer, peek into thyself
7:30 Canning wild game... yay or nay? (Pressure canning and the fear of blowing your house up)
10:00 Snow geese hearts and livers
12:00 Liver puddin'
17:00 Heart slices over the camp fire + other family memories
18:00 Being the only woman on the trip; Making use of every last bit of your harvest
21:00 Eating the non-traditional cuts - neck roasts, caul fats, etc
24:00 The regional ethics of what we do/don't eat
29:00 Family hunt camp and dead rattlesnakes that keep on wiggling
33:00 Childhood memories from the outdoors that persist
36:00 Artemis South Carolina does turkey camp!
38:00 What's different about a hunt with all women?
44:00 Finding turkeys (or not)
45:00 Hogs do the darnedest things
51:00 Are we ready for the Official Mary Lynn Fan Club yet?
It seems like a no-brainer: Let's conserve all wildlife, right? Jen Syrowitz of Washington state joins Artemis to talk about the importance of funding, which is possibly one of the least sexy parts of conservation. We also talk about upland bird hunting (dog, or no dog?), grouse, prairie chickens, and partridge.
6:00 Saving your seasonal bounty in the freezer... then realizing harvest time is almost upon us. Time to use those huckleberries/grouse/[insert food here]
7:30 Sand County Almanac
8:00 Graduate school in Manitoba to bird hunting to a conservation career
9:00 Conservation Northwest = the NWF affiliate in Washington state
11:00 Prairie chickens
15:00 Upland bird hunting: Dogs vs no dogs
19:00 First bird: a Hungarian partridge flushing overhead
21:00 Funding for wildlife management... but first, let’s go back to early environmental ed
26:00 How can we give people the right ecological literacy to understand (and participate in) wildlife management decisions?
31:00 We invest in what we know and love
32:00 Missouri conservation tax - a miniscule sales tax add-on that earns big
35:00 Recovering America's Wildlife Act - proposed legislation to fund conservation work to revive wildlife populations on the brink of ESA listing
41:00 Funding = the most unsexy conservation topic... but also vital
43:00 Northern gardening woes
45:00 Bear cub on the trail! Plus, channeling Tina Turner when you need her
49:00 Grassroots conservation + changing gender dynamics of land ownership
52:00 Missing a shot
53:00 "The honorable harvest" + Artemis book club: "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer
What does it mean to be a conservation advocate? It's different for every person. This week, Artemis ambassador Anne Jolliff talks about what she's learned over the past year about how to best advocate for wild spaces. She shares her "why" and her "how," and more on how it's going.
00:20 Montana Wildlife Federation + Artemis 101
1:00 "Go Confident as an Advocate" program
3:00 Ladies and gentlemen... we are hearing from a mother of 5-year-old triplets
6:00 Why be a conservation advocate?
8:00 First thing: What's holding you back?
10:00 The first time you speak up for something you believe in
13:00 Writing an op-ed, testifying at a hearing, sharing what you know with others
15:00 Preconceptions about what it means to "be an advocate"
16:00 "I'm not here to be the magic bullet that changes everyone's minds and pivots this whole discussion, as much as I would like it to... but I am going to show up."
21:00 When was the last time you changed your mind?
23:00 Wear fancy dresses in the dirt, ya'all
28:00 Start by watching... hearings, the political process, everything. Follow the groups that fit your beliefs. Engage. Reach out. Talk to people.
33:00 Don't be afraid to fail... failure is integral to how you learn this kind of thing
37:00 Ethos, logos, pathos
39:00 Bear! Right there!
Jodee Dixon joins Artemis this week to talk about bear hunting in southeast Alaska. We talk about spring versus fall bear fat, pie crust, trichinosis, skinning a hide for preservation, scouting tactics, and more. Plus, what does hunting do for our sense of self? It's kind of a forced meditation, which is a powerful experience -- both as it's happening, and months later when we enjoy our harvest at the table.
2:00 Cold-season gardening, y'all
5:00 How does hunting change our relationship to the natural world? (Hiking feels extremely anticlimactic, for one)
9:00 How bear hunting differs from other quarries, and predator vs. prey dynamics
15:00 Bear meat, spring vs. fall
17:00 Predator hunting... it's an intimate decision for some hunters
18:00 Trichinosis
23:00 Freeze in chunks for grinding later (even MUCH later)
25:00 Catch our 'What About the Hide?' episode (or the blog post) it inspired a bear-hide tanning project. Want to TRY a hide? Roadkill can be a good starting point
30:00 Ticks... or mosquitos? (Or devil's club?)
33:00 The zen of hunting for a distilled/strengthened self... a "forced meditation"
40:00 Boat-assisted bear hunting in Alaska (with a side of grouse)
42:00 Predator hunting: bears, wolves, cougars... it's different
43:00 Black bear kidney fat for pie crusts
47:00 Mind-blowing bear biology... body temperatures, the quick transition out of torpor, floating eggs, etc.
51:00 "A bear without its hide looks a lot like a person."
55:00 Skinning paws/nose/head for a hide destined for the taxidermist (and OTHER languishing hides)
56:00 Sleeping on the boat, dragging anchor, custom-sewn sheets for the v-berth
59:00 2021 Artemis Ambassador squad... assembly in process!
Yasss, pythons. Not a typo. This week on the podcast, we hear about how Amy Siewe went from snake lover to snake hunter -- and how her hunting pal Anne Gordon-Vega also became a python contractor. Pythons aren't native to Florida, and they wreak havoc on native ecosystems. So... when you find a 17-foot python big enough to swallow a deer, in the middle of the night, and you're alone... how DO you handle that?
3:30 Badass python-hunters are grandmas, too!
5:00 Life transition: Going from being a real estate broker in Indiana to a Florida python hunter
7:00 A brief history of pythons in Florida... a non-native, apex predator
9:30 "In the southern part of the state we've lost over 90% of all mammals." It's shocking. No opossums, no raccoons, no marsh rabbits.
12:00 Miami, drugs & exotic pets
14:00 Pythons are VERY difficult to find in the wild
15:00 What eats baby pythons? Plus, python breeding
17:00 Two python facts: They're the only snake that sits a nest, and the "babies" are 18-24 inches when they're born. (AH!)
18:00 When a python regurgitates the last four things it ate...
23:00 The contractor program in Florida - Florida Wildlife Commission; South Florida Water Management District
26:00 The python-hunting version of a Florida family vacay
30:00 Meeting your first deer-eater sized python at 2 a.m., laying over its body so it doesn't wrap you, and wrestling it into a bag
34:00 Snake-bagging 101
37:00 Catching a python on your ebike
40:00 Team-tagging pythons at night in dark, dark swamp water
43:00 Wrangling a 17-footer, with a timely assist from passing hunters
48:00 Python hunting is actually not much like how it's portrayed on reality TV
51:00 BSwanky handbag line from Florida pythons
52:00 Amy is a full-time python-hunter... and she also saves the skins for her own line of product. Find her online, Python Huntress
53:00 What does it PAY to be a python contractor? It's not about the money... "I do it out of love (for the Everglades), and -- I'll admit it -- adrenaline."
54:00 Python hunting is a night-time thing... outsiders can totally try it on vacation, but start by paying attention to the rules: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
55:00 The Florida Python Challenge - cash prizes! ATVs! Reptile stuff!
56:00 Are we putting a meaningful dent in the python problem?
58:00 Snake-tracking hound dogs
59:00 Find @PythonHunter_Amy on Insta, or PythonHuntress.com for those snake skin goods we mentioned; Find Anne on the FWC Python Contractor FB page
1:04 Turkey hunting! It's ON. (Dinner Island Ranch, where working cattle land meets public lands)
1:06 When mom makes you a snake bag for the record-breaker on the horizon... <3
Artemis ambassador Phoebe Stoner joins us this week to talk about becoming a hunter as an adult, and about realizing that serving on a board is for EVERYONE. We hear about hunting in the greater Yellowstone area, plus making a difference in the same region through service to municipal/non-profit boards. Also? That elk is SO MUCH BIGGER than a whitetail.
2:00 Rocky Mountain gardening... keeps you on your toes!
4:00 Growing up in a rural, ag-centric place in a progressive/liberal family
6:00 That first whitetail deer in the greater Yellowstone area... first deer, trembling arms
10:00 Being a new hunter, your mental checklist in the field can feel so long compared to people who grew up doing it... but it DOES get shorter over time
13:00 Hesitating and second-guessing... those things can be good
16:00 Hunting/fishing... it can be hours of low-key mellowness before 'the thing' happens and you're 0 to 100.... "everything I've been working for is right here!"
19:00 Serving as a board member on a conservation group... from interest to 'yes, I'll do it'
22:00 Being a 20-something in Jackson likely means you'll have approximately four jobs, have trouble finding a place to live... AND, if you don't ski, you also might feel like something of an outsider
25:00 Offering public testimony to a group of policy-makers... it's kind of what democracy is about
28:00 Boards... they're everywhere! Corporations, non-profits, city/county government, state government, state agencies, etc
29:00 Board service is a great way to interact deeply with people you might never otherwise meet; And you have useful expertise! Truly. Boards benefit from backgrounds of all kinds
32:00 Every board's dream: Engaged, responsive people (knack for tangent-killering is a bonus)
38:00 What exactly does it mean to be "an expert"? (Pssst... you don't need to be an expert to have something important to say.)
41:00 Board struggles... how to make them productive versus time-wasting? Good facilitation helps.
43:00 Being a 'yes person' can bring you to a lot of AMAZING opportunities... the harder part is nailing the work-life balance
44:00 "I'm a recovering people-pleaser." (More on this? NPR's Life Kit podcast on it is worth a listen, How to say no, for the people pleaser who always says yes.)
47:00 Spending your career as an advocate vs. volunteering as an advocate
54:00 First elk after deer... 'Wow, this is big'
55:00 When your body falls INTO the elk's body (AH!)
57:00 There ARE perks to learning things the hard way
59:00 Peer mentorship for ladies on boards, anyone? Like a book club, maybe?
1:03 Purchasing a raft with a partner, two doggie life jackets included... life = changed!! Plus, learning to steer the oar rig
1:06 A healthy appreciation for realizing you don't know anything
1:07 Happiness is... a new toilet you install yourself
1:08 Artemis 'Turkey Tactics' storytelling contest... check it out!
Sagebrush country covers loads of the Intermountain West. If you're passing through on the highway, it can look barren and brown -- but sagebrush is the backbone of a unique, American ecosystem. Anymore, sagebrush habitat (and the animals that depend on it) is threatened by change -- invasive weeds mean different fire regimes, and humans mean more weeds. Hunter and conservationist Hannah Nikonow joins Artemis to talk about the intricacies of this unique habitat, and why everyone should care about its survival.
3:00 Smoked grouse with a sweet brine (maple syrup, rose hips... oh yeah)
4:00 Intermountain West Joint Venture
6:30 A quick ode to sagebrush country
8:00 An Artemis flashback - Sagebrush in the Gros Ventre Wilderness video
10:30 Some species that depend on sage habitat: pygmy rabbits, sage grouse, sage thresher, sagebrush sparrow, antelope
13:00 The wicked weed trio: cheatgrass, ventenata, medusa head
18:00 Fire regimes before cheatgrass vs now
22:00 Juniper encroachment changes the functional properties of sage habitat
29:00 Lekking... and party-crashing eagles
35:00 Advocacy mantra: They stick out their breasts for us, so we should stick out our chest for them
36:00 Why should hunters care about sagebrush? And what that looks like in practice
38:00 Pick weed seeds of your shoes/dogs; watch your trailer chains; stay on designated trails
41:00 The war on cheatgrass
45:00 PartnersInTheSage.com for more on this miraculous habitat
52:00 It's hard out there for a chicken & trapping skunks (& removing skunk smells)
56:00 Changing the stock on your shotgun for a better fit
Mary Lynn (of beagle-pack fame) joins us again on Artemis to talk turkeys. We talk about which calls to use, which sounds to master, where to put all your calls, and just... all things turkey. How do you know when to wait on a bird versus moving on? What about when a 'Jolene' hen moves in on your tom?
3:00 Wild turkey grand slam: Eastern, Osceola, Rio Grande and Merriam's -- these are the four subspecies of turkey you're after.
3:30 There's also the Royal Slam, the World Slam, the Canadian Slam, the Mexican Slam, and the U.S. Super Slam... there's a slam for everyone. More about the Slams at National Wild Turkey Federation.
3:45 Osceola turkey... looks like a cross between a turkey and a peacock
5:00 See turkeys in your state? Give a nod to groups like the National Wild Turkey Federation
7:00 Artemis' Turkey Tactics webinar
8:00 Turkey calls, from age five to present
10:00 Playing gobble 'hide-and-seek' in the house with Dad (OR, the country-girl version of Marco Polo
11:00 First turkey hunt as an 11-year-old – annoying a hen, calling in the whole flock, and dad-and-daughter turkeys for the freezer
13:00 On turkey hunting: "You won't always be successful... but you'll develop a story or a memory."
17:00 Turkey vest confessional... a go-to set-up
20:00 Decoy strategy
23:00 Vests versus backpacks
24:00 Gobblers come in silently, it's important for YOU to be silent, too
29:00 When to gobble at a tom vs. when to sound like a hen; Plus, calling in spring vs. fall
33:00 When a 'Jolene' hen moves in on your gobbling tom
37:00 The "shut up and wait 'em out" approach to bringing in a tom
39:00 How do you decide when to wait, and when to move? It's complicated.
40:00 Strut zones
42:00 Turkeys are highly tuned to noises and movement (versus smell)
44:00 A beginner's guide to turkey calls (and calling!)
46:00 Cluck, yelp, purr
50:00 Getting out there before sun-up, location calling, and the 'shock gobble'
56:00 Don't overthink it; Simplicity is success
1:02 Marcia's wake-sleep cycle rabbit hole: Huberman Lab podcast
Anna Le loves to watch students see a salmon in the wild for the first time, igniting a spark of wonder she hopes will stick with them into the future. As an outdoor educator, Le ponders how we can get people to develop a reciprocal relationship with the natural world and support BIPOC and underserved students to feel comfortable and fired up on nature. Le shares what it's like to become an outdoorswoman as an adult, and how we can best foster these experiences for teenagers.
4:00 "This is what I want to do the rest of my life... is connect with people on the water, have these beautiful conversations, and also show students and people their first salmon. That was the best part of my job."
5:00 Notable aquariums: Long Beach, and Newport
6:00 Brown Folks Fishing Lab
8:30 Quality of gear DOES influence how well we're able to enjoy cold water days
9:00 Fly-fishing and the flow state
10:00 Wal-Mart fishing poles with a hot dog on the hook
11:00 Conservation job perks: Steelheading might count as a 'work day'
13:00 SalmonWatch brings middle-schoolers out to the forest to show them the life cycle of a salmon
15:00 Bridging urban culture with the natural world (that mulch isn't going to ruin your shoes!)
19:00 Legislation in Oregon that lets every kid go to outdoor school
24:00 Meaningful outdoors education in older kids is sometimes as simple as planting the seed of something new... a subject matter, a lifestyle... it's a ripple effect
29:00 Blunders when you're new to the outdoors scene: Rolling up to a park you've wanted to visit and realizing all the campsites have been booked for months (psst... it was a success anyway!)
32:00 When you're building competency in a new field, it's a journey of research and asking for help
34:00 Artemis course: Go Confident in the Wild
37:00 Tips for teaching in the Zoom Age
39:00 Find Anna on Insta, @anna_venturing
42:00 Extension officers for the win
44:00 That moment in spring when you FINALLY know what your next seasonal job is... high five!
Mary Lynn of eastern Tennessee hunts with a pack of beagles trained to track and push rabbits. She's also a turkey hunter, a hunting mentor for many youth, and a remarkable human. This week: beagles, training hounds, why shooting rabbits sometimes feels harder than upland birds, barefooted turkey hunts, and getting the 'middle feather' from Texas gobblers.
2:00 Tennessee Wildlife Federation webinar with Ashley and Mary: Women in the Outdoors
3:00 Grouse: not ubiquitous in Tennessee
5:00 Mary Lynn of Light 'Em Up Kennels
5:30 A lot of the pack members are super socialized to people (translate: they love to be loved on)
8:00 Hunting with beagles is super fun for kids... on par with a giant Tootsie Pop
9:00 A real-life "Where the Red Fern Grows" story of a boy and a hound dog
13:00 Hitting a running rabbit is way different than hitting an upland bird
15:00 Rabbit country is tough-going -- briars, brambles, cover, etc
16:00 When the rabbit "checks" (clever as coons!)
18:00 Rabbits... "the M&Ms of the woods" ... everything wants to eat them
20:00 Cottontails vs. swamp rabbits vs. snowshoes
22:00 Rabbits usually run a circle
28:00 Montana jackrabbit... and the grand slam (grand thump?) of rabbit hunting
30:00 Rabbit & dumplings, rabbit stew, fried rabbit... mmm
33:00 How fast can you get a bead on it?
34:00 What aerial clays are to target practice for birds, there's a ground equivalent (rabbit clays) that bounces to help train your eye for more erratic ground quarry
37:00 The Alaska woman who made 'yarn' from her rabbit hides and wove with them
38:00 Hound dogs for subsistence hunting (aka 'meat dogs'), feists, black-mouth curs
42:00 Correlation between wearing hunter-orange and seeing rabbits
44:00 Want to give it a try? Look to Facebook groups first. Most important thing: Don't give up on your puppy. It takes time.
47:00 Mentoring youth on turkey hunts
50:00 When turkeys give you the middle feather... hmph
54:00 Texas turkeys versus Tennessee turkeys... "Wut you think that clicking noise is... gobble?"
58:00 Barefoot turkey hunting
Yana Robertson of Missoula, Montana, grew up in a traditional bowhunting household. Today she practices bushcraft and primitive skills when she's not in front of a computer running her fashion business, Feral Lyfe. Yana joins us to talk about backcountry survival, traditional bowhunting, and on how being a weirdo can be totally awesome.
2:00 Meet your local extension agent, folks
5:00 Families that smoke jerky together stay together [fist bump emoji]
7:00 Growing up in a traditional bowhunting family, and perpetuating that tradition with your own family, plus a little bushcraft & primitive survival fun on the side
9:30 Making awesome memories from those days when you don't bring home any meat... like the time a bull elk was so close it was almost within stabbing range... that's CLOSE
15:00 Learning traditional hunting from your grandma (plus baking, sewing, the works)
18:00 What does it mean to be a survivalist? It means to know your woods, your piece of nature, and be able to survive there if you have to. (Bushcraft and primitive skills are basically synonyms)
21:00 Where to start? Start small... know the plants around you, the trees
22:00 Serious versus fun... WHICH DO YOU WANT FIRST?!
23:00 You only get a handful of things to survive. What are they? Ferro rod, bow, embroidery kit, multitool, axe or saw, fishing line & hook, paracord. (Just kidding on the embroidery kit.)
28:00 Feral fashion freak? Eff yes.
30:00 Feral Lyfe on Insta, this is Yana's brand of clothes inspired entirely by the outdoors. Trout leggings... we all need them! The pandemic has made us leggings connoisseurs
35:00 Where do you meet your best buds? Events like brain-tanning extravaganzas
36:00 Psst... don't miss the hide-tanning episode with Charlotte Sykes: What about the hide?
42:00 Primitive period management... oh yeah, we're going there (Want more? Check out our "three Ps" episode on Pee, Poop & Periods: 3Ps with Anastasia Allison of Kulat Cloth)
47:00 Artemis and Feral Lyfe are doing a leggings giveaway! Check out Artemis and Feral Lyfe on Insta for the specifics. Also check out FeralLyfe.com, or... even find Feral Lyfe on TikTok
50:00 Idaho Trails Association women's only horse-packing clinic
54:00 Artemis made the 20 Rad Female-Led Outdoor podcasts list ... check us out alloutdoor.com. All the chest feathers are puffed right now
55:00 Turkey tactics... you can still get in on this! The first webinar was amazing. $5 gets you in the door. Register here.
This week... hide tanning! Charlotte Sykes is a hunter from England who started keeping all her game hides the same year her husband decided he'd eat only game meat. Charlotte's journey has fledged into a business, Buckskyn, where she sells goods made from the hides she tans herself. Join us this week for a chat on how to get into hide tanning, an overview of the at-home process -- plus springer spaniels, salt-marsh lamb, and more.
3:00 "Salt-marsh bred lamb"... the most delicious?
5:00 Kale, cabbages & brassicas all winter long
8:00 English springer spaniels on either side of the Atlantic
11:00 The year we only ate game
14:00 Learning curve of tanning hides
17:00 The play-by-play of hide tanning, starting with post-harvest
19:00 "You've got to be quite happy to put a bit of grunt behind it."
22:00 Meat prep room in your next house, anyone?
24:00 Can you sub anything for the tedious task of working a hide over a fleshing beam? Enter... YOUTUBE. (Spoiler: It's a pressure washer.)
27:00 Pickling stage
30:00 A non-traditional use for a sander!
31:00 One hide = three weeks start to finish
33:00 Traditional tanning vs commercial tanning products
35:00 Buckskyn - Charlotte's deerskin/hide accessory business, where each product comes with a hunting/harvest story
37:00 The ABCs of sewing with hides
40:00 Fleshing rabbits
44:00 Navigating the bullet hole
50:00 First trout!
52:00 Find Buckskyn on Insta; or online at Buckskyn.com
53:00 Artemis blog post, "What About the Hide?"
54:00 Matt Richards book on hide tanning: The Ultimate Guide to Skinning and Tanning
56:00 Artemis Turkey Tactics! If you're not in on the fun, it's only $5 to join -- get the scoop on turkey hunting and bump heads with other hunters as we all get our gobble on this spring
58:00 Artemis 'Go Confident' as an Advocate -- another program off the ground, which is off to a hot start
1:00:00 Past life: living in an Airstream by the river
Britt Longoria’s education and career journey took her to Africa, where she had the opportunity to experience an incredible landscape and its animals. At home in Texas, Longoria is still a hunter - and her passion is exploring how the hunting community can tell stories that share with the world the emotion, the adventure, and the “why” of our journey as hunters.
00:35 Rabbit-hunting with beagles. Is there anything cuter? See the pics in the Artemis Facebook group!
2:00 Gazelle vs. whitetail, plus breeding Dama gazelle for land management
3:00 Need hamburger inspiration? Try South African Bobotie curry
6:00 Telling the story of hunting heritage - Hunters feel their pursuit is moral; non-hunters often feel the opposite
7:00 Stories from individuals are sometimes better received than stories from a group as a whole... speaking from the heart versus the head
10:00 Hunting as a connection to place, spirit, and self
13:00 The discussion about who hunts and why should be complex... #alltheshadesofgray
15:00 Back to the beagles, everyone
17:00 "You don't win hearts and minds with facts and figures."
22:00 Telling your story often means exposing yourself to the worst of social media
24:00 Childbirth and hunting – both experiences are powerful, visceral, and lifechanging. How do we convey the depth of the experience and help it connect with people who’ve never experienced it?
30:00 When you lack connection to the natural world, it's easy to disassociate your thoughts from death -- especially when, say, you're feeding yourself
35:00 Lord Derby eland - worth a Google search, everyone!
37:00 Film slides on a carousel #blastfromthepast
40:00 Hunting in Africa - a totally unique experience
43:00 How do you get home from overseas hunts with meat?
45:00 The tradition of oral storytelling in the hunting world; photos can be easy to misunderstand
46:00 @HonorTheHunt on Instagram, beyond the trophy shot
49:00 Ashley's kidney pie with venison shanks and pork kidneys... that awful feeling when something turns out inedible
51:00 Find more of Britt's storytelling work at BrittLongoria.com and @brittlongoria
52:00 Sometimes that $16 DoorDash burrito is worth every penny
Ali Bair has managed to wrangle the lifestyle so many of us want -- cobbling together a career that matches our lifestyle. Ali is a fly-fishing guide in Colorado during the summers and works as a filmmaker in the off-season. This week we're talking about guide-life, the Covid fly-fishing boom, and how thinking beyond the all-day float trip opens up fly-fishing to more people.
3:00 Backcountry trout at camp = mmmm
7:00 Guiding the same rivers/places you fished as a kid
8:30 Seasonal double-life: fishing guide in the summers, filmmaker the rest of the year
10:00 Family vacay to Stanley Estes Park Hotel, aka the hotel from The Shining
15:00 Arkansas bass-fishing tips... black leech? White leech? Or huge 'ol dry flies like the grasshopper?
17:30 "Being a good guide goes so much beyond being good at fishing."
19:00 How you take an 18-month-old fly-fishing (don't opt out of the baby waders! Or worms getting cast into your face)
22:00 Pandemic was EXCELLENT for fly-fishing - AND - buying a fly-fishing business! Check out Sasquatch Fly Fishing
27:30 The "River Runs Through It" soundtrack... a personal fishing anthem in Montana
30:00 Fly-fishing business models: There's the two-custys-and-a-guide float trip program, AND other stuff -- like a backcountry hike to those harder-to-reach wade-fishing spots
33:00 Getting people into a basic fly-fishing experience is huge in recruiting new customers who'll come back summer after summer (like the $65/person intro trip at Sasquatch Fly Fishing)
36:00 Reel Women - guide service in the Tetons that operates trips everywhere
40:00 Making fly-fishing less cost-prohibitive
42:00 This is it! The podcasting version of a Fly-Fishing 101 lesson, where Ali talks us through casting
49:00 When you're casting, what's happening behind you can tell you more about what you're doing than what happens in front of you
53:00 Fishing isn't a 'guy's space' -- on family vacay or anytime else... it's for everyone! Yay!
1:00:00 Pandemic self-launches an online vintage clothing business, Little Vagabond Vintage - the perfect complement to a person who cobbles together income from things they're passionate about
1:00:05 Finally getting that bear hide from two years ago after the taxidermist lost your phone number... #bestmoment Big bear, tiny house.
What exactly do fish do all winter under the ice? It's a surprisingly ambiguous question. Almost everything we know about fish comes from studying them in warm weather. Aquatic Ecologist Bailey McMeans joins us to talk about what fish are up to in the depth of winter. Did you know fish brains are actually bigger in the winter than in the summer? Join us for a peek at what fish are up to under the ice.
3:00 What nudges a warmth-loving person to dwell in a cold place? The Greenland shark, for starters
5:00 How can the same fish cope with vast temperature extremes?
6:00 "Booger-freezing cold"
8:00 Canadian lakes: Wonderful systems for studying seasonal variations and the effect on marina fauna
12:00 Do you notice a difference in the quantity of fish caught when you're fishing under an ice tent versus au plein air? Light pouring into the water column... does it make a difference to fish?
13:00 Almost everything we know about fish comes from studying them in the summer
15:00 Studying fish brains in summer versus winter. WUUUT?! The size of the fish brain changes, everyone!
18:00 Is winter actually a time of scarcity for top-of-the-food-web fish in frozen lakes?
24:00 Does brain size increase/decrease in sync with cognitive demands? Like spawning, or navigation, maybe?
27:00 Fish are like most species, they have an optimal temperature range. But even for coldwater fish species, cold temps are still a challenge
33:00 Cold water: Colder; less light; and under a layer of ice, there's less oxygen exchange with the atmosphere
37:00 Isn't it kind of cool how much we still don't know?
38:00 Experiential knowledge from ice fishers is a huge boon to the study of winter ecology and fish... they're also integral to the whole 'catching fish' part of the study
46:00 What fish strike at also tells us about their underwater winter life
47:00 Spear(ice)fishing for muskie and northern pike with a decoy
49:00 Finding prey without vision (like possibly by using smell, movement sensing)
51:00 Do we care more about species we know intimately?
55:00 In the winter, the coldest water CAN be at the surface
57:00 Dr. McMeans wants to hear from you! Does the type/size of bait you use in winter differ than what you use in open-water season? Do you ever catch warm-water species, like bass, under the ice? If so, how do you catch them? If you have ideas to share, find us in the Artemis Facebook group.
58:00 How do you learn ice-fishing?
1:00:01 Hank Shaw's kidney pie #offal #notawful
1:00:03 Winter lake ice is changing/melting in the same vein as sea ice
1:00:06 Artemis Turkey Tactics! Join us for a webinar series on turkey-everything. Plus, swag, everyone! A huge thank you to GotGameTech (awesome mobile apps to teach you how to call game) and PegLegs Customs (beautiful handmade turkey calls) for their generous support of this event! Go check ‘em out.
This week Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson introduced an infrastructure proposal to remove the lower Snake River dams. It's a move the conservation community has been working towards for decades. The four dams on the lower Snake impede salmon and steelhead migration. In the farthest reaches of the watershed, runs have all but declined to a trickle. Joining Artemis to talk about Rep. Simpson's proposal is Betsy Emery from The Association of Northwest Steelheaders.
2:00 The Association of Northwest Steelheaders Oregon NWF affiliate. (Psst... check out their women's program!
5:00 Steelhead fishing at a glance: Wow, this is cold and boring. THEN, a fish strikes and you immediately get why this is such a thing
6:30 Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson releases huge energy and salmon concept to restore salmon in the Pacific Northwest through the removal of the Snake River dams
8:00 The decline of salmon in our lifetime has been positively precipitous, leading to season closures and the decline of an entire sporting industry
11:00 Salmon/steelhead lifecycle 101; plus, steelhead = ocean-going rainbow trout, which are huge
13:00 Baby salmon & steelhead... it's a wild ride to the ocean!
16:00 Salmon and steelhead return brings a remarkable influx of nutrients inland from the ocean #goshdarnamazingcycleoflife
16:00 How do we weigh economic production (dams/electricity) against the survival of a species?
17:00 Crossing dams is a hotspot for smolt mortality
19:30 "Every time a smolt interacts with a dam, their chance of returning to the mouth of the river as an adult drops 10%."
24:00 Ocean conditions are sometimes portrayed as a scapegoat for salmon/steelhead decline
26:00 Salmon runs on the John Day River (3 dams) versus the Snake (8 dams)
27:00 Smolt-to-adult rate -- the quantity of juveniles that survive and return to spawn. For Idaho salmon, it's less than 2%
33:00 "The Energy and Salmon Concept" initiative by Rep. Mike Simpson - it specifically looks at the lower four dams on the Snake River in Washington, not the dams on the Columbia
37:00 Stakeholders affected by dam removal: Farmers/irrigators, barge commerce, even a small cruise industry
40:00 The infrastructure proposal isn't an item of legislation... it's more of a collaborative effort in the making to work toward dam removal
43:00 Want to learn more? A couple links: The Association of Northwest Steelheaders; Idaho Wildlife Federation
46:00 Zoom testimony on legislation... TIME, everyone... SO MUCH TIME
47:00 Artemis's "Go Confident as an Advocate" series – background info on important conservation issues, how to draft meaningful public comment, write an op-ed for the paper, and generally be informed enough to advocate for things important to you
Brianne Lauro had a very specific idea of who she wanted to be, professionally, when she left the island of Hawaii to study fisheries management on the Mainland. But the deeper she got into her studies, the more she realized that her family's culture of knowing the sea was also science... so why wasn't it being included in management decisions? Brianne tells us about receiving the wisdom of the ocean from her elders, something that happened when she showed up and asked.
2:00 Pssst... in case you missed it, Artemis is accepting applications for 2021 ambassadors! Apply here! We're also hiring a communications coordinator to work on Artemis and other NWF projects
3:30 Octopus, or tako finally makes an appearance in our freezer selfies! This is the time of year when octopi are venturing from the deep into the shallows, making it an opportune time for harvest
4:00 Octopus harvesting is usually learned from family, person to person
6:00 Hawaii has nearly year-round hunting; Growing up in a hunting family there means you can get out a lot
7:00 Studying fisheries management to get a toehold in the door for local people, who are sometimes occluded from wildlife/land management processes
12:00 Higher education utterly changes your lens on the world... changing majors to fit a changing world view
16:00 Are degree'd outsiders making most of the decisions? How can community knowledge and connection to place be of equal value to research when it comes to how we make land management decisions?
18:00 Find Brianne Lauro on Insta @Brianne_Lauro
20:00 Listening to the elders in your family and absorbing their wisdom about your family's place
23:00 We have to ASK if we want to RECEIVE knowledge from older people, and their knowledge of a landscape is totally different than ours, in many cases
27:00 Being nomadic at certain times of your life sometimes grows your vision, but it's also time you're missing out on knowing one place intimately
30:00 Culture changes when people move away. It used to be unheard of to meet a Native Hawaiian who didn't know how to catch fish -- but that's changing
31:00 The middle ground between being a youth and being an elder
35:00 Don't ask kids, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" -- try asking, "What kind of person do you want to be? What values do you want to hold?"
41:00 By documenting elders, sometimes we pay attention to their knowledge better -- watching the moon, the tides, the sky -- and then knowing how fish respond
45:00 First-hand experiential and generational knowledge is as valuable as empirical science
48:00 Research alone can't solve big conservation problems
56:00 Don't forget to join us on Facebook! Artemis has a super-fun Facebook group for listeners!
Hannah Leonard's first toe into the sporting world was noticing that eating game didn't aggravate her Crohn's disease. Since then, she's become an angler and hunter, all while pursuing a master's thesis in how conservation can use marketing tactics to increase its impact and effectiveness. She joins us this week on Artemis to talk heart recipes, conservation strategy, and about what it's like to run Missoula's fly-fishing film festival.
3:00 Feeding your dad some deer heart, plus pheasant chili
5:30 When the sound of your safety clicking off spooks the deer you're aiming for... #facepalm (... but... this situation turns around!)
6:00 Mansplaining versus bonafide help (Spoiler: You CAN click that safety off less aggressively)
8:00 When your first big-game harvest drops quickly... #sothankful
9:00 Hunting, harvesting, butchering, euro-mounting with a new partner
10:00 Cooking a deer heart - the MeatEater recipe for a whiskey/coffee rub is hard to beat
12:00 Salt-soaking a heart to draw out some of the blood flavor
14:00 New to angling? Try choosing ONE river/fishing spot to master
16:00 Growing up opposed to hunting... and then getting a little closer, and a little closer, trying some game meat, liking it, and taking the journey in
19:00 Resource conservation and marketing -- instead of using marketing to get people to buy stuff, can we use it to sway someone's decision-making on conservation issues??
28:00 Example: can you nudge landowners toward conservation easement decisions?
31:00 "Nudge" by Richard Thaler ... what is a "nudge unit"? Let's talk behavioral economics for a minute
35:00 There's a fine line between not being creepy, and also targeting the specific landowners most likely to make a sound conservation decision on their property
38:00 It's equal parts creepy/powerful to see how Instagram/Facebook can predict what we're shopping for... is there a conservation tool lurking in our midst?
43:00 Would conservation groups make more headway on their goals if they strategically targeted their effort toward would-be decision makers, versus every individual interested in their cause?
47:00 Hannah Leonard's thesis is up for perusal here: A Conservation Marketing Toolkit
48:00 "The Hidden Brain" - a wonderful podcast to explore unconscious patterns that drive human behavior
49:00 Why does game meat get along better with Crohn's disease?
52:00 How many great fishermen/women started on a Tweetie Bird spin rod?
55:00 Missoula Fly Gals - Monday fly-tying night over Zoom, with project materials available for pickup at the Missoula Angler (shop link)
57:00 Missoula Fly Fishing Festival benefitting The Mayfly Project
59:00 Who else wants to go fishing with April Vokey? (Check out her podcast here, The Anchored Podcast)
1:02 At 5am on a Friday, why not embroider on the couch with a survival show on? #bestlife
Hunter and trapper Jen Davis joins us from Michigan, where she shares about the value system that led her to sporting, and that also leads her to be simultaneously a part of groups like the National Trapper's Association AND the Sierra Club. Plus, Michigan muskrat dinners, a tricky turkey hunt, and the opportune (or inopportune?) fortune of spotting game on a pee break.
2:00 Buying an old house in rural Idaho... the things you'll find!
7:00 One freezer for food, one for curiosities
9:00 Saving feathers for a down vest (and jewelry/flies) - plucking, cleaning and keeping
12:30 Jen Davis is a longtime alum of Artemis events - Shotgun 101 seminar and Storytelling Great Lakes
14:30 On being a tumbleweed kind of person versus the taproot kind of person
20:00 Being a hunter for years with no harvest... then trying for a heavily regulated turkey hunt, and getting a generous call back from a DNR employee loaded with helpful tips
24:00 Setting up your pop-up blind in the presence of turkeys! Then trying to escape for a pee break, only to see a tom turkey barreling toward your decoys
32:00 Pee breaks and hunting windfalls
34:00 Being a new hunter, showing up to a trailhead and seeing other cars there, and not being sure how to handle it
37:00 Muskrat trapping & Michigan muskrat dinners (yep)... plus, learning to trap
41:00 Trapping as humane harvest
48:00 The night traps are out - it can be a sleepless night
51:00 Being a trapper AND being in the Sierra Club (and struggling to fit into any single group squarely)
56:00 "I really want to connect personally with my place in the natural order of things."
59:00 An excerpt from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, "These animals will die by his hand. But first they will live well, in part by his hand. His lifestyle - which I had condemned, without understanding - protects the forest, the lakes and the rivers -- not just for him and the furbearers, but also for the forests being. A harvest is made honorable when it sustains the giver and the taker."
1:00:00 Artemis book club, round two?
1:05:00 Welcome-to-the-neighborhood gifts: Molasses cookies versus dead ducks
Val Titus is a scientist whose work looks into a variety of topics, like what we can learn from the bioaccumlation of toxins in long-lived turtles (like from lead ammo, among other sources). When she's not doing research or teaching science, Val is a hunter who A). offers a wild game and drink pairing course, and B). introduces other scientists and conservationists to sporting through a group called Conservation Leaders of Tomorrow.
2:00 Becca's back! And Marcia is a closet tea fanatic
5:00 Yogurt vs. sour cream on the chili/fajitas/burritos - WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON!?
6:00 Netflix docuseries: "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" on complementary tastes in cooking... time to add "umami" to your vocabulary!
8:00 What can turtles tell us about the bioaccumulation of lead from ammunition in our water systems? (P.S. A snapping turtle can live to be 100 years old... lots of data there!)
11:00 Did you catch the Kodi Jo Jaspers episode on non-lead ammo?
14:00 Looking at metal accumulation in the blood samples from old versus young turtles
18:00 Aging a turtle? Look for size and belly rings
22:00 Hunting History, Ethics & Management class at Green Mountain College in Vermont
24:00 Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow - a group that seeks to bring scientists and conservation workers into the field to introduce them to sporting culture
29:00 Spawning an adult-onset hunter through tactful exposure and education
29:30 "You're a liberal and... you... hunt?"
30:00 Vermont's "right to roam" private property laws
34:00 In academia, too - introducing biologists/foresters/would-be outdoorsmen and women to hunting
38:00 Rabbit hunting with beagles
41:00 #childhoodmemories - Road-tripping with the family beagle and watching him jump out of a window onto the highway after spotting a rabbit #beaglefacepalm
43:00 Wild game and drink pairing
48:00 Artemis kitchen challenges with game.... breakfast for dinner! Mardi gras! St. Patty's Day!
50:00 Becca's adventure buying a 100-year-old farmhouse in rural Idaho... yay, Becca!
56:00 Artemis Southeast Storytelling Event on Jan. 21 at 6:30 EST
57:00 We're growing our ranks! Want to be an Artemis ambassador? Check out our 2021 Artemis Ambassador Application.
Carla Brauer was a vegan and animal rights activist in her teens. These days, she's a farmer, stockwoman, hunter, and... wait for it... a taxidermist! We talk about how you can change your diet without changing your ethics, dermastid beetles, and what it's like to give a TED Talk on your transition from vegan to hunter.
2:00 Dallas, Oregon (not The Dalles... and not Texas)
3:00 Living that double-freezer life - one for food, one for taxidermy
5:00 #pandemicpig in the freezer AND king pigeons... they're like big white fat doves (AND... Oregon's big bad rats)
8:00 Rat terriers to the rescue!
9:30 The personal journey of a former vegan/animal-rights activist who became more open-minded to eating meat, animal husbandry, and even taxidermy
13:00 Meeting a woman who took in 50-some chickens as rescues... and ended up selling their eggs to help pay for their keep. Vegan eggs? A eureka moment: You don't have to change your ethics to change your diet
16:00 The problem with a black-and-white approach to food (example: veganism has a hard line in the sand)
20:00 That gap between thinking 'maybe I want to try hunting' to actually getting out there... where do I even start? Like, how do I learn to shoot a gun? (It started with someone's generosity.)
22:00 Years of hunting with no success
23:00 Public lands hunting... it's intimidating. Finding a farm with a deer problem was a better first start
26:00 Reconciling your former vegan self (and social circle) with your emerging hunter/farmer self
28:00 Farming and making money farming are very different things... also, that point when you realize you're making more off quail skulls than vegetables
31:00 Dermastid beetle husbandry
33:00 "I had a lot of access to severed heads... as one does."
34:00 Carla's TED Talk
36:00 Hunting came (long) before agriculture... but does innovation allow us to evolve away, morally, from animal consumption?
41:00 Hiking/birdwatching/other outdoors pursuits... are they a surrogate for what hunting used to give us?
45:00 The hunting mindset follows you everywhere outdoors once it's in your frame of mind
47:00 The experience of doing a TED Talk (!!!) - and also of seeing animal rights protesters at your talk
54:00 ANYONE can be a hunter... and it's important for the sporting community to embrace that
55:00 The goal of meaningful conversation isn't to change minds... it's to plant seeds
58:00 Skulls to hides... and a self-built, wire-wheel fleshing machine
Join Artemis Southeast online for a fireside chat - Jan. 14 at 5 p.m. Mountain! Register Here!
Artemis has been on the air for one year now... a whole year! Here's a short, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the podcast, Hits and Misses style. (Pssst... blooper reel, everyone!)
Allie d'Andrea, better known as Outdoors Allie in the social media space, joins us to talk about what it's like to become a social media powerhouse in the hunting and fishing world... as a beginner hunter. There are trolls, for sure -- but there are also a lot of people out there eager to follow someone learning to hunt and fish. Why now? We talk about the journey, and what that means to aspiring hunters and fishers who don't have a mentor and turn online for help.
3:30 Getting deep off the bat: You start a new job, then lose a parent, and then a new colleague you've never met sends you a package of flies with a condolence note - these are big, wonderful human gestures from the Artemis community
7:00 Spur-of-the-moment weddings, ya'll!
9:00 The life transitions that connect us to the sporting world
13:00 Non-hunting couple becomes hunting couple
15:00 Allie's Instagram page
16:00 First Lite: A workplace where people live and breathe hunting
20:00 Putting your story out there on social media... there's positive and negative feedback. The positive is so heartwarming it makes the trolls bearable.
23:00 A 2018 float trip with Maggie and Allie and being honest about your beginner’s experience
26:00 If you're interested in hunting/fishing, but you don't have anyone to mentor you -- you're pretty much learning online. That's your 'mentor' to the outdoors
28:00 We need experts sharing good information, but it's a whole 'nother niche to show the beginner's sporting space. "Watch my learning curve in real time" is Allie's sweet spot
31:00 Insta trolls... #hatersgonnahate
32:00 #mythbusting - Rack size (on your ungulate) is not correlated to your skill level or experience
35:00 Telling the food story versus the trigger/trophy story
38:00 Cooking with deer, duck, raccoon fat and more. Elevated Wild compares wild game fats.
41:00 Balancing meaningful connection in the outdoors with having a career that's ABOUT you documenting connection to the outdoors. (Sometimes you just don't film... the fear of burnout is real.)
44:00 Hunt to Eat's new Green Wave shirts... pretty rad!
45:00 When your high school bestie shoots her first deer and guts it perfectly
56:00 Saltwater fishing
1:00:00 A rough week for chickens
1:04 Liver is a beautiful, silky-smooth piece of meat... but the taste is unique, and there's SO MUCH of it. Should you cook/eat it every time if you don't really like it? (Adding cheese, everyone!)
1:08 Words from Glennon Doyle to close out our year: "We want to be on the mountain tops, but we're not called to be victorious. We're called to be wise, strong and kind. We are admired on the mountain tops, but we are beloved in the valleys...." #getyerkleenex #theresmore
Ella Willms was raised in a hunting family in Wyoming, and she's joined her dad in the field as long as she can remember. This fall was Ella's first year as a licensed hunter. She joins Artemis to tell us all about that experience, and how it feels different when you’re the one behind the gun.
2:30 Artemis 2021...SO MANY IDEAS. Florida spearfishing on the list!
4:00 Imagine growing up in a family where the freezer is full of moose, elk, deer, pheasant, dove, antelope, etc.
5:30 Growing up in a hunting family, then turning 12, and becoming a licensed hunter yourself
6:00 "It's just really fun, I guess. We experience new things every time, and it's like a new adventure. It's never the same."
7:00 Hunting deer, encountering a sow bear and cubs clunking out of a tree
10:00 First hunt... so much going on! Bucks and does moving in and out, and keeping an eye on YOUR animal
12:30 Being behind the gun versus watching someone else's hunt
15:30 Deer tacos - a celebratory first meal! Bringing food to the table is a special feeling
18:00 "Hunts with dads are always fun"
19:00 Advice to parents? Be patient. Kids will take their shot when they're ready
24:00 Labradors at the beach: WHY DOES THIS WATER TASTE DIFFERENT?!
26:00 Does the satisfaction of a good shot ever go away?
27:00 If you're feeling generous and able to give this holiday season, please consider Artemis (artemis.nwf.org/donate) - all money generously given goes to supporting programs that connect sportswomen
In the last of our series with scientists from the Monteith Shop, we talk with Rachel Smiley and Brittany Wagler about their research understanding pneumonia in bighorn sheep herds. Several pneumonia pathogens are common across a handful of Wyoming herds, but some herds seem more susceptible than others to outbreak. Plus, you've heard of 'super-spreaders' in the Covid era... do sheep have the same kind of individuals?
5:00 Vegetarian to hunter transition
8:00 Evolution as a hunter: With family, by yourself as your beliefs of ethical hunting change, then back to hunting with others again
9:30 Hunting with your sci-gal pals is pretty great!
12:30 Bighorn sheep are susceptible to respiratory pneumonia, which can have an impact on population dynamics year to year. What are the environmental factors (habitat/nutrition/physiology) that influence pneumonia vulnerability?
13:30 Research questions: What's the energetic cost of a sheep getting pneumonia? Are antibodies passed to offspring? Are different herds affected differently?
15:00 Whiskey Basin herd in Wyoming had a big outbreak in the '90s, which led to a big, all-ages die-off of many members of the herd... they're STILL recovering. The Jackson herd has also had outbreaks, but recovery's been better. Why is that?
21:00 Collaring lambs vs. fawns... apples to oranges
22:00 So... how DO you collar a lamb?
27:00 Pneumonia in bighorn sheep comes from contact with domestic sheep. Most of that contact has been eliminated, but about five pathogens persist
31:00 Same sheep herd, very different use of the same habitat... and we ask, does this influence pneumonia susceptibility?
36:00 Different individuals can have odd behavior/migration patterns... what do they tell us about a population?
41:00 Ice bath?... enema?... it's all in the semantics
44:00 Most sheep herds have the same pathogens in them, but they don't always result in symptomatic pneumonia
47:00 You've heard about Covid super-spreaders... here's a take on how that plays out in bighorn sheep (which don't socially distance or wear masks)
50:00 Being an ungulate biologist requires a lot of the same skills as hunting... and optimism! You have to be a believer to know you can catch a sheep lamb in the wilderness
59:00 Minimizing disturbance in the backcountry is one of the best things you can do for sheep
1:04 Are we scientist/hunters, or scientist hunters? (Grammar save lives!)
1:11 Looking for a lamb... finding a cougar! And realize the lamb is in the cat's belly and its collar is in the cougar's cave
1:18 Need more Monteith Shop in your life? Find them online at UngulateCompendium.org, or on Instagram @Monteith.Shop... and find Artemis online in our Facebook group. We'd love to have you!
BONUS EPISODE: It's not every day we appropriate the identity of old, bearded white guys... but if we could be Santa (or Oprah) for a day, here's what we'd be stuffing under your tree. From electronic earplugs to a unique dressing tool called the Butt Out, we've got gift picks from Artemis host Marcia Brownlee, Artemis coordinator Ashley Chance, and Artemis ambassador Genevieve Villamizar. By no means a comprehensive list... but who doesn't benefit from learning what's in other folks' equipment quiver?
2:45 - Minimal approach to gear - one set of stuff that crosses all your hobbies outside
3:57 - "Buy the best you can with what you can afford"
5:36 - First gift of the season... electronic earplugs! Yes, it's a thing! Hearing damage is cumulative... every single shot does damage. Great for duck/upland hunters.
8:25 - Also... buying used earplugs... what does this say about someone!? #tenacious
8:50 - Second gift of the season: A membership at the local shooting range is a total gem of a gift. You get to handle your firearm a lot, you get community, you get practice.
11:20 - Ladies and gentleman... THE INSPIRATION BURRITO
13:22 - An anus extraction contraption! (It's called the Butt Out Dressing Tool)
16:20 - Let's talk books: Jim Harrison's "The Road Home" or "A Hunter's Road" by Jim Fergus are great gifts
18:10 - Prois heated vest with a rechargeable battery pack... can you put a price on staying warm?
20:36 - A vacuumn-sealer! Game-changer in the kitchen
21:04 - Victorinox knives - super-sharp and not hugely expensive
23:20 - Funds feeling stretched? A hand-made coupon book is the bees' knees! You can offer two hours of processing... a single stiff pack-out for a friend... it's a symbol of the support and warmy-fuzziness of our hunting community
24:00- fishpond Piopod - a backcountry trash pack that packs around super easily. Who likes seeing fishing line on the river? (Also, who picks up that fishing line and finds it in their pocket days later?)
25:10 - Hunt to Eat... t-shirts, hoodies, kitchen gear, stickers! There's so much good stuff available from there. #huntergifttreasuretrove
Psst... you can also donate to Artemis! It's a great way to improve access to sporting for women and girls
-Want more? Join us online in Artemis's Facebook group. It's a great place to hang out and connect with other women!
-Holiday music was Jazzy Bells from Dee Yan-Key at FreeMusicArchive.org
This week on the podcast, epic wildlife stories (really, trust us on this one) with some heavy science. Energy development in the Wyoming Range affects how mule deer use the lands around them, effectively tightening their habitat -- but not in ways that are always obvious. Ungulate ecologist Sam Dwinnell of the Monteith Shop tells us about her research, plus more stories from the field. (So many good stories, everyone!)
2:30 On being a verified ungulate fanatic #jointheclub
3:00 Wyoming Wildlife Federation - hunting/angling conservation, from wildlife-friendly fences to policy (on Insta @WyomingWildlife)
7:00 Sam Dwinnell from "Deer 139"
8:30 She who has the mental presence to discharge bear spray in front of a charging moose!
10:00 Managing mountain goats to protect bighorn sheep in the Grand Tetons
12:30 Am I being charged by a grizzly? Or a bull moose?
14:30 After bear spray's been deployed, the smell is a wildlife attractant #ruhroh
18:00 Vignettes from an ungulate biologist: LOTS of time spent with big four-legged animals nearby, wondering which way they'll bolt
19:30 Snoring moose (sounds like growling)
22:00 Monteith Shop is a science lab at the University of Wyoming
24:00 Wyoming Range Mule Deer Project - looking at the effects of energy development on mule deer winter range, and also what regulates mule deer populations
27:00 A mother's life history/age/body condition influences fawn survival, regardless of predation events.
30:00 How does human behavior/disturbance affect wildlife? And how is that effect compounded in environments that change seasonally?
33:00 Almost all mule deer populations in the Wyoming Range have co-existed alongside energy development their whole lives, yet they still avoid many of those development sites
34:00 How can we balance economic industry/the need for energy against wildlife needs? It starts with understanding the wildlife... how does energy development affect food resources? Do they have to move more, depleting their fat reserves?
36:00 Energy development functionally lowers the carrying capacity of mule deer habitat. The food is there, but deer avoid it. For every 1% of direct habitat loss, there's another 4-5% of indirect habitat loss
43:00 "Reclamation" is a work in progress. Does it look like there was never a well pad there? No. But the process is evolving for the better.
44:00 It takes a long time for disturbed habitats to recover... you can literally still see the wagon ruts of the Oregon Trail out there
48:00 Anecdote/observation vs. empirical evidence
51:00 Good, trusted science happens outside of the realm of advocacy
58:00 Science is never "done"... the more we learn, the more questions we have
1:02 Hunters study animals, too! The more time you spend with a species, the more intimate your relationship with it
1:10 Two sides of conservation: Sporting versus 'leave it alone'... so many shades of gray there #morethanfifty
1:15 Do we affect wildlife when we simply pass through their neck of the woods? An epic mule deer story from the Frank Church
1:24 Find the Monteith Shop online at UngulateCompendium.org, or on Instagram at @monteith.shop
1:25 Join the discussion in the Artemis Facebook group, and follow us on Instagram @artemis_sportswomen
Mule deer can't avoid predator risk. And while it's natural to study how deer move in response to predator pressure... what would we learn if we collared predators and saw how they moved in response to prey abundance? Katey Huggler's research during her time at the Monteith Shop showed some interesting predator movement patterns around fawning. But when it comes to deer mortality, how much bite predators get of the pie depends on the year, and basically all the other ways mule deer can die.
5:00 A childhood of hunting and trapping in northern Idaho was the perfect segue to a wildlife sciences degree from U of I
6:30 Switching systems from Wyoming mule deer to Idaho bighorn sheep
7:30 Deer and Elk Research Ecology Project - an effort to unravel the potentially competitive interactions between mule deer and elk
9:00 Trapping comes in handy when you're trying to understand coyote predation on mule deer fawns from the predator's side of the story
14:00 Predators... popular topic of discussion at the Wyoming State Legislature
15:00 Deer can't avoid predator risk
17:00 For mule deer, mitigating predation risk is all about terrain... and it's a risk that can't be eliminated.
19:00 Here's an example: We know car accidents kill a lot of people, and yet we still drive around all the time to live/eat/work/play/etc. A mule deer's life is similar... they have to venture into cougar territory to make a living out there. Getting got is a risk that never goes away.
23:00 Sooo... kill all the predators, save all the mule deer for hunters? Hmm.
26:00 Trapping coyotes (and any canid, really) is hard. They're smart, savvy animals. Katy's study had 42 collared coyotes involved
30:00 Being a "mugger" on a heli crew
33:00 Yes, it can be hard on an individual animal to be trapped/handled/studied -- but the knowledge gleaned does so much to increase our understanding of the species as a whole
38:00 How it comes together: We have collared mule deer and collared coyotes... let's try to understand how coyotes are using their space in relation to female mule deer, and whether that changes during fawning
39:00 Coyotes more strongly selected for areas being used by female mule deer during the apex of fawning, and they exhibit complex movement patterns -- kind of like a searching behavior. Long story short: Coyotes totally change their behavior when a profitable food source (mule deer fawns) is available
41:00 But here's the thing... the coyote doesn't always win. Their take isn't excessive
47:00 Drought severely affected a number of study animals
51:00 Mule deer fawns... so much against them! And yet they persist
52:00 Hunters/trappers were the highest source of coyote mortality in the study's collared 'yotes... second biggest coyote-killer? Cougars
1:11 The joy(/utility) of finding coyote poop if you're trapping coyotes
1:12 "I am someone who takes coyote poop and puts it in a Lay's chip bag."
Mule deer are remarkably faithful to the geographies they were raised in... until they're not. Ungulate ecologist Rhiannon Jakopak from the Monteith Shop joins us to talk about rogue individuals, migration fidelity, the rose petal hypothesis, and more. Plus, the emotions of harvesting your first animal (slash ANY animal).
4:00 From vegetarianism to wildlife science to becoming a hunter with your sci-pals in tow
6:00 Taking a life... you process it while you're literally processing it. The complicated feelings are normal; they don't need to go away
12:00 Those hunting mentors who make you feel encouraged, not pressured
14:00 A first-time mule deer harvest: Watching an individual deer for weeks before getting a shot on it at 28 yards.... and just like that, a life is changed
17:00 Knowing your local mule deer as individuals... so much so that you recognize certain animals in friends' harvest photos
19:00 Transition from bow- to rifle-hunting... there's a different feel to the hunt
23:00 The Rose Petal Hypothesis - this idea that female deer establish home ranges that are adjacent to and overlapping those of the female parent and sisters in a manner that looks like the petals unfolding on a rose
24:00 Mule deer have high fidelity (faithfulness to preferred geographies) and philopatry (those places near where they were born/reared)
28:00 Because of high site fidelity/philopatry, mule deer are especially slow to fill habitat vacuums... if we inadvertently remove them from a landscape, it can take a long time for new deer to show up
31:00 Combining knowledge from the science world with the place-based experience of hunters, ranchers, and other intimate land users
32:00 Rogue deer do colonize new habitats! They completely buck the fidelity/philopatry pattern, especially with their winter range
36:00 The first year of an animal's life is crucial for establishing the behaviors that'll govern behavior later on - rogue deer go rogue as yearlings
39:00 Mule deer have generally low fawn survival... but they also typically have two fawns per year
41:00 Scientist #facepalm: when all 50 collared fawns in your study die
45:00 Why is it so fun to pick on bird people? Jokes aside, they have some SOLID science on taught vs. inherent migration
48:00 Do relatively common species lose their mystique for us? Heck no. Next time you see a deer on the side of the highway, ask yourself how many mountain ranges it crossed in the past year
52:00 Those big antlers on your buck? They're a symbol of an intelligent species on healthy, connected habitat... be reverent, everyone!
57:00 How do we tell compelling science stories?
1:02 We're in an unprecedented era of everyone caring how we communicate/reach each other
1:06 The good news: Everyone cares about mule deer. The bad news: We disagree what's going on with them
1:08 Scientists as arbiters of information for policymakers
1:13 UngulateCompendium.org - a place to get involved and be in the loop on new science; Also @Monteith.Shop on Insta
You've heard it before: "If we kill the animals with the biggest horns, aren't we selecting for smaller horns over time?" This week we take a deep dive into that question with ungulate biologist Tayler LaSharr in the third episode of our special series with The Monteith Shop. We'll also talk about her research into how mule deer behaviors are affected by harsh winter events.
2:30 Squirrels... the gateway drug to hunting?
4:00 A Wyoming antelope hunt with all the science gals, creeping in for that 150-yard shot
7:30 Autopsy is to human what Necropsy (NEE-kraap-see) is to animals
9:00 Antelope heart pastrami (!!!) - get the how-to right here
10:00 Jess's Wyoming tag line-up: Three antelope, three elk, three deer, and one bear
13:00 Research deep-dive: The effects of hunter harvest on horn size in sheep. It started with a paper that used Boone & Crockett data to assess changes in horn size over time
14:30 Bighorn sheep harvested by hunters anywhere are required to be checked into a Fish and Game station… which means there's a treasure trove of data on size/ages of in every state
16:00 Horn size is a function of age + nutrition + genetics
19:00 Mom's nutrition affects her son's antler size
21:00 Does the removal of big males (by hunter harvest) change a population's genetics over time? A lot of it has to do with the average age of rams being harvested in different years
23:00 Alberta harvests sheep by a different standard -- the four-fifths curl. When you have management scenarios where harvest is determined by horns and not age (the annuli), there is evidence that it leads to decreased horn size over time. For example, if a five-year-old grows fast and gets to that four-fifths curl before other individuals his age, he stands to be harvested sooner from his population and may not have adequate chance to breed and pass on his genetics
25:00 How do you age a bighorn sheep?
27:00 One hedge against the overharvest of big-horned young animals is a conservative tag system... it's still a once-in-a-lifetime hunt in many states
29:00 "Evolution reverse" is this theory (/misunderstanding) that hunter harvest of big-horned animals selects out those traits in a population over time. In reality, it's way more complicated than that... management strategy plays a big role in how traits persist over time. Many factors are involved, and broad generalizations generally don't hold up all the time.
31:00 Changes in game management aren't often reflected in an animal population for years/decades
37:00 Rhiannon Jakopak's digest of Tayler's horn size work in layman's terms
38:00 Connecting sheep scientists with sheep hunters
40:00 The Wyoming Range Mule Deer Project - a long-term study following deer individuals throughout their lives AND their offspring
42:00 Looking at the after-effect of harsh winters on mule deer. Differences in behavioral strategies? Migration routes? Reproductive strategies/mothering behavior? What allowed them to survive when other deer succumbed to winterkill?
48:00 Fish and Game departments have to balance immediate hunter desire against the long-term, ever-changing health/hardiness of game populations
57:00 The genesis of an ungulate biologist!
59:00 Check out more of the Monteith shop at UngulateCompendium.org
This week we're surfing the green wave! Seasonal mule deer migration is based on food availability. Deer move across the landscape to maximize their access to high-quality food resources. This week we're joined by migration ecologist Ellen Aikens of the Monteith Shop to learn more about Wyoming's mule deer populations and how they're challenged by drought, climate change, and energy development.
3:00 - Artemis's first guest to connect from overseas! Plus, moving to Germany during the pandemic
6:30 - Animal research: A generally rewarding endeavor with LOTS of challenges
8:00 A new scientist asks her peers/mentors, What's one of the most important fields to be savvy in? "GIS/remote sensing" comes up again and again
11:00 GPS collars let us see where an individual animal is going, year after year -- it's a bonafide jackpot of data. This field is called "movement ecology"
12:30 Marcia's sage advice: "Do what you enjoy doing until you don't enjoy doing it anymore. Then go do something else."
13:30 Sampling the field April-August to survey which plants are available and when. Documenting the seasonal change from green to brown was revelatory! Plus, KNOWING the place.
17:00 Dynamics in plant growth and seasonal transition influence how animals move
18:00 To study mule deer you need to become versed in the world they live in
20:00 "The green wave" - this idea that for deer and other species, young/emergent plant species are the most nutritious growth. That stage is staggered across an elevational gradient -- and this is the 'green wave' -- moving to find that nutritious feed
22:00 Most mule deer move from a low-elevation winter range to a higher elevation spring/summer range. This is colloquially called 'surfing the green wave'
24:00 Migration isn't a continuous line from Point A to Point B. Mule deer spend about 90% of their time on migration at stopover sites, foraging and eating
27:00 What makes a good stopover? It totally depends. Elevation plays a big role. They're generally places that are more lush than the surrounding area.
30:00 Fall migration: A combination of fleeing cold/snow, plus finding the lushest feed given the season... the "residual greenness"
33:00 Drought has an effect on how well mule deer can surf the green wave, which is shorter; Energy development also affects that migration
35:00 Mule deer in the West have high fidelity to their migration routes
38:00 Mule deer DO move through energy development sites... but they're not able to use those areas to the degree they would if there was no resource development there
39:00 A high-quality study would collect data BEFORE an energy project, DURING it, and AFTER reclamation
45:00 Being migratory is key for mule deer in the Wyoming Range. There ARE resident deer populations, but it's a small fraction (<5%) of the whole. Surfing the green wave results in access to higher quality feed, which improves deer body condition and reproductive success
47:00 Drought/climate change/fire/invasive species stand to alter how the green wave moves across the landscape
55:00 Mapping migrations is crucial to understanding how they're impacted by development and other threats
58:00 Wyoming's governor signed an executive order that acknowledged migration corridors. Good science DOES inform policy.
1:02 Wyoming Migration Initiative has a great coffee table book, "Wild Migration: Atlas of Wyoming Ungulates"
1:07 Animal movements stand to change as green-up patterns change (elk are also green-wave surfers)
1:10 Norway, Italy, Germany, France... all these countries have good data on deer migration and changing green-up patterns (Want to nerd out even more? EuroDeer is a collaborative group of ungulate ecologists with great data. Check them out.)
1:12 Are there places where green-wave migration has stopped because of barriers we've inadvertently put up? Yes. We alter animal behavior all the time.
1:16 Reproductive behaviors are finely tuned to greenup-related movement
1:21 Find out more about the Monteith shop online at UngulateCompendium.org
Like what you heard today? Be a part of Artemis!
This is the first in a special series Artemis is airing with the Monteith Shop, an ungulate research lab at the University of Wyoming. This week we're joined by Rebecca Levine, whose research is focused on understanding the thermal ecology of moose. More than half of southern moose populations in the Lower 48 are in decline. We talk parasite loads, chronic wasting disease, the mysterious moose of New Zealand's fjordlands, and what habitat a moose needs to stay cool.
4:00 When do you get to call yourself a 'hunter'?
5:00 In the southern half of moose's range, about half of populations are in decline
7:00 Why is heat stress so particular to moose versus other cervids? The skinny: They're big, they're dark, and they don't sweat.
10:00 How do moose find those spots to cool off in?
12:00 Collaring MOOSE... it's a PROCESS. But the video collars? SO COOL
15:00 Moose = tick paradise
16:00 Moose are intermingling with more ungulates that they ordinarily may not have overlapped with, which is one vector for parasite spread
18:00 Preg-checking a female moose
21:00 Twin prevalence in moose
24:00 Different subspecies of moose and their historic ranges... they're unique in that moose are circumpolar. They're in Russia, China, Canada, Alaska, etc.
28:00 Moose are relative newcomers to Wyoming/Utah/Colorado
32:00 Moose reach heat stress above 55 degrees... and they indulge in a number of behaviors to mitigate heat -- bedding down in marshes, traveling to higher altitudes, etc
36:00 Chronic wasting disease effects all cervids, including moose
37:00 Wyoming Chronic Disease Management plan
44:00 Bilingual fishing/game regs - Kansas just did this, and the results are great
46:00 Monteith Shop on Insta (@Monteith.shop)
47:00 Funding is a limiting resource on the production of high-quality science
47:40 Monteith Shop website, UngulateCompendium.org
52:00 Moose encounters in the Brooks Range... MONSTERS RISING FROM THE WILLOWS! Bear spray doesn't help you feel brave in that moment
53:00 "Don't run" is the general advice for wildlife encounters... EXCEPT with moose
54:00 National Park Service project to preserve big-horn sheep in Grand Teton National Park
55:00 Charismatic megafauna vs charismatic megafauna... eliminating mountain goats to preserve bighorn sheep
56:00 Three hours to go a mile in canyon/bog/swamp... great chance for a somewhat scary moose encounter! Also, that moment when your scientist friend hears something and says, "Hmm... that sounds like a large mammal."
59:00 Two cans of bear spray deployed... which totally got the target animal, but also the person in flight
1:01 Bear spray is oil-based, and thus very sticky
1:04 In 1910 moose were introduced into New Zealand's fjordlands. The population never really took off... the last sighting was in 1980, BUT, it's led to a Sasquatch type of fervor, with the occasional wingnut moose sighting in that area. #moosetrivia
1:06 Moose = swamp donkeys
Ashley Chance once caught more than 300 deer in three months as a part of a field tech crew. She joins Artemis as the group's coordinator in the Southeast after a career as a wildlife biologist. On this episode we hear about Ashely's graduate research - how mature bucks move in response to hunting pressure - what she has planned for Artemis, and why this work matters.
1:40 Conservation job perk? Going hunting with all three of your office mates
3:00 Artemis's staff doubled this fall! Meet Ashley Chance, the new Artemis coordinator in the Southeast
4:00 Springer spaniels in the field AND around the house... Boykin spaniels are a southern favorite because of their heat tolerance
6:30 Hitting a deer and putting it in your freezer, #fistpump
8:00 Working as a wildlife field tech, to Peace Corps in Africa, to a grad degree in Mississippi
10:00 Catching more than 300 deer in 3 months... #fieldtechgoals
12:00 When you realize you have more experience tackling deer than shooting them
14:00 How does hunting pressure impact mature buck movement in whitetail deer?
16:00 Whitetail questions - Is it true that if you spook/flush a whitetail, and just hold tight and quiet, that it'll likely return?
19:00 Can you use movement as a proxy for individual personality types in deer? Go with us. You can learn everything you need to know about whitetail deer from the cast of Cheers
23:00 Does whitetail behavior in Mississippi transfer to, say, Rocky Mountain whitetail?
24:00 Any whitetail study in the Southeast generally calls for access from private landowners
25:00 Whitetail movement in Ashley's study was generally a function of animal density, hunter density and food availability
33:00 Your sense of smell in the field... it just comes alive in a way it doesn't in the urban world
37:00 Growing a community of women hunters: Even for women who were hunters before Artemis, there's an added magic to plugging into a community of women of like minds and hearts
39:00 The genesis story of Becca's Idaho women's turkey hunt
46:00 Public lands hunting in the Southeast... not at all like the West
48:00 Peace Corps experiences that stick with us... a willingness to be in uncomfortable situations, and to navigate relationships with people very different from us
53:00 Hits and Misses gets literal during hunting season #darnpheasants
How many conservationists get so consumed by their jobs that they don't actually get outside? Michelle Doerr is a hunter, angler, and all-around Minnesotan gal whose career is focused on helping conservationists avoid burnout. It starts with knowing yourself, what self-care you need (hint: it probably involves getting outside), and making it happen.
2:00 Chipping in for a friend's Kickstarter-funded movie, "Cold November" - which is a totally badass matriarchal hunting tale
5:00 That first snow of the season... it's kind of special! Unless it's way too early
6:00 A wildlife biologist makes a career switch to consulting - Anavah Consulting: Connecting people to themselves, others, and Earth
8:00 Self-care for conservationists: When your work is spent battling big issues like climate change, chronic wasting disease, etc, it can be hard not to internalize those work struggles and carry them with us
10:00 Ecophobia: Just presenting the doomsday scenario (eg: our planet is burning up) can be anxiety-inducing.
13:00 You have to feel that you are worth self-care, and that it's not selfish -- it's a required input for being your best, problem-solving self
15:00 How many conservationists get so consumed with their jobs that they don't actually get outside? #lookingatyou
17:00 Having two kids who are polar opposites
18:00 National Conservation Leadership Institute, a leadership development initiative from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
22:00 Covid is a total monkeywrench into the best-laid self-care and workplace happiness plans... conservation workplaces tend to be collaborative, and right now everyone is their own island
24:00 Social interaction is a lifeline of energy for some people... working from home is hard on extroverts
27:00 Environmental Identity - Marica undergoes a sample diagnostic!
29:00 What's your earliest outdoor memory? What was your family's culture toward the outdoors?
32:00 There's no 'good' or 'bad' relationship to nature... everyone's relationship is just different
36:00 Your environmental identity is always evolving... it changed when you took your first shot at a big-game animal
38:00 Watching five Wisconsin bucks in the rut - totally in the zone
40:00 Deer fawn meets pheasant rooster
41:00 What's your personal breaking point for time spent sitting in a tree stand? Two hours? Five hours?
42:00 Find Michelle online at AnavahConsulting.com
43:00 "Embracing Embeddedness" - Michelle's take on all the hunting feels
46:00 NEWS! Artemis hires a new coordinator in the Southeast
Does it feel different shooting a whitetail deer versus a squirrel? Everyone has a different take on that… and it’s different for every hunter. This week Artemis is joined by Sam Seaton of the Archery Trade Association. We talk about new hunter recruitment, your headspace in the field… AND some archery-themed topics, like what pop culture means for bowhunting interest (Katniss Everdeen, ya’ll) -- and, something you’ve maybe never heard of…. BOWFISHING.
2:00 Blanket forts: So… “hibernatory?” #yeswecan
7:00 Becca’s first hunt: A gray squirrel in Kentucky… Am I a hillbilly? Or is this kind of fun?
7:30 Battered and fried squirrel, mmmm
8:30 Western pine squirrels are a little small to bother with… but those urban squirrels in your backyard? Huuuge
9:00 “Tell us about yourself” -- why is it always so hard to distill yourself into a couple of sentences!?
10:00 For adult-onset hunters, it’s so interesting to revisit your pre-hunting headspace -- the why-would-anyone-shoot-Bambi? Mindset
15:00 The emotional warm-up to pulling the trigger that first time. Is it easier with a squirrel, than, say, a whitetail deer? Is it easier on the fourth day of a hunt versus the first?
18:00 On not taking the shot when you have it because your headgame/confidence quotient isn’t in the right space to take an animal’s life.
19:00 Do we sometimes take shots that we KNOW will miss to avoid this inner conflict?
20:00 ‘Thank you for not pressuring me’ - not every successful hunt results in a kill, especially with new hunters
22:00 Person-to-person mentored hunts: Priceless
24:00 Archery Trade Association: Supports the bowhunting and archery industry.
26:30 Field to fork, or hook-to-cook events - SO MUCH FUN - and a great way to reach new hunters
29:00 “The Hunger Games” books/movies spurred a lot of interest in archery, especially in young women. Don’t we all have an inner Katniss Everdeen?
30:00 National Archery in the Schools Program - huge force in getting new people into the sport
31:00 The Avengers movie (character: Hawkeye) and The Walking Dead are other media hits that boosted the public’s perception of archery as something totally badass
32:00 Katniss Everdeen: Just seeing her wield a bow… does it plant some kind of seed in girls and women? Like, “Hmm… maybe I could do that…?” The more we see people like us doing something, the more it seems real
33:00 But Katniss isn’t enough. You need access to a PLACE you can shoot a bow, you need access to EXPERTISE (even if it’s YouTube), and you need COMMUNITY, which is different where you go
36:30 Bowhunters United - a consumer-facing group for bowhunters to advocate for the sport in general, from recruitment to conservation (aaaand discounts! Plus a coffee mug)
39:00 Bowfishing = you shoot fish with a bow and arrow. No, really. It’s a thing! Totally different arrows. They have a string on them... the idea is to hit a fish and reel it back in.
43:00 Bowfishing at night with a spotlight helps you see them better. Regulations are different state-to-state -- in Idaho, for example, bowfishing regs are specific to invasive fish species like carp
47:00 We’re not sure, but there MIGHT be a guided fishing trip opportunity for bowhunting Asian carp… there are already carp-only tournaments. Maybe a work party, even? Anyone?
53:00 Hunting season is upon us! It’s a special, magical time of year -- and we can’t wait to hear more from you. Tag @artemis_sportswomen, join our Facebook community, or shoot us an email, artemis@nwf.org
Alyssa LeBlanc is Canada-famous for her appearance in season six of MasterChef Canada. In the hunting and fishing world, she's known for her incredible wild food recipes and YouTube videos. Alyssa tells Artemis about her family's culture of hunting, why she started spending more time in the kitchen, and how making good food starts with some basic skills anyone can master.
2:00 GSP = bird-dog-speak for German Short-haired Pointer
3:00 Calling all Artemis hunters in New Mexico! Stay tuned for more info on an awesome quail hunt event coming up in February
5:30 Freezer diary of a deep-sea fisherwoman: Haddock, cod, mackerel, tuna, swordfish, etc... but low on terrestrial game coming into hunting season
6:30 A word on freezer storage - vacuum-sealing is great for fish (or a well-pressed Ziploc), the Saran/paper method is better for game
7:30 Developing wild game recipes for Hunt to Eat... dream gig, or what? Find Alyssa's work on the Hunt to Eat YouTube page
10:00 When a major life event changes the trajectory of your life... in this case, a car accident
12:00 Conventional food pushes some of us to wild food
14:30 Baking: so many rules! Cooking: a bonafide blank canvas
16:00 Recovering from a traumatic brain injury
20:00 Are you a recipe loyalist? Or a recipe renegade?
23:00 If you're truly shooting in the dark cooking with your game, start simple. Take a good recipe... sub your beef from venison. Grow from there.
25:00 Snipe: A small game bird with a big-game taste
28:20 Donair - A Nova Scotia specialty you need to add to your repertoire
30:00 Alyssa was on MasterChef Canada (season 6) - check it out!
32:00 Marcia's confession: Setting up Great British Bake-Off challenges in her own kitchen
33:00 Keeping a cooking journal - it helps when you're winging it to write down what works, especially if part of your job is writing recipes!
34:00 Game cookbooks: Hank Shaw of Hunter, Angler, Gardner, Cook and Steve Rinella's books
35:00 It helps to know the basics of cooking: Tough cut of meat? Low and slow. Tender cut? Way more options. This also goes back to good butchering.
40:00 Sharing the joy of harvest with those who taught you to hunt... it's priceless
43:00 New to bird dogs? Try groups like National Hunting Dog Association to keep you connected to birds in the off season
45:00 On being your own bird dog... those water retrievals can get cold!
It's hard to say which is sweeter about Jackson - the epic fishing, or the honey hole of amazing women anglers. This week we speak to one of the staples of that community, Clairey Grubbs. Fly-fishing is the even keel of Clairey's life, and she talks about what it's like to be a part of her community and raise her son in the same lifestyle. Plus, we talk about dutch oven cooking at hunt camp, winning yourself a husband after cooking an amazing sea bass, and what it's like to learn from your significant other (or not).
2:00 If your phone goes overboard on a night-time fishing trip, try calling it. You might see the screen light up under the water, and it'll work well enough go on a podcast successfully in the coming days #truestory
4:00 Clairey Grubbs of Lady Anglers of Wydaho, and Stripping for a Cure (and many more things)
5:00 A fisherwoman with no fish recipes! Catch-and-release life
6:00 Wooing your husband over a sea bass carcass. #hot
8:00 How many of us identify as being 1/4 cowgirl + 1/4 hippie + 1/4 redneck + 1/4 princess?
12:00 Getting hooked on fishing at age 4 - it started with a boy and hooking that first whopper
13:00 When fishing is the even keel the rest of your life needs
15:00 The great spiritual conversion from spin-fishing to fly-fishing
16:30 Humanities Montana toolkits - the social grease you need to have those deep, interesting, important conversations
18:00 "Grounding" - bring yourself back to center
21:00 The 'high' of fly-fishing is being mellow
24:00 Totally ok not to learn from someone you're dating, AND, the mind-blowing revelation of how easy it can be to learn from other women
27:00 Insta/FB friends CAN become real friends
30:00 Teaching your kids to fish... magic + frustration
34:00 Want to get your kids into something you're into? Best advice: Don't push it too hard... or you risk creating resentment
36:00 Breastfeeding + fly fishing
37:00 On kids and water -- you have to trust in your gut what feels right for your family
37:00 Another tip for raft/baby life? Bring rocks for throwing. Lots of rocks. And sticks.
39:00 The dragonfly's anatomy as a predator
40:00 Facebook group: Trout-Forum World Leaderboard
41:00 BALA: Badass Lady Anglers (Leaving the 'ass' in badass!)
43:00 United Women on the Fly - an amazing group for connecting women anglers
46:00 Stripping for a Cure helps women who are struggling through breast cancer. Breast cancer is just... it's something we should collectively care about. ('Stripping' is not taking off your clothes in this case!)
49:00 United Women on the Fly - Clairey's best Insta work
50:00 Stripping for a Cure - huge fundraising for a little Jackson non-profit, which gives to the local hospital's women's fund and oncology department
54:00 Deep-dish cornbread cast-iron pan... total antique treasure!
1:05:00 "It was a mondo-toad, for sure... dinosaur-status..." -- fish stats in guide-speak
1:06:00 SassyMamaOnTheFly - Clairey on Insta
1:13:00 Pheasant and turkeys showing up in Jackson Hole, where they're not supposed to be... good, or bad?
1:15:00 Humanities Montana... get your toolkit!
Imagine this: You see a film that fosters such big thoughts and ideas that you have to share it with others, and discuss! That's the idea behind Tracy Nguyen-Chung and Ciara Lacy's work. In ‘Connection,’ both filmmakers follow Autumn Harry, a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, on her journey as a fly-fisher. Along the way, they bring to the forefront the multitude of connections intersecting with and highlighted by our experiences on the water. In this episode we talk about the importance of these connections and some of the prevalent stereotypes in fishing and how to change them.
1:00 Humanities Montana - check out their 'Gather Round' toolkit -- it's meant to inspire big discussions that matter to people in the great outdoors (well, all of us)
5:00 The art of telling a culturally specific story that resonates universally
7:00 From Vietnam to the U.S., a father's passion for fishing is passed along to his daughter, Tracy
8:30 And in Hawaii, Ciara grew up in a 'catch and release' family when it came to tilapia... which has oddly made a comeback in fine dining
10:00 Tracy and Ciara's film is "Connection", it started with a vision to uplift the image of people of color in fishing. It's the story of an indigenous woman and her discovery of fly-fishing.
14:00 Connections... to geography, to culture, to water, to environment, to self
17:00 Brown Folks Fishing - most storytelling is through Insta; it's a volunteer-run non-profit to gather and support a community of BIPOC anglers
19:00 Growing up in a family hobby, like fishing, and then promptly leaving it during college... and making a full circle as an adult
21:00 Public-facing parts of the fishing community -- industry, Insta profiles, groups, etc -- they're predominantly white (and male). The conservation space is similar.
24:00 People from BIPOC communities are totally out there fishing (hugely!), but they're just not represented in most of the industry
26:00 Two privileged and flawed points of view from naysayers: fishing is a place where we should go to 'escape' and BIPOC anglers don't exist in this space unless it's affordable.
28:00 Storytelling as an advocacy tool. For Ciara, it started with seeing her mom as an organizer for the Native Hawaiian community
30:00 Part of good storytelling is letting people know what they should be thinking about... those life challenges that slip the radar for some. (Pssst... that's what the 'Gather Round' toolkits are all about!)
36:00 What even IS a 'conservation angler'? It’s not something that’s automatically given to you the minute you step into the river. It takes intention and practice.
40:00 Spin-fishing: it's totally cool, everyone!
45:00 'Connections' the film started as a passion project... its trajectory has far surpassed early expectations
47:30 Adventures from documentary filmmaking: Getting an inmate a last-minute bouquet of flowers on his release day so he could give them to his fiancée.
49:00 On being human first, filmmaker second
50:30 "Out of State" documentary, which first aired on PBS
51:00 Find Ciara's work at CiaraLacy.com
52:00 Making fishing films? Four seasons in a day! (And a hard-knock life for film equipment)
54:00 Find Tracy online at tracynchung.com
55:00 "Connections" was underwritten by Orvis, which has been a long-time supporter of Brown Folks Fish. The film will be released later this year on Orvis' website, and also at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival and the Hawaii International Film Festival before then
57:00 Brown Folks Fishing fellowship lab and the Angling for All Pledge
1:00:00 Gather Round has a 'connection kit' focused on four water-themed films... you've got to check it out! Request your free toolkit fromHumanities Montana today
Indiana hunter Cindy Stites found her way into the field after exiting an abusive marriage. With every hunt, she slowly saw the return of her old self -- someone who's confident, happy, and adventurous. The more she got into hunting, the more she adopted a new attitude to opportunities that came her way: "Start saying yes." She said 'yes' to becoming a hunter ed instructor, 'yes' to mentoring youth in the field, 'yes' to getting involved with conservation groups. This tactic opened up a number of new doors, and Cindy realized it was the healthy human relationships she formed through hunting that were bringing her happiness.
6:00 Froggin' in Alabama-speak is "giggin'"... and there's a special frog-sized pitchfork for this activity
10:00 A youth bow for small-framed ladies (Cindy is 5"3') is the Bear Apprentice 2
11:00 A thought that's crossed every adult-onset hunter's mindspace: "What if I'd been doing this for the past 15 years?"
12:00 An ill-fated rabbit hunt with a child: The rabbit started screaming, then the child started screaming, and the parent wonders if maybe just maybe hunting alone is better for everyone.
12:30 Cindy's piece on becoming an engaged conservationist Step up and Volunteer for Conservation, (which was preceded by an incredible moment: April Vokey says, "What's your dream job, Cindy?")
15:00 "Start saying yes" -- it can totally change your life. For Cindy, it started with someone asking if she wanted to volunteer teaching archery to 4-H kids. Then someone asked if she wanted to teach hunter's ed. "Yes" can lead you a lot of places!
16:00 'Yes' leads to organizations like BHA, Pheasants Forever, National Turkey Federation... a bonafide snowball scenario
17:00 The learning curve of being a well-informed conservationist? It's a lingo'd journey. Research, research, research. And if you're a storyteller? Break it down for others.
18:30 Cindy's piece on caribou conservation – coming soon!
24:00 Your "in" to spreading the conservation love... it may be getting someone outside, sparking their interest... OR, it might be that moment when someone says "What's a Pebble Mine?" and you're totally ready for that one
27:00 Getting into something new -- hunting/fishing/anything -- at a rocky/transitional time in your life can be totally transformative.
30:00 Hunting as an adult: A series of failures until things slowly start to click, then your confidence goes up, and it gets to be FUN.
40:00 Meaningful hunting experiences with family = highlights of life. Relationships are at the center of everything
48:00 The squirrel "sploot"... you can't go wrong Googling this for 10 minutes (or more)
49:00 That moment when you have food poisoning, even though you didn't eat out, and you realize YOU gave YOU food poisoning... #cheffail
Sharenda Birts bought a gun, and then let it sit in her closet for a year. She wanted to learn to shoot, but just didn't know how people did that. Her fortunes changed when she met group called The Well Armed Woman. Shooting led Sharenda to re-loading her ammo, and then to hunting. She's hunted deer, dove, pheasant -- and totally has plans to keep expanding. Sharenda's story is a powerful testament to what you can accomplish when you take control of your own learning and experience.
2:30 Obligatory adulting knowledge: There are TWO cities called 'Kansas City' -- one in Kansas, the other in Missouri
5:30 How did 'cream of mushroom' get to be the secret ingredient in so many game recipes?
6:00 Idaho pheasant hunting 101
9:30 Learning gun culture when you come from a culture that's not into it... it's hard to walk into a gun range when you don't know how to handle a gun. And if nobody in your network is a gun person? Added obstacles.
10:00 Buying your first gun.... and then letting it sit in the box for a year
10:30 AND THEN... you get invited to a meeting to a group called The Well Armed Woman ... and all of a sudden, you have your people. It was a totally diverse and welcoming group of women, an 'in' to the shooting range
12:00 "Hey, you should probably get into re-loading." Yet again... how do you get that new skill set?
13:00 Then, a commitment: Even though I'm a beginner, I'm going to try to share what I know. The response? Oh boy.
14:00 "You can't be in the firearm community and not be sociable. Firearm people do not let you not be sociable." So true. AND, you also can't not want to try something because you don't have that skill set. Nope. Be a beginner. It's totally ok.
16:00 Back to the re-loading... calling a local Fish and Game department, "Hey, I heard you used to offer these classes. I'm interested," and having it snowball from there
17:00 Facebook communities to check out: "The Re-Loading Podcast" and "The Georgia Shooting Connection"
19:00 Re-loading know-how... there's beginner-level, and PhD-level
21:30 Shooting those first few rounds you've reloaded yourself. Please don't let it blow up my face.
25:00 Reloading ladies night - all the husbands are wanting to crash that party!
26:30 RESOURCES: Hodgdon powder company -- you can call and talk to a human with any questions; "The ABCs of Reloading" book; "Reloading with Rosie" series; Lyman series of books; and your local conservation office is priceless
32:00 Getting into hunting? Even harder than getting into shooting and reloading
34:00 Bore sight - total game-changer
36:00 Learning the hard way... Wait... you mean other people are using gun rests? BECAUSE I WAS STANDING THE WHOLE TIME!
40:00 When the first hunt is a dud because of the crew... it's the worst. But we ALWAYS learn something (in this case, that you CAN put a scope on a shotgun)
43:00 Second hunt? Finding the she-crew you knew you needed to get into this sport
45:00 You NEED to hear this story of Sharenda's first deer hunt. It's amazing.
52:00 Coyote fur hats... don't miss that ep with Cindy Barlow!
55:00 WildHERness - a skill-building organization for women and girls... ALL KINDS OF SKILLS - from driving/docking a boat to identifying migratory waterfowl (Find them on Facebook and Insta)
56:30 - Sharenda is @pinkshears on Insta
1:00:00 Vortex Fury range-finding binoculars or Maven Optics... and with those big purchases like binoculars? "Cry once, buy once."
1:06:00 Maggie Heumann's list of 'must-have' flies
1:08:00 Artemis Podcast Facebook group
Melissa Hulsey is a rifle, bow, and muzzleloader hunter from Georgia, where she's just retired and moved to a farm. (Living the dream, Melissa!) Her scenery has switched from tree stands at private hunting clubs to her own backyard. In this episode we talk about the currency of human capital when it comes to developing hunting expertise, and how Artemis is trying to foster strong hunting communities through connection. One-off mentorship experiences in the field aren't enough to build self-sufficient hunters. So how can we better bridge the gap?
2:00 Moving to a farm-slash-game preserve from the Atlanta area
3:30 A meal to impress: A good cut of venison steak, parmesan risotto, asparagus done just so, and pumpkin cheesecake. "Did you know you just ate venison?"
5:00 Melissa is an entrepreneur who sold her company in 2017, around the same time as her husband took early retirement. Now she's pursuing her hobbies full-time, which is where the farm comes in
6:30 Georgia hunting: Turkey, deer, squirrel, doves, armadillos... aka "possum on the half-shell"
7:00 Archery, muzzleloader, AND rifle... archery is the fav for Melissa, and she started pretty soon after picking up hunting in general. The impetus was getting out in the field early in the season
9:00 (Perceived) barriers to archery hunting: Cost, upper-body strength, time/attention/mental bandwidth, confidence in stalking skills; decreasing range from 150 yards to 40 yards
13:00 Access to expertise (aka friends) is also a barrier to trying something new in hunting
14:00 Part of Melissa's WHY of linking up with Artemis is to find that she-tribe of hunter-friends. Nationally, about 20% of hunters are women. In Georgia, it's more like 7%
17:00 Artemis Georgia: four women strong - a team of PhD'd wildlife rockstars
19:00 Georgia and Montana = Artemis Alliance focus states. They're so different!
27:00 When looking at R3 efforts, Artemis is gunning for 'retain' through building communities of women hunters. Georgia Artemis has another take - E3 Initiative: Engage, Empower, Encourage
27:30 Are you a hunter in Georgia? Artemis has a short survey on what programs you're most interested in
28:00 Pssst... Artemis is hiring! Southeast regional outreach coordinator
29:00 Who misses hugs around here?
30:00 Georgia hunting is HOT. A Thermacell helps keeps the bugs away. Not a lot of walking. Tree stands are big. So is hunting over agriculture fields.
31:00 A short story from Georgia hunting, titled, "Underestimate Me, It'll Be Fun." That moment when Melissa's husband realizes she DID know how to reload her muzzleloader rifle.
36:00 Western hunting versus Georgia hunting: Gear isn't nearly as important. T-shirt and yoga pants, baby. The obstacles are different. Like, in Georgia, you're guaranteed to shove your face through some spiderwebs on the way to a tree stand.
41:00 Public lands in Georgia-speak are "WMAs," or Wildlife Management Areas. They're open to hunting on certain days, and some of those days will be earmarked for youth-only, women-only, seniors-only.
43:00 How do you build successful mentorship programs? We're all trying to figure it out. One-hit experiences don't work. It comes back to community and building competency/self-sufficiency after those first few outings.
44:00 Nicole Qualtieri Ep 10 on Retention
53:00 Are women further along establishing themselves in the angling world versus hunting? Some of those river-centric initiatives have been around longer.
54:00 The chicken that went missing for four days is BACK! We missed you, Rosalie!
56:00 The bear shoulder roast... staring at you from the freezer. Sarah Topp’s winning recipe
1:03 WANTED - Bear taco pics in the Artemis Podcast Facebook group
This week's guest Michelle Zimmerman says she was not quite ready to serve when she was called on to fill a seat on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. That was eight years (or two terms) ago. Prior to serving on the board, Zimmerman had worked at a land trust, and then in solar development. Serving on the Commission brought her into the world of hunting, which has become a part of her identity. This week she tells Artemis what it's like serving on a game commission, why the work matters, and why you ARE qualified to throw your hat in the ring. Plus, a discussion on grip'n'grin hunting shots and taxidermied wall mounts.
5:00 Being on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission (for EIGHT years) -- it's a volunteer position with appointment from the governor, maybe 8-10 hours a week of service
7:00 The winding road of a career: From land trust management to conservation work (with a little wheat farming) to... gasp... working as a developer!
8:00 Michelle's 'in' to hunting was through her service on the Wildlife Commission.
11:00 That moment when the governor's people say, "Hmmm... could you carry your shotgun THIS way?"
13:00 Taking the life of a big-game animal can be emotional. It's totally ok to love the hunting, the harvesting, the cooking, the eating... and still hate that half-second of killing
18:00 Chats with a trophy hunter - a taxidermied mount is a way to capture a cherished memory, similar to a photo
20:00 Months and months of preparation time filter into a small moment, and a wall mount can be a continual reminder of that moment of personal change/growth
22:00 "Grip and grin" photos = perennial discussion fodder
27:00 Journey to becoming a state Wildlife Commissioner
34:00 Informed decision-making on a Commission to do what's right for a resource... you can't please everyone (and hate mail goes with the territory)
43:00 Public outreach involves website updates and a newsletter, plus LOTS of public meetings
47:00 Attending a game commission meeting is a great window into what commissions do, why we rely on them to responsibly manage resources, and what the public shows up to weigh in on
50:00 Public comment DOES change management decisions (all the time). It's important and it matters.
53:00 Women of the world! Serving on a game commission IS for you. Here's Michelle's take on why your voice matters... what you do can truly effects change.
55:00 How to do it? Get on your state government's website, see the commissions/boards that are there, see what you might be interested in, and go to a meeting
58:00 Nobody is ever 'ready' to be a commissioner... but that doesn't mean it's not the right time
59:00 "Say something out loud and put your intention toward it... and it begins to unfold." (Pssst.... those words might be, "Hey... I think I want to be a commissioner some day for XYZ state board/commission.")
This week we're joined by the charming and witty voice of Laura Mendenhall. Laura is a biologist by day, and a conservationist in her spare time. In college, she describes herself as an "aggressive vegetarian," which changed when she was doing condor conservation work in California and went on her first abalone hunt. These days, Kansas is her home hunting territory, where she's Board President of the Kansas Wildlife Federation. Laura shares with us what it's like to join a board of directors, and why you should consider it, even if your first reaction is, "Uhhh, what is a board?"
2:30 Anyone else feeling a little soft and doughy before September?
3:00 "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" with Samin Nosrat on Netflix and in print (it takes your turkey-cooking game to another level)
7:00 On being a Jane of all trades - hunting, gardening, birding, AND... (wait for it)... sourdough. Boom.
8:00 College memories: "I know I had classes with hunters...because there were always dudes who showed up in camo. But I never interacted with them."
8:30 From being an "aggressive vegetarian" to being a hunter
9:30 One of the biggest threats to condor recovery in California was lead ammunition
10:00 Check out the Artemis episode 9 on lead-free ammo with Kodi Jo Jaspers
11:00 Michael Pollan's book, "Omnivore's Dilemma" and his hunt for a feral pig in California
12:00 Diving for abalone in Pacific waters... it involves two wet suits, a special pry bar, and crossing a thermocline, kelp forests, pearls... and SHARKS. Abalone = basically a rock with guts the size of your face
18:00 Going from an abalone hunt to pheasants and beyond - hunting fills a void when your life circumstances need it most
24:00 Totally ok to dislike hunting with your husband
26:00 Finding female hunting friends... not always easy, almost always rewarding!
28:00 Feeding 100+ wedding guests on home-harvested turkeys... it can be done! (Eight turkeys did the job.)
30:00 MeatEater's "hunting purity score" - the more primitive/ethical/harder you make it, the higher the purity score
32:00 Kansas deer hunting scene: Bowhunting season overlaps with the rut, people are big into tree stands and bait piles. Hunting on private land (especially ag land) is more common than public land hunts
36:00 Kansas... "we're more than I-70, you guys!"
37:00 Hunting shelter belts or hedgerows -- they're breaks in ag fields, and great hunting spots (kind of thorny sometimes!)
38:00 Kansas Wildlife Federation
40:00 On volunteering by serving on a group's board of directors.... and having that moment, "Want to join the board?" and you're all, "Wut is a board?" Not as scary as it sounds! And a great way to give back.
44:00 If you're thinking about possibly joining a board, try sitting in on a meeting or meeting some of the other board members. And don't fall victim to imposter syndrome! Reach out. Start talking.
46:00 Non-diverse boards taking on diversity
48:00 Artemis book club, "Black Faces in White Spaces" by Carolyn Finney
51:00 Laura's super-secret method for prepping yourself for any kind of speaking or interview engagement. (Spoiler alert: It starts with Beyonce... and there's hand-motions involved!)
55:00 Kansas Wildlife Federation: 70 years strong! Plus, they run an outdoor adventure camp for kids.
57:00 R3 - Recruitment, retention, reactivation
1:00:00 Axing mountain goats to save sheep in the Grand Tetons
1:01:00 Federal judge overturns Trump administration changes to Migratory Bird Treaty Act
1:04:00 Artemis is hiring!
1:05:00 Monday, Aug. 24, webinar on sports dog safety with a veterinarian/bird hunter/general badass Meg Puchlerz of On Point Vet. Register here!
Ten years ago, oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days. Hunters and anglers in Louisiana are still experiencing the aftermath of the BP oil spill. At the same time, they're grappling with a shocking rate of coastal land loss. This week on the show we're joined by two Louisiana women -- Erin Brown from Vanishing Paradise, and Albertine Kimble (aka Albertine the Duck Queen), a fourth-generation hunter and angler for whom the marsh is home.
1:30 - 2010: Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Gulf of Mexico
2:00 - Erin Brown from Vanishing Paradise, another NWF program. Erin grew up in a family of biologists, where Louisiana's land-loss crisis was on everyone's minds. Louisiana is pretty rockin' waterfowl and fishing country.
3:00 - Since 1930 Louisiana has lost about 2,000 square miles of coastal areas
5:00 - Albertine is fourth-generation on her family's place, from a family of hunters and anglers. She's retired from local government as a coastal program’s manager, which oversaw resource extraction protocols in the area
9:30 How many people know the exact date of their best day hunting?
10:00 Red fingernail polish looks darn good against a green-winged teal
11:00 "You can't get ducks if you're sleeping." True words!
11:30 How to cook a teal? Take about six birds, stuff them with apples, orange, garlic and onion. Sear the birds on the outside until they're brown all the way around. Then add water a little bit at a time over about three hours to steam them. Then in the last 30 minutes put orange wine and Grand Marnier on them to give them a caramelized coating that drips into your rice.
12:30 Albertine's choice of duck gun is a Browning Belgium 20-ga. But in the field? It's good to have two guns in case something happens to one.
17:00 Flashback: The Deep Horizon oil of April 2010, the well was uncapped for 87 days, 11 men died on the rig, and more than 100 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. Sixty-four percent of Louisiana's coastal areas were oiled. Settlement money from the spill is going to coastal habitat restoration.
20:00 Local impacts were stark. Fisheries and oyster harvest were shut down. For a local parish known as "sportsman's paradise," it was a big loss
23:00 Ten years after the spill, there are still scars on the landscape. It's hard as a sportswoman to wonder if you'll ever catch a trout the size of what you used to catch.
28:00 Before extensive levees were built on the Mississippi, the river would naturally deposit sediment to extend coastlines. Restoration projects sometimes try to replicate that process.
30:00 No wetlands = no people
36:00 Each generation of sportsmen/women has a different baseline for what's normal in terms of game abundance and habitat health
38:00 VanishingParadise.org; on Insta @VanishingParadise; Facebook - Vanishing Paradise
40:00 Hunting is a way of life and a heritage... and if we treasure it that way, conservation is an absolute must
42:00 Also check out Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition, Baton Rouge River Center
43:00 Smithsonian video "The Duck Queen of Plaquemines Parish"
45:00 Five-part docuseries, "Last Call for the Bayou"
51:00 Retired with a working boyfriend: You can always go without him!
Stevie Parsons is an angler and conservationist whose values were shaped by her upbringing in native Hawaiian culture. Stevie joins Artemis to talk about how she got into fishing. It started with a book, a GPS, and a can-do attitude that she could bag a salmon if she gave it a try. (Spoiler alert: She did bring home a salmon.) Sharing the ocean's bounty with friends and family is part of her mojo, and it works to spread the love and enthusiasm for wild places, too.
5:00 Hawaiian Native words for 'love of the land' and 'balance' - which are part of a greater ethos for living/harvesting responsibly, and sharing bounty with friends/family
7:00 "To take and to not give back is to be a thief." With harvesting comes a responsibility for conservation.
12:00 First fish: A two-inch bluegill on a spinning rod. For the win! Then upon moving to Oregon, learning salmon-fishing
15:00 Salmon fishing... Stevie started with a book, a GPS, and a great attitude! No really... that's all you need to get started
18:00 You can do a lot to be ready before your line hits the water... there's YouTube, there are books, etc.
22:00 If you're flailing to fly-fish, why not pick up a spinning rod? What you learn from spin-fishing totally carries over to fly-fishing
24:00 Sturgeon fishing: Trying to land a big, strong dinosaur
26:00 Lingcod are about as fun in the kitchen as they are on the line. Miso lingcod is just... [smacking fingers to mouth]
29:00 Where to find lingcod - just about anywhere off the Pacific Coast
31:00 Lingcod can be bluish-green when you cut into them, they have some gnarly teeth, and they're adventurous in what they'll bite. A super-fun game fish!
33:00 Use your bait in scale to the fish. Want a big fish? Need some big bait on that hook, like herring or salmon bellies
38:00 Big fishing rods, little people
41:00 Part of what makes fishing so awesome is that you're always learning new things... no one has seen it all
42:00 Chinook versus sockeye/coho fishing
43:00 Stevie's salmon-smoking secrets! Rub recipe: 3 c. brown sugar, 1 c. Johnny's seasoning salt, 1/4 c. fresh ground pepper (don't skimp!). Mix it up, put it in a bottle, then sprinkle it over the salmon. Put it in the fridge overnight. Next morning: Put salmon out to drain (no toweling it off!) -- you need that tacky surface for good smoking. Stevie uses a Traegar for smoking, and she watches it closely. It's done when the white oiliness starts to appear on the surface. (Also a winning recipe for sturgeon!)
51:00 Albacore tuna fishing off the Pacific Coast
56:00 Bear-on-car vandalism!
1:00:01 Artemis Book Club: "Black Faces, White Spaces" by Carolyn Finney Discussions start this week.
Emerald LaFortune is a fishing guide in Idaho's Salmon River. She's also a whitewater rafter, an outdoors writer, a deep thinker, and a conservation advocate - and just a gem of a human being. (#gemstonepuns?) There's pretty much nothing her sharp mind doesn't dive into. This week we take a deep-dive into Emerald's career as a female fishing guide - what she's learned, how she's grown, and what experiences she hopes to share with others. Emerald asks, "If a picture's worth a thousand words, what's an experience worth?"
2:30 There's no better lead-in to a salmon discussion than serving wild-caught Alaskan salmon on a salmon-fishing trip in Idaho
4:00 On river trips... salmon cooked over the fire? Or on the griddle? Go!
6:30 Adult-onset angling... If you're a river person, fly-fishing has a way of making it into your repertoire
7:00 Emerald's life: A mix of guiding fishing trips, outdoor writing, and salmon recovery/conservation work on the Salmon River in Idaho
7:45 What would my life be like if I'd taken a fly-fishing elective in college instead of step aerobics?
13:00 Guiding summers out of college - growth versus burn-out
16:00 Emerald's Insta: @EmeraldLensMedia; Online at EmeraldLaFortune.com
17:00 What's it like to be a river guide? Transformative. There's your young, fresh-out-of-home self... there's growth in self-knowledge, confidence and ability. And then, years later, there's a career-minded, conservation/writing-hustling self who has made a life out of this field
20:00 Male fishing guests with small-in-stature female fishing guides
24:00 Becoming an expert... failure is a part of the equation. Do learning failures get labeled as incompetence more often with women guides than men? It can feel that way. And it can make us feel paralyzed about making mistakes.
27:00 The Redside Foundation - help and support for Idaho's guiding community... in health, finances, everything. It's an extraordinary program.
34:00 Legends of the Tetons: A Lady Angler’s Storytelling Night in Jackson, Wyo.
36:00 Artemis Queers and Camo podcast with Taylor Morton and Sarah Keller
37:30 Hunt to Eat's Pride fishing shirt... you need this in your closet
38:00 Community: it's everything. Places like Missoula Fly Gals, Queers and Camo, and Artemis try to build inclusive communities. Isolation sometimes makes us think there's one way, or one culture, in these sports... and that's not the case
41:00 "Shit Fly Fishing Gals Say" video by Emerald
44:00 Hilary Hutcheson’s fly shop and guided tours: Lary’s Fly and Supply
49:00 "If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's an experience worth?" The Pride of Being a Guide
50:00 The conservation world can be chock full of stress and noise... staying connected with the 'why' is so important to staying fresh and effective
55:00 It's usually a series of experiences over time that culminate in making us who we are or what we're passionate about
58:00 Growing up in a whitewater family... running the Middle Fork of the Salmon with kids ages 7 and 4
1:00:02 Lean into the fear. It's where growth happens.
Beavers are amazing! Artemis is diving straight into the beaver pond with Dr. Emily Fairfax, ecohydrologist, science story teller, and beaver dam enthusiast. Join us to hear how this keystone species shapes our landscape, supports wildlife, and improves watersheds wherever they slap a tail.
2:00 "Beavers are a keystone species, which means they modify their environment in a way that influences the whole ecosystem."
3:30 First beaver experience... when your animal guide finds you
5:30 Idaho's beaver reintroduction efforts involved parachuting them in the Frank Church
7:00 Hauling a canoe over a beaver dam (over and over) in the Boundary Waters makes you realize what incredible engineers beaver are
9:00 Beavers are masters at helping lands retain water longer, which benefits a slew of other animal species – including fish, birds and ungulates!
11:00 In Nevada, beavers started improving cattle grazing land... but their real hero moment was during a drought, when areas with beavers stayed greener longer.
14:30 Now there's just two species of beaver: North American Beaver and the Eurasian Beaver. They're different enough that they can't interbreed, but both are dam-builders
15:00 There used to be 20-odd beaver species... some dug spiral burrows into the earth, others were Pleistocene-size beavers as big as linebackers!
16:00 Dam-building was a hugely advantageous skill, evolutionary-wise... it meant beavers could build their own habitat pretty much anywhere there was water
17:00 Beaver populations remained stable pre-settlement, when some indigenous cultures had ways of self-regulating harvest. The European fur trade marked the start of beaver decline
19:30 "Ecological amnesia"... when people can't remember whether or not an animal is native to a landscape
21:15 Beaver dams generally don't stop the flow of water completely. Beavers then dig channels out from the dam, dispersing water, and also giving them routes back to the dam (so they're not just chicken nuggets waddling around on land). This is the chief mechanism of how beavers turn streams into wetlands.
26:00 Water retention, water temperature, and soil health in beaver habitat
28:00 How beavers overwinter... it's brilliant
31:30 Beaver family units... they mate for life!
33:00 Adult beavers can be enormous... up to 110 pounds, especially in northern climates. (They're also a favorite food for some wolf packs.)
38:00 BDA = beaver dam analog (basically a human-constructed beaver dam to replicate the species' effect on the landscape)
39:00 Beavers and people/private lands... we have some tricks for management, like the "beaver deceiver"
41:00 Beaver presence in Nevada... it's a big of a mystery how they got there. Beaver dispersal is difficult because they're not well-adapted to moving over land
45:00 Beaver misconceptions are a huge obstacle for beaver conservation. Education is an important arm of conservation.
48:00 Beaver ponds are remarkable fire deterrent, and they're refuges for wildlife, "emerald sanctuaries"
51:00 The West has lost 60-90 percent of its natural wetlands... this has likely affected how fire behaves on the landscape
52:00 Beaver ponds = duck city!
53:45 "Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter" by Ben Goldfarb
55:00 How accurate is our perception of what a Western stream looks like? Those smooth-banked places we like to fish? They're not as natural as they look.
58:00 Find Emily @emilyfairfax on Twitter, or by email emily.fairfax@csuci.edu
59:00 Emily's film on beavers and wildfires
59:30 Beaver ponds are full of pointy sticks! But they're very stable to walk across
This week on the program, co-host Becca Aceto and Michigan hunter Sarah Topp talk about training their first bird dogs. Sarah's dog, Timber Doodle, is named after her favorite quarry, the woodcock. Training a high-energy dog has its ups and downs, but Becca and Sarah are each finding that it adds a richer dimension to their time in the field. (Disclaimer: Listening to this episode may cause you to Google bird dog breeds incessantly.)
1:30 "Northwoods Unleaded" video
2:00 Artemis Great Lakes Instagram and Facebook
4:00 You can cook/eat woodcock whole... entrails included!
7:00 No bone saw? No problem! A Sawzall works for breaking down those big roasts
8: 20 Michigan United Conservation Clubs – NWF’s Michigan Affiliate!
9:30 "Rabbitat" - rabbit habitat improvement lingo
11:00 Michigan elk populations. Yeah! Elk... in Michigan! They've been there for a hundred years now.
15:00 Harvesting an animal as a kid versus as an adult
18:00 Woodcock in Michigan, aka "timberdoodles"
19:00 Let's talk bird dogs: Upland game hunting versus waterfowl hunting with a dog... and flushing dogs versus pointing dogs
20:00 #coronapuppies... did EVERYONE get a bird dog this spring?!
22:00 Training a bird dog starts with basic obedience... next is to spend a lot of time outdoors picking up scent. Then you can graduate to working your dog on specific bird scents, using wings from previously harvested birds.
24:00 Bird dog groups and clubs = priceless
25:00 "Water Dog" by Richard Wolters
29:00 E-collar training at six months, Garmin and Sport Dog collars
34:00 Dog training blunders (and wins!)
38:00 The pointing instinct... how 'there' is it? Plus, puppy's first point!
41:00 Finding the right dog breed for your flavor of hunting (or, perhaps, for the degree of hair-shedding you're willing to manage)
44:00 "GSP" in birddog-speak is German Shorthaired Pointer
45:00 That moment you realize your 4- to 6-mile daily runs aren't enough to wipe out your dog's energy, so you invest in a pair of rollerblades and let the dog pull you six miles in 25 minutes.
48:00 Woodcock = "they fly like drunk birds"
50:00 Favorite shotguns for birding
55:00 Hanging with your bird dog: Leisure vs. work. For one dog, it's a catch-phrase, "Find the birds."
56:00 Gun sensitivity training
1:00:00 Cabin fever fix? Campgrounds with cellphone service, baby!
1:08:00 Follow Sarah on Instagram @trisarahtopp3
Kami Elsisie is a paramedic by day, and a hunter in just about every other spare minute. New Mexico offers an incredible array of game, both native and exotic. Kami tells us about an epic ibex hunt, plus her story about coming to the sport as an adult. Also... have you ever been out fishing/hunting/[insert outdoor pursuit here] and have someone ask, "So... did your boyfriend take you?"
2:00 - Want to introduce someone to eating wild game? Meatloaf is the winner here.
5:00 - Maggie's favorite pronghorn green chili recipe, add a teaspoon or so of juniper berries for an extra flavor kick.
8:00 - Adult-onset hunting... another story of getting into it! Kami's hunting life is punctuated by paramedic shifts in Albuquerque.
10:00 - Teaching the boyfriend to hunt... twice the tag draw opportunities!
11:30 - Depredation hunt for ibex in New Mexico... yes, ibex.
16:00 - Those once-in-a-lifetime tags? Sometimes they happen ALL IN THE SAME YEAR
17:00 - This is probably the best New Mexico ibex story you're going to hear this year
24:00 - Out-of-state ibex tags
26:00 - New Mexico is something of a hotspot for exotic game - Himalayan tar, oryx, ibex, Barbary sheep
28:00 - Heavier rifle, less kickback
31:00 - Adding a bird dog to the family, and finding out your trusty pitbull has a knack for hunting squirrels
33:00 - Carrying a heavy gun... get that comfy shoulder strap, baby. And hitch it over your pack, too.
38:00 - Falconry... one of those pursuits you can't resist if the opportunity comes up. It's a crazy-amazing synergy between humans, dogs, and raptors.
45:00 - Wildlife Wednesdays with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation … anyone can join via Zoom since Covid has pushed the events online. Follow NMWF for more! FB: @nmwildlife; Insta: @nmwildlifefed
49:00 - The women's hunting/fishing space... let's dish for a minute.
52:00 - "Did your boyfriend take you fishing?" ... OR, "Who guts your animal?"
1:07:00 - Follow Kami on Insta: @kamkam520
Rifles - they seem so simple, right? You put the bullet in. You pull the trigger. You (hopefully) kill the animal. But there's a lot of nuance in how a rifle performs, and it can often feel overwhelming to new hunters. This week we're talking to two experts from the firearms industry: Rachel Schmidt, formerly of Kimber Manufacturing, and Neal Emery of Hornady.
3:00 - Mushrooms in lasagna? OR CAPERS?!
5:30 - Piscivorous: You were probably missing this from your vocabulary.
7:00 - On growing up in a hunting family, "I never knew there wasn't hunting."
14:00 - Rifle calibers... what do those numbers mean?
15:00 - First off, you don't need to be a rifle caliber/reloading expert to have enough working knowledge to go hunting. So don't sweat it. Start with knowing what you want to hunt.
18:00 - Calibers are confusing. It's like learning the English language... there are some general rules, but lots (LOTS) of exceptions.
19:00 - Hornady website, go to "Rifles" and "Ammunition" for a basic caliber chart
21:00 - Start with the basics: How does your rifle work? What does the firing pin do? How does the safety stop it from firing? Check out this great animation from hunter-ed.com.
27:00 - Caliber is just a size. The same caliber bullets can come in different weights, which are called grains (i.e. 220 grain versus 110 grain)
32:30 - Rifle fit and recoil. Heavier guns generally absorb recoil better (the downside: you have to carry them places).
35:00 - Muzzle brakes screw onto the tip of your barrel, and they dissipate the pressure of the air as the bullet exits the barrel, lessening recoil
37:00 - Recoil pads can go on the back of the gun to soften the recoil impact on your shoulder
37:15 - And different ammunition has different recoil... minimizing the weight of the bullet can reduce recoil some. And different gunpowder has different burning properties that can affect how a bullet feels leaving the barrel. In short: Lower recoil loads exist.
39:30 - Does noise make recoil feel worse? Wear ear protection!
44:00 - Bullet construction: This controls how fast (and when) a bullet opens up...aka mushrooming.
50:00 - How well a rifle shoots certain ammo is subjective. The only way to know what works best for your gun is to try a bunch of different bullets.
1:00:00 - Checklist for choosing a rifle: Game you're hunting, stock fit against your body, weight of the rifle, budget.
1:04:00 - Length of pull: distance between the trigger to the butt of the gun
1:06:00 - Hornady cheek pieces
1:12:00 - Rifle myth busters: "A good cartridge for women and kids is the .243"
1:24:00 - Marcia's Moroccan Fish Tagine with halibut.
Katelyn Sheehan of Anchorage took a circuitous route to becoming a hunter. Her first time shooting a Sitka black-tailed deer on the island of Kodiak was a game-changer for her, and it's an experience she's been able to bring into her social work. Katelyn tells Artemis about why spending time in the outdoors can be healing, both in her own life and the lives of the veterans she takes into the backcountry.
3:00 - A hunting genesis story that starts with great people
5:00 - Sitka black-tailed deer hunt on Kodiak. A first-time harvest, and a chance to absorb the hunting lifestyle from a family who lives it intimately
10:30 - A journey into outdoors healing. Katelyn started in the military, then social work, then the outdoor guiding, eventually with No Barriers in Colorado
15:00 - "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel Van Der Kolk
15:30 - Trauma is something we hold on to, but there's a lot we can do to release it
17:00 - Sometimes the absence of spending time in nature is what makes us realize how much we need it (lookin' at you, Covid!)
23:00 - Sometimes the outdoors strip away what's distracting us, and it lets us see what we need to work on
28:00 - Great American Outdoors Act plus Katelyn' advocacy on LWCF; plus, Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's decision to stand with GAOA
30:30 - LWCF 101: How it's (supposed to be) funded and what that's meant the sporting community, and pretty much everyone who wants to spend time outside
33:30 - Anchorage's Chester Creek Trail: LCWF beneficiary, and about the raddest place to go salmon fishing within Anchorage city limits
35:00 - Moose run-in on a bike during moose calving season
37:00 - Episode 12 with Kyla West - Don't Run (unless it's a moose)
39:00 - Artemis storytelling contest for GAOA advocacy
This week we tackle listener questions -- from gearing up for a 9-day elk-hunting trip, to why it can feel so dang hard asking for help. Got a question? Send us a note at artemis@nwf.org.
1:40 - Maggie's 22-pound lake trout story + making the front page of the Sun Valley newspaper
4:00 - Old-timers with handlebar mustaches are the best kind of trolling tutors
4:30 - Mackinaw = lake trout, which aren't really a trout... they're a char species
7:20 - Ain't no party like a fence-pull party!
13:00 - The Yellowstone firetruck fish tale
14:00 - Range finder AND bino -- OR -- range-finding binos?
16:30 - Vortex Furies - Marcia and Maggie's range-finding binos
19:00 - Why is it so hard to ask for help?
24:00 - First-time 9-day backcountry elk hunting trip - what should a new hunter know?
26:00 - Layering: hunting vs. backpacking
27:00 - Let's talk about traction for a minute
28:00 - Butchering and pack-out: Revisit Episode 19: Butchery with Anna Borgman and EP 5: Packing Game Out with Sarah Keller
31:00 - How to hang your food/game for bear safety – Great article from goHunt
32:30 - Terrorizing bunny at camp, another reason to hang food
34:00 - Fly-fishing: How do you bring your line in to mimic different bug movements? (Add 'skittering' to your vocabulary)
37:30 - "So you think you want to fish?"
42:00 - On keeping up with the Joneses, tricks for using your strength to your advantage (or phoning a friend when necessary)
45:00 - Gear Review: Hiking and wading stilts
52:00 – Episode 12 - Don't Run with Kyla West
53:00 - Montana Artemis Alliance
55:00 - Artemis map
Sarah Keller and Taylor Morton join us on Artemis this week to talk about growing a LGBTQ+ community in the hunting and fishing world. Their initiative is called is Queers and Camo. At a time of social unrest on a national scale, we discuss why inclusiveness matters more than ever in our industry, and what that looks like right now.
1:30 Our guests today are Sarah Keller, who you'll remember from EP 5: Packing Game Out, and Taylor Morton, author of this great Artemis blog Meat on the Table
2:00 - June is Pride month
5:30 – The history of Pride. Riots back then, riots now -- and what change comes out of those movements
9:40 - Being queer and being visible in the hunting/conservation space. It started with a longstanding desire to connect with more LGBTQ people who are hunters and outdoors people
11:00 - Queers and Camo -- making our community a safe, enjoyable space for everyone, and fomenting important dialogue that helps build that
15:00 - On being a hunter before coming out -- one thing builds on another. These aren't compartmentalized pieces of self, they're entwined with each other
15:30 - On Insta, @queersandcamo happy hour forthcoming
16:30 - Growing up around a hunting culture that's white and male makes you cognizant of race/gender/sexuality and how safe you feel outdoors (or, in grocery stores, walking to your car, etc)
17:30 - How does it affect us when our community doesn't reflect who we are?
19:45 - On feeling like you need to present a different version of yourself depending on your geography. Those Confederate flags? Not exactly a welcome mat. Being a hunter in California? That can feel funny, too.
21:20 - Outside Online article on being out and gay, and crossing those two worlds: A Queer Hunter Reflects on Coming Out
25:30 - Discrimination takes more forms than using foul language or denying your services
30:00 - Sometimes the outdoors -- like a long trek tracking elk -- can be a quiet enough space for hard conversations that don't ordinarily get the space to air, like the difference between gender and sexual orientation
31:30 - On including LGBTQ+ voices in any platform with the public eye - it's important
34:00 - Why is it important to have a community specifically for LGBTQ hunters/anglers?
38:30 - Hunting traditions are often passed down through families... part of creating a community is giving others access to that infrastructure. Not everyone has a sporting tradition in their family unit, but they might find it in their chosen family
41:30 - Taylor's piece for Autostraddle called “On the Hunt” and voices from queer women who hunt on a series called "The Outsiders"
45:30 - Resources and online communities: Queer Appalachia, Queer Nature, Pattie Gonia, Unlikely Hikers, The Venture Out Project, The LGBTQ Outdoors Summit, OutSportsman
47:30 - Books: Anything by Audre Lorde, like Zami; Autostraddle REI segment called "The Outsiders"; and just keep up with the news. Read the hate crime stories. Know what's happening.
54:30 - Find Sarah @sj_keller, and Taylor @_taymo_
This week we 'pick' the brain of morel expert Kristen Blizzard (see what we did there? Pick the brain? Har, har.) Kristen and her husband run ModernForager.com, an online resource for foragers across the country. Kristen tells us about everyone's favorite -- the morel -- plus other mushrooms you can easily add to your repertoire with a little extra know-how. We also discuss how to harvest for success in the kitchen. The culinary possibilities are endless!
3:40 - Harvesting arnica when the mushrooms aren't in
5:00 - Kristen and Trent Blizzard run ModernForager.com
9:40 - Mushrooms totally have a terroir, a sense of flavor imparted by the place they were harvested. It's simply lovely.
12:30 - What apple is to tree, mushroom is to mycelium. The mycelial network is everywhere! Under every forest floor. They're tree-like.
14:30 - "The Wood-Wide Web" – check it out
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/04/the-wood-wide-web/478224/; https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/from-tree-to-shining-tree
21:00 - Morel hunting wonderfully overlaps with spring bear season. Wild mushrooms complement wild game so beautifully.
23:00 - Adding a new mushroom to your foraging repertoire is a big deal! On posting a mushroom pic to an online forum, and having multiple different (very confident) answers on what it is
24:00 - Coral mushrooms are very hard to tell apart. Some cause gastric upset, others are fine. (Corals = mushroom jerky)
26:00 - Safe foraging is like any hobby: The more you do it, the better you get. Don't eat random mushrooms. Work on your ID skills
28:00 - People from Michigan = Michiganders
30:00 - Burn Morels vs. Anywhere Morels: You're collecting in a 5-gal. bucket versus just trying to find enough for dinner
32:00 - Do the time to find your spots, then those mushrooms come back over and over again. Black morels come out at higher elevation. The blonde ones often show up lower.
33:00 - Porcinis (boletes), chanterelles, and oyster mushrooms
39:00 - Start with a good mushroom book, then build your know-how. Chanterelles, for example, have a white interior. Less-edible look-alike have an orange-colored interior.
40:00 - Different geographies come with different look-alike of edible mushrooms. If you're foraging in California, waaaay more look-alike mushrooms than, say, in Colorado
41:00 - Timing of mushroom season is somewhat correlated to moisture... you can find mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest at Thanksgiving that might only be found in spring in Colorado
43:00 - On harvesting mushrooms sustainably - it's a hot topic! Cutting versus pulling is less important than protecting the environment where mycelium thrive
45:00 - On etiquette, pick what you'll use, and maybe consider leaving some for other pickers
46:00 - "Shrub" = A mushroom-infused drinking vinegar. Chanterelle shrub... fruity and delicious. Matsutaki shrub... cinnamon and socks. Pick your flavor, everyone!
48:00 - Mushroom confit
50:00 - Mushroom ice cream (candy caps, everyone! The maple flavor is astounding.)
51:00 - Chanterelle sorbet, chanterelle-apricot jam... the possibilities are truly endless
52:00 - Different mushrooms keep differently. Some don't keep their flavor when dehydrated, so try cooking and freezing those. It varies by the species.
53:00 - SAFETY... it's pretty intuitive, right? Don't eat something unless you know what it is. Apart from that, walking in circles looking at the ground is a great way to get lost. A GPS app helps.
58:00 - Check out the Modern Forager harvesting bag ... and LOTS of tips on how to harvest for success in the kitchen
1:05:00 - Getting started? Join a mycology society (yes, they actually exist) and meet some geeky mushroom people. Second thing: Find those mushroom groups on Facebook. They're great. (And all the #humblebragging totally tells you when certain mushrooms are in.) Lastly, get a mushroom book. The David Arora guide is a staple. Plus, "All That the Rain Promises and More"
Vicky Mullaney is a chef and author of the Lodge at Black Pearl Cookbook, which is filled with fish and game recipes from her family's waterfowl hunting lodge on the Chesapeake Bay. In this episode, we talk about what it means to raise a family in the field, and how that helps keep family close into adulthood. Plus, tips on cooking waterfowl (duck spring rolls, ya'll!) and shotgun savvy.
BOOK GIVEAWAY! Visit our new Facebook group, The Artemis Podcast, to enter. And for a limited time, all cookbook purchases will benefit the Artemis sportswomen's programs. Visit lodgeatblackpearlcookbook.com to learn more.
3:00 - Anyone else do a Covid freezer clean-out? Amazing what you find in there. Especially if you share freezer space with family
5:20 - Vicky is the chef and manager at her family's waterfowl hunting lodge on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.
8:00 - Waterfowl hunting... the beauty of the birds is just phenomenal
10:00 - Those early mornings in a fishing boat or a duck blind? It can be cold. Bring a thermos, layer up, be comfy to enjoy it.
11:30 - Hunting offers kids so much in the way of life skills: You need to show up, be patient, be quiet, build your own blind, train your dog -- these lessons add up to meaningful character. It's not easy, but it's huge.
14:30 - Raising your kids outside means they don't fall into that group of people who don't know things like the fact that pickles are cucumbers. Put up a bird feeder. Ask them to find a white rock -- all of this gets kids in the habit of paying attention to what's round them
20:00 - Ages and stages: Is it easier to get kids out when they're little than trying to teach them as teenagers?
23:00 - The burden of getting little kids out definitely falls on parents. You need to pack more, never run dry on treats, etc.... but eventually, the kids learn to do it all!
26:00 - It's exciting out there for kids! Example: There's only one way to learn what happens when you feed a Labrador retriever a bucket of slugs.
27:00 – The Lodge at Black Pearl - with recipes like duck spring rolls and French onion soup, game-style
27:30 - Cooking ducks (and other game) -- don't overcook it. That's where game meat starts tasting 'gamey'
30:00 - Goose leg confit... [we're doing an Italian lip-smacking gesture over here]... low and slow, baby
34:30 - "If you shoot it, you eat it" household rule... this has led to some interesting eating! Ask Vicky about turtle recipes. Or the time her son shot a squirrel before school and had to clean it before getting on the bus.
39:00 - www.blackpearlcookbook.com (This is a book not sold on Amazon, everyone!) and on Insta @blackpearlcookbook
40:00 - Hunting keeps a family close, even into adulthood
45:00 - If you're totally new to shotgunning, it's worth spending the $50 for a lesson at a clays course to learn how to mount the gun, move to target, etc.
51:00 - Cooking rockfish (or any fish!) - sometimes simple is hard to beat
Anna Borgman went to culinary school before she became a hunter. She studied the relationship between how an animal was raised to how it tasted on the plate. The same is true for game -- a sense of place imparts itself onto every animal harvested. This episode, we talk about the art of butchery, and delve into some practical tips -- like which knives you need and how to handle silverskin.
2:30 - May 29 "So You Think You Wanna Fish?" webinar with Artemis
8:00 - Shooting stars! Paint brushes! Lupine! Oh, my! That lovely point when you know your local wildflowers by name... it bolsters your sense of place
10:00 - iNaturalist citizen science app; plus Seek app, which uses your phone to identify plants
10:30 - Anna of Forage Fed teaches butchery and does game processing, and she's also into how food systems work
13:00 - Portland Meat Collective with Camas Davis - whole animal butchery for chefs
15:00 - Cricket protein farming... yup.
16:30 - Entomophogy = bugs for food
17:50 - Butchery versus meat-cutting
20:00 - Why does meat look different on older vs. younger animals, or how does meat quality change depending on how an animal has been raised?
20:30 – Fred Provenza’s work on how animals meet their own nutritional needs instinctually
25:00 - How animals are fed affects so much else... land use, public land health, etc.
28:00 - There's no single right way to butcher an animal. The two golden rules, however, would be 'clean' and 'cold' -- below 45 degrees is ideal
30:00 - Gloves can help you handle that meat without your hands going numb.
31:00 - You don't need an expensive knife. You just need a sharp knife. Anna uses the Victorinox ones... totally affordable.
32:00 - Knife arsenal: you need a boning knife (maybe two, depending on stiffness preference), a paring knife, and a butcher knife. A grinder is also pretty handy
34:00 - Being a woman at 'sausage school' and laughing like a teenager at all the punny jokes
35:00 - Cleaning silver skin, which is the connective tissue that lines muscles (it also dulls your knives and clogs your grinder)
40:30 - Subbing whitefish in a crabcake recipe
42:00 - Meat color/toughness has to do with how muscles are used for movement (and something called myoglobin)
49:00 - Good books to start out with: Adam Danforth's books on beef and other animals; MeatEater's guide to field processing
53:00 - You can't mess it up. Really! Just get in there and cut up the animal. You get better every time.
56:30 - In the field, try to keep your knife hand clean. One hand for pulling hide and swatting hair, one for clean meat-handling.
57:30 - a bone dust scraper
59:00 - dry-aging & flavor
1:06:00 - Bear fecal plugs, ya'll
1:07:00 - Find Anna at forage-fed.com, or @annaborgman on Insta
Reactivation: When a hunter leaves the sport, and then (hopefully) comes back. This week we hear from Montana hunter Alex Stokman, who started hunting as a biologist in Florida, and then didn't pick it up again until after she'd had three kids and moved West. Stokman is an avid hunter now, but it hasn't always been easy splitting time between #momlife and the sporting field. (For example, her kids are savvy to her attempts to pitch 'new hikes' that double as scouting trips.) Family obligation is just one of a myriad of reasons people step away from the sport. This week, we talk about what helps them come back.
2:30 - R3 = Recruit, retain, reactivate
6:20 - Other R3 episodes: Episode 3 with Sam Pedder, Episode 10 with Nicole Qualtieri
7:00 - Venery Montana – inspiring and educating new hunters
8:00 - Adult-onset hunting genesis story: it started with a boyfriend
9:00 - Florida's game department -- they had check stations with volunteers and game commission employees who would gut your deer for you so biologists can take a closer look
10:30 - Alex can gut a deer in like 30 seconds. It's a good skill!
13:00 – Day trip hunting in Minnesota during grad school
14:00 - A lot of people get into hunting, and then their passion for it ebbs and flows depending on what else is going on in life -- and that's totally normal.
17:00 - On leaving hunting and then coming back to it... when's a good time? Weaning your youngest certainly frees you up!
17:30 - Landing that first invite to join a hunting party
20:00 - Intrapersonal/interpersonal constraints to sticking with hunting and finding your group
22:00 - On being included in a hunting group as a guest versus a part of the group
23:00 - There's a switch in your personal hunting journey, that point where you become the driver of your own hunts, versus a passenger on others
25:00 - Asking someone, versus the 'figure it out' method to learning - sometimes you need both
26:00 - There's a difference between hunting and identifying yourself as a hunter
35:00 - Recruitment of women hunters is on the rise, but retention and reactivation is faltering. Do women prioritize time differently?
39:30 - Do women hunters spend less time in the field than men? Do they have to negotiate for that field time, say, by trying to convince the family to "hike" an area that might double as a scouting trip...?
40:00 - Master Hunter program by One Montana
44:00 - What can we do to improve reactivation? Invite people back. Say, 'Hey, welcome! We missed you!'
48:00 - Would more family-friendly activities boost female hunter retention?
48:40 - RMEF kid activities
49:00 - On teaching kids... you can teach kids, but do parents have enough experience to sustain that original thrust into the sport? And vice versa, you can teach parents, but are they competent/confident enough to teach their kids?
51:50 - "Did I bash the hunter ed course?"
53:00 - rendering elk/bear fat into soap
Hunting while pregnant is... totally awesome! No, really. This week on the show we're joined by two Artemis ambassadors who are both growing tiny humans while still enjoying time spent in the hunt field. Emily Ledergerber and Kyla West share their experiences, tips and tricks, and what they’ve learned.
1:30 - Hunting while pregnant... this topic is totally overdue for discussion (Har har, see what we did there? #punforthewin)
4:30 - Timing your due date so it (hopefully) doesn't overlap with hunting season
8:00 - Pack-raft turkey hunting, baby!
10:00 – The daughter of a bowyer, Emily grew up shooting bows, but she didn't become a bowhunter until her 30s -- it was a fortuitous family hobby!
11:30 - Emily's blog post on Artemis about Hunting While Pregnant... "Don't pass on your first day something you wouldn't pass on your last."
13:00 - Pace yourself. You're tired, moving slower, maybe even feeling sick... take it easy out there.
15:00 - Snacks in EVERY pocket. Your husband's pockets... AND
16:00 - ...STAY HYDRATED. You need more water when you're pregnant.
18:30 - Packing all the snacks and all the water is good practice for parenthood, too
19:30 - Maternity hunting clothes... uhh, nope. But we have some tricks!
22:00 - What if we bought a couple sets of maternity hunting gear and made it like a lending library for our friends having babies!?
23:30 - First Lite has a stretchy hunting jacket that totally doubles as maternity wear
25:00 - Pregnancy cankles... you're not too young to own some compression socks
25:20 - Sockwell compression socks
27:00 - All your organs get smushed around... and so when you have to go, you have to GO.
35:00 - Bowhunting form and gun recoil
36:00 - Can babies hear shotgun sounds? Lead-free ammo, also a plus.
39:00 - If your body's asking for sleep, listen to it
"Glassing is the art of sitting on a high spot and looking for wildlife." That gem of wisdom comes from Artemis co-founder Jess Johnson, who shares some of her best game-spotting tricks with us in this episode. Plus, what you need to know when scoping out your optics. (See what we did there? #opticspun)
3:00 - Quarantine Us: Dishes = low priority; Mud season = meh; Comfy overalls = a harbinger of changing standards of what you will and won't wear in public
10:00 - What is glassing? It's the art of sitting on a high spot and looking for wildlife... OR, hunting with your eyes, not with your feet
10:30 - How do you pick a glassing spot? Let's talk about mule deer for a moment.
12:00 - Wisdom from Brad Brooks of Argali - Mule deer know their home ground... they come back to it time and time again.
13:00 - Look for the best vantage point... look for a high spot without tree obstruction. Spots that overlook basins are winners.
15:00 - Good glassing involves sitting and waiting. Get comfy.
16:30 - Mule deer feed in the morning... then they mosey around. Moving mule deer = easier to spot than bedded deer. Best times to glass are early mornings and 3 p.m. onwards.
20:00 - Improving your eye for game: Investigate every twig/rock... look closely. And if you see nothing, wait and look again. Movement is a giveaway.
24:00 - Glassing is sort of like Where's Waldo... your eye gets sharper at finding the details that clue you into game the more time you spend out there.
28:00 - Go glassing in the off-season. Bring coffee/donuts. Again on being comfy.
32:00 - Optics... they're particularly useful in Western hunting. It's probably not the equipment to skimp on.
34:00 - Jess uses Mavens
35:00 - Optics specs - magnification by objective size. Higher magnification means your field of view gets smaller.
38:00 - Glassing arm exhaustion is a real thing. Prop yourself up on something... Jess has a winning ball cap trick.
39:30 - Binoculars vs. spotting scopes
42:00 - Other good makes: Zeiss, Vortex, Swarovski, Maven
43:00 - The app-adapted scope is a pretty fun luxury
45:30 - Know how to fit your binos to your face and how to adjust them
Maggie Heumann is many things -- Artemis founder, podcast host, outdoor gear hocker, fisherwoman -- AND... entomologist. This week we're talking bugs in the field. From finding a treasure trove of bug artifacts at an estate sale to inadvertently having a sleeping bag full of fleas, there's a lot to know about our six-legged frenemies.
1:25 - 'Bugz with Magz' webinars
3:30 - Maggie's quarantine: Knitting, bread-baking, watching bug videos. Yep.
5:25 - Maggie's Instagram... sweet entomology finds from an estate sale.
8:30 - Big snow year = big skeeter year... womp womp. But on the flip side, drier years often mean more ticks/fleas
9:30 - Mosquitos are attracted to the output of CO2 (= breathing) and lactic acid. They're remarkable at sensing people from afar
12:00 - Skin-liquifying bug enzymes
13:00 - Colors. Mosquitoes love them!
14:30 - Black flies, horseflies, deer flies
19:00 - Anytime it's above 50 degrees, it's mosquito-hatching time
20:30 - Caterpillars... A good rule of thumb: If it has really vibrant colors or spines, probably not a good one to handle.
21:30 - Ants... geography makes a big difference. Fire ants in the Southeast are worth steering clear of.
22:30 – E.O. Wilson discovered imported red fire ants as a youngster... and he went on to be a big bug guy ever since.
23:00 - With ants, wasps, bees, hornets -- the biggest concern is allergies. Keep antihistamines and antiseptics in your first-aid kit. If you're not allergic, try not to itch! It further distributes the insect's poison on your skin.
24:50 - Dip spit may, or may not, alleviate the pain of a sting.
25:00 - Bees/wasps/hornets -- they're bugs with four wings. The two-winged bugs are the flies.
25:30 - Fleas! Fleas don't just live on your dog and cat... they love to live in your house. No wings, but those buggers can jump.
26:30 - White is a bug-neutral color for the most part... except when it comes to fleas. Don't wear white socks. Get colorful socks!
28:00 - A cautionary tale of tossing white ankle socks on a sleeping bag in flea country
31:30 - Moving on to ticks... not actually insects! As larvae they have six legs, but when they molt they become 8-legged. (Chiggers and mites: also arachnids.)
33:30 - It's worth dumping some time on YouTube to see how ticks find their hosts. Check this one out.
35:00 - The signature 'bullseye' of Lyme disease is only specific to one tick... you can still get it without experiencing that.
37:00 - Lyme disease is still concentrated in the East/Northeast. Out West though, there's Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in the way of tick-borne illness
38:00 - Scorpions... most of the time they're harmless. Painful bite, nothing more.
39:00 - Handling tick- or flea-laden game
41:00 - Send us your pictures of bugs on game! Artemis@nwf.org
41:30 - Black widows, brown recluses, hobo spiders -- those are the big arachnids to know
43:00 - Chiggers don't actually burrow into you
45:00 - Deet... really bad for your outdoor gear, really great for keeping bugs away. But maybe not for everyone.
45:30 - Alternative bug sprays: IR3535 - a new insect repellent from Europe, Picariden, and essential oils (lemon, citrus, catnip oils), or Thermacell fan
Peeing, pooping and periods. Oh yeah, we're "going" there. The founder of Kula Cloth, Anastasia Allison, joins us to talk about how to do all three of these things comfortably in the backcountry. Do you 'drip dry,' or 'shake it off'? What about if you pop a squat and notice a trail cam pointed at you?
1:30 - 'Snain' - snow up high, rain down low 4:00 - unannounced sunrise concerts in the backcountry, courtesy of a packed in keyboard and violin 4:45 - going from working in parks, to becoming a police officer, to entrepreneurship - Kula Cloth is a non-microbial cloth that helps you "go" wherever you need to 8:30 - On stealing toilet paper from another camper's backpack, and realizing you don't actually know HOW to go potty in the woods 11:45 - PEEING. Drip dry? Or, the 'aggressive shake-off'? 12:00 - It's important to stay dry and clean in the backcountry. Otherwise you're looking at chafing, UTIs, or plain old discomfort 13:00 - When peeing, be mindful of water sources nearby. Try to be 200 ft away 13:30 - How to pee? There are all kinds of ways. There's the trusty 'ol squat, or if you're in a climbing harness or drysuit, products like the SheWee or TinkleBell or SheFly pants. 14:45 - Even if you shake off after peeing, you're probably still going to have some residual moisture 16:00 - Description of a toilet bag 17:00 - Kula Cloth and other pee cloths are there to help you pat dry 18:00 - Caring for a pee cloth on a long backpacking trip 23:45 - POOP. That moment when you ask for the trowel and everybody knows where you're going 25:00 - You should be packing out toilet paper. Is it awkward shoving it in a clear ziplock bag and toting it to and from camp? Yes. One tip: Cover your poo baggie with duct tape. 26:00 - Digging a 6- to 8-inch hole sounds super easy, but it doesn't feel quick when you really need to go. You can pre-dig a hole as soon as you set-up camp. 27:00 - Nobody wants to show up to a campsite with a bunch of small rock shrines, which are actually just small poop temples for people who didn't bother to dig a hole. 28:00 - Toilet paper doesn't just disappear, especially in desert and alpine environments 28:30 - "Blue bag" areas - places where you're regulated to pack out your poop. (Also a good idea to be blue-bagging in snow-camping situations.) 30:00 - Blue-bagging can feel a little weird. It's like picking up dog poop, but you are the dog. 30:30 - go2 Outdoor Essentials 32:00 - "CuloClean" squirt nozzle for water bottle 33:00 - On husband-wife intimacy when it comes to poo in the backcountry 38:00 - Burning toilet paper - yay or nay? 39:30 - PERIODS. 40:30 - Menstrual cups, like Diva Cup and Pixie Cup. If you've ever thought of trying one, the ease of having your period in the backcountry is a huge perk. 41:45 - If you use tampons/pads, you're going to need to pack out the spent ones, preferably keeping them alongside your food so they're not a wildlife attractant. 47:30 - South entrance to Yellowstone... the notorious sign, "Bears and Menstruation." It's scaring everybody! 48:30 - What's the evidence on bear attacks being correlated to periods? Not much. 48:45 - "Night of the Grizzlies" book 50:00 - Worst thing ever: Popping a squat and then seeing a trail cam pointed at you 57:00 - Knockin' rainbows on the Snake for a Fish and Game bounty 1:00:01 - Toilet paper shortage has been serendipitous for Kula Cloth
Turkey season is nigh! Patt Dorsey from the National Wild Turkey Federation shares her turkey savvy with us -- from what makes a good roost tree, to all the quirks a biologist would care about, like the bird's laser-like vision, or a hen's ability to store semen for later use.
1:30 - Nicole Qualtieri's article on turkey and bear hunting quarantine ethics
3:00 - Sautéed turkey breast with morels... mmm
5:30 - Why would you want to hunt turkeys in the first place?
6:30 - If you celebrate holidays like Thanksgiving, chances are you know your way around a turkey. It can be a good first quarry for new hunters. Field dressing a turkey is a lot more intuitive for some people than, say, an elk.
7:00 - 'Bird brain' doesn't apply to turkeys. They outwit people all the time.
8:00 - Spring is breeding season, which means toms are on the prowl for hens, calling them in
9:00 - What is it about that naked-looking waxy head and bright red snood? #sexyandyouknowit
11:00 - Turkey biology. Did you know hens can store semen for later use? And other details.
13:00 - Fall vs. spring turkey hunting. Totally different
15:00 - Topographical clues for good turkey country
17:00 - What makes a good roosting tree?
18:45 - NWTF turkey video with veterans hunting, "Beyond the Strut - Montana"
19:40 - Turkeys have phenomenal eyesight
23:00 - Diaphragm vs. box vs. pot calls
25:00 - Being patient is more important than being a great caller
30:00 - Stay safe out there
35:00 - How you field dress depends on what you want to do with your bird
36:00 - Wild turkeys... not the same as your store-bought Butterball. Treat the meat differently, it's going to be a bit more tough.
38:00 - Share turkey feathers for traditional handicrafts