$10,000 in fines for Tennessee Elk Poacher 🧑‍⚖️

The weekend might not be here yet, but your favorite dispatch from the great outdoors is. 

So grab your coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and let's get caught up on the outdoor news and views from the past few days. 

Here's what caught our eye this week...

• Another one goes down - Tennessee poacher gets nailed for killing two elk, letting them rot 🧑‍⚖️

• The grizzly mulie man - BC man lives, hugs and kisses all the deer 🤷

• Shootin’ ewes - Wyoming wants you to forget about horns and shoot some ewes 🐑

• The great turkey decline - We are smack dab in one of the biggest declines in recent memory 🦃

• Gamblor helps wildlife in Florida - The gambling God bestows riches upon Florida’s natural resources 👑

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
$10,000 IN FINES FOR TENNESSEE ELK POACHER

Stemming from an incident that took place last November, a Tennessee man has been slapped with big fines, suspensions and probation after being found guilty for illegally killing two elk. 

On November 19, 2023, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) Wildlife Manager Darrell England was contacted by an informant reporting that he had heard a number of shots while deer hunting in Tennessee’s North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area (NCWMA). The informant said he went to investigate the shots and came across another hunter who claimed he had shot two deer, a doe and a small buck. Knowing full well that the limit inside the NCWMA at that time was only one deer per person, the informant placed the call to TWRA.

Responding to the call, England was able to get vehicle tag information to help identify the guilty party, later named as 34-year-old Preston William Douglas. Interviewing Douglas in his home, investigators were able to get the accused to admit to firing shots, while claiming that he didn’t hit anything…

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🦌 The Grizzly Mulie Man - Channeling his inner Timothy Treadwell (aka Grizzly Man), one British Columbia man has documented his time spent in the woods near his home befriending the local deer population. Having spent much of his time around horses, Robert Conrad of Squamish, took his talents to the wild, spending two and a half years canoodling with his local mule deer population and eventually becoming “almost like one of them.” 

Over the years, he documented the experience through hundreds of photos that he is still going through. In them are both videos and photographs of him hugging young mule deer bucks, getting licked and petting them. Conrad has claimed that he never once has fed the animals in an attempt to get close to them. He just sat and waited around until they finally accepted him as one of their own. 

He’s since left the area as he felt the deer were under some sort of pressure because of his presence (weird, right?). Fortunately for Conrad, he didn’t stick around long enough to meet the same fate as his grizzly-obsessed predecessor.

🐏 Shootin’ the ewes - When it comes to bighorn sheep hunting, men all want the same thing (and it’s disgusting): a set of full-curl horns. While ram hunting does tend to command all of the attention of self-proclaimed badas* hunters out there, Wyoming is hoping to change that. With very little demand for female tags, Wyoming’s Fish and Game Department has been working at getting more hunters interested in chasing ewes to help save the herd. 

Where some might wait a decade or more to draw a coveted ram tag, Wyoming has been ramping up female quotes for the last couple of seasons, making shooting one a reality for many. While the initiative has faced some criticism, state researchers and biologists are warning that once bighorn herds reach capacity, these animals will inevitably meet their maker. 

📉 The great turkey decline - The cuts keep coming to turkey seasons across much of the country. With populations in decline, state’s like Nebraska and Oklahoma began cutting available tags last year and many more are following suit for this year.

Tennessee, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri have all made big reductions to bag limits and available permits, while states like Texas have canceled the spring 2025 turkey season across seven counties. While many state biologists remain partly puzzled by what is causing the sharp declines but will continue to monitor harvest reports and analyze recruitment.

🎰 Florida gambling funds being siphoned into conservation - After handing over the keys to all online sports gambling in the state to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Gov. Ron Desantis is ensuring a big portion of the proceeds are being put back into the state’s wild resources.

Working closely with the Tribe, the Governor signed Senate Bill 1638 into law this month,  directing 96 percent of funds from a new agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to multiple land, water, and wildlife protection initiatives.

 A press release from the Florida Senate highlighted the following allocations:

• $100 million each fiscal year to support and acquire lands and conservation easements within the Florida Wildlife Corridor

• $100 million for the management of state-owned lands and removal of invasive species

• $100 million for the implementation of Florida’s Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan

• The remainder of funds available each fiscal year will implement Florida’s Water Quality Improvement Grant Program ($79 million this year)

“The Tribe is always going to be part of the state. This is our home. This is where we grew up. This is where we’ll be buried,” Tribal Chairman Marcellus Osceola said. “Myself and the governor may not be in these elected positions [in the future], but the Tribe and the state will always be great [partners] … [going] forward to protect all of the natural resources.”

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👨‍👩‍👦 This is my family now: Watch as a family launches a drone in an attempt to locate their lost dog and, to their surprise, finds him hanging with a family of bears.

🐻 A raw moment in the wild: Photographer captures the moment a pair of black bears take down a moose calf along the side of an Ontario lake.

WEEKEND MEME // ^{_{WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE DO FOR FUN?}}

WANDERINGS // ^{_{A SFW GLIMPSE OF OUR BROWSER HISTORY}}

8 dudes were just busted for a beer heist that spanned over two years. Steve McQueen’s 1970 K5 Blazer was the sh*t. It’s also now up for auction. That fancy glass they use to score whiskeys? It is the result of a glass-blowing mistake. If you’re feeling lazy this weekend, read this story about the inmates that are running marathons inside San Quentin state prison. Tudor vs. Rolex - can you tell the difference?

EYE CANDY // ^{_{PICTURES > WORDS}}

A little moody for a Friday, but I like it.
@isaacspicz