From Pig Sting to Standoff: Michigan's Fight Against Feral Swine is Bringing the Heat 🐗

I’m currently at the “it’s Thursday already?” phase of the workweek and am unsure as to whether or not that is a good thing as of yet.

With that in mind, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get this Thursday morning dispatch out the door.

Here's what's worth reading about today:

“DESTROY THEM OR WE WILL”
FROM PIG STING TO STANDOFF: MICHIGAN’S FIGHT AGAINST FERAL SWINE IS BRINGING THE HEAT

In a saga that is blending wildlife management, legal battles, and a hint of celebrity flair, Michigan’s ongoing fight over feral swine has once again taken center stage. A recent court ruling has given two Upper Peninsula (U.P.) hunting operations, Freedom Ranch and Superior Wildlife, a 12-month window to eliminate their feral pigs, following a 2021 Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) sting operation that also targeted rocker and avid hunter Ted Nugent’s Sunrize Acres ranch in Jackson County. The operation, which involved undercover DNR agents using fake names and cash-only payments, has sparked heated debate about invasive species, government overreach, and property rights.

Back in 2021, the Michigan DNR launched an undercover investigation targeting six high-fence hunting properties suspected of offering hunts for feral Russian boars or their hybrids, classified as invasive species in Michigan since 2010. The sting operation focused on properties in the U.P. along with Ted Nugent’s Sunrize Acres, with agents posing as hunters to investigate whether these ranches were illegally harboring prohibited swine…

🛺 Utah hunter and his loyal dog crawl 11 miles to find help after rolling a side-by-side off a cliff. Jacob Schmitt, an experienced Utah hunter, endured a life-threatening side-by-side vehicle accident on July 20th, while scouting for deer in the Uinta Mountains with his loyal dog, Buddy. The vehicle rolled off a cliff after hitting an unstable trail, flipping an estimated 15-20 times and ejecting Schmitt, who suffered a broken leg, fractured ankles, and broken ribs. Miraculously, Buddy, secured in a kennel, emerged unscathed. Stranded without his phone or radio, Schmitt faced a dire situation as daylight faded. With only the light on Buddy’s collar to guide him, he splinted his leg and began an agonizing 11-hour crawl across nearly four miles of rugged terrain to reach safety.

By daybreak, Schmitt reached his truck and drove to Oakley Diner, where employee Yenni Saiz called 911 upon seeing his condition. After four days in the hospital, Schmitt reunited with Buddy, a moment described as profoundly moving. A GoFundMe campaign raised nearly $15,000 of its $24,000 goal to support his recovery. Undeterred, Schmitt plans to hunt again, urging others to master self-rescue skills.

🌋 Teen tourist suffers severe burns after breaking through Yellowstone geyser crust. On Monday of this week, a 17-year-old tourist sustained "significant thermal burns" while hiking in Yellowstone National Park’s Lone Star Geyser Basin, three miles southeast of Old Faithful. The teen’s foot broke through a fragile thermal crust, plunging into scalding water with temperatures between 160 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit, causing severe burns to his foot and ankle. Emergency medical staff responded swiftly, transporting him to an undisclosed hospital for treatment. The incident, the first thermal pool-related injury in Yellowstone in 2025, is under investigation, with no details released about whether the teen was off-trail.

The Lone Star Geyser Basin, lacking boardwalks unlike other park areas, is known for its hazardous thermal features, including hot springs and geysers along the Firehole River. Yellowstone’s thermal pools have claimed over 20 lives in recorded history due to their boiling water, which underlies thin, breakable crusts. The park emphasizes staying on designated trails to avoid such dangers, as off-trail travel is both risky and illegal.

🐺 Colorado’s wolf boom sparks both joy and conflict as four new packs emerge. Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program has marked yet another milestone with four new litters of pups born in spring 2025, establishing four wolf packs, including the previously known Copper Creek pack and the newly recognized One Ear, Three Creeks, and King Mountain packs in Jackson, Rio Blanco, and Routt Counties, respectively. Announced by Colorado Parks and Wildlife yesterday, the agency released video footage of young pups in Jackson County, signaling continued progress in the state’s wolf restoration efforts.

The news remains bittersweet for ranchers, particularly in Pitkin County, where the Copper Creek pack, notorious for livestock attacks, has continued its depredations despite non-lethal measures and the killing of one adult wolf by CPW. While the video depicted at least six pups, the agency has not confirmed total pup counts for all of the state’s wolf packs.

🙈 This ends about as well as you’d expect. This reminds me of seeing an open trailer or car hauler on the road and thinking that I could most definitely and obviously launch my truck off of it.

I’ve never tried it, but I imagine it would go something like this…

🦁 People Like Us Never Grow Up: This piece is being written in a bug-ridden swamp on the banks of the sluggish yellow Tana River, in northeastern Kenya, where the big elephants bugle and the baboons swear at the hunting leopards, and the lean Northern Frontier lions rumble asthmatically just outside the camp. I have been watching, with mounting delight, the reactions of a couple of boys – middle-aged, white-haired boys — an editor friend from America and a reserved Londoner who never saw a hedgehog, let alone a lion, until recently. It has become almost a ritual with me in recent years to get back to Africa every couple of years with some newcomers to the scene, to watch the wonders through new eyes.

And I have been thinking, as I watched the response of my two old friends, that I have lived through the end of an era, and it’s a sad thought.  Read the full story.

📖 Honoring the Legend: Jim Corbett at 150: July 25, 2025 marks the 150th birthday of a man whose name still echoes through the forests of India and the pages of adventure literature around the world — Edward James “Jim” Corbett. Born in 1875 in Nainital, in what was then British India, Jim Corbett was much more than just a hunter. He was a tracker, conservationist, writer, and, in many ways, a bridge between the colonial world he was born into and the wild India he grew to love and defend.

Today, we look back not only at the man who stalked man-eaters through the Himalayan foothills, but at the timeless legacy he left behind — one built on courage, empathy, and an unmatched understanding of the natural world.  Read the full story.

🪶 Lost Wives and Sporting Clays: A Wingshooter’s Vacation Tale: We were on a three-couple vacation retreat at Snowshoe Mountain, located in the breathtaking Monongahela National Forest, in far eastern West Virginia. We were staying at my friend’s cabin and were in the heart of the soft, rolling mountain range, enveloped by a never-ending forest. The week was spent exploring on foot and by ATV, relaxing with a good book on hunting western grouse, and waking up to thundering turkey gobbles in the far-off distance.

My wife, sensing my “urge for the bird”, as she likes to call it, finally relieved my hunting itch. God bless her.

“You guys go shoot and we’ll go on a hike,” she said midmorning on roughly our third day in.

After twenty-seven years, she knows me all too well. She had read in a brochure of a spectacular enchanted forest trail across the mountain along a ridge. Lucky for me, I had planned for such an opportunity and brought my shotgun, as Snowshoe Mountain offered up a sporting clays course at the base of the mountaintop.   Read the full story.

Oh, and one more thing…