Beaver State Podcast (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife)

Raising kids on the outdoors takes all kinds. Roscoe Chang's approach to parenting kids in the outdoors is to make it as fun as possible. When Roscoe signed his young son, Kenji, up for an ODFW shotgun skills clinic a few years ago, he had no idea it would lead his son into competitive trap shooting, but he's happy it did, because it gave him and his son one more way to connect around their passions for the outdoors, hunting, fishing and shooting sports. And it's one more way for Roscoe to pass down his hunting and fishing heritage, which he inherited from his parents who immigrated to the United States from Laos. 

We spent some time with biologist Jamie Bowles talking about her research of Sierra Nevada Red Fox in Oregon's Cascade Mountains. Populations of Sierra Nevada Red Fox in California are declining, so the Oregon research may end up helping any recovery efforts as biologists look at the life history strategies of these unique, high-elevation foxes in different states. 

Spring means a new generation of wild animals on the landscape. With more people enjoying the great outdoors, that can mean more human/wildlife encounters. Wildlife biologist Anne Mary Myers talks about how those encounters often end badly for wild animals, especially young animals removed from the wild by well-meaning people. It’s important to understand that a young animal's chances of survival drop precipitously when they're removed from their natural environment. 

In this second installment of the Beaver State Podcast Book Club, we convened at the ODFW office in Clackamas to meet with Northwest District Watershed Manager Steve Niemela, District Biologist Dave Keiter and District Public Information Officer Beth Quillian too discuss author Mary Roach's book "Fuzz." This book takes an often humorous look at human/wildlife conflict around the world and compares those experiences with those many Americans experience. We looked at the shared experiences of biologists around the world and the ways in which technology is increasing our awareness of wildlife and the role of educating people about how to live with wildlife. 

Show Notes -

Want to learn more about living with in Oregon? Check out these resources - https://www.dfw.state.or.us/wildlife/living_with/

Chronic Wasting Disease affects members of the Cervid family such as deer, elk and moose. It is an always fatal, infectious disease caused by a protein called a prion. It is spread by nose-to-nose contact between animals and through urine, feces, blood and saliva. CWD has never been detected in Oregon even through ODFW has tested more than 24,000 deer and elk for the disease over the last 20 years. But CWD has now been detected in Idaho near the Oregon border, and that's a game changer. ODFW's Chief Veterinarian, Colin Gillin walks us through the history of the disease and where stand in the fight against CWD. 

The Christmas Bird Counts around Oregon will begin soon, so we sat down with Oregon Birding Association president Sarah Swanson, who is also the author of "Must-See Birds of the Pacific Northwest," to talk about opportunities to participate in long-running community science projects like the Christmas Bird Counts. To find a Christmas Bird Count near you, please visit the Oregon Birding Association's website. 

Ron Wold has been putting in for controlled hunt tags since the beginning. And when he didn't draw, he started exploring the process in-depth looking for a better way to apply each year. He learned that he could make math-based predictions (not guarantees) with the information ODFW puts out each year after hunting seasons end and started a website to help other hunters better understand the process. We talked to Ron about why he started the project and how others can benefit from his work. 

Rated moderately nerdy

Jaklyn Larsen doesn’t like the term “social media influencer,” but when a crow decided to befriend her, she documented it on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, making Clumsy famous and giving us a peek inside that strange and fantastic two-way relationship that some corvids have with humans. In this episode, we talked to Jaklyn about her creative endeavors, many of which involve plant and wildlife photography as well as her ongoing friendship with Clumsy the crow and his partner Jumpy. We also reached out to corvid expert Dr. Kaeli Swift for some more information on why some crows befriend humans.

Want to leave us a note? email us at: Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov

You can follow Jakz on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok @iamjakz

You can follow Dr. Kaeli Swift on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok @corvidresearch

Sharon Ross started Afrovivalist to provide communities of color in Oregon with vital outdoor survival skills based on what she learned from a childhood spent hunting and fishing in rural Southwest Oregon, lessons from her military father and a lifetime of watching people suffer during natural disasters due to lack of preparedness. Today she takes people through specially designed experiences to provide them with the tools they need to be better prepared whether recreating outside or facing a devastating winter storm.  

Sometimes natural disasters can block fish like salmon, steelhead and lamprey and keep them from getting upstream to spawn. But human development has lopped off thousands of miles of good spawning and rearing habitat over time. In this episode, we talk to ODFW biologists Greg Apke and Kenny Loffink, both of whom have worked in ODFW's Fish Passage and Fish Screening programs, about those programs and how they've worked with public advisors to solve some of the biggest problems that keep fish from reaching the best habitat.

Rated slightly nerdy

After a devastating 2020 fire season that saw the destruction of more than one million acres of land in Western Oregon alone, We explore the impacts of wildfire on fish and streams with Jason Dunham, an aquatic ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in this episode of the Beaver State Podcast.

Rated Slightly Nerdy

Generations of families saw Herman the sturgeon at the State Fairgrounds every year until the big fish retired to a tank at Bonneville Hatchery, where it remains one of the most popular tourist attractions in the state. We explore Oregon's sturgeon, their biology, range and management with ODFW Columbia River Project Manager Tucker Jones. 

When animal rights activist and practicing vegan Carla Brauer decided to look more deeply into animal agriculture to be more informed about it, it led down a rabbit hole and eventually to a chicken egg, which was the start of her journey towards hunting, taxidermy and small-scale farming. Brauer is now the Regional Director for Back Country Hunters and Anglers, a hunter education instructor for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the owner of Dermestidarium Skull Cleaning, a service that utilizes beetles to strip the meat off of bones. We talk LGBTQ representation in hunting, the many pathways people may travel to hunting and the simplicities of doing what you love and helping others find their way there in this episode. 

Rated lightly nerdy

While lamprey, with their eel-like bodies and suction cup mouths full of sharp teeth and vampire-like feeding habits might seem scary, they're actually not dangerous to humans at all. In fact, they're a very important part of the ecosystems they live in. These anadromous fish provide marine-derived nutrients to the stream systems they migrate into, and the protein-dense nutrition they provided for Native Americans may have also provided a buffer for salmon populations. We explore these amazing, older-than-the-dinosaurs fish with ODFW's Statewide Lamprey Coordinator Ben Clemens. 

You know when the salmon and steelhead runs just aren't living up to expectations and someone tells you it's because of ocean conditions? Pretty frustrating, right? The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's Dr. Laurie Weitkamp recently conducted a five-week study of the North Pacific to look at all kind of factors from food to water temperature and everything in between to try to get at why certain ocean conditions are so tough on salmon and steelhead. She talks about the findings of that study in this week's Beaver State Podcast.

Show Notes:

OPB story about salmon study - https://www.opb.org/article/2022/01/31/oregon-scientist-research-vessel-international-expedition-study-salmon/

A salmon's time in the ocean is a black box -

 https://crosscut.com/environment/2023/04/can-united-nations-help-save-pacific-salmon

Stoplight Table

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/science-data/ocean-conditions-indicators-trends

Dishaun and Caleb Berry are your typical father and son anglers who love to spend a day fishing together. But they grew up in very different eras. Dishaun, who founded Get Hooked LLC, a project that teaches at-risk and inner city youth how to fish and enjoy the outdoors, started out fishing piers in Santa Monica as a kid before moving to Oregon at a time when he did not see many other Black men out fishing, especially fishing for salmon or steelhead. Caleb, who is 25, has grown up with a few more role models in his father and uncles, who have used YouTube and social media to showcase their fishing adventures as Black men, fathers and passionate advocates of getting People of Color outside. In this episode, we float the Wilson River with Dishaun and Caleb Berry, and you get to hear the adventure, including all the joy associated with hooking and landing a large, hatchery steelhead.

Watch a video of the trip on Instagram or TikTok

Oregon's Rocky Mountain goats were extirpated from the state, like many other animals, in the 19th Century. Just a few years ago, Rocky mountain goats from re-established populations in the Elkhorn Mountains were released near Mt. Jefferson, completing a remarkable comeback for a very unique species. ODFW's ungulate species coordinator Don Whittaker fills us in on these spectacular, high country dwellers. 

Dave Banks is the ODFW district fish biologist for the SE District, which covers like 21 percent of the state. It's mind-bogglingly large and can take hours and hours to drive across. But that's the way Dave likes it. He's a Great Basin kind of guy, so managing fisheries in the driest part of the state is kind of a natural fit for him. We talked about his district, the waterbodies that divide it and the challenges that come with working with fish in a fairly waterless region.

Dave Banks email - David.T.BANKS@odfw.oregon.gov

Beaver State Podcast email - Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov

Salmon forecasts are notoriously tricky both for the folks who make them and for the folks who depend on them. Forecasting salmon is all data, math and models, a dance of ever-changing variables and changing technology. ODFW Fish Division Deputy Administrator Chris Kern explains the who, when, where, what and why of salmon forecasting.

The North Bank Habitat Management Area rises out of the North Umpqua River on dramatic cliffs before rolling out into oak savannahs, hardwood and conifer forests, rocky outcrops, grasslands and ash wetlands over its 6,581-acres that are set aside by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for the once-endangered Columbian White-tailed deer. In this week's episode, we talk to ODFW's DeWaine Jackson about how he's used the special habitat management area to research ungulates over the course of his career with the agency. Learn more about North Bank at these websites. https://www.blm.gov/or/districts/roseburg/north_bank.php and https://www.dfw.state.or.us/images/video_gallery/north_bank_HMA_1.asp

The Dungeness crab reigns supreme in Oregon, often the most desired fare for holiday meals. But there are many types of crabs in bays, estuaries and along Oregon's 300-mile coastline. We talk to ODFW shellfish project leader Mitch Vance about crab biology, habitat and just why they're so fun to go catch in this week's Beaver State Podcast. 

Sooty grouse are popular gamebirds in Oregon, but they're cryptic and tough to keep track of unless it's mating season and the male grouse are hooting. Starting in spring, biologists from all over western Oregon head up into the mountains driving forest service roads or logging roads to listen for hooting grouse. A recent partnership between Oregon State University and ODFW seeks to improve how we collect data about sooty grouse by utilizing acoustic audio recorders to better track when grouse are and are not hooting. 

Rated moderately nerdy

Pamela Slaughter was born and raised in Oregon. But her access to all of Oregon's beautiful natural resources has been limited by the color of her skin, the lack of representation of people of color in the outdoors and fear. As a result of this, she founded People of Color Outdoors, an organization geared towards empowering communities of color to redefine their relationship with the outdoors through multi-generation group outings and education events. 

Mussel fatigue, it's a thing. In fact, our freshwater mussels are strained and in need of some attention. This week's Beaver State Podcast looks at Oregon's freshwater mussels through the lens of a large-scale habitat improvement project along Murderer's Creek in the John Day Basin. This creek happens to have very high mussel populations, so biologists are studying the impacts of the habitat improvements on the local mussel populations and trying to answer the question: What happens when you move a mussel? 

Klamath Lake redband trout are unlike any other trout. They are climate change masters that have survived glaciers and thrived in conditions that other trout could not survive in. They are unique in the world of trout and one of the most fascinating species in Oregon. We talked to ODFW Assistant District Fish Biologist Bill Tinniswood, PhD student Jordan Ortega and his adviser Jonny Armstrong about these amazing fish and the research their doing to help us learn more about what makes them so good at adapting changing conditions.

Rated Moderately Nerdy

Amanda Hubler often hunts Oregon's south coast for big elk. In 2020, she won an ODFW Premium Hunt tag and ended up with her largest bull elk yet. Premium Hunts were established during the 2016 big game hunting seasons to provide an alternative to typical highest-bid auction tags. Anyone can buy one application per tag series, and everyone has an equal chance of winning the tag. We walk through Amanda's hunt experience to learn more about hunting with a Premium Hunt tag.

Rated not nerdy

ODFW's North Coast District Wildlife Biologist Paul Atwood covers the basics of Oregon's coastal Roosevelt elk. They're quite a bit different than their Cascade relatives, and hunting them in the rugged, wet Oregon Coast Range is a very different kind of adventure. 

Welcome to the 4^th season of the Beaver State Podcast! In this episode, Tim and Nicole talk about Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow, a program that provides natural resource professionals training in the diverse values and important roles of hunting and its impact on conservation. Tim went through the program in 2015, and Nicole completed the training this year. In addition to completing a Hunter Education course, Nicole learned about trapping and shotgun shooting and safety skills. She wrapped up her CLFT course in Utah by participating in her first-ever pheasant hunt.

Learn more about Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow

What’s coming up on the Beaver State Podcast –

Don’t forget about the Beaver State Podcast Book Club. We’re currently reading “The Feather Thief” by Kirk Wallace Johnson and will be discussing the book with USFWS biologist Emily Weidner and writer and fly-fishing historian John Shewey. - https://myodfw.com/articles/beaver-state-podcast-bonus-episode-beaver-state-podcast-book-club

Questions or suggestions for topics, please email us at: Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov

So, how does this book club work?

We’ll be reading four books a year, or one book each quarter to be discussed in a podcast episode during that quarter. We’ll have guests that relate to the topics in the book as well as a special representative of the podcast audience to join us to discuss the book.

The first book for the first quarter of 2023 will be “The Feather Thief,” by Kirk Wallace Johnson. I highly encourage folks to pick up a copy at your local library or your local bookstore. Or pick it up through an audiobook subscription and give it a read or listen while the podcast is on hiatus through January. In early February, we’ll return with the 4th season of the Beaver State Podcast and with a special Book Club Episode with special guests Emily Weidner a biologist from Bend, Oregon, and fly fishing and fly-tying author John Shewey to cover the fascinating world of high-end fly tying.

How can you get involved?

Send us an email at Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov, and let us know why you’d like to participate in the podcast. You’ll need to be able to travel to Bend, Oregon in late January to participate or be able to participate through a Zoom or other digital connection. But we’d love to have one representative of the podcast audience to be part of that book club conversation with us.

We’ll announce the next book in the series shortly after we publish the first book club podcast to give everyone enough time to read the next book.

Snorkeling in cold water isn't for the faint of heart, but it's also not that difficult with a few pieces of gear and some knowledge about how to stay safe. Snorkeling Oregon's rivers opens a window on a world very few people see. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists spend a lot of time snorkeling to count fish and document wildlife in rivers, creeks and lakes all over the state, but it can also be a fantastic recreational activity. ODFW's Beth Quillian and Tim Akimoff spent some time snorkeling with biologists and expert snorkelers and divers Pete Baki and Laura Tesler for this episode. 

Attempts to introduce these Central Asian partridges to Oregon began more than 100 years ago. But they finally took in the 1950s and 60s. Now chukar are one of the more popular gamebirds in the state as hunters chase these them over some of the roughest, most spectacular terrain the state has to offer. We talk chukar biology with ODFW upland gamebird biologist Mikal Cline and hunting them with avid chukar hunter Carla Gibson.

Rated lightly nerdy

Pronghorn are incredibly unique, and not just because they're the last-surviving member of the family Antilocapridae. They're the fastest land animal in North America. They have one of the longest land migrations of any animal in North America. Their eyesight is Swarovski-esque. They're not actually antelopes, but explorers familiar with African animals just had no idea what to compare them to when they first saw them. We talk all things pronghorn with ODFW's ungulate species coordinator Don Whittaker in this episode. 

Oregon was one of the first places in the world to observe the direct impacts of ocean acidification when the oyster hatchery production collapsed in 2007. Dr. Caren Braby, former Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Resources Program Manager and Laura Anderson, former ODFW Commissioner and founder of Local Ocean Seafoods in Newport, talk us through the history, science and ongoing efforts to study and minimize impacts of ocean acidification and hypoxia. We look at current and potential future impacts on Oregon’s ocean fisheries and talk about what Oregonians can do now to help protect our natural resources in the future.

Clockwise: Dr. Caren Braby, Laura Anderson and Tim Akimoff

Show Notes - 

What is Ocean acidification

Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Action Plan

Changing Waters on the Oregon Coast Video

Generally called long-leader fishing but perhaps more appropriately called long-dropper fishing, ODFW staff and partners created this fishery several years ago to take pressure off the nearshore reefs and specifically yelloweye rockfish. By going a bit farther out and using gear that keeps bait off the bottom, anglers are able to target new and sometimes much-larger rockfish like canary rockfish and bocaccio, and have a 10-fish bag limit. While it's mostly been a charter fishery, more and more sport anglers are starting to notice.

Featuring ODFW's Lynn Mattes, Captains Shannon Hunter, Mike Sorenson and David Peterson. 

Please contact us via email – Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov

Micah Rogers spends a lot of time looking through a microscope at the tiny world of phytoplankton, those microscopic, plant-like critters that make up the base of the marine food web. The reason she does this is to make sure none of those microorganisms is in such prevalence that it indicates a harmful algal bloom or HAB. When HAB's occur, they can raise toxicity levels in clams and crabs to the point of concern for public safety. 

Dr. Leslie King's outdoor journey has taken her from the shores of Chesapeake Bay to Oregon's Sauvie Island. She's a medical doctor who has traveled throughout Oregon and around the world for her work. Dr. King is also an avid hunter, angler and trapper. As Black History Month winds down, Dr. King talks to us about the intersections of human health, climate change and increasing access to the outdoors for People of Color. 

Pauline Baker, director of rehab at Central Oregon's ThinkWild, spends a lot of time talking to people on the phone, because many animals that people think they should take to rehab don't actually need it. But when they do need it, there are a few pathways to success that professional rehabbers like Baker can use to help increase the chances of a successful recovery and release back into the wild. 

ODFW's Brian Ratliff hunts Rocky Mountain Elk mainly with archery equipment but also with a rifle often while exploring Eastern Oregon by horseback. He's also been the District Wildlife Biologist for Baker for more than a decade, which gives him a lot knowledge about some of Oregon's most iconic ungulates. Part two of our three-part series on Oregon's elk focuses on hunting Rocky Mountain elk on the east side of the state from sage brush steppe to the alpine regions and everything in between. 

Mike Harrington is the newest Fish Chief, or Fish Division Administrator. He's the person who heads up ODFW's Fish side of the house, as opposed to the wildlife side of the house. His path to becoming Fish Chief has taken him all over the country and the state of Oregon, giving him a diverse background, but always keeping him grounded in his love of fish, fishing and passing that on to his kids. We talk to Harrington about how he ended up in a place he never imagined himself and what he'd like to accomplish for Oregon's many fish species. 

Email us at: Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov 

Luke Ovgard grew up fishing around Klamath Lake, but his fishing interests quickly outgrew even the legendary Klamath Lake redband trout that prowl the region. Luke's passion for fishing didn't necessarily mean catching bigger and bigger fish, in fact, it meant catching all kinds of fish, preferably anything that swims. Using techniques like micro fishing, Ovgard's passion for catching as many species as he can has taken him on road trips across America and now to places like the Canary Islands and Monaco. An author, a high-school teacher and now full-time, active-duty U.S. Military in Europe, Ovgard tells us about how he transformed fishing from a hobby to a lifestyle.

Show Notes: 

Luve Ovgard on Instagram

Book: Fishing Across America

Blog: Caught Ovgard

No, your hunting and fishing license fees do not go to the general fund. We're mythbusting the ODFW budget in this episode of the Beaver State Podcast with ODFW director Curt Melcher and Deputy Director Erica Kleiner. We tackle questions about ODFW's fancy, new-ish headquarters in Salem, which actually saves the agency money, the new Electronic Licensing System, which also saves money, where your license and tag money goes, how the budget gets approved and how you can get involved in that process.

Rated slightly nerdy 

Antlers tell stories. They tell us about the animal whose heads they adorn. They tell us about the habitat the animal lives in. They tell stories about genetics. And of course, they are also the base of legend and myth. In this episode of the Beaver State Podcast, it's all antler talk with ODFW Wildlife Chief Doug Cottom and acting Game Program Manager Brian Wolfer. 

Rated Slightly Nerdy

Montana Pagano, a watershed restoration specialist with the Nez Percé Tribe and Kyle Bratcher, NE Oregon district fish biologist with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife live in one of the best adventure spots in all of Oregon. The Eagle Cap Wilderness is the largest roadless area in the state, and of course their backyard is Hells Canyon. We chatted with Montana and Kyle about some safety and gear tips before heading out into the backcountry. 

A podcast in which we explore the origins of the saying, "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." We also talk to ODFW's Angler Education Program Coordinator Amanda Boyles about the process of teaching someone to fish and the philosophies behind the angler who buys all the latest gear, and the traditional hook and worm angler. 

Fly fishing for steelhead got its start in the Gold Rush days, according to author and fly fishing historian John Shewey, who walks us through the evolution from modified trout flies to today's modern steelhead flies. 

There are two main populations of Roosevelt elk in Oregon, the coastal Roosevelt and the Cascade Roosevelt. Cascade Roosevelt elk tend to act a little more like Rocky Mountain elk due to the landscapes they inhabit. ODFW's Big Game Manger Brian Wolfer talks about the biology, life history strategy and thoughts around hunting these Roosevelt elk in the Cascade Mountains. 

Oregon has six species of geese that reside or pass through the state each winter, making the state fairly goose rich. Whether you're a birder looking to get your eyes on more than 11 different subspecies or a hunter looking for opportunities, ODFW migratory bird coordinator Brandon Reishus explains goose biology, habitat preferences, migration differences and what makes parts of Oregon so good for the goose and the gander. 

Perhaps a "Game of Thrones" and a "Where the Crawdads Sing" mashup was overreaching for this episode of the Beaver State Podcast, but we're going to run with it, because Oregon's native Signal crawdad is losing its battle against more aggressive non-native crawdads brought into the state, some as long ago as the early 1900s, while in Europe and other parts of the world where Signal crawdads have been introduced, they're a plague-carrying weapon of destruction against native crawdads there. So, stick with us as ODFW Invasive Species Coordinator Rick Boatner tells us the story of crawdads in Oregon. Although he says crayfish, because he's originally from the South. 

Questions, comments? 

Contact us at Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov

This is a slightly different episode from our usual format. We take you on a Do It Yourself sage grouse hunt on Steens Mountain after stopping in Hines to talk to District Wildlife Biologist Lee Foster about hunting the legendary mountain landscape and about sage grouse behavior. If you've ever wondered what it's like to hunt Steens Mountain or about hunting sage grouse, this episode might be for you. 

When mid-coast district wildlife biologist Jason Kirchner starting seeing high numbers of cougar harvests and mortalities in the central coast range in Oregon, he wanted to know more about the population of cougars in his district. To do so, he'd need to capture and collar as many cougars as possible and then continue to take DNA samples of as many cougars as he could using teams of hounds to locate them. The first part of that study is now wrapping up, and it's time to analyze the data. But you can learn a lot during the field work portion of any study, so today's episode feature's district wildlife biologist Jason Kirchner talking about how his own perception of cougars changed during this study. 

Herpetology is the study of amphibians and reptiles, and herping is the practice of going out to find amphibians and reptiles, Chris Cousins explains in this episode of the podcast. Cousins is a PhD candidate at Oregon State University, where he focuses much of his attention on some of Oregon's most elusive salamander species. Cousins shares a lot of his adventures on his Instagram and sat down to talk with us about what it's like to make a life out of studying reptiles and amphibians. 

Antonio Salgado was born in Texas but grew up in a landlocked state in Mexico. So how did he become a fish biologist working with kids and adults to increase the understanding of salmon and steelhead life cycles in Oregon? We sat down with Antonio to learn more about the life of a Salmon and Trout Enhancement Program biologist, or STEP bio for short.

Rated slightly nerdy

Oregon voters passed Measure 18 in 1994, effectively ending the practice of using hounds to pursue cougars and bears for sport. In this episode, we talk to ODFW's Wildlife Division Deputy Administrator Kevin Blakely and Carnivore Coordinator Derek Broman about the evolution of wildlife regulations since the passage of that ballot measure and we answer one of the most common questions we get, which is: ODFW cannot re-instate hound hunting for cougars and bears, it would take another ballot measure voted on by the citizens of Oregon to change the current law.

Mark Penninger has been measuring animals for the record books for many years. But a set of elk antlers found by a crew of cone collectors for tree propagation and turned into ODFW, was a true jaw dropper for Penninger, who talks about how he measured the antlers for Northwest Big Game Records Inc. and how they rank as the second-largest typical Rocky Mountain elk antlers ever recorded in the state. Want to learn about how exactly antlers are measured for the record books? This episode is for you. 

Trumpeter swans may be recognizable by their loud, old-car-horn honking calls, but Oregon’s largest waterfowl species is still considered cryptic, because they tend to hang out around another large, white swan called Tundra swans. This makes counting Oregon’s Trumpeter swans challenging. To add to the challenges, you have Trumpeter swans that use the Pacific Flyway part of Western Oregon and a unique Rocky Mountain population of Trumpeter swans that sometimes use areas like Summer Lake and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as wintering areas and breeding areas. This week’s podcast takes you on an adventure to count swans at Summer Lake Wildlife Area, where managers have been working to establish a breeding population. We spend the day with ODFW’s Statewide Waterfowl Coordinator Brandon Reishus learning about efforts to count and preserve these amazing birds.

Show Notes:

Lear more about Oregon’s Trumpeter swans here - https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/trumpeter-swan#:~:text=Historically%20hunted%20to%20the%20brink,wingspan%20define%20this%20magnificent%20bird.

Questions or suggestions for topics, please email us at: Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov

Subscribe to the Beaver State Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play Music or Spotify.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Recruitment, Retention and Reactivation Coordinator Antonio Salgado works with many different community groups teach hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation classes in Spanish. But often works most closely with Oregon-based Hunters of Color, a group whose goal is: Fostering a more equitable and inclusive community for hunters. This partnership has already produced several successful hunting workshops, and this National Hispanic Heritage Month, we sat down with Salgado and HOC co-founder Jimmy Flat to talk about their work reaching out to Hispanic and Latino communities to try and increase participation in hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation. 

Show Notes - 

Follow Hunters of Color online 

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook

The Access and Habitat Program has been around since 1993. The legislature established the program as a funding mechanism to provide grants to private landowners, timber and agriculture corporations, sportsmen groups, natural resource agencies, and others for projects designed to increase public hunting access to private lands and/or improve wildlife habitat. Travis Schultz is the Access and Habitat Program Coordinator, and he sat down with us for this episode to talk about some of the lesser known aspects of Access and Habitat. Learn more about Access and Habitat. Check out the Oregon Hunting Map. 

DeWaine Jackson has researched a lot of Oregon's wildlife over the course of his career with ODFW. It's a different role than that of a district wildlife biologist, but the information he provides helps everyone understand the complex population dynamics so that they can make decisions that will help protect and preserve wildlife. Elk might be the most charismatic megafauna in the state, and Jackson's research is now using new techniques and technology to study fecal DNA to answer important questions about elk populations. 

Black-tailed deer are called Pacific ghosts for a reason. They can be amazingly elusive thanks to a highly developed sense of place. We talked to Douglas District Wildlife Biologist Tod Lum and Charleston District Wildlife Biologist Stuart Love about black-tailed deer biology, life history strategy and what it takes to pursue these amazing deer across some of the thickest, rain-saturated terrain in the Oregon Coast Range or high up in the heavily timbered Cascade Mountains. 

Poaching isn't limited to game animals, the illegal taking of wildlife and other natural resources impacts all Oregonians. Oregon State Police Sergeant Erich Timko of John Day and Senior Trooper Marshall Maher of Oakridge, along with ODFW's Stop Poaching Campaign Coordinator Yvonne Shaw, join us for a wide-ranging conversation about poaching, enforcement efforts, new technology to combat poaching and about how all Oregonians can play a role in the fight to reduce poaching.  

The Controlled Hunt Draw has many moving parts. While a lot of it is accomplished through Boolean logic that applies to the business rules around things like preference points and non-resident tags, much of it is data entry and other human-oriented tasks that take many hours of application and error checking. And all of this begins after the change deadline on June 1. From June 1 to June 20th, it's a race against the clock to get a clean, error-free draw to publish by the deadline. ODFW's Angela Ward walks us through the process in this week's Beaver State Podcast.  Learn more here. 

The Oregon Department of Transportation is the largest owner of stream crossings in the state of Oregon, and much of their culvert infrastructure is in need of repair. So, ODOT and ODFW developed the Culvert Repair Programmatic Agreement to address fish passage during temporary repairs to failing culverts. So far, the project has made more than 840 miles of newly accessible habitat available to fish, but there are thousands of culverts still in need of repair. We talk to ODOT's Fish Passage Coordinator Allen Gillette and ODFW's Fish Passage Liaison Pete Baki about the project in this week's podcast. 

The job of wildlife veterinarian at state fish and wildlife agencies is only a couple of decades old, but it relies on skills picked up over  years of working with many types of animals. From monitoring a nasty pneumonia in bighorn sheep to tracking a hemorrhagic disease in rabbits, Dr. Julia Burco is part disease detective, part infectious disease expert and part field/lab veterinarian. In this episode we explore her pathway to this job and talk about ongoing wildlife disease issues in the state and even finding love in in the midst of a busy career. 

Rated lightly nerdy

We read Kirk Wallace Johnson's "The Feather Thief" for this inaugural episode of the Beaver State Podcast Book Club, and we really enjoyed it. It's a fantastic crime story, a first-rate science explainer about the Age of Exploitation and peek behind the curtains of a small group of fly tyers who collect exceedingly rare feathers. This first Book Club podcast episode features fly fishing author and historian John Shewey and biologist Emily Weidner, who recommended the book and inadvertently influenced us to start a book club.

From top left - John Shewey, Emily Weidner and host Tim Akimoff

Show Notes: 

Previous Episodes featuring John Shewey - https://myodfw.com/articles/beaver-state-podcast-episode-81-steelhead-fly-fishing-history-john-shewey

Please feel free to contact us via email - 

Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov

Is data a big part of your hunting experience? If not, you may want to think about adding it to your list of digital tools before putting in for controlled hunts. In this episode, we talk to ODFW's Justin Dion, the person responsible for compiling all the hunt reports and providing all of that information back to hunters in the form of Big Game Hunting Harvest Statistics. Be sure to check out the Point Summary Reports and don't forget about the Full Draw Report, available by going to Download Controlled Hunt Draw Reports in your Electronic Licensing System account. 

The Salmon Trout Enhancement Program, or S.T.E.P, has been around since the early 1980s, an effort by the Oregon State Legislature to put Oregonians more closely in touch with the management of natural resources, chiefly by way of allowing volunteers to help raise more fish. Like many programs, S.T.E.P has evolved over the years and now includes a strong educational component that brings salmon and trout eggs into classrooms, allowing students to see the salmon/trout lifecycle up close. Volunteering and education remain the two biggest aspects of the program as chat with program coordinator Marty Olson, former S.T.E.P biologist Karen Hans and current S.T.E.P biologist Gary Vonderohe. 

Laura Green's path to assistant district fish biologist for Oregon's South Coast doesn't look the same as that of other fish biologists, but she likes it that way. There are many types of jobs out there for fish biologists. Laura's just happens to involve all the fish in a particular area, and that area is Oregon's Wild Rivers Coast. It's an amazing place with some of the most picturesque rivers in the state and some incredible fishing opportunities.

Rated Slightly Nerdy

Hunting and fishing as a group activity might not be everyone's first thought as a place to start, but for many people, especially the growing numbers of women who are participating in hunting and fishing, Facebook groups, meetup apps and community education events have offered an opportunity to do something that can be challenging to learn on your own. For this podcast episode, we talked to Hailey Malone and Claire Grubb, two friends and outdoor enthusiasts from Roseburg, Oregon, who found each other through social media groups and who inspired others around them to get into hunting, fishing, hiking and conservation volunteer opportunities through group activities. 

Show Notes: 

While the Mardy Hunters group mentioned in this podcast episode isn't currently active, there are a number of ways to connect with other people to learn hunting and fishing skills. 

ODFW Workshops and Events

Hunters of Color

LGBT+ Outdoors Hunting and Fishing

Meetup.com

Lydia Parker is the Executive Director of Hunters of Color, a non-profit dedicated to diversifying hunting, and an avid hunter, who along with co-founders Jimmy Flat and Thomas Tyner wants to spread the the joy of being People of Color outdoors through education, mentoring and advocacy. Parker talked to us about her work in starting the non-profit and about the importance of making the outdoors accessible and safe for everyone. Follow them on Instagram. 

Every year in late summer and early fall, ODFW receives dozens of messages about miniature Great white sharks washing up on Oregon beaches. Turns out these are juvenile Salmon sharks, a relative of white sharks but not the same thing. To find out more about Salmon sharks and why they might be washing up on our shores, we talked to ODFW's Lynn Mattes and the Big Fish Lab's Dr. Alexandra McInturf about this issue for this episode of the Beaver State Podcast. 

Brandon Harper and Justin Stubbs are U.S. Marines. They're veterans who've decided to work in the world of hunting and fishing education at ODFW, which has put them in a unique position to help other Oregon veterans who don't have a lot of resources available to them due to the lack of military installations in Oregon. By working with groups like Project Healing Waters, Wounded Warrior Project, Warfighter Outfitters and The Fallen Outdoors, Harper and Stubbs have provided many opportunities for veterans to connect with other veterans while picking up new skills related to hunting and fishing. 

Email us at: Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov 

Benefits for uniformed service members | Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (myodfw.com)

Contacts:

Brandon Harper - brandon.d.harper@odfw.oregon.gov

Justin Stubbs - Justin.B.STUBBS@odfw.oregon.gov

Every two years, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff embark on a week-long process of hauling fingerling trout to ski resorts in the Cascade Mountains, where they have a date with a helicopter and a special Aerial Stocking Device and a sky dive into an alpine lake. Many of these fish spend the summer eating aquatic and terrestrial insects and growing larger, until they grow to legal size the next year. ODFW's Recreational Fishing Managers, Mike Gauvin tells us this reseeding the high lakes effort is popular with anglers seeking the solitude and beauty of fishing these remote lakes. 

Conservation is our overarching goal at ODFW, but getting folks out to interact with the state's fish and wildlife is also an important part of what we do. That might be through hunting, fishing or wildlife viewing. Underlying all of those things is the notion that being out in nature is just really good for our brains and bodies. We wanted to know the backstory about the great outdoors and why our brains like being out in it so much. Dr. Rob Munjal, a psychiatrist from Montana, was good enough to travel to Oregon to talk to us about our brains, our brains on nature and why that connection is so strong. 

Email us at: Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov

Amy Patrick is the policy director for the Oregon Hunter's Association. As such, she represents a lot of voices who are very passionate about the outdoors broadly and specifically about hunting. But many of us have forgotten everything we learned in that high school civics class we took 30 years ago. In this episode, we look at the various groups that give hunters a voice and a vehicle in the policymaking space and discuss just how important it is to join your voice with others at commission meetings or in front of the Oregon Legislature. 

It's April Fools! The perfect time to debunk some of the misnomers and myths around fish and wildlife management. This episode looks back at some of the persistant misinformation and incorrect assumptions about ODFW and some of the more complicated natural resource issues by revisiting some of the segments from our myth-busting episodes. 

Oregon is not made up of just Douglas fir and Ponderosa pines, even though these are two of the most prevalent trees on their respective sides of the state. Portland-based arbocultural educator Casey Clapp talks to us about trees as habitat, their historical significance on the landscape before settlers showed up and what might happen as our changing climate continues. 

Show Notes: 

Book recommendations from Casey Clapp - 

"Trees to know in Oregon and Washington" 

Podcasts - 

Completely Abortrary - https://arbortrarypod.com/

Ologies - Dendrology (Trees) with Casey Clapp - https://open.spotify.com/episode/06NcI40zFZbNW7aOVfncDp

There are four species of seals and sea lions found in Oregon waters. By far the most common encounter most people have is with California sea lions, which can be found hauled out in places like Newport and the Sea Lion Caves near Florence. But harbor seals are also commonly spotted along jetties and basking on sand rocks or along sandy spits. But Oregon also has Steller sea lions and even some Northern elephant seals. This time of year it's possible to spot seal pups left on the beaches while mom hunts for food. This week's podcast features ODFW pinniped biologist Susan Riemer talking about pinniped biology, behavior and how to safely view these interesting marine mammals. 

Rated slightly nerdy

We go bay clamming with Shellfish Program Leader Mitch Vance during a minus-2 tide at Yaquina Bay to illustrate how many different types of clams you can find as well as some of the barriers to entry and challenges to be prepared for. We also talk about how you don’t need a minus-2 tide to find bay clams, in fact, you can find them year-round during almost any low tide if you know where to go. This episode was not recorded in the studio and has mic noise from wind and moving around the bay.

Show Notes:

Bay Clamming Resources –

How to start clamming - https://myodfw.com/articles/start-clamming

Bay clam identification - https://www.dfw.state.or.us/mrp/shellfish/bayclams/clamid.asp

Clamming maps - https://www.dfw.state.or.us/mrp/shellfish/seacor/findings_yaquina_bay.asp

Clamming with ODFW Video Series - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLleHsPDijGZIFx_HTQ4zh6f-7j4xL9tr

Related episodes –

https://myodfw.com/beaver-state-podcast/crabs-and-crabbing-mitch-vance

https://myodfw.com/beaver-state-podcast/razor-clams

Zoos and aquariums are often the first places kids encounter some of the critters they will ultimately be fascinated with the rest of their lives. Dr. Kathayoon Khalil is a conservation psychologist who studies these interactions and works to improve the relationship that humans have towards nature through education. Of course many zoos and aquariums also play a quiet, behind-the-scenes role in conservation by raising and releasing threatened and endangered species back into their habitats. We talked to Dr. Khalil about her work in these spaces. 

Children's author and illustrator Katherine Roy has tackled topics like sharks and elephants in books but more recently she has turned her brushes and words loose on the topic of reproduction in her latest book, "Making More - How Life Begins." We talked to Katherine for this episode about how a project like that comes together and what makes for effective science communication in elements like art and words for complex topics like the biology of reproduction. 

Show Notes:

Illustrator and Author Katherine Roy

 Website: https://www.katherineroy.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katherineroystudio/

Dr. Kaeli Swift is a researcher and renowned science communicator who loves to unwrap the fascinating world of Corvids for her followers on social media. We caught up with Dr. Swift in Seattle before she left for a new research project she's conducting on the island of Tinian. Dr. Swift talked to us about crows and ravens, their biology, behavior and intelligence in this episode of the Beaver State Podcast. 

Show Notes: 

Follow Dr. Kaeli Swift on Social Media -

Instagram

TikTok

Twitter

Catch Dr. Swift on the Oologies Podcast talking about crow funerals - Corvid Thanatology (CROW FUNERALS) with Dr. Kaeli Swift — alie ward

Book Recommendations - 

"In the company of crows and ravens" by John Marzluff

"Mind of the raven" Bernd Heinrich

Check out the crows attacking the Barred owl at Seward Park when this podcast was recorded - https://youtube.com/shorts/_dMpJA84c8M?feature=share

Oregon's Hunter Education Program has been around for a long time. The early focus was on firearm safety, but today the program's many priorities have broadened out to encompass safety but also rules and regulations, game tracking, ethics, survival and many other aspects of being in the outdoors. ODFW's Hunter Education Coordinator, Jered Goodwin, sat down for a wide-ranging look at Oregon's Hunter Education Program and where it's headed in the future. 

Sage grouse may be known for their elaborate courtship displays in the Sage Brush Sea of Western North America, but conserving the species has raised their profile to the national level as private land owners, public land managers and state and federal fish and wildlife agencies worked together in partnership to change the paradigm of a species in peril. In this episode, we talk to ODFW sage grouse conservation coordinator Skyler Vold and OSU Associate Professor Christian Hagen about the species' profile in Oregon. We cover their biology, conservation efforts and hunting these fascinatingly iconic birds. 

In this last episode of Season 3 of the Beaver State Podcast, we delve into the stories of Oregon’s native minnows, especially the Oregon chub, arguably one of the most famous fish in the world as the first fish ever delisted from the federal Endangered Species List. We also touch on the more-recently delisted Borax Lake chub and some of the joys and challenges of working with these super-important fish that often go unnoticed by the general public and anglers alike. Our guest this week is USFWS Aquatic Ecologist Brian Bangs, who has a bend in the Willamette River named after him for the role he played in the recovery of the Oregon chub.

Questions/Ideas, email us - Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov

The Beaver State Podcast takes you on a road trip through the Ochoco Mountains with district wildlife biologist Greg Jackle to explore the region's habitat, wildlife and recreational opportunities. 

Kameron "Pono" Kadookak is Hawaiian but has spent much of his life fishing Oregon waters. Partly because his father raised him up to follow in his footsteps and partly because fishing runs in his veins. He's also spent time fishing in Hawaii, where he learned traditional methods of using specialized gear or techniques to catch fish from shore or pelagic fish from a boat. Today, Pono likes to mix traditional fishing techniques with new ideas to pursue some of the best that Oregon has to offer while also using traditional techniques to prepare salmon, steelhead or surf perch Hawaiian style. 

Sauvie Island may be the undisputed heavyweight of Oregon waterfowl hunting locations, but it isn't the only sweet spot in the state. Summer Lake, Klamath, the high desert, the Columbia and Willamette rivers and coastal estuaries all offer excellent waterfowl hunting opportunities if you're up for an adventure. ODFW's migratory gamebird coordinator Brandon Reishus takes us on a tour of Oregon's best waterfowl destinations in this week's episode. 

Want to leave us a note? email us at: Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov

This is an episode you might want to share with those folks who are interested in tagging along on a hunting or fishing trip but who might not know the protocols yet. We talked to long-time hunting and fishing buddies Jay Remy and Chris Martin about how they navigate group dynamics and personal relationships when it comes to hunting and fishing with friends. 

The Oregon Wildlife Foundation has been raising money for fish and wildlife conservation projects in Oregon for a long time. An integral partner of ODFW, the foundation has put money into land purchases like the Lower Deschutes River Wildlife Area, an important habitat for mule deer and bighorn sheep, as well as the Herman the Sturgeon habitat at Bonneville hatchery and many other projects over the years. OWF executive director Tim Greseth met us out at one of the foundations first major purchases, Heritage Landing, at the mouth of the Deschutes River, to give us some more background on this important partnership. 

Thomas Tyner is one of the few to play elite football at Oregon's two most high-profile college programs, spending three years with the Oregon Ducks before medically retiring and then coming back for a final season with the Oregon State Beavers. A powerful running back, he was highly recruited out of Aloha high school but found college football to be a busy, noisy world, so he would often retreat to the nearby lakes and hiking trails to clear his head. After football, hunting, fishing and wildlife photography became his enduring passions, and now he's hoping to bring more people of color into the outdoor world he loves.

Rated Not Nerdy (unless you nerd out at sports)

Oregon’s rivers, streams, and aquifers support a wide range of benefits for both humans and the environment—sources of water for drinking, agriculture, recreation, and essential habitat for fish and wildlife. A clean and reliable source of water is critical for meeting Oregonian’s basic needs and for supporting Oregon’s economy, but it all hangs under the shadow of climate change. In this episode, we talk to ODFW's Ben Walczak, Clackamas River Water Provider's Kim Swan and PGE's Nick Ackerman about a partnership to tackle the impacts of drought. 

Tim Akimoff and Beth Quillian teamed up with Ashley Sanchez and Aaron Keller, hosts of The Nevada Wild Podcast at the 6th Annual Human-Bear Conflict Workshop in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada. We take you on a journey around North America to look at solutions to human-caused problems for bears in places like Arviat in Nunavut where the mayor, Joe Savikataaq Jr., talks about efforts to reduce polar bear conflicts by redirecting bears away from town as they wait for sea ice to form each year. We also talked to Chris Servheen, retired USFW national grizzly bear recovery coordinator, about how work to reduce conflicts between humans and bears is going and finally to Mexico with Dr. Diana Doan-Crider, Executive Director at Animo Partnership in Natural Resources, who talked about incorporating indigenous knowledge into black bear management in northern Mexico. 

Email us at: Beaver_State_Podcast@odfw.oregon.gov 

ODFW along with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Manulife Investment Management's timberland business (formerly Hancock Natural Resource Group) completed phase one of the Minam River Wildlife Area project adding more than 4,600 acres of public land to the state's wildlife area system. We talk to ODFW's East Region Manager Nick Myatt and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation's Senior Conservation Program Manager Bill Richardson about how this project came together and what it will mean for wildlife. 

The needs of humans and the needs of the wildlife that surround us are intensifying. Habitat loss and fragmentation due to human development keep wildlife from finding food, water and shelter. These factors also make adhering to daily, seasonal and life history needs extra challenging and inhibit migratory movements, like moving to and from foraging areas and breeding sites. Dr. Rachel Wheat has been working on the Oregon Wildlife Connectivity Plan, an effort to better understand wildlife connectivity in Oregon. The goal of the plan is to evaluate and map out existing landscape-level connectivity for 54 species that represent a wide range of wildlife species, their habitats and life history strategies and movement capabilities. This information will better inform Oregonians about the needs of wildlife even as we go about fulfilling our own needs. Dr. Wheat talked to Tim Akimoff and Beth Quillian about the project for this week’s Beaver State Podcast. 

The moose that was the impetus behind the formation of Oregon's own Nosler Inc. still hangs on the wall overlooking the production floor some 73 years after its famously tough hide led to a renaissance in hunting ammunition and the formation of Nosler. We talk to Nosler's Zach Waterman about the company's history, ammunition jargon and what new hunters need to understand about ballistics in this episode. 

Rated lightly nerdy

Trout is a classic first fish for many people. Whether that's a trout stocked in a lake by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife or a wild trout in a rainforest creek, trout make up a lot of our fishing memories. Many anglers oriented their calendars around the April 22 trout opener, but today, you can fish for trout 365 days a year somewhere in Oregon. We explore the love of trout fishing and the many trout fishing opportunities in this episode. For additional resources, see our Trout Stocking Schedule, the weekly Recreation Report and how to get started trout fishing. 

Band-tailed pigeons nearly went the way of their now-extinct cousins, passenger pigeons. But these mountain-dwelling pigeons got a reprieve from market hunting through the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and have since recovered as a species. For this episode, we talked to ODFW migratory gamebird coordinator Brandon Reishus and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Flyway Representative Todd Sanders to learn more about the biology and life history strategy of these fascinating forest pigeons that are among the most fun and challenging of gamebirds to hunt. 

Jon Nelson and Alicia Wolfe use Instagram to communicate about Oregon's unique wildlife. As biologists and communicators, they translate the critters and the places they explore through the lenses of cameras and trail cameras to bring them to life while making sure they're protected and undisturbed. We talked to them about how to watch wildlife and explore Oregon's amazing places without leaving an impact or stressing out our amazing wild animals.