RodeoProfessor

American, never let foreigners shame you about how we protect our wildlife. Americans invented the field of wildlife biology (Aldo Leopold) integrating biology, ecology, and management. We were the first to create a national university system (starting with the University of Wisconsin’s program) to systematize the discipline of wildlife biology and grow our impact across species and systems. This professionalized wildlife science and management worldwide. Americans created the world’s first national parks establishing the idea of setting aside public land for wildlife and recreation. Our model is emulated globally. I have half a dozen senior fish and wildlife professionals at any given time that come to study with us to learn how we do it and bring what we know back home. Americans invented the idea of wildlife as a public trust (you own all of our wildlife, not a lord or a private land owner like in much of the old world). We passed laws to require rigorous science based management to inform hunting seasons. We saw the early errors of our ways and ended commercial game markets that decimated our big game. We invented the “user pays” system where hunters and anglers fund conservation via licenses and excise taxes on guns and ammo to the tune of $50 billion since our programs began. All of these innovations enabled the most dramatic and remarkable wildlife population recoveries on record. Bison, reduced to ~1000 now number half a million thanks to public land, science, and management. White tailed deer were nearly eliminated by 1900 now see numbers greater than 30 million. Wild turkey, my favorite example of a major conservation innovation in our trap and transfer programs (paid for by hunters) recovered spectacularly. Elk, beaver, birds of prey, pronghorn, the list goes on and on. America has also done more than any other nation in human history to fund global wildlife conservation as well. Billions of taxpayer dollars sent to Africa, LatAm, and Asia to protect wildlife and train local scientists, a largely thankless gift from the US taxpayer. Saying that our wildlife has been “exterminated” is just an insane and ignorant claim to make but don’t let that stop you from weighing in on our affairs!

Whoever is carrying on the legacy after Trump needs to treat all levels of American jobs as precious resources reserved for our people. Forcing zoomers to compete with the entire world through systems reinforced by fleets of lobbyists and opaque bureaucratic rules emanating from the State Department is pure folly.

@RodeoProfessor It's amazing. Yeah, pay is virtually non-existent but in this space, they would have no problem filling the spots with US citizens. The 'It's cheaper' line doesn't even work here. Same deal with summer camps. Plenty US citizens do it while leaving the summer with empty accounts.

I see we are doing the “zoomers are anti social weirdos” discourse again. Well, I was recently talking to some zoomer students who were laughing at a 60s hippy lib prof who was scolding them for not “working a season or two as a Warren Miller ski bum” like he did in the 70s. The connections he made there launched a career for him in western tourism and business. The reason they were laughing was because in their eyes, that door was closed for them, despite having the interest and the ability to go and work those jobs for a similar career path. I wanted to look into who exactly was responsible for the decision to replace American kids at Vail and Park City with J-1 labor from Argentina. Obvious answers like Vail Mountain are to blame of course, but something surprising to me was that American companies cannot sponsor J-1s on their own, they need to do this through a pass through NGO approved by the State Department as a type of “cultural exchange” for students (not our students, foreigner students). There are two main NGOs that do this for Rocky Mountain skiing and both of their CEOs make well over a million a year keeping your kid from these seasonal jobs while claiming American kids just don’t want to work, and need more diversity in ski towns (look at their promotional material if you don’t believe me). The truth is the pay is barely enough to cover resort dorm housing, so the big resorts barely enable young workers to make rent. The two that bring in the most J-1s to my local resorts are USE and PIEE. The Council on International Educational Exchange and the Universal Student Exchange. USE is headed by a Peruvian CEO Rafael Espinoza. The other group is headed by James P. Pellow who has an EdD (lol). These guys and their lobbyists benefit from a low paid foreign underclass of workers staffing ski resorts. Their organizations (plus the State Department) are responsible for taking away “ski bum” jobs from American teenagers under the guise of cross cultural exchange. The main lobby group that advocates day and night to keep your kids out of these jobs is the National Ski Areas Association. They lobby Congress, the State Dept, and Lawmakes to make sure the j-1s flow. Their materials claim that diversification and multi culture exchanges are much needed in ski areas! Vail Resorts and Powdr corp partners closely with USE and CIEE to keep their cheap foreign labor flowing. I never voted for any of this, zoomers surely did not, zoomers are being told they’re weirdos for not working these gigs, but good luck getting rid of any of this system as this is probably the first time you’ve heard of these groups.

@Grampsknos @caseymurph1 @ProtesterLone I love Texans and appreciate their business up here, but they tailgate too much in speeding ticket city (ski resort towns).

@RodeoProfessor @caseymurph1 @ProtesterLone A Kentuckian by the name of zn morrell came to Texas in the 1830s. He described himself as an early Texan. On a trip to New Mexico he and his companions told the New Mexicans that they were from Arkansas because New Mexicans didn't like Texans.

Next time some city dork tells you that we need to privatize and sell BLM land because it’s worthless or ugly compared to our national parks, remember that Steens Mountain and its scenic drive exist. One of the most remarkable bighorn sheep restorations in America, native redband trout in the Donner und Blitzen River (named by U.S. Army Captain George Currey when he saw thunder and lightning chasing the Paiute Indians), and a drive that showcases all the ecology of the west. The BLM reintroduction of California bighorn to Steens Mountain started with just 11 sheep. Over time, the herd stabilized and became the subject of one of the most comprehensive scientific studies of bighorn ever conducted, the Van Dyke Oregon State research (Go Beavs). Much of what we know about population dynamics, habitat use, and lamb survival is from the Steens Herd. Hunter generated revenue paid for much of the bighorn restoration with coveted auction raffle tags providing almost all funding for capture, transfers, research, and habitat. Restoration couldn’t have been paid for without hunters opening their wallets. BLM land is the ultimate American land, you can hunt, fish, shoot, and bring back iconic American wildlife as is your heritage, American. Maybe you to this drive this summer? Maybe you check out another BLM parcel near you?

This is about 5% of the story too. This is only looking at the ones we frequent in Utah and Colorado, different NGOs operate like cartels and have different turf. Then, zoom out across all of tourism and hospitality, National Parks have their own State Department approved NGO passthroughs. It is crazy.

@RodeoProfessor Excellent reporting. Seasonal US ski jobs should not prefer visa/non-US vs US teens and young adults getting their first real job experience. Two NGOs behind this. @DataRepublican for interest.

Yes. I was very careful not to boomer bash in this post. I don't think "boomers" did this, it's too broad, and I didn't realize even boomers roll their eyes at the 68 burnout crowd. There are about 20 people who make big money off this system, not boomers as a whole. Vail Mountain/Powdr Corp leadership, State Dept bureaucrats, and pass through NGOs are making young Americans compete with the entire world and fleets of lobbyists. We need to start viewing all levels of American jobs as something worth protecting for our kids.

@RodeoProfessor @_americanrose_ @SenRonJohnson I agree, Rodeo, likewise with boomers who are given a bad name by the washed hippies from the 60s.

@Honeybadgermom Great to see your work in my feed again!

DSA guy is big mad at me for reporting on a connection between the City of Portland Small Donor Elections program director and the far-left (DSA) and their ongoing attacks against the ballot measure to fund police. Let's address his claims. Nick's claim is that "MAGA folks" like me will tank the Safer Portland measure by making it a far-right issue. I'm not MAGA, not an influencer, not far right — I'm a journalist who is conservative, and I reported facts: Susan Mottet and Janna Tessman a DSA activist and lobbyist secretly recorded petition gatherers -- the DSA is famously ACAB/defund the police so I am not surprised. What was surprising? The city's Small Donor Elections director involvement in all of this. Someone overseeing election money being handed out while working side by side with a DSA lobbyist in an attempt to stop this measure from reaching the ballot is unethical at best. This isn't a "far right" agenda either, Nick — it's the lived reality in Portland. Very few people feel safe here, and response times aren't an accident, but a direct result of PPB being critically understaffed. Fewer officers mean fewer people who can respond when you call. And it is going to get much, much worse with the latest gutting of the police budget. Right now, when your car gets stolen you have to turn to Facebook groups to find it because PPB doesn't even have enough officers to take a report much less look for your stolen vehicle. That's the actual state of policing in this city right now but this law professor would have you believe there are more than enough officers on the ground, and they are eating up the city's budget. Nick wants to talk about political "polarization" to scare people from voting for more funds for police while earlier this year a man, high on LSD (Aymon Elkholy) viciously attacked more than half a dozen women in Council Crest Park. He groped, grabbed, chased and climbed on top of these women, all the while three 911 callers begged for a response. It took over 30 minutes for police to arrive. In that time, the women didn't scatter and wait for help — they banded together and physically fought their attacker, hitting, scratching, kicking and then subduing him until officers showed up. That's not normal. People don't typically decide that restraining an attacker themselves is a better option than waiting on the police to get there — they take that risk when they've stopped believing that help is coming. The people behind the ballot measure are advocating for more officers on the street so something like this never happens again. Meanwhile, Nick is posting all of this from a $3M+ home overlooking a lake, in one of the safest, cushiest suburbs near Portland. He's an adjunct law professor at an expensive private university, and an environmental lawyer, crying that Safer Portland is "stealing" from a clean energy fund — a fund sitting on hundreds of millions in surplus. Hundreds of millions unspent, and he's worried about this. Meanwhile women in this city are being groped and chased in broad daylight, waiting who knows how long for police to show up, forced to fight off their attacker with their bare hands because help wasn't coming. Nick doesn't have to worry about any of that. This champagne socialist whines about "stolen" money in one breath, then turns around and fearmongers about a fake far-right boogeyman the next — hoping to taint the measure enough to tank it outright. Meanwhile, Nick doesn't have to worry about any of this. He is safe. His wife is safe. Their lake view is safe. It's easy to lecture the rest of us about "polarization" and "optics" when you'll never be the one waiting and wondering if help is going to arrive in time. Safety for me, not for thee.

@Grampsknos @_americanrose_ @SenRonJohnson Man there are so many people on the take here. I don’t believe it can be fixed but I do think people should stop villainizing zoomers who had nothing to do with these high level decisions and are in no way benefiting from it.

@_americanrose_ @RodeoProfessor Tax subsidized housing of immigrants at inflated rates boost the value of personally held REIT Real Estate Investment Trusts stock that Congressmen own. Right @SenRonJohnson ?

I’m no expert buddy, this stuff is a lot easier to track down these days compared to even a few years ago thanks to the search capacities of these LLMs. I don’t think I would have been able to find this out even a few years back without these newer search tools in a quick throwaway post like this. Happy to help however I can but I’m sure your methods are more professional than mine

@RodeoProfessor I might want to do a story on this. Going to pitch it to my editor. If he says yes, I’d like to ask a few more questions.

@RogueLou18 Thanks guys I’m going insane

@RodeoProfessor I can’t help but think that as the last 20 years America light speed stamped every VISA on the planet that there aren’t niche NGOs for just about every sector of employment that started up the foreign import machine and is making bank. Our country is full of traitors.

Just a quick glance at the Jamaican, Peruvian, and Brazilian exchange rates would have anyone with a functioning brain capable of understanding why they accept jobs that are wage suppressive for young Americans living in HCOL areas. People just love ranting about the youth and telling irrelevant stories from decades ago.

@serraotweets @RodeoProfessor >we also worked alongside Jamaicans, Peruvians, Brazilians, etc. Yeah, that means wages were way too low and were being kept down by foreign scab labor.

No it’s an interesting question. Antlers is the biological term, and paddles = the wide flat section of the overall antler. Boone & Crockett measures paddles (aka palms) when they’re scoring a moose, so it used to be id only hear paddle in that context but these days dog treats are making that terminology more widely used.

@RodeoProfessor Stupid question - are they called antlers or paddles or can both be used interchangeably for moose?

Roadside moose thunderdome battles during the rut (sept to oct) are common because they like the salt on the road. Winner gets access to the ladies, breeding access concentrated in the biggest strongest individuals. Those antlers are probably 6 ft across & weigh 30-40 lbs btw

@Sir_Kneecap That’s a real pants shitter of an encounter!

I was paddling down a river a couple of years ago in October. A huge bull walked out into the middle of the river maybe 100 yards in front of me. He started grunting at me and made sure I knew I wasn’t getting by him. After about 15 minutes he got bored and just walked away. We know better than to mess with those guys, especially during the rut!

@CandideOptimum My view is those were different times when the mission of cross cultural exchange was still somewhat genuine and you had a few people here and there. Now, the staff is majority international and the reason is wage suppression for Americans.

@RodeoProfessor It was common in the 1990s for New Zealanders to work at the Colorado resorts during their summer breaks (our winter). Just thought I'd add something with which I have first hand experience

@serraotweets “I did something 20 years ago” has an opinion on kids these days. Cool 👍

@RodeoProfessor I worked a gig like this in the mid 2000s, ran room service for a season at a big resort. They were desperate for labor even then, Americans didn’t want to do it. I got multiple friends jobs but we also worked alongside Jamaicans, Peruvians, Brazilians etc.

@David_13_x Yeah wow, interesting. The entire season was dominated by two big stories out here. First, no snow obviously. Second were the massive strikes at Telluride and Park city ski patrols for exactly this issue.

It also has the side effect of suppressing wages for every single role throughout the resort (or system of resorts). There’s no way that the guys and girls out doing patrol and avalanche mitigation should be getting paid an amount that doesn’t even allow them to buy a lunch at the very resort they work for. The skiing world that Warren Miller documented so well is on life support thanks to private equity.

@RodeoProfessor Can hardly go skiing and talk to someone who speaks English as a first language other than ski patrol these days.

@_americanrose_ Very interesting, and absolutely right. Having a couple intls around is a great time, but in the last 5 years, I’ve noticed it’s 90-10 internationals-locals. The joke my students made was they need a Messi jersey to apply for a job at Park City or Deer Valley.

Interesting! although unsurprising. I’ve noticed the down stream effect of this more and more in housing optimized for this labor supply. The ski and development partners are pushing seasonal company housing deeper and deeper into the surrounding communities vs around the resorts. It is leaving these dense dorm-like options vacant in the off season. Local families and kids trying to work different jobs year round in the area can’t utilize this housing because they need them open for the influx of visa workers. So now in the bedroom communities you have the vacant resort effect AND an influx of people who have no intention of ever staying and integrating into that community. Not a new revelation, but it is just getting worse. There have always been visas in resort work, imo it’s what makes it kind of fun. But it was always a few traveling Australians or South Africans and then the Argentinians who came up every winter, and we got to feel like “hosts”.

@caseymurph1 @Grampsknos @ProtesterLone It’s bad out here man (they tailgate me when I’m going 10-15 over, I think that’s their culture).

@RodeoProfessor @Grampsknos @ProtesterLone Hahaha I thought that was just the case in the elk camps in New Mexico and Colorado!!

@caseymurph1 @Grampsknos @ProtesterLone It’s always Texans on here telling us Westerners that we need to privatize it, and in the national forest where I live, when I go check in at the elk camps for news, 99% Texans. There’s a lesson there JC!

@Grampsknos @ProtesterLone @RodeoProfessor Western states made, IMO, mistakes regarding state lands in their constitutional documents, making it a 'highest bidder' situation. Western states need to address this and update the language to reflect the priorities of their citizens. Once that happens, I say hand it all over

It’s very strange how posts about our glorious public land portfolios bring these types of commenters out in droves. I think there’s a lot of ignorance but I think there’s also good old fashioned resentment. I’ve had a million “why should I subsidize your fishing spot” type comments on here which is a batshit crazy place to bring discussion on American multi use landscapes.

@RodeoProfessor Steens and the Alvord Basin are true gems. Bugs me when people point to "empty"spaces on maps without knowing shit.

@riversidebeard I know, sorry