Wyoming Landowners Sue to Block Hunters from Hunting on Public Land 🖕

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:

SINCE WHEN DO LANDOWNERS RULE OVER PUBLIC LANDS?
WYOMING LANDOWNERS SUE TO BLOCK HUNTERS FROM HUNTING ON PUBLIC LAND ALONG PRIVATE ROAD

A Campbell County rancher’s attempt to keep hunters from stopping to hunt public land while traveling a 10-mile private easement road has sparked a lawsuit that could set precedent for how Wyoming treats access to millions of acres of landlocked public land.

At the heart of the dispute is Calvin Ten Braak, a Rozet-area landowner whose property is completely surrounded by private and state land. In November 2024, he finally secured a recorded easement across neighboring ranches to reach his parcel. The route crosses land recently purchased by members of the Maestri family (operating through Corral Maestri LLC and Maestri Ranch Company, LLC), along with some state and Bureau of Land Management sections.

The easement grants Ten Braak and his guests “ingress and egress” to his property. What it does not explicitly forbid, however, is stopping along the way to hunt on the thousands of acres of adjacent public land—including a 16,500-acre BLM parcel that can only realistically be reached via the same road.

And that’s exactly what the Maestri companies object to…

🏀 Michigan Basketball Player Kicked Off Varsity for Missing Practice to Go Hunting. In a story that undoubtedly gives all of us one of those ‘that ain’t right’ kind of feelings, a boys’ varsity basketball player at Negaunee High School in Michigan has been kicked off the team for missing two days of practice to go hunting. The high school, located in the remote Upper Peninsula where hunting is a significant cultural event, had only 12 students try out for the team, with only 10 total players cleared to play.

According to the account of Coach William Hill, he informed the student, Gaven Stone, that missing practice on Monday and Tuesday would mean he did not make the squad, as the team had a scrimmage scheduled that week and was already short-handed. After Gaven chose camo over gym shorts those days, his mother, Tiffany Stone, did not dispute the facts but argued that the coach's decision was overly harsh and that formal team policies regarding absences were not clearly established or followed prior to the confrontation. The parents attempted to appeal the decision to the athletic director and superintendent, but the coach's choice was upheld. Despite the controversy and the potential for reinstatement, Stone has chosen not to rejoin the team, instead pivoting his focus to his next sport and hopefully mounting that big buck he downed while missing practice.

🐻 Florida’s Controversial Bear Hunt Hits Day Five… And the Body Count Is Top Secret. Florida's long-awaited black bear hunting season, the first since 2015, has reached its fifth day of open season, yet the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission seems to be keeping the kill count under wraps. The season kicked off on December 7 and runs through December 28 (or until a quota is hit), featuring just 172 permits issued via lottery. Hunters must now report kills within 24 hours via app, ditching old-school check stations, but accessing harvest data requires public records requests, sparking gripes over secrecy. The 2015 season famously wrapped in two days after blasting through its quota, but this year's extended timeline and tighter controls aim to avoid a repeat frenzy.

The hunt's revival has split opinions like a fresh claw mark. On one side, pro-hunt voices hail it as smart management, while animal rights crews like Bear Warriors United are shelling out $2,000 bounties for unused tags. Given the tension over the past few months, it’s any wonder Florida’s FWC is keeping their cards close to their chest. As the first week is set to close this weekend, it remains anyone’s guess as to when that small quota is reached.

🦃 Michigan Teacher Fired for Dressing Class as Turkeys, Making Hunting Joke. In Hartland, Michigan, a teacher at Hartland Consolidated Schools was fired following a controversial Thanksgiving-themed classroom activity on November 21st. The educator dressed elementary students as turkeys for a class photo and positioned an image of a hunter holding a gun on the interactive whiteboard behind them. The teacher then texted the photo to colleagues with the caption, "which one should we pick off first," intending it as a hunting-related joke. No students saw the final image, and officials confirmed no children were in danger, but the incident prompted swift action after staff reported it to administrators.

Superintendent Chuck Hughes addressed the matter in a letter to parents, calling the teacher's actions a "grossly poor decision," "despicable and thoughtless," and "extremely unwise." The district investigated, terminated the teacher immediately and notified the Livingston County Sheriff's Office, which determined no criminal activity occurred. The unnamed teacher took full responsibility for the lack of thought behind the joke, acknowledging the poor judgment.

👋 He just wanted to pet you! Watch as this fella comes upon a resting doe and decides to give her a pet.

I’m surprised how long she put up with it before bolting…

🧘 Hell’s Canyon Meditation: Rock fragments scrambled beneath my boots. My heart pounded like a bass drum in my chest as I regained my footing, dug within my vest pocket, and looked at the buzzing Garmin handheld. I kept my center of gravity as close to the vertical slide of scree as possible, afraid that my weakened legs may send me backward down the side of the mountain. Ceder, my friend Matt’s wirehair, was on point at the top of the ridge. I relayed the news between huffing breaths to my friend Diana, who was just behind me.

We had ascended over 1,000 feet in a short period of time, and it had taken its toll on my lungs.

“Are you in?” I asked. I already knew her answer—it was the last day of our float hunt through Hells Canyon and we wouldn’t give up this opportunity. Read the full story.

🪶 Spoiled by Surprise, Surprised by Spoils: With the long autumnal sun just failing to pierce the South Dakota cold, we had the perfect start to a week of pheasant hunting. It was our second outing and my brother and I felt confident. We believed we had all the rookie mistakes out of the way and that even without a dog, we could fill our game bags. We ended our first trip shooting three birds on our final day, so we assured our two first-timer friends that we knew what to do. I even made predictions.

We began that first day riding the confidence of our beginner’s luck, ready to limit out. Not fifteen minutes after we loaded our guns, we came upon the ideal pheasant hiding spot, a little pond surrounded by cattails with a section of thick switchgrass sheltered just out of the wind. Our next step was simple enough, find and shoot the bird. Read the full story.

🐘 The Hard Life of an Elephant Hunter: I found five bull elephants, gave chase, and singled and drove out the largest, and gave him a couple of pills to make him quiet; he shortly turned and stood at bay, about forty yards off, and then came on with a terrific charge. My newly-purchased horse, Kebon, which I was riding for the first time, stood stock still, and I intended to give the elephant my favourite shot in the chest, but at every attempt to raise the gun for the purpose of so doing, my horse commenced tossing his head up and down, and entirely prevented me from taking aim.

During my attempts to pacify and steady him the bull charged, and I fired at random, and whether the ball whistled uncomfortably near the horse’s ear or not I can’t say, but he gave his head so sudden a jerk as to throw the near rein over on to the off side; the curb-chain came undone, and the bit turned right round in his mouth.  Read the full story.

Oh, and one more thing…