Hey folks, Randy Noberg here.

Welcome to Loop Holds, Hanthac Radio.

Hey folks, Randy Noberg here.

We've got another episode of Loop Holds, Hanthac Radio today.

Today I'm joined by three people, amazing advocates at the grassroots level.

You notice that a lot of our podcasts are being geared towards advocacy, conservation, policy, stuff like that.

This time of year, that's good stuff to talk about because there's a lot of it going on.

I don't want everybody to think that because I'm using Montana as an example of how citizens can be involved, how you can advocate, that that's the only place these things are happening.

Earlier this year, I have the director of Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, Hank Worshich on the podcast.

Because I want people to understand how policy is crafted, how it works, legislative process.

Last year I had a person who represents outfitting industry to talk about how they had a different view than I did about legislation.

All of this stuff is happening in your state, in your backyard in some way.

The three people I have here today are all members of a new group, a new grassroots organization that popped up in Montana in response to the...

I've called it bulls for billionaires. We've started a new program in Montana or our wildlife agency did that for whatever reason they feel very accountable and beholden to a bunch of out-of-state interests.

I get that they got to do certain things with all landowners, whether they're residents or non-resident. We have to respect that and do certain things.

But it doesn't have to be the tail wagging the dog and that's how far we've went in this.

So, there's a new group called the Montana Citizens Elk Management Coalition or that time that I call the Montana Elk Coalition. I think they even refer to themselves as the Elk Coalition.

It was formally put together in November or December of 2021 and their whole idea, if I can paraphrase from their website, is the goal is to find a better way forward for Elk Management in Montana.

So, you could almost take Elk and overlay it with any other species. You could almost take Montana and apply it in your state wherever you live.

The point of it is we have three representatives of this group that formed by saying, you know, we're going to make our voice heard. We're going to get together and whatever differences we might have had before, they don't matter at this point when it comes to advocating for Elk.

So, that's what the Elk Coalition is about. These three people you are going to hear from dedicate a lot of their time and effort to the cause of conservation in this state, just like you have voices in your state or you could be one of those voices.

That's the really important part from what you're going to hear this discussion, how you could be one of those voices. And I hope you will because we all know that wild places and wild things could benefit from more voices, not less.

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