POSTED: Death of the Treestand Killer and Hogs of LBL

Welcome back to the Hunting Roots Podcast! We've got some fresh stories breaking this week as we catch up on the latest happenings in the hunting and outdoor world, particularly the death of the Treestand Killer and the latest update on hog removal efforts at LBL. Don't miss this one! 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Rolden once again, welcome back to the Hunting Roots Podcast. I'm Brody Swisher. This is episode 247. Appreciate you guys jumping on, hanging out with us. This is your first time. We want to say a special thanks to you and uh always appreciate you guys wherever you're from, guys, gals, whoever, wherever you're from, we always appreciate you hanging out with us each week on this daily old we call the Hunting Roots Podcast. We've got some good stuff this week. We're going to be bringing you some posted pieces that have popped up, some tough stuff, some crazy stuff. We've got it for you this week. This podcast is brought to you by our good friends at Onex Hunt. And you can go check them out on the app, uh, in the app store. You can go to the website, onxmaps.com, find out all about it. Uh again, whether you're hunting, fishing, hanging out, uh, use it again this morning, just mapping uh my run, what I was doing, and trying to make sure I don't shortchange things. You know, if I don't have the app rolling, the tracker, um, oftentimes I might shortchange things. You know what I'm saying? I might do a little less. And uh if I want to do two miles or three miles, whatever that tracker makes it easy to know, okay, I'm not there yet, or ooh, I'm above and beyond. And so great tool, again, whether it's fitness goals, whether it's scouting for deer, turkey season, fishing, whatever it is, man. You got this app and it makes life good. Always know where you stand. Check it out at onxmaps.com. Good stuff there. Also, big thanks to the crew at Mossy Oak. Mossyoke.com, go and check out the content there to take you through the off-season articles and all kinds of good stuff. And then there's all manner of swag, camo, solids, all kinds of clothes, apparel, different stuff going on. I was checking out some shorts earlier. I think they're Tybee. I don't know. Never know if it's Tybee, Tibby, Tybee, uh shorts they've got for summertime, and lots of good stuff there, no matter what you need, hunting or just casual hanging out. Check it out at mossyoak.com. Another long week here in West Tennessee. We've uh just wrapped up sports camp and uh we did that out at Maplewood, our church, and uh big thanks to all you guys that came out and helped with that, and uh those of you who maybe brought kids out to participate in that, it was a good time. You know, we have long done the sportsman camps and uh the hunting and outdoors and and all the camping, hunting, survival skill, just everything created and designed for sportsmen. That's kind of been our niche for a long time. But this summer, uh in this offseason period, we brought this sports camp where we talked about football and baseball and soccer and basketball, none of which I'm an expert in. All the stuff I've I've played and enjoyed as a kid. Um, but man, just tapping into the sports is keen mindset of so many people. And uh it's been good. Just brought kids out the last uh three days, had them out there half day, and uh, again, just getting them out there to enjoy some killer weather we've had, uh build some basic skills of sports for these guys that were five to ten, and so young boys, young girls, it was good to be able to invest in their lives and see uh the opportunity to talk about sports, talk about Jesus, and uh it was just a good time. So again, thank you, you guys that helped, hung out, whatever. It was big time, lots of fun always uh hanging out with those kiddos, and we are a lot of people ask the question Will you be doing Sportsman Camp and uh be doing the the workshops? And we will be working on that, uh already working on uh a sportsman's workshop, hunters workshop coming up this late summer, early fall. So be listening and watching for that. We'd love to have you help. Uh be a part of that as some of our instructors if you qualify, and uh, because I know some of you don't qualify, let's just be honest. Some of you uh we couldn't have out there as staff. You crazy. You know what I'm saying? You just crazy, a little too crazy for working with kids, whatever. But there are some of y'all that seriously would uh have the patience, have the time, have the energy and effort to be a part of that. And so uh always reach out on that if it's something you'd be interested in helping with. And then if you got kiddos that are wanting to uh figure out what it's all about or just strengthen their outdoor skills, those are coming up real soon. So we're looking forward to that. That will be another good time coming up in the near future. Man, there's some crazy stuff that's been happening just this last little bit. I want to talk about the story and the latest update from the crazy stuff blowing up and stirring up over in LBL, the land between the lakes. We've got a few other hot stories, so let's get into that right now. This is your posted segment of the week. All right, a couple things, a couple hot pieces we want to talk about uh this week as we get into this posted segment. A couple things that I saw popping up, uh just a couple little pieces uh here recently, and I'm gonna pull these back up. Let me see if I can get these different clips and cuts uh that were in the news. I got a cut, a little smattering of these. And the first one I want to start off with, like I said, we'll get to the LBL piece in just a bit, but uh the first piece that popped up, and uh this has happened uh here in this last week, I guess. Maybe I don't know. Maybe this is old news and it's news to me, and so um this is what I want to do kind of a deep dive in, maybe just have a whole podcast or two revolving around this deal. But do you remember the tree stand killer, the tree stand killings that took place many years ago? Um the guy's name was I don't even know how you say it. Um Chai Chai Vang, Chai Vang, Chai Vang. Uh here's the post. It says this is from Rack Junkies. It says the tree stand killings, one of the darkest day in hunting stories in America history, American history, just came back in the news. Chai Vang, the man convicted of murdering six Wisconsin hunters in 2004 in what became known as the Tree Stand Killings, has died in a hospital while serving six life sentences. The original story happened on opening weekend when a group of hunters confronted Vang for trespassing on private land in northwestern Wisconsin. The confrontation turned into a massacre. Six hunters were killed and two more were wounded. Vang, I don't know if it's Vang or Vang or Wang, Wang, Wang, maybe it's Vang, maybe it's Wang, uh, later claimed self-defense, saying he was threatened and shot at, but the surviving hunters denied that, and jury convicted him in 2005 on six counts of first degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide. More than twenty years later, this case is still remembered as one of the most horrif horrifying crimes ever tied to deer season. So the man was uh serving, like I said, six life sentences, I guess it said, for this uh massacre back in 2004. Um and he's died. So never made it to serving those, obviously. And that was kind of the point of that all, but he has died, and that story has popped back up in the news because of that. Like I said, I want to I wanna do uh a dive into that because I think that's a a crazy and I had completely forgotten about that. I remember the time um when that first popped up. I mean it was kind of like, whoa man, what is this guy? Who is this? This is crazy. And um man, that story was all over the place back then, twenty plus years ago. And uh here it is popping back up. The man has finally died and met his maker. I hope he figured it out while he was in jail, hopefully figured out that he needed Jesus because he has met him face to face now, and he's either been said, Hey, we forgive you, come on in, or man, get in the boot. Go into the hot place. And so um crazy story there. And if you remember that story, holler at us and and um again, some of you I know may not even been alive, some of our younger listeners. Uh it's been a while back, but uh crazy story, crazy story. Uh, what's next? Let's see what we got here. Uh another one. Did you hear the story uh uh this this is nothing to do with with hunting, but I just just I thought about this story and it just kind of hit me the other day, you know, when we talk about being prepared. Did you hear the story about the the the chick that was thrown off the the bungee um doing the bungee jump and they threw her off the bridge and had her all her equipment on, everything lined up, but they failed to lock her into the tether. Again, this is not a hunting story, this is not outdoor-related. I mean it is outdoor related because it's bungee jumping. Nothing to do with sportsmen or anything of the sort, but I I immediately thought about that. How many times have we gone to the tree stand or you know, you're doing your saddle setup or something, and you got all your gear and you think you're good, and then it's like, oh crap, I haven't even tied into the tether. I've not even got locked into the to the lifeline or whatever it is. You know, you get up there and you you know your tether rope's there and you're just thinking life is good and you're all good to go. Oh my gosh, I have I I wouldn't even anchored in. I'm so glad I didn't lean back. I'm so glad I didn't lose my balance, whatever. You know, you did all the stuff, you had the harness on, you had your tree stand in place, you had all the ropes up there, you had your tether up there, you wrapped around the tree, but you didn't link into the carabiner in one little mishap. And uh that must have been the deal here. I haven't seen the whole story or the full story on it, but uh evidently the girl gets all her gear on, they got a helmet on her head, she's harnessed up, and uh, you see the guys, the the two guides, the two instructors or whatever in charge got the girl, she's flying like Superman over their head, she's you know, they're holding their feet, one's holding their feet, one's holding their shoulders, getting ready, and they toss her over off these bridge or whatever it was, like they do, the bungee jumpers, into the canyon, and you know they just free fall for a while, then all of a sudden the bungee kicks in and they bounce back, and here they come, they spring back up. The problem with this one is she had the helmet on, harness on. She got all the instructions. We've got you, babe. Hey, just chill, we got you, everything's under control, no problem. Hey, don't freak out. We've d we do this, we do this all day, every day. It's all good. We've done it so many times before. Hang on, maybe counted it down. Three, two, one, and chunk her over the bridge, and they never had the tether tied on. She had all the stuff, but not the actual thing that would save her life. And um the bridge. Everything looked good. Plunges to her death, crazy stuff. And so uh for me, I'm again this story was one of those I thought how horrific was that. Uh but it's also a reminder for me, just when I go uh and get into my gear, get into my tree stand stuff and and tethers, you know, uh tethers and all the lifelines and all the stuff, tether ropes, lineman ropes, and different things. And um when I get up into my saddle set, when I get into my tree stand set, and I get to thinking, man, don't don't blow it. So many times we get we get caught up in all the craziness and the excitement of the morning, and it usually happens on those first opening morning deals, right? You know, that first hunt of the year, and you're you're cranked up, or maybe you're running behind, days breaking, it's starting to get light, or you're you're hearing deer, you know, in the distance or trying to sneak in super quiet, whatever, all those different scenarios, and your mind's distracted. And you get to thinking about other things, and you're not thinking about the main thing, and that's being locked in, and there's a lot of life application there, obviously, but uh oh man, I just it was just a reminder for me, just to don't miss the main thing, and that's that's staying anchored to where we need to be anchored, and and um tragic, tragic deal there. I don't even know what that was. Like I said, I've not dug in deep. I just I screenshot that the other day, and I thought about, man, what a mess of a situation. Can you imagine these guys? Hey, we're the instructors. Instructor of the year, man, we've been doing this for years. We're we're good. We're good at what we do. We are bungee instructors, bungee jump captains, whatever you want to call them. And they tossed this girl off the bridge. No tether, no rope, no bungee, nothing. So, so sad. What a mess. Uh hey, let's get to the meat of the moment. This is uh the piece about the Lamb Betwin Lakes. If you're not familiar with LBL, it stretches from Tennessee into Kentucky. Uh big old place. Big old place. Um I know many of you probably hunted there before, heard about it before. I don't recommend it. Not only because it's um, you know, more one of my more local places that that we go and recreate, but uh it is a tick-infested place. I was talking somebody the other day. They're coming up and camping or whatever, and they're like, we were covered up in ticks. I was like, well, because you're in LBL, it's part of the package, that's part of the program. You're gonna find ticks, they're everywhere. Hunting, hanging out, camping, whatever, hiking. Riding my mountain bike over there one day. Ride a mountain bike, riding a bike on the trail and come out with ticks. Okay, didn't even have my feet on the ground. Crazy. Uh but the big thing about LBL is it's it's the hogs have put a hurting. Somebody released hogs many, many years ago. And the hogs have put a hurtin on the deer population. I know some people like to think, no, it's it's fine, it's as good as ever. Not the case. Uh deer, turkeys both have have suffered incredibly uh because of the expanding hog population. And uh it's just unfortunate. It's an unfortunate situation, and that's been going on for years and years now. Um and there's been times where the Fed say, hey, we've got this under control. Hey, we trapped a bunch, we we trapped, you know, we trapped 30 hogs, you know, and as you know with hogs, or may or may not know, 30 hogs in a place of 180,000 acres ain't it. You know what I'm saying? And it's not gonna work. But this last week, last couple days, they've come out with a statement saying, hey, we we we put a dent in them. We put a dent in them. And uh we'll see if that's the case. But here's the the headlines on that. It says a huge win for wild pig eradication efforts at Land Between the Lakes. USDA Wildlife Services recently completed an extended season of aerial wild pig removal operations at Land Between the Lakes, uh LBL, removing 1,802 wild pigs from the Kentucky, Tennessee area. Using helicopters equipped with uh thermal imaging technology and aerial removal equipment, crews significantly reduced the wild pig population. Follow-up surveys showed an estimated 90% decrease in wild pig numbers. That's pretty big. 90% decrease in wild pig numbers. Now that would be interesting to see how we're gonna measure that. You know, is that a measurable deal? Um it says winter removal efforts occurred from January through March 2026. The focus was primarily on female pigs, which travel in groups called sounders that are easier to locate from the air than lone individuals. A lot of times some old lone individuals, that lone wolf is that big boar hog. Uh females with her little pack of piglets are easier to identify. You'll see big old monster sal in there with all her little youngins, and uh evidently they can target those specifically, and uh that greatly uh reduces numbers there. So it says um trapping efforts will continue until all remaining wild pigs are removed. UFD UFDA Wildlife Services, Kentucky Lake Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Lambetwin Lakes remain committed to the complete eradication of wild pigs at LBL and throughout Kentucky. With wild pig numbers greatly reduced, hunters should see improved opportunities for deer and turkey hunting throughout LBL. Reducing wild pop wild pig population helps protect native wildlife, conservation habitat and or excuse me, conserve habitat and preserve outdoor recreation opportunities for future generations. And I'll say the you know, say the same. That's kind of the name of the game. Yeah, you got your pig numbers out of whack and uh it used to be you'd see deer tracks around the lake. You'd see deer tracks in the creek crossings and turkey tracks and all the different things, and now it's largely hog sign. You go out there and you see, oh look at the deer No, that's not deer tracks, that's hog sign. That's hog tracks and just crazy, just crazy. We I know I've mentioned this before, but we woke up um a camping experience in this last year. Woke up in the middle of night, screaming hogs around us, just just fighting and didn't seem to care that we were there. We had tents all around and hogs are fighting and feeding and just doing their thing from about eleven o'clock to midnight all around our campsite, and so they're there, man. They're thick. And uh it's good to hear that maybe something is finally being done. They go up in there and and do their deal. Now this is what's pretty interesting. I love the wording of this this situation here. Uh using helicopters, let me find it. Using helicopters equipped with thermal imaging technology and aerial removal equipment. Isn't that in that fancy? Aerial removal equipment. Don't you want to know what they really meant there? Aerial removal, because you know they had to be politically correct, right? These are the feds and they had to be like, hey, we're gonna use aerial removal equipment. They didn't say ARs or or um buckshot, you know, shotguns, uh mowing them down, ARs, you know, they just said aerial removal equipment. We've all, as hunters, we've we've all got some of that removal equipment, right? Our guns, bows, whatever. Uh uh maybe we never start calling it removal equipment. Tell your wife you gotta go down to the sporting goods store and and pick you up a new piece of removal equipment to help the population. I don't know, maybe that'll work, but I like that. It keeps things nice and and fancy for the anti-hunters. They ain't got it here. We they went to the went to the chopper with thermal equipment and guns ablazing. It's aerial removal equipment. Uh so check it out. You can find it on the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Uh, as you can imagine, the comments are pretty, pretty interesting. Um people asking, please show stats. You know, because a lot of people don't, you know, believe that it's legit. Whatever they did, whatever they've done, not legit. Um and I and I get it, I understand. I I've heard people say stuff before, hey, we've we really made a dent in them, we've been trapping. I'm like, no, you're not you're not making a dent in them. It's getting worse instead of better. And so you you hear them post some numbers, you know, you know, you just kind of question the legitimacy of that. Um one of the guys here says, no, 90% decrease couldn't could have been detected. Uh because of the canopy and dense cover, it would make that hard to detect. Hogs get smarter, remember. You said it yourself, they would hide at the sound of uh equipment choppers. Um Adam Picola says, Go ahead and say it. A couple really lucky individuals got to helicopter hog hunt and get paid to do it. Hey, somebody did. Somebody got up there and they had a big time. Can you imagine being on that deal? You try to act all professional, like, hey, we've got to go up here and do a job. You know some guys like, hey, dude, I got the green light, we're going up in the chopper, we got guns, we got thermals. Come on, you want to go? I can take three people. Let's go. I mean, that that's that's a good time. You know, I mean you can go do it down in Texas and Oklahoma, but to do it right here in West Tennessee, pretty good stuff. Um Then you got a guy named O Jeff here who says, Does the aerial removal equipment hurt the pigs? You knew that was coming, right? Does the aerial removal equipment hurt the pigs? You can just kind of sense it. You probably have to say it with a softer, sweeter voice. Like, um does this aerial equipment removal equipment does that hurt the pigs? Soft, sweet fella, and somebody replied to it. Yes, permanently. Yeah, I like that. Uh so yes, the aerial removal equipment does hurt the pigs. As John says, John Peterson said, Yes, it permanently hurts the pigs. Hurts them for life removal. Okay, this is not a this is not a catch and release, you know what I'm saying? I don't think they're catching and releasing hogs anywhere. So um I don't know, there's been a lot of calls for people saying, hey, uh sell those opportunities, sell some helicopter hog hunts, sell some permits, and there's been all kind of uh input and people think different opportunities and different ideas, uh solutions, what might work. Um talk about drones. Somebody asked just uh would drones be cheaper? Um you know, there's everybody's got their idea of of what might happen, what might work. Will these guys finally have an answer? I mean, do they I mean you think about it, you got a ninety percent decrease? That's pretty strong. Um but the bottom line is as they said, they gotta go in there and get complete ra eradication because you leave ten percent of the hogs on the landscape and hogs do what hogs do, um what I understand they can breed twice a year. Breed multiple times a year, and they can breed at six months old, maybe something like that. And they start making babies at six months old. So that 10% will bump that population right back up. So it's going to have to be some pretty complete eradication for them to really make a difference on the landscape. So we'll see what comes up from that, how that goes and what goes. But that's the best report I've heard so far. That's the best I've heard as far as good news from the LBL camp over there and the stuff that's actually, in their words, sounds like it's working. You know, in the past it's been we we trapped some hogs. We got a few. We caught 30. We caught 100. We've got a couple here, there. You know, just stuff that sounds good, or not even sound good, honestly. You know, it sounds like they're doing some work, but not getting much done. This 90%, that's pretty strong if that's a legit number. Again, I'm not calling anybody liar. Um I just hope those numbers are accurate. I know when it comes to grants and big money being spent and all, you gotta post some numbers. You know what I'm saying? You gotta make it look worth the while. Like, you know, the the fuel for the chopper and all the equipment and all the money spent, you gotta you gotta post some numbers. I just hope those are solid numbers that uh reflect what truly got dead over there. Hey, a quick word from the word before we wrap this up, keeping it short and sweet this week. Uh Romans 8 31. It says, What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If God be for us, who can be against us? I I can't stress that verse enough. I know I've shared it plenty of times in the past before. But a good one popped up today. If God is for us, who can be against us? Man, if you're on the winning team, if you're on God's team, the winning team, that's just it. I mean, you're on the right team, and it don't matter. It's like, hey, who who can be against us? We're on the right team, we're on the right side. You remember the uh when we were young kids and playing ball, playing football, maybe doing tug award, and you had the big dude, you had the giant, and it's like, hey, we've got the man. Who who's against us? It don't matter, we've got the man, and that's kind of the deal. It's like, man, I'm on the team, God's team. I I've got God in running this deal, and who can be against me? What what do you got? You know what I'm saying? What do you got? What what are you gonna post up about? Hey, uh, you know, we you got nothing. I'm on God's team. God for us, who can be against us? And and so I just want to encourage you this week, make sure you're on that team. Make sure you've given your life to him. And if you ever have questions and concerns, you know, anything about that, don't ever hesitate to reach out and say, hey man, I'd love to talk about this deal. You're always talking about God, talk about Jesus. I'd love to know more about it. I'm not really sure. Don't hesitate to reach out to me. I'd love to talk to you about that. God before us, who can be against us? Uh really good stuff this week. Guys, I always appreciate you listening. I want you to spread the word this week, bring somebody back to the podcast, share the link, and uh spread the word, and we look forward to seeing you right back on this next episode coming up next week. Chase him with all your heart and soul and strength. We'll see you right back on the next one. Shoot straight. God bless you.