National Forest Tax Crisis and Turkey Season with Jake Parker

Oregon County Commissioner Jake Parker joins Alex Rutledge to discuss the critical tax base crisis facing southern Missouri counties with large National Forest holdings. Learn how 106,000 acres of federal land in Oregon County generates minimal tax revenue, threatening local schools and infrastructure. Jake explains the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) problem, salvage timber sales at $1,100/acre, and the grassroots resolution movement to increase federal contributions from 25% to 50%. Plus: Turkey season scouting tips, Mississippi hunting stories, and Jake's authentic Louisiana crawfish boil recipe.

Chapter Markers:

• Introduction & Local Sports Update (1:21)
• Meet Jake Parker - From Mississippi to Missouri (9:50)
• National Forest Tax Base Crisis (15:49)
• School Funding & PILT Payments (19:43)
• Impact on Communities & Resolution Movement (23:50)
• Turkey Hunting Season Preview (34:39)
• Cooking Crawfish Southern Style (42:07)

Missouri Hunting Heritage Federation:
https://www.mhhf.us/

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Transcript

 So they, they bought, nobody pays attention. They bought the timber at 1100, go back to $1,100 an acre. Some of this timber, pristine timber hadn't been cut in a hundred years on salvage sales, you know, on the stuff. Laying on the ground on the, well, no, not necessarily. Yeah. And that standing to, there's 4,000 acres on the way to Shannon County right now.

4,000 acres in, in Oregon County. It looks like a bomb has went off. Oh, we saw it. Yep. You know, and, uh, here, here's the deal. This, this timber goes away. They're not replanting anything. They're letting it come back naturally. Well, they're letting it come back naturally. You know, sage grass, just all kind of stuff.

Great for habitat, you know, walking in early dawn to climb. Been my stand, Alex. I know it's about food plot planting time. What are you gonna plant this year? Okay. In the spring I like to plant different things and also in the fall, but my go-to all the time is the eagle seed smorgasborg because as a variety of blends, you know, when I was a kid and even as an adult, I loved to go to a smorgasborg.

I bet it's the same for deer. It is. They, they have a variety to choose from. Instead, eating one thing all the time. They got a variety. Just like you walking into a restaurant, get smorgasbord today and you'll hold more deer and Turkey. How can I go about getting that smorgasbord to go to a dealer near you or go to ww dot eagle seed.com wise, Z Technologies presents.

Introduction & Local Sports Update

Welcome to American Roots Outdoors. We are in the studio at K Country 95, Bayer, Missouri, mamma Springs, Arkansas. Right on the borderline here at Red Bone. And, and, uh, segment one, we always talk about current events. Yep. And Red Bone. Yep. I'm gonna let you bring it up. Oh, the Liberty Eagles. Now by the time people hear this Saturday, we will know whether or not they won on Friday.

Well, it's gonna be a tough one. It's gonna be tough. Talk about it. Principia. It's gonna principia. This is a private school. Listen this now, listen to this. Principia is a private school south of St. Louis that just spent about $8 million on their sports facility. They brought in a legendary coach outta retirement to be their coach.

They have dorm rooms for the kids that come from overseas to go to school there to play sports. They've got eight kids on their varsity basketball team that are D one prospects. Wow. Uh, they are. They're unbelievably good. I'll just put it that way. Liberty, Eagles on on Friday. Had their work cut out for 'em.

Yeah, I'll just kinda leave it at that. Yeah. But we have some other schools that are playing in the Final Four this weekend in Missouri. Bunker Eagles. Bunker Eagles man. What about the Bunker Eagles? Everybody. Bunker Eagles have got a good shot at getting it done via Donovan Donette's in class four or to the quarter finals.

Ready to go, Donovan trying to make it back to back, back-to-back state titles. And then in Arkansas, Alex, we got the Mountain Home Lady bombers playing for a state championship. And the Sloane Hendricks, lady Greyhounds out of I Boden, Arkansas playing for state championships. So right here in our region, throughout the region on by.

And my mention too, the Dexter. Uh, Bobcats. Yeah. Uh, Dexter also in the quarterfinals in Missouri, which would will be tonight. If you're hearing this on Saturday, they'll play tonight. So, uh, a lot of good teams in our region. Logan Rogersville still alive. Puco PepsiCo's still in it? No. PCO got beat. And Ty, I hate those out of it.

No. Hay Tty. Beat Exaco. Okay. Uh, so Hay Ty's still alive and, and there, there are several in the upper classes, bigger classes, but, uh, yeah. It gonna be, it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun keeping an eye on. Uh, Columbia this weekend and see how the local schools all do. Well, I'm going, and by the way, everybody, this show this week is Turkey vocalizations, and we have a special guest with us, uh, Mr.

Jake Parker. He's the Northern District Commissioner here in Oregon County. Mm-hmm. And we're going to be talking about National Forest land, and also you're gonna get to learn who Jake Parker is. Uh, this is gonna be very informative. Uh, my phone's ringing here. Tim, Tim is calling me right now. I can't answer that, Tim.

Yeah, Tim, you'll have to call back later. Alright. And also we're talk about college basketball, Mizzou and Arkansas, they're playing the southeast conference tournament this weekend. Uhhuh, uh, Mizzou played their first game on, uh, Thursday and again, don't know how that cover recording on Wednesday.

Arkansas plays their first game on Friday and, uh, I think both are gonna be, let me grab this. Go ahead and talk. I think both are gonna be, are gonna be in the NCAA tournament, which will be next week. And I think both will do well. Missouri, they're talking right now, probably about a 10 seed in the NCAA, Arkansas ought to get a three or four just depending on the seasons they've had.

Jake, you a basketball fan? Somewhat. Somewhat. Well, the mark's on the studio on the radio. That one is. Okay, gotcha. All right. Um, got it. All right. But anyway, a lot of stuff going on, uh, in the basketball world. And Alex last night, we don't really cover the NBAA whole lot 'cause I'm not a big fan. But last night something happened.

Only the second time it's ever happened in the NBA history. What's that? Bam. And I forget his last name. I don't, I'm not a big fan. Scored 83 points in a game. Wow. 83 points. Yeah. Now it's short of the all time record, which of course is Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt scored a hundred in a game one time. But, uh, next to Wilt was, uh, Kobe Bryant had 81, uh, back 10 or 15 years ago.

And now, uh, ABI is his name. Bam. Abi scored 83 in the game. He also set a record for the most free throw attempts in one game. He, the man shot 46 free throws. Wow. And he made 43 of them. Oh my gosh. What a record. He was. He was on a roll. He scored 41 points in the first quarter of the game. That's amazing.

That's crazy. By the way. It's team won 150 something to 80, something crazy. He escorted the other team all by himself that in the NBA, in the NBA. It was just crazy, crazy. Uh, and of course, major League baseball getting ready to start. We're now just a couple of weeks away from the, uh, start of Major League baseball season, spring training's going on.

Both Cardinals and Royals are, are playing, uh, about 500 ball in the spring training. Of course, both teams are missing some of their key players right now because of the World Baseball Classic, which is going on and, uh. One of the things about the World Baseball Classic team, USA has been kicking high ends and taking names until, that's what I hear.

Until, until Tuesday. Until Tuesday. What do you mean? They, they have what do mean by Tuesday they have beaten some of the best teams in the world and then they lose to Italy. How? How do a bunch of Major League baseball players Yeah. Lose a baseball game? To a bunch of pizza eating spaghetti, eating Italians, watch it.

We got a lot of Italian listeners. We don't, anybody mad at Well, but they're not really great baseball players. But anyway, yeah, yeah. Uh, team Italy beat team USA on Tuesday. I'll be dang surprised the whole world. I'll be Dang. I'll be dang. Yeah. And that's the way, you know, that's the way sports go. It's just the way it is.

You know, I, I, I'm gonna say this, we're gonna go back to, uh, high school basketball real quick and I wanna make mention, don't forget March 21st. Saturday, the Cystic fibrosis K Country 95 Radio, KHOM, 100.9. The train is hosting Craig Morgan to come. Yep. Live in concert and West Plain Missouri. Get your tickets at all the banking areas and it starts at 7:00 PM It's a great venue, great event for all the families.

Yeah. And I also wanna mention Red Bone, uh, with Liberty, uh, high school basketball coming up. Uh, I wanna root on all the Missouri teams, uh, you know. My favorite celebrity Eagles. Yours is the there bobcats. Mm-hmm. And, uh, who are you cheering for now? You gonna cheer for the Eagles? Liberty Eagles. I, I won't cheer for anybody.

I'll support the Eagles right now. Because they're representing the SCA, correct? Uh, they're representing our conference. They're representing the 4 1 7. Uh, but what I'll say is with Liberty Eagles. In the Final four this weekend. This is five years in a row that the SCA has been represented in the the final four.

Wow. Wow. Now here's the thing that makes that kind of a big deal. The SCA is a football conference. Yeah. I got we are we For you. It's mind blowing. You ready for this? Yeah. What about Shannon County being represented by two teams outta Shannon County? Yeah, somewhat. Yeah. Well, with the Bir Street kids, they go to Mount View and, and Bunker.

And then bunker. Uh, but lemme tell you. From Shannon County. Yep. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. But lemme say this about the five years in a row, having an SCA team in the final four, four of those years were the Thao Bobcats. Oh yeah. Yeah. You throw that out there. But it ain't this year. Well, it's not this year.

Yeah. Yep, yep. But anyway, we're rivals. Him and I always back now I love Theor Bobcats, but still I'm over the Eagles competition's good. So we're gonna go to a break. We come back, you're gonna learn who Jake Parker is. This guy's got a heart of gold and he's very concerned. About, uh, his communities as well as other commissioners that across southern Missouri Absolutely.

And the state of Missouri. Don't go away. We'll be back with more American roots outdoors right after this. Hey y'all, it's Tyler Farr, and you're listening to My Good buddy, Mr. Alex Rutledge on American Roots Outdoors Off the Farm, wishing some love. I been on Big while in the back. Red Bone Wza has just gotten better with these new cameras that they come out with.

How could it get better? Well, they got the new mini and they've got the new DC two. They have DC two. Yeah, DC two. You can actually go live anytime you want and film your own hunts with the Wise Eye Data account. Now wait a minute. You mean? I could be getting ready to shoot a deer and I could go on my phone and activate my camera and boom, film your own hu.

Well, that's amazing. That's amazing. Okay, Alex, you convinced me. How do I get one of these cameras? Go to a dealer near you or go to wise eye tech.com. Order yours take to a crown.

Meet Jake Parker - From Mississippi to Missouri

12 point hunting blinds presents. Welcome back to American Roots Outdoors. Again, we're talking Turkey hunting. And also, who is Jake Parker? Jake Parker is from Oregon County actually. You're from South, originally. From Mississippi. Mississippi, yep. Yeah, originally from Mississippi North. Miss, talk about that.

Talk about your roots, uh, roots around in Mississippi, Delta grew up, uh, lifelong Turkey hunter, lifelong deer hunter outdoors, uh, moved to central Mississippi. Lived there about 12 years and made the decision about 11 years ago to move to Ozarks. So why? Here we are. Why, why was that decision made? To get away from growth?

To get away from overpopulation, you know, to have a break, you know, to be able to enjoy the outdoors without, you know, 10 other people sitting in tree next. Right. Gotcha. You know, so, so you, you, you come to Missouri. 18 years ago. 11 years ago. 11 years ago. Yep. Okay. And you bought a place in Oregon County? I did, I did right outside.

Thomas, are you married and you have children? Yes, married and all my children grown working on grandchildren right now. So, um, I'm looking forward to taking the little ones out and, uh, starting over, so to speak, with the grandchildren in the box blinds and Turkey hunting and, uh. So, so, so you was born in Mississippi.

Talk about who, who helped you call your first Turkey in, or you was telling me something about your, your bloodline, your roots, your grandpa. Talk about that. So my bloodline originally, it, it would be, uh, a Kyle bloodline, which is, uh, you know, he is pretty world famous, Turkey king outta Mississippi. So, you know, I, I thought you asked me, did do, I heard of Turkey King.

Now that I think about. I know I have, yeah, I do remember it. It was way back notch seventies notch. Yeah. Made top-notch box calls, pot calls. Uh, wasn't really into the mouth calls at the time, 'cause that wasn't really a thing. Um, you know, hunting blinds, he, he really did well around Mississippi, you know, in the south.

And, uh, he's long been gone. Um, as far as me, you know, my, I really taught myself how to Turkey hunt. Be honest with, you're just going out there, you know. Yeah. Mississippi birds are a lot different than Missouri birds. You know, they're, they're a lot easier to call to Mississippi than these are, you know.

Big time. Well, I've hunted down around Natchez and other parts of that. Yep. And where was you in reference to Natchez? Um, I was actually lived right off the Natchez Trace. Would've been French camp. You kidding me? Yep. French Camp Mississippi, which is below Starkville. You know, I know exactly where you're at.

Yep. Yeah. Yep. You heard that red bone? I did. Mississippi turkeys are easier than Southern Missouri. Hey, and I, and I gotta agree with you, and I've hunted it two or three times. Every time we went down there, we pumped them. Well, I mean, weed them, it's just the population is is the difference. It's nothing to go out in Mississippi and hear 11, 12 gobblers every morning.

Just pick which one you want to go to. We don't have that in Missouri no more. No, you don't have that in Missouri anymore. So we did in the eighties. But you wouldn't here in the eighties. No, I missed out on that for sure. You, you missed out on it. Yeah. So, so you have a passion and a love for the outdoors.

Absolutely. Then you got into politics at Oregon County. Well, I'm not a, I'm not a, a politician by no means. Um, needed a change in, uh, in Oregon County and, um, I signed my name up and won. Yeah. So what is your trade? Uh, what, what did you do before? Civil engineering? Electrical. You know, really last 22 years, I've, uh, I'm know electrician now, guys, I've done, uh, cell phone towers was my background, you know, building, you know, raw answers.

You climbed those cell No, no, no. I didn't climb how quick he answered that. No, everything on, everything on the ground is what I did. Well, you know, Alex, from having discussions with Jake and following him on social media and hearing him speak at a couple of town hall meetings in Thayer, to hear that he's a civil engineer makes everything, makes sense now.

That's good. Oregon County's got a good one then. Depends on who you talk to. Oh yeah. That's just like any politician that's elected to a government or county or a government or state. Right. Job. So. So, uh, did you play high school sports at all? I didn't. I went to work. You worked? Went to work. So where do you reside now?

What town and right outside of Thomasville? Um, really? Yep. About three miles as crow flies in the back woods of Thomasville. Really? So you northeast, west, south of Thomasville. Where at? It'd be a little bit northeast of Thomasville. You, you're in the neighborhood with the Montgomery's. Well and um, skip you over by Shaws.

Yeah. Okay. Yep. Cool. Shaws and the old Brook Woods. Um Oh yeah, I know where they at. You're in a good area. Oh yeah. Real good area. How many acres did you own? 200. Do you? But I don't have any turkeys. You don't have none? No. I dunno where all my turkeys went. I got a shame. Where'd go? Man, it's sad. We're suffering right now in Texas.

It's sad. It's sad. You know, up in our area we've had decent hatches. We have, but our numbers are coming back. But, but I'm gonna say this. Wet springs predation. Yeah. Lemme tell you something else that's moved in here and people has really noticed it, but they ain't know what they're doing. Eagles. Yeah.

Don't think eagles don't kill turkeys. Oh yeah, absolutely. And pulse especially. Yeah. Yeah. 17 flood until baby deer, you know, 17 flood right there in Thomasville is when our population just went the killins. Yeah. You know, it was right in hatching, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So, so you're commissioner, you've been to commissioner in Oregon County, Northern District, yep.

For how many years? Uh, since January 2nd, 2025. So I'm on my second year now. Second year. What are your concerns, uh, within the county? I know we're, we're talking about national forest lands. I, I know the county I live in is Shannon County. We are the second largest county in the state of Missouri. Yep.

We're the least populated. There's less than 12,000 people in our county. Right. But we're one of the poorest counties in the nation and in the, in the state of Missouri. And, and I wanna say this, I think a lot of it's because we don't have a great tax base. Let's talk about that. So Oregon county's your neighbor.

National Forest Tax Base Crisis

You know, we, we fight the same battles all the time. You know, our tax base is not, but there's one key factor in this. And it's a national forest on, in, you know, percentage of our counties. And, um, my, my passion about this and why I'm digging into this is 'cause our schools, yeah. You know, um, I see our schools suffering.

I, I know the cause of this, you know, and, um, just trying to get everybody aware, you know, it is the people that make the change, you know, it's not the politicians, you know, uh, politicians get pointed at all the time. But what we need is the people, you and everybody on the radio. To realize this problem and to stand behind it, you know, that's, that's what we're going for.

So, and, and you kinda glazed over it. What, what exactly is the, and I got about two minutes here. Yeah. What exactly is the problem when it comes to the schools that have a lot of national forest land in their districts? Well, it's, it is money. I'll give you Oregon County's example, 106,000 acres in Oregon County that are national forest land.

That's not MDC land, that's, that's forestry land, you know? Early in years, they, they put in payments that were, you know, in place of taxes or in place, you know, lieu of taxes. Yeah. And, uh, those numbers have dwindled to a point to where, you know, huge numbers. I mean, we used to get, Alton R four used to get 400 something thousand dollars.

Last year. They got 92 or $98,000, one of the two numbers. Um, they depend on this, you know, sure you can, you can move that landmass anywhere in Oregon County, and these schools are losing out on average about $700,000 a year. You know, that's amazing. And you were telling me about this pill. This is payment in lieu of taxes.

Payment in lieu of taxes. It is how the federal government. Wants to re They tell you how much they're gonna pay. Yeah. How much you're gonna pay. And you were telling me, uh, something about the $27 is what the road is, what the road department got. Yep. From federal 6,000 acres of 106,000 acres. You know, and, uh, so do the, the, the national forces, they help the county with any of the, the road work at all.

They have their own, they have their own, they have their own forestry roads, which they don't maintain. They're actively closing down these forestry roads. To keep from having to, uh, oh my, we need to wrap it up right here. We're gonna come back. We're gonna talk more in depth about this. Okay. You're listening to American Roots Outdoors.

Don't go away. We'll be back with more with Jake Parker. Northern District Commissioner of Oregon County addressing concerns about national forest land. This is Brenda Valentine, and you're listening to American Roots Outdoors with Alex Rutledge and friends.

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Stand down, making the American hunting tradition available to us passed on down in the ground around your so you never gotta worry. Eagle Seed presents. Welcome back to American Roots Outdoors. It's a rainy day here in the Ozarks. And, uh, Drizly, I noticed it was raining here a little bit when we pulled in.

Yeah. Just for a few minutes. And by the way, we're recording on Wednesday, so don't think, well, it's not raining this Saturday morning than Sunshine. Yeah, it was on Wednesday when we record. We did get some rain. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. And let's continue with this. 'cause this is a very interesting conversation and people out there need to be aware of, uh, what's going on with the National Forest land and the fact that the counties, you know, I would think.

School Funding & PILT Payments

The federal government should be treated just like any landowner in the county. Absolutely. And ought have to pay taxes by the amount of acreage acres that they own. I wanna share it. Not that way. They don't pay anything. I'll agree with you. I'm gonna share a point, and we discussed this with my, uh, new social media manager and manager of my company, Sam Rita Samita.

Here's a good example that's gonna aggravate you. You ready? Federal government. Pays no tax base to any of the counties? No. No. Correct. Ready? Federal government sells timber to our loggers in our community, correct? Correct. The loggers have to pay taxes on the logs that they cut off the federal government.

Absolutely. Does the federal government pay taxes on the, the, the timber they sell? No. Tax exempt. There you go. See what kind of, what's going on here? Talk about it. So basically what's going on is they, I mean, late sixties, Shannon County, Oregon County, you know, they come in and took this land, you know, it was not an option.

Yeah. They didn't buy it from somebody. They, they took it. They, I mean, they give you what they wanted to give to you, and there's a few people that fought it and, and lost a bunch of money. You know, I mean, yeah. Rightfully so. It's their land, you know, I mean. You go all the way down to the scenic riverways, there's people losing land right now due to erosion control.

They won't do anything about it. You know, I mean, we're talking 50, 60 acres in one farm, you know, beautiful Bermuda hay ground, just washed away, just washing away because you know, they, I was told that I need to realize one word in the wild and scenic riverway, and that's wild. Yeah. It does what it wants to do and they're not gonna do anything about it.

So that moves over to the, you know, your tax base in your counties. Um. You know, 106,000 acres in, in Oregon County, and that's, uh, around $700,000 in tax base are not going to these schools. Well, who needs to make that up? You know, when you got schools, you know, Alton Couch, Winona, you know, um, and they're all working in, in red budgets, where do they lean towards to make up that money?

The residents? The residents. The residents in the county, you know, so I mean, if, if. Somewhere along the way, we've gotta hold 'em, you know, responsible for this, you know, and, um, they're no different. They're a citizen in my view. Yeah. You know, um, they just took our land. I would be the same way, Jake, I think, I think if the federal government owns that property, they should have to pay taxes on that property.

They should have to pay taxes on it. Absolutely. Yeah. And one of the things about the, like the Mark Twain National Force, motorized vehicles are not allowed in the forest. Yeah. Even in the case of a fire, if there should be a wildfire break out in the middle of the Mark Twain National Forest. They can only go in with rakes and shovels and hose to fight it.

They cannot take machinery in there to fight that fire. And I've thought ever since they did that designation back when it was done, I thought, how stupid is that? Well, I got one better for you. Okay. You know, uh, how about doing away with, uh, title three money, which would be Search and Rescue, you know?

There you go. They control how much river land between all of our, you know. And, uh, they don't even pay for search and rescue. That's a debt expense to the sheriff's departments. Wow. You know, we was also having discussion about our faith coming down here. And what is a good example of a Christian? A Christian is somebody that's supposed to be Christlike.

Right. Okay. So I'm throwing this back towards our listeners. Uh, if you're a good Christian, you're gonna act like Christ, and there's none of us without sin. I don't mean to get up into preaching here, in a sense, but it's worth going. But you're right. So, so if we're concerned citizens and we are Christians, what would Christ call out?

If something wasn't right, he would call it out. So we're asking our listeners to call it out. Call it out, speak. Yeah, we need, you know, the voice needs to be heard. Yeah. And, and Jake, you've kind of spearheaded this movement in Oregon County and, uh, you have sent out letters, uh, to some residents, and I know other county commissioners and things asking for a resolution.

Impact on Communities & Resolution Movement

Yeah. Tell us what that's all about. So, the resolution, it was asking the federal government, which Jason Smith's office is helping right now and, and other, you know, basically taking your 25% timber sales payment, you know, to the counties and bumping that to 50%. You know, not it, it's not gonna benefit your roads that much, you know.

It's like the school levees, you know, it's hard to bypass and get to your roads, but this is gonna save your schools. This is gonna save Winona, Alton couch. Yeah. You know these B Birch tree. Birch tree. I mean it's, and, and any, and any of the 29 counties that are affect, if you're in a green section in that county and you're a school zone, this will help you.

You know, this is, uh, and, and I can tell you they're taking notice, you know, just in the last month or so, you know. We can kind of dig into, I'll give you the best example I can. 2023, you had two hits through school zones. You had, uh, Senate Bill 1 0 9, which took away your mineral rights. Right. You know, checks.

Mm-hmm. And then you had, uh, the Congress let, uh, SRS money, which is secure rural schools allowed it to lapse. Alright, well that bumped it back to 1908 Act, you know, and that's what they, they paid off of 24 and 25. They paid our schools off a 1908 act. So what we did is we asked 'em and said, Hey, you know, since you allowed that to lapse, we need reimbursement for that.

And Shannon County, Ripley County, Oregon County, they're all gonna see checks now. You know, just by speaking up and saying, enough is enough, you know, the, um, and SRS is back as a thing again, you know, and, uh, trying to hold 'em accountable. Stop cutting on, uh, salvage sales. You know, they're, they're cutting right now on salvage sales, on average selling $1,100 an acre.

Well, anybody that's rode through the National forest can tell you that a couple White Oaks is worth more than $1,100. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And so it's, uh, it's hurting our schools, it's hurting our areas. I mean, it's, you're, you're gonna be faced into an issue of consolidation of schools if we allow this to keep going.

Yes, yes. You know, and yeah. One great big school in surrounding counties, right. Exactly. And then, and then you've got bus expenses and, and I mean, things go really crazy from there. That'll be on the school's back, that'll be on the taxpayer's back. Exactly. It's not on the school. 'cause school will pass it right over to the taxpayer.

Right. And well, and that, yeah. Well that's what I meant to say. But anyway, we're about the end of the segment right here. But I think Jake, the important thing for people to learn from all this discussion, Alex, is that you need to be aware. Of these things and you need to talk to your county commissioners.

Absolutely need to talk to your state representatives, need to talk to, if you can, representatives of the national forest. Absolutely. And say, look, these things need to be taken care of. You're killing us, you're breaking us. And the needs to be taken care of for the future of these counties. Yeah. And for the future of the education of our kids.

Absolutely. Yeah. We're going to a break everybody, and we come back. You're listen to American Roots Outdoors Concerns Over National Forest, and we're gonna talk Turkey, talk again a little bit here, segment four. Don't go away. We'll be back with more after this. Hey everybody, this is Michael Watting with Bone Collector, and you're listening to my buddy Alex Rutledge on American Roots Outdoors.

Man. Don't miss an episode.

American Roots.

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Morning the ammunition presents. Hordy. Like you do that every time you say hordy. We went down to Deerwood, getting ready to go deer hunting. And Alex says, pass me the hordy.

Well, I try to sound professional. Yeah. Stay going. Hordy horny. Alright, welcome back to show again. Jake Parker, Northern District Commissioner of Oregon County, talking about concerns of tax base. Oregon County surrounding counties and they proposed a, uh, bill. Yeah. Resolution. Resolution. It was passed in Oregon County of December.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, a lot of other counties are following suit, iron County, Shannon County. Mm-hmm. Um, 29 counties in the state of Missouri that have forestry land in 'em. I want 29 counties to pass this resolution. We have to fight as a fist, you know, I mean. And that's one of those things that will make Jefferson City pay attention.

They're paying attention right now. 'cause Jason Smith's office and, and, um, I mean we're getting results. Jason is a shaker and is it liaison? Uh, Madison. Madison is a shaker. Oh, shaker. Yeah. And I'll tell you who else is, is our state rep. Yeah. Keith Elliot. Keith Elliot, whoever. Doubt it. And I tell you another one.

Senator Jason Beam. Yep. Yep. Don't think he don't fight, even though he's now out of our district, Keith Elliot and, uh, Lisa are, uh, they've, they've got bills and and stuff right now going after, you know, the same thing. Yep. And, uh, they've done nothing but help. You know, these are elected officials that are standing up saying, yeah, this does need to happen.

So this is a good thing. They definitely are doing what we elected them to do to protect us. Yeah. And situations, you know, uh, I want to go back to something, and we're gonna talk a little Turkey here after this a little bit, but. 25% right now. You said they're paying 25%. 25% of what they say. Explain that in depth.

So basically they're taking, I, I'll go back to Oregon County. They're saying, um, Oregon County, I think it was, uh, 2 million board feet last year. Then they go to Shannon County and say, 7 million board feet, and everybody's cutting timber. They throw into a big pot and then they take 25% of that of gross, and they split it out between all the counties.

Know that, uh, that have Forester Grant, and again, again, $1,100 I give Orton County. Well, I'm just, I'm not saying names, I'm not saying anything, but, um, $1,100 per acre is what, you know, the recent 4,000 Yeah. Per acre. $1,100 is what won the bid for it on a salvage sale of timber that stood for over a hundred years.

And Oregon County got 25%, well, I mean, 25 goes divided among the counties, divided among all the counties, you know. Oh, wow. And it's like Senate Bill 1 0 9, which is a mineral rights bill that counties got that, that were actually having mining going on to say, Hey, we're, we're tired of paying all these other counties.

You know, they don't have no mining going on in their counties. Right. Senate Bill 1 0 9 2023 passed Alton R four lost, uh, $92,000 in one year. Wow. You just wonder how these things happen. Nobody pay attention, so nobody pays attention. They bought the timber at 11, go back to $1,100 an ac or some of this timber, pristine timber hadn't been cut in a hundred years on salvage sales.

On the stuff. Laying on the ground on the, well, no, not necessarily. Yeah. Somebody standing too. There's 4,000 acres on the way to Shannon County right now. 4,000 acres in, in Oregon County. It looks like a bomb has went off. Oh, we saw it. Yeah. You know, and, uh, here, here's the deal. This, this timber goes away.

They're not replanting anything. They're letting it, it come back naturally. Well, they're letting it come back naturally. You know, sage grass, you know, just all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Great for habitat. You know, but where does the money come from after that? Where's the future for our kids? Yeah, exactly.

There's no future for our kids. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to, you know, yell from the rooftops. If we don't stand up right now and change this, there is no future. Yeah. You know, I, I noticed that driving from, uh, Alton, the wine owner. I went up that way the other day and it looks like a tornado roll through parts of those.

It does. They're not even cleaning it up after they get done cutting it. Nope. Nope. And, uh, they, this looks horrible. Mm-hmm. This supposed to be a national forest. Who wants to come visit this national forest? There's nothing there and there's dead trees laying all over the place. Everywhere. Yeah. You know, Shannon County, Oregon County, tourism for these rivers is, is something that we rely on, you know?

Absolutely. They're standing, closing down roads. They're, you know, it's, it's pretty scary, folks, you know, if you look at it from a, you know, you know, brawl spectrum there, you know, and, uh, it's not good. How many people do you think really understands tax base seriously? Be, be realistic. Both of you.

Understands tax base as a whole, we need, explain that. We need to explain how tax base works. So, up until last year, I would say that a lot of people knew about tax base, but since becoming, you know, a commissioner, you know, the calls that I get, people are very knowledgeable about tax base, you know, and, um, I do get a lot of calls from concerned citizens about this.

Most of 'em wanna keep their tax base as low as possible. You know, but the problem with that is, is, you know, you've got 106,000 acres in a county that they pay you what they want to pay you. You know, you, you don't tell them what we're charging. Right. You know, and, uh, so what this tax base is gonna do to keep our schools open, it has to raise Alton R four is at the lowest tax base that you can possibly get.

Can't go no lower without going through legislation, which they're trying to do right now. Right. You know, they're coming after small counties. Yeah, and Alex, you may not be aware of this as a town hall meeting and, and, uh, Tanya Woods, superintendent of the affairs schools said that there's actually legislation now before the house that will lower the minimum tax base for school districts.

Mm-hmm. Right now it's two, like 2.4 or something, 2.4, two point around 0.5, somewhere around there. And they're wanting to lower it, which would allow the school districts to start charging less, which then is gonna put schools outta business. It's gonna force schools to combine maybe, who knows? Yeah.

Consolidate. It's right on the Summersville and Liberty. It could be Alton and Thay going together and couch and, and Couch and Koska. Kosong. All in one school. District. District. Then your kids are gonna ride the bus for two and a half hours in the morning to get to school. Yep. How many of y'all wanna see that?

Yeah. Not many. Not me either. Alright, so it hurts the towns when you do that. Let me tell you, I wanna go to this. It's gonna hurt the town. Tax base as a whole, football games, basketball games, et cetera. Yeah. It's gonna kill it. Yep. Would agree. Question. Alright, so I know we do wanna do a little bit and, and I think we've kind of covered a, a lot of stuff today for people to wrap, wrap their minds talk.

Turkey Hunting Season Preview

I know you do wanna talk a little bit Turkey hunting or Turkey, uh, calling. Yeah. So right now as we speak, we're here, you know, three, four weeks away from Turkey season now. Yeah. Uh, where are the turkeys at? And if I wanna go out there and scout and try and find some turkeys, what do I need to do? Okay, well first of all, I wanna say that this is probably the early spring that I have ever seen in my life.

Yeah. Remember with the warm weather? Yeah. Now wait till this week. Here it is. Get back to normal next week, March 11th. Yeah. And there's Easter lilies up two weeks ago. Oh yeah. So mine are starting to Dr over and usually as a kid grow up. I didn't see the Easter lilies coming out until the end of March or the 1st of April here.

Yeah, till Easter. So this is the early, early spring. And what I'm seeing on my wise eye daddy cams right now. I'm seeing hens in groups and I'm seeing Jakes with hens and I've seen a gobbler with a hens by himself last week on my cameras. Then last night, Sam and I went into one of my places and changed the batteries out on the DC twos, and while we was there, uh, I called, no turkeys responded, and we get back to home and we go eat dinner and I said, look on my camera.

30 minutes. There's a long beard standing front right in front of the camera where we called from. Mm. So that gobbler's by his himself, he's listening. So these gobbler are breaking up. They're starting to look, you know, so the breeding phase, they've been breeding. Mm-hmm. They've been breeding his for the last two weeks from my perspective and the data I'm collecting on my wise's eyes, I've been hearing gobble for a couple weeks now.

Yeah. But you said you didn't have no turkeys on your 200 days. I didn't say where I was listening. Oh no, I, he's northern district commissioner. He's all over the place. Yeah. All over the place. He's a true Turkey. He is not gonna tell you where he is here. Turkeys. Yep. So, so, uh, you know, we've got huge season coming up.

April, I believe ninth and 10th or 10th and 11th, I'm not sure. Yeah, right there in Missouri. Then we got Arkansas Youth. Uh, I'm supposed to go hunt with Senator Jason Bean and one of his child children, uh, over in Kentucky owns a farm in Kentucky. Then I'm going to southern Illinois to hunt with a, a pastor and his daughter and take them.

March 28th and 29th. So I'm excited about it. What a great show. And I want to thank you, Jake, for bringing us to everybody's attention. What a huge concern. Yes, absolutely. Tax base. I wanna encourage all of our listeners, if you're concerned, you're concerned citizen, if you're like a Christian. You know, we need to speak out.

Absolutely need to speak out. Address your, your, your commissioners in your county. I talked to Congressman Jason Smith. Reach out to him. Uh, your state representative, Keith Elliot will get things done. Lisa Darnell, they'll get things done. Um, just. Reach out to 'em and help get these things done. We need tax base.

We need to create, uh, I don't like high taxes, but we gotta do things to save our schools and our communities. That all being said, thank you again. How can people contact you? You can go to commissioner's office on Thursdays in Oregon County. I'm there all day. Um. (417) 204-3822 is my personal cell phone number.

Give me a call anytime. And you got social media. And social media under Jake Parker. Okay. You know, there you have it everybody. We're gonna wrap it up with this. Remember this, Jake, and I know you listen to our show. Oh yeah, I do. Yeah. This whole world needs more love, not hate. It does. Yep. We all need to love one another.

Yep. We may not agree in politics, but we can still love one another. Absolutely. We can agree to disagree. Yep. Teach your boys to become men. Teacher girls become ladies. Yep. And when your roots run deep and strong, Jake. There's no reason to fear the wind, so you never gotta worry what the wind might do.

American Roots, thank you for joining us for today's American Roots Outdoors Radio with Alex Rutledge. You can find us on Facebook. Look us up on the worldwide web@americanrootsoutdoor.com. We'll be back again next week on this great radio station.

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Bendel Arms presents. Welcome back to America Roots Outdoors. Again, you're listening to this. Listen to it on a podcast carrier. Again, we had a great show today talking about concerns of national forest land and our tax base, but we also talked Turkey hunting and you got to learn who Jake Parker is. Red Bone.

Yeah, we did and learned a lot about Jake and, and you know, this thing within National Forest land and how it affects the finances in our school districts and our counties. Exactly. I mean that's, that's really what we wanted to kind of bring to people's attention so people begin to pay attention and see if there's things we can do to try and improve.

That whole situation. So go listen to the show and, and the four episodes of the radio show are on this platform where you're hearing this podcast right now. Exactly. And if you have, if you do miss it, you can go to our website. Website. Website, exactly. America roots outdoors.com website. All shows. We've got shows there from 2010.

Yep. Well, 2011. Yeah. You started in December, 2010, I believe. That's right. Yep. So Jake. You're a Mississippi boy. I am. And I've killed turkeys right there around your hometown in Mississippi hunting with a guy named Mr. Wayne Hagan. You ever heard of him? I haven't haven't. He owned Mississippi, Louisiana.

Timberland Management Services. Okay. Okay. Okay. He would bought land. You ever heard of man named Claudie Penn? That name sounds familiar. Right outside of Natchez. It's actually, you go north of Natchez a little bit and you go back in along a river. What's the name of that river up there? Well, it'd be down there.

Huh? Natchez, Mississippi is down there, you know. Well, anyway, Ben McDonald bought a farm that my buddy Wayne had developed. Okay. Put food plots on it stuff. Claudia Penn bought the other farm across the road and a hundred Ben McDonald's farm, which was a high fence deer place. Right. But the turkeys are wild.

They would fly in out of the government lamp. I'll never forget. Uh, hunting with Wayne and it wasn't a Turkey one and been McDonald's fence place. Yeah. And the Turkey where God was on the Yabu shoes. Does that sound right? Buche River. Yeah, that's where we was at. Yep. And we struck him down on the river and, and we was on the ridge.

I climbed over the high fence to get to with my cameraman on the government land and called this guy around. He had three beers and he weighed, uh. Uh, I think it was 25 pounds. It was an old warrior, long legged bear. Huh? Long legged Turkey. Yeah. And there's actually two of them that come in. I killed the biggest one.

And I'll never forget that, that was on Wayne's birthday, April 13th, I believe. A great hunt. Alright, well I hope you wrap that story up because he's gonna teach us how to make crawfish. Yes, sir. We wrapped it up. So there's many different ways to do crawfish. One of the most popular ways is boiling them.

Cooking Crawfish Southern Style

Yep. Boiling them. You shouldn't cook crawfish any other way. The whole crawfish, you know, but boil 'em. And that takes a lot of friends, you know, you gotta get a bunch of people together. Yeah. You know, it's real simple recipe, you know, you're, you're spices. A lot of people around here, and, and I hate to say this, I went to one crawfish bowl where they threw trout and muss and all kind of stuff in there.

Oh my gosh. And that's how you ruin a crawfish bowl. That's right. That's right. So the, um, if you've never experienced a crawfish bowl from down south, you're missing, oh, I have. It's spicy. It's, I love it. It's spicy, it's salty and salty and that. Now tell me your recipe. So I, I go with the Louisiana, you know, seasoning.

That's, it's kind of the best blend altogether. The bowl seasoning they got. You know, um, I put your lemons, you know, I cut 'em in half, cut, you know, regular onions in half, whole close the garlic in half, boil them, add my potatoes, you know, add my crawfish three to five minutes when they, you know, turned off, I add my corn, let it kill the boil.

And, um, after that you're, you know, a lot of people like mushrooms in there. You know, throw some mushrooms. You get deep south, you got your artichokes that people throw in there. Oh, I love it. Sausage. Sausage. Yeah, absolutely. Dewey sausage. Yeah. You know, you can't boudan or boudan if you throw it in there later on, you know?

And tell, tell our listeners what Boudan is. Well, I mean, originally, I mean, it, it, you know, it all, I mean it's, it's basically pork, liver, you know, is the main meat and rice and some season is put together. You know, a lot of people around here ain't never heard of, you know, your, your blood, your red boudan, you know, it was, you know, and, um hmm.

You gotta go into certain parts of Louisiana to get that. Yeah. Yeah. Down south probably. Yeah. And when you serve it, you take a big table. Oh yeah. You lay uh uh, waterproof type. Covering over it. That's where all the friends come in and you just, and you just dump it down the table. Yep, yep. People drink a lot of cool refreshments, cold refreshments.

You got to, it is spicy, you know, it's, uh, you gotta wash it down. Bring people together. You know, we gotta do a cookout together. You gotta to my place, check my place out. No, I gotta ask you, do you eat the the crawfish hole? No. You, you, oh, you take tail. A lot of people, there's three or four different ways I say I'm twist, twist, I twist you and I take the top.

That's I'm saying do you suck the I do. Yeah. Yeah, too. I mean, that's where your flavor and your fat is. Oh my. Yeah. I do too. Squeeze it. Yep. And uh, the secrets right amount of lemon and creole seasoning. Oh yeah. Yeah. And, and the garlic and it's all adds into it. And you talk about the, to get the smaller onions you talk about.

Good. 'cause they're cooked and soft. Yeah. And they absorb those spices and the mushrooms do the same. Oh yeah. Yeah. And that corn don't need no butter and salt on it. Yeah. No, no. I got a guy coming to Turkey. They eat that corn like it is, like it's, I got a guy coming to Turkey up with me this year from Indiana.

He is a professional butcher. Okay. Okay. You gotta come to the house. You gotta have to come. He's bringing a, he, he goes to people's farms and he, and he's got a big butcher shop and butchers, buffalo and buffaloes. Oh, he's bringing a buffalo Prime rib. Have Linda Bird to cook it. Oh. He's bringing me a bunch of, of, of Angus.

Ribeyes and beef ribeyes. Mm, that's what it cost. A Turkey, huh? Huh? Gee, he's taking care of me. I can tell you that. Yeah, I bet. Those beef low ribeyes are gonna be really good. It, it's, I bet they are. He told me, he goes, can let the bird fix a, a buffalo prime rib? I said, guarantee you. We got a Oklahoma Joe's smoker.

You ever seen those? Oklahoma Joe? Oh yeah. Oh, smoke. Smoke. And you've got, what's yours? Red bone? Mine is a, uh, pit boss. Pit boss. What do you got? Homemade. Oh, you majors? Well, I had a guy make mine, you know? That's cool. Yep. Most people in Mississippi, they make a lot of that stuff. Oh yeah. Tell some of the nicest people I ever met in my life is in Louisiana, Mississippi.

I agree. Good people and the Bible belt. Oh yeah. And respectful. They call you sir? No sir. No ma'am. No sir. And uh, you know, if you sit down to eat with them, uh, you're gonna eat before they do. Absolutely. That's just the way we roll. Even where my home. Yep. If you come to my house, you won't see my family grabbing food before you.

Nope. No, you're our guest. You're gonna grab your food before us. You eat first. Yeah. I did something brand new this week. Alex. Uh, y'all, I've, I've talked before about smoking the big, uh, uh, the big country cup ribs. Yep. And then putting those in sauerkraut and let 'em simmer all day. Well, went to store, they didn't have any ribs that time of the year.

There were no ribs. So I bought a pork tenderloin piece about this long, about that big around. I smoked that for about three and a half, four hours at about 300 degrees in, on Hickory. And then I cut it up and I cut it into the shape of a rib and I put that in the sauerkraut and let that all simmer for about three hours.

Oh, I love sauerkraut. I don't know that it might not be better than the ribs in sauerkraut. You kidding me? Well, there wasn't so much fat. I'm not a big fat, I'm a fat guy. I love fat. So do you and, and, and, and, and with the rib flavor, you know if the ribs are cooked right? Yeah. You can just, the fat just melts in your mouth.

But if it's not. Oh yeah, I can, but the, the Tenderloin now I cleaned all the fat off of deer meat. I can't stand deer fat. Yeah, no, that's not the right fat. Yeah, no. Yeah. Wrong kind of fat. Uh, but anyway, but the tenderloin, it was all lean. The problem with it was, is I had to scoop it instead of sticking a piece and then getting my, because you try to stick piece and the tenderloin just fell apart.

That ain't no problem. Just scoop it, get you a spoon. I got me a spoon and Right. And put it in sauerkraut. Mm-hmm. Had some fried potatoes and onions with it. Ooh, I love sauerkraut. That's what I'm having for lunch. I'm getting hungry. We, we went to Grandma NES this morning, had biscuits and gravy. I asked for a fourth order.

Ooh. They brought me a half order. Sam had a, you have a half order or full order? Full order. Full order. Full of old man Grandma Nes. If you guys haven't ever eat there, they don't sponsor me or nothing. But you talk about a breakfast. You been there? I have. Oh, awesome. Alright, we're gonna wrap her up again.

How can people contact you that's concerned about their area? In the National Force. Give me a call directly. (417) 204-3822. I'm on social media under my name Jake Parker. Or uh, every Thursday I'm at the courthouse all day long in Oregon County. Come in and sit down, speak with us. There you go. Remember red bone?

The so world needs more love and no hate. Yeah. We need teach our boys to become men. Teach our ladies to become men. That's right. When your roots run deep and strong boys, there's no reason to fear the wind.

The sun ain't up, they ain't down. We'll be waiting when they hit the ground. Big time coming. It's what we do from a whipper wheel to a no lau suit. Sitting still till time. Shoe American roots. Take it. Do holler, take it, do a across. A big old year after year got my gear

and my old bear boots passed on down planet deep in the ground around you, so you never gotta worry. What the.

Granddaddy always said, when your roots so deep and strong, there's no reason to fear the wind American roots will rise again. Yeah. Got family and friends and living the truth. American roots.

Yeah, God. Family, friends, and living the truth. American roots.

American roots.