The Lost Rider Podcast with Herman Brune

In a rare departure from issue related topics, Brune and Troy Fowler talk about the simplicities of knowing your archery equipment. Both gentlemen have experience hunting Big Game and guiding archery hunters. Fowler reiterates the importance of matching arrow and broadhead weights to game that's being hunted. Much like a person upgrades from a 270, 308, or 30.06 with whitetails - to a 300 Win Mag for elk, a hunter must consider upgrading and trading speed for energy when hunting with a bow and arrow. 

Texas State Representative Jeff Barry, is looking to rejuvenate the state sportsmen's caucus. Presently, he has 55 lawmakers signed up for the once largest bipartisan caucus in the Texas Legislature. Barry sits on the natural resource committee and the caucus is devised as a communications network to alert other lawmakers of pending legislation. It would also stay tuned with the U.S. Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, as well as, fundraise for particular related causes. Representative Barry also gave his views on Data Centers. It's his understanding that they have closed loop water systems and that the centers are demanded by the burgeoning daily cyber needs of the public. One of his concerns is the amount of lost agriculture land. As per noise and lighting the night sky, Barry says that county commissioner's courts, though having no power over the plants, may constructively work with plants to be good community partners. 

Garret Edmonds lobbies for the Public Lands Council in Washington D.C. He discusses aspects of the public lands debate and agrees that the ensuing controversy is confusing to the general public. There are various categories of public lands. Discussing them as  one topic is disingenuous to the conversation. Edmonds represents 22,000 grazing allotment owners. This includes both cattle and sheep. He defines the difference between Preservation and Conservation and relates the need for those ideologies to collaborate. He also broaches the corner crossing issue whereas public land access may be cut off by private property, and also the legal interpretation that designated wildlife species (buffalo) are not qualified for grazing allotments. It's his stance that the original intent of multi-use public lands benefits those places. 

The Lost Rider Podcast featuring Aaron Weishuhn

This episode of The Lost Rider Podcast features host Herman Brune sitting down with Aaron Weishuhn, the manager of the Colorado County Groundwater Conservation District (GCD). The two discuss the pressing realities of water management, local conservation efforts, and the political and environmental battles over Texas water resources.

Key Topics Discussed:

• History of the GCD: The Colorado County GCD was established around 2009 to ensure local citizens maintained a voice in their water management, rather than ceding complete control to state mandates.

• Current Drought Conditions: Colorado County has been operating under a drought warning since March following a dry fall and winter, marking the first step toward potential mandatory water cutbacks.

• Permitted Water Users: If drought conditions worsen, mandatory cutbacks would primarily affect permitted users with large-scale operations, such as high-production agricultural irrigation and major commercial wells, rather than exempt domestic or livestock wells.

• Aquifer Recharge and Dynamics: The conversation details the three layers of the Gulf Coast Aquifer system—the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers—and how the Colorado River interacts with these groundwater sources depending on the region.

• Proposed LCRA Reservoir: A major point of concern is the Lower Colorado River Authority's (LCRA) proposed off-channel reservoir in Colorado County, which includes a conceptual transmission pipeline designed to transport surplus water back to Austin and Travis County.

• Environmental and Economic Concerns: Weishuhn outlines the potential negative impacts of the LCRA project, including the removal of water from the local ecosystem, the threat to the Matagorda Bay system, and the risk of devaluing local property and tax bases.

• Shifting Stream Behaviors: The episode highlights a concerning ecological shift where local creeks and streams, which historically gained water from natural springs and aquifers, are now losing water into the depleted aquifers.

Texas Farm Bureau Director Greg Buenger gives us an update on the screw worm situation. Buenger describes the differences between the circumstances surrounding the screw worm outbreaks in the 1950's and '60's versus the current situation. The border is closed to Mexican beef. There are no plans that it be opened any time soon. Whenever that time may come it will assuredly be with preconditions of quarantine and dipping. At this point sterile flies are being brought up from Panama, and a buffer zone is being created within and along the Texas border. Other facilities for producing sterile flies will be available by the end of the 2026 summer and in 2027. The last reports had screw worms within 100 miles of the border. Those cattle were hauled to those locations from farther down in Mexico. The hot zone for screw worms is the feed lots in the Yucatan area, and the overall plan is to eradicate and drive the screw worms back below Panama. Buenger also explains the use of injectable Ivomec as a treatment. 

Dana Tassa is the representative for Women Hunt at Derek York's Podcast Summit. She is from Vancouver, British Columbia, and this is her first trip to Texas.  Dana elaborates how the Women Hunt organization is an off-shoot of the Wild Sheep Foundation, how she found the group, and what she does for them on social media. We learn a little of her background and gain insights into how Women Hunt help ladies find and enjoy the outdoors. 

"Heroes on the Water" is an organization helping veterans and first responders heal. Camille Knowles tells us that putting folks in a kayak and sending them fishing has undeniable health benefits. The non-profit provides the experience and opportunity that aides people accustomed to the most stressful jobs to relax. "Often our participants come to us quiet and reserved. By the end of a weekend they have loosened up and are having fun."

The GOP candidate for HD85 joins us to discuss the Austin Swamp. With the odds, being $2M in lobbyist money, stacked against him, Dennis "Goose" Geeseman unseated the two-term incumbent with a landslide 15-point win. Geeseman knows he's bucking the Austin establishment and jokes that he'll get an office in the basement at the end of the hall. He only hopes that he gets put on a committee. In this interview we discuss the Austin machine losing Public Trust, who he prefers as the Speaker of the House, the push to eliminate property taxes, term limits, elected positions on the LCRA Board, possible selenium problems at the LCRA power plant, and knowing when to say "NO" to budget items.