By Kate Hill
Staff Writer
Last week, New Woodstock resident Jared Crast, 27, guest starred on “Brotherhood Outdoors,” a television series that showcases the stories of selected labor union members as they embark on hunting or fishing adventures across the country.
Brotherhood Outdoors is presented by the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA), a nonprofit organization with a mission to “unite the union community through conservation to preserve North America’s outdoor heritage.”
Featuring a format with no formal host, each episode follows different union members as they share their unique personal histories and experiences before heading out on memorable excursions.
Crast’s Alaskan hunt aired on the Sportsman’s Channel on Tuesday, Sept. 15, with re-airings Sept. 18, Sept. 19 and Sept. 20.
During the episode, he travels with his brother to Kodiak Island for a three-day Sitka black-tailed deer hunt.
Crast, who has been a member of the USA for nearly three years, is an apprentice electrician with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).
After studying environmental engineering, he decided to pursue a more hands-on career and applied to the electrical union. He is now in the fourth year of his apprenticeship with IBEW Local 43.
An avid outdoorsman, Crast has hunted and fished his entire life.
“My ancestors were one of the first to settle the Tug Hill region, and [the outdoors] had always been a natural part of our lives,” he said.
For Crast, hunting is about much more than the food it provides.
“I was brought up to be a conservationist, to respect, appreciate and help preserve everything that Mother Nature has to offer,” he said. “Hunters are and have been the number one source of funding for conservation for over a century, and before that they’ve always been stewards of the land. The number one way to contribute to conservation is to purchase a hunting license, and second best is to actually get out in the field and participate; whether it’s actually harvesting and reporting an animal, or simply helping a conservation agency such as the Union Sportsman’s Alliance or Ducks Unlimited with one of their many public projects.”
Crast added that he finds the common misconceptions about hunting and hunters frustrating.
“Hunters are not just heartless killers,” he said. “That train of thought is so antiquated and ignorant . . . Any population needs to be controlled; otherwise, an ethical harvest by a hunter or predator will be replaced with starvation and/or disease-related deaths. I’m drawn to hunting because I know that doing my part year after year helps lead to healthier species of animals and healthier environments.”
Crast applied to Brotherhood Outdoors two years ago after learning about the opportunity from his older brother, Jamieson, who has been an associate producer on the show for several years.
“I had watched the show ever since he had started producing it, and when I realized I might have a chance to be on it, I jumped on it,” Crast said.
After learning in spring 2019 that his brother had been selected for the show, Jamieson requested that Crast be assigned to the Kodiak Island hunt.
Located off of Alaska’s southern shore, Kodiak Island is home to the Kodiak bear, the largest recognized population of the brown bear, and one of the two largest bears alive today.
“When the USA was deciding what hunter to send to each location, it dawned on [Jamieson] that this hunt would be much more dangerous,” said Crast. “[Kodiak] bears have discovered that a gun shot often means a carcass for them to scavenge, and therefore it’s now basically a dinner bell. The amount of encounters that hunters have had with brown bears on Kodiak has continued to grow to an almost certainty . . . Jamieson asked if I could be the hunter on that trip since he would not be carrying a weapon, it was a DIY hunt with no guide or back up, and we would almost certainly encounter a bear at some point. We have hunted together for two decades now and neither of us trust our lives in anyone else’s hands, other than our father or younger brother, Jon.”
The hunt took place in Oct. 2019 and was timed with the Sitka black-tailed deer “rut” or mating season, during which the deer, especially bucks, are more active and less cautious than usual.
Throughout the duration of the hunt, the brothers encountered many deer, including a number of trophy-quality animals.
After Crast took his first deer, the pair was met by a massive, 10-foot brown bear.
“Luckily we had had enough time to cape and quarter my deer and were able to hastily pack up our gear and the harvest and rush down the mountain, leaving the carcass for the bear to dispose of,” Crast said.
Apart from the imminent danger of a Kodiak bear appearance, a lack of familiarity with the area, and the variability and severity of the Kodiak Island weather, one of the most challenging aspects of the hunt was figuring out the best way to pursue the deer.
According to the Alaskan Department of Fish and Game, the Sitka black-tailed deer is smaller, stockier, and shorter-faced than other members of the black-tailed group. The species is closely related to the larger Columbia black-tailed deer of the Pacific Northwest, and both are considered subspecies of the even larger mule deer of the American West.
“They live up in the alpine — above tree level, in the goat rocks — for the summer and fall months until the snow pushes them down,” Crast said. “This is usually around 1,300-1,600 feet elevation, and although it doesn’t sound like that great of a climb, the topography is brutal. Ridiculously steep ridges and constantly wet and slippery vegetation made for some of the most exhausting climbs I’ve ever been on — not to mention the trip back down the mountain with an extra 50-60 pounds of meat on your back. Thankfully the blacktail population is doing well and we were able to encounter a fair number of animals in a short amount of time.”
According to Crast, the trip was made all the more memorable by the presence of his brother, who makes a brief appearance on the show.
“Jamieson has one small feature [while] we were hiking the first day, and we make jokes and movie references to each other multiple times throughout it,” Crast said. “That was one of my favorite parts of the trip, the camaraderie with my brother on the trip of a lifetime, in a wilderness few have ever set foot in.”
For more information on Brotherhood Outdoors, visit unionsportsmen.org/brotherhood-outdoors.
