Jeffrey Petersen Chair –
Jeffrey is a lifelong Michigander, born and raised in Shelby near the Silver Lake Sand Dunes and currently living in Grand Rapids with his wife and two teenaged boys. Growing up in an agricultural community, he spent his childhood exploring any woods or waters his bike could get him to. While Jeffrey has a long-time love for fly-fishing, fly tying and backpacking, he came to hunting at age 37 through a desire to eat locally and sustainably.
A pastor in his professional life, Jeffrey recognizes the physical, mental, and spiritual renewal that public lands, waters, and wildlife provide for people regardless of what pursuits get them outdoors. He loves that BHA is a diverse community allowing sportsmen and women to remain a leading voice for the access and conservation of Michigan’s public lands, from our biggest unbroken national forests to the smallest urban parks.
Paul Spielbauer Vice Chair–
Paul grew up in Mid-Michigan. He currently resides in Williamsburg Michigan with his wife and 3 children. Not being raised in a hunting family, he was lucky enough to be surrounded by a community of men and women who were willing to take him under their wing and show him what ethical hunting and fishing meant.
After growing up surrounded by the woods and waters of Michigan, Paul moved to Texas after college and quickly realized the value of the abundant public lands and water in Michigan. In Texas Paul joined BHA seeing a group who also valued these public places for people to hunt, fish, and trap. This was compounded by experiences abroad where the ability to hunt and fish is strictly regulated and in contrast with the model of North American Wildlife Conservation.
Paul believes that our public lands and waters and the right to hunt and fish upon them are the greatest gift that we can leave our children. It is beholden to us to not just protect this, but leave them in a better place them we found them. Ensuring that the rights to hunt, fish, and trap on public lands and waters are carried forward for future generations.
Erik O'Granning–Treasurer –
Erik, a Michigan-based hunter and angler with over 25 years of experience across public and private lands and waters, has a deep passion for protecting wild places. His outdoor adventures in Washington, Michigan, and Canada have shaped his dedication to conserving public lands, waters, and wildlife. In addition to his field experience, Erik actively volunteers with Scouting America, mentoring young outdoor enthusiasts and instilling the values of conservation and stewardship. He also dedicates time to mentoring new hunters, sharing his knowledge and passion for ethical hunting practices. As a board member for the Michigan chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Erik is eager to help preserve access to wild spaces for future generations.
Kris Hettich - Secretary -
Kris Hettich is a data scientist by trade who grew up in rural southern Indiana and claimed the title of Michigander when he moved to the state for college. Having lived in both West Michigan and SE Michigan, he has consistently utilized public lands for recreation and reconnection to the abundant wild spaces in Michigan. Most importantly, public lands and waters provide family time, and Kris has included his kids in hunting, fishing, hiking, canoeing, and camping since they were born. Most recently, the family has been exploring foraging and plant identification, and are continually discovering all that our public lands offer. Kris has long volunteered on land access and revitalization efforts.
Brandon McGraw – Board of Directors –
In Brandon’s professional life, he works as a Corporate Compliance and Trade attorney. In his personal life he is an outdoor enthusiast, dog lover, avid mountain biker, and Spartan fan. Brandon and his wife reside in Lansing, Michigan with their English cocker spaniel and golden retriever.
Brandon believes the woods and waters of Michigan are places that are essential for people of all walks of life to have access to, without the burden of having to travel miles away to recreate. Our lands and waters should be easily accessible and protected for generations to come. His involvement on this Board is to ensure outdoor enthusiasts, like our Board of Directors and thousands of BHA members, continue to be the voice for expanding and protecting public land and water access.
Shawn Helms - Board of Directors -
Shawn lives in Allendale, MI with his wife and two kids. He works in Spring Lake as an engineer for an Injection Molding manufacturer. Shawn grew up in mid-Michigan, being blessed to be able to hunt and fish private land and honing a passion for the outdoors. It wasn’t until after college that he was able to have his first public land hunt for mule deer in the Bighorn Mountain Range of Wyoming. Shawn came back from that trip with a love of the mountains, a passion for backcountry pursuits, and a newfound respect of public lands availability.
Other pursuits that Shawn has outside of hunting and fishing include mountain biking, a love for cooking, helping his daughter with a shared passion for softball, and introducing his wife and kids to new adventures outdoors. Shawn’s professional career also offers him the opportunity to be a performance coach and community outreach leader, helping to galvanize efforts to invest into the local lakeshore communities.
Shawn is looking forward to seeing how he can help with BHA’s impact in West Michigan and work closely with some like-minded board members to keep everything Michigan has to offer as an enjoyment opportunity for aspiring outdoors people.
Mike Donovan - Board of Directors -
Mike lives in Williamston MI and recently retired after a 32-year career with the Michigan DNR, working in a variety of positions from wildlife biologist, resource specialist, and supervisor. Most of his career was spent working on landscape-scale wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and sustainable forest management, planning, and research. Michigan’s 8 - million acres of public lands and their management was the focus of many of these efforts.
Growing up in southeast Michigan hunting and fishing, the State Recreation Areas held his interest and imagination. One of his favorite memories as a high schooler was driving north after the Friday night football game to bow hunt the Huron Manistee National Forest. The October middle-of-the night smell of pine and skunk along Monument Road is forever etched in his memory with the expectation of a perfect morning hunt.
Retired now, Mike feels like he still needs to contribute more to the sound management of our public land base to make sure the things he enjoys most about public lands are available for future generations. Most importantly, Mike would like to express the significance of BHA as the only group focused on the issue of ensuring backcountry opportunities on Michigan public lands and the importance of BHA focusing on maintaining and preferably increasing these opportunities.
Derek Sheehan - Board of Directors -
Derek Sheehan’s outdoor experiences have relied on public lands and access to those lands in all the states he has lived in. He understands the importance of public lands and the pressures that threaten the existence of these lands. Derek’s goal with the BHA, is to fight for the "public wild places" for future generations of anglers and hunters. Additionally, he strongly believes in increasing the quality of habitat through conservation projects in Michigan.
Derek grew up in Boulder, Colorado. Growing up he could be found bicycling around Boulder with a fly rod in the summers and skiing in the winter. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. While in Durango he mountain biked, skied, backpacked and fly fished all around the Four Corners area. He moved on to graduate school at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. While there he learned to fly fish the big water (Madison, Jefferson, Gallatin, and Yellowstone rivers) and was introduced to hunting. In 2000, Derek moved his young family to Ann Arbor to work for Pfizer as a medicinal chemist. In 2008 he moved to Kalamazoo and continued at Pfizer Animal Health (now Zoetis) until he retired in 2021. Derek still lives in the Kalamazoo area and makes custom bamboo flyrods, spends his days with his wife, Susan, and fishes & hunts as much as he can.
Brandon Yuchasz - Board of Directors - Upper Peninsula
Brandon lives on Lake Gogebic at the far western end of the Upper Peninsula with his wife and two college age children. A lifelong Michigander he grew up in S.E. Michigan. All through his childhood Brandon was lucky enough to vacation in the U.P. and when he and his wife had the opportunity to move their young family to the U.P. and start their own business they took the chance and never looked back.
Brandon is most passionate about chasing brook trout with a flyrod, hunting waterfowl with his Chesapeake Bay retrievers, and most recently hunting elk in the western states. Raising his kids in the outdoors of the Upper Peninsula, feeding his family wild sourced protein, and having the opportunity to spend such an immense amount of time in large, wild, PUBLIC lands all over the United States and Canada has instilled in him a deep desire to share and protect these special places. He is a longtime champion for land accessibility and conservation for future generations of hunters, anglers, and other recreational users.
Conor Barr - Board of Directors -
Conor lives in Lake Odessa, MI with his wife, two kids, and their dog. He works in IT for Acquisitions for a furniture manufacturer. He and his family love to spend time outside mostly hunting for white-tails and pan fishing. He loves to share what he knows with his kids while also learning as much as he can along the way. He believes that public places need to be kept generationally, so he is continuously learning and teaching his children so they can be the next generation of public land defenders.
As a lifelong Michigander, growing up hunting, fishing, and recreating, most of his time was spent outdoors utilizing public lands in Michigan. This has created a passion for keeping or improving our public land so others may have the same opportunities that he did.