Roadless Rule Rollback On June 24 Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) posted a statement (“USDA Rescinds Near Quarter Century Old Protections for 58.5 Million Acres of National Forest Lands”) strongly opposing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recent decision to roll back the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule—removing long-standing protections for 58.5 million acres of national forest lands across 39 states.[1] “For 24 years, the Roadless Rule has provided bedrock safeguards some of ...

“Public lands are not to be gifted to foreign mining billionaires.” Duluth News Tribune: 6/29/25. On May 29 in Colorado, I met Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) advocate and Ely resident Becky Rom, the national chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters. She and her team attended the Outside Festival in Denver — for good reason. “Attendance at the four-day event … drew 35,000 people, nearly doubling attendance from the debut event last year,” the Colorado Sun reported. Rom ...

Giants of Conservation Rally For Public Lands Conservation and democracy are among America’s most enduring principles. In fact, no other nation enjoys the vast array of national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, rangelands, forests, rivers, and wilderness as the United States. The deed on a big part of this public lands inheritance dates back to a veteran and Medal of Honor recipient, Theodore Roosevelt.[1] Roosevelt would be proud that today his legacy is being upheld by fellow veterans ...

Op-Ed: “Sulfide-ore mining a lose-lose for Minnesota.” Duluth News Tribune: 5/21/25. From the column: “Mining should not take place in water-worlds like the BWCAW watershed.”[1]   In April, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith introduced a bill to protect the Boundary Waters wilderness, building on years of advocacy by U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum and support from Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters, Minnesota Trout Unlimited, and others. The historic legislation would forever ...

Access And Opportunity Are On The Chopping Block Public lands, and hence hunting, are under threat like never before. From states like Utah (and 14 others) laying claim to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands—which was shot down by the Supreme Court—to Congress attempting to sell public lands using the budget reconciliation process to the Trump administration proposing selling public lands under the guise of promoting homebuilding to rolling back national monument protections.[1] In a ...