Backcountry Journal

Winter 2025 issue of Backcountry Journal

Would removing the lower four Snake River Dams benefit hunters? Public lands under siege. BHA chapters work on wildlife crossings and science-based management, and more in the Winter 2025 issue of...
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Hunting on the Ballot

This article also appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Backcountry Journal.    By Bryan Jones This fall the public’s right to hunt will take center stage on the ballot in Colorado with a proposed...
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Forged by Fire and Ice

  Fueled by a surplus of testosterone and a deficit of logic, a situation common to young male duck hunters, we headed out.   By M. Robbins Church   "Oh, what now? What's next?" I asked myself as...
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A New Home

  By Benjamin Thomas   I grew up as a hunting kid in south-central Pennsylvania. Our small family farm felt like paradise some days, covered in wildlife from corner to corner. But it was like a...
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Return of the Buffalo

More than 30 million bison once roamed North America. Only about 50,000 now live in wild herds, leading ecologists to say the buffalo is “functionally extinct.” Will the nation’s mammal and a...
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On the Farm

An Iowa family farm provides crucial wildlife habitat and public access     By Larry Stone   One family’s love of birds, cattle, and conservation has led to partnerships that protect more than...
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All the Right Words

  By Jake Lunsford   Wind howled through the canyon like a locomotive, snapping fire-blackened aspens and leaving a graveyard of widow-makers and deadfall in its wake. When we set camp, I had...
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An Opening Day Tale

By Leyton Hanneman and Matt Hanneman   ’Twas the night before hunting, when all through the woods,The creatures were stirring and there the bull stood.Our packs were all readied and quivers fitted...
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Standing up for Shoreline Access

  By Michael Woods   I’ve always loved the beach. Some of my most memorable outdoor experiences as a youth involved fishing for striped bass from the sandy shores of Cape Cod. As time passed, I...
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A Farewell to Fish

In the summer of that year, we lived in a village near a stream in Idaho where salmon came to spawn. The Valley of the Fish was broad and flat, and high snow-covered mountains rose to the south....
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Gems Among the Aufeis

  BY KEVIN FRALEY Snowdrifts piled up and buried my cabin in interior Alaska in the winter of 2019. Outside, temperatures hovered as low as minus 40 degrees. When the cold, dark months trapped me...
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The Final Flush

  By John Fairchild   My chukar hunts this past season had become excuses to get some exercise for me and Charlie, my 14-year-old English Setter, spend time in the hills with friends and to...
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BHA Members Roll Up Their Sleeves

Photos: Ace Hess “Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither...
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R3: The Why

Above: Students from the University of Montana learn how to process a whitetail doe at a BHA Hunting for Sustainability event.   My father introduced me to hunting at an early age. I knew how to...
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Redefining Mentorship

On a cool evening, I sat hidden amidst a group of boulders, watching the north face of a 11,000-foot summit as over 100 elk made their way out of the timber and onto open grasses along the...
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Women in the Woods

Above: Women in the Woods Elk Camp in Colorado. Photos by Ryan McSparren.   By Kassi Smith The ray of light as dawn breaks over the High Rockies. The distorted reflection of mountain giants just...
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A Bull for Dad

  BY JIM KIEDROWSKI   He got me hooked at a young age.  My brother and I were too young to hunt, but he got us involved every chance he had: scouting, tracking deer or sitting with him in a tree...
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Defending the Public Trust

Photo: Matt Hartsky, from our 2020 Public Lands and Waters Photo Contest   This article first appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of Backcountry Journal. Join BHA to get 4 issues a year right in...
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Paying It Forward

  BY JOEL GAY It’s not easy for resident hunters to draw an elk tag in New Mexico, even for kids. As in many states, demand for tags far outstrips supply. But that’s only part of the equation....
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Night Sweats

  By Benjamin Polley   Every night before I go into the remote ranger station in a forgotten wild corner of northwestern Montana, I lay in bed, gripped by fear, imagining potential encounters....
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Real Hunting

This story was originally published in the Fall 2021 issue of Backcountry Journal.   By Gary VandenLangenberg   With a natural love of animals and a curiosity for all things wild, my oldest son...
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For You, Pops

This piece was originally featured in the spring 2021 edition of the Backcountry Journal. My father called my older brother and me into the room and told us to grab the blue notebook from the...
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Change Is In The Air

This article, produced by Orion, originally appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of Backcountry Journal. Join BHA, support your public lands and waters and get four issues a year of Backcountry...
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A National Park Goat Hunt

Photo: NPS/Simon Weller   BY ZACH WELLER   “Hey Trav, I think I see a mountain goat. Take out your 15s and see if you can confirm.” We were still in the canoes, just 20 minutes into our five-day...
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The Island Within by Richard Nelson

This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists   I first read Richard Nelson’s The Island Within 20 years ago. The book is an intimate testament to...
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Eat Wild, Live Free and Conserve

Photo: Jack Lander, from our 2020 Public Lands and Waters Photo Contest   This article first appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of Backcountry Journal. Join BHA to get 4 issues a year right in...
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To Bait, or Not to Bait?

  This article, produced by Orion, originally appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of Backcountry Journal. Join BHA, support your public lands and waters and get four issues a year of Backcountry...
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Reactivated

BY LUKE FRONTCZAK   The morning had been perfect – clear skies with a long narrow blanket of fog covering the valley floor below my hillside perch, which turned pink as the sun came up. Five...
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The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko

This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists   If you have spent any time in the landscape of the American West you understand the significance...
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A Shape in the Dark by Bjorn Dihle

  This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists   Author Bjorn Dihle is, among many other things, a BHA member, Backcountry Journal contributor...
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Knots for Wilderness Campers

Continued from the Spring 21 issue of Backcountry Journal, here are two more of Tim Mead's knots for wilderness campers. Read the spring issue for the first three! Not a member? Join now and get...
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Resort Town Blues

  By Christine Peterson   Bill Andree always had a chance at an elk. It might come suddenly in thick spruce or a steep aspen grove, but it was a chance, and he killed his share. That was in the...
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Leading on Lead

All photos courtesy of Mike McTee, MPG Ranch   This article, produced by Orion, originally appeared in the Winter 2021 issue of Backcountry Journal. Join BHA, support your public lands and waters...
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Always Show Up, Never Give Up

Image by Joel Caldwell For nearly 70 years, Tony Schoonen was above all else a bare-fisted brawler for wild country and his bone-deep conviction that “blue-collar people should be able to hunt...
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Ethics Class in the Canadian Rockies

A reverent letter of gratitude to those who showed us the hunter’s ethic.   BY JUSTIN HANLON �� Three handsome rifles affixed with meticulously zeroed Leupold scopes were held in the steady hands...
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A Giant's Shoes to Fill

BHA says goodbye and thanks to mentor, friend and role model Jim Posewitz   By HAL HERRING   The first time I met Jim Posewitz was in the late 1990s, when I was immersed in reporting on the...
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The Sharptail Caucus

This article originally appeared in the fall 2020 issue of Backcountry Journal.   BY RYAN BUSSE   As a young man I once stood on a mountain ridge so beautiful that I now find it impossible to...
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The Lochsa Story by Bud Moore

This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists    Every book's reading starts with a set of expectations and hopes. I picked up a copy of The...
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Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists   A professor assigned my class Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” the book credited with launching...
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Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

  This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists   When I think of Desert Solitaire I remember a little riverside camp I scraped out of the grass...
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That Wild Country by Mark Kenyon

This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists  If we’ve learned anything from history, it’s that public lands will always need advocates. Since...
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2020 Coloring Contest Results

Thank you to everyone who participated in our coloring contest from the Winter 20 issue of Backcountry Journal. Everyone did a fantastic job! Choosing only two winners was an extremely difficult...
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Spring 2020 Kid's Crossword Answers

Here are the answers to the Kid's Crossword, located on page 17 of the Spring 2020 issue of Backcountry Journal. Not a member yet? Subscribe HERE and get four issues of Backcountry Journal to your...
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Saving Coni Island

South of the Brooks Range in northern Alaska there still exists intact ecosystems that remain largely unchanged except by forces of nature.  This is one of the largest public land wild areas left...
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Navigating Rendezvous 2019

Above: The 2018 Hike to Hunt kickoff. by Josh Mills So you’re going to Rendezvous, huh? Get excited. You’re about to be part of the biggest public lands party you’ve ever seen. Your mind is about...
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Live Action Game Cameras

Photo by Barry and Cathy Beck On an October morning a decade or so ago, I was hunting woodcock in an abandoned orchard. A flight had come in and, in less than an hour, I collected my three-bird...
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Yoga for Hunters

Published in Backcountry Journal Winter 2018 Issue. Subscribe by becoming a member here.                  Photo Credit: Bill McDavid It took me 16 days to tag a Dall sheep in Alaska last year. If...
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A Conversation with Jim Posewitz

Published in Backcountry Journal Winter 2018 Issue. Subscribe by becoming a member here.  Photo Credit: Thom Bridge Interview by Sam Lungren Author, biologist, ethicist, historian and legendary...
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12,000 Years of Great Fishing

The following was written by BHA's Conservation Director Holly Endersby, after a recent fishing trip to Kelly Creek (Idaho). Utter the words Kelly Creek to a real backcountry trout bum and she...