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 the beginning, there have been unremitting attempts to privatize our lands for the short-term benefit of a few. In order to be an effective advocate, it’s important to understand how we got where we are today, collective owners of 640 million acres of public lands.

Mark Kenyon takes us on a journey through history by way of a series of personal trips across the U.S. Paralleling his present day experiences in some of the most beautiful and awe-striking landscapes that we own, he addresses the important historical landmarks that made them available to him today. Along the way you meet a cast of characters that fought to protect these lands and those that threatened, and in some cases still do, to take it all away. He ends with a message of hope: “If they could do it then, we sure as hell could do it again,” emphasizing the incredible responsibility we bear, as collective owners, to remain vigilant and poised to speak out on behalf of our wild places.

This book has inspired my own travel/hunting bucket list, grew my desire to learn more about how the places I hunt, fish and recreate on came to be, and motivated me to take action to ensure those places remain available to future generations.

-KYLIE SCHUMACHER, BHA Collegiate Club Coordinator

Purchase That Wild Country on Amazon Smile, and register Backcountry Hunters & Anglers as your preferred non-profit to give back to your wild public lands, waters and wildlife. 

Be sure to also listen to Hal Herring sit down with the author of That Wild Country, Mark Kenyon, in BHA's Podcast and Blast. And, then, come hang out with Mark Kenyon and the rest of the BHA community at the 2020 Virtual Rendezvous!