It is 80 miles or so by boat down the intensely braided and ever-changing Yukon River to the village of Fort Yukon, Alaska (at the confluence of the Yukon and the Porcupine), where Hal meets Walter Peter, a Gwich’in hunter, trapper and fisherman – provider for his family and elders and others, taking meat and fish and whatever else the earth will give, eight miles above the Arctic Circle. Their conversation ranges from Native concerns over fish and wildlife management to climate change and ...

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert is petitioning the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a new, state-specific Roadless Rule that would impact 4 million acres of National Forest lands in Utah. Does anybody in Utah want to protect roadless lands, which offer some of the world’s best backcountry hunting, hiking, fishing, skiing; some of the world’s most scenic places; and some of our most valuable fish and wildlife habitat? Yes, they do. Two of them are Utah BHA board member Andrew Wike, a hunter, ...

  Hal is traveling the Wasatch Front, snarled in traffic beneath the spectacular snow-covered peaks, still trying to understand Utah politics. How can a state legislature pass a law that makes it illegal for the its residents (as well as visitors) to fish or wade or swim in more than 90 percent of their own rivers and streams? What is going on here? We go “once more unto the breach” (to quote Henry V’s famous line inciting his warriors) with the Utah Stream Access Coalition’s Chris Barkey, a ...

  The American outdoor recreation industry is the largest industry on the planet – to the tune of $887 billion dollars annually – that until recently has not demanded political representation for its interests. And what are those interests? Clean water, public lands, public access, wildlife habitat, trails, sustainably managed lands and waters – the same elements that make for a strong, healthy and ecologically resilient nation, one worthy of the dreams of our founders and the hopes of our ...

  Some of you may be shocked to learn that in 11 U.S. states, regulations still exist restricting hunting on Sundays. Four states – Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine and Pennsylvania – ban Sunday hunting altogether or restrict it to just a few species. Other states allow Sunday hunting only on private lands even though they encompass vast expanses of national forest and state lands. It is hard to imagine a stronger point of frustration to all of us who work Monday through Friday and live to ...

Calling all American public land owners! The time for action is upon us. In wildland firefighting, a backburn is setting a fire to stop a fire … burning fuels ahead of a conflagration that must be stopped. This episode of BHA’s Podcast & Blast, featuring Hunt Talk’s Randy Newberg and BHA President and CEO Land Tawney along with host Hal Herring, is our version of a backburn. We are setting a fire in our country, raising a public land owner’s flag and marching on Washington, D.C. The ...

When you are shooting a classic Beretta over and under shotgun at the trap range or in the field, you are handling a finely made weapon built by the same company that made the arquebus barrels used to quell the Ottoman Turks at the ferocious Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Heck, Beretta Arms was already almost 50 years old by then! The Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta, with its headquarters in Brescia, Italy (in the Val Trompe, a center of iron ore mining and smelting since the days of the Roman ...

The decline in the numbers of American hunters and anglers is not just bad news for our connections to the natural world and for our heritage. Because the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation is based on the robust sale of hunting and fishing licenses, the decline is hitting us all right where it hurts most: in funding for habitat projects, public lands management, restoration,  scientific research, access, and on and on. What is the answer? Hal goes to the primary sources: Samantha ...

Take a moment to listen to Rendezvous 2019 Storyteller, South Dakota chapter board chair and ardent sportswoman Ashley Kurtenbach, who sat down with her husband Jesse and Hal in the midst of a South Dakota snow goose shoot this spring. The Kurtenbachs, along with spending an enviable amount of time afield, are committed conservationists who consistently step up to the plate for South Dakota’s public lands. South Dakota is host to a broad swath of unique ecosystems, including segments of the ...

  As the 116th Congress builds momentum, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico traveled to Boise, Idaho, for BHA’s 8th Annual North American Rendezvous. One of the most enthusiastic sportsmen on Capitol Hill, he is also an indefatigable champion of public lands. During the ruckus of Rendezvous, Sen. Heinrich took time to sit down with Hal and talk desert ecotones, maverick tarantulas, migration corridors and the sage steppe, the state of hook and bullet advocacy in Congress, and the ...