Hal comes down to Missoula to talk with BHA’s Ty Stubblefield (who hosts his own podcast, Shoot’n the Bull), about his roots in Oregon’s Umpqua Valley and his life there as a millhand, logging contractor, bowhunter and conservationist in the Coast Range. Now based in Florence, Montana, in the northern Bitterroot Valley, Ty is living the hard balance of family, work and a lifelong obsession with hunting in the farthest reaches of America's wildlands. He tells Hal the story of how he came to ...

Tom McGuane, now in his late 70s, has lived life as a version of the 100-yard dash, fishing and hunting, team roping, ranching, and training and competing on some of America’s best cutting horses. Through it all, he has been writing – from his internationally acclaimed 1973 novel of fishing guides gone wrong, 92 in the Shade, and the epic 1976 movie, The Missouri Breaks, through 10 more novels and his most recent collection of short fiction, Cloudbursts, which represents almost 40 years of ...

BHA’s Chris Hennessey of Pennsylvania, Jason Meekhof of Michigan, and Josh Kaywood of Tennessee talk Eastern hunting and fishing, the explosive growth of BHA west of the Mississippi River, and the many challenges, threats and issues facing sportsmen in the eastern United States, including loss of access, dwindling numbers of hunters speaking out for wild places, and the role of public lands and waters in an increasingly privatized landscape. The conversation explores a history of triumphs in ...

In St. Paul, Minnesota, with bird dogs whining in the hall outside, Hal visits the headquarters of Pheasants Forever to interview a trifecta of America’s most committed and passionate upland bird hunters and habitat and public access advocates. Bob St. Pierre, PF vice president of marketing and communications, tells it like it is: “We’re in trouble. Habitat is being plowed under and wetlands drained, we’re failing to ensure the future of upland bird hunting, and with that failure we’re ...

Join Hal on a camping and hunting trip for Mearns quail deep into the Chihuahua Grasslands smack-dab on the Mexican border. With him is BHA member Ray Trejo, the huntin’est conservationist in New Mexico; Gabe Vasquez, the youngest member of the Las Cruces’ City Council and a New Mexico conservation leader; and Fernando Clemente, a self-employed wildlife biologist and habitat specialist who works on both sides of the border to restore wildlife and ecosystems on private lands and has deep ...

A native son of the Palouse country in Idaho and a contributing writer to Outdoor Life, Ben Long is a founding board member of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, a former newspaperman and one of America’s leading conservation voices and strategists. Hal and Ben have been friends for more than a decade. Hal explains: “I was writing for Bugle magazine, and in almost every issue there would be an incredibly well-written piece by this guy Ben Long … the kind of story where you read a few paragraphs ...

  Steve Piragis, of Piragis Northwoods Company, is an institution in Ely, Minnesota: the grand old man of Boundary Waters outfitting and perhaps the most eloquent and knowledgeable spokesman for the region’s public lands wilderness since the legendary Sigurd F. Olson. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is vast, intensely alive and, unlike any other wilderness in the lower 48, readily accessible to almost anyone – all you need are some food and fishing tackle, basic camping gear and a ...

Rachel VandeVoort is a native of Whitefish, Montana, with four generations of family history in Montana. She is also director of the Montana Office of Outdoor Recreation. With a background working for Kimberand in the ski industry, no one could be better suited for this job. Hal goes to Whitefish to talk with Rachel about being a parent of wild outdoor children, outdoor jobs and the outdoor economy, guns, fishing and hunting on public lands. The outdoor economy in Montana alone is ...

  In Anoka, Minnesota, Hal Herring visits the headquarters of Vista Outdoor to talk with Vista Director of Conservation Ryan Bronson. Vista represents dozens of the most popular brands     of ammunition, guns and other outdoor gear and clothing, including BHA corporate partners Savage Arms, Federal Ammunition and Camp Chef. Bronson, a wildlife biologist by training, brings a unique perspective to the role of hunting and shooting in restoring and building America’s wildlife – both game and ...

Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia and Kenton Carruth of First Lite. Photo by Chris Crisman    This summer, host Hal Herring was invited on a fishing trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness by Ryan Callaghan, a member of the BHA North American board and the director of conservation and public relations at First Lite. Joining them was First Lite co-founder Kenton Carruth and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. Recognition of the collective power of outdoor interests – that we are more united in our ...