I generally hunt turkeys the first week of Colorado’s spring season (mid-April) and then return two weeks later (the first week of May) to “hunt” with a camera. As a bonus, because the habitat of mountain Merriam’s turkeys and Rocky Mountain elk overlap in much of western Colorado, it’s not uncommon to encounter both species in close proximity this time of year. Although elk hunting is notoriously difficult with success rates hovering between 15 to 20 percent in Colorado, over the counter ...

To those outside of Montana, the Blackfoot River is the “Big Blackfoot” featured in Norman Maclean’s lyrical and tragic novel A River Runs Through It. For Montanans and generations of visitors, the Blackfoot is a state of being all its own, a big rowdy river of native cutthroats and bull trout, its waters born of both high-altitude wilderness snows and the tannin-stained, unfathomably rich chain of wetlands and lakes of the Clearwater drainage. It is a huge, complex and vibrant watershed, ...

News for Immediate ReleaseApril 29, 2022Contact: Katie McKalip, 406-240-9262, mckalip@backcountryhunters.org  Wyoming BHA raised funds for hunters’ defense, says ‘justice has been served’ RAWLINS, Wyo. – In a major win for public lands access, four Missouri hunters were declared “not guilty” by a Wyoming court in a “corner crossing' case that garnered national attention. The Wyoming chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers offered the following response: “Today the court made its decision, ...

This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists   What do we lose when we let our favorite wild places succumb to the whims of industry and development? This is the question Rick Bass explores in The Book of Yaak. In the opening pages Bass sets out to capture the heart of the Yaak Valley, a wild, remote region in northwest Montana with immense biodiversity and a critical corridor for animals moving between the Northern Rockies and the Pacific ...

Quietly hiking up a steep section of trail, a loud crack of a branch broke the silence. "That’s a big animal," I thought. A rush came over me like a rocky mountain freight train as I quickly realized what was happening. The largest predator in the woods was barreling straight towards me, growling as it announced its intentions. If you spend time in the Mountain West you know that grizzlies are a common thread of discussion. With their population well recovered in a small percentage of their ...