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 Journal in your mailbox, and unlimited digital access to current and back issues.   BY JAN DIZARD AND PHIL T. SENG Few topics create as much furor around the campfire or the hunt club as the use of baiting in hunting. What’s the big deal? It’s not clear exactly when humans began manipulating the ...

For a "clean-up" bill, House Bill 637 is a mess. On its face, HB 637 aims to clarify language found in existing laws. These non-substantive, clerical changes would be fine if the bill stopped there. However, Rep. Seth Berglee’s 27-page "clean-up" attempt creates more messes than it would correct. We have seen bill after bill this session favoring the wealthy, skewing opportunities and assigning decision makers based on how much land someone owns, how much they're willing to pay or whether or ...

The majority of Indiana’s wetlands are under attack as SB 389 has now passed both chambers of the Indiana legislature. Currently, only wetlands that are connected to navigable waters or their tributaries are protected by federal law, while federal protections of isolated wetlands were left unprotected through an administrative repeal of provisions in the Clean Water Act. Thankfully, two decades ago, the State of Indiana recognized the importance of protecting clean waters and high quality ...

This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists   Written by Indigenous writer Yuri Rytkheu, A Dream in Polar Fog tells the story of a white man who through unfortunate circumstance finds himself forced to live among the Chukotka Native people of coastal Russia. Accepted by their people, he eventually learns their culture and ways of life. Alongside this is the story of a people whose entire existence is tied to the natural world – an existence ...