By Laura Lundquist - May 20, 2019 - Originally published in the Missoula Current.   The Bureau of Land Management wants to open protected lands near Missoula and across the state to multiple-use activities and resource extraction, ignoring input from Montana conservation groups. Last week, the Montana-Dakotas BLM did a coordinated release of three draft regional Resource Management Plans, including one from the Missoula office, which would guide management decisions on public land for the ...

Pennsylvania Chapter volunteers have been working with National Park Service staff to form the “Riparian Habitat Protection Team” within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Team goals include streamside/riverbank cleanups of trash and other debris, installation and maintenance of monofilament fishing line bins, and educational outreach to anglers and other park users. Members of the team met in late April to construct and hang five monofilament fishing line bins at popular ...

by Rob Bryan Tick-borne Diseases in New England Anyone who spends any amount of time in the outdoors should take steps to prevent tick-borne diseases. The Northeast has the highest rate of Lyme disease in the US, but Lyme is just one of eight tick-borne diseases in New England.  Deer ticks (officially known as black-legged ticks) can transmit Lyme, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Borellia myomiti, and the Powassin virus, and one tick can transmit all of them.  Dog ticks sometimes carry Rocky ...

Our first session engaging in the Montana Legislature with the help of a lobbyist was a successful one.While Montana BHA’ers have engaged in state legislative sessions in the past, this added capacity marked a significant increase in the chapter’s level of engagement both inside and outside the Capitol. The session brought plenty of challenges, but we were able to push back against threats to public access, bad wildlife management policy and an attack on Habitat Montana – a crucial ...

Hike to Hunt is just around the corner. For those of you not familiar with it, BHA puts on a Hike to Hunt contest yearly to promote people getting out and hiking on our public lands, all the while getting in shape for the upcoming  hunting season. This year it will run from June 1 to July 31. Under Armor was generous enough to provide tracking for Hike to Hunt through their Map My Hike app. Anyone that signs up is eligible for random prize drawings. The top contenders across BHA will also be ...