UPDATE:  By Justin Bubenik, California Chapter Co-Chair Shortly after "Expanding Wilderness on the Fringe of the Concrete Jungle" was posted in late March, Senator Harris (D-CA) and Representative Chu (D-CA-27) each reintroduced their companion legislation as S. 1109 and H.R. 2215, respectively, and collectively coined it as the San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act. The bills have been read and referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources, chaired by ...

The west has seen a rash of legislation attempting to expand the ability of private interests to manage elk herds. Instead of deferring to the biologists, land managers and agencies tasked with sustaining healthy cervid populations, several Oregon legislators chose to draft bills that would erode management authority for Oregon's elk. One bill, SB 301, is progressing through the legislature despite dangerously vague terms and little to no assurance of mutual benefit to Oregon’s Elk or the ...

In 2018, the New England Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers piloted its mentoring program for the first time. Over the course of the fall hunting and fishing seasons around 20 mentor-mentee pairs got together by email, phone and in the field to share tips, tactics and strategies for success in pursuits ranging from fly-fishing to traditional bow hunting. At the conclusion of the season a survey of participants indicated that mentors found fulfillment in sharing their knowledge and ...

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) recently released a proposed set of changes to the state’s inland trout fishing regulations in furtherance of the Department’s Inland Trout Management Program. A result of a call for simplification, the proposed regulations were prepared with the intention of reducing the complexity of the current regulations and easing enforcement for wildlife officers. While the California Chapter applauds CDFW in its pursuit of regulations which permit ...

Renowned elk hunter (and Colorado BHA founder) David Petersen describes, in his book A Man Made of Elk, a bugling bull as “an otherworldly music … like a calamitous crescendo of bluesy high notes blown on a saxophone, proclaiming a wildness we can only imagine.” David lives (and hunts) in southwest Colorado’s San Juan Mountains—home to more land above 10,000 feet in elevation than any other mountainous region in the contiguous 48 states. I’ve also been privileged to hunt elk in the San ...