By Gerhardt Soeffker - November 8, 2018 - Originally published in the Missoulian. Where I live, near the Blackfoot River, those of us who ply a stick and arrow have been pursuing bugling elk and wary bucks; others have been stripping articulated streamers in front of fall run brown trout. And as the days get shorter, and the nights cooler, it signals the start to general rifle season. For many of us public land owners, this precious time of year marks the start of our time afield in ...

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers is the fastest growing conservation group in North America in large part due to the focus on public lands and grassroots efforts to engage the membership.  One of BHA's mantras has been to make it easy for people to show up and be engaged in discussions that affect the places they love to hunt and fish.  "Pint Nights" are popular BHA method for creating that sort of relaxed style of engagement and the Idaho chapter recently held three such events with tremendous ...

October 30, 2018    The Honorable Ryan Zinke  US Department of the Interior  Washington, DC 20515  Re: Sportsmen and the Badger-Two Medicine      Dear Secretary Zinke,  The undersigned organizations collectively represent tens of thousands of Montana hunters and anglers who enjoy Montana’s public lands and public wildlife. Our members care deeply about public access, vibrant wildlife, and quality habitat. As you know, we are blessed in Montana with top-tier wild places and we depend on our ...

  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 ...

By Susan Dunlap - October 17, 2018 - Originally published in the Montana Standard. With rifle season starting this Saturday, a campground at Wolverine Creek Road in southern Beaverhead County will be ready for hunters in a new way. Agency officials, ranchers and a group of hunters have worked out a plan to reinvent the campground at Wolverine Creek Road with a new hunter-friendly camping rule, signage and gates in the hope that compromise on all sides will lead to better sportsmen behavior ...