Fall 2021 Issue of Backcountry Journal

BACKCOUNTRY

JOURNAL

The Magazine of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Fall 2021

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE This summer’s Muster in the Mountains event.

Photo: Mike Poulopoulos

THE WORLD IS RULED

BY THOSE WHO SHOW UP Hunters and anglers aren’t just observers. We are participants... participants in a fragile compromise between human impacts and the wild.

This is nothing new. Here in North America, the plight of the bison we featured last issue or the now-extinct passenger pigeon should be on all our minds. Natural resources aren’t inexhaustible.

Fortunately, hunters and anglers decided a long time ago to participate.

Participation starts in the field. We are constantly learning more about the landscapes in which we immerse ourselves – and becoming intimately acquainted with the habits and haunts of our quarry. We are keenly aware not only of their needs but also of the flora and fauna that make up an ecosystem and keep it healthy and whole. The choice to end a life is not one we undertake lightly; however, the celebration of that being on the table – and the sharing of that moment with friends and family – defines participation.

By nature, hunters and anglers tend to be a solitary sort. Many of us aren’t “joiners” in a typical sense, but we all participate by buying hunting and fishing licenses. In addition, we all pay fees and excise taxes on guns and ammunition and fishing and archery equipment to the tune of $1 billion annually. Some of us participate by joining conservation organizations – from local rod and gun clubs and state/ provincial organizations to groups like Pheasants Forever, Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

Each of us pays our membership dues to support their missions.

If you’re reading this magazine, you are either a current member or a prospective member of BHA. To you members: Thank you!

You are the rocket fuel of BHA. To those who aren’t yet members: Join us! Participate! Help us expand our voice for wild public lands, waters and wildlife!

Membership dues are important, but many choose to participate even more. Showing up to fish and wildlife commission meetings, submitting comments to travel and resource management plans, testifying before elected officials, making phone calls and sending emails. Grassroots participation has given us the public lands and waters legacy we cherish today, and this is our time to do our part to carry on that legacy. Grand policies like full and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund often take a ton of time, effort and sweat equity. The daily grind of policy is inescapable, and sometimes it’s hard to see progress.

One form of participation provides instant gratification, and the fruits of our labor are more tangible. I’m referring to work in the field, whether that is rolling up miles of old barbed wire, planting willows along a riparian zone, removing juniper bushes or picking up trash. After a day spent outside working on the land, your body appreciates the effort you have invested, and your eyes see what you have accomplished. This work reminds me of building rail fence when I was growing up. The difference is that when we dedicate ourselves to an organized habitat improvement project, all of us

stand to gain.

BHA members are stewards of our lands and waters throughout the year. In September, we double down.

In 2017, we designated September as Public Lands Month, a celebration of our North American landscapes that provide the outdoor opportunities we cherish. In 2019, we kicked off BHA’s Public Land Pack-Out, channeling our community’s drive in support of cleaning up our shared lands and waters. Inspired by our North Carolina chapter, the Public Lands Pack-out continues to grow. In its first year, we picked up 600 bags of trash. Last year, in 2020, we netted 4,000. This year we have an audacious goal of 10,000 bags of trash, collected from our lands and waters all across the continent.

I know we can do it.

Why? Because you all are doers. You show up. Our Armed Forces Initiative has a year under its belt and is growing like wildfire … because you all are doers. Our college clubs and chapters all across North America have already planned a multitude of events … because you all are doers. Even if you don’t participate in an organized cleanup, I know that when you’re out chasing grouse or wily, bugling bulls, you’ll pick up trash at the trailhead when you see it … because you are a doer.

I challenge all of you reading this to pick up one bag of trash on our public lands and waters in September. Log it via backcountryhunters.org, and we will have no problem reaching our 10,000-bag goal. Here’s an added incentive: First Lite is stepping up as a Pack-Out sponsor once again and will be donating $3 per bag to BHA … up to 10,000 bags. Thank you, First Lite!

No matter how you participate, thank you! We have much yet to do together!

Onward and upward,

Land Tawney President and CEO FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 3

“Curing environmental ills requires not a stance outside nature, but a stance within nature, a role not as onlooker without, but as an actor within.”

– Valerius Geist (1938-2021)

THE VOICE FOR OUR WILD PUBLIC LANDS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE NORTH AMERICAN BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ted Koch (Idaho) Chairman J.R. Young (California) Vice Chairman Jeffrey Jones (Alabama) Treasurer T. Edward Nickens (North Carolina) Secretary Dr. Keenan Adams (Puerto Rico)

Ben Bulis (Montana) Ryan Callaghan (Montana) Bill Hanlon (British Columbia) Hilary Hutcheson (Montana) Dr. Christopher L. Jenkins (Georgia)

Heather Kelly (Alaska) Tom McGraw (Michigan) Ben O’Brien (Montana) Michael Beagle (Oregon) President Emeritus

STAFF Land Tawney, President and CEO Tim Brass, State Policy and Field Operations Director John Gale, Conservation Director Frankie McBurney Olson, Operations Director Katie McKalip, Communications Director Rachel Schmidt, Innovative Alliances Director Chris Borgatti, New York and New England Chapter Coordinator Travis Bradford, Video Production and Graphic Design Coordinator Veronica Corbett, Montana Chapter Organizer Trey Curtiss, R3 Coordinator Katie DeLorenzo, Western Regional Manager and Southwest Chapter Coordinator Kevin Farron, Montana Chapter Coordinator Britney Fregerio, Controller Caitlin Frisbie, Operations Associate and Assistant to the President Chris Hennessey, Regional Manager Ace Hess, Idaho and Nevada Chapter Coordinator Josh Kaywood, Southeast Chapter Coordinator

Contributors in this Issue On the Cover: Ben Matthews, Prince of Wales Island, Tongass National Forest Above Image: Matt Hogan, from our 2020 Public Lands and Waters Photo Contest Col. Mike Abell, Tom Adrien, Aaron Agosto, Striker Brown, Trey Curtiss, Meghan DeGuelle, Corey Ellis, Catherine Danae Elser, Bethany Erb, Penelope Gall, Joel Gay, Jeff Howe, Neil Keown, Lee Kjos, Scott Linden, Ben Matthews, Jill Grenon McMurray, Randy Newberg, Hannah Parbst, John Parbst, Homer Raymundo, Lt. Col. Andrew Ruszkiewicz, Kylie Schumacher, Hank Shaw, Dr. Brian Stone, Brad Trumbo, Gary Vandenlangenberg, Luke Weingarten, Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, Rob Yagid Journal Submissions: williams@backcountryhunters.org Advertising and Partnership Inquiries: mills@backcountryhunters.org General Inquiries: admin@backcountryhunters.org

Jacob Mannix, Alaska Chapter Coordinator Kate Mayfield, Office Manager Kaden McArthur, Goverment Relations Coordinator Jason Meekhof, Upper Great Lakes Chapter Coordinator Josh Mills, Development Coordinator Devin O’Dea, California Chapter Coordinator Rob Parkins, Public Access Coordinator Thomas Plank, Communications Coordinator Jesse Salsberry, Northwest Chapter Coordinator and Video Production Assistant Kylie Schumacher, Collegiate Program Coordinator Ryan Silcox, Membership Coordinator Joshua Stratton, Great Plains Chapter Coordinator Ty Stubblefield, Chapter Coordinator and New Chapter Development Brien Webster, Program Manager and Colorado and Wyoming Chapter Coordinator Zack Williams, Backcountry Journal Editor Rob Yagid, Digital Media Coordinator Interns: Brady Fryberger, Andrew Hahne, Keegan Shea, Noah Starling, Faith Wells

BHA HEADQUARTERS P.O. Box 9257, Missoula, MT 59807 www.backcountryhunters.org admin@backcountryhunters.org (406) 926-1908 Backcountry Journal is the quarterly membership publication of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, a North American conservation nonprofit 501(c)(3) with chapters in 48 states and the District of Columbia, two Canadian provinces and one Canadian territory. Become part of the voice for our wild public lands, waters and wildlife. Join us at backcountryhunters.org.

All rights reserved. Content may not be reproduced in any manner without the consent of the publisher.

Published Sept. 2021. Volume XVI, Issue IV

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

YOUR BACKCOUNTRY

Hoosier Grouse Controversy surrounds the future of the ruffed grouse in Indiana

Photo: Brian Stone

BY DR. BRIAN STONE Last December, the Indiana ruffed grouse was added to the state endangered species list. Eighteen states currently list the ruffed grouse as a species of greatest conservation need, and the plights of the sage and prairie grouse are well-known. So, Indiana represents a concerning trend.

The ruffed grouse in Indiana is a forest-dwelling, Appalachian sub-species specifically adapted to the native forests of the Central Hardwood Region. If the vitality of these ecosystems continues to wane, the grouse will disappear, along with many other species.

In the early 1980s, Hoosiers bagged an average of 12,00015,000 birds per year. However, over 40 years, ruffed grouse in Indiana have declined to around 1 percent of their prior abundance, and their habitat has decreased 90 percent. In DNR roadside drumming surveys in the Maumee Grouse Study Area located in Jackson and Brown counties, a single grouse was heard in 2012, and none have been heard since (including 2021), even in the “activity center” of the study area. The situation is dire.

In Indiana, public land makes up only 4 percent of the landscape, whereas 22 percent of forested land is privately owned. The largest area of public land is the 204,000-acre Hoosier National Forest, and this is where conservation efforts have focused. However, the prospects for population recovery have been poor, primarily due to a lack of forest management on public lands in the

core of the ruffed grouse ranges. This is where the endangered listing comes into play.

As part of a management plan known as the USFS Houston South Vegetation Management and Restoration Project, the USFS proposed vegetation management activities to improve the health of the oak-hickory ecosystems and wildlife habitat in an 18,944-acre section of the Hoosier National Forest encompassing the activity center of the grouse survey route. This area is currently dominated by mature forest, and species such as the ruffed grouse, as well as a number of others that are experiencing population decline, including the American woodcock, rely on early-successional, oak-hickory forest.

Young forests were once created by natural destructive events like tornados, fires and insect infestations that formed openings in the forest canopy. Such events were essential to biodiversity and the health of ecosystems as successional forests are rich in insects, berries and seeds, and they provide valuable nesting and brood cover for many species. However, natural disturbances no longer act with the same intensity or frequency, which were critical in creating early successional ecosystems. Oak and hickory trees that provide mast-acorns and nuts are aging and dying out. Due to the thickness of the canopy, they are being replaced by shade-resistant maple and beech saplings. This is why timber management is necessary.

Enter the controversy. In response to this proposal, the Monroe FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 5

County government, Hoosier Environmental Council and Indiana Forest Alliance filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit alleges the plan could create runoff that will pollute Lake Monroe, the drinking water source for the Bloomington region.

Shockingly, the plaintiffs also allege the plan violates the Endangered Species Act, as the management activities will impact the endangered Indiana bat and the threatened northern longeared bat. (Of note: the IFA fought the endangered listing of the grouse.)

However, such an argument simply rejects science. Joy O’Keefe, a bat biologist and project investigator on the Hardwoods Ecosystem Experiment, notes that Indiana bats roost and colonize large dead or dying trees, but primarily oaks and hickories. Research has shown that maples are rarely used, and there is no record of a beech tree ever being used. As beech-maple forests take over, the bats may not have a place to raise their young in the years to come; to take no management action is to imperil the bats.

This demonstrates the extent of the problem. Steve Backs has studied grouse populations as a DNR biologist for four decades. A dedicated conservationist, Backs says the problem in Indiana, and across the ruffed grouse range in North America, is an ecosystem problem. In response, an ecosystems approach to conservation is required. Oak-hickory ecosystem restoration has worked elsewhere, and a number of species benefited that had been affected by the decline of early-successional forest, including turkey, whitetail deer and cottontail rabbits, as well as countless songbirds.

Forest management is necessary if we are to see the survival of the ruffed grouse, and this is why the Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society led a coalition of conservation groups, including BHA, in submitting an amicus brief in support of the USFS plan. But if we are to win support, we must

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educate the public and shape perceptions. Backs has worked with a number of organizations over the years, and he has found that nomenclature such as “regeneration cut” and “woodland meadows” over “clear-cut” and “forest opening” wins more advocates.

Backs put the matter plainly: “People don’t like to see trees cut.

They don’t like to see what they perceive as devastation. If you don’t see it enough to appreciate what comes after the disturbance event,” you’re more likely to oppose it. The issue is one of public perception.

Scott Salmon, a board member for BHA’s Indiana chapter, says that funding will also play a role in the ruffed grouse’s future in Indiana. “If Indiana DNR had similar state-level conservation funding mechanisms like Michigan, Missouri or Arkansas, land acquisition and early successional habitat restoration and maintenance could be used as part of a statewide recovery strategy to help the ruffed grouse.”

Ted Koch, BHA North American board chair and executive director of the North American Grouse Partnership, says the public also needs to be educated about the value of forest management for the survival of all species. However, as for groups like IFA, Koch does not mince words: “Species evolved in these ecosystems.

For us to decide that’s wrong and that older forests are better is the height of arrogance. Lack of early-successional forest is against the laws of nature. As a society we need to see further than that, exercise more humility.” Just ask the grouse.

Dr. Brian Stone is a BHA member and hunter-conservationist who teaches writing at Indiana State University. When not in the classroom, he can be found hunting and fishing public lands and waters in the Midwest with his Labrador retriever, Alvy.

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BACKCOUNTRY

JOURNAL FALL 2021 | VOLUME XVI, ISSUE IV

FEATURES 58

INTO THE MYSTIC

by Ben Matthews

67

ENVIOUS OF THE HUNT

by Meghan DeGuelle

70

ELECTION DAY

by John Parbst

74

BREAKS

by Kylie Schumacher

78

REAL HUNTING

by Gary Vandenlangenberg

82

OCEAN STATE ADVENTURE

by Striker Brown

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DEPARTMENTS 03

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

39

COLLEGE CLUBS Building Bridges

by Col. Mike Abell

05

YOUR BACKCOUNTRY Hoosier Grouse

by Dr. Brian Stone

42

FIELD TO TABLE Pan-Roasted Ptarmigan

by Hank Shaw

50

INSTRUCTIONAL After the Point

by Scott Linden

10

BHA HEADQUARTERS NEWS

15

FACES OF BHA Catherine Danae Elser, Prospect, Pennsylvania

17

BACKCOUNTRY BOUNTY

19

KIDS’ CORNER Going Fishing

by Penelope Gall

52

CHAPTER NEWS In Depth: Paying It Forward

by Joel Gay In Depth: Alberta Chapter Fights for Wild Places

by Neil Keown Rende Recap

PUBLIC LAND OWNER The North American Grasslands Conservation Act

by Bethany Erb Modest Land Mule Deer

by Brad Trumbo

87

BEYOND FAIR CHASE What Do We Owe the Individuals?

by Corey Ellis

88

HUMOR All in a Minute

by Jill Grenon McMurray

91

END OF THE LINE

22

33

37

ARMED FORCES INITIATIVE In Defense of Public Lands and Waters

by Lt. Col. Andrew Ruszkiewicz and Luke Weingarten HUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY R3: The Why

by Trey Curtiss

Use the Wind for Waterfowl

by Homer Raymundo

Prince of Wales Island, Tongass National Forest, Alaska Photo: Ben Matthews, read “Into the Mystic” on page 58

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 9

HEADQUARTERS NEWS

SEPTEMBER IS PUBLIC LANDS MONTH! Fall kicks off with a September celebration, Public Lands Month.

BHA will be celebrating everything we love about our favorite public lands and waters by making them better with the Public Land Pack-Out! Last year, BHA chapters picked up over 4,000 bags of trash in an incredible effort, which far exceeded the 600 bags packed in 2019. This year we aim to kick it up another notch with a goal of 10,000 bags. And for every bag we pick up, First Lite is going donate $3 to BHA! Let’s all get out there and make our favorite stomping grounds a little better for the next generation.

Find an event in your area by visiting backcountryhunters.org/ events.

CONGRATULATIONS CLAY HAYES!

Longtime BHA member and supporter Clay Hayes, of Kendrick, Idaho, won season 8 of Alone on the History Channel, where 10 contestants are left to fend for themselves and survive as long as they can with minimal supplies. Clay outlasted the rest and 74 days later claimed the $500,000 winning prize. Along the way, he proved his skills as a traditional bowhunter by killing a blacktail deer, trapped snowshoe hares and caught fish using a homemade rod and reel. Way to go, Clay!

Be sure to revisit BHA’s Backcountry College, where Clay shares backcountry hunting and survival skills, on the BHA YouTube channel.

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BHA Headquarters staff kicked Public Lands Month off early with a cleanup of Missoula’s Marshall Mountain area.

AIDEN LONG/OUTDOORS FOR ALL SCHOLARSHIP

BHA works to ensure the future of hunting and angling on wild, healthy lands and waters. The education of our youth and opportunity for all to experience the outdoors is at the core who we are.

The Aidan Long/Outdoors for All Scholarship celebrates the life of Aidan Long, son of longtime BHA leader, volunteer and friend, Ben Long.

Open to anyone ages 10-20, the scholarship fund mitigates the expense of outdoor recreation and conservation education, as well as expands experiences and opportunities for people with disabilities via the purchase or temporary acquisition of adaptive recreation equipment.

To honor Aidan’s love of the outdoors we are happy to empower future conservation leaders to expand their experiences in the outdoors!

For more information on how to give a gift to the fund or apply for the scholarship visit backcountryhunters.org/ outdoors_for_all.

HEADQUARTERS NEWS

PINE TREE SALE CANCELLED! Prime fish and game habitat in eastern Arkansas will remain publicly owned and publicly accessible.

BHA’s Arkansas chapter led opposition by hunters, anglers and others to the proposed sale by the University of Arkansas of a large portion of the Pine Tree Experimental Station Wildlife Demonstration Area. Following outspoken criticism by thousands of sportsmen and women, Arkansas legislators and the state’s senior U.S. senator joined the chorus advocating for keeping Pine Tree under public ownership.

BHA Arkansas Chapter Chair James Brandenburg thanked the

diverse voices who opposed the sale of Pine Tree and emphasized the power of an individual to effect positive outcomes for hunting, fishing and conservation.

“This sale was stopped because one person raised his voice when he learned that public land was going to be sold to the highest bidder,” said Brandenburg, who lives in Bentonville. “Our success in stopping this sale is due to the unique coalition of public and private sector partners we were able to build, but we wouldn’t have even begun without that first person saying, ‘This isn’t right.’ Today, everyday outdoorsmen and women can celebrate continued access to public land in Arkansas.” Speak up on issues of regional and national importance at backcountryhunters.org/ take_action.

HIKE TO HUNT RESULTS

BHA’S 2021 AWARD WINNERS

Another Hike to Hunt has come and gone, and another hunting season is upon us! A huge thank you to all who took part in the challenge this summer. This year we hiked, ran, biked and floated for conservation, incorporating more of the many recreational opportunities we are privileged to be able to take part in as public land owners in North America.

Together we raised nearly $40,000 for conservation and gave away over $7,000 in prizes from our partners at Big Agness, goHUNT, NRS, Savage, Benchmade and Danner.

Visit backcountryhunters.org to see the winners from each category for this year’s Hike to Hunt!

At BHA’s 10th annual North American Rendezvous, standout sportsmen-conservationists were awarded BHA’s top honors. The 2021 honorees are as follow: BHA’s Aldo Leopold Award recognizes exceptional work and dedication to the conservation of terrestrial wildlife habitat. The 2021 Leopold award winner is Jared Oakleaf, of Lander, Wyoming, a 20-year veteran of the public service sector and an active board member and volunteer for a number of conservation groups, including BHA. The Sigurd F. Olson Award acknowledges outstanding effort conserving rivers, lakes or wetland habitat. The 2021 Olson award was presented to Joel Gay, of Albuquerque, a longtime water policy advocate in his state of New Mexico.

BHA’s Jim Posewitz Award recognizes outstanding ethical behavior in the field and the education of the outdoor public on the importance of ethical behavior. The winner of the 2021 Posewitz award is Adam Gall of Paonia, Colorado, a business owner, outfitter and longtime BHA member, volunteer and supporter.

BHA’s Rachel Carson Award honors young leaders for outstanding work on behalf of hunting, angling and conservation.

The 2021 Carson awardee is Jeffrey Edwards, president of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point BHA college club.

The Larry Fischer Award honors the memory and contributions of a longtime BHA board member by recognizing exceptional dedication by a business to BHA’s mission. The 2021 Fischer awardee is Vortex Optics.

The Ted Trueblood Award is presented by BHA for exceptional communications work informing and inspiring people for the benefit of public lands, waters and wildlife. Don and Lori Thomas are the 2021 Trueblood award honorees.

The George Bird Grinnell Award honors the outstanding BHA chapter of the year. BHA’s New England chapter is the 2021 Grinnell honoree.

Finally, the Mike Beagle-Chairman’s Award, named after one of BHA’s founders, is bestowed to an individual who shows outstanding effort on behalf of BHA. The 2021 Beagle award winner is John Sullivan, chair of BHA’s Montana chapter, who lives in Missoula.

IN MEMORY OF VALERIUS GEIST Canadian scientist Dr. Valerius Geist passed away in July at the age of 83. Geist, along with Shane Mahoney and John Organ, is credited with defining and promoting the seven key principles of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, through which he ardently fought for wildlife to remain in the public trust and against its privatization.

In a long and esteemed career, with over 20 books and numerous scholarly articles published, Geist contributed vast amounts of research on wildlife from elk, moose and sheep to wolves. His contributions to public lands, waters and wildlife throughout North America will be felt for many generations to come.

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WELCOME NEW BHA STAFF! Chris Borgatti

Kaden McArthur,

New York and New England Chapter Coordinator

Goverment Relations Coordinator

Christopher Borgatti was born and raised in the suburbs west of Boston, Massachusetts. As a boy, first with a bicycle and then with a jon boat, he spent most days after school fishing and exploring the Charles River.

A hunter, angler, surfer and competitive endurance athlete, Chris has long recognized the role public lands and waters have played in his outdoor passions. After learning about BHA, he became involved in the New England chapter and joined the chapter board in 2018. Chris lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts with his wife and three children.

Travis Bradford Video Production and Graphic Design Coordinator A third-generation Montanan, born at the confluence of Western trout rivers, Travis has been immersed in the outdoors since he was young. Chasing whitetails and elk with a bow alongside his family in the mountains of Montana was his initial introduction to the wild, but it’s the ghosts that inhabit the waters of the West that hold his attention throughout the year. When he’s not fly fishing, he can be found with his trusty golden retriever Sal and a camera in-hand chasing images and telling stories through a multitude of mediums.

Kaden was born and raised in northern Utah where he grew up hunting, fishing and recreating on public lands.

After graduating from Utah State University, where he received a B.S. in law and constitutional studies with a minor in environmental studies and was actively involved in his collegiate BHA club, he worked for the Utah Rivers Council and then the Alaska Wilderness League, focused on protecting public lands and waters in America’s Arctic and the Tongass National Forest. Joining the BHA team allowed him to continue policy work while returning closer to his roots as a sportsman.

Thomas Plank Communications Coordinator

Thomas Plank grew up in Nebraska and Colorado where he learned to fish and backpack with his dad and brother. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Stanford University and worked for four years in Montana and Idaho as a newspaper journalist. He can be found looking for untrafficked streams while grousing about his roll cast.

Veronica Corbett

Joshua Stratton

Montana Chapter Organizer

Great Plains Chapter Coordinator

Veronica Corbett is a child of the suburbs who caught the fastest ticket into the wilderness she could find. A nomad of the West, Veronica has lived in most states west of the Rockies (sorry, Utah) and can’t stop the feeling of wanderlust she gets every time she looks at a map. She prefers mountains over the beach and wildlife over nightlife (unless that nightlife is nocturnal wildlife)! She considers herself an angler who’s learning to hunt and held her first ever elk tag at the age of 29. She can’t imagine a single day without public lands in public hands.

Joshua Stratton comes to Backcountry Hunters & Anglers with 20 years of experience in the hunting and fishing industry. His passion for public lands and protecting them has made him a strong advocate for BHA at the Oklahoma State Capitol and in local communities. His focus in the field is fly fishing, waterfowl and upland hunting. With many years spent in the Great Plains, he looks to build corporate relationships, increase the Native voice and continue the wonderful work that BHA has been doing in the region.

EVERY ADVENTURE HAS ITS REWARDS T H E @FatTire

E A S Y

D R I N K I N G

A M B E R

©2021 NEW BELGIUM BREWING COMPANY, FORT COLLINS, CO & ASHEVILLE, NC

A L E

CATHERINE DANAE ELSER PROSPECT, PENNSYLVANIA

FACES OF BHA

Pennsylvania Chapter Board

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO BHA? I became aware of BHA through professionals and influencers in the hunting and fishing industry. When I researched it and got to know the mission and values, I knew it was an organization I wanted to be a part of, especially since it is such an active organization.

AS A MEMBER OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CHAPTER BOARD, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT WORKING ON? The longevity of public lands relies on those who understand their importance, so as a member of the Pennsylvania chapter board, it is my goal to create events through BHA that can engage a wider audience. If we create a welcoming space as an organization for all kinds of people, we lend a larger and louder voice to defend our public lands. Events I am passionate about getting off the ground include family events and art. For example, last December I hosted an online family paint night at which we painted a bear and a deer on ornaments, and it was great to see whole families involved.

Catherine pictured with one of two pterosaur sculptures completed during her residency at Petrified Forest National Park.

CAN YOU TELL US HOW YOU ARE USING YOUR ARTWORK TO BRING AWARENESS TO PUBLIC LANDS AND WATERS AND BHA? Art might not be the first tool one would think about when it comes to conservation, but it has been in service of public lands since the late 19th century when Hudson River School painters sent from the West majestic views on canvas. More recently, one might think of the duck stamp, whose art competition opened in 1949 and still runs today. I’m proud to be part of a legacy of art in the outdoors, whose history is long and still embedded in sporting life and public lands and waters. Art opens doors for conversations about conservation.

I have been fortunate enough as a wildlife artist to use my art in service of public lands as an Artist-in-Residence. I was AiR in John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon in 2019, then Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona in 2020, and this year I will be creating in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Michigan. My focus this year will be on Michigan’s state fish, the brook trout. And like

the other parks, the sculpture I make will stay with the park. It is an engaging experience and a joy to interact with visitors explaining what I do and the importance of public lands and waters.

It’s these experiences that give me a unique voice for BHA to reach that wider audience.

When someone who loves to recreate around public waters, but has maybe never held a brook trout, gets a chance to get up close to my sculpted fish, I am able to explain as an angler and artist the importance of clean, cold water for brookies. In many cases we can all agree that protecting our public lands and waters is a good thing, but it feels great to be able to point folks to an organization that stays on top of current legislation, and I feel like my voice matters.

WHAT’S YOUR PERFECT DAY LIKE ON PUBLIC LANDS AND WATERS? A perfect day on public lands would have to include waking up on them, enjoying some coffee from the Jetboil with my husband and adventuring with him and our Deutsch drahthaar. Getting in some miles by foot and seeing new sites are always welcome, but I can’t live without fishing of any kind. Whether it’s taking out my 2-wt. fly rod on a small mountain stream to trolling on a lake to sitting in a hut while ice fishing, fishing has always been a way for me to connect to the outdoors and with people I love.

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Email your Backcountry Bounty submissions to williams@backcountryhunters. org or share your photos with us by using #backcountryhuntersandanglers on social media! (Emailed bounty submissions may also appear on social media.)

BACKCOUNTRY BOUNTY

Hunter: Trevor Snyder, BHA member Species: whitetail State: Wisconsin Method: bow Distance from nearest road: one mile Transportation: kayak, foot

Angler: Nicholas Fisch, BHA member Species: redfish State: Florida Method: Fly Distance from nearest road: seven miles Transportation: poled skiff Hunter: Laural Cyrus, BHA member Species: blacktail State: Washington Method: bow Distance from nearest road: one mile Transportation: foot

Hunter: Zac Woodward, BHA member Species: Sitka blacktail State: Alaska Method: rifle Distance from nearest road: 100 miles Transportation: plane, boat, foot

“I moved to Kodiak, Alaska, with the Coast Guard in 2019 and decided that 2020 would be the year I learned to hunt, fish and forage.

It was a very tough year for a beginner hunter as we had an unusual amount of snow that strongly impacted the Sitka blacktail herd. But after four months of hard charging with no success, my hunting partner and I flew to a remote area of the island, and I finally brought home my first buck.

My wife and I moved here (mostly) vegetarian, still consume primarily a plant-based diet, and I am exceedingly proud to say that I haven’t bought meat or fish from a grocery store in nearly three years, even though I do occasionally enjoy some of the best the planet has to offer!

I love the work BHA does and strongly support your efforts on Bristol Bay!” -Zac Woodward

Hunters: Sarah Foreman (pictured), Mark Penninger, BHA members Species: black bear State: Oregon Method: rifle Distance from nearest road: one mile Transportation: foot

Hunter: David Scianimanico, BHA Member Species: dall sheep Territory: Northwest Territories Method: FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 17 rifle Distance from nearest road: 100 miles Transportation: helicopter drop, then foot for 10 days

INTRODUCING

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WHERE WILL YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE TAKE YOU?

LEARN MORE AT FleetFarm.com/backcountry OR BY CALLING 1-800-766-9165

KIDS’ CORNER

GOING

FISHING

By Penelope Gall This summer I went fishing in Colorado and Montana and caught cutthroat and brown trout. We used caddis and stoneflies.

My favorite thing about fishing is catching the fish. I like seeing the fish eat the fly. I get excited when I see a shady spot because there might be a fish living there.

I like to wade because I like getting wet. I like to float because you can fish more water. The main thing is that you have a fun time!

Photos: Adam Gall

Penelope Gall is 8 years old and lives in western Colorado with her mom, dad, younger sister, chickens and dogs. She enjoys s’mores, books, exploring outside, collecting specimens from nature, building forts and doing any sort of art.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 19

UNFAILING GOODS 20 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

FILSON.COM

DONATE TO INVEST in the future of your public lands, waters and wildlife

Photo: Jacob Sonnentag, 2020 Public Lands and Waters Photo Contest

CAMPFIRE CIRCLE The Campfire Circle is a group of dedicated advocates, like you, who choose to donate $1,000 or more per year to ensure that BHA’s campaigns, advocacy and on the ground efforts on behalf of our wild public lands, waters and wildlife are sustained. Support from the Campfire Circle (formerly known as Legacy Partners) is crucial to the mission of BHA. PROJECT ASPEN Our shared lands, our responsibility. We are working to diversify our funding sources to ensure that BHA will always be working on behalf of our wild public lands, waters and wildlife – for generations to come – by establishing a $1 million endowment. This investment will grow and become a perpetual funding stream that exists to support the future needs of our organization, regardless of any unpredictable challenges beyond our influence.

LEGACY GIVING Including Backcountry Hunters & Anglers in your plans for the future will create a long-lasting impact for our wild public lands, waters and wildlife. Your commitment to BHA will allow the next generation of conservation leaders to continue our work as part of your legacy. Including BHA in your will, trust, retirement account or life insurance policy is one of the easiest and quickest ways to support the future.

ONE-TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS You can choose to make one donation at a time or become a sustaining donor and make monthly donations. All donations are fully tax-deductible and go toward securing the future of hunting and angling – ensuring that you have access to public lands and waters and healthy fish and wildlife habitat when you get there.

OTHER WAYS TO GIVE Amazon Smile – to support BHA through your everyday Amazon purchases, visit Amazon Smile and register BHA as your preferred nonprofit.

Please contact BHA Director of Innovative Alliances Rachel Schmidt at Schmidt@backcountryhunters.org or visit backcountryhunters.org/donate for more information.

Chapter News & Updates

ALASKA

ARIZONA

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The Alaska chapter participated in a BLM-organized trail repair of the Pinnell Mountain National Recreation Trail, which was damaged by illegal OHV use.

The chapter is monitoring and engaging in the current federal regulatory process that determines changes to Alaska’s federal subsistence hunting and trapping regulations.

Wrote and signed on to letters in support of Trails Build Alaska, a workforce development initiative to build sustainable trail systems in Alaska to increase access to public lands and invest in outdoor recreation infrastructure.

The Alaska chapter continues to be engaged in discussions regarding the Tongass National Forest and to monitor developments on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Pebble Mine.

ALBERTA •

• •

Our campaign against expanded coal mining in the Eastern Slopes is getting results. Alberta regulators denied the Grassy Mountain Mine, and the federal government agreed to requests by BHA and other groups to conduct an impact assessment of the Tent Mountain project.

In June, the chapter met with the Alberta Coal Policy Committee to express opposition to mining the Eastern Slopes.

We are collaborating with allied conservation groups to resume public land cleanups, citizen science projects and social events.

22 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

• •

In-person pint nights are beginning again.

We are continuing to service our monofilament bins on the Salt River with good success.

The chapter placed second in the Wild Game Cookoff at Rendezvous in Missoula.

ARKANSAS • •

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Pine Tree to remain public! Read more in Headquarters News on page 11.

Our board couldn’t be more excited to be hosting events again! Our first pint night in over a year took place in central AR at Flyway Brewery.

We’ve also hosted a squirrel hunt, a navigation clinic, and we’ve only just begun! We look forward to many events in the near future.

On July 22, Cory Gray, research division chief of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, discussed the latest research information about chronic wasting disease in Arkansas, hosted at Ozark Beer Co. in Rogers.

BRITISH COLUMBIA • •

British Columbia chapter volunteer Steve Nikirk is helping spearhead the Armed Forces Initiative in Canada in collaboration with the Alberta chapter.

Our Northern Region partnered with the Steelhead Society of BC to

CHAPTER NEWS

•

install Clear Your Gear disposal stations at popular fishing spots and boat launches to recover waste fishing line for recycling.

Vancouver Island members continue with the last stages of an epic public land cleanup on Little Mountain, prepping tons of garbage for heli-lifts.

GEORGIA • •

CALIFORNIA • •

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The chapter is spearheading an initiative to restore hunting access to Castle Mountains National Monument and recently completed a habitat improvement project to support wildlife in the region.

BHA Pendleton AFI club met all requirements and was officially granted Private Organization status aboard Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton in Southern California. The club is the first in the state and first to operate aboard a Marine Corps Base.

The CA chapter and the BHA Pendleton AFI club recently fundraised and replaced four guzzlers that were destroyed by wildfire to support wildlife on base during a critical drought year.

The chapter has partnered with the Forest Service on an initiative to inventory and repair hundreds of guzzlers located on remote public lands.

CAPITAL REGION • • •

The Capital chapter helped promote one of the largest proposed expansions of hunting and fishing on the Eastern Shore of Virginia brought on by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

We hosted our first inaugural 3D-shoot in Northern Virginia and raised over $1,200. Thanks to all who came out to support us!

The chapter was able to donate a Virginia goose hunt, along with two custom calls made by B.S. Calls, to the North American Rendezvous, which raised almost $2,000. Huge thanks to Elevated Wild for putting this together!

COLLEGIATE PROGRAM •

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Thirty of our top club leaders attended BHA’s North American Rendezvous, where they participated in a full day of chapter leader training, volunteered with top wild game chefs at the Field to Table Dinner, and Mateen Hessami and Walker Italia represented the collegiate program in the Wild Game Cookoff.

University of Wisconsin Steven’s Point club leader Jeffrey Edwards received BHA’s Rachel L. Carson award, which highlights the efforts of a new and emerging leader representative of BHA’s mission and values.

Madeline Damon (University of Montana) and Walker Italia (Saint Michael’s College) were recognized for their contributions to their clubs, the program and BHA at chapter leader training. Oliver Classen (West Virginia University) was highlighted for his work as BHA member of the month for June.

COLORADO • • •

Geordie Robinson volunteered to serve as our chapter “Culinary Liaison,” a first of its kind position for BHA chapters.

Colorado chapter Central West Slope Assistant Regional Director Adam Gall was the recipient of BHA’s 2021 Jim Posewitz Award.

Alex Krebs joined the Colorado BHA chapter leadership team as an assistant regional director for the Southwest Colorado group, and Luke Fitzgerald volunteered to serve as co-regional director for Routt County.

FLORIDA • •

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The chapter hosted our first annual Invasive Fish Fry and Fundraiser in South Florida, gathering members from all over to raise money and enjoy great wild food. More events are being scheduled regularly.

We recently submitted a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in support of potential new access and hunting opportunities in Florida Panther NWR, including suggestions to maximize the limited hunting opportunities.

The Florida Wildlife Corridor Act was signed into law following unanimous bipartisan approval. The Florida Wildlife Corridor provides a network of connected lands throughout the state to sustain critical habitat.

The Georgia chapter stayed busy and held a series of great pint nights across the state over the summer.

The chapter is also still monitoring the potential mine at the Okefenokee Swamp, the creation of the Ocmulgee National Park and the possible loss of public land on Boggs Mountain.

IDAHO • • •

Idaho BHA joined a number of other organizations to form United Payette, a coalition dedicated to conserving state endowment lands around Payette Lake in the face of increasing development pressure.

The County Line Wildlife Fence Project in eastern Idaho was implemented by Idaho Fish and Game. The chapter donated $5,000 to the project, which modified fences in a high priority migration corridor.

The Idaho chapter partnered with outfitters to maintain trail in the Frank Church Wilderness. BHA staff and volunteers flew into the backcountry, hiked over 10 miles and gained over 3,000 feet to access the project. The chapter received a grant from Idaho Fish and Game to improve access in the wilderness.

ILLINOIS •

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The Illinois chapter board held a retreat at Lake Shelbyville, where we discussed how to move forward with upcoming pint nights, board officer positions and cleanup events. Keep an eye on the chapter website for events happening in your area.

The chapter had a custom piece of artwork donated and created by a board member that was auctioned at the BHA rendezvous for $300.

A few members also attended Rendezvous in person. Good luck prepping for upcoming fall seasons and check out our Hike to Hunt team.

IOWA •

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We hosted a well-attended “Learn to Fly Fish” event in collaboration with the Sioux County Conservation Board and guest instructor Dan Frasier, author of The Orvis Beginner’s Guide to Carp Flies: 101. (Check out Hal Herring’s interview with Dan via backcountryhunters.org/bha_podcast.)

The Iowa Chapter Rendezvous was held in Polk City, Aug. 14-15, which included two separate R3 classes on dove hunting and wingshooting in conjunction with the Iowa DNR. Held a screening of the 2,000 Miles Film Tour in Des Moines.

KANSAS •

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The Kansas chapter held a showing of the 2,000 Miles Film Tour, sponsored by Walton’s, which was about hunting the annual waterfowl migration from Canada to Texas and included appearances by two chapter board members during the filming’s stop in Kansas.

Kansas chapter volunteers helped clean up areas around Middle Creek State Fishing Lake near Louisburg, Kansas, after heavy use through Covid. Cleanup included removing trash, brush and trees, and about a dozen volunteers pitched in.

The Kansas chapter formed a Hike to Hunt team, a virtual competition bringing awareness to wild public lands and waters.

KENTUCKY • •

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The Kentucky chapter supported the Eastern National Scholastic 3D Archery Tournament by tabling at the event. Young archers from all over the eastern part of the United States participated.

We collaborated with the Bluegrass Trout Unlimited chapter at their annual fly casting instructional event at West Sixth Farm. All proceeds from casting lessons will go towards stream restoration projects in Lexington and to support the Trout in the Classroom initiative.

The chapter board welcomed two new leaders in June: Scott Taulbee and Darrell Taylor. Scott will represent BHA interests in the commonwealth’s 8th commission district and Darrell in the 2nd district. We wish to say thank to our former district directors, Amber Leach and Larry Lewis, for their dedication and service to the Kentucky chapter.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 23

MICHIGAN

NEW MEXICO

MINNESOTA

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Partnered with the USFS to clear fence in the Huron National Forest.

Held a virtual pint night with Jared Walker on rifle hunting out West.

Held more mentored hunting projects.

In June, Minnesota chapter volunteers removed old appliances, furniture and other trash from public land near Duluth.

The chapter held a 3D archery shoot at South Forty Archers in Lakeville, MN, and had 135 people come out to shoot the course.

Chapter members engaged legislators this session to ensure critical habitat license plate funds were not steered away from habitat acquisition and improvement.

We remain involved in the developing situation of CWD spread by the captive cervid industry, specifically in Beltrami County, where it is now directly affecting public land access.

MISSOURI •

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MDC has proposed allowing for usage of bikes and e-bikes on conservation area service roads. MO BHA would like to give our members a voice in this matter. Keep an eye out for an upcoming questionnaire. We want to know your thoughts.

The chapter will be cohosting a weekend-long Black Bear Bash with the AR and OK chapters in March 2022. More details to follow.

The chapter will be hosting multiple archery shoots across the state in preparation for archery season this fall.

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NEW YORK • •

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Sent letters of support for an LWCF-funded public land acquisition and a GAOA-funded trail connection.

Removed unnecessary fencing on public lands near Missoula and cleared more than five kilometers of trail in the Sapphires with Wild Montana.

Elevated member DJ Zor to be Montana’s AFI Liaison and added or renewed several state-based partners.

Recognized as BHA Chapter of the Month in May and Board Chair John B. Sullivan III was awarded the Mike Beagle-Chairman’s Award at Rendezvous.

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NEBRASKA • • •

New chapter board members Bryan Trout, James Eaves and Ace Ford were confirmed, along with Brian Hansen as state policy chair.

In person pint nights started back up, along with a family fishing and cleanup event held at Pawnee SRA in August.

The chapter is working to coordinate a fence removal project with the Forest Service in the Soldier Creek Wilderness of western Nebraska this fall.

NEVADA •

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The Nevada chapter partnered with the Nevada Wildlife Federation, Trout Unlimited, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and representatives from Senator Rosen’s and Senator Cortez Masto’s offices for a webinar about oil and gas leasing legislation in the Ruby Mountains.

Nevada BHA members hosted a Backpack Hunting 101 event at IMBIB Brewery in Reno. Presentations were made to display tactics and gear for multiple backpack hunting scenarios.

Five BHA members worked with Friends of Nevada Wilderness and Backcountry Horseman to complete trail work on the North Twin Trail in the Arc Dome Wilderness.

NEW ENGLAND • • •

The chapter has engaged in protecting access in coastal areas, especially in Rhode Island, recently.

Chapter leaders discussed Black Faces, White Spaces, a book by Carolyn Finney, as part of the process of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in our outdoor pursuits.

Vermont members submitted comments to the USFS in an effort to protect remote wildlife habitat from commercial expansion in the GMNF.

24 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

We were active with legislative outreach and a member action alert to support alternatives to the proposed lead ammo ban on state lands in New York.

We are partnering with The Nature Conservancy, National Deer Association and Hunters of Color to create a hunting mentorship program specifically for BIPOC would-be hunters, scheduled for mid-November near Albany, NY. We partnered with the NY Department of Environmental Conservation to plant trees, create brush piles and remove invasive species in the High Tor Wildlife Management Area and Jersey Hills State Forest.

NORTH CAROLINA

MONTANA •

For the second year in a row, we are giving away an elk license to a youth hunter, thanks to the generous donation of the family of former game commissioner David Soules. He passed away unexpectedly in March but loved to take folks out for their first hunt.

We have partnered with other sportsmen’s organizations to work on wildlife drinkers around the state and to clean up portions of the Jemez River.

We continue to advocate for better access to Coronado National Forest in the Bootheel region.

Chapter leaders have met regularly for the last several months sharing information, ideas and best practices. New councils have sprung up and a new AFI Club at Seymour Johnson Airforce Base is taking off.

New shooters from our summer Women in the Woods event were able to come back together and hone their new skills in the field for a group dove hunt and campout.

Hunters across North Carolina prepare to hunt our public lands on Sundays this fall for the first time in 150 years. Still a long way to go on Sunday hunting, but this a significant win for access and opportunity in NC. HUGE thanks to our members for using their voices and making a difference. Let’s keep it up!

Members are coming together again as the country moves beyond Covid.

Our chapter’s hyper-local sub-groups are called councils. To learn more, email chapter leadership at northcarolina@backcountryhunters.org.

The chapter board welcomes two new members: Marty Bartram as AFI coordinator and Jacob Lishen as marketing coordinator.

OHIO • •

Launched a virtual series of informational sessions with local conservation experts. Topics covered to date include CWD and the Farm Bill.

Excited to get boots on the ground again! Cleanup, stewardship and pint night events are being held across the state.

OKLAHOMA • • • •

Join our Facebook group or email newsletter to keep up with all the chapter events!

The third annual campout/river float/rendezvous on the scenic Illinois River was enjoyed in August.

In August at Holdenville Fish Hatchery, we built and placed spider blocks to help increase fishing opportunities.

We partnered with NWTF, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and many other local organizations on a Deer Hunting Expo in July at Reed Center in Midwest City.

OREGON •

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Oregon chapter leadership continues to play a pivotal role in the State Game Commission’s 2022 archery elk proposal. Board Co-Chairs Ian Isaacson and Tristan Henry joined leaders from Oregon’s hunting and conservation community, along with ODFW, to craft policy that allows more detailed management and monitoring for some of Oregon’s highest-pressure elk hunting units, while balancing the social science hurdles that a transition from a general to controlled season brings about.

The Oregon chapter is proud to announce a partnership with RMEF for a

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private-to-public land transfer on the lower Minam River.

We are coordinating stewardship days for the summer and fall seasons.

Be on the lookout for forthcoming boots-on-the-ground opportunities to improve your public land backyard.

PENNSYLVANIA • • •

Chapter leaders met individually with the four executive directors and 16 elected members of the Senate’s and House’s Game & Fisheries committees.

The chapter wrote letters of support for three bills in the House Game & Fisheries Committee.

Leaders also met personally with the executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission and with the secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

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WASHINGTON • • • •

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SOUTH CAROLINA •

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Our chapter continued coordinating with Trout Unlimited; the chapter VP was a guest speaker at the Saluda Trout Unlimited chapter meeting.

He discussed BHA’s mission, as well as ways we can work together to further the goals of both organizations within South Carolina. He also encouraged mutual membership for both organizations.

We hosted our first annual Trashy Tail small game hunt and pack out. We picked up a full truckload of trash and managed to harvest a few squirrels for dinner in the process.

We initiated additional conversations towards our push for Sunday hunting in South Carolina. We’ve already gained traction and plan to continue the momentum as the year progresses.

Several of our members volunteered to help the USFS mark new boundary areas in the Francis Marion National Forest.

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We are excited to host the Total Archery Challenge afterparty on Saturday, June 26, at the Terry Peak Lodge.

Our chapter has been working with the BLM and Forest Service on potential projects, including cleanups and opening up more acres of public land.

SOUTHEAST • • •

We have resumed “Archery in the Park,” the first Sunday of each month in Oak Mountain State Park, near Birmingham.

We have several cleanup projects in the works for Public Lands Month.

Let us know if you’re interested in participating in your area.

We are planning a regionwide weekend get-together in early 2022. Keep an eye out for more information as we finalize plans.

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• •

Texas BHA volunteers traveled to South Padre Island for the 26th annual Billy Sandifer Big Shell Beach Cleanup. Hundreds of bags of trash were collected, and it was a great opportunity to connect with Texas game wardens and other conservation organizations. Special thanks to Friends of Padre Island for organizing.

Chapter Chair Grahame Jones was featured in episode 101 of BHA’s Podcast & Blast with Hal Herring, where he talked about Texas issues and shared stories from the field.

We kicked off our 2021 R3 program with Texas Wildlife Association by hosting a hog and small game hunt at Hagerman NWR in North Texas.

UTAH • • •

Utah joined neighboring western states in prohibiting baiting for ungulates during the 2021 legislative session.

The Utah chapter started a Regional Advisory Committee Liaison group to increase public land hunters’ representation at local state wildlife meetings.

The chapter launched a mentorship program to help kick-start new members’ interests in hunting and fishing.

Held a pint night in Morgantown on September 2 at Mountain State Brewing Co. There is a concerted effort to get OHVs and ATVs on our public lands in WV, and we are speaking out against it. We have teamed up with other eastern BHA chapters to create tools that we can use to educate lawmakers on the detrimental effects of off-road traffic on our public lands.

WISCONSIN •

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Members of the Wisconsin chapter, along with Artemis Sportswoman, and North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association attended a recent book reading and pint night at the Wausau Great Dane Brewery.

Wl author Ken Blomberg read from his book Wisconsin Bird Hunting Tales. Ken donated two copies of Wisconsin Bird Hunting Tales to be raffled off at the event.

The chapter organized a Castle Rock Flowage duck blind cleanup. BHA members, in collaboration with the Petenwell & Castle Rock Flowage Stewards, spent the morning removing old, dilapidated duck blinds on Castle Rock Lakes. BHA set the date and provided the boats, PACRS provided trailers to move the debris and WRPCO hauled the debris for disposal, proving “Water Quality Together.”

The chapter held call to action asking Fred Prehn, the chair of the Natural Resources Board, to step down from his seat which ended on May 1, 2021. However, he was refusing to do so.

WYOMING •

TEXAS •

The Washington chapter held our third fence removal work party in the Methow Valley and pulled the remaining old woven wire and barbed wire fencing down from the Golden Doe Wildlife Area.

Volunteers met at the Corson Wildlife Area in Lake Stevens, Washington, to help clear existing trails of debris and plant +/- 500 new cedar trees.

We held our 3rd annual Access Freedom archery shoot in Belfair, Washington, totaling 130-plus attendees.

The chapter adopted the Ebey Island Wildlife area, which consists of 1277 acres. This property is home to some great public land waterfowl opportunities, is a western Washington pheasant release site and hosts a sustainable number of blacktail deer.

The Washington chapter kicked off the 2nd year of its Embers and Ecology program led by Eastside co-chair Carmen Vanbianchi.

WEST VIRGINIA

SOUTH DAKOTA •

In May, the chapter hosted an outdoor viewing of the 2,000 miles Film Tour in Roosevelt, Utah.

• •

The Wyoming BHA board voted unanimously to oppose the Office of State Lands and Investments Columbus Peak land exchange outside Dayton, Wyoming. The board participated in public meetings and conversations with the state prior to writing a formal letter to oppose. The ruling concerning the exchange will be in August.

Members of BHA worked with Game and Fish, Wyoming Wildlife Association and Americorps to complete 2.5 miles of fence pull on Bud Love Wildlife Management Area outside Buffalo, Wyoming.

At the July Wyoming Game and Fish Commission meeting, WY chapter board members presented Wyoming Game and Fish with a $47,000 check to help expand access to the Raymond Mountain Wilderness Study Area.

YUKON •

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Based on the success of our sheep hunting panel in late 2020, we held a bison hunting panel this year, which was a great success, and several members have upgraded their hunting gear based on the techniques and equipment that were discussed and shown.

With the pandemic still rolling, we are pushing our Annual General Meeting to be held yet this summer, hopefully outside, near a lake with some fishing after the meeting.

Find a more detailed writeup of your chapter’s news along with events and updates by regularly visiting www.backcountryhunters.org/chapters or contacting them at [your state/province/territory/region]@backcountryhunters.org (e.g. newengland@backcountryhunters.org)

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CHAPTER NEWS

In Depth:

Paying It Forward

BY JOEL GAY It’s not easy for resident hunters to draw an elk tag in New Mexico, even for kids. As in many states, demand for tags far outstrips supply. But that’s only part of the equation. New Mexico also has the most liberal private land elk hunting program in the U.S. In recent years, up to half – HALF! – of all available elk tags have been given to landowners to sell to the highest bidder. Whatever is left goes into the big game draw.

And even then, residents’ share of the draw is substantially less than in other Western states. With a few notable exceptions, New Mexico sets aside 10 percent of every draw hunt to those who hire an outfitter. No other state subsidizes its outfitter industry to that extent.

This unequal distribution of big game licenses has long been an issue among New Mexico hunters. It has also been a high priority for the New Mexico chapter of BHA. We have harangued our governors, legislators and state game commissioners to give residents a higher percentage of tags, but we’ve seen little progress so far.

So, when BHA life member, state game commissioner and landowner David Soules last year offered our chapter a bull elk tag he had received through EPLUS (the state’s Elk Private Lands Use System) – a tag that he could probably sell for $10,000 – we jumped at the chance to give it away. “We know that giving away one elk tag is a drop in the bucket,” said Chapter Chairman Chuck Tripp, “but it’s a start. We believe the game commission should make it easier for residents to draw elk tags. Since they haven’t done that yet, we figured we would show them how easy it is.”

The chapter decided to give the tag away through a raffle for New Mexico BHA members only and at the suggestion of our chapter coordinator, Katie DeLorenzo, to require that it went to one of the many New Mexico hunters who has never been able to draw a tag.

“One unfortunate side effect of our unequal license distribution in New Mexico is that new hunters sometimes can’t draw a tag.”

DeLorenzo said. “After two or three years, they can just give up.”

Our initial tag winner was Chad Taylor, but since he’s a longtime hunter, he passed the tag along to a friend, 10-year-old Liam Howe of Farmington. Liam is also mobility impaired. At 6 weeks old, he was suffering from seizures and had half of his brain surgically removed.

Today, his father, Jeff Howe, said it’s hard to distinguish Liam from most kids. “He walks, talks, he can have an adult conversation.”

And like so many New Mexico residents, Liam has found it difficult to draw a big game tag. After going through hunter education, hunting alongside his father and applying for his own elk and deer tags – and failing to draw – Liam was beyond ready to go hunting himself. “I was so excited when I found out I was getting to hunt,” he told us last fall.

When October rolled around, Liam was swamped with helpers: his dad, mom, uncles and a grandpa. They set up camp in the Sacramento Mountains, scouted and soon spotted animals. He couldn’t get a shot the first day, so they returned Sunday and found Photo: Liam Howe and his parents, courtesy Jeff Howe

both cows and bulls, including one that Liam’s father thought was the prime target. Liam, however, was aimed elsewhere. Using shooting sticks and a .243, the first-time hunter pulled the trigger and hit a good-sized cow a little over 300 yards away.

“When he shot her, he just broke down,” Jeff Howe said. “He was so damn excited!”

The New Mexico chapter believes it should not be so hard for a 10 year old (or 70 year old), or the mobility impaired or any other public land hunter to draw an elk tag in New Mexico. Yet the state game commission has done little to stem the rising percentage of elk tags going out of the public draw and into EPLUS, even though it has the authority. Similarly, the legislature could bring New Mexico into line with other Western states by amending the big game draw.

The New Mexico chapter was part of a coalition earlier this year that pushed the legislature to adopt a range of measures aimed at bringing New Mexico hunting laws up to date, including rewriting the big game draw to give residents 90 percent of tags and raising the nonresident share to 10 percent (it’s 6 percent now). The bill also would have strengthened our wanton waste law and prohibited landowners from indiscriminately killing big game animals for threatening their crops. Sadly, opposition was stronger than support, and the bill died in committee.

Revamping New Mexico’s big game tag allocation process will be a huge effort. Landowners, outfitters and even many hunters have come to think of the current unequal distribution of tags – particularly elk tags – as an entitlement. They will fight any changes that put more tags into the public domain. But wildlife is held in the public trust, and the New Mexico chapter of BHA will fight, too, for Liam Howe and the rest of us.

In the meantime, many in New Mexico were heartbroken to hear that David Soules, 63, died unexpectedly this spring. His family plans to keep his memory alive by donating an annual elk tag to the New Mexico chapter to give away to a youth hunter. It may be a drop in the bucket, but as our chairman said, “It’s a start.”

Joel Gay, who grew up in Albuquerque, has been on the New Mexico chapter board practically since the chapter was formed and was chairman for several years. He is an avid hunter when he can draw tags and is always up for fishing the skinny streams of northern New Mexico.

He was this year’s recipient of BHA’s Sigurd F. Olson Award.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 27

CHAPTER NEWS

In Depth:

Alberta Chapter Fights for Wild Places and Creatures

BY NEIL KEOWN

Photo: Neil Keown

The Friday entering a long weekend in May 2020 saw the Alberta provincial government rescind the 1976 Coal Policy quietly, without public consultation. This policy, which had been introduced with much fanfare four decades earlier and after years of consultation with stakeholders, including hunters, anglers and outfitters, disappeared discreetly, with a simple media release.

Generations of hunters and anglers who have spent time in the Oldman, Bow, Red Deer and North Saskatchewan watersheds benefited from the policy, which protected the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains from coal development.

Just weeks after the rescission, a number of coal exploration permits were issued to Australian mining companies for 1.7 million hectares of public lands. Drilling rig roads quickly appeared in formerly undisturbed westslope cutthroat trout, elk, grizzly bear and bighorn sheep habitat. By the fall of 2020, over 235 km of exploration roads were cut into hillsides and across prime elk and bear habitat, with several hundred drill sites completed and a promise to reclaim the disturbed lands in the future.

Alberta anglers, having witnessed the effects of open-pit coal mining across the western provincial border, specifically in the Fording and Elk rivers, were alarmed. In recent months, the Environment and Climate Change Canada department had levied record-setting fines to mining companies for exceeding pollutant limits and detrimentally impacting native trout populations in these river systems.

These same transboundary rivers also flow into Montana, Idaho and the Columbia River, posing a distinct threat to wildlife, public recreation and the millions of people downstream who depend on this water source. Now, the fear of similar projects in Alberta, without consideration of landscape level impacts, had many BHA members worried.

The exploration activities that were being done in the Oldman River headwaters signaled clearly that this river, which provides water to the Canadian Prairies before draining into Hudson Bay, and is prized by many for its bull and westslope cutthroat trout fishing, was under threat.

The Alberta chapter heard from concerned members and made the decision to get involved. The chapter’s key motivations for action were centered on the degradation and fragmentation of the landscape, the potential loss of public land and water access for over 1.7 million hectares and the lack of public consultation.

Given that fish and game associations had previously raised concerns about open-pit coal mining in the 1960s, which led to the creation of the 1976 Coal Policy, it was puzzling to see a lack of response decades later from the same (and some newer) groups.

This inaction provided BHA’s Alberta chapter an opportunity to take a leadership role, which started with a call to action for members to contact their elected officials. This call to action, which took place over three months, resulted in over 3,000 emails being sent to the provincial premier and cabinet ministers, in addition to hundreds of phone calls that elected officials received.

An additional opportunity for increased involvement materialized when a judicial review, which was filed by local ranchers, sought to have the Coal Policy re-implemented until public consultations could be held with impacted stakeholders.

With no group representing impacted hunters and anglers, the Alberta chapter retained a Calgary-based law office, which graciously offered to provide their services pro bono and made Alberta’s first legal action official by filing an intervenor request.

The chapter sought to represent BHA members and the hunting/ angling community at large. The Alberta chapter then found ourselves, along with other non-government organizations and First Nation representatives, in the Alberta provincial court in early January 2021.

Occurring at the same time, the Grassy Mountain coal project was making news. Grassy Mountain, which is the location of an open-pit mine that closed in the 1960s, had been purchased by an Australian mining company who started the process to reopen operations several years prior. The process included hearings by a joint review panel, which was tasked with determining if the proposal was in the public interest, in addition to conducting an environmental assessment. The culmination was a public comment period, where BHA introduced a call to action and frequent social media messaging, in concert with local fly shops,

28 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

fly guides, municipalities, country music stars, the MeatEater podcasts and environmental NGOs, which activated hundreds of concerned citizens to provide their thoughts to the joint review panel.

The public pressure was being felt by politicians at all levels.

After a few half-hearted measures to appease the public, the Alberta government restored the 1976 Coal Policy in early February, in addition to establishing a Coal Policy Committee to lead the public engagement process, which was one of the key asks from the Alberta chapter from the onset.

Notably missing from the announcement was the exploration activities for the leases awarded in 2020, which were still allowed.

The chapter began an aggressive social media campaign to identify what popular hunting, camping, fishing and recreation areas were at risk from exploration and encouraged members to continue contacting their elected officials.

These actions, combined with the efforts of NGOs and other partners, resulted in the Alberta government halting most exploration activities, pending the conclusion of the Coal Policy Committee consultation phase. For the remaining exploration activities, the chapter has engaged directly with the regulators and mining companies to voice specific concerns about the continued threat to critical trout habitat.

In mid-June, the joint review panel report for Grassy Mountain was announced, where the panel concluded that the proposal was not in the public interest, focused primarily on the impact

it would have on threatened fish species and their related habitat.

Of particular note, the report identified that there was a large number of submissions by the public, demonstrating that every voice matters.

Almost simultaneously, an additional announcement was made by Environment and Climate Change Canada that another proposed mine reopening (Tent Mountain, which borders British Columbia) would be subject to an environmental assessment review, similar to Grassy Mountain.

The Alberta chapter was able to demonstrate that even with limited resources to draw from, meaningful membership engagement, clear and concise social media messaging and a callto-action campaign that facilitates engagement with political officials can be extremely effective. Having our message picked up by others in the outdoor recreation community, who normally would not become engaged on these topics, greatly increased awareness of BHA and continued the growth of our reputation as a group that is willing to stand up and fight.

Neil Keown, the Alberta chapter chair since 2017, has worked in Alberta’s oil and gas sector for over two decades and in his free time can be found with a backpack exploring the wilderness across Western Canada.

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INFO JOURNAL | 29 FALL 2021 MORE BACKCOUNTRY

RECAP

BHA’s 2021 Rendezvous in Missoula, Montana, goes down as one for the ages.

Hike to Hunt contestants braved a swollen Bitterroot River to complete the challenging course.

Photo: Rob Yagid

BHA board members Ted Koch and Keenan Adams chat with Lydia Parker, executive director of Hunters of Color, prior to Saturday night’s Campfire Stories.

“It’s always a great time to see old friends and meet new faces.

The BHA Rendezvous is a great gathering to celebrate wild food and wild places,” said Randy Newberg, host of Fresh Tracks and Hunt Talk Radio. “It’s exciting to see so many young folks showing the energy and enthusiasm needed to give voice to the special places we love.”

Elevated Wild’s Rachel Owen, Burch Barrel’s Jaime Teigen and wild game chef and author Hank Shaw taste and judge entries in the ever popular Wild Game Cookoff, where BHA chapters compete for the crown.

The fine folks at Burch Barrel cooked up Randy Newberg’s wolf, which was a unique and impromptu experience for many attendees.

A Rendezvous highlight was on Friday morning with the breakdown of an entire freshly killed bison. Montana Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, joined other attendees with the Blackfeet’s Brave Dog Society, including Sheldon Carlson (pictured above) to lead the breakdown, address the history of the bison and its traditional uses, and provide historical context. Throughout Friday and on Saturday, participants learned how to make use of all parts of a bison.

“Buffalo offer us a great way for everyone to come together,” said Running Wolf. “If we don’t have the fear of bison back on a landscape, it’s going to benefit everybody – and maybe even lead to us hunting in partnership together.”

Visit BHA’s YouTube channel for a video highlight reel of Rendezvous!

Middle Left: Many folks went home with new fishing and hunting gear from raffles, and everyone came home with the spirit to carry on our public land and water legacy.

Middle Right: Hal Herring enthralled the crowd with a speech that would have made TR proud.

Left: Friday and Saturday nights were capped off with a bonfire and tales of public lands and waters enjoyed by many.

All photos both pages by Aaron Agosto, unless otherwise noted. Thanks for your help, Aaron!

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 31

C H A R I S M AT I C M E G A S P I C E S

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YOUR LINK TO THE FOOD CHAIN 32 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

ARMED FORCES INITIATIVE

IN DEFENSE OF PUBLIC LANDS AND WATERS Strengthening chapters through BHA’s Armed Forces Initiative

Photo: Stan Lake

BY LT. COL. ANDREW RUSZKIEWICZ AND LUKE WEINGARTEN Embrace the suck is a mentality that permeates the Armed Forces. It is also one with which most hunters and anglers are well acquainted. And embracing the suck was exactly what six new military veterans were doing while slogging through the swamps of North Carolina’s Falls of Neuse Waterfowl Impoundment at 4:30 a.m.

Enduring a steady February rain and temperatures hovering just above freezing, the band struggled through the waisthigh swamp, loaded down with gear, carefully navigating deep irrigation trenches as they approached their blinds in the pitch black. The similarities of these conditions to ones experienced in service to the nation bonded the group. Not one complained, and the witty banter and shit-talking was flowing hard and fast as it is wont to do among service personnel.

These six new hunters were part of a larger group of 25 military members who attended the previous week’s waterfowl clinic hosted by BHA’s Fort Bragg AFI club (the first installation

club formed under the Armed Forces Initiative) and the North Carolina BHA chapter, along with valuable support from the Fort Bragg Ducks Unlimited chapter and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission R3 Program.

After 10 hours of open-air classroom and field training covering habitat, scouting, identification, rules and regulations, shot selection, field care, cleaning, cooking and even dog training, a hunt day the following week closed the loop for these emergent waterfowlers.

The new hunters were now out in the thick of it, using their newly acquired skills and taking advantage of the special military federal waterfowl hunt opportunities on our public lands. This event, and numerous others around North America like it, are exactly what the Armed Forces Initiative is designed for. In its first year the program has empowered servicemen and women, veterans, Department of the Army civilians, and Gold Star families to accomplish great things. Central to the success of AFI is its integration with the entire BHA community, especially at the chapter level. And, as it turns out, it’s a damn near perfect fit.

Members of BHA come from all walks of life. In our community FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 33

Photo: Stan Lake

we count folks of every race, creed, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ancestry, religion (or lack thereof ), political affiliation and age. BHA’s mission unites us.

We are not a group that does conservation at highfalutin banquets. We are not content screaming into an echo chamber and complaining about everything wrong with the world. Sure, we utilize click-to-send action alerts that automatically get fired off to our elected officials, but we also put our boots in their offices and show up at the polls. Conservation through mud, blood, sweat and grit is how we do things, and that is an ethos our military brothers and sisters understand intrinsically.

A key perceptual aspect of the Armed Forces Initiative is that its affiliated clubs and military members are not separate and apart.

Active duty, reservists and retired are residents of a state , province or territory and are therefore part of a given chapter’s membership.

This is important to recognize because it gets at a core principle spelled out by BHA North American Board Treasurer Lt. Col. Jeff Jones in the founding documents he presented to BHA headquarters three years ago: connection.

Regardless of where a service member might find himself at any given moment – be it at a new post on the other side of the country, bobbing around the ocean on a warship or rattling around a convoy on deployment – there will always be a tether to the natural world and a welcoming, driven BHA community with

arms open and hearts in the right place.

When a veteran longs for the brand of camaraderie she came to rely so heavily upon during her time in service, she has only to look to her neighbors to find a culture of dedicated citizens who in their very bones know the value and method of forging such relationships. When the level of focus that only a mission can inspire leaves a cerebral hole in the identity of an individual, that mission is now, and always will be, conservation.

It was a slow, wet, cold day in that North Carolina swamp.

Shots were fired and humble pie was served – with hot coffee, of course. Fingers numbed, feet soaked and everybody took turns looking the wrong way at the right time. Yet, despite the group’s inexperience hunting ducks, they somehow found themselves right at home in that dark water and sitting next to new friends they felt they’d known forever.

Lt. Col. Andy Ruszkiewicz leads the Active Duty Pillar of the Armed Forces Initiative for BHA. Luke Weingarten is chairman of the North Carolina chapter of BHA.

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HUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY

R3: THE WHY

BY TREY CURTISS My father introduced me to hunting at an early age. I knew how to gut a deer before I could write in cursive, and I called in my first bull elk before I was 10. I was taught to hunt before I could even line my pockets with my own tags. I’m not alone in how I was recruited into hunting. Recruitment efforts during contemporary times generally were centered around fathers teaching their sons how to hunt, complemented by a single hunter education course.

There were exceptions to this, but if your family did not hunt, you were very unlikely to light the torch.

By now, the phrase R3 (recruitment, retention and reactivation) has started to carry momentum. In short, R3 efforts have arisen to increase participation in, and support of, hunting, angling and shooting sports. It’s important to note that “participation in” and “support of ” are not competing ideals. They both hold merit at various times and in various places.

It’s evident that R3 is gaining traction. Most wildlife agencies and organizations now employ dedicated staff to work on R3.

In late 2019, Congress also passed the Pittman-Robertson Modernization Act that, in part, added $5 million to fund dedicated R3 work through the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies Multi-State Conservation Grant Program. There’s more money and more resources available to complement and support a growing interest among folks who did not learn to hunt in the same traditional manner that I did. Some hunters have expressed some hesitations with R3, though.

Most hunters don’t want to get to a trailhead to find multiple other rigs ahead of them or to climb up in a treestand to look across the horizon and see another hunter as the sun rises. And as the number of new hunters recruited grows, we absolutely need to exercise prudence in in how that growth occurs. After all, sought after wildlife is a scarce resource, access to huntable land is getting harder to come by, and we’re generally not making more quality habitat.

But the truth is, I would not be the advocate I am for wild places and wild things if I was not a hunter. I would not have the strong emotional connection to habitat and wildlife if I didn’t care so damn much about what I have the privilege of doing in my free time. If we want to have other people fight for the things that we care about and continue to see them safeguarded, we must encourage an active understanding of hunting. Access, habitat and R3 are not all mutually exclusive. And it’s not as simple as convincing other people to just care about these things as much as you do. You must show them why and, realistically, you must give them a reason to care.

We don’t have the option to close the door behind us. There’s a necessary growing demand to educate and create a stronger Above: Students from the University of Montana learn how to process a whitetail doe at a BHA Hunting for Sustainability event.

hunting community, not alienate the new folks. Beyond that, we need to showcase a broader diversity of individuals who hunt.

New hunters, coming from a variety of backgrounds and beliefs, can and will develop into conservation advocates. Moreover, wildlife and natural resource managers are increasingly not coming from a hunting background. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s important that folks who are making decisions that impact habitat, access and hunters are apprised of why hunting fits into the conversation.

There is a litany of current R3 programs offered from wildlife agencies and hook and bullet organizations. Each of them takes on and promotes different values. There are also organizations, agencies and companies that produce an abundance of outdoor online and written content to help new hunters get started and help them and everyone else become more successful in the field. But those programs and resources don’t always emulate conservation values or steadily create new conservation allies to stand up for wild places and wild critters. The future of hunting depends on ensuring that equal effort focused on conservation advocacy gets delivered to seasoned, new and non-hunters alike.

The way I see it, R3 isn’t about creating more hunters to buy more licenses and to spend more money on equipment; it’s about making sure our elected officials are held accountable to see the best for hunting, angling and shooting sports and conservation, and that proposed policy that impacts us has more than adequate support. The efficacy of R3 programming shouldn’t necessarily be measured by a brand-new hunter but rather measured by the people who have a better understanding of how and why hunting plays an important role in wildlife conservation and habitat management and where it plays a role in society moving forward.

R3 takes many forms. As a part of BHA, we have the opportunity to guide what those forms are and ensure that the conservation ideals we value are carried on. Our chapters continue to be actively engaged in R3, and BHA is bolstering R3 efforts to incorporate more programs aimed at engaging more people from within our chapters, Armed Forces Initiative and college clubs. Now is your chance to get involved. Visit backcountryhunters.org/r3.

Trey Curtiss is BHA’s R3 coordinator and works to bolster the organization’s R3 and Hunting for Sustainability efforts as a way to promote the next generation of conservation-minded hunters and wild food advocates. The rest of the time, he’s likely scheming over ways to find next season’s elk.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 37

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BUILDING BRIDGES

COLLEGE CLUBS

BY COL. MIKE ABELL The BHA Scholar Program is not so much about a scholarship as it is about building bridges. Relationships with the school, with our BHA leaders, with the scholarship winner and other future leaders are constructed, ones that would not have existed otherwise. In this context, the scholarship becomes a viable method towards substantive change – if you will, a tool for building bridges.

It started with the absence of something in Kentucky; BHA did not have a scholarship. The concept congealed in my mind during BHA’s 2019 rendezvous. After the life member reception, I pitched it to Land Tawney. He got it. He told me to pursue it.

I wrote up the concept and sent it to the University of Louisville financial aid office and the political science department. The chair of the political science department, Dr. Jasmine Farrier, called me a few days later. I pitched her too. “You want to give my kids money?” She said. “People just don’t call and say that. We need to have lunch.” We did. She got it. We made it happen.

The process is quite simple. The university advertises the opportunity. The students apply. They must aspire to be a future leader. They must be outstanding academically. They must be in good standing in the community. They must come highly recommended by the faculty. However, they should have as little experience in the outdoors as possible. They score higher by having less experience in our culture. When they win the scholarship, they immediately get half of the money and get assigned to a chapter member who volunteers as an advisor, who leads them through the process and explains the culture they are becoming involved in. They are required to complete two public lands or waters workdays with our Kentucky chapter and attend Rendezvous before they get the second half of the scholarship.

Through these concrete experiences, we have a cross-cultural exchange that creates a network between the student and what BHA does as an organization.

In June 2019, the university held a reception to announce the opportunity. I was overwhelmed by the response. Dr. Farrier and her staff put together an alumni board to help me narrow the field of over a dozen highly qualified applicants to three. From there, we sent those applications to BHA Collegiate Club Coordinator Kylie Schumacher. She put together a board of BHA staffers to interview and pick the winner. That is when I met Maurice Rodgers, the first BHA Scholar.

In Maurice’s own words: “Col. Mike and I met during my senior year at UofL. I was finishing my undergrad in Pan-African studies and political science when I met this charismatic individual discussing the possibility of merging cultures. From his introduction, I became intrigued and applied on a whim, mainly because my Chicago upbringing made me skeptical as to how this opportunity would unfold. Then, I had to understand that effective leaders are vulnerable enough to learn new ideas,

Maurice Rodgers, the first BHA Scholar

adapt to new environments and thrive in uncertainty. This understanding was the impetus for me to embark on this journey.

Shortly after completing undergrad, I pursued a master’s degree in public administration. Throughout my journey of navigating the scholarship process, completing undergrad and coping with a new normal that covid brought us, Kylie and Col. Mike were instrumental in making sure that I was successful in all my endeavors. Furthermore, my academic journey has allotted me various opportunities to serve and gain experience, but none have compared to my experience with BHA. As a scholar and leader, it has been empowering to meet caring professionals who are committed to conservation and willing to take an interest in my future. Although my area of interest is governmental academic initiatives that support urban growth and development, I am reminded that I should be knowledgeable of issues that can become intertwined and overlap jurisdictions.

This is what will make students valuable assets as they matriculate in their professional and personal endeavors.

Lastly, this scholarship has the ability to become a national transformative initiative that galvanizes future leaders to commit to a common cause. If enacted, this infrastructure can become an enduring legacy that changes the conversation surrounding conservation and brings new faces into the stronghold. Individuals like myself, who are foreign to this culture, need welcoming advocates to lead the way. Hopefully you will become one.”

Think 20 or 30 years into the future. Look over the horizon and imagine: What if in 10 years there was a scholarship in every state, province and territory? Over 50 new leaders would all earn the title BHA Scholar every year. Ten years later, there would be hundreds of BHA scholars leading the next generation. Is it too farfetched to imagine a “BHA Scholar’s Caucus” in the federal legislature in 2050? Grassroots lobbying to educate current leaders is part of what we do at BHA. So, why not educate future leaders by building a bridge between cultures while they are still in school?

Col. (Retired) Mike Abell is a 26-year Army veteran and the vice chair of the Kentucky chapter of BHA. FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 39

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Photos: Hank Shaw

PAN-ROASTED PTARMIGAN

BY HANK SHAW Unless you are in Alaska, Canada or are an adventure hunter in the Lower 48, chances are you have no need for a ptarmigan recipe. Bear with me a moment.

You can use this general recipe for lots of different birds, ranging from Cornish game hens and quail to ruffed grouse or really any other sort of small grouse, partridges, chukars, pigeons or small ducks.

I know, that’s a wide range. So if you pin me down, I’d prefer this with the following birds that aren’t ptarmigan: In order of preference, I’d choose spruce grouse, woodcock, pigeons, sharp-tailed grouse, prairie chickens, snipe, doves, teal ducks or rails. You’ll notice that all are red meat birds.

The general principle behind this ptarmigan recipe is my method for pan roasting all small birds. The short version is to break them down in the way you see in the pictures – backbones cut out and leg/thighs separate 42 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

from the “crown,” the breast with drumettes on the bone – and to cook them steadily with lots of fat or oil, spooning it over the hard-to-reach areas.

While you can of course pan roast your birds whole, I’ve found it easier to get a good result by breaking them down, and it looks pretty, too.

A word about ptarmigan. There are three, really four, ptarmigan species in the world: the white-tailed ptarmigan, the willow and the rock. The famous Scottish grouse is also really a ptarmigan, very closely related to the willow. The bird in the pictures is a white-tailed ptarmigan from Colorado.

They are all birds of cold, forbidding places and are all dark meat that is strongly flavored. Do not serve ptarmigan to people who only like skinless chicken breasts. They are an eater’s bird, full of flavor and slightly funky, as all grouse are. Their breast meat should also be served pink, anywhere from rare to medium.

PAN-ROASTED PTARMIGAN

INGREDIENTS: Caramelized onions (https://honest-food.net/venisonrecipe-caramelized-onions-mushrooms/) Mashed potatoes 4 ptarmigan, plucked, gutted with legs and breast separated Salt and black pepper 3 tablespoons butter, clarified if possible

INSTRUCTIONS: You’ll want to make the caramelized onions and mashed potatoes first, and while you are doing that, take the birds out of the fridge and salt them well. Keep the onions and potatoes warm.

When you are ready to cook the birds, pat them dry with paper towels. Heat the butter in a pan large enough for the birds, and when it is hot, set the legs in, skin side down, and the breasts, skin side up. Let this sizzle the way bacon does, typically at a mediumhigh heat.

Start spooning the butter over the birds, focusing on the front of the breasts, the the “armpit” between the wings and the breasts, then the very tail end of the breast. Spoon the hot butter over these places until the skin contracts and the meat turns opaque.

At this point, you will want to turn over all the legs, then the breasts. Let them all sear for about 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Let the legs keep cooking, but flip the breasts back over. Keep basting the hard-to-reach parts with the butter for a minute or so. Now flip the legs again. Finally, tip the breasts on their sides to sear on each side for a minute or so. They should be done now.

Remove all the breasts and grind black pepper over them. Let the legs cook another minute or three, then grind black pepper over them, too. Add whatever pickled or salty or preserved things you want to, along with the caramelized onions. Mix that all together.

Serve everyone some mashed potatoes, then the onion-legs-pickled things mix, and top with the breasts.

NOTES: As I mention in the headnotes, you can use this recipe with lots of small birds, or even squirrels. You will want to make some mashed potatoes and caramelized onions, too.

After that, it’s playing with cool preserved stuff. Lacto-fermented rowan berries (mountain ash). Pickled wild alpine blueberries.

Marinated, preserved porcini mushrooms. You don’t need to make this recipe verbatim, but you want something tart and pickled, something salty, and something funky-preserved to add interest on the plate. One simple addition? Sauerkraut.

Making the caramelized onions will take the longest, but it can be done up to a few days in advance. Serve this with a big malty beer or a mellow red wine.

Hank Shaw is a BHA member and Californiabased cookbook author and chef who runs the website Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. His latest cookbook is Hook, Line and Supper. Follow him on Instagram: @ huntgathercook.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 43

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INSTRUCTIONAL

AFTER THE POINT Working with your dog ensures bird hunting success

BY SCOTT LINDEN Better bird hunting? Range time is good. So is natural ability.

And don’t forget pure dumb luck. But there is a vest-full of other things you can do to help bag more birds.

The adrenaline rush, to say nothing of your judgmental friends, conspires against you when it comes to shooting ability. And that’s before we add steep slopes, hinky birds and unpredictable dogs.

I’m the TV world’s worst shotgunner, as viewers remind me daily.

So I’ve made a lifelong study, compiled a litany of excuses, shot at thousands of targets, studied at the feet of scattergun masters.

Here are the lessons I learned the hard way so you don’t have to. Before you drop the tailgate and turn your dog loose in the field, consider these tips. Heed them and you might add a coveted ringneck to your bag when everyone else goes birdless.

BE IN CHARGE AND LOCK UP BOTH OF THEM Working mindfully with our dogs, thinking like they think, can produce better shooting. In South Dakota a companion snuck, skulked, minced and tiptoed over 100 yards to my wirehair on point. We cajoled, encouraged and screamed at him to get a move on. After what seemed an eternity, the dog broke and the bird flushed before he was in gun range.

A better way? Once your dog stands the bird, walk in with alacrity. The longer you dawdle, admire his stunning good looks or frame up your Instagram shot, the greater the chance a bird will flush wild, run off or the dog will do the flushing for you. I have 46 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

no science to back this up, but I believe even the bird can sense assertiveness, so stride right in and everyone will likely do what’s expected of them. This is the time to show you are in charge.

SWING WIDE, ENSURE HE’S STEADY Flanking your dog as you approach the pointed bird minimizes the dog’s chance of breaking his point, crashing in on the bird and bollixing your well-planned and safe shot. As you approach from behind him, swing wide and get in front of him. “Allelomimetic behavior” is a highfalutin word for that flock of birds that jinks in unison, or pair of wolves on the hunt, trotting in parallel. Sauntering close alongside a pointing dog en route to the bobwhite covey is an invitation for him to follow you into the flush instead of staying on point – it’s how we teach “heel,” after all.

FOOTWORK IS FUNDAMENTAL Okay, so the dog is staunch, muscles quivering and eyes bulging.

He’s done his part. Good target shooters anticipate a clay pigeon’s trajectory and set their feet for it. With a little knowledge and Photos: Scott Linden

undoubtedly miss as a result.

Once he’s on point, my dog is totally focused on the bird, drilling it with his eyes like twin laser beams. Once it flies, you should, too. Keep your eyes on the bird’s eye as it flies. Focus completely. It keeps your face on the gunstock, creating an accurate sight picture until the bird tumbles.

See that grouse, don’t just look at it.

Ignore your friends, those alder trunks, the dog, other birds. Focus solely on the bird you are going to kill. Once you pull the trigger, watch it fall with your gun still to your shoulder. It will keep your head on the gunstock where it belongs, ensuring good follow through.

OPEN UP YOUR SHOT PATTERN

experience, you too can make an educated guess as to what direction that rooster will fly, then set your feet for the shot.

As you flush your quarry, anchor your “off” foot (left if you shoot right-handed) pointing about the direction you hope the bird will fly. Your other foot should be nicely squared off for balance (not too far behind your left foot), with both feet about shoulder-width apart. This stance provides the maximum arc when you swivel your hips – quite helpful on lightning-fast bobwhites.

GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME It’s time to get your head in the game, literally. But not your hat. Push your cap brim high on your forehead or you’ll raise your cheek off the stock to see the bird when you shoot. You will

In the days of silk fly lines, English anglers would utter “God save the Queen,” before setting the hook. This gave a trout time to take the fly in his mouth and turn, setting the hook himself rather than the angler pulling it away too soon. It’s good advice for bird hunters too, but for a slightly different reason.

Most shots on birds connect at 25 yards, maybe 30, tops. If you’ve patterned your shotgun (you have, right?), you know an improved cylinder choke at 30 yards only makes a pattern about three feet in diameter. At 20 yards, it’s tiny. With that condensed shot cloud there’s little chance of actually hitting something. It’s why we can flock-shoot and still miss every shot.

Instead, when birds fly, take a moment to focus, and I don’t mean just your eyes, but your head, too. Your pattern will open up, putting the odds in your favor, not that jinking chukar’s. And open your chokes to skeet.

WHY BOTHER? He’s called a “bird dog” for a reason. My wirehair and I get along best when I hit the birds he produces for me. That’s his ultimate payback – the intoxicating taste-smell-feel of a bird in his mouth. Putting the odds in my favor with strategic shooting is the least I can do. Now, so can you.

BHA member Scott Linden hosts and produces the upland bird hunting television show Wingshooting USA and the Upland Nation podcast. He is the author of What the Dogs Taught Me (Skyhorse Publishing); a third printing comes out in paperback in the fall of 2021. His authority website is findbirdhuntingspots.com.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 47

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USE THE WIND FOR WATERFOWL

Photo: Homer Raymundo

BY HOMER RAYMUNDO Waterfowl hunting is always best when no one wants to be out there.

I love the fog, especially when it lifts, and the ducks fly low enough to always be within shooting range. I love rainy days that make ducks move. I even hunt in snow and ice and set up near some local springs that draw ducks in. But my favorite form of weather feature is wind.

Wind affects how ducks come into the decoys. And it can create natural, enticing movement in yours decoys. It affects the way birds take off from the water. And it can provide cover when jump shooting.

BRING YOUR DECOYS TO LIFE When setting up decoys, there are a lot of different aspects to consider. Are my decoys visible? Will the ducks be able to land where I want them to? Does the layout seem natural? All of these things matter and should be considered. Here is why wind matters, too.

Wind, even the lightest breeze, can create realistic movement in a decoy spread. The key to taking advantage of this is to set your decoys in deep enough water and far enough away from cover so the wind will have an effect.

CHOOSE YOUR POSITION CAREFULLY Wind also affects the way the ducks come in to land. In most cases, ducks like to land into the wind. It helps them slow down and it creates a quick escape if needed. To take advantage of this, try setting up with the wind at your back or as a cross wind. The one disadvantage to having the wind at your back is that if you’re

not hidden well, ducks will flare or not land when they see you.

Keep this in mind, as you may have to move where you are hiding.

There are a lot of variables in nature, and wind direction does change, especially in the high mountain deserts of the west. There are two things I consider. What is the prevailing wind direction?

The other is the terrain and which way the wind is most likely to shift. Understanding that concept can set you up for a preferable frontal shot instead of an away shot.

JUMP SHOOTING IN WIND Jump shooting ducks is also impacted by wind. In fact, understanding wind is critical in this situation. As the season goes on and ducks get smarter, they like to set up for a quick escape. A recent hunt with my friend Marcel illustrates this. It was very windy where we were hunting. With boats not allowed, ducks were trying to favor the bigger water, but they’d still move to small ponds and canals or creeks that run through the area we were hunting. Marcel likes to move in on small potholes as if he’s archery hunting deer.

On this day the wind was in our favor; the tall phragmites were constantly moving, which gave us perfect cover as we moved in. It was harder for us to stand out visually as the ducks had constant movement around them, and the noise helped cover our steps.

The combination that allowed us to get well within range to make effective shots.

The best way to take advantage of wind when jump shooting is knowing what to expect. As you approach an area where ducks may be, you can anticipate how they will try to escape. If they feel cornered, they may decide to take off with their winds at their back, which creates a small advantage for the hunter in that it creates a slower takeoff, which can help you overcome the quick reaction needed when jump shooting.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 49

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ADJUSTING YOUR SHOT I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that the wind affects our shooting. On that day, as ducks would take off, their forward progress would freeze in the strong wind. A lot of our shots were missed because we would begin to lead the ducks, and they wouldn’t move. Eventually we were able to adjust to that. Because of that adjustment, we were able to have a successful hunt with the wind playing a major role At the end of the day, there are a lot of factors that affect waterfowl hunting. It’s part of what gets hunters hooked on it. Wind, though, is the most influential factor that I’ve experienced. And learning to use this aspect of nature in waterfowl hunting will do nothing but help improve your success and satisfaction.

BHA Utah chapter member Homer Raymundo is a hunter with a passion for waterfowl hunting. He was introduced as a young adult by his boss and has never looked back. He has since introduced his wife and many friends to bird hunting and the passion has never stopped.

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PUBLIC LAND OWNER

The North American Grasslands Conservation Act

BY BETHANY ERB Americans are, and always have been, lovers of the outdoors.

A deep appreciation of nature and our country’s wild places is woven into the fabric of our national character. Our vast natural resources and public lands have fostered not only generations of beloved outdoor traditions and a proud hunting and fishing heritage but also a conservation ethos that recognizes the importance of protecting and conserving the wildness that is an intrinsic part of who we are.

However, as limitless and inviolate as those places – and the opportunities they provide us – once seemed, the lands and wild spaces we love so much are in peril. Raging wildfires, floods and urban sprawl (among other things) continually threaten our cherished places to hunt and fish.

As a result, the buzz out of Washington is clear; it’s time to accelerate our conservation efforts. Natural ecosystems are being examined more closely as a part of American infrastructure, climate change mitigation and rural economic prosperity.

Now is the time to ensure we protect the present and future viability of our natural systems as well as the rural communities that depend on them. Everything is connected, and what affects one, affects all, from the hunters and anglers who recreate on our 52 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

rural landscapes and the farmers and ranchers who base their livelihoods on it to the consumers who buy food in supermarkets.

And there is no more critical landscape – nor one in as dire need of protection – than our grasslands. Not only are our grassland areas the breadbasket of the world; they are wellsprings of native biodiversity, critical components of water quality, incredibly efficient carbon sinks and providers of incalculable economic and recreational benefits.

But our grasslands are disappearing, and they need our help.

Yours, ours, everyone’s.

Pheasants Forever’s and Quail Forever’s mission is to conserve pheasants, quail and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public access, education and conservation advocacy. As upland hunters, grasslands conservation is a top priority, and together with BHA, we are proposing a bold new voluntary conservation policy to protect our grasslands, support ranchers and create better places to hunt and fish.

Why are we leading this effort? Because 53 million acres of grassland habitat have disappeared from the North American landscape in the last 10 years alone. That’s an area the size of Kansas. America’s pheasant population has declined 70 percent since 1970. And it is not just pheasants; bobwhite quail have declined 83 percent. We need significant policies to bring upland

Photo: Cavan Williams, from our 2020 Public Lands and Waters Photo Contest

wildlife habitat back and protect us from natural disasters.

We have a plan for action before it’s too late. A coalition of leading conservation organizations – including Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the National Wildlife Federation, the Izaak Walton League, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, the National Deer Association, the Land Trust Alliance and the North American Grouse Partnership, just to name a few – have drafted a plan that brings together all those who rely on the grasslands to conserve this essential landscape for future generations, while also providing economic opportunities for ranchers, farmers and for outdoor recreation.

This new plan, drafted as the North American Grasslands Conservation Act, would provide the funding needed to restore and conserve grasslands while creating a program that works with ranchers and private landowners to create economic and outdoor recreation opportunities.

It’s a new, innovative and flexible approach, modeled after the highly effective North American Wetlands Conservation Act, and is currently being proposed to Congress by our coalition.

The bill would create grants designed to provide landowners voluntary, flexible economic incentives and opportunities to help improve and conserve our disappearing grasslands. Conservation

priorities would include restoring native grasses, controlling invasive species, prescribed fire, easements and other management practices. These grants would be entirely voluntary and would act to assist ranchers and landowners in the expansion of conservation practices.

In partnership with BHA, we’ve gotten the attention of Congress. Bipartisan members in both the House and Senate agree with us that there is a need to accelerate grasslands conservation.

We are off to a good start, but we have a long way to go! At the time of this article’s writing, we have several members of Congress interested in drafting our legislation and anticipate legislative language in late summer or early fall of 2021.

Stay tuned to BHA and PF/QF this fall and beyond; we are mobilizing our members and volunteers to call on Congress to implement this critical legislation!

Bethany Erb is the government affairs director for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. She is a native of Dillon, Montana, and currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia, with her family.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 53

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PUBLIC LAND OWNER

MODEST LAND MULE DEER

BY BRAD TRUMBO Settling the crosshairs firmly behind the shoulder of a fine 4x4 whitetail buck, I pulled off, picking up the binocs and glassing the hillside once again. The buck I intended to take had bedded on the private side of a fence line tracing the boundary of a postagestamp public parcel in northern Idaho.

The meager acreage is nothing special, absurdly steep and completely landlocked, save for a river crossing. Scarcely worth the effort for a half-day hunt among the larger state and federal tracts with easier access in the region. Fortunately, my friend Dean has family land about a mile adjacent, eliminating the river obstacle.

I hadn’t hunted mule deer in years and felt I was letting part of our Western heritage slip away. The classic chocolate-antlered bucks of northern Idaho, with their thick, ghostly gray winter hides and broad, white noses speak to me (and are first-class table fare, in my opinion).

Dean’s father reported seeing more mule deer in the direction of this particular parcel than anywhere else visible from his property.

Hence, Dean and I made a rugged, boulder-strewn trek under the cloak of darkness and imminent rain on Idaho’s 2020 rifle opener.

Stopping about one-third of the way up a near-vertical ridge spine, we whispered quietly among sparse, blackened timber and lichen-wrapped granite, awaiting the awakening of the world. We first spotted two whitetails sparring beneath a lone ponderosa on private ground. As they half-heartedly tickled antlers, does appeared on the ridge behind them, then two small mule deer bucks suddenly stood by them, one sparring with the bigger whitetail. But the 2-year-old, food-grade muley buck I envisioned was yet to be seen.

Circling west into the next draw, we rounded a low saddle, busting a covey of Hungarian partridge. Their departure led them into the draw ahead rather than the canyon behind. Moments later, seven muley does erupted, also fleeing west without damaging the

hunt. Two significant factors in the outcome of our hunt.

Continuing the punishing climb to the upper property boundary, we slithered over a higher saddle near the head of the canyon we had originally glassed. Inching through spikey starthistle, three decent whitetail bucks appeared over the weed tops within 100 yards. An opportunity not to be passed.

Positioning for a shot, I noticed the bucks staring intently into the bottom of the canyon, before swiftly vacating to private ground. Three bucks became five, ranging to 400 yards before again feeding. The offender remained invisible, but what appeared to be a complete bust turned out to be our ultimate saving grace.

Time oozed like cold honey as we glassed the whitetails and two yearling muleys we had spotted earlier that morning. Eventually, three of the whitetails fed back onto public, while the biggest buck flopped down for a leisurely cud-chewing about 30 feet onto private, eliciting a minorly disgusted eye-roll; our wait would continue.

Passing the time, I practiced aiming on the distant deer, adjusting my scope and sticks to perfection for a shot. But sudden panic delivered a stern gut punch as the crosshairs fell across the torso of a mule deer with an obvious ear-wide frame, posturing against a smaller buck.

“Dean! Is that a big mule deer buck below those whitetails?” I asked, fearing my mind was playing games.

“Oh … yeah!” Dean confirmed.

“I’m shooting!”

Seconds later, recovering from the 7mm recoil, elated backslaps caught me off guard. The shot felt and sounded good, but I hadn’t seen the results, or exactly what size buck I had taken.

“Straight down! He went straight down!” Dean yelled.

Pulling it together, a white belly shown in the scope on the far hillside.

Approaching the buck, the stunning, mocha 4x4 rack of a presumed 3-year-old protruded through the drab starthistle. A breathtaking specimen with a sleek, storm-cloud-gray winter FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 55

Brad Trumbo is a professional fish and wildlife biologist, outdoor writer and active member of Pheasants Forever, the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association and BHA in southeast Washington. His passions include chasing hightailed setters across the Palouse, casting flies to mountain trout and penning tales of public land adventures.

56 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

MAPLAND ACT AIMS TO IMPROVE ACCESS The Modernizing Access to our Public Land (MAPLand) Act, which would digitize public land mapping records, benefiting hunting and fishing access for sportsmen and women across the country, has been gaining traction early in the 117th Congress. This bipartisan legislation is led by Reps. Blake Moore (R-UT), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Russ Fulcher (R-ID) and Joe Neguse (D-CO) in the House and Sens.

James Risch (R-ID) and Angus King (I-ME) in the Senate. At press time, the bill has received a hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and both a hearing and markup in the House Natural Resources Committee, where it was reported out favorably with a unanimous vote.

The legislation would digitize public land mapping records, benefiting hunting and fishing access across the country. Most recreational opportunities on public lands are already documented through paper maps and other physical management documents; by digitizing those records they will become far more accessible and beneficial to the public.

BHA and our partners have met with congressional staff to share our support for this legislation. Next steps for the bill would include pushing for a markup in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and finding a legislative vehicle to move on the floor of both chambers.

-KADEN MCARTHUR, BHA GOVERNMENT RELATIONS COORDINATOR

All photos: Brad Trumbo

coat and swollen neck. His broad, white nose and rump provided gorgeous contrast to the remainder of his dark coat, the overpowering stench of rutting muley enshrouding him.

With our packs heavy, we angled for the river, stopping briefly at an overlook. The scene exemplified my personal vision of hunting mule deer in remote Western landscapes.

The open country and sparse vegetation punctuated by scattered dark pines, river bottom riparian transitioning into fall colors and the welcomed cool humidity of early October.

Reaching the river, the promised rain pattered softly atop our shoulders. This superlative morning of my 30 years pursuing deer, we spotted 11 bucks in a tiny, remote canyon. A beautiful muley to show for the effort. Tagged out on unlikely ground, owed entirely to the good fortune of a bedded whitetail, our nation’s public lands and blessings from the man upstairs.

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FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 57

INTO THE MYSTIC

BY BEN MATTHEWS “No time like the present,” I thought after stepping off the plane in Ketchikan and immediately donning my rain jacket, which would stay there most of the day, every day, for the next week.

Prince of Wales Island, part of the Tongass National Forest, gets rain, on average, 243 days a year. So, in short, it’s wet.

But, being from the Pacific Northwest, Chase Gunnell, Max Cole and I knew a little bit of what to expect and weren’t completely out of our element. Chase noted that every trip he’s made north has felt like a homecoming. For him, this is a place of familiarity, yet it’s still shrouded in a primordial wildness that our home to the south has lost.

The Roadless Rule and the Tongass In 2001, the U.S. Forest Service completed what was at the time the most commented on public rulemaking process in American history, with over 1.6 million comments and 600 public hearings. The result was the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which 95 percent of those public comments supported.

This process established protections for more than 9 million acres of the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska.

For nearly 20 years this temperate rainforest enjoyed those strong protections from new logging roads and old-growth logging, while still allowing exemptions to construct necessary roads for things like community infrastructure and power projects.

In 2018, under the Trump Administration, the USDA began a review of the Roadless Rule in Alaska. Early on, the USDA decided the preferred alternative was a complete repeal of these protections. Unfortunately, in October 2020, a new rule was finalized, which exempted the entire state of Alaska from the Roadless Rule. This came even though 96 percent of public comments on the rulemaking process and approximately 95 percent of subsistence hearing comments opposed a repeal of the Roadless Rule.

BHA lauded the more recent decision announced this July by USDA Secretary Vilsack and the Biden Administration to begin a new rulemaking process to consider restoring those roadless protections. The July announcement also included a shift to end large-scale old-growth timber sales in the Tongass and instead focus management on restoration, outdoor recreation opportunities and addressing factors such as climate change. The directive also has a strong economic development component, growing collaboration with Tribes and Alaska Native businesses, local stakeholders and other partners to invest $25 million in economic growth and community well-being.

BHA members have consistently spoken up in support of conserving Alaska’s roadless backcountry lands and waters, which include habitat critical to robust big game populations and healthy fisheries.

Take action on Alaska public lands conservation and other issues at backcountryhunters.org/take_action.

-KADEN MCARTHUR, BHA GOVERNMENT RELATIONS COORDINATOR

Photo: Ben Matthews

We wasted no time upon arriving on the island after a three-hour ferry ride from Ketchikan. We loaded our bags, rifles and bows into the truck, grabbed some last-minute snacks and beer for the cooler and set off to our trailhead. Well, trailhead is a loose term for the spot. It was more of a dead-end Forest Service road, which had a trail that went about 100 feet before disappearing into an abyss of muskeg and old growth forest.

The only trails after that were ones that the local four-legged inhabitants had made. After a rainy night’s sleep at the trailhead, we began our way up and through that mixture of soggy muskeg, thick forest, slide alder patches and, finally, to our destination – the alpine.

The season opener brought a constant pitter patter of raindrops on the tent’s rainfly.

Mustering up the energy to get out of warm sleeping bags to put eyeballs on the surrounding hillsides in search of little orange, deer-shaped dots was especially hard after the nearly five miles of bushwhacking and climbing the day before. But this is hunting in Alaska. You’re going to be challenged in myriad ways, whether it’s the elements, the spooky animals, the rough terrain or all of the above. And you’re not going to be successful sitting in the comfort of your tent all day.

After mustering up the energy to get out of 60 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

the tent and grab a bite to eat, we made our way further up the mountain to our target hunting area. It was my first time seeing where we’d be hunting (well, kind of seeing). The thick fog would roll in and out, so you could only get little glimpses of different areas at a time.

If you didn’t know any better, you could convince yourself you were somewhere tropical with how lush and green every square inch of the mountainside was. But then you remember that it’s barely 50 degrees, and the rain coming sideways isn’t any warmer.

“The rain, fog and soaking wet brush of Southeast Alaska never really deterred me, even on day three or four of waking up to a torrent on the tent fly and puddles around our boots. I grew up among the rainforests, saltchucks and muddy clearcuts of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.”

Chase recounted. “I was fixated by stories from a family of fishing, hunting, driving logging trucks and generally scratching out adventure in Alaska. It’s [these fond memories] that I use as a shield to grit my teeth, zip up my raingear tight and embrace the suck. I’ve found it works wonders for keeping bad weather at bay.”

Our first three days were mainly spent familiarizing ourselves with our new – temporary – home. Although, we did have a few close calls and several run-ins with the local deer population. These deer are small but stout. When the fog does finally burn off for a few minutes, they stick out like bright orange carrots in a sea of green.

On the fourth day, we woke up and for once, didn’t hear raindrops on the tent fly, but the fog was still thick – soupy, if you will. We couldn’t see more than a few hundred yards, but we packed our bags and, once again, headed up the mountain. Then, the rain came back … and with a vengeance.

As we crept through the downpour and over a knob to get a look at a steep hillside, Chase dropped down. “There’s one!” He steadied his Weatherby for the shot. … The deer spooked, and the chase was on.

Chase went ahead while Max and I hung back a ways, should any other deer spook back towards us. We were nearly to the top of the mountain when we heard the first shot. A few more shots rang out as we headed further up the mountain and found Chase with a deer at his feet. Success in Alaska.

As Chase and Max began to break down the deer, it was as if Alaska finally gave us “permission” to be a little more comfortable now that we had earned it. The clouds began to burn off, and our surroundings began to reveal themselves – the peaks we didn’t All Photos: Ben Matthews

know existed, the lakes below us, all the way down to the ocean.

We were in awe.

Max and I glassed from the ridge into areas we usually couldn’t and decided to split up to see if we could find more deer while the weather window lasted, while Chase packed his quarry back to camp.

Alaska doesn’t want you to win, however. Even though the rain and wind had subsided, now the bugs were out in force, buzzing and biting every square inch that wasn’t covered in clothing. I returned to camp, feeling beat.

Chase cooked backstrap while we glassed from camp and waited FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 61

for Max’s return. We were ready to call it a night when we saw his headlamp coming down the mountain. “I’ve got a quarter and the backstraps, we’ll have to get the rest in the morning,” he said, looking spent.

It’s pretty incredible what a little sun and nice weather will do for not only your success rates here but also how quickly it can lift your spirits. When the sun is out and you can shed a perpetually soggy rain jacket for the first time in days, your mood 180s and your enthusiasm for the hunt soars. Just the ability to use your optics to their full potential, without the fog or rain getting in the way, was such a treat. And for myself, it was the first time I was able to see the incredibly beautiful landscape we had been romping around in for the past week. And what a sight it was.

After two bucks in one day, it seemed like we had cleared out the mountain of legal deer, and I was unable to find one for myself the final day.

We packed up camp and the deer and loaded it all onto our backs and made our way down the mountain, back through the tangled forest, slide alder patches, flowing creeks and finally to the truck. Exhausted, soaking wet and pretty damn hungry, we dropped our packs, cracked open some beer and just sat on the tailgate for a while. Then, like clockwork, the rain started to fall again.

BHA member Ben Matthews is a photographer based in Spokane, Washington. He has a strong passion for the outdoors and keeping our wild places wild. Photography is just one way that he tries to inspire people to explore the wild places around them and to get out of their comfort zones. You can usually find him in the mountains, on the river or somewhere in between.

Photo: Ben Matthews

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ENVIOUS of the hunt

BY MEGHAN DEGUELLE Cow elk and their adorable calves funneled through a small space between an old fallen pine, white and gray from years of weather, and a small bunch of young standing pines. As they navigated that narrow path in front of us, they came within five yards of me. The thrumming of my heart was so strong that the vibration pulsed to the surface of my skin. Attempts to steady my quaking breath and keep my wits were in vain.

My husband Cody and I had been settled against two large ponderosa pines five minutes earlier. We moved up the mountain after we both heard a bugle and I heard faint mewing in response to Cody’s “lost cow” calls. Because Cody has unilateral deafness, I told him where the sounds were coming from. He made the decision to get a little closer. The cool September morning was growing warmer by the minute, and the thermals were about to change. If we didn’t move, we were going to miss our chance at getting close to the herd as they were headed in the direction of private property.

Uphill and a little closer was the perfect choice. In no time, the unmistakable cracking of branches got louder and louder as the herd came through a thick grove of aspens. When the lead cow emerged and walked right at us, I tipped my head down so that 66 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

the bill of my hat would cover my face. It was hard to believe that she was coming so close because at daybreak when we first saw the herd, she sensed us and blew out hard and fast. Fortunately, we had the good sense to paint our faces after that, but I wasn’t convinced it would be enough.

The herd followed the lead cow diligently in a single file line like a class following their teacher. As any teacher will tell you, there’s almost always a kiddo in the back of the line who doesn’t want to listen or wants to tell everyone else what to do. In that way, when the herd bull came along, he reminded me of one of my former students. He followed along but told the cows to keep moving, glunked to get their attention and stopped to sniff around a bit.

He had his own agenda.

As the bull got closer and presented himself broadside, it felt like forever for Cody to draw his bow. I was worried he might miss his opportunity. At the same time a calf jumped over the fallen pine and gave a little buck, joy bounding in its little body.

I knew this experience was going to be forever in my memory whether Cody got a shot or not.

Little did I know, there was a small limb sticking up between Cody and the bull, thus his reason for waiting for the perfect window. When the right time came, out of the corner of my eye I watched him draw, push up to his knees and let his arrow fly.

The white and pink fletching was the last thing I saw as his arrow struck the herd bull in an ideal spot. All of my nervous excitement burst out of me like a taut balloon pricked with a needle. I popped up on my knees and hugged him. He was stunned – frozen in place.

Photos: Meghan DeGuelle

A record number of high-fives were exchanged, and there was squealing (on my part) of how incredible the encounter was.

Cody told me how thrilled he was that I was there, that he couldn’t have done it without me. My eyes stung with tears of joy and appreciation.

Not having drawn an archery elk tag myself (I’m saving up my points), I’d dreamed of going along with Cody but had written it off because of not having anyone watch our girls during the pandemic. That is, until my mom insisted on all of us carefully quarantining for two weeks so our girls could come stay with her.

I did not grow up hunting, nor did I truly understand its implications, but it is part of who I am now, and it is in my blood. I cannot imagine my life without the thrill of the adventure, the appreciation for nature and the life skills hunting brings. Because I feel this way, the years of our girls being babies and toddlers were challenging – and sometimes infuriating – during hunting season.

Cody is my biggest cheerleader, but I couldn’t help but be envious of his time alone while I was at home nursing, feeding, sleep-deprived and doing my best to take care of everyone and everything. It wasn’t that I never went on hunts. In fact, Cody encouraged me to go more often, but my mama-doesn’t-wantto-leave-her-babies instinct won more often than not. As anyone with children knows, becoming a parent presents many challenges as far as time and responsibilities. No matter how much you try to keep your old hobbies or passions alive, life just changes.

And it’s a worthy compromise for the creatures who truly give us our greatest joy. Nevertheless, it is challenging: emotionally, physically, mentally.

While Cody and I waited to recover the bull and had a chance to calm down, I asked him why he hadn’t used his hearing device made especially for hunting. When he replied that he was depending on me to hear for him, the rising tears from earlier finally fell from my eyes. It meant the world that he relied on me for accurate information when the bull of a lifetime was within reach. While we harvested the meat in uncomfortably warm weather, he kept saying how happy he was that I was there, and I realized my years of waiting patiently to get back to truly hunting again was worth the wait.

After several hours of packing out the meat, we went back to our glassing spot to celebrate with a couple of fellow hunters that we had met the day before. The glassing was great. Moose, elk, deer and a bear were all relaxed under the coral clouds of the setting sun. The beer was refreshing after the long pack-out, and the camaraderie of new friends rewarding.

As we chatted, one of the other guys told me that his wife wanted him to shoot something on the first day and then come home. He went on to tell me, “She doesn’t understand – it’s archery season.”

No more words were needed, as I knew exactly what he meant.

Though, I wondered if his wife knew what he meant. On the contrary, did he know what she meant? I empathized with both

sides: a wife at home with the kids, who wanted her husband home, and a hunter who yearned for the hunt, the ability to provide food for the family and a need to be amongst all that is wild in this world.

In all my years of being at home when our girls were really little, I never asked Cody to make his hunt quick. It occurred to me that this was because of my appreciation for the hunt, the meat we get to enjoy and the experience of it all. (Definitely not because I was superior to this other guy’s wife.) I had always told Cody to go, to take his time and do what he needed to do. When he would come home and tell me about his days hunting, it was like I was there with him.

I wish now that I would have encouraged that guy to take his wife along on his next hunt or to ask her to hunt with him. He was right that she didn’t understand, but I believe that could be because she didn’t know everything that a hunt, especially a month-long archery hunt, can entail. Because I didn’t ask any further questions, I will never know what her background is with hunting, but what he said will always have a profound effect on me.

We certainly don’t have to share every hunt with our loved ones.

But I wonder if other non-hunting spouses (or significant others) could come to understand why their partners hunt and hopefully even come to love hunting if they experienced it themselves. I suppose this could be true of anything in life, but for some reason hunting seems to be a strong force that either brings us together or pulls us apart.

Sometimes even now I get envious of my husband’s hunting – his freedom. But my envy and passion feed my drive to not only get out in the woods and allow myself more freedom but also to educate and give our girls the experiences I didn’t have growing up. I’m thankful those years with my babies gave me perspective on what is truly important, in more ways than one.

BHA member Meghan DeGuelle is a children’s book author, rancher-in-training, avid outdoorswoman and seeker of adventures that connect her more deeply to nature and herself.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 67

One of the largest organisms on Earth started from just one seed.

68 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

The aspen can regenerate from its own roots. Similar to the grove in this photograph, at 107 acres and 47,000 trees, the Pando Aspen Grove, in Fishlake National Forest, Utah, is considered one of the largest living organisms on the planet.

Photo: Kjos Outdoors

Our shared land. Our responsibility.

Project Aspen It’s up to you to make sure places remain where you can barely be seen.

Contribute to Backcountry Hunters & Anglers’ Project Aspen to form the regenerative root structure supporting public lands, water, wildlife and hunting and angling in the future: backcountryhunters.org/projectaspen

ELECTION DAY

BY JOHN PARBST I took advantage of the early voting option last year, although my two-hour wait in the rain that day felt like a sure-bet wager gone wrong compared to the walk-right-up line on election day.

Oh well.

With my pandemic-safe work done and my voting privilege completed, I carved out time to fish the waning season for fall-run striped bass.

My home is a small village on the north shore of Long Island, dotted with history marking the birth of this nation. Turn left out of my block and you’ve got to peer around the “Washington Slept Here” sign to see traffic. British musket balls pepper the walls of the Presbyterian church, and Native American footpaths served as the blueprint for our roads. This is the kind of town where if you’ve lived here 30 years, they say you’re “new to the neighborhood.”

Driving past our school polling site, I followed the road winding through history on my way to a piece of public land where I often find a reliable bass to grab a fly. Compared to my original home in the western United States, one thing I’ve learned during my 25 years here on the East Coast (yeah, I’m new to the neighborhood) is that public land comes to us in smaller parcels. My destination this day is a stamp of 152 acres of maritime forest, wetlands and open Long Island Sound beach. Snowy egrets line the marsh edges to stab silvery fish, and in the warmer months, you’d be hardpressed to walk the trails cutting through shore grass without tiptoeing through hundreds of fiddler crabs scrambling this way 70 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

and that. I can walk in full waders and boots from dirt parking lot to the edge of the state land in less than 30 minutes.

Long Island has hundreds of parcels of public land, some about this size, some stretching to a few thousand acres and many much smaller. They’re tucked among homes and businesses with constituencies ranging from New York state to the county to various towns and partnerships. It all can be a bit baffling, especially not knowing for sure what sort of pass or permit or payment one might need to access the land. But I suppose that’s what you get with a period of public land acquisition over a few hundred years, where politics and money shift and change with the wind.

Speaking of wind, this day was calm. Good for an open Long Island Sound beach and a fly rod. How many times have I hiked out here only to have a stiff north wind in my face leave an aggressive haul of line coiled at my boots? Whatever you guessed, double it.

I worked my way around the salt pond, throwing tight loops and stripping back the Clouser Minnow tied on my home bench.

Often what we call schoolies, or juvenile bass, frequent this part of the pond, and they are willing takers even for a fly that overstuffs their mouths like carnival cotton candy. Saltmarsh sparrows burst from grasses as I probed the water. A lone cormorant dove repeatedly beyond my casts, surfacing yards away with a shake of the head and no doubt something slithering down its gullet.

Nothing for me, however.

Eventually I reached the channel that feeds the pond, exchanging a rush of saltwater in and out of the Sound. The tide Photos: Hannah Parbst

falling, my tactics shifted to those I might use on a Western trout stream. With a running start and some magic powers, I could probably cross the channel in about four big strides. In the middle of the tide cycle, the water narrows and accelerates on its rush from land. I’ve known bass to sit in depressions or behind rocks in this swift world, ready to rocket out to nab baitfish tumbling by. On my knees, I crept up to the water’s edge with skills honed from decades of crawling through meadows circled by high peaks to ambush skittish creek trout. In the moment I could be either place, but glancing up to the flat expanse of water reaching to the Connecticut shoreline reminded me where I was.

I shot a cast across the channel, waved an ample mend into the line and let the clouser drift and sink, then held tight as the fly swooped through the current. Strip, pause … strip, pause … lift, and repeat. I worked the channel in sections, knowing a bass could hold any number of places and, like a trout, wasn’t likely to move very far for a meal. Mend, strip, strip … the clouser dipped into a hole before my last strip, and a torpedo in striped pajamas flashed from below to inhale the fly.

That’s a good one, I thought to myself, and the fast water let me know right away this fish knew how to handle herself. She stuck her nose into the current, angled into the channel and dug for the gravel bottom. Line pulsed from my reel. I pushed the rod butt deeper in my gut and cinched the drag wheel down a quarter turn as she swirled and made a run for the open sound. I had visions of flailing through rocks at the channel mouth and waving my rod high overhead holding tight to this bass on the outflow until she hit the shipping lanes miles out. No, thanks. I don’t think I had enough backing on my reel for that fantasy.

So I dug in, leaned back into her pull, and she held fast. Good news. She worked back and forth in the flow, rolled, yawned and

shook, but the hook held. I got her angled toward shore and soon she slid from the water onto the loose gravel. A quick measure put her at 25 inches, a snapshot with my phone, and I slid her back into the water. Gone. Nothing worthy of the bulletin board at a local tackle shop, for sure, but a nice bass on the fly, nonetheless.

That was good enough for me. This public land is my sanctuary, only 15 minutes from home. The kind of place I can drive or bicycle to for an hour of fishing or just watching ospreys whistle and chirp lazy circles in the sky.

In a 1912 speech, Theodore Roosevelt said, “This country, as Lincoln said, belongs to the people. So do the natural resources, which make it rich. They supply the basis of our prosperity now and hereafter.” It is that phrase “now and hereafter” that struck me as I reflected on citizens lined up across the country to vote, the history we celebrate and preserve, and the land we have the chance to save for the future.

On the winding road home, I imagined one more striped bass before the season faded and they migrated to winter homes. I hope generations after me enjoy these fantastic Atlantic gamefish from this same spot. I need places like this nearby, and I am comforted with the thought that there are other places like it I will never visit. As dusk settled on election day, the polls would close soon. We vote so our voices are heard and with a hope where we take ourselves next with decisions, policies and land will be a good, maybe even a better, place.

BHA member John Parbst lives on the north shore of Long Island and teaches English and creative writing at the local community college. In his free time, he roams nearby jetties and beaches waving a fly rod at whatever will look his way. His daughter, Hannah, lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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BREAKS

BY KYLIE SCHUMACHER Our first mistake came zero minutes into our trip: Under overcast skies that cast the landscape in monochrome gray, we launched a canoe into a wide, flatwater river at the height of a high wind advisory and promptly careened into a bank on the wrong side of the river only two miles into our 60-mile journey.

Convinced I might drown if I fell in and my muck boots filled with water (despite reassurances from my internet research that I would not), I had on only socks when I jumped out to pull us in, which promptly sank straight into a muddy cow-shit concoction.

I looked over at Meredith, who engulfed a Zyn pouch to calm her nerves.

What did we just get ourselves into? I looked around at our new surroundings. Through a break in the clouds, the sun illuminated the dusty-gray striated cliffs of the Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

We were here to hunt sheep.

Designated in 2001 by President Clinton, Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument – the “Breaks” as it’s colloquially called – encompasses 377,000 acres of public land, including six wilderness study areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Probably most famous as the setting for Lewis and Clark’s expedition, the Missouri River – the longest river in the United States – dissects 149 miles of the monument where it is designated as wild and scenic. An anomaly, this portion of the river is less busy today than it was 100 years ago when it was a major avenue of trade and transportation. On the east end of the monument, the Missouri River enters the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, which holds the title of second largest wildlife refuge in the Lower 48 at 915,000 acres. If you’re counting, that’s over a million acres of contiguous public land available to anyone who seeks it. We saw deer, hawks, eagles, elk and rattlesnakes (which I could have done without). Cows were in no short supply. We heard coyotes howl at night, and yes, we saw sheep.

Adult-onset hunter is becoming a bit of a tired phrase, but it’s a concise way of describing where I came from and where I’m at (sparing you the boring details). No one in my family hunts, and although they’d never admit it, I’m pretty sure they think I’m a little weird for doing so. I picked up a gun for the first time at the age of 29 and harvested my first animal, a mule deer buck, two years later, thanks to my patient and knowledgeable hunting mentor.

No longer connected to my mentor and new to Montana, I knew I was going to have to tackle my first hunting season in Montana on my own and on unfamiliar ground. Also new to the Montana draw system, I assumed there was a mistake when 74 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

I discovered I drew a bighorn ewe tag. My first hunt on my own was going to be a sheep hunt in the jagged bluffs of northeastern Montana.

I would need company (and help), so I invited my good friend Meredith along. Like me, she is a new hunter.

I’d hunted my first animal with her: Merriam’s turkeys of the Colorado foothills. We called next to our decoy, lovingly dubbed Henny Henderson, while the toms showed more interest in Meredith’s car parked over on the driveway of the private property we were hunting. As the days went on, our decoy was renamed Desperate Debra, and as you might guess, no one came home with a turkey that year. We made mistakes, laughed and ultimately struck out. Despite her easygoing nature, Meredith is someone you’d want to have next to you when shit hits the fan. She’d spent the summer as a raft guide on Colorado’s Poudre River and thrives on adrenaline, people and adventure. She has river knowledge, a level head and a killer sense of humor.

Preparation began early. I borrowed gear from good friends: canoe, life jackets, InReach, dry bags. Phone calls were made to BLM staff, biologists, BHA co-workers, sheep experts and veteran floaters. Forums were read, knots learned and gear purchased. I watched Boy Scout videos on how to properly flip an overturned canoe and printed a 7-day forecast complete with wind, rain and pressure charts, which were enclosed safely in a waterproof page protector (an overkill now recognized in hindsight).

Sheep were common along the Missouri in the 1800s but were extirpated by the early 1900s in eastern and central Montana by a combination of livestock competition, habitat loss, disease and unregulated hunting. Populations in the state had plummeted, prompting the Montana legislature to close the sheep hunting season completely starting in 1915. In 1937, the PittmanRobertson Act was passed, which funneled funds from excise taxes on firearms, archery equipment and ammunition into Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and allowed the establishment of its bighorn sheep research and management program in 1941.

With an objective of increasing sheep populations in Montana, wildlife managers and biologists trapped and relocated sheep to their historic ranges. As a sign of their success, Montana opened limited ram hunting in 1953, the first sheep season in 38 years.

Today, bighorn sheep populations in Montana are estimated at well over 5,000 – a success, although still far short of the 100,000 estimated to have inhabited Montana before settlers arrived.

On the second morning, the wind had calmed, and the water reflected an ombre blue sky before sunrise. We hit the river in much better spirits (and on much calmer water), reaching our first camp before noon. With the whole day ahead of us, we struck off up the main valley to glass in the warming midday air.

A perfect glassing knob was visible only a mile from camp, which

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 75

I AM TRANSPORTED BACK: SITTING ON A CLIFFSIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF OVER A MILLION ACRES OF PUBLIC LAND, MILES FROM THE NEAREST TOWN, NO PEOPLE IN SIGHT AND MEAT TO FILL MY FREEZER.

would give us a 360-degree view of the surrounding badlands of the Breaks. As we climbed the knob, not even an hour into our hunt, I did a double take when I looked down a valley to the east: a steep hillside covered in sagebrush. There stood a ewe happily munching away on a sagebrush only 250 yards away.

Two hundred fifty yards is a little beyond my maximum shooting distance, plus I wanted to get a closer look. To the untrained eye, young rams can look remarkably similar to ewes.

To be certain of sex, it’s not the horns you want to inspect, but urinary posture. Of course, a pair of Rocky Mountain oysters will also give it away.

As she disappeared behind a topographic fold, we moved in and glassed up five sheep in total: two ewes, two yearlings and a young ram. One of the ewes had a red ear tag in her right ear. As they fed away from us, the wind was not in our favor. Reveling in the opportunity to watch sheep in a unique and rugged landscape – one where they’d ceased to exist at one time – we watched them feed until sundown and made plans to return at first light.

I’m not a morning person. I rely heavily on my hunting partner to drag me out of my sleeping bag at the sound of an early morning alarm. (A former partner once passed gas to get me out of the tent on a turkey hunt – so far that has shown the quickest results.) But on this morning, Meredith and I are up and leave camp under the light of the moon. As the sky brightened, making the terrain just visible enough to glass, we glue binoculars to our eyes. Just as the sun breached the horizon and illuminated the western ridge, I glass up another group of sheep in the opposite direction. Five, on a high plateau where the land “breaks away” down towards the Missouri River (and what gives the monument its name) and a half-mile away. They are unreachable without technical climbing equipment, but as they fed across the sheer cliff face, we decide to close the distance.

At 500 yards we hit a standstill. The sheep bedded down on a shelf, 76 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

giving them a queen’s-eye view of their kingdom and hampering our ability to sneak any closer under guise of topography. We made a series of poor approaches and back-tracked several times before realizing our only reasonable approach was from the east, where a large, rounded hill jutted perpendicularly from the cliff face. If we can get to the top, it would put us on eye level with the sheep and more importantly, within shooting distance.

The hill is steeper than it looks from a distance. The soil, characteristic of the Breaks, is loose and sloughs away causing you to lose half of each step you gain. With no shrubs or trees to catch your fall, a shift in weight the wrong direction promises broken bones and an emergency evacuation. As I struggle up the hill, heart beating fast from a combination of physical exertion and fear, I crest the rise behind Meredith without subtlety. I’m disheveled when I find myself face to face with a ewe less than 75 yards away.

Before I have time to consciously make a plan, autopilot kicks in, limbs moving and brain working overtime to keep up. The ewe watches me broadside and still. With a nimbleness that surprises even me, I drop down, set up my bipod, remove my muzzle cover, and load a round. As if we’ve practiced this before, I ask Meredith to confirm it’s a ewe as I search for her in my scope. With her “yes,” I pull the trigger.

Nothing.

The safety is still on.

With the other sheep now moving away, I start to panic as I remove my head from the stock, click the safety off and struggle to find her again in my scope. Her inquisitive motionlessness is waning when I find her. I settle my crosshairs on her heart. I swear I see a flash of light as my bullet leaves the barrel.

She runs mere feet before falling backwards. For a moment I am certain she will continue on a gravity-induced barrel-roll off the mountain. Instead, she settles, barely hanging on, to a small shelf, just feet short of a sheer drop. I stand up and almost pass out as the adrenaline wears off, but our celebration is short-lived.

I hardly have time to revel in the moment because I quickly realize with trepidation that we have to get to her, field dress and pack

Photos: Kylie Schumacher

Later, I learn my ewe was ear tagged as an adult in 2017 as a part of a herd health study. In 2010, pneumonia outbreaks killed over 10 percent of Montana’s wild sheep population and continues to be the single most important threat to bighorn populations. Disappearing habitat, car collisions and increases in invasive plant species also threaten the population. But the fact that the opportunity to harvest a sheep even exists is proof of their perseverance and an acknowledgement to biologists, land managers and sportsmen and women who continue to ensure wild sheep populations not only exist but thrive in the Big Sky State.

As I pull a hindquarter out of my fridge, I note the date of the notch in my tag, September 26 – National Public Lands Day. As we process the meat in my studio apartment, I am transported back: sitting on a cliffside in the middle of over a million acres of public land, miles from the nearest town, no people in sight and meat to fill my freezer. I smile, proud of what Meredith and I accomplished, grateful for the people who came before me and made it all possible and honored to be fighting for those things with all of you now. her off without falling – and it’s a long way down.

Meredith likes to use a term called the “pucker factor.” It’s a simple rating system on a scale of one to 10. This was undoubtedly a 10. There is ample footing, but one wrong step or loose rock will send us on a momentum induced tumble sure to be our last.

Unable to position ourselves around her as needed, we struggle to move her onto a flat rock so we can dress her. Meredith and I are constricted to a single spot on either side to work. We move slowly and deliberately. (Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast, as Meredith would say.) As we dress her, I discover a red ear tag in her right ear.

Kylie Schumacher is BHA’s collegiate program coordinator, residing in Missoula, Montana. When she’s not working, you’ll likely find her somewhere outside, hunting, fishing, eating, backpacking or traveling with her black Lab, Holt, in tow.

Safely off the cliff, the hunt over a few days earlier than planned and in no hurry to leave this remote and rugged place, we decide to spend an extra day on the river. By happenstance, we stumble upon a beautiful camp enclosed by towering cottonwoods, leaves glowing bright yellow in their usual fall glory. As we set up camp, two older couples appear from the brush and pitch camp nearby.

Meredith and I exchange nervous glances as we remember the sheep head left visible in our canoe. Would they see it? What would they think?

The couples are friendly, and we instantly strike up conversation.

They don’t hesitate to tell us we weren’t what they expected to see, which was two old men clad head to toe in camo.

They invite us to their camp for dinner. When wine is offered, I don’t think twice. But before we head over, we throw six pieces of backstrap on the fire. Exchanging meat for wine, we learn it’s the first time they’ve tried wild sheep. (And they were pleasantly surprised!) We banter until a full moon lights up the sky, indulging in the camaraderie and kindness of strangers. I revel in the chance to challenge stereotypes about who hunters are and what hunting means before drowsily crawling into my sleeping bag, the haze of the wine lulling me fast asleep.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 77

REAL HUNTING

BY GARY VANDENLANGENBERG With a natural love of animals and a curiosity for all things wild, my oldest son Forest grew up like many of you. Our yard and the cattail filled ditch behind our house was his arena of exploration and discovery, he and his younger brother Lake constantly flipping over our landscape stones looking for worms, pill bugs and other creepy crawlies.

When Forest was 5 years old, I arrowed a nice whitetail doe on a small piece of public land near our home. After a short sprint, the doe went down. But instead of recovering her right away, I decided to head home to get my wife and kids to share the experience.

As I led my family through the woods to my stand, Forest managed to catch a small wood frog. He was mesmerized by that little frog and was so proud to carry it with him.

We soon got to the shot location. I showed the kids the first sign of blood, and they quickly worked out the trail and found the doe. After saying a prayer, we posed for a couple pictures with the deer, and of course, Forest had the wood frog in his hand front and center.

I field dressed and dragged the deer back to my truck, and while helping Forest get buckled in his seat, I noticed a terribly guilty look on his face.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Forest’s bottom lip began to quiver, and tears were welling up in his eyes. He pleaded, “Don’t take it away, Dad. Please!”

Not knowing what the problem was, I gave him stern look, and he pulled the poor little frog out of his pocket.

“Please, Dad, don’t take him away!” Forest begged.

The cutest thing ever, I could hardly keep a straight face. I calmly explained to him how the frog belonged in the woods and that it wouldn’t be fair if we took him home and kept him in a cage. Forest understood, but it still wasn’t easy, and tears flowed down his cheeks when we turned him loose in a nearby puddle.

Over the following years, we continued to share outdoor experiences, and Forest quickly grew into quite an outdoorsman.

He hunted and fished at every opportunity and never tired of it.

78 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

In the spring of Forest’s 11th year, we noticed some small lumps on his neck. We brought him to the doctor to get it checked out and received the devastating news that Forest had leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, which would require over three years of extremely aggressive treatment, with the first year being the most brutal. Forest’s treatment began immediately with an artillery barrage of chemo, steroids and other medicine combinations.

Along with his hair falling out, the chemo made quick work of Forest’s muscles and sapped him of his strength. In only a matter of weeks, he needed assistance to walk and was already missing the mobility and freedom most kids take for granted.

In the first year of his treatment, Forest needed 37 blood transfusions, endured dozens of spinal taps, long hospital stays, regular spells of vomiting and countless pills of all types. This disease and the medicine to treat it had devastated his body, stole his freedom and threatened to crush his spirit.

During one of his long hospital stays, I was helping him shuffle down the corridor for some physical therapy when we noticed a big buck on the front of a brochure at the nurse’s station. We asked the nurse about it, and she explained that a ranch donated “hunts” to kids who were in the Children’s Hospital. She was certain Forest would be eligible and could help make the arrangements after his treatment was further along and his immune system recovered.

Never one to dance around the tough questions, Forest said, “So, what’s the deal with this?” tapping his finger on the brochure.

“How can they say they have 100-percent success rates?” Forest asked. “What if you don’t see a deer or you miss your shot?”

I explained to him that these deer were not wild but were raised, fed and kept inside a fence, so you would have no problem seeing deer and if you missed or wounded one, there would be no issue getting additional shots if necessary.

“Well, that’s not hunting,” Forest stated.

“You are exactly right,” I agreed. Sometimes the simplest conclusions are the most accurate.

While it’s very generous of the deer farm to offer opportunities like this to kids who are going through tough times, this type of artificial hunt just wasn’t for us.

Forest with his frog on the left.

Photo courtesy Gary VandenLangenberg

It did however plant the idea in my head that when Forest got his strength back and his immune system had recovered, we would do a real hunting trip.

I researched some options in Western states and in the following weeks we sent for preference points in Wyoming to hopefully open the door for more opportunities when we would try for our license.

Fortunately, Forest’s treatment progressed as planned and nearly one year after this nightmare had begun, he graduated to the “maintenance” phase of his treatment. This would last an additional two and a half years and consisted of chemo pills every night but considerably less IV chemo through his chest port, allowing his body to slowly recover.

The following winter he was consistently feeling well, and his immune system had been holding steady, so we took a gamble that this would continue and applied for mule deer tags in Wyoming.

My brother, brother-in-law and each of their sons rounded out our group application. My dad also planned to join on the adventure and help guide the young men, scout and enjoy camp.

When a few months later we received the good news that we were successful in drawing our tags, I stressed to Forest how important it would be to build up strength in his legs, since the hills were going to be steeper and much bigger than anything we had in our part of Wisconsin.

Forest took right to his conditioning. Every day he would march up and down our stairs trying to beat the number of reps he had done the previous day. We hit the rifle range often, and Forest became an excellent shot with his bolt action .270.

Our long-awaited hunt finally arrived, and Forest was feeling very well considering what he was going through. His larger infusions of chemo were spaced out perfectly. He would have a nice break prior to the trip but would need to get another big dose as soon as we got home.

During the long road trip west, I explained to Forest and the other boys that this was an easy to draw unit with lots of hunting pressure. It meant we would have to look for areas far from the roads and places that might be overlooked by other hunters. But if we worked hard, stayed ambitious and kept a positive attitude, we had a great chance at success.

True to my assumptions, our area was full of hunters taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy our national forests and BLM lands. We set up our tents and made a comfortable camp in a nice aspen grove with good access to many different areas of public land to hunt.

The following day provided the opportunity to scout before the season, and luckily, we managed to find a few deer to get us excited. We also discovered unique rock formations and had a great time climbing around enjoying the midday sun. Turning in early that night, we could see our breath as we snuggled into our sleeping bags, anxious for what tomorrow would bring.

Forest and I clicked off our headlamps, gazing upward at the Milky Way arcing across the sky while taking a break from our opening morning climb. We had gotten an early start to allow extra time for our slow pace.

“This is awesome, Dad. Thanks for taking me out here. I’ve never seen a sky like this,” Forest said as he tried to catch his breath.

“I’m happy to do it, bud. It’s an incredible sight.” I subtly

turned my back to Forest and wiped tears out of my eyes. I had never been so proud in my life – what an amazing kid.

We made it to our lookout point as the rising sun began to light the hills. I had found this spot while studying maps prior to the hunt, checking out areas of public land and access points.

It was close to the road, but there was a steep climb right off the bat leading up to a basin that was only partially public land. I was hoping that the scattered nature of the public land and the initial climb would keep things quiet for opening day.

A couple does and a forkhorn appeared shortly after first light, and we quietly whispered the pros and cons of taking the small buck so early in the hunt.

“Janis Putelis from MeatEater says don’t pass up on the first day an animal you’d be happy with on the last day,” Forest said, “but I think I’m going against that advice for now.”

We watched the buck for at least an hour, and I must have asked him 10 times, “Are you sure you don’t want to shoot this deer?”

He was certain of his decision, and we watched the deer feed over the far ridge and out of sight. Soon after, we spotted three very nice bucks coming up the draw from private land and headed right towards our position on the BLM land.

The bucks were slowly making their way up towards us when suddenly something spooked them from below. The larger two bucks bounced away from us, paralleling the private/public fence line out of sight, but the other four by four jumped the fence and ran up the draw continuing in our direction.

Forest’s rifle cracked loudly, and he hit the buck but not too well. Before he could get another shot off, the buck limped over the ridge and out of sight. We quickly collected our gear and hustled up to where we had last seen him. This deer was wounded, and it was our responsibility to make every effort to finish him off as quickly as possible.

We briefly spotted the buck again as he disappeared over the next fold in terrain. Fortunately, he seemed to have relaxed and was walking slowly. We quickly ran up to peek over the next edge, FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 79

Photos: Gary VandenLangenberg

and luckily, he was still within range. Forest made a beautiful shot under pressure and put the buck down for good.

Walking up on that buck was an incredible feeling. Forest gave me a big hug, and we then knelt to say a prayer for the deer, thanking him for the hunt and for the meat he would provide our family.

After a few pictures, Forest insisted that he take the lead on field dressing. He had seen me field dress whitetails at home, but this would be his first time on knife detail. Listening closely to my instructions, he did a great job working his way through the process.

He was determined to carry out a share of the meat as well, and no matter how many times I offered to help, he would have none of it. For him, this wasn’t a challenge compared to what cancer and its treatment had put him through. Gasping for air, sweating through his shirt, he smiled ear to ear the entire hike back to the truck.

Truly a blessing, equally as much for me as for Forest, it was an amazing week in the Wyoming mountains with Grandpa, uncles and cousins away from the distractions of civilization. We enjoyed incredible sunsets, cooking over the campfire and cold nights in the tent, listening to coyotes yapping and elk whistling out bugles.

Unlike shooting animals at a game farm, there was nothing artificial, staged or phony about Forest’s hunt or his success.

Forest’s experience involved real discovery, real awe, real learning, real ambition … determination, hardship, patience and the real sense of accomplishment and joy that can only be found by real hunting.

Gary VandenLangenberg is a BHA member from Green Bay, Wisconsin. He enjoys his time outdoors with his wife Jenny and their children Lily, Robin, Forest and Lake.

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OCEAN STATE ADVENTURE

BY STRIKER BROWN I had always wondered what it would be like to hunt in cold weather. Growing up in central Louisiana I considered 40 degrees to be frigid. As a kid, I’d seen hunting shows of dudes tracking deer through the snow and was always drawn to the idea of cold weather adventures. Eventually, I got my opportunity. In the summer of 2018, I received orders to report to Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island.

Excited to explore a new part of the country, I packed up my fishing poles, bow and cold weather gear. When I say “cold weather gear,” what I really mean is a hoodie and a pair of North Face hiking boots I’d bought back in undergrad before a lastminute trip to Scotland. Turns out Scotland has a lot of scotch, so the boots spent most of their days logging miles on a barroom floor rather than actually being field tested in the cold. But I was still pretty sure they would work.

Showing up in New England was pretty eye-opening. I graduated high school with 16 other kids. One of the reasons I joined the military was I’d get the chance to see different parts of the world. Since I’ve been on active duty, Rhode Island marks the fifth state I’ve lived in and is, without a doubt, the coolest so far.

Despite it being in the middle of New England – an area normally crowded with human activity – Rhode Island has pockets of untouched public land. You only need one thing: a

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boat. A handful of uninhabited or sparsely populated islands lie just off the coast, many of which have public land hunting opportunities. After scouting a few public spots on the mainland, I quickly realized that human contact was going to be frequent in those areas. Drawn to the idea of getting away from the crowd, I turned my focus to setting foot on an empty island I’d never been to before. The only problem was that my pirogue (I think northern folks call it a canoe), which was my go-to mode of transportation for accessing hard-to-reach areas, wasn’t going to cut it out on the big water. I also wasn’t keen on the idea of buying a new boat. We all know the warnings about boats being bad investments and the saying that the best days of boat ownership are the day you bought it and the day you sold it. As it turns out, there’s a foolproof system to ensure your boat purchase doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg: buy a really, really shitty one.

So, $300 and a lot of unanswered questions later, I had a boat.

Or at least a piece of scrap metal that allegedly floated. As a Louisiana native, I come from a culture of folks who take pride in spending long hours out on the water in questionable vessels.

But even I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out. The trailer was almost completely rusted through, the original boat color was a mystery because of all of the Bondo, putty sealant and spray paint, and the outboard was … well, let’s just call her a classic.

As most folks know, outboards are finicky on the best of days.

It was pretty clear that the 1978 Evinrude that came for “free”

Photos: Striker Brown

with the $300 Craigslist boat was likely better situated on a museum wall than on the back of any vessel. Like the boat, the motor had so many replacement parts and layers of spray paint that God only knows what its original color was. Bottom line, odds were against this thing ever being seaworthy. But it’s amazing the lengths an outdoorsman will go to in order to get away from other like-minded individuals.

The one thing I had going in my favor was more a result of dumb luck than anything else. My next-door neighbor, a fella by the name of Hugh, also happened to be a bowhunter (likely the only other one in Newport).

Hugh was a sailor by trade. Not the Navy kind like me. The kind of sailor who can actually, you know, sail.

Our wives met first and drug us to some pinky-up social event that neither of us wanted to be at. Recognizing a mutual dislike of parties and desire to be somewhere else, the tightening straps on my life jacket. Eventually, the grinding we immediately became buddies. sound of aluminum contacting a sandy shoreline indicated we’d We were also the only two fellas there drinking gas station beer, actually made it. which I’ve come to recognize as somewhat of a secret handshake.

There’s something almost religious about the feeling you get At the least, it’s an indicator that someone doesn’t have an overly the first time your feet hit the shoreline of an island you’ve never inflated opinion of themselves. stepped foot on before. So many questions run through your head.

Once we got to talking, I became fascinated by what Hugh did How many other people are on this island? When’s the last time for a living. Apparently, rich people buy boats they can’t sail and someone stood right here? Where are the deer? As I looked out then hire people who can sail to transport their boats from port across the water, the sun was just breaking the horizon. There are to port. Who knew? a handful of moments you’ll remember forever, and this was one Before long, we were patching holes and welding angle iron of them. Or perhaps it was just the simple relief I felt knowing the onto the rusted-out parts of the trailer to get our Craigslist boat damn boat didn’t kill us both. ready for an island voyage. Hugh brought several skills to the table We spent the majority of the morning scouting and getting to that I didn’t possess. First, he was a skilled seaman and knew more know the island – a fascinating place with a longstanding military about being out on big water than I could hope to learn in a history. From hosting skirmishes during the Revolutionary War to lifetime. Second, he understood and appreciated the dangers of housing, testing and supplying torpedoes for the Atlantic Theater being on the water in cold weather. By the end of the summer, we of Operations in WWII, the little island had played a significant had turned the $300 Craigslist boat into a vessel that was worth role in America’s war efforts since the country’s infancy. at least $350 and, according to Hugh, would “probably, eh …

As we hiked throughout the day, we kept stumbling across maybe” get us to our island massive mounds of dirt, which hunting spot.

LOOKING BACK NOW, THIS WAS DEFINITELY we eventually realized were On a colder than normal underground bunkers used ONE OF THOSE SITUATIONS WHERE November morning, we for the storage of munitions YOU AND YOUR BUDDY BOTH THINK launched our piece of scrap and other explosives. On an SOMETHING IS A BAD IDEA, BUT NEITHER otherwise flat island, these metal into the Atlantic. We had two backpacks, two bows OF YOU SAY ANYTHING BECAUSE THE FEAR mounds made great vantage and two gallons of frozen water OF BEING THE GUY THAT CANCELLED A points, and climbing on top of (also known as ice), which the them allowed us to scope the HUNTING TRIP OUTWEIGHS THE FEAR OF Louisiana guy (me) had put area and get a lay of the land.

DROWNING IN THE COLD. in the boat the night before After a few hours of scouting so we wouldn’t forget them. together, Hugh and I eventually Old habits die hard. As we motored off into the darkness, there decided to split up. His phone died because he forgot to charge was one thought going through my mind: What the hell are we it the night before, so we planned to meet back at the boat come thinking? dark. I trudged around a while longer and finally found an area I The water was rougher, colder and wetter than either of us liked. A trail system with lots of sign eventually funneled directly had thought. Looking back now, this was definitely one of those past one of the ammo bunkers. Because I didn’t have any kind situations where you and your buddy both think something is of stand and knew I’d be ground hunting, I climbed on top a bad idea, but neither of you say anything because the fear of of the bunker and sat down in the waist high grass. Using my being the guy that cancelled a hunting trip outweighs the fear of backpack as a back rest, I settled in for a long sit. If something drowning in the cold. So, we kept motoring. Every time a wave were to wander down one of the numerous nearby trails, it was slammed into the hull of the boat, I was certain I could hear almost certainly going to walk directly past where I had set up. rivets popping. I tucked my chin into my chest and tugged at FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 83

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Photos: Striker Brown

Better yet, there was a steady and consistent wind coming off the nearby water hitting me dead in the face. One of the great things about hunting on a small island is that you don’t have any of the swirling-wind nonsense you get when you’re deep off in the woods or hunting in the hills.

I sat and waited. And then waited some more. Around noon I ate the sandwich I’d packed, more out of boredom than hunger.

At 1300, I ran out of water. Not because we hadn’t packed enough but because most of the water we had brought was still back at the boat in the wrong state of matter. After having seen zero deer all morning, I strongly considered getting up and looking for a different spot to spend the evening. But we had hiked a decent amount, and nowhere else had I found a location that combined a great pinch point, perfect wind, and the ability to shoot from an elevated position. I told myself to trust my gut, and I stayed put.

In the end, I only saw one deer that hunt. But the one deer I saw I walked over to the spot of impact and found the arrow. The was the only one that mattered. I’ve always found it fascinating blood on the arrow looked good, exactly what you’d want to see. how a deer can simply appear out of thin air. I just so happened Even though I was pretty confident the deer was down, I wanted to be staring into the grassy woodline in the exact area where the to play it safe and give it plenty of time. I marked the spot and buck materialized, lost in that kind of trance-like state your mind headed back to the boat. Darkness was setting in quickly, and I wanders off to when you’re staring into the woods for long periods wanted to at least get back before daylight was completely lost. of time.

As Hugh walked up to the boat, I was sitting on a log sucking People often ask me what I think about when I’m spending on a piece of ice I’d chipped out of our water jug. “Anything?” he hours upon hours in the woods. I honestly couldn’t tell you. I once said. I held out the bloody arrow. “Ha! A buck?” had a grouchy old schoolteacher who used to ask her students if “A dandy.” Not much else needed to be said. We shed most of they had an “empty head” when they didn’t know the answer to our gear, grabbed the flashlights and headed off to where I’d shot a question. Most of the time I spend sitting in the woods I’ve got the deer to get on the trail. an empty head, and I’m pretty sure that’s the reason I keep going After getting back to the point of impact it didn’t take us long. back.

The buck had gone less than a hundred yards, and the tracking My heart skipped. I felt that immediate hollow nervous feeling wasn’t difficult at all. The problem we faced now was that we were in my gut indicating your senses have now gone from completely almost two miles from the boat and had to somehow get the deer zen to detrimentally tense. The first thing I noticed was that the off of the island. After a quick field dress, we eventually drug the buck’s antlers were wide and heavy. He was beyond what I would deer to a nearby service road. We still had at least a mile to go consider a “shooter.” I turned my attention to shifting my body and were trying to figure out if the best strategy was to continue into a position to be able to draw back and get a shot off. It was to drag the buck or quarter him up and pack him out that way. one of those rare occasions where a deer did exactly what you’d As we stood there mulling this over, from around the corner a guessed, appearing right on the trail I’d thought a deer would set of headlights hit us. I could hear an old diesel motor rumbling come down, and he headed directly towards the funnel below me. as the truck pulled close, but It was immediately apparent neither of us could see a thing MOST OF THE TIME I SPEND SITTING that if I didn’t do anything dumb, because of the blinding lights.

IN THE WOODS I’VE GOT AN EMPTY I was going to get a shot. I felt “You boys police?” a voice like I was going to throw up. At HEAD, AND I’M PRETTY SURE THAT’S THE from the truck yelled.

30 yards the buck stopped and REASON I KEEP GOING BACK. “What? Uhh, no? We’re turned perfectly broadside in bowhunters trying to get this order to look back at something deer back to the boat,” I replied. behind him. I drew back. The buck didn’t move. The pin settled.

“Ah! Well, why didn’t you say so? Happy to have you throw him The arrow released. It quickly found its mark. in the back of the truck if you’d like.”

I could not believe what had just happened. Hands shaking, Hugh grinned and without saying a word, we grabbed the deer I grabbed my phone to call my brother. During hunting season and loaded him onto the back of the old man’s flatbed. I opened if one of us gets a call from the other one during legal shooting the passenger door to jump inside the cab and immediately heard hours it only means one thing. “Bullshit,” he answered the phone. the clang of aluminum beer cans falling from the floorboard to “Buh-buh-bro. Big buck,” was all I managed to get out. the dirt road. I shot the old man a concerned glance. “No worries, “How’d the shot look?” he asked. son,” he said.

“Looked good; felt good.” I relayed a few more details and then I assumed he was about to tell us that those beer cans were we decided that because I didn’t see the buck go down, the best from last week or that maybe that he had just come from a beach plan was to climb down off the bunker, take a look at the arrow cleanup project. Instead, all I got was “I’ll drive slow.” I looked at and then slip out and head back to the boat to meet up with Hugh, who then looked back at me before we both simultaneously Hugh.

turned and peered through the darkness towards the location of the boat a mile away. “Much appreciated,” I told the old man as we picked up the beer cans off the road and climbed into the cab of the truck. At least it was gas station beer.

We idled down the dirt road at about five miles per hour back towards the boat, listening to the old man tell us stories about the history of the island. Turns out, the island has about 50 residents who live there year-round. We also learned that the old man lived in a small house pretty close to where we’d left the boat. This later helped immensely when we decided it would be best to make sure he got home ok.

With the buck and all our gear loaded back into the boat and the old man’s truck parked back at his house, we slowly motored the old Evinrude back towards the mainland. All of the morning’s worries about the seaworthiness of our vessel were a distant memory. An incredibly calm and beautiful night, the water like glass, we slowly made our way across the bay, listening to the slow rumble of the outboard and the slosh of water sliding across the boat’s aluminum hull. I stared up at the night’s sky, sucking away at one of our last remaining ice cubes from the water jug.

Lt. Cmdr. Striker Brown is currently serving on active duty in the United States Navy. He is presently stationed in Okinawa, Japan, where he enjoys exploring and new outdoor adventures with his wife Kara, daughter Finley and their dog Annie. At time of press, he is on deployment in the Pacific area of operations.

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BEYOND FAIR CHASE

WHAT DO WE OWE THE INDIVIDUALS?

BY COREY ELLIS Generally, the hunting community and wildlife managers focus on entire populations of animals and game species. Yet, we as hunters and anglers rarely make decisions that affect entire populations. But every time we pull the trigger, release an arrow or set a hook, we interact with an individual animal in an intimate way.

Wildlife regulation almost exclusively deals with population level dynamics (with some notable exceptions), which is reflected, in a sort of roundabout way, in the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. One of its seven primary principles says that science is the proper tool to discharge wildlife policy. Scientists and policy makers are generally not concerned with the individual members of a species, and science is not the domain for assessing the ethical interactions of humans and individual animals. The result is policies and laws that protect populations but not necessarily individuals. But as sportsmen and women, we carry a burden and an ethical obligation to individual animals with which we interact. Let us consider some examples, some of them personal.

Last year a friend of a friend made what he thought was a good archery shot on a bull elk. Another friend and I received the call that they were going to need help getting the meat out. As we were nearing the trailhead, we learned the bull had still not been found many hours later. Five of us spent the entire day searching for the elk in vain. This amounted to more than 40 hours of searching. It was a heartbreaking loss.

As we were searching the forest floor for sign, I was struck that while it was great that we were mounting this tremendous effort, would we ever do this for a bird? I received an answer. When we were heading home, we came across a grouse. A great shot was made on the bird. We found feathers and flesh but no bird. Again, we all searched for a bit, maybe five or 10 minutes. Again, it was in vain. Why did the elk get so much more attention and effort?

Was it the amount of meat? Is it because the chance at a successful elk kill is more elusive than that of a grouse kill? Was it because an elk is a greater trophy? Biologically speaking that grouse was “worth” just as much as an elk. Or maybe more since grouse numbers have been slipping?

On another occasion, my neighbor was speeding away, late morning, with his duck boat on top of his rig. I ribbed him a bit for leaving so late on a duck hunt. He then informed me that he had driven the 20 minutes home to get his canoe to paddle down and across the river to find a lost bird. That is a lot of effort for a bird! Effort that I probably would not make, and I feel comfortable saying most hunters would not make. To further muddy the issue, this was the same hunter that shot and lost the grouse on

our way out from the elk hunt. What accounted for the different levels of effort? Often there are many factors at play: time, conditions and likelihood of retrieval to name a few. But perhaps every animal deserves a full effort every time?

I am sure most hunters can think of at least a few similar, seemingly contradictory experiences. It’s much more difficult to codify and dogmatize our interactions on an individual level than it is at the population level. The previous examples were not meant to show right and wrong actions but rather to exemplify that the conversation and consequently our actions around hunting ethics and animals have tended towards the whole, while often neglecting the parts.

As mentioned before, most of our laws are directed at the population level, reinforcing this phenomenon. Bag limits protect a species, not individual members of it. Season dates are set to limit take and make sure hunting and angling do not overexploit the resource. Yet, there are some examples where through our democratic management practices, we have collectively codified the protection of the individuals for their moral and intrinsic worth.

Wanton waste laws do nothing to protect and promote populations. They exist because we have said that if we are going to kill something, we owe it to that animal to make use of its valuable meat. Minimum caliber and minimum draw weight laws exist because there is some, albeit hard to define, risk of wounding that we just find too high to accept with insufficiently lethal weapons.

Finally, we should be acutely aware that we as hunters make up about 5 percent of the North American population. And though we have good reason to trust in population level biology as a management tool, the rest of society may not value this tool to the same extent. Animal cruelty laws, which are widely supported, do not exist because dog populations are threatened. They are there because we love dogs and think they deserve to be treated as the sentient creatures they are. At the same time, it is perfectly legal to euthanize a dog to protect its worth, and society has acknowledged that things die, and there are acceptable ways and reasons to cause death.

So once again as sportsmen and women, we are generally left to our own moral devices. None of the questions posed here are likely to be solved in public panels or in legislatures. We are left to find our own way and to do right by hunters, the hunt and the hunted.

Corey Ellis lives in western Montana where he spends his time avoiding work, exploring public lands and rivers, and advocating for wild places and wildlife. He serves on the board of directors for the Montana BHA chapter and Orion-The Hunter’s Institute and is a life member of BHA.

This department is brought to you by Orion - The Hunter’s Institute, a nonprofit and BHA partner dedicated to advancing hunting ethics and wildlife conservation.

FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 87

HUMOR

ALL IN A MINUTE

BY JILL GRENON MCMURRAY

odds are not in my favor. He is behind thick cover, and she has me pinned. It would be awfully awkward trying to twist into shooting The predawn hike was over an hour, which gave ample time position. She would surely spook and alert him. I consider two for reflection: the effort invested to learn this landscape, the deer have already come within feet of me and decide to make like heartbreak of shooting a tree branch opening morning instead of a rock. His subtle grunts start again. I hear him move. Wrong a beautiful buck with almond antlers, and the close encounters way, wrong way, I cringe. He walks into my wind, stops, turns, that followed. I became as obsessed as a working mom with two and dashes away, venting a good warning snort. My heart sinks. I kids under 5 during a pandemic can get. was hunting on public-access bordering private land – and he ran My final morning of the two-week rifle season, I wondered if he towards the private. was still alive as I approached the bedding area. I nestled into the Surprisingly, she doesn’t bolt. The doe is solid and healthy, hillside 15 minutes before shooting light. Around 7 a.m. I heard the largest I have seen this season. She bobs her head, trying to leaves rustling. I was alert and ready when a small doe popped figure me out. I do not want to push the buck onto private land out five yards to my left. With a rifle, only branch-antlered bucks nor spook a potentially hot doe out of the area. Thus, I am left are legal in this unit. I exhaled, my heart slowed as I watched her sitting on the ground engaged in a staring contest. Mind you, meander, cluelessly grazing, till she fed out of sight. it is still raining, my pants are around my knees with my right The temperature hovered above freezing as the sky began to glute squished against a frigid, gritty rock. My bare hands, frozen, leak. Inevitably, I began to play the “I will wait five more minutes clutch the cold stock of my .243. My gloves lie useless a few feet and then go pee” game. After nine rounds (45 minutes), the rain away. The doe is pulling every trick in her deer book to catch me had seeped through the abundant cracks in my pac boots. My feet make a mistake. But I have played this game many times, and I were soaked, and I was chilled; I got up. give her nothing. A deep chill sets in. I will her to move off. The Squatting, mid-pee, I heard an animal crashing through the rain turns to ice and it needles my exposed skin. Really? Really?! I trees above me. I twisted around to see a doe bust through the silently yell to the clouds. She starts to relax. Then unexpectedly, thick hemlocks, clear a small ledge and land on what appeared to she beds down, 25 yards away, facing me. be a direct collision course with me.

I curse, flabbergasted, pondering She was barreling forward with such her move. What? Why did she do So, there I was sitting on the force a direct hit would surely break that? My hands are numb. My butt is cold ground, weighted firmly me. I realized I had to move, NOW. numb. My right leg has gone to sleep. I on my right side, with my pants start to shiver. This is ridiculous. Wait, I locked eyes with her and rocked just over my knees and my butt towards my gun. She swiftly veered. is she using me? What if she is sick Her round, black eyes were huge, and hanging out in the open – feeling of being harassed by bucks? I haven’t her head was stretched cartoonishly harmed her, and there has been plenty rather exposed. forward, accentuating the bulging of time and opportunity for that. I muscles and veins in her neck. I could spooked that annoying buck away; have patted the blur of her back as she raced by. Applying the am I being viewed as buck repellant? I succumb to the exposure brakes, she landed 20 yards downhill, eyes fixated on me. (and humiliation). Still, I don’t want to spook her, so I slowly try In the split-second commotion, I managed to get my gun, but to pull my three pathetically wet layers back up. She sees the slight not my pants. So, there I was sitting on the cold ground, weighted movements and stands up. Finally, decent, we engage in one last firmly on my right side, with my pants just over my knees and my stare-off before she slowly wanders away. butt hanging out in the open – feeling rather exposed. Nothing I went pee at 10 a.m. It is now after 11. I hang my head and chased her; she had come directly downwind, perhaps my scent laugh at the odds of it all. One minute later or one minute sooner, had swirled, and she ran towards me in confusion. Motionless, I and I would have been in a much better position, in the least, a stared at her; she stared back. Another thought, a panicky thought less risqué one. Hunting is humbling, some days more so than arose, what if another hunter spooked her, then follows her path others. The buck earned the last laugh this year, but I know where and finds me sitting on the hillside, birthday bottom and all.

I will be with my bow come October.

Then I hear it: the soft, elongated grunts of a buck. He is Jill Grenon McMurray is a BHA member and an air quality walking towards us, uphill and to my left. Might I have another chance? I slowly shift my head and roll my eyes back, but the specialist for the U.S. Forest Service. She enjoys sharing her passion hemlock is thick; I cannot find him. He is right there; I feel his for wildlands, hunting and fishing with her two sons, husband and presence as I listen to his low-pitched calls. She is staring at me, dog. A current resident of Vermont, she continues to be humbled (and at him, at us. He stops grunting. It is a game of chance and the sometimes humiliated) by Mother Nature.

88 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2021

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END OF THE LINE

Making Memories In The Comfort Crisis (from which we will be featuring an excerpt in the winter issue of Backcountry Journal), author and BHA member Michael Easter notes that our memories can typically retrace every detail of a novel experience. Experiences that challenge us to the extreme both physically and mentally demand vivid recollection (beneficial from a learning and survival standpoint), while our repetitive day to day happenings are largely tuned out, likely because from an evolutionary standpoint we’ve never needed to remember the details of something we already knew to survive. Because our backcountry adventures are always, in their very core, new experiences, they are often some of the memories that stick with us the longest and what fill our memory banks when we look back over the course of our lives.

For me, the memories that stick in my head have disproportionally occurred in fall. I think it’s because there is just so damn much to do – and each new day in the woods or on the water in fall is bound to be different from the last, full of new challenges and excitement.

For instance, I can vividly recall the coffee-toned-eight-point whitetail buck, over 20 years ago, that browsed his way down the remote oak ridge on opening morning to directly under my stand, only to have me realize I trimmed one branch too few and could not draw my longbow. I can even picture the look on his face as he gazed up at me, 15 feet above his head, his eyes opening wide.

But, to Easter’s point, I often struggle to remember the reason I walked into the next room of the house or down to the garage and can seldom recall my daily tasks of the previous week, month or year.

But I can definitely still see the exact tone of red on the cheek of that steelhead that rose to a dry fly years ago, and I can describe in detail the exact rock it was lying behind and where we camped that night. I can even close my eyes and feel the warmth of that October day on my skin.

I find pleasure in all seasons, certainly. Winter is for good books, bonfires, complete solitude on the rivers and maybe a trip somewhere warmer. Spring: greening grass, wildflower hikes, turkeys. Summer: lazy floats, watching the sun go down every evening from our Adirondack chairs, early morning hikes to beat the heat and stay in shape.

But fall is for adventure. Not a day to be wasted – too many memories to be made.

The day after this issue is sent to press my fall begins. My childhood best friend will join me from Michigan, and we’ll set foot in capital W wilderness on an undefined loop hike, a couple pandemic years overdue. They’ll be fly rods and the allure of lakes rumored to hold larger-than-typical trout. Bow season will open the third day of the trip, so of course I’ll also strap the longbow,

a bugle tube and hunting gear on my back because how the hell could I not? Only vaguely formed plans exist beyond that because in my mind, adventures always seem best when they feature only loosely formed agendas and a healthy dose of the unknown.

In my earlier years before parenthood, marriage and fulltime jobs, I would have hunted or fished damn near every day of fall, as I did through most of young adulthood. I’d have spent many nights in a tent and many more sprawled in the back of my truck, with Pate, my Lab, hogging my sleeping pad, me on the hard, cold ground (or truck bed).

But fall these days is not just about hunting or fishing. As I recently lamented about the adventures not being as frequent as they use to, a friend reminded me that adventure is all about perspective. Parenting involves plenty of the unknown and is thus plenty adventurous. Each day is a new, fresh experience, and memories are certainly being made. Packing out trash for the Public Land Pack-Out is sure to be an adventure. Publishing each issue of Backcountry Journal always presents unique challenges and memorable conversations with the contributors.

So, this fall I’m looking forward to my backpacking trip with a best friend, a backcountry elk hunt with my dad and hopefully meat in the freezer to feed the family. But I’m also looking forward to helping my daughter take her first steps down the trail.

To cool morning hikes with my wife along mellow streams and changing leaves. And to publishing the next lineup of great stories of adventure from you, BHA members. Through it all, memories are sure to be made. Wishing you all happy and safe hunting (and fishing) this fall, and I’ll look forward to sharing a few of your fall’s adventures – and memories made – in future issues of Backcountry Journal.

-Zack Williams, editor FALL 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 91