Winter 2022 issue of Backcountry Journal

BACKCOUNTRY

JOURNAL

The Magazine of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Winter 2022

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

TIME, TALENT & TREASURE I’ve had the great pleasure of having hundreds, even thousands of conversations with many of you over the past 8½ years. It’s what I cherish most about BHA: the people.

One theme that comes up over and over again like “Watermelon Sugar High” (yes, I have a teenaged daughter) is the expression, “I’ve found my people.” Kindred spirits is another way to say it.

Our community is grounded by likeminded but diverse perspectives, backgrounds and interests. We all rally together to make sure we have access to public lands and waters and the quality fish and wildlife habitat when we get there. And for good measure, we have fun doing it. BHA members get in the game rather than sit on the sidelines. You are more than generous with your time, talent and treasure. For that, I am forever grateful. Thank you.

As we close out one year and start another, I have three favors to ask.

I ask you to keep being generous with your time. The world is run by those who show up, and you all have proven time and time again that you are willing to stand up and be counted. Time is one of the most limited commodities we have in these days of packed schedules and endless life demands. To all of you who give your time as volunteers or rank-and-file members: Thank you. We need look no farther than Chapter News & Updates in this issue (page 20) that highlights some – SOME – of the work in which our volunteer leaders are engaged. Thank you. Individual action matters. Witness the jaw-dropping effort by BHA California member Scott Gibson and Brett O’Mara, head of BHA’s Armed Forces Initiative’s Camp Pendleton club, to deliver much-needed water to a population of desert bighorns (page 5). We all have the power to make a difference.

I ask you to keep being generous with your talent. There are many I could mention here, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t call out Col. Mike Abell from Kentucky. Through his years of military strategic training was born our BHA Scholars Program with the goal of engaging folks who don’t already hunt and fish into our world. The recipients of BHA scholarships are part of the next generation of leaders. Our investing in them now will help them understand our world. We hope that this will instill in them a propensity for conservation no matter where their lives of service lead. Thanks, Mike! Mike isn’t the only one who gives his talent. … Wendi Rank shows us once again that conservation work needn’t be taken too seriously with her laugh-out-loud take on Muster in the Mountains (visit the BHA Blog at backcountryhunters.org). Wendi, you make me smile any time I see you or read one of your missives. Thank you!

Lastly, the hardest thing I must ask: I ask you to continue to be generous with your hard-earned treasure. No matter what you can afford – $5, $20, $100, $1,000 or $5,000 or more – your treasure will enable BHA to continue to work for you each and every day on behalf of our public lands, waters and wildlife. This past year we were able to match $175,000 to fund Project Aspen, a discretionary fund that will help propel us into the future and enable us to

Farewell, and thank you, to our friend and conservation warrior, Ty Stubblefield.

take advantage of opportunities of greatest impact, whenever and wherever they arise. One of the best things about this fund is that it ain’t just for rainy days. Instead, it’s an investment opportunity: when we decide to take money out, we must have a plan to pay it back. It will work in service of the BHA mission for years to come.

And thanks to a matching grant from the Kendeda Fund, that $175,000 has been doubled to $350,000! The same opportunity is in front of us for 2022. Help us get a jump start on generating another $175,000 so we can realize an additional $175,000 next year. This opportunity won’t come again soon. Please invest in BHA today. Consider stretching your budget and investing in the public lands and waters that give us so much. Thank you in advance!

As we end the year, we bid adieu to longtime BHA staffer Ty Stubblefield. Ty has given us his time – he has invested six years in service of our organization. He has given us his talent. Who can forget his squirrel skinning prowess? And he has provided us with tons of treasure … notably our annual Hike to Hunt fundraiser, which Ty dreamed up and spearheaded for three years. Ty, I will never forget our first float down the Smith River, seeing you grow our chapter system and cultivate chapter leadership at a grand scale, or your questionable white elephant gifts at our staff holiday party.

You are one of a kind, and we are damn lucky to have had you in our ranks. Thank you. You leave the BHA staff but will always remain part of the BHA family. I look forward to a cheers with Midnight Forest soon, preferably around a campfire.

To each and every one of you I wish the happiest of holidays and a new year replete with adventure.

Onward and upward,

Land Tawney President and CEO WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 3

“WILDERNESS ITSELF IS THE BASIS OF ALL OUR CIVILIZATION. I WONDER IF WE HAVE ENOUGH REVERENCE FOR LIFE TO CONCEDE TO WILDERNESS THE RIGHT TO LIVE ON?” – MARGARET MURIE

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)

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 Andrew Hahne, Merchandise and Operations Chris Hennessey, Regional Manager

Contributors in this Issue Cover Photo: Colin Arisman Above Image: Robert Seilheimer, 2020 Public Lands and Waters Photo Contest Ryan Burkert, Noah Davis, Patt Dorsey, Michael Easter, Hunter Evans, Eduardo Garcia, Craig Godwin, Chris Hennessey, Sen. Martin Heinrich, Trevor Hubbs, Lael Johnson, David Johns, Jon Kochersberger, Ryan McSparren, Evan Nordstrom, Brittany Parker, Adam Parkison, Benjamin Polley, Mike Poulopoulus, Brian Schwab, Kylie Schumacher, Becca Skinner, Kassi Smith, Dr. Brian Stone, Teresa Waddington, Max Wilbert Journal Submissions: williams@backcountryhunters.org Advertising and Partnership Inquiries: mills@backcountryhunters.org General Inquiries: admin@backcountryhunters.org

Ace Hess, Idaho and Nevada Chapter Coordinator Josh Kaywood, Southeast Chapter Coordinator 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 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 Interns: Elliot Budney, Brady Fryberger, Keegan Shea, Noah Starling, Faith Wells, Clay Vernon

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 Dec. 2021. Volume XVII, Issue I

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

YOUR BACKCOUNTRY

WATER FOR SHEEP

BHA’s California chapter, Armed Forces Initiative and the Marines team up to save bighorn sheep

Photo: Brian Schwab, SCBS

BY EVAN NORDSTROM While the devastating fires of the Western states have become a perennial hazard jeopardizing the lives and livelihoods of American citizens, the heat and unprecedented drought preceding these fires is the larger threat to much of the wildlife. Hundreds of species are threatened by climate change and severe weather across the West. In the Southern California mountains, there lives a particularly vulnerable, and in some parts endangered, example.

Ovis canadensis nelsoni, desert bighorn sheep, are native to Southern California. Within this subspecies, a genetically diverse group, the Peninsular population, has been identified as endangered by the federal government. Peninsular desert bighorn have declined drastically due to human development centered around the sparse natural springs in these austere climes. While the federal government has set a goal for recovery, it has not yet been realized. This summer, the drought across the Southwest became an existential threat for the already endangered sheep population.

Due to the lack of natural water sources, various agencies and conservation organizations have placed artificial watering holes called “guzzlers” in strategic locations throughout these arid ranges. Many of these guzzlers are in remote and dangerous locations where temperatures regularly exceed 110 degrees in the late summer months, and the feasibility of hiking in does not exist for the better part of the day.

Faced with the decimation of these sheep, Scott Gibson, a

member of BHA and the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep, reached out to Brett O’Mara, the head of the BHA Armed Forces Initiative’s Camp Pendleton club, hoping for support from the Marine Corps. Brett, until recently, worked on Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton and knew BHA members in Marine Light Attack Helicopter Training Squadron 303 who were willing to examine the feasibility of delivering much needed water to the dry guzzlers.

Capt. John Zimmer took the lead for the helicopter crews and began coordinating with Gibson. The general plan was to fly UH-1Y utility helicopters using “longline” external sling loads to carry water from temporary reservoirs to guzzler sites located in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the Sheephole Valley Wilderness and Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center 29 Palms. Over the next several weeks, close to 30 hours of detailed planning between Gibson and Zimmer set the conditions for a four-day operation with two UH-1Ys and a team of 10 Marines.

On a Friday afternoon at the end of August, the section of UH-1Ys departed Camp Pendleton with the intent to land and Remain Overnight (RON) at a staging/camping spot adjacent to the area of operations for the first day. This RON would facilitate detailed face-to-face planning prior to execution the following morning. Due to in-flight malfunctions, only one of the UH-1Ys was able to make the campsite. After a detailed brief between the air and ground crews, everyone relaxed and enjoyed being part of what was to become an incredible success.

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Photos: Brian Schwab, SCBS

During the rehearsal flights, the UH-1Y crews determined the heat during the middle of the day made operations prohibitively dangerous. To mitigate the high temperatures and strong orographic winds, the crews decided to start the mission as early in the day as possible. This meant some ground personnel needed to start their hike to the site at 3 a.m.

Capt. Zimmer and his crew hit starters at daybreak and executed flights into the Carrizo Mountains of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. There were two guzzlers that needed water: one on Whale Peak and the other in Harper’s Canyon. With only a single aircraft available that morning, the decision was made to prioritize the guzzler at Whale Peak. This seemed to be the right call as the crews on the ground found several dead sheep directly adjacent the Whale Peak guzzler.

At each location being serviced, trucks drove as close as possible to the guzzler and set up a dip site. At the dip site, the trucks transferred their water to a large open pool called a “pumpkin.” (The name comes from its round shape and orange color.) Prior to receiving water, a large tin pool was assembled as a temporary reservoir, from which the water was either pumped or gravity fed into the guzzler. Once the conditions were set (pumpkin established, personnel inserted and equipment assembled), the helicopters started hauling water from the pumpkin to the guzzler. At the pumpkin, the helicopter would hover, dip its large bucket, and retrieve approximately 225 gallons of water. The full bucket was then flown to the guzzler site and emptied into the temporary reservoir. The helicopter crews continued running back and forth between the pumpkin and guzzler until the site was replenished, pausing only to refuel.

At face value, this appears to be straightforward.

However, trying to align a bucket of water weighing 2000 pounds, dangling from a 120-foot line, with a target that is only 10 feet across requires careful coordination with ground personnel and incredibly fine airmanship. As the helicopter hovered the bucket over the target, the Marines on the ground used a long stick and hook called a “static wand” to steady the bucket and guide it to the reservoir. They did this nonstop for over six hours, all while subject to the extreme heat, sun exposure and sand blasting rotor wash from the helicopter.

This first day was arguably the most important as 60 percent of all the Peninsular sheep reside in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The guzzlers in this area are the sole water source for the breeding ewes. The sheep in this area are the literal seedstock used to propagate and replenish the population throughout the entire Southern California range. If the sheep here are lost, the rest may well disappear.

On day two, both aircraft flew into the Sheephole Mountains located north of the sites in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

While the Peninsular sheep are known to travel this far north, the population of sheep in this area are understood to be the more ubiquitous desert bighorn sheep and are discouraged from mixing with the Peninsular herd due to I-10 freeway.

The final day required further coordination with the envi-

NOTHING THIS LARGE OR COMPLEX HAD EVER BEEN ATTEMPTED IN THE SERVICE OF THESE ANIMALS. ronmental team from MCAGCC 29 Palms, located east of the Sheephole Mountains. There are no longer any natural sources of water anywhere on this expansive base. Currently, there are less than 20 sheep on 29 Palms, but their numbers are increasing. Interestingly, genetic testing has shown sheep from on the base and sheep from the south and west of the base have been intermixing.

Biologists linked the sheep on 29 Palms to sheep from as far away as those in the Sheephole Mountains. A large part of their comeback is owed to Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep for building guzzlers on the base to help increase the population.

The mission was a huge accomplishment. Many critical populations of sheep throughout Southern California now have water

which should last them until next spring. According to Gibson, nothing this large or complex had ever been attempted in the service of these animals. By using Marines and their helicopters, those involved were able to get drought emergency water to critical populations, which would not have otherwise been possible.

From the pilot’s perspective, it is a rarity to practice with the bucket, and the significance of the proof-of-concept for longline operations is not fully comprehended. The Marine Corps now has new capability to train and fight with. The historical precedent of UH helicopters extracting wounded on external stretchers out of mountainous terrain in the Middle East makes this type of flying paramount for the efficacy of Marine Utility Aircrew. Additionally, the training received by the Marines on the ground was found to be as worthwhile as it was to those in the air.

Camp Pendleton BHA AFI was the catalyst that brought the critical capability of the United States Marine Corps to the fight in support of California’s desert bighorn sheep. The conservation of this animal should provide the reader with hope and a sense of pride in our organization. I want to leave you all with this: Give a critical thought to the people and groups around you. The willingness to ask for help, and the constitution to follow through, may save another part of our nation’s wildlife and lands, without which our nation loses much of its worth.

BHA member Evan Nordstrom lives in Virginia with his family..

Photo: Brian Schwab, SCBS

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JOURNAL WINTER 2022 | VOLUME XVII, ISSUE I

FEATURES 50

GATEKEEPERS

by Adam Parkison

58

MOTHER EARTH PROVIDES

by Max Wilbert

62

CUTTING OUT THE MIDDLEMAN

by Brittany Parker

66

WINTER STEELHEADING Q&A

by Lael Johnson

69

PRESSURED

by Jennifer Black

72

THE THREE-DAY EFFECT

by Michael Easter

74

TOO MANY CHOICES

by Craig Godwin

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DEPARTMENTS 03

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

39

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 INSTRUCTIONAL Use the Hares Wind for Waterfowl Snaring by Homer Raymundo

by Noah Davis

10

BHA HEADQUARTERS NEWS

FACES OF BHA DEPARTMENTS Catherine Danae Elser, Prospect, Pennsylvania

15

17 03

BACKCOUNTRY BOUNTY PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

40

19 05

KIDS’ CORNER YOUR BACKCOUNTRY Goingfor Fishing Water Sheep

by Evan Penelope Gall by Nordstrom

52 42

22 12 15 17 19 33 26 37 31

33

Photo: Travis Bradford

36

CHAPTER NEWS BHA HEADQUARTERS NEWS In Depth: Paying It Forward FACES OF BHA

by Joel Gay Ryan Burkert, Helena, Montana In Depth: Alberta Chapter Fights for Wild Places

by Neil Keown BACKCOUNTRY BOUNTY Rende Recap KIDS’ CORNER ColoringFORCES Contest! INITIATIVE ARMED by Hunter In DefenseEvans of Public Lands and Waters

by Lt. Col. Andrew Ruszkiewicz and Luke Weingarten CHAPTER NEWS Muster in the Mountains HUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY R3:Chris The Hennessey Why by

by Trey Curtiss HUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY Women in the Woods

by Kassi Smith COLLEGE CLUBS BHA College Clubs Continue to Impress

by Kylie Schumacher

COLLEGE CLUBS Building Bridges

by Col. Mike Abell

PUBLIC LAND LAND OWNER OWNER PUBLIC The North American Grasslands The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act Conservation Act

by Sen. Martin Heinrich

by Bethany ErbConservation Pre-Roosevelt Modest LandStone Mule Deer by Dr. Brian

by Brad Trumbo 79 SHORTS 87 BEYOND FAIR CHASE Hunting for Mindfulness What Do We Owe

by Teresa Waddingtonthe Individuals?

by Corey Ellis Dead Mule

by David Johns 88 HUMOR All in a Minute Waterfowling Lazarus

by Trevor Jill Grenon McMurray by Hubbs 91

NightOF Sweats END THE LINE

by Benjamin Polley

89

BEYOND FAIR CHASE Can Something Be Ethical for One Person and Unethical for Another?

by Patt Dorsey

91

END OF THE LINE

FIELD TO TABLE Elk Chiles Relleños

by Eduardo Garcia

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

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 11

Photo: Tony Bynum

HEADQUARTERS NEWS

MEMBERSHIP SURVEY RESULTS BHA members depend on North America’s public lands and waters for their time afield. Fifty-nine percent of us source at least a quarter of our diets from wild harvested food. Our organization is young: 67 percent are 45 or younger. We’re politically active and politically diverse, not gravitating to any one party or shunning party affiliations outright. Our members serve in the military at rates more than twice that of the U.S. average.

This is the portrait of the BHA membership as revealed by BHA’s 2021 membership survey. More at backcountryhunters.org/bha_s_ member_survey_2021_results.

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ED ANDERSON PRINTS Did you love Ed Anderson’s bison cover art from the summer 2021 issue of Backcountry Journal?

You can purchase a print of the bison (and a deer and elk), with proceeds supporting BHA’s work.

Visit the BHA online store to grab your print and maybe one for a holiday gift as well!

HEADQUARTERS NEWS

NEW! BHA BUSINESS MEMBERSHIPS

PODCAST & BLAST Don’t miss the great lineup of guests and topics that have appeared on the BHA Podcast & Blast over the past few months, including Jonathan Wilkins of Black Duck Revival; Dan O’Brien, South Dakota rancher and founder of Wild Idea Buffalo Co.; the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act with Sen. Martin Heinrich; and so much more!

Your business can now become a supporting member of BHA! Multiple membership levels are available with perks including individual memberships to share with employees and an exclusive Ed Anderson custom print to display in your business. Share your business’s support of public lands, waters and wildlife today, while investing in tomorrow.

Learn more at backcountryhunters.org/join.

Podcast episode 111 guest Jonathan Wilkins

MIDNIGHT FOREST WHISKEY

PUBLIC LANDS MONTH WRAP UP Photo: Tony Bynum

Midnight Forest is a straight bourbon whiskey produced by Spotted Bear Spirits in partnership with BHA. Spotted Bear blends three different mash bills to create an approachable bourbon with hints of cinnamon spice (rye), honey drenched wheat bread (wheat) and a soft vanilla finish (corn).

What’s more, $2 from each bottle sold goes to support the conservation of public lands and waters, and Jim Posewitz authored the copy on the back of the bottle.

Midnight Forest makes a great holiday gift – for yourself or others! To purchase a bottle (or two or three) visit BHA’s online store.

BHA ISSUES REWARD FOR ILLEGAL E-BIKE USE After witnessing two other hunters using e-bikes in a non-motorized area, Idaho BHA member Jeff Barney recorded vehicle make and license plate info – as well as their campsite location – and reported it to the Forest Service. An officer responded that same day and issued citations for illegal motorized use based on Jeff’s detailed information! As part of our OHV reward fund, BHA is issuing Jeff a reward for his diligent effort to protect our public lands and waters from illegal motorized use. More information on BHA’s OHV reward fund can be found at backcountryhunters.org/bha_s_ohv_reward_fund.

This September – Public Lands Month – public land owners from across North America heeded BHA’s call to take action with 43,000 letters sent in support of our lands and waters. And we put our boots on the ground to clean up our public lands and by hauling off more than 4,300 garbage bags of trash as part of the 3rd Annual Public Land Pack-Out. Through a combination of individual efforts and 43 chapterorganized events, we were able to leave our public lands in much better shape than we found them.

A big BHA high five goes out to all who pitched in. And a special thanks goes out to our friends at First Lite for stepping up and sponsoring this year’s Public Land Pack-Out. Above: California BHAers jump for joy after a successful Pack-Out at the Angeles National Forest.

Below: Central Texas BHAers with their haul after cleaning up Granger WMA!

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THE LARGEST SINGLE LIVING ORGANISM ON EARTH STARTED WITH JUST ONE SEED…

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

Project Aspen Our shared land. Our responsibility.

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

RYAN BURKERT HELENA, MONTANA

FACES OF BHA

Veteran Programs Lead, Armed Forces Initiative

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO BHA? I discovered BHA not as a hunting and fishing group but as an organization dedicated to public lands and waters. I first really became aware of federal public lands on a rock climbing trip to Indian Creek, Utah. While on the trip and camping in the backcountry, I also first read Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire and was inspired by his condemnation of development and his lamenting for the loss of solitude and wilderness.

While in Utah, I fell in love with the Wingate Sandstone red desert, but I still didn’t really understand public lands and very much took them for granted.

However, in 2017 BHA came to the forefront opposing the Disposal of Excess Federal Lands Act, led by a Utah congressman, which would have transferred 3.3 million acres of Western federal public land, including the area surrounding Indian Creek, to the states. Later that same year, Indian Creek, now part of Bears Ears National Monument, was at risk when Bears Ears was reduced from 1.35 million acres to just 201,000 acres.

As a late-onset hunter, I was drawn to BHA not just for their hunting and fishing constituency, but more so for their mission to protect, defend and increase access to public land. When BHA launched the Armed Forces Initiative, the overlap between hunting and fishing, public lands and waters and the military and veteran community seemed a perfect fit, and I volunteered to take an active role in supporting the program.

WHAT DO HUNTING, FISHING AND BACKCOUNTRY MEAN TO YOU AS AN ARMY VETERAN? Every service member takes an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” It’s the Constitution’s Property Clause that authorizes the federal government to own public lands. Yet, the existence of public lands and our access needs constant vigilance and defense.

While I was still serving on active duty, recreating on public lands was an opportunity to break from the daily stresses of military life. While still serving, many of my local trips were climbing in the Nantahala or Pisgah national forests. I was interested in learning to hunt, but I had no idea where to start. In my last year in the military, I started to hunt on public lands with a coworker, and now that’s how I spend most of my time.

Photo: Josh Bent

YOU HAVE BEEN VERY ACTIVE IN THE FORMATION OF BHA’S ARMED FORCES INITIATIVE, WHICH IS OFF TO A ROARING START. WHAT’S AFI DOING THAT IS RESONATING SO STRONGLY WITH BOTH ACTIVE DUTY AND VETERAN SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN? AFI resonates with the veteran and military community because it provides a sense of purpose. In creating the program, we were very conscious that we didn’t want just a hunting/fishing club, and we didn’t want to provide a one-time semi-guided experience; we wanted to provide the knowledge, skills and opportunities to create conservation leaders. From the start, our mantra was: “Our goal is to give veterans and service members a new mission, and that mission is conservation.”

Our installation clubs focus on recruiting new hunters and anglers

“Our goal is to give veterans and service members a new mission, and that mission is conservation.” and more importantly on ensuring existing hunters and anglers didn’t lapse due to the challenges of military life. Our activeduty population moves states and often across the country about every three years. Each state has a new set of regulations and possibly new, unfamiliar game species that make it difficult to navigate for a service member. Yearlong deployments and fall field training exercises make hunting even more challenging.

We also want to highlight the numerous opportunities available to hunt on military installations.

For our veteran, National Guard and Reserve populations, our goal is to create a foundation of conservation leaders and advocates. At our Dual Skills Camps, we teach the history of public land, how public land and wildlife are managed and funded, how the legislative process works and a bill becomes a law, and how and when in that process to engage to affect state and federal policy. We want to enable and empower our military constituency to advocate for public lands.

WHAT’S YOUR PERFECT DAY LIKE ON PUBLIC LANDS AND WATERS? Any day on public land can be a perfect day. I personally enjoy the camaraderie of hunting and fishing on public lands – whether it’s fly fishing with my wife, walking the fields for pheasant, floating the Yellowstone or hiking the mountains, glassing and bugling for elk with a friend. I also really enjoy teaching others about public land and the opportunities that are available to all of us, regardless of how you recreate.

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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.)

Hunter: Matt Brubaker, BHA life member Species: elk (first bull) State: Idaho Method: rifle Distance from nearest road: six miles Transportation: foot

Hunters: Cade and George Neeson, BHA members Species: elk State: Wyoming Method: rifle Distance from nearest road: two miles Transportation: horse, foot

BACKCOUNTRY BOUNTY

Hunter: Andy Krubsack, BHA member, Mags (dog) Species: sharptail grouse State: North Dakota Method: shotgun Distance from nearest road: 3 miles Transportation: foot

Angler: Mali Sheils, BHA member Species: walleye State: Minnesota (Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness) Method: spin Distance from nearest road: five miles Transportation: canoe

Hunter: Cody McGraw, BHA life member Species: whitetail State: New York Method: rifle Distance from nearest road: 2 miles Transportation: foot

Hunter: Aidan O’Callahan, BHA member Species: snowshoe hare Province: British Columbia Method: rifle Distance from nearest road: one mile Transportation: snowshoes

Hunter: Megan Williams, BHA member Species: pronghorn State: Montana Method: rifle Distance from nearest road: 1 mile Transportation: foot

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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

COLORING CONTEST!

Kids, submit your coloring contest entries to williams@backcountryhunters.org by Jan. 31, 2022. We’ll choose the top 3 entries. Winners will win their choice of a BHA hat, t-shirt or sweatshirt!

Hunter Evans is a native of Cache Valley, Utah. He enjoys fly fishing, spending time with his family and, of course, drawing in his free time.

Editor’s Note: Hunter Evans’ artwork was also featured in a Kid’s Corner column by Kris Millgate in the Winter 2019 issue of Backcountry Journal.

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Chapter News & Updates

ALASKA

ARIZONA

• •

•

•

The Alaska chapter board has formed a committee to review Board of Game and Board of Fish proposals.

The chapter hosted a women’s range session in Juneau.

The chapter hosted ptarmigan hunts and Public Land Pack-Outs in southcentral and interior Alaska.

ALBERTA • • • • • •

Held our first Alberta chapter rendezvous in August.

Organizing a campaign to oppose proposed high-fence ranches over CWD and fair chase concerns.

Alberta chapter members vocally opposed the proposed Grassy Mountain coal project; the federal government subsequently blocked it.

Organized a public land cleanup at North Bruderheim and helped fund a remediation project with TU at Radiant Creek.

Created and launched Armed Forces Initiative club for Canadian Forces members in Alberta.

Participating in a pilot project to survey spruce grouse numbers in Alberta.

20 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

•

•

Hosted our second annual dove cook-off in Yuma successfully. Members from the California chapter won with date dove poppers.

Conducted multiple public land cleanups, including the Flagstaff area and the Salt River.

Completed habitat improvement projects near Winslow in conjunction with RMEF.

ARKANSAS • • •

The chapter funded a bank-fishing access project at Pine Tree Research Station in conjunction with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Operated two blinds for mobility-impaired hunters during a special draw deer hunt in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

For the second year in a row, we packed out over 200 bags of trash during the Public Land Pack-Out.

CHAPTER NEWS BRITISH COLUMBIA •

• •

Continued our participation in the provincial Fish Wildlife Habitat Coalition, meeting with Minister Cullen (State for Lands), Minister Conroy (Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development) and MLAs across the province to highlight the crisis facing fish and wildlife and actions needed to improve the trajectory.

The chapter is promoting alternative approaches to post-fire salvage logging that would benefit habitat and wildlife after another devastating wildfire season.

Restarted gatherings including public land cleanup efforts, archery days, speaker events and barbeques.

CALIFORNIA •

• •

•

The California chapter has been engaged on the issue of Forest Service land closures due to wildfires since last year’s historic shutdown of all 18 national forests in the state. After this year’s closures, the chapter sent an official letter to the regional forester detailing BHA’s policy position, and the chapter was pleased to see the forests reopen promptly thereafter.

The chapter sent a letter advocating for a LWCF funding nomination for the Fay Creek Ranch acquisition to the Sequoia National Forest.

We sent a letter to Rep. Garamendi regarding his proposal to expand the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, highlighting the importance of preserving existing hunting and fishing access to these public lands.

The chapter hosted a pint night in Oceanside with special guests from Born & Raised Outdoors.

CAPITAL REGION • • •

Chapter board members conducted a mentored deer hunt, demonstrated full processing of the animal, and cooked everyone a gourmet meal afterwards.

Held the third annual C.F. Phelps WMA cleanup and family BBQ as part of Public Lands Month.

Partnered with Old Town Alexandria Patagonia for a viewing of the Public Trust film.

COLORADO • • • •

Amber Leach volunteered to serve as a Southeast Colorado assistant regional director.

We also have four new Northern Colorado assistant regional directors: Zack Scott, Jon Lang, Graham Geary and Trenton Budish.

Central West Slope Assistant Regional Director Leslie Kaminski was one of the top BHA Hike To Hunt fundraisers!

Executive leadership team/board member Kassi Smith organized BHA’s first “Women in the Woods Elk Camp.”

FLORIDA • • •

We have been monitoring updates to proposed increases in Restricted Hunting Areas. Board members continue to attend Fish & Wildlife Commission meetings to voice our opposition to these changes.

This July, we successfully hosted a South Florida deer and hog scouting workshop, joining experienced hunters with beginners, which was followed by a wild game lunch for all in attendance.

Continuing our efforts from last year, we have an extensive schedule of small game hunts across the state this season.

GEORGIA •

The Georgia chapter held their annual board meeting while on a public land bear hunt. During the meeting they came up with events, fundraising and membership ideas for the coming year.

IDAHO •

The chapter had 25 graduates from its Hunting for Sustainability course this fall. They will soon start their hunts, and we are excited to see their progress in our graduate community Facebook page.

•

•

The Idaho chapter continues to work toward the conservation of state endowment land though its active participation in Unite Payette. On Sept. 23, United Payette formally submitted its plan for conserving endowment lands around Payette Lake to the Idaho Department of Lands.

The Idaho chapter worked with the BLM Challis Field Office to remove an old section of downed barbed wire fence on National Public Lands Day. Volunteers hiked two miles up to a high ridge in the Jim McClure-Jerry Peak Wilderness. The 800-foot section of fence was no longer necessary and in an area heavily used by wildlife.

ILLINOIS • •

•

Illinois chapter members packed out trash from the Dupage River, Lake Shelbyville and Carlyle Lake to celebrate Public Lands Month.

Working in collaboration with many groups, we have drawn lots of attention to the DuPage River, where public access is threatened.

Check out the action alert at backcountryhunters.org/illinois to learn more and speak up.

We have resumed hosting in-person cleanups and events.

INDIANA • •

•

The Indiana chapter was busy this year fighting for wetlands. The chapter’s work helped us gain credibility and value as an authentic conservation organization in Indiana.

The Indiana chapter has had an incredible year of events, including a White River cleanup near downtown Indianapolis and a great event called “What the Ruck,” which included a how-to-pack tutorial followed by a grueling multi-mile ruck.

The chapter then hosted their first Indiana Chapter Rendezvous Sept. 10-12, which included a Public Land Pack-Out, INDNR presentations, dove/squirrel hunting, in-depth roundtable discussions, great food and enough laughs to cramp the cheeks. This will certainly continue!

IOWA • •

The chapter held its annual rendezvous at Big Creek State Park, providing a chance for Iowa members to participate in a weekend of activities celebrating Iowa’s public lands.

We’re monitoring and collecting stakeholder input regarding the ongoing permitting process for a proposed cattle feedlot in a geologically sensitive watershed home to quality cold-water trout streams that provide great access to Iowa anglers.

KANSAS •

• •

The chapter participated heavily in the Public Land Pack-Out with events at the Kansas River, Cheney Lake, Hillsdale Lake, Clinton Lake and Pomona Lake. In total, over 400 bags of garbage were collected from public lands between all the events.

The Kansas chapter partnered with Friends of the Kaw to do a tire cleanup on a large sand bar on the Kansas River near Shawnee.

We attended the Riley Fall Festival. Chapter Board Chair Kurt Ratzlaff demonstrated how a deer is taken from quarters to packaged cuts ready for the freezer.

KENTUCKY • • •

The chapter hosted a town hall meeting, where the public was able to voice their concern over a dwindling eastern Kentucky deer herd and fewer turkeys throughout the state.

Conducted a cleanup of a public access called Jigg Water on Silver Creek. The group hauled out a pickup truckload of trash and debris.

The chapter held our third annual trout stocking event in conjunction with the KDFWR. This year we returned to Chimney Top Creek in the Red River Gorge, where we had over 50 volunteers at one of our signature events, which is a highlight of the year for everyone who participates.

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 21

MICHIGAN • • •

We’re returning to the Huron National Forest to again partner with the Forest Service and Americorps for fence removal.

Held a successful pint night with the Ruffed Grouse Society and Bulleit Bourbon.

Another Women’s Only event is coming up soon run by chapter CoChair Sarah Topp and other chapter board members!

NEW MEXICO • • •

MINNESOTA •

•

•

In early September, Minnesota chapter volunteers removed numerous bags of trash, more than 70 tires and 1,140 pounds of scrap metal from the Minnesota Veterans WMA near Clearwater as part of a Public Land Pack-Out event.

The chapter has joined the CWD Action Coalition and signed on to a position statement with other conservation organizations and tribal partners to advocate for a moratorium on new captive cervid farms, ban transfer of live cervids and buy out all operational captive cervid facilities.

The chapter plans to hold a Winter Rendezvous at the beginning of 2022. Watch for details in the coming months.

NEW YORK • • •

MONTANA • •

•

Attended FWP-hosted listening sessions and expressed concerns over the current direction of wildlife management; joined a coalition and called on the governor to form a cold-water fisheries task force.

Hired a new chapter organizer, Veronica Corbett, added four corporate partners and rewarded BHA member Hannah Nikonow $500 for reporting information that led to a conviction of blatant and damaging illegal OHV use.

Participated in the Public Land Pack-Out, pulled fences, sprayed invasive weeds and cleared trails.

NEBRASKA • • •

A family fishing and cleanup event was held at Pawnee SRA in August, and a Trashy Squirrel event was held at Harlan County Reservoir in September.

A t-shirt design contest will be held this winter for a special Nebraska BHA shirt to be sold at Pheasant Fest in Omaha in March 2022.

The chapter held a pint night at Kros Strain Brewing in Papillion in October.

• •

Members came together in New Hampshire to pack out a trailer-load of trash from the Silvio O. Conte NWR and in Vermont to do the same on the Green Mountain National Forest.

There have been wingshooting events held throughout the fall in Maine and New Hampshire.

The Vermont team sent in a letter supporting a 12,000-plus-acre acquisition/easement to add to our public lands.

• • •

•

•

Chapter Chair Gerry Mauriello and board member John Provenzale hosted members at a casual Coffee & Bows meetup at Pequest Wildlife Management Area archery range. Some archery tips and tricks were exchanged and conservation topics in the Garden State were discussed. Members should look for more of these casual meetups in the future.

Board member Adam Paladini led the chapter on planning a collaboration with NWTF and USFWS to help new deer hunters get afield for the first time in early November at the Wallkill River Refuge.

We’ll report on the outcome of the events in the spring issue.

The chapter held its first pint night in quite some time at Water’s Edge in Belvidere. It felt good to be getting back to a bit of normalcy with events.

22 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

Hosted multiple cleanup events across the state, including at Wayne National Forest, Ladue Wildlife Area and the Mad River.

Continued the virtual Conservation Conversations series, most recently highlighting the H2Ohio Program.

Actively engaged in state level policy issues, including against HB 175, which seeks to remove protections from the over 115,000 miles of headwater streams in Ohio.

OKLAHOMA • •

•

Deer Camp took place Oct. 8-10in the Ouchita National Forest. We had a good turnout, great food and many memories made.

In September, we partnered with Choctaw archery for Bowfest, a 3D archery tournament thick with competition and great prizes. We had approximately 50 competitors in the event, and we can’t wait for next year to be much bigger!

Our chapter has many events already in the works for 2022, but we welcome ideas on what membership would like to see. We are finalizing our 2022 plans in the next couple months and will announce big things for our little chapter!

OREGON • •

NEW JERSEY •

The chapter welcomes New York and New England Chapter Coordinator Christopher Borgatti. As we – and the New England chapter – continue moving forward, it is great to have Chris on board!

Muster in the Mountains was a great time and a great success! The people, food, beer, activities and venue were all super – and above all, it will benefit the BHA mission for public lands and waters!

We hosted a pint night at Creamline Beer Garden in NYC. Our speaker was Cliff Cadet, who you may know as @UrbanArcheryNYC.

OHIO

NEW ENGLAND •

Conservation Chair Stephanie Walton-Filipczak secured a $1,500 donation from Fortis Construction for this year’s Public Land PackOut. Many thanks to Fortis.

In our second annual Elk Tag Giveaway, we passed on a donated cow elk license to a 10-year-old first-time hunter from Jemez Pueblo. We wish her luck!

For Public Lands Month, BHA members Josh Seowtewa and Bradley Allen organized two pack-outs in the Lincoln National Forest, with help from the Holloman Hunters group stationed at Holloman Air Force Base. In addition, Bradley Allen helped Trout Unlimited and LNF organize a riparian habitat project.

•

Digital pint nights featuring state game agency experts, accomplished hunters and Marcus Hockett of Fresh Tracks fame have been deeply engaging and tons of fun.

We finalized a $10,000 contribution to a project led by ODFW, RMEF and Hancock Natural Resource Group to purchase nearly 5,000 acres of land along the Minam River as part of a project that will eventually create the 15,000-acre Minam River Wildlife Area.

Thanks to our amazing friends at the Nature Conservancy, the chapter will be raffling off a 2022 buck mule deer tag on the famed Zumwalt Prairie, with 100 percent of the proceeds going towards public access projects! Be on the lookout as entries will go FAST!

PENNSYLVANIA • • •

Chapter members served as mentors for a Pennsylvania Game Commission-sponsored squirrel hunt at Middle Creek Wildlife Area.

The chapter hosted several Hunting 101 – Deer Scouting events. A butchering class is also scheduled as part of the chapter’s Take Two initiative led by board member Adam Eckley.

The chapter presented comments during the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s summer meeting. Board members also spent the day in the capitol meeting with legislators in October.

CHAPTER NEWS SOUTH CAROLINA •

• •

We attended six SCDNR public hearings for Sunday hunting across the state and participated in discussions with representatives, SCDNR agents and fellow citizens to articulate our support for Sunday hunting.

We held a pint night to distribute information we learned from the public hearings and to establish our future plans.

We held our first annual BHA 3D archery tournament to offer fellowship and a chance to hone member skills prior to hunting season kickoff.

SOUTHEAST • •

•

Mississippi members participated in the Pearl River Clean Sweep, cleaning up the Pearl River watershed during Public Lands Month.

BHA members in Alabama volunteered at two different R3 workshops put on by the state DCNR. The volunteers helped educate more than two dozen prospective new hunters on the ins and outs of public land hunting.

Stay tuned for info on the Southeast chapter Backcountry Jubilee coming up in March.

TENNESSEE •

•

The Tennessee chapter is hosting its 3rd Annual “BHA vs CWD” contest, which gets participants to have their harvested deer tested for CWD. The more deer tested the more entries participants get for great prizes from a large host of sponsors. This helps the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to better understand and track CWD in the Volunteer State.

Our chapter had a successful Public Land Pack-Out in September at Yanahli WMA. We cleaned up dozens of bags of trash from our public lands.

WEST VIRGINIA •

•

•

WISCONSIN • • • •

• •

Texas BHA urged the state legislature to donate part of the state’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to TPWD projects, including converting nearly 20,000 acres of state-owned land to state parks.

Dozens of volunteers statewide collected around 80 bags of trash and other large items for BHA’s Public Land Pack-Out. We joined Alvin Dedeaux and All Water Guides to clean up the Lower Colorado River in Austin for the LoCo Trash Bash.

•

•

•

UTAH •

•

•

The Utah chapter launched a fall 2021 program that focuses on the health of our mule deer herds in Utah – specifically, in regards to chronic wasting disease. The Utah chapter aims to support the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources and other conservation groups in preventing this disease from spreading in Utah before it has the opportunity to become a problem.

As a thank you for being an active participant in conservation, the chapter gifted a t-shirt to anyone who provided a sample for CWD testing and sent proof of testing to Utah@backcountryhunters.org (e.g., receipt, note from DWR employee, photo of deer being tested).

Additionally, for those who want to test a harvested deer from a non-target sampling unit, our chapter reimbursed the first 20 hunters for their $25 testing fee who emailed the receipt to Utah@backcountryhunters.org.

WASHINGTON •

•

•

The chapter held a Public Land Pack-Out event on in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest outside of Granite Falls. Over 30 volunteers showed up to the pack-out, and 82 contractor bags of garbage were removed.

We partnered with WDFW, Washington Waterfowl Association and Ducks Unlimited for a trail maintenance project at the Spencer Island Wildlife Area to enhance walk-in waterfowl access.

Successfully hosted the third annual Access Freedom Archery Shoot.

The chapter recorded a podcast with our partners at the North American Non-Lead Partnership. Check out our podcast WI BHA REPORT wherever you listen to podcasts.

Two board members have been participating in the state’s wolf committee to provide input on the future wolf hunting plan.

BHA is partnering with the DNR for a “learn to hunt for food” rifle hunt in November.

The chapter helped fund a CWD carcass dumpster in Bayfield County and is fully funding a CWD carcass dumpster at Goose Lake Wildlife Area – the chapter’s adopted wildlife area.

WYOMING

TEXAS •

Rampant illegal OHV riding on East Lynn Lake WMA led Hatfield-McCoy Trails to approach USACE about managing 41 percent of the property that is currently a WMA for recreational ATV trails.

We spoke out against losing public hunting land, and due to overwhelming public opposition, HMT revoked its proposal.

There is a concerted effort to get OHVs/ATVs on our public lands in West Virginia. The latest effort involves creating a “wildlife viewing stamp,” which would allow recreational OHV riding on WMAs. We’re working to alert hunters and inform the DNR, commissioners and lawmakers that we are against ATVs on public hunting lands.

2022 events will be announced shortly.

Wyoming chapter leaders Megan McLean and Kayla Nagle led a successful CWD workshop in Cody in partnership with WGFD. They also led a successful BLM cleanup as part of BHA’s Public Land PackOut. Leading sportsmen and conservation organizations including the Wyoming chapter released a new report in September titled “Conservation Assessment of Big Game Migration on Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest.” The groups hope that this synthesis of wildlife data and information, including science-informed recommendations for forest management, will aid and guide planning decisions for the Forest Service as it undertakes a multi-year stakeholder engagement process aimed at revising the forest’s 31-year-old management plan.

On National Public Lands Day, a group of volunteers removed 550 pounds of trash from an old, abandoned camp in the Bighorn Mountains. The team removed rotted wall tents, chairs and cots on six pack horses.

YUKON • • •

Our Annual General Meeting was held with our new board in place.

Plans are in place for hosting educational events through throughout the winter and spring, starting with a bison hunting panel for new and experienced hunters.

We’re look to start getting membership engaged to provide mentorship with novice hunters.

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

MUSTER IN THE MOUNTAINS

If you make the drive to the valley where West Kill Brewing is nestled low on a wooded slope, the place names and signage will hint to you that others voyaged here too, long ago.

The words Shokan, Shandakan, Ashokan and many others are vestiges of the Esopus people, who roamed and lived here before Europeans drove them westward.

Then, as now, nature is the predominant feature on the landscape.

Mountains sheathed in hardwoods tower over narrow rivers carved through rock and boulders. Deer and birds and other critters abound, secure in the permanence of the 20,000-acre Hunter-West Kill Wilderness. People occupy places where the land allows it.

Like the hunters and anglers of old, BHA members descended on these Catskill Mountains in July because of what could be had there: a nice place to gather, play, feast, share knowledge, tell stories of the past and plan for the future.

For the use of West Kill Brewing and its grounds, we must thank New York chapter board member and West Kill Brewing owner Mike Barcone, who offered up his slice of the mountain, valley and stream to about 225 members and friends July 16 to 18.

The weekend’s organized activities were cut short Saturday evening when, after President and CEO Land Tawney finished his oration and just as the final prizes were awarded, the skies opened up and sheeting rain began. Within minutes, the power was out and our evening plans of a film showing and bonfire were literally doused.

Luckily, West Kill’s taproom and copious covered outdoor space beckoned and folks were able to regroup and watch the rain and lightning show from under cover.

It was a good reminder that now, as in the days of the Esopus and whoever was here before them, nature is in charge. May it always be so.

-Chris Hennessey, BHA Eastern Regional Manager and Chapter Coordinator 26 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

President and CEO Land Tawney wrapped up the event with a Go, Fight, Win! Photo: Chris Hennessey

Saturday was a day of activities, starting off with a Hike to Hunt event led by chapter board member Christa Whiteman. The 3D archery course was set up and manned by the good folks at Northhill Outdoors. Saddle demos, a native plant woods walk, a turkey hunting roundtable and fly casting instruction from Kelly Buchta and her team at Dette Flies rounded out the day.

Photo: Brian Bird

In the wake of covid, and a year of almost no live events, the New York chapter finally put on an a fest that had long been planned, but not realized.

Things kicked off with the Conservation Dinner & Auction Friday night.

From the signature drinks and West Kill brews to the lamb barbacoa, prepared by chef Manny Rogue of Liz Bar catering, the evening was a hit.

The highlight, though, had to be the dazzling talk given by longtime member, chapter leader and conservation stalwart Todd Waldron (pictured below, left).

The Adirondack native educated, entertained and fired up the crowd with a New York-focused speech, laden with history and starring a cast of lesserknown but pivotal conservation heroes.

Best of all he delivered the undeniable message that we need to carry on their work, whether we are remembered for it or not. Photos: Mike Poulopoulos

New York chapter board member Mike Poulopoulos (right), wore a lot of hats during Muster, including that of saddle hunting instructor.

Mike Woods, chair of the New England chapter, also introduced folks to the swing thing. Photo: Chris Hennessey

The event drew BHAers from across the East, including Alden, Sterling and Avalon Park from Rome, Pennsylvania.

Photo: Chris Hennessey

Many thanks to Mike Barcone and Colleen Kortendick, who shared their piece of the Spruceton Valley with BHA. Mike also donated many items, necessary infrastructure and many hours of labor and planning, both personally and by his amazing staff. We are indebted for his generous support.

Photo: Mike Poulopoulos

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 27

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WOMEN IN THE WOODS

HUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY

BY KASSI SMITH The ray of light as dawn breaks over the High Rockies. The distorted reflection of mountain giants just below the waters’ surface. A held breath as the first mallard sets for landing.

These experiences are visceral, and they are ubiquitous.

Like many, I wasn’t born into a family that recreates outdoors; but even so, my earliest memories are of escaping into wild spaces.

Before the age of 10, I would walk myself to the park and forego playgrounds for the surrounding woods or marsh. During seasonlong stays at the farm I would wander up into the pastures, meander through barns and collapsed outbuildings and eventually find my way into the trees. Though I was never taught to navigate, I didn’t think twice about following my feet as far as they would take me.

I caught snakes and frogs, talked to cows and deer, climbed trees, caught bugs and returned only when the sun went down.

In my teens I started backpacking. In my early 20s, I started hunting.

In my mid-20s, I began to realize how fortunate I was for the experiences I’ve had.

In my late 20s, Women in the Woods gave me the opportunity to share those experiences with others. At the beginning of 2019, we started producing blog posts highlighting women who have made careers in the outdoors. Shortly after came virtual events with specific educational focuses, giving women the opportunity to ask questions in a format that was fun and relaxed. Finally, as the world started reopening, I continually brainstormed ways to get folks together in person in the field. Women in the Woods Camp started as many things do: making the right connections at the right time.

Using the network of people I’ve met through my time volunteering for BHA, I started pitching ideas for themed camps. We’re still in the early days of what I hope is a long and fruitful endeavor, but so far with an elk camp, fly fishing camp and waterfowl camp in the books in Colorado, I am excited to see what comes next both here and across our many other chapters.

Recreating in the outdoors is not gendered, and conservation reaches far beyond our imposed societal norms and expectations.

Women in the Woods is just one part of a much larger push towards introducing people to the importance of protecting lands, waters Above: Women in the Woods Elk Camp in Colorado.

Photos by Ryan McSparren.

and all that inhabit them. It may be counter intuitive, but my goal is not to increase the number of folks in the field. I don’t like seeing people in my hunting or fishing spot any more than the next person, but we can’t avoid the fact that in order to protect and advocate for the North American Model of Conservation, we must step up and provide the growing number of hunters and fishers every opportunity to do so ethically, safely and mindfully. And as the number of hunters and anglers increases, there’s nothing I love more than people who seek opportunities to educate themselves and then bring what they’ve learned back to their families and friends.

Over the last year, and in the coming years, this is the bar to which I hold each Women in the Woods event. As an organization we have long recognized that by targeting everyone equally we are only strengthening the number of individuals who put in time, effort and money in to protecting what we all hold dear. Before each event I go back to what I wrote over a year ago when I was first ruminating on what direction to take the Women in the Woods series. At the time I wrote: “I want Women in the Woods to extend our reach. I want it to be the extra push to get people from curious to committed. By building confidence, dedication and engagement, we can expand the community of conservationists on the ground fighting for our public lands and all that inhabit them. Women in the Woods is our opportunity to strengthen our community around the public lands, waters and wildlife that have shaped our values and identities.”

This still rings true for me, and I hope it will for long as I am able to hold the torch.

Kassi Smith has been a volunteer for BHA since 2015 and currently sits on the board for the Colorado chapter. She lives in the San Luis Valley area, enjoying rural life and the myriad public land opportunities it offers.

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 31

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COLLEGE CLUBS

BHA COLLEGE CLUBS CONTINUE TO IMPRESS UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE SCHOLARSHIP We awarded our second scholarship at the University of Louisville to political science and criminal justice major Jordan McGinty. Jordan follows in the footsteps of our first scholar, Maurice Rodgers, as he joins the Kentucky chapter to complete stewardship projects as a part of his scholarship requirements.

BIG SKY EXPERIENCE University of Montana BHA and BHA staff participated in their second year of the Big Sky Experience, which targets incoming freshmen and immerses them in two days of activities with local organizations. BHA hosted 40 students for an afternoon hike and trash pickup on public land. The following morning, students learned how to fly fish with BHA R3 Coordinator Trey Curtiss.

PUBLIC LAND OWNER STEWARDSHIP FUND We awarded our second year of PLO grants this fall to repeat recipients University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and Castleton University. Both clubs will receive funds (through generous

BHA staffers join freshman University of Montana students at Milltown State Park to learn how to fly fish.

support from the S. Kent Rockwell Foundation) to complete habitat improvement projects on their local public lands. Three more grants will be awarded in the spring.

RECOVERING AMERICA’S WILDLIFE ACT This semester’s policy priority is the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, and students are sending postcards to their senators asking them to support S. 2372. Over 200 postcards have been sent as we try to push RAWA across the finish line this year.

PUBLIC LAND PACK-OUTS Clubs celebrated Public Lands Month by participating in BHA’s Public Land Pack-Out. Ten clubs hosted trash pack-outs, contributing to BHA’s 4,400 bags of trash picked up in the month of September. The North Carolina State University club partnered with Opportunity Outdoors for a joint pack-out and deer hunting seminar, where students learned how to set up a treestand before venturing off to pick up trash.

NEW ADDITIONS BHA welcomed our first club in Ohio at Marietta College, led by students Kyle Jacobs, Robby Guy, Brian Bonifas, Shallyn Bradford and advisor Randy Hessen. They join our 23 existing clubs bringing BHA’s mission to college students.

HUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY BHA will host our first waterfowl-focused Hunting for Sustainability workshop in conjunction with the University of Montana BHA club and Teller Wildlife Refuge in November.

Twelve students will attend the weekend-long workshop where they will learn the ins and outs of waterfowl hunting in Montana, including a mentored hunt on Sunday morning.

-Kylie Schumacher, BHA Collegiate Program Coordinator

The North Carolina State University BHA club and Opportunity Outdoors pose with their bags of trash after their Public Land Pack-Out event. Photo credit: Phillip Widener

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 33

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FIELD TO TABLE

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ELK CHILES RELLEÑOS

BHA member Eduardo Garcia is a professional chef, a founder of the clean label, national food brand Montana Mex and an outdoorsman with a penchant for sharing his full-spectrum approach to a wild-harvested lifestyle.

Visit www.montanamex.com for more information.

36 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

BY EDUARDO GARCIA Here, I take a spin on a classic dish from Mexico, Chiles Relleños – stuffed chiles – and use elk as the celebrity ingredient.

I was working as a yacht chef and we were anchored in a tight cove off the coast of Jalisco, Mexico. A local chef was preparing dinner for our yacht guests, and I was invited to join her in the kitchen. I sat on a stool at the edge of the counter and watched her stuff the chiles with a mixture of freshly caught and poached tuna, cheese, herbs and aromatics. At the time I had only experienced this dish with meat and cheese fillings. That first curious bite was all it took to be converted; it was utterly delicious.

What struck me was that with cooking, and definitely with this dish, the enjoyment begins in the preparation. The smoke, the aro-

mas and the atmosphere begin to build the integrity of the dish long before a finished meal lands below our ready fork and knife.

The recipe may appear long, and the steps may feel numerous, yet I encourage you to stick with this one. The preparation itself can be so rewarding and for me is an integral ingredient in the celebration of a harvest. As with many filling-based dishes, your imagination, the bounty of your pantry and the influence of the season are all contributors to the numerous variations on this dish.

Go, get your hands busy, roll those sleeves up and better yet invite others to prepare with you and discover together. Hunting for flavor is wholly translatable in our actions from the field to the plate when our interest is encouraged to come alive through all aspects of our wild food journey.

Bien Provecho!

RECIPE Filling: 6 poblano chiles 1 cup crumbled cotija cheese 2 lbs. ground elk meat ½ cup raisins ½ cup toasted walnuts, crushed 1 tsp dry oregano ½ white onion, minced 2 cloves garlic, minced ¼ cup chopped cilantro – stems and leaves 1 tsp grated ginger 1 tsp Montana Mex mild chile seasoning 1 tsp Montana Mex jalapeño seasoning 1 tsp cumin seed 1 tsp sea salt ¼ cup Montana Mex extra-virgin avocado oil

Sauce: 1 qt. water, or stock (chicken or lighter game stock works too) 6 Roma tomatoes 3 - 4 oz. Montana Mex ketchup ½ white onion, quartered 4 garlic cloves, smashed ½ tsp dry oregano ½ - 1 tsp Montana Mex jalapeño seasoning ½ tsp salt 1 oz. to 1/3 cup Montana Mex extra-virgin avocado oil Batter: 5 eggs, seperated 1 ½ tbsp all purpose flour ½ tsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS Filling: Heat up a medium skillet over med-high heat. Add Montana Mex extra-virgin avocado oil and swirl to coat the inside completely. Add the ground elk and allow to sear before turning over and repeating until all sides are brown. Lower the heat to medium and add raisins, walnuts, onion, ginger, cumin seed, Montana Mex chile seasoning and Montana Mex jalapeño seasonings, and cook together for a few minutes. Add garlic and cilantro and continue cooking for an additional minute. Taste the filling and adjust to suit your taste buds. Want it spicier? Add more jalapeño seasoning!

Chiles: Peeling the skin off the chiles is an essential part of this dish and a method that is well worth learning and applied in other uses and recipes. Over an open flame, or using a dry skillet or a broiler, place the chile in direct contact with the heat source and allow the skin to blister until charred on all sides. Immediately place chiles in a bowl with a lid or plastic bag and allow chiles to sweat for 10 minutes. The skin should peel or slip away easily from the chile.

Cut a vertical opening from the top to halfway down the side of the chile. Using a spoon remove the seeds. Stuff each chile with the elk filling leaving enough vacancy to easily fold closed the incision. I highly recommend using a toothpick as it may be helpful. At this point the chiles can be covered and refrigerated until you are ready to fry and eat!

Sauce: Bring water/stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add whole tomatoes, garlic, onion and oregano, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Pour into a blender, add Montana Mex ketchup and blend until smooth. I use the same stockpot, rinsed out and reheated, to fry the salsa. Add Montana Mex extra-virgin avocado oil to the stockpot when it is hot and dry but not scalding hot.

Carefully pour sauce into the stockpot allowing it to fry upon entry.

Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring and scraping all sides and bottom of the pot occasionally to prevent any scorching. At this point the salsa roja can be served immediately or refrigerated and stored for a week.

Batter: Whisk egg whites and salt together until stiff peaks form.

Be careful to not over whisk and render your fluffy egg whites rigid and brittle. Whisk in the egg yolks one at a time until well incorporated. To finish, sprinkle the flour evenly over the beaten egg mixture and gently fold or stir into the batter.

To fry: Add the remaining flour to a shallow dish. Gently roll, dust, sprinkle and evenly coat the chiles, tapping off any excess. Submerge the prepared chiles one at a time into the batter. Carefully lay the chile into the hot oil. Fry on each side for about 3 minutes.

When both sides are golden brown and crispy, remove with a slotted spatula and drain on paper towels.

Serve with a generous portion of salsa roja and a crumble of aged cotija cheese.

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 37

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INSTRUCTIONAL

SNARING HARES

Be sure to check your local regulations before snaring hares.

Photo: Noah Davis

BY NOAH DAVIS I step down off the two-track searching for my snare, but all I can see is young willows and snow.

Four inches of fresh powder fell on the mountain last night. I risked not pulling my trap line the day before in the hopes that I’d catch a snowshoe hare running a trail in the evening before they hunkered down to wait out the squall. If the hares didn’t move, I’d be checking empty, half submerged snares. Maybe there’d be a few tracks to show where a hare had hopped over the cable loop.

I follow my footprints from the day before and grab the end of the cable at my first set to lift a hare out of the snow. The brilliance of a snowshoe hare’s coat is a marvel; besides the black of the liquid eye and thin, black crown on each ear, the entire animal is solid white, sculpted perfectly by the winter landscape. I can’t tell the difference between the snow and the fur in my hand.

ON KILLING After hiking past the well-worn runs made by hares the last month of grouse season, I realized that crashing through the brush, .22 in hand, might not be the easiest way to put them in a pot pie.

Snares are inexpensive, lightweight and easy to set. A properly set snare can kill a hare quickly. The smaller the gauge – I use 5/64th cable because of lynx-protection regulations – the faster the kill. I’ve found hares that have broken their necks after the first hard leap, but often the hare expires after blood flow is cut off from the brain by the tightened noose.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the controversy that 40 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

arises with snaring hares. Snares are one of the oldest human technologies when it comes to collecting food and rely on the animal’s own power to properly work. Because of this, death does not come instantly like with a well-aimed shotgun blast. Taking a life by any means should require careful consideration. But I need to eat, and hares are good, clean, healthy meat.

There is also the legitimate fear of trapping (particularly with snares) leading to injury or death of pets or hunting dogs.

I purposefully set my snares after the hunting seasons have concluded, and make sure that my line does not intersect with heavy foot traffic. A little effort can go a long way to ensure unwanted harm doesn’t occur.

HOW TO SNARE Hare snaring is easiest after a foot or more snow has fallen because tracks are easy to follow and heavily used paths become defined. Snowshoe hares leave distinctive prints, almost in a V shape. Two large hind feet out in front, with the two smaller front paws close together behind. If there are multiple hares in the area, packed trails will begin to form. These are the quickest paths between food and shelter during the deep snow. In some instances, the trails become troughs with walls guiding the hares along.

Hares can commonly be found in lodgepole pine stands, and alder and willow thickets at higher elevations. But instead of looking for trails in the big woods, spend your time scouting and setting in the heavy undergrowth. Snaring any animal requires pinch points where travel must funnel down into a tight space.

The smaller the pinch point, the less opportunity the hare has

to change direction or jump around the cable.

Setting snares in these locations Comfort Food for a Winter Night additionally reduces the likelihood for bycatch that can occur with foxes, Biscuit topping: coyotes, bobcats and birds of prey that • 2 cups flour might be chasing a hare along the trail.

• 1 tbsp baking powder Bycatch is also significantly reduced • ½ tsp salt because there is no bait or other attractant • 7 tbsp cold butter used when snaring hares.

• 3/4 cup whole milk Look for paths that squeeze between • Sugar to taste two trees, under down snags or follow Filling: rock faces. The hare must make a decision • 4 tbsp butter to either turn around or go forward in • 1½ tbsp thyme these situations. Don’t worry too much • 4 celery stalks, chopped about concealing your snare. There’s trail • 4 carrots, peeled and sliced camera footage of hares actually sniffing • ½ onion, diced and chewing on the cable of a snare then • ¼ cup flour jumping through. Because of the brushy • ½ cup of dry white wine cover they live in, sticks and vines often • 2 cups whole milk bump hares on their face and ears as they • 1½ cups chicken broth • 2 cups frozen peas hop along. If the hare wants to continue • 1 tsp salt on the trail, the hare will jump through • Shredded backstraps, front legs and back legs of a snowshoe hare the snare.

Once you have identified the pinch INSTRUCTIONS point, take your 16 or 18-gauge wire and 1. Hare: Pan sear the hare with salt and pepper then place the meat in a slow-cooker and secure the swivel at the base of your snare barely cover with chicken stock. Cook until meat can be pulled off the bone with your to a solid structure. You want to be sure fingers, about four hours. You don’t want it falling off the bone! that the snare is fixed so when the hare 2. Biscuits: Mix dry ingredients together, and knife in the butter until the chunks are peabecomes entangled, the only moving sized. Add milk and stir until combined. Roll out dough into a 1-2 inch thick layer. Cut part of the cable is the running eye as the 6-10 biscuits from it using a biscuit cutter or drinking glass. loop cinches around the neck.

3. Filling: Melt the butter in a large, oven-safe Dutch oven or pan. Add the thyme and onion; Position the loop of the snare over the sauté for 5 minutes. Add the carrots and celery; sauté for 5 minutes. Add the flour; sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add wine; let it sizzle out. Slowly and gradually, add the milk and the chicken center of the run. If the pinch point is broth, stirring after each addition. Cook down until mixture resembles a thick, creamy bigger than the snare loop, use twigs to soup. Add hare and peas. Season with salt, pepper and a splash of lemon juice. restrict opportunities for the hare to hop 4.

Bake: Arrange biscuits on top of filling. Brush biscuits with melted butter for extra around. The loop of your snare should browning. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the biscuits are fully cooked. be about four inches in diameter. Any smaller and a hare might be able to bump it out of the way. Any larger and a hare A Future Dinner can jump through and be caught around the waist or back leg. I usually judge this by testing if my fist can The rest of my snares are empty. I pull them knowing I’ll return barely fit through. The height of your snare – measured from the in two days when the hares have reestablished their trails. Here trail to the lowest part of the loop – should be around five inches. after the big game and bird seasons have finished, I’m likely the Hares hop with their heads close to the ground, and so you want only human on the mountain. The morning is silent except for a to make sure a hare lifts its head into the loop of the snare. To raven’s croak and my heavy breathing as I wade through the deep prompt this action, I take a small twig and stick it upright in the snow.

As I reach the road, the weight of the hare over my shoulder snow just below the loop. makes me imagine the golden biscuits and steaming filling of a Most snares you’ll buy from a trapping supply company will pot pie. come with a short length of plastic stabilizer tubing. Once your snare is positioned, take the tips of the wire you secured the swivel BHA member Noah Davis fell in love with public land while of the snare with and thread them through the tubing. This will growing up along the Allegheny Front in Pennsylvania. Now living ensure the snare stays at the desired height and isn’t knocked off in Missoula, Montana, Davis hunts and fishes the tributaries of rivers the trail. he used to read about in books.

Don’t let your snares sit for long. I like to set mine in the afternoon and return by the following mid-morning. A dead snowshoe hare doesn’t lay around for long on a mountain.

SNOWSHOE HARE POT PIE

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 41

PUBLIC LAND OWNER

It’s Time to Recover Our Wildlife

BY SEN. MARTIN HEINRICH For me, fall is a season that I look forward to all year long.

It often means an elk camp with my closest friends and meals of wild game and wild mushrooms shared around a campfire underneath a blanket of New Mexico stars. It means bugles in the crisp morning air and, if I do everything right, days of work packing out and processing the meat that will sustain my family through the balance of the year.

Elk were extinct in New Mexico a century ago. But thanks to previous generations of conservationists and sportsmen, I have the privilege of interacting with this amazing and beautiful animal. I am indebted to the foresight of people like Aldo Leopold and Elliot Barker whose actions led to the restoration of elk, mule deer and pronghorn populations in New Mexico and species like wild turkey, Canada geese and whitetail deer all across America.

The natural abundance of wildlife that all of us have inherited is the direct result of the work financed by bedrock conservation laws like Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson. Yet despite the incredible successes of these programs, particularly with sportfish and game species, it’s been clear for decades that too many species of wildlife are in decline or headed towards extinction.

Sage grouse are one of the many species likely to benefit from RAWA.

42 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

Although state and local wildlife agencies have proven wildly successful over the past century in enhancing habitat specifically for sport fisheries, migratory birds, and big game species like elk, tens of thousands of other plant and animal species in America are experiencing dramatic habitat loss. Without enough resources, we’ve been forced to pick and choose which species are worthy of our attention and only stepped in to help animals and plants after they’ve been listed as threatened or endangered.

We must change this paradigm. That’s why I am teaming up with my Republican colleague, Sen. Roy Blunt, to fight for the passage of the bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act or RAWA for short. Our legislation would establish a robust and reliable federal funding stream that has long been the missing piece in scaling up the collaborative, on-the-ground conservation work that has proven effective at helping plant and animal species recover to healthy levels.

Once it’s passed RAWA would deliver $1.3 billion in dedicated annual funding to states, Tribal Nations, and U.S. territories to support locally-driven, science-based restoration projects that improve the long-term health of fish and wildlife habitat. These projects would be guided by State Wildlife Action Plans that have

American Outdoors Act. That new law is already growing our support of landscape conservation through a fully funded Land and Water Conservation Fund and helping us finally tackle the longstanding infrastructure backlog at our national parks and public lands.

I’m proud that we have built a broad and bipartisan coalition – including Backcountry Hunters & Anglers – that is calling on Congress and President Biden to keep up our momentum from the Great American Outdoors Act and pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act into law. I encourage you join us and call on your representatives in Washington to help us get the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act across the finish line.

If we can get this done, my grandchildren and future generations of Americans will be able to experience the same rich and abundant American wildlife that we have been so lucky to grow up with. I want them to experience the same wonder I had as a child catching leopard frogs and watching fireflies light up the dark.

If we can pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act and invest strategically in recovery and habitat restoration for a broader range of species, we will pass on the full complement of our natural heritage as well as traditions like hunting and fishing to future Americans. I hope you’ll join me in this effort to pay it forward.

Martin Heinrich is a U.S. Senator representing the state of New Mexico.

Photo: istock.com/gatito33

been developed collaboratively with wildlife agencies, private landowners, conservation organizations, land trusts, and scientific researchers engaged with at-risk fish and wildlife.

In total, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would provide our wildlife agencies with the support they need to implement their recovery efforts for the 1,600 U.S. species already listed as threatened or endangered. And it would allow them to actively recover the thousands of species of wildlife and plants that are in serious decline.

Habitat restoration projects funded by the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act will also create major economic benefits.

That includes good-paying jobs in rural communities all across the country. We will protect the forests, coastal wetlands, and watersheds that Americans depend on for clean air and drinking water. And we will preserve the outdoor recreation activities that support millions of jobs all across our country.

The numbers of wildlife currently facing down threats can be daunting. But just think how dire things must have seemed decades ago when many sportsmen came together to establish a tax on themselves and to voluntarily limit harvest in order to recover the game they loved to hunt. We have a moral obligation to follow their example if we want to successfully recover healthy populations of wildlife species – from bison to bumblebees.

This is not a partisan issue. At a time when it’s proven difficult to find bipartisan agreement on most issues in Washington, the outdoors and our public lands have proven to be a uniquely uniting force. Last year, I was proud to be part of a broadly bipartisan movement of conservationists and sportsmen that secured the final passage of the historic and bipartisan Great

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 43

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• OPENED SUNDAY HUNTING – FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY – ON PUBLIC GAME LANDS IN NORTH CAROLINA • KEPT PINE TREE RESEARCH STATION IN ARKANSAS PUBLIC IN THE FACE OF PRIVATIZATION EFFORTS BY SPECIAL INTERESTS • RESTORED PUBLIC FISHING AND RECREATIONAL ACCESS THAT HAD ILLEGALLY BEEN BLOCKED BY A LANDOWNER IN MISSOURI • PREVENTED TWO OPEN-PIT COAL MINES FROM DESTROYING VALUABLE FISH AND WILDLIFE HABITAT IN ALBERTA • SUCCESSFULLY ADVOCATED FOR A RULEMAKING THAT WILL RESTORE ROADLESS AREA PROTECTIONS TO 9.3 MILLION ACRES IN THE TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST IN ALASKA • PURCHASED LAND WITH PHEASANTS FOREVER TO ESTABLISH THE CUPIDO WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA IN MINNESOTA

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PUBLIC LAND OWNER

Pre-Roosevelt Conservation President Benjamin Harrison and the Forest Reserve System

BY DR. BRIAN STONE Hunters and anglers who deeply cherish public lands know well the debt of gratitude owed to President Theodore Roosevelt.

The credit he gets for the preservation of public lands in the early 20th century is much deserved. However, the public lands movement was made possible due to a number of conservationminded individuals before him fighting to change public perception and take on powerful industries. One such figure was the 23rd president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison.

Born in Indiana in 1833, Benjamin Harrison came from a distinguished family. His father was a congressman, and his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, was elected the ninth president of the U.S. in 1840 but died of pneumonia one month after taking office. Despite his background, Harrison’s childhood was rather humble. On a farm near his grandfather’s vast estate, he spent much of his childhood in the outdoors, fishing, hunting and exploring the woods of the Ohio River Valley. He was an avid duck hunter and had a particular fondness for fishing the islands of Lake Erie.

Harrison was elected president of the United States from 18891893, beating incumbent Grover Cleveland. As a politician, he was best known as a Civil War general, a lieutenant of the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment, who attained the rank of brevet brigadier general in 1865, and he took great pride in the service of his fellow veterans. In the 1880s, Harrison served in the Senate, where he championed the causes of Native Americans, homesteaders and Civil War vets. Specifically, he argued for the rights of homesteaders and Natives against the expanding railroad industry. In 1882, 1883 and 1886, Harrison introduced a bill to preserve land along the Colorado River and, though the bill did not pass, as president he would create the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve in 1893. While serving in the Senate, Harrison learned the strategies necessary to take on powerful industries in the name of conservation.

The 19th century was characterized by what former Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall called the “Myth of Superabundance.”

With the growth of industry, the rise of large cities and the construction of the transcontinental railroads, looting of the public domain was on the rise. As the 19th century drew to a 46 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

close, Americans were fed up with the arrogant corporate giants and their monopolies, and public concern over the devastation of the Western landscape was on the rise. This inspired the concept of forest reserves.

Support for the concept of federal forest reserves was spearheaded by preservationists seeking parks, hunters and anglers desiring game habitat protection, Western farmers seeking watershed protections and foresters in the Department of Agriculture concerned with non-sustainable forestry practices and fire and disease. These concerns led to citizens taking action.

The most powerful public voice in the early public lands movement was the journal Forest and Stream, edited by the indelible George Bird Grinnell, who along with Theodore Roosevelt founded the Boone and Crockett Club in 1887. The Audubon Society was formed around the same time, as well as the Appalachian Mountain Club and Sierra Club. Important players in the U.S. Geological Survey, hunter-conservationists and nature writers and photographers gave the movement momentum by appealing to the general public.

National forests (then called forest reserves) were created when President Harrison signed the Forest Reserve Act of 1891.

The FRA effectively reversed over a century of federal policy that sought to transfer public land to private interests. The Timber Culture Act of 1873 had granted land to homesteaders if they agreed to plant trees, but fraud and speculation were rampant as timber companies pretended to be homesteaders and exploited the forests. In response, scientists of the American Association for the Advancement of Science joined forces with the American Forestry Association to advocate stronger laws for forest management.

After years of lobbying and pressure, and numerous failed attempts, the FRA was signed into law by the 51st Congress, and it created the means to protect wooded areas as forest reserves managed by the Department of the Interior. This was the first time the government made some forests off-limits for logging and other activities. As a former senator, Harrison knew how to persuade the legislature, and he worked tirelessly to win support for the bill.

Initially, the language of the bill was not strong enough to be very effective. A now famous rider added to the end of the bill at the 11th hour gave it teeth: Sec. 24. “That the President of the

Photo: istock.com/ChrisBoswell

Washakie Wilderness, Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming (previously Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve).

IT WAS A WATERSHED CONSERVATION EVENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY BECAUSE IT MARKS THE TIME WHEN U.S. FEDERAL POLICY SOUGHT TO STOP THE WHOLESALE DISPOSITION OF PUBLIC LAND INTO PRIVATE HANDS, INSTEAD HOLDING FOREST LANDS IN PUBLIC TRUST. United States may, from time to time, set apart and reserve, in any State or Territory having public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations; and the President shall, by public proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations and the limits thereof.”

It is said that Harrison and Secretary of the Interior John W. Noble were dissatisfied with the original bill, and they pressured Congress to add Section 24. When it was brought for his signature, Harrison asked Noble if the bill was “as it should be,” and being told it was, he said, “Then I will sign it.” Section 24 granted the president the authority to sidestep Congress and, therefore, avoid the powerful sway of private interests. It was this rider that allowed the creation of the modern national forest system. Gifford Pinchot, later chief forester, called Section 24 “the most important legislation in the history of Forestry in America.”

The FRA also separated the idea of forest conservation from national parks, which still had to be established by Congress, whereas permanent forest reserves could be created by presidential proclamation. A month after the act was passed, Harrison established Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve (now part of the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton national forests in Wyoming) to create a protected area around Yellowstone National Park.

He then went on to create 14 forest reserves in the territories of Alaska, Arizona and New Mexico and in the states of California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, bringing the total forest reserve area to over 22 million acres.

The expansion of the Yellowstone National Park had been the primary concern of Forest and Stream, and in volume 36, published in 1891, C.W. Budd wrote “The sportsmen of the United States have reason to be thankful to President Harrison for issuing his proclamation adding fifteen hundred square miles to our national park. We can now feel that our park is to be protected, and that we can have a place where the large game of our country can live.

President Harrison knows the value of his rod and gun. He knows the pure air of heaven is essential to good health. Every man that spends a few days or weeks with his rod or gun is a better man for it.”

The FRA of 1891 is often overshadowed by the creation in 1905 of the U.S. Forest Service by Theodore Roosevelt. However, it was a watershed conservation event in American history because it marks the time when U.S. federal policy sought to stop the wholesale disposition of public land into private hands, instead holding forest lands in public trust.

Harrison lost his second term bid to Grover Cleveland, but Cleveland would proclaim another 5 million acres, and President William McKinley, who was elected after Cleveland, added 7 million more. The FRA was used by Theodore Roosevelt, who

President Benjamin Harrison duck hunting.

Photo courtesy Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site.

created the Forest Service in 1905, to increase federal land reserves from 50 million to 200 million acres, establishing 159 additional national forest reserves.

The conservation and preservation of public lands in the U.S. was clearly a joint effort, and shifting public opinion was central to achieving these goals, but we owe President Benjamin Harrison a great debt of gratitude for his role overseeing the beginning of the modern national forest systems. After all, his contemporaries applauded his efforts. In a speech given in 1908, former Secretary of the Interior John W. Noble recalled that the “first impressive appeal” for a forest reservation policy came in January 1891, when Harrison “transmitted to Congress, a memorial [official request] … and recommended that adequate steps be taken to prevent the rapid destruction of our great forest areas and the loss of our water supplies.”

I find it appropriate to end this brief dive into the history of our public lands with the words of George Bird Grinnell, who in that celebratory issue of Forest and Stream in 1891 shared a sentiment that is as relevant today as it was at the close of the 19th century: “The work is not yet completed. While much has been done, much more remains to be accomplished ...” Today, private interests continue to threaten our parks and national forests; the work is not yet completed.

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.

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 47

48 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

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WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 49

GATEKEEPERS ILLUMINATING THE SECRET WORLD OF THE MOUNTAIN LION

Photo: Adam Parkison

BY ADAM PARKISON

Every weekend in February we set out in the early morning.

We never had trouble finding fresh lion tracks, but the animals I never before had reason to venture into the mountains at 4 were incredibly wily and outsmarted us again and again, often a.m. in February, and so I wasn’t prepared for how shockingly dragging us to dangerous places. cold it was. In the early morning darkness, I found myself At one point that first weekend, we followed a set of tightly holding on to my friend Josh as we raced down a tracks leading high up a steep ridge, only to find the cat had Forest Service road on his snowmobile. My fingertips were immediately dropped into the valley on the other side. As numb, and the moisture from my runny nose had quickly we stood on the ridge contemplating our next move, the frozen to my cheeks. We were supposed to be looking for snow suddenly gave out from underneath us, and we began mountain lion tracks, but I could barely keep my eyes open careening downhill uncontrollably. One second our world in the cold air. was bathed in white, and the next, we came to an abrupt stop.

I was relieved when we finally stopped to examine some Our fall was broken by a massive fallen tree that lay resting tracks running across the snow-covered road. Before I could on the very edge of a ribbon cliff. Just beyond this was a sheer pause long enough to warm up again, Josh was thrusting a drop-off of 200 feet. dog leash in my cold hands.

Josh stood up and brushed off the close call with the same I grabbed the leash weakly, and he yanked on it to test my ease with which he shook the snow off his clothes. The threat grip. of a violent fall was just another day in the life of a lion “Hold on tighter!” he barked. houndsman. I, on the other hand, was completely shaken by Soon, I understood why, as the dog tied to the other end the incident. pulled me clumsily into the snow.

We pursued that lion for the entire day, but this cat too “I’ve tracked this lion a few times in this spot,” Josh said as outsmarted us. we raced down the track. “It’s an old, clever tom. If we don’t Mountain lions are famously elusive. A mature male can tree him soon, he’s going to take us into the rocks, and we’ll have a home range of over 300 square miles. Females usually never catch him.” have much smaller home ranges. Although studies have Josh’s two younger and more enthusiastic dogs were off shown lion movement within their respective territories is leash, tracking the lion ahead, bellowing excitedly in the difficult to predict, like most big cats, mature mountain lions distance. It didn’t take an expert to know the tracks we were must continually patrol and scent-mark their territory to following were very fresh. It was my first day tracking lions, notify other wandering cats of their presence. and in my blind optimism, I was all but certain we would see For a number of years, while I lived in southeast Montana, the cat.

I became intimately acquainted with a small lion – most likely But four hours later we stood in a labyrinth of murderous a female – who lived in an old logging area I regularly hunted red-rock canyons, far from the gentle woodland where the in the late fall. I saw her tracks in the snow nearly every time day started. True to Josh’s predictions, the cat climbed straight I ventured into the area. Once she even followed me while into the rocks when he realized I hunted deer; a fact that was the hounds were after him. We confirmed by the tracks left in AS WE STOOD ON THE RIDGE now found ourselves stuck on a the snow when I backtracked to ledge, with fatal drops all around CONTEMPLATING OUR NEXT MOVE, my car at the end of the day.

THE SNOW SUDDENLY GAVE OUT and only one route of retreat.

I never did see her in the flesh.

It took an hour of precarious Although, on my last weekend FROM UNDERNEATH US, AND WE down climbing – often while in Montana before moving to BEGAN CAREENING DOWNHILL literally carrying the dogs – to Colorado, I just barely missed UNCONTROLLABLY. ONE SECOND reach a safe place. By the time her on a kill.

OUR WORLD WAS BATHED IN we got back to Josh’s truck, it The story left in the snow WHITE, AND THE NEXT, WE CAME was eerie: a long drag mark was nearly dark.

For three weekends in a row, sprinkled with blood running TO AN ABRUPT STOP. I would accompany Josh and straight down a steep hill, like his hounds on their search sled marks. I followed the path for mountain lions around my home in western Colorado. until it led to the bare remains of a mature mule deer buck I carried no weapon but opted instead to “hunt” with my concealed under a tree. I retraced the trail until I found the camera. In that time, I would come to fully appreciate the spot where the lion stalked and pounced on the deer. That complex relationship between the lions and the houndsman such a small cat could kill a large animal in such a short who tirelessly pursue them. distance was utterly astounding.

I came to know Josh Meacham through a mutual friend and Mountain lions are thriving across their range. They are the fellow lion houndsman named Pat, who introduced us when only large cat in the world expanding at such a high rate. They the two stopped by my house one weekend while tracking are even returning to occupy their historic range, including lions. I didn’t think much about our brief introduction, but numerous states in the Midwest and other states east of the I was surprised when Josh invited me to join him on a lion Mississippi, from which they were all but exterminated by the hunt a couple of weeks later. mid-1900s. It is partly because of the cat’s elusiveness that they

Houndsman Josh Meacham’s hounds, Diamond (left) and Blue (right), ready to give chase.

HAVING A HEALTHY POPULATION OF LIONS ON THE LANDSCAPE ASSURES THE HOUNDSMAN WAY OF LIFE STAYS ALIVE. are thriving. For apex predators living around rural communities, it is beneficial to keep a low profile. Lions are the best at keeping to the shadows, and in turn, avoiding confrontation with humans.

But this isn’t the only reason lions are thriving.

In his well-known book, Path of the Puma, wildlife biologist and mountain lion expert Jim Williams attributes much of the lion’s successful comeback to a surprising ally: the very houndsman who once hunted them to near extinction.

Williams points out just how important the houndsman community is to advocating for lion protection on the landscape, since they come from a rural hunting and fishing culture and often carry heavy political weight in their communities. Having a healthy population of lions on the landscape assures the houndsman way of life stays alive.

This mindset shift from these rural communities is a drastic turnaround from what it once was. Well into the mid-century states were offering bounties to houndsman and trappers to wipe out the lion population; it wasn’t until 1970 that Arizona ended their bounty program and reclassified lions as big game animals and not vermin.

Interestingly, many houndsman I’ve talked to – including my friend Josh – don’t typically kill mountain lions today. Many of them guide lion hunts professionally, but this is often simply to pay the bills, and to allow their way of life to be accessible to the public.

But the men responsible for treeing the cats typically pursue lions 52 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

out of pleasure in their free time. It is a poignant irony: some of the best mountain lion hunters do not in fact hunt mountain lions.

Before I tagged along with Josh on these lion hunts, I thought the whole notion of using dogs for big game hunting purposes was “unfair.” It is a sentiment I have often heard voiced in other hunting circles.

What’s so sporting about shooting a lion from a tree anyway?

During our weekend lion hunts, I soon realized I had completely misjudged the entire pursuit. Even being a dedicated ultrarunner in the prime of my physical condition, it took every ounce of strength I had to keep up with the dogs. There was no use trying to match their intensity, as they pulled us feverishly into the enchanted places we would have otherwise never been motivated to visit.

I also understood without the dogs, I had hardly a prayer of ever successfully finding a mountain lion on my own, apart from perhaps a random lucky encounter.

In a sense, the dogs were our gatekeeper to the world of the mountain lion, bridging a gap that would allow us to meet a mythical creature that would otherwise remain only in fairytale legend.

Despite the modern inventions that help most outdoor pursuits – like high quality optics, long range rifles, range finders, off-road vehicles, trail cameras and more – pursuing mountain lions hasn’t gotten much easier with technology. Being a houndsman is no simple weekend hobby; it is a lifestyle that requires a near-religious dedication. Training young puppies to become good lion hounds is a multi-year process.

First, the breed of dogs is limited to a select few, including bluetick coonhounds (like the hounds I hunted with), redbone coonhounds, black and tan coonhounds and Plott coonhounds. The best lion pups come from tried-and-true bloodlines of experienced lion tracking hounds. The first six months of a pup’s life is focused on strict behavioral training to lay the foundation for the work that goes into tracking. This is followed by months of scent training and mock-tracking exercises before even taking the dogs in the field. Even after the dogs have completed their first successful tracking season, the remaining year is spent exercising them and taking them on practice trips in the woods. Keeping lion hounds sharp requires year-round effort.

If it seems cruel to rigorously train young puppies from birth, you wouldn’t know it from the dogs’ behavior. Josh’s hounds lived for the chase. They did not like to lay around cooped up indoors.

All Photos: Adam Parkison

Even being temporarily locked in a cage briefly during the drives was almost unbearable for them. They would whine and bawl the entire drive until a fresh track was found. When let loose, they were like fish returning to water.

After four weekends of difficult searching, Josh and I finally had our first real break: a fresh deer kill located just off a gravel road near a popular county highway. It was clear by the tracks that a lion had only recently made the kill. As soon as Josh let the lions loose, they took off in pursuit.

The clouds were hanging low over us, making the early morning darkness even more ill-lit. As we climbed the rim of a red-rock WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 53

Houndsman Josh Meacham holds back his specially trained hounds, Blue, Diamond and Jake, as he photographs a wild mountain lion after a difficult chase in western Colorado.

All Photos: Adam Parkison

canyon, we came to a gnarled old Utah juniper where the snow around the base was torn up with dog tracks.

“The dogs briefly treed the cat right here!” Josh said excitedly. “It’s only a matter of time!”

Below us was a ravine and creek bed, where the start of another steep canyon rose on the other side. As we ran along our own canyon rim, we noticed the dogs running in the other direction on the opposite canyon rim. Suddenly, the dogs’ bellows changed in pitch, and Josh stopped.

“There!” he hissed. “They’ve treed the cat!”

I pulled up my binoculars and began scanning the large ponderosa pine the dogs were running around. It was barely discernible at the distance, but I managed to make out the distinct tan-colored hide of the lion, still many hundreds of yards away. Before I could sheath my binoculars again, Josh was racing downhill. It took all my endurance to keep up with him, as we trudged down the ravine and began climbing immediately up the other side. I was choking on the cold air, trying to catch my breath and calm my nerves when Josh stopped on a small rise.

“There she is,” he said calmly for the first time.

I peeked over the tops of scrub oak bushes and saw the cat stretched out comfortably over a long branch. From where she rested, we were

still at least 200 yards away, with only the tops of our heads visible.

But despite the distance, the instant our heads came into view, the cat immediately locked eyes on our direction.

The large female mountain lion never took her eyes off us as we carefully approached the tree. We stood under her for a long time, alternating between snapping photos and digesting the scene with our eyes. For the first time in four weekends, the harsh overcast sky opened up and bathed the ground in brilliant sunlight, granting me the most beautiful light I could ever ask for as a photographer.

I barely uttered a word as I snapped photo after photo, trying to capture the feeling of seeing the mythical creature for the very first time.

BHA member Adam Parkison is a freelance magazine writer and photographer whose work has appeared in numerous national and international publications. In a former life, he worked as a licensed professional hunter in Central Africa. Adam currently resides in Colorado where he pursues exciting stories across the endless public lands of the West.

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MOTHER EARTH PROVIDES

BY MAX WILBERT Seven days deep in the wilderness, we sink further into the land with every passing hour.

Deer, elk, bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope are our neighbors. Bear and coyote tracks dot the fresh snow. Ponderosa and fir scent the air, and scarlet rosehips dot the hillside.

Each morning, we’re up before dawn to track the herds – long hours on hilltops, watching. Elk roam the slopes, but day after day they elude us. A day passes, and as the sun sets, we visit a tiny spring seeping from the hillside to quench our thirst and fill our bottles, then we make our way back to camp. We light a fire, drying clothes and boots. We stretch aching muscles and eat, preparing for another pre-dawn start. Wolves howl as darkness envelops the land.

Another morning, another hilltop. It’s frigid. We start a small fire and huddle for warmth, waiting for sunrise. As orange light crests the eastern mountain, I scan the upper sections of a forested drainage and spot movement. Adjusting my binoculars, the dots on the far hillside resolve into a herd of elk. “We’ve got a spike,” I say to my hunting partner. We quickly begin preparing to abandon our sunrise perch.

Methodically stuffing gear back in my pack, I throw it on my back, ratchet down the straps and stand. “I think we can get ahead of them if we cut straight downhill,” I tell my friend Carson. He nods, and we begin to drop off the game trail down the steep hillside, dropping 1000 feet in a quarter mile. We may only have minutes to get into position.

I start off too fast, my heart thundering, feet shuffling and tripping on rocks, sliding on dry grass, threatening injury. I force myself to slow down. “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast,” I say out loud. This is the motto of our trip.

58 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

And then, to my partner and myself: “No falls.” We are 10 miles from the nearest road, 40 miles from the nearest hamlet and days from definitive medical care. This is no time to break an ankle.

There is no time to be wasted, but rushing may be the best way to waste time. Moving as fast as I can safely move, using gravity, bending my legs and leaning slightly forward to use the big muscles of the glutes, hiking poles for balance, we half run, half slide down the steep hillside.

As we approach the herd, we slow to a trot, then a walk. They are feeding in patchy forest, and we lose our quarry behind a tree, then spot him again. The steepness of the valley makes it possible to shoot across the ravine, and Carson carefully unlimbers his rifle. I hang back behind a rose bush, not wanting to spook the elk.

A minute later, a sharp crack sounds, echoing off the hillsides. I cannot see the spike, but the rest of the herd runs a few steps then freezes, unsure where the threat comes from. I wait. Did he miss?

Is the elk down? I wait another 15 minutes, then 20. Suddenly, the elk take fright and move off northwards. Watching closely, I don’t see the spike among them; he must be down.

I reunite with Carson, and we cross the ravine, scrambling and sliding on frost and moss-coated logs down one side of the steep cleft, then up the other. We see a drop of blood. He is close.

We find him a few minutes later. His final resting place is at the foot of an ancient fir free. We kneel and place our hands on his coat and antlers. Emotions rush through us both: sadness, at taking this magnificent life; thankfulness for food to bring back to our families; fear, at the knowledge that death will come for us, too. Life feeds life, and we will all take our turn when the time comes. Tears fill our eyes. Hearts overflowing, we give thanks. We are exhausted, and the work has just begun.

Photos: Max Wilbert

WE BRING PART OF THE MOUNTAIN HOME WITH US, AN ABIDING WILDNESS OF SOUL. BUT WE LEAVE PART OF OUR HEARTS THERE, FOR WHAT A PALE SHADOW OF A LIFE IS LIFE IN SOCIETY? We butcher the elk and make two trips to move 250 pounds of his meat back to camp that evening, covering nine miles. Carson is on a deadline to get home for work, so we rise at 2 a.m. the next morning, don heavy packs, and hike seven miles back to the car by the light of a hunter’s moon glittering on snow. As the sun rises, we make our way back, break down our camp, and pack the last of our gear and meat into packs once again before returning to the car. The exhaustion sinks deeper. We’ve covered more than 20 miles before noon, and we have a long drive ahead of us.

Departing is bittersweet. I long for my snug cabin and my fiancée. We bring part of the mountain home with us, an abiding wildness of soul. But we leave part of our hearts there, for what a pale shadow of a life is life in society? Our days occupied with screens and technological fantasies, our commutes defined by diesel fumes and traffic jams, not wolf tracks and shooting stars. But on the mountain, my heart beats in time with the elk heart. My breath is like theirs. My legs are like theirs. After a week, my mind is more elk than human. I become like them.

I am in love with the land: soaring mountains, roaring creeks, towering forests, grass rippling in the golden evening winds. Even the roadside thicket of blackberry and the bite of frigid wind on my neck. The feel of elk hide under my hand and tears rolling down my face is a great gift.

Mother Earth provides, and so we are in debt. We can work all our lives for the land and never repay the cost of a single russet sunset, a single warm meal with friends, a glimpse of the broad shimmering Milky Way, a swallow of wild, frigid spring water. We are profoundly indebted to this planet. Profoundly. It will be the work of a lifetime to pay off an iota of that debt.

Where does your food come from? One small question that could save the world.

BHA member Max Wilbert is a writer, organizer, and wilderness guide. His latest book is Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It. He lives in rural Oregon.

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 59

60 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

BY BRITTANY PARKER I thought the blood drying on my forearms and the popping of tissue as I slice and pull skin away from muscle would feel evil and nauseating. But as I crack bones and separate joints, I feel neither of those things.

My muscles worked from a memory collected centuries ago as we broke down the 200-pound animal. Even in the buck’s bloodied and dismembered state, it did not feel dead. Steam lifting off its body melted the snow beneath it. The meat was more alive than anything I have seen on an icy, fluorescent-lit shelf at a grocery store. Nothing in my life felt more important.

For most of my life, my 5-foot 3-inch stature and blonde hair has felt like a handicap that prohibits people from taking me seriously. They’re qualities that prompt dubious looks, from men primarily, that insinuate preciousness and naivety. I’ve spent my life having to prove myself while simultaneously second-guessing and wondering if they’re right. I had thought hunting was going to be no different; proving myself in this testosterone driven arena could be one of my greatest challenges yet.

But as I walk in the light of the dawn, through knee high sage, its aroma carried on the crisp mountain air, and the weight of my rifle in hand, I am left with a feeling of innate belonging. Every 62 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

step knocked loose a part of me that had been lying dormant for 30 years.

Pressing the binoculars against the sockets of my eyes, I scan the hillside. Dividing it into sections, moving in a zigzag-like pattern along the southeast facing hillside. The junipers and pinyon are the only contrast in an otherwise muted brown landscape, a perfect camouflage for mule deer. My hunting partner, still peering through his binoculars, whispers, “I’ve found a bedding area.”

My eyes are young and untrained, and I am relieved to have the support of his decade of experience. I glass in the direction he is pointing, and there under the pinyons are dark oval indentations where the grass had bent beneath the bodies of a herd, holding onto their memory. As I study the area, a grazing doe walks into our sights, blissfully unaware of the fact she is being watched and admired from a great distance. I stare at her and try to imagine pulling the trigger. My heart races at the thought, but I know I would be able to, when and if the time comes. It’s a strange paradox loving and admiring an animal while also feeling a motivation to stock your freezer for the long winter ahead. One would think those two feelings could not exist simultaneously, but they can, and they do.

After glassing the mountain side for an hour, and the lone

Photos courtesy Brittany Parker

CUTTING OUT THE MIDDLEMAN

doe out of sight, it is time to My partner ceremoniously move again. Taking last sips of picks a handful of fresh clover, MY VISION SHARPENS, ENHANCES EVEN, hot tea from our thermoses, ACUTE TO ALL MOVEMENT, INTERPRETING sets it in the buck’s mouth, and we then make our way up the closes it. We sit with it for a back side of the mountain. AND READING THE SIGNS LAID OUT BEFORE moment, its tines piercing the ME. IT FEELS LIKE I AM EXPERIENCING The sun’s early morning rays space between us, and for the bend through the tiny crystals NATURE FOR THE FIRST TIME. WHERE HAD first time I understand what it of frost blanketing the Earth, I BEEN AND WHAT HAD I MISSED DURING means to be connected to my causing everything in our path environment and my food.

ALL THOSE OTHER HIKES THROUGH THE to shimmer before evaporating I’ve spent my life trying to MOUNTAINS? into the blue sky. My vision get closer to nature, trying sharpens, enhances even, acute to close the gap between to all movement, interpreting the human world and the and reading the signs laid out before me. It feels like I am natural world, never able to build a bridge long enough and not experiencing nature for the first time. Where had I been and what understanding why, until now. All these years nature was a source had I missed during all those other hikes through the mountains? of pleasure, while the grocery store was a source of sustenance. I We walk for miles, for hours. Prints and droppings everywhere knew I was never going to bridge that gap without cutting out but no immediate sign of deer. With only a couple hours of light that middleman. left, my partner stops. I am 30 yards behind as I watch him swiftly Pulling the blade from its sheath I grab the deer’s hide and lift the scope of his rifle to his right eye. I freeze, unable to see look to my partner with trepidation. He knows exactly what I am what he is looking at, but knowing any movement could startle feeling and simply nods in acknowledgement, silently giving me whatever it is. And then he pulls the trigger. He looks to me with all the courage I need. My knife pierces the skin, and we begin his rifle resting on his hip and says with eyes wide, “I just shot a breaking down the animal – cutting out the middleman piece by buck.” piece.

Moments before, we were talking about calling it a day, recognizing the old crunchy snow beneath our feet was not BHA member Brittany Parker lives in Gypsum, Colorado. She went working in our favor. This is an unexpected encounter, and I find back to college last fall as a full-time student to study sustainability myself feeling a nervous excitement as we walk in the direction and conservation with the hopes of working in wildlife conservation. the buck fell.

She’s a river rat at heart, paddling and river trips are her favorite When he first comes into view, I feel fear; I have never been this things, but hunting has become a close second. close to a buck. But that fear melts away once I press the palm of my hand into his coarse fur, his body warming my cold hands.

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WINTER STEELHEADING Q&A WITH LAEL JOHNSON Fly fishing guide Lael Johnson and Backcountry Journal editor Zack Williams share a passion for the wild steelhead of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Here they sit down to discuss what makes the fish and the place so special and how wild steelhead need our help.

Steelhead inhabit some pretty remote “backcountry,” although it may be a little different then, say, a backcountry elk hunt. What do you love most about the wild rivers that these fish inhabit?

The forests they flow through. Being in a rainforest is an exceptional experience in itself, and that’s without a fish in sight. Driving, floating or walking beneath the canopy is breathtaking, and it looks completely different as seasons change. You are in an extraordinary place any time you visit.

Unfortunately, some locations do not have the steelhead runs they previously had, but most anglers enjoyed just being there, whether bringing a fish to hand or not. Those anglers, like me, want to be back where the magic once happened. For example, it’s like visiting a good friend you went to high school with. You’re not going to party like you’re 17 again when you are 20 or 30 years older, but just being able to reminisce about a great time you once had in the same setting is enough to keep a smile on your face.

If it weren’t for the environment that wild Pacific steelhead live in, I would not be so drawn to these fish.

The excitement of the hookup encouraged me to visit the location, but the forest brought me back.

Photos courtesy Lael Johnson

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 65

The weather is unpredictable. Days can go by without a fish. What is it about winter steelheading that keeps you coming back?

Easy answer: the chase! Winter steelheading is a complex task, and if it weren’t like that, it wouldn’t draw me or others into the sport as it does. The hours/days of prep before and during the season, mixed in with unpredictable weather and adventure, make it as badass as it seems, and it sparks the interest of the adventurous angler. Because of this challenge, it makes the prize of coming into contact with one so much sweeter. Once the grind is something you appreciate, you are more likely to be prepared for the challenges you encounter, which provides you with more success.

Getting owned by a steelhead is the only way to understand why some go crazy for these fish and how important it is to be prepared for your next encounter. There aren’t many fish to chase where you may need chainsaws, emergency fire starters, MREs and snow chains as readily available emergency supplies; a call out to someone who knows where you went before you go might be a good idea, too.

What’s your preferred way to fish for winter steelhead?

Why? I’ve caught steelhead in every way possible, but to me, nothing is more challenging and satisfying than connecting with one using a Spey rod. When you get one on the swung fly, nothing else compares! It’s the closest I can get

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been out on a steelhead adventure and said, “How did I get myself in this situation?” but I know the answer: it’s the chase of this fish, and I go to wherever they call.

to evening the odds between me and this massive, sea-going rainbow trout. That feeling of standing in a river, searching for a fish that almost doesn’t exist, is very peaceful if you let all thoughts go and only focus on the water and your fly. To have this peace aggressively interrupted by a violent grab is life-changing, and the grab can easily take your rod and reel out of your hands if you’re not anticipating the moment before the strike.

Swinging a fly is so appealing to me because of the 10 seconds of excitement you get to feel or watch in someone else when they say, “YES, we found one!” after a lot of hard work. Those in tune with the swing find more than you’d think and lose more than we would like to admit, but that’s what keeps us casting. Swinging is not the technique you want to employ if you are looking for numbers – there are other techniques for that – but it is most definitely the way to go if you are looking for the most memorable, quality experience.

Steelhead populations are struggling up and down the West Coast. Many are ESA listed. What does responsible angling look like to you? How do you navigate this as a guide?

Catch one, and you’re done! I don’t know what others can do, but I know what I can do. I can limit my encounters to allow other anglers to contact a fish that has never been hooked. Steelheading changed my life, and I owe back what they have given to me. I have come in contact with many steelhead, but I have met with more anglers, and that is where I can do my best work. I can raise my voice and raise awareness to help these fish flourish and be available for generations to come.

One person can save 1,000 fish, so why not educate 1,000 people on correct practices and angler responsibility to help save 100,000 fish? We can do great things if we help each other; turning our back and laying our rods down is not the answer. Responsible recreating is! Hopefully, that one encounter this new angler can have will spur them to make a difference for these fish like I am attempting to do.

How do you work to make sure future generations get to experience fishing for wild steelhead?

I’m doing my best to get more people into the sport, which I believe can help dramatically. I know some anglers are worried about crowds and overfishing, but let’s get realistic; everyone isn’t a good steelheader. It takes time to understand where they live, when they will strike and even if they are around. Taking the chance of discovery away from new anglers intrigued by our sport and the knowledge we have gained throughout our years is not the way to go. If we attempt that, even for a short time, I firmly believe that our beloved steelhead will fade away with no voices to offer them a eulogy.

No one in our angling circle wants great numbers of steelhead in our free-flowing rivers to be a thing of the past, but if we do not support the next generation, we will be the last generation. More people equal more voices. Helping others helps you, so please do your best to encourage new anglers to join in on the chase, support and adventure of steelheading!

Steelhead and the free-flowing rivers on the Olympic Peninsula are what brought a Spey rod into BHA member Lael Johnson’s hands. Most of his days are spent within the boundaries of the Olympic National Park, where he is teaching guests the art of Spey while also finding time to be behind the lens, capturing the beauty of the rainforest.

Photos courtesy Lael Johnson

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BY JENNIFER BLACK With enough preparation, I thought it’d be easy to have a fantastic first-hunt story, complete with a picture of me kneeling in gratitude next to a harvested cow elk. I thought simply spending five days in the Valles Caldera National Preserve, on 89,000 acres of pristine New Mexican land, would guarantee success.

When draw results were released in April 2020, the pandemic inhibited my preparations. By June, the pressure of not knowing what I didn’t know squeezed my confidence. With four months until my hunt, I still needed to learn how to shoot a rifle. And the only field dressing I’d seen was on YouTube. Multiple scouting trips eased my tension, but ever-changing covid restrictions did not. If it’s normal to feel unprepared, I was right on track.

My deer-harvesting, bowhunter brother arrived from Dallas the day before the hunt. He patiently waited while I showered and paid bills. By the time we made it to the Forest Service campground where my RV was parked, it was dark.

The alarm went off at 4 a.m. After breakfast, my brother was ready. I wasn’t. He’d packed the night before. I hadn’t. And we still had a 30-minute drive to the Preserve’s main gate.

The open grass valley of the Valle Grande welcomed us into the vastness of the 13-mile-wide caldera, whose volcanic domes rise from its floor to heights of 8,700 to 11,250 feet. Meandering on a dirt road, we entered the Cabin District, where towering pines dwarfed human-made structures. We continued through more woods, some of which looked to still be recovering from the 2011 Las Conchas Fire. By the time we arrived at our parking spot a half hour later, the sun was already up. My brother was raring to go, but I still needed to put on my outer layer.

The pressure from his annoyance quickened my pace. He directed his attention to the woods, certain a cow stood 350 yards out. Taking out my rifle, he told me to prepare for a shot … on

something I’d said I didn’t see. When we finally neared the tree line, he pointed to the stump he’d mistaken for a cow.

I can be an obsessive planner. But even with preparation, I failed to anticipate that hunting with a family member could create opportunities to delve into family dynamics. In my family, we pressure one another. We raise our voices if others don’t understand, as if increased volume will increase comprehension.

We tighten our tone when not heard, as if force will improve the other’s hearing. We hurry one another with passive aggression, as if to quicken the pace. We throw a cold, silent shoulder, as if a freezing will thaw the other out.

But we also carry our own weight and, sometimes, the weight of others. We do what needs to be done. We go extra miles without being asked. We stand with one another in the most challenging conditions because it’s the right thing to do. We stand with each other simply because we’re family.

Still in the RV on the second morning, I raked a brush through my hair, ripping out tangles so I could quickly contain the rest in a braid. Sitting at the table, my brother commented on the preserve’s beauty and thanked me for inviting him on my first hunt. He acknowledged I was still figuring things out and would stop rushing me. I squatted to pick up the black hair lying on the floor. Perfect. Maybe less rushing would leave more strands on my head.

On the third day, we hunted an area accessible through Banco Bonito. Because of its locked-gate pandemic closure, I hadn’t previously scouted the area. Code in hand, we arrived in the dark to unfamiliar territory. Sometime after sunrise, the sky grayed, but mountainous landmarks were still visible. By mid-morning, I was ready to give up. Not because of incessant hiking over rugged terrain for days, or sitting still for hours in the freezing cold or because the gray sky would soon blot out the sun and reduce visibility to 50 yards. But instead because I couldn’t bear another WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 69

second of feeling pressured. Pressured enough to flee, like an elk from a hunter. I turned away from my brother so he wouldn’t see me cry. Within a couple of minutes, I dried my cheeks and faced him. The resulting conversation vented the strain we’d created alone and together.

Afterward, I led us down a steep slope. At the bottom, we walked the valley while snow fell with beautiful grace. Surrounded in fog, I felt wrapped in kindness – a kindness that allowed me to see where my eyesight had not. What would happen if I adjusted my voice to match the frequency of kindness? Who would I be if I responded with warmth?

By the last day, I developed an efficient morning routine that got us on the road by 4:30 a.m. As we passed the Cabin District, in the obscurity of first light, I mistook dark outlines for farm cows. I sucked a breath. My brother turned his gaze out the window. Elk! Hundreds of them. Their dark manes blended with the fading night. Mature bulls. Young bulls. Cows of all sizes. Some with heads down, grazing. Some walking. Some completely still, heads raised to our direction. The truck’s headlights revealed the foggy breath of those near the dirt road. All in the Valle Grande. And all not huntable because of their location and because the time was not yet 30 minutes before sunrise.

Stunned into silence, we watched them watch us pass by.

When the last one stood in the reflection of my rearview mirror, we weighed our options. Could we intercept them before they dispersed? Impossible. After exiting the Valle Grande, they crossed a road and entered another no-hunt zone. In the time necessary to drive around and hike in, they’d be gone. We moved on.

The dashboard reading of the outside temperature was 3 degrees. My brother and I geared up in the still-darkness of dawn.

A field of frost-covered grass lay before us. Trekking on frozen gravel that crunched louder than corn flakes, we soon quieted our steps by walking between the trail and Jaramillo Creek. Its water whispered secrets I heard but couldn’t understand. The creek kept the same volume, the same pace, the same everything as before we were there. Perhaps the secret wasn’t so secret after all. Perhaps I could strive to do the same while under pressure.

With my brother in the lead, the sun’s first rays of light illuminated the grass, flickering thousands of tiny twinkles, as if the entire field held sparkling diamonds. The absolute brilliance brought me to my knees. Awe and gratitude welled inside me, dissolving all pressure. Tears formed in my eyes and washed my vision.

There is no photo to document that moment. I don’t know what my brother saw. I didn’t ask. The fantastic part about my first elk hunt is that it reminded me to rise above my own shortcomings.

And to rise with the pride and beauty given to me simply by being a member of my own family.

BHA member Jennifer Black lives west of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, with her husband. She can often be found riding her horse.

She serves as the treasurer for the New Mexico chapter board.

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THE FANTASTIC PART ABOUT MY FIRST ELK HUNT IS THAT IT REMINDED ME TO RISE ABOVE MY OWN SHORTCOMINGS.

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BY MICHAEL EASTER Editor’s Note: This story was excerpted from The Comfort Crisis, the author’s new book exploring the benefits of experiencing discomfort, which is also featured in BHA’s Required Reading List for Conservationists at backcountryhunters.org/required_ reading_for_conservationists and available for sale anywhere books are found.

My trip to Alaska is at the top of the nature pyramid. And it turns out that what’s enchanted my brain there is a certifiable scientific phenomenon. It even has a catchy name, “the three-day effect.” To experience this level requires “backcountry nature.” A trip into the wild places that begin where dirt roads end. Places characterized by spotty cell reception, wild animals and a lack of bathrooms and other humans.

I’m telling Donnie (Vincent) about my time with Rachel Hopman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Northeastern University, and this effect as we arrive in camp. The teepee is a big triangle black against the orange sky. We heave off our packs and dump them on the ground. “This three-day effect she studies basically says that a few days in nature change your mind for the better,” I tell him as I rummage my pack for my down jacket. “More time in nature seems to make people calmer. More at peace, more present, more appreciative. Happier. That kind of stuff. And the effect seems to last after you leave.”

“Do you think that’s why I come out here?” he asks.

“Do you think that’s why you come out here?” I respond.

“Hmmm,” he says. “Well, I know the longer you’re here, the better. That’s for sure. More time benefits you more as a human.

I’ve seen it in me and I’ve seen it in others. I feel more at peace and start to become part of the land, part of the ecosystem. I love the sunrises and sunsets. I love seeing the animals. What we just saw with those caribou. That fills my mind and soul. I’ll think about those caribou 10, 20, 30 years from now.”

The wind has settled, and the herd has climbed to the safety of a ridge. We stand and eye them, black specks on the horizon.

Donnie continues. “I’m always so incredibly inspired when I’m here and when I get back home,” he says. He’s kneeling now, 72 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

rifling through his pack. He pulls out his own down jacket. A chill is settling in now that we’ve stopped moving. “I agree that the feeling lasts for a while, too.”

Research into the three-day effect was spurred on by Ken Sanders, a Salt Lake City icon, rare-book dealer and longtime friend of environmental writer and general badass Edward Abbey.

“From decades of river rafting going back to the 1980s I’ve long been aware of the metamorphosis or transformation that occurs on day three of wilderness trips,” Sanders told me from his bookstore in downtown Salt Lake City.

Sanders happened to mention his personal experiences with the three-day effect to David Strayer. Strayer is a hardcore nature junkie, a University of Utah neuroscientist, and the world’s foremost expert on how cellphones affect attention and the brain.

For Strayer the phrase was less a tagline and more a lightbulb firing on.

In Stayer’s many years of backpacking through the red rock canyons of southern Utah, he’d experienced the buzz himself.

That calm, altered spectrum of thinking that seems to enhance perception and peacefulness and dial back time and space. He’d even had conversations with friends and other academics who’d experienced the same. But he’d never heard a timeline stamped on it. He wondered if the three-day effect was something he could study.

Strayer gave it a try in 2012. He and his team talked their way onto a handful of Outward Bound backpacking trips. The rule: No cellphones in the wilderness.

Half of the Outward Bound students the morning before their trip took the RAT Test for creativity (the one where three words are thrown out and we have to figure out their common denominator). The other half took the test after their third techless day in the backcountry. The people who were tested after the wilderness trip scored 50 percent better. Strayer thought he might see an improvement by day three. But 50 percent? That’s no fluke.

It was enough to establish the three-day effect as a concept worth chasing. The research has been building since. Another study found that people who spent a handful of days paddling the water of the Minnesota backcountry scored much higher on the

Photo: istock.com/ Elizabeth M. Ruggiero

THE THREE-DAY EFFECT

MORE TIME IN NATURE SEEMS TO MAKE PEOPLE CALMER. MORE AT PEACE, MORE PRESENT, MORE APPRECIATIVE. HAPPIER. THAT KIND OF STUFF. AND THE EFFECT SEEMS TO LAST AFTER YOU LEAVE.

RAT compared to people who took it indoors. Another piece of research discovered that vets who spent six days on a backcountry trip saw their stress symptoms plummet.

We now know that the three-day effect doesn’t wash off once we’re back home. Scientists at UC Berkeley found that U.S. military vets who spent four days rafting in southern Utah were still feeling the effects a week later. Their PTSD symptoms and stress levels were down 29 and 21 percent, respectively. Their relationships, happiness and general satisfaction with their lives were all improved as well.

John Muir in 1901 put it this way: “Nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”

Three or more days in the wild is like a meditation retreat.

Except talking is allowed and the experience is free of costs and gurus.

The rewilding of our body and brain usually goes something like this. On the first day stress and health markers improve, but we are still adjusting to the discomfort of nature. We’re thinking about how it sucks to be cold, missing our phone and still focused on the anxieties we left behind – what’s happening at work and whether we closed the garage door. By day two our mind is settling and awareness is heightening. We’re caring less about what we left behind and are beginning to notice the sights, smells and sounds around us. Then day three hits.

Now our senses are completely dialed in and we can reach a fully meditative mode of feeling connected to nature. The discomfort isn’t so bad. It has, in fact, shifted to a welcome sensation that signals a calmness and feeling of life satisfaction.

Which brings us back to Strayer and Hopman. Strayer started a class that delves into the psychological benefits of nature.

Hopman was his graduate student at the time. For the course’s capstone, the two would take the students camping for four days into one of the most remote spots in the Lower 48: Sand Island Campground outside Bluff, Utah.

The kids were allowed to bring their cellphones. But, sadistically, Hopman didn’t mention that there’s no service within miles of the campsite. So the 18- to 22-year-olds would arrive, try to post outdoor photos to Instagram, be stonewalled, and then go through the five stages of receptionless grief. There was denial, where they’d walk around, arm in the air, trying to get service; anger, where they’d curse their service provider and toss their phone into the tent; bargaining, where they’d consider hiking to a nearby peak to perhaps get service; depression, where they’d long deeply to post that status update; and, finally, acceptance, where they’d realize, hey, I may actually survive and this phoneless nature stuff isn’t so bad after all.

Somewhere between denial, anger and bargaining, on day one,

Hopman would have strapped complicated brain-wave measuring devices onto the skulls of the students. Three days later, once the students had hit acceptance, she’d retest them.

The students’ day-one brain waves were beta waves. These are frenetic, type-A, go-go-go waves. But by day three they’d be riding what are called alpha and theta waves. These are the same waves found in experienced meditators and people who have lapsed into an effortless flow state. These rare waves reset your thinking, revive your brain, tame burnout, and just make you feel better.

“You don’t really see the good alpha and theta waves appear in the short excursions outside,” said Hopman. “That’s why taking a backcountry trip each year is so important.” We in the modern world are riding high, violent beta brain waves more often than any humans in history, and the message is clear: Time in nature is a hell of a way to calm the turbulent sea inside our minds.

BHA member Michael Easter is the author of The Comfort Crisis, a contributing editor at Men’s Health magazine and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He lives in Las Vegas on the edge of the desert with his wife and their two dogs.

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 73

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TOO MANY CHOICES

BY CRAIG GODWIN

Photos: Craig Godwin

Streamer or Topwater?

Horseshoe to Jaybird or Wadley to Muleshoe? Leave the state?

Wade? Float? Five-weight? Six-Weight?

Maybe it’s just me, but the choices are too much. We have every opportunity we can imagine; if we put our minds to something, it’s possible.

Go to college, get a degree, get a job for six months in that field, hate it, never use that degree again. Start a business, defy the odds, work your butt off and maybe one day retire with enough money to spend a satisfactory amount of time fishing. Having options is nice, but sometimes it just feels like there are too many of them.

I recently went fishing with Jim Reetz on the Tallapoosa. He is starting a nonprofit organization, the OARS Foundation, taking vets fly fishing in conjunction with Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing.

It was a perfect, warm fall day in Alabama, and the water looked great. I had an idea of where to go, but it’s not somewhere I normally fish; so it was chancy … worth a shot.

Jim has guided in the Florida Keys and now in Wyoming for 20-some years, and I was going show him a couple of my spots … no pressure. He normally trout fishes, but we are in Alabama bass territory, so maybe I won’t be too embarrassed?

Everything is perfect: water temp, clarity, level, lunar phase (this I never check but I could feel it in my bones) … surely these

bass will be biting.

While loading the boat, after sliding it down a fairly large hill into the water, we started talking and I forgot to drop the anchor.

I just had it propped up on a rock. I looked down the hill and, of course, the boat was not in sight. After a brief panic – luckily it hadn’t gone too far – I wet waded out to get it and started the day off with wet pants and a bruised ego. We started our trek down a section I’d only floated twice but have been very happy with both times. It’s like any good Southern river: slow (by a trout fisherman’s standards), clear and stacked with bass. Not that many redeye bass, like I’m used to, but Alabama bass.

There really aren’t that many different flies for bass – or ones you really need for bass. I used four or five different flies all summer – just changing the color around. And sometimes I didn’t do that; I stuck with a size four white Boogle Bug nearly all summer, and it worked. It’s late autumn now, and I have thoughts like “Well, it’s not that cold, so topwater is probably still working,” and “I saw this guy using a Texas rig a couple weeks ago and wearing them out, so I’m gonna tie a worm fly.”

It was butt ugly and terrible to cast, but it caught the first and possibly best fish of the day. Then it caught nothing else. We tried all kinds of flies in all kinds of colors and sizes. We joked about those days when you try 10 different flies and catch a fish on each one. Just so happened, we were having one of those days.

What if I had just stuck with the first fly? Would it have paid off? It worked once and then in a quarter mile of river, nothing.

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 75

WHY SPEND YOUR WHOLE LIFE TRYING TO GET TO SOMEWHERE THAT YOU COULD SPEND YOUR WHOLE LIFE? Maybe you just forgot what you were doing that time you caught the first fish? “Slow it down! Think! What was I doing when it worked?”

You would probably catch 10 fish all day, just like you did changing flies 10 times, but there’s always a chance that the first fly would have produced an awesome fish and you didn’t have the patience to wait it out.

Autumn down South is a confusing time for a bass fisherman who chooses to chase his or her prey on moving water instead of lakes. Lake fishing for bass this time of year can be very rewarding, but I can’t handle that much slowness for very long. The South has some crazy weather patterns this time of year. Nearly 80 degrees one day and 40 for a high the next. It gets chilly, and you’ll hear someone say “Not gonna get a fall! Goin’ straight to winter.” Then by Thanksgiving, it’s 70 again.

We had a great day fishing, talking, and laughing about life choices. Jim said something like “You know as a guide you’re not going to win the 401K race, but you’re going to take the guys who have won that race fishing every day. I have the greatest office in the world.” I’m not quoting him directly but the gist was why spend your whole life trying to get to somewhere that you could spend your whole life?

I’ve always been a guy who was open to opportunities – always weighing the risks – but in the end, I’d jump in head first if it sounded like it could work. Then after a few months or years of it somewhat working but maybe not being as I had imagined, I look for the next thing. But fishing has always been a constant.

It seems like my generation is one of the first to have graduated college and headed into a world where the options seemed limitless. If you looked hard enough, you could live just about anywhere and do just about anything. That can be a crippling freedom.

In the end, I guess fly fishing is like life choices: you’ve got to try the fly, give it a good amount of patience, love and belief. But when the time comes, be ready to move on and change the fly.

BHA member Craig Godwin is a photographer living in Opelika, Alabama, specializing in industrial and sporting photography. He is also a fly fishing guide with East Alabama Fly Fishing.

76 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

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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.

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78 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

SHORT

HUNTING

FOR MINDFULNESS

BY TERESA WADDINGTON My relationship with the outdoors began young, with every winter spent on the ski slopes, and my teen years filled with peak bagging and camping. In my youth, this time spent outside was really about seeing what I was capable of – it had nothing to do with mindfulness and everything to do with feeling that thrill of accomplishment against the odds. But as I got older, I started to try more mind-body connection activities. Things that would root me back to the present, focused and connected to the world and not glued to my phone screen. But every yoga session I’ve tried has me counting the minutes with barely contained impatience.

Meditation has me drifting off into my grocery list or to-dos – too many things to remember stealing my focus.

The closest I think I’ve come to real mindfulness is when I Fall 2021: The author dives in full-bore, harvesting a grouse right off the bat, mountain bike; the laser focus needed to keep from getting with an elk tag in the pocket for later in the season. thrown off a clear entreaty to stay focused on the here-and-now.

But recently, I tried a mindfulness practice that is beyond anything tags for whitetail deer. Each hunter took a turn taking the kids I’ve ever experienced before. Better than the methodical rhythm out. My husband took my daughter and her cousin. Walking the of a 20-kilometer run. Better than the serenity of a mountain fenceline, they could see the well-worn trail the whitetail had made summit. Better than the smooth hiss of snow beneath my skis. in the snow. The trio were struggling and post-holing through the Recently, I went hunting. deep snow, when in front of them, the deer materialized through Growing up, my dad filled our freezer every season with moose, the trees. A stalk, a shot, and the girls were dragging the deer a deer, goose, antelope. It wasn’t anything I thought about when mile back to the road, filled with a new appreciation for what he’d skin an animal in the backyard. When my husband started it really means to eat meat. The two girls told their story to the hunting, I’d help butcher whatever he brought home. While we absolutely enthralled and undisguisedly envious boys. And I stood working at the kitchen table, he would recount moments: started to feel like maybe, just maybe, I was missing out too. So, seeing a wolf through a break in the trees, invisible until it turned when my dad was getting ready to head out for the evening hunt, sideways and he could see the unmistakable profile; share a photo I asked to tag along. of lynx tracks in the snow, the perfect pawprint feathered with the We waved goodbye to my husband and the kids as they bundled enormous fur around its feet; surprising a cougar and her cub on themselves back into the car and headed for the warmth of our a fresh deer kill – both my husband rented cabin. I put on another and the cougar startled, the big cat For the first time in my life – a life I jacket and headed off with my dad. disappearing with a swish of tawny He passed me some earplugs with a tail, the cub enormously fluffy. have strove to live a good portion of warning that I wouldn’t have time He’d share of days spent laying out-of-doors – I really became a part to put them in if he was to shoot, on a hill, with binoculars in hand, of the woods. and we headed into the woods. watching the sun rise and set. I I was suddenly acutely aware had always loved hiking but could of every one of my senses and strained them as hard as I could. never see the point of hunting. The idea of going out with no real Creeping through the snowpack, I tried to muffle each step. I was path, no real plan, no way of knowing if you “got there.” ... It just maddeningly aware of the limits of my vision, unable to watch seemed kind of pointless, ESPECIALLY given the number of days for fresh tracks at my feet, check for flutters of movement in the that he came home with nothing – which was most of them! So trees ahead, and look behind me all at the same time. I could hear despite hunting being a part of my life, I was never the hunter. my inhalation and exhalation and strained my ears (despite the This time though, our family was on our quarter section in earplugs) to catch any glimpse of sound at the bottom and top of southwest Alberta. My husband, my kids, their cousins, my dad the noisy work of my lungs. I could feel the warm air at the top and I were all out there, with both my dad and husband holding WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 79

of the hill steadily cooling as we worked our way down into a gully.

Each breeze smelled of snow and pine and a gentle damp earth.

For the first time in my life – a life I have strove to live a good portion of out-of-doors – I really became a part of the woods. I could hear two birds singing suddenly take flight and swoosh overhead. A squirrel, working its way across the ground, scuffled across a log and up a tree. A grouse strutted on fluffy feet in the dry grass under a tree shadow, the damp earth free from the snow that laid heavy on the ground. As we walked, I saw moose tracks, coyote prints and the delicate splayed splash that bird wings brush into the snow as they take flight. I was suddenly a predator – a part of the rhythm and cycle of life outside. And I was completely immersed and present in the cool air as the sky blazed brilliantly pink, then faded as the moon shone ever more brightly from behind the ridge.

“We’re done. That’s the last of legal light,” said my dad, as we turned around to head back to the car.

We didn’t get anything that evening. And yet, it was as if I suddenly got everything. I know what mindfulness is now. What it means to suddenly be here, right here and right now, exactly where I am, stepping carefully on strong legs, drawing crisp air into strong lungs, and listening with every fiber of my being to the world as the light fades.

BHA member Teresa Waddington grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and remembers tramping through fall leaves with her dad from a young age, looking for deer. She still loves walking with her kids and husband, when she’s not working, animating for YouTube or volunteering in the energy industry.

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SHORT

BY DAVID JOHNS Jake and I wanted to hunt a wilderness area; so on a whim we drove to a trailhead on the western side and walked in. The hike took longer than I expected. I had just finished my first season on the Sawtooth Interagency Hotshot Crew and thought I could hike anywhere. When we got to the top of the pass, we could see well-worn trails that weren’t on our map. Later I learned that Native Americans had worn them into the mountain over thousands of years.

We looked into a deep basin that funneled to a valley floor far in the distance, and capped above the basin loomed a granite peak where you would expect to find mountain goats. The pass was our gateway. On one side was standard national forest, on the other wilderness. At the top, where the two joined, lay a dead mule, its skeleton intact with bits of fur left on the cheeks of its skull. It seemed more Egyptian mummy than mule to us. Jake tied a band of orange flagging to a tree, and we descended into the basin.

It was mid-October, and I had been sleeping on Jake’s couch for the past week or so. Before that, I had spent the better part of September on the Station Fire outside of Los Angeles on the Angeles National Forest. The Station Fire was the largest wildfire of the year, as well as the largest fire in Los Angeles County history. It was large enough and close enough to Los Angeles that the management team of the fire ran two separate operational shifts – one during the day and one during the night. My hotshot team operated during the night. We hiked mountains made of decomposed rock in the dark, with the silent glow of flame ahead of us, the human world behind, like the moon, close enough to see yet never visit. We lit the forest on fire with drip torches, creating a dragon to eat a dragon. Then we slept on the ground during the day under tarps and ate military MREs. Hollywood survived, as did the rest of Los Angeles. Two firefighters did not. We came across a burned home in the mountains, one of the 209 that the fire consumed, and the only item left was a metal chest with the lock melted off. We kicked it open. It was full of 1970s pornography and other unmentionables, nature’s way of exposing the truth. The manmade world and the wild one have a strange way of meeting each other.

On the other side of the pass, the weather had been warm, but here it turned cold and banks of snow held to the mountainside

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BHA member David Johns is an outdoor writer based out of Boise, Idaho. To read more of his work, visit thewildernesspursuit.com

Photo: istock.com/3355m

DEAD MULE

between the trees. Our plan was to camp at an alpine lake halfway down the basin, but we didn’t take a bearing with a compass, and we reached the bottom of the basin without finding the lake. Looking up to where we had come from, the basin looked indistinguishable from rim to rim. The wind began to push up from the valley floor, and out on the flatland a squall of snow began erasing the sky as if it wished to wipe away the landscape to a blank canvas and begin again. It was coming to erase us too, maybe. Strength, I guess, is relative to the force you’re facing.

We came to the wilderness, in part, to see what it was like, and to see what we were like in it. Mountains endure what we cannot.

Apparently, this is true for both mule and man. As the storm hit, we became wet and cold. We decided not to freeze to death and began walking back upslope in the general direction we had come from. The storm held us in a cloud of white, so that all we could see were the trees in front of us and a barely visible outline of the top of the rim. I began wondering what had happened to the mule. Did it become separated from its packer and wander in the wilderness, alone, until, exhausted, it died at the point of salvation? Or, more likely, it was injured, and the packer had put a revolver to its head and pulled the trigger when it was clear it could not make it out. The storm settled for a moment, and like an angel’s hand, we caught a flicker of Jake’s orange flagging. I took a quick bearing with my compass. The snow cloud hit again.

I walked with my compass held out in front of me, staying on course toward our dead mule. We took a moment to look back at nature’s unforgiveness – and beauty – at the top of the pass.

Over the pass, out of the wilderness area, the sun shone on dry pine trees. It had been a short and humbling foray into the wild. We built a fire by the trail and dried our clothes. Safe now, relatively, for the time being. It would be the last time we would hunt together. We were too young to know that the future is the truest wilderness of all, and it’s easy to get lost. Our lives were pointed in diverging directions, and our destinations were hidden from us. I used to wonder if John the Baptist meant tears of sorrow or shouts of joy when he declared that he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. But now I feel that it’s a calling to venture deeper, to a place where only the absurd would go. And in order to hear that invitation, you have to exist on the fringe already. Once you’re headed in that direction, there’s no turning back. Not that I would want to anyway.

#PairsWithFreshAir

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 83

WATERFOWLING LAZARUS

BY TREVOR HUBBS You can still sleep with your windows cracked in November in southern Illinois. This was a habit of mine every time I was on leave. Fort Bragg is a wonderful place, but smelling the dampness through the screen and hearing the train whistle blow down below the bluff every three hours, along with the occasional nonchalant honks of migrating Canadas, and is home.

I had finished my first four years in the Army, and with the way training schedules were back then, I hadn’t had the time to get home and hunt at all since I’d enlisted. It was Veteran’s Day weekend, and a buddy of mine had heard from a friend of his, who heard from another, about a piece of public land just opened to hunt by the Army Corps of Engineers. With such trustworthy information, we had to go try our luck the following morning.

I awoke at 3 a.m. and grabbed my old hunting jacket and waders, suddenly thankful Dad had the forethought to buy them several sizes too large half a decade ago. I grabbed every decoy in the garage, which only amounted to 16 of the worst-shape decoys you can imagine – caked with mud, paint wore off and littered with holes probably meant for a low flying teal. Ever optimistic, I drove over to pick up my buddy, and we headed out into the night with only the name of a county road and the approximate mileage past the bridge to guide us.

An hour later we pulled into a new gravel parking lot to see two other trucks already parked. Still optimistic, we pulled on our waders, threw our decoys on our backs and waded out into the inky black marsh. Soon we came to the edge of a flooded cornfield, which looked perfect, but as we started to throw out our decoys, we were met with a headlamp attached to a voice telling us we were too close to their party and would have to move on. Annoyed, but understanding the first come, first served rule of public land hunting, we moved deeper into the muck. A few hundred yards later we found the water level only knee deep in flooded timber, only to then find another talking headlamp explaining that we needed to go still further.

The night before I would not have felt like a liar telling anyone I was in good shape, but after an hour in three feet of water with a soft, sticky bottom carrying decoys, gun and blind, I was embarrassingly winded. Further away from the parking lot, the water got deeper, and the cover was sparse. Grasses speckled with tiny groups of alders covered a hundred yards before the water 84 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

opened to the rest of the lake.

Shooting time was coming fast, so we grabbed the closest two tag alders and weaseled our way into as much cover as we could.

Three separate groups of teal sounded like mini jet engines as they buzzed over our heads. It was clear that the break in duck hunting had an effect; I didn’t even have time to raise my gun at any of those first birds.

Finally, a nice slow shoveler bumbled dopily into my shooting lane, and I was able to knock it out of the sky. Shaking off the cobwebs, the action started to pick up. At 9 a.m. there were groups of 10 and 20 ducks in every direction. Mixed groups of gadwalls and mallards were fighting the wind, trying to squeeze into the small patch of open water near our trees. After an inordinate amount of shooting, we were only two birds shy of a limit.

At 10 a.m., after a thorough pat down of all our pockets and fingering every nook and cranny in our blind bags, we were resolved to the fact we had only four shells left. As we started picking up the decoys, a group of canvasbacks decided they didn’t care about the two humans splashing around in the open and dove in. My buddy and I each fired twice, and two birds hit the water. As we headed back towards the truck, we passed each of the groups we had met that morning, both still in their blinds. By the way they looked at our full lanyards I would have guessed they had not been as fortunate as us that morning.

That hunt was more than a great day waterfowl hunting; it was a reintroduction into the outdoors. It’s easy to lose your hobbies and even personality traits in the military, especially the infantry.

Every moment spent on yourself feels like you are stealing from the unit. You feel obligated to make yourself into the best soldier you can possibly be because all your friends are depending on you to be the best. The years I spent in the Army were the best years of my life, but hunting and fishing are a key component of who I am. Without this hunt I may have lost that piece of me.

BHA member Trevor Hubbs is a hunting dog enthusiast who grew up on the bluffs and floodplains of the Mississippi and Ohio river confluence. While he grew up chasing coons and quail, today he pursues everything from North Carolina black bear to Montana sharptails and Great Lakes waterfowl, always with a good dog in tow.

He volunteers as the strategic planning lead for BHA’s Armed Forces Initiative.

Photo: istock.com/Agaten

SHORT

NIGHT SWEATS

BY BENJAMIN POLLEY

cools. Shorter breaths force me to keep going. I face my fears.

Just like the night before I walked into the cabin, last night’s Every night before I go into the remote ranger station in a sleep eluded me. What is it in the human psyche to transmogrify forgotten wild corner of northwestern Montana, I lay in bed, wild animals into villains and monsters waiting around every gripped by fear, imagining potential encounters. Giving time corner to tear us limb from limb? The eco-philosopher Paul to these images of wild animals, as well as to poachers, outlaws Shepherd suggests these primordial fears are older than memory, and Border Patrol agents known to frequent this terrain, keeps beyond the oral tradition of storytelling and images painted on me close with my mortality, allowing me to shape-shift from the cave walls and perhaps coded into our DNA. ease and predictability of town into the wild places I value. The Nervously glancing behind every bush and tree, I carry an ax stillness and isolation of the wildness are profound enough to and a ski pole. Considering the size of the prints in the snow, make me gasp when I give pause. Eventually, I fall asleep amid my I unholster the mace. I yell, “Hey, Bear!” Usually, I don’t make ritual, but not until my heart slows. sounds because I like to see wildlife. I yell, but the dense, sodden Safely at the ranger station that I’ve been coming to in the fall trees soak all traces of my fear. Wolf tracks join the trail from the for 19 years, I am lulled out of fear and into the romance. I listen woods. I sweat. Not ideal on a frigid day. Weather will kill before to a landscape hushed by snow. Each fluffy aggregate in mid-flight anything else. is too light to measure, yet the snow’s weight quiets the land.

Fresh lion tracks join the trail now, too, my first experience Cascades of snow whoosh off branches. The river shushes nearby. rubbing shoulders in such proximity with a predator trifecta. I Most days, squirrels chatter, expect to run into the grizzly on top waxwings trill and ravens caw. Trees of a kill in the creek, which this trail Just like the night before I creak like wood crackling in the stove. walked into the cabin, last night’s forces me to cross. Here, I strip to But the stillness roars the loudest. ford the creek’s five braids. Falling sleep eluded me. What is it in the in these slush-filled waters means Except, it wasn’t all romantic. A human psyche to transmogrify man pointed a rifle at me from the hypothermia. Visibility is nil. I listen wild animals into villains and other side of the river then dove for for clacking teeth or deep woofing. cover behind a rootwad. This joker’s monsters waiting around every My fear lightsabers around. So much reaction made me link him to poacher corner to tear us limb from limb? fodder for future night befores. in these parts.

On the other side, I quit yelling.

A packrat incessantly rummaged The shouting only makes my heart around in the attic every night. beat faster, like a homing beacon for a large bruin’s free meal And on the last day that I would hike through miles of wild rather than a safety measure. In the map of the fresh snow, wolves back to civilization, Old Man Winter blows a storm down from go north, lion south, bear west and me east. Cardinal directions. the north. Like an animal, the barometric pressure leaves me Continuing on, I imagine the door to my car locked, frozen, restless. Hatching up the cabin, I travel on a cosmic journey and snow covering my body next to its inaccessible hulk the last through interstellar space, passing constructed galaxies and few miles. Unscathed by the large megafauna but chewed up by endless constellations of snow. the deep, glistening, white fangs of winter with its bitter-cold I run into massive snowshoe-sized griz tracks, bigger than teeth sunk deep. my head. My amygdala alerts my nervous system as hair stands BHA member Benjamin Alva Polley is a freelance writer living attentively, setting my body’s fear response into action. I flash on the times Border Patrol captured a horse-sized grizzly on their in Missoula, Montana. His work has been published in Popular cameras. Then to the time I surprised a griz cub, and the sow Science, Esquire, Field & Stream, Sierra, Mountain, Earth Island charged me from 40 yards out, running so fast she was flat to the Journal, and other publications at benjaminpolley.com/stories. He ground, until, at the last second, she veered off. Adrenaline and has a master’s degree in environmental science and natural resource cortisol flood my bloodstream. Blood flushes my face as sweat journalism from the University of Montana.

86 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2022

Photo: Benjamin Polley

SHORT

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BEYOND FAIR CHASE

CAN SOMETHING BE ETHICAL FOR ONE PERSON AND UNETHICAL FOR ANOTHER? A MENTAL EXCERCISE IN HUNTER ETHICS

BY PATT DORSEY Is your answer a dogmatic “Absolutely not –What’s good for the goose is good for the gander?”

The opposite of dogmatism is relativism: the thinking that everything is relative to the individual, or society. In the individual context, “What is right for me is right for me.” In the societal sense, ethical behavior is decided by the majority. That seems fair, democratic and reasonable. Yet, there are numerous examples where majority thinking fails, often because it pits one societal norm against another.

The same is true in hunting. In some fledging U.S. colonies, wild game belonged to free white males, excluding women and people of color. When Scotch-Irish immigrants came to America in the mid-1700s, they brought trained hounds for hunting deer in the densely vegetated southeastern United States. Does that make hunting deer with dogs okay in the arid West? Does my Western elk hunter perspective make hunting deer with dogs wrong in the Southeast?

Most of us are neither absolutists or relativists. We fall somewhere on the spectrum of ethical reason. For example, most agree that shooting an elk from a pickup truck is unethical as it relates to fair chase. However, we support giving vehicle accommodations to mobility-impaired hunters.

“So, where do you draw the line?”

Imagine a pile of sand. One by one you begin removing grains of sand. At what point do you no longer have a pile of sand?

Where do you draw the line?

“Drawing the line” when it comes to hunter ethics is a lot like the pile of sand and a little like milking mice. It’s futile, not very interesting, the mice don’t enjoy it and it doesn’t produce much milk! But, if relativism and dogmatism are inadequate extremes and drawing the line isn’t possible, how do we decide if something is fair chase or ethical?

For the sake of this mental exercise, I propose it starts with curiosity, tolerance and a love of learning. The real power of democracy is not majority thinking. It is in how willing we are to consider minority opinions. Mark Twain said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

Can we use a constructive framework similar to legal reasoning for hunter ethics? Legal reasoning includes three things that

might help us make complex decisions as ethical hunters: caseby-case decision making, good instructions and an impartial jury (e.g., curiosity, tolerance and a love of learning).

Every case is different in hunter ethics. Add a new word to your ethics vocabulary: “Casuistry.” Casuistry or case-by-case reasoning dates back to Greek and Roman philosophers and ancient religious leaders. At its core, casuistry resembles legal reasoning.

There are rules, with flexibility, that provide a framework for resolving complex ethical conflicts. For example: justice vs. mercy and loyalty vs. honesty, or fair chase vs. clean one-shot kill.

Good instructions help distinguish between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. They ask us to consider social values, individual circumstances and to substantiate the criteria of multiple tests. There is more than one way to determine if something meets the definition of fair chase. Does an action pass the “would you tell your mother” test? What other tests apply in this case?

Last, the impartial jury (an open mind). If we want to make good ethical decisions to be better hunters or to ensure that hunting remains a legitimate activity, rife with mental and physical challenges, deep spiritual fulfillment and many other individual and societal values, we need to think openly. Open to the perspectives of others. Open to critical versus majority thinking. Open to stretching our mental and ethical capacities.

Enough milking mice! Let’s create an ethical framework, starting with endless conversations by campfires and the uncomfortableness that comes with not having all the answers.

Is long-range hunting in somewhere USA ethical? Do electronic calls tip the scales away from fair chase? What if we’re talking about snow geese, where there may be a conservation purpose for increasing harvest? Is it ethical to hunt deer in a CWD area, knowing you might not ultimately consume the meat? Does relative ability of individual hunters create a sliding scale of fair chase?

Open your mind and a beer. Throw another log on the fire. It’s going to be a long night because we need to think about those things a while longer.

Patt Dorsey is a board member for Orion - The Hunter’s Institute and BHA life member who lives in Bayfield, Colorado. Her latest hunting adventure is training her Decker rat terrier to retrieve game.

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.

WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 89

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END OF THE LINE

Deadline As the editor of Backcountry Journal, I’ve become very used to deadlines. They come with regularity – every three months. My life has come to revolve around them. Vacations and hunting trips are planned in between – usually right after the deadline is past, when I can breathe for a moment. I’ve come to like the rhythm of it all; there are always going to be suprises, but you can anticipate and plan for a lot when you know where the finish line lies.

Montana’s hunting seasons are kind of like a quarterly magazine deadline in that the season is about three months long, which seems like a ton of time (to hunt, that is, because it’s not a ton of time to put a magazine together). And I’m not complaining; it is a ton of time to hunt. One of the archery elk seasons I hunted back when I live in Washington was five days. Five days with a bow is not a very long time – at least for me. And if you travel to hunt, you probably only get a week or so, as well. So, as Montana residents, we’re spoiled.

But with so long a season, it’s easy to get complacent. Or, at least, that’s my excuse. It’s easy to say an early September day is too warm or the lawn still needs mowing. In a blink, October comes, the elk rut slowing down, the deer are in a pre-rut lull, and it can feel pretty dead out there. Late October comes and the general season opens – and it’s crowded. What backcountry hunter wants to hunt amongst the sea of orange? Another week slips by.

It’s not that I didn’t try; I did. I tried hard, in fact, with the time available to me. My best elk spot burnt to a crisp this summer (another excuse). And my plans B through at least F failed to turn up much of anything other than old sign (no good excuse). It’s been the toughest season I’ve experienced in my short tenure here in the land of plenty.

Halloween morning, I awoke early, certain the cold, crisp morning would be a special one in my favorite riverbottom tree, and was in my stand an hour before legal light. The crunching of leaves grew nearer as I impatiently checked the time. Light eased over the mountain as I put my glass on an exceedingly large whitetail buck while he meandered out of range, spared from my freezer by minutes.

Before I even recognized it, it’s November, and I’m putting the finishing touches on this winter issue of Backcountry Journal.

Time to hunt has been limited lately. Over two months into the

My chest freezer died two days after I snapped this photo. Here’s to hoping the new one wasn’t purchased for nothing.

lengthy Montana big game season – with only a few weeks to go – and my freezer is still empty.

My wife keeps asking about elk tenderloin, I don’t want my daughter eating any of that hormone-laced, store-bought crap, and I’m feeling the heat. I’m not sure I like this empty-freezer deadline.

I recall feeling this kind of due-date heat back in college. I was a great procrastinator back then, almost always either standing in a river or sitting in a tree when I should have been writing papers.

At some point, I decided that merely thinking about a coming deadline was too much to bear, so I simply set my mind – and alarm – to early the morning of the due date to write the paper at the very last possible moment. It probably didn’t always result in my best work, but I never failed to get them across the finish line.

I’ve always admired the athletes who thrived in the biggest moments, like they somehow possessed the magical ability to disregard pressure altogether. You just knew Michael Jordan was going to make the game winner. The clutch putt would fall for Tiger Woods, and he’d walk over and grab the ball like there was never any doubt in his mind.

Prior to the pandemic putting events on halt, I’d compete every year in a Spey (two-hand fly) casting competition that drew competitors from around the world. In an event where you only get one chance, and a single gust of wind can ruin your best laid plans, an Irishman, Gerard Downey, won six out of the last nine.

He’d just walk on out there and make it look like no big deal again and again, while I was sweating through t-shirts pacing nervously back and forth before my turn.

I aspire to be that kind of person under pressure – the one who climbs the mountain the last afternoon of season and comes back after dark with a six-point bull like it’s no big deal. It seems like some people just are born with that kind of self-belief, but I want to believe it’s something you can learn.

Forkies beware. It’s crunch time again. I’m ready to go down swinging. At least an empty freezer is a really good excuse to spend every possibly minute, during the very best time of year, in the woods. And last minute heroics do make good stories.

-Zack Williams, editor WINTER 2022 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 91