BHA HEADQUARTERS NEWS

I TOLD HIM A BRISTOL BAY STORY: HOW SEEMINGLY INFINITE SCHOOLS OF SALMON TURN RIVERS AND LAKES RED LIKE BLOOD AS THEY GIFT THE LAND, PEOPLE AND ANIMALS THEIR FLESH AND SPAWN.

ecutive director of SalmonState and a BHA member. “It’s time for the EPA to listen to Alaskans and to finish the job of protecting this one-of-a-kind American treasure.”

Alannah Hurley is a Yup’ik fisherwoman and the executive director of United Tribes of Bristol Bay. A lifelong resident of Bristol Bay, she’s fought tirelessly to protect her homeland.

“As stewards of these lands and waters since time immemorial, the people of Bristol Bay need permanent protections for our waters and way of life. There are years of scientific study and millions of public comments in support of protecting our watershed from a mine like Pebble,” Hurley said. “It is time for the EPA to finalize safeguards that truly protect the headwaters of our fishery so that our future generations are not going to have to fight these same battles.”

The EPA’s announcement is a step in the right direction, but the fight is far from over. There’s hope the agency will finalize Clean Water Act protections this year by vetoing the permits once and for all. But if it doesn’t happen during President Joe Biden’s term, the next administration might stall or even reverse course again. Finalizing protections for Bristol Bay is something that needs to be done now.

I think back to last fall and how after being away working with brown bears for four months, I hustled to put venison and salmon in the freezer. My brothers had given my family a fair amount of sockeye and king salmon, and I rounded out our fish by catching some coho. My two-and-a-half-year-old son helped me prepare a load for the smoker. He’s obsessed with salmon, just as I was when I was his age. That evening, as I loaded the smoker’s pan with a last load of alder chips, I came to the unsettling realization that every salmon in my freezer was a hatchery fish.

In contrast, there isn’t a single hatchery in Bristol Bay. Instead, there’s pristine habitat, a diverse system composed of lakes, rivers and tiny streams – and a mass migration of animals unlike anything that still exists on the planet. My son “helped” rotate trays of salmon before asking me to tell him a story about salmon. I thought about how just 10 years ago schools of wild salmon darkened the coastline near our home. Instead, I told him a Bristol Bay story: how seemingly infinite schools of salmon turn rivers and lakes red like blood as they gift the land, people and animals their flesh and spawn. The future is uncertain, but one thing I know for sure is that we need to fight like hell to protect places like Bristol Bay.

Bjorn Dihle is a BHA member and a lifelong Southeast Alaskan. He most recently authored “A Shape in the Dark: Living and Dying with Brown Bears.”

BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL

Fall 2022 | VOLUME XVII, ISSUE IV

FEATURES

51 MOTHER WILDERNESS by Raven Aäe

61 GEMS AMONG THE AUFEIS by Kevin Fraley

67 FLATLANDERS’ ELK by Drew Kazenski

75 HOOF BUNDLES by Mike Stevenson

78 LESSONS FROM SEPTEMBER by Lindsey Yundt

DEPARTMENTS

03 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

05 YOUR BACKCOUNTRY Hoosier Grouse by Dr. Brian Stone

10 BHA HEADQUARTERS NEWS 39 COLLEGE CLUBS Building Bridges by Col. Mike Abell

42 FIELD TO TABLE Pan-Roasted Ptarmigan by Hank Shaw

15 FACES OF BHA Catherine Danae Elser, Prospect, Pennsylvania

17 BACKCOUNTRY BOUNTY

19 KIDS’ CORNER Going Fishing by Penelope Gall 22 CHAPTER NEWS In Depth: Paying It Forward by Joel Gay In Depth: Alberta Chapter Fights for Wild Places by Neil Keown Rende Recap 33 ARMED FORCES INITIATIVE In Defense of Public Lands and Waters by Lt. Col. Andrew Ruszkiewicz and Luke Weingarten 37 HUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY R3: The Why by Trey Curtiss

50 INSTRUCTIONAL After the Point by Scott Linden Use the Wind for Waterfowl by Homer Raymundo 52 PUBLIC LAND OWNER DEPARTMENTS The North American Grasslands Conservation Act by Bethany Erb 03 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Modest Land Mule Deer 07 YOUR BACKCOUNTRY by Brad Trumbo A Chance to Prove Ourselves 87 BEYOND FAIR CHASE by Bjorn Dihle What Do We Owe the Individuals? 14 BHA HEADQUARTERS NEWS by Corey Ellis 17 FACES OF BHA 88 HUMOR All in a Minute Grahame Jones, Austin, Texas by Jill Grenon McMurray 19 BACKCOUNTRY BOUNTY 91 END OF THE LINE 21 KIDS’ CORNER An Opening Day Tale by Leyton Hanneman and Matt Hanneman 39 ARMED FORCES INITIATIVE The CORE Act & Camp Hale by David Lien 42 INSTRUCTIONAL Breathwork and Buck Fever by Ian Ramsey 48 PUBLIC LAND OWNER Selling the Farm by Steven Hawley 82 OPINION Ethics & Etiquette by Scott Linden

23 CHAPTER NEWS Standing up for Shoreline Access by Michael Woods BHA Members Roll up Their Sleeves by Tim Brass

33 HUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY The Alchemy of Experience by Geneviève Joëlle Villamizar 85 BEYOND FAIR CHASE The Origins and Purpose of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation by John Organ

88 FIELD TO TABLE Chicken Fried Grouse by Eduardo Garcia

91 END OF THE LINE

36 COLLEGE CLUBS Lessons from a Bad Fly Fisher by Erik Holterman

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