Winter 21 Issue of Backcountry Journal

BACKCOUNTRY

JOURNAL

The Magazine of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Winter 2021

REDISCOVERED SINCE 1913.

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

2020:

A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER Adversity is something we as outdoorsmen and women face on a daily basis. We are deeply bonded by the toils, trials and tribulations that are inevitable. We can’t get enough of the challenges and adventure. Theodore Roosevelt said it well: “A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fiber of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage. ... For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”

Earlier this fall, Montana got hit with an Arctic blast of snow and cold for the big game rifle opener. Undeterred and even excited, my cousin picked me up at 5 a.m. As we drove to our destination, he pushed snow with the bumper of his lifted truck.

Every so often, enough snow gathered on the bumper that a big heap would fly onto the windshield. He looked at me and said, “This is gnarly.”

The rest of the day included up to two feet of consistent snow and drifts to the thighs in places. Climbing 2,000 feet was nothing short of work, and the icy wind didn’t help. Type three fun. We didn’t see any elk that day. Heck, we didn’t even cut any tracks.

But the time outside, a set of solitary moose tracks, thousands of snow geese serenading us from high above and the adventure made the day. Facing such adversity gave me the feeling we could conquer anything thrown at us for the rest of the season.

Our opening day hunt was a lot like 2020. Lots of adversity. Lots of challenge. Like everyone else, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers dealt with a silent killer that created mountains of uncertainty.

With few exceptions, in-person events were postponed, delayed or canceled. For the first time in almost a decade, our membership didn’t grow by leaps and bounds. The undeniable energy fueled by members and volunteers started to flag.

But like my cousin and I did that day, our collective BHA team stiffened our resolve and faced what the world threw at us. Not only did we face it head on; we worked to overcome it. Starting with the Virtual Struttin’ and Cluckin’ turkey calling contest in March, pivoting to a virtual Rendezvous in June and following with a series of Filson Skills Nights in September, we found creative ways to bring our community together.

Socially distanced work projects continued, and our collective goal to pick up 1,000 bags of garbage during Public Lands Month in September was crushed when our volunteer chapter leaders and members gathered more than 4,000 bags … 4,175 to be exact.

Our people removed over 60 tons of trash from our public lands and waters! Thanks again, First Lite, for stepping up and giving $5 a bag up to 1,000 bags. Next year, 5,000? In addition to bringing our family together – virtually – and making an impact on the ground, you all pushed the Great American Outdoors Act over the finish line. It was a monumental win in a year when wins are

hard to come by, and quite frankly, it never would have happened without your grassroots commitment and drive.

I’m not surprised you all rose to the occasion. It’s what you do in the field, and it’s what you do each and every day for conservation. I can’t thank you enough. The countless hours, phone calls, emails, screen time and sweat equity are appreciated – but know, too, that your actions are making a difference. These requests for your time don’t come lightly, but I know you will heed the call each and every time. Success has many mothers and fathers, and you all should be proud.

As we close out 2020 and the most contentious election of our time has been cast, uncertainty still abounds. I will continue to ask for your time and energy, but I also must ask you to give your hard-earned money to BHA. This ask is the hardest for me to make. We need your help.

Ask yourself: What are wild public lands and waters worth to you? What are you willing to give to the landscapes and fish and wildlife that give you so much? See page 10 to find a plethora of answers, along with your opportunity to give.

Thank you for standing shoulder to shoulder with me in the arena. I can’t wait to continue to put one foot after another, willing us forward through whatever Mother Nature and the world throws at us. You all are amazing. You inspire me each and every day. We have much yet to do TOGETHER! Onward and upward,

Land Tawney President and CEO

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THE VOICE FOR OUR WILD PUBLIC LANDS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.

-EDWARD ABBEY 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

Ben Bulis (Montana) Ryan Callaghan (Montana) Bill Hanlon (British Columbia) Hilary Hutcheson (Montana)

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

STAFF Land Tawney, President and CEO Grant Alban, Development Coordinator Tim Brass, State Policy and Field Operations Director Walker Conyngham, Communications Coordinator Trey Curtiss, R3 Coordinator Katie DeLorenzo, Western Regional Manager and Southwest Chapter Coordinator Kevin Farron, Montana Chapter Coordinator Caitlin Frisbie, Operations Associate and Assistant to the President John Gale, Conservation Director Chris Hennessey, Regional Manager Ace Hess, Idaho and Nevada Chapter Coordinator Josh Kaywood, Southeast Chapter Coordinator Frankie McBurney Olson, Operations Director Morgan Mason, Armed Forces Initiative Coordinator

Katie McKalip, Communications Director Jason Meekhof, Upper Great Lakes Chapter Coordinator Rob Parkins, Public Access Coordinator Julia Peebles, Government Relations Manager Jesse Salsberry, Northwest Chapter Coordinator and Video Production Assistant Kylie Schumacher, Collegiate Club Coordinator Ryan Silcox, Membership Coordinator Dylan Snyder, Operations Assistant Ty Stubblefield, Chapter Coordinator and New Chapter Development Brien Webster, Program Manager and Colorado and Wyoming Chapter Coordinator Zack Williams, Backcountry Journal Editor Rob Yagid, Digital Media Coordinator Interns: Ryan Garnsey, Tenton Kriz, Atlas McKinley, Kate Mayfield

Contributors in this Issue

BHA HEADQUARTERS

On the Cover: BHA member Justin Mueller snapped this shot while filming for the TV show Beyond Rubicon during a late-season mule deer hunt in New Mexico.

Above Image: By Carla Gibson, from our 2019 Public Waters Photo Contest.

P.O. Box 9257, Missoula, MT 59807 www.backcountryhunters.org admin@backcountryhunters.org (406) 926-1908

Ed Anderson, James Brandenburg, Sue Cocking, Josh Davis, Jan Dizard, Corey Ellis, Everett Garcia, Morgan Harris, Justin Karnopp, Lars Chinburg, Shane P. Mahoney, Joshua Morse, Russell Worth Parker, Christine Peterson, Jorge Ramirez, Shawn Ray, Durrell Smith, Bob Smith, E. Donnall Thomas Jr., Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley, Christopher Wilson, Taylor S. Winchell, Erin Woodward, Gabriela Zaldumbide

Journal Submissions: williams@backcountryhunters.org Advertising and Partnership Inquiries: grant@backcountryhunters.org General Inquiries: admin@backcountryhunters.org

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 December 2020. Volume XVI, Issue I

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

YOUR BACKCOUNTRY

WRONG MINE WRONG PLACE

BY E. DONNALL THOMAS JR. While searching for the fabled Northwest Passage in 1778, the great British navigator James Cook sailed the Resolution into a wide southwestern Alaska bay named Iilgayaq in the local Yupik dialect. As Cook had done regularly on his way up the North Pacific coast, he renamed this geographic feature in honor of one of his patrons, in this case the Earl of Bristol.

Running from the mouth of the Togiak River on the north all the way to the Cinder River to the south, Bristol Bay itself is not an inviting body of water. This is the shallowest part of the Bering Sea, and shifting sand bars make navigation a constant challenge.

Its tidal fluctuations are among the greatest in the world; the 30 feet of water that moves back and forth every day creates complex, powerful currents. It’s not the salt water that draws outdoor adventurers from all around the world to the region. It’s the rivers, the gifts they bring each year to the barren tundra and rolling hills surrounding the bay and the wealth of outdoor opportunities this complex ecosystem provides. Of these rivers, the Nushagak, Naknek and Kvichak are the largest and most important to the fishery.

It all depends on the salmon, especially red (sockeye) salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka. Bristol Bay supports the world’s largest runs of red salmon, and the brief summer fishing season is worth over a billion dollars to the state. Most inhabitants of local towns like Dillingham, Naknek and King Salmon rely directly or indirectly on this fishery for their livelihoods. Residents of numerous smaller Native villages along the coast depend on salmon to maintain their traditional subsistence lifestyle, as they did for millennia before Cook sailed into their bay.

The importance of these salmon reaches far beyond economics.

Southwestern Alaska is hungry country, where poor soil and short growing seasons make survival a struggle for wildlife as well as people. The salmon that choke the water as they run upstream to spawn and die every summer represent the base of the organic food chain. Ultimately, everything from bugs to bears depends upon this massive annual infusion of protein and calories, without which the land would soon become depleted.

This is just the kind of habitat in which Nature’s balance proves most tenuous. Diverse ecosystems can absorb natural challenges like an extreme weather event with relative ease, but in fragile habitats like the Alaska tundra a small glitch can have huge con-

sequences. Witness, for example, the sudden crash of the Mulchatna caribou herd, which numbered 400,000 animals when I left the state in the 1980s, only to fall to scattered remnants over the course of a few years. Given the crucial importance of salmon, the loss of even one year’s fish return could spell disaster not just to the commercial fishery, but to the biology of the entire region.

In the late 1980s, a geologist flying over the ridge between the headwaters of Upper Talarik Creek and the Koktuli River noted odd rock formations peeking out through the tundra ground cover. A few years later, miners were drilling exploratory bore holes in what had become known as the Pebble deposit. They liked what they found – vast lodes of copper, gold and molybdenum. A 2010 report estimated that Pebble contained 55 billion tons of copper, the world’s largest known deposit. The challenge turned towards the ability to get it out of the ground and off to market.

The business aspects of the Pebble Mine have been muddled from the start, complicated by the usual shell games of partnerships and subsidiaries that make it difficult to determine who is actually running the show. Northern Dynasty, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has been the most consistent player and now has sole control of the Pebble Limited Partnership. Other overseas-based heavy hitters, including Mitsubishi, Anglo-American and Rio Tinto, have been involved, only to abandon interest in the project as it became more complex and controversial. No American company has held an equity position for years.

The current proposed version of the mine calls for the excavation of a pit measuring over a mile on each side and 300 meters deep, which would make Pebble North America’s largest open pit mine. The operation will require construction of large holding basins to accommodate ore tailings during the initial concentration stages. These ponds will come at the expense of local wetlands and will inevitably contain toxic levels of heavy metals and acids.

A breach or dam failure would be catastrophic. Toxic waste could run south down Upper Talarik Creek into Lake Iliamna, which is the source of the Kvichak. Alternatively, it could run north down the Koktuli, which eventually drains into the Nushagak by way of the Mulchatna. Recall that the Kvichak and Nushagak are the largest drainages emptying into Bristol Bay, and these rivers support the greatest salmon runs in the world. A toxic

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spill at Pebble could easily decimate this fishery.

The project’s footprint would extend far beyond the edges of the pit. To function as planned, the mine would require a gas pipeline from the Kenai Peninsula to provide power, at least 80 miles of road (crossing some 20 salmon streams) and port development on Cook Inlet to receive and ship concentrated ore. All this will require extensive construction in fragile tundra habitat that tolerates disturbance poorly.

As plans for the mine moved forward in fits and starts during the early 2000s, a growing number of people became concerned about its potential negative effect on their homes, incomes, ways of life and favorite places to hunt and fish. Eventually, a diverse collection of stakeholders came together in opposition to the mine, including the local Native community, commercial fishermen, hunters and recreational anglers, and owners of lodges and other businesses that provided them with services. “Outside” (the Alaskan term for anyone who doesn’t live in Alaska) environmental and sport fishing groups such as Trout Unlimited and BHA and a number of private businesses within the outdoor sporting community provided heavy opposition to the mine as well.

In 2010, a consortium of mine opponents petitioned the EPA to conduct an environmental assessment under the terms of the Clean Water Act. Released in 2012, this study concluded that the project would threaten Bristol Bay salmon. In 2013, the Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment reached the same conclusion.

Anglo-American pulled out of the mining consortium, followed

by Rio Tinto in 2014. Another EPA assessment in 2015 recommended limiting mining in the area. By the end of the Obama administration, it appeared that mine opponents had prevailed, and Pebble was dead in the water.

Comments received during the process indicated that the general public strongly opposed the mine, as did a majority of Alaska residents. After initial ambivalence flavored with promises of high paying jobs, the Native community expressed staunch opposition to the mine. Pebble’s plan included construction of a port facility near the village of Igiugig, where the Kvichak leaves Lake Iliamna. In 2020, the Igiugik Village Council wrote: “Igiugig has been very clear that Diamond Point is not availabe for Pebble’s use. As stated last month, Tribe has existing plans for our Diamond Point site that are not and will not be compatible with Pebble’s plans, and we have informed both the Army Corps and Pebble of this fact. Their insistence on pushing this impractical route forward, which is reliant on lands not open to Pebble development, disrespectfully ignores our Tribal sovereignty. IVC is committed to the sustainability and health of our future generation and Pebble does not fit into our vision of a thriving future.”

Even the late Sen. Ted “Bridge to Nowhere” Stevens of Alaska, who rarely saw a development project he didn’t endorse, declared Pebble to be “the wrong mine in the wrong place.”

During this long, contentious debate, Pebble representatives frequently asserted that a worst-case scenario (total failure of a tailing pond dam) was too unlikely to be a concern. Mining interests said the same about the Polley Mountain mine in British Columbia prior to the catastrophic failure of a dam there in August 2014 that sent a torrent of sludge into pristine waterways nearby.

Furthermore, Pebble lies in a seismically active area. Residents of Southern Alaska are accustomed to having temblors knock pots and pans off shelves, and memories of the monstrous 1964 quake 6 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

that leveled Anchorage still haunt everyone who was there at the time. Guaranteeing the structural integrity of a dam in the face of such an event would require remarkable engineering … and profound optimism.

In 2019, the Trump administration requested another environmental study by the Army Corps of Engineers. This report found, among other matters of concern, that “direct effects on fish, including displacement, injury and mortality would occur with permanent removal of stream habitat in the (Koktuli) drainages.

Stream productivity in the (Koktuli) would be reduced … these impacts would be permanent and certain to occur.”

Nonetheless, the USACOE report initially concluded that “the alternatives would not be expected to have a measurable effect on fish numbers and result in long term changes to the health of the commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay.” A hailstorm of criticism greeted this report. At the time of this writing, no decision has yet been made regarding the issuance of the federal permits necessary for Pebble to move forward. That determination could be guided by politics rather than science, and the Trump administration has made no secret of its desire to see Pebble move forward. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has been a strong Pebble advocate, although he is currently facing an active recall campaign. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the most outspoken and independent voice in the state’s congressional delegation, has been coy at times, although she did offer vigorous criticism of that USACOE assessment. Dan Sullivan, Alaska’s other senator, and Don Young, the state’s lone representative, were notably noncommittal, usually being careful to say the right things to the right people at the right time. Meanwhile, opposition groups ranging from the locally focused Save Bristol Bay (savebristolbay.org) to the national Trout Unlimited (standup.tu.org) to BHA continued to campaign against the mine, as have numerous private companies that support the outdoor market, such as Orvis and Simms.

Over the past two decades, everyone following the Pebble Mine story has learned that they are reporting on a moving target that can change overnight. Sure enough … as soon as I finished typing what you have just read, word came of a major development in Washington. On Aug. 24, the USACOE issued a new environmental impact statement that seemed to contradict its earlier conclusion that Pebble would not cause significant damage to the Bristol Bay fishery. The news release from the Corps stated, “The project, as currently proposed, cannot be permitted under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.” After years of equivocation, both Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan issued strong statements supporting this conclusion.

Mine opponents greeted this news enthusiastically, with some going so far as predicting that this would mean an end to the Pebble project. Perhaps I’ve just grown cynical, but I’m not so sure, largely because of the phrase “as currently proposed” inserted in the Corps’ conclusion. Indeed, Pebble officials led by CEO Tom Collier are already proposing mitigation efforts that could potentially lead to another revised EIS. Less than a month after the new EIS was released, Pebble proponents took another big hit when the Washington Post reported a series of taped conversations between Northern Dynasty CEO Roland Thiesen and Pebble Limited executive Collier. Thiesen spoke disparagingly of Sen. Murkowski, noting, “She says things that don’t sound supportive of Pebble, but when it comes time

All photos by the author.

to vote … she never does anything to hurt Pebble.”

For his part, Collier described how he had helped defeat nine Republican candidates for the Alaska legislature because they had sided with Democrats in opposition to the project. The tapes also revealed that the executives had established a back-channel communications route to the White House through the office of Gov. Dunleavy.

The fallout was swift. Both of Alaska’s senators issued statements strongly opposing the mine. Collier resigned, presumably losing his promised multi-million dollar bonus that he would have received for a permitted project.

The future of the Pebble project now looks gloomier than it has in years, a major tribute to mine opponents’ efforts. As hunters and anglers face more threats like this, the effort to save Bristol Bay could serve as a template for action: build a coalition, raise some money, wage an aggressive media campaign to get the facts before the public. Well done.

However, the Pebble project has already risen from the dead repeatedly over the last 20 years, like Glenn Close emerging from the bathtub with a knife at the end of “Fatal Attraction.” Nothing says it can’t happen again.

Back when I lived in Alaska, a long, early fall wilderness float trip was almost always on the calendar. For years, we floated the Mulchatna, a major tributary of the Nushagak. That country treated us well, consistently yielding big caribou bulls to our longbows and plump rainbows to our fly rods. Eventually, I learned the river and terrain so well that I missed the excitement of exploring new country. So, one year we decided to float the Koktuli instead, from its headwaters to our customary takeout on the Mulchatna near its confluence with the Stuyahok.

After landing on a pond at the Koktuli’s headwaters, we quickly ran afoul of a basic principle I should have understood perfectly well by then: things never look the same on the ground as they do

8 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

from the air. The outlet stream was too shallow to float our rafts and too narrow to let us use oars. We spent two days wading alongside the rafts (invariably getting wet despite our waders) while we pushed and pulled them through mud and over beaver dams.

Finally, we picked up enough water to float. The next week proved special. I killed a good caribou bull with my bow, and we could sight cast flies to fat rainbows gobbling eggs behind spawning salmon.

Our few bear encounters concluded with nothing more serious than fodder for next year’s stories. The old sense of adventure aroused by new country returned.

Should Pebble ever make the leap from bad idea to reality, the Koktuli will be ground zero, as the USACOE already acknowledges. It won’t take an unlikely catastrophe to ruin the river – the tailing ponds in the headwater wetlands already on the drawing board will take care of that. No one will have an opportunity to make the kind of memories my hunting partner and I made with our two sons during the days we spent together there in the wilderness. Getting old and no longer living in Alaska, I now recognize that I will likely never return. However, just knowing that the fish, the game and the river are still there is enough to buoy my spirits as I struggle with pandemic lockdown. All of us should be able to enjoy that opportunity.

I didn’t always agree with Ted Stevens when he was representing me in Washington, but he is inarguably right on one point; Pebble is the wrong mine in the wrong place. To paraphrase Sylvia Plath, we need to drive a stake through its heart before it rises again.

BHA member Don Thomas and his wife Lori live in central Montana with their dogs. They both enjoy wing-shooting, bowhunting and fly-fishing and together have covered these topics for numerous publications.

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Ways to Donate

AMAZON SMILE Shop at smile.amazon.com and designate BHA as your charity of choice

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Help us build our endowment so that we have financial resources for decades to come

ONLINE

WE NEED YOUR HELP It goes without saying that 2020 has been quite a year.

And if one thing was made clear, it's that access to our wild public lands and waters is more important than ever.

Please donate today to help us ensure that we have access to our wild public lands and waters for this generation and for generations to come. Thank you for your support.

Visit backcountryhunters.org/donate and donate as much as you want!

BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR Sign up for automatic monthly donations. You can give as little as $5 a month - that's like two Arby's sandwiches

PLANNED GIVING There are several options: outright gifts, financial benefit returns, and bequests

IN MEMORIAM Honor a friend, family member, or hunting/fishing buddy by donating in their name - or nickname

GIVE STOCK Any stock works, but Apple and Google are especially appreciated

COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN If you work for a federal agency please consider signing up to donate through your employer. Visit cfcgiving.opm.gov

MAIL A CHECK Donate the old fashioned way

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Backcountry Hunters & Anglers P.O. Box 9257 Missoula, MT 59807

HAVE QUESTIONS? CONTACT US admin@backcountryhunters.org 406 926 1908

What are public lands worth to you?

BACKCOUNTRY

JOURNAL The Magazine of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Volume XVI, Issue I

Winter 2021

Features Duk’s Last Hunt

By Russell Worth Parker

56

Missing Ridge

By Justin Karnopp

60

That Old Gun

By Lars Chinburg

65

Everglades Backcountry Snook

By Sue Cocking

68

A Little of This, and a Little of That

By Josh Davis

72

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Departments President’s Message

Your Backcountry

Wrong Mine, Wrong Place BHA Headquarters News

3

5

14

Backcountry Bounty

17

Faces of BHA

Jorge Ramirez, Santa Paula, California

19

Kids’ Corner

Coloring Contest!

21

Chapter News

In Depth: Public Land Pack Out Shatters Goals

In Depth: Arkansas Chapter Fights Shady Land Deal

22 27 29

Hunting for Sustainability

Cochetopa Cottontails

32

College Clubs

Public Land Owner Stewardship Fund

35

Field to Table

Venison Bone Stock

38

Instructional

Bird Dog Training 201

42

Public Land Owner

Resort Town Blues

Exploring the Modern Relevance of Natural Foraging

44 50

Beyond Fair Chase

Leading on Lead Poetry

Killing the Trout

Bereft November Sky

Kitchen Spell End of the Line

Forging Ahead

77

78 78 79

83

Photo by Josh Davis, from “A Little of This, and a Little of That,” WINTERcast 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL a California and blast adventure on page 72. | 13

MEMBER SURVEY RESULTS Public lands sportsmen and women are politically diverse and strongly united in support of North American lands and waters, the annual survey of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers reveals, depicting a membership that is overwhelmingly young, active and engaged in issues affecting fish and wildlife, conservation and public access.

BHA members are likely to be young – 70 percent of members are 45 or younger – and passionate users of public lands and waters who rely on wild harvested game and fish to fill their freezers. BHA is proud to combine youthful exuberance with sage wisdom for undeniable power. They are rooted in family – more than 60 percent have kids – and committed to public service (14 percent are military service members or veterans, twice the U.S. average).

Politically, BHA members span the spectrum, illustrating the universal importance of public lands and waters, said BHA President and CEO Land Tawney.

“During a U.S. election season defined by partisan fractiousness, BHA members show how public lands and waters have the power to unite a constituency,” said Tawney. “Public lands and waters don’t care what color your skin is, what political party you belong to, or how much money is in your pocket. They belong to all of us. Together, we can ensure that our unique conservation legacy is passed down to future generations better than when we inherited it.”

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Photo by Christopher Wilson, from our 2018 Public Lands and Waters Photo Contest.

HEADQUARTERS NEWS

HEADQUARTERS NEWS

UTAH BHA BILLBOARD REMINDS MIKE LEE THAT WE WON’T FORGET The Utah chapter recently leased time on a prominent billboard to remind Sen. Mike Lee that sportsmen and women oppose his anti-public lands agenda ... and urge him to change course.

UPCOMING EVENTS! •

•

•

BHA AND FILSON COLLABORATE Filson and BHA have partnered on a series of virtual events, the Filson x BHA Public Land Skills Nights, and a limitededition collection of co-branded products.

The skills nights will cover a variety of topics from across North America. Topics already covered, which are all available afterwards on the BHA YouTube channel, include Hunting the Pennsylvania Big Woods and Why Women Hunt, with plenty more to come.

The collection of Filson staples features officially licensed BHA graphics and logos and supports BHA’s mission to ensure North America’s heritage of hunting and fishing on public lands and waters.

“Filson’s heritage is rooted in the outdoors, and we are honored to support BHA’s advocacy for public lands, waters and wildlife,” said Doug Thielen, director of marketing at Filson. “The products promote BHA’s commitment to conservation, the importance of hunting and angling access on public lands and the wildlife that depend on it.”

“I first was introduced to Filson by my father and inherited his Mackinaw Cruiser when he passed away,” said BHA President and CEO Land Tawney. “I have been rocking Filson ever since.

We are thrilled to work with such a legacy-oriented company and to continue our collaboration through Filson’s new product line. We are grateful to Filson for its ongoing support of BHA’s mission.”

Since 2018, Filson has also been the presenting sponsor of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Campfire Stories, a series providing opportunities for BHA members to share experiences from public lands and water. The Filson x BHA collection is now available online at Filson.com.

•

“Life Member Appreciation Night and Fundraiser” Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m.

Pacific.

“A Celebration of Wild Game and Wild Places: A Virtual Storytelling and Cooking Experience with Eduardo Garcia” on Thursday, Dec. 10, at 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific.

“BHA Holiday Party, Sweepstakes Drawing and Member Appreciation Night” on Wednesday, Dec. 16, at 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific.

Photo by Becca Skinner “Virtual Winter Extravaganza” featuring Campfire Stories, Trivia, Stubblefield Challenges – Tuesday, Jan. 26 to Thursday, January 28, 2021.

Stay tuned to backcountryhunters.org for more details.

FLORIDA BECOMES NEWEST CHAPTER Public lands sportsmen and women in Florida are rallying in support of fish and wildlife habitat, access to hunting and fishing opportunities and ethical practices afield, officially establishing the first standalone chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers in the Sunshine State. The new BHA chapter officially launched in September following a vote by the BHA North American board of directors.

The chapter’s roots go back to 2019 when a group of Florida BHA members began taking the initiative to establish a Florida chapter as a standalone entity from BHA’s Southeast chapter, which Florida had been part of beginning in 2017. They met in January 2020 to elect a board and develop the chapter’s goals and mission.

“We’re excited to take the next step forward,” said Florida chapter chair Scott Penka, of Kissimmee. “As Florida – and North America – recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, we look forward to connecting with members through inperson outreach and events.”

BHA Florida members already are promoting R3 and membership initiatives, hosting small game hunts and advocating for public lands and access by participating in meetings of the Water Management Board, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other state organizational efforts on behalf of Florida sportsmen and women. As the chapter grows, members look forward to continuing to develop relationships with state government agencies and other conservation groups.

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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!

BACKCOUNTRY BOUNTY

Hunter: Richard Newton, BHA member Species: Elk State: Idaho Method: rifle Distance from nearest road: three miles Transportation: foot

Hunter: Larissa Pless, BHA member Species: mule deer State: Oregon Method: Rifle Distance from nearest road: two miles Transportation: Foot

Hunter: Sam Cunningham, BHA member Species: whitetail State: Michigan Method: bow Distance from nearest road: one mile Transportation: foot Angler: Billy Aasheim, BHA member Species: crappie State: South Dakota Method: ice Distance from nearest road: one mile Transportation: foot

Angler: Ace Kayser, BHA member Species: cutthroat State: Montana Method: fly rod Distance from nearest road: secret Transportation: little feet

Angler: Maddy Mieczkowski, BHA member Species: largemouth bass State: New York Method: My Little Pony rod Distance from nearest road: six miles Transportation: canoe

Hunter: Nick Burson, BHA member Species: black bear State: Washington Method: rifle Distance from nearest road: six miles

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VOICE YOUR SUPPORT

SHOP NOW AT BACKCOUNTRYHUNTERS.ORG/STORE

Background: istock/DamienGeso

with NEW BHA Merchandise

JORGE RAMIREZ SANTA PAULA, CALIFORNIA

FACES OF BHA

BHA Member

Jorge Ramirez hunting valley quail in Southern California with Omar Garcia and Kiara Wilcox. “I have mentored them for the past few seasons and helped them shoot their first few quail! Through hunting together, we have bonded and become great friends.”

WHAT FIRST ATTRACTED YOU TO BHA? I have hunted public lands in Southern California since the 1990s. Before my introduction to BHA, I was pretty clueless about the risks of losing access to public lands … until I started seeing it myself. I was unaware of how severe and constant this attack was, but it gradually became more apparent. What really caught my attention with BHA was the advocacy for public lands; BHA was actually walking the walk and wasn’t just all talk! I liked that the organization is on top of all the nefarious plans to rob us of our public lands and are not only making guys like me aware of these sneaky back dealings but also are taking the fight to these public land snatchers! To me, BHA was and is an organization of action, and I’m all about securing the future of our public lands and fighting for them!

YOU ARE VERY ACTIVE IN RECRUITING NEW HUNTERS INTO UPLAND HUNTING. WHAT IS YOUR MOTIVATION? DO YOU GAIN AS MUCH AS YOUR STUDENTS FROM THE EXPERIENCE? I think it is safe to say that upland hunting is a passion of mine. I love it. I breathe it. I dream about it. I eat it. I write about it. I draw and paint it. I live it. My passion for the uplands is so big I just have this urge to share it with anyone who is willing. When I am dead and gone, I want the passion and love I get from chasing wild birds in the hills to live on with others. The passion inside me is not mine exclusively; it’s been passed down

the wildlife will eventually disappear.

They’ll look back at us from the future and wonder why we failed today. I don’t want that, and I am sure most of us BHA members feel the same. So, offer yourself as a mentor and pass on your passion!

from others before me, and I feel it is my duty to pass it along to others so that they may fall in love with and become passionate about it and eventually pass it on to others as well!

It’s fun to help develop the skills and knowledge in others and see their faces and smiles when it all comes together. There are times when I feel I gain much more from mentoring than the mentee does. It’s been a rewarding experience to see brand new upland hunters connect on their first birds and just get out there and do it on their own. I beam with pride knowing I helped a little. Unexpectedly, as a mentor, I feel as if I am also constantly growing and learning as well. It’s been great for my own selfdevelopment and craft.

WHY DO YOU THINK RECRUITING NEW HUNTERS AND ANGLERS IS IMPORTANT FOR CONSERVATION ... AND FOR OUR HUNTING/ANGLING FUTURE?

MANY OF US ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH UPLAND HUNTING IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT IT? WHAT ARE YOUR PUBLIC LAND HUNTING OPPORTUNITIES LIKE? Everyone thinks that Southern California is just sunshine, palm trees, movie billboards and celebrities gone wild. That’s not even scratching the surface! There are tons of public land hunting opportunities for big game, small game, upland game and fishing within an hour or so from Los Angeles.

We are surrounded by mountains and waterways where you can take a firearm, bow or fishing rig and get into some fun.

I have hunted and fished here all my life and have had minimal issues with access to public lands. I hunt quail about an hour or so from where I live. I often hit the beach for some fly fishing in the surf, and that is only about a 20-minute drive for me. I am blessed to live in Southern California within a reasonable driving distance from great hunting and fishing.

WHAT’S YOUR PERFECT DAY LIKE ON PUBLIC LANDS/ WATERS?

If we don’t pass on our knowledge and skills to others, this is it. Kiss hunting and fishing goodbye. That’s such a selfish thing!

Why keep it to ourselves? If we really care that much about hunting and fishing, we need to start doing a better job of recruiting new hunters, which in turn preserves these wild places and wildlife that live within them. Without hunters and anglers, there is no edge to the sword of conservation. You have a blunted blade that is ultimately going to prove to be ineffective, and we are going to eventually lose access to public lands and

With a busy life and a full schedule, I’d say that any time I get out in the uplands with my Ithaca 37 or out on the beach with my fly rod is a perfect day! We only get so many days on earth and seemingly even fewer out hunting or fishing in our public lands. I cherish every moment out there, even when there are no birds in my vest or the fish aren’t biting.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 19

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KIDS’ CORNER

Moose can DIVE 20 feet UNDER WATER, and stay under for 30 seconds!

THEY ARE GREAT SWIMMERS!

DID YOU KNOW ?

Moose are the largest members of the deer family.

Bull Moose shed their antlers every year between November and March. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt them!

What other animals shed their antlers?

They are HERBIVORES In the Algonquin language, MOOSE means “eater of twigs”. They need up to 10,000 calories a day. That’s a LOT of vegetation!

CAMOUFLAGED TO HIDE

Moose have brown and shaggy coats that help them stay hidden in the forests they live in.

Use your art tools to color the bull moose.

To learn more about Moose habitat conservation, check out backcountryhunters.org

Coloring Contest: Kids, visit westmountaindrifters.com/about-us/ teachkidsart/moose-coloring for instructions on coloring and submitting this design. Deadlines is Jan. 15, 2021, for your chance to win a cool prize!

Artwork by Ed Anderson

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 21

Chapter News & Updates

ALASKA • • • •

We’re thrilled to partner with Anchorage Brewing Company to release “The Stare” to benefit BHA. Chapter leaders have been working closely with BHA Headquarters and our partners on major conservation issues such as Pebble Mine, Ambler Road and the Tongass National Forest.

In Fairbanks, we’re working with University of Alaska students to revitalize the student BHA chapter.

Chapter leaders are also staying involved in local fair chase, access and conservation projects.

ARIZONA • • •

In November, the Northern Arizona University club held a Hunting for Sustainability workshop for new hunters with mentors.

Thanks to a generous donation from Traeger, we raised nearly $1,700 for future projects like monofilament bins on the Salt River.

Members partnered with Arizona Game and Fish to help stock native Gila trout in Marijilda Creek near Mt. Graham.

ARKANSAS •

Our chapter has championed a campaign to keep the Pine Tree

22 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

• •

WMA in public hands after learning of a potential sale to a private party. As a voice for public land owners, our chapter has successfully engaged state and federal legislators, executed a petition and garnered regional and national attention through significant grassroots efforts.

We had an incredible Public Land Pack Out in September, collecting over 200 bags of trash across five different WMAs with the help of countless volunteers and partnerships with several state agencies.

We partnered with Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and U.S. Forest Service to construct and coordinate the use of two mobility impaired hunting blinds in two different WMAs.

BRITISH COLUMBIA • • •

BC held a provincial election in October where the BC chapter joined a coalition of notable conservation groups in calling for prioritization of wildlife and habitat, including permanent funding.

Members were provided with speaking points and asked to approach candidates with the goal of improving funding and legislation for wildlife and habitat.

Regions held outdoor boots-on-the-ground cleanup efforts while social distancing as the pandemic continues.

CHAPTER NEWS CALIFORNIA •

•

•

In support of BHA’s Armed Forces Initiative, the chapter successfully collaborated with the Camp Pendleton game wardens and the Pendleton Sportsman’s Club to produce two videos designed to assist Marines in both wild game butchering and cooking.

In the wake of the historic wildfires, which resulted in the unprecedented closure of all national forests within California, the chapter is working on a proactive approach to addressing access issues for future seasons.

While many of our public land cleanup projects were delayed due to the fires as well as pandemic-related constraints, the chapter continues to work with partner organizations to get these rescheduled.

CAPITAL REGION • • •

Partnered with MD DNR to promote a new hunter mentorship program via virtual Q&A on Zoom and Facebook.

Partnered with VA DWR at C.F. Phelps WMA. Members picked up trash, restored accessible shooting blinds and cleared deadfall and shooting lanes. Members brought smoked goose and moose sloppy joes!

Added two new board members and implemented a field representative program to extend our influence throughout the region.

COLLEGIATE PROGRAM • • • •

The program established pillars that root our present and future work: community, stewardship, inclusivity, adventure, education and advocacy.

Students participated in BHA’s Public Land Pack Out for the second year in a row.

Five clubs received grants to support local stewardship projects across North America.

We have a new Instagram page! Follow us @bha_collegiateprogram.

COLORADO • • •

Colorado recently lost a strong voice for conservation when Kent Ingram passed away on Aug. 28. RIP Kent. Wildlands and wildlife need many more like you.

Central West Slope Assistant Regional Director Leslie Kaminski was recognized as BHA’s Chapter Leader of the Month for August 2020.

We welcomed a new Habitat Watch Volunteer to the team: Michael “Ack” Ackerman has volunteered as a HWV for the San Juan National Forest.

ILLINOIS • •

INDIANA • •

•

•

•

The Georgia chapter has been busy. A number of board members just finished a four-day black bear hunt in the Cohutta Wilderness Area, the largest wilderness in the Southern Appalachians.

We are watching The Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Land Adjustment Act. The act allows the sale or exchange of 30 small tracts of land. We are concerned about one area in particular: Boggs Mountain.

It does not fit the legal definition of what can be sold. Be on the lookout for the “Take Boggs Mountain off the list” campaign!

GA DNR is thinking of changing the turkey regulations for next year’s turkey season. We are in contact with DNR and following closely.

• • •

•

•

The chapter has received three grants, including one that turned a $2.5k donation into $25k for trail work in the Frank Church Wilderness.

The chapter is donating $5k to help remove/replace 13.5 miles of sheep fence with wildlife-friendly fence on public land. Wildlife habitat values in the project area provide calving for elk and moose and fawning to pronghorn and mule deer.

Several chapter members and Forest Service employees constructed 12 illegal road use barriers.

Over Labor Day weekend, several Iowa members and Nebraska BHA cleaned up trash at St. Mary’s Island WMA in southwest Iowa, which is heavily used by residents from both states.

We have created an “R3 Scorecard” campaign, where mentors and mentees can track accomplishments and win prizes by hunting and harvesting our Iowa game species (check our Instagram page for info)!

Several board members were featured in an article in Field & Stream,

by Phil Bourjaily, about a mentored deer hunt that happened last fall.

KANSAS •

•

•

•

The Kansas chapter participated in the Public Land Pack Out, during which nearly 250 bags of trash were taken off of Kansas public lands, raising approximately $3,700 for BHA through both state chapter and corporate sponsors.

The Kansas chapter assisted the KDWPT with the Tuttle Creek Assisted Deer Hunt, held Oct. 10-11. As part of the event, Kansas BHA members conducted a deer processing clinic. Over the course of two days, two deer were processed into roasts, steaks, stew meat and trim and then packaged for freezing. The clinic was sponsored by Walton’s.

In early August the chapter assisted the Army Corps of Engineers with trail projects at Perry Reservoir. Around 25 members participated. Invasive trees were cleared and piled, signage installed and entrance features for the trails were constructed.

We are sponsoring a photo contest in celebration of the 25-year anniversary of the Walk-In Hunting Access Program. Post your photo on social media with a WIHA sign in the background, along with the hashtags #kswiha25 and #kansasbha for a chance at a $200 cash prize. Contest ends Feb. 15, 2021.

KENTUCKY •

IDAHO •

Our chapter made a strong push to get the news out regarding the Great American Outdoors Act, making sure our state leadership also supported it.

We received a grant earlier in the year to continue to make improvements at J.E. Roush Lake State Game Area. In September, a few members spent a few hours on a weekend and made improvements to a fishing pier to make it more accessible to the public.

Thank you, Rob Seilheimer, for your support and strong leadership within the chapter. Without your ongoing determination to see the chapter succeed, we would not be where we are today. Best of luck on your next adventure.

IOWA

GEORGIA •

The IL chapter bolstered its board with six new board members recently.

The new board members are located across the state, which will help in previously underrepresented areas.

Congratulations to Jamie Moore, of Chicago, for winning the IL chapter’s sweepstakes valued at over $1,400! Thanks to BHA Headquarters and the sponsors that made it possible!

•

•

Kentucky sportsmen and women have been caught in the middle of a dispute between our state’s Fish and Wildlife Department, Fish and Wildlife Commission, attorney general and governor over a separation of powers issue. Kentucky BHA has been using our contacts to keep our chapter members educated, focused on conservation and access, and to determine the appropriate stance. We have learned that when political or power struggles ensue, the work of protecting our natural resources suffers.

On October 14, 17 members of KYBHA supported Department of Fish and Wildflife Resources/KDFWR biologists and Justin Heflin with our latest annual event: trout stocking. It took us 6.74 miles and a little over four hours to carry 300 brook trout into Dog Creek at the Red River Gorge and hike back out.

A shorter, although still challenging, trout stocking hike took place on WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 23

Oct. 20, also coordinated with Justin Heflin of your fisheries division.

We’d like to thank Mr. Heflin for his work, positive attitude and collaboration on these events.

MICHIGAN • • •

Austin Motte, hitting the ground running as a new board member, led a great cleanup at Atlanta State Recreation Area.

Sarah Topp and Heather Shaw (both board members; welcome to the board, Heather!) will be leading a Women in the Woods event, which will be our second. The first was an incredible success!

Zach Snyder and Dustin Nichols (board members) are running a Sustainability Hunt this deer season – very exciting and pertinent!

MINNESOTA •

• •

In September, we hosted a cleanup of the Pillsbury State Forest Pillager Gravel Pit shooting range and helped anyone who needed to sight in their hunting rifle. This cleanup resulted in cleaning up six bags of trash from the range. We will be working on plans to put in two new 100-yard shooting lanes, safety berms and building new shooting benches this winter.

In addition to BHA’s Vote Public Lands and Waters initiative, we collaborated with Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters and BHA Headquarters to promote the Vote the Boundary Waters campaign.

In October, Minnesota chapter member Neal Jacobson represented BHA at the first annual Nitti’s Hunters Point Resort Outdoor Sportsmen’s Show.

•

NEW JERSEY • •

•

•

Chapter representatives spoke before the State Conservation Commission in support of the proposed introduction of a managed black bear hunt.

This is a huge win in the successful reintroduction of black bears to Missouri.

We are working with the River Access Coalition to get the Lindenlure public access point of the Finley River in Christian County reopened after it was illegally closed by a local landowner. Please follow our social media to get involved.

• • •

• •

Led statewide efforts to remove trash and fencing from state, federal and private lands.

Opposed land swaps in the Crazy and Madison mountains that would rob hunters of access to prime hunting lands and compromise efforts to restore access to trails historically maintained at public expense.

Supported efforts by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to purchase nearly 6,000 acres of high-quality elk habitat in the Snowy Mountains using revenues generated through hunting license sales.

NEVADA •

• • •

The proposed Wild-Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act resolution was unanimously adopted by the legislature’s natural resources committee to be put forward for the 2021 legislative session. We are continuing to work with BHA Headquarters on a draft policy statement proposal.

We are currently drafting a proposed bill for a game salvage program in Nevada to be presented in the 2021 legislative session.

The policy committee has submitted comments on four mining expansion and exploration proposal EISs in important wildlife habitat in the Long Canyon, Thacker Pass, Gibilini and Jerrett Canyon areas.

We gave testimony to the Nevada Wildlife Commission on a proposal to ban thermal optics for hunting and scouting, which passed and is now a regulation approved by the commission.

NEW ENGLAND •

•

Members from the region came to Vermont for the second annual Hunter’s Biathlon. The Castleton Collegiate Club participated in the Public Land Pack Out (that included a refrigerator!) and finished a bridge-redecking access project on the Conte NWR. Maine members also hauled out their share of trash for the Public Land Pack Out, shot at a couple sporting-clays events and placed signs designat-

24 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

The New Mexico chapter had a busy fall, with board members taking the lead on projects including: Cleanups along the Rio Grande and Pecos River that yielded 80 bags of trash, led by Adam Barkalow and Mike Farrington.

Publishing our public lands questionnaires in several key congressional races, spearheaded by Beau Murphy.

Working with other conservation groups to support a major overhaul of the state’s Habitat Stamp program and to encourage the State Game Commission to go even further and bring the cost of a habitat stamp in line with inflation.

NEW YORK • •

MONTANA •

The NJ chapter has been working hard over the past month to increase membership. We were happy to co-host a virtual pint night with the Pennsylvania chapter in August and participate in the Filson Skills Night.

We are working hard to provide an evidence-based argument against the NJ Gov. Murphy’s crusade to abolish the New Jersey black bear hunt.

Along with Chapter Coordinator Chris Hennessey, we have created a position statement that can found on our chapter webpage under advocacy.

Two virtual pint nights took place in October and November, with guest speakers covering “Intro to Outdoor Photography and “Crafting Your Own Traditional Bow and Arrow Gear.”

NEW MEXICO

MISSOURI •

ing Heritage Brook Trout waters.

The chapter hosted multiple virtual “Hunting Camp” events with topics like helping novice hunters, tracking deer and cooking wild game. Join us for the next one!

We engaged new hunters with a virtual Learn to Hunt series presented in four parts via Zoom and Facebook. To view all four sessions of the series, visit the BHA Youtube channel. Look for more VLTH topics coming soon.

We have begun planning for the 2021 Muster in the Mountains event!

MITM will be held at Westkill Brewing in the heart of the Catskill Mountains and will include guest speakers, activities for hunters, anglers, kids and much more!

NORTH CAROLINA •

• •

1.64 million out of 2.09 million acres of public lands, including all national forests, will be open for hunting on Sundays in NC! Chapter leadership and state membership were at every table during the process and steadfast in our support of equitable access and opportunity. HUGE win!

Our first candidate questionnaires were published for the November elections.

Fort Bragg was the first AFI club in the nation, and Camp Lejeune AFI was close to follow. Special thanks to those that have taken on leadership roles at these storied installations.

NORTH DAKOTA • • • •

NDBHA has submitted multiple comments to land management agencies regarding management plans, objections and rule changes: Scoping comment for the upcoming BLM Resource Management Plan Comment and Action Alert for a proposed rule change allowing for easier sale of State Trust Land.

Objection letter to the preferred plan alternative for the Dakota Prairie Grasslands Oil and Gas FSEIS and DROD. Letter of opposition for a BUILD Grant for a bridge over the Little Missouri State Scenic River.

OHIO • • •

We completed multiple socially distanced service projects in the Wayne National Forest.

Had a successful Public Lands Pack Out, with many members packing it out!

Started a practical series on lead in the gun case and tackle box.

CHAPTER NEWS OKLAHOMA •

• •

The Oklahoma chapter participated in the Public Lands Pack Out by hosting pack outs at Blue River Public Fishing and Hunting Area, Beaver River WMA, Lexington WMA, Heyburn WMA and Cross Timbers WMA. We packed a total of 36 bags to include spent shotgun shells, monofilament fishing line, a busted toilet and plenty of empty beer cans.

We also hosted a group dove hunt at Beaver River WMA and filled many limits over opening weekend.

The Oklahoma chapter will also be hosting multiple group deer hunts throughout the season. Reach us on Facebook for more info.

PENNSYLVANIA •

• •

The Take Two program has entered its second season. The program calls on PA members to take two new or novice hunters hunting or on hunting-related activities (scouting, shooting, etc.). Pennsylvania member Adam Eckley has been spearheading the program and matching mentors with mentees.

The chapter hosted four public lands cleanup efforts across the state to commemorate Public Lands Month.

The chapter hosted two online events with Pennsylvania Game Commission staff: Pennsylvania’s Elk with Biologist Jeremy Banfield and CWD Q&A with the Game Commission. PA BHA also took part in a combination virtual pint night with the New Jersey chapter and Average Jack Archery.

• •

WASHINGTON • • • • •

•

South Carolina is now an official chapter!

We hosted a virtual fly-tying class led by Todd Waldron, who generously introduced many of our members to the wonderful world of tying your own flies.

We hosted a virtual pint night with special guest speakers Mark Garner from the USFS and Jay Cantrell from the SCDNR to discuss regulations for 2020, as well as how we can impact regulations and policies as a chapter within our state.

SOUTHEAST • • •

We would like to congratulate Florida on meeting the requirements to become their own chapter. Thanks for you for your contributions to the Southeast chapter over the years.

The Southeast chapter helped sponsor the Southern Outdoors Unlimited Super Hunt for disabled youth in Mississippi Be on the lookout for a member survey in your inbox.

TENNESSEE • •

For Public Lands Month, the Tennessee chapter hosted cleanups across the state, leaving a few WMAs and state forests a little cleaner than we found them.

We are in the second year of our “BHA vs. CWD” contest, which aims to encourage TN hunters to harvest deer in the CWD zone and to have their harvests tested all throughout the state.

TEXAS •

• •

We celebrated a huge legal win for the public trust doctrine after the Texas Supreme Court denied review of an appeal in Bailey & Peterson v. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, affirming that whitetail deer, including those held by deer breeders, are owned by the public.

We onboarded nine brand new members to the executive board of the Texas chapter of BHA and three regional coordinators to help manage events across the state.

Our members across the state participated in several cleanups at popular hunting units for Public Lands Month.

UTAH •

In the face of COVID-19, Utah BHA has managed to keep members engaged by hosting “Women in the Woods – Big Game Hunt Prep” and “Waterfowl 101” virtual events.

The Washington chapter drafted a letter to WDFW regarding a new commercial business located onsite at a public access point. This commercial business has limited public access by commandeering the area.

We hosted the highest turnout for the Filson and BHA sponsored Public Lands Skills Night “Western Mushroom Identification and Foraging Techniques.”

We added seven new positions to our board allowing us to expand outreach, bring new skills to our team and become more effective overall.

The chapter is proud to have helped sponsor the first phase of the Safe Passage 97 project, a necessary undercrossing for wildlife.

A drive-in hunting film festival was hosted by the chapter in Colville, utilizing strict Covid-19 safety protocol. It was a great success and wonderful to be with fellow members again.

WEST VIRGINIA •

SOUTH CAROLINA • •

Three BHA members received volunteer awards from a local conservation non-profit, the Wild Utah Project.

Utah BHA helped fund an electronic billboard in Utah aimed at calling Sen. Mike Lee out for his vote against the GAOA.

West Virginia BHA is working tirelessly to preserve hunting access within the Lower New River Gorge. As the bill currently stands, 4,385 acres of the most rugged public hunting land east of the Mississippi would be lost forever. The New River Gorge provides unique multi-day hunts, as well as one of the few waterfowl hunting destinations in the region. Please contact your elected officials and help us oppose S. 2555 and H.R. 4610 to preserve public hunting for all Americans.

WISCONSIN •

•

•

The Wisconsin chapter continues to lead the way for BHA on CWD by dedicating $5,000 for CWD Dumpsters. These dumpsters offer hunters a convenient way to dispose of carcasses, keeping CWD prions off the landscape and keeping carcasses out of public land parking lots.

WI BHA remains dedicated to a 10-year reauthorization of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund in next year’s budget. For updates on how to get more involved and how this fund affects you, visit knowlesnelson.org.

WI BHA has been participating in the DNR’s Deer Stakeholder Committee, working with other stakeholder groups to identify areas for improvement within the season structure for Wisconsin’s deer herd. The committee will wrap up work in early 2021, and all outcomes are advisory in nature.

WYOMING • • •

• •

In the last few months WY BHA has organized a trail project clearing four miles of blowdown.

We’ve organized three fence removal projects to benefit wildlife habitat connectivity.

We’ve organized two CWD events in partnership with WGFD and Weatherby to demonstrate field sample collection techniques and to educate hunters on the best available science and importance of data collection from hunters.

We’ve hosted a wildlife butchering workshop to introduce new hunters to proper care, cuts and storage of game meat.

And we’ve donated $1,500 to Access Yes, a program that provides over 2.8 million acres of access to WY hunters and anglers.

YUKON • • • •

Yukon BHA is planning for its AGM in early winter where: A new chair and executive will be elected.

Membership will be informed of the direction of YBHA over the next year (reflecting results from a membership interest survey).

And a post-meeting session/Q&A on tricks and tactics for sheep hunting will round out the evening.

Monthly “garage-sessions” will be offered throughout the winter to share knowledge and experiences among members.

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)

CHAPTER NEWS

PUBLIC LAND PACK OUT SHATTERS GOALS!

4,175 BAGS OF TRASH REMOVED FROM OUR PUBLIC LANDS!

YOU! CRUSHED THE GOAL OF 1,000 BAGS!

$5,000 DONATED TO BHA FROM FIRST LITE!

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED!!!

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 27

NEW

C AN A DA SKI NN Y DEC OYS WWW.TA N G L EF R EE .COM PHOTO: J OE L J O NES ( @joe l_bo_ jone s)

28 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

CHAPTER NEWS

In Depth:

Arkansas Chapter Fights Shady Land Deal

BY JAMES BRANDENBURG AND MORGAN HARRIS The Arkansas chapter’s fight to preserve public hunting and fishing access to the University of Arkansas Pine Tree Research Station Wildlife Demonstration Area began as the result of a failed permit draw. It has evolved into a history lesson, a possible FBI investigation and a demonstration about the difference that one concerned public land owner can make with the power of BHA behind them.

Pine Tree, as it is locally known, became public land through programs created by Title III of the Bankhead Jones Farm Act of 1937. This act was the culmination of decades of work in the early 20th century to reverse the trend of farming marginal land.

Over 11.5 million acres were ultimately purchased by the federal government through these programs. Some of these properties ended up as part of our system of national grasslands, while many other locations have been used for public recreation, research or conservation.

In 1960, after about two decades of rehabilitation work by various federal agencies and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the 11,850 acres that now make up the Pine Tree Research Station were sold by the U.S. Forest Service to the University of Arkansas. The deed recording the sale includes a “reversion clause,” which states that if the land ceases to be used for public purposes, it shall immediately revest and revert to the Forest Service. Only an act of Congress can clear this clause from the deed.

Over the years the university has conducted a variety of research work at Pine Tree, including pasture research, livestock production, forestry and row crop production. The forested portions of the property have been open to the public for hunting and fishing since at least 1999 when an agreement was formalized between the university and AGFC. Local resident Michael Burns has been successful in many

Photo by Michael Burns

permit draws for deer hunts at Pine Tree over the past 20 years.

When he did not draw a tag for any of the 2020 hunts, he contacted AGFC’s Wildlife Management Division to learn more about how the draw process worked. Somewhat flustered by the questioning, the voice on the other end of the line inadvertently shared with Michael that the University had told AGFC the land was being sold, and the number of permits had to be reduced from 300 to 75.

Dumbfounded and disappointed, Michael began making phone calls and social media posts. He also shared the information with his local elected officials and with a local news station. One of Michael’s early social media posts reached Arkansas BHA Chapter Conservation Chair Mark Izard, who put Michael in touch with Chapter Chair James Brandenburg. By late July the chapter had a petition up and began putting out regular updates.

The collective efforts of Michael and several other local residents revealed that the university had quietly executed a contract to sell 6,300 acres at Pine Tree – including the best portions for hunting and fishing – to a private entity for a sum of $17 million.

Eventually, questions about the integrity of the sale process itself were raised, and local media reported a possible FBI investigation into the sale. The university has acknowledged that congressional approval is required in order to close the sale, and so far the public outcry has been loud enough to delay the closing indefinitely.

“Michael is not the only person who kicked up a fuss,” Brandenburg said. “Among the many people who have reached out to us, we’ve heard from a wife and mother whose family members view Pine Tree as their sole place to hunt and fish, a father whose children had their first hunting success at Pine Tree, as well as a woman who took up hunting in middle age and killed her first deer, hunting solo, at Pine Tree.”

Getting input from local residents has been key to developing a cohesive strategy, according to Brandenburg. Even though Pine Tree WDA is not as well-known as other hunting destinations in Arkansas, it soon became apparent that for many of the residents of Northeast Arkansas, no place is more important than Pine Tree.

Understanding this, even though most of the Arkansas chapter’s board had never been to Pine Tree, helped chapter leaders create the narrative that would result in over 1,600 petition signatures to date, with a vast majority of those being first time contacts for BHA. The quick success of this petition drive has given the Arkansas

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 29

Photo by Michael Burns

chapter a voice with federal and state legislators. Several of these elected officials have publicly stated their opposition to the sale of Pine Tree to a private entity and called for an alternative that would keep the area open to the public.

As the cost of hunting leases in Eastern Arkansas steadily climbs into the tens of thousands of dollars per year, access to public land becomes even more important. Public areas like Pine Tree offer an affordable alternative that is also easily accessible: places that a mother would feel comfortable allowing her teenage children to visit for an afternoon of small game hunting, for example. One key to reversing the trend of declining hunter numbers is preserving access to hunting land, and Pine Tree is a great example of these places that need to be protected.

To learn more about the Arkansas chapter’s fight to Save Pine Tree Research Station WDA, please visit our issues page at backcountryhunters.org/tags/ar_issues. There you’ll be able to read more about the history of Pine Tree, and by signing our petition you can help us demonstrate BHA’s commitment to keeping public land in public hands.

Arkansas Chapter Chair James Brandenburg lives in Northwest Arkansas where he grew up golfing instead of hunting and fishing.

Nowadays he is a generalist hunter and angler and a specialist husband and father.

Arkansas Chapter Treasurer Morgan Harris was born and raised in Northwest Arkansas and was exposed early to hunting in the Ozark Highlands. Today, he prefers to spend his time in hardwood forests between the Ozarks and the flooded bottomlands of East Arkansas.

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HUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY

COCHETOPA COTTONTAILS

BY GABRIELA ZALDUMBIDE One of the reasons why I became a hunter was so I could source my own food. In the last two and a half years, I’ve had the pleasure of hosting many wild game dinners, adoring the opportunities to share my elk, venison or small game with friends.

Unsurprisingly, after attending some of these “family dinners,” my friend Anna became interested in harvesting an animal herself.

She had harvested a whitetail doe with her dad before in Alabama, but that was long ago. She was interested in the mentorship I had to offer. It being January, we decided a small game hunt was best, and I knew exactly where we were going.

Anna had to work at the Vail resort in Crested Butte the morning of our hunt, so we left Gunnison and headed south as soon as she got home in the early afternoon. We hadn’t yet made it out of Cochetopa Canyon when we spotted a large bighorn ram in the middle of the road. His nearly full-curl horns shimmered gold in the sunlight bouncing off the snow. We slowed down and pulled over; 12 mature rams were feeding, pawing the grass free from under the snow just off the road. A handful of them decided it was time to snack on some sagebrush, and they climbed a vertical rock wall with ease. We couldn’t believe our luck! No traffic, a bluebird afternoon and all the time in the world meant we felt like we could watch this bachelor herd forever. They didn’t blink twice at us photographing and gaping at them from the windows of my RAV4. Eventually, the fact that the sun was now descending dawned on us, and we decided to keep on moving towards my cottontail spot.

You can see the rabbit highways through the snow from the road. We parked in my favorite pull-off, right in front of a fence crossing, and post-holed into the willows. Fresh tracks, nibbled plants and tons of scat reassured me that, yes, the rabbits were still here. It was only a few minutes before we saw our first one. Not ready to shoot quite yet, Anna told me that I should get it. I put the rabbit in the scope of my .22 and pulled the trigger.

“Anna, you should go see if she’s dead,” I said, knowing the rabbit was, in fact, very dead.

She slowly walked up to the rabbit, its fur blowing softly in the breeze. She cupped its body in her hands. “I can’t believe how soft she is.”

“Do you feel ready to shoot the next one?” I asked.

32 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

“I think so.”

It didn’t take long to see the next one, either. Hidden in the lowest branches of a willow was a small, young cottontail. We moved a little closer, looking for a better shot, and the rabbit spooked. The willow it was under was so large, it simply ran to the other side. We couldn’t see it anymore.

“Anna, you stay down there! I’m going to climb up this hill and spook him back towards you,” I said.

It worked. I waded up the small hillside, gaining access to the other side of the tree, and found the little rabbit again. I jumped towards him, running him back down the hill.

“I see him!” Anna shouted.

“Shoot him!” I shouted right back.

She raised my rifle and got him in the scope. There was a loud bang, and right after, “I got him!”

I tromped back down the hill, my boots filling with snow. I turned around to a beaming Anna; she had a stick in her hair, my rifle in her right hand and her first cottontail in the other.

Agreeing that it was getting cold and dark, we headed back to my car, cottontails in hand. We had a quiet car ride home as we watched the sun set behind the mountains, the sky turn a velvety lavender and a big muley buck feed with a doe outside of town.

We made quick work skinning and cleaning the rabbits on my dining room table. We kept both of our hides, and now we have matching brain-tanned parka ruffs. We felt pretty cool walking into our graduate school classes together donning our new and improved jackets.

For the next family dinner, we had rabbit with mustard sauce.

Anna cooked up her first cottontail herself; frying it until it browned, cooking down the sauce and dishing everyone up. I know that for her, feelings from our afternoon together resurfaced during dinner. I don’t think she stopped smiling once. She’s less inclined to go to the grocery store for meat again, too. Why would you when you can get fresh rabbit down the canyon?

Gabriela Zaldumbide is a BHA chapter leader in Fort Collins, Colorado. She is the community manager for the hunting apparel company Hunt to Eat, enjoys jigging for big lakers under the ice and lives to chase squirrels and rabbits with her .22.

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COLLEGE CLUBS

Public Land Owner Stewardship Fund Fuels Boots-on-the-Ground Projects

BY KYLIE SCHUMACHER A feeling of satisfaction comes from giving your barrel a good clean, reorganizing your fly box or waxing your bow strings or boots. We are taught from a young age to care for the things we own. In the world of conservation, we call this stewardship, and it’s a founding pillar of BHA’s Collegiate Program. But stewardship isn’t just a theory for our collegiate program; our students have completed over 50 work service projects since the program started in 2015.

BHA is proud of the boots on the ground, grassroots efforts of our organization, and perhaps nothing embodies these efforts better than the stewardship efforts of our college clubs. As collective owners of well over 2 billion of acres of public land throughout North America, it’s important that we take care of the land in the same way we care for our rifles, shotguns and fly rods. Instead of a barrel clean, it’s a trash pickup; instead of an organized fly box it’s an organized effort; and instead of waxing on, it’s speaking up.

Each year, college clubs complete two work service projects in their local communities. These projects build tangible field skills, leadership, relationships and most importantly an army of active and engaged young leaders.

We partner with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and multiple state and local agencies to remove fencing, restore habitat, improve wildlife corridors and remove trash. Students have planted willows and sagebrush seedlings, documented and removed invasive species and have packed out nearly 500 bags of trash.

And students now have a new opportunity to get their hands dirty and boots wet. Thanks to generous support from the S. Kent Rockwell Foundation, we are introducing the Public Land Owner Stewardship Fund, which makes available five $500 grants to student clubs to be used exclusively for one or more stewardship projects on their home turf. The grants will be offered every school year for the next five years. This fall we awarded these grants to five clubs across the U.S. and Canada (University of Wisconsin-Steven’s Point, University of British Columbia, Utah State University, Castleton University, and Holland).

They will be adopting wildlife areas, improving wildlife habitat and maintaining our public lands for the enjoyment of future generations.

Castleton University in Vermont founded its BHA chapter in the spring of 2020 – right in the midst of the current pandemic.

Even so, they brushed aside the challenges and are pitching right in on multiple restoration projects in the Otter Creek Wildlife

Management Area. Club vice-president Spencer Como spoke to why they chose Otter Creek: “It was in a fly fishing class, fishing tributaries of the Otter Creek, when the seeds for Castleton University BHA were first planted. Fishing and hunting are important traditions in Vermont, and having healthy habitat that is accessible to the public is key in keeping those traditions alive. Otter Creek WMA is a prime example of that; in the few hours I was there looking at the barbed wire (which will be removed as a part of their grant project) I came across fresh black bear activity, flushed a few grouse and watched a monster-sized trout surface. This restoration project will ensure that Otter Creek WMA value will increase and that residents and visitors will always have a place to pass the age-old traditions of hunting and fishing to the next generation.”

The University of British Columbia earned their award for their proposed work with the Secwepemcul’ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society. They will be restoring riparian habitat and setting up remote cameras for multi-species monitoring in an area frequently used to fish, hunt and recreate. Club secretary Jeffrey Nishima-Miller recounts his personal connection to the area: “As a forest firefighter working for the British Columbia Wildfire Service, I witnessed firsthand the landscape impacts of the 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire. The raw power and devastation of this fire exceeded those of natural processes and was largely the result of the cumulative effects of human impacts on the landscape – including a history of fire suppression and timber extraction/ replanting. I look forward to another chance to get boots on the ground in 2021 to help restore this landscape in collaboration with the Secwépemc First Nation communities.”

I am comforted knowing our wild places are in the hands of the next generation when I watch these young leaders work. These students are caring for wild places and learning every day they can make a difference on the ground. They are knowledgeable, passionate and always on their game, and we don’t accomplish our public lands mission without them.

If you are a student, why not get involved? And if you want to support the Collegiate Program, just do it! Email BHACollegiateProgram@backcountryhunters.org, or visit backcountryhunters.org/collegiate_program and follow the club action on social media @BHA_CollegiateProgram.

Kylie Schumacher was a member of the BHA Colorado State University college club and spent five years working in the wildlife field and one year serving on Colorado BHA’s chapter leadership team before joining BHA full-time as the collegiate club coordinator. She is a new hunter, budding angler, traveler and epicure.

Above: Students from Boise State University clean up trash at Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area during Public Lands Month.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 35

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FIELD TO TABLE

VENISON BONE STOCK Field to Table is presented in partnership with

BY JENNY NGUYEN-WHEATLEY Knowing how to make bone stock is a skill every hunter should keep in their arsenal. The bones of wild animals are just as flavorful, if not more so, as their domestic counterparts. If a recipe calls for stock, that’s another opportunity to include more wild game flavor into your dishes. Making stock does take time, however. The good news is that it requires little active cooking; let the bones go for as long as you’d like.

Although my husband and I don’t mind the smell, the aroma of stewing bones can get wearisome, especially if you’re letting the stock go for hours on end. If you have the option, prepare bone stock in your garage to keep the smell from permeating the entire house, which could linger for days. Your family might appreciate that.

BHA member Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley is a hunter, writer and editor in Omaha, Nebraska. In addition to her role as full-time associate editor at Nebraskaland Magazine, she runs the wild game cooking blog Food for Hunters and is a regular contributor to BHA’s Field to Table blog.

Editor’s Note: The author will share her recipe for venison French onion soup in the next issue of Backcountry Journal, and venison stock is one of its main components. Keep this recipe handy.

38 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

INGREDIENTS • • • • • •

3 to 5 pounds of venison bones (neck, leg and/or shoulder bones) Tomato paste, about 3 tbsp 1 yellow onion, peeled and halved 1 head of garlic, top sliced off 4 to 5 quarts of water 2 tsp of whole peppercorns

Prep/Cooking Time: 4-9 hours

Directions 1. Place bones in a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot and cover 4. with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. This process will help boil out impurities and make your stock taste cleaner. The scum that floats to the top is what you don’t want in your stock.

2.

Drain the bones and discard the cooking liquid. Scrub off any scum you see left on the bones. Preheat oven to 450°F.

3. Place bones in a roasting pan and “paint” them with a

thin layer of tomato paste. The tomato paste will add another dimension to your stock, both in taste and color. Roast in a 450° oven for 40 minutes, flipping halfway through. Bones should be deeply brown, even charred in some places. Add the onion halves to the pan about halfway to three-quarters of the way through to brown.

Place bones back into the cleaned stockpot and cover with water, about 4-5 quarts.

5.

Bring stock to a simmer, add browned onion, garlic and peppercorns. Simmer for at least 4 hours; I like 8 hours for better flavor. If you care about clarity, never allow the stock to boil.

6.

Evaporation is desirable to concentrate the stock, but the tradeoff is that you end up with less stock. I shoot for at least 2 quarts of stock to use in recipes. Strain stock and discard solids.

Allow to cool at room temperature before refrigerating. Discard solid fat before use. If you plan to use the stock right away, skim off fat from the top.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 39

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TRAINING 201

Editor’s Note: Bird Dog Training 101 appeared in the preceding fall 2020 issue of Backcountry Journal. Digital copies of back issues are available at backcountryhunters.org.

lower it a time or two and then toss the pole off into a different area of cover. You have now just put a job in that pup’s head, and they should want more. A puppy should possess an immense desire to please, and you’re the reason why. Let’s sit on that for a

BY DURRELL SMITH bit. …

You’ve taken that young pup from its mother at some time A few months down the line, after you’ve taken your pup on around seven or eight weeks old and placed it in a totally new walks with the pigeon pole, you can graduate to placing your bird environment with the expectation that it will grow to fulfill your rig in thicker cover. By now, the pup has some wit about him and desire and assist you in the pursuit and/or the taking of winged is enjoying running and hearing the sound of the wind between game. That pup is now growing with you as you feed it, give it his ears. The little dog also should not mind still dragging the water and create a safe and stimulating environment for it to check cord around. develop its ability. That pup, seeing the good in you, is born Lay that pigeon pole down in good cover while the pup is forever grateful to you, and for that the dog will hunt. Due to frolicking and walk away a tad. ... Just remember where you left your actions and care, the pup’s desire to please you will only that bird. When you get a chance, excitedly call your pup by name continue to grow stronger. The pup is trusting you to guide it as your recall command to bring him back to you. with structure, opportunity, confidence and love.

Let’s all get excited because we are You can maintain control of the about to do something new! When check cord as the puppy will likely I SURMISE THAT BIRD DOGS HAVE pup comes barreling in towards you, break point, and that’s just fine. All get a hold of the check cord and guide BEEN PLACED HERE TO CHALLENGE we want is to set the foundation OUR WILLINGNESS TO ATTAIN him back to the area of the tethered and give them the idea. Sessions of pigeon and let’s see if he points then. PERFECTION THROUGH SIMPLICITY. three attempts are good enough. And He’s been having a blast out in nature WE NEED NOT ADD ANY MORE TO after three attempts at pointing, you and you’re 10 feet tall in his eyes. can smoothly rub your dog’s back a THE SOLUTION THAT’S ALREADY That pup has nothing but love and few times to encourage the pointing adoration for you, and you just led BEEN GIVEN. JUST SEEK TO MOLD behavior. Once you have gotten that IT TO ACCOMMODATE YOUR LIFE far, it’s time to pack up and go home. him into a new experience: the high of suddenly being on point.

It is from here forward that you IN THE UPLANDS. Still though, remember that duct can take that pigeon off the tether tape for your mouth. Slowly, while and pole and gently set the bird in still holding the check cord, work your way around the pup and cover. Find yourself some old wire hangers and make a wire tipgrab that pole and raise the pigeon, allowing it to flap its wings up trap to keep your bird in place. With control of your check and imitate the flush of your desired game bird. You can raise and cord at all times, you can lead your pup into more scenarios and 42 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

All photos by Durrell Smith

BIRD DOG

INSTRUCTIONAL

let him point and chase. The pigeons should do a great deal of bringing out the pup’s natural pointing instincts. From there, you can also move on to planted game birds, preferably quail for their diminutive size. Letting the pup run the field and point, knock and chase them is all we need out of the pup in its first year. And all this time, that pup was molded and shaped with just a few household materials and a year of your patience.

Much of the first couple of years spent working with my own dogs was a rollercoaster of meaningless supply purchases, when really it boiled down to time spent learning the dog and birds.

Limiting options forces creativity. And living and practicing simplicity can lead to a more satisfying way of handling a bird dog and living responsibly. In a time when marketing dictates that our hunting success is predicated on the latest and greatest tools and

techniques, it is imperative to remember that we human beings have been successfully domesticating, training and breeding hunting dogs, particularly bird dogs, with little to nothing over many centuries.

With the push for more continued and sustained public access, you don’t need to lease large tracts of private lands to expose your young puppy to birds. The great part is you already own these places. Public lands mean public access to wild birds when you can find the time to get away from your day-to-day grind.

Training a bird dog takes time, patience and dedication to the calling, and your money is better spent in gas driving to and from public spaces. Keeping the focus on the process and development of your pup will place you on a deeper plane of introspection. We can all strive to be truly perfect beings, although we have been placed in a perfect world shrouded in man’s age-old imperfections.

And somehow, I surmise that bird dogs have been placed here to challenge our willingness to attain perfection through simplicity.

We need not add any more to the solution that’s already been given. Just seek to mold it to accommodate your life in the uplands.

BHA member Durrell Smith is a 30-year-old Atlanta, Georgia, native, author, visual artist, art teacher, bird dog handler/trainer, and most notably the host and founder of The Gun Dog Notebook Podcast and Field Trial Editor for Project Upland magazine. Follow him on social media at @thegundognotebook and @minorityoutdooralliance.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 43

PUBLIC LAND OWNER

RESORT TOWN BLUES

BY CHRISTINE PETERSON Bill Andree always had a chance at an elk. It might come suddenly in thick spruce or a steep aspen grove, but it was a chance, and he killed his share. That was in the early 80s, when the elk herd roamed the hills and valleys around Vail, Colorado, in groups of a couple hundred.

By the early 2010s, he stopped hunting the area altogether. The longtime Eagle Valley biologist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife who retired in 2018 rarely saw any elk, and he didn’t feel it was responsible to hunt there when numbers were so low.

Other Vail hunters have similar anecdotes about how trails, houses, buildings and recreation increased at the same time as the herd kept shrinking.

And numbers back up those anecdotes.

CPW biologists who regularly counted more than 1,000 head 44 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

of elk from the air now see only a few dozen. A unit that offered 490 cow licenses in 2010 went to only 30 in 2018 and almost none in 2019. Archery tags that were once over-the-counter were also eliminated.

“It’s not like these elk walked up and over another hill to another unit,” says Andree. “They just don’t exist anymore. They’re dead.”

Why? Increased recreation, Andree says. Increased mountain biking and hiking and dog walking in the spring, summer and fall and increased skiing and fat biking and snowshoeing in the winter.

Coupled with diminishing habitat, this could mean the end to the herd.

Elk hunter Frank Donofrio fears he’s watching the same series of events 40 miles southwest in the Roaring Fork Valley near Aspen. He moved to the area in the 60s largely because of the expansive wildlife herds and untouched country.

Like Andree, he’s watched the mountains he loves change. He watched millionaires move in, then billionaires replacing the millionaires as ski resorts expanded their terrain, retail and real estate empire. He witnessed elk habitat fade, eaten chunk by chunk as development and recreation expanded outward into every season of the year.

“It’s extremely difficult when you hear the old saying ‘money talks.’ I don’t know how you can reason with someone who is focused solely on growing, whether material growth or financial growth,” he says. “If nothing changes, there will be less hunting, and the game that’s left will perish because of the lack of habitat.”

Elk reproductive rates out of some herds in the Aspen area support Donofrio’s concern. A 2013 report from Colorado Parks and Wildlife spells it out: “Outdoor recreation and other human disturbance, habitat loss and fragmentation due to land development and continued lack

Vail, Colorado. istock.com/ Kruck20

of large-scale habitat improvement projects have been the major issues for this elk herd.”

But like most wildlife issues, the impact of resorts and recreation on elk herds is not universal. Some herds seem to be able to handle human presence better than others. And while Colorado elk numbers remain strong overall, sportsmen and women, biologists and researchers are increasingly worried about the impact of recreation and associated development.

So are mountain resorts themselves inherently bad for elk? Is recreation itself? Not necessarily, say most Western biologists and wildlife managers. But year-round unrestricted growth – whether it’s condos and new roads or trails and ski lifts – will eventually take their toll on the West’s herds. There’s not a lot of value in vilifying resorts and recreation. A better objective is finding some kind of compromise through research, conversations and cooperation before it’s too late.

GONE AND BACK AND GONE AGAIN Before trams and quad lifts freighted millions of skiers and mountain bikers up the slopes in winter and summer, the West’s mountains were largely quiet places.

Jackson Hole, a valley nestled between the Teton and Gros Ventre ranges, was home to a sleepy ranching town wholly undiscovered by a still-to-be-developed recreation industry.

But by the turn of the 20th century, elk faced a dire future.

The town of Jackson and the ranches that surround it had absorbed a swath of crucial winter range for thousands of migrating elk.

“Livestock competed with elk for natural grasses, and elk often raided ranchers’ haystacks, eating hay reserved for livestock,” according to a report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

A lack of habitat combined with a few bad winters in the early 1900s left elk starving and dying in droves. That grim scene spurred Wyoming and national lawmakers to action. They soon set aside a chunk of land for elk and other wildlife, creating the National Elk Refuge.

Now expanded to 25,000 acres, the refuge feeds more than 2,000 tons of alfalfa pellets to up to 11,000 elk each winter.

The controversial feedground – along with another 22 state-run feedgrounds – were Wyoming’s answer to a loss of habitat from development.

Wyoming’s neighbor to the south has a slightly different story to tell.

Elk in the Front Range of Colorado were nearly extirpated by the late 1800s, says Bill Andree.

“From 1870 to 1893 the major occupations in the Eagle Valley were mining, railroad and market hunting,” he says.

But by the early 1900s, officials at the Colorado Department of Fish and Game (precursor to CPW) realized the error. Between 1912 and 1928 they released elk imported from northwest Wyoming to places across the Colorado Rockies. Those elk succeeded, thriving on the food and cover that had been relatively untouched for years.

National Elk Refuge near Jackson Hole.

46 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021 istock.com/ SBTheGreenMan

As elk re-established themselves, humans also began to settle in the area, discovering the potential value in deep snow and high mountains for a growing ski industry.

But in the 60s, no one could have predicted the size and associated development of some of the largest resorts like Aspen and Vail, Andree says.

Original plans showed small resorts catering to winter recreation. Yet as the West developed, and skiing, snowboarding and all associated winter recreation increased in popularity, resorts and their towns expanded.

While 55,000 people live year-round in Eagle County (home to Vail Mountain), the company’s website reports that well over a million people visit the resort each year, with that visitation largely split between winter and summer. Now condominiums and other resort-style accommodations have continued to spring up down the valley from Vail to Beaver Creek and clear to the town of Eagle along the I-70 corridor.

“As everybody knows and talks about, we fragmented the hell out of the habitat. We ran I-70 through the middle of it, and we’ve developed roads and houses in every place that is available,” Andree says.

“The thing we’ve always pushed is the cumulative impact. If you look at the impact of one home or two homes, it’s not a big deal. But when you get to 200 or 300, that’s a little different scale.”

BIGGER THAN ELK There is little doubt now that all this is having an impact on wildlife. The question is how much.

Courtney Larson, a conservation scientist at The Nature Conservancy in Lander, Wyoming, recently completed her graduate work at Colorado State University with two papers showing the cumulative effect of human recreation.

“We found about 70 percent of the studies that we looked at documented negative effects of recreation on wildlife,” she says.

“But within that there’s a ton of variability.”

Published in the journal Conservation Science and Practice, a threat, and in some instances they are [right]. We like to simplify her research analyzed about 275 papers from across the globe, things and make gross generalizations, but they don’t always fit.” focusing on dozens of species. What she found was that over Some biologists wonder if elk that can deal with humans are 93 percent of peer reviewed articles showed recreation affected simply a remnant of the larger herd that once existed on the wildlife, and almost 60 percent of the time the effect was negative. landscape. They are the ones that evolved to tolerate human The biggest problem is sheer volume. disturbance, and the ones that can’t are The number of participants in outdoor fading into history.

Ski areas once provided recreation has increased in the U.S. by For Bill Alldredge, longtime professor lush green forage for elk 7.5 percent between 2000 and 2009, and and chair (now retired) of the wildlife and other wildlife in the total visitor days increased by almost 33 department at Colorado State University, percent. it’s about the sum of all interactions. summer. The grasses and And while biologists and hunters like He published a paper in The Journal of forbs are still there, but Andree have seen the impact on elk, other Wildlife Management back in 2000 that now they’re laced with species are hurting as much or more. showed when individual elk in the Vail streams of trail runners, Recent work out of Jackson by Wyoming elk herd were bothered 10 or more times mountain bikers and hikers. during key parts of the year, reproduction Game and Fish Department biologist Aly Courtemanch showed that backcountry essentially stopped. skiers are causing bighorn sheep to leave Researchers can’t pinpoint why elk their beds and move in the winter at a time when they have few have such a negative reaction. It could be because cows, startled calories to spare. The Teton herd is small and struggling, and by humans or dogs, run away from their calves, requiring both skiers are contributing to the problem. mother and calf to expend critical energy reuniting and weakening A 2003 study on Antelope Island – at 42 square miles the them. largest in Utah’s Great Salt Lake – reported that mule deer had Without some kind of help, some kind of compromise, Andree a 96 percent chance of flushing from an area when recreationists fears the herd will simply blink out. passed by. Because of the number of trails and required berth, But researchers are also quick to point out that outdoor about 7 percent of the island was already considered unsuitable recreation is both a critical part of a healthy society and a growing habitat for wildlife. part of a diversified Western economy.

The study also detailed that of the 640 backcountry trail users In Colorado, the outdoor recreation and tourism economy surveyed on Antelope Island, about half of them felt recreation amounts to $11.3 billion each year, according to the federal was not having an impact and most “tended to blame other Bureau of Economic Analysis. A 2019 report in Montana showed user groups for stress to wildlife rather than holding themselves the state’s annual outdoor economy – including recreation and responsible.” tourism – totaled $2.3 billion. In Wyoming, outdoor recreation A Colorado State University study of the impact of trails on was $1.6 billion, and economists say that boosting the outdoor breeding bird communities near Boulder, Colorado, found industry is one of the best ways to buffer against the state’s energy that grasslands birds were less likely to nest near trails and nest booms and busts. predation increased near trails in both grasslands and forests.

At its core, outdoor recreation, expanding resorts and associated amenities are simply the newest iteration in an ever-developing CUMULATIVE EFFECT West, says Quentin Kujala, wildlife bureau coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

While elk tend to handle human presence a bit better than big It’s incumbent on all outdoors people, Kujala says, from hunters game species such as bighorn sheep and species of concern like and hikers to mountain bikers and skiers, to figure out the best wolverines and lynx, constant pressure 24 hours a day, 365 days way to balance society’s need to go outdoors and its inevitable a year in the spring, summer, fall and winter takes a toll, Andree impact on wildlife. says.

“I am a hunter and have a mountain bike and do a lot of trail Ski areas once provided lush green forage for elk and other running,” Bergman says. He views compartmentalizing people wildlife in the summer. The grasses and forbs are still there, but and user groups into one category as needlessly antagonistic. now they’re laced with streams of trail runners, mountain bikers “I’m optimistic we can figure this out because people do so many and hikers. Ski runs that closed at 4 p.m. in the winter and didn’t different activities. It’s healthy stuff and we want them out doing open again until the next morning now offer moonlight ski tours, it, but we want them to do it smart.” nighttime tubing under lights and evening dining at restaurants on tops of slopes.

CONVERSATIONS AND CONSERVATION But while the herd near Vail is struggling, and reproduction rates in the Aspen area are also concerning, some elk don’t seem Despite the dire news of low reproducing herds and struggling terribly bothered by human presence. numbers around Vail and Aspen, elk in the West are, in general, “There’s a lot of individual variability. We look at these elk doing quite well. In the early 2000s, Colorado’s herd surged past and think, ‘It’s an elk – they’re all the same,’” says Eric Bergman, 300,000, making the state home to almost one in every three elk in wildlife research scientist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “Some the U.S. Wildlife managers increased tags to help with agriculture of the animals have learned there are people around and not really damage. Two-thirds of Montana’s elk herds are currently overWINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 47

objective, and many herds in Wyoming are as well. Both states offer generous tags and seasons for cow elk.

Time will tell if these populations can continue to flourish as habitat shrinks and recreation booms. Colorado biologists have recently seen troubling calf survival numbers in many elk herds in the southern half of the state. A CPW study is busy right now gathering GPS collar and other data to better understand the causes of this decline. Researchers say year-round recreation could well be a factor.

Wildlife managers, biologists, sportsmen’s groups and recreationists agree, though, that increasing public conversation, more research, and then more conversation is key.

People need to first understand their own impacts on elk and other wildlife in order to fully embrace mitigations like trail closures.

Take the Vail area.

In 2017, the Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance proposed building a new trail through more habitat of the imperiled elk herd.

Forest Service cameras on one trail in the area showed 189 people violating a closure in seven days in 2017. While those numbers are shocking, they came with the caveat that the area had no gates or explanatory signs.

The recreation community in the area acknowledges its impact on wildlife as well as other development, Ernest Saeger, executive director of the Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance told The Guardian. Ignoring signs isn’t always willful negligence. Many people simply aren’t aware of what their individual and cumulative behavior can mean for wildlife.

The group decided to form a trail ambassador program to post

more informative signs at closures and even place volunteers at trailheads to explain to hikers, trail runners and mountain bikers why the trails are closed. It’s working, Saeger says.

In 2018, only 44 people violated the trail closure on the North Trail over the course of two months – a four-fold decrease over 2017. But zero, of course, would be better.

As groups like the Trails Alliance propose more trails to accommodate larger crowds, Saeger says they will continue to recognize the need for seasonal closures or simply building trails in areas already disturbed with other trails and outside of critical habitat. The ambassador program will expand and hopefully remain a fixture on the landscape.

Because no one – not skiers or mountain bikers, hikers or developers – want to see the elk herds gone.

Tucker Vest Burton, a senior public relations manager at Aspen Skiing Company which operates Aspen and Snowmass, agreed with Saeger’s sentiments.

“Wildlife is a huge part of our community,” Burton says, and that a world that contains both robust outdoor recreation and robust wildlife isn’t a pipe dream “as long as we can continue to keep it part of the conversation and make it a priority that everything is connected, and we’re all part of a larger ecosystem, and elk and animals are just as important to that ecosystem as humans are.”

But for biologists like Andree who spend their careers working with these herds, words like “compromise” and “mitigate” often simply mean the wildlife loses in the end.

If there is a solution, it’s some combination of more research to understand the impacts on recreation on various herds, discussion so all user groups understand the gravity of the situation and how

Colorado Acknowledges the Issue On Oct. 30, 2020, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a new executive order at an event celebrating the opening of Fisher’s Peak, Colorado’s newest state park. The order acknowledges the growing need to balance increasing recreational use in Colorado with the protection of important fish and wildlife habitat and aims to address this need through the establishment of state and regional working groups tasked with ensuring future recreational use is strategically planned through a public process to limit adverse impacts on fish and wildlife habitat.

The Colorado chapter of BHA has long recognized the need to put meaningful limits on new recreational development in the state to mitigate impacts on fish and wildlife habitat. Colorado BHA members consistently step up and speak up on behalf of wildlife, and we’re grateful that Gov. Jared Polis has provided a planning mechanism through which wildlife needs can be better accounted for. We look forward to engaging through this process in the future.

-Brien Webster, CO-WY Coordinator and Programs Manager 48 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021 istock.com/ Pinderphoto

they can help, and then legal enforcement of closures.

Communities are willing to put money to their wildlifefriendly sentiments, says Doug McWhirter, Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s wildlife coordinator in Jackson.

Because national forest, national parks and Bureau of Land Management land surround Jackson on all sides, real estate is finite and housing prices are so exorbitant that many of the people who work at the resort and in other businesses that cater to visitors have to live on the other side of Teton Pass in Idaho to find more affordable housing in Driggs and Victor. State highways 22 and 33 slice through key elk and mule deer migration corridors.

Teton County residents voted yes on a bill in November to reserve one penny of their sales tax proceeds to raise $10 million for wildlife highway crossing projects. It passed with almost 80 percent of voters in favor of the measure. Elk, along with moose and other critters, struggle with highways that dissect their native range. But as recreation-fueled traffic only increases, the threats are not just individual wildlife deaths from crashes but the potential loss of critical winter habitat and migrations.

“I think there is recognition of that impact,” says McWhirter.

“There’s a tendency for the people that live in a community like this to think that it’s the tourists that are the impact. In my experience, we are all in this together, and we all share a little blame.”

Bergman, the Colorado biologist, recently started a six-year project looking at the impact of recreation on elk near Aspen and also elk near Steamboat Springs. His portion of the study will use

trail cameras to look at numbers of elk in certain areas depending on human activity. A second researcher will use radio collars to give a different perspective.

Donofrio, the elk hunter from Roaring Fork Valley, yearns for the area he knew when he moved there over 50 years ago, before the exponential growth. He knows he’ll never see it again. In early October, he had a heart attack, and he did this interview from the hospital.

When he’s released, he will likely move in with his brother in the Denver suburbs. Even if he can return to his home near Aspen, elk herds may just not be the same. But like Doherty, he’s not giving up hope.

Perhaps with enough attention, he believes, and with enough compromise and mitigation and listening and talking, perhaps it could go back at least in part to what he knew all those years ago.

Christine Peterson has written about outdoor recreation and the environment for the past decade from her home in Wyoming. When she’s not chasing trout or trapping grizzly bears and bighorn sheep, she’s wandering the West’s public lands with her daughter, husband and Labrador.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 49

PUBLIC LAND OWNER

Exploring the Modern Relevance of Natural Foraging Introducing the Wild Harvest Initiative

BY SHANE P. MAHONEY While acquiring food is essential to the lives of all species, humans express a unique emotional connection to what we consume. Food, for us, is memory and family; it lies at the center of ceremony, both joyous and sad; it is heritage and identity and a communal expression of connection, love, trust and understanding.

Seeking it, preparing it, consuming it, even just thinking about it … all stir emotion. Food is a medium of extremes. We use it to demonstrate wealth and position and humble generosity, as well as our talents to cultivate and create. We even go so far as to abuse it, denying ourselves or overindulging. But one thing we really never do is consume food mindlessly. Why is this the case? And why does it matter?

Understanding our relationship to food helps us clarify our place in the world and leads us to reflect on our past. It also forces us to ponder our future. These, too, are uniquely human things to do. All species can show miraculous adaptations to acquiring food.

But only humans have shown the drive to acquire food through the shaping and controlling of their environment. For us, the animal called human, acquiring food leapt from basic nutrition to guiding our fate long ago. Ultimately, our foods shaped the human journey. It is hard to conceive of another medium that so explicitly ties us to our collective cultural past and yet remains so vibrant in expressing our incredible diversity today.

It is in a sense, ironic, then, that the human quest for food now lies at the centre of nature’s own struggle for existence. We have turned the table, it seems. How we will feed the billions of our own kind is now the greatest challenge we, and many of our wild foods, face. Food, once more, lies at the intersection of prosperity and hope for our species.

Seemingly it always has.

OUR FORAGING PAST The human journey has been a long one, beginning in Africa during a period of dramatic climate shifts, some 8 to 5 million years ago. As ice sheets expanded and pushed away from the North and South Poles, more and more of the earth’s moisture was sequestered. Locked in great continents of ice, it became unavailable to fuel the dense vegetation of earlier, warmer times.

50 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

As air temperatures also fell, the lush, expansive forests of Africa gave way to a highly productive mosaic of grasslands, lakes and gallery forests, providing our earliest direct ancestors with access to an extraordinary range of habitats and foods. As our life in forests retreated, we perfected our capacity to walk upright. Being able to cover vast expanses efficiently, we uncovered new foraging opportunities and developed the unique skills required to pursue them. Our road to modernity had begun.

To this day our species still expresses a wide diet preference (and a love of walking), as well as a natural longing for the dispersed vistas and varied landscapes of our birthing time. Indeed, we strive to recreate them in every manicured lawn and tree dotted backyard. Nature’s claws dig deep, it seems, and the pursuit of wild food lies very much at the heart of this remembered past. It shaped who we were and who we remain. And, like a shadowed conductor, it orchestrated many of our most defining characteristics, including our capacities to use fire and develop technology. These capacities developed early and were critical to our species’ success, certainly; but we sometimes forget that the propelling force behind them was our search for food.

While our chimpanzee relatives can fashion and use tools to a limited extent, the dawn of tool manufacturing by our direct ancestors dates back some 2.6 million years and, by about 1.8 million years ago, had already matured to a level surpassing all other species. By this time, we were carrying around pre-fashioned tools, not just picking up a stone, using and then discarding it.

We had also moved fully into a terrestrial way of life, and while still eating a diverse array of foods, we were clearly expanding our use of tools to access and butcher wild meat.

The benefits of tool use (and meat consumption) were extraordinary and affected many aspects of our biology and culture. In a process of mutual reinforcement, technology and animal flesh increased both our brains and overall physical size.

These developments, in turn, opened up even more foraging opportunities and enabled us to improve our technologies – and not just for taking large animals. These tool advancing activities included highly profitable but less athletic and lower risk ventures, such as digging for calorie rich tubers buried in hardpacked soils and mollusks in the wet sands of lake and ocean shorelines.

The point is that our primary drive to develop technology was nutritional, not primarily for weaponry or defense. This resilient

Photo by Alex Sienkiewicz

aspect of our species, that unbroken arc between perfecting our CONCEIVING THE WILD HARVEST INITIATIVE earliest stone tools and building the incredible space stations of today, is indeed profound. At its center, however, was our basic Trying to rediscover the deep, visceral connection to need for food. provisioning from nature is true for cultures the world over. It is So, too, with fire. While various claims place our opportunistic not hard to explain why. Not only does our past drive us there, use of fire as far back as 1.5 million years, clear evidence suggests but our modern replacements simply fall short on so many fronts. that somewhere around 800,000 and certainly by 400,000 years While foraging at commercial grocery outlets is a modern necessity ago, we were making habitual use of it. Of all the benefits fire that becomes routine, the harvest of wild foods tends to build brought to early humans – warmth, protection from predators, a sense of purpose that is forever original. Furthermore, grocery fashioning of tools – there can be no doubt that its use for stores are practical, but they are also predictable, unstimulating cooking food was the greatest. Not only did it vastly expand what and relatively impersonal. Harvesting from the wild, on the other could be eaten, such as the tough stems of plants, mature leaves hand, is evocative, highly personal, and builds a strong sense of and tubers; fire also rendered meat much easier and profitable to identity that is highly valued within the community of practice. digest, breaking down collagen and other connective tissues and And, while grocery store aisles do not inspire a connection and killing parasites and bacteria, value for the origins of the ROAMING WILD LANDSCAPES, GATHERING foods available, natural as well.

Releasing meat’s full harvesting connects people WILD FOODS, BUILDING OPEN FIRES, AND dietary potential is considered to landscapes and natural USING TECHNOLOGIES TO ENHANCE OUR a pivotal achievement in the processes they come to EXPERIENCES MAY SEEM LIKE MODERN development of the human highly value and wish to species, and our resilient DIVERSIONS. BUT THEY ARE FAR MORE THAN conserve.

THIS. IN A MOST PROFOUND WAY, THEY desire for animal flesh These thoughts, and is easily explained. And, the earlier reflections on REPRESENT THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN certainly, the controlled, our development as a ANCIENT MEMORY AND THE EXERCISE OF purposeful use of fire is OUR ENDURING NATURALNESS AS A SPECIES. species, provide some of one of the uniquely human the foundational thinking things we express. We behind the Wild Harvest remain fascinated by fire to this day. Like so much else we consider Initiative. Was there some way to discover amongst these ideas defining of our species, however, fire’s use is also deeply rooted in of origins and modern longing a force for conserving our deepest our pursuit of wild foods. expressions of humanness and the natural world? One thing With so many critical aspects of our humanity tied to it, it is was clear: If there was one vital requirement for building such a little wonder that reconnecting with wild foraging seems so much movement, then finding an authentic voice was critical. It was also like coming home. Roaming wild landscapes, gathering wild critical that the authentic voice should be connected to food; it foods, building open fires, and using technologies to enhance should care about its own preservation, recognize its own inherent our experiences may seem like modern diversions. But they are value and see its own actions as exemplifying a way of life that was far more than this. In a most profound way, they represent the worth fighting for. It was, furthermore, critical that this authentic intersection between ancient memory and the exercise of our voice be deeply connected to the original lifestyle that had shaped enduring naturalness as a species. our species, so that its ties to nature were deeply intrinsic, emotive Exploring these connections helped shed light on why hunting and intuitive, and that its experiences were reinforcing because, by and gathering matter so much to the individuals who engage in their very nature, they revisited the founding culture of humanity. these activities today. It also helped bring into focus how food, Most importantly, this voice must have been raised in the service and wild food, in particular, could lie at the center of building of nature and the wild things that have no voice of their own. coalitions to support nature conservation.

Where to find this voice was the question.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 51

Photo by Everett Garcia

These qualifications apply fundamentally to all who harvest from the wild, of course, but they also reach out to those who create their own foods in relatively natural circumstances such as home gardening or smaller scale, free-range animal husbandry.

Centrally positioned, however, are the recreational hunters and anglers of the United States and Canada, a constituency that has fundamentally expressed alignment with the harvesting of wild animals, that believes deeply in this authentic way of life, and that has for a century and more spoken for the wilderness lands and wild denizens of our nations. It is also a constituency that is increasingly challenged by modern philosophies towards nature that are reinterpreting our relationships with other animals, and that often view lifestyles involving the harvest of living things as anachronistic, cruel or both. Thus, the hunting and angling constituency has one more characteristic to recommend it in the fight for wild things: Its own sense of identity is fundamentally linked to nature’s future abundance. And, the community’s lifestyle is threatened.

For all these reasons, preserving the wild foraging lifestyles of hunters and anglers was seen as critical to the survival of wild things – and the survival of wild things as critical to the future of hunters and anglers. But the survival of hunting and angling requires something nature does not – social license. And what, of all justifications for this activity, is most likely to resonate with the wider public? The use of wild nature as food. Consistently, hunting for food enjoys the highest level of support in society; and because of the evolutionary lines of evidence it likely always will.

So, once more, the pursuit of wild food looms with an influence that extends far beyond physical requirement to potential social driver. Indeed, could wild food harvesting become the rallying cry for conservation, uniting all foragers from Indigenous peoples to recreational participants the world over, and rippling out to embrace best practice ranching and agriculture and commercial wild fishing communities as well? Certainly, these questions resonate with a mobilized army of participants, in all of these communities. Their collective energy, if it could be harnessed, would be simply awesome!

52 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

INTRODUCING THE WILD HARVEST INITIATIVE Conservation Visions’ Wild Harvest Initiative intends to make this hopeful vision a reality. Its purpose is to educate, advocate, build and inspire alliances, influence public and political opinion in support of natural harvesting and to positively impact people and nature. Like the hunter-based North American Model itself, this initiative seeks to remind us of the values and philosophies that are foundational to a nature centric way of life.

Launched in 2015-16, the Wild Harvest Initiative is the first science-based advocacy program to evaluate the combined economic, conservation and social benefits of recreational wild animal harvests. The initiative recognizes that wild harvesting is not limited to animals, and that hunters and anglers have many natural allies in the wider community of wild resource harvesters.

The WHI intends to build an accurate picture of this integrated network of wild harvesting activities, from hunting and angling to mushroom foraging, berry-picking, firewood and shed antler gathering and medicinal plant collection.

Working with partners like Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the Wild Harvest Initiative will provide a new and innovative assessment of wildlife’s value and the benefits wild harvest activities bring, not just to hunters and anglers, but to all citizens, including those who may be generally opposed to animal use.

In the longer term, the program looks to embrace best practice animal husbandry, recognizing the efforts being made by many ranchers and farmers to provide domestic animal protein under free ranging conditions, thus helping build alliances across the healthy food sector. How to bring all of this into focus is a daunting challenge, but with hunters and anglers, we have a solid place to start.

Listen to Shane Mahoney on Episode 48 of BHA’s Podcast & Blast and learn more, including how you can get involved, at thewildharvestinitiative.com.

Shane Mahoney is the president of Conservation Visions and founder of the Wild Harvest Initiative. He is an internationally recognized conservationist and wildlife advocate, and a foremost expert on the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

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DUK’S LAST HUNT

BY RUSSELL WORTH PARKER The five of us, four men and a dog, surged and throttled our way across the vastness of the Chesapeake Bay as if shouldering our way through a crowd. Speed dictated by the whim of the water, we surged forward, then decelerated as if the oncoming waves were people to whom we yielded enough space to pass.

Our guide, Captain Josh Bourne of Wingman Guides, left the Marine Corps after more than a decade to follow his passions where salt meets sand and marsh. Wingman is a family operation.

In the fall and winter Josh and his father guide hunters, fueled

by Josh’s mother’s cooking, in pursuit of duck and Canada geese on the Chesapeake’s Eastern Shore. Summers see them guiding offshore fishing charters out of Virginia Beach.

Much of my life has been spent in the Intracoastal Waterway or upon the open ocean. For three years I lived in Hawaii, seeking tuna and marlin beyond the horizon, the world reduced to deep blue in all directions. I have made a career as a U.S. Marine, by repute at least, a “Soldier of the Sea.” But this was my first time on the Chesapeake and until that morning, I had no real understanding that a bay could be big water. His eyes on the coming rollers, hands on the throttle and wheel, Josh warned us to hold on as we ground up the face of oncoming waves and slid down the back.

We’d risen early, barely within shouting distance of sunrise, and 56 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

savored biscuits holding slabs of smoked goose. Washed down with strong coffee, it was enough to clear the fog left by my late arrival, a conversation with a good friend that stretched past midnight, and sleep made fitful by anticipation of an early morning. We departed the dock in dawn’s shadow, two boats packed with hunters and shotguns and dogs, bedecked in the grays and tans of the dormant marsh. Now, the sun danced off the turbid slate of the bay, wind and tide churning up grays and greens dappled with golden sparks as our boat split off to set anchor against an island and establish our blind.

The men in our boat all shared the common bond of military service in hard places. Perhaps more than that, we shared a common love of water and wind, the simple faith on display in plaintively calling a passing flock of mergansers, of the heartswelling pride found watching a beloved dog push through cold water on a hard retrieve. Josh set the decoys. Chris, the friend common to us all, worked with his dog Duk, readying him for the day ahead.

Duk is a golden retriever, almost auburn, his best seasons behind him. His protégé, a puppy named Gus, waited at home and would soon begin training to follow in Duk’s pawprints.

Chris said the day would be Duk’s last hunt, and I felt honored to be with them both. But for now, Duk visibly ached to get to work. A low, anticipatory whine escaped his muzzle as Chris uncased his shotgun. Watching them both, I could not help but

reflect upon the timeless pairing of man and dog. It’s a relationship born of honest need, a wordless promise to serve one another in ways of which each is incapable in the other’s absence. A dog brooks no insincerity and offers none. Every communication is the truth because for a dog there is no percentage in a lie. And thus, Chris and Duk entered the Chesapeake’s January cold water together, every hand signal, every correction, every look back for guidance a sincere mutual communication of the kind humans often find so daunting: I love you. I am dedicated to you. I will provide for you.

Decoys bobbing in the shore lap, boat swathed in raffia, we settled in to wait. Josh called across the wide expanse of water and a trio of bufflehead soon turned our way, coming left to right in parallel to our blind.

I was the least experienced hunter by a wide margin, and the men in the boat gifted me with the first shot. I tracked the bird as he flared low and close, his partners having seen something they didn’t like and turned away.

I squeezed the trigger of my 12 gauge. The duck tumbled so quickly it seemed a single action rather than a sequence, just a blast and a pinwheel of black and white and splashing water. Duk came to his feet as Chris told him it was time to work. His nails clicked on the deck of our boat as he danced in anticipation, moving to the bow and pressing his nose against the obstacle formed by grass and net. Impediment cleared, he sprang into the water, beelining for the duck floating amongst his own plastic facsimiles. On return, after dropping the duck, he took a short victory lap upon the island to which we’d appended ourselves and then settled in to wait for more.

Though we saw hundreds, maybe thousands, of ducks, there would not be much shooting. Black clouds of duck roiled in the sky above the water across which we wistfully looked, but it was late in the season and the mass of ducks were wary, dancing well outside of range of No. 4 steel shot. Another bufflehead and a canvasback made an appearance, joining us in the boat, courtesy of my boat mates’ shooting and Duk’s work ethic. That we only shot one duck per hunter was of no matter to me. I am not an obsessive hunter, planning each year around migrations and shooting seasons. I was there because I simply can’t not be. I can’t countenance the death of a way of life that binds man and nature and dog in a way that deeply respects all three.

I could not contemplate Duk’s last hunt without thinking of that broader parallel. It’s no secret that hunting is broadly on the decline. Waterfowl hunting is no different. When it goes, it will not be a sudden death. It will be a long, quiet fade, a fraying of a centuries-old cultural fabric eventually so holed and faded as to be unrecognizable and unrecoverable. My presence in that blind was both ironic evidence of the truth of that statement and its refutation.

In the professional parlance, the term is “R3: Recruitment, Retention and Reactivation.”

Conservation of a species to protect our opportunities to hunt is intuitive to most hunters at this point. Perhaps conservation of their fellow hunters is a less familiar concept, but it is exactly what must occur. Hunters must give of their time, of their resources, of their secret spots, to ensure the survival of the way of life. They must look for unlikely, or unfamiliar, new hunters who may not look or think or vote similar to the majority of us. My uncles ensured I sat in a deer stand or a duck blind as a teenager. Life got in the way and I found myself middle aged with my guns gathering dust in a cabinet. Then Chris invited me hunting and I accepted.

Chris did for me what all hunters must do if hunting is to survive.

He increased the population, both recruiting and reactivating a hunter. It was Duk’s last hunt. In that there is sadness. It was my first hunt in 30 years. In that there was hope.

As I write this, it’s a year since that hunt. What of retention? I’m headed back to the Chesapeake with Chris this week. And Gus, last year’s puppy, is coming with us.

BHA member Russell Worth Parker is a career U.S. Marine who writes and enjoys the outdoors in Wilmington, North Carolina. Soon to retire from the Corps, he is the lead for the BHA Armed Forces Initiative at Camp Lejeune.

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Photo by Justin Karnopp

MISSING RIDGE

BY JUSTIN KARNOPP The wall tent hung in a timbered crease overlooking a sagebrush saddle, a blue tarp over canvas tucked in the timber and concealed from passersby. The only outfit for miles, home base was strategically located. Along with his cohort, Corey, my old friend Kevin had done all of the dirty work prior to our arrival. This was their annual camp, and my buddy Eric and I were a couple of sports invited to a turnkey elk hunt during the last week of Montana’s rifle season. After deploying bedrolls and organizing gear we used the last hour of light to gain bearings. We followed Kevin out on the main trail to a postcard-worthy vantage point.

“Right below here is what we call ‘Missing Ridge,’ that’s where our buddy missed a giant bull broadside at 80 yards the other day.

Eighty YARDS! The guy has hunted elk for 40 years. The place is cursed!”

Recalling my own snafus, I turned my attention to a swath of continuous forest that stretched out of sight. This was a sanctuary, a vast, roadless area. Kevin seemed to read my mind. “They grow old hiding in that ‘North Idaho’ timber, but you don’t want to go in there!”

It was baselayer weather in a wild theater, and we were engrossed in the show. A renowned trout stream shimmered on the valley floor and alpenglow ignited on the alpine peaks to the east. We savored the vista until dusk, then returned to camp and savored seared ribeyes and roasted taters. The food comas were contagious, and with the split pine crackling in the stove, we “shut down the mill” at 10 p.m.

Two hours before shooting light I dug through the bear-proof panniers, found the goods, and went to work on the skillet. There was no reason to be up this early, but I was excited and ready to put boots to country. After breakfast we all set off in our own direction. I headed out of camp on foot, bound for a knob that Kevin recommended with these encouraging words, “I’ve seen elk 60 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

every time I’ve been out there.”

A half-hour into the hunt, a rifle report cracked the stillness. The shot was close, and I assumed the triggerman must be a member of our party. I crept through the dense lodgepole, the familiar Browning .300 Win. Mag in my hands and soon realized that my free-floating barrel was a little too free. The screw attaching the trigger assembly was gone, apparently, a casualty of the rough ride into camp. The rifle was a gift from my dad on my 18th birthday and had never given me a lick of trouble. I zip-tied the barrel to the fore-end just as a band of spooked elk slinked through the timber before me. Effectively unarmed, all I could do was watch and hope that I would get another opportunity to fill my tag on this hunt. I decided to loop back towards camp and retrieve my backup gun. I started up an open swale and came to the base of timbered plateau. Checking my GPS, I realized that this was the infamous Missing Ridge.

Reconvening with our party, it was affirmed that no shots had been fired that morning. The source of the morning gunfire remained a mystery.

That night a tempest swirled. Katabatic winds rattled our cage and blew frigid air beneath the canvas and into our bones.

Fortunately, the structure had been soundly built by a Montana tent company and erected by Kevin, an engineer by trade, and Corey, a former professional packer. The stove took multiple stokings that night and sleep was fitful, but we weathered the storm in relative comfort. This truly was a fine elk camp.

Over the next two days we endured a drastic change to unseasonably warm conditions. We treaded through old, crunchy snow in the bedding timber and managed to put a dip in the meat pole, hanging a cow and two mule deer. Eric shot a mature fourpoint buck, neck swollen with rut-steroids.

On Wednesday evening, the night before Thanksgiving, we counted our blessings as the snow began to fall. We kept an anxious eye on the accumulation. While two-three inches would

soften the woods and open the door to tracking, a half-foot or more would make for tough duty breaking camp, and it was coming down … hard. At about 10 p.m., I poked my head out the canvas flap and could make out faint starlight between the drifting clouds. Things were looking up.

The next morning, there was no cause for an early start. The mercury had fallen to around zero, and we allowed ourselves time for coffee and for the landscape and the elk to thaw out. Under blue skies, I followed a hunch into an eastern-facing patch of timber. As I crept along a game trail through the thick blowdown, I cut a set of fresh elk tracks – big tracks – heading downhill.

As hunters, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I’m longlegged, determined and always on the go, which are advantages in the alpine. In dark timber these attributes translate to big, loud and impatient. The critters often see me first and the back end of an animal is my only glimpse. My backup rifle was working against me, too. In contrast to my fast-handling Browning, this newly acquired gun was a bull-barreled job designed for long pokes. It wasn’t light, comfortable or quick in the hand.

The bull’s tracks led to a tangled creek bottom. It was an uninviting place, steep and littered with slippery, fallen trees.

Rather begrudgingly, I followed. His path side-hilled a steep, rocky face, bound for a nasty collection of downed timber.

Clearly, he was well versed in the art of evasion, and I knew that I was in for an interesting day.

The fresh snow read like a book. The bull had lost his footing on a rock outcropping and slid several yards downhill. Despite my best efforts not to follow suit, I did the same. A few steps later, we both repeated the gaff of balance. My knee on the port side ached as the topography flattened out and I limped towards the dreaded deadfall. Navigating the downed lodgepole strained my calves and hamstrings. I stopped to wash down a couple of buffer tablets with an energy drink to stave off cramping. As much as I wanted to kill this bull, I hoped that we didn’t cross paths in here. I knew that I was alone in this endeavor. I couldn’t ask my friends to help me pack a bull out of such a godforsaken place.

Fifty yards into the deadfall, he had bedded just long enough to melt an inch of snow. This was an unusual move for an elk on the run. Was he catching his breath, checking the wind, or shaking off the two stumbles? After leaving his bed, he performed a J-hook maneuver, headed uphill and looped behind to check his back trail and gain the high ground over his pursuer.

The tracks then led down to a bizarre scene. I stood awestruck over an apparent microburst that had decimated a dense stand of tall pines (if King Kong went on a belligerent rampage in an old-growth forest, this would be the result.) Roughly five acres of timber had fallen over like dominos. I made slow progress over and under this daunting, unexpected obstacle and emerged on my hands and knees at the drainage below camp. The bull then reached deeper into his bag of tricks, and his tracks seemingly disappeared amidst those left by a herd of mule deer. After a perplexing investigation, I realized that he was masking his steps, stride for stride, within those of a muley buck. Clearly, this wasn’t his first rodeo.

At this point, I decided to ease up and avoid pressuring the bull. I didn’t want to push him towards “North Idaho,” so I hiked back to camp, whacked a grilled cheese and a Gatorade, and took a 20-minute nap.

Resuming the trail, I followed the bull-in-buck prints up and above camp to the sage clearing. “Had he crossed here in the open while I was asleep?” I pondered this potentially monumental mistake as I strained to discover his hoof prints, which simply vanished on a jeep trail. I scoured the ground for answers. “Did the bull fly away?”

I picked up his trail a hundred yards on the other side of the road. Other deer tracks were plainly visible above and below, within a few yards of where he crossed the road. Apparently, he knew precisely where the wind was most likely to cause a drift and erase his trail. Genius. Once he crossed a fence, he again resumed the trail of mule deer leading back into the timber.

The bull began to drag his feet. “Was this another illusion tactic?” I guessed that I’d been on him for over five miles since this game began at 8 a.m. I post-holed through a drift and arrived at an open meadow, a natural place for a quick intermission to check the time. I’d cradled my heavy rifle all day, but now, I slung it and dug the GPS out of my pocket. It was 4 p.m.; I still had plenty of shooting light.

I scanned left just as a square-bodied, grizzly-colored bull stood from his bed. I wheeled the rifle off my shoulder, but by the time I drew an offhand bead he was already behind a tree. He never looked my direction, nor did he blow out like every other elk I’ve bumped under such circumstances; rather, he casually strolled into the timber with his right flank facing me, seemingly annoyed.

I looked ahead for a shooting lane. The topography began to slope just behind him and at any moment he could dip over the hill and vanish. I knew I would get only one chance at this elk. In 30 years of hunting across the West, I’ve never killed a trophy bull, and it’s never been a priority, but at this moment, after such cloak and dagger, I wanted him with every inch of my being.

I waited for him to enter the opening and then realized there was a downed log parallel to his vitals. He stayed behind it and bobbed his massive rack as he nonchalantly walked the length of the tree. The only chance I had was offhand at 80 yards. I was either going to spine him or miss him completely. It was now or never, and the heavy-barreled rifle felt stable as I settled the crosshairs on his neck and took the shot. I expected him to drop in his tracks or blow out of there, but up to this point he had done nothing that I had anticipated, and following suit, he meandered off at a slow jog.

The fresh snow revealed no indication of a hit. Through binos I watched the bull easily cross a steep ravine, drop over the other side and disappear from my life. I slung my rifle, dug my boots in, and started up the hill. I’d been so engrossed in the hunt that I’d paid little attention to my whereabouts and stumbled out onto the spine of Missing Ridge.

BHA member Justin Karnopp owns and operates CD Fishing USA, a fly rod/reel business from his Missoula home. Along with his wife, Lauren, they have two children, two bird dogs and a fly fishing podcast called “The February Room.” More at justinkarnopp.com.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 61

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That Old Gun

A NEW HUNTER, HIS GRANDFATHER AND AN OLD ITHACA 12 GAUGE

BY LARS CHINBURG Some of my earliest memories are of my grandfather: bearded and sturdy, leaning over me with bolo tie dangling, correcting my grip on a rifle or gruffly advising me on the finer points of muzzle safety or firearm maintenance. We’d have just finished a packed lunch of ham biscuits courtesy of my grandmother, who would have shooed us out the door on the way to the range. Whether at Major Waldron’s, a shooting club just 20 minutes from my grandparent’s home in Durham, New Hampshire, or at the gravel pit in the woods near their small cabin in northern Maine, once we finished the serious business of eating the sandwiches, my grandfather would turn to the even more serious business of refining my marksmanship and firearm handling skills.

These lessons started when I was only four or five – learning to shoot his air rifle off the back porch at soda cans and juice bottles strung up on a clothesline 30 yards away across the yard. They progressed to practicing with his favorite .22 rifle, one that he had gotten from his father when he was a young boy and used to hunt rabbits on his walk home from school in rural Iowa. Once I could be trusted to put most shots on target with the .22, we moved on to clay pigeons: calming my breath, shotgun at my shoulder, yelling “pull,” then tracking the orange disk through the air, leading it slightly, squeezing (not pulling!) the trigger. Early on, I mostly missed and received a pat on the shoulder and a piece of advice. More and more as the years passed, I hit the birds and earned an excited “great shot!” from my grandfather. I learned to crave that.

This past August, I packed up and moved across the country to support my girlfriend in her year of service and seek adventure in Klamath Falls, Oregon. My grandfather is slowing down these days; he no longer stalks the forests of New Hampshire in deer season or drives to the shooting range or takes second helpings of Photo by the author

my grandmother’s ham biscuits. But when I told him I wanted to take up hunting while in Oregon, his excitement made him seem 20 years younger. His eyes lit up, and he asked me to promise to update him with my adventures and wondered if I would need any gear or firearms from his extensive collection. I took him up on his generous offer and received, among a few other things, an old 12-gauge Ithaca Model 37 “Deerslayer” that my grandfather had purchased from a police auction and never used.

He apologized, telling me that it wasn’t much of a waterfowl gun due to the short barrel and tight choke but that he hoped I could get some use out of it. I assured him I would; to me, it was perfect.

The wooden stock was engraved with forest scenes on both sides and the barrel gleamed, spotless, in the dim yellow light of my grandfather’s garage.

After the long road trip to my new home, and a few August and early September weekends spent traipsing around the central Oregon mountains in pursuit of elk (I never found any, although the huge tracks and destroyed saplings that I did find were enough to get this East Coaster hooked), I met a new friend.

I was introduced to Joe, an avid waterfowl hunter, through my landlord and was thrilled when he offered to take me out for my first duck hunt.

I bought a cheap pair of waders and a box of bismuth shells (the old Ithaca can’t safely fire steel shot). And on a sunny afternoon in early October, I met Joe at his place where I helped him load a massive bag of decoys into the back of his truck. We threw our waders in on top, and I nestled my Ithaca shotgun, still in its blue protective “sock,” safely in among the waders. We jumped in Joe’s old truck and were off, towing a small camouflaged boat behind us.

After a short drive, we turned off the highway and bounced along gravel roads to a boat launch that Joe and some of his friends had discovered in a small piece of public land surrounded WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 65

Photos courtesy of Lars Chinburg

by private rice and barley fields. We manhandled the boat down a steep dropoff into a shallow canal that wound through the reeds and stalks of barley out into an extensive network of waterways, lily pads and marshy islands. I unsheathed my shotgun and stepped into the boat; Joe glanced over and chuckled, not unkindly, at the short barrel.

We pushed off and revved up the small motor, heading out to a spot underneath an overhanging willow where we could stash the boat and throw out a few decoys. We tied the boat, set out a spread, hunkered down into the reeds at the edge of an island and began to wait. We sat through the hottest part of the afternoon and nothing was moving except a muskrat that splashed through the reeds nearby, playing in the warm water and looking very much as if he was enjoying his afternoon romp. We watched distant flocks of ducks wheel and settle in the sunlit water far to the southwest and decided to move. We grabbed a couple of decoys, leaving the remainder for our trip back, and quietly poled the boat down the canal into the sun and towards the groups of birds we had been watching all afternoon.

The sun was dipping towards the hills far off to the west, and the fields of barley and reeds were golden in the late afternoon light. The air cooled and the water murmured, streaked with long sparkling swaths of sunlight. It seemed that the sky around us was suddenly in constant movement, as large flocks began flying into the fields from every direction to settle into their evening meals.

Despite the warm, lethargic afternoon, I was wired. Hunched low in the mud at the edge of a narrow stream splitting off from a large open stretch that we had seen ducks using from afar, it seemed like a promising location, and I was tense and ready for action.

Joe proved to be an expert caller, consistently luring pairs or trios of ducks to break off from their larger groups and investigate.

Finally, after a few flyovers just out of reach, two ducks wheeled 66 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

at the sound of Joe’s call and flew in towards us, low and straight.

“Get ready, you take the one on the left,” Joe whispered.

My breath quickened and I shifted the safety to the off position, keeping my finger off the trigger with a brief flashback to my grandfather’s scolding.

“TAKE ’EM,” Joe shouted, and we sprang to our knees and fired.

I squeezed the trigger once, the ducks veered off, unharmed. I pumped a new shell into the chamber, tracked the left duck, led it slightly and squeezed (not pulled) the trigger again. It dropped, falling into the reeds not 10 feet from where I was sitting. In the echoing aftermath of the gunshots, I ran to where my duck had fallen. Joe followed.

“A beauty!” he said, after I had picked it up. “A gadwall. Great eating and a good shot. Not bad for a first timer.”

I fanned its wings, awestruck. The body was still warm, and the pattern of its feathers was like nothing I had seen up close before.

“Lars, get down! There’s another group coming in.”

I jumped, shocked back into the present. I laid my duck down carefully by our backpacks and picked up my shotgun, feeding two more shells into the magazine while feeling a newfound respect for the Ithaca and settled in to wait as Joe began to call again.

I was successful with another gadwall, and Joe with three ducks over the next hour of hunting. After shooting light, we loaded our packs and birds into the boat and motored back to the launch, collecting the remaining decoys on the way. There was mist coming off the water, and an evening breeze moving through the fields. The moon had risen and was bright enough that the spotlight Joe had mounted to the front of the boat was unnecessary. I sat back against the big decoy bag and let the cool air and the wet smell of the mud and the buzzing undertone of the peepers nearly lull me to sleep.

We loaded up the truck with the decoys, packs and ducks, wrestled the boat back onto the trailer and took off our waders. I wiped the splatters of mud and water off the Ithaca, knowing I would need to clean it more thoroughly back home. When we got back to Joe’s garage, we unpacked everything, and he taught me how to dress and clean the ducks. By the time I pulled into my driveway it was nearly 10 p.m., and I relayed the story of the afternoon to my girlfriend, who was excited at my promises of roast duck, duck giblet dirty rice and duck gumbo.

As per Joe’s earlier suggestion, I set the cleaned meat in a bowl of saltwater to soak overnight and washed the grime off my hands. Then I composed an email with a few pictures and a brief description of the adventure to my father and grandparents and finally took the Ithaca out to the garage to clean it.

I took the gun apart, rubbed the mud off the stock, wiped the barrel with an oiled rag, and ran a bore snake through twice, putting it back together and placing it in my gun safe, but not before taking a moment to marvel again at the intricate engravings in the wood and the garage light glinting off the blued “Deerslayer” barrel.

I locked the safe, went upstairs to bed and fell asleep immediately, exhausted. In the morning, I woke with an email from my grandfather.

“That’s great, Lars. Good shooting. You make me proud!”

I gave him a call, excited to share my story in more detail. My grandmother picked up and handed the phone to my grandfather, who said hello and then immediately asked if I had already cleaned and oiled “that old Ithaca 37.”

Lars Chinburg is a BHA member, writer and avid outdoorsman originally from New Hampshire. He’s currently living in North Carolina, enjoying the Smoky Mountains with his partner, Anna. You can find more of his small (but growing) portfolio of stories and essays at www.larschinburg.com.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 67

EVERGLADES BACKCOUNTRY SNOOK

BY SUE COCKING Inside pretty much every nymph-casting, backcountry, freshwater fly fisher lurks the desire to catch something bigger than a 12-inch brown trout. The shortest route to achieve a WAAAY bigger fish is to leave the comfort zone of lake or stream and venture into saltwater. Think heavy metal vs. classical symphony.

Some of the best places to score a truly memorable saltwater fish (or three, or a dozen) on fly rod lie within the remote, hauntingly beautiful and darkly mysterious creeks, bays, lakes and rivers of South Florida’s Everglades National Park and adjacent Ten Thousand Islands.

Dotted with mangrove islands, deserted white sand beaches and natural oyster reefs, this huge watery wilderness along the Gulf of Mexico holds fish as large as an adult human that can be caught in as little as a foot of water – on fly rod, natural baits or artificial lures such as plugs and jigs – almost any time of year.

Catchable species include redfish, snook, tarpon, shark, spotted sea trout, ladyfish, jacks, cobia, sheepshead, pompano, black drum and Spanish mackerel.

Despite the piscatorial bounty (and wide availability of chart plotters/depth finders for boats), this maze of brackish shallows is very daunting to many anglers who fear running aground on sharp oyster bars, getting stuck in the mud or simply getting lost. Not to mention the bloodthirsty hordes of mosquitoes and no-see-um gnats that blanket the area in summer. It’s rugged, uncomfortable, challenging fishing. But you could be out there all day and not see another boat. There’s no place like it in the continental U.S. On your way to perhaps catching the fish of a lifetime, you may encounter a friendly manatee next to your boat. You will 68 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

pass wooded islands that hold some of the rarest orchids on earth. Possibly (but rarely), you might see an invasive Burmese python coiled in a tree, sunning on a creek bank, or lazing atop a navigational marker. There are alligators AND crocodiles.

Ospreys and bald eagles engage in aerial combat. Deer. Raccoon.

Wild pigs. It’s how most of Florida looked in the previous century.

And, yes, fish.

On a recent fly fishing trip with backcountry guide captain Bill Baldus, I caught and released my first trophy-sized snook in the Ten Thousand Islands near Naples. To say I had to earn it would be a gross understatement.

One of the most revered game fish in the Sunshine State, snook are plentiful here, but that doesn’t mean they are easy to catch.

This species sometimes succumbs willingly to a fly or artificial lure, but more often it exhibits testy, finicky behavior – even when offered a tempting live bait such as a shrimp, pilchard or finger mullet. The snook only eats when it is hungry; it does not strike a bait out of anger like other species. They have to be in the right mood, and you have to be right on top of them when they decide to feed. An ambush predator, snook lurk among the mangrove prop roots, in island moats, along river shorelines and in deeper sloughs that cut through grass flats and muddy bays.

If you are lucky enough to entice one to bite, the snook often leaps out of the water, then takes blistering flight in the opposite direction – usually headed straight for the mangroves or some other obstruction where it can free itself.

Baldus and I began our morning on an outgoing tide in a small, open bay where several tarpon rolled in the brown, tannin-stained waters. I made a couple of bad casts with a 12-weight and never got a bite before the fish disappeared altogether.

The author with legendary saltwater fly angler Stu Apte.

Photos courtesy of Sue Cocking

Everywhere Baldus poled the skiff after that, the water seemed to grow browner and more turbid. You couldn’t see your fly until you had stripped it almost all the way up to the boat. We encountered a couple of small, cruising redfish along a mangrove shoreline. But those required me to make a backhand cast, which I’ve never mastered, and I missed both of them.

By afternoon, the tide began to rise, but the water still was very murky along the shorelines we poled. Sight-casting was out of the question. But Baldus poled along the backside of a small island facing the Gulf where he said he previously had encountered snook chasing bait.

We still couldn’t see the bay bottom, but we both spotted ripples and boils on the surface tight to the mangroves that indicated feeding game fish.

I began casting a 9-weight with 16-pound tippet tied to a white baitfish imitation that Baldus had tied himself. The fly was decorated with crystal flash and 3D eyes. Miraculously, I managed to avoid fouling the fly in the mangroves.

On perhaps my fourth cast to the shoreline, I felt a very sharp bump followed by a strong tug, and then a yellowish-silver head with a snout like a pig and a black line running down its body broke the surface. Having not felt a fish all day, I was momentarily stunned into inaction.

“Set the hook! You’ve got to bury the hook!” Baldus shouted.

I came to my senses as the fish thrashed and darted, and I stripstruck it sharply. But then the fly line slipped from my hands.

“You’ve got to keep it tight!” Baldus warned.

I was afraid to let go of the fly line with my left hand at my side, so I seized the line between my teeth to tighten it until I could recover it with my hand. Just as the fly line came tight, the fish realized it was hooked and dashed for the tangle of prop roots about 10 feet away.

“He’s gone now,” Baldus muttered.

The fish made a sharp left around one root, then took a right around a second root. I tried to keep tight on it but figured Baldus was right; breaking the tippet was almost inevitable. Disappointing for sure, but that’s snook fishing in the backcountry.

But as I peered beneath the mangroves, I saw that the fish was belly up and unable to move because the leader was wrapped tightly around the roots. Success might yet be at hand.

“I really think you might be able to get him out,” I told Baldus.

The guide used his push pole to put the stern up close to the mangroves as I stood back out of the way keeping the fly line tight. Baldus crawled across the gunwales, grabbed the fish by the lower jaw and pulled it into the boat.

We both whooped and hollered like maniacs for a few seconds.

Then Baldus broke out a tape measure and placed it against the fish: 30 inches – a trophy snook, especially on a fly rod. At the time, it was the largest Baldus had caught with a client. We photographed it and revived it in the water until it swam away.

Plenty of much larger snook have been documented here in Florida; the state record weighed 45.75 pounds, caught in 2015 near Sebastian. But my hard-won snook (on fly tackle!) made me feel like a superhero even if just for a day.

“In Montana, it would be the fish of a lifetime,” Baldus said.

Here, too.

BHA member Sue Cocking is a freelance outdoors writer who has been fishing, scuba diving and paddling Florida waters since 1979.

She worked for 20 years as outdoors writer for the Miami Herald and now lives in Sebastian, Florida.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 69

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BY JOSH DAVIS Shots rang out. “How many did you count?” James asked.

“I heard 13.”

We both realized we should have hiked in deeper into the backcountry for any chance of success during Central California’s opening deer weekend. As we headed back to camp, the exchange of ideas began on how to get farther away from California’s average deer hunter. I threw out the idea of hunting off a kayak. It was a joke, but as we hiked we pondered the advantages. Driving home, we couldn’t believe we’d spent all day hiking into a valley just to hear so many other hunters’ shots ring out.

The discussion continued on the drive home: how our success rate naturally increases when we’re near bodies of water and where in California those bodies exist.

I kept going back to the idea of using a kayak as both transportation and a float raft, should we get a couple of coyotes and our limit of ducks.

I’ve been hunting with James and his dog, Drake, for three seasons now, going after everything from upland birds to big game and everything in between. James and I had similar upbringings. None of our family members hunted, and we both had to teach ourselves with the help of hunter friends. I’m not sure if that gives us an advantage or a disadvantage, but our combined 132 days of hunting last year hopefully helped make up for lost time.

Plans in place, we set out for our trip north with two kayaks on the roof and enough gear to keep us alive for seven days on a river. James, told about a great spot by a kayak-less friend, gave me the rundown: “This river has parts that are very fast and deep. However, there are sections shallow enough that boats can’t pass through.

That’s where the kayaks come into play.”

I asked James how fast he expected the “fast-moving water” to be … especially if we were going to be paddling back upstream to our car. A big grin appeared as he said, “It’s going to be an adventure.”

Sitting by the fire the night before launch, our talk was WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 73 Photo by Josh Davis

filled with excitement. The trip had been in the works for months.

We looked over maps, James pointing to spots where predator calling might be good, while I looked at spots in the river that might hold fish. We couldn’t decide what to go after first: quail, then deer, then coyotes? Or should it be ducks, then coyotes, then deer?

The next morning we launched our kayaks into nearly frozen waters. Our planned campsite was about five miles downriver and through a narrow canyon. Luckily, the fast current would have us there in an hour or so. The fog was starting to break just as ducks appeared overhead. James and I both raised our shotguns, shot and missed. Drake began to whimper, determined to retrieve the still-flying ducks, and then jumped into the water. Now soaking wet, he shook off and sat back down for the rest of the hour-long kayak drift.

We took note of all of the oxbow cuts, each holding its own group of ducks, and continued to make our way downriver. As we pulled our kayaks onto the shore of our campsite, we couldn’t help but laugh at how crazy the next few days were going to be; we planned on hunting everything and, when we weren’t hunting, fishing.

Camp set, we decided to walk around and see what our surrounding landscape had to offer. With loaded shotguns, we sent the dog out in front of us searching for quail. As Drake ran from left to right in front of us, our thoughts shifted to the potential canyons and open areas near the river that might help funnel the predator call while also giving us the high ground to see incoming coyotes and bobcats. But as we walked back to camp, we decided that ducks were our highest priority and that 5 a.m. was go time.

5:02 a.m. we stepped out of our tents to make instant coffee before the morning’s search for greenheads. In the water, we struggled to free our legs from the mud as we made our way into a deeper section of river. Decoys were thrown just as the sun started to rise over the nearby mountains. Canada geese sounded off in the distance while we waited and scanned the sky.

Before long the action started with a breeding pair flying straight for us. Drake saw them first, flying in at full speed. We waited until they were in range only to miss our shots – blaming our patience and our guns. Reloaded, we repeated the process:

waiting, scanning and listening, until we decided to pack up the kayaks and head back to camp.

As we paddled, James noted that this was the last season of bobcat hunting in California until further notice; we changed our plans from fishing for the rest of the day to setting up the predator call in a side valley with thick vegetation. In just five minutes, I noticed a bobcat running toward our decoy. I whispered to James, directing him to a bush 200 yards away where the bobcat crouched behind. Through my binoculars, I watched the first round hit the dirt just above the now startled bobcat and yelled over to James, “Just high.” The next shot missed again, this time just left of the cat. As the cat flipped around, James quickly squeezed off another round. We searched the area, following the cat’s last known path, looking at both the ground and the surrounding brush. Nothing.

Accepting the hard truth, we began the sad walk back to camp to end the day.

A new day began with Drake’s nose to the ground as he zigzagged from left to right in front of us. Twenty minutes later Drake stopped in his tracks and pointed at a knee-high bush.

With one kick into the sand, James sent five birds into the air.

Two dropped to his gun as I began to take chase of the remaining three. Looking up I noticed the dog back on point just ahead of me. Making my way into the house-sized bush, three quail busted above me and sailed across the nearby river. James still searching through the brush where his birds fell, I joined the search. We dug through the brush until Drake walked up behind us with the missing bird in his mouth.

I tied the decoys to my kayak for the final day as James pushed off in front of me and started down the river. In the blink of an eye, James’ kayak flipped, sending everything into the eightfoot-deep river. Grabbing 50 feet of rope, I quickly launched as the rivers speed had now sent him around a bend and out of sight. After a short paddle, I reached him laying on top of the upside-down kayak with Drake in the water nearby. He yelled that he was being pinned down by the dog leash across his legs.

Paddling quickly up, I unleashed Drake and handed James some rope. Then I tied off my end to a tree and began to pull him back to shore. Drake ran up behind me, soaking wet, and took a seat to watch the recovery mission take place. With James back on land, I ran to camp and grabbed him another set of clothes and a towel. Through the shivering, James began to tell me what had happened; Drake had wanted to sit up front on the kayak

and tried to walk around the starboard side putting all of his 55 pounds of German shorthaired pointer on the side, sending them both overboard.

A few hours had to pass before the jokes could start about Drake and his urge to be on the front of the kayak.

Preparing for the final river excursion, we shortened Drake’s leash in case he decided to become a fish again. With a handful of ducks, two quail and a few trout we set off upstream for the car. The trip had been everything we’d hoped for: a little hunting, a little fishing and a little danger. As we pulled our kayaks out of the water and onto the roof of my car, James laughed and said, “I told you it was going to be an adventure.”

BHA member Josh Davis is an avid outdoorsman, photographer and videographer focused on creating content that inspires viewers to head outdoors.

All photos by Josh Davis

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BEYOND FAIR CHASE

LEADING ON

LEAD

BY JAN DIZARD AND COREY ELLIS For centuries lead has been a preferred material for fishing tackle, balls, shot and bullets. It is also deadly in other ways; scientists have known for a century or more that lead is toxic. But it was not until the 1970s, when lead-based paint and leaded gas were banned, that the general public was made aware of the serious health hazards. Around the same time, indoor shooting ranges were required to install ventilation systems to prevent shooters from inhaling lead.

By now there have been hundreds of studies documenting the negative effects of lead on wildlife. For example, lead contaminated gut piles are a primary barrier to the recovery of the California condor in Arizona. One study in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley found that 89 percent of bald eagles had elevated levels of lead in their blood during big game hunting seasons. A study of loons in New Hampshire found that 44 percent of adult mortality was caused by ingestion of lead fishing tackle. There is also clear evidence that lead is working its way into the food chain; microbes absorb small amounts and transfer them through plants to larger invertebrates and on up the food chain.

Lead shot was first banned in the 1987-88 waterfowl season on select flyways, and the ban went nationwide in 1991 for the taking of waterfowl, despite the vigorous objections of the munitions industry and many hunters. But the evidence of bird mortality from ingesting lead was overwhelming, and hunters and the arms and munitions manufacturers responded with non-toxic shot shells and shotguns capable of shooting steel without damaging barrels and chokes. While lead-free ammunition and sinkers were initially more expensive than the lead they replaced, there are now more affordable alternatives to lead on the market.

Lead is on its way out of the field in certain places, too. Arizona has encouraged big game hunters to voluntarily use non-toxic ammunition, and if some insist on lead bullets, they are encouraged to dispose of gut piles so that condors and other scavengers cannot ingest lead fragments. California passed legislation that banned the use of all lead ammunition as of July 1, 2019. The Illinois DNR has now banned lead on more than 40 of the state’s designated dove and upland game sites. Missouri’s MDC has just proposed adding 20 conservation areas dedicated to dove hunting to the list of 37 conservation areas already designated as lead-free areas.

These recent state agency actions have been guided by wildlife biologists and come as national organizations, like Boone and Crockett, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and BHA, rec-

ommend the voluntary use of non-toxic ammunition.1 Local organizations like the Hellgate Hunters and Anglers, based in Missoula, Montana, also encourage the use of non-lead ammunition.

And private hunt clubs across the country have decided to ban lead on club property altogether.

There is another reason why we hunters and anglers are considering alternatives to lead: The use of lead in hunting and fishing is increasingly out of favor with the general public. We have to be ever mindful that we hunters are a small minority. In the late 19th century, hunters were disparaged and held responsible for contributing to the devastation of wild game populations. Hunters regained public favor by leading the movement to establish wildlife management policies, promote the conservation of wildlife habitat and establish a system of public lands and waters that belong equally to everyone regardless of wealth, class or status.

Sportsmen and women have an opportunity to join forces with non-hunters and improve the public perception of hunting by supporting fish and wildlife managers and elevating the best available science.

In the past, generations of hunters and non-hunters have gone their separate – and often opposing – ways. This was vividly demonstrated by former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s rescission of the ban on lead ammunition on National Wildlife Refuges – a policy enacted by Dan Ashe, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Obama Administration. The ban was widely supported many groups but Zinke’s repeal of the ban was announced as a “victory” for hunters. In terms of public perception, it was a pyrrhic victory, likely to impact wildlife population health and future hunting opportunity.

As the original conservationists, hunters and anglers must elevate our role as stewards of our natural resources. Acknowledging the effects of lead on fish and wildlife – and our role in its use – could be an important step in buttressing our public image and rebuilding the coalition that saved wildlife and established the legitimacy of ethical hunting in the 20th century.

Hunters will not secure the heritage we embody by turning our backs on the lessons of the past century. The rift between hunters and non-hunters has weakened both of us. The enemies of environmental protection, conservation and our unique legacy of public lands and waters will take advantage of this division – if we let them.

Jan Dizard retired from Amherst College, where he taught from 1969 until 2015. He is the author of books and articles on environmental policy and hunting. His forthcoming book (with Mary Stange), The Hunt: A Cultural History, will be out in 2021. He is an avid upland bird hunter and a board member of Orion-The Hunter’s Institute and a life member of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

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

1 BHA North American Policy Statement: Backcountry Hunters & Anglers encourages sportsmen and women to consider the voluntary use of non-lead ammunition and fishing tackle, and we encourage additional research and continued education and communication. Hunters and anglers have a proud tradition of leading and advancing meaningful wildlife conservation policies. We support our state and federal wildlife management professionals, and we will continue to advocate for the use of the best available science as threats to fish and wildlife are evaluated and management decisions implemented.

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 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 77

Killing the Trout I never did get around to sharpening this goddamn knife, and for that the blade does not slice through her scales but only pushes and pushes as I push harder and harder and I see the way her pearl eyes don’t blink as she stares up at me and I feel her wrestle for a freedom she never knew she had and I hear her writhing body scrape against the granite below as I command this battle with all of my force until finally the dull edge sinks through and her blood pours over my fingers and she is death and I am the savage I always wanted to be.

BHA member Taylor S. Winchell is a writer, musician and photographer based in Denver, Colorado, where he also helps plan for the future of Colorado’s water supply. More of his work can be found at www.tswinchell.com

Bereft November Sky I minded two canvasback rakish in flight Baneful a brace at dawns coruscation One fell, the other remote.

Penitence feathers whom rest in hand, Forlorn the flight of the hen.

Erin Woodward is a BHA member and freelance writer living in Kansas.

His works have appeared in multiple publications. He can be followed on instagram @pursuit_nature

78 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

POETRY

Kitchen Spell There is a kitchen spell that hunters know, a prestidigitation – subtle and sanguine – of wine scent, bay, and thyme, to fox musk, moss, and pine.

A common but uncommon alchemy, that from these smells evokes: the crunch of early season snow; the pinch of cold-numbed toes; the bite of a November wind against a red-raw nose.

That, from inky puddles of cast iron conjures the black of deer scat freshly cast.

And, from the worn-smooth legs of tired tables summons saplings rubbed bare of bark and bleeding sap.

A synesthesic cantrip, that, transports us otherwhere and otherwhen, to lonely meadows, and the still of leafless trees by silent beaver fens.

A quiet transformation, which merges now and then.

Joshua Morse is an adult onset hunter and occasional writer based in Vermont. He is a member of BHA’s New England chapter and serves on the Vermont state leadership team.

“The final sneak.” Photo by Bob Smith, from our 2018 Public Lands and Waters Photo Contest.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 79

LEGACY PARTNERS Lou and Lila Bahin, Mike Beagle, Kip Carpenter, Sean Carriere, Chris Cholette, Dave Cline, Todd Debonis, Dan Edwards, Dan Ermatinger, Blake Fischer, Sarah Foreman, Whit Fosburgh, John Garofalo, Stephen Graf, Don Holmstrom, Ryan Huckeby, Thom Jorgensen, Richard Kacin, Ted Koch, Peter Lupsha, Robert Magill, Chol McGlynn, Andrew Miller, Nick Miller,

James Montieth, Paul Moseley, Nick Nichols, Jared Oakleaf, Doug Okland, John Pollard, Rick Potts, William Rahr, Adam Ratner, Jesse Riggleman, Mike Schmitt, Jason Stewart, Bob Tammen, Land Tawney, Lynda Tucker, Karl Van Calcar, Nathan Voris, Barry Whitehill, J.R. and Renee Young

Legacy Partners are public land and water advocates, like you, who choose to donate $1,000 a year or more to ensure that BHA’s campaigns and advocacy efforts are sustained. Make no mistake, Legacy Partners are crucial to the mission of BHA. To date, our Legacy Partners have helped us:

Legacy Levels & Benefits – All Legacy Partners receive the following benefits for their contribution:

• • • • • •

• • •

Increase our marketing and communications capacity Hire our Southwest chapter coordinator Secure BHA’s own Montana license plate Start our collegiate club program Provide stipends for our enterprising young interns Hire our Montana coordinator

•

• •

BHA lapel pin – possessed only by Legacy Partners and BHA members who have travelled to Washington, D.C., on BHA’s behalf Invites to our annual Legacy Partners backcountry trip Invites to exclusive events Recognition at our annual BHA Rendezvous and in select BHA publications BHA Legacy Partner decal Satisfaction that your dollars are going to protect the outdoor legacy you cherish

Find more info on becoming a Legacy Partner by emailing frankie@backcountryhunters.org or visiting backcountryhunters.org/legacy_partner

SUPPORT THE CAUSE DONATE ONLINE You can make secure, online donations through our web portal. Facebook also makes it easy to donate to BHA and get your friends involved on your birthday or special holidays.

PLANNED GIVING Planned giving allows members to make larger gifts than possible using ordinary income. There are three basic types of planned gifts: outright gifts, financial benefit returns and bequests.

IN MEMORIAM: IAN EDWARD HOYT Ian passed away when he was just 29. His family and friends knew him as someone who put others first in his thoughts and demonstrated his love for them in his actions.

A pilot, flight dispatcher and avid hunter and angler, he also had a passion for sharing his love of the skies and knowledge as a skilled sportsman with those closest to him.

He will forever be in the hearts of his parents Kevin and Pamela (nee Priest) Hoyt, his sisters Jackie (Patrick) Dodge and Andrea (Pete) Schlemmer, and his niece Penelope.

Celebrate the lives of hunting partners and family with a memorial gift that will help BHA fight to conserve the lands that generate so many memories. Inquire at admin@backcountryhunters.org or by calling 406-926-1908.

MEMORIAL Honor hunting partners and family with gifts in their names. There is no better way to celebrate their lives than with a gift that will help BHA fight to conserve the lands that generate so many memories.

Call BHA at 406-926-1908 or email admin@backcountryhunters.org for more information.

OTHER WAYS TO GIVE Corporate Matching Gifts Giving Stock Combined Federal Campaign Shopping on Amazon Smile Monthly giving starts at $5 a month!

Visit backcountryhunters.org/donate for more information!

80 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2021

Early archery hunt on Tiffany Mountain in Washington State.

Photo by BHA member Shawn Ray, from our 2018 Public Lands and Waters Photo Contest.

THANK YOU, BHA SUPPORTERS CHAPTER CORPORATE PARTNERS COLORADO Chrysalis Brewing Co. FishSki Provisions Goodbull Outdoors Salmo Java Roasters Upslope Brewing Co. IDAHO Argali Benfield Precision Blacks Creek Guide Gear Chris Reeve Knives Kestrel Glassing Systems Rivertons Ski Tek - Hansen Orthotics Three Rivers Ranch Outfitters ILLINOIS Grab Your Fly Charters KANSAS Berkshire Hathaway Home Services

MICHIGAN Beyond the Ears Great Northern Bowhunting Island View Resorts Karma Kane Rods Proof and Union LLC Scientific Anglers True North Trout Werkman Outfitters

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MONTANA Burch Barrel Butte, Anaconda, & Livingston Ace Hardwares MTNTOUGH Orange Aglow The Trail Head True Water Fly Shop NEVADA Anderson’s Outdoors LLC Liberty Tax Lowland Knives Risen Fly Fishing

PENNSYLVANIA Sandcut Outdoors LLC Skull Brew Coffee Company Wildwood Outfitters TEXAS Duck Camp FIREDISC Smile Outside Smoke Monkey BBQ WISCONSIN HHA Sports, Inc. Outdoor Professionals Trek Bicycle Corporation

NEW LIFE MEMBERS Alex Berlin Preston Beyer Benjamyn Boyer Buck Bratcher Chance Brewster Hunter Brown Logan Brown Robert Byrne Patrick Campbell Sergio Ciancaglini Amanda Conrad Scott Cook John Cummings Scott Davis

Kirk Deeter Regan Delaney Michael DeLong Steve Featherston Joshua Fortman Ezra Ginzberg Keith Gustafson Zachary Hanson Jeremy Heater Shawn Hines Nurry Hong Anthony F. Jackson Nick Jennings Joshua Kamplin

Peter Kassab Ben Keith Erik Koczorowski Samantha Koczorowski Eric Lain Tom Landwehr Mick Longley Maxwell Madison Michael Mast Daniel May Robert Mckenzie Robert Mollineaux Aaron Mueggenberg Frankie McBurney Olson

Marc Recktenwald John Reid Blake Rentfrow Nicholas Schoch John Squires Derek Stack Jack Swearhart Scott Taulbee David Tuckwiller Jon Utecht Jason Veraldi Adam Wood

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) (S. 748) has an incentive for charitable donations: Charitable Giving Incentive: Includes an above-the-line deduction (universal or non-itemizer deduction that applies to all taxpayers) for total charitable contributions of up to $300. The incentive applies to contributions made in 2020 and would be claimed on tax forms next year. Section 2204. The bill also lifts the existing cap on annual contributions for those who itemize, raising it from 60 percent of adjusted gross income to 100 percent. For corporations, the bill raises the annual limit from 10 percent to 25 percent.

WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 81

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Forging Ahead

My family weathered most of the storm that has been 2020 better than so many less fortunate. We even gained tremendously in 2020 with the birth of our baby girl in July. Our home found new warmth and happiness while we were fully aware of the struggles facing so many.

But loss is seemingly inevitable in life: arrows under leaves, fish slipping off the hook, hunting and fishing buddies who’ve moved away. And in October we joined the long list of people who’d lost in 2020.

An arrow – the first I’d ever released at an elk and from nearly point-blank range – found close to but not quite its intended mark. The bull found its way onto private land and a landowner found it his right to refuse me permission to follow. The buzzards found a meal and reminded me from above that I was not the only one to have lost from the encounter.

Shortly thereafter, the death of my Lab, best friend and No. 1 fishing buddy, Pate, was like being chained to the tracks in front of a slow moving train: Being able to see it coming didn’t mean we could get out of the way. Bracing for impact didn’t make the collision hurt any less.

Pate was a fishing dog from day one. While I have no doubt he would have made an incredible retriever of birds – beaver-sized tail, wolf-sized webbed feet, determined and intelligent – as fate would have it, it would have been short lived; my best buddy beginning to go blind right in his prime at the young age of five.

As was, I struggled to understand how his vision could be taken from him so young and with it so much for me as well.

While our dogs can’t help us decipher meaning from these losses we all will inevitably experience in life, they do seem to provide us with guidance on how to deal with them: carry on with our heads held high.

When Pate was seven, he had one eye and the last sliver of his vision removed surgically to reduce his pain from glaucoma that had developed. The next morning, he woke up, grabbed a squeaky toy and begged to play. Two weeks later, Labor Day weekend, we went backpacking deep into Idaho’s Great Burn area, stitches closing his eye socket, his face still freshly shaven, and a whole lot of navigational relearning to do.

END OF THE LINE

Almost exactly a year later the vet discovered a four-pound tumor on his spleen in a routine checkup. We didn’t know what to do, fearing the end of our time with our buddy would come far too soon. Ultimately, a successful surgery showed the cancerous tumor had not spread. And as soon as we were given the OK for him to swim, we were back on the river.

It often wasn’t easy for him. Blindness. Cancer. Arthritis. Yet, every time I started to feel sorry for him – or me – he’d launch blindly (literally) out of the boat, sniff out a stick, wag his tail and beg for one more throw.

So, with that at the forefront of my mind, I set afoot hours before first light into the Montana woods on the sub-zero second day of Montana’s general elk season. The morning before, on the tail end of a unprecedented early season blizzard that dropped over a foot of snow in the Bitterroot Valley, unbeknown to me a dozen elk had strolled through the back of my small property – me discovering the evidence hours too late. And then I glassed another hunter quartering the muley buck I had been chasing all bow season, my frustration with my empty freezer grew to a tipping point. As another hunter’s headlamp traced me up the mountain the next morning I was faced with a decision: give up and let him pass and spoil my chances, or carry on. Thoughts of my dog spurred me on through the fresh powder and bitter cold darkness. Hours and miles later I was rewarded; a cow elk, my first, fell to my copper bullet, and my freezer would be filled.

Last year my wife bought me my now favorite shirt, which reads “seeing eye human.” As much as I’d like to give myself credit, and while I may have often shown him the way to the water bowl, it was always him showing me the path; the way my dog lived his life ultimately showed me the way to deal with his death.

So much of our loss is, and will always be, beyond our ability to control. Knowing that, I can’t help but be inspired to double down on preventing the loss of the things we hold dear and can control: Wild public lands. Waters. Wildlife. And when we do lose, I’ll remember Pate’s lesson: forge ahead.

-Zack Williams, editor WINTER 2021 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 83

UNFAILING GOODS

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