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Our Passion
Hunting and fishing isn’t what we do – it’s who we are. Backcountry Hunters & Anglers celebrate the great American tradition of testing your personal boundaries amid the solitude of the wilds. We understand the urgent need to speak up for those irreplaceable experiences if we want that kind of opportunity for future generations.
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Protecting Habitat
As students of nature, hunters know that adequate and healthy habitat is the foundation of healthy wildlife populations. In the end, our freedom to hunt and fish depends on habitat. Native wildlife has both intrinsic value and is often reflected in the health and quality of habitat itself.
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Standing Up for Your Rights
We are “boots on the ground” hunters and fisherman, standing up for quiet experiences in wild habitats, entirely removed from the disturbances of crowds and machines. We enjoy the wonder and adventure of the pristine outdoors with our friends and families – and work to defend and expand quality opportunities for hunting and fishing.
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Engaged Membership
We help sportsmen around the country be effective, protective voices for the wild habitat essential to quality hunting and fishing opportunities. Our membership is actively engaged, and our voices are trusted and respected.
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Backcountry Guardians
We combat threats to the wild, quiet habitat that support our traditional hunting and fishing opportunities and access. We stand up to off-road vehicle abuse of public land and wildlife, as well as those who would abuse our habitat and water for commercial gain. Our networks of on-the-ground volunteers help report abuse and comment on issues impacting our public lands.
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Vigilant Advocates
We constantly identify critical projects to improve access and habitat, applying our values, and developing beneficial relationships with private property owners, local agencies and community leaders.
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Active Educators
We educate and inform our membership, the public and decision-makers through our website and our publications and one-on-one communication. Our quarterly magazine, Backcountry Journal is a forum for member stories, state activities, and the most pressing issues we face.
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Watch Our Video
We speak for traditional hunting and angling interests, the voice of sportsmen who love truly wild places: the home of a real backcountry experience.
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Welcome to Backcountry Hunters and Anglers
“Science You Can Use” – An Update from the USFS Bulletin About the Pine Beetle Epidemic
Could there be a benefit to the beetle epidemic sweeping forests of the West? A recent research paper from the Rocky Mountain Research Station suggests that in the wake of the widespread tree death, new structural complexity and species diversity may arise.
To view a PDF of the full Bulletin, click here. Or, read the summary:
BHA Supports the "HUNT Act"
Ensuring a future with free, public hunting and fishing access is central to Backcountry Hunters & Anglers work and mission. So we were glad to hear about a recent effort to improve the level of freedom that sportsmen enjoy, by providing access to “locked-up” public lands – lands that are held by the public, but which the public cannot use.
“The HUNT Act” (The Hunt Unrestricted on our National Treasures Act) is legislation aimed at opening access to “locked-up” public lands, where private landowners have blocked traditional access, or where public lands are completely surrounded by private landholdings, with no way in.
Take for example the Sabinoso Wilderness Area in New Mexico; an entire wilderness area surrounded by private land owners who refuse to allow even foot access across their land; or the Troublesome Creek Wilderness Study Area in Colorado, which has had access blocked by a subdivision of vacation homes; or one of the many parcels of land-locked BLM land that checkerboard much of Western Oregon. For most of us, it’s not difficult to come up with an example of an unfishable ‘public’ trout stream, or a well-used elk hide-out owned by the public, but only accessible to those who own the land around it .
American families have been blessed with millions of acres of accessible public lands on which to hunt, fish and recreate. However, as development pressures and human populations inevitably increase so will the importance of ensuring that access to our public lands is available to the sporting public.
Recent studies validate this point, showing that access is the number one issue facing hunters nationwide. That’s why this bill is so important and that’s why “if any bill deserves to pass Congress, this one does” (Ben Lamb in Outdoor Life).
The HUNT Act would:
- Direct federal land managers to identify “landlocked” pieces of federal land or pieces of federal land where access is significantly hampered by private lands. These are lands where hunting and other recreation is technically allowed, but practically impossible.
- List access to public land on the land management agency websites, so everyone knows where they have a right to travel.
- Set aside 1.5 percent of the Land & Water Conservation Fund toward travel easements or small land purchases that would allow access to those parcels.
BHA Helps U.S. Forest Service Improve Elk Hunting & Habitat in Central Colorado
The Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers has partnered with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Trout Unlimited (TU) to improve native cutthroat habitat, elk habitat and elk hunter success on National Forest lands Southwest of Yampa, Colorado. With BHA’s help, the U.S. Forest Service will block and restore 25 miles of illegal, non-system motorized routes. The project serves as a model for how proper travel management planning and implementation can help improve fish and wildlife habitat, while also improving hunter success.
In the early 2000’s CPW wildlife managers identified low hunter success on public lands in the area, along with high game damage claims on adjacent private lands, as an issue the needed to be addressed. After careful analysis, staff from the USFS determined that illegal motorized vehicle use was a large part of the problem.
Elk were being driven from public lands onto adjacent private lands by illegal Off-Highway Use (OHV), during hunting season, as well as during the summer. Some years, this resulted in game damage claims amounting $60,000 for a single ranch – money generated through hunting and fishing licenses that could have otherwise been put towards fish and wildlife habitat. Further, while the area is home to the largest elk herd in North America, hunter success in the area was consistently below the state average.
Washington Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Spearheads Sportsmen Roundtables
In an effort to identify common priorities among sportsmen, Washington Backcountry Hunters & Anglers is coordinating a series of roundtable meetings with sportsmen throughout the state. Through this process, WA BHA and a variety of sportsmen and conservation interests will work to educate Washington’s Congressional candidates about key issues affecting sportsmen. Some of the groups invited to participate include Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Trout Unlimited. Current Issues identified for discussion include:
- Funding of the Land & Water Conservation Fund
- Concerns about loss of access, habitat and public input as a result of the Border Bill (HR 1505)
- Need for improved access to inaccessible public lands
WA Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and the sportsmen roundtable will ask that each of the candidates publicly take a position on each of these issues. With this information, it is our hope that sportsmen can make well-informed choices for the candidates who best represent their interests.
As an organization of sportsmen dedicated to protecting free access, prime backcountry habitat and the sportsmen voice, BHA will continue to ensure voters know where each candidate stands on these very important issues.