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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
Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Proudly Present: Steven Rinella!
Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers host an evening with Steven Rinella – hunter, author and TV star of the Sportsman Channel’s Meat Eater. Rinella will share adventures from his new book Meat Eater, a candid compilation of stories from Rinella’s intriguing life as a young trapper, hunter and wild-meat-eater. The event will feature an impressive array of door prizes including: rifle scopes and optics from Vortex, knives and hunting tools from Havalon and Real Avid, hunting apparel from First Lite and game processing certificates from Arapahoe Meats.
MeatEater’s Steven Rinella Names BHA as Key Conservation Group
The Sportsman Channel
The “Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s Conservation Field Notes,” features Rinella on location talking about key conservation issues related to that hunt. Recently, while in the Blue Range Primitive Area in eastern Arizona, Rinella spoke about the key values of roadless areas to wildlife and sportsmen and named BHA as a go-to group for habitat protection:
“Roadless areas provide crucial, undisturbed habitat…They give big game animals such and deer and elk a place to go to escape the intense hunting pressure in adjacent parts of the National Forest. That lets some big game animals like deer and elk reach full maturity and growth – something that’s great for hunters like me, who love to see truly magnificent specimens of our favorite big game species… Roadless areas allow sportsmen and all Americans a chance to enjoy a pristine wilderness setting that is free of the hassle and noise of modern life. Roadless areas allow us to escape humanity in order to feel human again. If you want to find out how to protect our hunting and fishing opportunities in roadless areas…check out the website of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.”
Thanks, Steven, we couldn’t have said it better!
To view Steven Rinella in “TRCP’s Conservation Field Notes,” please click here.
Sportsmen Support Visible OHV Identification
Have you ever had a hunting or fishing trip ruined by illegal OHV-use? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could identify the violator?
In a Denver Post Opinion piece titled “Who was that masked man on the Four-Wheeler”, Colorado BHA life member Bill Sustrich described having six elk hunts ruined by illegal OHV-use. Bill
argued that “from my conversations with other sportsmen, I know I am not alone — and we're getting fed up with it.” Turns out, Bill was right, he is not alone.
In a letter urging Colorado’s Congressional leadership to consider standardizing visible OHV identification, over 40 sportsmen organizations and businesses, and 85 unassociated individuals publicly supported a nationally standardized visible OHV identification. Similar support was garnered by BHA in New Mexico, where approximately 1,000 individuals, many of whom are OHV-users, as well as 18 sportsmen and conservation organizations submitted letters to New Mexico’s decision makers. BHA is also working to develop similar support among sportsmen in Neveda. Sportsmen from across the country are sending a clear message to decision makers – visible OHV identification is a crucial, yet missing, component of responsible OHV management that is negatively impacting the integrity of our sporting heritage.
Colorado BHA Supports Wilderness Protection of Brown's Canyon
Located in Central Colorado, Brown's Canyon provides unique low-elevation big game habitat and excellent fishing with a truly rugged landscape. 
The Arkansas River, which runs through Brown’s Canyon, offers quality backcountry trout fishing opportunities. In addition, Brown’s Canyon provides excellent wildlife habitat for a variety of species including elk, deer and bighorn sheep. For maps outlining wildlife habitat in the area, click the links below.
Elk Habitat - Mule Deer Habitat - Bighorn Sheep Habitat
Click here for a video highlighting hunting and fishing opportunities in the Brown’s Canyon area. (photo courtesy of Jamin Grigg)
BHA Members Speak Up Against “The Border Bill” (HR 1505)
Watch the video links below of MN BHA members speaking out against HR 1505:
By giving the Department of Homeland Security sweeping control of all federal lands within 100 miles of a federal border, the Border Bill would exclude sportsmen’s input from projects affecting the border lands upon which many of us depend. Some of the more problematic provisions within HR 1505 include:
- Section 2(b) - (b) Would give The Secretary of Homeland Security immediate access to any public land managed by the Federal Government for purposes of conducting activities that assist in securing the border, including access to maintain and construct roads, construct a fence, use vehicles to patrol, and set up monitoring equipment (includes designated wilderness and roadless lands).
- Section 2(c) Would exempt the Department of Homeland Security from 36 federal environmental regulations for the activities listed in 2(b).
For a map of Federal lands impacted by HR 1505, click here. The bill text can be found here and further discussion on HR 1505 can be found here.