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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
2013 North American Rendezvous a Huge Success
You know you’ve had a successful event when multiple states area vying to host Rendezvous next year and members are already emailing to find out where it will be! Put simply, Rendezvous 2013 was a smashing success. Members had the opportunity to learn how to be more effective advocates for wild public land, water and quality wildlife habitat; were exposed to the joys of llama packing; found out how to mount that monster mule deer and got to try out traditional archery as a sample of just part of the packed schedule.
Listening to last year’s comments we provided time on Friday night just for folks to visit, share new hunting and fishing stories and get their first peek at live and silent auction items. Saturday was full-tilt with seminars, air gun shooting, traditional archery, book author talks at lunch; kid’s casting and visiting the great booths our vendors provided. Energy throughout the weekend was high and that amazing feeling of being together with good friends for a good cause roared right into our evening banquet, speaker Jason Hairston, and live auction. Thanks to the dedication of so many people from all the chapters, live and silent auction items were top notch. Our professional auctioneer, Chris Brown, and his crew, worked the crowd and helped our members open their hearts and wallets.
Elk Need Staunch Advocates
The following Op-Ed was written by BHA's own Greg Munther, in partnership with Gayle Joslin of Helena Hunters and Anglers; Casey Hackathorn of Hellgate Hunters and Anglers; Skip Kowalski of the Montana Wildlife Federation; and Kathy Lloyd of the Clancy Unionville Task Force. An original version of this article can be found here.
Elk hunting is more than a hobby to Montanans. It is a way of life for many Montana elk hunters that are growing concerned about plans for managing the Helena National Forest, especially its standards for big-game habitat.
Elk hunting brings friends together, gets us outdoors, provides healthy meat for our families, and generates revenue for our economy. This is why it is hard to understand the rationale for the recent proposal to lessen the Helena National Forest’s own requirements to provide critically important elk security in the upper Blackfoot River drainage.
Practically all elk hunters use motorized vehicles to get to the woods, and then burn boot leather to get close to their prey. We all need motorized access, to a point. Hunters need access to quality habitat. But when habitat suffers, elk hunters lose opportunity and “access” becomes meaningless.
All animals, including elk, need quality habitat to provide food, water, shelter from the elements and security cover.
BHA National Update on State Legislation
The following is a summary of state legislation that chapters have been working on during the current legislative session, relevant to public land habitat management, public access to wildlife and the protection of sporting traditions.
As you know, a single piece of state legislation can have a major impact (good or bad) on the state’s fish, wildlife, and sportsmen. That’s why it’s so important that members like you remain informed and engaged on relevant state legislation.
As should be evident from the examples below, BHA state chapters have had no shortage of legislation to weigh-in on. BHA continues to serve a much needed bipartisan voice of reason on the most important issues for those of us who value hunting and fishing that is wild and open to all.
Thanks to all who continue to work on these important issues – we couldn’t do it without you.
Colorado:
Support SB 67: OHV Enforcement by Wildlife Officers
Currently on the Governor’s desk and ready to be signed, CO BHA testified in support of reauthorization of legislation (HB08-1069) which gives state wildlife officers the authority to enforce off-highway vehicle regulations on federal lands. For more information on this legislation and BHA’s position, click here.
New Mexico Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Applauds Permanent Protection of the Rio Grande del Norte
ALBUQUERQUE, NM— Locally and nationally hunters and anglers today applaud President Barack Obama’s decision to designate the Rio Grande del Norte area as a National Monument.
This designation will ensure that quality hunting and fishing for this unique area will be preserved for present and future generations. The regions’ rich sporting traditions are what they are because the fish and wildlife habitat remains largely intact and monument designation will ensure that development such as oil and gas or mining will not occur.
“There are many great public lands to hunt in New Mexico, but what makes the Rio Grande del Norte unique is the wide variety of wildlife that it offers, combined with the area’s overwhelming natural beauty. It truly is some remarkable country and fishing in the spectacular Rio Grande Box is a special experience” said Laddie Mills, a longtime New Mexican hunter and angler.
Retired Senator Jeff Bingaman, Senator Tom Udall, Senator-elect Martin Heinrich and Representative Ben Ray Lujan urged President Obama to make the designation and even sponsored legislation to protect the 240,000 acres of BLM land that lies north and west of Taos. This past December, Senators Bingaman and Udall sent a letter to Obama urging him to use his powers under the Antiquities Act to make the designation because the 112th session of congress was grid locked – none of pending public land bills were passed in the 2 year session
Exclusive Interview with Randy Newberg
You may know him from his hit TV show "On Your Own Adventures", or from the popular hunting forum "Hunt Talk", or as a founding board member of Orion, The Hunters Institute. Regardless of how you know Randy Newberg, it’s impossible to miss his energetic defense of the principles upon which our hunting heritage depends – public ownership and access to wildlife, wild backcountry habitat, fair chase hunting and a do-it-yourself spirit. Randy serves a much-needed voice for the average public land hunter in a media industry otherwise dominated by hunting footage that threatens the hunter’s namesake, rather than propping it up. Recently named “2013 Sportsman of the Year” by the Sportsman Channel, it’s clear that the popularity of Randy’s message has not gone unnoticed.
BHA owes a debt of gratitude to Randy for helping to carry the value of public roadless backcountry habitat and hunting opportunities to sportsmen everywhere. We are grateful for his generosity to the organization and are honored to host him at the International Sportsmen’s Expo in Salt Lake City (3/14-17). If you plan on being at the show, be sure to join BHA and Randy Newberg for a social at 7:00 PM, Saturday, March 16 at The Studios at Jordan Commons, 9400 S State St. Sandy, UT 84070. There will be free refreshments and a free showing of previously unreleased hunting films. For more information on the gathering, click here.
We recently had the opportunity to catch-up with Randy and ask him a few questions about his passion for hunting and conservation. If you have questions you’d like to ask Randy yourself, be sure to stop by BHA’s booth at ISE in Salt Lake City, Thur-Sun, where Randy will be giving out free DVD’s to all new BHA members.
When, where and how did you start hunting? Who were your mentors?