The Colorado BHA chapter recently appointed several new Chapter Leadership Team members, including Sam Williamson to serve as a Northern Colorado Assistant Regional Director, Gabriela Zaldumbide to serve as Regional Director for the Gunnison Valley region, Lora Heckman to serve as an Assistant Regional Director for Northern Colorado, and Chris Jones to serve as an Assistant Regional Director for Southwest Colorado.

We’re also excited for our (now former) Northern Colorado Co-Regional Director, Kylie Schumacher, who has accepted the Collegiate Coordinator position with BHA and is moving to Missoula! She’s leaving behind some big hunting and angling boots to fill here in Colorado, but we’re happy that she will be helping BHA recruit, educate and retain the next generation of (collegiate) hunter-angler-conservationists

We currently have 30 CLT members and six Groups (i.e., sub-chapters), including: Southeast Colorado (the greater Pueblo/Colorado Springs/Peyton/Monument/Woodland Park/Divide/Florissant area), Northeast Colorado, Northern Colorado, the Denver Metro Area, the Central Rockies (Eagle/Vail/Frisco/Dillon/Steamboat area) and West Slope. Take a look at our group leaders webpage for additional information.

We also have a new Habitat Watch Volunteer, John Pezzin, for the Arapahoe-Roosevelt National Forest. Our chapter currently has 40 boots-on-the-ground HWVs serving as our “eyes and ears” in all eleven Colorado national forests. In addition, as of the end of July, the chapter has organized or participated in some 45 activities and events across the state – including our 11th Annual Colorado BHA Rendezvous – reaching out to current and potential members from the West Slope to the Front Range and Eastern Plains. This has been made possible by our rapidly expanding base of Colorado BHA members (some 2,800 members, up from 2,000 in December 2018) and our second to none boots-on-the-ground volunteers, in combination with a steadily growing team of chapter leaders.

Thanks to the ongoing efforts by Colorado BHA members along with many other sportsmen and women, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission recently voted to expand public access on 500,000 acres of Colorado state trust lands, with 100,000 acres to be made accessible this year! (See the article in the fall Backcountry Journal for more!) Though our work on this issue is far from done, this is a great first step towards achieving the broader state trust land access policy changes that public land sportsmen and women, including Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, have advocated for, for a long time. Colorado BHA also continues to advocate for the Colorado Outdoor Recreation & Economy (CORE) Act, which will protect some 400,000 acres of public lands habitat across Colorado.

“Our ultimate goal is to inspire, empower and inform our boots-on-the-ground members to help them do whatever it is they want to do within the broad parameters of BHA’s wildlands and wildlife protection mission,” said chapter co-chair, David Lien (a former U.S. Air Force officer).

“We want to help ensure that our great public lands hunting and angling heritage is here for future generations of outdoorsmen and women,” added chapter co-chair, Don Holmstrom. “Collectively, when we all do a little, we accomplish a lot!”