After nearly a decade behind the mic and more than 225 episodes digging into the people, places and fights that define our public lands and waters, Hal Herring is stepping away from BHA’s Podcast & Blast and onto his next adventure.

For this final episode, we turn the microphone around.

This episode frames Utah as a microcosm of the broader Western struggle over public trust, private property, and the future of access — where law, history, culture, and conservation all meet at the water’s edge.

In this episode of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Podcast & Blast, host Hal Herring is joined by Lukas Leaf and Matthew Schultz of Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters to unpack what’s really at stake. From the personal experiences that bind people to the Boundary Waters to the complex web of policy, permits, and public process governing its future, this conversation makes one thing clear: after today, none of us can say we didn’t know.

Through photography, storytelling and hard-earned curiosity, this conversation explores why these places matter, why they’re vulnerable, and why building a broader coalition of people who know and care about them may be one of the most important conservation challenges of our time.

Uniting around our shared public lands and waters, whitetails in the East, sage grouse, brook trout and more in the Fall 2025 issue of Backcountry Journal.