Two proposals with competing visions for the tens of millions in taxes that Montana collects annually on the sale of recreational marijuana are still making their way through the Legislature as lawmakers work to set a two-year state budget. One measure, House Bill 669, would funnel most of the state’s adult-use marijuana tax collections — which are forecast to top $50 million per year — to the General Fund, allowing lawmakers to distribute that money as they see fit on a session-by-session ...

BHA is once again rallying support behind the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act recently reintroduced by Representative Salud Carbajal (CA-24). This legislation would add nearly 250,000 acres of wilderness areas and designate 159 miles of wild and scenic rivers in California's Central Coast. Securing permanent wilderness protections for these portions of Los Padres National Forest and the Carrizo Plain National Monument will ensure conservation of important habitat and hunting and ...

Importance of Engagement- What can you do? Whether you’ve been in Washington your whole life or just moved here recently now is the time. If you’ve always been immersed in the out of doors or have only recently discovered your connection with it, this is your time as well. More than even, now it is time to engage in the decision-making process for all the future opportunities this state holds. The WDFW commission meetings are your opportunity to voice your thoughts on what matters to you, ...

Montana's legislature meets for only 90 days every two years, but the amount of work that goes into a single abbreviated session is mind-blowing. In just a few short months during its 2023 session, more than 200 bills dealing with fish and wildlife management, public access, conservation funding and fair chase hunting and fishing opportunities will have been introduced and considered in Helena. On this week's Podcast & Blast, we sit down with Jake Schwaller and John Sullivan of the Montana ...

When Drew Hanes thinks about the worst disputes over blocked public access she’s encountered in her career, she recalls the time when her friends found themselves arguing with an angry Montana landowner instead of hunting antelope. "In Montana we have a history of leasing BLM land to large ranches [for grazing]," says Hanes, the executive director for the Public Land Water Access Association. "My friends were hunting on this BLM land and the owner of the leases came out and said 'I own this, ...