Update: On April 21st, Governor Gianforte sent HB 635 back to lawmakers with amendments. One of those was to triple the number of licenses given to nonresident landowners owning 2,500 acres. So instead of one deer/elk license being given per 2,500 acres owned (up to five), Gov. Gianforte wants all nonresident landowners who own 2,500 acres or more to get three deer/elk licenses. The explanation we got for the change was an attempt to further address hunter crowding by giving more licenses to ...

After a new mining company recently announced that it intends to develop a rare-earth metals mine in the headwaters of the Bitterroot River, the Bitterroot National Forest issued a statement saying it hadn’t received a mining application from the company. At the end of January, U.S. Critical Materials Corp. announced it had discovered "the highest-grade (rare-earth element) deposit in the United States" among its 223 mining claims near the confluence of Sheep Creek and the West Fork of the ...

Samantha Lutz grew up in a small town in Clarion County, PA, and now resides in Wampum, PA. She is a mother, biologist, avid hiker, and overall outdoor enthusiast. From an early age, she was drawn to the water and loved exploring the creek behind her house or the Clarion River at her family’s camp. Her father and grandfathers instilled in her the simple treasures of camping, fishing, and hunting. She has carried these passions into adulthood and seeks opportunities to get out into and help ...

A request for appropriation (RFA) called “Wildlife Highway Mitigation” was approved by the Utah Legislature in the 2023 Legislative Session budget. This funding request was for $20M of State funds to be allocated to the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) explicitly for wildlife highway mitigation efforts including the construction of wildlife overpasses, underpasses, and fencing. The Utah Chapter of BHA was very supportive of this RFA during the Session, and was even featured on a KUTV ...

The Colorado chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers recently appointed Lewis French as an Assistant Regional Director for the Central West Slope Group. Lew was born in Long Island, New York, and raised in West Newbury, Vermont. “I started hunting at age 12 protecting our vegetable garden from wood chucks,” Lew said. “No one in my family hunted but there was a vintage copy of ‘Camping and Woodcraft’ by Horace Kephart in the house that I read many times.” He attended college at the ...