News for Immediate ReleaseJuly 13, 2023Contact: Katie McKalip, 406-240-9262, mckalip@backcountryhunters.org Volunteer-driven partnership with private landowner and Game and Fish Commission provides full and permanent legal access to prime fish and wildlife habitat in western Arkansas FORT SMITH, Ark. – The Arkansas chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers achieved a major public access win today, inking the deal on a land purchase that will provide permanent access to thousands of acres of ...

Kali Becher Open Lands Project ManagerMissoula County200 W. BroadwayMissoula, MT 59802 May 3rd, 2023 Re: Marshall Mountain Community Forest and Mountain Park Dear Ms. Becher: I am writing on behalf of Montana Backcountry Hunters & Anglers in strong support of the Marshall Community Forest and Mountain Park project. This project provides a unique opportunity to secure public access to a 480-acre area that would allow for continued recreation and educational uses, protect important forest and ...

Fish & Game Commission voted unanimously to reject a petition that would have closed over 250 miles of nearshore fishing access in California's Central Coast. A petition before the Fish & Game Commission of California proposed to "prohibit take of groundfish shoreward of 100 feet in the West Coast Central Groundfish Management Area year-round." The petitioner cited struggling kelp forests as rationale for the broad fishing closure of nearly 250 miles of California's central coast for iconic ...

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, ...