Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is a forest products company that owns 2.3 million acres of land across California, Oregon and Washington. They are the largest private land owner in California and after a recent acquisition of 175,000 acres of land in Oregon owned by the Seneca Jones Timber Company, they are now the largest private landowner in the nation. Until 2019, SPI had allowed for public access to their lands for hunting, hiking, fishing and cross-country skiing. However, citing ...

The California Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers urges the California Fish & Game Commission to adopt the regulation change proposed by the city of Lompoc to modify the Vandenberg State Marine Reserve (VSMR) to allow certain types of shore fishing along a ½ mile stretch of Surf Beach.  *UPDATE - The petition was referred to the California Department of Fish & Wildlife for review and recommendation As noted in the petition, fishing at Surf Beach has a historic precedent dating back ...

For Americans who live or venture west of the Mississippi River or north to Alaska, no public lands are more important, more abundant or more accessible than those managed by the Bureau of Land Management. We are talking about 247.3 million acres of public land (70 million of them in Alaska). In the Lower 48, this means elk hunting in the Missouri Breaks of Montana, Wyoming’s best pronghorn and mule deer country, quail hunting in the borderlands of New Mexico, and black bear or even bison ...

Most of us have been following the case: four hunters from Missouri who used a homemade ladder to cross from one section of public land to the next without setting foot on private land…and the hard-fought court cases that ensued in Carbon County, Wyoming. It’s a case that may define public access to public lands for decades to come. Yet it is more than that. It’s about the resurgence of privatization of public assets in America, a harsh echo from the Gilded Age. It’s a reminder that ...