September 26th, Public Lands Day and The Alaska Chapter Holds Their Yearly Retreat to Plan the Next Year of Events and Advocacy

There are easier places to hold a board meeting.

There are conference rooms with fluorescent lights, coffee machines, Wi-Fi, and chairs designed to discourage anyone from staying too long.

Then there is the Denali Highway.

For the second year in a row, the Alaska Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers gathered at Susitna Adventure Lodge, home of Squid Acres Kennel, for our annual board retreat. From Friday through Sunday, board members came together to hunt, explore, eat, talk, plan, and spend a little time in the kind of country that reminds us why we do what we do.

A few of us arrived nearby on Thursday to camp for the night, giving us a head start on the weekend and a little extra time to settle into the rhythm of the backcountry.

 

 

Back to the Backcountry

Susitna Adventure Lodge is a pretty fitting place for an Alaska BHA board retreat.

Our hosts, Cody and Paige, have built a life around the same wild landscapes and outdoor traditions that inspire so much of BHA’s work. Cody serves on the Alaska BHA board and is a longtime advocate for public lands. He also runs long-distance sled dog races. Paige has competed in the Iditarod multiple times, and together they operate Squid Acres Kennel.

It is hard to imagine a better setting for a group of public-lands hunters and anglers to spend a weekend talking about the future of Alaska’s backcountry.

And, fortunately, nobody made us sit in a conference room.

Instead, we got outside.

A Little Small Game Hunting

One of the highlights of the weekend was getting out for some small game hunting.

Compared with last year, the hunting was a little slower. We joked that maybe last summer’s drier conditions had something to do with it. This year was considerably wetter, and while we saw more rabbits, we saw fewer ptarmigan.

That is hunting. Some years the birds cooperate. Some years the rabbits seem to have received the memo but the ptarmigan haven’t.

We did see plenty of evidence that we were in wild country, including moose and porcupines, and there was no shortage of things to look at while moving across the landscape.

More importantly, hunting together gave us time to do something that is easy to lose sight of when board work becomes a series of emails, meetings, and policy discussions: experience the places we are working to conserve.

 

 

More Than a Board Meeting

The retreat also brought together a mix of Alaska BHA’s past, present, and future.

Some board members have been involved for years. Others were new to the board and experiencing their first retreat. Getting everyone together in the same place, away from normal jobs, schedules, and distractions, gave us a chance to build relationships and get to know one another outside of a Zoom screen or a committee meeting.

We also made changes to the executive board during the retreat, marking another step in the evolution of the Alaska chapter.

That is part of the value of a retreat like this. Organizations are built by people, and good conservation work depends on people who trust each other, understand one another’s perspectives, and are willing to put in the work together.

Sometimes the best team-building exercise is simply spending three days in the woods with people you may not have known very well before.

Looking for Fish, Finding Possibilities

Not all of our time in the field was spent carrying a shotgun.

We also spent time scouting some incredible country and looking at opportunities for future recreation on public lands. Among the highlights were areas with excellent potential for Arctic grayling fishing during the summer months.

For a chapter focused on public lands, access, and outdoor opportunity, that kind of exploration matters.

BHA’s mission is centered on ensuring North America’s outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in natural settings through education and work on behalf of wild public lands, waters, and wildlife. Access and opportunity, habitat conservation, and responsible stewardship are all central to that work.

Scouting public lands isn’t just about finding the next great fishing hole. It’s about understanding what is out there, what opportunities those places provide, and what makes them worth protecting.

Standing beside a good grayling stream tends to make that mission feel a lot less abstract.

 

 

The Work Between the Adventures

Of course, we did eventually have to talk about BHA business.

The retreat gave the board time to step back from the day-to-day work and think about where the Alaska chapter is headed. We discussed the chapter’s priorities, our role in advocating for public lands and access, and how we can continue building a strong community of hunters, anglers, and backcountry users across Alaska.

That work is at the heart of Alaska BHA.

But a good backcountry retreat isn’t just about meetings and field time. It’s also about what happens around the table at the end of the day.

One night, dinner featured razor clam chowder. Another brought a particularly Alaska-style combination: lynx and grouse curry. Meals like that are part of what makes these retreats memorable, not just because of what’s on the plate, but because of the stories, conversations, and laughs that come with it.

BHA’s work ultimately comes back to the places that make those meals possible: wild country where people can hunt, fish, gather food, and spend time together.

The chapter describes itself as a community of hunters, anglers, and public-land advocates working to safeguard Alaska’s wild public lands, waters, and wildlife, while promoting fair chase, responsible access, ethical land use, and opportunities for hunting, fishing, trapping, and quiet exploration.

Those ideas sound pretty good around a conference table.

They make even more sense when you’re standing on the landscape itself.

Good Hosts, Good Country, Good Company

A retreat is only as good as the people and place hosting it, and we were fortunate to have both.

Cody and Paige once again welcomed us to Susitna Adventure Lodge and gave us the chance to spend a few days immersed in the landscape, the dogs, and the outdoor life that make their home such a special place.

Between hunting, scouting, board discussions, meals, stories, and plenty of time simply sitting around together, the weekend managed to be productive without feeling much like work.

That might be the trick.

We weren’t just talking about public lands. We were using them.

We weren’t just talking about hunting and fishing access. We were experiencing it.

And we weren’t just talking about the importance of community. We were building one.

 

 

Back to Work

By Sunday, it was time to head home.

The rabbits and ptarmigan may not have cooperated quite as well as last year, but the retreat delivered something more important: a board that had spent time together, new relationships among members, renewed connections among longtime board members, a changed executive board, and a better understanding of some of the country and recreational opportunities that surround us.

BHA’s work ultimately comes back to a simple idea: wild public lands, waters, and wildlife are worth protecting because they provide something that can’t be recreated in a conference room.

They give us places to hunt.

Places to fish.

Places to explore.

Places to challenge ourselves.

And places to gather with good people and remember why those things matter.

The Alaska BHA board left Susitna Adventure Lodge with plenty of work ahead—but also with a few more miles under our boots, a few more stories around the campfire, and a renewed appreciation for the wild country we’re here to defend.

We’ll take that.