Minnesota BHA Wins 2026 Outdoor Leaders Award for Public Lands Stewardship

The Minnesota Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers received the Outdoor News Outdoor Leaders Award for 2026 at the Game Fair in Ramsey, Minnesota. The award is presented annually to Minnesota outdoor organizations, chapters, or clubs that have made influential contributions to benefit the outdoor community.

Minnesota BHA’s winning submission focused on two of its 2026 land stewardship projects. The first was a hunter-walker trail restoration project in the Superior National Forest that took place in June. The project, led by board member Timo Rova of Ely, improved a section of trail that had fallen into disrepair due to wildfire, budget reductions, and staffing shortages. In July, BHA members and volunteers removed obsolete wire fencing and fence posts at Keystone Woods Wildlife Management Area in a project that consolidated fragmented habitat, removed hazards to wildlife, and enabled easier access for future land management efforts.

In front of a crowd gathered beneath the main seminar tent, Game Fair event coordinator, Ron Hustvedt, Jr., invited the six Minnesota BHA board members present onto the stage and shared with the audience details of the projects that helped earn them this year’s award. Greg Kvale, the co-vice chair of policy and a member of the Minnesota chapter since it was founded  in 2010, received the plaque on behalf of the chapter. “We are your boots on the ground and we are your voice in the halls of government,” said Kvale. “Our banner says ‘Keep Public Lands in Public Hands’ and that’s what we as a board stand for. We will be there to protect your rights to hunt, fish, gather, and recreate on public land. Anytime there is a threat to your public lands, we will be there and we will stand up.”

The stewardship projects conducted by Minnesota BHA were a direct response to requests from its members to organize more opportunities to put boots on the ground  in the service of public lands. In his closing comments, Kvale echoed the sentiment of Minnesota BHA’s membership by saying, “We are an organization that wants your boots and your voice.” With the positive response to its stewardship events, the Minnesota BHA board will look to identify additional projects in the future as opportunities to bring members together and to make a positive impact on public lands and waters.