Ian Isaacson
Co-Chair
Born and raised in Michigan, Ian now calls Bend home where with a degree in Landscape Architecture, works for the Bend Park & Recreation District as a Landscape Architect. Like so many sportsmen and women across this state, he grew up hunting and fishing primarily on public lands and waters. In 2012, after reading an Outdoor Life magazine article naming Bend the #1 town for sportsmen, his sense of adventure took over and he, his now wife Devin and their Springer Spaniel Archer packed up and made the 2,300 mile trip to Bend that Summer. Since taking the biggest, scariest and most amazing chance of their lives, many of Ian and Devin’s most cherished memories have come while hunting, camping and exploring some of Oregon’s most wild and scenic places.
In the Spring and Summer months, you will find Ian on weekend adventures with Devin, wetting a line in the nearest stream, chasing gobbling Toms and continuously talking about the upcoming fall hunting season (Devin can verify this). Come fall and winter, Ian will be doing one of three things; chasing deer and elk, trying to keep up with Archer and Atlas (his Yellow Labrador Retriever and the only native born Oregonian in the family) as they find and flush birds and playing ice hockey.
No matter the season, one common thread weaves many of Ian’s passions and loves together, our wild public lands and waters. Fighting to maintain and enhance access to, and the habitat of, these wild places for all citizens and wildlife is why Ian is proud to serve as the Board Co-Chair for the Oregon Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.
Elijah Brown
Co-Chair
Elijah—or Eli—is a native Oregonian, raised in the the town of Detroit, right in the middle of the Willamette National Forest, where he grew up hunting and fishing. His childhood was spent outdoors, often hunting, fishing, or scouting (both for animals in the off-season and in pursuit of his Eagle Scout honor). After high school, he started at Linn- Benton Community College and Oregon State University. He took a break and had short stints in Colorado and Kansas. He then moved to east Idaho where he met his wife, Rebekah, and earned a degree in Political Science and a minor in Animal Science from BYU–Idaho. He moved back to Oregon to attend law school at Willamette University and then opened a law practice in Albany.
He is the father of two rowdy boys—who have both inherited a love and passion for the outdoors. Eli believes that every season—no matter how cold or hot—is ripe for outdoor adventures. In the spring, he likes to chase gobblers, hunt spring bear, and pursue salmon; in the summer, he and his family are camping, hiking, and cooking fresh trout over a campfire, or exploring hard-to-reach places in their Jeeps; in the fall, Eli is going after every fall game species available, his favorite being the ever-elusive blacktail deer; and in the winter, he is chasing ducks and winter chrome. Nearly all of his hunting and fishing success has been on public lands and waters and he plans for his kids to follow suit. His lifelong love and enjoyment of public lands drew him to Backcountry Hunters & Anglers where he is committed to preserving the public lands such as those from his childhood for his children and the public, generally.
Alex Markgraff
Treasurer
A midwest native, Alex has called Oregon home for over two decades and currently resides in the Portland metro area with his wife. After an introduction to upland hunting in his teenage years, Alex began to explore other hunting opportunities in Oregon alongside his father and now spends much of his free time in the more sparsely populated corners of the State. Alex has since developed a healthy addiction to Chukar hunting and added two dogs (Daphne & Eva) to his family. While not following his dogs, he enjoys spending time in the spring Turkey woods and camping with friends and family.
Alex was drawn to BHA through an appreciation for the expanse of public lands in Oregon and the desire to preserve the bounty of those same lands. Alex is a graduate of Oregon State University.
Nic Callero
Policy Director
A Pacific NW native and University of Oregon graduate, Nic has worked the majority of his professional career in the land and wildlife conservation realm. Working 7 years for the National Wildlife Federation Nic organized sportsmen and women around a variety of conservation issues such as climate legislation, LWCF funding, and place based public lands protection campaigns. It was not uncommon to find Nic wandering the halls of the Senate and House buildings in Washington DC with Oregonian hunters and anglers in tow bird dogging Members of Congress. Currently Nic works for a non profit that focusses on cultivating new state and federal policy that identifies and protects big game migration corridors across the West.
When he is not in the office he is either backcountry salmon and steelhead fishing somewhere in the coastal rainforest, chasing blacktail, elk hunting, rock climbing in the Pacific Cascades, while preparing to soon teach all of these to his young daughter Mia.
Tristan Henry
Policy Director
Tristan grew up on a farm in Oregon’s Yamhill Valley. In the wetlands and in the woods every day after school, he was free to explore, hunt and fish and learn on his own the natural side of the world's order. He cultivated a passion for the natural world that is as persistent now as ever.
Upon graduating from Oregon State University, Tristan moved to central Oregon to work in the Outdoor Industry. Now, still in Bend, he is the Managing Member of a small Digital Marketing Agency. He and his wife, Samantha find great pleasure in hunting and foraging and have been living off the land for several years. In all his pursuits, Tristan is fascinated by the learning process and he expresses that enthusiastically in the mountains and in the kitchen and hopes to help others realize the richness we share when we take the time to appreciate our place in the world.
Like many, Tristan relies largely on #PublicLands his hunting, fishing, and other assorted outdoor endeavors, and he's proud to help lead Oregon BHA in protecting and improving the public ecologies and institutions we all depend on.
Morgan Olson
Conservation/Habitat Director
Born and raised in Oregon. Grew up in the Gresham area and then moved to LaGrande to attend college at Eastern Oregon University. Graduated from Oregon State University with a degree Range Management and Crop Science.
Morgan is involved in a number of outdoor related groups which support public access for hunting and fishing...
- President of the Union/Wallowa County Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association
- Chairmen of ODFW Access and Habitat East Region
- ODFW Bear and Cougar Agent
- Member of Wallow Mountains Hells Canyon Trails Association
Morgan is a strong supporter of multi-use on public land, sustainable forestry and grazing management, and ensuring that public land stays public. “Everyone needs to have their place to recreate on public lands…I choose to spend most of my time in the backcountry so it’s important to me that we preserve these resources for current and future generations to experience”.
In his spare time you will find Morgan in a drift boat stocking trout and steelhead, leading a pack string, running his hounds, hunting and fishing across the Western US and around the world.
Joel Strimling
Communications Director
Joel Strimling is a lifelong Oregonian who grew up fishing and exploring the wilds. His first memory of a hunt fish forage lifestyle was catching a 17-inch trout with his dad when he was three. From then he was hooked (pun intended). He became heavily involved in fishing and fisheries conservation working for fly shops, with online groups, and ODFW. After shedding his trout bum exterior, he began to exclusively pursue salmon and steelhead mostly on the fly rod.
He proudly wears the badge of “adult onset hunter” starting pursue of all prey large and small in his adult years to be better involved in his food, wilderness, and conservation. When you don’t find him in the river or afield, you’ll often find him either in the kitchen crafting up new wild game recipes or behind a camera trying to capture elusive moments of others pushing their limits of their craft. He has been featured in Carnivore Magazine and has articles and photos in a number of periodicals.
Joel is a passionate advocate of public lands and the hunter’s voice and lifestyle.
Jamie Dawson
Secretary
Jamie was born in the (original) State of Jefferson, somewhere between the volcanoes of the Cascades and the salty forests of the coast. She's fished for as long as she can remember and cherishes those still moments on the water, especially during the summertime golden hour in canyon country. She was introduced to hunting in Alaska, where nearly everyone seamlessly transitions between fishing for reds, picking mushrooms, and stalking caribou, moose, and dall sheep.
Jamie has been fortunate to live and work in some of the West’s most beautiful and remote landscapes, including northwestern Montana and Alaska’s Copper River basin. Many of her most important moments in life have taken place on public lands and waters. For that reason and many others, she has a deep commitment to fighting for wild places, the waters that run through them, and the critters that depend on them. She lives in Wallowa Co with her partner Tyler and their dog Beans.
Northwest Region Director I - OPEN
Northwest Region Director II - OPEN
Matthew Newberg
Northwest Region Director III
Matthew (or Matt) was born and raised in Bozeman, Montana where he grew up hunting and fishing. After a series of stops in New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, he landed in Portland, OR. He spends most of spring and summer with a line in the water and fall and winter chasing ducks or big game. His biggest regret of moving to Oregon was not buying a bigger freezer.
Matthew has a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from UNC. He's best known in hunting circles as part of the team behind Fresh Tracks, which creates entertaining and educational hunting content. Since summer of 2021 he has worked full time for Fresh Tracks, which provides a lot of flexibility to explore what Oregon has to offer.
BHA attracted Matthew because of its focus on public lands and being a welcoming place for new hunters and anglers. He especially wants to help those who discovered hunting and fishing as an adult.
Kelly Warren
Northwest Region Director III
Kelly is a native Oregonian who grew up in Philomath on the edge of the Willamette Valley and the Oregon Coastal range. He grew up hunting and fishing with his grandfather and dad on a piece of property they still own/manage and often utilizes public lands in numerous states. From an early age his passions were waterfowl and elk whether it was studying, scouting, photographing, or hunting them.
His connection and respect for the game he pursues inspired his study focus at Linfield College and his masters at Portland State University. During his master’s he spent three summers in Alaska’s public lands helping with waterfowl surveys. He has worked for state and tribal government focusing on acquisitions, easements, restoration, and policy, some of which formed new public lands. He now works for Ducks Unlimited Inc. focusing on wetlands and water restoration projects with a diversity of partners in the Willamette Valley and Oregon coast with a significant diversity of federal, state, NGO, Tribes and other entities on conserving, enhancing and restoring private and public lands.
Kelly’s wife Malori and Daughter Shaylee share his passion for the outdoors as a family. Hiking, rafting, camping, traveling, and the occasional family hunting trip along with Kelly’s retriever Moxie and Malori’s cattle dog Levi. In addition to his outdoor passions; Kelly enjoys cooking the game he harvests and advocating for the outdoor lifestyle and Oregon’s diversity of habitat and lands!
Justin Gindlesperger
Southwest Region Director I
Justin was born and raised in western Pennsylvania; although, a few centuries behind the westward expansion he began his own westward journey after college. His love of adventure and wild places led him first to Colorado and then on to Oregon. With ample places to roam, Justin is a 4-season athlete and you can find him hunting, fishing, hiking, running or skiing – sometimes combining more than 1 on a single trip – in the mountains of Southern Oregon where he calls home.
He’s been fortunate to call several states home and soon realized that hunting, fishing and an understanding of the outdoors is not a given. But there’s a common thread that can unite a lot of different groups – public lands. When he saw an ad for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, he found an exciting group of sportsmen and women lending a new voice for conservation.
Justin is eager to share his passion with others and he’s happy to teach new hunters the ropes or share the harvest with his skeptical, largely vegetarian, neighbors. He’s been fortunate to share many great memories hunting with his dad and his wife, and looks forward to passing the torch to his 4 kids.
Stephen Maher
Southwest Region Director II
Stephen is an architect, a wannabe hunter, and an avid fly angler. He came to Oregon in 2010 by way of Pennsylvania and New York for two reasons: to enroll at the University of Oregon and to enjoy all the public land this great state has to offer. After a year stint in Germany and three others in Ohio, Stephen returned to Oregon in 2018 and has been exploring its rivers and streams with a passion since. Nowadays, when not running or biking the local trails with his pitbull-bulldog mutt, working on thehouse, or playing with his seven year old step-son, you can catch him chasing steelhead, trout, or just about anything that swims with a fly rod rod in hand (or tying flies for the next adventure). Stephen lives in Eugene with his fiancée, kiddo, and pooch. He grateful to join the ORBHA board and assist giving a voice to the hunters, anglers, and beloved wildlife of this great state.
Karl Findling
Central Region Director I
I grew up in Ontario,Oregon, near the confluence of the Owyhee and Snake Rivers, where desert meets the mountains. I started an outdoor-life style at a young age following my father, a gunsmith, boat builder, and back country hunter, who loved fishing, chasing big game and upland birds.Taking my first buck at age 12, in a remote area of eastern Oregon.
I want to provide practical advice to BHA members, in order to share my experiences that have made my soul richer, and made me a stronger person. I want to advocate for Wilderness, open spaces, clean water, common-sense public lands management, and work to protect those lands and values.
I’m currently the Vice President, for the non-profit, Friends of Hart Mountain, Board of Directors, and a Habitat Ambassador, for the Oregon Chapter, of BHA. I have previously served for over a year as the Lands Conservation Director, for Oregon Hunters Association, after time on the Board of Directors, as the southeastern Oregon, Representative. Previous to those non-profit positions, I served as the Consumptive and Mechanized Representative, for the Steens Mountain Advisory Council (SMAC), Burns district, BLM. I worked for BHA, as the Initial Owyhee Sportsmen Coordinator, for six months, after volunteering as a Representative At-Large, for BHA.
I have participated in three fly-ins to Washington D.C., advocating for Owyhee Canyonlands protections, and advocated for full-funding, for the Land Water and Conservation Fund.
I’m the owner, and co-founder of Oregon Pack Works, a product design company based in Bend, Oregon. With emphasis on hunting products, such as the BinoBro® binocular control harness, and the modular and interchangeable Greengate®, pack system.
Lifetime Member: Traditional Archers of Oregon, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and Oregon Hunters Association.
Dan Scofield
Central Region Director III
Like many, Dan’s a transplant from the midwest that landed in Oregon and never looked back. In this case however, growing up in Ohio didn’t come with the advantage of an outdoorsy family passing down a generations-long hunting tradition. Until age 22, Dan’s idea of camping was staying in his grandparents’ trailer, starting fires with newspaper, driving a golf cart to the indoor pool, and the occasional muddy lake bluegill.
Dan’s westward migration was for grad school and bikes, the natural beauty that is the majority of Oregon still completely unknown, though he did find himself immediately enamored with the view of Mt Hood from Portland, thinking “it can’t be that hard to get up there.” And that thought set in motion a late-onset lifelong passion for the outdoors. From mountain biking to climbing to paddling to mountaineering, Dan’s now a decent outdoors generalist looking for a more conscious immersion into the ecosystems we participate in — whether we know it or not — when we recreate.
Enter hunting. Dan came to hunting at the ripe old age of 29 with an ethical dilemma about eating meat. Not happy with the state of industrial agriculture (be honest, who is?), he saw two very clear options: go vegetarian or harvest your own protein. While the decision to hunt isn’t easy, it’s nothing compared to actually learning how to do it, especially late in life. Now a handful of years later, Dan’s a “jack-of-all-species” hunter, master of none. Through many ups and downs, he’s proud to have found success from birds to big game. He loves any day spent in the woods or up a hill and is stoked to help more people get out there.
Taylor McCroskey
Eastern Region Director I
Taylor was born and raised in southeastern tip of Washington State, at the confluences of the Snake and Clearwater rivers. He grew up spending his childhood engrossed in the great outdoors rafting, backpacking, fishing and exploring all the the wilds of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. These experiences greatly shaped his life and why he holds these places so dear to his heart, trying to share these places and experiences with others in the hopes that they to will find as much deep-seated passion and solace in them.
While attending undergraduate college to go to into physical therapy, an interest in fly fishing developed and once he caught his first steelhead on a swung fly he was hooked! He changed his college major to fisheries management and never looked back. Taylor went on to a fly fishing steelhead junkie and fished all over the PNW for steelhead, including even going up to fish the fabled rivers of BC on a DIY trip. He was also a fly-fishing guide while in graduate school, which provided him the opportunity to teach others about conservation while at the same time how to fish. He went on to get a bachelor’s and master’s degree in fisheries management, moving to Oregon to work for ODFW as a fisheries biologist on the Deschutes River and in eastern Oregon to protect and manage fish populations to provide the opportunity for others that was so instrumental in changing his life.
Not growing up in a hunting family, Taylor first was first exposed to hunting in the pheasant fields in eastern Washington via childhood friend’s dad and that experience provided the spark to further his curiosity. One of his lifelong childhood dreams was to bow hunt for elk, after listening to them bugle on night on a camping trip when he was a kid, and he started to learn to hunt elk in college. After lots of years of being unsuccessful in Washington and moving to OR for work, he finally was able to capitalize on his dream and harvested his first elk with a bow. Also, since moving to Oregon he has become a diehard chukar hunter after getting a pointing dog and has fallen in love with following the dog through some of the most unforgiving country Oregon has to offer.
All the adventures and experiences that have been on public lands have shaped Taylor’s life in a major way, so preserving and protecting these natural resources is one thing he has built his life around. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is organization he believes in because they work to conserve, protect, and improve access to the places that provide him so much. It’s also an organization that looks to help others gain the knowledge and opportunity to become involved in the things that he is the most passionate about.
Eastern Region Director II - OPEN
OPEN COMMITTEE POSITIONS
Please contact us at [email protected] to apply. In the email, please list what part of state you are coming from. Thanks!
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