Seminars

Directors Panel

Featuring President & CEO Land Tawney, North American Board Chair Ryan Busse, Conservation Director John Gale, Communications Director Katie McKalip, State Policy & Field Operations Director Tim Brass and Director of Operations Frankie McBurney Olson.

Neuroscience of Hunting

Dr. David Turkel-Parrella is an Endovascular Neurosurgical Radiologist in NYC and a clinical assistant professor of Neurology at NYU School of Medicine. He is a relatively new hunter and avid archer. His talk will cover the neurology behind target panic, the neurovascular disease called "Bowhunter's Syndrome" and fascinating occurrences that happen in our synapse during time in the field.

Public Land Bird Dogs

"Birdhunting with pointing dogs would be the last thing on the earth we give up"

Bird hunting tips and advice from two guys that live to do it. Tom and Ryan will provide an overview on how to start in the sport and how experienced bird hunters can hone their craft. Beginning with dogs, this seminar also encompasses bird species, time of year, scouting and gear. Tom and Ryan are also accomplished wild game chefs, and there will be some hints about how to best cook wild birds. They love it all, so bring your questions and love of dogs, food, wild country and long hikes.

Tom Healy grew up in Iowa City and was introduced to bird hunting while cutting class with his high school principal’s son. Soon after guiding his first trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, he bought a solo canoe and explored the Quetico-Superior Region at every opportunity. With his wife Meagen and a pack of bird dogs, Tom moved to northwest Montana in 2002 to start a Nordic ski lodge with friends. He continues to work as a timber frame teacher, designer and builder, and is committed to sharing his passion for conservation and wild places. As an ardent big game and bird hunter, Tom frequently can be found in the forests, prairies and rimrock country of our nation’s public lands.

Ryan Busse By the time BHA Board Chair Ryan Busse could walk and carry a lever action, he began exploring the backcountry of the vast unbroken native prairies on the western Kansas ranch where he was raised. In 1995 he moved to northern Montana to run the sales department for Kimber, which at that time was a fledgling firearms company. He soon became vice president of sales where he remains today. Kimber is now a thriving company and one of the top four firearms manufacturers in the United States. Ryan loves to hike small streams with a fly rod, bird hunt behind his prized dogs and pursue big game with rifles he helped design. He spends every available moment in the western backcountry from Alaska to Arizona but considers the Rocky Mountain Front of Montana his sacred home. His wonderful and active family includes wife Sara and sons Lander and Badge (named after Lander, Wyoming, and the Badger-Two Medicine in Montana).

Drift Boat/Raft Rigging with Hilary Hutcheson

Fly fishing guide Hilary Hutcheson demystifies boat rigging for river lovers of all abilities. From the ins and outs of trailers, straps, gear storage and efficiency at the ramp, learn how to get your raft or drift boat dialed for optimal days on the water. Whether it’s a day trip or week-long excursion, become more effective in planning, packing and executing. Beginners will learn pro tips for headache-free fishing, and experienced boaters will pick up new ideas and share best practices. This class is also great for non-boat-owners who are looking for a greater understanding of the float fishing culture.

Hilary Hutcheson owns and runs Lary’s Fly and Supply in Columbia Falls, Montana, and guides on the Flathead River and Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Hutcheson started her fly fishing career as a teenage guide in West Glacier, Montana. Later, she took her journalism degree to Portland, Oregon, and worked as a television news anchor and reporter before returning to Montana to co-own and operate Outside Media and Trout TV for nearly a decade. She loves hanging out with her two teen daughters, especially when they volunteer on the oars.

A Brief History of Taxidermy

Who knew taxidermy was so funny and so significant? This talk is a crowd pleaser: adventure, heroes, villains, elephant testicles. Learn a little about the history of the world, the U.S and some of the most important and eccentric historical figures responsible for the conservation movement in America and abroad. There’s a crazy story to accompany every slide.

Brant MacDuff is a taxidermist and conservation historian. He travels the country giving lectures on various natural history and conservation related topics. H also teaches taxidermy to beginners and gives tours of the habitat dioramas at the natural history museums in New York, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. You can find out more about Brant at ImmortalAnimals.com or on Instagram @StuffInMyApartment

Be Bear Aware

Grizzly bears in North America occupy more land area today than they have for over 60 years, and their range is expanding in the lower 48 states. Black bears are found in 40 U.S. states and 12 Canadian provinces, making bear awareness important to many on our continent. Join us for a comprehensive look at recreating and living in bear country. We'll cover the foundations bear biology, behavior and tracking. We'll discuss best practices for camping and traveling in bear country, how to read bear behavior and what to do if you encounter a bear. Importantly, we'll discuss how to hunt and handle game animals in bear country. Participants will learn about bear spray and have a chance to practice using inert spray on our charging bear simulation.

Danielle Oyler is the education coordinator for the Montana Bear Education Working Group, a collaborative group comprised of Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several wildlife conservation-oriented NGOs. Their common goal is to reduce human-bear conflict by providing accurate, consistent and relevant bear safety information to people recreating, living and working in bear country. Danielle studied environmental studies and wildlife biology at the University of Montana and has called the Yellowstone Ecosystem home since childhood. She's worked as a park ranger, naturalist guide and instructor, trail crew leader and technician in wildlife biology field work. Danielle is driven at work and play by the vital confluence of humans, wildlife and public lands. She lives, hikes, hunts, fishes and plays in Southwest Montana with her talented husband and an opinionated cow dog.

The Wild Harvest Initiative® - Eat Wild & Live Free

Many humans feel disconnected from nature and are unfamiliar or out of touch with the origins of their food. Processed and pre-packaged foods, available for sale at supermarkets, department stores and restaurants, now dominate the North American cultural landscape and, for the majority of Americans and Canadians, the traditional relationship between food acquisition and consumption has been drastically altered. Yet, not all individuals acquire animal protein from the meat aisle or the frozen fish section. Each year in the U.S. and Canada, more than 50 million people partake in recreational hunting and fishing, harvesting food for themselves and millions of others with whom wild harvested meat and fish are shared.

These wild harvesters positively contribute not only to their own food security and general health and well-being but also to the conservation and wellness of wildlife, wild lands and waters and to the economy. While there have been numerous evaluations of the significant economic impact of recreational hunting and angling, little effort has been made to assess the biomass, economic value and food security contributions of the meat and fish that are harvested and consumed. Furthermore, no one has posed the question of what it would cost to replace this food through expansion of existing agricultural, aquacultural and livestock production. The Wild Harvest Initiative® will change this.

The first serious effort to evaluate the combined economic, conservation, and social benefits of recreational wild animal harvests in modern American and Canadian societies, the Wild Harvest Initiative® is not a project but a narrative-changing program. It is not a finite intervention but a relentless innovation. It does not seek to change society; rather, it takes its energy from society’s culture of change.

Shane Patrick Mahoney, president of Conservation Visions and founder of the Wild Harvest Initiative®, is an internationally recognized conservationist and wildlife advocate, and a foremost expert on the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. Shane’s major career focus has been the population ecology of large mammals; moose, black bears, and caribou.

A strong advocate for communicating wildlife conservation issues to the public, he has also written more than 100 popular magazine articles, penned eight published book chapters, and was the editor and contributing author for two monographs on sustainable wildlife use in North America for the International Journal of Environmental Studies. In 2019, Johns Hopkins University Press launched his latest book project, an edited volume about the North American Conservation Model.

Intensely passionate, highly insightful, and often challenging in his views, Shane is one of those rare individuals who can reach deeply into our own thoughts about wildlife and nature and somehow help us better understand why we feel as we do… and why our conservation mission is so important.

Packrafting with Alpacka

Packrafts are the ultimate access tool for hard to reach wilderness waterways. Whether you’re interested in packraft hunting or want to access new waterways for fishing, packrafts are incredible tools for backcountry missions.

Join Thor Tingey, CEO & Co-Owner of Alpacka Raft, for a discussion on how packrafts are used to help you go further and deeper into the backcountry, accessing places you never thought you could. Whether you’re a solo hunter or angler, or regularly hunt or fish with buddies, packrafts are an extremely-lightweight solution for making backcountry manageable.

In addition to redefining access, Thor will give a demonstration on how to properly pack a big game animal in a packraft for an efficient packout.

Thor Tingey has been packrafting for over 20 years. Growing up Denali Park, Alaska, Thor spent his childhood immersed in the outdoors. In 1996, after meeting Roman Dial, who had become one of Alaska’s most prolific adventurers and an early adopter of the packraft, Thor planned his first packrafting trip, a 160-mile portion of an Alaska Range traverse. This trip was the foundation for the launch of Alpacka Raft. Thor is an avid hunter and angler who has been using packrafts for backcountry access for years.

How Predation Shapes Wild Nature on Public Lands: Lessons from Yellowstone

Our public wild lands have long been paramount to numerous conservation success stories. Among the most successful, but controversial, has been the recovery of large carnivores in a world increasingly hostile to the survival of all wildlife. We now live in a new era of carnivores on public lands, challenging society to adapt and seek compromise among diverse public lands stakeholders. Paramount to overcoming these challenges is an understanding of the ecology of predation and its implications for coexistence with large carnivores. 25 years ago, wolf recovery to Yellowstone National Park coincided with the continued expansion of a naturally recolonized cougar population, increasing grizzly bear numbers and an abundant elk population shaped by a long history of human management. This seminar will summarize key findings from several decades of scientific research on wolves, cougars, elk and other species in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Topics will include behavioral interactions of predators and their prey, how elk and other species have responded to carnivore recovery and the importance of public lands in preserving natural ecological processes and ultimately, wild nature. The seminar will discuss lessons from Yellowstone that highlight the value of science to provide accurate information, identify knowledge gaps and dispel myths about controversial issues relating to predators and their prey.

Dr. Daniel R. Stahler is a wildlife biologist for Yellowstone National Park. He’s served as the project biologist for the Yellowstone Wolf Project since 2002, is the project leader for the Yellowstone Cougar Project and co-leads Yellowstone’s elk research program. He also serves as the park’s threatened and endangered species coordinator. Stahler is responsible for coordinating much of Yellowstone’s multi-carnivore and multi-ungulate research programs. He has produced numerous scientific publications on predator-prey dynamics, behavior, genetics and ecology of Yellowstone and is an editor and lead author of the forthcoming book Yellowstone Wolves: Science and Discovery in the World’s First National Park (University of Chicago Press, October 2020) chronicling 25 years of carnivore recovery to Yellowstone National Park. Dan devotes as much time as possible immersed in wilderness as a hunter, fisherman, biologist, and explorer. He lives with his wife and son in Gardiner, Montana.