Above: BHA-NY worked with the Northeast Wilderness Trust to open up previously inaccessible land to recreation

The hunting seasons and New Year have come and gone, and it’s time to get back to work protecting and advocating for our public lands and waters. Hopefully, you all had a fun, safe, and productive year in your personal lives and afield.

Our members did some great work across the state recently on a number of BHA projects, and in collaboration with other groups. Most notably, our members helped the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation build line recycling containers at public fishing sites, helped the Northeast Wilderness Trust to open up previously inaccessible land to recreation and assisted the Quality Deer Management Association with their Capital Region Hunter Education and Field to Fork Weekend — an awesome mentored hunting program that helps bring new hunters into the field.

In early January, we collaborated with the Catskill Chapter of Trout Unlimited for a night of fly tying and camaraderie at the Tie One On event hosted at Westkill Brewing, the same venue as our awesome summer rendezvous. Huge thanks to the owner, Michael Barcone, for all his hard work and support, and to Christa Whiteman, Todd Waldron, Michael Poulopoulos and others for organizing and helping with the event.

Throughout the winter, the NY chapter tabled at several sportsman’s shows, including Syracuse. We had great turnouts and are grateful for the members who volunteered to help with the events, as well as the new members who signed up. Many of our members also enjoyed the Public Grouse Film Tour which came to Syracuse, NY in early February. 

As we look back the past year, we reflect on how far we’ve come as a chapter and how much we have accomplished. This can only be attributed to the hard work of each and every one of you. From attending or hosting events, calling representatives, participating in boots-on-the-ground conservation or even just sharing a hashtag, you have made BHA-NY what it is. We encourage everyone to keep up the great work and to stay informed and involved in issues that matter to NY sportsmen and women. As we move well into 2020, we’ll be ramping up our efforts and working towards making this our most productive year yet. We also want to thank those of you who expressed interest in becoming regional event coordinators. We look forward to working with you and seeing all that you bring to the table.

As always, please follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay apprised of upcoming events and important information, and if you have any questions or would like to get more involved, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

-Cosmo Genova