WYOMING ROUNDUP:
Greetings,
On behalf of the Wyoming Board, we hope your Fall has been filled with success afield on our public lands and waters. As you are well aware there’s a lot happening across the state with everything from access to our public lands to the integrity of critical habitat and migration corridors at stake. To tackle the many issues facing us as public land owners and as sportsmen and women the Wyoming Chapter has been busy growing our board. With our new leadership team in place we have more capacity and better geographic coverage across the state than ever before. With this, we will be bringing you more events, engaging on more issues, and expanding our outreach to our members. As part of that outreach we are launching this bi-monthly newsletter, the Wyoming Roundup.
The Wyoming Roundup will provide you with updates from our board, upcoming events, and important issues every couple of months. For this first edition we’re launching our 2018 Wyoming BHA Membership Sweepstakes, previewing upcoming Public Land Pint Nights happening across the state in January of 2019, and introducing you to our board. We hope the Wyoming Roundup will be a useful resource for you and we appreciate your efforts and support. Thank You!
WYOMING MEMBERSHIP SWEEPSTAKES:
Beginning November 1st and ending on January 31st the Wyoming Chapter of BHA invites you to enter to win from the great prize packages listed below as part of our membership sweepstakes. Help us reach our 2018 membership goal of 30,000 members, support the Wyoming Chapter of BHA, and put your name in the hat for some great prizes.
BHA's strength comes from our members, and events like this help us to grow our strength to advocate more effectively for our collective values. Whether we are advocating for LWCF, public land access, or for protecting migration corridors and critical wildlife habitat - it's our members that make the difference. The more individuals we have willing to put their boots on the ground, to share their voices, and stand up for our public lands, waters, and wildlife the more capable of defending these values we become.
Prizes:
First Prize: "Rifle and Optics Package" - $950 Value
- Savage Axis II 6.5 Creedmoor with a Nikon scope
- Vortex Diamondback 10x42 Binoculars
- Vortex Impact Laser 850 Rangefinder
Second Prize: "Cooler and Brews Package" - $600 Value
- Yeti Tundra 75 cooler
- 3 Cases of Wyoming Brews
Third Prize: "Custom Pack and Archery Package" -$450 Value
- Paladin Apex Modular Rig Pack
- Victory Archery RIP Gamer Arrow Shaft (12 Pack)
How do you enter? Entering is simple - just choose the membership you would like to purchase using the donation links on THIS PAGE, making sure to enter your contact info in the correct fields.
VOTE PUBLIC LANDS AND WATERS!
With public lands issues taking center stage in numerous races across the country, the votes of sportsmen and women represent an increasingly powerful force. Your vote is the single most powerful way to make sure your voice is heard – in Washington, D.C., and state legislatures across the country. Like you, our members are hungry for information about the values of those who are seeking our votes. And as for the candidates themselves? We’re putting them on notice: We hunt, and we fish, and we Vote Public Lands and Waters.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
As part of our membership sweepstakes we will be hosting pint nights across the state of Wyoming this January in Rock Springs, Jackson, Lander, Cody, Sheridan, Gillette, Casper, and Cheyenne (dates to come). You will have a chance to meet your local board member(s), get important updates, celebrate our public lands, waters, and wildlife with fellow BHA members, pick up some BHA merchandise, enter the membership sweepstakes, and learn how you can get involved with BHA locally.
Issues to Pay Attention to: There is a lot going on right now across Wyoming, below are a few highlights to pay attention to in the coming days, weeks, and months.
- The Wyoming Public Lands Initiative is winding down and with it important public comment opportunities. Teton County is wrapping up this week. If you can, please consider commenting and advocating for our backcountry landscapes, for the protection of wildlife habitat, and your interests as a hunter and angler in Teton County. You can send your comments to: [email protected]. The deadline is this Friday, November 2nd.
- The Bureau of Land Management is set to release the Draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Rock Springs Field Office as early as this December, opening an important public comment period. This RMP will provide the framework for how our BLM lands will be managed for the next 15-20 years in this region. Your engagement in the upcoming public comment period will be critical to ensuring the interests of wildlife and sportsmen and women are understood and addressed.
- In the last few months the Wyoming Chapter of BHA has engaged in two separate county road vacation petitions (Laramie County and Park County). Road vacations essentially turn a public road into a private road and can result in the loss of access to public lands, contributing to further landlocking. In both instance BHA found out about these issues because of our members. If you learn about a road vacation petition in your region that would result in the loss of access to public lands please let us know.
- Big Game Migration Corridors and Critical Habitat: With more people moving to Wyoming, more development, and more and more people recreating outdoors the impacts to wildlife and wildlife habitat are mounting. The conservation of big game corridors and critical wildlife habitat is crucial to our hunting traditions and BHA will be playing an increasingly active role in these conversations, which means we will be reaching out to you and members like you for your help.
- Conservation Funding and Legislation: With the upcoming legislative session right around the corner a number of conservation bills will be discussed and voted on. The BHA board is paying close attention to these issues and will be reaching out to membership to let you know our positions on these bills and how you can get involved.
From Our Blog:
OUR BOARD: Click here to contact the Wyoming chapter board.
Cheyenne/Laramie:
Buzz Hettick, WY Board Chair
Buzz was born in Missoula, Montana and grew up hunting, fishing, and trapping in western Montana with his parents, grandparents and brother. Elk and deer hunting were always the focus, but mountain goats, moose, and bighorn sheep provided some great backcountry adventures.
Buzz attended college at the University of Montana and received a Bachelors in Forestry Resource Management. While attending college, he also worked for Region 1 of the U.S. Forest Service at several ranger districts. From 1998-2000 he worked for the School of Forestry as a Project Manager, overseeing a large contract with Turner Enterprises as a Riparian/Wetland Manager. Currently he is working for the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station.
In 2000, Buzz and his wife, Patricia, moved to Laramie, Wyoming and are enjoying the great hunting and fishing opportunities Wyoming has to offer. Buzz also enjoys the challenge of hunting new species and states all across the West. Hunting adventures have taken him from near the Arctic Circle to within a mile of the Mexican border.
Emmett Nelson, WY Board Member
Emmett Nelson lives in Laramie with his wife Tennille and three kids; Evie, Leif, and Finn. He owns and operates an engineering services business where he works on composite materials and software development for the aerospace, transportation, and recreation industries. As a small business owner, he brings a unique perspective of collaboration and perseverance to the board. He was born and raised in Willmar, MN where he grew up hunting upland birds, whitetail deer, and fishing. As a young man, he moved to Wyoming for graduate school and mountain recreation.
Emmett is an avid upland bird hunter, chasing the many species of birds available in Wyoming and the surrounding states with his pointing dogs Einer and Rocket. As a big game hunter, he enjoys the vast opportunities to hunt and explore that Wyoming offers. During his free time, he enjoys camping, riding bikes, and chasing his kids around. He is a BHA life member and has been an active member of the Wyoming board for a handful of years.
Trevor Herrman, WY Board Member
Trevor Herrman grew up on a dairy farm in northwestern Wisconsin. It was a beautiful area, surrounded by lakes, trout streams, and abundant amounts of wildlife to chase in the woods. Trevor has always been drawn to the western states and dreamed of spending time in the mountains of Wyoming. In the summer of 2012, Trevor took a job in the Cheyenne area and his dreams of living and hunting the West came true.
While living in Wisconsin, Trevor was involved as a mentor in youth hunts through the National Wild Turkey Foundation and was involved in various conservation projects. Upon moving to Wyoming, Trevor learned about BHA and was immediately drawn to the organization and its boots-on-the-ground projects. Trevor finds a great deal of satisfaction in getting to see projects through from an idea to completion and knowing that he is helping to make a difference. In his spare time, Trevor enjoys spending time with his wife and young kids and taking them hiking and fishing in the mountains of Wyoming.
Janet Marschner, WY Board Member
Janet lives in Cheyenne WY, where she spends time with her horses, miniature donkey and several dogs and cats. She has had a rewarding 30 year career as a General Contractor/Real Estate Developer and a CPA. An avid big game hunter, bird hunter, fly fisherwoman, and trap shooter, Janet also enjoys spending time with her horse Prairie in the WY backcountry. She is an active member of the Wyoming community serving on several non-profit boards and volunteers as a Hunter Education Instructor for WY Game & Fish and travels globally for Habitat for Humanity. Janet is devoted to mentoring youth in enjoying Wyoming’s outdoors. She is an advocate for Wyoming’s wildlife and public lands for future generations to enjoy hunting, fishing, and hiking.
Casper:
Jeff Muratore, WY Co-Chair
Married, with three daughters and seven grandchildren Jeff is a 56 year Wyoming resident who sees hunting as a way of life. Jeff successfully fought a state land exchange with a wealthy landowner to preserve public elk hunting in central Wyoming. Jeff is a BHA life member and has worked with Wyoming Game and Fish to implement a ban on aircraft & drones scouting for big game.
Jeff is committed to fighting for access to public land whenever possible and is active in helping youth to get involved in hunting
Rock Springs/Green River:
Steve Gili, WY Board Member
Steve first moved to Rock Springs Wyoming in 1997 after graduating from the University of Missouri. Work has taken him and his family away a few times but Southwest Wyoming is where he calls home. Steve has had a 20 year career in mining and feels this brings a valuable perspective on the relationship between responsible development and wild places. Steve is an avid public land hunter and fisherman whose travels have taken him from Canada to Mexico and just about every western state in between, but if he had to pick one adventure it would be pursuing elk in his home state of Wyoming. Steve enjoys spending time in the outdoors with his family and coaching youth sports. Steve has served on several boards and committees in southwest Wyoming and he looks forward to helping grow WyBHA in the area.
Adam Brister
Growing up in Wyoming, Adam spent his summers on the Green River or Flaming Gorge fishing for cutthroats and smallmouths, autumns in the mountains chasing deer and elk, and winters in the sage brush flats looking for cottontails. When he moved to Georgia for work, Adam began to realize that he had taken the hunting, hiking and camping opportunities he enjoyed in his youth for granted. Now back in his hometown, Adam works in the oil and gas industry and understands the balance between necessary extraction and maintaining a healthy landscape. Adam is excited to join the WyBHA board and looks forward to growing its membership through boots-on-the-ground projects and advocacy in southwestern Wyoming.
Jackson:
Ross Crandall, WY Board Member
Ross grew up in southern Wisconsin fishing all four seasons and hunting three. Muskies were the fish of choice in the early days but he was an equal opportunity fisherman enjoying the other abundant fish species found in the state nearly as much. Ross also began as a generalist hunter pursuing squirrel, rabbit, pheasant, grouse, turkey and deer with bow, rifle, shotgun and muzzleloader. His love of hunting and fishing guided him towards a career in wildlife biology, which brought him to Wyoming in 2007.
Ross currently guides research projects on birds of prey and helps provide solutions to conserve species in Wyoming and beyond. Although he suffers mildly from muskie withdrawal, Ross enjoys pursuing trout (although not always with a fly rod) but his current passion is western big game hunting, specifically archery elk. Ross lives in Jackson with his wife, daughter and border collie and when he’s not hunting or fishing, he is likely to be found running around the mountains with his family, home brewing, attempting to make a delicious meal, tying flies or just sitting on the porch taking it all in.
Ross is thrilled to be on the board of the Wyoming Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and he looks forward to working with the dedicated membership to promote and protect wild and accessible places for us to hunt and fish in perpetuity.
Erik Kramer, WY Board Member
Erik lives with his wife just outside of Jackson, Wyoming and works for the National Park Service. He moved to Wyoming 8 years ago to chase his dream of hunting and fishing in the vast wild landscapes of the west. Erik cut his teeth at the age of 10 hunting whitetails, turkeys and small game while growing up in the hills of northern New Jersey and has been a diehard fisherman since the day he could up hold a fishing pole. Today his favorite days in the field are spent burning boot leather in the mountains chasing bugling bulls with a bow. However, he won't pass up the opportunity to take home a mule deer, antelope, or grouse for the freezer, cast a fly to a cutthroat, or jig through the ice for lake trout. Erik brings to the board the perspective and fresh enthusiasm of a lifelong sportsman who discovered the bountiful public land paradise of the west later in life and grew up in a place where public access was hard to come by. He also brings valuable knowledge from a career in habitat restoration and land management and a passion for protecting wild places for us to hunt, fish and recreate.
Lander:
Jess Johnson, WY Board Member
Jess Johnson is a founder of Artemis Sportswoman, a Wyoming chapter board member for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and the Advocacy and Public Land Coordinator for the Wyoming Wildlife Foundation. Her work with each organization centers on changing the narrative around stereotypes of hunters and creating platforms for women’s voices within the hunting and conservation world. In this capacity, she has most recently participated in panels for The Wyoming Wildlife Society, SHIFT, No Mans Land Film Festival, and the State Environmental Leadership Conference. She is also a team member for FirstLite. Jess grew up an only child of a ranching family in Montana, Northern California, and Wyoming. Her eclectic childhood instilled in her a wanderlust for wide expanses of public land, and a deep appreciation and love for the wildlife that inhabit it. Since moving back 8 years ago to Lander Wyoming, she has spent most of her free time archery hunting and exploring the mountains and rolling sage brush in search of mule deer and public land elk.
Jared Oakleaf, WY Board Member
Jared Oakleaf is a BHA life member and legacy partner out of Lander Wyoming. He volunteers for several conservation organizations. He credits mule deer with teaching him to have a high fidelity to his home range.
He brings to the board an ability to build coalitions and partnerships, while simultaneously upholding BHAs mission and values.
Cody:
Barry Reiswig, WY Board Member
Barry Reiswig, Cody, Wyoming; I am a lifelong hunter, growing up on the plains of North Dakota where I cut my teeth hunting waterfowl, upland birds and whitetails. I have hunted big game mostly since then, with special emphasis on elk, red deer, and whitetails. I managed National Wildlife Refuges for more than thirty years, from Alaska to Nevada. My last station was the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole where I served for more than a decade. My favorite station was Red Rock Lakes in Montana where I worked with the magnificent trumpeter swan. I have worked with a wide range of fish and wildlife species including big game, waterfowl, marine birds and mammals, and a host of non-game wildlife over the years. And oh by the way, my favorite song is I’m a thousand miles from nowhere, by Dwight Yoakum.
Sheridan/Buffalo:
Adam Teten, WY Board Member
Adam Teten grew up near the East Gate of Yellowstone in Cody, Wyoming where he was able to cut his teeth on some of the finest and most variable public land this nation has to offer. Those early experiences fostered his appreciation and understanding of what truly constitutes a public asset, and how public lands define a part of our American heritage. From high country elk and mule deer hunts to watershed bird hunting and everything in between, Adam’s experiences as a sportsman define his appreciation for conservation. He feels that we as stewards owe it to ourselves, our children and the generations yet to come to work to fully understand not only what we have been given, but how we can ensure that this legacy lives on – and does so in a manner that can survive in perpetuity. In his “spare” time, Adam can be found coaching one of his three kids in any of their various activities, instilling in them his love and appreciation of the outdoors, enjoying the company of his bride, volunteering with a myriad of NGOs and local community endeavors and hunting/fishing/hiking/camping as much as possible.
Gillette:
Wallace Leastman, WY Board Member 
Hi, I am Wallace Leastman. My wife, son, daughter, and I live in Gillette, WY. Growing up my family did not hunt, however we received wild game from friends for a source of meat. I have always enjoyed trapping and hunting and I sought out people to mentor me in the hunting world. Now, much of my spare time is spent hiking, hunting, or fishing on our public lands. Last year I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Leadership. I feel that with the knowledge I gained while pursuing this degree will benefit the BHA. Last year I began my journey as a guide for elk hunting in the Big Horn Mountains. Preserving the public land and educating future generations is a legacy that I want to leave.
NATIONAL STAFF
Brien Webster, Wyoming and Colorado Coordinator
Brien was born and raised in Colorado. For as long as he can remember his family has come together for reunions timed around hatches, hunts, and favorite landscapes. After receiving a BA in Government from the University of Redlands, Brien headed to Zambia where he spent two years with the Peace Corps. Upon returning home Brien found his way to the West Slope of Colorado where he worked on public lands and water conservation issues with Conservation Colorado as a community organizer.
The opportunities and experiences made possible by our public lands and waters have shaped Brien’s identity and deepened his passion and curiosity as a sportsman. When he’s not in the office, chances are he’s in the field or on the river sharing his favorite pastime of pursuing wild game in new and familiar landscapes with his wife Holly, family, and friends. Brien is thrilled to be working with BHA, and as a chapter coordinator he’s committed to supporting and amplifying the efforts of the Wyoming and Colorado Chapters.