BCJ_WINTER17 Digital Edition

IS WILDLIFE VIEWING THE NEW HUNTING? THE GROWTH AND IMPACTS. PAGE 32
BACKCOUNTRY
JOURNAL
The Magazine of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Winter 2017

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
MOUNTAIN TRYST
HUNTING MAPS FOR EVERY DEVICE
#HUNTSMARTER
WITH THE NEW ERA OF GPS
Search onXmaps
View maps online at huntinggpsmaps.com/web
FINDING NEW LOVE AT 41 IS A GIFT.
When I first saw her, I knew she was the
one. Steep, open slopes with talus slides, old
growth Ponderosa pines and Douglas firs –
a real beauty. I explored every ridge and valley,
finding an elaborate network of sheep
highways and bedding areas. Eventually I
set up camp directly beneath her.
Every morning I rose to gaze upon her
loveliness. Sometimes a veil of fog obscured
her. Other mornings she glowed as light
crept into the valley. But without fail, she
held bighorn sheep. At first only small bands
of ewes, lambs and young rams. Then, larger
groups. Finally, one memorable day, she
delivered to us a group of 30 sheep with five
rams, one of whom had horns that plunged
below his jawline. We named him Dropjaw.
The stalk went badly. Maybe if I had been
more patient instead of pushing them into
the darkness they would have been on the
open face in the morning and I would have
had another chance. But the mountain was
with me through the sweat, the toil and the
ever-present rain. She held me as I slept in
the mid-afternoon sun. She helped me gain
strong lungs and legs with her unforgiving
pitch. And once we had a spat.
Early one morning, I caught a glimpse of
Dropjaw. Almost blindly I raced to the top.
The sheep eluded me and I headed to familiar
ground in search of other bands. I found
two. There were none I wanted to shoot,
but I practiced my approach anyway. Doing
my best not to look like a predator I crept
to 200 yards. Suddenly, a ram emerged.
I found a rest against a fat Ponderosa,
raised my rifle, drew a bead, took the safety
off, breathed out and counted one, two …
and then my rest broke just as I pulled the
trigger. I tumbled face first down the slope,
the butt of the gun hitting the ground at
the same time my chin found the scope.
When the dust settled, there were no sheep
to be found.
After collecting myself, I wondered why
my mountain had reacted this way. It was
getting dark and my mind was getting darker.
Had I wounded a majestic animal? Was
I going to seal the deal? Or was I destined
only for close calls? I spent hours searching
for blood before returning to camp.
That was the low point of my hunt. Not
only did I miss a perfect opportunity; I also
might have wounded a fine ram. I tossed
and turned all night before continuing the
search the next day. Finally, late in the afternoon,
I came to peace with the fact that
that I’d missed. In the fading light, I turned
to the mountain. Thank you, I whispered.
Thank you for being patient and helping
me work through my imprudence. I slept
better that night in part due to the sound
of rain on my tipi. The deluge stopped an
hour before light, just as if I’d asked.
The next morning, she didn’t reveal a single
sheep. My cousin arrived after sunrise,
full of energy. Then the sun broke through
the clouds, and there they were. That’s
when I saw him, a ram all by himself headed
north on the slope. I had a good idea
where he was headed. He disappeared into
the dark timber, and we hustled to intercept.
A rainbow appeared to show us the
way. I was so focused on my destination
that I barely heard my cousin. He finally
had to yell to alert me to the fact that 200
yards above us was a beautiful ram.
I removed my backpack, laid down and
took aim. The ram was quartering away and
then unexpectedly turned broadside at 220.
Without thinking, I thumbed the safety
and squeezed the trigger. It was over. After
16 days of hunting, 14 years applying for
the tag and a lifetime of desire, I’d killed a
bighorn sheep.
As we roasted tenderloins over an open
flame that night I looked up at her once
again. Despite all the time I spent tromping
around my beautiful mountain, I shot
my ram on her neighbor. But that couldn’t
break our bond.
She belongs to all of us, and during my
hunt I shared her with friends, co-workers,
my cousin and other hunters. I shared her
with gray jays, mule deer, elk, three-toed
woodpeckers and pikas. Her name is Sandstone,
and she resides in the Lolo National
Forest up the Rock Creek Road.
She belongs to me just as much as she
belongs to anyone reading this. She defines
our public lands heritage, and my resolve
couldn’t be stronger to protect her.
BHA’s leader with his hard-won, 2016 Montana
bighorn ram, taken on public lands.
Onward and Upward,
Land Tawney
President & CEO
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 3

WHAT IS BHA?
BACKCOUNTRY HUNTERS &
Anglers is a North American conservation
nonprofit 501(c)(3) dedicated
to the conservation of backcountry
fish and wildlife habitat, sustaining
and expanding access to important
lands and waters, and upholding
the principles of fair chase. This is
our quarterly magazine. We have
members across the continent, with
chapters representing 25 states and
provinces. We fight to maintain and
enhance the backcountry values
that define our passions: challenge,
solitude and beauty. Join us. Become
part of the sportsmen’s voice
for our wild public lands, waters and
wildlife. Sign up at www.backcountryhunters.org.
RENDEZVOUS!
TICKETS FOR THE 2017 BHA North
American Rendezvous, April 7-9 in
Missoula, Montana, will go on sale in
early January. A complete schedule
of events, seminars and speakers will
be released soon as well. Confirmed
speakers include national sportsmen
leaders such as TV hosts Steven
Rinella and Randy Newberg, and fly
fishing innovator Kelly Galloup.
The popular Field to Table Dinner
will be returning this year, with five
gourmet chefs preparing wild game
dishes in a camp-style setting. Read
a snowshoe hare recipe by one of the
chefs, Chol McGlynn, on page 17.
Get your North American
Rendezvous tickets early; spots are
limited and will sell out quickly. To
learn more, visit backcountryhunters.
org/rendezvous_2017.
THE SPORTSMEN’S VOICE FOR OUR WILD PUBLIC LANDS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE
Ryan Busse (Montana) Chairman
Ben Long (Montana) Vice Chairman
Sean Carriere (Idaho) Treasurer
Sean Clarkson (Virginia) Secretary
Jay Banta (Utah)
Ben Bulis (Montana)
President & CEO
Land Tawney, tawney@backcountryhunters.org
Campus Outreach Coordinator
Sawyer Connelly, sawyer@backcountryhunters.org
Great Lakes Coordinator
Will Jenkins, will@thewilltohunt.com
Backcountry Journal Editor
Sam Lungren, sam@backcountryhunters.org
Operations Director
Frankie McBurney Olson, frankie@backcountryhunters.org
Membership Coordinator
Ryan Silcox, ryan@backcountryhunters.org
Interns: Travis Cashion, Jack Cholewa, Trey Curtiss,
Alex Kim, Brian Ohlen, Seth Pelkey, Liam Rossier
BHA LEGACY PARTNERS
The following Legacy Partners have committed
$1000 or more to BHA for the next three years. To
find out how you can become a Legacy Partner,
please contact grant@backcountryhunters.org.
Bendrix Bailey, Mike Beagle, Cidney Brown, Dave
Cline, Todd DeBonis, Dan Edwards, Blake Fischer,
Whit Fosburgh, Stephen Graf, Ryan Huckeby, Richard
Kacin, Ted Koch, Peter Lupsha, Robert Magill, Chol
McGlynn, Nick Nichols, William Rahr, Adam Ratner,
Robert Tammen, Karl Van Calcar, Michael Verville,
Barry Whitehill, J.R. Young, Dr. Renee Young
JOURNAL CONTRIBUTORS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
STAFF
Carol Bibler, Tony Bynum, Sara Evans-Kirol, Michael
Furtman, Bruce Gordon, Hilary Hutcheson, Ken
Keffer, Randy King, David Lien, Ben Long, Jess
McGlothlin, Chol McGlynn, Scott Morrison, Brian
Ohlen, Rob Parkins, Edward Putnam, Paul Queneau,
Ron Rohrbaugh Jr., Tim Romano, Jay Sheffield, David
Stalling, Nick Trehearne, Alec Underwood, Jacob
VanHouten, Jim Watson and Barry Whitehill
Cover photo: Sam Averett
Backcountry Journal writing and photography queries,
submissions and advertising questions contact
sam@backcountryhunters.org
BHA HEADQUARTERS
P.O. Box 9257, Missoula, MT 59807
www.backcountryhunters.org
admin@backcountryhunters.org
(406) 926-1908
Ted Koch (New Mexico)
T. Edward Nickens (North Carolina)
Mike Schoby (Montana)
Rachel Vandevoort (Montana)
Michael Beagle (Oregon) President Emeritus
Joel Webster (Montana) Chairman Emeritus
Donor and Corporate Relations Manager
Grant Alban, grant@backcountryhunters.org
State Policy Director
Tim Brass, tim@backcountryhunters.org
Conservation Director
John Gale, gale@backcountryhunters.org
Montana Chapter Coordinator
Jeff Lukas, jeff@bakcountryhunters.org
Communications Director
Katie McKalip, mckalip@backcountryhunters.org
Northwest Outreach Coordinator
Jesse Salsberry, jesse@crowfly.cc
Chapter Coordinator
Ty Stubblefield, ty@backcountryhunters.org
CONTACT CHAPTER CHAIRS
alaska@backcountryhunters.org
arizona@backcountryhunters.org
britishcolumbia@backcountryhunters.org
california@backcountryhunters.org
colorado@backcountryhunters.org
idaho@backcountryhunters.org
michigan@backcountryhunters.org
minnesota@backcountryhunters.org
montana@backcountryhunters.org
nevada@backcountryhunters.org
newengland@backcountryhunters.org
newmexico@backcountryhunters.org
newyork@backcountryhunters.org
oregon@backcountryhunters.org
pennsylvania@backcountryhunters.org
texas@backcountryhunters.org
utah@backcountryhunters.org
washington@backcountryhunters.org
wisconsin@backcountryhunters.org
wyoming@backcountryhunters.org
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
facebook.com/backcountryhabitat
plus.google.com/+BackcountryHuntersAnglers
twitter.com/Backcountry_H_A
youtube.com/BackcountryHunters1
instagram.com/backcountryhunters
Bruce Gordon photo
BY BRIAN OHLEN
IMAGINE MOUNTAINSIDES SPLASHED YELLOW by aspen
leaves. A stream filled with cold, clean water gurgles on its way
down from the high country. An elk bugles across the drainage,
cutting through the crisp air of a September morning. Not a road,
engine or cell tower in sight or earshot. Those lucky enough to
frequent the Thompson Divide and Gunnison Basin know these
moments well. Located in west-central Colorado and comprised
largely of public lands, these two bordering geographic regions
just may be a backcountry explorer’s paradise. Native cutthroat
trout, trophy mule deer, high success rates among elk hunters –
and with 80 percent of Gunnison County being public land –
these opportunities are free to anyone willing to work for them.
The combination of diverse habitat, roadless areas and lack of human
presence have nurtured one of the nation’s greatest elk herds.
It’s no wonder that the former world record bull was taken on the
slopes of Gunnison Basin.
In recent years, the Thompson Divide and Gunnison Basin have
seen growing pressures from oil and gas exploration, increased
motorized recreation, road building and land development. Left
unchallenged, these risks could result in serious habitat fragmentation
and threaten the landscapes deer and elk need to survive.
Rallied by Colorado BHA Chapter leaders like Adam Gall and
Tony Prendergast, BHA members and other sportsmen are trying
to conserve these special areas. As the owner of Timber to Table
Guide Service, Adam has a vested interest in the Thompson Divide;
it’s his backyard and workplace. Through meetings with Sen.
Michael Bennet, op-eds in local papers and representing BHA on
public land working groups, Adam is helping spread the word
that the benefits of protecting the Thompson Divide far outweigh
those of mineral extraction.
“I’m not anti-drilling,” Adam said. “But there are certain places
where it doesn’t make sense in terms of what you’re going to get
out of it from an economic standpoint – and also what it’s going
to do to the industries that already exist.”
Similarly, Tony Prendergast of Landsend Outfitters has played
a pivotal role for long-term protection for the Gunnison Basin.
As the BHA representative to the Gunnison Public Land Initiative,
Tony is working with county commissioners, ranchers, recreationists
and local communities to create balanced legislation.
“It’s hard for people to see the big picture of the ecosystem,”
Tony said. “We bring perspective about how it is all connected
YOUR BACKCOUNTRY
GUNNISON BASIN AND THE THOMPSON DIVIDE, COLORADO
and how important hunting is to the economy of this region.”
Thankfully, there’s a common understanding that conservation
of the area’s rich wildlife resources and vast tracts of undeveloped
lands are worth standing up for. A host of of community members
ranging from sportsmen, ranchers, hikers, bikers to motorized
users have joined the Gunnison Public Lands Initiative and
Thompson Divide Coalition. They are working towards conserving
high value lands in the region through a variety of land management
designations, including wilderness additions, wildlife-focused
special management areas and mineral lease withdrawals.
Tony and Adam are also working hard to protect their hunting
and fishing heritage by bringing new hunters into the fold. Adam
offers guided, educational hunts for women, youth and first-time
hunters, teaching them everything from the kill to butchering,
processing and cooking wild game meat. He donated a hunt for
auction at the 2016 BHA Rendezvous.
“It’s not about 300 inch bulls every time you go out. It’s about
putting some of the best meat in the world in the freezer to feed
your family,” Adam said. “If every year I can introduce five or six
people to hunting, and they keep hunting on public lands for the
rest of their lives, they have families, and share that with their
kids, now you have more people vested in public lands who will
speak up for them.”
Tony also sees a need to include educational components in
backcountry outfitting. In addition to offering traditional guided
hunts and drop camps, he recently added instructional trips
focused horse packing, game tracking, backcountry survival and
other valuable skills.
Whether introduced to hunting and fishing by a guide, family
member or mentor, we’ve all learned certain things from our time
in the backcountry: self-sufficiency, responsibility and an ethic
that respects the environment and the animals it supports. The
conservation efforts underway in west-central Colorado demonstrate
these values in action, where community-grown solutions
improve public lands management in a way that respects everyone
at the table. The Interior Department heard the unified outcry
from sportsmen, ranchers and community members and withdrew
25 oil and gas leases in the Thompson Divide this November
– a good start toward the goals of these conservation coalitions.
Brian is the Backcountry Journal intern and lives in Cody, Wyoming.
He is leaving soon for a three-month bike tour of the West Coast
to fish for steelhead.
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 5

BHA HEADQUARTERS
BACKCOUNTRY BOUNTY
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR BHA’S ANNUAL AWARDS!
WHO’S YOUR CONSERVATION HERO? Backcountry Hunters & Anglers’ Awards Committee is seeking nominations for our annual
awards, recognizing outstanding conservation efforts on behalf of North America’s backcountry. These honors will be bestowed at
the 2017 Rendezvous in Missoula in April.
BHA announced a new award at the 2016 Rendezvous. In partnership with Orion - The Hunter’s Institute, BHA launched the Jim
Posewitz Award for a group or individual who has advanced ethical, responsible behavior in the hunting and fishing fields by example,
leadership or education. Other award categories include:
• The Aldo Leopold Award, for outstanding effort conserving terrestrial wildlife habitat
• The Sigurd F. Olson Award, for outstanding effort conserving rivers, lakes or wetland habitat
• The Ted Trueblood Award, for outstanding communication on behalf of backcountry habitat and values
• The Mike Beagle-Chairman’s Award, for outstanding effort on behalf of BHA
• The Larry Fischer Award, for outstanding corporate contribution to BHA’s mission
• The George Bird Grinnell Award, for the outstanding BHA chapter of the year
The final deadline for nominations is Friday, Feb. 26. Submit to Jay Banta, (435) 496-3600 or groverite@gmail.com.
HUNTING PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS
STAFF CHANGES
BACKCOUNTRY HUNTERS & ANGLERS continues to grow
and evolve with several recent changes on the staff roster. BHA
hired Will Jenkins as the Upper Great Lakes outreach coordinator.
Born and raised in Virginia,
Will now resides in Hudson,
Wisconsin, with his wife
and three kids. Growing up he
hunted whitetails and turkey
with family. Upon moving to
the Midwest, his love for public
lands and the backcountry was
cemented after chasing South
Dakota mule deer.
Will has been a freelance outdoor writer and blogger for five
years, writing for various publications about hunting, fishing and
conservation. He will be helping with various programs such as
the Adult Learn to Hunt program with Minnesota DNR and the
effort to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
from sulfide mining.
BHA also hired Jesse Salsberry to be the Northwest outreach
coordinator. Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Jesse was brought
up with a deep appreciation for the wild things and places that
surrounded him. After graduating from Washington State University
with a degree in digital
technology and culture,
Jesse dove into video production.
Cutting his teeth in the
Portland, Oregon area, Jesse
worked with some of the most
innovative brands and creative
agencies in the world.
Now as the creative director
of his own video production
agency, Crowfly Creative, Jesse continues to find ways to bridge
the two passions of his life: video and the outdoors. Jesse, his wife
and kids live in Vancouver, Washington.
Caitlin Twohig-Thompson bid farewell to BHA this fall. Caitlin
began working at BHA in 2013 as Land Tawney’s executive assistant,
shortly after he assumed the role of executive director. As
the organization grew, Caitlin took on a variety of responsibilities
such as planning the North American Rendezvous, rebuilding the
BHA website, managing corporate partnerships and overseeing
office operations. “BHA has been a huge part of my life for the
past three years, and I am so sad to say goodbye to the incredible
team and organization,” Caitlin said. “I will still be very involved
at the state level and with the Rendezvous. Thank you to everyone
who made this job so wonderful.”
BHA thanks Caitlin for her years of tireless service for the backcountry
and wishes her the best in her future endeavors!
A big thank you to the photo contest sponsors,
Vortex Optics and First Lite Clothing, and to
everyone who submitted their photography!
1
2
3
1
2
3
Hunter: Ian Isaacson, BHA Member Species:
Pronghorn State: Wyoming Method: Rifle
Distance from nearest road: Six miles
Transportation: Foot
Angler: Cody Ling, BHA Member
Species: Lake Trout State: Minnesota Method:
Fly rod Distance from nearest road: 20
miles Transportation: Canoe
Hunter: Riley Buck, BHA Member
Species: Bighorn Sheep State: Idaho
Method: Rifle Distance from nearest road:
Six miles Transportation: Foot
Twin Hunters: Hailey and Riley Tucillo (10),
BHA Members Species: Whitetail and Mule
Deer State: Montana Method: Rifle Distance
nearest road: Half mile Transportation: Foot
Hunter: Erik Bailey, BHA Member
Species: Moose State: Vermont Method:
Compound bow Distance from nearest
road: Two miles Transportation: Foot
Hunter: Ezra Strohmaier (12), BHA Member
Species: Turkey State: Montana Method:
Shotgun Distance from nearest road: One
mile Transportation: Foot
4
5
4
5
First Place, Jason Powell Second Place, Lyn Hoffman Third Place, Travis Birchfield
6
6
6 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017
Send submissions to sam@backcountryhunters.org
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 7

Protect the Backcountry
FACES OF BHA
FOR LIFE
JOIN TODAY AS A BHA LIFETIME MEMBER AND CHOOSE ONE OF THESE GREAT GIFTS
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers is proud to offer an extraordinary opportunity. For a limited time,
receive a FREE Jackson kayak, Seek Outside tent or Kimber firearm with your BHA Life Membership
commitment. There is no better time to act! Become a leading contributor to a community of
like-minded sportsmen and women who truly value the solitude, challenge and freedom of the
backcountry experience. Help us protect and promote our legacy.
THREE GREAT OPTIONS WITH THREE GREAT GIFTS
1
2
3
Join for $2500 and get a Jackson Kayaks Kilroy LT (MSRP $1899) or Coosa HD (MSRP
$1799), a Seek Outside 12-man Tipi Tent with liner and XXL stove (MSRP $2135) or
Kimber Mountain Ascent Rifle in .308 Win, .300 WSM, .300 Win Mag, 7mm Rem Mag,
.270 Win, .270 WSM, .280 Ackley Improved or .30-06 Springfield (MSRP $2040)
Join for $1500 and get a Seek Outside 6-man Tipi with large stove and carbon pole
(MSRP $1494) or a Kimber Stainless II .45 ACP pistol (MSRP $998)
Join for $1000 and get a Seek Outside Cimarron Tent Bundle – medium stove and 6.5-foot
stovepipe and stovejack installed (MSRP $1029) or Kimber Micro Carry .380 pistol (MSRP
$651)
IN ADDITION YOU WILL RECEIVE:
• Subscription to quarterly Backcountry Journal
• Recognition in Backcountry Journal
• Assurance that your dollars are helping conserve
valued backcountry hunting and fishing traditions
WELCOME, NEW LIFE MEMBERS!
Tom Brimer
Tom Carmody
Joseph Furia
Jonathan Graham
Russell Grisbeck
Ross Henshaw
Eric Johnson
Bryan Jones
Patrick Knackendoffel
Joe Lang
Rosemarie Larson
Daniel Laughlin
Mark Mattaini
Brian McElrea
Andrew McLain
Andrew Monaghan
Trace Moorhead
Brian Olson
Rick Potts
Greg Pearson
Brian Preston
Charles Reasoner
Greg Sams
Tim Shinabarger
Evan Vos
Brandon Wynn
INTERESTED? CALL OR EMAIL RYAN SILCOX:
admin@backcountryhunters.org (406) 926-1908
JEFF JONES: Alabama
Environmental Engineer, U.S. Army Reserve Officer, BHA Life Member
HOW DID YOU GET
INTO HUNTING AND
FISHING?
I grew up hunting small
game with my dad in south
Mississippi. We focused on
squirrels, rabbits, bluegills,
catfish and doves.
As a teenager, I became
more interested in bass and
whitetail deer. Now that I’m
older, I find myself fly fishing
for bluegill and hunting rabbits
and squirrels again. It’s
funny how it has come full
circle.
I have a 5-year-old daughter
now, and I took her out for her
first dove hunt this season. I
was able to knock a few down
and she was a great retriever.
I also spent a week in Colorado
chasing elk in the Hermosa
Creek Wilderness. We
had a great encounter with a
large bull surrounded by cows,
but just couldn’t get a shot.
WHAT ATTRACTED
YOU TO BHA?
As I was researching an elk
hunt, I kept coming across
BHA online. I listened to Ty
Stubblefield on the Gritty
Bowmen podcast and it lit the
fire.
We are all looking for a
tribe, and this is the tribe that
I found. I identified with the
BHA mission, the values, and
it was something that lit that
fire. I’m a public land hunter,
and we have some great
hunting opportunities here
in Alabama: national forests,
wilderness areas, national
wildlife refuges and Tennessee
Valley Authority land.
If you are willing to get
out there on the public land,
you’ll have no shortage of
opportunities to hunt. The
mission of protecting and
preserving this land really
drew me to BHA.
DOES THE BHA
MESSAGE RESONATE
IN ALABAMA?
Absolutely, especially when
you frame it as not only a
Western thing.
It matters to us for several
reasons: we’re losing acres here
in Alabama, with our budgets
decreasing every year and
decreasing license sales. The
most important thing we can
do is grow the sport. Without
those license sales, we’ll lose
the land and the management
that was once there. The state
can’t afford to do the browse
management it once did. The
Tennessee Valley Authority
doesn’t even have a management
plan.
The state is looking for partners
in the management of its
land. I see us filling the gap
with both volunteer activism
and as a watchdog.
Our wildlife management
areas are not owned solely
by the state, and we’ve lost
something like 65,000 acres
of WMAs in the last few years.
The era of the big WMA in
Alabama is gone.
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST
THREAT TO HUNTING?
A low percentage of Americans
identify as hunters. It
would be very easy for the
majority to boot us out of the
picture completely.
Presenting the picture of
the true conservation-minded
sportsman is important.
When a bad hunting-related
story goes viral on social media,
it gives us a black eye.
We need to spend more
time talking about all the great
things we are doing: funding
the North American model
of wildlife conservation, supporting
communities. That
directly feeds into our loss of
public lands from congressional
action.
We need to spend more
time telling our story rather
than reacting to the narrative
that’s being forced upon us.
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 9

OPINION
Jess McGlothlin photo
WHOA! Let’s Slow Down on Allowing Bikes in Wilderness
BY JIM WATSON AND CAROL BIBLER
THE EFFORT INVOLVED IN A SELF-GUIDED TRIP is daunting:
planning meals, packing gear and food, trying to anticipate
the weather, the horses’ and mules’ needs. July 2016 marked our
fourth pack trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness in three years,
and our third unguided trip. Yet preparations were still not easy.
“Why are we doing this?” Carol mused at one point. “Why do
we love this so much?”
“Because it forces us to slow down,” Jim replied.
“Slowing down” is far more than recovering from the stress of
trip planning or escaping life’s hectic routines. Slowing down allows
us to enjoy silence, the songs of birds and the whisper of
wind in the trees. It encourages us to look, listen and even smell.
Slowing down enables us to transcend the cares of everyday existence,
opens our minds to the natural world and invites us to
become part of it.
“I believe we have a profound fundamental need for areas of
the earth where we stand without our mechanisms that make us
immediate masters over our environment,” early wilderness advocate
Bob Marshall wrote. So many mechanisms spring to mind
when we read those words: cars, phones, computers, generators,
chainsaws, bicycles...
Recently, the focus has been on mountain bikes. It is exhilarating
and challenging to ride over and around rocks, stumps and
logs in the fresh mountain air. It’s a thrill to fly downhill. But it
takes concentration to cover ground like that, a focus which is
antithetical to the experience of slowing down.
And certainly it’s antithetical to the Wilderness Act of 1964,
which is fairly clear: “There shall be no ... use of motor vehicles,
motorized equipment, motorboats ... no other form of mechanical
transport ... within any such area.”
The spirit of the act is even clearer. In the early 1930s, Bob
Marshall said, “Areas ... should be set aside by an act of Congress.
This would give them as close an approximation to permanence
as could be realized in a world of shifting desires.”
A world of shifting desires. Bob Marshall, who died in 1939,
probably could not have imagined today’s full-suspension mountain
bikes, wing suits, bungee cords or recreational drones. But he
clearly knew such things would someday arrive. He knew mechanization
would increasingly be at odds with true wilderness.
Our friend Fritz, in his mid-70s, has traveled many thousands
of miles on foot and horseback in and around the Bob Marshall
Wilderness Complex, both for work and pleasure. This summer
he and his wife completed an 11-day, self-guided trip across the
Bob. Considering the idea of bikes in wilderness areas, he said:
“Wilderness is a place where man and his progress is kept to a minimum.
It’s a place where wheels do not belong except those that are
turning in our heads as we appreciate the vistas without interruption;
where we need not fear a wheeled vehicle careening around
the corner running into us, the concern we have in crossing a busy
downtown street. Wilderness is a place where time can slow down
to its own pace, and we participate at that pace, not ours.”
In the United States we are fortunate to have 193 million acres
of national forests, including thousands of miles of roads and
trails. Much of that bike-friendly land is breathtakingly beautiful.
Opportunities abound for increased mountain bike access within
these non-wilderness national forest lands.
Less than 3 percent of national forest land is designated as wilderness.
In a rapidly developing world, that 3 percent is an increasingly
precious legacy for us and all who come after us. Now
more than ever before, our species – not to mention those that are
threatened or endangered – can benefit from places that humans
haven’t conquered.
That’s why we were dismayed to hear that Congress is considering
a bill to allow the use of mountain bikes in designated wilderness
areas. Mountain bikes are mechanical devices that enable
humans to move much faster than otherwise would be possible,
or appropriate, in formal wilderness.
Luckily, there are hundreds of millions of acres outside wilderness
areas where mountain biking is allowed and encouraged.
Most folks, like the members of BHA, appreciate and enjoy
mountain bikes – but in the appropriate places. This nuance is
lost on politicians who have used this issue as a wedge between
mountain bike enthusiasts and those who prefer traditional methods
of transportation. Many mountain bikers and their organizations
see this bill for the ruse it is and have come out against it.
Wilderness areas provide a rare opportunity to step back in
time and experience the world as it was before the mechanisms
we humans created began to dominate existence. Aldo Leopold,
another father of the wilderness movement, said, “Wilderness areas
are first of all a series of sanctuaries for the primitive arts of
wilderness travel, especially canoeing and packing.”
When we have the opportunity to practice these arts in the
absence of modern mechanisms whizzing by, we feel connected to
our ancestors and the ways they experienced the world. Opportunities
for those experiences are diminishing across the globe. It
is little wonder then that more than 12 million people visit U.S.
wilderness areas annually.
The Wilderness Act of 1964 is not broken and does not need to
be fixed. It has protected a relatively small but valuable sanctuary
for those who wish to immerse themselves in truly wild places.
Let’s slow down and look at the consequences before considering
any changes to that visionary act.
Jim and Carol ranch west of Kalispell, Montana. They have devoted
much of the past 10 years to a volunteer-driven effort creating the
34-mile Foy’s to Blacktail Trail System, on public and private lands
in the Salish Mountains. The trail system welcomes cyclists, hikers and
equestrians and is becoming a regional mountain biking destination.
10 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2016
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 11

KIDS’ CORNER
donate.
COLD AND HUNGRY
Animal Adaptations for Winter Survival
BY KEN KEFFER, PHOTOS BY PAUL QUENEAU
FALLING SNOWFLAKES CAN MEAN ONLY ONE THING:
It’s time to dig out the hats and gloves and have a snowball fight!
But what about the wildlife outside in the cold? Check out the
awesome ways animals survive frigid weather and deep snow.
So Long, Cold Climate!
Creatures that live in different places during summer and
winter are called migrators. Whether traveling 40 miles down a
mountain or 4,000 miles to South America, they’re relocating to
avoid the cold and to find something to eat.
The V-shaped flocks of flying Canada geese have always been
icons of migration, but plenty of other waterfowl migrate, too.
Teal, especially blue-winged teal, often move south at the first sign
of chilly weather. In some years, a cold snap can push these small
dabbling ducks south before the early teal hunting season opens.
Don’t be surprised if you spot some ducks, geese and swans
hanging out up north year-round. If they can find food, many
species have no problem staying warm. The same down feathers
that make your winter coat so cozy keep the birds weatherproof.
Waterfowl also can keep their feet warm, even on a frozen pond.
Big game such as deer, elk and pronghorn migrate across the
landscape, too. Deep snows in the high country make it difficult
to find food, so winter range is necessary for their survival. One of
the longest of these annual mammal migrations takes mule deer
over 150 miles in western Wyoming.
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photo credit: www.byland.co
Sleep Tight
Another way to avoid winter is
to sleep through it. When animals
are hibernating for the season, their
metabolism slows way down. That
means they need a lot less energy.
They don’t eat or go to the bathroom
at all, and their heart rate and
breathing slows down to a couple of
beats and breaths per minute. Many
species of squirrels, mice, chipmunks
and marmots are hibernators.
Before hibernating, animals often
build up fat reserves. Grizzly bears
gain up to three pounds per day, for
example. The most amazing thing
is they don’t lose much muscle over
winter. If your arm is in a cast for a
few weeks it gets shriveled and weak,
but bears stay strong all winter long.
So, what about the black bears of
the warm Southern states … do you
think they hibernate? Nope! They
stay active all year.
Many reptiles and amphibians
survive the cold by going into a hibernation-like
phase. They bury
themselves in the mud or under
rocks or logs for months at a time.
The wood frogs take this to the extreme
by growing ice crystals inside
their bodies! A high level of glucose,
a form of sugar, in the frogs’ cells
prevents them from turning into
frogcicles.
Winter Warriors
The animals that don’t hibernate or migrate have to be
well equipped for the challenges of winter. They must continue
to find food and stay warm.
Some creatures change coats for the winter as a disguise,
and some do it to protect themselves from the cold. The
ptarmigan, weasel and snowshoe hare all match the season
by growing winter whites for camouflage. Most mammals
that stay active all winter, from fox to caribou, grow coats
that are thicker and much warmer.
Just like people use oversized snowshoes to walk on top
of the snow, animals like the lynx and hare have large feet.
But not all animals live on top of the snow. Mice, shrews
and weasels survive under it by making tunnels. The snow
provides them a blanket of warmth and protection.
Squirrels, beavers, jays and others will store food in the
fall. The animals will have something to eat all winter as
long as these supplies don’t run out before the spring thaw.
Sometimes the effort spent finding food isn’t worth the
nutrients. Moose will settle in and not eat for days to avoid
plowing through the snow. When they do move, their long
legs help them navigate deep snowdrifts. By placing their
hindfeet into the front footsteps, they only have to break
trail once. This helps them save energy.
Winter can be a struggle for animals. Migration is a long
and dangerous journey. Hibernating animals wake up hungry
for their next meal. The animals that stick it out through
winter don’t always make it until spring, either. The hearty
critters that do survive the season are the true winter champions,
and they do it all without boots or snowpants.
Author and BHA member Ken Keffer grew up hunting and
fishing in Wyoming. Now he is a naturalist who has written
six books connecting families to nature. See more of his work at
www.kenkeffer.net.
GO TO BACKCOUNTRYHUNTERS.ORG OR CALL GRANT ALBAN AT 406-926-1908 TODAY!
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 13

POLICY
STATES ATTEMPT TO SELL, TRANSFER LANDS
BY BRIAN OHLEN
SOME BHA MEMBERS ARE IN FOR A SURPRISE next
hunting season when they arrive at a favorite hunting area to find
a gate and private property sign blocking their way. State trust
lands have recently been auctioned in Utah and Wisconsin, forever
barring the American people from accessing these lands and
waters. Wyoming resisted a large land transfer, largely because
of the outcry generated by the Wyoming BHA Chapter. BHA
members have led the charge in raising awareness of these issues
by organizing rallies, creating online petitions and voicing their
opinions to lawmakers. This collective voice can make the difference
between preserving our hunting and fishing heritage and
losing it forever.
Utah:
The Utah Trust Lands Administration held the second land
auction of 2016 in October, selling off nearly 4,000 acres of state
trust lands. The parcels provide excellent deer, elk and upland
hunting. BHA member Ivan James used to hunt one of those
sections.
“On a recent hunt, after getting busted on a stalk and spooking
nine deer off the section, I still had three more stalks that evening,”
James said. “That parcel was up for sale and probably sold
for more than I could ever afford.”
That 640-acre parcel sold at auction for $850,000. This is the
latest example in a long history of Utah’s state land auctions. Utah
has sold more than half of the lands entrusted to it at statehood
– 4.1 million acres now in private hands. This all happens while
Utah considers pursuing a lawsuit against the federal government
for control of U.S. Forest Service and BLM lands within the Beehive
State’s borders. It’s not difficult to guess what would happen
to those public lands if they are transferred, says Utah Chapter
Board Member Joshua Lenart.
Utah BHA members have risen in support of public lands and
have brought attention to the state land sales by hosting the Full
Draw Film Tour, Train to Hunt competition and chapter planning
meetings to energize and inform sportsmen. The chapter
created yard signs taking aim at the lawsuit, which have been a hit
among members and businesses.
“The yard signs were one way we’ve tried to raise public awareness
and get the BHA name out there,” said Lenart. “One of the
local fly shops gave us a significant donation. I’ve never met these
folks, but they want to see sportsmen’s groups get on board with
the public land issues.”
Wisconsin:
In 2012, the Wisconsin legislature passed a bill requiring the
Department of Natural Resources to auction 10,000 acres of state
lands. Since then two sales have taken place, selling more than
7,000 acres. In October, the Natural Resources Board approved
an additional 3,186 acres for sale, 1,344 of which provide public
hunting and fishing opportunities.
“One of the parcels that is recommended for sale has decent
duck hunting,” said Wisconsin Chapter Board Member John
Rennpferd. “Last time I drove by that land hunters were out
there. They’re not going to have that next year.”
Wisconsin BHA members have led the charge against these
land sales. A petition on the BHA website has accumulated more
than 2,000 signatures opposed to the auctions.
“We started reaching out to the NRB with letters and showing
our displeasure with land sales,” Rennpferd said. “The NRB took
notice of the petition and referenced it in a recent meeting. It
proves that we can focus attention on action issues.”
“We can’t assume that other national organizations are going
to stand up for what’s happening in Wisconsin,” Rennpferd said.
“That’s why the state BHA chapter is so important.”
Wyoming:
Business owner Rick Bonander proposed to trade 295 acres of his
property in the Black Hills for 1,040 acres of state land in the Laramie
Range this fall. The transfer also would have isolated an additional
3,000 acres of Forest Service and BLM lands, resulting in a net loss of
more than 4,000 acres of public land presently open to the public. Wyoming
BHA organized a successful campaign resulting in the rejection
of the proposed swap by the Board of Land Commissioners.
“Area 7 is one of the most popular elk areas in the state,” said Wyoming
Chapter Board Member Jeff Muratore. “The land up for transfer
is prime elk and deer country: broken mountains, pockets of trees, rugged
and accessible by foot.”
The 295 acres in the Black Hills offered no new access. It is traversed
by a county road and provides only marginal hunting opportunities.
Resistance to the exchange was substantial and BHA members played a
pivotal role. The Wyoming Chapter brought this issue the attention it
deserved through social media, petitions, and calls to the state land office.
Most importantly, they showed up and testified at public hearings.
“Most Americans will tell you they believe money controls politicians.
I’ve covered these issues too long to disagree,” wrote Bob Marshall
on Field & Stream’s Conservationist blog about this transfer. “But
I’ve also talked to enough politicians and lobbyists on and off the record
to know another truth: If an elected official gets enough response from
constituents opposing what the money guys want, he/she will vote with
the voters every time.”
“BHA has been the leader in rallying the troops and opposing this
land transaction,” Muratore said.
14 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017 WINTER 2016 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 15

BACKCOUNTRY BISTRO
Michael Furtman photo
BY CHOL MCGLYNN
FRIED SNOWSHOE HARE
Backcountry Skiing with a Recurve Bow
A RECENT VOLUNTARY WINTER
road closure by the U.S. Forest Service to
protect wintering elk populations here in
northwest Colorado has indirectly led me
to some of the best snowshoe hare honey
holes I have ever encountered.
I’m fortunate to live surrounded on
three sides by the Routt National Forest
outside Steamboat Springs. Even with the
mountain known for its “champagne powder”
nearby, I prefer to take my skiing in
the backcountry. But with the closure of
the Forest Service road out my back door,
I’ve actually had to get in my car to earn
those turns. That closure has forced me to
other parts of the national forest and made
my ski tracks cross many hare tracks. Naturally
I’ve started bringing my bow skiing.
Hare hunters typically employ beagles
and shotguns and therefore are more successful
than a lone traditional bowhunter. I
take what I can get, but mostly I go home
empty handed.
I start my hunt by actually going out
skiing for a couple hours after my 3-year
-old son goes down for his afternoon nap.
I get some touring in, carve some turns
and head back toward the car with a stop
along the way. I find some nice hare traffic
areas, take off my sweaty base layer and replace
with a dry layer, find a dark place to
hole up and wait for movement. The other
course of action is to try to spot the hares
under their cover trees (if the snow is not
too deep) and pick them off that way. The
challenge is there and it’s often something
else for dinner, but nothing beats an afternoon
of skiing public land followed by an
evening of hunting.
Once I get home with my hare(s), the
first thing I do after cleaning (and sometimes
before I finish cleaning them) is cook
and eat the heart, liver and kidneys. I fry
them up in some butter or bacon fat sprinkled
with a little sea salt. While I enjoy the
tender little hearts and livers, the kidneys
are my favorite! They taste like seared little
gamey mushrooms. My wife is not much
for the offal, so I usually enjoy these pieces
on my own and I do not mind one bit.
This recipe is a favorite for a snowy winter
day’s lunch. The brine keeps the hare
juicy and tender and helps if the hare is
a larger, older one. If you prefer a lighter
breading, simply coat the hare pieces once
before frying. This makes for a lighter,
more tender crispness. Use the double batter
for real crunch. Dijon mustard is a classic
with rabbit/hare in France and makes
a fine dipper for the pieces. The pickles?
Well, I just love pickles of all types!
THE BEST FRIED HARE
Ingredients:
2 snowshoe hares
Brine, cold (recipe to follow)
Canola oil for frying
2 cups buttermilk
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup garlic powder
½ cup onion powder
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons cayenne
2 teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2 sprigs thyme, chopped
For the brine:
2 lemons, halved
4 bay leaves
2 ounces flat leaf parsley
4-5 springs of thyme
2 ounces honey
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 ounces kosher salt
3 quarts water
¼ cup chopped parsley
Procedures
For brining the hare:
1. In a large pot combine brine ingredients
and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute
until the salt is dissolved. Remove from
the heat, cool, and then refrigerate until
chilled.
2. Place the hare in the brine for 8 hours.
When ready to use, remove from brine and
rinse under cold water.
For frying the hare:
1. In a large frying pan, heat the canola
oil to 325 degrees F.
2. Combine the dry ingredients and
then split into two bowls. Add buttermilk
to a third bowl.
3. Dredge the hare pieces in the seasoned
flour, then into the buttermilk, then
into the next seasoned flour.
4. Place the hare in hot oil for 2 minutes
then begin moving the pieces around to
fry evenly for a total of 8-10 minutes, until
hare is golden and cooked thoroughly.
5. Place hare on a platter, sprinkle with
chopped thyme and serve with side of Dijon
mustard and pickled vegetables.
Chol is the executive chef at Vista Verde
Ranch, a AAA rated 4 Diamond dude ranch
north of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, as
well as an avid fly fisherman and (primarily)
bowhunter. He joined BHA in 2012 after
reading about it in a David Petersen book
and quickly became a Life Member, then
Legacy Partner. Chol will be one of the chefs
cooking for the Field to Table Dinner at the
2017 Rendezvous in April. Learn more at
backcountryhunters.org/rendezvous_2017.
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 17

Tim Romano photo
ETIQUETTE
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BY SARA EVANS-KIROL
I PLAYED VOLLEYBALL for a small, four-year college. Each season
would begin with a two-week camp, where we would spend
nine hours a day in the gym in the middle of August honing our
skills. My senior year, our coach decided we needed some team
bonding and asked the other co-captain and me to lead a backcounty
backpacking trip in the Absaroka Mountains.
We geared up and headed out on a sunny morning. Oh, how
wonderful to be outside the gym! We hiked for several hours to a
pristine lake and made camp. With only a few hours of daylight
left, we made dinner and hung out. A few of us took a stroll along
the lake looking for fish and enjoying the orange glow fringing
the rocky peaks.
The next morning I was up early and walked down to the lake.
I was disappointed to find a pile of someone’s garbage tucked in
the grass and reeds along the shore. Sadly, I realized it belonged to
one of my teammates. I called a meeting and asked for whoever
left the items to pick them up. Later, after summiting a nearby
peak I checked and it had been removed. From this incident, I
learned that most people don’t have deliberate intentions to disturb
natural lands; they simply don’t have the skills or education
to prevent it.
Our system of public lands is a point of pride for many Americans,
and many of us take advantage of the opportunities these
wild places provide. Tens of millions of us, in fact. As that visitation
rapidly increased in the latter parts of the last century, land
managers began noticing the ecological toll visitors were taking
on public lands. They started implementing heavy-handed tactics
such as area closures, stringent regulations and developed camp
sites. But it quickly became evident that regulations alone would
not solve the problem. So, land managers took to educational
campaigns instead. You may remember a few: “Take Only Pictures,
Leave Only Footprints,” “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and
“Wilderness Manners.”
Finally, in the 1990s, with support from management agencies,
the outdoor industry, Boy Scouts of America and prominent outdoor
leadership schools, the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor
Ethics was incorporated as a nonprofit organization. The mission
of this organization is to sustain healthy natural lands for people
now and in the future. It promotes this vision through several
nation-wide education goals and strategies.
The Leave No Trace principles provide people with a skill set
that to helps to reduce or eliminate inadvertent impacts on the
lands we all love and enjoy. These are outlined in a set of seven
guiding rules for backcountry travel:
LEAVE NO TRACE
Plan Ahead and Prepare: Check with land management agencies
for regulations, avalanche and weather reports. Tell someone
your itinerary and stick with it, use a map and compass or GPS
instead of rock cairns, flagging or marking paint. Unprepared
people often resort to high-impact solutions.
Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces: Camp at least 200
feet from water. Disperse use to prevent the creation of campsites
and trails. Avoid places where impacts are just beginning. Choose
deep snow to travel on whenever possible and in muddy spring
conditions stay on snow or walk in the middle of the trail.
Dispose of Waste Properly: Pack out everything you bring
with you. Burying trash and litter in snow or the ground is unacceptable.
Drag gut piles well away from trails, water sources and
highly visited areas. Deposit solid human waste in cat holes 6-8
inches deep and pack out toilet paper. Scatter strained dishwater
and pack out all food scraps.
Leave What You Find: Sight in firearms away from hunting
areas. Do not use rocks, signs, trees or non-games animals for
target practice. Leave historical and cultural artifacts intact and
where you found them.
Minimize Campfire Impacts: Stoves are often the best option
as campfires can scar the backcountry. Trash or food does not belong
in the fire pit and usually doesn’t burn completely. Use only
sticks from the ground, don’t break branches off living or standing
dead trees.
Respect Wildlife: Never feed animals because it can damage
their health and alter natural behaviors. Take only clean killing
shots. Store your food and trash in a secure away not to attract
animals. Winter is an especially vulnerable time for animals. Observe
wildlife from a distance.
Be Considerate of Other Visitors: Step to the downhill side
when encountering pack animals, take breaks and camp away
from trails and other visitors, and protect other visitor’s quality
of experience by keeping noise levels down. Separate ski and
snowshoe track where possible. Avoid hiking on ski or snowshoe
tracks. Control dogs at all times.
The gift of public lands comes with an obligation for each of
us to care for what we have been given. Leave No Trace gives us
the tools to shoulder our portion of responsibility in protecting
natural areas, whether it’s the city park or federally designated
wilderness. To learn more visit lnt.org or contact your LNT State
Advocate.
Sara was raised on her family’s cattle ranch in southern Wyoming.
She worked as a river guide on the Colorado River prior to joining the
Forest Service as a wilderness ranger, river ranger and trail crew boss.
She is now the trails coordinator for the Bighorn National Forest.
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 19

BOOTS ON THE GROUND
WHEN PRIVATE LANDS AREN’T
BY RANDY KING
ONE OF MY FATHER’S FAVORITE tales
is about a buck he shot with a muzzleloader
in the Owyhee Mountains of southwest
Idaho. When the camp fire is rolling and
the beer is going down, he tells of spooking
a sleeping 4x4 while taking a pee and
then shooting the buck at about 40 yards.
“Then I look to my left and see a couple
of orange hats. A husband and wife were
watching me with my zipper down,” he
says. “The biggest buck I ever shot with a
muzzleloader was while I was taking a pee.
Too bad that is all private ground now.”
And that is how his story would end.
Epic and hilarious conquest followed by
regret that he could no longer hunt that
spot. Since I was a child that section of
land has been marked by orange paint
along the fence and No Trespassing signs.
Clearly it is private land. Right?
Wrong. It turns out that most of the
area is BLM or state of Idaho ground. So
why is it marked private? Basically because
Idaho has very generous trespassing laws.
If land is unmarked and uncultivated, you
can hunt on it. A landowner can ask a
hunter to leave but can’t prosecute them
for trespassing without having marked the
land. To ease the burden on land owners,
the state allows them to post their property
using orange paint. Landowners can paint
rocks, trees and, most commonly, fence
posts to inform the public.
Most hunters, being law abiding citizens,
recognize the paint for what it means
and do not enter. But some landowners
have figured out that if they mark fence
that is not theirs – a BLM fence in this
case – that the under-funded federal land
management agencies will never notice.
Owyhee County has two BLM officers
covering an area of 7,697 square miles.
So, for 25 years, the area where my father
shot his storied buck has incorrectly
and illegally been marked as private. The
landowner has effectively stolen access to
public property from the community, taking
advantage of hunters’ integrity.
How did I find out? The onXmaps
smartphone app. I recently attended a
BHA meeting in Idaho. Apparently I had
let my membership lapse, but if I renewed
my membership right then I could get a
year subscription to onXmaps. Two birds,
one stone. So I sent in my check and got
my subscription in the mail.
As soon as I installed the app, I took a
gander at some of my favorite hunting locations.
Following a road up a long mountainside,
I could see familiar sections of
land. Lots of yellow BLM property, some
blue state of Idaho property and plenty of
non-colored private property. But when I
took a closer look, at ridges that I knew
well and at gates I frequently opened, I noticed
something fishy. A gate I knew to be
marked, locked and posted was clearly on
state of Idaho land. And the area my dad
always laments losing, due to a “posted”
fence, was on BLM property! I was livid.
The next day I called the BLM in Marsing,
Idaho. I left a message over the phone.
Then I emailed a screenshot of my onXmaps
app and the illegally marked areas to
them. Shortly after, Keith, a BLM employee,
gave me call back.
“A lot of my job this time of year is chasing
these things down,” he said. “Everyone
has those chips [for GPS] now and landowners
are being kept honest with access.”
My father met Keith up on the hill and
showed him both illegally blocked access
This gate was illegally locked and
posted for decades, blocking the
author and his family from their
honey hole.
points. “No question that these are illegal,”
Keith said, taking a pair of wire cutters to
the “No Trespassing” signs and cutting the
lock off the gate. “I can’t actually do anything
about the state land; it’s out of my
jurisdiction. You’ll have to call Owyhee
County for help with that.”
I know the landowner’s name, I know
he is important in the community and I
know how small town politics work. I have
not yet heard back from Owyhee County
about the illegally marked gate on state
land. I asked Keith about consequences for
the landowner.
“Not much right now,” he said. “Usually
we just talk to them and they stop. If they
keep it up the BLM can take away their
lease. They really don’t want that.”
I called Keith a few weeks later. I just
wanted to thank him for his hard work. “I
spoke with the landowner about the gate,”
Keith told me. “And they said, ‘That has
been marked for years, why are they having
a problem with it now?’”
The problem is theft. That land is my
land and your land. Theft of public access
is still theft – and our society has rules
about that.
My son and I went into the formerly
posted area this fall. We had one of our
best encounters ever, with a small herd
of does at 4 yards, drinking from a pond.
Our zippers were up, but we could see the
deer blink, we could see the buttons on
a yearling buck with our naked eye. We
were making new memories, new stories,
on our public lands.
Randy is a husband, father of three boys,
a BHA member and recently published his
first book, Chef in the Wild: Recipes and
Reflections of a True Wilderness Chef.
20 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2016
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 21

OPINION
Sam Lungren photo
WHITETAIL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
BY BEN LONG
AMERICA’S FOUNDING FATHERS HAD THIS FEAR of “the
tyranny of the majority.” That is, if one larger group of people got
too much power, it was bad for the whole democracy. That is why
we have the Bill of Rights – to protect the rights of those who are
outnumbered.
Hunters should think of America’s public lands as a biological
Bill of Rights. Those lands protect us from what I call the tyranny
of the whitetail.
First off, let me vow loyalty to King Whitetail. They are tasty,
beautiful and fun to hunt. The bulk of my hunting time is spent
pursuing whitetails, and they make up most of my protein intake.
According to surveys by the National Shooting Sports Foundation,
some 10 million American hunters pursue whitetail deer
annually. By comparison, all other big game species account for
only 300,000 hunters annually – a mere 3 percent. As a result,
whitetail deer cast a mighty big shadow. They dominate the license
fees (and thus agency priorities), the biological research, the
trophy books, the outdoors media and the hearts and minds of
American hunters.
If whitetail deer did not exist, wildlife managers would probably
genetically engineer a similar creature to thrive in modern
America of industrial agriculture and urban sprawl. Whitetails
need very little space – even a big buck can live its life contentedly
on a single square mile. They breed rapidly to make up for
heavy predation, whether it be by cougar, coyote, automobile or
riflemen. They happily fatten on crops like soybeans or alfalfa.
The ultimate generalists, they thrive in the deserts of Arizona, the
frigid north woods of Canada, the swamps of Florida and city
parks nationwide. If all wildlife were as flexible, we would need
no Endangered Species Act.
Whitetails are an all-American game animal. But they are not
the only one. North America is blessed with more than 20 big
game species, none of them as ubiquitous, but each as special.
Look at it this way: Nothing against Bud Light, America’s most
popular beer, but isn’t America richer for all our myriad of brews?
Not all wildlife is as flexible as whitetail deer, living their lives
in one square mile. Whitetails “fit between the cracks” of civilization,
but many other popular big game species cannot. For
example, some mule deer in Wyoming migrate 150 miles between
summer and winter ranges. Pronghorn populations in Montana
and southern Canada migrate 200 miles. A typical bull elk in the
Rocky Mountains may use a home range of 15 square miles. A
single grizzly bear requires 50 square miles. Bighorn sheep and
mountain goats are habitat obligates – meaning they require a
certain kind of rugged escape cover to survive.
Big game needs big country. Whitetail deer are the exception
that proves the rule.
So where do these non-whitetail big game species live? In short,
they live on public lands – the great national forests, grasslands,
parks, and Bureau of Land Management acres of the American
West (along with adjoining private timber and ranch lands). That
public estate amounts to 640 million acres shared by people and
wildlife alike. Because of the foresight of sportsmen and other
conservationists over the past 100 years, this estate provides the
foundation for North America’s wildlife heritage, even as the human
population surpasses 310 million.
Back in the 1990s, biologist Jack Ward Thomas noted that 80
percent of America’s elk depend on public lands for at least part
of their life cycle. The percentage is probably close to 100 percent
for mountain goat, bighorn sheep, moose and other big game.
In short, our national forests give wildlife the kind of space they
need to thrive, even if they are not whitetail deer.
“Public lands offer the broad expanses necessary for biodiversity
and ecosystem function. You cannot parse up the land into
smaller and smaller pieces and expect it to maintain the fabric
of nature,” said biologist and wildlife advocate Shane Mahoney.
“Having a nation anywhere in the world with millions of acres
available to the citizens is an extraordinary gift and legacy.”
Alarmingly, there are voices today who would liquidate that
legacy. These people have the same anti-public lands philosophy
that Theodore Roosevelt faced when he started to cobble together
America’s network of public lands.
I would also argue that public lands offer a certain authenticity
of the hunt that is eroding rapidly in whitetail country. With the
private-land, intensive wildlife management and food-plot practices
of today, whitetail hunting is increasingly focused on manipulating
the habitat and herds to produce shooting opportunities.
While management can (and should) improve habitat on public
lands, big game on public lands remain primarily as they have
existed for the ages. On public lands, you shape your hunting to
the ecosystem instead of shaping the ecosystem to the hunt.
Thanks to TR and those like him, America’s wildlife heritage is
whitetail deer plus much, much more. If we want to keep it that
way, we’ll need to keep our public lands in public hands.
Idaho outdoor writer Ron Spomer put it this way: “Public lands
personify this idea we call America – which is freedom. The human
animal – the human spirit – is not intended to be confined
to a cage.”
Ben is the vice chairman of BHA’s national board of directors. He
ate whitetail for dinner last night.
22 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL FALL 2016 WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 23

CHAPTER NEWS
BHA CHAPTER
LEADERS AFIELD
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
a.
g.
k.
l.
m.
h.
i.
j.
n.
o.
p.
q.
r.
s.
t.
u. v.
w.
a. British Columbia Chapter Chairman Bill Hanlon with his stone sheep b. Alaska Chapter Outreach Coordinator Steve Shannon fishing with his son, Seamus
c. Wisconsin Chapter Board Member TJ Hauge enjoying his public land d. Montana Chapter Board Member Nick Siebrasse with his moose e. Wyoming
Chapter Board Member Jeff Muratore with his family and pronghorn f. New England Chapter Co-Chair Robert Bryan and BHA member Jean St. Pierre with their
Wyoming pronghorn g. Idaho Chapter Board Member Bryan Huskey with his mule deer h. Wyoming Chapter Treasurer Trevor Herrman with his son Ty and
Ty’s turkey i. California Chapter Chairman George McCloskey with his Idaho elk j. California Chapter Board Member Jon Kruger with an Alaska arctic char
k. Washington Chapter Board Member Matt Scott with his Idaho elk l. Montana Chapter Board Member Steve Platt with his whitetail deer
m. Montana Chapter Conservation Coordinator Greg Munther with his mountain goat n. Minnesota Chapter Board Member Joe Lang and his Montana elk
o. Minnesota Chapter Board Member David Lien with two ruffed grouse p. Arizona Chapter Chairman Kurt Bahti with BHA members Doug and Nicole White
and their Coues deer q. Wisconsin Chapter Board Member Ryan Williams with his family and some Michigan pheasants r. California Chapter Secretary Craig
Van Arsdale with his British Columbia mountain goat s. Washington Chapter Co-Chair Bart George with his Idaho elk t. Oregon Chapter Vice Chairman Mike
Haralson and his wife Angela with her mule deer u. New York Chapter Board Member Garrett Burback and BHA member Jason Lazore hunting elk in Colorado
v. Montana Chapter Treasurer Chad Sivertsen with his whitetail deer w. Wisconsin Chapter Board Member Miles Thompson with a pheasant and happy Lab

OPINION
BY DAVID LIEN
ELECTION EVE BUCK
IT’S NOVEMBER 7, THE DAY BEFORE our 2016 presidential
election, and I’m deer hunting in northern Minnesota’s 3
million-acre Superior National Forest, contemplating the many
foresighted U.S. presidents and others who have helped protect
and perpetuate our great public lands estate. Federal public lands
– owned equally by all Americans – constitute approximately 640
million acres, 28 percent of our nation’s landmass.
Without this vast expanse of public lands, hunting, fishing,
hiking and camping would at best be reduced to commercial
transactions, restricted only to those who can afford them. But
gladly that is not the case. For example, in Minnesota for the
cost of a license, a gun, a box of shells and good boots, anyone
can hunt public lands, including two national forests and 58 state
forests encompassing some 9 million acres.
These public lands are part of what historian Frederick Turner
called the “greatest gift ever bestowed on mankind.” Unfortunately,
conservation has become an increasingly divisive issue during
recent years. As former Minnesota State Senator Bob Lessard once
said, “It always struck me that a duck, a deer or a fish does not
take a political side, Republican, Democrat or Independent, and
I’ll support the individual who supports us.”
In the words of Gifford Pinchot, America’s first chief forester:
“It’s a greater thing to be a good citizen than to be a good Republican
or a good Democrat.” Numerous past presidents from
both parties have been stalwart advocates of wildlands, wildlife
and public lands, with two notable standouts leading the pack:
Theodore Roosevelt (R) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D).
26 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017
A Tribute to Conservationist Politicians Past
Theodore Roosevelt
Jim Posewitz, author of Rifle In Hand: How Wild America Was
Saved, says the single most important American to take to the
hunt was Theodore Roosevelt. He was the greatest conservationist
any society has ever known and he savored life while spending it,
in his words, “rifle in hand.” In the area of natural history, TR was
the most learned of American presidents with the possible exception
of Thomas Jefferson. With respect to enacting policies for the
protection of wildlife and their habitats, he remains indisputably
the greatest, according to conservation historian Shane Mahoney.
Posewitz adds that as president TR impacted the American
landscape and its future with the following actions: 1) supported
and then signed the Antiquities Act to create national monuments;
2) designated 18 national monuments, including the
Grand Canyon; 3) created, with Congress, five new national
parks; 4) designated big game ranges in Oklahoma, Montana,
Arizona and Washington; 5) set aside 51 bird sanctuaries; 6) increased
the forest reserves from 43 million to more than 190 million
acres; and, 7) established the U.S. Forest Service, naming
Gifford Pinchot its leader.
According to the late Dr. John Gable, the longtime Theodore
Roosevelt Association executive director, TR protected the
equivalent of 84,000 acres of public lands per day for the seven
and a half years he was in office. As TR himself said, “Of all the
questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual
preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which
compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this
land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us.”
“When he entered the White House in 1901, the idea of conser-
Anthony Heller photo
vation had not yet found its way into the public mind,” Posewitz
wrote. “When he left office in 1909, he had implanted the idea of
conservation into our culture and enriched our future prospects
with 230 million acres of designated public forests, wildlife refuges,
bird preserves, parks, national monuments and game ranges.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
FDR, TR’s fifth cousin, came into office facing the threats of
the Great Depression and Nazi Germany. It was this man’s indomitable
optimism that convinced the country it could beat the
worst economic and military dangers in its history.
As the Great Depression strangled the American spirit, it was
also choking life from our nation’s wildlife. Wetlands had turned
bone dry following years of drought, causing ducks to disappear.
Drought caused croplands, especially those in America’s midsection,
to turn to dust. These fallow fields – once vast, ancient prairies
– no longer held prairie chickens, quail and other species.
Minnesota Conservation Volunteer contributor C.B. Bylander
says that forests, or what was left of them, were also under pressure.
They had been sapped by decades of unsustainable logging
that opened the land, fed the mills and served lumber to a hungry
and growing nation. Lack of effective hunting regulations added
to the woe, furthering declines in migratory bird and big game
populations.
In 1903, when TR established America’s first federal bird reservation
in Florida, there were an estimated 120 million waterfowl
in North America. By 1933, when FDR was in the White House,
that number had shrunk to 30 million, according to Douglas
Brinkley in Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land
of America. Against this bleak backdrop, the federal government
shortened the duck season, 11 states closed deer seasons and three
states offered only localized seasons in those areas where deer remained.
Yet the drought of the 1930s inspired a wave of new thinking,
Bylander said. Aldo Leopold’s conservation philosophy took root.
The science of wildlife management blossomed. Hunters began
to form local and international organizations to conserve wildlife
– like Ducks Unlimited, born in 1937. That same year, FDR
signed into law the Wildlife Restoration Act, also known as the
Pittman-Robertson Act.
Named after congressional sponsors Key Pittman in the Senate
and Absalom Willis Robertson in the House, the act created a
federal tax on firearms and ammunition sales. The act’s aim was to
aid conservation efforts by delivering money to states for managing
wildlife and protecting habitat. “It was New Deal thinking for
a longstanding problem,” Bylander wrote.
The bill created a permanent source of funding for conservation,
and in its 80 years P-R has generated more than $8 billion.
Wildlands and wildlife have benefited greatly from these hunter
dollars. More than 4 million acres of sensitive habitat have been
acquired, and the management of wildlife on another 40 million
acres has been underwritten with combined P-R money and
state-funded matches.
“When Theodore Roosevelt’s vision was coupled with Franklin
Roosevelt’s generation of New Deal conservation initiatives, good
things began to happen,” Posewitz wrote in Inherit The Hunt.
FDR’s pen stroke in 1937 created a keystone in the North American
Model of Wildlife Conservation, a financial mechanism for
restoring and enhancing wildlife populations for the benefit of all
the nation’s citizens.
Public Lands Legacy
According to New York Times contributor Nicholas D. Kristof,
“America’s most valuable assets aren’t controlled by hedge funds;
they’re shared by us all. Gaps between rich and poor have been
growing, but our national lands are a rare space of utter democracy:
the poorest citizen gets resplendent views that even a billionaire
is not allowed to buy.”
Not long after settling into my deer stand alongside a gurgling
creek in the Superior National Forest, I notice movement across
the creek. An eight-pointer is walking briskly through the hardwoods.
He enters a natural opening, and a single shot echoes
through the woods. A few minutes later I kneel down beside the
buck and give thanks for its wild and free life and the great public
lands estate where it lived.
I ponder the need for more selfless TRs and FDRs, people and
politicians who can put aside partisan politics to focus on “the
greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time,” to
borrow from Pinchot. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel outdoors columnist
Paul A. Smith wrote, “We’ve been granted a precious legacy
of access to public lands and waters. It would be criminal to
leave future generations of Americans anything less.”
David (below, with his election eve buck) is a former Air Force
officer and co-chairman of the Minnesota Chapter of BHA. He’s the
author of “Hunting for Experience II: Tales of Hunting & Habitat
Conservation” and was recognized by Field & Stream in 2014 as a
Hero of Conservation.
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 27

A GIFT FROM THE PRAIRIE
BY TIM HOFFER
FROM OUR HOME in southwest Montana, it is over 400 hundred
long miles to the homestead of my wife’s grandfather, a cozy,
low-roofed farmhouse on a few hundred acres surrounded by the
ubiquitous Quonsets, outbuildings and shelterbelts, the latter
holding a trio of sharptail grouse perched haphazardly in the upper
limbs and a smattering of whitetail deer standing stock-still,
watching us as we drive into the yard. Stepping out of the car
breaks the spell and the deer bound away, tails flagging as they
shrink into the distance. Any way you slice it, it’s a long haul to
get here and Canada is only another 30 minutes up the road. It
is a relief to finally unfold myself from behind the wheel and fill
my lungs with crisp, cold air. Fall hunting weather appears to have
officially arrived in northeastern Montana.
I consider myself to be more or less a “mountain hunter” for lack
of a better label, spending my seasons chasing elk on backcountry
bowhunts or scanning high mountain valleys and draws for mule
deer and black bears. I cross my fingers during the annual draws,
hopeful for that dream bighorn sheep or mountain goat tag, and
I spend Saturday mornings in the summer hiking steep trails with
a weighted pack, getting my legs and lungs mountain-ready. The
idea of a prairie hunt rarely crosses my mind.
The good timing of a Thanksgiving holiday trip opened up a
narrow window to explore the unique landscape of the northern
grasslands and spend time behind binoculars as well as use good
old fashioned boot leather. The contour lines on the topographic
map are nearly wide enough to put my thumb between with space
to spare on either side. This is a walking hunter’s paradise, a style
most in this part of the state tend to shy away from, which makes
for solitary days afield with not a soul spotted. Striding across
the openness, every now and then you will crest a hill and notice
weatherworn remnants of farmhouses, barns and stone foundations
jutting from the sea of prairie grass like ancient shipwrecks.
Thanksgiving Day arrives and so do the guests, filling the small
house to the brim. Age-old friends, uncles and cousins, greataunts
and brothers, grandchildren and grandmothers, many of
whom have called this area home for eight or more decades, settle
in to a bountiful spread of food and the most popular of pastimes
here – “visiting.” After the obligatory second and third helping,
I sneak away to prep my gear, pulling out a few more layers for
the sub-zero temperatures predicted at daybreak. A pair of turkey
sandwiches I tuck away in my pack. I’ve bargained for one day
to hunt, reminding my wife how I am all but unbearable when
a serious case of cabin fever sets in, especially in such game rich
country. It will be best for everyone if I am turned loose like an
energetic bird dog. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough.
With sun-up approaching, I ease from the warm vehicle and
into the brittle air, Styrofoam snow squeaking under my boots as I
blink against freezing eyelids. Dropping into the ditch and across
the barbed wire fence, I set off into four square miles of grasslands
rolling out before me. If this patch of ground comes up empty,
my map has several dozen sections of public lands circled, offering
more area than I could cover in a week.
Immediately I catch sight of two mule deer does several hundred
yards away and walking slowly in my direction, their breath
smoking in the pale light. Beyond them, four more mill around in
the frozen grass. Everything is ice-covered and as quiet as a vault.
The cold doggedly seeps in around my face. Soon enough, the
sun will paint a ribbon of golden light on the creek bottom and
hillsides beyond.
The flatness of the terrain forces me to circle nearly a quarter of
a mile to stay out of sight of the half dozen does. With the deer
focused on consuming calories on this frigid morning, I scan the
folds and creases of the hillside now brilliantly lit from the rising
sun. I have not put eyes on a buck yet, but I know with the rut in
full swing, it is only a matter of time.
Catching sight through the binoculars of the telltale brown and
white rump patch of a deer, I count another six does and notice
two running circles through the narrow strip of short grass nearly
a half-mile away, with a buck hot on the trail. From this distance
the framework of antlers is barely visible, not enough to get a solid
view of him. Carefully backtracking to the southeast and looping
wide again, I keep a low knoll between me and the half dozen sets
of eyes and ears.
My track takes me through massive swaths of wheatgrass and
other flora native to this ecosystem. While the mule deer I was
keeping tabs on is likely the most recognized and perhaps esteemed
wildlife here, interesting inhabitants such as northern
leopard frogs, hognose snakes and ferruginous hawks all call this
place home. In the summer, the very same creek bottom I crossed
earlier holds 15- to 17-inch northern pike, which attack white
streamers with a vengeance. A lucky person might catch a rare
glimpse of a swift fox. It’s hard to imagine the herds of millions of
buffalo that roamed here not all that long ago. What a hunt that
would have been.
The ground in front of me is crisscrossed with fresh tracks of
more prairie dwellers – coyote, grouse and deer tracks interlace
with the bounding imprints of a jackrabbit. For an area appearing
so open and empty from afar, the sparse snow tells a very different
story.
Edging over a small rise, I am discouraged to spot several does
nearly 400 yards out walking away in single file from the tall grass
where I hoped the buck was bedded. Thankfully, he was not with
them, nor out in the brushy creek bottom. Trusting my gut, I
angle across the hillside and cut directly towards where I had last
marked his general location.
I am officially out of cover and ideas. I cut straight across the
stubblefield to get to a fencepost where I guess the deer will be
holed up. But with the group of does far out in front of me, I’m
questioning whether he vanished while I was looping wide to
close the distance.
The familiar yet unexpected rush of adrenaline floods my system
as I gain one last yard and I watch as the ordinary patch of tan
grass in front of me transforms into a tall set of antlers, followed
by the substantial body of a mature buck. In a blink he spins and
stots away in that distinctive mule deer manner, rapidly putting
distance between us. Three unseen does jump in my periphery
and scatter like windblown leaves as I rip the heavy glove from
my right hand with my teeth and shoulder the rifle. The buck fills
the scope as I thumb the safety off, timing his bounds – one, two,
three – squeezing the trigger just as he stops to assess his situation.
Hit hard low in the right shoulder, the buck wheels, and I immediately
drop to the ground to steady my follow-up shot. It pulls
the rug out from under him and he drops out of sight into the
thigh-high grass. Just as before, it is cold, still and utterly quiet,
the report from the rifle swallowed up by the prairie.
The buck’s tawny gray hide blends completely into the tall
grass, his pale antlers curving up and away. That brief moment as
I walk up on a downed animal is a surreal blend of relief, awe and
exhilaration. For me it is a mark in time when the hunt rushes to
a stop in one form and the substantial certainty of what is laid out
before me sinks in.
I take my time to capture photos and then roll the buck onto
his belly to make the first incisions along his spine, folding away
his hide to each side. The backstraps cut away easily, and I fall into
the quiet rhythm and effort of breaking down the deer. A barbed
wire fence behind me provides an improvised meat rack with the
bagged quarters and cuts cooling rapidly. Even with the sun high
in the sky, the temps have only edged into the teens. I watch as
a pair of coyotes trot over the horizon. They will find the carcass
tonight and eat like kings.
I am only a mile and a half from the farmhouse as the crow
flies and could easily dial up some help to get the buck hauled out
whole. But I won’t.
This is my time to savor every second of the hunt, albeit a short
one, and I am completely content with the work ahead of me.
There are no distractions or interruptions out here, nothing except
the focused effort and responsibility of getting this deer, in
due course, from prairie to plate. I feel something is missing if I
am not able to close the book on the hunt with this part: the quartering,
the cutting and trimming, the matter-of-fact practice of
turning an entire animal into useable, delicious cuts of wild meat.
Surrounded by the immensity and newfound beauty the prairie
has revealed and humbled by the gift it has given me, I pick up the
knife and get to work.
Tim lives in Bozeman, Montana, with his lovely wife and fantastic
young son. Whenever possible, he is outside with a gun, bow, fly rod
or camera in hand, exploring the Montana backcountry in search of
adventures big and small. He is a BHA member.
Tony Bynum photo
28 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 29

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OPINION
IS WILDLIFE VIEWING THE NEW HUNTING?
BY EDWARD PUTNAM
A BULL ELK STEPS TENTATIVELY OUT OF THE TREES, his
tan coat glistening in the early morning sun. Steam rises from his
nostrils as he tests the air for danger. Across the meadow a man
crouches in the tall grass waiting for a shot. A few tense moments
pass. Then the animal turns, lays his antlers along his back and
bugles into the crisp September air.
“Click.” It’s not the sound of a misfire, but of a shutter snapping
closed. “Click, click, click.”
Armed with only a tripod and a camera, he’s a new generation
of outdoorsman. There’s a mountain bike on the back of his car
and a kayak mounted to the roof rack. He’s one of millions of
Americans who access public lands for hiking, camping, biking,
jogging, and viewing wildlife and scenery. One thing he doesn’t
do, however, is hunt. And in that he represents a growing trend
toward “non-consumptive” outdoor recreation.
In 1960, the US Fish and Wildlife Service counted almost 14
million hunting license holders in the US, making the sport one
of the most popular outdoor activities in America. But that popularity
has not kept pace with changing demographics. There’s
nearly 140 million more Americans today, but almost the same
number of hunters.
Interest in wildlife has not stagnated in the same way. According
to a U.S. Census report, 22 million people identified as wildlife
viewers in 2011, compared to 13.7 million hunters. From
2000 through 2007, four out of the five most popular outdoor
activities had to do with photographing or observing nature (the
other activity was motorized off-roading). Hunting didn’t even
make the list.
Attendance at national parks and national wildlife refuges has
been especially robust. Great Smoky Mountain and Yellowstone
national parks together receive over 13 million visitors annually.
Jess McGlothlin photo
At Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the number of
bird watchers outnumber waterfowl hunters 93 to 1.
This trend leads to questions about the future of hunting. In
order to accommodate the growing interest in wildlife viewing,
will land managers and fish and wildlife agencies be pressured to
move toward a less consumptive approach to wildlife conservation?
It questions the role sportsmen play in conservation and the
public’s appetite for an activity that conflicts with its more urban
sensibilities about nature.
Jim Kellogg, president of the California Fish and Game Commission,
resigned last year over frustration with a commission that
has become less and less supportive of hunting. “They are not
listening to DFW scientists and biologists recommendations,” he
said in a January 2016 interview with the Outdoor Wire. “All of
it has been politics – not science.”
The pressure to marginalize hunting has only increased following
high profile incidents like Cecil the lion, Corey Knowleton’s
$350,000 black rhino hunt and Sarah Bowmar’s video of her husband
spearing a bear in Canada. The public uproar has bolstered
critics’ arguments that wildlife viewing is a much less invasive
path to conservation than hunting.
However, a report published by the United Nations and the
Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species sounded
the alarm on wildlife viewing back in 2006. It warned against the
growing problem of tourists disturbing wildlife and the damage
they do to habitat.
Tourism operations tend to be located in biologically sensitive
areas where wildlife are concentrated. Too many tourists can cause
stress in animals. In the presence of people, wildlife may spend
less time feeding or resting. Breeding success may be reduced, as
well as resistance to diseases. Wildlife may move to more remote
or less productive habitats that bring them in direct competition
with other species or make them more vulnerable to predation.
Tourism operations also require roads, facilities and other infrastructure
that can place a burden on habitat. Fragmentation
that impedes migration can cause populations to become isolated,
thereby reducing their genetic diversity over time.
Crowding, pollution, garbage and sewage are ongoing challenges
of regulating tourism. Yellowstone National Park, for example,
requires approximately 780 staff to manage its 4 million annual
visitors. Those crowds provide a crucial economic boost to surrounding
communities, which helps support the park’s existence.
However, according to the park’s own business plan, it doesn’t
generate sufficient revenue to cover its operating budget, let alone
its wildlife management obligations. Instead it relies on federal
appropriations for the bulk of its conservation funding.
That gap between boots-on-the-ground conservation and the
wallets of tourists presents a budgetary challenge to wildlife agencies.
Most wild public lands are not managed for tourism and
don’t have the broad appeal that Yellowstone and Grand Teton
national parks have, yet they are equally in need of money for
fish and wildlife. Even if tourism could generate enough revenue,
relying on Congress or state legislatures to appropriate it wisely
seems wildly optimistic.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund, for example, is supposed
to receive $900 million annually from oil and gas leases.
How many times has that happened in its 50-year history? Only
once. Large portions of that money are usually siphoned off for
other purposes that have nothing to do with conservation. And
Congress isn’t likely to have a change of heart any time soon. In
2015 it nearly killed the program altogether. That kind of uncertainty
doesn’t lend itself to a sound, long term conservation
strategy.
The budget challenge underscores the essential difference between
hunting and other forms of outdoor recreation. The money
sportsmen spend on licenses and tags goes to fund the bulk of
state fish and wildlife agencies’ budgets. Excise taxes on hunting
equipment, firearms and ammunition contribute millions annually
as well. In these ways, hunters contribute to conservation directly
and distribute conservation funding over a wide geographic
area rather than on a few high profile locales.
The agencies use the money to develop wildlife management
plans with specific objectives, goals and strategies. They develop
programs, perform field surveys and improve habitat. They study
wildlife behavior, migration patterns, human impacts, diseases,
invasive species, etc. that make it possible for wildlife to flourish
in the face of an expanding human population. They enforce
game laws, respond to human/wildlife conflicts, engage in public
education and help provide opportunities for the public to participate
in the outdoors. In short, the “sport” of hunting isn’t just a
contributor to conservation, it’s an integral part of it in a way that
other forms of outdoor recreation are not.
Hunting allows us to fill the niche our hunter/gatherer ancestors
once occupied. When well regulated, the presence of hunters
on the landscape has a positive impact that goes beyond just
managing animal populations. It helps keep wild animals from
becoming habituated to people, which reduces the potential for
conflict. It affects their habits and behavior, which has a trophic
influence throughout ecosystems that helps bolster diversity. It
keeps animals wary and vigilant, improving the chances of survival
for those that are, and removing those that aren’t from the
gene pool.
In his book Going Wild: Hunting, Animal Rights and the Contested
Meaning of Nature, Jan Dizzard details the sometimes contentious
issue of hunting versus wildlife viewing. The showdown
was in the Quabbin Watershed in central Massachusetts. A 50-
year ban on hunting there had produced a large and approachable
deer population estimated at between 20 and 50 animals per
square mile. For many it was a kind of Eden, a pristine wilderness
where humans and wildlife could coexist in peace. The deer, however
were quickly eating their way through the hardwood forest,
jeopardizing the health of the watershed. Alternatives to hunting
were considered but deemed impractical.
So in 1991 over a storm of protest, an annual controlled deer
hunt was established as the best and most cost effective approach
to management. The success was stunning. Within a few short
years the deer population came down to a sustainable level and
the forest recovered. Today the Quabbin supports a healthy deer
population of approximately 15-20 per square mile. They’re wild,
meaning they behave like wild animals, and because the hunt is
regulated, only a small percentage of hunters are successful, ensuring
the continued health of the species and its habitat.
It’s a myth that by not hunting a person does no harm to wildlife.
By far, the greatest threat to wildlife today is habitat loss,
and by embracing the values of an industrialized society we are
all culpable. Expanding urban boundaries, fragmenting habitat,
diverting water for agriculture, sacrificing wildness for more out-
Nick Trehearne photo
32 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017 WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 33

door recreational opportunities – the list
of ways we’re making the world less livable
for wildlife is long. Aldo Leopold wrote,
“Our tools are better than we are, and
grow better faster than we do. They suffice
to crack the atom, to command the tides,
but they do not suffice for the oldest task
in human history, to live on a piece of land
without spoiling it.”
Hunters are part of a tradition that goes
back over 2 million years when our ancestors
carved meat off the ribs of wildebeest
using stone tools. The tools have changed,
but the value of wildlife and the hunter’s
relationship with the natural world have
not. Hunters still value robust populations
of wild game and work to conserve them.
Hunting still requires skill and a knowledge
of the land. Hunters still study the
habits of their prey and expend a considerable
amount of effort and expense in
pursuing them. Animals are still valued by
the hunter for the food they provide, for
the beauty and utility of their hides, horns,
teeth, claws and feathers, just as they were
by our ancestors.
The challenge sportsmen face today is
promoting that message to a society that’s
increasingly disconnected from nature.
There are reasons to be optimistic as more
people seek alternatives to industrially
raised meat. More women are getting into
hunting, as are young urbanites who have
had no previous exposure to the hunting
culture. They’re being drawn by a desire to
know where their food comes from, ensure
that it’s organic and feel confident that the
animal that feeds their families lived a humane
life.
Signs are encouraging, but as more
and more species throughout the world
become threatened and face extinction,
hunting is likely to be viewed by more and
more of the public as a useless excess. It
won’t be easy to convince them that hunting
and conservation are two sides of the
same coin, but it’s a challenge that needs
to be tackled.
The wild public lands of the future will
likely not see a shortage of hikers, joggers,
paddlers or binocular toting tourists. But
nature needs us to be wild sometimes too,
to connect with it as our ancient ancestors
did, not in the abstract, but viscerally, by
meeting it on its own terms. It needs us
to understand that we’re only one of over
7 million other species of animals in the
world. And although we may be the product
of an extraordinary evolutionary journey,
we’re still a part of the world of animals
– and not the other way around.
A chapter chair from 2010-2015, Ed currently
sits on the Oregon Chapter board for
BHA. He lives in Bend.
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34 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017

SEEKING SOLITUDE
The Carp Islands of Lake Michigan
BY JACOB VANHOUTEN, PHOTOS BY TIM ROMANO
WITH A BILLION STARS SHINING ABOVE ME, I laid in my
rain-fly covered sleeping bag on a remote island bluff overlooking
Lake Michigan. I watched the lights aboard a passing freighter
silently making headway down lake through the Manitou Passage.
She was making good time on calm seas. I wondered where the
vessel was from and where she would find safe harbor.
These waters are not always so calm. Media mogul and yacht
racing legend Ted Turner once thought the Great Lakes unworthy,
calling them “mill ponds.” That is, until he ran into serious
trouble on Lake Michigan while competing in the Chicago to
Mackinac Island race. He lost his main mast and sail to the storm.
Afterward, he publicly apologized for his disrespect.
These mill ponds are nothing to mess with, even for those who
know what they are doing. Therefore, many of the islands found
within the lakes provide a true wilderness experience, cut off from
the mainland by miles of open, sometime cruel water. Many are
either entirely public lands or substantially so. They also tend to
be overlooked or ignored by the public because a person really
has to want to get there and many people don’t even know they
exist. I know it is worth every bit of effort to reach them. Simply
standing on the island looking out across the vast expanse of fresh
water is enough to convince me.
I had made my way to this island, one of the Manitou Chain
that includes the Beaver Islands, to fish for carp – that misunderstood
member of the minnow family. During certain times
of the year, carp make their way to the rocky shallows to feed
on the numerous forage fish and emerging macroinvertebrates,
as well as to spawn. Locals call them “golden bones” because the
flats fishing style harkens closely to bonefishing in the Caribbean.
Anglers pursue these massive carp with bait, tackle, fly, even bow
and arrow. My chosen weapon is fly rod and reel.
There are no roads on North Manitou Island, except for the
occasional remnant, overgrown two-track from historical logging
and hunting camps. It’s backpacking only, with backcountry passes
required since the islands are part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes
National Lakeshore. That name comes from the Native American
legend of a mother bear sleeping on shore (a large shoreline sand
dune) waiting for her two cubs (North and South Manitou) to
swim ashore after being left behind.
To reach the island, my fishing partner Tom and I boarded the
ferry out of Leland, Michigan, which makes the trip every three
days. We had everything needed for at least that long. Sometimes
three days turns into more when the lake gets ugly and the ferry
can’t reach the island for days at a time. Our packs always contain
extra food and different fishing gear, since the Manitous also offer
world-class smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing.
In the morning, still resting in my shoreline sleeping bag waiting
for the morning mist to lift, I listened to the waves break
along the nearby shallows of the bay. Tom and I watched while the
humpbacks of huge spawning carp broke the surface, their golden,
large-scaled backs and dorsal fins glistening in the early dawn
rays. We knew then we would be pursing these giant minnows
with fly rod in hand very soon, and looked at each other with
a knowing glance. This was going to be good. Tom and I both
wanted to test the waters of inland Lake Manitou for smallmouth
bass as well. What a difficult choice to have. The idea of hooking
and playing a 40 pound fish on a fly rod had us skipping breakfast
and wading anxiously onto the flat.
Tom connected with his first wet fly presentation to a meandering
hulk of a fish while he slowly waded out onto a shallow
rock/sand bar extending into the low surf. “Fish on!” he shouted,
glancing back towards where I was still pondering my fly choice
at the waterline. After battling the fish, hand lining hard, he lost
it just as it was about to beach.
This is really spot-and-stalk fishing. Sometimes we bring a
shallow skiff to pole and sight fish, in the Florida Keys style. We
sometimes take our kayaks. Not this time. We were going sans
floatation to wade the flats.
There were freighter-sized carp cruising everywhere in the shallow
water so we quickly recovered after losing Tom’s first one. I
set my sights on a large fish tipped up, digging its nose in the mud
and presented a cast. The fat fish took a while to notice the fly but
then inhaled it without another thought.
We both hooked, battled, landed and released several carp in
the 20- to 30-pound range before heading inland to fish an inland
lake for smallmouth. On this trip anyway, let’s just say I caught
and released several trophy-class bronzebacks on garden hackle –
as in night crawlers. Live bait enthralls me as much as fly fishing.
I think some people get caught up in the technique and tackle
instead of concentrating on the experience. If the fish don’t mind,
neither do I.
An approaching cloud formation indicated that the forecasted
storm front was now coming in across Wisconsin toward us. We
knew we might be stranded, with tall seas predicted for a day or
two that could throw the ferry off schedule. Shucks, more time
to fish.
We decided to take the long hike back toward camp on an upland
successional sand dune to enjoy a shore lunch and a vista
view of the big lake before the rains and heavy winds hit. Sand
blew into little dust devils around the sedges. The smell of endless
freshwater drew up our nostrils. One lives for the little moments
like this among the many longer ones that keep us working and
worrying too much. An old professor of mine once said, “The
unknowing eye cannot see.” With all of our senses working overtime,
we took it all in, and we saw.
Jacob is a BHA member, outdoor writer, photographer and professor
of environmental science and biology at Delta College. He is
a member, past president and board member of the Outdoor Writers
Association of America. He resides in Midland, Michigan with his
wife Christine and their three dogs.
36 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 37

EXCERPT
Editor’s Note: Backcountry Hunters & Anglers has teamed up
with author Ron Rohrbaugh on his new book, A Traditional Bowhunter’s
Path: Lessons and Adventures at Full Draw. Ten percent of
book sales made at www.TraditionalSpiritOutdoors.com will be
donated directly to BHA for protection of public lands.
In his book, Ron shares engaging traditional bowhunting tales,
including hunts for white-tailed deer in the East, big game in the
West and plains game in South Africa. Amid the stories, Ron covers
the history of bowhunting, explores the challenges facing today’s
hunter-conservationists and provides insightful, hard-earned
knowledge about traditional bowhunting. Ron’s background as a
wildlife biologist provides unique and valuable information on
wildlife behavior and ecology.
Chapter 1: The Traditional Spirit
I OFTEN WONDER WHAT THE AVERAGE PERSON SEES
in their mind’s eye when they picture a traditional bowhunter.
Do they see the great archery innovator Fred Bear grinning at
them from under his trademark Borsalino hat? Or, maybe it’s that
do-gooder Robin Hood stealing from the rich and giving to the
poor. What about the chiseled Howard Hill with his signature
back quiver and American style longbow? Possibly it’s the always
impeccably dressed duo of Saxton Pope and Art Young. For many,
it’s likely not someone of European descent at all, but rather a
Comanche shooting a stubby ash flatbow from beneath the neck
of galloping “paint.” Or perhaps it’s a crouching Seneca sighting
down his dogwood arrow at a tom turkey strutting in a stand
of sun-dappled hemlocks. Or, it’s just as likely that many people
don’t picture any of these images because they don’t have a
perspective to distinguish traditional bowhunting from any other
sort of hunting.
For an entire human generation, from the early-1970s through
the mid-1990s, traditional archery was in a very deep slumber and
on the verge of disappearing all together. The decline and near extinction
of traditionalists was brought on by the rapid growth and
popularity of the compound bow, which took over the archery
industry after being introduced in the early 1970s. The term traditional
archery was coined to refer to archery methods practiced
before the compound bow came into wide use. Today, traditional
bowhunting is enjoying a strong resurgence that is being fueled
by Americans wishing to return to a simpler, less gadget filled life
that reconnects them with something “real.” As evidence of this,
one needn’t look any further than the local food and back-to-theland
movements, the proliferation of do-it-yourself websites, and
the popularity of everything retro. I think it is a combination of
these motivations that is causing people of all stripes, including
large numbers of young, urban “hipster hunters,” to seek out traditional
bowhunting. So, what is traditional archery today and
what does it mean to hunt in a traditional way?
Most would agree that traditional bowhunting involves the use
of vertically held bows, such as longbows or recurves, that use a
single string and offer no mechanical aids, like pulleys or levers
for drawing the bow. Beyond that; however, the use of equipment
alone to define what it means to be a traditional bowhunter becomes
ineffective at best.
I once ran into an old bowhunter on a Wildlife Management
Area in northeast Oklahoma. His weathered cheeks held deep,
curving creases like the lines on a hickory nut and his knotted old
knuckles bespoke of hard work and pain. I guessed that he was in
his eighth decade, but he could have just as easily been a weathered
60. One thing was for sure, he had been at the game of bowhunting
for a very long time. He wore a felt hat, plaid wool shirt,
and had a leather back quiver full of carbon arrows slung over his
shoulder. In his left hand rode a Bear Kodiak recurve with a single
sight pin protruding from the riser. By contrast, I was carrying
a handmade osage selfbow fitted with a bow quiver, containing
three neatly made ash arrows, and I wore a head-to-toe outfit of
modern camouflage. Who was the traditional bowhunter? Despite
the fact that his bowhunting life predated the compound
bow, did this old bowhunter’s sight pin and carbon arrows disqualify
him from being traditional? What about my unorthodox
use of a bow quiver on a selfbow or my fancy camo duds? As you
can see, any strict definition based only on equipment or shooting
style is bound to fail.
Traditional bowhunting is far more about what we carry in our
hearts than in our hands. Having been in the traditional archery
community for more than 20 years, I can tell you that there are
strong, unwritten values that traditional bowhunters pride themselves
in following. There is a common peer-to-peer driven expectation
within the traditional community that its members will
adhere to the highest standards of conduct, fair chase and land
conservation. I call this the Traditional Spirit. The Traditional
Spirit means doing things the honorable way, which is often the
hard way, even when easier, but less noble options are available.
It means treating wildlife, fellow hunters and non-hunters with
respect. The Traditional Spirit is more than just an ethic, it’s a way
of being that cannot be summed up by simply adhering to a code.
It’s about honing our craft as woodsmen and immersing ourselves
in the ebb and flow the natural world.
I want to be clear about something. I am not saying that traditional
bowhunters are unique amid the hunting community
in having high values. This is not about dividing our ranks or
disparaging others. All forms of hunting have many fine and ethical
members. I have many friends, who I respect immensely, that
hunt with a rifle or compound bow. What I’m saying is that this
Traditional Spirit is unusually widespread and steadfast within the
traditional bowhunting community.
Chapter 24: Traditional Spirit and The Future of Hunting
Discussions about the future of hunting and the related topics
of ethics and wildlife conservation can become tedious and sometimes
negative, so I want to begin (and end) this final chapter with
a positive message: through harnessing our collective Traditional
Spirit, today’s growing community of traditional bowhunters has
the opportunity to change the face of hunting by helping to conserve
wild places, protect our hunting heritage and restore public
trust in hunters. By standing up for our values, taking action and
encouraging others to do the same, we can help ensure that hunting
– and a place to pursue it – can be enjoyed by all Americans
for generations to come. Wouldn’t that be a fantastic legacy?
None of the experiences I have written about in this book
would have been possible without laws that uphold our right to
hunt and policies that protect wild places for the pursuit of game
animals. I will be forever grateful for those freedoms and opportunities,
and want to ensure the same for my son and for all those
from future generations who might someday yearn to explore this
country’s amazing backcountry with a stickbow and quiver full
of arrows.
Hunters were once the conservation innovators of our country,
protecting millions of acres from over-cutting, dredging and
mining; and policing their own ranks to rid themselves of shameless
market hunters. In recent times, however, the hunter’s role in
conservation has become less clear and sometimes even obstructive.
In many ways, modern hunters are trapped in a political and
social game of Pickle. If hunting is to continue as an acceptable
pursuit, we must prove ourselves to be effective wildlife managers
and forward thinking conservationists. We must show that hunting
has a place in modern society as an activity benefitting the
community at large.
The ecosystems of North America have been irreparably
changed. Gone are the great forests that once stretched from Maine
to Florida and west to the Big Thicket of Texas. Gone are the undulating
prairies that once rubbed elbows with the Appalachians
and the Rockies. Gone are the cathedral-like old-growth forests of
the Pacific Northwest. Gone are the earth-churning herds of bison
and sky-blotting clouds of passenger pigeons. The loss of these
habitats and their occupants, especially the mega-predators, has
distorted the finely tuned checks and balances that once governed
our natural world. Deer, no longer limited by food and predators,
now grow to unprecedented numbers on the fat of our suburban
developments. Human wildlife conflicts are at an all-time high as
civilization encroaches on our remaining wild lands, while at the
same time some species become ultra-abundant by capitalizing on
the humanized landscape. As a result, more than ever, hunters are
expected to play the role of conservation biologist and predator
in implementing sound wildlife management strategies. To prove
that we are an asset to our communities, we must dig deep for the
roots laid down by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold,
by continually showing our worth through behaving ethically
and respectfully and providing services that benefit all citizens.
Ron is a conservation biologist at Cornell University, freelance
writer and chairman of the New York BHA Chapter. Ron, his wife
Debbie, son Rex and daughter Leela live on a 36-acre homestead in
the northern Appalachians where they take bounty from the forest and
attempt to coax vegetables from the rocky ground.
38 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017

TWENTY-NINE DAY MOOSE
BY JAY SHEFFIELD
FOUR FULL WEEKS. That’s how long I had been hunting
for a bull moose in one of the limited draw areas of northwest
Montana. During that time I had traveled literally hundreds
of miles, walked dozens of trails and sat for days on a
number of lakes, ponds and bog areas, all without seeing a
single moose. It had taken me eleven years to draw one of the
twelve tags available for this area and I was devoting every
possible minute to getting it filled.
On morning 29 I left my house early, determined to be
sitting at a promising little pond before the sun came up. It
was about five miles up a Forest Service road and required
a short hike in from there. I quietly made my way through
the woods and found myself near the pond’s edge just as day
was breaking. As the light increased, I saw a young moose
standing in knee deep water. Then I saw a calf and its mother
casually walk from the pond back into the woods. As I shifted
my position for a better view, I could see that there was
also a bull standing in the pond. It had only been light for a
few minutes and now, right in front of me were four moose,
including the bull I had been searching for.
I was still watching the bull when I saw movement behind
him on the far shore of the pond. As the light continued to
improve I was surprised to see it was another bull even larger
than the one in the water. The bigger animal was about 150
yards away, much further than I am comfortable shooting
with the open sighted rifle I was carrying. Since all of the
moose were relaxed, I decided to back out of my hiding place
and slowly work my way around through the timber until I
reached the other side of the pond. It took a while but I was
able to get within range and the moose were still unaware of
my presence. The bank on that side was fairly steep and I was
well above the water level. Creeping my way down through
the brush towards the bull, I began to look for an opening
large enough to take a clear shot.
My hunting area is heavily timbered, so any shot opportunities
are likely to be close. For that reason I was carrying
my .505 Gibbs made by Montana Rifle Company. While I
will be the first to admit that my choice of calibers might
seem a little unusual, remember that this rifle was designed
for close range, big game hunting. All of the features that
make it so effective in Africa also make it perfectly suited for
our largest American game species. Loaded with four rounds
of factory Norma ammunition, the 600 grain Woodleigh
soft point bullets at 2180 feet per second would certainly
be more than adequate for the task at hand. My rifle is fitted
with MRC’s flats brake. This not only eliminates any painful
recoil; it also reduces muzzle rise allowing for a fast second
shot if necessary.
I slowly moved the three position safety forward to fire position
and raised the rifle. The bull was now about 60 yards
away standing broadside. I aligned the iron sights on a rib
just behind the shoulder and worked to slow my breathing
as I applied pressure to the trigger.
At the shot, I saw the bull stagger, start to turn, and then
simply fall over. As I made my way down to the bull I could
not help but reflect on all of the hours spent leading up to
this moment. If you have never had the opportunity to approach
a downed moose, I can assure you that there is no
such thing as “ground shrinkage.” With every step you take,
they just get bigger and bigger.
Sitting there alone with such a massive animal is a very
humbling experience, and it’s one that I took a long moment
to savor. I ran my hand across the coarse fur on its body; I
touched the rock hard antler and then struggled to lift its
head. It is almost surreal how truly massive these animals are.
I tagged the moose and then took a few photos. By this time
the adrenaline from all of the excitement was starting to fade
and the reality of the enormous task ahead was starting to
sink in. I hiked out of the basin and made some calls to assemble
a team that could help me process the moose. In just
a few hours I had a group of five enthusiastic friends helping
with skinning, butchering and packing. By 1:30 in the afternoon
the last load was packed out and nothing but the rib
cage, spine and entrails remained at the site – something that
the scavengers will certainly enjoy cleaning up.
The ride back to town was a quiet one; I was both tired
and sore but could not have been any happier. I dropped the
meat off for processing then took the head and hide to my
taxidermist. At every stop I shared the pictures and story of
my moose hunting adventure. I cannot apply for another
Montana moose tag until 2023, but it’s a safe bet that my application
will be in the mail on the first day I am eligible!
Jay is a BHA member and hunter education intructor living
in the woods of northwest Montana. He serves on the Montana
Fish, Wildlife & Parks Citizens Advisory Council.
40 40 | | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER FALL 2016 2017 WINTER 2017 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | | 41 41

HUNTING
‘CROCS’
BY BARRY WHITEHILL
ON THE BACKSIDE OF THE OLD STEREOSCOPE CARD
from the Keystone View Company I discovered in an antique
store was the inscription “Now that the white man has killed it,
the people are going to roll it back into the river for other crocodiles
to eat.” There have been lots of changes in 100 years, from
attitudes to attire. For me, a century later, the word “Croc” means
my primary hunting footwear.
It all started simply enough, fording creeks while sheep hunting
in Alaska. I wanted lightweight footwear I could wear with
waterproof chaps to wade the braided, glacier-fed streams that
separated me from the sheep. I also needed them to not get soaked
in the process. Cheap Crocs were the perfect answer. Lightweight,
water-shedding and comfortable. Actually too comfortable, as
they proved much nicer to slip into each morning than a set of
frozen leather boots. What started as a simple run to the “bathroom”
soon turned into telling myself, “I’ll just wear them up to
that knob to spot sheep.” Next thing I knew I was picking my way
further and further up steep talus slopes, albeit slowly.
Slow isn’t a bad thing. In my youth, I traipsed across wild landscapes
too fast, without a doubt rushing by unseen critters. I was
driven to see what was on the other side of the hill. Often this
equated to epic, long-distance meat packing trips. Successful yes,
but I can now reflect on the bodily toll taken by 125-pound packs
I carried to decrease the number of trips out. The success is still
there, but closer to camp these days. When it comes to my elk
hunting, I also have the wolves to thank.
When I started hunting elk in the deep canyons of central Idaho
in the 1980s, the wolves were still missing. More than once I
would investigate late morning bugling by what I thought was a
terrible sounding imitator only to discover it was actually a wizened
6x6 bull defending a large herd of cows. That changed when
wolves moved into my elk territory. The elk are still there in ample
quantities, but they have virtually shut up. Plus, they seem to
move in smaller groups with a heightened awareness – much like
me in grizzly country.
I discovered the soft soles of my cheap Crocs don’t snap twigs
like my boots. Echoes don’t radiate out from my steps on frozen
ground like they do when wearing boots.This, combined with going
slower, seems have overcome the changes exhibited by the elk
I hunt.
I’ve learned a few little tricks for wearing Crocs. Don’t step on
slender branch stobs as they can penetrate the soles like a nail.
The use of hiking poles virtually eliminates the chance of slipping.
Gaiters that strap under the sole help ensure the shoes stay
on, especially on muddy ground where they can be buried deep
with a step. In warmer temperatures, simple socks are fine. As
the weather gets colder or wetter, a light GoreTex waterproof sock
works great. During my coldest season caribou or moose floathunts,
3mm waterproof Neoprene socks are the cat’s meow.
In fact, this past September during a remote, two-week moose
float there were days when I spent more time in the river than out
to navigate boney conditions. My Crocs were the only footwear I
took on the trip. Chest waders and hip boots get wet inside either
from water coming over the tops or from perspriation and are not
easily dried. My waterproof socks can easily be dried each night
while wearing a second, replacement pair. Combine that with layers
of quick drying clothing and a set of dry clothes available for
a fast change and you’re much lighter and more mobile. On top
of that, pounds and bulk are eliminated without lugging chest
waders, hip boots or even waterproof chaps along. That all works
toward the ulitmate goal: more room for meat.
Barry Whitehill is a Life Member and Legacy Partner of Backcountry
Hunters & Anglers who lives in Fairbanks, Alaska. He still
counts the quality of a year by the number of nights camped out.
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 43

BY DAVID STALLING
FORTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, Alan Christensen went elk hunting
with his uncle and some friends. Though more than a foot of
snow had fallen, the elk stayed up high, out of reach.
“But my uncle was a logger and had the only four-wheel-drive
around,” Christensen said. “That got us into the high country
where the elk were, away from other people.”
Today, four-wheel-drive trucks are standard equipment for
most hunters.
“The technology and ability for people to get to and kill elk has
changed dramatically in 45 years,” Christensen said. “That, combined
with changes in habitat, more hunting pressure and better
access to elk country, have made elk more vulnerable to hunting.”
As a former wildlife program leader for the U.S. Forest Service’s
Northern Region, Christensen not only helped pioneer the
concept of elk vulnerability; he did something about it. In 1989,
he joined with other wildlife professionals from state and federal
agencies, universities and timber companies to form an Elk Vulnerability
Working Group. Through research, symposiums and
publications, the group united biologists and managers to identify
vulnerability problems and seek solutions.
In one major study, researchers examined elk mortality in areas
with a high density of open roads, another where roads are closed
to motorized vehicles during hunting season, and another area
with no roads. In the area with open roads, only 5 percent of all
bulls lived to maturity (defined as 4 1/2 years). None of the bulls
ELK VULNERABILITY
Secure Habitat Protects Healthy Herds and Hunting
46 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017
lived past 5 1/2, and the herd contained about 10 bulls to every
100 cows. In the area with seasonal travel restrictions, 16 percent
of the bulls lived past maturity, most reaching 7 1/2, with 20 bulls
per 100 cows. In the roadless area, 30 percent of the bulls lived
to maturity, most reaching 10 years, with nearly 35 bulls per 100
cows.
“As road access increases and habitat security declines, we can
expect elk to be increasingly vulnerable to hunting,” the researchers
concluded. “Without access management, the results will include
elk populations with undesirable sex and age structures, increasingly
complex and restrictive hunting regulations to protect
elk herds, and a loss of recreational opportunity.”
Other studies showed similar results. “Vulnerability encompasses
many factors,” Christensen said. “Densities of roads open
to vehicles, increasing density of hunters, decreasing amounts of
elk cover, improved technology . . . taken by themselves they may
not be that significant, but put them all together and they’re very
significant.”
Significant enough that in many elk states, rising elk vulnerability
spurred wildlife departments to cut hunting seasons and
switch more and more to limited-entry hunting.
“As a whole, elk populations are generally stable or increasing
throughout Montana and the West,” Christensen said. “There are
more elk now than at any point since the turn of the century.
However, in some herds the problem is the sex ratios and age-class
structures – in other words, a lack of mature bulls. This is not so
much an elk vulnerability issue; it’s a bull vulnerability issue.”
Some hunters are happy to hunt for cows, spikes and raghorns.
For them, the opportunity to hunt elk ranks higher than the opportunity
to encounter a mature bull in the field. Until relatively
recently, even some wildlife biologists believed mature bulls
weren’t necessary, as long as young bulls bred with cows. They
judged the health of herds through pregnancy rates and annual
“recruitment” of newborn calves.
But numerous studies have since confirmed what many wildlife
biologists already suspected: Lack of mature bulls in a herd
can disrupt breeding seasons, conception dates and calf survival.
Younger bulls tend to breed later and over a longer period in
the fall than mature bulls. As a result, calving seasons last longer
and many calves are born late in the spring. Late-born calves
miss out on the lush forage of early spring, have less time to feed
on high-quality forage and consequently may enter the winter in
poorer condition than calves born earlier. Drawn-out calving seasons
also make newborn elk more susceptible to bears, mountain
lions, coyotes and wolves. When calving seasons are shorter, as is
the case when mature bulls do the breeding, calves are all born
around the same time. This “flooding strategy,” as biologists call
it, overwhelms predators and allows more calves to survive.
Perhaps even more important, though less clearly understood,
mature bulls maintain social order in a herd. The presence of mature
bulls reduces strife, exhaustion and wounding among bulls
and frees cows from unwanted advances by socially inept young
bulls – helping elk save crucial energy that can be a matter of life
and death during a harsh winter.
“Fish and wildlife agencies and the federal land management
agencies want to maintain opportunities for hunters,” Christensen
said. “But we also have an obligation to maintain healthy
wildlife populations – which includes keeping a good ratio of mature
bulls in the elk herds. People want healthy elk herds, but they
also want access to elk and high hunter success rates. We can’t
Nick Trehearne photo
have it all. There are too many people and finite resources. Part
of the solution is to maintain good habitat security, get a handle
on roads and make it less easy for hunters to get into elk country
and shoot bulls.”
Thanks in large part to the leadership and efforts of Christensen
and others who participated in the Elk Vulnerability Working
Group, land and wildlife managers developed standards to incorporate
into management plans, ensuring protection of habitat security
to reduce vulnerability and maintain healthy elk herds and
hunting opportunity. But some managers seem to be forgetting
the history and the science.
The Helena-Lewis & Clark National Forest recently amended
its forest plan, replacing the current wildlife security standard with
a new standard that removes all traditional and measurable components
of secure habitat. The Montana Wildlife Federation, Helena
Hunters and Anglers, the Anaconda Sportsmen’s Club, the
Clancy-Unionville Citizens Task Force and the Montana Chapter
of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers filed a lawsuit against the
forest, demanding they maintain time-tested, science-based standards.
A few months later, the HLCNF withdrew the controversial
ammendment in the face of the sportsmen’s opposition.
“A lot of time, effort, cooperation and good, solid science went
into understanding habitat security and elk vulnerability and developing
reasonable standards that help us maintain healthy habitat,
healthy elk herds and public hunting opportunities,” Christensen
said. “It’s a proud part of Forest Service history. We need to
stick to the science and maintain these standards.”
A longtime member of BHA, Dave is an avid and passionate
backcountry hunter, wildlife advocate and writer living in Missoula,
Montana. He works for the Montana Wildlife Federation.
WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 47

(BACK)COUNTRY STORE
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public lands hunter or angler!
“I do not always tag out, but when I do, I wear BHA gear.”
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48 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017 WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 49

INSTRUCTIONAL
FINDING AND READING YOUR WATER
2
Your go-to summertime spot may not only look like another planet in the winter; it may also produce
like Mars. Set yourself up to win by cheating on your your favorite freestone stream in exchange for a more
moderate tailwater. Water temperature fluxuations in a tailwater are less dramatic, and sunny days below a
dam can be marked by epic midge emergences. If you’re committed to a freestone, look for parts of the river
that have natural springs running into them. In winter, groundwater is warmer than surface water. You’ll
be able to identify these areas by patches of fog, green plants growing and snow suspiciously melted along
the riverbank. Also, look for rivers and streams that run north-south rather than east-west. The southern
exposure will provide trout with more consistently moderate temperatures and more ice-melting sunlight.
SLOW YOUR ROLL
SPINNING WHEELS
How to Catch Fish and Enjoy Fly Fishing in Cold Weather
BY HILARY HUTCHESON
FOR MANY ANGLERS, the gratification of “figuring it out” in
any season is worth the accompanying frustration. It’s rewarding
to prospect local intel, read new water and come up roses. Plenty
can go awry along the way: approaching holes in the wrong spot,
slapping water with ineffective flies, underestimating tippet size,
botching prime daylight hours. On the occasion when everything
works out, an ambitious angler becomes a rock star.
During the frigid months of winter, however, I have less patience
for trial and error. Spinning my wheels isn’t as fun when
it includes pushing ice through frozen guides and chipping frozen
snot off my rapidly-chapping nose. Trying to accommodate
sluggish, picky trout can become maddening as my toes file for
divorce.
The good news is that that plenty of figuring can be done in
front of a warm fireplace prior to venturing out of doors. And, with
proper planning, the payoff can be well worth the extra enterprise.
A river that might be shoulder-to-shoulder with anglers during the
summer turns into a sanctuary of stillness. The conditions may be
challenging, but winter trout are often hungry, unpressured and
lying in obvious places. The trade for losing a bit of phalangeal
feeling is the sound of wading boots crunching on spent leaves,
morning light spilling through rising steam and the exhibition
of trout snouts breaking
under corniced
log jams. Winter also
offers the benefit of
sleeping in, mandatory
whiskey
nipping and abandoning
temperature-averse
smartphones
in the
truck. So, fill your
flask and consider
these season-specific
tips:
Want to
learn more useful skills?
Check out our video series
BACKCOUNTRY COLLEGE
with Clay Hayes at backcountry
hunters.org/index.php/skills/
backcountry-college. Subscribe
to BHA’s YouTube channel to
catch new episodes!
Rob Parkins photo
3
4
5
The fish have slowed down, and you should too. Spend a moment on the bank surveying the scene before
dropping in. You might get sight-casting opportunities you didn’t expect. If you’re throwing streamers, make
slower, shorter strips rather than the aggressive, long strips of summer. Cast downstream to fish, since trout
seem to be more sensitive to being lined and spooked by shadows.
Trout will often pod up in the deepest, slowest holes in a stream this time of year. Be patient and let your
flies dredge low and slow. The fish may be hungry, but they won’t waste energy chasing a bad drift.
BE NYMPHARIFIC
If you’re all about dry-or-die, you might consider getting over it for the sake of fishing year-round. And
don’t just tie on the wet flies and hope for the best – really get into it and you’ll start to embrace that tic-tictake.
There’s never-ending nuance and technicality to nymphing that many people don’t appreciate. Give
some attention to detail in your weights, maybe even more than your flies. By using deep, soft weight you
can make modifications easily. You’ll probably need to make a lot of weight adjustments before you get it
right. The bugs need to get right up into the fish’s mug. This means they must be properly suspended for
the duration of the drift. Weight management is the best way to accomplish that. Keep fly and indicator size
significantly smaller than you would in warmer months. Talk to local fly shops about go-to zebra midges,
sow bugs, blood worms and stoneflies.
ENJOY APRÉS
Remember that a good day of winter fishing begins with a hot, leisurely breakfast and ends with a warm
beverage and hearty meal with family and friends. It’s the cozy season. Figuring out how to enjoy time with
loved ones takes very little effort.
Hilary is a product of public lands, working and playing in Northwest Montana. She hosts the show Trout TV,
guides fly anglers, owns and operates a fly shop in her hometown, and manages public relations and marketing for
a number of outdoor brands. She is a BHA member.
Alec Underwood photo
1
WHAT TO LAYER
Layering is a no-brainer. I start with thermal-weight merino pants and a lightweight merino long-sleeved
crew shirt. I pull midweight, knee-high merino ski socks up over the base layer pants. Next are loose-fitting
insulated or fleece pants. Then, waders. I layer my torso with a midweight fleece or down pullover under the
wader bibs, then a windproof, hooded shell jacket on top. I’ve never appreciated fingerless gloves. I prefer
full, dexterous gloves with a waterproof membrane like those made by Hanz USA. Remember to remove
your gloves before handling fish to prevent harm to their fragile slime layer – and to keep from ruining your
gloves. I’ll always throw on a tightly-woven fleece beanie that can come down over my ears, as well as a lightweight
neck gaiter like the one I wear skiing. One mistake winter anglers can make is skipping sunglasses.
Sunglasses are still important, to protect eyes from wayward streamers, leafless twigs and the shockingly
bright winter sunlight reflecting off water.
50 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017 WINTER 2017 BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL | 51

END OF THE LINE
HARVESTING
IN MY LAST COLUMN, I WROTE ABOUT SCOUTING.
I discussed the value of taking time off from fishing in the summer
to go look for big game. Even without finding animals, it’s never
a bad time exploring new areas, getting functional exercise and, if
you’re really lucky, stuffing your face with wild raspberries.
I know I was preaching to the choir. Many of you already knew
that value, and many of your scouting habits are surely more rigorous
than mine. But if anyone spent this last hunting season
wondering where the animals were, listen up. Scouting sows the
seeds for a bountiful fall. This column is about the harvest.
We’ve got to be just below that big rock amphitheater, I
thought. Sitting down against a tree trunk, I confirmed with the
GPS: .18 miles to the waypoint marked “BULL.”
On my scouting/raspberry picking trip two months prior, I’d
marked the spot after accidentally calling in a six-point elk to the
edge of the scree. It was that single sighting that encouraged me to
again drive the horrendous ridgetop road and hike the pass back
into this remote patch of timber. I didn’t see or hear a single elk
on the first hunting excursion there. This time, nearing the end of
archery season, I was hoping my fortunes would change.
Brooke and I drove up late the night before and slept in the
back of my 4Runner, an early October wind blowing snow outside.
We awoke before dawn, bundled up and struck out along
a ridge towering over the timbered basin, glassing and bugling
downhill. Mule deer tracks wrote a braille script on the melting
snow, interrupted by the spoor of a a single bull elk exiting the
valley. Brooke glassed a herd of does below us. Later, we kicked a
proud young buck off his bed. Having filled my deer tag the week
before, to me these animals were little more than pleasant distractions.
No elk were visible; no elk were audible.
We dropped off the ridge to the valley floor. I set up to cow call.
After a few minutes, I heard a snap through the trees downwind
of my position. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between
an erratic squirrel, an 800-pound ungulate and one’s imagination,
52 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL WINTER 2017
but I felt I’d been had. We continued upwind.
Two more call set-ups turned up nothing, like dozens before
them this season. But we were approaching the rock amphitheater
where I knew at least one bull liked to bed. We sat down and I
mewed twice.
“Brooke, there’s a bull coming,” I whispered over my shoulder
less than a minute later. “Don’t move.”
She turned her head to get my view of the scene anyway. “Holy
crap, that thing is huge.”
The bull approached silently and stopped 50 yards off, staring
directly at the source of the noise he’d heard, then flushed, smashing
branches with his antlers and hooves. I yelped a series of loud,
anxious cow calls and he whirled again, apparently set at ease. He
walked back and waited.
For a few long minutes, I tried to coax the elk closer. But now
he seemed uninterested and began munching moss off trees. I
knew I’d have to close the distance. I rose to my knees and edged
forward, keeping a clump of trees between the bull’s eyes and
mine. Ten long yards later, I had windows if he went right or left.
I turned my head and called back over my shoulder.
The bull walked left, trying to ascertain where the mystery cow
was headed. Through a narrow gap in the branches I saw the transition
between mahogany neck fur and khaki body. I drew, aimed,
released and heard the arrow strike flesh.
I looked back to see Brooke shaking just as hard as I was. We
waited an hour then walked up to the scene. No blood at first, but
soon it was everywhere. I followed Brooke following the trail over
and around boulders and deadfall, a fierce look on her face I’d not
seen before. Darkness came quickly and found us poring over a
marshy clearing, all blood seemingly washed away in a tiny creek.
Brooke had to work early the next morning and we still had a
four-mile hike 1,000 feet up and out of there even without meat.
I marked a waypoint and made a reluctant retreat.
After three hours sleep at home, I picked up Chad at 4 a.m.
We headed back in, trying to locate the bull from above then
returned to the GPS mark. It took two hours, but Chad finally
found where the elk had veered 90 degrees downhill. We were
back in business and split up to scour the narrow strip of timber
the elk had followed. A few hundred yards later, I came out into
a meadow and noticed Chad filming me on his phone. “I found
blood,” he said. “Lots of it.”
The 5x6 bull was dead on the far side of the meadow below
a crumbling rock monolith with a broad view of the valley. As
I approached, a migraine-like pressure behind my eyes tangibly
dissipated. An animal lost was found. A lifelong goal achieved.
We made relatively quick work of the photographing, butchering
and loading the ambitious first pile of meat into our packs.
We weren’t so energetic saddling up under the second load four
hours later. Arduously ascending the basin around 2 a.m., one
last mile to go, I said, “Man, that was a nasty spot to kill an elk.”
“Yeah, this sucks right now but it’s hard to complain, knowing
how much we’re going to love remembering this experience,”
Chad replied. “You have to kill them where they live.”
-Sam Lungren, editor
Know your limits: it’s the only way you can push
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