BCJ_WINTER18 Digital Edition

Members from the Capital Chapter with a good haul of trash after their cleanup day.
Denver Group leaders. Southeast Colorado
Group leaders are Ty Woodward and
Ben Montgomery.
Assistant Central West Slope Regional
Director Adam Gall was appointed to
serve on the Grand Mesa Uncompahgre
Gunnison Resource Advisory Committee.
Colorado Parks & Wildlife Front Range
Liaison Brad Nicol tabled at the CPW
Outdoor Adventure Expo at Cherry Creek
State Park in September. Colorado BHA
Habitat Watch Volunteer Paul Vertrees
was featured in the October 2017 issue of
Outdoor Life.
BHA Life Member Steven Choromanski
and several other chapter members worked
with the U.S. Forest Service-Pike National
Forest South Platte Field Office to post
ATV/OHV enforcement signage on trails
where the Forest Service has detected illegal
motorized access. Southwest Colorado
Regional Director Dan Parkinson initiated
a volunteer signage and bighorn observation
program on the Weminuche Wilderness
this summer. The program will continue
in 2018.
The Colorado State University club put
on a packing seminar to learn decker and
sawbuck packing techniques. The course
was taught by George Wallace and Rick
Knight, BHA members and CSU emeritus
professors.
The Western State Colorado University
chapter held a recruitment barbecue that
was free for students and held in conjunction
with the local Gunnison Sockeyes
Fishing Club and Wildlife Society Club. It
included live music, dry fly casting, pulled
goose sandwiches and grilled goose jalapeño
poppers. -David Lien
IDAHO
Idaho Chapter members continue
to lead the charge in our state as
dedicated sportsmen with a shared love for
public lands. Our advocacy work is helping
to fight land grabs, protect our treasured
sage steppe ecosystems, curb illegal
OHV use and promote recreation-based
economic growth in Idaho. While we see
many conservation battles being won,
it seems a new attack on our public land
looms around every corner and, in the
spirit of BHA, we will not sit idly by and
let special interests strip us of our American
heritage that is public lands.
We’ve renewed our seat on the Idaho
Sportsman’s Alliance Board of Directors,
we participated in collaborative groups to
develop and drive the Idaho Sportsman’s
Gubernatorial Forum. We helped craft
long-term and durable conservation solutions
for Idaho’s High Divide and continue
to stand strong with our allies to defeat
land management and policy decisions
that could dismantle our public lands. Our
Nov. 7 membership meeting and our December
state leadership meeting showed
positive growth in terms of membership
and fundraising, a testament to the value
of our organization and the efforts of
our dedicated members hosting successful
events and spreading our message across
the state.
The sun is slipping across the southern
horizon a little lower each day, and with
it big game seasons are wrapping up, but
that’s no reason to stop enjoying our public
lands. Our members are shifting focus
to hunting with our bird dogs, fishing for
steelhead, gearing up for ski season and eagerly
planning for the 2018 BHA Rendezvous.
We’re excited for y’all to come join
us in the Gem State and promise to make
#Rende2018 the biggest and best so far!
-Mike McConnell
MICHIGAN
The Michigan Chapter mixed
chapter development, concrete public
lands and waters advocacy and continued
media presence in the past quarter.
In late September, we held a chapter
rendezvous at Buckley’s Mountainside
Canoes near Mt. Pleasant, owned by
board member Bob Busch. The Michigan
Rendezvous featured presentations on
fly-fishing, game processing, public lands
advocacy and planning an out-of-state
backcountry adventure by Alex Cerveniak,
Jason Meekhof, Drew YoungeDyke and
Mark Kenyon. Legendary public land deer
hunter John Eberhart even showed up and
showed us some of his techniques. A week
later, we teamed up with the Great Lakes
Region of the Quality Deer Management
Association for a joint pint night at Block
Brewing Company in Howell, Mich.
We have a Public Lands Christmas Bash
planned for mid-December at Big Boiler
Brewing Company in Lowell, Michigan.
On the policy front, we issued an action
alert to protect the Deward Tract
from being opened up to ORV traffic on
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