In this launch episode of the Backcountry Report, BHA introduces its new Podcasts & Blasts feed, covers major conservation headlines — from a federal order loosening motorized access and attacks on the Roadless Rule to wetlands funding, the America the Beautiful/Legacy Restoration Fund, Potential for Sunday hunting in Massachusetts, California MPA petitions, and a Montana corner‑crossing lawsuit — highlights grassroots stewardship wins and upcoming BHA events, and more.

Join Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the voice for your wild public lands, waters, and wildlife to be part of a passionate community of hunter-angler-conservationists.

BHA. THE VOICE FOR OUR WILD PUBLIC LANDS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE.

Follow us:

Web: www.backcountryhunters.org

Instagram: @backcountryhunters

Facebook: @backcountryhunters

Today, we're diving into the world of brook trout -- how they're being affected by our changing climate, and what that means for the future. We are also going to take some time to appreciate this incredible species. Ongoing research here in the Northeast is revealing some amazing insights into the resilience and adaptability of these beloved fish.

Guests Include:

Adam Kautza. Coldwater Fishery Resource Project Leader. MassWildlife.

Stephen Jane, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Fellow. University of Notre Dame

Benjamin Letcher, Ph.D. Ecologist. USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center.

Show Related Links

Journal Article: Concurrent warming and browning eliminate cold-water fish habitat in many temperate lakes. Stephen F. Jane, Thomas M. Detmer, Siena Lr. Larrick, and Siena L. Larrick. 2024.

Benjamin H. Letcher USGS Profile

It's MEMBER APPRECIATION WEEK at Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. And for our podcast listeners who aren't already members, we're giving you a special chance to become one. For the month of June, use discount code BLAST10 at checkout for 10% off all Individual & Family Memberships*. Join today, fuel BHA's conservation work and enjoy the many other perks of being part of our community. Thanks for being a BHA member!

*does not apply to Gift Memberships

Today's episode:

In this episode of the Conservation Cooperative, we're looking at how roads impact wildlife and the role that wildlife crossings can play on the landscape.

Guests Include:

Ben Goldfarb. Award Winning Journalist and Author of Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet

Kate Cleary, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies. SUNY Potsdam. Acting President of Algonquin to Adirondacks Collaborative.

Erin Sito. U.S. Public Policy Director. Wildlands Network.

Brian Bird, Ph.D. New England, New York, New Jersey Chapter Coordinator. Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

For a lot of us, public lands are deeply personal. They're where we learned to hunt, where we camp with our families, where we go to breathe a little easier and remember what matters. But increasingly, the future of those lands is being debated in terms of economics, efficiency and ownership — and those conversations are getting louder across the West.

On this episode of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers podcast, we sit down with BHA's Regional Stewardship and Habitat Connectivity Manager, Dre Arman, to unpack a new economic assessment put out by BHA's Idaho chapter and partners examining what a large-scale transfer of federal public lands to the state could actually cost.

We break down the numbers behind land transfer proposals, the jobs and communities tied to public lands, and why these conversations matter not just for Idaho, but for every public land owner in America. It's a thoughtful discussion about stewardship, economics and the long-term future of the places we all care about.

READ the 2026 Economic Assessment on Proposals to Transfer Ownership of Federal Lands to the State of Idaho

Podcast reminder: BHA is still planning next steps for our podcast. Thanks for listening to this new and important conversation, and we'll be sure to update everyone as soon more information is available on what's to come. Thanks for bearing with us.

Today, the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers podcast is sharing the second episode of the Conservation Collective, where they're talking striped bass, the most sought after fish on the eastern seaboard. Often described as "everyman's fish" it's pursued by an extraordinarily wide range of anglers. Those anglers could be shorebound, or they could be on a million dollar center console. A lot of people also fish for stripers, NOAA estimates over 20 million trips a season, and so, the fishery has a significant cultural and economic impact up and down the coast. Once hailed as a conservation success story, now, the future of the stock is in question.

In this episode we'll dive into the latest science that will inform future management decisions and look at the different factors that fishery managers are considering. In addition, we'll discuss how New England and New York BHA are working to restore future abundance of this fish we love.

Huge thank you to our guests:

Charles Witek. Conservationist and Fisheries Policy Expert. NY BHA Policy Team Member.

Mike Woods. New England BHA Chapter Chair.

Ben Gahagan, PhD. Recreational Fisheries Program Leader. Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries

Kimberly Fine. Fisheries Biologist. Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries

Will Poston. Policy Associate. American Saltwater Guides Association

Nichola Meserve. Fishery Policy Analyst, Interstate Management. Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

Citizen Science Data Portal

Striped Bass Citizen Scientist Project

Sportfish Angler Data Collection Team - MA Division of Marine Fisheries

Charles Witek's Blog - One Angler's Voyage

While BHA's Podcast & Blast takes a moment to plan its next steps, we're sharing the first episode of our Conservation Cooperative podcast (recorded previously), which looks at a scenario playing out across North America -- one that the New England Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) has been grappling with for a few years: the rapid development of recreation trails and their encroachment on wild places. We'll explore some of the factors that are driving trail development in the state of Vermont and how it impacts the conservation of our wildlands and wildlife. While we explore the issue in the Northeast, it's a discussion sure to resonate with public-lands advocates across the continent.

Big thank you to everyone who came to the table to discuss this topic.

Ethan Dreisigacker. New England BHA Board Member

Meredith Naughton. Wildlife Biologist

Allison Adams. Director. Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC)

Dave Furman. New England BHA Member

Andrea Shortsleeve. Private Lands Habitat Biologist. Vermont Fish & Wildlife

Nick Bennette. Executive Director. Vermont Mountain Bike Association (VMBA)

RJ Thompson. Executive Director. Vermont Huts Association

After nearly a decade behind the mic and more than 225 episodes digging into the people, places and fights that define our public lands and waters, Hal Herring is stepping away from BHA's Podcast & Blast and onto his next adventure.

For this final episode, we turn the microphone around. Hal joins former BHA Vice President of Communications and longtime Podcast & Blast producer Katie McKalip, along with BHA Brand and Editorial Manager Zack Williams, for a conversation about how the show came together, what made it matter and a few of the moments they'll carry forward. What emerges is more than a look back at a podcast. It's a reflection on the kind of storytelling that has always powered BHA: grounded, firsthand and rooted in real places and real people.

Over the years, Hal sought out voices with deep experience on the land — people who knew a watershed, a forest, a migration route or a community intimately, and who could explain what was at stake in plain, honest terms. Episode after episode, the show reminded us that conservation is not an abstraction. It lives in boots, horses, boats, gravel roads, campfires and long miles — and in the people willing to show up for the future of public lands and waters.

We're sad to see Hal go, but grateful for everything he helped build and excited to see what happens as he wears out his next pair of boots. Listen to his final episode wherever you get your podcasts, and stay tuned as we chart what's next for BHA's podcast.

The views and opinions expressed in the Podcast & Blast are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

The Podcast & Blast with Hal Herring is brought you by Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and presented by Silencer Central, with additional support from Decked, Dometic, and Filson.

Join Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the voice for your wild public lands, waters, and wildlife to be part of a passionate community of hunter-angler-conservationists.

BHA. THE VOICE FOR OUR WILD PUBLIC LANDS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE.

Follow us:

Web: https://www.backcountryhunters.org

Instagram: @backcountryhunters

Facebook: @backcountryhunters

In this episode of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Podcast, host Hal Herring speaks with investigative journalist Andrew Becker about the complex and increasingly contentious issue of stream access in Utah. Centered around Becker's deep-dive reporting for The Drake, the conversation explores how a state that is roughly 75% public land can still have most of its fishable water flowing through private property.

Becker traces the issue back to Western settlement, including the belief that water is a shared public resource. From the Equal Footing Doctrine and questions of navigability to Utah's modern walk-in access program, the episode unpacks how legal history, culture, water scarcity, and population growth collide. Unlike Montana's high-water mark standard, Utah's approach is fragmented and heavily shaped by private ownership of streambeds — a critical distinction in a state where most water runs through deeded land claimed under early homestead laws.

The discussion also wrestles with harder questions: What does sustainable access look like in the second-driest state in the country? How do stocking programs, public funding, and private landownership intersect? And how do conservation ethics balance with expanding recreation pressure amid climate change and rapid development?

Ultimately, the episode frames Utah as a microcosm of the broader Western struggle over public trust, private property, and the future of access — where law, history, culture, and conservation all meet at the water's edge.

On this episode of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Podcast & Blast, Hal Herring sits down at his home in Augusta, Montana, with singer-songwriter and wilderness mule packer Jackson Holte.

Jackson talks about how long days in the wilderness shape his music, how silence and hard work inform art, and why public lands and access matter so deeply to who we are and how we live. From packing strings in the Bob Marshall to writing songs that carry that landscape forward, this is a conversation about craft, heritage, and the freedom worth sustaining.

https://www.instagram.com/jackson_holte_

The views and opinions expressed in the Podcast & Blast are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

The Podcast & Blast with Hal Herring is brought you by Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and presented by Silencer Central, with additional support from Decked, Dometic, and Filson.

Join Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the voice for your wild public lands, waters, and wildlife to be part of a passionate community of hunter-angler-conservationists.

BHA. THE VOICE FOR OUR WILD PUBLIC LANDS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE.

Follow us:

Web: https://www.backcountryhunters.org

Instagram: @backcountryhunters

Facebook: @backcountryhunters

BREAKING: Since this interview was recorded, a new attempt to permit a copper-nickel mine upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is underway. On Monday, Jan. 12, Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn) introduced HJ Res. 140, which would lift the federal moratorium on mining in the Rainy River Watershed, just upstream from the wilderness border. Tell your elected officials to vote NO on HJ Res. 140 and any similar actions taken in the Senate, and call your elected officials directly on the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is a 1.1-million-acre expanse of lakes, rivers, and boreal forest—accessible only by paddle and portage—and one of the most intact wild places left in America. It's a world-class destination for fishing, hunting, camping, and solitude, but more than that, it's a place that shapes people. Generations of families, anglers, and paddlers have learned stewardship here, guided by a simple truth: some landscapes are priceless precisely because they demand restraint, responsibility, and care.

Today, that ethic is being tested. Proposed sulfide-ore mining at the doorstep of the Boundary Waters—backed by foreign mining interests and enabled by shifting federal policy—poses serious risks to a water-rich ecosystem that cannot absorb failure. This isn't just a Minnesota issue. It's a national question about how America balances resource extraction, public lands, and long-term economic reality against short-term gain. As administrations change, protections have ping-ponged, leaving this place—and others like it—perpetually on defense.

In this episode of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Podcast & Blast, host Hal Herring is joined by Lukas Leaf and Matthew Schultz of Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters to unpack what's really at stake. From the personal experiences that bind people to the Boundary Waters to the complex web of policy, permits, and public process governing its future, this conversation makes one thing clear: after today, none of us can say we didn't know.

Tell your elected officials to vote NO on HJ Res. 140 and any similar actions taken in the Senate, and call your elected officials directly on the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

The views and opinions expressed in the Podcast & Blast are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

The Podcast & Blast with Hal Herring is brought you by Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and presented by Silencer Central, with additional support from Decked, Dometic, and Filson.

Join Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the voice for your wild public lands, waters, and wildlife to be part of a passionate community of hunter-angler-conservationists.

BHA. THE VOICE FOR OUR WILD PUBLIC LANDS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE.

Follow us:

Web: https://www.backcountryhunters.org

Instagram: @backcountryhunters

Facebook: @backcountryhunters

It was the late spring of 1932 when Idaho outfitter Jim Renshaw first saw the upper Selway River from the back of a horse. The packstring was led by his father, Alvin, who had been working for the U.S. Forest Service since he was 13 and had bought the Pettibone Ranch, deep in the wilderness, where Bear Creek drops into the Selway River.

Jim Renshaw was two months old at that time. For the next 16 years, he, his mother and father, and two sisters lived at the Pettibone Ranch, guiding hunters in the fall and fishermen and wilderness wanderers in the summer. Jim would become one of the most famed and skilled horsemen and wilderness mule packers in the history of the Selway country, as well as an elk and mule deer guide with few equals. Today, at age 93, he remains actively engaged with his horses and mules and in his home wilderness country.

This interview was recorded live at Jim's home near Kooskia, Idaho, during a visit in June 2025. The stories kept coming, the maps stayed on the table, and the coffee remained on the stove for the better part of two days. Hal was able to capture much of it in this podcast episode—nine decades of weather and work, triumph and tragedy, wildlife and even wilder people, family, camps, crashed planes, and horse wrecks—a life writ large in some of the finest and most remote country left on Earth.

The views and opinions expressed in the Podcast & Blast are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

The Podcast & Blast with Hal Herring is brought you by Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and presented by Silencer Central, with additional support from Decked, Dometic, and Filson.

Join Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the voice for your wild public lands, waters, and wildlife to be part of a passionate community of hunter-angler-conservationists.

BHA. THE VOICE FOR OUR WILD PUBLIC LANDS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE.

Follow us:

Web: https://www.backcountryhunters.org

Instagram: @backcountryhunters

Facebook: @backcountryhunters