Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Podcasts and Blasts

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 156: Bob Lee, Florida Backcountry Lawman May 23, 2023

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BHA Podcast & Blast, Ep. 156: Florida Backcountry Lawman Bob Lee

You may remember Bob Lee from Free the Ocklawaha River!, where he and Hal first met. Bob is one of the leading voices for the removal of Rodman Dam and the reconnection of the Ocklawaha River to the St. Johns and the Atlantic Ocean. He knows of what he speaks: Bob Lee was the game warden for this part of the American backcountry – the oldest of Old Florida – for over 30 years. He wrote about his adventures in his excellent first book Backcountry Lawman and expanded on that success by gathering other Florida warden tales in Bad Guys, Bullets, and Boat Chases. Artifact hunter, historian, fisherman and hunter of both man and beast, Bob Lee is a master storyteller with a lifetime of rollicking adventures to draw from. Join us for the ride.

Ep. 155: Chris Dombrowski, Montana Fishing Guide and Writer May 09, 2023

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BHA Podcast & Blast, Ep. 155: Montana Fishing Guide and Writer Chris Dombrowski

Chris Dombrowski is a professional fishing guide of over two decades on the rivers of Montana, an acclaimed poet and the author of Body of Water: A Sage, A Seeker, and the World's Most Alluring Fish, which is about, among many other things, the pursuit of bonefish in the Bahamas. Chris' latest book is The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water, which manages to be a deeply honest memoir, a celebration of the joys and terrors of family, and a love letter to the landscape and rivers of the American West, all at the same time. Join Hal and Chris for an intense conversation about fishing, life and literature, recorded live at the 2023 BHA North American Rendezvous.

Ep. 154: The Legal Fight Over Corner Crossing Comes to a Head Apr 25, 2023

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BHA Podcast & Blast, Ep. 154: The Legal Fight Over Corner Crossing Comes to a Head

The future of public access to public lands access is being decided in Wyoming with the ongoing saga of the corner-crossing hunters and their legal travails. We all have a dog in this fight – and never more so than right now, given the accelerating trend of huge expanses of private land being consolidated, with public lands enclosed or access blocked to members of the hunting and angling public. Join us at the 2023 BHA North American Rendezvous as Hal discusses the implications of the Wyoming battle with Eric Hanson, an attorney who has assisted BHA in its support of the four hunters, and Sawyer Connelly, a former BHA staffer and legal scholar: Learn the latest on the legal case and also, for the hardworking optimists, a possible solution from Sawyer to the dilemma of access to the checkerboarded public lands in the West. You heard it here first!

Ep. 153 - The MT Legislature, The Weed Tax, and The Conservationists Apr 11, 2023

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BHA Podcast & Blast, Ep. 153: The MT Legislature, The Weed Tax, and The Conservationists

Montana's legislature meets for only 90 days every two years, but the amount of work that goes into a single abbreviated session is mind-blowing. In just a few short months during its 2023 session, more than 200 bills dealing with fish and wildlife management, public access, conservation funding, and fair chase hunting and fishing opportunities will have been introduced and considered in Helena. On this week's Podcast & Blast, we sit down with Jake Schwaller and John Sullivan of the Montana BHA board and Kevin Farron, BHA regional policy manager, to discuss a few of these bills, how best to make your voice heard, and why BHA members from across the country need to stay vigilant and engaged when the sausage is being made in their own state. Join us as we explore what Costco has to do with Montana's new pheasant stocking program, how nonresidents who own land in Montana will be given up to five deer and elk tags, and how recreational marijuana is funding - or was funding - the state's best conservation tool: Habitat Montana.

Ep. 152 - Murder of the Grand Kankakee Marsh Mar 28, 2023

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BHA Podcast & Blast, Ep. 152: Murder of the Grand Kankakee Marsh

"I have never yet found a place that equaled the Kankakee swamps for the variety of game to be found there." – J. Lorenzo Werich, 1920.

Few know the history now. None who experienced it are still alive to tell us the tale. But it was once known as The Everglades of the North, a million acres of marsh and swamp in Indiana and Illinois, with thousands of people living on the wealth of its fish and game, flocks of waterfowl darkening the skies, passenger pigeons, deer and black bear, beaver and muskrat and otter. For decades it was the so-called "pantry of Chicago," providing wild game to markets and restaurants, furs to the garment and hat industries, tons of cut reeds for packing materials, and millions of board feet for lumber for houses, including fueling reconstruction after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Then the huge steam-powered dredges came, and the murder of the Grand Kankakee Marsh began. Can we ever put to rights what we once so thoughtlessly sundered? Join us for a conversation with Hal and two of Indiana's finest storytellers and conservationists: Jeff Manes, a former steelworker turned columnist for the Chicago Tribune who grew up fishing and hunting the swamp, and Jim Sweeney, of the Porter County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League and Friends of the Kankakee.

Ep. 151 - Bill Avey, 40 Years in the Forest Service Mar 14, 2023

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BHA Podcast & Blast, Ep. 151: Bill Avey, 40 Years in the Forest Service

Retired Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest Supervisor Bill Avey is here to give us a clear view into the workings of the U.S. Forest Service – and what is arguably, for a public lands hunter or angler, the most important agency in America. Hal and Bill became friends on a snow survey ski trip through the Bob Marshall Wilderness in 2015, lost touch, then met again on a jury duty call-up last summer. It was a lucky meeting for Hal and for this podcast: Bill Avey has given his life to America's public forests, and he knows the strengths and weaknesses, the joys and tribulations, of his agency and the work it does, from the roots to the crown.

Ep. 150 - Free the Ocklawaha River! Feb 28, 2023

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BHA Podcast & Blast, Ep. 150: Free the Ocklawaha River!

Almost 60 years ago, the U.S. government, blinded by hubris, began work on the Cross Florida Barge Canal. Never heard of it? That's because President Richard Nixon, seeing it for the financial and ecological monstrosity that it was, halted the project in 1971 before it was halfway completed. All that remains of the bad idea is Rodman Dam, completed in 1968 to raise water levels enough to make the canal usable. The Rodman Dam blocked the free flow of the incredible Ocklawaha River, inundated 20 mighty freshwater springs, flooded miles of timber and bottomland wildlife habitat and, most importantly, cut the Ocklawaha and its tributaries off from the St. Johns River and the Atlantic Ocean, causing a cascade of losses to wildlife, water, fisheries and human beings. Now the time has come to remove Rodman Dam and restore these connections. Hal talks about the dam – its history and potential future – with Lisa Rinaman of the St. Johns' Riverkeeper and retired game warden and author Bob Lee, who has spent his professional life protecting the game and fish of the Ocklawaha. Join us to consider one of the major restoration projects of our time.

Ep. 149 - Conservation in the 118th Congress with the BHA Policy Crew Jan 31, 2023

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Podcast & Blast: Episode 149, Conservation in the 118th Congress with the BHA Policy Crew

As a wise man once said, You may not be interested in war, but when the times comes, war will certainly be interested in you. The same can be said about Congress. This week's episode with BHA's John Gale and Kaden McArthur takes us to Washington, D.C., with an exploration of the 118th Congress, where the hottest issues pertaining to our hunting and fishing and the conservation that makes it possible will be on the floor, in the offices, buried in reams of obscure paperwork and clouded by political shenanigans….John and Kaden clear the smoke, slash the fat, and let us all know what is going on, what is at stake, and who the players are as we make our way through 2023. We Americans consent to be governed, and this is a must-listen conversation about what we are consenting to, what we support and what we must resist.

Ep. 148 - Drew Phipps and the Restoration of the Candy Darter Jan 17, 2023

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BHA Podcast & Blast, Ep. 148: Drew Phipps and the Restoration of the Candy Darter

America's Midwestern rivers – the Elk, the Kanawha, the Ohio and all their vast systems of arterial tributaries – are home to a mind-boggling array of some of the most bizarre creatures on this planet. Among them, the candy darter, a tiny fish of such astounding beauty that its very existence begs questions about human perception, evolution and aesthetics: Why would a fish look like this? Why is it so beautiful? Join us for the return of one of the Podcast & Blast's most popular guests, Drew Phipps of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Hatchery in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, where a successful program to restore the candy darter to its original riverine habitats is bearing fruit. Listen to the end for a bonus tale of a junk store "swan gun" brought back to life and into the turkey woods…a mammoth 10-gauge black powder market hunting relic, best test fired with duct-tape, prayers and a 20-foot piece of paracord while hiding behind a block wall. Do not try this at home or anywhere else.

Learn more about Backcountry Hunters and Anglers: www.backcountryhunters.org/

Ep. 147 - Ted Koch on the Lesser Prairie Chicken and Grasslands Conservation Dec 21, 2022

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BHA Podcast & Blast, Ep. 147: Ted Koch on the Lesser Prairie Chicken and Grasslands Conservation

Will we act now to save America's iconic grasslands? The southern population of the lesser prairie chicken has been listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as endangered, a listing that will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the fate of this gamebird and its habitat on the southern Great Plains. But this conversation with Ted Koch, a former endangered species biologist, executive director of the North American Grouse Partnership, and chair of BHA's North American board of directors, is not just about lesser prairie chickens; it is about a resounding failure in conservation and an opportunity to forge a new path to honor and protect America's grasslands and all their attendant species. As goes the lesser prairie chicken so goes the American grassland ecosystem, and there is absolutely no reason to accept the loss of either one.

Learn more about Backcountry Hunters and Anglers: www.backcountryhunters.org/

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