Backcountry Hunters and Anglers... who's in?

[pronghorn23]

Mailing out the application tomorrow.

[homerdave]

hey rick... we is "co-chairs" (neither of us wants to be prez   :D  )

[Toklat1]

Dave, PM Sent

[Reg Darling]

No Pennsylvania chapter, but I'm a Pennsylvania member and watching the Allegheny National Forest get roaded to death...if hunters don't stand up for the wildness of their land, how can the wildness of their hearts survive?

[Al Kidner]

Well I'm there lastest member. Monies well spent.

AK.

[sdpeb1]

I'm in, the latest AK BHA member

[Dave2old]

This outpouring of TradGang support is very heartening, but hardly surprising. If not here, where? If not us, who? I'll be at K-zoo this year and happy to talk BHA with anyone who's interested ... if you can catch me between shooting every single Shrew bow there have there! dave

[Jack Skinner]

I joined when the thread started and have my info allready. Will display my stickers with pride. I also will be contacting the WY chapter to see what I can do.

[George D. Stout]

Okay,  just threw my hat into the ring as well.  Sounds like an organization I need to support.

[Dave Lay]

Been a member a couple years. as said in a earlier post, its harder for the eastern hunters to see the need, but we are over run with atv's in the northern part of our state which is mostly national forrest.  ( most of south is leased private land) But I have been out west some and I can see the desperate need in getting something done. And what they do there hopefully will affect us as well..

[Tim Fishell]

Dave2Old, when are you going to be in town for the K-zoo show?  I will be there Friday night shopping and Saturday I will be sitting at the Michigan Traditional Bowhunters booth.  It would be great to hook up and finally meet you.

[Steve H.]

Ok, how about a partially dissenting view.

I spend a lot of days in real back country, more than most.  I have probably logged 150 solo days in Alaska alone.

I have spoken up against rampant ATV use and other inappropriate jet boats in BOG (Alaska Board of Game) proposals.  Have you all seen those new awefull tunnel hull jet boats and heard where they can go, uggghhhh.  Air boats have ZERO redeming qualities and belong no where.

I also am a supporter of the wood bison restoration project.

But this organization goes in other directions that I cannot support and thus there is no way I would join.  One is what I consider a liberal "hippie" stance on predator control.  Our moose herds are in bad shape in many parts of Alaska and the moose need to regain their base.  

A bowhunting friend is a helo pilot and sees first hand an area's game popultaions.  He has told me about the come back of moose in areas where the state has enacted predator control measures.  You want a decent Alaskan moose hunt someday?  I know I do.  I have been on four back country moose hunts and haven't had a real good quality moose hunt yet.

Overzealous and rampant environmentalism is one of the factors today why our economy is in the dumps.  Don't think YOU are removed as all industries are interconnected.  Face it, for a strong economy we need economic development.  We can't all be NIMBY's and always have resource development be in someone ELSE's backyard.  I hope that those in the anti-mining crowd don't have things like metal hulled boats, use bullets of lead and copper, houses made with aggregate, or fly the friendly sky's on a metal bird.  It's just a bit hypocritical.

We can't hug EVERYTHING to death.  Pick your battles, I don't see that has happened in this organization.

[Rooselk]

Steve H, I do not agree with you on those issues, but thanks for the dissenting view. I especially appreciate that you were able to make your view known in the "Trad Gang manner": no personal attacks. I'd say you're a good example of what this site means when they say, "Debate is healthy, as one sword sharpens another, but it must be done in an honorable fashion."

[Al Kidner]

I signed up a few weeks back. Looking forward to putting the sticker up on my car when back home and reading the newsletter.

Keep up the effort all at BCHA.


ak.

[Michael Pfander]

I have been a member for 3 years now.  At present I am trying to start a chapter here in AZ.  I've got the G & F boys and girls on my side.  They will give us a hand.  As soon as I can get some people to agree on a day and a time we will have an initial meeting.  Anybody in AZ want in?  They took away the $ for ATV enforcement from the G&F so I thought we would try to do some with video.

MAP

[Dave2old]

Rooselk, you don't consider "liberal 'hippie' stance" a bit, uh, less than what we might call distinguished respectful dissent? In any event, Steve, one or both AK BHA chapter chairs will respond. Both are trad bowhunters. One runs a hunting/fishing charter service out of Homer and eats pretty much only wild meat. The other lives 100 miles from the nearest road or village and has for 30 years, has internet only recently thanks to solar panels on his cabin's moss roof, uses dogs and has never owned a snowmachine, goes hungry if he doesn't catch fish in summer and kill moose each fall. Hard-*ss folks. Hippie liberals? Well, I was once a hippie and wish I still were (oh those lovely days on the hippie-chick-flowered beaches of SoCal after leaving the Marines!). And I always thought "liberal" meant "open minded." Odd word to have become a curse. Peace, love, shoot straight, fresh blood on the ground ... dave

[mwmwmb]

i always think of liberal as the the root word of liberty

[Mark Richards]

In response to Steve H.'s comments, all I can say as co-chair of the Alaska chapter of BHA is "Huh?"

What's this talk of a "liberal hippie stance" on predator control? C'mon...next thing you know we'll be acccused of being "tree hugging greenies" too . Sigh...it's amusing how some come after us hardcore hunters cuz we may feel differently on some issues.

I've been living in remote bush of Alaska going on thirty years, using satellite internet now to log on to this forum, location is more than a hundred miles from nearest village and just below the Arctic Circle, raised a family out here with my wife on moose and caribou, salmon and grayling, beaver and even wolf...so I'd like to think I can speak about Alaska hunting fishing and trapping in ways that folks will respect the overall experience. I'm still here, still doing it, was out on trapline with my dogs just the other day. And by the way, it's currently -41 degrees as I type this (brrr!).

Rather than respond to how AK BHA feels about some of the ongoing predator control programs in Alaska, let me just post a link to an op-ed I wrote about just one of the control programs not far from where I live. I hope you'll take the time to read it as it explains our position fully and why we oppose extremism in wildlife management:
 http://alaskabackcountryhunters.org/Wolf%20Control%20Expansion%20Plan%20Shortsighted%20at%20Best.pdf

Ya'll stay warm wherever you are,
Sincerely,
Mark Richards - Co-chair AK BHA

[homerdave]

okay... i'll respond to this as i see fit... I am co-chair of the AK chapter along with Mark Richards.
i don't know what is considered a "hippie liberal" stance on predator control, i guess i'd be interested to find out.
I believe it is right and proper to question the motives and manner of predator control, and before predator control is brought into play, we need to separate "need" from  "want".
There is a move up here to  shoot black bears in a unit where the public justification is that the locals need meat,and can't find enough moose... but regulations are being pushed to allow the wanton waste of perfectly edible spring bear by repealing salvage requirements. How does that make hunters look?
I object to this, and I object to the push from a private organization to allow the use of helicopters for this same "hunt".
Right now AK BHA is trying very hard to find a way to get proper funding  for our Dept of Fish and Game, where we are embarrassingly underfunded when it comes to doing basic population studies on moose, sheep, goat, and bears.
Is this "hippie liberal" stuff?
We want harvestable, healthy natural populations of all game and non-game animals, not just high profile critters like moose and sheep, but predators, songbirds, and everything that comes together to make Alaska unique.

[Roadkill]

I met Dave up at the Trad Expo a few years back and gathered in his info. Read it, like dthe stance and since i was lobbying a bill for our state's airports, spoke to a senator about it.  He like d it a lot, but said he had to balance his efforts in the legislator with things his constitutencies wanted.  he had not heard much from those opposed to recreational riding anywhere or any time.  he had heard from those who sold ATV's and claimed all his other efforts might be underminded by proposing such arestriction at this time.  Now realize 85%  of this state is federally controlled-he said we should try to get the feds on board as we had little impact, but the feds restriciting riding might be the answer-at least in this state.  This guy is not a coward-rather a realist.  Our senators are back this year-we meet only every other year.  i'll try again.  Dave much thanks and praise for your effort.  Probably many here who do not understand the issues as we do in the west.
Last year i hunted on the original pony express route-signs in the desert to show the way over the mountain passes!  It is an authorized road and i drove it for over 30 miles to get to the base of the mountain I hunted.  Not a fence anywhere to be seen.  I am sure many who frequent this site have never driven for 30 miles without seeing fences.  Our problem with ATV's is jsut a bigger issue.if we don't take some action to control access, the mountains will be rutted forever.  Our earth gets rutted easily in the dry months, but all those ruts run water when the snow melts and makes giant ruts that eventually wash down into gullies-which cover over the sparse vegetation wher ethe animals feed.  I do not want to live in a sand lot.