Another Year Bites the Dust: Looking Back on the Outdoors in Montana

2012 is in the bag. It’s been a wild ride for hunters and anglers. We’ve seen some pretty low points, including the death of the Sportsmen’s Act, lack of passage of Forest Jobs and Recreation, Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, increased polarization of hunting and angling issues (especially funding these programs), conflicts over bison, wolves, trapping, bull trout, lake trout and land management. Relations between sportsmen and landowners/outfitters are at all time lows. This upcoming legislative session looks to be as contentious as the last one.

It’s easy to look around and see the negative. It’s human nature to focus on what went wrong in the hopes of fixing it later. But all of that pales compared to the highs of 2012.

This year I was able to watch the sun rise over the continental divide as I chased elk and wolves. I saw the sun set over river breaks that Lewis and Clark traveled. I helped a friend take a fine buck, the largest he’s ever harvested. I was with a friend when he shot his first deer. I’ve fished clear mountain streams, brawling tailwaters, and hiked in some of the most magnificent country in the world.

These things all might seem small in the bigger picture of wildlife conservation but this is what we work towards–our time in the woods.

In the bigger picture: We’ve blazed new trails. The Bully Pulpit nation has grown to almost 4,000 folks who care about conservation. We’ve had some fantastic discussions about the issues and for the most part, we’ve been able to find common ground. The influence and power of conservation organizations grow and become a force to be reckoned with both nationally and in Montana. New lands are open to hunters and anglers through programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund and Habitat Montana.

The vision is growing: the Montana model of wildlife conservation is taking off around the nation. How we ensure the future of hunting, fishing and wildlife conservation will surely change over the next few years, but we’re ready for the conversation, and we’re ready to continue to defend the legacy.

With the upcoming legislature, your time and money is needed more than ever.

Hellgate Hunters and Anglers will be at the legislature defending the Legacy. Will you?

Visit the Bully Pulpit here.

Land Tawney

Land is a 5th generation Montanan who garnered his conservation ethic in duck blinds on warm water sloughs in the Bitterroot Valley, on the end of a rod during the salmon fly hatch on the Big Hole River, and chasing the wiley wapiti in Cinnabar Basin. Land received a BS in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana in 2000 and a PHD in Post Hole Digging fencing in the family quarter horses and mules. Fresh out of school, he worked for a newly formed sportsmen organization called the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership as their National Grassroots Coordinator. After four years working for TRCP, Land joined the staff of the National Wildlife Federation as Regional Representative in Missoula, Montana serving the states of Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota. Today, Land serves as the Senior Manger for Sportsmen Leadership for National Wi! ldlife Federation. In this capacity he works with national hunting and fishing organizations on a host of sportsmen issues with emphasis on coastal Louisiana restoration, wildlife funding, access for hunters and anglers federal land management and leadership development. Most recently Land has begun work with the Wildlife Hunting Heritage Conservation Council sponsored by the Secretary of Interior and Secretary of Agriculture. In his spare time, Land sits on the board of the Phil Tawney Hunters Conservation Endowment and is the President of Hellgate Hunters and Anglers. Any other spare time is spent on the stream, in a duck blind, or chasing big game. Land enjoys anything outside with his wife Glenna, four-year old daughter Cidney, one-year old son Colin, and two labs…Gabriel, ”The Arch Angel of Ducks” and Triple “T”, Teller Turk Tawney.