May 28, 2006

Muscle, not machines: hunting, angling group promotes wilderness values

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is not your typical environmental group nor your typical outdoor sportmen's group, reports New West Network.

To counter [threats to roadless areas], BHA aggressively supports roadless area protection and Wilderness Area designation. It also, though, goes beyond these issues to also advocate for the reintroduction of predators such as wolves where viable, off-road vehicle restrictions, and minimizing technology for hunting and fishing -- all stances that stand in direct opposition to the messages conveyed in most modern mainstream hunting and fishing media, where wilderness “locks up” the land, roadless areas prohibit access to backcountry, predators steal “our” game, and ORVs and technology give you the edge up on those wily animals (while providing big advertising dollars in those glossy sportsman magazines).

I worked a short time for a now-defunct outdoor magazine, Colorado Outdoor Journal, as well as writing for others. It's sad that so much of their content is advertiser-driven rather than experience-driven, but, then, the same can be said for some of the birding magazines too. Try selling a photograph to a birding magazine where the people pictured don't have expensive optics draped across their bodies.

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