Access and Public Lands

Sobering news out of Utah last week via the email above from the Utah Stream Access Coalition. It’s a damn shame to have ten years of work dismissed via the defendants’ request for summary judgement (here’s the doc). The legal minutiae on this decision appears fairly interesting – check out this overview of the decision […]

Dammit, my attorney friend in Montana who keeps me up on the latest access issues has been out of the country for a few weeks and I’ve missed the discussion exploding over Montana SB 354 – read the details and a list of CRITICAL action points via the good folks at the Public Land / […]

The Utah Stream Access Coalition is holding their annual fundraising auction right now to keep up the good fight in Utah (with implications for access rights nation-wide). It closes on the 19th, so get on it today…

For those of us around the nation who truly appreciate – and use – the public lands that have been set aside for our enjoyment, the advent of GPS and sophisticated mapping has made it much easier to find public land parcels from a mapping perspective. Accessing many of these parcels on the other hand […]

The Utah Stream Access Coalition sent out an interesting update last week covering the latest in their seemingly never-ending battle to overturn Utah’s disastrous change to stream access laws a few years back. Read their update in full at the link, and consider once again donating to support their work. Why? Count me among those […]

You’ve probably heard, read, or otherwise seen by now that the Great American Outdoors Act was finally passed by the House last week and is headed to the President’s desk for signature. Details here via the TRCP (image above via the linked article). Attaboy.

A coalition of groups is working together to place almost 200,000 acres in Northwest Montana under permanent conservation protections; details here via the Trust for Public Lands (their map above, recently published in the Missoulian). We used to live just east of the eastern border of the map and can vouch that there’s some damned […]

Hat tip to BHA for the heads up on this one – the Great American Outdoors Act was introduced in the House on the 4th; read the details on the .Gov official site here, and here’s a nice summary of the legislation on the BHA site. By the way, the BHA site has a nifty […]

In the midst of all the tragedy you’re being fed by the media these days, you might have missed the story about a proposal via Interior to open up access for additional sporting activities on national wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries. Here’s the PR from Interior on the matter, and the TRCP has a supportive […]

More here on the BHA site –

Via the Missoulian here – the Forest Service back home in Montana is seeking help on identifying inaccessible land blocks in four key areas, two in the Custer Gallatin National Forest and one each in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge and Flathead forests. They’re asking for the public’s help in identifying specific areas where access can be improved. […]

"Our Wild Lands" – Backcountry Hunters & Anglers from Reelbros Media on Vimeo.

In news from the Utah Stream Access Coalition last Friday, their efforts to codify critical stream access regs in Utah law took a leap forward last week with the committee submission of SBOO63SO2. See the details reported in the cut from their newsletter above, and read the bill at the link. Attaboy. And to answer […]

A hearty Tuesday attaboy is due the good folks at Montana TU for their launch of this interactive fishing access map for the Great State of Montana; you can zoom, toggle the layers, and many of the charted sites have coded links out for more information. Attaboy.