Backcountry Hunters and Anglers club provides a home for all eager MSU Sportsmans

The bountiful variety of wildlife in Montana inspires sportsmen from all over the country to settle down in Bozeman and explore its nearby recreational hunting grounds and water access.

The Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA) chapter of MSU aims to inspire the student body, promote public land access and cultivate an all inclusive organization of people who share love for these hobbies.

The chapter is a spur of the national organization of the same name. According to the national organization’s website, “Backcountry Hunters & Anglers seeks to ensure North America's outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands, waters, and wildlife.” 

Their non profit nationwide effort has spread throughout the country. There is a BHA chapter at University of Montana, a few more starting up throughout the state, and also here at our own MSU. 

Elliott Drewry, junior at MSU and avid hunter and fisher, got involved with the BHA as a general board member in the Fall of 2021, and stepped into the role of president at the beginning of the 2023 spring semester. Drewry grew up in Port Townsend, Washington, and has been fishing and hunting since he was a child. These experiences proved formative enough to inspire his involvement with the club, he said.

“Now, at the place I am in college, I've been able to insert myself more into what allows sportsmen like me to engage with public lands and in turn what drew me to Backcountry Hunters and Anglers,” Drewry said.  

The club’s goals are simple. According to Drewry, on a national scale the organization is primarily devoted to the promotion of public land and water access. But, the local club — while not abstaining from these pursuits — focuses more on building a strong sense of community. 

“We tried to get it as more of just an open community for people to come and learn some stuff, make friends, you know, and just talk about hunting and fishing in all the awesome public lands that we have around here in Bozeman,” Drewry said.

The club stays updated on current events related to public land and water access. Drewy said he will potentially give virtual testimony in opposition to some legislation that's awaiting a vote in the Montana House of Representatives. The bill is titled SB 533, and seeks to remove discounted hunting tags for out of state students, among other restrictions.

The BHA club hosts outings and workshops throughout the semester, where any and all students can come learn about new activities, improve their hunting/fishing prowess and apply these skills out in the field. 

In February, the club hosted an ice fishing event out at Canyon Ferry lake. More recently, they held a spring turkey hunting workshop on Thursday, April 6.  

“I like the word workshops, because it’s kind of like, inclusive of, you know, conversation and asking questions,” Drewry said. The workshop began with a brief overview on turkeys, and progressed into an explanation of viable turkey hunting access sites and a deep dive into different turkey hunting tactics. The BHA club ended the workshop with a brief Kahoot, quizzing the participants with turkey trivia, entering names into a raffle and auctioning off some exciting turkey hunting gear. 

A clear sense of community and inclusion was maintained throughout the hour-long event. The presentations were informative and straight-forward, but also wholesome and light-hearted. Some jokes were exchanged as some twenty or thirty MSU students shuffled out of the room. 

“I think the biggest thing is we’re open to anyone showing up, whether you know nothing or know everything,” Drewry said.