Big, Wild Country: A Brooks Range Hunting and Fishing Story

October 22, 2024

TRCP’s Western conservation communications manager recounts his recent caribou hunt in Alaska’s Brooks Range, our country’s most remote landscape

A lot of folks who are lucky enough to take a fly-in hunting or fishing trip to Alaska say the extreme remoteness doesn’t fully hit them until the pilot takes off and the sound of the engine disappears.

But for me, it was on the flight in. I knew the pilot wasn’t going to stay. He wasn’t included in our float trip plans.

We flew over 150 miles from the airstrip, and once the Dalton Highway faded from view, the full expanse below was wild country. For 150 miles it was great mountains and long rivers and jeweled lakes and no roads or trails. To get out from where we were going was a distance that my brain was having trouble comprehending. I’d backpacked in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I’d hunted wild country in the Rocky Mountains. But this place, the Brooks Range of northern Alaska, held a remoteness to a magnitude I’d never experienced.

Only from above can one truly see the vastness of the Brooks Range.

Our group of four (Dan, David, John, and me) and three boats (I can’t row in a pool) spent the first day unloading gear, blowing up rafts, and staring in awe of a landscape we’d dreamed of for years. Since hunting on the day you fly in is illegal, we took up the fly rods and waded into the river expecting grayling and resident char.

However, when John made it to a cliff wall with an obvious pool below and yelped with excitement, I figured that must mean the sea-run Dolly Varden had made their way into the headwaters.

The fish—20-30 inches in length—hugged the bottom and were strung out in a line on the inside seam of the current. We crouched above them and swung purple, gold, and pink streamers in front of their noses. The Dollies ate with anger and ran with marine strength. Their wide, heavy bodies rode the pull of the river and their color flashed brilliantly in the cold, clear water. A few males tail danced, but most wanted to bully in the deep, giving the 8wts as much bend as they could stand.

The hens had bellies pink as a sunset and the tips of their mouths were lipsticked orange. The males sported blood-red bellies, kyped jaws, and sharp, jagged teeth. All sides were spotted red with blue halos. For an angler used to brook trout, this was the pinnacle of char fishing. That night, all I dreamed of was fish, despite being able to hunt caribou when the morning arrived.

Wouldn’t this fish keep you up at night? John Herzer admires a magnificent buck Dolly Varden.

The next day we floated downriver spooking Dollies in every hole, but our focus was on caribou. We made camp six miles downriver, then spent the afternoon and evening glassing the wide basin that opened to the river valley. Blueberries were ripe all around us, and I found a matching set of sheds below the glassing knob.

Yet no caribou showed in our hours of searching, though the landscape surrounding us displayed the scars of their meandering trails running south. The herd’s path was here, but the herd was not. Their presence etched in the foothills was a clear example of the massive ranges these animals demand for their seasonal movements. Despite supporting so much life, large mammals must travel thousands of miles across the Arctic to find forage and suitable habitats month to month. It will sometimes take a caribou herd years to use their entire range, but ensuring these habitats remain intact means the animals can move where they must in order to thrive.

After another night in the teepees, we woke early to climb a bench to the north that overlooked a wide drainage to the east. Before mid-morning, we reached a highpoint to look into the river bottom. And there, as obvious as the sun, were four bull caribou on the white rocks along the river.

We made a quick play down off the bench, following a spring seep to keep out of sight. Unfortunately, the caribou came up the bench one rise too far and spooked when the wind carried our scent to them.

As they made their way up over the bench and out of sight, I was struck by how they almost floated over the ground we’d been stumbling through. Their bodies made no wasted movements. Their heads held high carrying the Dr. Suess-esc antlers. Their fur still a dark, summer coat that popped against the willows going yellow and the blueberries and Labrador tea burning red.

The Brooks Range must be conserved to ensure future generations experience this remote country. To struggle through tussocks, to wade freezing rivers, to see grizzly tracks in the sand, to watch caribou cross country, to eat blueberries by the fistful, and to fall asleep exhausted at the end of the day and dream of doing it all again the next morning.

We followed the bulls and found them in the riverbed feeding. Dan and David traced the end of the bench out toward them, while John and I made a beeline across the dry basin to the east. After 400 yards, we hit the dry creek bed and waited to see what direction the caribou would go.

Either pushed by Dan and David or by their own sense of direction, the caribou crossed below us in a single file, and began to follow the rise that would curve them back our way. We scrambled to the cutbank, climbed up, and watched the group close the distance.

One bull was larger than the rest. His antlers tall and bent in a C. I traced him in my scope as the group closed the distance from 300 to 250 yards, and when John called the final “189,” the bull stepped up on a rise enough for me to see his vitals. With the shot he dropped into the tundra and laid still.

I thanked the bull when I set my hands on his neck and velveted antlers. The three remaining bulls made their way into the drainage to the east and disappeared. David and Dan arrived, and we all celebrated the first caribou of the trip, the immediate redemption of a missed opportunity, and the gift of good meat that would supplement the freeze-dried meals we all packed.

The day was cool and having shot the bull in the middle of a dry plain meant a grizzly wouldn’t easily sneak in on us. The clocks hadn’t yet struck 10 a.m. and so we took our time around the bull; admiring his antlers and the body that had carried him across thousands of miles of this wild country before we broke him down into quarters.

With many hands working, the quartering and packing was swift. And suddenly we were hiking back upriver, loaded heavy, with breaking down camp and meat care ahead of us. I shook my head in disbelief at the dream of a successful caribou hunt being realized so soon after our drop off.

That night around the fire, fingers greasy from tenderloins wrapped in caul fat, I knew there was over a week left of this trip, and my pulling the trigger only an instant in the whole tale. There were three tags that needed to be clipped onto antlers, and miles of river to ply for char and grayling. Those days would pass as days do, but for the moment, it was all before us, which makes for an adventure.

Take Action for the Brooks Range Today!

The hunt above occurred on the North Slope of the Brooks Range, hundreds of miles away from the proposed Ambler Road. However, the sweeping crescent of the Brooks Range running east to west across northern Alaksa offers, in its totality, the wildest country left in America. The land that the Ambler industrial corridor would cut across along the Kobuk River is different from the landscape of my hunt, but the remote character is similar, and barreling semis and thousands of culverts interrupting the movements of iconic Arctic animals and fish and degrading the wild space would ruin the experience that so many hunters and anglers travel so far to reach.

The Brooks Range must be conserved to ensure future generations experience this remote country. To struggle through tussocks, to wade freezing rivers, to see grizzly tracks in the sand, to watch caribou cross country, to eat blueberries by the fistful, and to fall asleep exhausted at the end of the day and dream of doing it all again the next morning.

The proposed Ambler Road would forever alter the wild character of this country. The 211-mile industrial corridor would slice across the southern foothills of the Brooks Range and require over 2,900 culverts with the potential to cinch off spawning areas for sheefish and Arctic grayling. The estimated 168 daily trips on the road would likely impact big game movement such as the Western Arctic caribou herd that migrates through the region.

Dan Crockett with a Brooks Range, Arctic grayling.

Fortunately, after an extensive public comment period where over 14,000 hunters and anglers voiced their opposition to the corridor, the Bureau of Land Management issued its final Record of Decision denying the Ambler Road permits in June 2024. The BLM has concluded that there is no way to adequately mitigate the potential impacts of any version of the proposed Ambler Road. Still, new threats to the Brooks Range are emerging.

An amendment in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act would rescind the Bureau of Land Management’s recent decision to defend Alaska’s Brooks Range and force the Department of the Interior to permit the Ambler Road. It’s critical that the Ambler Road amendment be removed from the final version of this must-pass legislation, which funds our military and will be negotiated by lawmakers in the coming months.

We need your voice! Send a message directly to your elected officials and urge them to remove the Ambler amendment from the NDAA by clicking HERE!

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by: Michael O'Casey

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

October 21, 2024

Hunters Applaud USDA Secretarial Memorandum Directing Coordination and Action for Wildlife Migration

Memo will formalize and expand USDA’s commitment to migration conservation and enhance benefits for wildlife habitat connectivity and corridors in partnership with public land managers, state agencies, Tribes, private landowners, and NGOs  

Today, hunters and conservationists celebrated the signing of a Memorandum from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack that recognizes the importance of USDA’s role in conserving wildlife movement and migration habitats across public and private lands.

“This Secretarial Memo sends a clear message that the USDA recognizes the important role that the Department’s programs and policies play to enhance big game migration and habitat across the country,” said Joel Pedersen, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “The TRCP thanks Secretary Vilsack and the USDA for their leadership to highlight how voluntary efforts can improve wildlife habitat on public and private lands, which is crucial to ensure the next generation of sportsmen and sportswomen can experience healthy big game herds.”

To date, the USDA’s Migratory Big Game Initiative has leveraged programs within the Natural Resource Conservation Service and Farm Services Agency to support voluntary private land conservation projects in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

Today’s announcement enhances and expands upon this work and directs several USDA agencies, specifically NRCS, FSA, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to:

– Consider terrestrial wildlife habitat connectivity and corridors in relevant planning processes, programs, and assessments. This would include NRCS and FSA Farm Bill conservation programs, USFS Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnerships program, USFS land management planning and wildfire crisis planning, and APHIS wildlife disease management programs.

– Improve internal coordination and delivery of USDA planning processes and programs to increase outcomes for wildlife connectivity, such as through continued alignment of NRCS and FSA private landowner programs to maximize habitat connectivity outcomes, encouragement of innovation in conservation practices, and additional financial assistance.

– Improve coordination with states, Tribes, and other federal agencies, including recognition of Tribal sovereignty and individual state authorities, and improve direct collaboration with the Department of the Interior, Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, and other agencies.

– Collaborate with non-governmental organizations to facilitate engagement with and support of local communities.

“The Mule Deer Foundation applauds the signing of this Secretarial Memo to ensure that the full suite of USDA programs and resources are coordinated to sustain mule deer and other big game populations that migrate,” said Steve Belinda, Chief Conservation Officer for the Mule Deer Foundation. “Like DOI’s Secretarial Order 3362, USDA has the potential to facilitate on-the-ground conservation over a vast area of public and private lands that are critical to conserving and improving mule deer and other wildlife habitat.”

“The Department of Agriculture has an essential role in maintaining the movements of wildlife throughout the United States,” said Mike Leahy, Senior Director of Wildlife, Hunting, and Fishing Policy for the National Wildlife Federation. “We are glad the Department of Agriculture is expanding their commitment to keep elk, deer, antelope, and other wildlife moving through our fragmented landscapes, and look forward to the benefits this will bring to hunting, wildlife populations, and collaboration in conservation.”

“CSF thanks the USDA for initiating this effort that will help enhance conservation for migratory wildlife and their associated habitats,” said Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation President and CEO Jeff Crane. “CSF will continue to prioritize wildlife connectivity through Interior Secretarial Order 3362, the Wildlife Highway Crossings Pilot Program, USDA’s Migratory Big Game Initiative, the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, and now the USDA Secretarial Memo.”

“Big game migration corridors have been a policy and investment focus of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for many years, and we have been pleased by the strong bipartisan support for the issue across administrations and in Congress,” said Blake Henning, Chief Conservation Officer for RMEF. “This USDA Secretarial Memo aligns with the existing Department of Interior Secretarial Order 3362 and will help leverage private lands conservation programs to bolster habitat across the landscape in coordination with state-led action plans. RMEF appreciates that USDA recognizes the leadership that hunters have played in this and other conservation successes in America.”

The Secretarial Memorandum directs USDA agencies to establish a USDA Terrestrial Wildlife Habitat Connectivity and Corridors Committee charged with implementation of the Memorandum. An initial progress report is due to the Secretary by June 30, 2025.

Learn more about TRCP’s work on big game migration conservation HERE.

The TRCP is your resource for all things conservation. In our weekly Roosevelt Report, you’ll receive the latest news on emerging habitat threats, legislation and proposals on the move, public land access solutions we’re spearheading, and opportunities for hunters and anglers to take action. Sign up now.

by: Liz Rose

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

October 18, 2024

Final Plan Amendments Align Colorado BLM Big Game Habitat Management with Colorado Oil and Gas Development Regulations

Plan amendment creates consistency between federal and state jurisdictions for oil
and gas development within high priority big game habitat, sets precedent for
efficiently updating management plans statewide

The Colorado Bureau of Land Management recently signed a Record of Decision on their Resource Management Plan Amendment for Big Game Habitat Conservation to align the federal agency’s oil and gas management with State of Colorado policies where there is overlap with high priority big game habitat. Hunters, anglers, and other wildlife conservationists appreciate BLM’s work to conserve important big game habitat while facilitating multiple uses when and where they’re most compatible.

“This ROD marks the conclusion of over two years of hard work by Colorado BLM staff, cooperating agencies including Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and local governments, and non-profit hunting and conservation organizations,” said Liz Rose, Colorado field representative for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “Thank you to those agency staff members, and to all the hunters and anglers who submitted feedback and comments to the BLM throughout the plan development process.”

This ROD amends land management plans for 12 Colorado BLM field offices, creating more management consistency across the state where important big game habitats overlap with oil and gas leasing and development activity. Colorado BLM manages 8.3 million acres of land for multiple uses, which include oil and gas development, renewable energy development, ranching, and recreational use such as hunting, fishing, camping, rafting, and hiking. A significant portion of these lands—approximately 6.3 million acres—is also top priority habitat for Colorado’s elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep populations.

This planning effort sets the precedent for efficiently incorporating new data and research and updating management plans statewide to facilitate responsible management of multiple uses on our public lands to conserve important fish and wildlife resources.

We encourage the Colorado BLM to leverage their expertise and updated repository of big game data and science to develop responsible management policies related to other uses of BLM land, including but not limited to renewable energy development and recreation, for which demand continues to grow.

Read more in TRCP’s recent blog covering the proposed final plan HERE.

Photo credit: Abid Karamali

by: Ryan Lockwood

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

October 16, 2024

Louisiana No-Fishing Buffer May Be Preventing Fish Spills

Fully 1 million fewer pogies were spilled in 2024 season compared to the annual average, based on Department of Wildlife and Fisheries data

(BATON ROUGE, La.)—An analysis of more than a decade of fisheries data by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership indicates that recently created near-shore, no-fishing buffers in Louisiana may be reducing the number of pogies spilled from the industrial harvest of this ecologically valuable baitfish – to a mere quarter of the historical average.

Fish spill incidents have generated a significant amount of controversy in the state in recent years due to millions of wasted fish, fouled beaches, and thousands of redfish lost as bycatch, which resulted in regulatory changes enacted in the spring. The likelihood of net tears and spills, due to gear interactions with the seafloor, is higher in shallower waters near shore than when vessels work in deeper waters.

Millions of fewer pogies were spilled by the industrial fishery in 2024, after a buffer was enforced.

In February 2024, before the commercial pogy fishing season began on April 15, the state’s Wildlife and Fisheries Commission approved a half-mile coastwide buffer prohibiting pogy boats from netting in near-shore Louisiana waters, with the buffer extended to 1 and 3 miles in some areas. The same Notice of Intent (NOI) that created the buffer also increased fish spill penalties. A major reason for the NOI was an attempt to reduce the number of fish spilled and spill incidents, in which pogy boat net tears and net abandonments have released an estimated 14.8 million dead pogies – officially known as Gulf menhaden – into state waters over the last decade alone. Other reasons included efforts to reduce bycatch of redfish and other important sportfish, reduce conflicts between commercial and recreational users, and protect sensitive bottom habitat.

To determine if the buffer may be working, TRCP examined publicly available records for fish spills in Louisiana kept by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, which are available from 2013 onwards. The state agency has records of all reported or otherwise validated spill events caused by the two industrial menhaden harvesters, Omega Protein and Daybrook Fisheries.

After the half-mile buffer was enacted, 2024 saw the second-lowest number of fish spilled since records were made available.

The results indicated that, on average, the number of pogies spilled per year from 2013 to 2023 was more than 1.3 million fish, and that there has been a significant upward trend in the number of fish spilled per year. However, after the half-mile buffer was enacted this year, 2024 saw the second-lowest number of fish spilled since records were made available, with only 2013 having fewer estimated losses. Of note is that the number of pogies landed was on par with the past 10 years, even with the buffer zones in place. Further, this year’s estimated number of fish spilled to date is only 350,000, or 26 percent of the annual average, and only 12 percent of the 2.8 million fish lost annually, when averaged over the last two seasons (2022 and 2023).

Dead menhaden from a fish kill event in Maryland. Credit: Steve Droter/Chesapeake Bay Program

“This data indicates that the efforts to move the industrial pogy boats into deeper waters to protect nearshore, shallow habitat is paying off,” said Chris Macaluso, director of the Center for Marine Fisheries for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “Few things anger and disgust anglers and beachgoers in Louisiana more than seeing rafts of dead pogies and other fish left by the menhaden reduction industry floating nearshore or washed up on beaches. This year, we have seen far fewer of these spills and anglers have also noted an increase in nearshore forage like pogies, mullet and other fish.”

Gulf menhaden are a critical food source for iconic Louisiana sportfish like redfish and speckled trout. Approximately 1 billion pounds of pogies are harvested by the industrial Gulf of Mexico menhaden fishery each year, mainly from Louisiana waters. Until 2024, pogy boats were allowed to fish closer than 500 yards from Louisiana’s shorelines, where the boats often make contact with the water bottom. With this new buffer reducing the likelihood of negative gear interactions with the shallow seafloor, there has also been less disturbance of potential spawning grounds for redfish and other sportfish.

A tailing redfish. Credit: Pat Ford Photography

“Louisianans were fed up with our resources being wasted and shorelines being fouled as a result of these spills, so it is refreshing to see this progress,” said David Cresson, CEO of the Coastal Conservation Association Louisiana. “Thanks to Governor Landry, our Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, and the actions of a handful of brave legislators like Representative Joe Orgeron, we now have more reasonable buffers across our coast. These buffers, along with other important measures, have clearly contributed to the drastic reduction in fish spills.”

A coalition of recreational fishing, wildlife and habitat conservation, and boating organizations led by CCA Louisiana and TRCP has worked for more than five years to increase public awareness about the impacts of Louisiana’s industrial menhaden fishery and advocate for some basic conservation measures, such as the ones included in the Notice of Intent. In 2021, State Rep. Joe Orgeron (R-54) first introduced a bill in the Louisiana Legislature which proposed a nearly identical buffer to the one approved earlier this year, but due to industry opposition, the bill ultimately did not pass.

“This is a great example of the state putting effort into making sure it does what is best for all citizens,” said Angler Action Foundation Executive Director Brett Fitzgerald. “A triple win of decreased bycatch, a reduction of user conflict and maybe, most importantly, less destruction of habitats, is a recipe for continued success.”

TRCP and its partners note that while this fishing season is coming to a close, more spill events could still occur, but that the vast majority of previously recorded spills occurred before October – the last month commercial pogy fishing is allowed in Louisiana each year.

Gulf Menhaden Coalition members include the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), CCA Louisiana, CCA Mississippi, CCA Alabama, CCA Texas, CCA Florida, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Louisiana Charter Boat Association, American Sportfishing Association, National Marine Manufacturers Association, Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, International Game Fish Association, Angler Action Foundation, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Audubon Delta, Guy Harvey Foundation, Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, Mississippi Wildlife Federation, and Wildlife Mississippi.

For more information about the key role pogies and other forage fish play in marine ecosystems, visit TRCP’s forage fish recovery page.

by: Dan Morgan

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

October 9, 2024

The U.S. House of Representatives Introduces the North American Grasslands Conservation Act

Bill supports the protection of America’s grasslands and shrub-steppe ecosystems

Washington, D.C. – Today, the North American Grasslands Conservation Act was introduced in the House of Representatives by U.S. Representatives Nancy Mace (R – S.C.), Sharice Davids (D – Kan), Brian Fitzpatrick (R – Penn) and Mike Thompson (D – Calif). Once passed, the legislation will be one of the most significant steps for grassland conservation efforts in the 21^st century.

“Hunters are among the first to see the effects of habitat loss and degradation, and for decades we’ve seen populations of bobwhite quail, prairie chickens, pronghorn and other grassland wildlife suffer,” said Aaron Field, TRCP’s director of private lands conservation. “It’s long past time to replicate on grasslands the proven model of voluntary, incentive-based conservation that has boosted waterfowl populations for nearly 35 years. The North American Grasslands Conservation Act puts us on that path. We applaud the leadership of Representatives Mace, Davids, Fitzpatrick, and Thompson and look forward to working with decision-makers on both sides of the aisle to advance this smart, proven conservation solution.”

More than 70 percent of America’s tallgrass, mixed grass, and shortgrass prairies have vanished, followed by the precipitous decline of grassland bird populations – more than 30 percent since 1966. Additionally, grazing lands that have sustained generations of ranchers are dwindling and species from bobwhite quail and pheasants to monarch butterflies and elk are struggling to navigate landscapes they used to call home.

The Grasslands Act would kickstart the voluntary protection and restoration of grasslands and sagebrush-steppe ecosystems – and the livelihoods and wildlife dependent upon them. Functionally, the legislation is modeled after the successful North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) and would create a landowner-driven, voluntary, incentive-based program to conserve America’s critically imperiled grasslands. There’s urgency to maintain these grassland biomes for agriculture, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration and for future generations while supporting ranchers, farmers, Tribal Nations, sportsmen and women and rural communities.

The concept of a Grasslands Act was first introduced in the U.S. Senate during the 117^th Congress, led by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo). This new U.S. House version has some key changes aligning it more closely with NAWCA, improving tribal provisions, and making it more bipartisan.

“The United States has over 125 million acres of grasslands that are threatened, and right here in South Carolina, we see firsthand how important conservation is to the health and beauty of our natural ecosystems,” Mace said. “Our office has made a promise to preserve this beauty, not just for today, but for future generations.”

“In Kansas, we have grassland prairies that are well known throughout the Great Plains for their beautiful landscapes and scenic hiking trails, but grasslands once covered millions of acres across North America, stretching from coast to coast,” Davids said. “Grasslands are vital to ranchers and producers, Tribes, and folks who love spending time outdoors. They’re critical habitat for countless species of birds, important pollinators, and treasured animals like the bison. And, they’re crucial to fighting the effects of climate change, bolstering our food security, and combatting extreme weather. I’m excited for this opportunity to highlight the protection of our grasslands and bipartisan solutions that build off of successful public-private partnerships.”

“Grasslands are vital to the livelihoods of our nation’s ranchers and the health of our native wildlife – yet they remain endangered. It’s great to join my colleagues to introduce the bipartisan North American Grasslands Act to invest in voluntary, incentive-based programs to help farmers, ranchers, Tribal Nations, sportsmen and women, and state and local governments preserve, rehabilitate, and responsibly manage our grasslands for generations to come,” Thompson said.

“Grasslands are among the most endangered ecosystems in the word, with over 70 percent of America’s tallgrass, mixed grass, and shortgrass prairies now gone,” Fitzpatrick said. “Our grasslands are vital for the survival of farmers and rural communities across Pennsylvania and our nation, which is why I am championing this critical piece of bipartisan, bicameral legislation. By establishing a landowner-drive, incentive-based program and investing restoration programs, the North American Grasslands Conservation Act will protect essential habitats that support our American farmers, ranchers, and Tribal Nation s and revitalize these crucial ecosystems, ensuring they continue to sustain wildlife and rural communities for generations to come.”

More than 45 organizations are collaborating in support of the Grasslands Act. A full roster of those groups can be found at www.ActforGrasslands.org. Additionally, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has partnered with the coalition to develop the www.MapForGrasslands.org website, which provides a powerful tool to visualize the loss of grasslands habitat.