BHA’s Armed Forces Initiative

[NSDQ MT]

I know there are a lot of service members and veterans here and a lot of hunters passionate about protecting and defending our ability to hunt and fish on public lands and waters. I thought you might be interested in this:

This past June, BHA stood up an Armed Forces Initiative, with the goal of engaging and growing their military constituency to advocate for and protect public lands and waters. BHA’s veteran and service member population is double the national average.

We’ve divided our Armed Forces Initiative efforts into three main pillars: active duty-military installation programming, veteran programming, and legislative programming.

The active duty programming is building BHA chapters centered around military installations to provide the knowledge, resources, and network for service members and veterans to understand public land hunting opportunities and regulations surrounding an installation, how to navigate the on-base hunting/angling opportunities, and reduce some of the barriers to a population that frequently moves and PCS’s.
So far, we’ve been off to a great start. We stood up our initial four military installation chapters at Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune, Fort Wainwright, and Camp Pendleton. The military installation chapters partner with the state BHA chapter, other local non-profits, state fish and game managers, and on-base land and wildlife management agencies to build their public land/water partnerships. We look to at least triple the number of installation chapters in 2021.

For our veteran programming we’ve built Dual Skills Acquisition Camps to provide an opportunity and community for veterans to gain and share tactical hunting and angling skills, provide foundational knowledge on public lands and waters, and build legislative and policy advocacy skills. We’re also increasing our veteran presence and collaboration with the state BHA chapters for partnership in work projects cleaning up and protecting our public lands and waters.
We held our first veteran Dual Skills Acquisition Camp with 17 veterans on a mule deer hunt in eastern Montana. Here’s the article Black Rifle Coffee did on our first trip: https://coffeeordie.com/bha-armed-forces-initiative/
We also engaged our elected officials on a number of legislative initiatives, specifically the Accelerating Veterans Recovery Outdoors Act (AVROA), which passed into law earlier this month. Here’s a link to BRCC’s article on AVROA: https://coffeeordie.com/avroa-becomes-law

For the legislative programming, we are enabling BHA veteran leaders to engage with elected officials and policy makers utilizing their ‘veteran voice’ to advocate for public land and waters and the ethical and fair chase of wild game.

Even though it’s only been a few months, we consider the Armed Forces Initiative a tremendous success and we look forward to a full year of programs and growth in 2021.

You can follow our efforts at:
IG: @bha_armedforces
FB: Armed Forces Initiative of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Combining two big circles for me, I like it!

 

[Bambistew]

Growing your membership by exploiting veterans?

Your membership is 2x the national average compared to what? Other environmental groups?

 

[NSDQ MT]

Growing your membership by exploiting veterans?

Your membership is 2x the national average compared to what? Other environmental groups?

Thanks for the questions. It’s not a matter of exploiting veterans and growing membership. It’s about opportunity and knowledge for a population that already exists.

The US has approximately 7% service members and veterans, based on a recent internal survey BHA has 14%.

One of the biggest pieces of feedback we get is about the challenges of hunting and fishing when you move to a new state every 2-3 years and have to figure out new regulations, new game, and new hunting and fishing areas, then overlay that with the complexities of on-base opportunities and regulations. Our military installation chapters provide a network and repository of knowledge that can people can easily plug into to reduce some of those barriers.

We also realize that after military service many veterans look for community and purpose. If they choose, public land advocacy is one of those opportunities.

 

[Ben Long]

Glad to see this. Best of luck with it.

 

[MO Betta]

Glad to see you folks doing this, a large portion of questions I see on regs and public land opportunities in KS & MO are from those stationed at Fort Riley in KS, and Whiteman AFB & Fort Leonard Wood in MO.

 

[Big Fin]

I'm all on board with any effort that helps those who have served. BHA has made a serious commitment to making veterans' issues a priority within their organization and their work was very important in passing the ARVOA. Good job.

 

[Trial153]

This is good work, I was happy to see it get off the ground and hope for its continued success.

 

[davinski]

I'm likely preaching to the choir here, but most VA hospitals have an "Outdoor Recreation Therapy" office or at least an assigned director. In my limited experience, how robust each office is depends greatly on location and resources of a particular hospital. Ours in Grand Junction does a good job at getting people out, on some big game hunts even. But I suspect, in more urban areas, that's likely not the case.

I just post this here for two reasons. It might be something that BHA AFI can, or already is leveraging. And also just to get the word out about the program. I just happened to stumble across it in my local VA, they don't waive it around much. And we're a pretty hunting-friendly community.

 

[thouck4]

Glad to see you folks doing this, a large portion of questions I see on regs and public land opportunities in KS & MO are from those stationed at Fort Riley in KS, and Whiteman AFB & Fort Leonard Wood in MO.

As a veteran once stationed at Fort Riley, KS I can tell you that it was really overwhelming trying to find hunting areas in Kansas and educating myself of the regulations. Since being stationed there about five years ago and becoming a KS resident after I got out, things have come a long way information wise and KDWPT now has online hunting atlases showing Walk-In Hunting Areas (WIHA), Walk-In Fishing Areas (WIFA) and other state owned public land. I will say that most of Kansas is privately owned and there is a lot of competition on public lands. A lot of land here is leased to out-of-state hunters also. I think the Armed Forces Initiative is an excellent idea and will allow active duty service members to be informed on the seemingly constant changes in hunting and fishing statutes and regulations. I have no doubt that outdoor oriented service members will greatly appreciate the knowledge and resources given to them.

 

[Mountain Man]

As an active duty member of the military I can affirm that this is a brilliant idea! Having gone through five PCS moves I have struggled to learn where/how to hunt the installation and surrounding public land. Starting from scratch each PCS when you are also trying to stabilize things for your family and get your new house to feel like a home is a daunting task. I’ve known a number of people who hunted while younger and then gave it up while in the military. This type of program will help keep those individuals active in the sport. Thank you for undertaking this initiative!

 

[stk]

Sounds like a great initiative. I’ve spent on average only two years at each location before moving to the next one. The western application and draw system has a steep learning curve. If I had to guess, I would say active duty military members also end up hunting public vs private land at a higher rate than the average sportsman in a given area. Two years isn’t a lot of time to secure private land access or get on a long term hunting lease.

 

[thebestusernamesaretaken]

Sounds like a great initiative. I’ve spent on average only two years at each location before moving to the next one. The western application and draw system has a steep learning curve. If I had to guess, I would say active duty military members also end up hunting public vs private land at a higher rate than the average sportsman in a given area. Two years isn’t a lot of time to secure private land access or get on a long term hunting lease.

Same - we wanted to hunt out West but it was very difficult to figure out and we were constantly on the move and out of touch for extended periods of time.

 

[thebestusernamesaretaken]

I think that this is fantastic. Military folks experience so strange stuff that only other military folks can really relate to so they tend to gravitate towards each other. When I left, it was stressful like getting a divorce or losing a loved one. One moment I was involved in something greater than myself and in the know and the next, I was not.

I suspect it's the same for many but definitely for the infantry folks, that strategic and tactical thinking, the weapon are all a piece of you, and being without it is like missing a huge chunk of who you are. I felt like I was almost like a ghost of my former self. I knew that shouldn't have felt that way because I had a fantastic Wife, a newborn, a great job, with prospects and many didn't.

I didn't even know what was wrong with me until I walked out on the mountain with a weapon and a deer tag in my hand. Once I did that, I knew what was missing.

 

[longbow51]

I don't want to derail the thread, as this sounds like a great plan. What I don't get is why the military moves folks every 3 years or so; if it's foreign deployment, I get that, but otherwise, why do it? Uproots the family, particularly kids in school.

 

[338win]

I don't want to derail the thread, as this sounds like a great plan. What I don't get is why the military moves folks every 3 years or so; if it's foreign deployment, I get that, but otherwise, why do it? Uproots the family, particularly kids in school.

The deployments have little to do with the moves. They might shift dates a little to plus up a unit prior to deployments. More has to do with "career progression". If you can make rank without moving and get a series of good commanders you can extend and stay with a unit(encouraged by army regs) but some dipsh#t commanders have their own ideas and refuse to sign extensions. There are lucky guys i know who have done 15/20 in one duty station.

 

[kylemcintyre67]

The deployments have little to do with the moves. They might shift dates a little to plus up a unit prior to deployments. More has to do with "career progression". If you can make rank without moving and get a series of good commanders you can extend and stay with a unit(encouraged by army regs) but some dipsh#t commanders have their own ideas and refuse to sign extensions. There are lucky guys i know who have done 15/20 in one duty station.

I will add, they say career progression, but that is a hard line to sell when you are just moving a guy from one duty station to the other to do the same exact job.

 

[338win]

I will add, they say career progression, but that is a hard line to sell when you are just moving a guy from one duty station to the other to do the same exact job.

I am well versed in all of that BS but thats a different topic of discussion.

 

[longbow51]

Thanks for the explanations.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Joined via this initiative.

also, the military moves people around to keep stagnant members to a minimum. Think jack of one trade and still master of none.