Businesses to BLM: We bank on backcountry

More than 200 sportsmen-dependent businesses from across the country are urging the U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management to conserve backcountry BLM lands, arguing the remote country not only offers prized hunting and fishing opportunities but also is good for the bottom line. The businesses have sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and BLM Director Neil Kornze asking them to conserve BLM backcountry areas in the West to sustain public land hunting, stand up for outdoor-related businesses and support areas of high-quality wildlife habitat. “Public lands hunting is absolutely paramount to our business,” said Ryan Callaghan, marketing manager for First Lite, an up-and-coming performance hunting clothing manufacturer in Ketchum, Idaho. Callaghan was in Great Falls this week for a media summit on public land and water issues organized by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. A key topic was BLM resource management plans the agency’s offices are revising for land covering 123 million acres in the West, including Montana...more

“Public lands hunting is absolutely paramount to our business,” said Ryan Callaghan  Mr. Callahan should check out the hunter-visitor days in a private lands state, like Pennsylvania.