A quick chat with Katie McKalip of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers

Few people have both feet planted in the natural resources public policy arena like Katie McKalip, of Missoula, Mont. During the past 16 years, she’s worked for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (2007-2015), and since 2015, for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

McKalip entered the conservation realm in 2000 by way of an internship with the Outdoor Writers Association of America. She became an OWAA employee in 2002 and published the national writers group monthly magazine until 2007. She’s currently OWAA’s president.

Now, as BHA’s new vice president of external affairs and communications, among other duties, she keeps local, state, and national media outlets apprised of evolving natural resources issues including a federal court supporting “corner crossing” in Wyoming, a congressional budget bill that included funding for public lands management and chronic wasting disease management, and the Biden administration’s recent 20-year mineral withdrawal in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed.

To keep up with ever-changing natural resources policy, McKalip has to wade through stacks of bureaucracy to track policy changes.

McKalip camps, fishes, and hunts with her husband and children.

Outdoor News: How does a girl who grew up in Washington, D.C., end up in Missoula working on natural resource policy issues?

McKalip: My parents are from Pennsylvania, but I grew up
in the Washington D.C. area in a military family. That’s probably where
I started thinking about working on national policy ideas. My dad,
Diehl, served in the U.S. Army. He served 30 years, did a couple of
tours in Vietnam with a tank battalion, and retired as a colonel. He
continued working for the Army as a civilian with the Department of
Defense. He went to college at Penn State and was the editor of Penn
State’s Daily Collegian. My mom, Karole, worked in public education at
George Mason in Virginia.

Growing up in a military family, we had a strong focus on public service. That
was very much part of (her parents’) expectations. My brothers and I
were asked regularly, what are you going to do to make the world a
better place? It was not an expectation to join the military, but part
of that expectation is probably what brought me into conservation.

So, first TRCP and now BHA, allowed me to do that. BHA is an ideal place
for me and a great home for my values. I’m working on behalf of public
resources and I have the opportunity to get out to do some hunting,
fishing, hiking, floating, camping. I get to enjoy a shared outdoor
resource, and that resonates with me personally.

What helped me find my path, my career, was my upbringing.

Outdoor News: How were you able to hone an interest in hunting, fishing, and other outdoor pursuits while living in Washington, D.C., and then later while attending the in
Williamsburg, Va., for your College of William and Mary undergrad work?

McKalip: My dad hunted. He ran a trapline as a kid in northwest Pennsylvania. But
if you’re in the military, you’re often assigned to a new post every
couple of years, so it can be challenging to keep up with hunting and fishing trips.

My husband, Steve, is from a small town in northwest Montana – Libby. He’s from a classic Montana outdoor family.

Opening day of big-game rifle season was bigger for him and his brothers than
Christmas. His dad was a high school teacher, and also the football and
wrestling coach. It was after I met Steve that I started developing my
own traditions – going out to deer and elk camp every year, upland
hunting. That was my real entrance point to hunting, and now we include
our kids, Ruby, 12, and Charlie, 10.

Outdoor News: You’ve been associated with two of the biggest national conservation groups
today. What do you see from the inside that keeps you engaged in your work?

McKalip: TRCP and BHA – I can’t say enough good things about both organizations. I
came to both when they were still relatively young. It was a challenge
and pleasure to help build them from ground up while working with great
colleagues. TRCP continues to be a major influence in charting federal
conservation policy that is forward-looking and grounded in science.

BHA does annual surveys of our members, and it’s gratifying to see how
our members affiliate politically. BHA is evenly split between those who
identify as Republicans, Democrats, and independents, and those who
don’t identify with any political party. That’s worth bragging about
because party politics can divide people and fracture communities. We’re
bucking that trend. That’s another reason I’m happy to be working
within the conservation sphere: I get to see how powerful those
constituencies of diverse stakeholders can be.

Outdoor News: In your roughly 20 years working in the conservation policy arena you’ve seen some successes. What are some key changes?

McKalip: There is a great legacy of public lands and waters in this country, as well
as a great force of public land managers who are very much invested in
making sure this land is properly managed and public access is
maintained and expanded, but that work needs continued funding. One area
BHA is very focused on is to help address budgetary issues and make
sure public lands and managers have the resources to do that work.

An example is the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which Congress
established in 1964. It’s a simple concept. A tiny fraction of
royalties paid by oil and gas industry for outer continental shelf
drilling goes to conservation work. Since LWCF’s creation, 98% of all
counties in the U.S. have benefited.

My family doesn’t have a lot of money. My father-in-law was a teacher. We
have no ranch, no leases. We rely on public opportunities. One of our
favorite things in the summer is to put in a raft on an area river and
do a family float. Three-quarters of Montana’s fishing access sites have
been developed thanks to LWCF funds. The put-in and take-out for our
favorite float on the Clark Fork exists due to LWCF funds. That money
affects lives all over the country.

Until recently, LWCF was never permanently authorized and had no dedicated
source of funding. It had to always be renewed by Congress and only once
did it receive full funding. It was always getting short shrift. LWCF
was a BHA signature issue. The work we did with our partners resulted,
first, in passage of the Dingell Act in 2019, which included language
permanently reauthorizing LWCF. Then, in 2020, under President Donald
Trump, BHA and our partners achieved passage of the Great American
Outdoors Act, which ensured full and dedicated funding for the LWCF at
$900 million per year. To say that was a big win is an understatement.

Another area where BHA has had a major effect is sending a strong message to
Congress that we will not stand for selling off public lands and waters.
Public lands are a cherished asset. They embody who we are as
Americans, a national identity. In 2017, legislation was introduced by
member of the House of Representatives Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that
would have sold 3.3 million acres of public land and waters. BHA made it
a point of contention and then the larger outdoor community created a
social media firestorm that grabbed the attention of mainstream media.
Just a couple of weeks after introducing the bill, Chaffetz announced
publicly that he was withdrawing the bill. That was a big victory for
all of us who care about public lands and waters.

Outdoor News: What can the average license buyer do to play a positive role in local,
state and national conservation policy that really works?

McKalip: Participate in the process and make sure your voice is heard. Just one person, yes,
one person, can be heard. This is the way our political process works.
We, the people, have a responsibility to take action for the places and
issues that are important to use. Look what happens when we speak as one voice.

We have to continue fighting for important places, like the Boundary Waters in
Minnesota. Our work continues to fight to uphold our American legacy of
public lands and waters.

You can help simply by joining a conservation group that’s important to you
– Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl, Trout Unlimited, the Rocky Mountain
Elk Foundation, or BHA. We work hard to advocate for public lands and
waters policy, and we have fun doing it.

McKalip will be a speaker at the Public Lands Pavilion at this weekend’s
Pheasant Fest in Minneapolis. For details, visit pheasantfest.org. For
more on BHA, visit www.backcountryhunters.org