Missoula, Mont. — Land Tawney is back.
Sportsmen and women active on social media likely have seen posts appear this month from a new nonprofit organization, the American Hunters and Anglers Action Network.
Tawney, formerly the president and CEO of Montana-based Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, speaks in several videos promoting the new group, which he says aggressively will advocate for the nation’s public lands.
AHA’s Facebook page lists its headquarters in Bozeman, Mont., and offers the following introduction: “Front Line in the War on Public Lands – Fighting to protect public lands, waters, and wildlife for all Americans. Join us to preserve our outdoor legacy.”
One of two co-chairs, Tawney said the organization will not have a membership, but rather “supporters” who can make donations at varying levels. Its website is www.americanhuntersandanglers.org.
Tawney joined Outdoor News Radio for an interview this week and said the American Hunters and Anglers Action Network will complement existing conservation groups in part because it’s smaller, “nimble,” and quickly can lobby on behalf of the nation’s hunters and anglers.
“I have a hard time sitting on the sidelines and I pride myself on being a fighter for conservation,” he said. “After the first of the year, a friend and I decided that we were going to put this together, and here we are. We’re going to be heavy on media and helping to engage the grassroots hunting and angling community all across this country to engage in our political process, in particular what’s going on in Washington, D.C.”
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The early weeks of the Trump administration and new Congress have produced executive orders and legislative action that demands the attention of public lands advocates, Tawney said. He noted a House rules package that included language saying that lawmakers will no longer need to account for lost revenues from national managed public lands if they decide to sell or give those lands away to states or other interests.
In an Instagram video about the legislation (complete with an AC/DC soundtrack and a hashtag #nolandgrab), a fired-up Tawney says, “They’re coming for our public lands and they don’t want you to know…they tried this back in 2017… but we stopped them, now they’re at it again… staying quiet is not an option, don’t let them win…tell Congress ‘hell no’ to selling our public lands.”
Among executive orders, Tawney cited changing liberalizing road building and energy production rules in Alaska, plus the recent freeze on federal grants and loans, which will affect conservation group budgets and on-the-ground work. (Editor’s note: Midday on Wednesday, Jan. 29, the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memo saying it had rescinded the federal aid freeze.)
The group’s website says it staunchly opposes:
• Politicians and proposals that support transferring the management of publicly owned federal lands to individual states.
• Politicians and proposals that support the selloff of publicly owned lands to wealthy individuals, corporations or special interests.
• Policies that weaken, diminish or threaten public lands, healthy fish and wildlife populations, clean water, thriving wildlands, stronger outdoor recreation opportunities and a robust, responsible outdoor recreation economy.
• Policies that weaken hunters’ and shooters’ ability to own and possess firearms under the Second Amendment.
The BHA board surprised the national conservation community in July 2023 when it announced that Tawney, the group’s leader for the previous decade, was leaving.
Tawney told Outdoor News at the time that his departure came after wanting to spend more time with his family, missing time afield, and recognizing that it was time for a fresh perspective at BHA. Patrick Berry of Middlebury, Vt., took over the top leadership post of BHA effective Jan. 1, 2024.
Tawney said he’s had an amazing year-and-a-half enjoying the outdoors with his family, and that will remain a priority, but carrying the nation’s unique public lands legacy forward is in his DNA.
“We are so blessed in this country to have the resources that are available to all. That’s different than any other country in the world. None of that happened by accident and none of that is going to be carried forward by accident either,” he said.
Listen to the full interview with Tawney via an Outdoor News Radio podcast that will come out this Friday, Jan. 31. Find the Outdoor News Radio Podcast at www.outdoornews.com or listen anywhere you get your podcasts.