[Episode Art by Sarah Rose]

In this episode, Sarah and I sit down with Hal Herring, host of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Cast and Blast, for a wide-ranging conversation about hunting, conservation, and what it really means to be in relationship with land.

Hal brings decades of experience as an outdoor journalist, conservation advocate, and lifelong hunter, and we move through topics ranging from big-game seasons and public land realities to harder questions: who gets to shape conservation priorities, why conflict is unavoidable (and necessary), and what hunters owe the landscapes that feed and sustain them. Along the way, we talk herbalism, fire ecology, strange experiences in the woods, and the ways knowledge forms when you spend enough time paying attention outside.

Check out these photos from a million years ago, when I was in high desert working at an Eastern Oregon on a habitat restoration project with one of BHA’s founders, Mike Beagle.

Check out Hal’s site here and BHA Cast and Blast here.

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