There has been a lot of coverage recently over Republican-led initiatives to transfer federal public lands. There’s been even more discussion over DOGE’s cuts to federal land management agencies. And while public lands are essentially the life blood of hunting in America, there are few prominent folks in the hunting and conservation community willing to criticize Republicans and the Trump administration directly.
Most critter orgs and hunting groups seem to be trying to work with the administration, after all, since many hunters voted for Trump and Republicans for Congress. Most are toeing the line or avoiding making public criticism — or statements of any kind — that they worry will jeopardize political support, federal funding, and more.
“Hunting was on the ballot in this election, and hunters showed up,” stated SCI in a news release, noting that the club “educated and mobilized a record number of hunters who voted for President Trump because he understands that hunters have made and will continue to make our country great.”
But Land Tawney, the former CEO of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers isn’t pulling any punches. He and some partners recently launched a new lobbying group called American Hunters and Anglers. It’s described as a “nonpartisan, national network of public land advocates” that has a mission to “deliver accountability to all elected and unelected policymakers and special interests who threaten our hunting, fishing and outdoor heritage.”
Tawney’s new group is small and aggressive, which you can see right away from the tone of its social media and newsletter content (one of their newsletters reads “Nothing more dangerous than giving ‘an unelected, zero-experience Elon Musk DOGEbag’ keys to the castle.”
AHA is meant to put pressure (meaning negative pressure) on the politicians who are pushing anti-public-lands policy, Tawney says.
“There are people like Senator Mike Lee, he believes that we need to sell all public lands, like right now,” Tawney says. “You’re never going to be able to change him … but say a senator from North Dakota or Nebraska who doesn’t know the [public lands] issues as well, might be like ‘Ok Senator Lee, that makes sense to me’ without having much education on the background. And so then you make the stove super hot for [those senators]. They’re suddenly getting phone calls and they’re hearing from their staff and then they have to look into the [public lands] issue more. Those are the people I think both in the Senate and the House that you can convince to back off [from transferring public lands], or when it comes to election time, it’s an issue they have to respond to.”
AHA has a modest following now (just over 3,000 followers on Instagram) but it would be a mistake to underestimate Tawney’s ability to grow an org. He was Backcountry Hunters & Angler’s first full-time employee and helped it grow into the popular national group that it is today.
Tawney has been out of the spotlight since he parted with BHA in 2023, but it seems that he’s picking up right where he left off, at least in terms of messaging and approach.
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“There’s many different roles that organizations and individuals can play,” Tawney says. “There has to be somebody who is more aggressive, holds people accountable, and breaks some eggs so that others can make omelets. At American Hunters and Anglers we don’t have any federal contracts to do habitat work on the ground, so there’s nothing [this administration] can hold over our heads. We don’t have any membership. We don’t have any corporate partners. We have individual followers and donors, but we don’t have the constraints that some of these other NGOs have… and when we’re super aggressive it creates opportunities for others to be a little more aggressive.”
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