Open Country

Join the fight to access your public lands

Will Yellowstone Park Close to Public Visitation?
By Andrew McKeanMarch 23, 2020
The National Park Service is reportedly considering a request from public-health officials in neighboring Park and Gallatin counties in Montana to close Yellowstone Park. They said that by encouraging visitation to Yellowstone during the COVID-19 outbreak, the public—locals and visitors—could be endangered by inadvertent transmission of the virus.
Illinois Closed State Lands to the Public Due to COVID-19
Joe GenzelMarch 18, 2020
IL is denying patrons access to all public lands due to COVID-19.
Lawyers, Trout, and Money—The Crazy Story Behind the Water Access Battle in New Mexico
By Christine PetersonMarch 13, 2020
Can we wade and fish public waters that run through private land in New Mexico? That will be up for the courts to decide.
Paintball a Grizzly? USFWS Clarifies Bear Hazing Laws
By Ben LongMarch 10, 2020
This week the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the Endangered Species Act, released a secretarial order that defines how state wildlife management agencies and residents may legally harass grizzly bears, without getting sideways with the law. This being 2020, the Montana Department of Fish Wildlife & Parks announced the new rules on, you guessed it, Facebook.
President Trump Tweets in Favor of Fully and Permanently Funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund
By Ben LongMarch 5, 2020
In this highly partisan era, LWCF is one of the relatively few government programs that consistently receives bipartisan support. Even so, it has critics among those who frown upon the idea of government owning land in the first place. Full funding for the LWCF has received pushback because some lawmakers argue the massive $12 billion backlog in national parks maintenance needed to be addressed first.
The Secretary of the Interior on Climate Change, Wild Horses, CWD, and New Backcountry Conservation Areas
By The EditorsFebruary 27, 2020
Our hunting editor Andrew McKean sits down with David Bernhardt for a Q&A on the most pressing issues facing the Department of the Interior.

WHAT WE DO

In order to hunt or fish, you need a place to do it, and Open Country is committed to sportsmen's access—getting it, keeping it, defending it, and celebrating it—so that you always have that place.