Yeah, and the same Swiss billionaire who gave CBD at least ten million dollars (anonymously) gives money to BHA.
Go figure. Coincidence?
Who is this "nameless" billionaire? and how much did he give to BHA?
Geno
I think the guy's name is Hansjörg Wyss. The Wyss Foundation.
Not sure of the amounts. Dollars have a way of laundering themselves through other spun off organizations that make transparency nearly impossible.
As with all 501-C corporations, (non-profit) the financial statements are required to be released upon demand. That's the law. Perhaps someone should request those?
I can't imagine taking donations that they wouldn't be proud to own...
Maybe someone higher up the food chain of BHA would answer these questions. I doubt local chapters have much to do with anything other than local fund raisers.
thanks rbb,
now I know who he is, presumably.
Guess I'll have to find out if there was strings attached for those "grants". I wonder if BHA publishes a list of their grants and what they were designed to fund? Many/Most grants are written with specific objectives outlined, with reports due to the grant funding agencies of activities the funds were used for.
If Mr Wyss's foundation provided funding to BHA for a study of roadless areas vs roaded areas on elk habitat, or trout stream conditions, then I'm all for them using that foundation money. I'd be interested in seeing the results of such research also.
However, if the grant was to study (or worse propose without study) what effects a complete shutdown of mining/mineral extraction, stopping ALL logging, removing all campsites, preventing access even by hiking/horseback/llamas/etc, and removing all traces of humans from the system.........I'd be opposed to BHA taking their money.
Most of what I outlined in the last paragraph goes against the intent of BHA, they just want "appropriate" use in/on our public lands.
No doubt there's folks in the organization that would like to go further. No doubt the same holds true in all organizations. I'd certainly believe that someone could find evidence of donations(hidden/masked/laundered) to some conservative organizations by organizations supporting the beliefs of the Third Reich. That doesn't mean we shouldn't support the organization as a whole.
From what I've seen, BHA has protected a lot of land critical to healthy fish and game populations. Yep, no doubt some other interests might be excluded, but overall for us hunters (not the ones driving around six to the truckbed "raod hunting") and fishers we know
the results will likely be positive for those coming after.I'm not a fan of complete road access to every inch of FS/BLM land, heck I'm over 60, with a bad back, knees, vision, etc and I'm pretty sure my days of lugging a 50lb+ pack 10 miles into the wilderness are over. But, and it's an important but, I do take advantage of roads that border wilderness land, where I can hike a coupla miles into that area to take advantage of relatively "pristine" and quiet areas away from those road hunters. As I generally hunt alone and like the solitude, those areas are critically important to me and if BHA wants to push for a few more, so be it. Like someone else mentioned, and I paraphrase, those are the areas that seem to be in short supply. Not the areas with roads and noisy campers every weekend and more so during hunting season. Not the streams that are stocked by our F&G agencies, right near a road or a bridge/road crossing that get hammered on opening day of trout season (Heck, I'm in the fish businees and I see the need for those kind of places). There seems to me to be plenty of those type areas already.
For me, (Everyone get that?) there's nothing like walking into a place to hunt and not seeing/hearing another person all day. Or going to a stream and fishing up and down a mile or two and not having to pass up a hole because there's 7 people there already.
So, yeah, BHA is probably going to continue to have my support. When they get to the point of wanting to shut down ALL access, then we have a different situation.
And when I'm older and can no longer hike in a few miles, I'll gladly turn that backcountry land over to the next generation.
Geno
