Chukar Culture

05/03/2026

Stay the Course

This began from a story my neighbor, a golf course superintendent, told us one night. It was fascinating to learn about what his employees served up to him. And so it began. About a month into it, I realized that I was writing a sequel to my first novel, The Rim. But Ennis, one of five characters in The Rim…...

Discover the continuation of Ennis' journey in 'Stay the Course', a gripping sequel that delves into life, growth, and the passage of time.

04/27/2026

RIP Sam

If you've never been to Hells Canyon on the Idaho/Oregon border before, the first thing you notice as you're driving down the long, narrow, windy road of Highway 71 and descending deep into the canyon are the very steep hillsides covered in sagebrush, bitterbrush, golden-colored grasses and lots of rocks. Some people say, "It's no country for old men," but I've been chukar hunting down there with my 80-year-old neighbor Sam for the past couple of seasons, and he's putting all those naysayers in their place....

Remembering Sam, a chukar hunting legend of Hells Canyon, whose passion for the outdoors inspires us all. His memories will never fade.

04/26/2026

Again, if you hunt on public land, you should be outraged by what this administration is doing to your hunting grounds.

President Donald Trump is invoking an obscure law that allows the military to pollute waterways.

04/10/2026

If you hunt on public land, it’s worth 15 minutes of your time to read this.

Late Tuesday afternoon, with the subtlety of a wrecking ball and the morality of a foreclosure notice, the Trump administration announced the most devastating attack on the U.S. Forest Service in the agency’s 121-year history. Not a budget cut. Not a policy shift. Not a “reorganization.” An ex...

04/03/2026

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Get 20% off plus free shipping on all shirts, hoodies, and hats until May 1! Use code SPRING26. Exciting re-designs are coming soon!

04/02/2026

We hunt on USFS lands at least as much as on BLM. Both have been gutted by the current administration. This recent "reorganization" of USFS is being sold as "cost-cutting" (while the admin is spending over a billion per day on an unnecessary war) but really is a move designed to sow more chaos and set up the agency to fail so these lands can be privatized.

In the Trump administration’s reorganization of the struggling agency, painful echoes of BLM’s past moves.

03/25/2026

Good Book Review

I was thrilled to read this wonderful review of Chukar Culture: Dogs, Memory, Paradox by Matthew Brown in his excellent blog Upland Soul. So I thought I'd share it here in case anyone hasn't already found Upland Soul.

Discover the insights from Matthew Brown's review of 'Chukar Culture: Dogs, Memory, Paradox' on Upland Soul. A must-read for dog lovers!

03/25/2026

Nice review on Upland Soul of Chukar Culture: Dogs, Memory, Paradox

While I usually have no difficulty expressing my opinion on things, I’ve somewhat struggled to write this review. Most of the blame for this lies with the fac

03/03/2026

The Rim

The Rim is my first novel, started about 10 years ago during a creative writing class I was teaching. Parts of it have been published in literary journals, but this is the first time it's been all inside one cover. It's short, and dark, but has a lot about hunting in it. Like Chukar Culture: Memory, Dogs, Paradox, it's available in the store on this site, as well as on Lulu's bookstore and at Amazon (which nets me about a dollar, unlike the two other options). I'm proofing the copy of the sequel novel to The Rim (called Stay the Course), which will be available before the end of the month.

Discover _The Rim_, my debut novel blending dark themes with a hunting narrative, now available in one complete edition.

02/23/2026

Just called Crapo & Risch, and sent the email opposing this public-land-destroying person.

12/10/2025

The latest public land-grab attempt by Idaho "leaders," couched in disingenuous rhetoric about "management." ALL of the problems Fulcher notes about federal management of these lands were caused by the deliberate underfunding of the USDA and Dept. of Interior (look at Fulcher's party-line voting record on ALL public land issues). Once these publicly owned lands are transferred to Idaho, the state is obligated to sell a certain percentage of them every year. Federal ownership and management of BLM and NFS lands are in every single western state's constitution "in perpetuity." "Transferring" these lands to state ownership would require the state to amend its constitution. The bottom line is that if they succeed, access to these lands, which -- arguably -- are the single most important thing in each western state's greatness, will be gone. This "concern" from a guy who refuses to meet with his constituents face-to-face.

U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher is convening meetings to explore transferring management of Idaho's federal lands to state and local governments.

12/09/2025

If you hunt chukar in the Owyhees, this should concern you.

A Nevada company plans to construct Oregon's first modern-day gold mine in Malheur County.