Bison are symbols of the American West, and market hunting nearly wiped them from the planet. The story of their near-extinction and then of their restoration thanks to members of the Boone and Crockett Club is the story of the first animal reintroduction in North America.
Conservation
Where Hunting Happens, Conservation Happens™
B&C Impact Series
The Impact Series is dedicated to showing how sportsmen, members of the Boone and Crockett Club in particular, saved the wildlife and wild places of the United States. Early members of the Boone and Crockett Club comprised the movers, shakers, and initiators of the American conservation movement. They were hunters, anglers, explorers, lawmakers, soldiers, and above all conservationists. These members established laws that allowed our wildlife resources to flourish. They also protected landscape-scale geologic marvels and American icons like Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Denali, and many, many more. These members may no longer be with us, but their legacy remains. This series aims to honor their accomplishments and remind us of the good work still yet to do.
There were about two million acres of old-growth redwoods in Northern California before Europeans arrived en masse to the area. Today, only about 110,000 acres of old-growth redwood forest remains. If it weren’t for Boone and Crockett Club members, there wouldn’t be any redwoods left at all.
George Bird Grinnell, co-founder of the Boone and Crockett Club, worked for decades to protect a chunk of northwest Montana we now call Glacier National Park.
In the early 1900s, national parks were under constant threat from private industry, which hoped to capitalize on those unique landscapes. Two charismatic members of the Boone and Crockett Club worked the halls of Congress to ensure management of those wonders fell to a new agency that would prioritize their protection.
At the turn of the twentieth century, members of the Boone and Crockett Club changed the way the world looked at animals—literally. They designed a new kind of zoo, which educated visitors, eliminated cramped concrete cages and conserved rare species. We still use that model today.
Members of the Boone and Crockett Club were key players in laying the groundwork for both conservation of game species and generating the funds to pay for it—a system that we still use today.
The U.S. Forest Service oversees management of 193 million acres of land—an area the size of Spain. Without early members of the Boone and Crockett Club, our forests—and the agency that manages them—would look vastly different. By PJ DelHomme Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot were instrumental...
After establishing the foundation for America's National Wildlife Refuge System, members of the Boone and Crockett Club continued to build upon their successful wildlife restoration efforts that still exist today. Challenges in managing these special places take collaborative solutions—and that’s where the Club excels.
More than a century ago, members of the Boone and Crockett Club spearheaded efforts to set aside areas of land and water where conservation of our fish and wildlife is the number one priority. This is how it all began.
Members of the Boone and Crockett Club worked relentlessly not just to save pronghorn from extinction, but also to preserve the land on which they roam where they still flourish to this day.
How one member of the Boone and Crockett Club (almost) single-handedly established Denali National Park.
A handful of early Boone and Crockett Club members were pioneers in the science and art of modern taxidermy. Their preserved specimens filled museums with animals on the verge of extinction. They hoped an informed public would help them save what remained.
You won’t find Key deer in the Boone and Crockett Club’s records. There isn’t even a hunting season for these tiny deer living in the Florida Keys. That doesn’t mean Boone and Crockett Club members turned a blind eye to this whitetail subspecies that was going extinct in the 1940s. B&C members Jay N. “Ding” Darling and C.R. Gutermuth worked to end market hunting of Key deer and protect essential habitat to ensure their survival well into the future. This is how they pulled it off.
By PJ DelHomme To mark a century of conservation, Club members wanted a legacy project that would celebrate the Club’s accomplishments while providing a testing ground for big ideas and bold research. They could not have chosen a more dramatic—or appropriate—location. Located along Montana’s Rocky...
By PJ DelHomme Boone and Crockett Club members worked passionately to pass legislation in 1906 that would protect sites of cultural and scientific interest, such as Grand Canyon and Olympic National Park. They were called national monuments. Today, members of the Club remain at the forefront of...
By PJ DelHomme Over the last two decades, the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation has become a catch-all term for a conservation system built more than a century ago. The Club and its members were integral in its creation. With a hunting license and elk tag in my pocket, I park at a...
Science and research were cornerstones of the Boone and Crockett Club when it was founded in 1887. Supporting a science-based approach to wildlife research, conservation, and policy remains a focus of the Club today.
By PJ DelHomme This is a story that began more than a century ago. It features a rough-riding U.S. president, hunts on horseback, crafty legislation, conservation-minded landowners, fair chase, endangered species, and, of course, stuffed teddy bears. In 1973, Boone and Crockett member Lee Talbot...
Conservation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Achieving grand conservation milestones takes networking, collaboration, patience, and partnerships. Boone and Crockett Club members know that. For this reason, many Club members have been on the ground floor in the formative days of numerous conservation and environmental organizations that still exist today. While this isn’t an exhaustive list of the groups that the Club has helped to get off the ground, it does provide some insight into the far-reaching influence that past and current members have on the community dedicated to the wildlife and wild places we cherish.
By PJ DelHomme A list of those involved in the early years of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) reads like a who’s who of the Boone and Crockett Club. Even though the AMNH opened its doors in 1869—18 years before the Club was founded by Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell —the...
Just decades after founders of the Boone and Crockett Club worked to save the last remnants of North American big game, other members worked to save the last vestiges of “untrammeled” wilderness. This is how a handful of members worked to create our nation’s wilderness system.
By PJ DelHomme Gold brought the masses to the Last Frontier in the late 1800s, placing Alaska’s fish and wildlife resources squarely in the crosshairs. Members of the Boone and Crockett Club made it their mission to bring common-sense conservation to those industrious fortune seekers. Two years...
In the early 1900s, when America’s conservation movement was in its infancy, Boone and Crockett Club members used media to spread the word about destruction of the country’s wildlife and wild places. In turn, the public pressured lawmakers to support legislation safeguarding those resources.
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"The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak. So we must and we will."
-Theodore Roosevelt
Headquarters
Boone and Crockett Club250 Station Drive
Missoula, MT 59801
Hours and Phone
Weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
406.542.1888
