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The Alabama Soil and Water Conservation Committee (ALSWCC) has received a $17.5 million grant through the USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program to support a new five-year restoration effort focused on Alabama’s Black Belt Prairie ecosystem. Although the funding was approved in 2025, the initiative is now beginning to move into on-the-ground habitat work across the region. As habitat loss, changing land use, and declining grassland ecosystems continue to affect wildlife across the region, programs like this one come as welcomed news.

So what is the Black Belt Prairie? Stretching across 19 counties of central Alabama and neighboring states, the Black Belt is a historic native prairie ecosystem named for its dark, fertile soils. Before much of the region was converted to agricultural land, this grassland supported an abundance of wildlife, endemic plant species, and some of the most diverse habitat in the South.

Today, the remaining prairie and grassland habitat still provide important cover, forage, and nesting areas for wildlife across the region, though only a fraction of the ecosystem remains compared to its historic range. Species such as bobwhite quail, wild turkey, and white-tailed deer continue to benefit from the habitat that survives today. The quality of that habitat is reflected in Alabama’s hunting regulations as well, with many counties within the Black Belt designated as “three-buck counties,” the area is known for producing prime deer habitat and quality white-tail hunting opportunities.

According to Yellowhammer News, “Over the next five years, ALSWCC will work with producers and landowners to restore 8,000 acres of prairie through cost-share assistance, technical guidance, and conservation planning.”

So what does that actually mean? Rather than relying solely on state agencies much of the restoration work will be carried out by the people who live and work on the land every day. Through cost-share programs and conservation assistance, landowners and agricultural producers can receive financial and technical support for managing their property in ways that restore native prairie habitat while still keeping the land productive.

The initiative includes 29 approved conservation practices designed to improve prairie habitat, soil health, and overall land management across the region. Some of the practices include brush management, herbaceous weed control, prescribed burning, wildlife habitat planting, upland wildlife habitat management, livestock production limitation techniques, and nutrient loss reduction practices.

Many of these conservation methods are commonly used to improve forage diversity, increase native grass cover, and ultimately create better wildlife habitat throughout the Black Belt while also helping reduce erosion, limit nutrient runoff, improve water quality, and maintain long-term productivity on working agricultural lands.

Ashley Henderson, Assistant Executive Director of ALSWCC said “Some acres will return to productive grazing; others will be managed as wildlife habitat or outdoor recreation areas, each will demonstrate how prairie restoration can support families, wildlife, and local economies.”

For hunters and conservationists alike, the project represents more than just prairie restoration. It is an investment in the future of one of the South’s most productive and historically important landscapes for wildlife. Much of Alabama’s best deer, turkey, and quail habitat exists on private land, and initiatives like this place the responsibility, and opportunity, for conservation directly into the hands of the people who manage it daily. This effort aims to preserve not only the landscape itself, but the hunting traditions, rural economies, and wildlife populations that depend on it.

Feature image via The Bama Buzz.

On this episode of In Pursuit, Rich is joined by Jeff Dodds and Angelo Dicicco. They sit down for another Spike Camp episode to talk through one of the most overlooked parts of western hunting: pacing yourself.

From training and rucking to e-scouting, nutrition, recovery, and knowing when to push versus when to back off, this episode is packed with practical advice for anyone getting ready for hunt season. They break down what it actually feels like to spend long days in the mountains, how fitness impacts decision making in the field, and why being underprepared can ruin a hunt before it ever really starts. The guys also share stories from past hunts, lessons learned the hard way, thoughts on training with your hunting partners, and why the mental side of hunting can be just as challenging as the physical side.

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When it comes to managing land for whitetails, there’s no shortage of advice on what you should be doing. But sometimes the fastest way to improve your property is knowing what mistakes to avoid in the first place. In this episode of Back 40, we asked a fresh panel of experienced deer hunters and land managers one simple question: What are the biggest whitetail land mistakes people make? The answers cover everything from access and pressure to habitat work, expectations, and long-term planning. Whether you own 10 acres or 1,000, avoiding the wrong moves can save you years of frustration and put you on a much faster path toward building better deer habitat and more consistent hunting success. This episode features: Wes Delks, Steve Hanson, Jake Ehllinger, and Sam Billhorn.

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Steven Rinella and the MeatEater crew discuss: New research about CWD that you really need to hear; bear spray vs. pistols; are cyanide bombs really bombs?; wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Area; how the Alaskan Arctic might be getting a data center, plus the rapid spread of data centers across the country; and more. 

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In October of 2024, Dustin Kjersem drove into the mountains south of Bozeman, Montana, to prepare for a romantic weekend of camping. He was never seen alive again. When his girlfriend finally discovered his body, she thought he'd been attacked by a bear. But the truth, it turned out, was far more disturbing. To find Dustin's killer, investigators followed a trail that led through a bloody campsite, a missing axe, two tequila glasses, and a pair of cell phones found by a man who claimed he saw them in a dream. This is a story about finding justice for a man who had never made an enemy — a carpenter, a father, and a friend who welcomed a stranger into his tent without a second thought.

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Sportsmen in Oregon are facing an existential threat to our way of life: a ballot initiative seeking to outlaw all forms of hunting, fishing, and trapping, as well as the slaughter of livestock and poultry, rodeos, animal breeding practices, animal use for medical research, and more.

IP28, also known as the People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions (PEACE) Act, is a measure put forward by radical animal rights activists that would intentionally affect those widespread practices by removing exemptions in the state’s animal cruelty statutes. Last week, local outlets began reporting that the petition has gathered 120,735 signatures, exceeding the threshold of 117,173 valid signatures required to make the ballot. Even if some of those signatures are disqualified, the proponents of the initiative are expected to gather more than enough to prove sufficient before the July 2 deadline.

While attacks on hunting and fishing practices have become common in recent years, IP28 is notable for its extremity, as well as the wide range of practices it would apply to. According to the proponents, "Our campaign understands that currently we are killing animals to meet important needs of ours, such as sustenance, stability, belonging—and others—our campaign also believes it is possible to use a different set of strategies (ones that don't involve killing animals) that can meet our needs while also simultaneously meeting the needs of the animals we currently kill.”

Back in January, David Michelson, one of the backers of IP28, told the Willamette Weekly that the initiative was akin to the women’s suffrage movement, saying that he was “under no illusion that IP28 will pass this year” but that forcing a vote will “help people think differently” and “normalize the conversation.”

Regardless of the initiative’s longshot odds, local pro-hunting groups have taken the threat seriously and come out resoundingly against it. “This extreme proposal would change everything about the state of Oregon,” says Todd Adkins, Executive Director of the Oregon Hunters Association. “[The proponents of the bill’s] way of life is not our way of life. Their belief system is not our belief system. Let’s send them packing, along with a message: don’t come back.”

In its opposition to the proposal, the Oregon Hunters Association is highlighting the potential impact it would have on the state’s 330,000-plus licensed hunters and 500,000-plus licensed anglers, as well as the fact that hunting and fishing currently generate an estimated $1.9 billion annually in economic activity within the state.

National conservation groups such as the National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership have also come out publicly against the state initiative—and the potential that it could lead to similar copycat efforts elsewhere.

“Beyond individual impacts, IP-28 poses a direct threat to the North American Model of Wildlife Management, a proven framework that has guided successful conservation efforts in the United States for over a century,” wrote a spokesperson for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. “Criminalizing hunting, fishing, and trapping would slash this critical revenue stream, cripple science-based wildlife management, and end cherished traditions that have connected generations to Oregon’s outdoors.”

A suspected poacher in Texas is facing a whopping 74 charges after being accused of a slew of wildlife infractions. According to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD), the investigation into Darrell Maguire, a 55-year-old from New Braunfels, began in June 2025, after whitetail buck carcasses were discovered in Comal and Hays counties.

“Several of the incidents occurred in residential neighborhoods, where wardens recovered crossbow bolts from front yards and porches,” explained a TPWD spokesperson.

That September, game wardens arrested Maguire on wildlife and drug possession charges. They soon executed a search warrant, which turned up evidence allegedly linking Maguire to “multiple poaching scenes.”

Ultimately, TPWD game wardens say they found evidence to determine that Maguire illegally killed eight whitetail bucks in residential areas from June to September 2025, while “often shooting the animals with a crossbow from his vehicle, removing only the heads and leaving the carcasses to waste.”

Additionally, they are accusing Maguire of allegedly taking five whitetails over the season limit in 2024. The 74 charges that Maguire faces include felonies for hunting without landowner consent and the possession of a controlled substance—5.86 grams of meth—as well as misdemeanors for hunting whitetail deer at night, hunting whitetail deer from a vehicle from a public roadway, failure to retrieve and keep whitetail deer in edible condition, and the possession of marijuana. He also faces additional citations for Parks and Wildlife Code violations.

Maguire’s case is currently pending. TPWD has not released the potential punishments he could receive if convicted.

Photos Courtesy of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

In October of 2024, Dustin Kjersem drove into the mountains south of Bozeman, Montana, to prepare for a romantic weekend of camping.

He was never seen alive again.

When his girlfriend finally discovered his body, she thought he'd been attacked by a bear. But the truth, it turned out, was far more disturbing.

To find Dustin's killer, investigators followed a trail that led through a bloody campsite, a missing axe, two tequila glasses, and a pair of cell phones found by a man who claimed he saw them in a dream.

This is a story about finding justice for a man who had never made an enemy — a carpenter, a father, and a friend who, by every account, would have welcomed a stranger into his tent without a second thought. But the very quality that made Dustin so beloved may have been what got him killed.

The year-long investigation and prosecution that followed tested the limits of Montana's self-defense laws and forced a jury to decide what really happened inside that canvas tent.

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In this inaugural episode of Future Wild, we kick off this new show exploring the future of our wild world with a discussion with Yvon Chouinard - angler, activist, and founder of Patagonia - about his ethos of simplicity and how it might apply to fishing, adventure, and the fight to redeem the natural world.

Thanks to our sponsor, Conservation First Bank.

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Spencer Neuharth hosts MeatEater Trivia with Janis Putelis, Brody Henderson, Randall Williams, Max Barta, Nate Mason, and Alex Plachta.

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