About Us

Hellgate Hunters & Anglers is affiliated with the
Montana Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation

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Mission Statement

To conserve Montana’s wildlife, wild places,
and fair-chase hunting and fishing heritage.

To accomplish our mission, Hellgate Hunters & Anglers:

• works to protect, enhance and restore wildlife habitat;
• promotes sound, science-based management of all wildlife species and their habitat;
• educates and informs hunters, anglers and others about good, ethical hunting and fishing and the biological, cultural and spiritual values of hunting and fishing;
• ensures that future generations will experience similar, if not better, opportunities to experience wildlife, wild places, hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities;
• protects and promotes the public trust, ensuring that all people, regardless of wealth or social stature, have fair, equitable access to our public lands, waterways and wildlife;
• brings together hunters, anglers and other conservationists with diverse backgrounds and interests to provide an influential voice to accomplish our mission;
• recruits and mentors the next generation of conservation leaders; and
• helps promote the goals and objectives of the Montana Wildlife Federation and National Wildlife Federation.

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HHA's Board

Officers

Land Tawney
President

Land is a fifth generation Montanan who grew up in the outdoors, literally following in his father’s footsteps before he was old enough to carry a shotgun or rifle. His passion for conservation comes through the eyes of a hunter and angler. Land received a BS in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana in 2000. Fresh out of school, he worked for a newly formed sportsmen organization called the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership as their National Grassroots Coordinator. After four years working for TRCP, Land joined the staff of the National Wildlife Federation as Regional Representative in Missoula, Montana in October of 2004. Until recently, he worked with the state affiliates in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota helping them with capacity building, leadership development, and grassroots mobilization at a state and national level. Today, Land continues his work as a Regional Representative in Montana and is the Senior Manager for Sportsmen Leadership. He works with the major national hunting and angling organizations on hunter/angler access, reform of the 1872 mining law, coastal Louisiana restoration, and global warming. In this capacity he also works to identify leaders in the respective campaigns to plug into the NWF family.

In his spare time, Land sits on the board of the Phil Tawney Hunters Conservation Endowment, serves as president for Missoula's local rod and gun club Hellgate Hunters and Anglers, and Chairs the Private Land Public Wildlife Council appointed by the Governor. The Council is made up of landowners, sportsmen, and outfitters and charged with reviewing Montana's highly successful Block Management Program and other access issues facing the state. Any other spare time is spent on the stream, in a duck blind, or chasing big game. Land's family consists of his two loyal labs, Gabriel and Turk, his lovely wife Glenna, and two and a half year old daughter Cidney.

Land Tawney - National Wildlife Federation - Northern Rockies & Prairies Regional Center - Regional Representative for Montana and Senior Manager of Sportsmen United for Sensible Mining - 240 N Higgins, Ste 2 - Missoula, MT 59802 - Phone: 406-721-6705 - Cell: 406-370-3243 - Fax: 406-721-6714 - tawney@nwf.org - www.nwf.org/nrprc

Ryan Chapin
Vice President

Ryan joined HHA in 2007 in order to become more involved in issues impacting Montana's hunting and fishing heritage. Ryan holds a degree in Business from Montana State University. His background includes co-ownership in a local construction company, guiding pack trips in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and is now an employee at Five Valleys Land Trust in Missoula. In his spare time Ryan enjoys adventuring in the outdoors with his wife Kate, son Quinn, and their dog Rocky. Ryan also cherishes hunting the Montana backcountry with his brother Austin.

Mark Olson
Secretary

Mark Olson has been exploring the backcountry of Montana since 1992. He has been fishing his entire life and started hunting in 1997. Trophy hunting is not part of Mark’s hunting philosophy. Instead, he chooses rather to hunt female and young male animals for the superb quality of the meat. Mark received a Minor in Wilderness studies through the Wilderness and Civilization Program at the U of M. His undergrad is in religious studies. He recently completed his Master’s in resource conservation. Mark has worked as a backcountry guide, horse logger, and builder of resource efficient homes. He is recently back from over two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador. Hunting and wild places are Mark’s reason for existence as long as it includes grilled wild meat and a bottle of Argentinean wine or a flagon of mead.  

Tony Hoyt
Treasurer

"I got addicted to wild meat while serving in the Peace Corps in the West African rainforest of Liberia in the late 60s, now I have to hunt all big game whenever I can to feed my addiction."

Board Members and Affiliated Positions

Tim Aldrich
Board Member

My first love is deer and elk hunting, however, I also spend a great deal of time hunting upland birds and waterfowl. The other nine months of the year I enjoy many days of fishing for both freshwater species in Montana and anadromous species in Idaho and Alaska. I am a retiree of the United States Forest Service where I spent seven years smokejumping out of the Missoula Base and another 26 years working in the Administrative Areas of the Forest Service in Montana, Idaho, California and Alaska. I am eager and energized to actively participate in Hellgate Hunters and Anglers because they are the organization in the Missoula area that focuses on the issues and topics that are truly important to all ethical hunters and fishers.

Corey Fisher
Leopoldian Editor

Originally from the Great Lakes region, Corey has been hunting, fishing, exploring, and advocating for Montana’s wildlife and wild places since moving to Missoula in 2004. While it was a position with the Forest Service that originally brought him to “The last best place”, it was the vast landscapes, abundant fish and game populations, public access, and a concentration of like-minded Leopoldian hunters and anglers that made him stay. Currently, he works for Trout Unlimited, organizing hunters and anglers across the West to ensure energy development on our public lands is carried out responsibly. Casting flies to cutthroats in wilderness streams, duck marsh sunrises, and tracking elk pretty much round out his free time; that and Missoula’s micro brews. Cheers!

Corey Fisher - Western Field Organizer - Trout Unlimited Office: 406-721-1002 - Cell: 406-546-2979 - cfisher@tu.org

Bill Geer
Board Member

After earning B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Montana School of Forestry and Montana State University, Bill has spent the past 38 years as a professional fish and wildlife conservationist.  He served as the Director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Coordinator for the North American Waterfowl Management Plan for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Vice President for both Field Operations and Conservation Programs for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Inland Northwest Conservation Manager for the Nature Conservancy in Idaho and Executive Director of the Outdoor Writers Association of America before joining the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

Fred Kellner
Board Member

Fred grew up in the Pacific Northwest and was introduced to hunting and fishing by his Father. Fred has a deep love of wild places and was fortunate enough to work as a wilderness ranger in Montana's Beartooth Mountains. Moving to Montana in 1999 reignited Fred's passion for hunting and fishing. Spurred by this passion, he is now eager to work towards protecting wild country, and the hunting and fishing heritage that is associated with these places.

Bert Lindler
Board Member

Although Bert wasn’t born in Montana, he got here pretty quickly after graduating with a degree in journalism. Bert spent 17 years as a reporter for the Great Falls Tribune, before becoming a technical editor for the Forest Service. Although he has spent a lot of time hunting, fishing, floating, and cross-country skiing in Montana, much of his time now is spent pulling weeds, removing barbed wire, and writing grants to improve management of the elk herd that winters in Missoula’s North Hills. His wife, Kristi Dubois, enjoys hunting, bird watching, photography, cross-country skiing, and floating. Her work as a wildlife biologist focuses primarily on non-game wildlife. Their two labs, Rana and Kintla, wish that their human companions would spend more time practicing with their shotguns.

Bethany Morris
Board Member

Bethany was raised in both Wyoming and Montana, and Missoula has been her home for 16 years. As a kid, she spent a lot of time in the back country of Northwestern Wyoming, accompanying her parents on pack trips in the summer and to hunting camp in the fall. She clearly remembers --and not fondly either-- the first fall she had to stay home from hunting camp because school was starting. Bethany enjoys exploring new places, hunting big game and birds, and fishing for trout. In addition to hunting and fishing, she likes hiking, cross-country skiing, horseback riding, reading, soccer, biking, cooking and traveling. She has a B.A. in Organizational Communication from the University of Montana, and currently works for an international non-profit that advocates on behalf of young children with special needs.

Dave Stalling
President Emeritus

An avid hunter, fisherman and wilderness advocate, Dave Stalling works for Trout Unlimited’s Public Lands Initiative helping to inform and rally hunters and anglers to protect public wildlands throughout the West. A former Force Recon Marine and Montana Army National Guard Infantryman, Stalling has worked for the U.S. Forest Service and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and is a past President of the Montana Wildlife Federation (MWF). He helped launch and run a successful ballot initiative in 2000 to curtail the spread of game farms, and received MWF’s 2002 Les Pengelly Conservation Professional Award. Dave also writes frequently about conservation, natural history and wildlife for a variety of national magazines. He lives in Missoula with his five-year-old son, Cory.

Joel Webster
Board Member

A born and raised westerner and lifelong sportsman, Joel has been committed to hunter/angler issues since he was first old enough to carry a rifle. After completing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Idaho in 2000, Joel moved to his current home of Missoula, MT where he completed his master’s degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. When not building relationships and empowering sportsmen on behalf of our hunting and fishing heritage, Joel spends his time fishing clear mountain streams for native trout in the summer and pursuing deer, elk, and game birds in the fall. There is nothing Joel likes better than getting into the backcountry and stalking buck mule deer in the rugged high country of the northern Bitterroot Range.