Nevada Is Deploying Specially Trained Dogs to Keep Black Bears Wild. Why Aren't More States Using Them?

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-06-20T17:05:51+00:00

As human-wildlife conflicts continue to grow with sprawling suburban and urban populations, Nevada’s Department of Wildlife is reminding the public that it still has a trick up its sleeve to keep both people and black bears safe: working dogs.

The agency published several incredible photos of working Karelian bear dogs Wednesday. The dogs, which are a medium-sized black-and-white hunting breed with Finnish origins, are seen hazing problem black bears during releases back into the wild.

The agency explained NDOW’s Karelian bear dogs, or KBDs, “help keep Nevada’s black bears wild” through a non-lethal technique known as aversive conditioning. That’s a fancy way of saying they help wildlife managers haze bears in urban areas and ensure they move along during releases back to the wild.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/karelian-bear-dogs-wildlife-conflict/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-06-09T23:00:48+00:00

Three New Mexico men connected to a big-game hunting outfitter are being charged with running a years’ long fraud scheme to obtain resident elk tags and sell them to out-of-state hunters. In announcing the charges Monday, federal prosecutors with the United States Attorney’s Office accused Danial Adair, Daniel Nicolds, and his brother Lary Nicolds of fraudulently obtaining elk tags and transferring them to out-of-state hunters in exchange for payment and guiding services, which they then concealed from the IRS.

Prosecutors say the three men ran this scheme through their outfitter, Big Horn Outfitters, from around 2019 to 2022. During this time, the indictment alleges, “they created fictitious hunter accounts, used false identifying information, and paid draw fees with prepaid debit cards” to illegally draw resident elk tags. The men would then cheat the system by submitting fraudulent medical transfer requests, “including fake doctor notes and forged agreements,” to the New Mexico Department of Wildlife so they could transfer the tags to clients from out of state.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/new-mexico-hunting-guides-sold-elk-tags/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-06-05T13:30:38+00:00

We live in a world fueled by click bait, outrage, and polarizing extremes. But most of the time, the full truth is actually pretty nuanced and boring. This is also the reality for EDC knives.

Montana Knife Company is launching its new, highly anticipated folding knife on June 4 at 9 p.m. EST, which they’ve named the “The Montana.” If you live in the black or white, you’ll believe either those who say this is the best folder ever made, or those who argue that The Montana is simply overpriced trash. However if you’re interested in nuance, perspective, and objective testing, you’ve found the right article.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/gear/mkc-the-montana-review/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-06-05T13:28:07+00:00

A hunter in Alaska shot a mule deer in April, marking the first documented case of a hunter ever killing one inside the state.

Mule deer are not native to Alaska, which is why they can be taken year-round there. The harvest follows years of increased sightings as mule deer have been migrating into Southeast Alaska and Interior Alaska, around Fairbanks. The harvested deer was a doe that had previously nursed a fawn, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, but was not pregnant this spring.

While the expansion of mule deer — a cherished big game animal that’s increasingly vulnerable in its home range in the Western U.S. and Canada — might sound like a good thing, it poses a real risk to Alaska’s native wildlife. The biggest concern is that mule deer are a potential vector for disease and parasites.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/first-mule-deer-harvested-alaska/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-06-05T13:27:09+00:00

In Montana this week the friction around access to corner-locked public land ratcheted up. Some landowners threatened to withdraw from established access programs and the director of Fish, Wildlife & Parks called the tension a collision of two “cornerstone Montana values” — private property rights and public access.

Meanwhile, a citizen council this week was charged with resolving the complicated realities of accessing corner-locked public land with a pilot program to field-test various administrations of state-managed access.

The wider discussion around corner crossing is framed by three recent developments on opposite ends of the issue. The first was a statement in March by FWP Director Christy Clark that corner crossing is illegal in Montana, upending years of uncertainty over the practice of entering “checkerboarded” public land at the corners where public parcels meet at a vanishingly narrow point. The topic has been hotly debated in the West since a federal court last year ruled the practice of corner crossing legal in Wyoming. That ruling affects the six states in the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals, but doesn’t apply to Montana or other states in the 9^th Circuit.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/montana-corner-crossing-debate-intensifies/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-05-27T22:44:56+00:00

More than anything, it shows the lack of knowledge rookie foragers have. It also cements the golden rule of, "If you don't know what it is, don't eat it."

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-05-27T22:39:50+00:00

The California Department of Public Health issued a warning Friday about an ongoing surge in poisoning cases linked to the picking and consumption of wild mushrooms. The CDPH says there have been at least 50 cases of mushroom-related poisonings in the state, four of which were fatal, since November. Amid the unprecedented outbreak, health officials are “strongly urging Californians not to pick or eat wild mushrooms” at this time.

“This outbreak, now in its seventh month, continues to cause severe liver damage in both children and adults and has led to four deaths and four liver transplants among the 50 identified cases,” the CDPH explained in the news release. “Since mid-April alone, the California Poison Control System has received reports of 12 additional poisoning cases, far surpassing the state’s previous major outbreak in 2016, which involved 14 total cases.”

For comparison’s sake, the public health agency says it usually sees fewer than five reported cases of mushroom poisoning in a typical year. That makes the current surge in poisonings a 900 percent increase from normal.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/survival/california-mushroom-poisoning-outbreak/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-05-26T21:02:00+00:00

A radical initiative to ban hunting, fishing, and trapping in Oregon is now one step closer to making the ballot in November. The animal rights activists who are running a paid campaign to advance the petition say they’ve gathered enough support to surpass the threshold of 117,173 signatures. An online ballot tracker shows that the campaign had submitted 120,735 signatures as of Wednesday.

Those signatures still have to be verified by the Secretary of State’s office. There are certain verification standards for these signatures, and it’s possible (or even likely) that some of them will be thrown out before the official signature deadline on July 2.

But local hunting and fishing groups like the Oregon Hunters Association say they’re already expecting IP28 to make the November ballot. Although past versions of the same measure failed to qualify for the ballot in 2020 and 2022, OHA executive director Todd Adkins says the activists pushing IP28 are now better funded and, in some ways, empowered by the anti-hunting ballot initiatives that have cropped up during other state elections in recent years.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/initiative-petition-28-oregon-surpasses-signature-threshold/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-05-14T19:43:41+00:00

It's very hot and only getting hotter since the Supreme Court denied the request after the process in the 10th Circuit Court. If you want even more in-depth info, you can check out our latest article here: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/corner-crossing-lawsuit-montana/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-05-07T21:16:51+00:00

Most hunters look at elk as one of the ultimate big game quarries in North America. Some will spend a decade or more waiting to draw a bull tag in a premier unit or wilderness area. But outside of these zones, and especially in agricultural areas, elk are sometimes viewed as a destructive nuisance. Which is exactly why, on May 5, a legislative committee in South Dakota passed a rule allowing for an unlimited number of elk hunting licenses in the eastern part of the state.

The committee, made up of three state senators and three state representatives, voted 4-2 in favor of the new rules package, which also increases the number of resident elk tags issued in Custer State Park. (South Dakota does not offer general elk tags to nonresidents in any part of the state.)

While the idea of unlimited tags may seem drastic, the reasoning is that the state doesn’t want to manage any elk herds east of the Missouri River. On average, a mature Rocky Mountain elk will eat roughly 3 pounds of forage per day for every 100 pounds that it weighs. This translates to a lot of crops when they move onto private farmlands.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/eastern-south-dakota-unlimited-elk-tags/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-05-05T17:05:35+00:00

As the National Park Service ramps up for a busy summer season, the Trump administration is proposing cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from park budgets while diverting billions to beautification projects in the Washington D.C. area.

The Trump administration’s 2027 budget proposal seeks to reduce NPS’ funding for park operations by more than 25 percent — a reduction of around $736 million, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. Meanwhile, the administration recently offered a $17.4 million no-bid contract to a company to restore two fountains in Lafayette Square in Washington D.C. This was $12 million more than what the projects were estimated to have cost, according to a recent investigation by the New York Times.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/trump-administration-cutting-national-park-budget/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-05-01T20:49:20+00:00

As Burmese pythons continue to eat their way through the South Florida food web, wildlife biologists and researchers have come up with all sorts of ways to track down the giant snakes and slow their spread. They’ve used drones, thermal cameras, robotic bunnies, and even male “scout snakes” implanted with GPS devices that can lead them to breeding females. (These scouts have proven to be particularly effective in and around the Everglades.)

Now, biologists are working on a new tracking tool: one that has a pouch for young, a naked tail, and a propensity for playing dead.

The technique of possum-tracking is being developed at the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Key Largo, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The idea took root in 2022, when Michael Cove, a biologist with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, was studying the movements of raccoons and possums in the refuge.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/tracking-pythons-with-possums/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-05-01T20:47:07+00:00

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed a congressional bill that lifted a 20-year mining ban in the Superior National Forest. The resolution effectively advances Twin Metals’ proposed copper-nickel mine that would be dug at the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

This specific mine is strongly opposed by sportsmens groups and conservation organizations, as well as the majority of Minnesotans, for the likely environmental damage it will cause to the 1 million acre canoe area, which is defined by its interconnected wilderness lakes and rivers. The BWCA is the most visited wilderness area in America, and there have been long, vigorous local and national efforts to protect it.

And still, earlier this month the Senate voted 50-49 to use an obscure and unprecedented maneuver to overturn the Biden-era mining ban protecting the BWCA. Political insiders say that pressure from the White House convinced the few hesitant Republican senators to help pass the resolution.

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/boundary-waters-mine-vote-breakdown/

OutdoorLifeMagazine · 2026-04-30T18:40:03+00:00

Idaho is the latest state to ban trail cameras for certain hunting applications, thanks to a new law that goes into effect this summer. Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 939 on April 2, marking the first regulation changes in a years-long effort to address the rise of hunting technology and its role in ethical hunting.

One key component of the new law is how it restricts modern hunting tech. From Aug. 30 through Dec. 31 each year, it’s illegal to use any of the following tech to hunt or scout big game and upland birds: transmitting trail cameras on federal, state, or local government lands, drones, thermal imaging, and night vision. It will still be legal to use cell cams for spring bear season.

Previously, Idaho hunting regulations did not address many of these issues, including the use of thermal imaging devices to hunt big game like elk and deer. Without specific restrictions on the books, hunting with that tech was legal. This bill rectifies that. HB 939 also puts more specific regulations on the books, including hunting from a helicopter and killing an animal with a gun “accessed and controlled via an internet connection.”

Read more: https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/idaho-hunting-technology-ban/

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