Heroes of Conservation: 2007 Winner

Brian Maguire, The Wilderness Protector
Computer Engineer, Portland, Ore.

Disturbed by the disappearance of his hunting grounds, Maguire cofounded the group Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA) to lobby for their protection. After 10 years he got 16,496 acres of winter range added to the 2007 Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act.

Throughout the 1980s, my dad and I would go to hunt a place we'd loved and find it leveled. Imagine these cathedral old-growth forests, and one day you see Boundary Clear-Cut signs stapled to the trees. That was just-well-I got torched. So I started getting active. At first it was very rookie-ish-writing letters and calling the Forest Service. There were no hunting organizations doing anything then, so I ended up joining Oregon Wild-kind of stealthily because, well, they were enviros. Gradually, through their Adopt-A-Wilderness program, I took on several areas, including my hunting grounds, and started evaluating their wilderness designation potential. As I was doing all this, I started running into other concerned hunters. A few of us decided to meet-Mike was an ex–U.S. Army officer, Tony worked for a phone company, Michelle was with a law firm. We sat on Mike's porch for two days, listening to turkeys gobble and hashing out the beginnings of a sportsmen's group that would push for wilderness protection. With BHA, I now had the leverage to advocate for my areas. And when I asked Larry Sowa, the Clackamas County commission chair, to write U.S. senators Wyden and Smith to add these lands to the wilderness bill, he said, "If hunters want them protected, I want them protected." Sen. Wyden asked me to give public testimony in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the bill. But my wife was pregnant and due two days after the hearing. At first she said no way. And I was like, "Liz, I've got to, this isn't just any place." And she knew it. She loves that land too. Testifying was utterly cool. You only have five minutes to talk, and I was totally stumbling when I started. Now the bill has passed the Senate committee, and we're expecting passage this fall. As for BHA, once we hit 500 members in the U.S. and Canada, we knew we weren't just a bunch of loons.

When it comes to protecting wilderness, that boots knowledge of the land is so important-and sportsmen, we're the ones who have it. Not the green groups. They're not out there at dawn. They're not out at sunset, seeing sign, finding sheds. We know these places, so we're the ones who can save them.

-- Kimberly Hiss

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