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Field Notes

One Common Goal: 
Farming & Hunting for conservation

Across the Great Plains region stretches a vast network of protected grasslands and wetlands, from the never-ending grain fields of Kansas and Nebraska to the dusty prairie pothole regions of the Dakotas and Montana. These crucial ecosystems teem with wildflowers and tall swaying grasses, while cattails and bulrushes rustle next to quiet ponds, and throughout it all untold numbers of insects and small animals thrive. Overhead, all manner of birds soar, often stopping here during their crucial summer and winter migration periods to rest and raise new families. But here is the really interesting part of this story: Almost all of this land is privately owned, and if it weren’t for hunters, farmers, and ranchers, none of it would probably be here.

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5 Min
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Profiles

Rainshadow Organics

Every day, Sarahlee Lawrence and Ashanti Samuels, the owners of Rainshadow Organics, a 27-acre farm located just outside Bend, Oregon, bring their passion into their fields to raise a crop of over 250 varieties of vegetables and grains, along with a wide array of meat and poultry. To ensure the fertility of their land, they use sustainable organic farming methods, ones that were common before the advent of commercial farming. “We focus on creating healthy living soil that gets stronger every year, not weaker,” says Lawrence.

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5 Min
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How-To's

Ruffed Grouse Hunting Basics

The ruffed grouse is affectionately called the king of game birds by those who enjoy hunting them on crisp autumn days. As their nickname hints, the ruffed grouse is challenging prey for new and seasoned hunters alike. They are swift fliers, wary, and learn by experience the fine art of avoiding predators of all kinds. But by using a few basic principles you can start off on good footing, and with any luck, bring home a few ruffs for the table.

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5 Min
hands holding a long freshly milled board
Field Notes

The Lifecycle of Timber

The lifecycle of logging is both simple and complex. It’s a carefully balanced relationship between man and nature that allows for the production of everything from homes to solvents and even LCD screens, while simultaneously preserving the resource that makes it all possible. It’s important to understand the ways in which logging has evolved into a sustainable practice — a circle of planting, harvesting, respect, and renewal that ensures we don’t miss the forest for the trees.

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3 Min
two men standing in the woods overlooking a large body of water
Profiles

The Brothers Nielsen

For as long as either David or Robert Nielsen can remember, trees have surrounded them. In their youth, they romped among the towering white oaks, western hemlocks, and grand firs that surrounded their home on San Juan island just below the Canadian border. When their family moved to Bellingham, Washington during grade school, they spent their time hiking and riding dirt bikes through the forests bordering their town. So, when they both decided to go into logging after high school, no one was surprised. Chances were, a little of the sap they played in had soaked into their souls.

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5 Min
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Food & Recipes

Filson Food: Spicy Duck Wontons

One of the common misconceptions about hunting is that every time a hunter goes out into the bush or the blind, they come home with food for the table. Although this is always our hope, the reality is that we often come home empty-handed or with barely enough to make a meal, as is sometimes the case when duck hunting. When a day of duck hunting only yields two ducks for dinner, a good solution is to use the meat to make wontons that can even stretch into more than one meal. Wontons can be frozen before cooking and make a great appetizer on short notice since they can be simply cooked straight from the freezer. Most of the ingredients in this recipe can be found at any large grocery store; if not, they will have a suitable substitute.

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3 Min
venison chili, cheese, avocado, sour cream, onion and herbs in a cast iron skillet on a grill grate
Food & Recipes

Filson Food: Homemade Venison Chili

In my book, there is only one type of chili and it isn’t packed with beans and a scant amount of low-quality ground meat. A real chili should have chunks of high-quality meat in a rich flavorful sauce, no filler, plus some wicked toppings. Some people may say this isn’t “traditional,” but keep in mind that even traditional recipes are constantly evolving: the original chili of the 17th century is different than the chili of the 19th century. As far as I am concerned, this is 21st-century chili. Instant coffee, beer, and whole chilies and spices are key to building the deep, rich flavors of this chili. Thick, high-fat sour cream and freshly grated good quality aged cheddar make all the difference. And using venison in chili makes perfect sense, as it is much more flavorful than the more commonly used beef. Like any stewed dish, this chili will get better after sitting overnight and being served the following day.

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3 Min
woman holding a duck
Profiles

Elizabeth Losey: First Female Refuge Field Biologist in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Biologist Elizabeth Losey knew what she wanted to do with her life. “My favorite workplace was right in the middle of a marsh, listening to the birds and finding waterfowl nests and ducklings,” she said. But in 1947, such a career path did not yet exist for women. Losey—despite holding a Master of Science degree in wildlife management and conservation from the University of Michigan—couldn’t seem to land a job doing field research. She soon realized the disconnect. Potential employers, organizations like the Michigan State Game Division, were uncomfortable with the idea of a woman sleeping overnight in the field, even if that woman was a qualified scientist who didn’t mind using an outhouse.

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3 Min
logger using a tool to manipulate a log in a river
Field Notes

Lost Language of American Loggers

Fill a forest with five-hundred-year-old trees, up to a few hundred feet tall. Season it with native Americans, native-born pioneers, and immigrants from every corner of the Atlantic and Pacific. Into this wilderness introduce sharp tools, ornery teams of oxen and several thousand-pound logs pulled by wire and chain under tension. Add steep hills and log-filled ponds, rivers, or bays, where even a nimble logger might slip. While you’re at it, drag through a testy steam engine throwing sparks into a forest dry enough to be a tinderbox. Then borrow some sailors who speak and weave in the local jargon. Sequester these workers from the rest of civilization for months at a time. Distilled from this mash came the language of the North American logger.

A few of these words tramped out of the woods and joined the larger culture. Perhaps you’ve flung a few around yourself, without noticing the sawdust that clung to them.

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5 Min
erik linton holding a large circular section of tree trunk that has been covered in black ink
Profiles

The Tree Publisher: Erik Linton

Erik Linton has been a full-time artist for five years now, and has spent much of that time looking at the things around us that are easily overlooked. He tries to present those things in unfamiliar ways in order to enhance our appreciation of them. “Working with these trees, I’ve begun to view myself as a publisher as much as an artist: I’m merely taking these stories that have been written by the trees, some nearly a thousand years old, and sharing them”

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5 Min
axe lying on a stump
How-To's

Hafting an axe: DIY

Found in most any woodshed or canoe pack, or on the floorboard of most farm trucks, the axe is one of the most versatile tools available to the outdoors adventurer. A good axe can fell a tree, split kindling, hammer in a tent stake, butcher an animal, and, in the right hands, perform delicate tasks such as carving or food prep. Occasionally, Axe handles break, and replacing the handle can keep a well-worn axe-head in service and keep you from having to purchase a replacement. In this how we show you how to haft and axe

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10 Min
hand holding a silver tool and a black tool working on creating a floral design on a piece of dark leather
Field Notes

The Art of Hand Tooled Leather

Hand-tooled leather goods is an art form that combines durability and creativity, with a material that only gets better with time. Hand-worked leather has its own long history. In the United States, this includes items of everyday use like horse saddles, bridles, and other tack used throughout the old West from the 19th century to the present day. Clothing and personal items, like belts, wallets, gun holsters, and carrying cases for long guns like rifles were also popular and considered worth the time and expense of having specialized designs added to the leatherwork. Footwear for both men and women have been a staple of leather-worked designs as well.

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5 Min
exterior signage reading
Profiles

Horniest Tavern in the Northwest: The Lyman

Situated upon the banks of the Skagit River, next to the North Cascades Highway, the hamlet of Lyman has for over a century been the home to a varying selection of loggers, miners, fishermen, hunters, rivermen, and other jacks-of-all-trades. One thing most of these folks have had in common is they could, at one time or another, belly up to the wooden bar at the Lyman Tavern. They unloaded their worries to barkeeps, enjoyed some good conversation with neighbors, and eyeballed the occasional traveler passing though.

This is the part of America that, too often these days, seems to be disappearing. The local watering hole that served as the social hub, the place where—before we all became interconnected—one went to connect.

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5 Min
logger standing on a large downed log in the middle of a dense forest
Field Notes

Sustainable Logging For Healthy Forests

Over the last five decades, the logging industry in the united states has evolved considerably, and that is a good thing. Nowadays, when you hear a chainsaw roar to life or see a semi-truck rumble by loaded down with freshly felled trees, you’re witnessing the final stages of an incredibly complex process. A myriad of groups have weighed in, each one with a straightforward goal in mind, ensuring that the logging industry is sustainable and causes as little environmental damage as possible.

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5 Min
the bee's elbow cocktail, halved lemon, honey dipper, two rocks glasses with ice and liquid behind them
Food & Recipes

Filson Staff: Campfire Cocktail Recipes

A summer evening spent around the campfire is incomplete without something to take the edge off. We turned to Filson’s staff for a few fresh takes on our tried-and-true tin cup cocktails (i.e. whiskey slugged from anything that won’t leak). From a Texan rendition of the Hot Toddy to a no-frills Bourbon slush that’s downright dangerous, we rounded up 8 new recipes to keep your cup filled all the way through the dog days of summer.

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5 Min
roasted pork shoulder with foraged asparagus & wild spring onions in a cast iron skillet with charred lemon
Food & Recipes

Filson Food: Pork Shoulder with Foraged Asparagus & Wild Spring Onions

Spring onions are truly wild and much more abundant than asparagus. They can be found in drier climates in open clearings and among sparsely treed Douglas Fir forests. The challenge is that the green onion shoots often look just like grass. Look for clumps of 4–6 green cupped or folded shoots that all meet together where they come out of the ground. Use your fingers or a knife to dig out the root slightly before pulling them out as a whole cluster. Once you get an eye for them you will notice them absolutely everywhere.

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3 Min
silhouetted man paddling a canoe in a river
Profiles

Why We Must: On Diversity in the Outdoors by Eddy Harris

“It’s easy to imagine that Black Americans don’t ski, don’t fly-fish for trout, don’t camp out, don’t kayak or surf, and don’t appreciate nature – don’t do a lot of things. Somewhere along the way, the Black experience, at least in the eyes of so many people – Blacks included – became an urban phenomenon, as if living in cities precludes the desire and possibility of re-creating in the great outdoors and appreciating the natural environment.

I have done all of those activities, and then some. I fish, I camp, I hike in the woods, I hike in the mountains. I even like opera. I have canoed the length of the Mississippi River twice. If there is a reason we don’t see Blacks taking part in a lot of those activities, perhaps it has more to do with economics and exposure and less to do with the activities themselves.” – An excerpt from Why We Must, by author and storyteller Eddy L. Harris.

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5 Min
river meanders in foreground with bucolic meadow and snow capped mountains in background
Profiles

Our Stewardship Imperative: The Great American Outdoors Act

OR HUNTERS, ANGLERS AND THOSE DEDICATED TO FINDING ADVENTURE IN WILD COUNTRY, OUR PUBLIC LANDS AND WATERS ARE MORE THAN BACKDROPS FOR THE OUTDOOR TRADITIONS THAT HAVE SHAPED OUR HERITAGE; THEY’RE THE CATHEDRALS OF FELLOWSHIP IN WHICH WE GATHER WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY — PLACES WHERE WE CAN ALSO FIND SOLACE AS WE GET OUR BOOTS DIRTY AND SOULS CLEAN.

Sportsmen and women have a collective obligation to the stewardship of our natural resources and a duty to pass on this unique American legacy to the generations that follow us. Fortunately, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do just that. Right now, Congress is poised to consider the Great American Outdoors Act, H.R. 1957.

read more about this legislation and how you can do your part to protect the future of our nation’s public lands.

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5 Min
man pouring water into a measuring cup from a camp travel cooking supply box
How-To's

DIY Camp Chuck Box

One of the biggest challenges of any camping trip is having a proper cooking loadout. The solution is one that dates back to the 1800s Oregon Trail: the chuck box.
A chuck box is essentially a kitchen in a box. It stores your cooking stove, fuel, pots, pans, utensils, and food. When open, it offers a flat prep surface for a proper fireside meal and helps keep all of your kitchen items neatly organized in one place. Since a chuck box is portable, it’s very versatile as you can leave it the trunk of your rig or set it up on any flat surface. In this how-to, we’ve teamed up with Peter Capar to provide you with a full build design for a simple, customizable, chuck box using a single sheet of plywood.

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10 Min
person in a red and black plaid shirt using a hand saw to cut a piece of wood in a forest
How-To's

How to Build a Backyard Sawmill

My family comes from a proud tradition of loggers and woodworkers. My great-grandfather left his home in Norway and emigrated to Washington to work as a logger. My grandfather followed in his footsteps to work in the lumber industry, and my father has worked with wood for as long as I can remember. When my wife asked me to make some raised garden beds with her, I saw this season of quarantine as an opportunity to tap into my roots, expand my DIY skillset, and explore milling my own lumber with my chainsaw. If you have your own saw and a few standard tools, you can get started for a few hundred bucks.

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10 Min
smore with bacon on a wooden plate
Food & Recipes

Filson Food: Drunken Bacon S’mores

You know what a s’more is. They’ve been a camping staple around the fire for as long as any of us can remember. But what we have here today is a clever and boozy upgrade on a camping staple. Read the Recipe on the Filson Journal for Drunken Bacon S’mores These s’mores are irresistible thanks to their sweet and salty combo. Bourbon, bacon, and chocolate are the stars of the show and make for a campfire treat that upstages the classic version.

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5 Min
man leading two lamas up a hill by rope in a pine tree forest
Profiles

Charley’s Andean Mountain Climbers

When you first meet a llama, it can be disconcerting. Four long, lean legs merge into a barrel-like body, from which an impossibly long, lean neck protrudes, with a small head perched on top. Two banana-shaped ears stick straight up, each operating independently, like separate radar stations, continually pivoting this way and that as they take in their surroundings. All of this is covered in a shaggy fur that makes the entire creature look like a mad muppet experiment gone wrong. It can throw most people for a loop.

But after a few moments with a llama, all your uncertainties melt away. These highly social Andean mountain climbers quickly make friends with all they meet. This coupled with their sure-stepping stone grabbing hooves, long legs, and bigger bodies, make these Camelids perfect for hauling gear into the wilderness. That’s what drew Charley charley Rosenberry to them almost three decades ago.

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5 Min