Hunting veteran named 'Unsung Hero' by Outdoor Life magazine

Brad Borden has plowed thousands of hours into bow hunting — with great success — but it is the thousands of hours he has volunteered for outdoors education and conservation that brought him into the ranks of 25 annual award winners recognized by Outdoor Life magazine.

The Flathead Valley real estate broker is one of six “Unsung Hero” award winners, “who in quiet but important ways are doing great things for the outdoor sports.”

Other award winners are recognized in leader, conservationist and innovator categories in the national magazine’s December-January issue.

“The Outdoor Life 25 is one of the highest honors our magazine bestows,” said Todd Smith, editor-in-chief.

“We look for people whose work has had a real and lasting effect on the outdoor community, and this year’s list of honorees is an unbelievable example of the innovation, hard work and good deeds that are taking place in the world of hunting and fishing. The contributions of this group are immeasurable and we’re proud to honor their work.”

Borden, 52, said he was selected because a friend from Illinois, Rex Easton, nominated him and somehow got the attention of the magazine’s editors.

“It must have been a pretty good letter,” said Borden, who was recognized for his volunteer work with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and for being a bowhunter education instructor for more than 20 years.

“I am honored to be selected. I think it’s probably more of an award than I deserve,” Borden said. “There are some pretty outstanding people on there.”

Borden said he and his wife, Shelley, joined the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s Kalispell chapter in 1985, and each of them eventually took leadership positions with the chapter.

Then they went on to help start other chapters in places such as Cut Bank, Glasgow, Seeley Lake and even Joliet, Ill. That’s where Borden met Easton, and they have been friends ever since.

Borden went on to become the foundation’s Montana board chairman, and then serve on the foundation’s national board of directors for three years.

“That’s hard to get to, and I started from the bottom,” said Borden, who no longer is active with the foundation.

“I met some really cool people,” said Borden, noting that two others on this year’s Outdoor Life 25 served with him on the foundation’s national board, one selected in the leaders category and the other in the conservationist category.

Borden is particularly proud of his work with the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bowhunter education program.

He was among about 20 people trained as the program’s first instructors in the early 1990s. By the middle of that decade, state law mandated the course for all bowhunters.

Borden recalls that his classes had mixes of all ages. But they always attracted a strong turnout of teenagers, who usually were quiet and reluctant to get involved with class discussions.

“Can you imagine how that holds a kid back, being in a class with a bunch of adults?” said Borden, who pressed Fish, Wildlife and Parks managers for a youth-only class.

“I finally got them to do it, and for the first four years, we had the largest classes of the year,” Borden said. “We had a lot of class participation because they didn’t feel intimidated.”

He went on to teach youth classes for 23 years. Over that period, bowhunting exploded in popularity.

Montana issued 3,200 bow stamps statewide the year he started teaching; by 2005, 3,600 stamps were issued in Flathead County alone.

“It was a very big hit,” said Borden, who hasn’t taught the class for the last few years.

Borden did tanning and taxidermy work for about 23 years as the owner of Glacier Fur Dressing in Kalispell, a business he sold about three years ago.

Over 40 years of hunting, he has focused almost entirely on archery, harvesting many elk and deer and every other kind of game animal with a bow, including a moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat.

“I love the outdoors and I love to help people enjoy the outdoors any way I can,” he said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.