James Earl Kennamer Ph.D. serves as the chief conservation officer of the National Wild Turkey Federation. Kennamer has spent nearly three decades at the helm of the NWTF’s conservation programs department. Before coming to the NWTF, Kennamer was a tenured professor of wildlife biology at Auburn University. In 2006, Kennamer was awarded the highly coveted Henry S. Mosby award at the ninth National Wild Turkey Symposium; in 2005, he was honored with the Wildlife Management Institute’s Distinguished Service Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the South Carolina chapter of The Wildlife Society; and in 2004, he received special recognition from the U.S. Forest Service. In 1997, he received the C.W. Watson Award, the highest honor to be bestowed by the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Southern Division of the American Fisheries Society and Southeastern Section of The Wildlife Society for Distinguished Service in Wildlife Research and Administration. Also in 1997, he received the President’s Award from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

Q: How did you get into hunting and fishing?

My father took me on a dove hunt when I was 6 years old. That was soon after he returned from World War II. My father was the extension fish and wildlife specialist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service from 1946 until 1974, so I grew up with a great appreciation for our natural resources.

Q: What led you to a career in conservation?

In 1954, when I was 12, my father took me turkey hunting at the Ft. Benning Military Reservation. I really appreciated the beauty of watching the turkey strutting back and forth, thanks to the respect and love of nature my father had instilled in me. I walked away from that memorable hunt knowing I wanted a career that provided me with the opportunity to work with wild turkeys. It’s not often that a 12 year old is able to say with certainty what they feel they are called to do in life and then carry it through. I was fortunate enough to recognize my passion and then chart a course that would allow me to realize my dream. During the nearly 30 years I’ve worked at the National Wild Turkey Federation, I’ve not only been able to help restore wild turkey populations across North America but I’ve also helped forge partnerships between hunters and wildlife agencies, corporations and conservation groups and advocate conservation issues that are important to the NWTF’s dedicated volunteers and members. My son Lee also realized he wanted a career working with wildlife and followed my and my father’s path by earning a degree in wildlife from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. I’m proud to have a third generation of wildlife biologists in my family. But I’m mainly honored to have passed on a love and respect for the outdoors to my children and grandchildren.

Q: How did you get involved with the TRCP?

I met Tom Franklin when he was the policy director at The Wildlife Society. Since then, I’ve had opportunities to work with Tom and others on issues that would benefit conservation, the TRCP and the NWTF. Working together on these issues forged lasting relationships, and I have a great amount of respect for Tom and all he has accomplished in his career.

Q: What do you think the most important conservation issues facing sportsmen are today?

Sportsmen are facing many significant challenges today, but one of the most important is our need to preserve our hunting heritage. If we don’t instill the love of hunting and conservation in our children and grandchildren and introduce new people to the outdoors, there will be no hunters and conservationists to care for our natural resources in the future. The NWTF works through its JAKES, Women in the Outdoors and Wheelin’ Sportsmen outreach programs to introduce youth, women and people with disabilities to outdoor activities. Another challenge hunters face is finding land to hunt. Studies have shown that the No. 1 reason hunters give up their sport is because they don’t have access to hunting land. Since we know that hunters were the first and are the most dedicated conservationists, we must work to protect hunter access to public lands as well as focus on ways in which we can address the declining base of hunters through promotion and hunter retention. The NWTF’s More Places to Hunt initiative is one way we are working to help hunters find land to hunt. The economy also has presented some significant challenges, but the new Farm Bill, plus energy development and climate change legislation, will create opportunities for conservation organizations to complete some great projects that will benefit wildlife and our natural resources.

Q: What are your hopes for the future of the TRCP?

I hope the TRCP will continue to partner with organizations in the conservation community to conserve our natural resources and protect our hunting heritage for future generations.

Recently, I was talking with an old friend of mine who loves to spend as much time as he can in big, wild country hiking, fishing and hunting. Like most of us, he is a person of modest means. That’s not an impediment to his fulfilling his desire for adventure, however, because he lives surrounded by the Gallatin National Forest in Montana. In addition to nearly limitless places to camp, the Gallatin offers the public the opportunity to rent 24 different Forest Service cabins, located in wonderful settings, for $20-$30 per night. Most cabins sleep between four and eight people. You do the math!

During our conversation, which was sprinkled with stories of grizzly bears, good trout streams, big bull elk and a cougar sighting, he reminded me of a phenomenon I’ve witnessed – and even participated in – but never gave much thought to until he mentioned it, in a tone invoking pride and even reverence.

“Forest Service cabins and fire lookouts are invariably clean as a whistle when you arrive to use them,” he said. “That’s really something, because no Forest Service staff is assigned to clean them on any kind of regular basis. Keeping the cabins clean is the responsibility of the last people who used them. In my experience, most people try and leave them even cleaner and in better shape than they were in when they arrived. There’s a kind of an unwritten rule among users: You leave them better than you found them.”

I know he’s right about this, because I have swept and mopped a cabin floor, even when it was already clean. I’ve left a spare can of coffee for the next visitors, repaired a broken hinge, and made sure the wood box is overflowing with kindling and dry wood, all the time remembering how grateful I once was to arrive at a cabin on a cold, wet night and find a good stack of dry wood left behind by some thoughtful user who’d come before me. These cabins and lookouts aren’t just somebody else’s property, you see; they belong to me and my family and to you and your family and to a great many other people and their families. Along with this ownership comes a sense of value and pride – and just as important, the realization that someday my grandchild or yours may want to use them. I have a vested interest in them and the forests where they’re located, and so do millions of others. They’re part of the legacy that I was left and that I hope to leave to future generations. Like almost all who use them, I want to leave them better than I found them in the hopes that the next user-owners will do the same.

I believe Teddy Roosevelt had just such thoughts in mind when he set aside our great public land’s estate, realizing that in a democracy their ownership … by the people … would be the safest and best way to assure their future and continued well-being.

“My introduction to the outdoors is not your normal, ‘raised in the country, went hunting with my dad, lived near a dam’ type of story,” says Christopher Merritt, general manager for Beretta USA and TRCP board member. Instead, Merritt developed his love of the outdoors through his professional career in the clothing industry.

“I was introduced to conservation and its impact while I was working for Orvis,” says Merritt. “My first impression was that hunting, fishing and conservation were for rich guys who wanted to make sure ‘their’ hunting and fishing spots were kept pristine and forget about the average guy. I have found this to be false in the past 11 years in the outdoor industry.”

Merritt joined the TRCP board of directors in 2007 and has been active in supporting both the TRCP and the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance both personally and through his work at Beretta.

“Supporting the TRCP is my way of ensuring that every person who wants to hunt and fish has access to do just that,” says Merritt. “Whether it’s through the USA or through the TRCP’s hard work done at the federal level to ensure that there are funds available for states to provide access to anyone who wants to enjoy them, I couldn’t be happier with the TRCP’s results.”

Through his career in the outdoor industry, Merritt has become an avid fly fisherman and bird hunter. His outdoors experience also has inspired him to advocate for better access programs and an increase in hunter education.

“If there is no place for the average person to go, who is not a landowner, then Beretta and the entire outdoor industry is not going to be in business for much longer,” says Merritt. “If we miss one generation from understanding our sporting heritage, we will no longer need to worry about access. We have to continually pave the way for people to have the right of access to hunt and fish not just in parts of our country but throughout the United States. One of my favorite stories that Jim Range, the TRCP’s former chairman and co-founder, told me was about how people formed lifelong friendships with each other through the simple act of kindness of a landowner allowing a sportsmen to hunt or fish on his land and the respect that is shown by the sportsmen to that property. It’s like asking your neighbor for a cup of sugar and, next thing you know, you’re both eating a great piece of pie.”

These three toms were taken within 10 minutes of each other in northwest Indiana by Gene Clifford, retired Local 4 Indiana/Kentucky bricklayer (left); Joe Valtolina, union Sheetmetal worker from the south suburbs of Chicago (right); and Tom McNabb, union dispatcher for Roadway Trucking. Send photos of your outdoor adventures with a detailed caption to brianm@trcp.org. Whoever submits the winning picture will receive a navy blue T.R. Sesquicentennial Hat.