In the Arena: David Brooks

August 26, 2025

TRCP’s “In the Arena” series highlights the individual voices of hunters and anglers who, as Theodore Roosevelt so famously said, strive valiantly in the worthy cause of conservation.

David Brooks

Hometown: Missoula, Montana
Occupation: Executive Director, Montana Trout Unlimited
Conservation credentials: While David Brooks has been at the helm of Montana Trout Unlimited, the organization has supported partners with dam removals from critical spawning tributaries for native westslope cutthroat and bull trout, monitored and researched cold water species across Montana’s beloved trout rivers and streams, and helped educate future generations of anglers about the importance of conservation.

After a childhood in Indiana and a collegiate running career in Colorado, David Brooks understood that he wanted to remain in America’s West. Luckily for him, he moved to Missoula, Montana, and quickly found friends that were willing to share their knowledge and a few select places to hunt and fish. Since those early years, Brooks has hunted big game and birds across Montana and as far north as the Arctic Circle in Alaska. This intimate knowledge of place has helped inform his professional career as Executive Director of Montana Trout Unlimited.

Here is his story.

Brooks after a successful, snowy whitetail hunt in Montana.

TRCP: How were you introduced to hunting, fishing, and the outdoors? Who introduced you?

David Brooks: The grace and generosity of friends introduced me to hunting, fishing, and most of my outdoor pursuits. When I moved from the Midwest to southern Colorado for my undergraduate studies, I did so mostly to run cross country and track for Coach Joe I. Vigil at Adams State College. Though I was mainly focused on running and school, I began to meet people who spent their falls stalking elk in the San Juan Mountains, their springs and summers casting flies for wild trout in tributaries that flowed out of those same public lands, and their winter weekends carving turns in the snow-covered flanks of the Colorado ranges. Hearing the stories of those outings from my non-runner friends planted seeds in the field of what my post-collegiate life might look like. When my wife and I moved to Missoula, Montana, in a pickup truck in 2000, I was fortunate to befriend a few people who had spent their lives hunting, fishing, floating rivers, backpacking, and generally reaping the bounty of the great outdoors. I slowly started acquiring the tools—a used Winchester .270, a hand-me-down Orvis rod, a third-hand raft. More importantly, these new friends shared their stories and let me tag along on a whitetail hunt, a trek to find native westslope cutthroat trout in a small stream, and on a 5-day river trip. The outings provided me with lessons on how to move in the woods, how to wield a flyrod, how to read water. The stories were of equal value in teaching me how to think as a hunter, angler, and lover of wild places.

TRCP: Tell us about one of your most memorable outdoor adventures.

David Brooks: In 2004, I was invited to float the Smith River, Montana’s only permitted multi-day float trip. Fortunately, one of my closest friends and mentors agreed to go and to let me bring my 15-month-old daughter. He provided all the gear. At the time, my wife and I had been modest backpackers, so didn’t own a raft, drybags, or any other river trip toys. This friend even let me try rowing a few times each of the five days we were on the river, while he kept one eye on my daughter and the other downstream. When I banged his boat off a rock, a bank, or cliff wall, he offered keen rowing advice rather than admonitions. He laughed rather than cursed and let me keep trying. After five days of staring up into the Smith River canyon and enjoying the special camaraderie that river trips bring, I returned home with an unshakable case to share with my wife about why we needed to start investing in river gear. And we did. Besides launching our love of river trips, which have been our summer family vacation ever since, that trip taught me about the value of stringing consecutive days of outdoor time together, especially hunting and fishing. The river taught me about immersion.

Brooks and lab Juno with sharptails in eastern Montana.

TRCP: If you could hunt or fish anywhere, where would it be and why?

David Brooks: With the exception of a glorious 10-day float-hunt in Alaska, most of my hunting and fishing has been in Montana. I have yet to tire of returning to the places I have started to know near home, nor have I tired of exploring new places within the state. Since turning 50-years-old, doing a DIY drop camp to hunt elk in a Wilderness Area in western Montana is probably my top priority. My clock is ticking for such a hunt. So I aim to spend some days in 2025 scouting camp and hunting spots for a 2026 trip. As for fishing, I have yet to catch a redband trout or a Yellowstone cutthroat trout in Montana in their native range, so those are both high priority goals. While I would love to hunt caribou in Alaska again or cast for a 100+ pound arapaima in the Amazon, the realities of my lifestyle increasingly point me in the direction of exploring a new section of a small western Montana trout stream each year, or learning a few more of the pinch points between elk feeding and resting grounds in the walk-in areas of public land I favor each fall near my home.

Brooks floats down a river above the Arctic Circle. Caribou in tow.

TRCP: How does conservation help enhance your outdoor life?

David Brooks: In general, working in and learning about conservation issues always adds a layer to my time outdoors. When a conservation measure like Hoot Owl restrictions are implemented on Montana rivers, it makes me think more keenly about how water quality, like temperature, affects trout health and behavior. It pushes me to learn more about where cold water refugia are in a stretch of river or stream, such as upwellings of groundwater, springs and, of course, cold tributaries and, hence, where fish will be moving and how they will be feeding. Conservation introduces me to new places. When MTU joined our National TU staff in pursuing the removal of an old dam from the Rattlesnake Wilderness Area, working on that effort drew me farther and deeper than I had ever been in a Wilderness Area that is essentially in my backyard and where I regularly recreate. Knowing the conservation challenges that our streams, rivers, and lands face increases the gratitude I feel for each close encounter I have with a native trout, elk, whitetail deer, or sharptail grouse.

TRCP: What are the major conservation challenges where you live?

David Brooks: It is hard not to wear my MTU hat when thinking about the biggest conservation challenge where I live. From that vantage, I think diminishing and changing patterns of flow in our streams and rivers has to be near the top of the worry list. Climate change is making year-round precipitation less certain and altering the timing. We are seeing more short, weak winters. Even when winter snowpack reaches historic norms, like this year across much of the state, that snow begins melting earlier and across a ‘longer spring’ so that we don’t see normal peak runoff. And then flows quickly fall to base or below baseflow. Low, increasingly warm water lasts longer into fall. More such drought years in a row without the reprieve of truly good water years in between is the biggest challenge to maintaining or recovering healthy native and wild trout populations statewide. Concurrently, I don’t know of a single diminishing demand on water.

Brooks (left) drifts a fly under the watchful eye of his daughter Sage.

TRCP: Why is it important to you to be involved in conservation?

David Brooks: I have a daughter. In conservation, we often talk about passing on the world to the next generation(s) in as good or better shape than we found it. Besides the innate value of ecosystems, what higher purpose for being in conservation is there?

TRCP: Why should conservation matter to the next generation of hunters and anglers?

David Brooks: While I have said that the highest reason to be involved in conservation is to pass on places in better shape to the next generation than we found them, those of us at a certain age and in our late careers in conservation need the next generation of hunters and anglers. We need their creativity and energy for the variety and complexity of conservation issues we face. And, more soberingly, if young hunters and anglers don’t care about conservation, chances are that many of the places they hunt or fish will be gone or greatly diminished within their lifetimes. There will be many places that they might discover as rich hunting and fishing grounds that will wither to a poor imitation of their current selves or disappear completely.

Photo credits: David Brooks

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by: Ryan Lockwood

posted in: In the Arena

July 23, 2025

In the Arena: Sergio Diaz

TRCP’s “In the Arena” series highlights the individual voices of hunters and anglers who, as Theodore Roosevelt so famously said, strive valiantly in the worthy cause of conservation.

Sergio Diaz

Hometown: Sayville, New York
Occupation: IT professional by trade, and part-time professional photographer and filmmaker focused on storytelling tied to nature, conservation, and outdoors subject matter
Conservation credentials: Diaz harnesses his adventurous fishing spirit, a gift for outdoor photography, and a prominent platform on social media to advocate for marine conservation, inspiring and helping educate saltwater anglers.

Besides sharing his captivating shots of recreational fishing feats with conservation groups like TRCP and Safeguard the Seas, Diaz has donated his breathtaking underwater shots of striped bass to the Bayshore Saltwater Flyrodders of New Jersey and has been invited to speak at several fly fishing clubs in New York and New Jersey, where he focuses on the importance of safer catch and release practices. Diaz volunteers for the Manhattan Cup, a fishing tournament in New York City that benefits veterans, to shoot photos and video. Currently, he’s working with TRCP partner Bonefish & Tarpon Trust to plan a trip to document the planting of mangroves and habitat restoration in the Bahamas or Caribbean.

Here is his story.

Some of my earliest memories are from when I lived in the state of Tabasco, Mexico. My father was a military officer in the army, and during those years, the local fisheries were incredibly abundant. We had easy access to rivers and a coastline full of tarpon, snook, tropical gar, and jacks. It wasn’t unusual to see all of those species in a single morning.

Those early experiences with my father, learning how to cast and being immersed in such a diverse ecosystem (so yes, full of biting insects), left a lasting impression on me. They taught me to value wild places and understand the importance of protecting them, especially because, back then, conservation wasn’t practiced the way we know it today.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to experience incredible moments on the water. Recently, while wading the flats of Inagua, Bahamas, looking for bonefish, I spotted something large floating almost motionless along a channel. As I got closer, I realized it was a big barracuda, perfectly still and clearly waiting to ambush prey.

Hoping for a shot at this trophy fish, I quickly clipped my leader, tied on wire, and rigged a large white deceiver fly to try and trigger a strike. Luckily, the barracuda was still holding in place by the time I was ready. On my second cast, she hit so fast I barely saw it happen.

I fought her in the shallow flat, where I could truly appreciate her size and watch her leap into the air several times. An amazing fish—and a moment I won’t forget.

There are so many remote angling destinations still on my list. But if I could fish anywhere, I’d have to say I’d go back to Hawaii to wade for big bonefish. The first time I visited was on my honeymoon, and while fishing wasn’t exactly on the itinerary, I couldn’t help but notice bonefish cruising the flats and hear talk of people targeting them. At the time, I had to let it go, but ever since, the idea of returning has stuck with me, especially after seeing videos of those massive fish. Hawaii is home to some of the biggest bonefish in the world, and the thought of sight fishing for them in such a stunning, remote setting is just too good to resist.

“Being involved in conservation means protecting the waters, habitats, and species we rely on, so the fish are still there tomorrow.“

Conservation is at the heart of my fishing life because the health of the resource is everything. I love everything about fishing – not just catching fish, but the whole experience of being involved in nature, reading the water, and connecting with wild places. Without healthy ecosystems and abundant fish populations, that experience simply wouldn’t exist.

Overfishing and water quality are the biggest conservation challenges where I live in coastal New York. Pressure from recreational and commercial fishing has led to reduced populations of key species like striped bass. A critical part of addressing this is the need to conserve menhaden, commonly known where I live as “bunker,” as an essential forage fish that striped bass and other gamefish species depend on for food. At the same time, water quality degradation from nitrogen pollution, mainly due to septic systems and runoff, continues to destroy habitats and create aquatic dead zones.

Conservation ensures that the waters I fish today will still be there tomorrow, full of life and possibility. It’s about respecting the resource, practicing catch and release when appropriate, and supporting efforts that protect habitats and biodiversity. For me, being a responsible angler goes hand in hand with being a good steward of the places I love.

I feel compelled to do my part in conservation because I want the next generation to experience the same connection to fishing that I’ve been lucky to have. Fishing isn’t just a pastime. It teaches respect for the environment and shows the value of healthy ecosystems. Being involved in conservation means protecting the waters, habitats, and species we rely on, so the fish are still there tomorrow, not just today. It’s about giving back to a resource that’s given me so much.

If we don’t take care of the land and water now, there won’t be anything left to hunt or fish later. Conservation helps to keep the traditions alive – the early mornings on the water, the stories, the connection to nature. If we want to continue to enjoy the outdoors, we have to protect them.

Banner image credit Sergio Diaz

by: Noah Davis

posted in: In the Arena

July 17, 2025

In the Arena: Dr. Carolyn Mahan

TRCP’s “In the Arena” series highlights the individual voices of hunters and anglers who, as Theodore Roosevelt so famously said, strive valiantly in the worthy cause of conservation.

Dr. Carolyn Mahan

Hometown: State College, Pennsylvania
Occupation: Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies, Penn State Altoona
Conservation credentials: Dr. Carolyn Mahan has spent her professional career researching topics to improve conservation across America and the world. Currently, Dr. Mahan’s research interests include wildlife use of human-modified landscapes, management of public lands, and squirrel ecology. Her research has been widely published and cited in top science journals, and she currently serves on Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s Advisory Council for Conservation.

Dr. Mahan has researched wildlife around the globe but loves the diverse world of the Appalachian Mountains she calls home. Her education and research combined with passions for hunting and fishing make her a fantastic educator in the Penn State University system, as well as an invaluable expert when working with the oil and gas industry on conservation. Dr. Mahan lives a life that takes active steps toward a future where humans and wildlife can coexist.

Here is her story.

TRCP: How were you introduced to hunting, fishing, and the outdoors? Who introduced you?

Dr. Mahan: I always loved nature, hiking, bird watching, and wildlife. However, my husband, Kurt Engstrom, introduced me to fishing and hunting while we were dating and both students at the University of Connecticut in the late 1980s. At first, I would just accompany him in the forest and watch wildlife. Gradually, I learned how to fish for bass and trout. Finally, once we moved to Pennsylvania, I began to hunt whitetail deer.

Dr. Mahan with a British Columbia bull trout.

TRCP: Tell us about one of your most memorable outdoor adventures.

Dr. Mahan: I have had so many memorable experiences in nature locally, nationally, and internationally. However, a seemingly small natural event occurs every year on my back porch, and I treasure seeing it. In late March, a pair of Carolina wrens inevitably chooses my laundry apron, the pocket of my hunting coat, or my window box as a place to build their beautiful moss-covered, domed nest. This event is one of the first signs of spring for me and my family, and we watch the wren pair as they lay their four eggs, incubate them, and eventually fledge their babies. This annual event is an on-going sign that, perhaps, humans and wildlife can travel together into the future.

TRCP: If you could hunt or fish anywhere, where would it be and why?

Dr. Mahan: I would like to go on a pack trip on horses into the western backcountry to hunt for elk. I grew up riding horses, so this would combine things that I love. Fishing for Atlantic salmon in the UK or brook trout in Labrador would be amazing as well.

TRCP: How does conservation help enhance your outdoor life?

Dr. Mahan: My entire life is conservation. I am a professor who teaches courses in conservation to undergraduate students at Penn State, and I conduct research on conservation of all types of wildlife (native pollinators, breeding birds, carnivores, small mammals, and rare species) in human-modified landscapes such as oil and gas pipelines. So, every time that I am in the outdoors for work or play, I am thinking about conservation and how to create and restore landscapes where humans and wildlife can coexist.

TRCP: What are the major conservation challenges where you live?

Dr. Mahan: I used to think that habitat loss was the biggest threat to wildlife. Habitat loss is still a critical factor impacting wildlife, but we are learning to manage landscapes so that both humans and wildlife can occupy the landscape. In terms of drastic wildlife losses, the spread of infectious diseases caused, in part, by globalization, climate change, and human activities (e.g, game farming), is the biggest challenge. Infectious diseases and pathogens like Chronic Wasting Disease, White-nosed Syndrome, West Nile Virus, and Avian Malaria has caused sudden and drastic health threats to whitetail Deer, North American bats, ruffed grouse, and songbirds respectively. In addition, non-native species including Japanese knotweed, stilt grass, spotted lanternfly, hemlock woolly adelgid, and emerald ash borer have changed the species composition of Pennsylvania forests over the past few decades.

TRCP: Why is it important to you to be involved in conservation?

Dr. Mahan: Aldo Leopold wrote that “one of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” I feel that quote everyday as I see the changes in wildlife populations and forest composition that I previously mentioned, and sadly, many of these negative changes are unnoticed by the general public. People can make a difference, however, through their actions. Actions may include removing non-native species, planting a native tree, growing native forbs, teaching others to cherish nature, being conscientious about what you purchase, and assisting in wildlife management.

Dr. Mahan on a Pennsylvania pheasant hunt.

TRCP: Why should conservation matter to the next generation of hunters and anglers?

Dr. Mahan: In the United States, conservation is funded at the governmental level primarily by taxes on hunting and fishing equipment and hunting/fishing license sales. If you are a hunter or an angler, your money is used for conservation. Newcomers to these past times should learn about ways that their funds are used and assist state officials in explaining the importance of hunters and anglers in their role as conservationists. I also hope that hunters and anglers will focus on more than just the species that they harvest. Conservationists should care about all species of native wildlife because healthy, functioning ecosystems are critical for sustainable hunting and fishing.

Photo credits: Dr. Carolyn Mahan

by: Ryan Lockwood

posted in: In the Arena

May 1, 2025

In the Arena: Capt. John McMurray

TRCP’s “In the Arena” series highlights the individual voices of hunters and anglers who, as Theodore Roosevelt so famously said, strive valiantly in the worthy cause of conservation.

John McMurray

Hometown: Oceanside, New York
Occupation: Fishing guide/charter boat captain
Conservation credentials: McMurray has been the executive director of the Coastal Conservation Association New York and director of grant programs at the Norcross Wildlife Foundation. He was also a legislative proxy for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and served for a decade as New York’s recreational representative on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

Capt. John McMurray hails as a renowned big tuna and striped bass charter captain based on Long Island, New York. The hard-charging captain has been the owner and primary operator of One More Cast Charters, Inc. for more than twenty years, where he charters trips far offshore on seaworthy Contenders and inshore on smaller skiffs. McMurray has been a leader with the New York arm of the Coastal Conservation Association and a long-time advocate for menhaden conservation. He’s also served in the U.S. Coast Guard as a coxswain and law enforcement officer, and for 16 years served as the director of grant programs at the Norcross Wildlife Foundation, which distributed over $20 million in grants that largely targeted the protection of marine fish and habitat. Driven to fish hard for his clients without respite during major runs, he’s out on the water almost every day of the season, rain or shine – including a running timeslot every other Sunday he sets aside to take his son and his friends fishing on what he refers to as “Bro-day.”

McMurray is an oft-published outdoor writer, who currently blogs for the Marine Fish Conservation Network and has had feature articles/photography published in On The Water, Saltwater Fly Fishing, and The New York Times. A decade ago he penned a weekly conservation blog for TRCP.

Here is his story.

No one ever really introduced me to the outdoors. I didn’t really come from an outdoorsy family. Just kinda got into it myself. There was a local pond we’d go to in northern Virginia. I started out with bluegills, graduated to catfish, then largemouths in the Potomac. I later enlisted in the Coast Guard, which brought me to New York, where I discovered striped bass and became a full-on addict. Eventually I got into tuna fishing. At that point fishing kinda became my life.

I guess my most memorable outdoor adventure was at that local pond, there was a “giant” catfish (I’m sure it was probably more than one) that would break people off, stole at least one “dead-sticked” rod. No one could ever land it. Eventually, one year (I think I was 9) I stuck it, did a lap around the pond while a small crowd gathered as I landed it. It was not “big” really, maybe 10 lbs., but back then? It was HUGE! I was an instant legend (in my own mind anyway).

If I could fish anywhere in the world, honestly, it would be Long Island, New York, man. Believe it or not, we’ve got one of THE best fisheries in the world. Incredibly abundant striped bass populations. The sight/flats fishing is GREAT in the spring and the fall blitz fishery is Nat Geo-type stuff. We’ve also got an extraordinary giant tuna fishery within sight of land. Mid-shore the recreational size bluefin fishery is awesome too. Fish in the 150, even 200 lb.-range can be caught on spin gear! Offshore? We’ve got an insane yellowfin tuna fishery. We get 100 lb. fish on poppers regularly.

Conservation enhances what I do because it creates abundance, and abundance equals opportunity. The main conservation challenge off of Long Island is that A LOT of our fisheries revolve around menhaden aggregations. We get the menhaden schools, we get predators. Every year though, the large-scale processors in Virginia sail purse-seine boats and fly spotter planes up here. They sit right off the 3-mile line and rake up hundreds of thousands of pounds of menhaden, effectively shutting down bluefin and striped bass runs. It REALLY sucks.

“If we deplete forage fish stocks, those predator fish ain’t coming around.“

I’m involved in conservation efforts out of enlightened self-interest. I need there to be an abundance of both predators and forage fish around to be successful at the catching part. My business emphasizes the experience fishing brings rather than just filling coolers. So a fish in the water is WAY more beneficial than a dead one on the dock. It’s not really how many I can kill that’s important, but how many we can catch.

It’s obvious to me why conservation should matter to our next generation of anglers. We kill too many predator fish now, there won’t be any left for my kids. If we deplete forage fish stocks, those predator fish ain’t coming around. For me, or for future generations.

All images credit John McMurray

by: Noah Davis

posted in: In the Arena

March 27, 2025

In the Arena: Leland Brown

TRCP’s “In the Arena” series highlights the individual voices of hunters and anglers who, as Theodore Roosevelt so famously said, strive valiantly in the worthy cause of conservation.

Leland Brown

Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Occupation: North American Non-lead Partnership co-founder / Oregon Non-lead Hunting Education Program Manager / Ph.D. candidate Portland State University
Conservation credentials: Brown carries a degree in environmental biology and is currently researching the terminal performance of hunting ammunition for his Ph.D. at Portland State University.

After graduating with a degree in environmental biology, Brown started working professionally conducting invasive species management projects and taught himself to hunt on his own time. Since then, Brown has hunted big game and upland birds across the West, most recently in Oregon. After realizing the unintended impacts lead left in carcasses and gut piles of shot animals has on scavenging birds of prey as well as other mammals and birds that feed on the carrion, Brown co-founded the North American Non-lead Partnership, which promotes voluntary best management practices, including the use of lead-free ammunition.

Here is his story.

TRCP: How were you introduced to hunting, fishing, and the outdoors? Who introduced you?

Brown: I was originally introduced to fishing and the outdoors growing up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. My family would go fishing in the rivers and lakes in the White Mountains, and I have hiked and camped my whole life. I had always been interested in hunting but didn’t have mentors who hunted to teach me how.

My older brother started hunting as a teenager with friends. He really introduced me to the mechanics of shooting and hunting. During university, that interest in hunting was cemented as I learned even more about hunting as a wildlife management tool, and the broader contribution to conservation. After graduating with a degree in environmental biology I started working professionally conducting invasive species management projects and taught myself to hunt on my own time. I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of talented hunters over the years and am always learning from people. I love to hunt and fish, and I like being with good people almost as much as the act of hunting or fishing.

TRCP: Tell us about one of your most memorable outdoor adventures.

Brown: I’ve been incredibly lucky in my adventures. It makes it hard to choose the most memorable one. I’ve done a lot of solo hunting over the years and had some incredible experiences in the field with no one else around.

One that sticks out to me was spending four hours laying behind my rifle in an open grassland canyon watching 15 cow and spike elk bed and feed. They finally stood up when a 5-point bull came up the canyon bottom and started barking at me. I made a shot on a cow 20 minutes before dark and finished butchering her by myself around 11:30 p.m. That solo experience was awesome, but the thing that really means a lot were the friends who dropped everything to help me pack that animal out when I needed the extra hands. Recently I have found a lot of joy in sharing time in the outdoors with my wife and other friends instead of going out solo.

Brown processing a mule deer for good meals ahead.

TRCP: If you could hunt or fish anywhere, where would it be and why?

Brown: This is a classic topic of conversation. I go two directions: 1) I love going to places that I have a past connection to. Continuing to experience a place and seeing the changes that occur over seasons and years whether it’s a river or a forest is awesome. 2) I want to go to new places and experience things I’ve never done before. Realistically, where has become less important than who for me these days. I want to spend the time outdoors with people who love the areas, love the activities, and I enjoy spending the time with. Whether it’s a place I’ve been 100 times, or my first time in an area, if I’m with the right people, then it’s where I want to be.

TRCP: How does conservation help enhance your outdoor life?

Brown: Conservation and the outdoors are inextricably intertwined for me. My professional career in conservation is so closely linked to the outdoor activities I enjoy that I cannot separate the two. Conservation and knowledge about the ecosystem inform my enjoyment of the outdoors. As is common with people who enjoy the outdoors, being involved in conservation—whether working on habitat, engaging in the process of wildlife management, choosing lead-free ammunition for hunting, or just working to make sure others are aware of the challenges we face—is a way to build a larger connection to our outdoor activities. Conservation provides the foundation and context for my time outdoors, both in making sure it’s there for the future, and in making sure my activities only cause the impact I desire.

If we want to see hunting and angling continue through the next century, I strongly believe that conservation cannot be lip service. It must have active participation from hunters and anglers, and we need to tell the story to the public.

TRCP: What are the major conservation challenges where you live?

Brown: There are a lot of challenges for conservation. One of the biggest that I’ve been focused on is either apathetic or unaware members of the community. For all the conservation challenges we face, we need engaged, active participation to be successful. One of the reasons I shifted from field work to engage more in conservation information and education is that I see the need across all these current issues—habitat loss, migration disruption, changing ecosystems, lead exposure, and disease—will require engaging with not just our fellow hunters and anglers, but also members of the general public. Not only do we have to engage, but we need to do it in a way that builds partnerships between different groups who may not have historically seen themselves as potential partners. We need to shift from conflict in conservation to cooperation to really address the wide variety of issues we are facing in conservation today.

Brown takes advantage of a prime window to glass.

TRCP: Why is it important to you to be involved in conservation?

Brown: A lot of people talk about leaving things better for the next generation. For me, being actively involved in conservation is my opportunity to contribute not just to the next generation of people who want to have these incredible opportunities in the wild, but also making sure that the entire ecosystem, including people, is in better shape than when I started. It’s a small way of attempting to give back to the lands and wildlife that have sustained me and inviting others into those places. I see the need for active efforts to promote conservation, hunting, and fishing that connect to building strong, resilient ecosystems.

TRCP: Why should conservation matter to the next generation of hunters and anglers?

Brown: Conservation, hunting, and angling need to continue to be connected for our outdoor activities to remain relevant and sustainable. If we want to see hunting and angling continue through the next century, I strongly believe that conservation cannot be lip service. It must have active participation from hunters and anglers, and we need to tell the story to the public. We have a lot of people in America who are supportive of hunting and angling. Conservation is one of the ways we can connect our activities to people who have never had the experience in the field and do it in a way where they leave excited about what we contribute to the resources owned by the public and managed for their benefit. Hunting can contribute to conservation, but we need hunters (and anglers) to be conservationists for us to maintain public support.

Photo credits: Leland Brown