In the Arena: Saravanakumar “Sav” Sankaran

October 30, 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.

Saravanakumar “Sav” Sankaran

Hometown: Asheville, NC
Occupation: Advocate for diverse, inclusive outdoor spaces
Conservation credentials: On top of playing bass and singing for the popular bluegrass band Unspoken Tradition, Sankaran has spent his professional life championing conservation and ensuring that those who might feel alienated by the outdoor community feel welcome.

The son of immigrants, Sav Sankaran was introduced to hunting and fishing by a friend’s family while growing up in Pennsylvania. These early experiences set the foundation for a life of chasing trout and birds with good friends behind good dogs. Working for over a decade in the outdoor retail industry, Sankaran has the expertise and passion to be a loud and persistent advocate for conservation and strives to make the outdoors a more welcoming place for all.

Here is his story.

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

Sav Sankaran: Despite growing up in an immigrant family with no direct outdoor mentors, I was lucky enough to have been introduced to the outdoors by a childhood friend and his dad, who included me in their adventures fishing for brook trout and hunting ruffed grouse and deer in Pennsylvania.

Those experiences were the genesis of my deep-rooted belief in creating outdoor experiences for people who may otherwise not have those opportunities.

The first time I walked a grouse cover in the Bald Eagle valley in central Pennsylvania, I was enamored with all the sights, sounds, and smells of the autumnal Allegheny woods. On that first hunt, a bird wild flushed and scared the daylights out of me, but I caught a glimpse as it disappeared, and I was hooked. I connected in that moment with the place I called home in a way I had never experienced and have found passion and purpose in the outdoors ever since.

Sav walks in on Chai’s point in Oregon’s Owyhee country.

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

Sav Sankaran: In 2023, with the support of TRCP, my dear friend and fellow outdoor inclusion advocate Durrell Smith and I drove 2,500 miles across the country with our dogs to explore and hunt the Owyhee in eastern Oregon. To see one of the wildest and most remote areas in the Lower 48 was an incredible experience, and to top it off, my dog, Chai, who was just over a year old at the time, pointed and retrieved her first wild birds—chukar—on that trip!

I made the trip with trepidation because of Chai’s relative inexperience and set my expectations low. If she could find her legs and stay out of the way of the more experienced dogs, I would have considered the trip a success. To my surprise and delight, she handled like a dream and loved every minute of it. We were walking the canyon rim above camp, and I saw one of our companions waving me over towards him and spied his German Shorthair on point. With little to no cues from me, Chai immediately backed the other dog, and they worked in tandem to relocate when the birds started to run. Before I knew what was happening, the flush came, I instinctively shouldered, shot, and dropped a double! Having done little to no work on retrieving yet, I didn’t expect Chai to know what to do next, but she immediately located and retrieved both birds to hand. I could not have asked for a better experience for her first wild birds, and it’s a memory I will treasure forever.

Sav and Chai take a quick break in the quail cover.

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

Sav Sankaran: As a grouse hunter at heart, my dream is to hunt all the North American grouse species and experience the variety of habitats and ecosystems they reside in. What cooler way would there be to see the country and gain a greater appreciation for the many species that I already love?

TRCP: How does conservation help enhance your outdoor life?

Sav Sankaran: So many of the environments in which I have had my most impactful outdoor experiences have been public lands that organizations like TRCP help support. Without robust support of conservation of public lands, folks like me would have a dearth of recreation opportunities.

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

Sav Sankaran: Unregulated development, habitat loss, and erosion are all huge conservation issues in Southern Appalachia. We are also a community that continues to recover from the devastating economic and ecological damage of Hurricane Helene, which has introduced a variety of challenges that compound the existing ones.

Sav casts on a southeast trout tailwater.

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

Sav Sankaran: As the beneficiary of the devoted work of conservationists to preserve and protect the landscapes I hold dear, I feel a responsibility to continue that work, and to ensure that those who feel othered or alienated by the outdoor community feel welcome. The future of public lands depends on a diverse set of stakeholders!

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

Sav Sankaran: Public lands and programs are under threat on a variety of fronts, there has never been a more important time to be a loud and persistent advocate for conservation! I also believe that a sustainable future for the outdoors relies on an inclusive, diverse set of outdoor advocates.

Photo credits: Sav Sankaran and Brian Grossenbacher

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by: Noah Davis

posted in: In the Arena

October 3, 2025

In the Arena: Brian Grossenbacher

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.

Brian Grossenbacher

Hometown: Cedar City, UT
Occupation: Photographer
Conservation credentials: Traveling across America, and the world, Brian Grossenbacher has become one of the foremost hunting and fishing photographers in the business. His generous spirit results in passionate support of conservation organizations and issues where his talent for visual storytelling helps educate hunters and anglers.

Brian Grossenbacher, fly fishing guide turned professional photographer, has shot commercial campaigns for Yeti, Orvis, Simms, Costa, and Mossy Oak. He recently surpassed the 300th magazine cover milestone and regularly contributes to Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Anglers Journal, Covey Rise, Shooting Sportsman, and many other publications. Grossenbacher also provided the photographs to the book Trout written by Tom Rosenbauer, as well as The Orvis Guide to Upland Hunting written by Reid Bryant. His skill with a camera and commitment to conservation makes him an invaluable member of the outdoor community.

Here is his story.

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

Brian Grossenbacher: My father and both grandfathers took me fishing every opportunity they had starting at an early age. My proudest childhood moment was catching a four-pound northern pike on my 5^th birthday.

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

Brian Grossenbacher: I was fortunate enough to be on one of the exploratory trips to visit the Tsimane Tribe in Bolivia to fish for golden dorado. It took us four days to get there, and we landed on a dirt airstrip that wasn’t meant to be seen from the air.

We hired the Tsimane people to take us upriver in their dugout canoes, and ate what we caught, including 12 monkeys that were gutted, shorn, and slow cooked over the fire. There were jaguar tracks in our camp every morning and numerous cayman that kept a close eye when we rinsed off in the river at night. We didn’t have a satellite phone, just a handshake promise from the pilot that he would pick us up in two weeks.

The fishing was outstanding. The largest dorado we landed was 28 pounds, but there were plenty in the 10–15-pound class. Looking back on that trip, it is amazing that there were no injuries…a broken bone out there would have been a big deal. The Tsimane people were excellent hunters with handmade bows and carefully crafted arrows. One night, I watched two young men string up their bows and walk down to the river and within minutes they each had a fish that they fileted and roasted over the coals of our fire. In the amount of time it would take someone to microwave a bag of popcorn, these guys shot and killed two fish (at night without lights) and ate them without a second thought to their next-level predatory skills.

Grossenbacher on one of his many travels.

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

Brian Grossenbacher: There are some isolated sections of the Clark Fork River in Montana that still feel very wild and remind me of fishing the Yellowstone River when I started guiding in the early 90’s.

TRCP: How does conservation help enhance your outdoor life?

Brian Grossenbacher: As a fly fishing guide and then photographer, I have been blessed to make my living in beautiful places, many of which have been protected through thoughtful acts of conservation. Unfortunately, many of the rivers that do not have conservation measures or proper setbacks have been affected by development with homes and manicured lawns built right down to the water’s edge impacting the valuable habitat the rivers used to provide.

Brave subjects and cooperative sharks make good photos.

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

Brian Grossenbacher: For the last three years, I have lived in southern Utah where water and drought are major concerns. The Colorado River system is overtaxed providing water for over 40 million people from numerous Tribal Nations, Arizona, Colorado, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and two states in Mexico.

Water levels at Lake Powell are critically low and some models suggest that we could see dead pool levels as early as December 2026. Dead Pool is the elevation where the water is so low it can no longer pass through the dam’s infrastructure to the downstream Colorado River. The potential for reaching dead pool threatens the water supply and power for millions of people in the western US and Mexico, not to mention the renowned recreation of the Grand Canyon. That being said, local conservation can go a long way to helping this problem. The residents of Washington County, Utah’s hottest and driest region, historically used 302 gallons daily, twice as much water as the average American, although they have reduced this consumption in recent years. Ironically, Washington County continues to consider the construction of a 140-mile pipeline from Lake Powell. This project is estimated to cost $2.4 billion and would pump 28 billion gallons of water 2,000 feet uphill across 140 miles of desert to provide 160,000 residents in southwest Utah with more water.

Grossenbacher with a bonefish that tipped the scales at just over 15 pounds.

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

Brian Grossenbacher: Why is it important to clean your gun or to sight in your bow or practice your cast? Conservation needs to be as important as maintaining our gear, sharpening our skills, and planning our trips. Simply put, if we lose the resource or access to it, then everything else is fluff. We as individuals must start taking personal responsibility for conservation. I don’t expect my neighbor to maintain my gear, so why would I expect them to protect my favorite river? It’s not enough to buy a license and assume you’ve done your part. Having a place to hunt or fish or hike and camp is a privilege not a right, and we need to do everything possible to protect that for the future.

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

Brian Grossenbacher: A lot can happen in a lifetime. We are only seven generations removed from the Lewis and Clark expedition and a time the entire western United States was wild. Today there are a lot of places you can’t throw a frisbee without hitting a strip mall or Starbucks.

Virtually everyone my age has a story about how they used to hunt or fish in a spot before the shopping center or neighborhood was built. If I have learned one thing, it’s that habitat destruction happens fast, and if the land is open and developable, someone will take it.

Roosevelt was three generations removed from Lewis and Clark and already the writing was on the wall. Without adequate conservation, our natural resources would quickly be in peril. Today those lands that he made into national forests and parks are starting to look like islands and habitat loss is widening the gap daily. If you want the opportunity to hunt and fish, then it is your responsibility to help conserve the very resources that offer that privilege. Otherwise, they will disappear or be sold to the highest bidder.

Photo credits: Brian Grossenbacher

by: Ryan Lockwood

posted in: In the Arena

September 17, 2025

In the Arena: David Mangum

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.

Capt. David Mangum

Hometown: Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
Occupation: Saltwater fly-fishing guide for Shallow Water Expeditions
Conservation credentials: Mangum is a YETI ambassador and outdoor photographer who utilizes his talents to produce media that inspire a spirit of conservation and educate saltwater anglers. He’s also been involved with the fish-tagging efforts of the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science.

Born and raised in the Florida panhandle, Mangum has developed his expertise for finding and catching fish from decades on his home waters. He is widely known as a tarpon specialist (some might say addict) who lands a list of top clients the chance to battle the silver king as well as redfish and other quarry in shallow-water flats and coastal marshes. A passionate fly fisherman with an adventurous soul, he’s guided around North America, from Alaska to Colorado to the Bahamas, and has been featured in an episode of the Millhouse Podcast. Mangum also is an avid hunter, who’s relished many annual winter quail hunts in Arizona. Despite all this, his pursuits aren’t just limited to professional fishing, hobby hunting, and world-class photography. This renaissance (outdoors)man is also an accomplished oil painter whose works center on his saltwater lifestyle and other nature-focused subject matter. Mangum even boasts co-director credits for “Huff – The Film,” a short documentary about another legendary Florida guide and close friend.

Here is his story.

Like many others, I was introduced to the outdoors at a young age by my father, Col. Denny Mangum, United States Air Force. He taught me both upland bird hunting and fishing.

I remember the first time I saw tarpon was with him. I was young and we were fishing in Destin. He didn’t see the tarpon in the water, but several of them “rolled” at the same time and I swore to him I had seen some kind of sea serpent. That memory stuck with me for years until I was older and realized what I had seen. I have often wondered if that was the formative moment that would lead me down the path to becoming a guide, and more specifically, a guide who is known for tarpon.

If I could hunt or fish anywhere, I would return to southern Arizona to chase Mearns quail. I spent many a January with my first bird dog, Bella, in the high desert canyons of the Coronado National Forest.

Conservation is necessary for the places like this, where we hunt and fish. Without the conservation efforts of those before me, I believe our outdoor world would be in desperate shape. Anywhere you look (with a few exceptions), our natural world has taken a toll. Less fish, less animals, fewer places untouched by our human hand. It’s only because of the efforts of those without blinders on that we still have the remaining flora and fauna which we share the world with.

“Freshwater is the lifeblood of everything that lives in the salt. It all starts there.”

I believe the biggest conservation challenge along north Florida’s Gulf Coast is water. The diminished flows and instability of freshwater rivers, with either too much or not enough fresh water, is one of the most influential factors on coastal systems today. The balance has been thrown off. Freshwater is the lifeblood of everything that lives in the salt. It all starts there. Where salt and fresh meet, plankton and zooplankton thrive and start the food web. At the top of that web is one of the most important fish in the sea, the menhaden.

Gamefish, birds, and marine mammals depend on the menhaden as their primary food source. These small filter feeders are essential to ALL creatures in the sea. Without the menhaden everything we see in our coastal ecosystems falls apart.

The simple reason it’s important for me personally to be involved in conservation is that I feel morally obligated to take action when I see problem. We all should! Especially those of us who make a living using the outdoor resources.

“Without the menhaden everything we see in our coastal ecosystems falls apart.“

It’s obvious why conservation should matter to the next generation of hunters and anglers. We just need to ask future outdoorsmen and women this question: What will the world look like if conservation isn’t important to you? Just imagine the current place you live, but without the sounds of birds, of insects and frogs at night. Imagine no fish in the water and no deer in the woods. That’s a world none of us wants, and that’s why we should all be adamantly involved in conservation.

Banner image credit: Jay Riley

by: Noah Davis

posted in: In the Arena

August 26, 2025

In the Arena: David Brooks

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

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