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.

Zack Williams

Hometown: Missoula, MT
Occupation: Editorial and Brand Manager for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers
Conservation credentials: A lifelong angler and hunter, Williams has been a steelhead guide in the Pacific Northwest and is the founding editor of Swing the Fly. Williams used this expertise and passion for conservation to find a job working in the hunt-fish nonprofit space.

Zack Williams garnered his maniacal angling mindset from a childhood in the water-logged state of Michigan. This fanatic pursuit received a steroid shot to the arm when he found the steelhead rivers of the Pacific Northwest and took a foray down the Andes chasing trout. Now Williams has settled in Montana and scrambles through hellholes looking for elk and mule deer when he’s not standing up for public lands and hunter and angler access in his role at Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

Here is his story.

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

Zack Williams: I was fortunate. My dad had me waiving around a fly rod at the age of two. By the time I was five he was taking me smallmouth fishing on our local Michigan river upwards of five nights a week. When I wanted to start bowhunting at 12, he picked it up with me. I owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude – and my mom as well for allowing us to disappear at will to fish and hunt.

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

Zack Williams: Being a weekend warrior these days, I cherish the memories of extended periods spent detached from the hustle of modern life. A few cherry examples are four months in Argentina chasing trout down the length of the Andes in my 20s; two summers spent living out of a tiny camper from Oregon’s North Umpqua River to Michigan up to Jasper, Canada, and across the West with my wife, two large dogs and a cat; a fall and winter spent living in a tiny backpacking tent with my dog chasing steelhead across the Northwest. I look forward to future opportunities to detach like that again, hopefully with my wife and daughter if they’re interested.

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

Zack Williams: I’m always curious about what lies over the next ridge. Rather than dream of faraway lands, I think I’d choose somewhere I’ve never explored here in Montana, free of roads and with lots of downed trees, nasty November weather and minimal people, to chase elk or mule deer.

TRCP: How does conservation help enhance your outdoor life? 

Zack Williams: Everything I value, outside of family, can be directly traced to wild public lands and clean, cold water. Conserving those is everything to me.

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

Zack Williams: There are a lot of important issues at the forefront right now, but for me, number one is saving the Roadless Rule. So many of the quality experiences – and so much of the quality wildlife habitat – we have are dependent on having roadless tracts of public land. Beyond that, fiscally, it just doesn’t make sense to build more roads when we don’t have the funding to maintain the ones we have. There’s a lot of misunderstanding concerning the Roadless Rule – what it does and what it doesn’t do. I hope hunters, anglers and policymakers will take the time to understand the facts about it before the next comment period in the spring of 2026.

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

Zack Williams: I have a young daughter and would like her to have the chance to experience wild public lands and waters like I have. Beyond that, it just feels like the right thing to do.

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

Zack Williams: Once these places are gone, they aren’t coming back. As the man TR himself said in my favorite part from the Man in the Arena speech: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

Apathy is not an option these days when it comes to conservation – and a whole lot of other things it seems. I don’t think we have a choice unless we’re OK with seeing it all go away. Maybe it’s always been that way, but to me it feels like we’re at a very critical moment for public lands and waters. We need a new generation of leaders to stand up like those before us did.

Photo credit: Zack Williams

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