May 13, 2009

First blog for GNO — that’s Great Northern Outdoors for the unhip to the new outdoors site ling0. I’m pretty excited about this deal because I think it’s an opportunity to bring together a lot of the work that I do into one place and make each piece stronger, more entertaining and, most importantly, more useful to the viewers, readers and general outdoor nuts out there.

Who am I? Just a dude who lives to hunt and fish. I don’t just love it. Live it. But since my task here is to try and make people want to read what I’m laying down, I feel obligated to do what everyone seems to do: List credentials and qualifications. So here goes.

I’m the Communications Director for Michigan United Conservation Clubs which means I’m the Editor of Michigan Out-of-Doors Magazine, oversee the production of MichiganOutofDoors.com (still in the works at this time) and basically dream up all the communications tools and messages coming out of MUCC. We’ll talk more about MUCC later.

I also do a bunch of various outdoor media projects ranging from writing for magazines to working with Realtree and their site to, of course, the new venture you’re now viewing at GNO.

It’s my opinion that hunting, fishing and the outdoor lifestyle are not just passions. They’re not hobbies. They’re a way of life for millions of Americans. And I plan to see that it stays that way. Which is why I work for MUCC, why I write about the outdoors, why I’m part of GNO. I’m not content to sit around and hope that my kids have the same rights and freedoms that I have. I’m not going to hope that our leaders care about conservation and habitat and access. I’ve dedicated my life and career to seeing that happen.

I’m not going to wait on the world to change. I’m going to try and change it. Big goal? Probably. But, hey, we’ve got one go-round here. Might as well make it interesting.