In an industry and community dominated by men, we often overlook the women around us. I didn’t grow up with any role models of women in the outdoors, but had many whose support made it possible for me to enter a world where women are not always encouraged to participate.  In most communities, women are the backbone holding it all together, the driving force that keeps us going. The outdoors and hunting community is no exception. Women who hunt are still the vast minority, des

In 2015, one of the largest outdoor retailers in the country decided to take a stand against the consumer mania of Black Friday. For the past four years, REI has closed its doors on the Friday following Thanksgiving, encouraging its customers to spend the day enjoying the outdoors, rather than shopping. They dubbed this campaign #optoutside, and it has had an incredible ripple effect through the industry, gaining a following from other retailers, outdoors enthusiasts, and eve

As summer approaches, outdoorsmen and women begin feeling a magnetic pull towards any body of water in their general vicinity. As they begin dusting off their fishing gear, fisheries managers check in with the underwater ecosystems and fish populations. One of our favorite methods to do this is electrofishing surveys. This is a scientific method involving specialized boats emitting an electric current in the body of water where the fish population is to be sampled. The fish a

Author: Emily Courtney Facebook shared a memory with me the other day. It was a photo of me with three of my best friends from college, taken during a fall hunting trip. We were posed in the woods, all decked out in camo, and laughing at something; most likely someone being ribbed for missing a squirrel earlier in the day. We had gathered at the family cabin of one of the guys in the group, and spent a weekend walking the woods together, shotguns in hand, and sharing stories