Every weekend, Indianapolis local William Judson is asking himself the same question: How can I get outside?
Turns out, in Indiana, there are quite a few options.
Whether he’s kayak fishing, hunting deer or wading through marshlands to install little homes for wood ducks, Judson is always finding ways to spend time in the outdoors. And preserving the Indiana landscape he calls home has become a sort of passion project.
Judson serves on the board of the Indiana chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a group of Hoosiers working to protect and preserve the state’s public lands, waters and wildlife. We interrupted his solitude while he fished along the White River in July to learn what conservation looks like in Indiana — and some outdoorsmen think it's more important now than ever. His answers are edited for brevity and clarity.
What makes you proud to work in your field?
The mission of BHA in the simplest terms is to be an advocate for public lands, clean water and wildlife conservation. In Indiana, only three to four percent of the land is public, as opposed to out west, where you’ve got millions and millions of acres of public land.
I guess I feel like it’s a necessary duty to protect something that everyone can enjoy. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, or your race, creed or religion — anyone can enjoy it. You don't even have to be a citizen of the United States. You’re free to be out there.
Working with BHA is kind of setting up future generations to be able to enjoy doing these same things like we want to. I do conservation work on my own private land, and this year I planted a thousand trees. I’ll be near death by the time I can sit under and enjoy the shade, right? But it’s so that someone else can enjoy it.
What is an issue in your field that kind of keeps you up at night?
Obviously, we’re always worried about those public lands being used as a bargaining tool by politicians. Like they can say, ‘We’ve got all this land, we can just sell it to pay for deficits or all these things.'
But once it’s gone, it almost never comes back to public hands.
Take a place like Texas, where it is primarily private — there’s very little public land there. To get out and enjoy a lot of that stuff, you’ve got to pay to play. You either got to know somebody or you gotta have pockets lined with cash.
What advice or encouragement would you give someone who might not be interested in the outdoors to start paying attention and become interested?
No one from my family taught me to hunt, but it’s like the University of YouTube, right? There’s a ton of resources out there to figure it out on your own. Six years ago, I was telling my friends, I want to go hunt out west. And then I went out and did it one year by myself, and I killed an elk, and brought it home. It was one of those things where you’re just like ‘Wow, I can do this.’
I can’t count how many days that I’ve gone out and it’s cold, it’s miserable outside, you’re freezing and you don’t see anything. It’s not a high point, but your skin gets a little thicker. If you can deal with that it helps you get through some other things that might be difficult to get through.
For someone trying to appreciate the outside more, you know — just step outside. I think it makes life worth living more. Find what excites you. And figure out how to get out of your comfort zone.
And what is your favorite environmental fun fact?
Whitetail deer can sometimes grow fangs.
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IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Sophie Hartley is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach her at [email protected] or on X at @sophienhartley.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Scrub Hub: Hunters and fishermen are helping conserve Indiana's public land
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