Back Cast

I’m going home this month. Just for a visit. Something I haven’t done in too long.

It doesn’t feel entirely right to call it that, considering I’ve lived in North Dakota for 35 years. Yet, it was where I was raised and buried my parents, so the handle will always fit, I guess.

I’m looking forward to the drive to the Pacific Northwest because I like how the landscape radically shifts and reshapes itself in 1,300 miles.

I could fly, certainly, but I refuse to leave my 13-year-old golden retriever for a week or more this late in his game. Plus, Ollie, who will have the backseat of my pickup to himself, likes road snacks and has never been to Oregon.

We’re going to fish some old haunts, rock-slick rivers I first waded years ago in high top Converse sneakers, with old carpet glued to the soles for some traction. This part I should be jacked about, but I’ve yet to convince myself that I am.

Fishing spots that used to be tough to hike into, but the effort was worth it, are now dotted with homes, paved roads, cul-de-sacs, people.

Change is inevitable. I get it. Even so, I don’t embrace change readily and likely never will.

When Terry Steinwand announced his retirement after 15 years as Game and Fish Department director, I immediately considered, selfishly, I admit, how his decision would affect me … and other people like me. People who hunt, fish, recreate outdoors not just because we want to, but because we must. It’s how we are wired. It’s how we were raised.

I covered the Game and Fish Department as a newspaper reporter for more than a decade and have written for the agency going on 19 years. In that time, no matter which side of the desk I was on, I was comforted that the decisions being made inside these walls were grounded in wildlife science and a deep understanding of the agency’s constituency – hunters, anglers, trappers, farmers, ranchers, the list is long.

We often talk and write about North Dakota’s strong outdoor heritage, so much so that I find it sounding cliché at times because we toss it around so much.

Yet, it’s true.

North Dakotans are passionate about the hunting and fishing opportunities afforded them, maybe no more so than the Game and Fish leaders making decisions that they believe best serve our natural resources and constituency.

What Terry will take with him when he retires at the end of July is an understanding of North Dakota’s unique issues, challenges and outdoor culture.

What he leaves is a blueprint for leading us into the future.