The wind came up quite early this morning.

It rus­tled through the trees out­side my win­dow, gen­tly thump­ing the blinds as it con­tin­ued through the streets.

It was a sub­tle sign, but a sign nonetheless.

It’s fall.

We’ve been see­ing small hints here lately – small twinges of gold in the leaves, morn­ings that hold that evening chill just a bit longer, the re-appearance of the pumpkin-flavored bev­er­ages on drink menus.

The fog of sum­mer lifts and we avert our eyes, and our minds, to things…more important.

Large racks of antlers peek out from blue tarps in the beds of pick­ups on the high­way. Blaze orange signs pro­claim­ing a friendly wel­come and a cold beer plas­ter the front of every bar. Large, heavy streamer boxes are unearthed from the bot­toms of boat bags. The soli­tary crack of rifle shots waft up from the local range.

It is the sea­son of the sportsman.

As such, we live true to the call­ing of our wilder sides at TU’s Sportsmen’s Con­ser­va­tion Project, and with hunt­ing sea­sons open­ing and trout mak­ing their yearly run, you’re not going to find most of us as our desks.

And in cel­e­bra­tion of such things – free­dom to hunt, free­dom to fish, free­dom to go totally freakin’ feral and roam these wild lands we work so hard for like a young bull moose – we want to share our sto­ries with you.

Over the upcom­ing weeks, the SCP will detail those adven­tures in a series of blogs. We invite you to stop by, sit for a bit and remem­ber why you love this way of life.

In the mean­time, happy angling, happy hunt­ing, and may the joy of the sea­son be upon you.

-Go to www.oursportingheritage.org for more information.