Steven Rinella

“You find that our great conservation heroes tend to be people who had a radical engagement with nature. That involvement... breeds in people a sense of obligation to the planet and a sense of obligation to the natural world around them.”

“Typically, settlements, habitations, roads and major trails are in river valleys and on bodies of water. If you are lost, your best bet is to find water and follow it downstream.”

“If someone were watching from a distant planet, our beliefs might look like this: domestic animals should be more wild; wild animals should be more domestic; and wild meat is good, so long as someone else kills it.”

“As much as I can do things where I make lifelong partners and outdoor adventures with my kids and train them up and show them how to do it, then I get to do more of what I love, too.”

“There is a limit to political and public tolerance for sacrifice on behalf of wildlife.”

“If you hunt and fish, you're waging a social battle... about the validity of these practices.”

“Venison makes such a refreshing, invigorating meal.”

“Urbanites tend to view eating as an event, a form of entertainment. They want things that are new, refreshing, mind-bending. It's not a huge stretch for them to take their food interests in a new direction with wild game.”

“My first two kids were born in New York City, but there is a lot of exploration to be done just learning the natural history of the things around you. The tree-lined side streets of Brooklyn are predominantly sycamore trees, right? Why is that?”

“The thing that I've found is there's more to it than just presenting them with good options. You need to step in and be the authoritarian with young kids up until, it depends on the family, it depends on the kid, but certainly up until the point where they're teenagers and you have a dictatorial level of control.”

“People might say I'm a sucker for stupid gadgets, but I prefer to describe myself as a connoisseur.”

“From the time I was 10 years old, I was an avid fur trapper: muskrats, mink, raccoon, fox, all kinds of stuff like that.”

“Deer won't trust their eyes, and they won't trust their ears, but they'll always trust their sense of smell.”

“People often assume that 'MeatEater' is a sort of reaction against traditional hunting TV, but it's really not. I never watched hunting TV growing up, so I wouldn't have known what I was supposed to be responding to.”

“I think just by saying, 'Here's this thing, here's how I understand it, here's what appeals to me about it,' that works for people.”

“When you're out in the woods, and you hear a gunshot, it is very hard to place - where it came from. But once you're paying attention and you hear a second shot, you can place where it is coming from.”

“I guess I don't have a very delicate palate. I just like stuff if it's interesting.”

“Sure, hunters remove limited numbers of animals from the landscape for personal use. But with proper management practices and good habitat, those animals are back again the next year.”

“If you strip away someone's connection to the landscape, you risk losing their support as well.”

“Describing Wallace Stegner as an 'author' is like describing a grizzly as 'brown.'”