Giving thanks for great outdoors

We are so caught up in political correctness nowadays that I don't know whether it falls within the guidelines of acceptability to be thankful on Thanksgiving Day, or even to consider the holiday a national day of thanks giving. But since I've never been accused of being politically correct, I am going to climb out on the proverbial limb and say thanks.

First of all, I'm thankful to my maker for this wonderful world. True, there are challenges and struggles to overcome, but there is so much for us to enjoy, and that makes life worth living. We just can't stand around waiting for someone else to hand those things to us; we have to grab the fishing rod of life and go to work. You can't catch a fish if your bait's not in the water.

Speaking of fishing rods, I'm thankful for the great outdoors and the role it has played in my life. I'm thankful for President Theodore Roosevelt, an accomplished hunter and outdoorsman, who 100 years ago made the conservation ethic part of America's heritage. Through his efforts, vast tracts of public land comprising millions of acres were set aside for wildlife. While doing so, Roosevelt made sure there was a place for us on those public lands as well.

Those lands are now under assault from high-dollar, well-connected energy interests that want to exploit the land on one side and well-funded, well-connected groups that want to lock our public lands away from us on the other. I understand the need for energy development, and I understand the need to protect public lands from abuse and exploitation, but the answer is somewhere in the middle.

I'm thankful that I grew up in the West, where I learned to love its vast open spaces and despise the feeling of confinement associated with city life, where there seems to be a regulation to govern everything. I'm thankful for the chance to drink from cold mountain streams, watch mule deer through my binocular and listen to the bugle of a bull elk.

I'm thankful for a father who cared enough to introduce each one of us kids to the outdoor world by taking us camping and fishing. Thank goodness our Uncle Ted and his kids came along every now and again so we could really learn how to fish. And I am thankful to all of those people who spend time introducing their own, or someone else's, kids to the outdoors. Those kids are the future of conservation and those who will carry that ethic forward as hunters and anglers.

I'm thankful for the friends with whom I have shared my outdoor adventures and the warmth of a campfire. There is something special about the time around the campfire, something that can't be duplicated. It's there that friendships and family relationships are cemented together with the smell of wood smoke, the sound of crackling timber and the flicker of a million or more stars dancing overhead. It's also a great place to talk with your kids and learn about the person they are becoming.

I'm thankful for the game animals and fish whose lives I have taken to help feed my family. There have been times when the game meat in our freezer helped to carry my family through some tight financial times, such as the college years or this past spring and summer when fuel prices ate away at everyone's grocery budget.

I'm especially thankful for the freedom guaranteed each one of us by the Constitution and for the personal sacrifices of its creators. It is a perfect document that has become the exemplar on which other governments around the world have chosen to pattern theirs. And to those who have given their lives literally and figuratively as members of the Armed Forces, I give special thanks. It is your effort that protects those freedoms for me and my family while making it possible for us all to enjoy the great outdoors.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His "In the Outdoors" column, published Thursday, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the department. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at doug@takinitoutside.com.