Dan Douglas, Chapter Chair
I began learning what conservation meant as a young kid. I was raised in a somewhat rural area just South of Louisville, KY, and used public land in and around Cedar Creek and McNeely Lake almost every day. A local development (golf course) created a tremendous impact to the area with a massive fish kill, loss of habitat, and introduction of large volumes of people entering the area that had been untouched by man other than agriculture areas up to that point in my life. The restitution the developers were forced to implement by KDFWR after the fish kill frustrated me (they were forced to restock the lake and creek, but not given any species requirements. They stocked with gizzard shad which quickly overtook the lake and KDFWR had to perform their own mitigation to remove them) and I could not comprehend how things like that were allowed to happen. I grew up fishing and hunting rabbit and squirrels. We regularly struggled to find public land available in the region and when we did, it was not typically the successful hunting my papaw and uncles often talked about. They had been from Eastern Kentucky originally where the public land was more abundant and had less pressure.
A few years back I took my first trip to hunt public land in the Rocky Mountains. I did an elk hunt in the Red Deer River area in Alberta, Canada. While it was a successful hunt, I also paid attention to the development in the area- even as remote as that is- that seemed like it was creeping into the preserve. Locals were allowed to run cattle in the area, “wild” horses were rampant which actually turned out to be livestock that local ranchers had turned out into the preserve when they could no longer afford to feed them, and utility cuts were there in a few places. Seeing public land, even that remote, being impacted again made me worry that more needs to be done to keep wild places wild. When my son was born, I started thinking more big picture when I tried to envision what our public land would look like for him and his kids in the future, and I decided to try to take a larger role in conservation.
Nick Hart, Vice Chair
A first-generation Kentuckian, Nick Hart is an Environmental Health Manager for Louisville Metro Government. Formerly, he was employed with Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control in the enforcement division, and worked with the Louisville Legal Aid Society prior to that. For 10 years Nick was a raft guide on the New and Gauley rivers, and continues to seek out adventure on public lands and water. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky, his hometown.
My family did not hunt and fish, but they gave me the gift of the outdoors. A friend gifted me a rod and reel for college graduation, and taught me how to fish. My wife’s family gave me the gift of the hunt. Like the community who has shared their time, patience, and knowledge with me, I hope to help foster the since of community BHA members share in celebrating the fellowship of the outdoors.
Nick Heebner, Secretary
I grew up in southeastern PA with my family and close group of family friends that were all active in the outdoors with fishing, shooting sports, and ATVs. My introduction to public lands came from regular camping trips with my family and friends. This love for being outdoors really grew when I was a student at Penn State, taking weekends and frequent trips into state forrest and game lands to hike, camp, run, and mountain bike. I had been interested in trying to get into hunting for a while but without a mentor it was difficult. However, after moving to Western PA, I decided to just give it a shot. After a year or so making a lot of mistakes and not knowing what i was doing, I finally shot my first deer with bow in 2013. I'm the type of person to jump head first into things. I say that because around the same time I was getting into hunting my wife decided to bring home two german shorthaired pointer puppies. As anyone who knows bird dogs will tell you, once you get into hunting behind dogs, it quickly consumes you. Now, over 10 years later, my wife and I most look forward to spending our hunting trips and fall weekends following the noses of our dogs, shotguns in tote, anticipating the next pointed bird.
Without the access and stewardship of our public lands my life would look a lot different. This is what draws me to the mission of BHA. We need to protect these places and the habitat our wildlife depends on
Samantha Lewis, Treasurer
I am an Eastern KY native. Raised in Perry County and now reside in Leslie county with my husband James and my son Alexander. We have a small homestead where we practice the stewardship of subsistence farming. This supplies 80% of our food supply via gardening, canning, and butchering our own farm raised meats. Other meat supply comes from our hunting and fishing.
My love of the outdoors began early in my childhood. My great grandmother introduced be to striper fishing on the Green River in Adair county Ky. Then when I married my husband, 24 years ago that love was rekindled.
The adage of “leave it better than you found it” is woven into ever fabric of our life’s.
I believe that such practices should be passed on to the next generation of outdoors men/women. We must lead by example and prepare them through education. We also must ensure their ability to have access to public land and water ways.
Colonel (Retired) Michael A. Abell, Legislative Affairs Director
I was born and raised in metro Washington D.C. in the 1970s, which was a real treat, but thankfully I got to spend summers with my Grandfathers in the rural areas of western Maryland, southeast Kentucky and northeast Tennessee. I graduated with a college degree in Biology and intended to become a game warden. A twist of fate landed me in the U.S. Army as an Infantry Officer. I loved serving my Nation and was fortunate enough to serve all over the world, in peace and in combat. The Army also allowed me time to earn multiple postgraduate diplomas, the last of which is a Master’s of Strategic Studies. After 26 years of total service, it was time to hang up my jump boots and put on my hunting boots. Now I am a freelance writer, hunter, fisher, gatherer, competitive archer and advocate for improving the future of my fellow sportsmen and women in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. My wife Aline and I are both BHA life members. We have hunted and/or fished public lands and waters all over the lower 48, Alaska and Hawaii. Those wild public places are a national treasure. They must be retained or improved for future generations. We intended to see that it happens.
Clayton Warren, 1st District Director
Clayton hails from the far western corner of Kentucky, where the rolling hills turn into river bottoms. By day, he works in healthcare management. But come the weekend, you’ll find him in the woods or on the water. Whether chasing game, scouting sign, or just soaking in the stillness of public land.
Clayton’s love for the outdoors runs deep. He was barely old enough to walk when his father first lifted him into a deer stand. As a kid, he spent endless hours running the neighborhood with a Red Ryder and flinging arrows from a fiberglass longbow. That curiosity only grew when his family moved to a home that bordered 64 acres of family land. There, he began to roam the hardwood creek bottoms alone cutting his teeth on squirrels. Over the years he gained experience across multiple seasons and species. When his father couldn’t take him, his uncle stepped in. Guiding him through spring turkey hunts and fall deer seasons.
At 12 he harvested his first whitetail. A small basket rack 7 pointer. It might as well have been a 160 inch buck – the hook of the outdoors dug deeper.
At 15, he experienced his first waterfowl hunt on Ballard WMA with his future father-in-law. A day that transformed his hunting obsession into full-blown addiction. Waterfowl became a year-round passion, sparking an intense dive into decoys, spreads, calls, and gear of all kinds. Clayton had become what the outdoor space refers to as a full-fledged “gear junkie.”
Now in his late 20s, he hunts nearly every season Kentucky has to offer and has his sights set on chasing game out West in the years ahead.
Clayton discovered BHA the way many modern hunters do—through the MeatEater podcast. The corner-crossing case grabbed his attention, but it was BHA’s mission that kept him coming back. The focus on protecting wild places, defending access, and putting boots on the ground for habitat conservation resonated deeply with him.
Nathan Kunze, 2nd District Director
I was born and raised in Daviess County and live there today with my wife and three young children. I grew up fishing in farm ponds with my grandfather but did not start hunting until my twenties. I enjoy deer and turkey hunting every year but my favorite activity these days is taking overnight canoe & camping trips with my kids on the Green River.
I joined BHA several years ago because I believe in their mission of protecting our public lands and waters. We are blessed to have so many opportunities to experience the outdoors in Kentucky and I want to be a part of preserving that for future generations.
Derek Towles, 3rd District Director
Derek Towles is a full-time firefighter/EMT in the Louisville area. Whenever he is not working, he is more than likely hunting, fishing, trapping, or doing something to support those hobbies.
Born and raised in the Louisville Kentucky area, he grew up in a hunting and fishing family. He grew up hunting and fishing mostly on private land with his father and grandfather. Derek states that he was blessed to be raised in a family that valued the outdoors and was able to grow up doing what others dreamed of. This helped him establish a strong foundation. When Derek was in his early 20s though, the outdoors became more than just a hobby for him. He started challenging himself, learning new skills and hunting in new places. He also picked up waterfowl hunting, fly fishing, trapping and even started going out West and began to learn all about backcountry hunting for big game on public lands.
The outdoors became his life, and everything he did focused on the outdoors and feeding his passion for gathering his own food. This love for the outdoors is why he became a member of BHA. He believes in the mission of BHA and is very passionate about not only maintaining our public lands and waters, but also doing everything we can to keep and acquire new lands and waters for hunting and fishing. He is also a huge advocate for conservation and wants to work to benefit the habitat and populations of the animals and fish that we pursue.
Scott Parkey, 4th District Director
Scott was born and raised in Rockcastle Co. with the Daniel Boone National Forest as his playground, where he wandered the hills and the hollows, camped around the cliff sides, and developed a sense of appreciation for the ruggedness and wildness of our public lands.
Scott has been a high school teacher and football coach for 25+ years. He and his family live, work, and play along the beautiful lands of the Green River in Taylor Co. They seek out all outdoor adventures like hunting, fishing, foraging, backpacking, kayaking, and hiking our American Public Lands.
Through the years, his appreciation and passion for conservation, preservation, and education of the gift of public lands and waters have only intensified. BHA provides us the opportunity to make a positive impact on our piece of the world so future generations can enjoy the peace, tranquility, and recreational activities our public lands provide.
Andy Schneider, 5th District Director
Andy was born and raised in Boone county Ky. He started his passion for the outdoors at an early age with learning to fish from his father. After graduating from NKU with a degree in construction management he began his career in the construction industry. After years of fish and a help of a friend Andy began to hunt deer and upland birds in his early thirties. This is we’re he learned how important public land and waters are. So he will help fit to keep what is important to us all. Public land!!!
Kenton Bottoms, 6th District Director
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James Lewis, 7th District Director
At age 9, James Lewis began to find peace and solitude in the mountains and creek close to his home where he and his mother cared for a quadriplegic father. As he carried his little fiberglass stick bow and a hand full of arrows he found many adventures traipsing through the woodsof Eastern Kentucky. His mother would often fry skillets of Bluegill and Rock Bass. he brought home from the creek.By age 14 he started bringing home small game animals that his mother would cook for him without question. This began a love of providing substance from the wild places he was able to roam.
As a young adult, he married his best friend Samantha Lewis and entered the workforce to build a life for them and eventually have a son. They worked hard for the education of Samantha‘s career as a nurse and now as a nurse practitioner.
At age 35 James decided to leave the modern workforce and find peace and solitude again in the mountains and streams that he grew up in. Soon he would begin to produce the majority of their substance from large scale gardening ,hunting and fishing. He quickly began to realize the effects that modern industries, we’re having on the beloved woods and streams that now furthered his livelihood. As many of the lands he could freely roam on as a youngster became unavailable due to mining practices and land leases he began to find the value in public lands such as WMA’s.
Now James spends much of his time practicing natural gardening techniques such as permaculture and exploring public lands and waterways for hunting and fishing opportunities. He finds joy in sharing these experiences with others and encourages them in their journey for natural and organic substance.
Nic Craig, 8th District Director
I grew up peeking under logs and rocks in search of snakes and salamanders in north Alabama. I was exposed to conservation issues at a young age hearing heroic tales of Lamar Marshall and Wild Alabama working down the road in Bankhead National Forest. It struck a chord which eventually materialized as a degree in zoology with a focus in biodiversity and conservation from Auburn University. I'm a software developer by trade and an adult onset hunter as of the sping turkey season of 2017. I'm currently cutting my teeth on upland and waterfowl with May, my small munsterlander.
Travis Burgett, 9th District Director
Travis Burgett is a native Kentuckian with family roots tracing back to Eastern KY. Travis started rabbit, squirrel and deer hunting in Gallatin and Carroll counties at a young age and has lived the majority of his adult life in Pulaski County hunting and fishing in the Daniel Boone National Forest, on Lake Cumberland and Dale Hollow Lake, in the waters of Buck Creek and the Rockcastle River. Travis enjoys hunting with dogs and startedwith beagles in the 1990's evolved into hunting with Deutsch Kruzhaars (German Shorthairs) and now with his two Deutsch Drahthaars(German Wirehairs). A well-trained versatile hunting dog can be a great asset in the field.
From duck hunting at Ballard WMA in far western KY to dog training on local WMAs to elk hunting public land and WMAs in eastern KY, Travis knows how important our state lands are to hunters, fishers and other outdoor enthusiasts. Travis looks forward to working with KDFW leaders and other key stakeholders to collaborate on raising awareness of public land and water issues and creating balance so that everyone can enjoy our public resources.