Brett Fitzgerald

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Born in upstate New York in the 1960s, I was brought into a house full of outdoors folk. Dad hunted and fished recreationally, and mom tended our small horse farm. She also planned family excursions to Lake Ontario or local creeks and ponds via horse, dirt bike, snowmobiles or just plain old hiking in and out throughout my entire childhood. 

The Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts only fueled my fire to experience and protect the wonders of nature. Ducking chores to chase trout and bass up the creeks from the lake to the local farms helped me understand the complexity and interconnectedness of aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and the importance of all of the critters that live throughout them. Further, I realized at a young age that the only people who weren’t as excited about nature as I was were folks who never experienced it for themselves. I knew early on that access was key to generational protection of the wild outdoors that I loved.

A few days after high school, I joined the Army, and after completing the morse code and intelligence schools shipped out to Asia for a couple of years. Fortune smiled on me as I was able to then attend Airborne and other schools and became a paratrooper with the 1st Special Forces in Ft. Lewis, WA. The military afforded me the opportunity to experience the outdoors around a good chunk of the world, which only increased my knowledge and passion for the outdoors.

After the Army I attended college in Tampa FL at the University of South Florida, where I completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Most of my off time was spent between fishing the bay area and acting as player/coach of the USF rugby team. A teammate passed along half of his fly-tying supplies and a vice one year on my birthday, and I was hooked – 35 years later I still tie flies on that same vice. After matches on the weekend I’d head to my grandmother’s house in Sebring, and fished the lakes in the area in the same rowboat my grandfather bought when he moved to Florida in the 1950s.

Work brought me to Palm Beach County, and when my first child was born I started writing (in between naps with her), and a second “semi-career” in writing was born. During the course of writing several hundred articles (mostly with my favorite magazine, Florida Sportsman, a dream come true) and penning one of their Sportsman’s Best books (Snook), I met many incredible people and organizations who were fighting to protect Florida’s precious habitats and our right to access them. One of them was the Snook Foundation, for whom I began volunteering as a writer/editor of their newsletter.

Some 20 years later, the Foundation has come to define a big part of who I am. I served as a volunteer, then board member, then Chairman and now Executive Director, surviving two name changes along the way [now the Angler Action Foundation]. The mission of protecting habitats, educating anglers and fishery/land managers, and helping to manage various gamefish stocks with the state and federal entities has been enriching and fulfilling beyond my wildest dreams. A true labor of love.

The relationships forged through the Foundation led me to the Cypress Chapter of the IWLA, where I plan to provide any assistance I can in support of the important mission and vision. With a focus on clean water, healthy soil, climate solutions and wildlife protection, I know I will be surrounded by like-minded people who will teach me more about Florida and help me be the best steward I can be.