Championing Conservation Through Education

Nimrod Society

Discover how the Nimrod Society unites sportsmen and sportswomen in the mission to preserve our natural heritage and ensure a sustainable future for wildlife and habitats

Our Mission

The Nimrod Society is dedicated to promoting the critical role that hunters and anglers play in wildlife conservation and economically through the establishment of state Wildlife Councils.

As a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, we are committed to educating the public about the importance of sustainable hunting and fishing practices. Our mission is to ensure that future generations can enjoy the rich outdoor heritage that we cherish today. Through advocacy, education, and community engagement, we strive to foster a deep respect for nature and a commitment to conservation among all who enjoy the great outdoors.

The Nimrod Society logo is the outline of Teddy Roosevelt's glasses.

Wildlife Councils

What is a Wildlife Council?

Wildlife councils are charged with promoting the positive aspects of hunting and fishing to the general public through accurate and factual education and marketing campaigns.

Who Supports Wildlife Councils?

Grassroots support, including hunters, anglers, conservation organizations and agency biologists, helps create a community of advocates for the Wildlife Council model.

Legislative Support is Critical.

Legislative action is required to establish a council and secure its funding. The Nimrod Society can help connect partners, agencies, nonprofits and stakeholders to engage lawmakers.

Complimentary to Wildlife Agencies.

Wildlife Councils help to ease the burden placed on state wildlife agencies charged with navigating a declining funding base but an increased, non-consumptive user base.

Why we were founded...

Longtime conservationist and sportsman Alan Taylor saw the need for a united education campaign to help the general public understand the vital role that hunters and anglers play in conservation.

Mr. Taylor has traveled the World and harvested most of the planet’s legally hunted big game with a longbow. Impressed by what he saw when the Colorado Wildlife Council started to initiate its media campaign, Mr. Taylor presented the idea to the Michigan Natural Resources Commission and Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Wildlife Council was born.

Be Like Teddy

A Sportsman. A Champion.

President Theodore Roosevelt was a staunch sportsmen and understood that hunters and anglers are the foundation for the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

Funding Conservation Efforts

President Roosevelt helped to establish the National Park system and understood the value of ensuring that land was preserved through conservation and wise management principles.

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Man In The Arena Speech

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

What Our Partners Say

Effective wildlife conservation requires the support from hunters, anglers and the general public. To raise awareness and support, wildlife councils provide that critical link between wildlife professionals and the public.

Rob Southwick

President, Southwick Associates

… That work, directed by the Michigan Wildlife Council, has been paying off, with surveys showing consistent increases in strong support for hunting and fishing across Michigan. The model is working, and we encourage every state to push hard to establish a Wildlife Council and protect hunting and fishing for future generations.

Scott Bowen

Director, Michigan Department of Natural Resources

Responsive Management has monitored public opinion on hunting for more than 30 years. These ongoing trend assessments demonstrate that states with quality public messaging and communications programs, particularly those implemented through state wildlife councils, maintain higher levels of support for hunting. 

Mark Duda

Executive Director, Responsive Management

Expanding and maintaining strong public support for hunting and fishing is absolutely essential to the future of our sporting-conservation traditions. Establishing policies and programming today to shore up and expand the high levels of public support we’ve historically enjoyed is therefore incredibly important. CSF has been a strong advocate for states to establish Wildlife Councils for Public Education for many years, and we are excited to work alongside the Nimrod Society on this critical issue.  Through this partnership, our collective work to advance the Wildlife Council model will allow both organizations to fulfill our missions and secure a bright future for hunting and angling in the United States.

Brent Miller

Vice President of Policy, Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation

Nimrod Society News

Enough with the Politics

Enough with the Politics

Wildlife Councils are the alternative to failing R3 initiativesIn Kentucky, the state senate is considering a bill to move the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources from the Governor’s Tourism Cabinet to the Department of Agriculture. As well,...

Benefits Depend on Participation

Benefits Depend on Participation

Wildlife Councils are the alternative to failing R3 initiativesPersistent and seemingly irreversible declines in hunter numbers haven’t been impacted by hunter recruitment, reactivation, and retention or ‘R3’ as the hunting world has dubbed it....

Wildlife Councils Are the Answer

Wildlife Councils Are the Answer

Hunting, fishing can't survive without general public supportToday, only 5% of Americans hunt and 15% fish, yet 70% of state fish and wildlife agency operating budgets depend on hunting and fishing license sales. Wildlife agencies are charged with...

Stay in Touch

Learn more about wildlife councils and how you can help perpetuate the role hunters and anglers play in conservation!