Outdoor Life replaces Zumbo

Andrew McKean of Glasgow is ending his career as an information officer for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to become the hunting editor of Outdoor Life Magazine.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said. “It’s a huge honor. I couldn’t pass it up.”

McKean will be replacing Jim Zumbo, of Cody, Wyo. Zumbo’s tenure ended in a blizzard of anti-Zumbo e-mails and blogs after he wrote on the Internet in February, 2007, about his then-dislike of the use of military-style rifles for hunting. Outdoor Life and many of his sponsors bowed to the pressure and cut their ties with him.

McKean said he hopes to shift the balance of hunting writing toward conservation.

“Jack O’Connor invented the genre,” McKean said. “But he was very much in the shooting area and his pieces were based on guns first, hunting second.”

“I’d like to restore some issues discussions and remind readers of the role and responsibility of hunters as conservationists.

“We’ve got to be thinking about habitat and wildlife management. I grieve a bit about the relentless pursuit of trophies at the exclusion of everything else – hunting access and youth opportunities and resource management.

“It has almost been a genetic impulse of mine from birth, but working for FWP, the importance of these other things has really struck home,” McKean said. “State agencies are not well-funded. The resources are stretched. We’re limited in the scale of what agencies can do. We rely a lot on the hunters to manage the wildlife but also need active volunteers, whether it’s teaching hunter safety or raising funds, whether that’s the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the National Wild Turkey Federation or others.

“At FWP, we are really focused on habitat,” he continued. “Agencies don’t get enough credit for that, but it’s more meaningful in the long term. It’s working landscapes and public access to wildlife. I applaud that.”

McKean grew up on a farm near Unionville, Mo. He was also Montana editor for Fish and Hunting news and then was Rocky Mountain editor for the publication before beginning work with FWP.

“I feel like the opportunity to become Outdoor Life’s hunting editor came all of a sudden, but I’ve made incremental progress toward this through my whole career,” McKean said. “I’m excited about it. In some people’s minds, it’s the ultimate job in our industry.”

Robin Estes has been named as acting district ranger of the Newport and Sullivan Lake Ranger Districts, the Colville National Forest has announced.

The initial assignment is for less than four months.

Estes started her career as a survey technician in the Colville in 1981. Most recently she has been the Bureau of Land Management’s associate district manager at Coos Bay.