Aug. 18, 2012 Nashville, TN – Nationally acclaimed author and conservationist J. Wayne Fears was inducted today into the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame at an induction ceremony and banquet held on the General Jackson Showboat in Nashville. Fears began his conservation work in the 1960s in Georgia where he conducted pioneering research with private land wildlife management and with management of river basin systems. For over a decade, he was the wildlife management chief of 500,000 acres owned by Gulf States Paper Corporationand managed Westervelt Lodge and hunting operations in Colorado, British Columbia and Alaska.
Fears wildlife management career has involved working on five continents with much time spent in the Arctic. For this work, he was voted into the Explorers Club. He retired in 2005 as Senior Editor with Southern Progress Corporation where he was instrumental in getting wildlife management information into the hands of over 600,000 ranchers andfarmers through Rural Sportsman magazine. He was the founder of the National Wildlife Stewardship Farm of the Year awards program. His work in wildlife management garnered him many awards including the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Georgia.
As a writer, Fears has been one of the countries most prolific outdoor writers with over 5900 magazine articles and 29 books published. He has served as the president of the Professional Outdoor Media Association,Southeastern Outdoor Press Association and the Georgia Outdoor Writers Association. He has received the Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Award, The National Wild Turkey Communications Award, The Anschutz Outstanding Gun Writer Award, the Alabama Governor’s Conservation Achievement Award for Communications and numerous other journalism awards.
Currently Fears resides in Alabama where he is writing for six magazines and working on his next novel. More information on Fears at www.jwaynefears.com.
