Sam grew up on Whidbey Island in Washington’s Puget Sound, where he developed a love for outdoor adventures and an ambition to write about them. After a youth filled with steelheading and duck hunting he went to Gonzaga University to study journalism. His senior thesis story about the historic Elwha River dam removal project led him straight into graduate school at the University of Montana. He wrote and photographed another thesis about the controversial use of salmon and steelhead hatcheries and graduated with an M.A. in environmental journalism and natural resource science. While attending UM, he worked for Bugle Magazine at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. He spent his last four summers on a commercial salmon fishing boat in Prince William Sound, Alaska and lives the rest of the time chasing trout, elk and snow in Montana and steelhead in Washington, freelance writing, and editing Backcountry Journal. Please send Sam any stories, queries or questions regarding the Journal here.