How a Fifth-Generation Fruit Farmer Built One of the World's Largest Hunting Booking Agencies

About this episode

Mark Peterson shares his journey from a fruit farmer to the founder of the largest hunting booking agency in the world.

Mark Peterson grew up on a fifth-generation fruit farm in Michigan, managed five processing facilities and a thousand employees by age 22, and then walked away from all of it to chase pheasants. What followed was one of the more unlikely success stories in the outdoor industry. In this conversation, Mark traces his path from farm kid to acquiring Cabela's Outdoor Adventure and Tag Service to building Worldwide Trophy Adventures into the largest hunting booking agency in the world, with outfitters in every corner of the globe and owned operations across Canada, Colorado, Kentucky and Mexico. But the conversation goes well beyond booking hunts. Mark talks about why private landowners are among the most underappreciated conservation partners in North America, how upland bird habitat is the first thing lost when land use changes, and what it actually takes to build a long-term lease relationship with a landowner that works for both sides. He also covers where the hunting industry is headed over the next five years, why access is tightening and costs are climbing, and what COVID quietly did to hunting participation numbers that nobody is talking about. For landowners who lease hunting…

People in this episode

Guest: Mark Peterson

Topics covered

• hunting industry
• land conservation
• outdoor recreation
• business success stories
• hunting leases
• wildlife habitat

Keywords

• hunting booking agency
• landowners
• conservation
• upland bird habitat
• hunting participation
• COVID impact
• long-term lease relationships

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cabela's Outdoor Adventure and Tag Service, Worldwide Trophy Adventures

Places: Michigan, Canada, Colorado, Kentucky, Mexico

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