Dependable
Partnership
Profile
Story by Sara Kuhl
Photos submitted
EKU professors study economical impact of
outdoor recreation across Kentucky, U.S.
E
Michael Bradley (on the left) James
Maple (on the right)
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Madison Magazine A p r i l - M ay 2 02 0
astern Kentucky University
research partners James
Maples and Michael Bradley
both spent a lot of time exploring the
outdoors as children.
“I grew up in rural east Tennessee,
and the Smokies were always kind
of in my back window, so I did a lot
of running around in the woods as a
kid, and I was in Boy Scouts,” Maples
said. “I was an Eagle Scout. I worked
with scouts in the woods.”
Bradley, on the other hand, grew up
in northeast Texas in a place outside
of a town around the size of Paint
Lick.
“My dad was an avid hunter and
angler, and basically, that’s how I
grew up. I always tried to tag along
with Dad wherever and whenever I
could,” Bradley said. “My brother and
I would just run wild all through the
Piney Woods of east Texas, so that
was just kind of in our blood, going
fishing all the time and hunting and
all that.”
So as adults, the two took their
passion of the outdoors into their
careers: Bradley started working for
state parks and pursued a career in
outdoor recreation, while Maples fo-
cuses more on social change and eco-
nomic impact. Both ended up work-
ing as associate professors at EKU
where they partnered up to combine
their knowledge for a higher cause
when it comes to the great outdoors.
“When James came here, we got
connected and had similar ideas and
similar interests as far as research
goes,” Bradley said. “When you’re on
the academic side of things, you’re
always looking for people that you
can depend on to do certain things …
dependable partnerships.”
He said Maples fit the bill for the
kind of partner he wanted.
“James has been a great partner
as far as getting all the stuff done,”
Bradley said. “I like to say we get
along well and we work well togeth-
er.”
Maples agreed.
“Mike is the first and only person
I’ve found that is a fantastic partner,
so I’m really glad that he and I got to
meet,” he said.
The two started small, working for
state parks and state park founda-
tions, Maples said.
“We’ve also done stuff for like the
city of Irvine for the Mountain Mush-
room Festival, did some different
stuff in Paintsville and across the
service region for EKU,” he ex-
plained.