By Brandon O'Connor, Public Affairs Specialist, USDA-NRCS, Indianapolis

When Evan Smith steps into the woods, the world disappears. He leaves the stress of the day and the pain that has become his constant companion at the tree line and gives himself over to nature.

The fresh air fills his lungs and as he breathes out, Smith is able to find an escape that allows all his struggles to blow away with the wind. He finds solace in the woods as he hunts, fishes and hikes, but his favorite thing to do is simply be present in nature. Sitting there he can find peace in the ripple of the breeze blowing through the grasses, a bird singing in the treetops or a deer rustling in the underbrush, lucky on this day to be a source of entertainment instead of a target at the end of Smith’s hunting scope.

The outdoors have always played a key role in Smith’s life. He grew up going on camping and fishing trips with his family and now as an adult, a journey into nature and time spent in the woods has become a nearly nightly ritual for Smith, his wife and their two sons.

In recent years, though, what was once a hobby has become so much more. The time spent outdoors is one of the few forms of healing that Smith has found to combat the struggles he faces on a daily basis.

Smith puts on a brave face and to a casual observer it works. But as you get to know him better you can start to see the clues which paint the true picture of all he must endure. The subtle lack of expression on his face and the intense look to his eyes alert those closest to him that today he is fighting against his own body just to function.

He cuts an imposing figure at 6-foot-2, and 240 pounds with a large, dark beard and a close-cropped haircut that is reminiscent of his days as an enlisted soldier in the Army National Guard. But hidden beneath that burly exterior of the consummate outdoorsman is a lifetime of pain that makes even simple tasks a struggle.

Smith’s enjoyment of the outdoors truly blossomed when he was 12 and he first learned to hunt, but it was around that same age when the pain that now racks his entire body started. It began in his back and he can remember getting his first pain relief injection when he was 12 or 13 and for a while it worked, until over time compounding injuries caused the pain to spread from his back to throughout his body.

By the time he got to college, he was able to play intramural sports and he enlisted in the Army National Guard. He also met the woman who later become his wife. Then, in 2008 during a training exercise at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, he scaled a wall and landed wrong on the other side. His left hip blew out as he landed, breaking the hip socket and tearing his labrum. His left knee also gave out as he suffered a torn meniscus and more.

The pain that had once been isolated to just his back now impacted his hip and knee curtailing what he was able to accomplish physically. After multiple surgeries, he was able to continue his part-time Army career, albeit in a diminished capacity. He was no longer allowed to run or jump and by 2014 as they worked to reduce the troop numbers and his pain and injuries had forced him to be removed from three deployments during his seven year career, it was determined he should medically retire.

“I had worked really hard and I feel like I had gained some respect from my superior non-commissioned officers,” Smith said. “They kind of took care of me. If we had something that I really couldn't do, they trusted me to tell them.”

By then he was also four years into his career with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Indiana, which he had first joined as in intern in 2010 before graduating from college with a degree in wildlife biology and natural resources environmental science. His started his career as a soil conservationist in Howard County before getting promoted to the role of district conservationist in Lawrence County. In that role he is able to fulfill many of the dreams he had set for himself.

Working as district conservationist, he is able to play an active role working with landowners to preserve the land that means so much to him — whether that is working to restore forestland so wildlife can flourish once again, or helping farmers protect their soil.

“I really, really love helping landowners,” Smith said. “In my opinion, it's what keeps me going, keeps me motivated, to see the conservation projects go through and to see the landowners really happy with it, to see their expressions, their interest, to see their education level rise, it's really what fuels me.”

The new position also enabled him and his family, which now includes two rambunctious boys who’ve inherited their dad’s love for the outdoors, to live in southern Indiana, or the “bumpy” part of the state as Smith calls it. Flush with rolling hills and woodlands, the region is an outdoorsman’s paradise and has enabled him and his family to spend countless hours in nature exploring, hunting and fishing. 

“Even now, it's paying off in ways that I couldn't imagine with the way we're able to raise our kids,” Smith said. “We don't have to travel to go do outdoor things. We do them every day right here where we live.”

That ability to escape into nature became a lifesaver for him in June 2014, because just as his knee and hip injuries were forcing his Army career to come to a close, they would become just a small part of the constant pain he fights through daily.

It happened not long after he’d left the NRCS’s state office in Indianapolis following a meeting. Driving his personal vehicle and preparing to take the on ramp onto Interstate 465, Smith’s life change in an instant. A three-quarter ton van ran the red lights and t-boned Smith’s car on the driver’s side sending a shockwave of trauma through his body. His left shoulder was driven into his collarbone requiring multiple surgeries and the removal of a ligament that snapped on impact. Injuries to his neck from the accident have required him to undergo a neck fusion and the insertion of an artificial disk.

The sheer force of the accident also set off a firestorm within his central nervous system leading to central sensitization syndrome and fibromyalgia, which causes widespread pain all throughout his body. He also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis in the injured joints.

The pain that was once isolated to his back, then his knee and hip, now impacts every joint in his body. Things got even worse in 2017 when Smith’s love for the outdoors proved to be a detriment to his health when he was bit by a tick and became infected with a tick-borne illness.

“I think that has a lot to do with my chronic muscle pain, chronic joint pain, and some of the other issues that I have,” Smith said. “It's not just neck pain. It's not just shoulder or just hip. It is my whole body. It's like there's concrete between my joints and the more that I move, the more it breaks that concrete and breaks my bones. That's truly what I feel like.”

Even as he struggles to complete small tasks due to the pain and accompanying exhaustion that is exasperated by a difficult time sleeping, Smith has used the last three years to turn his own suffering into a source of good for others impacted by similar conditions.

He was at a boat, sport and travel show about three years ago when he stumbled across the booth for an organization called The Fallen Outdoors. The organization was small at the time with two staff members and a couple volunteers, but Smith was drawn to their mission of taking wounded warriors into the outdoors on hunting and fishing trips. It was the perfect opportunity for him to share his love for the outdoors — which in recent years had become his escape and the best source of pain relief he’d found — with others who are suffering like him and living a life they never could have planned to have.

Smith estimates in the last three years he has taken 40 to 50 veterans out on hunting and fishing trips on his own land in southern Indiana. He also spends every January leading group pheasant hunts for veterans, a tradition that even the COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t stop. Through the organization, he has taken veterans on deer, turkey and waterfowl hunts, led fishing trip, hosted fishing tournaments and more.

“You can tell they're worn out and you can see that they're in pain and then all of a sudden you see them light up getting excited and they're actually emotional about how happy they are,” Smith said. “For them, that might be the first time that they've been like that since before they got into a chronic pain state or a chronic stress state. So, that is what fuels me so much more.”

His work with the organization recently gained national attention when he was connected with Polaris, Inc. to film a commercial about how he uses his Polaris side-by-side to lead the veteran hunts and assist with mobility. The commercial will be used as part of a national TV campaign and was debuted at a Zac Brown Band concert in December 2020.

Telling his story was something he had to get used to Smith said. With the way he looks and the life he lives, people expect him to be a mountain of a man who can conquer life’s challenges with ease. But the truth is, his daily life is a struggle. The simple act of tending to his dogs or carrying chicken feed from the car to the barn can wear him out to the point where he needs multiple days to recover. But through telling his story and opening up about the pain he suffers on a daily basis, Smith has found an outlet much like the feeling he gets when he steps foot into the woods and the world of pain disappears for a short period of time.

He has found a community of people who are inflicted in similar ways and has worked to share what he has learned and the methods in which he has found relief. Sometimes, it is practical advice like how to find the right doctors. Other times, such as when he is in a deer stand with a veteran, it is finding comfort in talking with someone who understands your struggles and leaning on each other for support and relief.

“Everybody's going through something different, but it seems like for whatever reason you get around somebody that you trust, and all of a sudden just the floodgates open and you just start talking about things,” Smith said. “So, one of the benefits and important things there is when I get with people that I feel comfortable with, I see that they talk and they kind of let out their stuff and I let out mine.”

While the pain is still a constant companion, Smith has found his release through the outdoors and helping others and has benefited from the strong support of his two sons and his wife who has been by his side through it all. His hope is that by sharing his story with others who are suffering, they can also find an escape from the pain and a way to recapture their life whether it is a through similar activities to what he uses or by following their own passions.

“I hope that they don't give up on themselves,” Smith said. “That's it. That's a huge part. I hope they continue fighting for their well-being and I hope that they find an outlet that gives them the relief that I get.”