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Some men are just made for the woods.

When John Fraley was a teen, he was out fishing at the stream just outside his home in northcentral Pennsylvania.

“Johhny Joe,” his mother called out from the window. “You’re going to miss your graduation!”

The young Fraley made that high school graduation and then set his sights squarely on Montana, where he enrolled in the University of Montana’s wildlife biology program.

He arrived in Missoula when it was dark, but when he saw the mountains the next morning, he said to himself, “I’m never going to leave this place.”

On Friday, Fraley retired after a stellar 40-year career with Montana Fish, Wildlife Parks.

Fraley got a degree in wildlife biology from UM and then a master’s degree in fish and wildlife management from Montana State. He did his graduate work with noted FWP biologist Dick Vincent on the Madison River in the late 1970s.

That led to Fraley’s first job as a fisheries biologist and technician with FWP. He came to Kalispell in the Region 1 offices in 1980 (headquarters was a quonset hut), doing research on the Flathead River’s fishery at a time when coal mines in the Canadian Flathead were a real concern.

Fraley sat on the International Joint Commission that found the proposed mining would do great harm to the pristine waters. He was often in the public eye and he liked working with the public, so in 1991 he became the communications and education officer for FWP Region’s 1.

He’s been the friendly voice and face of the region for 26 years, regularly appearing on radio, television and in newspaper articles as the spokesman for the agency.

Over the years he’s worked on the Hooked on Fishing program and hunter education program, learning from a host of great instructors along the way.

“I loved the public part and loved working with the kids,” he said. Fraley also taught at Flathead Valley Community College for decades.

He continued fisheries research, hiking deep into the Bob Marshall Wilderness every summer to study the genetics and growth rates of the trout there — covering the 25 or so miles in the headwaters in a long day of hiking.

In addition, he spent decades in the Middle Fork as well in the Great Bear Wilderness, hunting, fishing, and trapping pine marten.

Wilderness has always played a huge role in the his life, he said.

He recalled one day doing bull trout spawning redd counts up Granite Creek in the Middle Fork. His colleague, Forest Service fisheries biologist Mike Enk, looked around at the landscape and noted, “They swam 120 miles. This is precious.”

“Wilderness is so important to me,” Fraley said.

Fraley’s a noted author, having written two historical books. “A Woman’s Way West” is about Dan and Doris Huffine, and “Wild River Pioneers” chronicles historical figures in the Glacier Park and the Middle Fork of the Flathead. He and his wife, Dana, have three grown children, Kevin, Heather and Troy. Troy has been making headlines lately in the sports world, as an accomplished runner at Gonzaga University. Heather is working on a master’s degree in environmental journalism. Kevin is working on his doctorate in fisheries biology.

In retirement, Fraley has plans for a third book in the similar historic vein on local backcountry travelers and explorers.

It’s been a great career, he noted.

“I just want to thank everyone,” he said. “It’s been a great experience.”