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Middle River Dispatches

A gumbo of fly-fishing, conservation, politics and days afield, for what it is worth....

Howdy, I'm Tom Sadler, fly fishing guide, outdoor writer, conservation advocate, first amendment defender and political interpreter.

Most of my professional life has been spent playing Doc Holliday to the Wyatt Earps of the fish and wildlife conservation world.

I'm a cranky optimist...
I have appeared in or written for:

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Featured Posts

Have a beer with me

If you are reading this, it is likely you have come to the point that political discourse has made you uncomfortable. And it often feels like that discomfort makes it hard to start a conversation about politics, doesn’t it?

Saving our Seas

Recently Hatch Magazine ran an article (below) that I wrote about federal legislation that would reauthorize the Marine Debris Act. In the article I noted industry efforts  to address the problem of plastic waste in our oceans. Chris Gaggia of Patagonia alerted me to Bureo a business supported by Patagonia Works. At Bureo, we make […]

Solutions and Progress

Let this article serve as the introduction. I am getting back behind the keyboard and starting writing about the politics of solutions and progress. I’ll focus on those topics I care deeply about.

Why I guide

Inevitably, it comes up in conversation at some point. “How long have you been guiding?” Quickly followed by something related to “do you enjoy it?” or “is it hard?” My pat answer is related to having been a guide and instructor for more than 20 years and fly fisherman for more than 50. Here is […]

Conservation for the Future

“Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the ‘the game belongs to the people.’

So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations.

The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.”

-Theodore Roosevelt, A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open, 1916”

Conservation Articles

Saving our Seas

Recently Hatch Magazine ran an article (below) that I wrote about federal legislation that would reauthorize the Marine Debris Act. In the article I noted industry efforts  to address the problem of plastic waste in our oceans. Chris Gaggia of Patagonia alerted me to Bureo a business supported by Patagonia Works. At Bureo, we make […]

We are not the enemy

“We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to associate, to speak, and to defend the causes that were for the moment unpopular.”
-Edward R. Murrow

Articles

Have a beer with me

If you are reading this, it is likely you have come to the point that political discourse has made you uncomfortable. And it often feels like that discomfort makes it hard to start a conversation about politics, doesn’t it?

Every Vote Counts

Don’t tell me you vote doesn’t count! The only time your vote doesn’t count is when you don’t vote. Shelly Simonds the won by one vote in the recount. She was the Democratic candidate for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. Her win creates a 50-50 split in the Virginia House. There is […]