Middle River Dispatches

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

Got my MoJo working*

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Last month one of my dreams became reality when I picked up a side hustle as Mountain Journal’s (affectionately know as MoJo) National City Correspondent. For those not familiar with MoJo (affectionately know as MoJo,) it’s a non-profit public interest publication at the intersection of people and nature in Americ’s wildest, most iconic ecosystem, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Here’s MoJo’s Editor’s note:

With his introductory essay below, Mountain Journal introduces Tom Sadler who brings decades of experience as a writer and veteran of navigating Washington DC policy issues—issues that require thinking and working across political divides. Sadler also has been a business entrepreneur, a fly-fishing guide and conservationist dealing with freshwater and saltwater fisheries policy. He understands the importance of clean water as much as anyone. 

Here’s my inaugural article: Meet Tom Sadler, MoJo’s Correspondent In The US Capital City 
Monitoring what’s happening in Washington DC has never been more important. for policies shaping greater Yellowstone and the West.

Links to future article will appear after they are published on MoJo

Please subscribe to the newsletter and support the cause in the sidebar of the MoJo website.

* sorry, I couldn’t resist, the headline wrote itself…

Peace Through Flip Flop Superiority

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Imagine if peace were as ubiquitous as flip flops?

Flip flops are my footwear of choice, maybe yours as well. Simple, easy to put on, comfortable and easy to care for. What’s not to like? Perhaps you even wear them to make some form of sartorial statement.

How about wearing flip flops to make a political statement, and maybe even help change the focus in war zones from conflict to prosperity?

“we were going to take military capacity that was established to manufacture tools for war, and we were going to manufacture commercial products for peace. And then we were going to ship them all over the world and help a whole bunch of people along the way. -Matt “Griff” Griffin

Let me introduce you to Combat Flip Flops and the Unarmed Forces.

“Each day brings tragic events. Decades of radicalism fueled by ignorance create indifference and helplessness. The cycle of violence and injustice continues. As humans, we should have figured this out by now. Can it change?

We felt the same way too.  Asked the same question.  As business leaders, we listened to the rhetoric, and saw the hypocrisy.  As special operations veterans, we ‘defended our freedom,’ and discovered the wars went against everything we hoped for. Through understanding and compassion, we found a new path forward–a mechanism of change.”

floperating

It started when I read about them somewhere online. As a veteran, reading about a veteran-owned business caught my attention. Vet’s make flops, I’m in. So, I order a pair of Floperators. They are adorned with this credo: “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

As a veteran, I have been asked: “what do you think about war?” I respond with “what do you think about cancer?” Now here is a company making flip flops, shemaghs and other cool stuff that cops to the attitude that wars are stupid.

“As a species, we have been repeating this insane habit of putting little metal projectiles into one another as a method of foreign policy because our leaders can’t figure out how to do their job. Then they sell it to us as an honorable, massive achievement after we spend trillions of dollars putting ourselves in the same position to do it all over again. Wasting human potential and natural resources through the entire process. When you say it out loud, the absurdity of war should be apparent.”

These cats articulated my worldview and even better were putting products out that walked the talk. They earned my money, and I was proud to join the Unarmed Forces.”

This winter they published Steps Ascending: Rise of the Unarmed Forces. Griffin and Lee, the authors, take you behind the scenes to tell the tale of how they used their special operations training to launch Combat Flip Flops. Even better, they help answer this question they pose in the foreword:

“What if funding for schools in the most deserving and necessary parts of the world could come directly from or be supplemented by for-profit business? What if part of that business model simultaneously activated that same underutilized workforce?”

I promise you that answer is there, and it is worth the read to discover it.

So when you see me wearing floperators or a CFF shemaugh, now you know why.

Fish are good for the fishing industry

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Seems obvious doesn’t it. If you sell fishing tackle then you want people to buy it. People buy tackle if they think they will catch fish with it. If there are no fish to catch then you don’t sell tackle.

Logically then, the fishing tackle industry should be doing everything they can to protect and enhance the one commodity that makes it all possible, the fish.

But as you will see from Charles Witek’s excellent article, CONSERVATION IS GOOD BUSINESS FOR THE ANGLING INDUSTRY, that is not the case.

Notably the fly-fishing industry, ably represented by AFFTA, is the exception. Their posture reflects the long-held conservation ethos of those who fly-fish.

Caught my eye – 2014 week 50

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Here are some things that recently caught my eye (in no particular order.) 

  1. Clarity from Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer > I wanted to share something that happened to me.
  2. John Fall talked about the therapy of fly fishing > I am now a firm believer in the therapeutic benefits of fly fishing
  3. An interesting way to make a cooking fire pit > Tip from the Book: How to Dig a Dakota Fire Hole
  4. Another good friend joined the AFFTA board > Two New Board Members Join AFFTA Board of Directors
  5. What a sailor learned > A Sailor’s Perspective on the United States Army
  6. A soldier pays tribute to the men he left behind > Story Corps: 1st Squad, 3rd Platoon
  7. A wonderful tribute to a black lab named Duke > I Died Today.
  8. Congress finally did something good for public lands (but a price..) > Sportsmen Applaud Historic Move to Conserve America’s Finest Habitat
  9. Navy Beat Army for the 13th time in a row > How Many Times Does Navy Have to Win Before it’s Renamed the Navy-Army Game?
  10. Great political satire on the immigration debate > Native American Council Offers Amnesty to 220 Million Undocumented Whites

Water is my business

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As a fly fishing guide,  a member of the board of directors of the America Fly Fishing Trade Association and president of the Massanutten Chapter of Trout Unlimited, I spend a lot of time thinking about water. The fact is, I make part of my living in water and without it much of what I hold dear would be lost.

Lately I have found myself drawn back into conversations about clean water and the need to protect it. EPA has a rule making underway and there are some who would like to undermine that effort. In looking around the inter webs recently, I came across an excellent report from Trout Unlimited. Rising to the Challenge shows just how important small, seasonal and headwater streams are and why they need to be protected.

TU shares a pretty simple equation (not unlike one you see often on this blog) and points out three things that make a healthy stream.

  • Cold, clean water
  • Habitat for juvenile fish to hide, and for big fish to grown and spawn
  • Sensible rules that protect streams from development

Pretty simple Venn diagram if you ask me.

The report shows “the connection between seasonal streams that may run dry at certain times of the year (i.e., “intermittent and ephemeral” streams) and historic trout and salmon habitat.”

There are maps for 14 states, including Virginia below:

TU VA WOTUS Map

 

Download the report and learn how you can make water your business too.

If you want to learn more about EPA’s rule making here is a link > http://www2.epa.gov/uswaters

Here is some information from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership > http://www.trcp.org/issues/wetlands/cleanwateract#.VDHMnr51qaF