Business

Fish Water

August 20, 2013 By Tom Sadler

Imagine fishing without beer. That would almost be as bad as fishing without fish…

If you take your beer as seriously as your fishing then this post, “10 Brewing Companies That Protect Our Fish” from the boys at Gink & Gasoline is worth the read.

They take a look at brewers who give back to the resource and the list may surprise you.

Next time I tip one back I’ll be thinking about who is helping make the fishing just a little bit better.

And brewers, if you are doing something for the water resources in your area, let me know. Happy to post an addendum to the Gink and Gasoline list.

Rx for Vegas

July 14, 2013 By Tom Sadler

“Ooh, Las Vegas ain’t no place for a poor boy like me. Every time I hit your crystal city, you know you gonna make a wreck out of me.” – Gram Parsons

When I got the first text from Delta telling me that my flight home from Vegas Thursday was delayed I just knew my travel plans had started to circle the drain. I changed my flights to try and make it home, but a mechanical issue on the flight did me in. I will give Delta customer service credit they could’t have been nicer and more helpful, thanks to Kim Bailey on the phone and Georgie at the LAS check-in counter.

I was in Vegas for the AFFTA board meeting and the ICAST/IFTD trade shows. Three days of smoky hotel bars and scant periods of being outside had me more than ready for a return to the Shenandoah Valley.

Over the years I have learned to roll with travel snafus. So when I texted my buddy Chris Hunt telling him I was stuck in Vegas, his reply was “Glad your back. We’ll make the best of a bad situation ;-)”

And indeed we did!

After a quick trip back to the Convention Center to get in one more round of post show parties, I wound up eating in Chef Rick Moonen’s new restaurant Rx Boiler Room, with Hunt and Scott Hed of Sportsmen’s Alliance for Alaska fame. Rx rightly claims to be the “alchemy of food and drink.”

Hunt and the Rx ladies — Hunt and Rx ladies

The food was exceptional! I enjoyed a lobster roll that would be proudly served in Newport (he knows his rolls) matched by outstanding service. Thanks Cecila!

The drinks are as special as the menu, so don’t settle for any of your standard cocktails, enjoy what the bar wizards concoct!

The decor and outfits were created by Moonen’s talented wife Roni. Billed as Steampunk, it had this glorious pirate den feel to me.

Hed knows Moonen from their work together on the Save Bristol Bay campaign and Savor Bristol Bay. Moonen is a sustainable seafood advocate who practices what he preaches and puts his money where your mouth is.

Eating at Rx gave us a chance to say thanks to Chef Moonen for his support for protecting Bristol Bay and for being such an excellent voice for sustainable seafood.

Change

April 5, 2013 By Tom Sadler

Time to turn the page in the Sadler career book.

As you will see below, I have joined the Outdoor Writers Association of America as their new executive director. This is a very exciting opportunity for me, aligning both personal and professional interests and creating a chance to help this storied organization move forward.

OWAA’s mission “…is to improve the professional skills of our members, set the highest ethical and communications standards, encourage public enjoyment and conservation of natural resources, and be mentors for the next generation of professional outdoor communicators.”

I bet you can see why I am really looking forward to working for them.

Our headquarters is in Missoula, Mont. and while I will be traveling there often, will remain based here in Virginia.

OWAA is comprised of more than 800 individual outdoor communicators from the broad, modern spectrum of outdoor beats, from shooting to camping, fishing to kayaking, wildlife watching to backpacking. From these diverse backgrounds and disciplines, members gather beneath the OWAA banner to hone skills, share philosophies, develop profitable business strategies and network with peers, conservation policymakers and industry trendsetters.

Want to join us?

Dispatches will continue but with a more random posting schedule. I will continue to beat the Habitat = Opportunity = Economic Activity drum, talk about tenkara, and share some insights into of life’s more entertaining moments.

Change is good and this is a good change!

OWAA taps Sadler as executive director

MISSOULA, Mont. — The Outdoor Writers Association of America announces the hiring of Tom Sadler as the organization’s executive director.

Sadler is a lifelong outdoorsman and has worked for years in both the conservation and outdoor recreation arenas. A former U.S. Navy Reserve officer and an avid angler and hunter, he lives in Verona, Va., in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley. Sadler replaces Robin Giner, who left OWAA at the end of 2012.

“OWAA is fortunate to find someone of Tom’s caliber to lead our organization into a demanding new era,” said Mark Taylor, OWAA president and outdoor writer for The Roanoke Times. “This era requires that we adapt to an ever-changing media landscape in order to best serve our existing membership and attract new members. Tom is more than equal to the task at hand.

“We had a number of excellent candidates, but Tom’s experience in the outdoor and conservation arenas — complemented by his vast professional network — best positions him to lead the OWAA,” continued Taylor. “I believe he will guide our group to new heights.”

Sadler owns and runs a consulting firm, The Middle River Group, where he focuses on advocating outdoor recreation and conservation. He launched the company in 2008 after moving to Verona from Washington, D.C. Prior to that, Sadler was the director of program development for the Trust for Public Land. He also served as the conservation director for the Izaak Walton League of America and was president of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation.

Sadler has worked as an outdoor columnist for the New Virginian in Waynesboro and writes about the outdoors and conservation on his blog, Dispatches from Middle River (middleriverdispatch.com). He also works occasionally as a fly-fishing guide for Mossy Creek Fly Fishing in Harrisonburg, Va.

Sadler serves on the boards of the American Fly Fishing Trade Association and the National Fisheries Friends Partnership. He also is a member of the steering committee of the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, a National Fish Habitat Partnership.

“My passion for the outdoors and conservation are exceeded only by my desire to share those passions with others,” Sadler said.

“OWAA members are the best communicators of those passions. To be able to help OWAA do more of that by growing the membership, increasing our supporter base and helping our members and supporters become successful is really an exciting opportunity.”

OWAA is The Voice of the Outdoors®. The Outdoor Writers Association of America is the oldest and largest association of professional outdoor communicators in the United States. It was organized in 1927 by members of the Izaak Walton League of America and includes professional communicators dedicated to sharing the outdoor experience. OWAA’s professionals include writers, photographers, outdoors radio- and television-show hosts, book authors, videographers, lecturers and artists. The association is headquartered in Missoula, Mont. For more information, contact Outdoor Writers Association of America, 615 Oak St., Ste. 201, Missoula, Mont. 59801; 406-728-7434, info@owaa.org; www.owaa.org. [LINK]

Our Public Lands (Part 3.1) – Sportsmen in Virginia.

February 27, 2013 By Tom Sadler

In Our Public Lands (Part 3) I wrote about how important our public lands are for the local economy, specifically in Virginia. Thanks to the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation we can see what hunters and anglers in Virginia mean to the economy.

According to the CSF, in 2011 in Virginia, hunters and anglers accounted for:

$2.38 billion in direct consumer spending,
$1.17 billion in salaries and wages,
$242 million in state and local taxes and
39, 164 jobs.

Hunting and fishing are deep-seated traditions in the Commonwealth. Our elected officials love to talk about how they support those traditions and want to see them continue. But what are they doing to protect our public lands, the very venues that allow hunting and fishing to take place? If they don’t have a good answer then it is time to remind them that hunting and fishing are more than traditions, they are economic drivers in the state and to jeopardize those public land venues is to put that economic activity and the jobs at risk.

You can see what outdoor recreation means to your state’s economy and download the report on the CSF Reports page.

I said it before; the outdoor recreation economy is an economic powerhouse, now it needs to be a political powerhouse!

Our Public Lands (Part 3) – The Local View.

February 22, 2013 By Tom Sadler

“All politics is local,” Tip O’Neill once said. So when the Outdoor Industry Association released its 50 state report on the outdoor recreation economy I quickly downloaded the numbers for Virginia.

According to the OIA, Virginia outdoor recreation generates:
• $13.6 billion in direct consumer spending,
• $ 3.9 billion in wages and salaries,
• $ 923 million in state and local tax revenue, and
• accounts for 138,000 direct jobs.

If you spend time in Virginia’s great outdoors, whether it is hiking, biking, camping, canoeing, hunting or fishing you know that many, if not most of the places where you do those things are public lands. Unfortunately recognition of this economic driver by the Commonwealth’s elected officials, at any level is few and far between.

If you like to play outdoors then you just might ask those same elected officials what they are doing to help this important segment of our local economy.
Give them the facts; let them know our public lands provide the venues for many recreational activities that in turn power that economic engine.
Make them tell you why other, more consumptive and less sustainable uses should take precedence over recreation.

You can see what outdoor recreation means to your state’s economy and download the report on OIA’s Outdoor Recreation Economy page.

The outdoor recreation economy is an economic powerhouse, now it needs to be a political powerhouse!

Time to Join the OWAA

January 29, 2013 By Tom Sadler

If you are an outdoor blogger you should join the Outdoor Writers of America Association.

My friend Chris Hunt’s recent post for the Outdoor Bloggers Network: “Outdoor Writers Association of America: Outdoor Bloggers Welcome” rekindled the notion of rejoining the OWAA and I submitted my application for membership shortly thereafter.

Since I am writing this post for my blog I am thrilled OWAA has opened the membership to qualified bloggers. More importantly I am delighted that my fellow outdoor bloggers can know take advantage of the myriad resources OWAA has to offer.

During my tenure at the Izaak Walton League of America I had been a member of OWAA, a venerated organization that dedicates itself to helping outdoor communicators improve their craft and the profession. When I left the League I let my membership lapse because I was not engaged as outdoor communicator enough to meet the requirements of membership. Having returned to the journalistic fold a few years ago I began to think I should rejoin but never seemed to get around to it. When I gave up my outdoor column at the News Virginian (Waynesboro), I dropped the idea.

I won’t repeat the many reasons Chris gave for joining, they are compelling in and of themselves. I will happily add my voice to his and say that as outdoor bloggers this is an important opportunity to improve your work and enhance the view of our corner of the blogging community.

Why should outdoor bloggers join?

Do you care about your craft as a blogger or do you just bang away at the keyboard and call it good?

Look at the OWAA’s mission “…to improve the professional skills of our members, set the highest ethical and communications standards, encourage public enjoyment and conservation of natural resources, and be mentors for the next generation of professional outdoor communicators.”

If you are passionate about the outdoors and see your blog fitting somewhere in that mission statement than join OWAA. You will join others who care about professional skills, ethics, conservation and mentoring others. You will benefit from shared experiences, going back 85 years, from the best outdoor communicators in the game.

Was that too highfalutin a reason for you? Do you want to make a little money as well?

For example, OWAA was an invaluable resource for me to find writers for the League’s magazine, Outdoor America. It was the best place to find writers on a wide range of topics. They were part of an organization with professional standards. As a blogger, if you want to be on that list of potential resources, join OWAA. You will be on the same list of the storied veterans of the genre.

Need help with your craft?

As Chris points out, “The friendships I’ve made through OWAA are lasting relationships that are more special to me than any paycheck I might garner from writing about the outdoors.” If you want to build those relationships, join OWAA.

At the League I looked to OWAA members to get some different perspectives on policy issues or to keep a finger on the pulse of the views of outdoor community. After I left, and even today those OWAA members I met or communicated with still are important resources for getting a wider-angle view on issues. If you are looking for background information, help with understanding the complexities of a subject or need to see who has written what about it before, your fellow OWAA members are wonderful, credible resources.

Would you like to visit some trade shows?

The American Fly Fishing Trade Association and the American Sportfishing Association have combined trade shows this year. At a recent board meeting the issue of media credentials for bloggers came up. If you are a member of OWAA you will not have a problem getting media credentials for ICAST or IFTD. I can’t speak for other trade shows but I am sure you will have an easier time proving your bona fides for credentials if you are an OWAA member.

You will make OWAA better!

The outdoor blogger genre is still young but it is growing. You are the early adopters and first followers. As part of OWAA you will become the storied veterans who paved the way and mentored others. You will help sort out the conundrums that will surely face us. You can help OWAA continue its important mission and make outdoor blogging better by your efforts.