Conservation

The Philosophy of Brook Trout

November 17, 2014 By Tom Sadler

If you have even a passing interest in brook trout then you will want to pick up a copy of Downstream by David L. O’Hara and Matthew T. Dickerson.

If we could explain why grown men are so fascinated with brook trout, or why we spend so much of our time waist-deep in their waters, soaked to the bone, shivering, and delighting in every encounter with a specked trout, we wouldn’t need to write stories. This book is the best answer we can give.”

So begins this excellent book that explores the nexus between brook trout, fly fishing and some of the more interesting locations these very special fish call home.

The authors switch off with narratives that reflect both their personalities and points of view. The joy in the book comes in how they share their experience of fishing for brookies and the insights they give to the importance of the habitat the brook trout occupy.

The only complaint I would lodge is that they did not include Virginia in their travels. It would have been wonderful to see my home waters through their eyes.

The authors explore not only the impacts wrought upon the brook trout’s habitat, they also share their experience as fisherman; the teaching, manners, politics and connections to home. Dickerson is quite adept and entertaining at sharing the conundrums many fly fisherman face.

At the beginning of the conclusion, O’Hara quotes Kathleen Dean Moore from Pine Island Paradox.

I believe that the most loving thing you can say to a person is “Look.” And the most loving stance is not a close embrace, but two people standing side by side, looking out together on the world. When people learn to look, they begin to see, really see. When they begin to see, they begin to care. And caring is the portal to the into the moral world.”

Then, in my favorite part of the book he delves into the question of why he fishes. No doubt the answer to why is going to be different for everyone; but he does a fine job of putting on paper something that I and many others can relate to, to know the world we live in and our own lives better.

Downstream delivers an excellent “look” that Moore describes and the reader will come away with a sense of having stood side by side with the authors as they share their sense of caring for these special fish and the places they live.

Water is my business

October 6, 2014 By Tom Sadler

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:

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

Celebrating the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture

October 5, 2014 By Tom Sadler

One of the more enjoyable aspects of more than 30 years in the lobbying business is the chance to look back on the projects you took on, not because you were going to make a pile of money from it, but because deep down in your heart and soul you knew that it was important.

What became the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture is the one I am most proud to have been part of. It started, back more than 12 years ago, when a small group of us got together to sketch out a plan to protect, restore and enhance brook trout and their habitats across their historic native range.

Recently I had the honor to be invited to speak at the opening of the 10th Anniversary EBTJV partners meeting. I told them how the EBTJV came to get started and that the EBTJV was a success because of the courage, and in some cases arrogance, of the original steering committee. I have likened the EBTJV to the Rolling Stones (a tribute to the time Mick Jagger was confronted while relieving himself on the side of a gas station and said “We are the Rolling Stones, we piss anywhere.”) At the time, the National Fish Habitat Initiative, later known as the National Fish Habitat Partnership was just getting started. While the NFHI was a good idea, we were concerned that “process” might get in the way of progress. The folks managing the Action Plan wanted to build a program first. We wanted to put our time, money and energy into “on the ground” projects. And that was what we planned to do.

The steering committee shared an incredible, lifelong, visceral passion for the brook trout, did not feel compelled to color inside the lines and were willing to put regional and state boundaries behind them for the greater good of the brookie. We channeled that passion and went directly to the fish and game departments in the 17 states that encompassed the Eastern Brook Trout’s native range. We got buy-in to our ideas for the joint venture and, at a meeting a year later, the EBTJV became a reality.

At the time, the original co-conspirators could not have imagined how successful they would be. In the last 10 years the accomplishments are truly impressive.

The highlight of the meeting for me was receiving a gorgeous rendering of a brook trout, by the renowned artist James Prosek, in recognition of my “dedication to the EBTJV and its cause.”

This beautiful signed print now graces our living room and is a treasured gift from my friends at the EBTJV. I’ve nicknamed the brookie “Mick.”

10th Anniversary Meeting_Tom's Print — Nat Gillespie (L), “Mick”, me, Doug Besler (R) Photo credit Callie McMunigal

If you care about these iconic fish and what to learn more or even better lend a hand, then follow this link to the EBTJV website.

By the Book – Mentoring

August 3, 2014 By Tom Sadler

The MSU Fly Gals network is very near and dear to my heart, so when the god father of the group, Bill Taylor, asks for help I happily offer my assistance. In this case Bill asked if I would co-author a chapter in a book about mentoring. Bill wanted to include the Fly Gals program in the book because it has become a rather unique mentoring experience for the participants.

I am a leadership and mentoring geek so this was both and interesting and exciting assignment. I enlisted Kerryann Weaver, one of the early participant in the MSU Fly Gals program, to be the co-author. Kerry and I took a Socratic approach to our chapter and wrote it very conversationally. We hoped it would make for both entertaining and informative reading. Kerry not only contributed to our chapter, she handled all interaction with the editorial team, keeping our contribution to the book on track!

The American Fisheries Society published Future of Fisheries: Perspectives for Emerging Professionals, in July. Our chapter, Fly-Fishing for the Future: How the Michigan State University Fly Gals Are Mentoring Future Conservation Leaders is in the Leadership in Practice section.

Future of Fisheries contain 70 mentoring pieces from a vast array of fisheries professionals. The vignettes as they are called, offer a wide variety of personal “lessons learned” and insights into emerging challenges. The book is a handy reference tool to what has worked, creative problem solving and a look into the future.

From the AFS website:

Future of Fisheries: Perspectives for Emerging Professionals contains more than 70 short mentoring
vignettes on past experiences and visions for the future authored by many notable mentors from the fisheries field. The volume is intended to inspire and empower the next generation of fisheries professionals with advice from seasoned professionals by providing personal “lessons learned” and insights from the topics that most influenced their illustrious careers while also addressing the most urgent issues on the horizon for fisheries.

Like having a mentor on hand at the turn of a page, this book bridges a vital gap in our field by using the unique structure of mentoring vignettes to advise young fisheries professionals on how to achieve success as a fisheries professional and on what concepts will be relevant and important for the future of the fisheries profession.”

I am thrilled to have contributed to this project and look forward to reading and sharing the many other excellent insights in the book. If you are interested in fish, fishing and mentoring I think you will find this book a worthy addition to your bookshelf.

Blood Knot Wins Big at The Drake Film Awards

July 24, 2014 By Tom Sadler

One of the annual highlights of IFTD, the fly fishing trade show, is The Drake Film Awards. This was the 9th annual awards show and an especially exciting night was in store for Mossy Creek Fly Fishing and TwoFisted Heart Productions as Blood Knot took two awards in front of a audience of fly fishing industry pros.

As Brian and Colby said “it was pretty exciting to have Blood Knot get included in F3T, then get nominations in The Drake Film Awards, but none of us expected this…”

Brian and Colby Trow accept the award for Best Freshwater Movie at the 2014 Drake Film Awards

Colby’s post on Facebook captured the gratitude in winning the award, “Unreal. Overwhelmed. Utterly blown away. Thanks to everyone who supported the film. Nick and Kami Swingle Ladson Webb, Two TwoFisted Heart Productions for creating this film! Tom Sadler for getting us all mixed up in the industry. The Orvis Company, Tenkara USA, Art Webb with BCF, Virginia Tourism, and of course the lovely wives that put up with our shenanigans. Best Freshwater Film? Seriously. Thanks Tom Bie , The Drake Magazine, and F3T!”

Still pumped from the previous honor, the night got even more fantastic when they were called back to the stage!!!

Brian and Colby Trow accept the award for Best Movie of the Year at the 2014 Drake Film Awards

Colby on Facebook again, “BLOWN AWAY! We have no words. Thanks to everyone who has believed in our shop and guides. Nick Swingle Kami Swingle Ladson – We need to PARTY!!! The Drake Magazine Thanks for the love. Best Film…..really? This is insane. Party time!”

Then the smiles really broke out!

Brian and Colby show their appreciation to Tom Bie, The Drake's editor. — Brian and Colby show their appreciation to Tom Bie, The Drake’s editor.

There are two special people that make the video magic that is Blood Knot happen. Kami and Nick Swingle of TwoFisted Heart Productions are the brains behind the scenes and the camera that make it all come together. Colby and Brian shared the awards with Nick and Kami -fittingly on the banks of Mossy Creek, last Sunday.

Swingle Trow Trophys — Brian and Colby share The Drake Film awards with Kami and Nick Swingle. Photo by TwoFisted Heart Productions.

The Consequence of Inaction

March 29, 2014 By Tom Sadler

Conservation writer Beau Beasley recently continued the drum beat of the importance of letting our elected officials know that outdoor recreation is an important economic driver. His article in MidCurrent, Hunting and Fishing in America: “All Dollars, No Sense” is an in depth look at the consequences of from the government shutdown last Fall.

Approximately 1 percent of the total federal budget is spent on natural resources. In fact, spending on natural resources now is nearly half of what it was in the late 1970s. Politicians talk tough about sound economic policy and job creation while simultaneously reducing funding for conservation efforts and denying hunters and anglers access to public land—or in other words, they attempt to balance the budget by digging for loose change in the national couch.

Beasley shows in real terms, with numbers to back it up, what this means to those of us who love the great outdoors and have an economic stake in its future.

More importantly if reinforces the message that to sit idly by and “hope” our elected officials will do right by us is a fools errand. Ain’t gonna happen.

When the federal government is many trillions of dollars in debt, when the economy is weak and good-paying jobs are scarce, when technocrats assume that they know what’s best for us, when politicians lose any interest in compromise and see political opponents (and those who vote for them) merely as enemies to be defeated, when crony corporatism replaces the capitalism that made this country the greatest economic powerhouse the world has ever seen—then sportsmen and the small businesses that cater to them are truly on their own. The federal government isn’t coming to bail out Byron Begley or the small businesses owners in Cody, Wyoming, who are still hurting.

Beasley ends his article on a somewhat hopeful note, a sentiment I don’t share. I’m more in the pitchforks and torches camp these days.

Want a concrete call to action? Do this. Read Beasley’s article and send a message to your Representative and Senators. They have forms on their websites.

Paste the article or share the link and ask them just one question “What are you doing to support the outdoor recreation economy?”

Don’t know who your rep is, try Find Your Representative. For your Senators try U.S. Senate website.

For good measure you might do the same on their Facebook page and send the link in a tweet with that question.

Conservation

Wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will. -Theodore Roosevelt