The Middle River Group, LLC

fly fishing, conservation and politics.

heros

Worth the Read: 20 ?’s with Craig Mathews on Eat More Brook Trout blog

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My good friend Chris Hunt who blogs at Eat More Brook Trout has started interviewing some fly fishing notables. Last week he interviewed another good friend, Craig Mathews.

Chris writes:

“In addition to being one of the country’s fly fishing elite, Craig is a staunch conservationist who, over the years, has been able to speak truth to power in a way that is constructive and helpful. And he puts his money where his mouth is–in partnership with Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, Craig helped start the “1% for the Planet” program, where businesses and industry could earmark 1 percent of their profits to conservation-centric the non-profits of their choice.”

Click here to read the entire interview: Eat More Brook Trout: 20 Questions: Craig Mathews.

Craig is responsible for my getting me started on tenkara and it was a treat to spend some time with him at the tenkara summit last month.

He also shares a very special place in the Sadler household having officiated at our wedding 5 years ago.

Craig, Beth and Tom at $3 Bridge 08/09/06

 

Bully for them

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It is always a pleasure when a friend calls out of the blue.

Yesterday while pondering the post mid-term election scene one of my western friends rang in for a chat. He is one a small group of hunting and fishing friends out west who work as hard at conservation as they do at fishing and hunting. So after catching up on our adventures afield and talking about politics he asked if I knew about the Bull Moose Sportsman’s Alliance. “Sure do” was my reply.

Bull Moose Sportsman’s Alliance

We talked some more about the alliance, some recent press they got and where they were headed. Given the fact we have just finished a pretty intense election cycle the need for this group is pretty self-evident.

I came across them on Facebook and after checking out their web site really liked what I saw.

Click to learn more!

As a sportsman, Theodore Roosevelt’s passion for the rod and gun was equally matched by a strong conservation ethic for the sake of both sport and wildlife. It is time sportsmen revive Roosevelt’s passion and unite around an agenda built on common values to respond to the 21st Century challenges facing hunters and anglers.

The Bull Moose Sportsmen advocate for our outdoor traditions by building a network of sportsmen to advance our collective interests with policy makers.

Sounds pretty good don’t you think?

It gets better. There is also the Bull Moose Sportsmen’s Alliance Action Fund. The action fund makes campaign contributions to candidates who support the goals of the Alliance.

You can join the Alliance for free, but they will certainly put donations to good use.

If you want to help in the political game then send a contribution to the action fund.

Looking ahead

The need to educate our elected officials on the important contribution hunting and fishing and conservation makes to our economy and our quality of life continues. As hunters and anglers we need to engage our elected officials and educate them. The Bull Moose Sportsman’s Alliance gives us a chance to do that.

Pretty much sez it all.

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Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, appears in a commercial for American Express’ Takepart.com project

“we are part of nature and as we destroy nature we destroy ourselves.  It’s a selfish thing to want to protect nature.”

We need more people who think like Yvon Chouinard does.

Watch.

TRCP Honors Conservation Giants at Annual Awards Dinner

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On Wednesday night, September 30, I had the honor to be part of this event. It was a great chance to share more Jim Range stories with many of his good friends. He may be gone but events like this remind us that he is far from forgotten.

This TRCP press release captures the evening quite well.

TRCP Honors Conservation Giants at Annual Awards Dinner

At second annual Capital Conservation Honors, the TRCP pays tribute to Rep. John D. Dingell,
Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris and TRCP co-founder Jim Range,
launching Jim Range Conservation Fund in his honor

WASHINGTON – At its second annual Capital Conservation Honors, held last night near the group’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership recognized the achievements of some of the sportsmen-conservation world’s brightest stars and launched a fundraising effort honoring the legacy of former TRCP chairman and co-founder Jim Range. The two-year campaign for the TRCP Jim Range Conservation Fund begins with $150,000 in contributions already in hand and has a fundraising goal of $2 million.

The gala event featured a keynote address by Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University and best-selling author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America. Congressman John D. Dingell of Michigan was awarded the TRCP’s Sportsman’s Champion Award for his leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives on legislation to protect our nation’s waters and wetlands and to provide funding for fish and wildlife adaptation strategies in climate change legislation. Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops and a lifelong conservationist who has donated millions of dollars to conservation and education groups, was presented with the TRCP’s Lifetime Conservation Achievement Award. Lead sponsors of the Sept. 30 event included Bass Pro Shops, Beretta, Frontiers Travel and Orvis.

“The TRCP’s Capital Conservation Honors recognizes the best of the past, present and future of conservation in America,” said George Cooper, TRCP president and CEO. “Reflecting on the lives of giants such as Theodore Roosevelt, John Dingell, Johnny Morris and Jim Range showcases the great achievements that sportsmen have made in the name of conservation – yet also lights a path forward by illustrating how much remains to be done to assure the future of our shared natural resources and our great sporting traditions.”

Throughout his success, Johnny Morris has remained an ardent conservationist and is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Sport Fishing Institute’s Fisherman of the Year award, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies President’s Award, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Conservationist of the Year award, the Master Conservation award from the Missouri Department of Conservation and the National Wild Turkey Federation’s Hunting Heritage Award. He was inducted into the International Game Fish Association’s Hall of Fame in 2005 and has been named one of the 25 most influential people in hunting and fishing by Outdoor Life magazine.

“Conservation of our outdoor resources remains a cornerstone of our company,” said Morris. “I am humbled by this honor and pledge to continue carrying on the legacy of sportsmen-conservationists like Teddy Roosevelt and Jim Range.”

Jim Range, who passed away in January, was memorialized with the official launch of the Jim Range Conservation Fund. A hero of modern conservation, Range was instrumental in the crafting and passage of a string of landmark natural resource laws, including the Clean Water Act. Range served on the boards of directors for Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, the Wetlands America Trust, the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, the American Sportfishing Association, the American Bird Conservancy, the Pacific Forest Trust, the Yellowstone Park Foundation and the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust. An original board member and chair of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Range also was a White House appointee to the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, the Sportfishing and Boating Partnership Council and the Valles Caldera Trust.

“When Jim Range co-founded the TRCP, I thought ‘no one better,’” said Theodore Roosevelt IV, a member of the JRCF Leadership Council. “He never removed conservation into ideology. For Jim, as for TR, conservation was about people as much as about place. He was a ‘real guy’ who could talk to absolutely anyone and keep them at the table: hunters, steamfitters, CEOs.”

Range’s dedication to the conservation of fish and wildlife in support of the nation’s sporting traditions remains entrenched in sportsmen’s lives through the TRCP. The TRCP’s establishment of the Jim Range Conservation Fund assures that Range’s conservation legacy as directed through the mission of the TRCP endures and will be perpetuated through the group’s ongoing efforts on behalf of American hunters and anglers.

“Range understood the great art of politics but never became so involved in ‘winning’ that he lost sight of the goal: service,” continued Roosevelt. “It is the hope of all of us that this fund will be the beginning of permanent financing to protect our hunting and fishing traditions.”

“The Jim Range Conservation Fund will assure that Jim Range’s voice continues to influence the way we as a nation use and enjoy our shared resources and fish and wildlife habitat,” said TRCP Board Chair Jim Martin, conservation director of the Berkley Conservation Institute, “and by recognizing and honoring the achievements of other great sportsmen-conservationists, the TRCP intends to perpetuate that benefaction. This is the foundation of the TRCP’s Capital Conservation Honors, and this is the legacy of our great friend Jim Range.”

The JRCF Leadership Council is led by Co-chairmen Hon. Howard H. Baker Jr. and Ted Turner. Council members are James A. Baker IV, Charles “Chip” H. Collins, Matthew B. Connolly Jr., George Cooper V, David Perkins, Charles S. Potter Jr., Theodore Roosevelt IV, John M. Seidl and R. Beau Turner. Additional support for the second annual Capital Conservation Honors was provided by the Range family, Dusan Smetana Photography and The Thomas Group.

Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions
of hunting and fishing.

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The Jim Range National Casting Call

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On Monday I was in Washington, D.C. to participate in the Jim Range National Casting Call. I also had the privilege that evening to be the Master of Ceremonies at the event celebrating the life and conservation legacy of Jim Range, my dear friend who tragically died in January from cancer.

This was the ninth year that the American Fly Fishing Trade Association had gathered on the banks of the Potomac river to celebrate fly-fishing and an aquatic habitat success story, the return of prolific runs of American and Hickory shad to the Potomac river.

This was a special year for those of us who, under Range’s leadership, started the Casting Call. AFFTA’s board of directors, after conferring with the Range family and his friends, decided to rename the event in Range’s honor.

Jim Range was a widely recognized conservation visionary who represented AFFTA in Washington. He was a hero to many in the hunting, fishing and conservation community.

I wrote in this column at the time of his death that he was like a brother to me. The best man in my wedding, a hunting and fishing partner of many years, and the voice on the other end of the phone keeping me strong when trouble came. I still feel that way today and know many more who do as well.

Range saw the Casting Call and its venue, Fletcher’s boathouse on the Potomac, as the perfect opportunity for the fly-fishing industry to educate members of congress and administration officials on the important nexus between conservation and economic activity.

He knew as well that the partnership efforts that had gone into restoring shad to the Potomac were a model that could be replicated across the nation.

“The Jim Range National Casting Call gives us a chance to get government decision-makers on the Potomac to see and experience the aquatic resource we all cherish,” said Alan Gnann, Chairman of the Board of AFFTA. “It was our friend Jim who showed us that this was the best way to communicate the importance of aquatic habitat and fisheries and we will continue this tradition in his name and his honor.”

Around the time of the first casting call, the federally chartered Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council, of which Range was a member, recommended that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service develop a partnership effort similar to the successful North American Waterfowl Management Plan.

This effort, endorsed by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and supported by numerous conservation organization and federal agencies became the National Fish Habitat Action Plan.

The Action Plan is a science-based voluntary effort to address the challenges facing aquatic habitat and our nation’s fisheries. There are six regional partnerships, including the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture that works here in the Valley.

Range saw the newly created National Fish Habitat Action Plan as an exceptional example of how partnerships like the one that had helped the shad could be replicated across the country. He saw the National Casting Call as a great opportunity to showcase success.

“The National Fish Habitat Action Plan’s approach – teaming federal, state and local partners – is helping to bring fishable waters back to life in a faster more strategic way. We can see real progress in treating the causes of fish habitat decline, not just the symptoms,” said Kelly Hepler, Chairman, National Fish Habitat Action Plan. “The Jim Range National Casting Call gives NFHAP the opportunity to spotlight 10 specific projects that display on the ground work that can be held high as a vision of what quality habitat should be.”

The Action Plan’s 10 “Waters to Watch” was started in 2007. It highlights examples of aquatic habitat conservation efforts of the National Fish Habitat Partnerships. In addition the NFHAP board presents two group awards and two individual awards including newly renamed Jim Range Conservation Vision Award, given this year to world- renowned conservationist Yvon Chouinard, the founder of outdoor clothing manufacturer Patagonia Inc.

Jim Range was deeply missed at this year’s Casting Call, but his name and legacy live on in tribute to his memory.

You can read more of my columns at News Virginian.com