Once Upon a Time....   

Once upon a time I wanted to be a conservationist when I grew up. I tend to think that it stemmed from going on family vacations somewhere on a lake with woods and an outhouse (sometimes across a street) where there were no phones. My dad got away from work and he and I went fishing. Guidance counselors in high school advised me not to do my undergrad degree in marine sciences or ecology because employment would be very difficult to find. And I am pretty sure they would have been correct.

Instead, I went to school in biology and through a circuitous route ended up in the pharmaceutical industry. Presently unemployed and looking, I realize my life has taken a useful path and I probably live in a good area to continue being employed by the industry which has dominated the past 20 years of my life. (Well, maybe the years I was married were dominated by the now ex-husband, but that's another story.)

During this time of reflection and self-evaluation, I have learned that conservation has returned to my life in the guise of fly-fishing. This morning I read an article by Owen Owens in the winter 2003 edition of Valley Forge Trout Unlimited's (VFTU) newsletter, Bank Notes, titled "Fly Fishing as a Conservation Tool." The column tells of he and Karl Heine (VFTU VP Internal Affairs) attending the Pennsylvania TU meeting last fall. Owen was most affected by the address given by Dr. Bob Bachman. 

Dr. Bachman has a lifetime of work in trout research and a number of years managing Maryland fisheries. He outlined a program for management of trout streams in PA which Owen summarized and I have taken from Owens column. This reiterates a position that Dr. Bachman also presented to a VFTU general meeting. 

Dr. Bachman suggests managing for wild trout wherever possible. Managing for wild trout means:

o  Stop stocking hatchery trout in wild trout water-the big stockers soon are caught or die out, and push out the wild trout. Areas where there is no stocking have no cost for the Fish Commission.
o Expand the wild trout populations in streams by catch and release regulations. 
o Concentrate hatchery trout in marginal waters where all will be caught.
o  Reduce hooking mortality rates in catch and release fisheries-studies show that fly fishing kills the least, spin fishing kills more and bait fishing kills the most.

Owen closes his column by reminding that budget restrictions are such that waterways patrols cannot respond to spills or reports of poaching that occur at night or on weekends. He questions if it is not more important to maintain and protect fish, streams and watersheds than it is to stock hatchery trout in the water? Promoting fly fishing and, in the case of those who are able, teaching fly fishing, is a conservation tool. I may not be working in conservation but I am becoming a conservationist after all.

--Robbi Freisem--