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I can remember it like it was yesterday – summer on the creek behind the cabin, threading a half a nightcrawler on a #4 snelled hook, sneaking up on the hole, gently casting with what was almost certainly a Zebco 202 or the
like, and then the strike…a series of insistent taps that thrilled me to the very core. For a guy who was only 7 or 8 and reveling in the experience of fishing on his own, a six-inch brook trout was better than anything in the world.
It would be easy to say that I wish I had a nickel for every brook trout my family has caught, given thanks for and eaten from the waters of the Upper Green River country that we call home. But the fact is that I wouldn’t trade
these fish or the experiences that go along with them for a million dollars, or a billion dollars or anything else. The fact is that these little trout – actually, they’re char – may be the best friends we could ever hope for. In
my family, they seem to be what gets us started down the right trail. Maybe I should explain.
Ever since Richard Louv published Last Child in the Woods (a wonderful and compelling book) the conservation community has been in a tizzy about the challenge of getting kids outdoors. With good reason, too. Kids simply don’t get out much anymore. There are a host of reasons for this: the explosive growth of technology, parental paranoia, legitimate concerns about safety, and the proliferation of single-parent families, to name a few. But the
bottom line is that kids spend vastly more time in front of a screen than they do outside. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that this is not good for them. Louv points to a host of problems, even popularizing
the term “nature deficit disorder”.
Government agencies latched on to this in a heartbeat. You can’t swing a dead cat and not hit someone from a state fish and wildlife agency or a federal land management agency who’s talking up programs to get kids
outside. And that’s a good thing. But experience suggests that government programs may not always be the best solutions to real problems. Let me suggest another approach: take a kid fishing.
I doubt that our family is much different than any other Wyoming family. We’re not rich or poor, we’re probably no smarter than anyone else. We live pretty normal middle class lives, like most of our friends. But we do a number of things that may set us apart from some families. We take kids fishing. Let me illustrate. Here’s a photo from the spring of 1983. That’s our daughter Beth with a brook trout.
She’s pretty happy with that five-inch fish. Somebody somewhere might have released that fish because it’s small. Somebody in 2010 might have sneered at it as an invasive species that was taking up habitat that could have been
supporting cutthroats. Not her – she caught it, kept it, gave thanks for it and ate it, cooked over an aspen fire not 50 feet from the beaver pond where it lived out its life. And that experience stayed with her. It must have,
because here she is in June 1987 with several more brookies and another big grin.
But time marches on, and sometimes things that were important when we are children lose their importance. Beth grew up, got married and started a family of her own. But apparently the role of brook trout remains constant.
Here’s a photo from July 2002, with Beth’s husband James and their little son Connor. What are they doing? Fishing for brook trout.
Granted, Connor doesn’t look like he’s quite caught the vision yet on that one. But somewhere along the line he must have done so. If we fast forward again to 2010, we find another fishing photo - this time with a much older
Connor and yet another brook trout.
I have every reason to believe that years from now, we’ll have photos of Connor’s sons or daughters with brook trout taken from the same places. My point is this: Government programs can give kids a start in the outdoors,
especially for kids who don’t have parents who can give them that start. But for the rest of us, let me suggest the following:
- Turn off the TV and get up off the couch.
- Buy a $15 starter rod and reel, add $5 in hooks and worms.
- Drive someplace close with a stream or a beaver pond.
- Fish with your kids, catch some brook trout. Talk. Have fun.
- Clean ‘em, dust them with flour and fry them until they look like
this:
Then give thanks to God that there’s still enough wild left in this great land that you and your kids can have this experience. And while you’re at it, give thanks for brook trout.
Walt Gasson, Executive Director
Wyoming Wildlife Federation
Saturday September 11, 2011 - A day to remember all the innocent lives that were lost, and to honor the men and women who protect us from evil. And to give hanks to God for all our many blessings.
And that brings me to the topic of my post today. I've lived through a lot of governors. For some, I've been happy to see them come into office. For more, I've been happy to see them leave office. Governor Dave Freudenthal represents a whole different case. I was very happy to see him come in, and I'm sad to see him go. At least to a point...
Let me explain. Set aside for a moment the fact that I consider the Governor and Mrs. Freudenthal to be personal friends. Set aside any party affiliation, since I don't think it matters much anyway. Set aside the fact that this guy's approval rating is Higher than that of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny combined. Consider for moment only this: This governor has been the greatest governor for wildlife and wildlife habitat of any in my lifetime.
What prompted this hymn of praise to the guy from Thermopolis? Here it is. I went to the Wildlife Heritage Foundation of Wyoming barbecue and appreciation dinner last night. I go to a lot of banquets. I even speak at some of them. Last night, I didn't speak. All I had to do was join Commissioner Jerry Galles on the stage to present the awards for best indoor and best outdoor exhibits. I love doing it. We sponsor the awards, and it's worth whatever we spend on it. But last night I heard Dave Freudenthal say the most important thing I've ever heard him say. I think it sums up the contributions he's made as governor during one of the most difficult times of our state's history.
Here's what he said: "God has blessed us with so much here in Wyoming. We would be in error if we let it slip through our hands." I wish I had said that, but I'm even more grateful that he did. I'm grateful for this good man. I'm grateful for his vision. I'm grateful for the Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust. I'm grateful for the Governors Big Game License Coalition. I'm grateful for sage grouse core areas. I'm grateful for the Wyoming Range Legacy Act. I'm grateful for all he did to make sure that his grandchildren and mine will have places to hunt and fish.
Thanks, Dave. God bless you.
September 9, 2010 - We had a blast today at the Wyoming Hunting and
Fishing Heritage Expo. Today was mostly school groups from just about everywhere you can think of in Wyoming. We had kids from Casper and Riverton and Themopolis and Wheatland and Bill. In fact I think we may have had a pretty sizable proportion of the entire population of Bill, WY at our booth today.
We played the wildlife beanbag game, we talked about poop (yes, poop - we have a display of scat from a bunch of different Wyoming birds and mammals. We talked about habitat, we gave away magazines and candy bars and bumper stickers. Mostly, we just had fun.
It always amazes me how many kids in Wyoming don't really know all that much about wildlife. Hunting and fishing and being outdoors just isn't a part of their family culture. How can that be in a state like Wyoming, you ask? Simple. Wyoming isn't any different than anyplace else on the planet. If you don't get your kids out in the wild at an early age, it becomes really hard when you have to compete with soccer and video games and all the rest of the things vying for their time and attention when they get older.
My own philosophy is that no small part of the epidemic of obesity we're seeing in young people is that they don't participate in active, unstructured, outside play anymore. I read not long ago that the average kid spends almost 7 hours a day in front of a screen (computer or video or TV) but only about 7 minutes outside. That's a tragedy, not only for their bodies, but for their spirits. If we did nothing more than to help a few kids get outside and enjoy the outdoors today, then it was worth whatever it cost.
My thanks go out to WWF staffers Courtney Amerine, Dwayne Meadows and Joann Grant for their participation today. And kudos to board members Lonnie Allred and Brianna Jones. I love being a part of this team!
Walt Gasson, Executive Director
Wyoming Wildlife Federation
September 8, 2010 - I'm in Casper today for the 2010 Wyoming Hunting and Fishing Expo. It's a great event. If you've never been there, you need to go. More important, you need to take your kids. I worked in wildlife conservation for 30+ years before I went to one, and I'll never miss another one.
You can learn to paddle a canoe, shoot a bow or an air rifle, work on your flycasting, do just about anything you ever thought of in the outdoors. Maybe more important, you can learn what's going on in wildlife and wildlife habitat in Wyoming and talk with literally hundreds of people who love to talk about wildlife, hunting and fishing. Somewhere around 12,000 people attend every year, and I've never heard anyone say it was anything but pure fun.
Naturally, WWF is involved. We have been since the beginning. We have a booth, with a wildlife beanbag toss for the kids, and lots of information about what we're doing to represent hunters, anglers and other wildlife enthusiasts. For the last three years, we've had a unique raffle. It's not a raffle where you buy tickets. All you have to do is sign up for a service we call Sportsmen's Action Network. It doesn't cost anything and all it does is send you an email a couple of times a month about issues that are coming up for you as a hunter or angler. Sign up for SAN and you get a ticket to win a fabulous .22 rifle, donated by our partners at Guns and Gear in Cheyenne, WY.
I'll be blogging from Expo for the next couple of days, so stay tuned. It's going to be fun!
Walt Gasson, Executive Director
Wyoming Wildlife Federation
She’s pretty happy with that five-inch fish. Somebody somewhere might have released that fish because it’s small. Somebody in 2010 might have sneered at it as an invasive species that was taking up habitat that could have been
But time marches on, and sometimes things that were important when we are children lose their importance. Beth grew up, got married and started a family of her own. But apparently the role of brook trout remains constant.
Granted, Connor doesn’t look like he’s quite caught the vision yet on that one. But somewhere along the line he must have done so. If we fast forward again to 2010, we find another fishing photo - this time with a much older
I have every reason to believe that years from now, we’ll have photos of Connor’s sons or daughters with brook trout taken from the same places. My point is this: Government programs can give kids a start in the outdoors,
Then give thanks to God that there’s still enough wild left in this great land that you and your kids can have this experience. And while you’re at it, give thanks for brook trout.
