NFC Executive Director Bob Mallard on Balancing Recreation and Conservation...
Bob Mallard with a stocked nonnative brown trout from his home water.
“I call my home water “Madison,” and have done so for over 20 years. It’s not the fabled southwestern Montana trout river, but a stretch of the Kennebec River in central Maine nestled between the towns of Madison and Anson. I call it Madison because I access it primarily from the Madison side of the river...”
Under the first installment of year-3 of a conservation guest column in MidCrrent sponsored by Epic Fly Rods, NFC Executive Director Bob Mallard talks about balancing recreation and conservation. Bob uses his home water as an example of where recreation and conservation collide and what if anything can or should be done about it.
“To be clear, Madison is everything a water shouldn’t be. It is stocked with nonnative brown trout and home to a self-sustaining population of nonnative smallmouth bass...”
As Bob has said countless times, the world is not perfect and when it comes to conservation there are times when it simply is not possible for ecological or even social reasons. Bob makes it clear where he stands in regard to wild native fish, nonnative fish, stocking, high-impact tackle and techniques, and harvest. His positions, and those of NFC are pragmatic and realistic not black-and-white…
Per Bob, the biggest problem we have with regard to protecting, preserving and restoring our wild native fish is figuring out where to draw the line and why. Often, personal preferences and bad science cloud the issue and put more focus on fishing than fish and recreation than conservation. Recreation is selfish while conservation is selfless.
If we are to save the wild native fish we have left, and restore those that can be restored, we will need to place a higher value on conservation than recreation. Whether anglers and the industry and media that supports us will allow that to happen is yet to be seen. But things are certainly better than they have been in the past, and more anglers are talking about wild native fish than ever before…
“Although I enjoy fishing Madison, it can never replace the wild native brook trout water just an hour or so from my home. While it will be an uphill battle, I’d love to see Atlantic salmon return to Madison. If suspending brown trout stocking would help restore the salmon, I’d fully support it because it would be the right thing to do, even though it would mean the loss of my home water...”
