June 12, 2019 - Ben Moyer, President

As elected president, I could not be more proud of CRTU and its committed membership. This past month has been a busy one for our chapter, made possible by “above and beyond” dedication from many members. 

Ours has long been a chapter best known for its stream restoration projects, and that will continue to be a main thrust of our organization. But often, we have expressed the wish to be more active in promoting trout fishing to the general public and special populations. This past month represented a zenith of accomplishment on that front. 

One of our longstanding accomplishments in public outreach is Trout in the Classroom, and we continued our role as the “point” for TIC in the region. Many CRTU volunteers helped with successful trout releases at Mingo County Park (a good way to engage more of our Washington County members) and at Ohiopyle State Park. The Envirothon at Ohiopyle saw our members teaching the basics of stream ecology and fly-casting to dozens of students. 

Our first-ever kids’ fishing event was, by all accounts, another success. Thanks to the efforts of our Nursery Committee and a half-dozen CRTU volunteers we enabled a dozen kids from the East End Community Center in Uniontown—all but one of whom had never fished before in their life—to catch a trout. The kids clearly enjoyed the day and the primary adult leader asked: “Can we do this again soon?” 

Hopefully, we can continue to offer such opportunities to enrich the lives of kids, and to share the joy of fishing and clean water. We now have 14 spincast combos for kids to use in future events (S&S Bait & Tackle in Chalk Hill gave us a discount). 

We also continued our role as fishing guides in the Veterans’ Fly-Fishing Day at Ohiopyle State Park. This is a great program that helps us strengthen our relationship with the state park staff and shares the joy of fishing and appreciation for clean water with some local folks who have sacrificed for our personal freedoms and safety. 

We’ve made astounding progress, too, in the even wider outreach of the internet. Our website is once again up and running, available for the world to see, learn about our chapter, and get involved. Thanks to everyone who made contributions of time, expertise (especially Carol Gulya), photographs, text, and archived material to enhance the site. There is so much more that we can add and improve, and I, for one, will commit myself to providing more content for the site. 

We can all take pride in the good will, learning and fun we have shared with others on the water, and on the web. But we must renew our role in coldwater conservation. There’s much to be done in continuing the water-sampling schedule initiated by Scott Hoffman so that alkaline sand deliveries can be resumed. There are also mounting challenges—and opportunities—on Laurel Run (Meadow trib.) and Jonathan Run.

I am proud and humbled to be president of this organization. Thank you all for your enthusiasm, ideas, your time and effort.

Sincerely,

Ben Moyer, President