August 2019

CRTU members are fortunate to live in a place with such attractive and unique natural features, especially cold water streams and rivers. PA Council president Greg Malaska brought our region’s appeal into statewide focus with his message in the Spring 2019 PA Trout newsletter. 

Accompanying his attractive photograph of Dunbar Creek, where CRTU members had guided him for some early-season fishing, President Malaska wrote: “I then visited with Chestnut Ridge TU. Eugene Gordon, Joe Gudac, and Dale Kotowski gave me a grand tour of Fayette County. I had heard many rumors about this region, few of which were flattering. To the contrary; I found the landscape rugged and beautiful and its people dedicated and passionate. 

“These folks showed me several projects which enhanced fish passage, improved habitat and managed the massive impact of acid mine drainage,” Malaska continued. “I was really impressed.”

Since our founding in 1995, CRTU has devoted most of its money and members’ time and energy to restoring our streams. That’s what we’re known for. It’s a well-earned reputation in which we can all take pride. Our efforts on Glade Run, Dunbar Creek, Morgan Run, and Jonathan Run have improved or rejuvenated these streams’ fisheries and attracted the attention of state agencies and larger conservation organizations who can apply yet more funding and expertise toward cold water renewal across the Laurel Highlands. 

The payoff from our stream work will happen as the public—residents and visitors alike—grows more aware of our region’s remarkable natural resources, interacts positively with those resources, and feels motivated to support and protect them. A natural way for that affiliation with this place of ours to happen is through fishing.  

CRTU’s educational initiatives to promote fishing have been growing steadily in recent years, but this spring our members ramped up CRTU’s public outreach to new levels. Through the dedication of so many members who sacrificed their own fishing time we ran the second-annual Fly-Fishing Film Festival, helped veterans learn to fly-fish, made it possible for urban kids to catch the first fish of their lives, continued our chapter’s leadership in Trout in the Classroom, helped dozens of TIC students learn to cast with a flyrod, and supplied trout to a half-dozen kids’ fishing events around the region. We also now have a rejuvenated website that invites the world to learn about these efforts to engage people in the outdoors, to the benefit of people and streams. 

As CRTU president, I could not be prouder of our members, sharing their passion for trout fishing with others. It’s a risky venture to thank individual members publicly for the long unselfish hours that made these projects possible because, inevitably, someone might be left out. I prefer to think of our accomplishments as chapter achievements, in which everyone’s contributions add up to a sum that’s greater than its parts. You’ll read more about these outreach efforts throughout this newsletter. CRTU is a positive force in southwestern Pennsylvania, and that’s a great way to end this message.  

Ben Moyer, President