Northshore Trout Unlimited Site Map:
The President’s Cast
By Chris Tompkins
On January 11, 2004 Dee Norton,Vice President of the Northshore
Chapter, and I attended the Washington State Council (WCTU)
Presidents meeting in Tumwater Washington. The meeting was chaired by the
new WCTU president Terry Turner, and was well attended by many of the
chapters from around the state. This
year’s agenda for the WCTU is wide and varied but still focused.
One of the most important issues that will be addressed is statewide
membership. Currently,
approximately 25% of Washington State TU members belong to chapters that
have no meetings and thus are not taking part in TU activities.
The new membership VP, Mark Taylor, is determined to either get the
defunct chapters up and running, or have members in these chapters absorbed
by active chapters such as our Northshore Chapter.
I feel that this is very important to do, as we need all the
volunteers we can get for projects. Having current members involved is the
way to go and Mark agrees.
Awards:
I’m very excited to tell you that the Northshore Chapter was
presented with two awards at this year’s WCTU
president’s meeting. Our chapter was awarded the “Jerry Pavletich
Award” for the “Most Outstanding Chapter of the Year”. We were
mentioned as a chapter that has done it all, from kid’s events to
conservation projects. I would
like to thank all of our members for a job well done! We were also awarded
the “Membership Award” for the “Largest Net Increase in Chapter
Membership”. This year we
increased our membership by 23 members, a very large increase indeed.
I hope that we can continue this trend. Membership is the key to our
success, and getting more members makes our projects go better.
Projects: We are gearing up
to start our restoration project on Barr Creek this summer.
Long time member, Rick Sandstrom, has
volunteered to project manage the Barr Creek project. I would like to thank
Rick for his assistance in getting the project planned and underway.
The first stage of the project will require some heavy equipment, and
Rick has experience in managing these types of projects.
We will require lots of human resources also to replant the area
after the logs go in, so please plan to volunteer some help this
summer\fall.
Our next meeting will host Jim Tuggle, the new Conservation
Executive for the WCTU. Jim will speak about current TU activities, as
well as give a slide show about fishing in the Gray’s Harbor rivers.
It will be a good meeting to attend, bring a friend!
Chris Tompkins
Ctompkins84@hotmail.com
Interview With Jim Tuggle,
Conservation Executive
Washington Council of
Trout Unlimited
By Jeff Voltz
Jim Tuggle, the newly appointed Conservation Executive for
the Washington Council of Trout Unlimited,
has been a life-long resident of our State. He loves to fish and has been
involved with Washington’s coldwater fisheries recreationally, as a
Washington Department Fish and Wildlife Patrol Officer, and as a member and
leader of Trout Unlimited.
Northshore TU:
Tell us about your earliest memory of sports fishing and how did that
(or those) experiences shape your life with fishing and
fisheries conservation.
Tuggle:
I've been fishing since I was two years old. We lived
on a lake near Olympia, and my earliest fishing memories were of warm
afternoons in a rowboat with my mother. My first really clear memories
are of fishing with my dad on many of the lakes in the Olympia area.
My love for fish has been a life long thing, but my first real conservation
efforts came when I was hired by the Washington Department of Fisheries as a
Patrol Officer in 1971. Gradually, through exposure to commercial
fishing, sports fishing, and poaching, I saw the need for changes in the way
the state manages its fish. I was able, over the years to design and
implement fishing regulations that gave more protection to fish stocks that
warranted protection, while providing opportunity to anglers. I'm
really proud that I designed our state's first fly fishing areas for salmon
on the Toutle/Green River system, and on the Kalama River.
Northshore TU:
What’s your favorite fish to catch and favorite type of fishing?
Tuggle:
My two most favorite types of fishing are winter Steelhead fishing,
and fishing in quality streams for quality trout. If the Olympic
Peninsula had better trout fishing, you could never get me off its rivers.
But since it doesn't, over the years I have traveled to many of the famous
places of the West to fly fish including the DesChutes, the Big Hole, Rock
Creek, South Fork and others,the Kamloops area, and all over Southeast
Alaska for salmon. I've been lucky enough to catch all five species of
Pacific salmon on a fly, and also Steelhead. To put it mildly, over
the years I've fished a lot in a lot of places, but never quite enough.
Northshore TU:
What compelled you to get involved with Trout Unlimited?
Tuggle:
My introduction to Trout Unlimited as a member goes back to
1986, when I went to a meeting with an old friend, reacquainted myself with
other old friends at the meeting, made some new friends, saw a good program,
and generally had a good time. Soon I was going to most of the
meetings, became a featured speaker, and later Olympia Chapter President for
two years. While working at WDFW I continually saw poor fish management
decisions, questioned them, received little in the way of good answers, and
this strengthened my commitment to fish conservation. Most of what was
done in fish management was good, however there continued to be a lack of
conservation ethic in too many of the higher level positions in WDFW, and
that did, and does, still bother me.
My commitment to proper conservation has become strengthened in the past
few years, especially since my retirement in 1999. The past several years I have been in a leadership position on the Steelhead and Salmon Committee, and just
this January was hired as the WCTU Conservation Executive, one of two staff
positions of WCTU.
Northshore TU:
What do you see as the major challenges facing us as we work to
preserve and enhance our coldwater fisheries?
Tuggle:
We need to turn around the decline in the wild steelhead populations,
and start managing them for maximum river holding capacity , rather
than minimum escapement. We need to manage all of our coldwater
fisheries for their maximum economic benefit, and to do this we need big
changes in statute law. There is plenty of room to grow our state’s
tourist industries, especially those designed around fishing and other
outdoor recreation. But we are not doing it. TU and others need to seek
new partnerships in recovering salmon, including many northwest industries
including logging, agriculture, and the building industry. If
commercial fishing is to continue in Puget Sound and Columbia River, it
needs to be done in a more selective method. Our elected leaders need
to support WDFW financially in order to improve tourism and fishing related
industries.