SHELBURNE FALLS — Ahead of the Deerfield River Watershed chapter of Trout Unlimited’s annual banquet last week, Chris Wood, the organization’s national president and CEO, spent some time with the chapter and came back impressed with their work.
“They’re not only enablers of conservation by engaging the community in their work, they’re also the conscience of conversation, holding people accountable,” said Wood, who has been CEO of Trout Unlimited since 2010. “The Deerfield River Watershed chapter of TU, I just think they’re both a model of excellence for the organization, but they’re also emblematic of what 399 other chapters are doing all around the country.”
Founded in Michigan in 1959, Trout Unlimited is composed of 400 chapters around the United States with approximately 300,000 members and supporters working toward conserving the country’s cold water fisheries, according to the organization’s website. Wood, who is celebrating 20 years with the organization, said he’s seen a huge amount of growth in his time with Trout Unlimited, which had 32 employees when he started and has grown to 270.
Wood was in town to give a keynote speech at the local chapter’s annual banquet, which was the first time they’ve ever had Trout Unlimited national leader visit the area. In a wide-ranging conversation at Mocha Maya’s in Shelburne Falls, Wood spoke about Trout Unlimited’s national goals and how the Deerfield River Watershed Chapter has made waves at the national level with its “community science” approach to conservation.
“That’s what I think the Deerfield chapter does as well as anybody, they help to engage the community in these rivers and streams that define the landscape that many people feel disconnected from,” Wood said. “They help reconnect them to their waters.”
Each chapter of Trout Unlimited, from the glacial streams of Alaska to the rivers of the Pioneer Valley, has its own approach for how it operates, and Wood said the Deerfield River chapter does a little bit of everything.
“It’s interesting — there’s some chapters who are really zeroed in on advocacy and there there are some other chapters who are really into the restoration angle,” Wood said. “What I think makes this chapter unique is they kind of run the gamut for TU.”
In the past year, the Deerfield River Watershed chapter has spent time at the Rice Brook in Charlmenont non-lethally electroshocking fish to collect them and calculate a population count. Once calculated, the group added wood debris to the brook and will be measuring the population again to see if their enhancements have made a difference.
The group also took Buckland-Shelburne Elementary students to the Bear River in Ashfield, where they planted dozens of trees and shrubs on the river’s bank to rebuild habitat destroyed by the 2017 tornado that ripped through the area.
Trout Unlimited also worked with other conservation groups in the region to push U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern to introduce legislation to designate the Deerfield River as a federal Wild and Scenic River.
While this work focused on the local level, the Deerfield River Watershed chapter’s 2019 project tagging fish with transponders has put the group on the forefront of trout conservation in Massachusetts and the country. The project tracked the fish’s movement in the river and how it was affected by the hydroelectric dams on the river, which Wood said collected “25 million data points” that will be sent to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
“We spent thousands of hours driving up and down the Deerfield with transponders hanging out the window, capturing these 25 million data points points on those 30 tagged fish,” Wood said. “USGS can’t do that, they’ve got other work to do. But, they can take that data now that we’ve generated and they can actually look at it and see if the operation of this hydro system is negatively affecting these wild fish … there’s a lot of information that’s collected for no reason, but this is data with a purpose.”
Trout, Wood said, are barometers of the environment because of the fact that they are “remarkably resilient creatures.” If something is happening to them, then there is a larger problem at play. Asked about his outlook on the environment in the face of a warming climate, he said he is optimistic.
“Anglers are optimists, right? But you have to be, we’re standing in cold water willingly casting at river ghosts,” he said. “There are many steps we can take to protect places like Crowningshield, to reconnect the tributaries like Rice Brook back to the Deerfield … so I do feel confident about the future.”
Part of this optimism is fueled by recent federal legislation, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed last November, as well as the recently approved Inflation Reduction Act, which will provide billions of dollars to numerous climate change and conservation-related initiatives and projects.
“The passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill has more funding for conservation than I’ve ever seen in my career, ever, and it’s not even close,” Wood said. “I think we have an opportunity over the next five years to take those two separate pieces of legislation and really do some good on the ground to make our communities more resilient to the effects of climate change.”
For Trout Unlimited specifically, Wood said one of their goals is to continue educating people and spreading awareness about the environment, especially as fewer people have that “visceral connection to the outdoors” from growing up hunting and fishing.
To get involved, Wood recommended people join their local chapter of Trout Unlimited if they’re an angler themselves, and if they aren’t, they can still volunteer and get involved at community events. More information about the Deerfield River Watershed chapter can be found at deerfieldrivertroutunlimited.com.
“It’s important to me that the people who fish are part of Trout Unlimited, there’s no reason not to,” Wood said. “But it’s less important to me that people fish than it is that they help to take care of God’s creation. That’s what really matters, and you don’t have to be an angler to do that.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.