History
We’ve all been there. You know, when somebody says to somebody else, “You know, what we oughtta do is….” Well, that’s the way it happened. Two fishermen, both named George, were waiting to launch their boats at Burton’s Landing on Michigan’s AuSable one summer morning in 1950. The first George (Mason who was chairman of American Motors) sidled up to the second George (Griffith and newly appointed to the Michigan Conservation Commission) and said: “As you know, George, I have been national treasurer of Ducks Unlimited since it was organized. But my first love is trout fishing. I’ve been thinking about a similar organization, Trout Unlimited.” Mason told Griffith to keep the following Friday night open. That evening the two Georges convened at Mason’s house on the South Branch of the AuSable. Four others joined them, Al Hazzard, Opie Titus, Jim McKenna, and Don McLouth. Mason sought to form a group of 120 prominent anglers who’d wine and dine the state’s fisheries biologists and tell them how to make trout fishing better. McLouth agreed strongly: “…someday trout fishing is going to be just for those who can afford it.” The words were no sooner out of his mouth than Titus fired back, “Trout fishing is not just for the rich. The working man has just as much right to fish for trout as corporate presidents!” Hazzard jumped into the fray: “You can catch all the trout you want, Opie, if every fisherman carefully releases every fish he hooks.” “I wasn’t thinking of creating an elitism on the river,” Mason interjected. “I want the South Branch open to fly fishing. I’m told that flies-only regulations should help perpetuate the wild trout in streams like the South Branch and AuSable for all anglers and for future generations.” There you have it: Perpetuating wild trout for future generations. That evening in his house on the 11-miles of the South Branch and on the 1,400 acres that he would four years later with his death bequeath to the state for public fishing access, Mason articulated the philosophy that would guide Griffith and the other founders of the organization that would become, nine years later, Trout Unlimited. Mason died in October, 1954 and Griffith took up the cause. On July 18, 1959, in the Barbless Hook, his cottage on the AuSable, Griffith and 14 other anglers decided the time was ripe to found Trout Unlimited. Griffith was elected chairman. Vic Beresford, who had recently been fired as editor of Michigan Out-of-Door for an editorial critical of state funding for conservation, was named secretary and would become TU’s first executive director in a few short months. Others participating included Fred Bear, founder of Bear Archery; Casey E. Westell, Jr., who was to be elected TU’s first president; Lon B. Adams, originator of the Adams pattern found in every dry fly box, and Art Neumann, founding vice president and maker of Wanigas Rods, hot items among those who love – and use today – antique tackle. Beresford spread the word and TU chapters blossomed in Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. A spate of activity followed the July meeting leading to the formal founding of Trout, Unlimited (the comma fell by the wayside in a few years) on September 5, 1959. Papers of incorporation were filed two weeks later. Not a month after its first meeting, TU passed a resolution calling on Michigan to complete a full inventory of its trout waters and their ability to sustain wild trout. A week later, on Oct. 9, TU created a board of review of five prominent biologists to provide counsel on strategies for trout management and projects to be undertaken. Founding members of the board were Carl E. Bond, professor of fish and game management, Oregon State College; Albert S. Hazzard, assistant executive director, Pennsylvania Fish Commission; Karl T. Lagler, professor of fisheries management, School of Natural Resources, University of Michigan Ann Arbor; Paul R. Needhal, professor of zoology-fisheries, Department of Zoology, University of California-Berkeley; and Dwight A. Webster, professor of fishery biology, Cornell University. From its very beginning, TU has been committed to basing its conservation of native and wild trout and their habitats on good science. In December, to a crowd of 250 gathered at TU’s first general membership meeting, held at the High Life Inn in Saginaw, Griffith opened the meeting paraphrasing the opening stanza of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer: “God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference.” Truth be told, TU has had a hard time with the serenity part of the prayer, but not courage or wisdom. TU had been born because Mason and Griffith had seen the quality of angling decline on the AuSable. Gone, to large degree, were the wild browns of a pound or more that they’d known in the 1930s and 40s. What remained were stocked trout, anemic browns and brookies that, according to Griffith, scarcely lasted a month. Not only was the mortality rate high, but the cost of producing hatchery fish consumed much of the Commission’s budget. So much, in fact, that habitat improvement was all but ignored. Griffith’s first battle, soon after he and Mason had planted the seed for TU, was protecting the eight-mile run from Burton’s Landing to Wakely Bridge with fly fishing only, catch and release regulations. Most anglers were incensed. Their god given right to take home a mess of trout was at stake. Griffith used his clout on the Commission to press for the conservation regs which were placed on the stretch in 1952. Subsequent studies of the AuSable showed that the fish population had rebounded. Seven years later, he and the leadership of nascent TU pressed for and were able to extend the special regulations for five more years. TU was out of the chute. |