Yesterday Jake and I had the opportunity to spend a very delightful and educational time (just over an hour and a half) with Bob Wiltshire, the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Aquatic Nuisance Species. 

The national headquarters for Bob’s center is just over the now snowy (after yesterday’s storm) hill in Livingston, Montana, where Bob has lived and worked for the better part of his career. 

There is a host of information that we learned from Bob that you need to hear about aquatic nuisance species, and we’ll be sharing it over the next several days.  We’ve even created a new category in our blog titled “Center for Aquatic Nuisance Species” and will be sharing critical new information from the Center’s newsletters every month as the data is made available.

First of all, here’s a bit of background information about the Center’s director, Bob Wiltshire.  Here’s why we think it’s important to know the information.  There are some great programs dealing with aquatic nuisance species out there.  To be brutally honest, however, some are so deeply embedded in state, federal, and even organizational bureaucracies that their effectiveness is tempered to say the least.  [Most of us here have had enough exposures to bureaucratic systems, both from the inside and outside, to view most with great suspicion and with greatly lowered expectations for meaningful results.  For a recent example, see TARP bailout program….]

So what does this have to do with Bob and the Center for Aquatic Nuisance Species?  Bob modestly shared his history with us only after some prodding, and frankly we’re a bit surprised to note that Bob doesn’t share his work history on the organization’s website.  My guess is that Bob is a man on a mission and doesn’t want to toot his own horn, but his background counts in this game. 

Bob spent a number of years (something in the range of two decades) owning his own outfitting business in Paradise Valley on the Yellowstone and even lived for a time on the river.  He also spent sixteen years with Montana FWP, and later spent twelve years with the Federation of Fly Fishers, at least part of that time as their Director of Operations.  Though it was almost like pulling teeth (a painful metaphor for me having recently had a fractured molar extracted with a mandibular fracture thereafter), it became clear throughout our discussion that Bob has and does rub shoulders with some of the big names – make that the really big names – in fly fishing today. 

Bob is a prescient man who has developed a passion for this issue – and he’s right on track in our minds as to his approach.  Though he offered it rather matter of factly yesterday, I’d assume that after some careful soul searching and pondering the options from a lot of different angles, Bob’s decision to leave the FFF and charter the Center was big leap. 

My point about Bob is a simple one – he is not a career bureaucrat looking for a cozy spot to spend another ten years.  On one hand he’s one of us – he’s spent thousands of days on some of the great waters of the West fly fishing, he’s seen the changes in fly fishing, river and resource management, as well as the rampant riverside development that gives a lot of us heartburn.   He’s seen the potentially sobering future about aquatic nuisance species – and has the insight and plan to mobilize the masses (that’s us) to do something useful about the issue.  On the other hand, I think Bob’s a lot smarter than most of us, and probably a bit more courageous that most of us when it comes to taking a chance and starting a new venture. 

There are a lot of interesting angles to consider when pondering aquatic nuisance species, and we’ll be taking a look over the next several days.  This is an issue that will impact your fishing over the next few years no matter where and for what species you fish. 

Two things to do today – one, consider signing up to take the “clean angling pledge”.  All you provide Bob and his team is your name and email, and he uses a very professional double opt-in registration system to register folks.  By signing up you’re subscribed to the very useful newsletter “Clean Angling News”.  Jake has put the sign up form in the right side bar of the blog this morning.  Second, visit and bookmark the Center for Aquatic Nuisance Species website, there are great information and links available. 

More to come. 

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