I Am Writing to You Asa Fellow Angler and TU Member and an Active Volunteer in WV S Back

Dear Mr. Schmo,

I am writing to you asa fellow angler and TU member and an active volunteer in WV’s Back the Brookie campaign. This effort, a campaign to conserve, protect, and restore our only native trout, has reached “critical mass” in six states in this region. NC, SC, GA, TN, VA and WV Trout Unlimited have all signed on to Back the Brookie, representing 60 Chapters and over 16,000 TU members coming together for one fish! The campaign is the first of its kind in the South, and is being hailed as a model of doing business for other regions across the nation which share similar conservation concerns.

I’m excited because this campaign will combine the best of TU – passionate, dedicated, grassroots volunteers with professional staff from National – to affect real change in coldwater conservation. We’re working together on coldwater conservation from the ground up…Chapters restoring and monitoring streams in their communities, state Councils speaking in the state and federal policy arenas, and TU National working in the federal policy arena and coordinating larger fund raising and media strategies.

As you are very aware, the issues our beloved brook trout face are large and looming. Acid rain, sedimentation, land use practices, and exotic species make us wonder if our children (and their children) will even know we have a native fish. In fact, all of the threats our cold, clean, waters and trout are up against, are just too big for one Chapter or Council (or even the National office!) to handle alone. We’ve got to coalesce, come together, and combine all our resources – people power and funding – to address the policies and social issues behind the assaults to our rivers and streams!

Already, we’ve seen the benefits of working together as one region with similar issues – we can share the load! The Appalachian Chapter in Chattanooga will host the world’s only display of Southern brookies at the TN aquarium, reaching over a million visitors each year, while managing “Adopt a Brookie”, a fund raiser for Back the Brookie. The VA Council of TU has developed a school curriculum on acid rain and an educational video in conjunction with Dominion Power. NC TU has developed a brochure to educate the public. TN TU worked on our website, to get our campaign to the public and facilitate communication internally and externally. We’ve recruited exemplary volunteer leadership within this state to fully implement and manage Back the Brookie, complete with concrete plans to affect policy, educate and inspire the public, and beef up our work in the streams themselves.

But this is only a beginning. Back the Brookie needs your help. I need your help! Specifically – what I’m asking from you – is to give a small amount of your most precious asset to this campaign…your time. We have almost ____ TU members in ___, enough to make a difference in the policy arena and enough to educate our communities, IF we organize ourselves efficiently! It’s a big campaign, but we’ve broken it down into many small pieces – lots of hands, making light work.

I’m extending this formal “ask” to you as a fellow angler, a TU volunteer, and WV’s Back the Brookie Chair. We’d like to count on you to help build the networks of people necessary to support fish-friendly policy, and to educate and inspire the public to care for our waters. Here are the volunteer positions I need filled:

Advocacy:Organizing TU members statewide to form a network capable of influencing WV policy

What We Need: “Key Contacts” – TU leaders who visit their local elected officials one to three times a year. These volunteers will develop a relationship with their elected officials and bring TU’s interests and causes to their attention.

How Many: One TU leader in each congressional and legislative district.

Volunteer Commitment: 5 – 10 hours per year

Education:Organizing TU members statewide to take our conservation messageto the public, to adults and youth alike (the next generation of stream stewards)

What We Need: “Educational Reps” – TU leaders who deliver presentations or programs to schools, youth groups, civic groups and other appropriate audiences.

How Many: As many as we can find

Volunteer Commitment: 10 – 25 hours per year (number and frequency of presentations TBD by each individual)

I know you care about our trout, else you probably wouldn’t be a member of TU. If you can donate between 5 and 25 hours of your time per year, to work on becoming politically strong or getting our message out in NC, I’d like to hear from you. If you’d like to learn even more about Back the Brookie, please visit

If you’re interested in becoming a “Key Contact”, I’d like you to contact our volunteer policy coordinator, Philip Smith, at . If you’re interested in becoming an “Educational Rep”, I’d like you to contact our volunteer education coordinator, Shawn Fetter, at

Threats to trout and water quality are basically sociological problems. It makes sense, then, that solutions to these issues are based in people. We have the people, within TU in NC, to make a difference. I hope you join us!

Sincerely,

Lee Orr, Back the Brookie Chair, WV TU