Outstanding leaders organize new native fish advocacy group

Exciting news! A new organization focused on our native fish has been organized, “to protect, preserve, and restore native fish populations through stewardship of the fish and their habitats.”

I was pleased to participate in getting this group up and running, and will serve on the group’s Maine advisory committee. Outstanding fisheries leaders at the state and national level comprise the national board, with state boards in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

The group’s website, www.nativefishcoalition.org, which you can access here, provides lots of information about the mission, coalition leaders, and more.

The mission statement includes, “It is the belief of the Native Fish Coalition that no stream, river, pond, or lake is truly healthy or ‘restored’ until its full complement of native species is intact and it is devoid of non-native species and hatchery-raised fish. While clean water and healthy riparian zones are a necessary foundation for establishing healthy ecosystems, they are not an absolute indication of overall ecological health.”

“The complete restoration of native species assemblages and the removal of nonnative fish is not always attainable, it is however our goal.”

That’s good news indeed, and it is my hope that this nonpolitical nonpartisan group of outstanding outdoor leaders will be able to advance this important cause. Check out the website and learn how you can help.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.