(by Byron Begley, circa July 2004)
Trout Unlimited is a national organization founded in the 1960s with a goal of protecting and preserving the coldwater fisheries. There are approximately 150,000 TU members, mostly in the United States. Trout Unlimited national works with its grassroots chapters, over 200 strong, to raise money and provide volunteer labor for stream enhancement projects and to work with local, state, and federal agencies to eliminate or reduce pollution that affects trout streams.
The Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimited was formed in 1992 by a group of anglers from Blount and Sevier Counties. The original seventeen members had a vision to operate as a support group for the Fisheries Department of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Its main mission has been to preserve the aquatic resources of the Little River watershed, which include the headwater streams inside the boundaries of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Little River Chapter’s vision caught on. The group grew from 17 to 150 members in only three years. By working directly with the Fisheries Department at the national park as a support arm and not an adversary, the relationship between the two grew strong. Steve Moore, fisheries biologist at the national park and department head, recalls one of his first meetings with the Little River Chapter leaders when he said: “If your interest is for us to deal only with regulations, then we won’t have much mutual ground. If you want to learn more about the aquatic resource, then we may have a solid foundation.” And that foundation has remained as the rule for the partners since.
The Little River Chapter, though very small by national standards, was able to accomplish more than larger organizations by enlisting volunteers from nearby chapters to assist in fundraising and stream or riparian enhancement projects. By team with the Great Smoky Mountains Chapter in Knoxville, they were able to jointly hold a banquet that netted $18,000 for cold water fisheries projects. It turned out to be the largest banquet ever held in Tennessee. With the Great Smoky Mountains Chapter to help with fund raising and volunteer labor, several miles of Abrams Creek, which runs through Cades Cove in the park, was fenced to keep cattle out of the stream and the banks were tilled and planted with native vegetation to stop erosion.
A complicated and time-consuming project was envisioned by the Park and TU to monitor acid deposition, a stream-destroying problem commonly known as acid rain. The project would require ongoing water sampling and testing in remote reaches of the park streams, often requiring miles of hiking by volunteers who were trained to perform the complicated scientific procedures. Over time, it could be determined if the acid pollution was getting worse, and if it were, legislation to reduce emissions from polluters could be influenced by the national Trout Unlimited organization in Washington, DC. Again, the Little River Chapter partnered with members of the Great Smoky Mountains Chapter to acquire the volunteer hours needed to carry out the task, one that never would have happened without partnering with larger groups.
Volunteers from the Little River Chapter have, for decades, worked with park personnel to conduct fish population monitoring in the park. Each year, several sites are checked to see if populations are changing. The sites, usually 200 meters long, are electro-shocked to enable the biologists to capture all fish in the section to weigh, measure, and count the species of each fish. The fish are not injured but temporarily stunned and captured. They are later returned to the stream alive and unhurt. This type of monitoring allows for a large and useful database. A procedure at one site requires 20 to 40 people to handle the many tasks that are involved in capturing hundreds, or even thousands, of fish to be used to gather data. Several sites are checked each year in the park.
Past Presidents
Byron Begley
Steve Best
Bob Bishop
Mike Bryant
Steve Darnell
Tom Eustis
Ernie Frey
Joe Hatton
Jeff Hall
Rufus King
Dave Maxey
Gary Ramsey
Ian Rutter
Steve Young
