Backcasts : a global history of fly fishing and conservation / edited by Samuel Snyder, Bryon Borgelt, and Elizabeth Tobey ; with a foreword by Jen Corrinne Brown and epilogue by Chris Wood.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Snyder, Samuel, 1978- editor.

Borgelt, Bryon, editor.

Tobey, Elizabeth M., editor.

Brown, Jen Corrinne, 1980- writer of foreword.

Wood, Christopher A., writer of afterword.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fly fishing.

Fly fishing--Environmental aspects.

Fishes--Conservation.

Fishes.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (439 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago, [Illinois] ; London, [England] : The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

“Many of us probably would be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect.”-Norman Maclean Though Maclean writes of an age-old focus of all anglers—the day’s catch—he may as well be speaking to another, deeper accomplishment of the best fishermen and fisherwomen: the preservation of natural resources. Backcasts celebrates this centuries-old confluence of fly fishing and conservation. However religious, however patiently spiritual the tying and casting of the fly may be, no angler wishes to wade into rivers of industrial runoff or cast into waters devoid of fish or full of invasive species like the Asian carp. So it comes as no surprise that those who fish have long played an active, foundational role in the preservation, management, and restoration of the world’s coldwater fisheries. With sections covering the history of fly fishing; the sport’s global evolution, from the rivers of South Africa to Japan; the journeys of both native and nonnative trout; and the work of conservation organizations such as the Federation of Fly Fishers and Trout Unlimited, Backcasts casts wide. Highlighting the historical significance of outdoor recreation and sports to conservation in a collection important for fly anglers and scholars of fisheries ecology, conservation history, and environmental ethics, Backcasts explores both the problems anglers and their organizations face and how they might serve as models of conservation—in the individual trout streams, watersheds, and landscapes through which these waters flow.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword: Looking Downstream from A River

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION A Historical View: Wading through the History of Angling’s Evolving Ethics

PART ONE Historical Perspectives

ONE Trout and Fly, Work and Play, in Medieval Europe

TWO Piscatorial Protestants: Nineteenth- Century Angling and the New Christian Wilderness Ethic

THREE The Fly Fishing Engineer: George T. Dunbar, Jr., and the Conservation Ethic in Antebellum America

PART TWO Geographies of Sport and Concern

FOUR Protecting a Northwest Icon: Fly Anglers and Their Efforts to Save Wild Steelhead

FIVE Conserving Ecology, Tradition, and History: Fly Fishing and Conservation in the Pocono and Catskill Mountains

SIX From Serpents to Fly Fishers: Changing Attitudes in Blackfeet Country toward Fish and Fishing

SEVEN Thymallus tricolor: The Michigan Grayling

PART THREE Native Trout and Globalization

EIGHT “ For Every Tail Taken, We Shall Put Ten Back”: Fly Fishing and Salmonid Conservation in Finland

NINE Trout in South Africa: History, Economic Value, Environmental Impacts, and Management

TEN Holy Trout: New Zealand and South Africa

ELEVEN A History of Angling, Fisheries Management, and Conservation in Japan

PART FOUR Ethics and Practices of Conservation

TWELVE For the Health of Water, Fish, and People: Women, Angling, and Conservation

THIRTEEN Crying in the Wilderness: Roderick Haig- Brown, Conservation, and Environmental Justice

FOURTEEN The Origin, Decline, and Resurgence of Conservation as a Guiding Principle in the Federation of Fly Fishers

FIFTEEN It Takes a River: Trout Unlimited and Coldwater Conservation

CONCLUSION What the Future Holds: Conservation Challenges and the Future of Fly Fishing

Epilogue

Appendix: Research Resources: A List of Libraries, Museums, and Collections Covering Sporting History, Especially Fly Fishing

Contributors

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780226366609

022636660X

OCLC:

1233040712