In one of the alltime great puffball interviews, The Helium Report (yes, the interview and listing was simply bought and paid for) interviewed the Spring Ridge Club CEO and Founder, Donny Beaver.
Beaver graciously takes the credit for “conserving” pretty much every trout on the Eastern Seaboard, yet fails to mention he also unlawfully prevented access to many of those trout to all but his big-dollar “club” patrons.
From the Beaver’s mouth:
In the 1970s, I noticed two major changes in the landscape along my favorite trout streams in Pennsylvania – developments and subdivisions, and “No Trespassing” signs.
By the late 1980s, I decided I wanted to do something to prevent development and gain access to these trout streams. At first, I leased access from private property owners as a hobby for my family, friends, and business associates. In 1995, I decided to approach the acquisition of blue ribbon trout streams as a full-time business.
The Trout Underground’s pretty much wetting himself right now (I think I just shot Coca-Cola out my nose) at the sanctimonious tone of The Beaver.
Clearly, he considers himself the Albert Schweitzer of the fly fishing world (well, maybe if Schweitzer wasn’t interested in helping people as much as making a lot of money for himself).
Yet his Spring Ridge Club recently lost a court case because it was trying to block river access to Pennsylvania’s Little Juniata River in violation of the law which permits public access to “navigable” rivers.
He fought the law, and the law won.
Given that there’s no mention of that little incident in this bought-and-paid-for Helium interview, I’d suggest we all visit the interview page and leave a comment at the bottom (I already did) suggesting the interview failed to tell the whole story.
Be nice and respectful so there’s no reason for the comments to be censored, and let’s see what happens. It should be amusing.
[tags]spring ridge club, donny beaver, little juniata[/tags]
Tom,
I had trouble posting. I apparently had to be approved. I wanted to leave this:
You fail to mention that a court recently found that Mr. Beaver was unlawfully denying people the right to fish public waters. In apparent contradiction to his conservation spirit he granted access if one had enough money and paid for it. Recent reports state he is attempting a similar plan in Ohio by trying to limit river access to those who pay him so he can sell people the right to fish a steelhead fishery created by public funding of Ohio’s DNR. In a civil and respectful manner, I must state that what Mr. Beaver advocates is a two tier society where there are those who can pay him and those who cannot fish.
Respectfully, how much, if anything, did Mr. Beaver pay or how much advertising did he buy within 60 days either side of this publishing. I wonder, but do not know, if Mr. Beaver is an individual who feels that “conservation efforts” can consist of placing barbed wire or similar across streams to limit lawful public access?
Steve(Quote)
Steve: Moderated comments aren’t unusual (it’s one way to defeat comment spam). Censored comments might be the norm here. We’ll see.
I might add that Helium has been advertising for writers for quite some time, and also that the “comments from happy Spring Ridge members” contains a lot of testimonials offering an eerily similar writing style. Not that I can accuse anybody of anything. But I doubt Helium is “objective” as they suggest.
I’d suggest they–like Donny Beaver–are out to make a buck.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Those comments were obviously fabricated. How many times did those supposedly different people need to mention that “New Zealand would have to wait”.
Beaver seems to be resorting fear tactics to gain supporters, it’s almost as if he is suggesting that its either his way or developers will be building condos and retirement homes. When in fact there is another way.
Alex(Quote)
aquiring streamside land is one thing—great to stop development
allowing only the rich to access the waterways is bullsh–. can’t anyone with money do the morally right things anymore,these people have no conscience and their bad decisions probably don’t stop at fencing off access. their still remains three super rich groups that limit our access to the most beatiful trout river around here and there is fear of more development in the rest of the north state. NO stream is safe.
isaac roman(Quote)
Dear Fellow Citizens,
This self-described “conservationist”, Donny Beaver, didn’t create Spring Ridge Club in order to preserve our streams “in perpetuity” as he claims. He did it to get rich, period! And he is doing it at the expense of all the fishermen in Pennsylvania and surrounding states that fish in our streams who can’t afford a $40,000 membership fee and $5,000/year maintenance fee to join his club.
Beaver said in the Helium Report interview that he saw “No Trespassing” signs going up on streams he used to fish and didn’t like it. He then goes on to say he wanted to “preserve access” to these streams so he created Spring Ridge Club. What a crock of sh–. He’s getting the wealthiest people on the East Coast to pay outrageous membership fees and using their money to buy up land along some of the best trout and salmon streams in the Eastern U.S. and then putting up his own “No Trespassing” signs. He spouts this altruistic, savior-of-our-environment crap with such conviction that I think he actually believes his own bullsh–.
His first foray into the world of overpriced sporting adventures was a fenced-off 900-acre compound with a Taj Mahal lodge near Julian, PA (financed with someone else’s money)where “sportsmen” could pay about $5000 to shoot at pen-raised, captive deer. This ultimately failed (I guess there aren’t enough millionaire deer hunters out there, or maybe they truely are sportsmen). In the end our hero put his bankrupt property on the auction block.
In the meantime, the Beav went looking for another angle (and other wealthy “sportsmen”) to con into joining another overpriced club. Thus, the Spring Ridge Club was born. Oops, I forgot, our conservationist hero is in this to preserve precious streams for future generations. Let’s conveniently forget about those pesky little “No Tresspassing” signs Beaver is putting up on all his properties to keep the undesireables out (that would be us, the non-millionaires) because it gets in the way of his Beaver-the-saviour-of-our-trout-streams PR story.
This guy is nothing more than a slick salesman who wants to privatize as many flyfishing streams as possible in order to make a buck, all the while masquerading as an environmentally conscious citizen out to save us from “urban sprawl”. I hate to point out another fact that shoots holes in Mr. Beaver’s story, but I don’t recall seeing any condos or Wall Marts being built along Spruce Creek, Little J, Yellow Creek, Penn’s Creek or any other stream controlled by his club. And as for his claim (made elsewhere) that his “stream conservation” efforts produced huge 20 to 24 inch trout in the Little J, Spruce Creek, and the upper Penn’s Creek, well that’s completely false. It’s called stocking hatchery fish! You’re not fooling anybody.
If Beaver has his way then eventually all of Pennsylvania’s trout and salmon streams will be private clubs or pay-to-fish streams just like in England. Across the pond only the wealthiest people in England can afford to hunt or fish on the exclusive estates of the privilaged class. Oops, there I go again ruining Mr. Beaver’s “conservationist-as-do-gooder” story with these unpleasant truths.
Wake up people. This is a wolf in sheep’s clothing of the highest magnitude, and he will steal our fishing heritage in the blink of an eye. And smile all the way to the bank!
jeff(Quote)
I have seen what goes on at Spring Ridge Club and Donny Beaver is only interested in keeping everything for himself and his wealthy members. He is not the least bit interested in conservation as he claims, well conservation for himself. Many of us sportsmen have experienced the posting of private property and if it were not for the Game Commission purchasing land for hunting many people would not have a place to hunt. This is what will happen to the anglers eventually, we will not be able to fish anywhere except streams that the Commonwealth owns.
John Howard(Quote)
More love for the Beaver. I wanted to point out that my comment on the Helium page (which was supposedly open to comments from the public) never did appear.
Shocking.
It’s hilarious that Donny’s “penned game” operation didn’t fly so he turned to fly fishing, where apparently there’s less conflict about catching big, stocked (and pellet-fed) fish and calling it a trophy.
BTW — I believe his current initiation fees are in the $80K-$85K range, not $40K.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
I fished the Little J last week and ran into two local kids coming down the trail who had fished the Spring Ridge waters. They had pictures of some very nice fish. 25″ brown, big fat 20″ rainbow. Said they broke off some other, bigger fish. I thought that was pretty cool.
Matt Dunn(Quote)
By the way a membership is currently going for $75,000 just to join Spring Ridge Club. There is yearly dues of $6,000.00 plus lodging fees, fishing fees,….etc.
John Howard(Quote)
Although I have never fished Spruce Creek being the recent college grad that I am I do not have a lot of money, but I do get upset when I am not allowed access to fishing rivers/streams because I do not have the funds to do so. If a person owns a pond that is one thing, but rivers and streams are a different story. I grew up on a river and we own the land on both sides of it. Under no circumstance could I imagine trying to put up barbed wire to prevent people from fishing it. I had a hard enough time paying $2 to access a river in GA at a state park let alone paying $80,000 to fish. I am from NY originally and a senator there “owns” the Douglaston Salmon Run. http://www.douglastonsalmonrun.com He “owns” the first two miles where the lake meets the Salmon River. Needless to say the first few miles is the best section when the Salmon/steelhead go upstream to spawn. He charges a $25 per person per day access fee. I am saddened to say that I have paid to fish it before. Catching a fish that you have to pay to catch is not the same feeling as one would get from catching a smaller fish on an open river. When famous people visit he closes off the few miles and lets them access it solely. (See the pictures of George Bush on the website.) It is the best salmon/steelhead fishing in all of NYS. Rumor has it that next year he is closing it down so you have to stay at one of his “cottages” to fish there. It appears that it will turn into a Spruce Creek destination where you cannot fish it unless you have thousands of dollars to do so. I am still baffled by this and I hope that someday my kids will be able to fish and not have to scrape together $50 to fish for a day. Combining fishing with having to pay money is a sin in my mind. I do not blame people for trying to make money in this time and age, but it deeply disturbs me when I read about situations like this. Paying $80,000 to catch trophy fish on private water is a sin in itself. Enough ranting, but I hope all of us help to take a stand to prevent situations like this occurring in the future for the future of our sport. Lines tight!
Matt Seymour(Quote)
In Northern California we’re blessed with a lot of public water, but there are also a lot of private fisheries too.
I don’t begrudge a rancher charging people to fish a stream; at least it provides an incentive to protect the habitat.
What the Spring Ridge Club is doing is trying to purchase or lease some of Pennsylvania’s best waters, locking them up for those who can afford $80K to join — which is *not* the same as charging a fee to all comers.
Privatization of a lot of America’s better fly fishing waters will certainly continue.
Tom Chandler(Quote)