Support McCloud’s Endangered Redband Trout — and Watch Your Donation Triple in Size
By Tom Chandler on May 22, 2007 in Environment
I don’t make a lot of pleas for money here on the Underground. I figure you’re grownups, you work for your money, and you’ll pretty much spend it as you damn well please.
I’m making this exception for a simple reason; every dollar you donate to CalTrout for their McCloud Redband trout recovery program will be matched by Orvis and the National Fish and Wildlife Association.
The math is simple: You donate $100, and $300 is put to work saving the McCloud River Redband trout. $50 nets you $150 worth of trout-saving effort.
If you don’t know about them, the McCloud River Redbands are a stunning native trout — one of the rarest in existence — which evolved in isolation above the Upper Falls on the McCloud.
Due to stocking and habitat losses, they’re in danger of disappearing forever. Frankly, I want to see them recovered so I can catch and photograph one of these bad boys. What amazing colors.
Ready to cough up a few bucks? Amazingly, I can’t find a dedicated information page on the CalTrout Web site, but the Orvis Conservation folks publish an excellent page on the subject.
Sadly, there’s also no specific donation page at CalTrout.com (c’mon guys, let’s try to pull ourselves into the 21st century). I got a letter in the mail, and sent my check today.
If you didn’t get CalTrout’s letter, you can mail a check (specifying Redband recovery so the matching funds apply — and tell ‘em the Trout Underground sent you) to:
California Trout, Inc.
870 Market St. Suite 1185
San Francisco CA 94102
You can also call 415-392-8887. If you call, tell them you heard about it here. It won’t mean anything to them, but I’d like to give CalTrout some food for thought about the online world; it’s time they got a little more serious about it.
And props to Orvis and the National Fish and Wildlife Association for stepping up to the plate.
See you in McCloud Redband country, Tom Chandler.
Technorati Tags: mccloud river, redband trout, mccloud redband trout, orvis, caltrout
Kentucky Jim | May 23, 2007 | Reply
That’s a beautiful fish. No contribution just now, but soon.
Tom Chandler | May 24, 2007 | Reply
Sure wish they had an online donation form. CalTrout has an online membership form, but nothing specifically for this.
What they need is an online marketing specialist — a handsome, brilliant (hairless) type. Instead, they insist on hiring people who can actually get things done in the real world. That’s just so unrealistic…
dick dahlgren | Sep 23, 2007 | Reply
ATTENTION: The save the McCloud River Redbands is a noble cause.
When you make out your check, don’t make it out to California Trout, wrong club, make it out to Orvis MR Redband Fund.
Kentucky Jim | Sep 23, 2007 | Reply
Bought one chance. I’ll buy more. Love the red band! Gotta get up there one of these days to check out all that great fishing water, and those fish. Who knows, maybe I’ll win the prize!
Just got back from a weekend on the Kern, my “home waters” here in southern California. We too, have our native, the Kern River Rainbow. Maybe not as beautiful as the red band, but a great native fish nonetheless. Big project in the works to restore them to the Kern in their pure form (they hybridize with rainbows).
Kentucky Jim | Sep 23, 2007 | Reply
For southern California readers, the Sierra Pacific Fly Fishers club is selling raffle tickets to benefit the redband. Contact is listed on Cal Trout’s home page, I think.