Trout Unlimited and Vet Voice Foundation Take Vets Fishing on the East Walker River
The transformative effects of fishing a good trout stream are well documented. Trout Unlimited is one of many organizations participating in Project Healing Waters (http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/), which uses the medium of fly fishing to help military service veterans reconnect with the outdoors.
On Sunday, April 16, Mike Caltagirone, Dave Lass, Matt Hargrave and Sam Davidson of TU and Mark Starr of the Vet Voice Foundation (VVF) got several veterans some good “trout therapy” on the East Walker River. Scott Freeman and Andrew Sears of the Walker River Outfitters donated their time, expertise, and tackle to the cause, and put the vets on some typically stout and feisty East Walker browns and rainbows.
Jim Reid, owner of Ken’s Sporting Goods in Bridgeport, donated wading equipment for the vets. Reid supports many fishing causes, including the Fishin’ Mission Foundation and the Bridgeport Fish Enhancement Program.
The vets, Jonathan Ervin, Joshua Bunce, and Vitali Mostovoj, served in the Air Force and the Army in Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, and other locations. They all reside in southern California, and had done little to no fishing prior to this outing.
“It was a great experience,” said Davidson, TU’s California Field Director. “TU feels strongly about supporting our military veterans, and Scott and Andrew jumped at the opportunity. This kind of event is a great way to help our vets experience some of our best trout streams and wild places.”
The vets also toured some of the nearby Bodie Hills, a unique area of public land that TU and other conservation groups believe should be permanently protected for its high habitat values. Two tributaries to the East Walker, Rough Creek and Arastra Creek, originate in the Bodie Hills. The federal Recovery Plan for the listed Lahontan cutthroat trout (LCT) identifies Rough Creek as historic spawning habitat and proposes to establish an isolated population of pure strain LCTs there to buffer the species from being extirpated in the East Walker watershed by a catastrophic event.