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OutdoorsVT: Protecting our rivers

Movie had an impact on river restoration

I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of days this week hanging out with big shots and important people, acting like a big shot and important person.

That happens every once in a while and I like to take advantage.

So when an e-mail showed up offering a chance to meet with a couple of the stars of "A River Runs Through It," and preview portions of the movies upcoming release on Blu-ray I couldn't hit "Reply" and type "Yes," fast enough.

The movie, which was adapted from Norman Maclean's famous novella of the same name, became my favorite movie a long time ago and every time I watch it I like it more.

The story of a rural Montana family in the early part of last century is told with fly fishing on the Blackfoot River used as a backdrop to help tell their tales.

Tom Skerritt and Craig Sheffer (obligatory name dropping now complete), who played the Rev. Maclean and Norman Maclean respectively, were both at the two-day event as were representatives of Sony Pictures and Orvis.

Sorry ladies, Brad Pitt, who played Norman Maclean's brother Paul Maclean, wasn't there. And actually, it wouldn't have made much difference to me. I was there for the fishing stories, not the Hollywood glitz and glamour.

But along with the chance to get to hang out with Skerritt and Sheffer, I also was reminded of the great impact the movie had on the sport of fly fishing and number of people who took up the sport following the 1992 release.

I have known many fly anglers who were casting to rising trout long before the release of "A River Runs Through It," and almost to a person — no matter how much they may have liked the movie on a personal level — hated what it did to their local trout water.

Before the movie, a person could go fishing on the weekend and even on a very productive water, anglers could fish long stretches without seeing another angler.

Lesser waters might produce a day of fishing without bumping into another angler the entire day.

After the movie, every stream — regardless of whether it held trout — was packed with anglers. Trophy trout waters became "destination vacation spots" and families would plan weeklong vacations with a trout river at the center.

Families would show up with a closet full of brand new Orvis rods and reels, waders, vests and other gear. Some of the outfits cost as much as the cars some of the guides they hired drove.

That guide industry exploded.

At one time, a local fly shop had a list of a half dozen guys known for their skill and knowledge of the river. If someone wandered in and sought a guide, the "guide" would take a day off from his regular job to take the anglers out for the day.

Soon those same shops had a fleet of drift boats and a dozen or so guides who worked full-time and others who worked part-time.

Fishing lodges were born.

Fly shops popped up along roads to the trout rivers and out-of-state plates lined the parking spaces.

I lived within a half hour of the San Juan River in New Mexico for most of my life.

Over the last couple of decades it has often been featured on Top 10 lists for having some of the best trout fishing in the country — particularly tailwater fisheries.

Strict guidelines limit an angler to one trout per day and that one trout has to be 20 inches long to be kept.

Of course, few are kept and 25-inch trout are not uncommon. These trout grow to sizes few people will ever see.

It's an incredible fishery.

It's also incredibly crowded.

Drive by the Quality Waters section of the river on any given weekend and the anglers will look like ants as they spread out across and up and down the river near where the dam releases water into the channel.

Locals shook their heads and remember the good old days before "that damn movie."

But there's another group of people in the country that liked the explosion.

And I don't just mean the folks at Orvis, who obviously appreciated the rise in fly-fishing's popularity

People who care about rivers, water quality, healthy ecosystems and similar things loved the explosion in numbers.

Suddenly when a group wanted to fight pollution from an industrial source they no longer went to battle with a handful of activists, but hundreds and hundreds of fly anglers who suddenly cared about the river.

Ask the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. When they propose a change in management to the San Juan, they'll fill a room at the Civic Center with concerned anglers.

Nothing slips by and management is heavily scrutinized.

The Bureau of Reclamation faces the same challenges in dealing with water release rates.

Some of those same types of things take place here in Vermont.

With Act 250, love it or hate it, protections for water come built in now.

Many complain about the act as being anti-business and would love to see it scrapped. There's no doubt the act may deserve a tweak here and there.

What does all this have to do with "A River Runs Through It?"

The Blackfoot River.

That's the river the Macleans lived near and fished and what Norman Maclean wrote about that turned into the movie. It's the river that glued the Macleans to the area — the bond that kept them all together.

The problem is that the river the Macleans fished in the 1930s and '40s had been decimated by the time the movie was made a half-century later.

When the studio went to make the movie, the Blackfoot River had been all but destroyed by clear cutting of the surrounding forests, cattle grazing, mining and other impacts.

The river was so bad at the time of filming, the fly-fishing scenes had to be moved to other rivers.

It also launched restoration efforts on the Blackfoot, which today is often held up as one of the great river restorative efforts in the country.

It also launched the involvement of Skerritt on water issues. Today, he sits on the American Rivers Board of Directors.

That name drop was completely discretionary. And I enjoyed it.

"A River Runs Through It" is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray July 28.



Darren Marcy is a local outdoor enthusiast. His Web site is www.DarrenMarcy.com. E-mail him at darren@darrenmarcy.com.