Re: NANFA-L-- Help! Redside Dace Recovery in Ontario

Todd D. Crail (tcrail-in-UTNet.UToledo.Edu)
Tue, 8 Aug 2006 14:57:23 -0400

You got it. You won't want to protect what you don't know is there. That's
why I started taking all of my pictures. It's out of everyone else's
comfort zone to go into a stream. It's Nuts like us that hang out there.
If I can get them interested in their living room, they become engaged and
may even travel beyond their comfort zone. Crap, I have trouble getting
long time birders and lepidopterists (people who regularly go out in nature)
to even go into the water, how can I expect anyone who's always thought it
was too polluted for their kids to play in, or someone who's been draining
off their land because that's what they always did?

Group Why could also be people living in subdivisions with the immaculate
turf grass lawns who can get lumped in with farmers. They, for whatever
reason, trust that their home was built to the most strictest of obligations
under the laws, and that they've done no harm making their dream house.
This is really tough water to navigate because you can excite a shame
complex very quickly. They just wanted a beautiful place to live, and you
can enhance that experience for them talking about using native plants to
absorb rain water in rainwater gardens, and using native plants as borders
to mitgate and assimilate any fertilizer running off. Etc etc etc.

I think my favorite experience interacting with a landowner was the farmer
down the road from Casper. We talked to him for awhile, showed him some of
the centrachids we were catching presently, and tried to talk him down to a
riffle so he could see redline, rainbow, snubs and banded darter all in
their nuptuial best. If he would have stayed with us, he would have seen
SNAIL darter living on his property! But that wouldn't be what he
remembered. He would have remembered all those common, yet brightly colored
fish.

At any rate, we caught up with him again the next day and I watched closely
how Casper talked to him, as I know he's good at just talking to everyone...
Man I learned a lot from him... Esp that thing about listen first, then
talk. Big lesson, and a tough one to implement for someone like myself! I
was thumbing through Fishes of Tennessee to show him what a snail darter
looked like, and what all the fuss was... He caught a glimpse of the banded
darter and about shot out of his truck, he was so excited to see it. When
we finally got to the snail darter, he was kinda like "that's it?" lol.

Todd

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Stallsmith" <fundulus-in-hotmail.com>
To: <nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Help! Redside Dace Recovery in Ontario

> Todd, you hit on one thread that we in NANFA are in a good position to
> address. A lot of farmers/country people have no clear idea what's in the
> creeks and springs on their property (beyond bream and bass...). We've had
> several experiences here in the mid-south showing freshly-caught darters
in
> breeding coloration to local people and it invariably blows their minds;
> it's something they've just never come across. People will only value and
> appreciate what they know, especially when they feel stressed about making
a
> living.
>
> --Bruce Stallsmith
> along the tropical Tennessee
> Huntsville, AL, US of A
>
>
> >Impervious surfaces developers? Have at 'em! They're the real demons of
> >today. They're educated in Group X's schools, and they just want the
> >money.
> >But please consider giving the farmers a break, take a step back, and
well,
> >go talk to one. I've yet to meet a farmer who didn't like to talk :)
> >
> >Todd
> >The Go Hug A Farmer Today Madness, Toledo, OH
> >It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
> >http://www.farmertodd.com
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