Consciences getting cleared: the wild trout’s future is being shaped

Just an update about the ‘Next Generation Freshwater Conservation Leaders Scholarship Program’. Over the past months the key event organizers (CTCF and Trout Unlimited) managed to attract numerous renowned senior experts from various disciplines and get their commitment to attend to this extraordinary international youth exchange event. The experts’ professionalisms range from population dynamics and grassroots organizing to philanthropy and empowerment. Their expertise -in each field as such and in relation to the other spheres of interest covered- and their excellent educational skills guarantee the participating youth to get the best of insights required to become true, mature conservationists and to make the difference in the field!

Besides substance the Program is also getting shape. At the end of April several meetings were scheduled at Trout Unlimited’s headquarters in Washington DC. Having exchanged ideas about structure, deontology, tutorial style, and educational élan at many occasions before, René Beaumont finally met Franklin Tate (TU’s Director of Youth Education Programs) in the flesh. Together with John Zablocki they concluded on a solid, thorough, and well-defined Program set-up. This is to offer the participants an initiation they will not or cannot get anywhere else, one they will always remember and will keep in mind. The program strives to combine knowledge transfer with leisure/pleasure and impact with attractiveness. We hope to enhance eagerness ‘to be part of it all’ in the conservation field and cultivate the assertiveness needed to become or remain leaders. Senior expert presenters acting within a well-planned program will guarantee that the youth involved come away well-equipped to set the newest of standards with a deep and genuine respect for what once was, what is now, and what should be. Knowing, in the end, it is not all about the trout; it’s about what we, today, have on lease: a heritage, for this and for the next generation, for our children, theirs, …

Please note:

* Until now we have been able to keep two places open for those young flyfishing and conservation enthusiasts who may still be out there, who we may have overlooked or who we have not managed to spot through our contacts during the recruitment process. If you are one of them, or if you know of such candidate, please get in touch?/!

* Some parts of this Program are still open for adoption. Third parties who have a genuine interest in/with teaming up with this initiative are invited to do so. We have a selective yet very dedicated audience ‘on offer’ for those who believe in shaping the future with sustainability, without abusing or corrupting it.

For more information please contact René Beaumont at rb@continentaltrout.com

Photo: young and ready/eager to be educated…