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A Nation To Be Proud Of
A marketing slogan that describes BASS
is found on the cover of this magazine: “The Worldwide Authority on Bass
Fishing.” That is undeniably true and there is no other organization in
this sport that can ever lay claim to that fact.
While fishing is the focus
of BASS and this magazine’s mission is to share wisdom from the experts,
another founding principle that I laid down from the very beginning
sometimes gets lost in the big picture.
And that principle is the
conservation agenda, one that traces its roots back to January 1968 when
I created BASS. The timing was coincidental, actually, as pollution and
environmental awareness were becoming hot topics both politically and
with the general public.
BASS had only 12,000 members
in 1970 when we sued some 214 big-time industrial polluters alone in the
state of Alabama, home to BASS at the time. Shortly after that, we again
leveraged the little used 1898 Federal Refuge Act to sue 22 polluters
carelessly dumping harmful chemicals into the Houston Ship Channel. And
in Chattanooga, Tenn., where the first club affiliated with what’s known
today as the B.A.S.S. Federation Nation, we fought factories who freely
piped wastes into the Tennessee River, turning it into a toxic soup.
All of this happening at a
time when I probably should have been more focused on growing the BASS
membership. But at the time, I knew that water pollution was a hot
button issue with the BASS club boys, whom I called our environmental
“minutemen.” More important, I knew conservation could and would
ultimately determine the future of our sport. Of course, membership did
indeed continue to grow, with the grass-roots B.A.S.S. Federation Nation
forming the backbone of BASS conservation activism.
Pollution issues became more
complex as the years went by and BASS never flinched when it came time
to face the battles head-on. In 1989 we formed a Conservation department
to flex our muscles, working with state and federal governments to beef
up our commitment to improve public access and work jointly to preserve
and enhance water quality and the aquatic environment.
The BASS Conservation
Department was then, and is now, at the forefront of issues important to
our members. For the most part, BASS never backed down on stepping into
sometimes controversial issues. I personally came back into the fray in
1997 after discovering the U.S. Coast Guard was dumping big,
automotive-type lead-acid batteries (for navigation lights) into Lake
Guntersville, recognized nationwide as a top bass fishery. I privately
hired a diver who hauled up battery after battery.
The problem was exacerbated
when we later discovered that possibly thousands of batteries—containing
toxic contaminants like mercury and lead—were lying in piles near
navigation markers on the bottom of the 89,000-acre impoundment. It
doesn’t take an environmental expert to know those compounds were bad
news for waters used for fishing, swimming and even municipal water
supplies. After the Alabama B.A.S.S. Federation Nation and a team of
legal experts joined our campaign, the stage was set for litigation. Our
grounds for a lawsuit were based on the 1898 Refuse Act, the same law we
leveraged in the 1970s. The Coast Guard later admitted it had dumped
some 100,000 batteries (retrieved after our threatened lawsuit) into
waterways nationwide where lighted or audible navigation beacons are
located. It was an important lesson for all. We can never be
complacent about industry or our own governmental agencies.
There is only so much
editorial space to chronicle the many actions taken by BASS to disarm
environmental wrong-doers. Fortunately on the flip side, there are the
thousands of volunteer hours members of the B.A.S.S. Federation Nation
have spent working with state and federal government on a host of
collaborative projects, from shoreline cleanups to planting habitat in
aging reservoirs.
How unselfish is that? The
generous acts of BASS and its grass-roots membership spill well outside
the realm of bass fishing. Ultimately, our conservation agenda touches
water quality, wetland preservation, and aquatic plant management. Did
you notice that “bass fishing” is not a direct connection to the BASS
conservation platform? (Craig – don’t understand last statement)
The success stories over the past 38
years are numerous and will continue to grow as our conservation team of
Noreen Clough, Chris Horton and their army of B.A.S.S. Federation Nation
volunteers keep watch over the interests of the membership and everyone
else affected by their unselfish efforts.
All I can say is, God bless
the watchdogs. They serve us all. And for those who tune out to the
words conservation and environment, just remember you are a
conservationist every time you release a bass alive. BASS made that a
universal practice many years ago. Be proud. |
