In June, my son Evan attended the Pennsylvania Rivers Conservation & Fly Fishing Youth Camp at Messiah College in Grantham, PA. The camp was presented by the Cumberland Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited.
The camp was started in 1995 to offer teenagers an education in fly fishing and coldwater conservation. Featuring experts in the fields of biology, habitat restoration, and fishing, students engage in a week of college-level material. The vision of the camp is to produce young men and women who are equipped to become tomorrow’s conservationists.
The program consisted of both classroom and hands-on learning. Topics included ecology, entomology of a trout stream, genetics, hydrology, and riparian buffers. Fishing instruction included knot tying, casting, and fly tying. The students also completed a conservation project along the banks of the Yellow Breeches by installing a log framed winged deflector to reduce stream bank erosion and to provide habitat.
Each morning and night, the students were able to fish the Yellow Breeches that flows through the campus and everyone caught both rainbows and browns. While on the stream, they were also taught ethics and stream etiquette.
A big thanks to Steve Weinstein for informing us about this wonderful camp.
For more information, go to their website: www.riverscamp.com.
If you know a high schooler interested in learning more, I highly encourage them to apply.
By Dave Keane
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