TRCP’s “In the Arena” series highlights the individual voices of hunters and anglers who, as Theodore Roosevelt so famously said, strive valiantly in the worthy cause of conservation.

Chris Dollar

Hometown: Rappahannock River, VA 
Occupation: Principal, CD Outdoors’ Communications; writer/editor/educator, conservationist, fishing guide, and owner/operator of TackleCove.com – a light tackle, fly fishing, and kayak outfitter.
Conservation credentials: Chesapeake Region Conservation Consultant and member of Government Relations Committee for Coastal Conservation Association; Conservation Director for Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association.

An all-purpose outdoors professional since 1994, think of Capt. “C” Dollar as the Swiss Army knife of the Chesapeake Bay’s sporting and conservation realm. He has three decades’ experience as an outdoors professional who has held a fishing guide license and a U.S. Coast Guard Master’s License since the 1990s. He is also an avid waterfowl hunter and amateur birder. He works with several conservation organizations and coalitions – including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Coastal Conservation Association, and TRCP. Originally formed in 1999, his CD Outdoors brand has morphed into a conservation communications consultancy focused on Bay fishery and habitat issues. (Dollar notes that CD Outdoors’ logo is of an osprey feeding menhaden to its chicks, taken from a photograph he took in the early 2000s, and in the past two years there are growing concerns that there may not be enough menhaden to feed some osprey chicks on some lower Bay tributaries due to industrial menhaden fishing.)

His columns cover important issues such as the impacts of the industrial-scale menhaden reduction fishery on recreational angling and the Bay’s habitat, wildlife, and water quality. Over the years, his columns have regularly appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Chesapeake Bay Magazine, PropTalk, and the Capital Gazette, the latter of which continues to run his weekly conservation column. He also pens a bi-weekly blog on TackleCove.com.

Here is his story.

Growing up on Chesapeake Bay, fishing and crabbing was just something we did as kids. It wasn’t until right after college that I took fishing more seriously, especially with regards to related conservation efforts, which are a necessary part of any outdoorsperson’s tool kit. My grandfather was a hunter, but he passed before I got a chance to know him, so I did not grow up in a hunting household. In 1996, my college lacrosse teammate and his father took me under their wing and introduced me to waterfowl hunting when I was in my mid-20s. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Like most folks who spend a lot of time out-of-doors, I have memorable adventures. One that stands out was when we were hunting the grass flats and marshes of Pocomoke Sound for wigeon, pintails, and gadwall. We’d had a very good hunt, but by midday the wind really picked up and it switched around and came at us from the northeast. The boat ramp was about 9 miles away and the cut-through in the marsh to the ramp was blown out – there was no water in it. So, we had to go into the teeth of the blow via Tangier Sound.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Bay, Tangier Sound is pretty big water with stretches of deep water and shoals. In a 20-foot open boat loaded with decoys, two grown men, and a Chesapeake Bay retriever, with wind chill temps close to the single digits, well, that was a bit of a white-knuckler.

Though I love hunting and angling on the Bay, I hope to someday go fishing for sea-run fish in Patagonia. It seems so wild and expansive. On the hunting side, it would be great to flush upland birds and call in waterfowl somewhere wild and remote, like the upper Midwest or remote Canada. What I’d really like to do, however, is time travel back to when canvasbacks blackened the Chesapeake skies and rafted together in thousands on the Susquehanna Flats.

Dramatic changes in the Bay have taken place over the past century. Once abundant fish and wildlife populations and vibrant habitats are diminished. Helping to protect and restore the Chesapeake is a huge reason why I am so involved in conservation, both for fisheries and birds. That said, we also need to understand that eating wild game and fish is important. That’s especially true for me, even if I’m not able to do it as much as I used to. Getting older ain’t for sissies.

“We need to value all forage fish – shads, river herrings, and menhaden – for what they mean to the entire ecosystem, and not just their dockside value.”

The top conservation priorities for the Chesapeake Bay include rebuilding habitat, conserving and protecting gamefish and forage fish (such as Atlantic menhaden and herring), and enhancing access to fisheries, especially for newcomers. Rebuilding the striper fishery, and maintaining the quality fisheries for red drum and cobia and other gamefish we have in the Bay, will not and cannot be done just through regulation of recreational or commercial fishing.

Rebuilding critical habitats – oyster reefs and seagrass beds – and improving water quality are also part of the solution, as are sensible and reasonable regulations for the large-scale industrialized reduction fishery for menhaden. Overall, we need to value all forage fish – shads, river herrings, and menhaden (bunker) – for what they mean to the entire ecosystem, and not just their dockside value. These are public resources, not commodities for a select few.

It is our moral obligation to not just protect and conserve what is left, but to enhance the natural capital remaining that we’ve been gifted. We are stewards of all waters, salt and fresh, and our marshes, woods, and mountains. Simple as that. None of it is ours. It belongs to the “now” as well as the future.

I have no understanding – or patience, frankly – of those who choose to recklessly use natural resources for short-term gains. It is anathema to me. It matters not if you’re a big-game hunter, a day hiker, or a casual angler or birder. America’s, and the world’s, wild places are inextricably linked to what it means to be human, and what it means to be alive. They belong to everyone. 

All images credit Chris Dollar