We Need More Riverkeepers

They don't call him a "riverkeeper," but from the sound of it, that's what Trout Unlimited's new Connecticut employee amounts to -- someone who will keep an eye on the state's smaller streams and advocate for their protection.

The Hartford Courant has a good introduction to Kirt Mayland, Trout Unlimited's first fulltime employee in Connecticut. Here's the nut graf, as newspaper people call it:

Trout Unlimited's decision to appoint Mayland as director of its New England office, and to head up its Eastern Water Project, reflects growing concern among fishermen and environmentalists that suburban sprawl and continued development pose as much of a threat to the smaller, less-renowned watersheds of the East as huge hydroelectric and water-diversion projects pose in the West.

Mayland is a lawyer. His appointment reminds me of something I read about John Cronin, when he was the Hudson Riverkeeper. A newspaper reporter remarked to Cronin's boss that Cronin probably would make a good lawyer.

"We don't need more lawyers," his boss said. "We need more riverkeepers."