New director brings lifetime of experience to FFF

By RON TSCHIDA, Chronicle Staff Writer

R.P. "Van" Van Gytenbeek is a big guy, with broad, beefy shoulders atop a towering frame.

Physical stature is one thing, but it's Van Gytenbeek's passion for fisheries conservation that has loomed large in the environmental movement for more than 30 years.

Now, as the recently installed executive director of the Federation of Fly Fishers, he'll bring that passion to bear as FFF seeks to reach a new level of success.

Van Gytenbeek is 71, but looks at least a decade younger. And he has no desire for retirement at a conventional age.

"Once you're involved in the environmental wars, you don't leave," Van Gytenbeek said in an interview last week. He's the only person ever to serve as executive director of both Trout Unlimited and the Federation of Fly Fishers, and he served for 10 years on the board of directors of Rocky Mountain Center for the Environment.

But he's also had a career in business management, which will be important in his new job.

The FFF has made a major change in direction this year. After being run with a volunteer president and board since its founding 39 years ago, the organization now has a paid chief executive in Van Gytenbeek.

The federation has an annual budget of about $750,000 now but, "It'll be bigger next year," Van Gytenbeek said. It has to get bigger to meet the education and conservation goals of the organization.

"The No. 1 thing that we should do and we've always done is education, teaching people the benefits of fly fishing, and actually teaching them fly fishing and fly tying." Van Gytenbeek said. Conservation, such as the group's "Adopt a Stream" program and advocacy of catch-and-release angling is the other half of the mission.

Bob Wiltshire, who has been with the Fly Fishing Federation for nearly 10 years, said he hadn't met Van Gytenbeek before this year.

"I knew him by reputation," Wiltshire said, a national reputation as "a true advocate. He walks the walk, and doesn't just talk the talk."

It's one thing to espouse environmental views among friends, Wiltshire said, another thing to take a strong stand in public.

For example, Van Gytenbeek serves on the Fish and Wildlife Commission in Washington state and this year he was the chief proponent of a decision that mandated catch-and-release only for wild steelhead.

Newspapers in Washington called the decision the most controversial the commission made this year.

"It was very unpopular amongst many recreational anglers" and among some fishing guides, Wiltshire said.

(The Fish and Wildlife Commission this month modified the ban, and now allows anglers to keep one steelhead per year, only from about a dozen streams on the Olympic Peninsula.)

"You can either be a leader and make the difficult choices, or you can duck them, and he has a long career of doing the hard things and not compromising," Wilshire said.

Van Gytenbeek said that in the West, water issues will continue to dominate fisheries conservation, as a growing population puts more pressure on a limited supply of water.

In Montana, the mining initiative on the November ballot that would repeal a ban on cyanide heap leach mining is a critical issue, he said.

"I mean that is just criminal," Van Gytenbeek said. "That is unbelievable. I hope that Montanans are smart enough to ban (cyanide) once and continue to ban it."

Van Gytenbeek said he's been fishing since about age 5. He enjoys fly fishing for trout and salmon. But his eyes really light when talk turns to bone fishing on the saltwater flats of Florida.

It's a reminder that FFF isn't a trout fishing organization -- despite its being based in Livingston -- it's a fly fishing organization.

"All fish, all waters," Van Gytenbeek said.

One of the fastest growing activities is fly fishing for northern pike, Wiltshire said. And in Michigan, guides are getting $300 a day for helping clients take carp on a fly.

Ron Tschida is at rtschida@dailychronicle.com

Reader Comments