The Brodhead Chapter of Trout Unlimited will honor John Arway, Executive Director of the Fish and Boat Commission, with a Lifetime Achievement Award at its Annual Banquet on March 23 at Ridgecrest at the Stroudsmoor Country Inn in Stroudsburg, Monroe County.
Since taking the helm of the Fish and Boat Commission in March 2010, John Arway has worked tirelessly to raise public awareness of the plight of the Susquehanna River and to seek remedies for fixing it.
Once considered one of the country’s top smallmouth bass fisheries, the mighty Susquehanna River has struggled since 2005 to produce viable young of year smallmouth classes. In fall 2011, this troubling trend took on an added dimension, with adult smallmouth bass displaying unhealthy lesions.
With support from various organizations, including the Susquehanna River School, PennFuture, the National Wildlife Federation, the PA Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA, American Rivers and PA Trout Unlimited, Arway has repeatedly petitioned the Department of Environmental Protection to place the river on the list of “impaired” waters and start the process of cleaning up the river.
Arway has experienced the decline of the fishery firsthand. A scientist by training, he has spent more than 36 years working for the Commission in various roles.
As a lifelong angler, he has fished the Susquehanna since the early 1980’s. At that time, it was common for anglers to catch 50-100 smallmouth bass in an evening. Sadly, many anglers now report catching only a handful on a good day.
Since others have chosen not to act on behalf of the Susquehanna’s smallmouth bass, Arway created the Save Our Susquehanna fundraising campaign to raise funds for PFBC staff to work with cooperative farmers on habitat improvement projects one farm at a time to improve the water quality of the river.
Throughout the country, fish and wildlife agencies face a similar challenge of retaining participants in their sport and attracting new ones. Arway has met this challenge by initiating a marketing program to highlight the sport to enthusiasts and novices, to men and to women, to adults and to children, to families and friends.
The first initiative was launched Dec. 1, 2012, when the Commission began to offer 3- and 5-year fishing licenses. As an added incentive, anglers who purchase a multi-year license also receive an online, digital subscription to the Commission’s flagship publication, Angler & Boater magazine. A separate website – www.GoneFishingPa.com – offers additional benefits.
Anglers can enter a sweepstakes to win guided fishing trips and get access to numerous coupons for free goods, cost savings and discounts.
Arway achieved one of his ultimate goals of reducing the price of a fishing license in the 2015 license year. The intent was to attract lapsed anglers to return to the sport and encourage others who don’t fish to try the sport of fishing.
Arway has tirelessly advocated multiple efforts to create alternative funding sources for the agency. These include a fee on the consumptive use of water and a portion of the state sales tax generated from fishing and boating.
Under his direction, the Commission launched a Natural Gas and Water Access Program, which secures revenues from selling natural gas from under Commission property and from leasing rights to withdraw water from Commission Property.
As the PFBC’s Chief Executive Officer, he manages and operates the agency like a business and uses business principles and government rules to manage and allocate funds to our Commonwealth’s aquatic resources and provide recreational fishing and boating opportunities.
Because many Commonwealth issues – such as the health of the Susquehanna River and the restoration of American shad – have impacts beyond state borders, the Commission benefits from participation on boards and committees at the national level.
Arway keeps Commonwealth issues at the forefront of national discussions by representing the inland states on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council; by serving on the Executive Committee of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies; chairing the AFWA Angling/Boating Participation Committee; chairing AFWA’s Technical Workgroup for the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife- Associated Recreation; and serving as Past President of the Northeast Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Northeast Division.
He is also a member of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.
A native of North Huntingdon, Arway holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree in aquatic biology from Tennessee Technological University.
He holds memberships in numerous organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Fisheries Society (Past President of the Northeastern Division and Pennsylvania Chapter); North American Benthological Society; Ducks Unlimited; Pheasants Forever; BASS; the SONS of Lake Erie; National Wildlife Federation and life member of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, National Trout Unlimited (Lloyd Wilson Chapter) and the Conservation Officers of Pennsylvania.
Click Here for information on tickets for the Annual Banquet.
For more information on programs, initiatives and other upcoming events, visit the Brodhead Chapter of Trout Unlimited website. Brodhead Chapter members contributed over 2,100 hours over volunteer on conservation and education projects.
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