Prominent Conservation Lobbyist Jim Range Dies

Jim Range, who represented the voice of AFFTA in the U.S. legislature for more than ten years and helped shape numerous regulations and laws that support fishing and conservation, passed away Monday night after a short battle with cancer. Range was also Senior Legislative Policy Advisor and environmental lawyer for Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell, a Washington, DC, law firm. Range received numerous conservation awards and honors, including Outdoor Life magazine’s 2002 Conservation Award for his work to establish the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Great Blue Heron Award, and the American Sportfishing Association’s Norville Prosser Lifetime Achievement Award. But he was perhaps most visible to fly fishers as the energy behind AFFTA’s National Casting Call, an annual event that supports fish habitat conservation, science, and education.
You can read more about Range’s work for the TRCP here, and AFFTA’s note on his passing here.