TU Ten Special Places Essay Contest

January 28, 2015 By: Erin Block

The Trout Unlimited recent “10 Special Places” report will be the subject of an upcoming TU essay contest. Pieces should focus on one or more of these places and be no more than 500 words. Entry deadline is February 20, 2015.

Read more in the press release below.

Sportsmen invited to write about ‘Special Places’ for Trout Unlimited essay contest

Sportsmen invited to write about ‘Special Places’ for Trout Unlimited essay contest. Winner will net a Scott Radian fly rod package and publication in TROUT Magazine.

WASHINGTON, D.C.–Trout Unlimited today launched an essay contest open to the angling public that will net the winning author a $994 Scott Radian fly rod package and publication in TROUT Magazine. Second and third place essays will also earn fishing gear prizes. Essays must focus on one or more of the places featured in TU’s recently released 10 Special Places report (tu.org/special-places), and must be no more than 500 words.

TU’s 10 Special Places full report was released in December, after individual places were announced weekly this fall. The report focuses on areas that are rich in fish, game and natural beauty, and that have for generations provided abundant opportunities for hunters and anglers. It covers threats to the specific regions from shale gas drilling and related activities, and offers recommendations for the best approaches sportsmen and women can use to protect these areas, including the Upper Delaware River watershed, Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands, and the George Washington, Jefferson and Monongahela national forests in Virginia and West Virginia.

“This report highlights some of the most iconic fishing and hunting areas in the East,” said Mark Taylor, TU’s eastern communications director. “For many sportsmen and women, these are the forests and rivers where we learned to love the outdoors, and places that still draw us out into the woods and onto the water. We all have stories about our adventures, and about what makes these places personally special to us.”

Protections already are being implemented. A New York announcement in December that the state was prohibiting the practice of high-volume hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas ensures the protection of two areas featured in the report, the Catskills and Allegany State Park, as well as the New York portion of the upper Delaware River watershed. Earlier in the fall, the U.S. Forest Service released an updated management plan for the George Washington National Forest that prohibits additional leases for energy extraction, offering significant protections for the forest’s coldwater resources.

Interested writers — published or not — can learn more about the contest on TU’s website. Entries must be submitted to Taylor by Feb. 20 to be considered.

Trout Unlimited is the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring North America’s trout and salmon and their watersheds. Follow TU on Facebook and Twitter, and visit us online at tu.org.

The rules:

Essays must be no more than 500 words.
Work must be your own original content (no plagiarizing). It does NOT have to be published prior to entering this contest.
Works must be submitted by email to Mark Taylor [email protected], subject line ATTN: 10 Special Places essay contest
Each submission must come with a photo of the author and a short, two-sentence biography.
Submissions are due by Feb. 20, 2015.
All authors agree to allow Trout Unlimited to re-post their piece on their website and promote it through appropriate social media channels.
The winners will be announced on March 2, 2015.
Winner will receive a TU-inscripted Scott Radian 9-foot, 5-weight rod with a Lamson Guru 1.5 reel. Retail value: $994
Second prize is a Vedavoo sling pack fully loaded with a fly box, flies and fishing tools. Retail value: $289.90
Third prize is a Brodin Trout Ghost net and black four-piece rod and reel case, both with adorned with the TU logo. Retail value: $143