JackM wrote:
I agree with troutbert's last post. Also, the conservacies have more money to work with, generally having been funded by wealthy trusts that can afford to use some part of their vast wealth to gain partial tax relief through donations. TU has a bit less of this kind of financial support and so your $25 donation may be more important to TU than the WPC.
I agree. If I had 5 million dollars to donate, I would donate it to a land conservancy, not TU. And I would probably try to work with them to see that that money was spent to conserve land through which a quality trout stream flowed.
Because that much money is the type of money that could really benefit streams by protecting the land they flow through, and the conservancies are involved in that type of activity.
Conervancies do that real estate type work. But do not (typically) do advocacy work.
TU does not have the money to buy and manage land to any great extent. But, unlike the land conservancies, they do advocacy work. And in advocacy work, the numbers of members of your group makes a big difference.
If you go to state agencies and express your concern about bulldozers gouging out streams, having 12,000 members (PATU's approximate membership) will probably get you a better hearing than if you have 800 members.
If you had 80,000 members (the approx. numbers of flyfishers in PA) you would probably be taken even more seriously than if you have 12,000 members.
With issues like channelization, pollution, etc. numbers of members matter a lot when talking to agencies and politicians.
When buying land, the number of members is less important. When a tract of land comes up for sale, you either have enough money to buy it or you don't. And annual $25 membership fees aren't going to buy tracts of land. That's barely enough to cover costs of mailings, website, etc. They get money to buy real estate from large trusts from seriously wealthy people.
So, the main roles played by conservancies and TU are typically different. But they are not in opposition, they are complementary.
There are some things, such as riparian buffers, tree plantings, stream cleanups, etc. where the groups commonly work together.
Another example would be the habitat work at the site of the McCoy Dam removal on Spring Creek. TU, Clearwater Conservancy, and the PFBC were all involved in that.
