Date: January 3, 2008
Contact: Bob Miller, (865) 436-1207

Santa arrived a few days early for Fisheries managers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park who recently accepted a $5,000 assortment of waders and wading shoes from the ORVIS Corporation.

Park Fisheries Biologist, Steve Moore, joined Friends of the Smokies President, Jim Hart, to pick up a van load of the fishing gear from Kris Maurer, Fishing Manager at the Sevierville ORVIS store. The request for support from ORVIS was made through the Friends, the Park’s primary fund-raising foundation.

According to Moore,"We can make great use of this equipment to outfit the large crews of Park staff, volunteers and cooperators who work with us on labor-intensive projects like large stream fish population surveys and our planned project to restore native brook trout to Lynn Camp Prong next fall. Fishery management in the Smokies always involves lots of hiking and bushwhacking down into streams, which takes a toll on waders. The ones ORVIS has provided are heavy-duty models that should stand up well to that kind of punishment."

Maurer said "ORVIS is dedicated to helping support a wide variety of activities to improve fishing opportunities and fish habitat, and we are especially happy to contribute support locally to a Park that provides such a great recreational fishing experience to our own employees and patrons of the Sevierville store."

Friends President Jim Hart said, "At the Friends of the Smokies we see our role as helping to provide the Park with the resources to improve the Park and the visitor experience. Many times this support is in the form of over a million dollars annually to fund seasonal staff for projects, but we also look for ways that we can help direct in-kind contributions of equipment that will provide these people with the tools they need to accomplish the work."