A Riverkeepers River Keeper-Ron Holloway By Jack Imhof, Jerry Smitka
TUC’s Jack Imhof (Left) and Ron Holloway (Right) at the Wild Trout Symposium, circa 1990.
It is with the deepest sadness that we share the passing of Ron Holloway.
Ron was a dear, sweet man whose passion for his river, his fish and the natural world knew no bounds. He taught many people the science and art of managing a river and its riparian zone through the years both in the UK and abroad, especially here in Canada. A riverkeeper is a profession in the UK. Riverkeepers are responsible for managing a portion of a river, its riparian zone and wet meadows to maintain healthy fish and wildlife populations and to ensure their sustainability. Riverkeepering is still taught at a number of colleges in the UK.
Ron came into many of our lives when he was invited to Ontario in the 1980’s by Dr. Douglas Dodge of the then Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to share his experiences as a U. K. riverkeeper. This was the first of three trips to Ontario. During these visits he spent a great deal of time teaching workshops, touring and discussing streams and rehabilitation theory with many then young professionals interested in stream rehabilitation. Many of these people are regular names still in stream rehabilitation in Ontario including; Larry Halyk, Jim Bowlby, Les Stanfield, Jack Imhof, Jerry Smitka and Warren Yerex.
We didn’t realize it at the time but his visits marked the beginning of a revolution that would unfold in front of our eyes of how Ontario’s streams and in fact Canada’s streams would be managed in the future. In the pre-1980s, Ontario’s and for that matter Canada’s streams were managed using a totally regulatory hands-off philosophy. Ron showed us that there was another way and that it was a better way.
The techniques that Ron used on the U. K.’s River Itchen and other chalk streams of southern England were perfect for Ontario’s low gradient spring fed creeks. On a visit to Whiteman’s Creek and its many small feeder tributaries he remarked that, ‘the main stream is their living room, the feeder streams are their bedrooms. Try to make the bedrooms as romantic as possible”. Truer words were never spoken and words that would should all live by.
Ron working on his beloved River Itchen
TUC’s Jack Imhof had the pleasure of spending a week with Ron and his wife Paula at the cottage on the banks of the River Itchen in the early 1980s where Ron taught Jack the fundamentals of riverkeepering. Lessons that had and still have a major impact on how Jack views rivers and their management. While there, Jack saw Ron’s fun side when at the end of a grueling morning of instream work, Ron said, “it’s almost noon, we have to head over to my office in Easton.” Jack didn’t realize that Ron had an office in the next village, but all was revealed when the “office” turned out to be a local pub called the Chestnut Horse: the perfect office for a riverkeeper. It was there that Ron introduced Jack to a real English Bitter.
Ron’s 35 years of as riverkeeper of the 2.5-mile section of Martyr Worthy water on the River Itchen inspired fishers and riverkeepers with his knowledge, skills and great humor. That water has only changed hands once since 1652 and has not seen a hatchery fish since the 1940’s. Though he only actively keepered the 2.5 miles of the River Itchen, he was very active in promoting and assisting with catchment management planning for the entire system because water does flow downhill and what neighbors do upstream can affect those downstream. His legacy is a lifetime of inspired work and the results are a testament to Ron’s ability to maintain a healthy river and its coldwater community in the face of major changes over the last 35-50 years.
When he retired a few years ago, he and (his now deceased wife) Paula moved to a lovely cottage on the banks of the River Tweed in the border region of Scotland and England. Even then he was still active, writing a book on his life entitled, “You should have been here last Thursday: The Life, Thoughts and Meanderings of a Chalk Stream Riverkeeper”. He also joined a number of his Ontario colleagues at a Wild Trout Symposium in the late 1990s where he taught riverkeepering to many western USA biologists.
A few weeks prior to his passing he was awarded the U. K.’s, 2016, Wild Trout Trust’s, Bernard Venables Award for lifetime achievement and services to wild trout conservation. Ron influenced and inspired many of the today’s U. K.’s riverkeepers and activists of its rivers and its trout. He was a founding father of the Wild Trout Society, the progenitor of the Wild Trout Trust.
Ron’s passing is a great loss to the world of trout conservation and will be sorely missed. Above all, he was a humble and nice man willing to share his experiences and wisdom with all that were willing to listen.
We think that it’s most appropriate to reminisce on his contributions and life and share a pint.
Opmerkingen