Richard Formato

Richard Formato is an avid catch-and-release fly-fisherman from Wytheville, Va. When not on the water, he operates a small business there. Formato loves to fly-fish in his native Southwest Virginia because of the great water and wonderful people. He also loves to fish the flats and shallows of the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic whenever work and weather permit. He is on the Department of Conservation and Recreation's board of directors and is a trustee of the Shenandoah National Forest and Skyline Drive.

Recent columns

• What about Bob?
• Notes from the Charlotte Fly Show
• A chance meeting
• A wish for Jack

• Column archive
• Talk fly-fishing

This has been a sad spring in terms of ecology and preservation in Southwest Virginia.

In the last 30 days, 10,000 fish have been killed.

TEN THOUSAND.

Other than a few passing stories, is anybody really paying attention?

On April 20, Novozymes Biologicals released 1,400 gallons of floor and drain cleaner killing 5,000 fish in Masons Creek.

According to their own statement, they "thought" the discharge was going into their sewer line.

That's probably baloney.

One pipe goes into the sewer, and the other one ... it goes into a community stream!

Better make sure we don't get confused!

In the near future, a mistake like this will result in jail time.

Another 5,100 fish were killed last week when a lime truck flipped into Big Stoney Creek in Giles County, killing the driver.

I am truly sorry for the family of Frank Biddle, the 47-year-old Lexington, N.C., native who perished in the crash.

Last year, after being informed by the New River Land trust of a large parcel for sale on Big Stoney and The New River, I went to this exact section of Big Stoney Creek.

The lime plant is the landmark you must know if you are to find this area on the first try.

But Mr. Biddle's truck did not end up in Big Stoney, killing him and thousands of fish, on its own.

Somewhere, somehow, "someone" made an awful mistake.

We do it to ourselves. We destroy our own habitat, tragically and mortally.

We set ourselves for disaster.

Here’s how:

In Wythe County, Bucky Sharitz, the chairman of Wythe County’s Board of Supervisors, is green lighting for the "sake of tourism" a cartoon campground on the New River next to the New River Trail.

Wythe County's economy is agrarian, not entrepreneurial.

Almost everybody in Wythe County government earned their money “the old fashioned way ... by inheriting a lot of land.”

The family-owned “legacy tracts” hold an entirely different meaning than it does for the conservationist and sportsman.

Until recently, farmland on the New River was "a penny stock" that was handed down over generations. Now it is worth "big city money."

I know of New River farm sold off because the owner didn’t have the foresight to buy health insurance, and in order to pay a big medical bill, made a hog killing selling his land in 50-foot waterfront lots.

The New River is being destroyed by development.

The value in the New River is two-fold. The value is in the quality of riverbanks and the quality of the water. They are not mutually exclusives commodities.

Developed banks are the kiss of death for river ecology.

The New River is a 200 million-year-old river system designed by God to flood.

When the rains come, and they always do, the ground and wastewater goes right into the New.

The other thing that is being totally ignored down here is light pollution.

Real campsites are lit with the glow of lantern light.

One of the great things about fly-fishing in Alaska, which has a tourist economy that dwarfs Wythe County, was its black night sky.

On the New River Trail, you already have a galaxy of motion activated, mercury vapor, sodium security lights that pollute the night and disrupt the habitat -- from attracting pesky coons to forcing out the nocturnal predators like bobcats.

For tourism on the New River, there needs to be a building moratorium within 2,500 feet of any side of the river, with no hill or mountain top development that impacts the viewshed.

A pristine river surrounded by beautiful Virginia farms is what will attract tourists from all over the world and fill up every hotel, generating millions of dollars all year.

As our population explodes, and real estate prices advance, our local governments are laying down so the New River Trail can be a bike path in the backyard of Disneyland development.

Fly-fishing, spin-fishing, and water recreation are already impacted.

When people pay a ton of money for a waterfront lot, they will not permit anglers and boaters of any sort to cross their little piece of heaven.

I found this out the hard way three years ago. A new lot owner from North Carolina not only didn’t believe my excuse of ignorance for parking on his un-posted lot near Fries, but was most unpleasant and combative as I apologized and got the heck out of there.

Name one great fresh water or salt-water fishery that hasn’t been impacted by development?

Wythe County’s permission of development on the New River will be a mistake that I promise you will be regretted.

With development, and man’s inclusiveness, there will be a major fish kill on The New River as there was on the Masons, Big Stoney, the North Fork of The Holston,.

All that has to happen is when somebody’s camper loaded with diesel fuel “goes swimming” during the next hurricane.

Wythe County needs to learn from Yellowstone, not Jellystone.