East Jersey Trout Unlimited's History
From Left to Right - New Jersey NLC Rep. and EJTU Member Kelly Buchta, EJTU Past President and NJ State Council Secretary Bruce Seiden, President and CEO of Trout Unlimited Chris Wood, NJ State Council Chair Marsha Benovengo and EJTU President and NJ State Council Vice-Chair Chris Henrickson
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EJTU's 50th Anniversary Celebration was held in Rochelle Park, NJ on October 13th 2021. The evening was well attended by 80 chapter members and featured history presentations, awards, a champagne toast and keynote presentation by Chris Wood.
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Having been founded in 1071, East Jersey Trout Unlimited recently celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021. The celebratory logo above was designed to honor the occasion. 50th Anniversary merchandise was made available for all of our members to purchase. The highlight of our anniversary was a 50th Anniversary celebration on the evening of October 13th 2021, when all members old and new came together in Rochelle Park. The evening was filled with warm reminiscing, delicious hot catered food, an awards ceremony, a history presentation, champagne toast and a keynote presentation from Trout Unlimited's President and CEO Chris Wood. Chris Just happens to be a native New Jersyan from Montclair, New Jersey. East Jersey Trout Unlimited is truly his "Hometown Chapter". All attendees were presented with a commemorative 50th anniversary coffee mug as a token of our thanks.
EJTU's 50th Anniversary Toast
The charm of fly-fishing and of protecting the environment is that they are both pursuits of what is elusive but obtainable, each is a perpetual series of occasions for hope.
Here is to another 50 years of hopes.
As part of our 50th celebration we took the opportunity to go back and document as much of our history as possible. The chapter conducted in-person interviews and got our hands any any older information we could. We went back and digitized our hard copies of 35mm photographs, slides and printed hard copy editions of our monthly newsletter "Riffles". They can be accessed here.
Back Issues of Riffles
EJTU Photos
A Summary of noteworthy findings is presented below.
A very special thank you to the following East Jersey Trout Unlimited members for helping us put this together.
John Roetman, Past President - For preserving countless Photos and Slides.
Bill Adams, Past President - For his interview and wonderful early history compilation.
Andy Gennaro, Past Board Member - For providing historical notes and for editing and preserving a full set of hard copies for us to digitize.
Bruce Seiden, Past President - For saving back issues of Riffles and photos.
Bill Borowski, Past President - For maintaining a digital archive of many photos.
Stewart Cohen, Past President - For interview and his wonderful notes about the chapter's history
Doug Penna, Board Member - For connecting all of the dots and being a bridge from the past to the future.
Ed Higgins, Past Board Member - For his contacts and notes and being a bridge from the past to the future.
Bob Doremus, Past President - For his notes about the history of the Chapter.
Dino Eftychiou, Past Board Member - For his wonderful article about the founding of the Chapter
Jon Daffron, Board Member - For quarterbacking our history research and pulling this all together.
Rich White, EJTU Member - For Scanning lots of slides.
Thank You All!
- Chris Henrickson, 2021 President East Jersey Trout Unlimited
EJTU's 50th Anniversary Toast
The charm of fly-fishing and of protecting the environment is that they are both pursuits of what is elusive but obtainable, each is a perpetual series of occasions for hope.
Here is to another 50 years of hopes.
As part of our 50th celebration we took the opportunity to go back and document as much of our history as possible. The chapter conducted in-person interviews and got our hands any any older information we could. We went back and digitized our hard copies of 35mm photographs, slides and printed hard copy editions of our monthly newsletter "Riffles". They can be accessed here.
Back Issues of Riffles
EJTU Photos
A Summary of noteworthy findings is presented below.
A very special thank you to the following East Jersey Trout Unlimited members for helping us put this together.
John Roetman, Past President - For preserving countless Photos and Slides.
Bill Adams, Past President - For his interview and wonderful early history compilation.
Andy Gennaro, Past Board Member - For providing historical notes and for editing and preserving a full set of hard copies for us to digitize.
Bruce Seiden, Past President - For saving back issues of Riffles and photos.
Bill Borowski, Past President - For maintaining a digital archive of many photos.
Stewart Cohen, Past President - For interview and his wonderful notes about the chapter's history
Doug Penna, Board Member - For connecting all of the dots and being a bridge from the past to the future.
Ed Higgins, Past Board Member - For his contacts and notes and being a bridge from the past to the future.
Bob Doremus, Past President - For his notes about the history of the Chapter.
Dino Eftychiou, Past Board Member - For his wonderful article about the founding of the Chapter
Jon Daffron, Board Member - For quarterbacking our history research and pulling this all together.
Rich White, EJTU Member - For Scanning lots of slides.
Thank You All!
- Chris Henrickson, 2021 President East Jersey Trout Unlimited
East Jersey Trout Unlimited, Our Chapter Origin Story
By Dino Eftychiou
In 1971, in the most populace county in the most densely populated state in the country, a group of individuals had the foresight to start a chapter of Trout Unlimited that would become one of the primary stewards of the region’s precious waterways.
Don Ecker, an avid fly fisherman and an outdoor columnist for The Record newspaper, had been a member of both the Sparta, NJ chapter of TU and the Theodore Gordon Fly Fishers. However, like a lot of northern New Jersey fishermen, he wanted a chapter much closer to home and one that would dedicate itself to protecting the rivers and streams of the ever-expanding suburban landscape. So he contacted National TU and applied for a new charter. From a list of New Jersey members that National TU had sent him, he assembled a group of individuals who would become the foundation of East Jersey Trout Unlimited.
In the same Fort Lee apartment where Don and his wife Barbara lived until his passing in 2017, this group of men and women met and laid out the plans for the new chapter. The application was completed, National TU approved it, and East Jersey Trout Unlimited was born. The accompanying photo shows Don receiving the EJTU Charter from the National Director of Trout Unlimited with two very special guests. We don’t know how many other chapters can boast of having Lee and Joan Wulff attend their inaugural ceremony, but we at EJTU are certainly proud of it.
East Jersey Trout Unlimited, a chapter that has grown to almost 800 members, has been a leader in environmental endeavors that protect and enhance our local waters. Our major home river is the Ramapo River, especially the stretch that flows through Bergen County. In partnership with Bergen County and the state of New Jersey, EJTU has helped to maintain the integrity of this heavily fished water. Projects include helping the state’s trout stocking, planting shrubs and trees along the riverbank, putting down woodchips for parking, and rock propping to create structures on the river bottom for fish. We also co-sponsor with Ramapo University an annual Ramapo River Day, when college professors and EJTU volunteers teach youth groups about the ecology and entomology of our river, and also when young people have hands-on opportunities to learn the basics of fly fishing.
A recent major project on this river was the removal of an old weir and its replacement with a number of cross vanes. No one seems to know why or when the weir was built, but over the years its rocks had fallen into the river and were directing water towards the banks, causing erosion and a wider, shallower river. With our own EJTU volunteers, other chapter TU members, citizen volunteers, and local college students, we built the cross vanes and watched the water directed back towards the middle of the river, ensuring a more natural, swifter current.
One of our proudest successes was working with the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife to designate Bear Swamp Brook, a tributary of the Ramapo, a “wild trout stream.” With a grant from New Jersey and the help of local citizens, EJTU volunteers removed debris from the brook and planted trees and shrubs to help stabilize its bank. Many years later, a healthy population of wild brook trout still inhabits this protected waterway.
This past year, EJTU again partnered with the NJ Department of Fish and Wildlife to save another small body of water in Bergen County, the Cresskill Brook, that was discovered to have a population of native brook trout. With guidance from National TU, and with grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Natural Resources Conservation Services Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, EJTU coordinated the restoration of this brook which years ago had been dammed to create a swimming pool. After our contractor removed the dam and the water flowed naturally, EJTU volunteers planted trees and shrubs along the riverbank to beautify and stabilize it.
Among our many other involvements and projects are conservation of local waterways, maintaining monofilament collection bins at local fishing sites, promoting fly fishing through our own fly casting and fly tying classes, volunteering with Healing Waters, supporting Casting for Recovery, promoting trout conservation through Trout in the Classroom, volunteering at hatchery events, and sponsoring Eagle Scout environmental projects. We also are fortunate to have chapter members who are very active with the NJ Council of TU and TU National. EJTU has a website to keep members informed of our many activities and we publish a newsletter, Riffles, each month. We also have monthly membership meetings when guest speakers make presentations on many diverse topics. One month it might be about how to fish a particular river; another month it might be about fracking and its impact on our local and national waters.
Although EJTU takes its role as a Cold Water Conservation steward very seriously, we haven’t forgotten that we like to fish. Many times throughout the year, even during the winter months, chapter volunteers coordinate day, weekend, and weeklong fishing trips. Our recent overnight trips have been to the Salmon River in upstate New York for steelhead and salmon, Block Island in Rhode Island for stripers, the Beaverkill and Willowemoc Rivers in the Catskills, and the Housatonic River in Connecticut. We also have a number of social events, such as barbecues, holiday parties, and our annual banquet, where volunteers are honored and awards are given out. In fact, our founder, Don Ecker, still comes to our annual banquet.
For over 50 years, East Jersey Trout Unlimited has partnered with our communities and agencies to ensure our local waters, especially our cold-water fisheries, continue to be healthy environments for future generations to enjoy. As Art Neumann, a founding member of Trout Unlimited, was fond of saying, “Take care of the fish, and the fishing will take care of itself.”
By Dino Eftychiou
In 1971, in the most populace county in the most densely populated state in the country, a group of individuals had the foresight to start a chapter of Trout Unlimited that would become one of the primary stewards of the region’s precious waterways.
Don Ecker, an avid fly fisherman and an outdoor columnist for The Record newspaper, had been a member of both the Sparta, NJ chapter of TU and the Theodore Gordon Fly Fishers. However, like a lot of northern New Jersey fishermen, he wanted a chapter much closer to home and one that would dedicate itself to protecting the rivers and streams of the ever-expanding suburban landscape. So he contacted National TU and applied for a new charter. From a list of New Jersey members that National TU had sent him, he assembled a group of individuals who would become the foundation of East Jersey Trout Unlimited.
In the same Fort Lee apartment where Don and his wife Barbara lived until his passing in 2017, this group of men and women met and laid out the plans for the new chapter. The application was completed, National TU approved it, and East Jersey Trout Unlimited was born. The accompanying photo shows Don receiving the EJTU Charter from the National Director of Trout Unlimited with two very special guests. We don’t know how many other chapters can boast of having Lee and Joan Wulff attend their inaugural ceremony, but we at EJTU are certainly proud of it.
East Jersey Trout Unlimited, a chapter that has grown to almost 800 members, has been a leader in environmental endeavors that protect and enhance our local waters. Our major home river is the Ramapo River, especially the stretch that flows through Bergen County. In partnership with Bergen County and the state of New Jersey, EJTU has helped to maintain the integrity of this heavily fished water. Projects include helping the state’s trout stocking, planting shrubs and trees along the riverbank, putting down woodchips for parking, and rock propping to create structures on the river bottom for fish. We also co-sponsor with Ramapo University an annual Ramapo River Day, when college professors and EJTU volunteers teach youth groups about the ecology and entomology of our river, and also when young people have hands-on opportunities to learn the basics of fly fishing.
A recent major project on this river was the removal of an old weir and its replacement with a number of cross vanes. No one seems to know why or when the weir was built, but over the years its rocks had fallen into the river and were directing water towards the banks, causing erosion and a wider, shallower river. With our own EJTU volunteers, other chapter TU members, citizen volunteers, and local college students, we built the cross vanes and watched the water directed back towards the middle of the river, ensuring a more natural, swifter current.
One of our proudest successes was working with the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife to designate Bear Swamp Brook, a tributary of the Ramapo, a “wild trout stream.” With a grant from New Jersey and the help of local citizens, EJTU volunteers removed debris from the brook and planted trees and shrubs to help stabilize its bank. Many years later, a healthy population of wild brook trout still inhabits this protected waterway.
This past year, EJTU again partnered with the NJ Department of Fish and Wildlife to save another small body of water in Bergen County, the Cresskill Brook, that was discovered to have a population of native brook trout. With guidance from National TU, and with grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Natural Resources Conservation Services Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, EJTU coordinated the restoration of this brook which years ago had been dammed to create a swimming pool. After our contractor removed the dam and the water flowed naturally, EJTU volunteers planted trees and shrubs along the riverbank to beautify and stabilize it.
Among our many other involvements and projects are conservation of local waterways, maintaining monofilament collection bins at local fishing sites, promoting fly fishing through our own fly casting and fly tying classes, volunteering with Healing Waters, supporting Casting for Recovery, promoting trout conservation through Trout in the Classroom, volunteering at hatchery events, and sponsoring Eagle Scout environmental projects. We also are fortunate to have chapter members who are very active with the NJ Council of TU and TU National. EJTU has a website to keep members informed of our many activities and we publish a newsletter, Riffles, each month. We also have monthly membership meetings when guest speakers make presentations on many diverse topics. One month it might be about how to fish a particular river; another month it might be about fracking and its impact on our local and national waters.
Although EJTU takes its role as a Cold Water Conservation steward very seriously, we haven’t forgotten that we like to fish. Many times throughout the year, even during the winter months, chapter volunteers coordinate day, weekend, and weeklong fishing trips. Our recent overnight trips have been to the Salmon River in upstate New York for steelhead and salmon, Block Island in Rhode Island for stripers, the Beaverkill and Willowemoc Rivers in the Catskills, and the Housatonic River in Connecticut. We also have a number of social events, such as barbecues, holiday parties, and our annual banquet, where volunteers are honored and awards are given out. In fact, our founder, Don Ecker, still comes to our annual banquet.
For over 50 years, East Jersey Trout Unlimited has partnered with our communities and agencies to ensure our local waters, especially our cold-water fisheries, continue to be healthy environments for future generations to enjoy. As Art Neumann, a founding member of Trout Unlimited, was fond of saying, “Take care of the fish, and the fishing will take care of itself.”
East Jersey Trout Unlimited's Early History
East Jersey Trout Unlimited's
List of Presidents
Complied by Jonathan Daffron
List of Presidents
Complied by Jonathan Daffron
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Year President
1971 - Don Ecker 1972 - Don Ecker 1973 - D. McGeady / Bill Adams 1974 - Bill Adams 1975 - Bill Adams 1976 - Bill Adams 1977 - Jim Conway 1978 - Jim Conway 1979 - Sandy Fisher 1980 - Sandy Fisher / Bill Adams 1981 - Joe Pugach 1982 - Joe Pugach 1983 - Joe Pugach 1984 - Stewart Cohen 1985 - Stewart Cohen 1986 - Fred Schmid 1987 - Fred Schmid 1988 - Fred Schmid 1989 - Bob Doremus 1990 - Bob Doremus |
Year President
1991 - Bob Doremus 1992 - John Roetman 1993 - John Roetman 1994 - John Roetman 1995 - John Harrington 1996 - John Harrington 1997 - John Harrington 1998 - John Roetman 1999 - Larry Clemons 2000 - Larry Clemons / Bill Borowski 2001 - Bill Borowski 2002 - Bill Borowski 2003 - Bill Borowski 2004 - George Petersen 2005 - George Petersen 2006 - George Petersen 2007 - Herman Drenth 2008 - Herman Drenth / Ray Cappock 2009 - Ray Cappock 2010 - Ray Cappock |
Year President
2011 - Ray Cappock 2012 - Ray Cappock 2013 - Ray Cappock 2014 - Bruce Seiden 2015 - Bruce Seiden 2016 - Bruce Seiden 2017 - Bruce Seiden 2018 - Chris Henrickson 2019 - Chris Henrickson 2020 - Chris Henrickson 2021 - Chris Henrickson 2022 - Greg Maita 2023 - Greg Maita 2024 - Greg Maita |
Notable Achievements
1983 TU Golden Trout Award
1992 TU Silver Trout Award
1983 TU Golden Trout Award
1992 TU Silver Trout Award
EJTU Commemorative Anniversary Mugs
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