The American Museum of Fly Fishing and Event Commitee Chair Philip Sawyer invite you to the 2024 Izaak Walton Award Event honoring Guido Rahr. The Log Cabin at the Presidio in San Franciso will provide a beautiful venue for the November 14 event where we will gather to celebrate Guido's many accomplishments.

A globally recognized pioneer in the conservation movement, Guido Rahr is the president and CEO of the Wild Salmon Center. Under his leadership, the organization has developed scientific research, habitat protection, and fisheries improvement projects in dozens of rivers across Japan, the Russian Far East, Alaska, British Columbia, and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. His efforts with the Wild Salmon Center have raised more than $200 million in grants; established fourteen new conservation organizations; and protected 7.7 million acres of habitat, including public lands management designations and ten new large-scale habitat reserves on key salmon rivers across the Pacific Rim.

Mr. Rahr developed the stronghold strategy: a strategy of protecting ecosystems before they become endangered. Targeting the most pristine and productive river systems in each region of the Pacific Rim and taking the long view toward conservation, the Wild Salmon Center and local partners have defeated hydroelectric dams, industrial mining, road building, overfishing, clear-cut logging, water withdrawals, and other threats to stronghold watershed, He developed a love of nature from an early age, becoming an expert in the study of reptiles and amphibians. He comes from a family of fly fishers, and he became an accomplished and passionate angler and fly tyer, hosting a public-access show called On the Fly while earning a BA in English literature from the University of Oregon. He also holds a master’s degree in environmental studies from Yale University.

A Trout and Salmon Fisherman for 75 Years, by Edward R. Hewitt