Coastal Conservation Association (CCA)

Seeing Around Corners

By Ted Venker
TIDE
September/October 2005

People who visualize problems and opportunities before they are readily apparent to the masses are said to “see around corners.” It sounds like a mystical power, but in reality it is the ability to combine wisdom and experience with the courage to act on your beliefs. Whether that ability is learned or simply a gift, it is a rare and valuable commodity.

As an early proponent of a small, newly formed group fighting for the conservation of marine resources along the Texas coast, Bob Brister saw around the corners. Working as the outdoor editor for the Houston Chronicle, Brister gave the Gulf Coast Conservation Association vital news coverage on an almost daily basis during the early days of the “Save the Redfish” campaign, the sole reason for GCCA’s creation in 1977.

With talent to match a boundless energy, Brister came to embody the outdoors as a writer/editor/author/photographer/shooter/fisherman. He worked as Shooting Editor for Field & Stream and authored three books that remain outdoor classics: Mules, Mallards and Men; Shotgunning, The Art and Science, and The Golden Crescent, a collaboration with one of the nation’s finest artists, John P. Cowan.

Brister’s stature among outdoorsmen lended instant credibility to GCCA in the early days, and earned him the wrath of commercial netters at the height of the Redfish Wars in Texas. In Change of Tides, a History of the Coastal Conservation Association, Brister’s foreword provides an insight into those tumultuous times: “…my wife and I returned from dinner to find a fire blazing in our front yard, a wad of gunny sacks apparently soaked in diesel fuel.”

His response? Simply to write more columns supporting the efforts of GCCA.

It was 1979, fully two years before passage of HB 1000, the Redfish Bill that would make both redfish and speckled trout game fish, and Brister was already looking around the next corner. While GCCA and most of its members were focused solely on the arduous path to HB 1000, CCA National Chairman Walter W. Fondren III remembers Brister already lecturing on the importance of “staying power” for a group like GCCA.

“Early on, Bob said that the effectiveness of any outdoor group is its staying power. We learned that to be involved politically, you not only have to have success this year, but also in subsequent years,” he says. “That philosophy has become the bedrock of CCA’s success.”

Brister penned a column for a 1979 GCCA banquet program which seems rather prophetic today. In it, he laid out his hopes, and some of his fears, for the new group, perhaps illuminating the true potential of CCA for the first time:

“This is supposed to be chest-thumping and bouquet-throwing time for the Gulf Coast Conservation Association. We’ve won some victories, and we have every right to be proud.

But a dangerous intersection looms ahead. Perhaps I can see it a little more clearly than some other members because of an unusual vantage point. As a newspaperman I’ve covered the rise and fall of many coastal conservation clubs over the past quarter century. As a national magazine columnist I’ve seen the inside workings of many of the largest and most successful national organizations. I’ve attended my share of legislative hearings, and spent some time in smoke-filled rooms.

From those experiences I’m convinced that GCCA’s critical period is right now. One “danger” is that key workers who’ve made it happen will now assume things are rolling fine and delegate authority. The other danger is that the organization will fail to fully utilize the various strengths it has acquired.

I’ve seen exactly those things happen to many other clubs, some formed with almost identical aspirations as GCCA, and when the key movers and shakers stopped paddling, their boats promptly sank.

Sure our group is different. We raised more money at our first fund-raising banquet than the combined budgets of most conservation groups that have been formed on this coast.

In Austin recently I reminded a veteran legislative observer of that difference when he minimized the importance of GCCA in the passage of legislation.

“We’ve seen sportsmen’s clubs come on strong before,” he reminded, “but is this one a comer or a stayer? You’ve got a lot of well-to-do people in that outfit who may be getting tired of this new toy, and what happens then?”

That was the cold, hard, somewhat jaundiced view of a “pro” in Austin. I told him I thought he was dead wrong; I hope I’m right.”

Brister was right. Next year will mark the 25^th anniversary of the passage of HB 1000 and the 29^th anniversary for (G)CCA. With the benefit of hindsight, it is difficult to believe that GCCA could have folded its tent and gone home after achieving passage of HB 1000. Bob Brister, armed with conviction and foresight, worked to ensure that would not happen.

It has been said that courage can’t see around corners, but goes around them anyway. Men like Bob Brister saw around the corners, and maybe even through walls, and had the courage to lead the rest of us around them. He helped lay the foundation of Coastal Conservation Association and his contributions to the conservation of marine resources should never be forgotten.