The Nut Graf
Executive Director of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. Playing Doc Holliday to the Wyatt Earps of the fish and wildlife conservation world at Dispatches from the Middle River. Key grip and trout wrangler at Fish Tenkara. Fly Fishing guide and instructor for Mossy Creek Fly Fishing.
The Story
For more than 30 years I worked in Washington, DC’s government relations game. Yeah, that means mostly I was a lobbyist.
In July of 2008 I left Washington, returned to civilization and started pursuing my passion for fly-fishing and conservation.
I hung out my shingle as The Middle River Group to provide organizations and businesses an experienced and authoritative voice for conservation issues working on policy development, messaging, coalition building, and political analysis.
In April of 2013 I joined the Outdoor Writers Association of American as the Executive Director. OWAA is comprised of nearly 1,000 individual outdoor communicators from the broad, modern spectrum of outdoor beats, from shooting to camping, fishing to kayaking, wildlife watching to backpacking. From these diverse backgrounds and disciplines, members gather beneath the OWAA banner to hone skills, share philosophies, develop profitable business strategies and network with peers, conservation policymakers and industry trendsetters.
I spend a lot of “pro-bono” time as a board member of the American Fly Fishing Trade Association where I chair the Government Relations and Affiliates Committee.
When I have the time, I teach and guide for Mossy Creek Fly Fishing, in and around the picturesque mountain streams and spring creeks here in the Shenandoah Valley.
I was also a columnist and freelance writer. I wrote an outdoor column for The News Virginian.
The Interviews
On the Eat More Brook Trout blog: 20 Questions: Tom Sadler
On the Chi Wulff blog: People of Fly Fishing: 10 Questions with Tom Sadler (Part 1) and (Part 2)
In Garden and Gun article: Whisper Fishing
The Guiding Gig
I do all my guiding for Mossy Creek Fly Fishing in Harrisonburg, VA. Please contact them to book a tenkara trip!
The Social Scene
I am social sort, you can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+
