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		Lawson Cary Outdoors Notes: Lawson Cary Jr. remembered as a force for conservation Providence Journal, June 1, 2008 Friday, May 30, 2008 By TOM MEADE Journal Sports Writer Members of the Narragansett chapter of Trout Unlimited gathered along the banks of the Wood River for their May meeting, the first without their president, Lawson M. Cary Jr., who died last weekend. He was 69. Several members of the group were wearing hats or patches of the Wood River Fly Fishing Club, an informal group that also had Cary as president. The club meets for monthly suppers. "It's like a bowling club that doesn't bowl," said Bill Beebe, a member of both groups. Beebe said that among all the plaques and tributes at the funeral home last Wednesday, he will always remember the photo of Cary standing in a stream and holding a tiny brook trout he had just caught. The angler and consummate conservationist was beaming. "It wasn't the size of the fish that mattered," Beebe said. "It was a healthy, native brook trout." Brook trout in cold-water streams are like canaries in mines. "If the brook trout are right, then the water is right," said Jim Rubovits, who fished with Cary and called him "The Commissioner of Brook Trout." "It was such a passion for him," Rubovits said. "He spent a great deal of time in the water, but not fishing. He did water sampling, recorded stream flows, worked with URI on a project to measure every culvert in the Wood-Pawcatuck [River] watershed. Hopefully, there will be some follow-up to identify which of those culverts can be cleaned up so the brook trout will be able to migrate." "Lawson was a force for conservation," said Rick Mitchell. "He was the real deal. … He was concerned with the geology and ecology of forests and rivers and streams, not just a guy who liked to tie flies and catch fish." Several of the Trout Unlimited members gathered at the Quonset hut on Route 165 Thursday evening spoke of Cary's ability to inspire others to volunteer their time. This weekend, many of them are working with survivors of breast cancer who are learning to fly fish as part of their recovery. It was Cary who got his friends involved with the Healing Co-op at Bob Buonanno's Deer Creek Farm in Foster. He also got Trout Unlimited to "adopt" a two-mile stretch of Route 165, said Roger Earle. "He would get all these late- and middle-age guys to pick up roadside litter," Mitchell said. Cary was a champion of clean water, said Dan Beltrami. In 2005, the Rhode Island Rivers Council named Cary a river hero. "That was a good way to describe," said Rubovits. "A river hero."
			Abbotts Run Brook Adamsville Brook and Pond Adrich Brook (Butterfly Pond) Alton Pond Ashaway River Ashville Pond Barber Pond Beach Pond Beaver River Big River Blackstone River Branch River Brandy Brook Breakheart Brook Breakheart Pond Brickyard Pond Browning Mill Pond Brushy Brook Bucks Horn Brook Carbuncle Pond Carolina Trout Pond Cass Pond Chepachet River Chickasheen Brook Clear River Curran, J.L. Reservoir Deep Pond (Arcadia) Dexter Pond Dolly Cole Brook Dunderry Brook Eight Rod Farm Pond Falls River Flat River Foster Green Acres Pond Frenchtown Park Pond Fosty Hollow Pond Geneva Brook & Pond Harris River Hopkins Mill Pond Hunt River J.L. Curran Reservoir Lapham Pond Lloyd Kenney Pond Log House Brook Meadow Brook Meadow Brook Pond Melville Ponds Memorial Park Pond Meshanticut Brook Moosup River Mowry A.L. Pond Mowry Meadow Pond Olney Pond Parris Brook Pawtuxet River Pawtuxet River (north branch) Pawtuxet River (south branch) Peck Pond Peeptoad Brook Ponaganset River Roaring Brook & Ponds Round Top Brook Round Top Ponds Saint Mary's Pond Saugatucket River Seidel's Pond Shippee Saw Mill Pond Silver Spring Lake Silvy's Brook Silvy's Pond Simmons Mill Pond Slater Park Pond Spring Grove Pond Stafford Pond Sylvester's Pond Tarkiln Pond Tiogue Lake Tiverton Trout Pond Tucker Pond Upper Rochambeau Pond Wallum Lake Watchaug Pond Willett Pond Winsor Brook Wood River Woonasquatucket River Wyoming Pond

Outdoors Notes: Lawson Cary Jr. remembered as a force for conservation