Sound Solutions: Marine Resources Reform and Management with Tim Gestwicki
About Tim:
Tim Gestwicki’s dedication to preserving wildlife and wild places dates back to the early 1990s when he traveled door-to-door as a field canvasser for the North Carolina Wildlife Federation.
Over the decades, his role elevated from boots-on-the-ground newbie to Chief Executive Officer of the oldest and largest statewide organization dedicated to protecting, conserving and restoring wildlife and habitat in North Carolina.
Since becoming CEO in 2009, Tim has worked to bring together citizens, outdoor enthusiasts, hunters and anglers, government officials, and industry to protect North Carolina’s natural resources and sustainably manage them for future generations.
Under his leadership, NCWF’s conservation network of hundreds of volunteers focuses on wildlife and habitat conservation, education and outreach. They plant trees and pollinator-friendly gardens, create and restore habitat, feed food-insecure families with hunter-harvested venison, organize statewide trash clean-ups, provide opportunities to get kids outside and champion sound and science-based conservation policies.
Whether he’s hunkering down in a duck blind, paddling his kayak, constructing nesting platforms or testifying before legislators, Tim loves nothing more than engaging with the natural world and advocating on behalf of wildlife and wild places that have no voice.
Program Description:
North Carolina’s coast is home to roughly 2.5 million acres of estuarine waters, 1.5 million of which are within the Albemarle-Pamlico Region. It’s here where hundreds of species of fish and other marine life grow and feed until old enough to venture to the ocean or migrate along the coast. Although this network of sounds, wetlands and waterways is the largest lagoon on the East Coast and the 2nd largest estuary in the U.S., its long-term sustainability and function as nursery habitat is in jeopardy. Ineffective policy, mismanagement, unsustainable fishing practices, habitat loss and water quality degradation are threatening marine fisheries and depleting some of our most important fish, including southern flounder, striped bass, and weakfish. Over the last several decades, the state has consistently failed to enact precautionary, meaningful rules that would lead to the recovery of our state’s valuable marine fisheries resources.
Foundational Tenets of Sound Solutions
Habitat: Strengthen protection of the waters and habitats that make up North Carolina’s inner coast, as well as those that flow into our sounds.
Management: Improve the way NC’s marine fisheries and habitats are managed and regulated.
Gear: Influence changes to destructive fishing gear and unsustainable methods.
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