You could say it all started with Ralph Sawyer.
After a legendary canoe racing career, Ralph began building paddles and oars. In 1967, he established Sawyer Paddles and Oars in the small town of Rogue River, Ore. He fell in love with whitewater rafting and began producing whitewater oars. Sawyer oars were soon found in the hands of river outfitters all over North America with a reputation for quality, performance, value and beauty. That reputation continues today. Sawyer Paddles and Oars is now the premier paddle and oar maker in the USA, with a durable line of composite oars balanced by a line of legendary solid ash wood oars for extreme conditions.
That alone should be enough to make any angler with a driftboat, SUP or other fishing craft want to check out these great products. But here’s another: Since 2015, Sawyer has offered a 20-percent discount to TU members on their TU branded products. Now the line-up on TU branded products and discounts has been expanded. Even better, 5 percent of every sale will be donated back to TU to help fund the Embrace A Stream program.
Embrace A Stream (EAS) is a matching grant program administered by TU that awards funds to TU chapters and councils for coldwater fisheries conservation. Since its inception in 1975, EAS has funded more than 1,080 individual projects with more than $4.75 million in direct cash grants. Local TU chapters and councils contributed an additional $14 million in cash and in-kind services to EAS funded projects, for a total investment of nearly $19 million.
In 2018, a total of $123,000 was awarded to 29 chapters and councils, helping restore stream habitat, improving fish passage, and protecting water quality in 19 different states from coast to coast.
For more information contact:
Derek Young at Sawyer (406) 561-9369 derek@paddlesandoars.com
Nick Halle at TU (703) 284-9425 nick.halle@tu.org