Virginia Chapter of the American Fisheries Society

The Virginia Chapter began in November of 1989, when a questionnaire was circulated among many fisheries professionals across the state, asking whether they would be interested in participating in a statewide AFS chapter. The repsonse was overwhelmingly in favor of forming a new chapter to accommodate the needs of fisheries professionals that were not active at the subunit level. Thus, a petition to organize VCAFS was signed by 40 individuals and forwarded to the Executive Director in the spring of 1990.

Concerns that the existing AFS chapters within Virginia (Potomac, Tidewater, and Virginia Tech) could be detrimentally affected by a statewide chapter were allayed during the first several months of 1990, as input from the instate chapters was solicited and incorporated into the bylaws of VCAFS. These bylaws were submitted in time for the annual AFS meeting in Pittsburgh and subsequently approved on August 28, 1990. VCAFS was officially chartered on September 10, 1990.

Small stream sampling in Northern Virginia

VCAFS members went right to work, sending out the first newsletter in January of 1991 and working with the Potomac Chapter to organize its first annual meeting. This successful joint meeting, which included more than 90 registrants, was held on April 5-6, 1991 at the Big Meadows Lodge in Shenandoah National Park. That same year, VCAFS held a joint summer meeting with the Virginia Chapter of the Wildlife Society at the Smith Mountain Lake 4-H Center near Roanoke.