April 22 — Earth Day, 1970 and 1990
April 22, 1970 — 20 million people hit the streets
Earth Day's first tide
April 22, 1970 — twenty million Americans marched for clean air, clean water and living rivers. The push was immediate and practical: pollution controls, river monitoring and pressure on industry. The noisy rivers of the 1960s began to quiet; sewage treatment and stricter discharge standards followed. Fish moved back into reaches they'd abandoned. Long stretches of chalk stream that had been barren of trout saw fry again.
April 22, 1990 — the day went global
Twenty years later, April 22, 1990, Earth Day went global — roughly 200 million people in over a hundred countries. That wave landed on British shores as beach clean-ups, river surveys and community angling groups logging catches and pollution. Volunteer clean-ups became a fixture. Conservation groups scaled up monitoring and the data started to matter to fisheries managers. The result: better habitat, safer bait beds, clearer rivers for salmon and sea-trout runs returning to old haunts.
From history to the bank today
Practical bit for modern anglers in the United Kingdom: when heading out, pack waders, a stout rod and a small bag for litter. Join a local clean-up or log pollution sightings to the relevant charity. The rivers remembered how to give back once people cleaned up after themselves.
Recommended: lightweight spinning rod