TOM MATTUSCH

Tom Mattusch, Princeton-by-the-Sea, is a master fisherman, hunter, boat captain, with a lifetime of teaching new anglers on the water, world travels of his own, as a leader with ties to many national fishing, hunting and conservation organizations, and county harbor commissioner.

As an outdoorsman, Tom Mattusch has been passionate about fishing and hunting all his life. As owner/operator of the Huli Cat out of Pillar Point Harbor, he has introduced and mentored thousands to saltwater fishing over thousands of days on the water. He has hunted over 20 states and 9 foreign countries.  Tom joined Safari Club International and has held many positions at the state and national level. Tom was a competition freediver sharing his passion with others. As a bluewater spearfisherman, he spearfished the Channel Islands for yellowtail and white sea bass, and the Revilla Gigedo Islands for tuna and wahoo.

Yet Tom Mattusch has made even bigger marks representing fishermen and hunters, preserving and defending rights to hunt and fish. Participating in the MLPA process, he fought to keep as much open for recreational angling and diving as possible. Coastside Fishing Club, the archetype for an internet-based organization with clout, was formed around his dining room table with the purpose to bring fishermen together and give them political strength and voice in California. For over ten years, he has gone back to Washington DC discussing hunting and conservation issues with elected representatives. Tom is a Life member of Safari Club International, CRPA, NRA, CCA and a member of number single specie organizations.  Tom has spent many days before the Fish & Game Commission speaking up for fishing and hunting opportunities and in Sacramento. He’s also a San Mateo County Harbor Commissioner. With his vessel Huli Cat, Tom also participates in a number of scientific research trips. Having seen anglers get steamrolled by ‘best available science’, he dedicated time to filling gaps in fishery information working towards better opportunities off California.

TOM STIENSTRA

An American author, outdoorsman and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Tom Stienstra is the consummate outdoorsman and conservationists. He has written numerous guidebooks on the California outdoors including Moon's California Camping, the best-selling and longest running outdoor guidebook series in America. His Moon Pacific Northwest Camping is an Oregon best seller.

In 2018, the Outdoor Writers Association of America awarded Stienstra 1st Place, Outdoor Recreation Photo of the Year. In 2017, the National Academy of Television awarded the Emmy for Health, Science and Environment Special to Stienstra and co-producer Jim Schlosser for their PBS Special, "The Mighty T -- the Tuolumne River." The PBS Special also won the President's Award from the Outdoor Writers Association of America as the best outdoors television show of any kind for the year in America. At the OWAA annual conference, Stienstra was the organization's only member recognized for first-place awards in newspaper, radio and television.

In 2015, Stienstra became America's first outdoors writer to win "The President's Award" as "Best of the Best" for the fourth time from OWAA, when he won best story of the year in the Newspaper Newspaper/Website division at the organization's annual awards banquet in Knoxville. The winning entry was “Paddling with giants,” published in the August 5, 2014 editions of the San Francisco Chronicle. To become a finalist for the President's Award, that story won first place in the Outdoor Fun and Adventure Category of the Newspaper/Website Contest. He is one of OWAA's most awarded members, and in 2009, he won first place for best outdoors column in America.

JOHN POIMIROO

A publicist of public lands and promoter of all things Californian, this El Dorado Hills resident is California’s ambassador to the outdoors. As editor of CaliforniaFallColor.com John Poimiroo chronicled fall color across the state introducing hundreds of thousands to California's most colorful season. As state tourism director in the '90s and an outdoor and travel writer/photographer thereafter, he has promoted every corner of California.  

The son of a Yosemite ski patroller, he followed in his father's tracks as Director of the Olympic Valley Ski Patrol where he oversaw patrolling at the last ski jump held on the Olympic jumping hill. He now directs the American River Bike Patrol (the nation’s best bike patrol) and is a ski patroller at Donner Ski Ranch. He has skied across the Sierra, bicycled the length of California, fished many of its streams and lakes, and trekked throughout Yosemite National Park and countless California State Parks. 

He's directed communications at Squaw Valley (now Palisades at Tahoe) and at operations serving Yosemite NP, Redwoods Nat'l and State Parks, Angel Island SP,  Lassen Volcanic NP, and Ski Lake Tahoe. Poimiroo was a founder of the California Roundtable on Recreation, Parks and Tourism, the Western States Tourism Policy Council, the National Parks Promotion Council and was a principal in establishing the California Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights.

Among his over 70 lifetime awards for writing and photography, he was twice named Writer of the Year by the Outdoor Writers Association of California, received an SATW Bill Muster Award for travel photography and an SATW Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award for his website, CaliforniaFallColor.com (the nation’s highest awards in travel and outdoor photography and writing).

He explains his passion for California's outdoors by saying, “I travel California’s byways and back roads, photographing and documenting glory previously unimagined in a journey to inform others about California’s wonders.”