Update on Call to Boycott Orvis, Scientific Anglers, Ross Reels....

I just received this letter from Bill Eyre, Orvis...apparently I wrongly accused the current CEO Leigh, "Perk" Perkins of being involved in the recent attack on Montana's Stream Access  Law...If so, I humbly apologize and retract my call to Boycott the above...I do however stand by everything said about James Cox Kennedy, United Property Owners of Montana and PERC, including "Leigh Perkins Sr.", the now retired head of Orvis...Here is the letter Eyre sent me judge accordingly...


Dear Mr. Robbins,

You’ve caught our attention with your blog post on Tuesday encouraging your readers to boycott Orvis. With all due respect, please allow me to set the record straight with a few facts:
Leigh H. Perkins (Sr.) is on the board of PERC. However, he retired as CEO of The Orvis Company in 1992. You have mistaken him for  Leigh H. “Perk” Perkins Jr., who has been Orvis CEO since 1992. We can understand the confusion since they share the same name, but thought you should know the difference.
Leigh Sr.’s role as a board member of PERC is personal, and does not represent the position of The Orvis Company.
In fact, The Orvis Company doesn’t and has never supported PERC, and certainly does not support its position on the issue of public access nor its role in the Montana Supreme Court case to which your blog refers.
Further, Orvis CEO “Perk” Perkins (Leigh Jr.) is on the Advisory Board of Trout Unlimited, widely regarded as one of the more outspoken proponents of public access. Both Perk and Orvis have a long-standing track record of supporting responsible access for the public. Make no mistake, Orvis has long been and will continue to be “pro” public access. A fine example of this is our 2002 customer matching grant campaign in which we partnered with TU and NFWF, raising more than $150,000 to preserve public access at the Three Dollar Bridge on the Madison.
We would kindly request that you retract your call to boycott Orvis based on these facts, and we would appreciate if you would set the record straight with your readers by affirming Orvis’ long standing record of support for responsible public access.
I would be pleased to discuss this with you further, if you wish.

Respectfully,
Bill Eyre
Director of Branding & Corporate Marketing
The Orvis Company, Inc.