HANCOCK, N.Y. — Four years ago, I traded a job in a big, noisy office in Washington, D.C., for one in a little storefront on the main drag of a town on the banks of the Upper Delaware River in the Catskills. My new job included protecting one of the finest wild trout fisheries on the East Coast, but I didn’t start by meeting lawmakers and writing letters and rallying support. That came later. First, I fished.

For two full months in the spring of 2013, I waded and floated the river, fishing for wild browns and rainbows in the company of a band of guides and anglers who dedicate no small portions of their lives to the pursuit.

It did not take me two months to learn why this place is so special to so many. It’s not just a pretty river meandering through beautiful countryside. It’s a river with big, hard-pulling wild trout, native born and discerning enough to challenge even the most experienced angler. You start catching fish like these, and you’ll never want to leave.

When I returned to reality, I got to work. We’ve had some successes in protecting the river. But the Upper Delaware is a fragile ecosystem, and now it is threatened by a bitter dispute between New Jersey and New York City over water availability, and how much should be released into the river for the fishery and downstream states from reservoirs that provide water to the city.