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Restore the core
The Rock Creek watershed It looks like an out-of-place slip-and-slide placed into a meadow alongside a tributary of Rock Creek. It is, in fact, a fish screen. Like so many western trout streams, Rock Creek and its tributaries are important sources of irrigation for farmers and ranchers. In the past, many irrigators would dam a…
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Protecting the Rubies
Theodore Roosevelt defined conservation as the application of common sense to common problems for the common good. For 15 years, Trout Unlimited has educated, organized and mobilized sportsmen and women to apply that definition to public lands across the West. When energy development, for example, threatened the iconic Wyoming Range and its three species of…
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Giving back
They look nervous. Until camp started, most hung by their parents, belying their teenage trend toward independence. Most are from Pennsylvania, but surprisingly at least seven of the 23 attendees at the 2019 Rivers Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp are from other states—including one from Kansas. They are nervous about meeting new people. Nervous…
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Returning thanks
Saint Ambrose once said, “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” That sentiment defines the work of Trout Unlimited’s Veterans Service Partnership, and was visible at the recent “couples trip” hosted by the VSP and the Friends of the Upper Delaware. The Upper Delaware is a great, but challenging wild trout fishery.…
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Restoring trout, protecting the future
Editor's note: this is part two of a series on recovering native brook trout. You can read part one here. “What is the name of that tree?” Brandon Keplinger, the district fisheries biologist for West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, asked the 20 or so fifth graders from Slanesville Elementary School in West Virginia. The…
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Recovering the natural wealth of our rivers
A healthy brook trout stream in West Virginia. Editor's note: This is part one of a two part series on brook trout restoration in West Virginia, and well, everywhere else. About six weeks ago, while helping the Department of Natural Resources to stock trout in a stream, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said, “We dump…
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When it rains, look upstream
“The big show starts around 7 p.m. in front of the cabin. From that time until it is too dark to fish, the stream will boil trout. If you are lucky to match one of three to five hatches going on, you will be rewarded with epic fishing. Sometimes everything comes together and the fish…
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