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Progress on the back 40
Download the Western Water and Habitat Program's 20 year report The great conservationist, Aldo Leopold, once wrote that “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell…
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Fishing matters
City Catch kids in Baltimore. Lately, when I am in town, I’ve taken to starting my mornings at Fletchers boathouse. I’ll row up or downstream for an hour with a strung fly rod. If I see a suspended gar, or a rolling carp, I’ll stop and cast. Even with the outing, I am at the…
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Spend time with the future
Hunter and Alliegh getting it done Every year Trout Unlimited brings together 20-30 teenagers from all over the country for a teen summit. They are mostly veterans of TU youth camps. This year’s group met at Georgetown Lake in Montana. It is not a one-and-done experience for them. After the summit, they commit to serving…
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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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