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Reconnecting the Mettawee: Six dams down
When it comes to long-term restoration projects, Erin Rodgers measures the passage of time not so much by clocks and calendars, but by kids. So it was when recently recounting a multi-year project on Vermont’s Mettawee River; Rodgers thought back to two big life moments to help her remember the project’s pace. “The Mettawee is…
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Sharing expertise: The Driftless Symposium
More than 15 years ago, when Jeff Hastings took over leadership of Trout Unlimited’s Driftless Area Restoration Effort, one of his first priorities was to build his knowledge of restoration techniques. As he dug in, he found plenty of information. He also found that much of it didn’t get wide distribution throughout the area’s four…
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Watch Now: A Beautiful Mess
Felling trees in a Tennessee National Forest to replicate what nature used to do It’s a warm spring morning and the sound of chainsaws is echoing through the Tennessee mountains. This is hardly an unusual scene, but the mission here is. This isn’t someone getting a start on next winter’s supply of firewood. It’s a…
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The Versatile Angler: Fishing hard baits for big winter trout
It’s no secret that most Trout Unlimited members are fly anglers, many of them avid. It’s also no secret that many fly anglers also use other methods sometimes. I’m one of them. I started fishing with conventional gear, and I still use it pretty frequently—even for trout. Winter into early spring is one of my…
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Virginia project frees a stream — and trapped trout
Finding 45 brook trout in a single pool in a small creek may sound like a good thing. In the case of a small stream in Virginia’s mountains it was anything but. The fish were trapped in a small plunge pool beneath a perched culvert on Railroad Hollow, a small brook high in the Dry…
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Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s grant funds fish passage work in Appalachia
Anyone who shops at Bass Pro Shops knows that the retail stalwart and its sister store, Cabela's aren't just about bass. Nor is the company’s charitable foundation. A grant from the Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund recently helped Trout Unlimited’s staff in the mid-Atlantic continue to make progress in its ambitious fish passage…
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TU and Forest Service team up to close damaged road in Georgia
Let’s get this out of the way. Rolling through muddy, tricky terrain in a tough four-wheel-drive rig or a burly ATV can be fun. But there is a time and place for mud-bogging, and one of the places where it doesn’t fit is in and around delicate trout streams. That’s the reason Trout Unlimited and…
Author
Mark Taylor
A native of rural southern Oregon, Mark Taylor has lived in Virginia since serving a stint as a ship-based naval officer in Norfolk. He joined…