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Conserving the lands and waters of the Magalloway
Four conservation organizations have joined forces to purchase and permanently protect a massive tract of wild forestland in Maine’s north country, and some Trout Unlimited stream champions are doing their part to help seal the deal. The Magalloway Collaborative is working to raise $62 million to conserve 78,000 thousand acres in the Northern Appalachians, hard…
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Places worth protecting: George Washington/Jefferson National Forest
The George Washington/Jefferson National Forest is 1.8 million acres of outdoor mecca in Western Virginia, and a Brook trout fishing heaven.
Gnats! Of course there would be gnats. It wasn’t even April, yet here they were; swarming around my head as I sat on my truck’s tailgate lacing up my wading boots before a hike into one of my go-to native brook trout streams. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good, and fortunately…
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The rarest hatch: Hard water in Virginia
The text was short. “How’s your schedule looking next week?” I typed to my buddy Sam. “I think we’re going to get a hatch by Sunday.” He replied quickly: “Hatch? It’s February and it’s freezing.” “Exactly,” I answered. “It’s the rarest of hatches here in Virginia: fishable ice.” Ice fishing is an annual pastime for our friends up North. Here in…
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A little motivation goes a long way
What parent hasn’t dangled a reward in hopes of encouraging a child to accomplish something? Chris Myhrum fondly remembers such an enticement from his childhood. “Our neighbors had a pool with no shallow end,” he said. “I’d jump in and just hang on the edge. My dad said, ‘If you swim across this pool, I’ll…
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Is trout fishing better out West? Or just different?
The instant the trout ate I felt my courtesy rewarded.
The instant the trout ate I felt my courtesy rewarded. A few minutes earlier, Erik Johnsen and I had slipped down the dusty riverbank trail to a sweet-looking run on Colorado’s Eagle River, not too far from Vail. Johnsen wanted me to have the first shot, but I wasn’t having it. “It’s all you,” I…
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Where passion and career align
USFS scientist Nat Gillespie's formative years fostered his desire to champion river health across the country The metro DC area isn’t exactly an outdoor mecca, but outdoor adventure is where you find it. As a kid growing up in Alexandria, Va., Nat Gillespie found plenty. “My parents were free-range,” Gillespie recalls. “They allowed me to…
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Re-routing quickly heals wayward Michigan stream
When Trout Unlimited crews and contractors dive into a construction project, they move fast. Often, it takes just a week or two of construction to complete the work. Getting to construction can be a longer haul. It was more than a decade ago when Chad Kotke, a stream restoration specialist on TU’s Great Lakes team, learned…
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