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An angler’s bucket list
Later in life, a new credo beckons: Get out, before you can't.
Later in life, a new credo beckons: Get out early and often When I ran a fly shop long ago, I fell into the habit of buying flies on the store discount instead of tying my own. Perhaps not a bad move for someone with my ham-handed tying skills, but since my favorite patterns don’t…
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Home water, economic engine
Mining proposal is another reason that New Mexico’s Pecos River needs protection I’m fortunate to have grown up close enough to a trout stream that I could go fishing at the drop of a hat. In the summers during high school, my best fishing buddy and I ran a little yard business in Santa Fe,…
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Conservation in Cow Country
In New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains, TU and ranchers are working together to keep streams healthy and improve range productivity. On our way to inspect his grazing allotment, Manuel Lucero and I pull over next to a tree where some campers have left their trash in a neat and organized pile of boxes and tied up…
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’Tis the Season
When big browns are spawning, it’s a good time to stop and relish the moment What’s not to love about brown trout? They’re crafty, tenacious, mean, strong, and damn near invincible. Jason Bourne, Derrick Henry, Kaiser Soze, and Dracula all rolled into one fish. Increasingly concerned about the plight of North America’s native salmonids, I…
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Love in the time of climate change
For one angler, a wounded California is better than no California at all It was a classic Yuba day with Joe and the Butler brothers—a 105-degree scorcher with the river inviting swimming as much as fishing. As typical as it seemed, the river was in many ways new to me. It had been two years…
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What are fences good for?
In New Mexico, fences protect trout habitat and livestock It feels great to get out again on TU field projects. A few weeks ago, we journeyed to the Gila to take some stream measurements, and last week we went to the northwestern Jemez Mountains to replace some fence along the Rio de las Vacas. Our volunteer crew of women and men from regional TU chapters and our partner organization, New…
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Taking in the infrastructure of nature in New Mexico
Humans are coming to grips with the damage we've done ... and the need to repair it Even in New Mexico, a state so over-endowed with emptiness that one can find a place to hide a body almost anywhere, Gila country is about the loneliest place imaginable. The closer you get, as I realized on…
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