It would be a serious understatement to say that 2020 has been a challenging year. Yet in the midst of a global pandemic and its harsh toll on our economy, communities and personal lives, Trout Unlimited and our supporters and partners helped deliver some outstanding conservation outcomes. Our California Program helped achieve major milestones on … Read more
The problem is, our short-term memory has real consequences for conservation as we continually reduce our expectations and drop the bar far too low.
How do we bring back salmon and steelhead? Look to the science. My career in conservation was informed by a magical experience at a place called Poverty Flats in the middle of the South Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. At the end of a long day, as our field crew packed up, we … Read more
“To repeat the obvious, that means in 2006 an estimated 42 percent of the spawners in this “wild” population were hatchery fish. Statistical modeling indicated the number of steelhead smolts barged in the Snake River in the previous several years was a strong predictor of PHOS (Percent Hatchery Origin Spawners).”
How a unique partnership is working restore Eel River salmon and steelhead and keep water flowing to Russian River farms
Sawmill Creek is a tributary to the Lemhi River. The Lemhi River watershed is one of the highest elevation and farthest inland reaches for fish migration in the world, as the new signs point out. The watershed is also one of the most important spawning and rearing habitat areas for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin.
Summer run steelhead were thought to be extirpated in Washington’s Elwha River, after two dams blocked fish passage for a century. Both dams were removed by 2014. How wild summer steelhead responded amazed scientists and steelhead advocates. Check out the new film from Trout Unlimited and North Fork Studios on the remarkable recovery of summer steelhead in the Elwha on TU’s YouTube channel APRIL 17 AT 6 PM Pacific Time.
The new DEIS for the Snake River won’t restore salmon
This week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted 2-1 to approve the highly controversial Jordan Cove Energy Project. The project would include an export terminal in Coos Bay, Ore., and a 230-mile-long pipeline from Malin, Ore., to the export facility on the southern Oregon coast. The pipeline’s route will cross a number of iconic salmon and … Read more
I didn’t fish the opener of the winter steelhead season this year. Apparently, I have a thing about symmetry as I didn’t fish the close, either. A combination of real-life factors kept me off the water on these dates. I found solace in a petition to the Steelhead Whisperer for on-the-water reports. Thus it was … Read more