Helping foster kids find a home on the water
Mayflies making a difference
Fishing, TU and the pandemic
If your email inbox looks like mine, almost every organization you have ever worked with, joined or “liked” has sent you a note this week about the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19. It’s a sign of how thoroughly this crisis has swept across all of American life. Trout Unlimited is rooted in communities of … Read more
Legacy
The drawing of the trout is from the hand of a small child. The description even more so: “This was the first fish I ever cot [sic] on a rod. When I first felt the feeling of reeling in the fish, I was amased [sic].” In the span of 15 years, Jeremy Brooks’ writing and … Read more
Working with the companies who make us better anglers
As the official holder of the Best Job in America, it was a treat to have the runner-up, Ben Bulis, come visit the intergalactic headquarters of Trout Unlimited this week. Ben has led AFFTA (the American Fly-Fishing Tackle Association) for nearly eight years. Through Ben’s leadership, AFFTA has grown from about 250 member companies to … Read more
The Wisconsin way
Something breeds great conservationists in Wisconsin. John Muir, famous for the Sierra’s, was born in Scotland and moved to Wisconsin as a young boy. He took his first course in botany at the University of Wisconsin. Aldo Leopold, author of the seminal, “A Sand County Almanac,” lived in Wisconsin and raised five prominent conservationists in … Read more
The Wisconsin way
Something breeds great conservationists in Wisconsin. John Muir, famous for the Sierra’s, was born in Scotland and moved to Wisconsin as a young boy. He took his first course in botany at the University of Wisconsin. Aldo Leopold, author of the seminal, “A Sand County Almanac,” lived in Wisconsin and raised five prominent conservationists in … Read more
Lessons from Warren and Scott
Trout Unlimited members, and many of our staff, love to fish. Perhaps none more than Scott Yates and Warren Colyer, both of whom co-lead our largest staff cohort, the Western Water and Habitat program. One of my favorite memories at TU was fishing on Wyoming’s Gros Ventre River at dusk. I was working the far … Read more
Restoration drives advocacy in the Great Lakes, thankfully
Many conservation organizations are great at on-the-ground habitat restoration. Others excel at policy advocacy. Trout Unlimited is one of the few that shine at both. Our recipe for success is simple. We take the results and good will generated by the partnerships, relationships, and in many cases, friendships created through our restoration work, and use … Read more
The passing of two giants
The calls came 24 hours after each other. I was driving down I-95 on New Years Day. Brian Cowden, a former Trout Unlimited employee, called to say that Rick Ege, a former chapter president and council chair had passed away. I last spoke with Rick a few years ago. Another New Jersey guy had mentioned … Read more
The decade of recovery
I often think of my life in decade intervals. The first ten years was the goofball phase; 11-20 years old involved anything with a ball; 21-30 was consumed by conservation—you get the idea. If we are lucky, we will get eight or nine of these opportunities to think about the new decade in front of … Read more