A drive deep into the West can heal the soul and freshen commitment to causes
Looking for America
The Land Ethic
We can turn to Aldo Leopold for important lessons that are ideal for the times.
NM streams debate: Court can balance recreation, conservation
Should New Mexicans have the right to wade, float and swim in all the state’s waterways? And if that’s the case, what does that mean for private landowners?
Chama 2.0
Big browns can live in the Chama thanks to restoration work
Running toward it
Thoughts of recreation and even fishing now feel indulgent
Restoring a future with Gila trout
By Jeff Arterburn Very few people encounter the mountainous region of southwestern New Mexico known as “The Gila” by accident. The nearest interstates track the open desert valleys far from the sierra. Locals here will still acknowledge the occurrence of oncoming vehicles with a finger raised momentarily from the steering wheel, and not the middle … 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
What Esther Garcia meant for fishing
Growing up in New Mexico, I took for granted that there were fishing spots where no one would want to go. Steep hikes, brush and snags everywhere, places that required too much work to get to. “Joke’s on them,” was my thinking; if only people knew that it was so much more fun than work. The people who knew … Read more
San Juan New Years in the Old Years
It’s difficult to remember exactly when it began, our annual New Years fishing trip on the San Juan River below Navajo Dam. We had hair and it wasn’t gray, and some of us still had muscles. We brought our kitchen kits and coolers, cooking our meals and washing dishes, then staying up half the night playing cribbage, … Read more
Faith
I was driving home the other morning from my son’s school, where a prospective head of school had fielded questions from an auditorium full of parents. One father had asked how the candidate would promote critical thinking in an environment so well known for its “indoctrination” of our nation’s youth. He seemed to accept this reality, yet expressed hope that debate would be encouraged on controversial topics. One of them, no surprise, was … Read more