International Year of the Salmon

This year is the International Year of the Salmon, and it couldn’t have come too soon. Wild salmon the world over are in peril—once plentiful stocks are dwindling in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Dams block migration. Proposed industrial development, like the Pebble Mine in Alaska, threaten intact populations. Pollution, salmon-farm escapees and disease…

Why support hatchery steelhead in the upper Willamette?

By Dean Finnerty Editor’s note: Steelhead management requires balancing of competing consumer demands, statutory requirements, science and politics. Hatchery steelhead weaken wild stocks, but help keep our fishing heritage alive. Where habitat conditions are favorable, we should manage for wild steelhead; where they aren’t, as in the upper Willamette between Dexter Dam and the Calapooia…

Helping the Wood River to breathe

The room is full for the banquet. I first came across the Narragansett chapter of Trout Unlimited seven or eight years ago, when a few frustrated members contacted me and complained that the chapter was assisting the state in stocking over native fish in violation of TU policy. After a time, the chapter stopped, but…

Great Lakes Advocacy

Goals The Great Lakes are threatened by invasive species, pollution, and emerging commercial aquaculture proposals, creating a need for state and federal policies that protect the Great Lakes and sustained public funding for Great Lakes restoration efforts. Adding to the challenge, political shifts at state and federal levels have made it more difficult to uphold…