Started in 2018, Trout Unlimited’s Western Maryland Initiative has been making progress improving habitat for native brook trout and other species — work that also benefits the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Stable sources of funding are critical for the initiative’s success, which is why the program’s coordinator, Seth Moessinger recently joined other conservation organization representatives in Washington, D.C., to meet…
From reconnection projects to in-stream habitat restoration, Trout Unlimited’s staff had a great year in New England in 2019, and are teed up for another big one in 2020. The efforts helped improve access to dozens of miles of previously out-of-reach streams for the region’s trout and other stream-dwellers, while also improving habitat in rivers…
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…
In 2011, when I was still president of New Mexico’s Santa Fe (Truchas) Chapter, I was approached by Nick Streit, president of the Taos (Enchanted Circle) Chapter and owner of the Taos Fly Shop, about restoring a section of the Red River in Questa. The Red had been a workhorse for several decades, impacted by…
By Jeff Reardon Since 2014, TU’s Merrymeeting Bay Chapter has been focused on brook trout in coastal streams, at least some of which migrate downstream to saltwater for part of their life. They’ve been working with me to document brook trout populations in previously un-surveyed streams by angling and electrofishing surveys; monitor water temperatures with long-term data loggers; and,…
The impacts of dams on anadromous (sea-run) fish are well documented. But today, many dams have outlived their usefulness, or become unprofitable or unsafe. Removing such dams is now a proven way to recover salmon and steelhead populations. Trout Unlimited has supported the removal or retrofitting of dams on a number of high-profile salmon and…
Efforts to fix habitat are as much for people as they are for the planet It’s legislature season in New Mexico, a time I’ve come to abhor for how it represents my species and, perhaps more likely, my deficiencies as a chess player. Sausage making is a circus, spectacular flights of ethical and logical acrobatics…
