‘A Nation’s River’ highlights TU’s efforts in the Potomac headwaters

Dustin Wichterman lives trout.  By day he manages Trout Unlimited’s restoration and protection work in the Potomac headwaters.  Most of the rest of the time he’s either fishing for trout or dreaming about fishing for trout.  And a big part of that dream is that one day the Potomac headwaters will again regularly churn out native brook trout pushing…

Hope for Idaho’s Salmon

“I have concluded that I am going to stay alive long enough to see salmon return to healthy populations in Idaho.” Those words by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) at a conference at the Andrus Center last week may do more to project the recovery of the imperiled Snake River salmon and steelhead than multiple…

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…

Cleaning up old mines, making fishing better

Southwest Colorado hosts some of the best high-mountain trout fishing in the country. From pristine mountain streams and lakes that hold native cutthroats, to larger rivers like the Animas, Southwest Colorado fishing is worth fighting for. That is exactly the reason behind TU’s extensive efforts to remediate acid mine waste from headwater streams in this…

Why is it important that we recover southwestern trout?

Jim looked at me in disbelief. “What?” I repeated my question, “Why is it important that we recover southwestern native trout?” “Let me tell you a story,” he said. Jim Brooks was the longtime lead of the Gila Trout recovery team. Gila trout are native to the tributaries of the Gila River in New Mexico…