Walking the Talk

Photo by Robin Kadet Petey jumped in my lap within moments of sitting down. Phil Monahan rescued the little dog when he found him walking alone down a highway. A few things stand out about the Orvis offices in Manchester, Vermont. First, as Petey demonstrated, their offices are very pet-friendly.Second, their street address is “Conservation…

30 Great Places: Chattahoochee-Oconee

Region: Southern AppalachiaActivities: FishingSpecies: Brook, rainbow and brown trout Where: The Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests span nearly 900,000 acres across 26 counties in northern and central Georgia. The region provides some of the state’s most outstanding outdoor recreation opportunities and natural wonders, including Georgia’s tallest mountain (Brasstown Bald, at 4,784 feet), 75 miles of the Appalachian…

Wild: Little Lost River bull trout

Little Lost River bull trout. Photo by the author. I first fished Idaho’s Little Lost River in the early 2000s. I’d heard rumors of bull trout swimming in the high-desert stream that would hit dry flies intended for rainbows and require two hands for the “hero shot” after the battle. The latter might be true…

30 Great Places: Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Region: Southern Appalachia Activities: Fishing Species: Brook, rainbow and brown trout Where: Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles 800 square miles along the border of western North Carolina and southeastern Tennessee. Within a day’s drive of nearly half of America’s population, it’s the nation’s most popular national park, with upwards of 9,000,000 visitors annually. Why:…

30 Great American Places

September is a month tailor-made for sportsmen and women and there is no better place to spend it than on our public lands. The dog days of summer have given way to cooler temperatures and a multitude of opportunities beckon hunters and anglers: brown trout chasing streamers, elk bugles ringing through the mountains, ruffed grouse…

TU bids Chief Tidwell a fond farewell

Tom Tidwell is retiring as Chief of the US Forest Service. It is difficult to overstate the importance of the 191 million acres that the Forest Service manages to trout and salmon. Half of the blue-ribbon trout streams in the country flow across national forests. A vast majority of western native trout and salmon depend…