Hiking the CDT: Road-walking to Canada with grizzly bears

Our best grizzly sighting happened on the last day just 8 miles from the border. We were excited and walking fast. My cousin Ethan was walking ahead and staring at his phone. He apperantly did not notice the bear walking up the road. After we caught his attention, his first thought, he later told us, was “Oh cool, a bear.” Followed shortly by, “Oh crap, a bear!”

Rattlesnake Dam removal is almost complete

Removal of century-old dam in Missoula, Mont., opens creek for native fish passage The opportunity for native westslope cutthroat and bull trout to move unimpeded up and down Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula, Mont., is close to reality. Contractors hired by Trout Unlimited, Montana Trout Unlimited, the City of Missoula and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks,…

Barriers limit cutthroat trout migration

We are broadly familiar with the plight of the salmon, hatching in freshwater, moving downstream as smolts and, entering the ocean. Their magnificent return to the rivers during spawning migrations, hundreds of miles up the Columbia and Salmon rivers, illustrates fish movements at a grand scale. Few people know the same phenomenon occurs with inland native trout such as the cutthroat

Living off the land

A woman picks berries in the Colorado high country.

In the summer, I think I could live off the land — with a bit more education. Wild raspberries and strawberries, wildflowers, wild trout, some wild onions, mushrooms and cattails would make a smorgasbord. The trout tend to come easily in the high-mountain streams I frequent, but too bad I’m a vegetarian as they would be the only filling menu item. I guess I have more learning to do.…

When one door closes another opens

A lot of college internships have been cancelled this year because of the global pandemic. Bryce Larson, a senior at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, found herself in that boat but determined to explore her options. Her tenacity paid off by landing a Trout Unlimited summer internship working on a risk assessment for native Bonneville…