-
New England Newsletter — Highlights of 2020
You don’t need us to tell you that 2020 was a challenging year. The pandemic created lots of hardships for TU’s field staff in New England, including the postponement of many projects. Always flexible, the New England team did a great job reacting to the difficult situation. For example, when fieldwork days took place, they were modified to ensure all participants adhered to COVID-related safety measures. Staffers…
-
Alpine Archery and Fly stands with TU on Lower Snake proposal
La Grande, Ore. It’s on the Grande Ronde River in Oregon’s northeast corner. And what a river it is. From its headwaters high in the Elkhorn Mountains, the upper river flows through deep basalt canyons and dense forest. Portions of it are only accessible by boat. The canyon widens and the middle reaches meander through…
-
Aim small, miss small
My son, Paul, and I are elk and deer hunters. A few years back, we had the good fortune of meeting up at the rifle range with our friend Matthew (last name anonymous because he’s working a high-level security detail now) who is a former SAS sniper. He spent two days coaching us on the details of precision shooting. We went over everything from breath control, to the delicate process of…
-
The ‘Mommy needs a drink’ camper cocktail
Like a Sunday morning mimosa with less sugar and a hint of desperation Once upon a time there was a good mother with two children who was kind and benevolent most of the time and loved her kids and had time to shower regularly. One day a terrible plague swept over the land, keeping her children isolated at home, making them wild and her grumpy and…
-
What do critical minerals, big fish and your love life have in common?
I’m just going to go out on a limb here and guess the phrase “critical minerals” doesn’t mean much to you. In fact you might already be glazing over. But what if I told you that critical minerals helped you catch that monster brown you found lurking under that log – the one you pulled in with the beadhead dropper on…
-
How to turn ‘movers’ into ‘eaters’ when streamer fishing
A few days ago a friend was telling me about a fishing trip when he used a familiar phrase. “We moved quite a few fish,” he said of the float trip on a Pennsylvania stream known for its big brown trout. That sentence, one I’ve uttered plenty myself over the years, is basically a euphemism…
-
A clean fly line makes for a clean cast
When I was younger, I put myself through college mowing lawns. I worked for a great guy who built a solid business trailing lawn mowers all over the Denver suburbs and unleashing a team of college and high-school kids to get the work done. But every Monday morning, instead of meeting at some Cherry Hills…