The Bureau of Land Management’s Royal Gorge Field Office covers some 666,000 acres of public lands sloping eastward from the Great Divide, through Colorado’s Front Range and into the rolling grasslands of the High Plains. Tucked into the rugged folds of its western shoulder lies one of the state’s richest landscapes, home to trophy trout, bountiful…
National Park Service strives to create home for native cutthroat
What a thrilling prospect to catch native fish in a spectacular wilderness setting like in the picture above. That is what anglers’ dreams are made of. Years of hard work, planning and enduring partnerships strove towards this goal, but it’s still not quite a realized dream. In 2005, Fred Bunch, chief of resource management at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, hatched a plan…
Renewable energy, climate change, public lands and bipartisanship … Oh my!
Photo: USFWS/Joshua Winchell In this age of boundless partisanship, something remarkable happened this summer. A smart, forward-thinking piece of legislation addressing climate change was introduced that is sponsored by two Arizona congressmen from opposite ends of the political spectrum: Republican Paul Gosar, who rode the Tea Party wave into Congress in 2010, and Democrat Raul…
September is #publiclandsmonth
An angler in the George Washington National Forest By Corey Fisher Trout Unlimited is devoting the month of September to celebrating public lands and the agencies dedicated to upholding America’s public land heritage. It’s no coincidence that National Hunting and Fishing Day and National Public Lands Day are both during September — the month is…
Coaching an elder to success
“One more cast,” I say to my brother from the bank above the Frying Pan River. A monster trout is rising with regularity and taunting my brother’s last nerve. I’ve been coaching him to place his fly in the exact spot from his perch on the opposite side of the run for what seems like forever. …
Out of sight, out of mine?
An abandoned mine overlooks Lion Creek drainage near Empire, Colorado By Randy Scholfield We are bouncing along in four-wheel drive vehicles, high in the Clear Creek watershed west of Denver, overlooking beautiful forest vistas and steep hillsides laced with snowmelt creeks. We are here with a group of reporters to show them a dark secret…
Thistles and cutthroat trout
With such abundant water throughout Southwest Colorado this year, invasive plants are thriving. While Canadian and musk thistle, mullen and even spotted knapweed provide gorgeous colors dotting the landscape, I can’t help but cringe every time I see a field (or the edge of my driveway) lined with them. Managing invasive plants is as easy…