Saving Bristol Bay one bag of coffee at a time

It might be fair to say that Alaskans love coffee as much as we love our wild salmon.  Coffee helps us get through the long, dark winters, and it powers our fast-paced and adventure-filled summer days. For the Trout Unlimited staff based in Anchorage, coffee is an everyday requirement, and we know that without it, our efforts to protect…

Conservation and timber interests agree to changes to Oregon forest practices

Today, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced a historic agreement between conservation groups and timber companies that represents an important first step in a process that will see the most significant update of Oregon’s Forest Practices Act in decades.  This agreement, formalized as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the timber industry and major conservation groups, should deliver…

Birding while fishing

One of my favorite parts about fishing is the spectacular places it takes you. From high mountain streams with peaks towering overhead to desert rivers with cliff walls reflecting the day’s heat, there are hardly any ugly places to fish. Sure, there are the occasional honey holes with a nearby power plant or apartment complex in the city, but when fishing,…

Changes to the Clean Water Rule have big impacts on the ground

High in the headwaters of Back Creek in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia are several small streams that only run after it rains. Those “ephemeral” tributaries to Back Creek, a wild brook trout stream that also holds browns and rainbows, intersect with the proposed 600-mile route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a project that…

Lessons from Warren and Scott

Warren Colyer and Scott Yates.

Trout Unlimited members, and many of our staff, love to fish. Perhaps none more than Scott Yates and Warren Colyer, both of whom co-lead our largest staff cohort, the Western Water and Habitat program. One of my favorite memories at TU was fishing on Wyoming’s Gros Ventre River at dusk. I was working the far…