Like the Bureau of Land Management and the Park Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is an agency within the Department of the Interior. However, FWS responsibilities extend beyond land management and include the management of fish and wildlife themselves, not just habitat. This includes many fish and wildlife management activities that fall under their purview, including enforcing wildlife-related laws, including the Endangered Species…
Fishing with The Medic
For some years I have used the fall equinox as an excuse to spend a night or two in the Sierra Nevada, sleeping on the ground and fishing for trout in a small tributary to the upper San Joaquin River. This year, I made the grievous error of inviting my brother to join me. This…
Our duty to comment on public lands plans
American’s have a birthright to federal public lands throughout the nation. Forests, rivers, grasslands and more offer exceptional recreational opportunities for each one of us, and we have a duty to speak up on how they are managed. In New Mexico, two large swaths of public lands are revisiting management strategies. The Carson and Santa…
Washington water woes in Seattle Times
Washington commonly institutes fishing restrictions to protect vulnerable fish populations, like they did for steelhead in Scotty Creek, but these restrictions, unfathomably, do not extend to a destructive form of recreational gold mining called suction dredge mining.
Painting the picture of Pebble Mine
Many of us know that like painting, fishing is an incredible art that has the power to tell stories of ecosystems, landscapes and cultures. In Alaska, we are lucky to have partners who are passionate about both. Spelman Evans Downer, a Cooper Landing-based artist and former fly fishing guide, has been working on a set…
Protecting Oregon sporting paradise from strip mining
Southwest Oregon is a place defined by steep country and untamed rivers where we can go to find solitude, dramatic landscapes, and some of the best habitat for big game and wild anadromous fish in the lower 48 states. Rivers like the Smith, Illinois, and Chetco are legendary amongst sportsmen and women for their strong runs of steelhead, sea-run…
Local input opens opportunity for BLM Lands in South Park
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…