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Tongass Guide Academy
The success of this program caught the attention of several other Alaska regions searching for the same education and employment opportunities for their youth; this year marked the first time the Guide Academy model was applied elsewhere.
The Bristol Bay Fly Fishing and Guide Academy was created to provide local indigenous youth with work force development opportunities for sustainable outdoor employment. In the past 15 academies, the program has turned out 183 graduates with approximately 25 of them holding full-time, seasonal employment at lodges in Bristol Bay. The success of this program…
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Guiding the future: Stories from the 2024 Bristol Bay Fly Fishing Academy
Inspiring the next generation of guides and conservationists in Bristol Bay Early in the Alaskan summer, darkness flickers away and daylight explodes. It’s a season of anticipation and a time to hatch plans for long fishing days on the water. The excitement is palpable, especially for those headed out to fish in Bristol Bay; the…
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Investing in safer roads and thriving fish in Yakutat
The scenery and fishing opportunities here will take your breath away, but even this far-flung corner of Alaska isn’t immune to the degradation of fish habitat that can happen when development occurs alongside rivers and streams.
Yakutat is a land of superlatives. The Situk River is Alaska’s largest steelhead fishery. Hubbard Glacier is North America’s largest tidewater glacier. Snow-capped mountains, vast glaciers and old-growth rainforest surround a rich complex of waterways the are some of the most productive salmon- and steelhead-producing waters in the state. All five species of Alaska’s Pacific…
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Small yet significant
A volunteer helps expand Alaska’s Anadromous Waters Catalogue I felt bad for the fish. The fry were darting back and forth in a stagnant pond that was only a few inches deep, their infancy spent oblivious to the pristine waters for which Southeast Alaska is known. But that’s just me assuming what is beautiful to…
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Legislation to strengthen protections for Bristol Bay announced
A new bill could protect the world’s most productive salmon fishery An important step has been taken to permanently safeguard one of the last great wonders of the salmonid world. U.S. Representative Mary Peltola (D-AK) has introduced a bill that would Congressionally prohibit the discharge of mine waste into rivers, lakes and wetlands that surround…
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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says no to Pebble. Again.
After years of review, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it would uphold its permit denial decision for the proposed Pebble Mine, continuing to block industrial mining from developing on top of the world’s most prolific wild salmon fishery. History repeats itself The Corps first denied the Clean Water Act 404 permit back…
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The best guides
Pete Wood, who after interning with TU became a lawyer in Idaho, taught me to tie my first bread fly (from an old kitchen sponge, and it was deadly on Potomac River carp). I caught my largest native rainbow in Alaska last year with Brian Bowe at the Alaska Sportsman’s Lodge. Pat Berry, who now leads…
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