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Another serving of Turkey (Creek) for the Gila Centennial
Multi-million-dollar effort to restore headwater streams in Gila National Forest takes flight ahead of 100th Anniversary of Gila Wilderness Since the catastrophic Whitewater Baldy Fire of 2012, Gila trout have had a difficult time in the headwater streams of the Gila National Forest. While fire has always been a part of the Gila landscape, in…
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Celebrating the Gila River while asking for ‘wild and scenic’ designation
Seventeen years after I first visited, I finally made my way back to the Gila River. Last week, about 75 attendees convened in Silver City, N.M., to celebrate the Gila River, expand our knowledge of the area and its extensive list of supporters, and of course, got out on the stunning landscape to renew our…
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Taking in the infrastructure of nature in New Mexico
Humans are coming to grips with the damage we've done ... and the need to repair it Even in New Mexico, a state so over-endowed with emptiness that one can find a place to hide a body almost anywhere, Gila country is about the loneliest place imaginable. The closer you get, as I realized on…
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Seeking treasure in Apache trout country
Invasives and overconfidence cloud early efforts to bring an Apache trout to hand Daniel Ritz is fishing across the Western United States this summer in an attempt to reach the Master Caster class of the Western Native Trout Challenge, attempting to land each of the 20 native trout species in their historical ranges of the 12 states in the…
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Little water and big hopes
Shortly before departing for the nearly 20-hour drive south from my home in Idaho my contact in New Mexico casually mentioned on a call how the snowpack was only 16 percent compared to the average and to keep my fishing expectations low
Western Native Trout Challenge: Pursuing one of the world's rarest trout across scorched earth Editor's note: Daniel Ritz is fishing across the Western United States this summer in an attempt to accomplish the Master Caster class of the Western Native Trout Challenge. He will attempt to land each of the 20 native trout species in their historical ranges of…
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Long live the Gila trout
Seven of us pierced the Gila wildlands that day, and, despite the best efforts of a clueless pot-shotter, all seven of us made it out without holes in our hides. We never figured out who was shooting or what they were shooting at
Huddled as close to the fallen tree as we could get, Kirk and I looked at each other, our eyes wide with surprise and a touch of fear. The bullet had missed us by a wide margin, but the fact that we could hear it as it zinged overhead after the ricochet was unnerving. "Wait…
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With roadblocks comes opportunity in Arizona
With massive projects like the proposed forest and watershed restoration efforts in Arizona come massive roadblocks. But roadblocks won’t deter Arizona Trout Unlimited from accomplishing its critical goals of forest and, therefore, watershed restoration. If you’ll recall in our first blog post in this series, AZTU has been at the table urging forest restoration initiatives through the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) to enhance watershed health…
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