Currently browsing… New Mexico
-
It takes a suite of tools to recover native trout in the Pecos River of New Mexico
The Pecos River, its tributaries and surrounding wilderness area, is where much of northern New Mexico comes to fish. In fact, many of us learned how to fish on the Pecos. The variety of fishing options in the Pecos watershed is almost limitless: fly or lure, small creeks to larger streams, wild brown and rainbow…
-
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…
-
Keeping a secret, even when the secret’s out
Given its dearth of trout fisheries, the state of New Mexico can boast of very few secret hot spots. One of these, a favorite of mine forever, is prone to extreme high water temperatures during the summer but becomes decent at the end of irrigation season. Its browns and cuttbows come out to play when the leaves turn yellow, hitting…
-
Looking for America
A drive deep into the West can heal the soul and freshen commitment to causes
The original plan was to drive east to meet my wife’s family in North Carolina. The time away from her mother, sisters and Gus’ cousins had been torture, but every state along our route was preparing to open up while the virus was still out of control. As we saw it, forcing customers and employees…
-
The Land Ethic
We can turn to Aldo Leopold for important lessons that are ideal for the times.
Aldo Leopold was a philosopher, an ecologist and, very importantly, a writer. As though possessed of his talent for translating the universal, we quote him ad nauseam. And though the southwest still bears scars from his killing of wolves, cougars and other varmints, his eventual embrace of the predator as a force for ecological balance exemplifies a flexible and evolving mind that left a significant mark whenever it…
-
NM streams debate: Court can balance recreation, conservation
Should New Mexicans have the right to wade, float and swim in all the state’s waterways? And if that’s the case, what does that mean for private landowners?
As first seen in the Albuquerque Journal. By: Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited and Harris Klein, New Mexico Trout Unlimited Council Chair Soon, the New Mexico Supreme Court will settle the controversy about what the state Constitution has to say about the extent of the public’s right to access streams throughout the…
-
Chama 2.0
Big browns can live in the Chama thanks to restoration work
A restored channel below Abiquiu Dam reinvents a New Mexico trout stream In the first "Rocky" movie, the title character dreams of being a prizefighter, yet understands that he will never rise above being a heart-of-gold jaw breaker for a small-time Philadelphia mobster. The Rio Chama below Abiquiu dam can relate; like Rocky Balboa, Abiquiu’s flood control and water storage day job is far from sexy. During irrigation…