Bob Russell, owner of the Butte Creek Mill and savior of salmon and steelhead. By Chrysten Lambert On Christmas Day, 2015 tragedy struck the historic Butte Creek Mill when it burned to the ground. The flour mill, which is located on the banks of Little Butte Creek, was the only remaining hydro-powered mill still in…
A bill that would protect lands in Okanogan County from mining is moving forward after a markup in today’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing. The Methow Headwater Protections Act of 2017, S. 566, comes on the heels of a 20 year mineral withdrawal, cementing protections for an area known for it’s agriculture and…
“The elders told us there is no point in building a visitors center if we don’t restore the land,” said Brad Parry, a tribal member leading up conservation work on the neglected landscape. “They told us they want this land back to the way it was when the massacre happened. For those who died to have a peace we need to restore the land to as natural as possible.”
Signaling another year’s passing, the annual float down the Gulkana River, one of Alaska’s many Wild and Scenic rivers, is one such noteworthy occurrences, with no place better to be present in the company of friends than in the wild
Half-measures will ensure the extinction of salmon and steelhead in the Snake River basin, and nothing more.
by Jenny Weis The only thing that made sense to do on our second marriage anniversary was to go fishing. A voracious lifelong angler, my husband, Sam, introduced me to fly fishing. He supplied me with the rod, reel, and meticulously organized bead box I used today. The net I used to land the rainbows,…
By Eric Booton Chrome. Silver. Red gold. All the worthy descriptions of fresh, wild Alaska salmon imply monetary value, and for good reason. Here in Alaska, wild salmon attract tourists from around the world. These trusted fish provide employment for guides, commercial fishermen, processors, chefs, pilots and many others. In the final frontier, salmon, fortunately,…
By Mark Taylor “We’re moving.” My parents delivered the news to me and my sister in the spring of 1986, while we were away at college in the Midwest. While it was a little odd to think that I’d never go back to the home I grew up in, I was excited about the new…
Editor’s note: This piece originally ran on the White Mountain Woman blog. By Robin Robison As an avid female angler, I am always looking for ways to connect with other women who love to be on the water. I have been fishing my entire life and some of my favorite memories are of time spent…
A Firehole River brown trout caught on a small soft-hackle. By Chris Hunt For years and years, fly fishing for trout, for me, was a three-period game, not a four-quarter contest. It was hockey, not football (even though I’m not much of a hockey guy). Depending on the season, the time of day or the…
It was the movie that brought thousands of new people to fly fishing. Director Robert Redford’s interpretation of Norman Maclean’s classic novella about family and fly fishing was an overwhelming success when it came out in the fall of 1992. Set in Missoula, Mont., in the 1920s it brought the beauty of wild fish and…
Director and producer Robert Redford eyes a shot during filming of “A River Runs Through It”. Courtesy photo. By Brett Prettyman While most people talk about Brad Pitt’s shadow casting and the family drama the troubled soul Paul brought to his clan, I have different memories of “A River Runs Through It.” Like so many…
This hefty Virginia wild brown trout didn’t hit a tiny midge. It hit a big streamer. By Mark Taylor My brother is five years my junior but that didn’t stop us from being competitive as kids, especially once he transformed from a skinny grade schooler to a surly teen. Our tiny shared bedroom was the…
by Chris Hunt There’s a great little run on the South Fork of the Snake that’s only wadable when water managers lower the river in the fall, after harvest is all but done and the demand for downstream water subsides a bit. During high summer, with the river literally the potential energy for Snake River…
Bob Capron has helped move countless trout from sure death in irrigation canals back to the mainstem of the Shoshone river near Cody, Wyoming. Brett Prettyman/Trout Unlimited By Dave Sweet Any angler lucky enough to have caught trout near Cody, Wyoming, may want to send Bob Capron a thank you note. Capron, who recently stepped…
For immediate release Contact: Ty Churchwell (970) 903-3010 / ty.churchwell@tu.org Upper Animas River named top priority for cleanup Bonita Peak Mining District makes list of highest priority Superfund sites December 8, 2017 (Durango, Colo.) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it would include the site of 2015 Gold King mine spill, plus 47…
Trout landed at Confluence Park in downtown Denver, with an amazed Mayor Hancock in background. By Randy Scholfield For many years, the South Platte through Denver, like many urban rivers, was an industrial sewer—a place where people dumped trash and chemicals into the river and hoped it all washed downstream. Out of sight, out of…
One on a fly, one on a lure. Does it matter how you catch it? By Chris Hunt Maybe it’s a sign of the times. Or perhaps it’s a permanent change to our national psyche brought about the relative anonymity that comes with free-wheeling access to social media coupled with a polarized political landscape. But…
By Dustin Wichterman As I crested the edge of Swago Mountain at daybreak, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia. Thinking back to excerpts from GD McNeil’s The Last Forest, his accounts from the early 1900s of brook trout by the hundreds and fish as big as 18 inches made me yearn for…
Ask a child to choose between a river and a mine and they will choose the river without hesitation. You need not explain the river belongs to all of us. You need not explain the mining company is owned by a foreign conglomerate whose only interest is to wring every short-term dollar from the landscape.…
