The event received some good media coverage, including a report on Colorado Public Radio and a great column in the Denver Post by outdoor writer Scott Willoughby. 

At the end of the rally, TU leaders took a giant postcard with a “Don’t Suck the Upper CO River Dry” message on it–along with a petition and letter with some 2,000 signatures and comments — to the Governor’s office, where it was received by his staff.  The recent rallies and events have made clear that Coloradans care about their rivers and want them protected. Is Gov. Hick listening?

OK, there are few specifics, but it’s still easy…you fish, someone else donates.  If you book a trip through Alaska Fly Out before March 10^th, they will donate 5% of the trip’s cost to TU’s Save Bristol Bay program.  You can choose from  26 first-rate Alaska lodges and adventures  – from tenting it on a float trip to pampering your casting arm at luxury lodges.  Some lodges have even offered to match Alaska Fly Out’s 5% donation with a donation of their own!  It can’t get much better, or easier, to help support Bristol Bay.  You Fish.  They Donate.  Book your trip today.

To make you drool a little bit….

Wild River Guides has dedicated the week of June 25th – July 3rd as a Bristol Bay awareness week. Float, fish & camp as you descend the Stuyahok River across a vast boreal landscape by raft. Catch Leopard Rainbow trout and Arctic Grayling on smolt, mice, streamers, and dry flies. Fresh Kings and Sockeye in the lower river just arriving. More than 20 stunning hours of sunshine each day. Consider the impacts the Pebble Mine will have on this river, the Bristol Bay fishery, and thousands of square miles of wilderness. Proceeds to Save Bristol Bay.

Intricate Bay Lodge – Stay at a first-rate fly out lodge that is small and personable. Intricate Bay is located in Bristol Bay with two world-class rivers as their home waters: the Copper and Gibralter. Fly outs are available daily to rivers in and around Katmai National Park including the Morraine, Funnel, Battle, American, Kvichak, New Halen, and Talarik. And, as a commitment to conservation in Alaska, Intricate Bay Lodge will match Fly Out’s 5% booking donation with an additional 5% of their own until March 10th. That is 10% of the total trip price donated to help protect Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine. Take action and send your savings toward one of the most important cold-water conservation efforts of our time.

Tikchik Narrows Lodge – Fish with one of the best and most reputable fly out lodges in Bristol Bay. This world-class luxury lodge boasts 4 float planes and over 40 boats with excellent homewater on the Wood-Tikchik State Park Lake system.

Check out the trips, call your fishing buddies, and book your trip through Alaska Fly Out by March 10^th.

More than 20 years later, I finally got around to visiting the park, and I did so armed with a fly rod and a lifetime of built-up anticipation. When I stepped into the cold water of the Yellowstone River at Buffalo Ford and watched a pale morning dun hatch unfold before my eyes, I knew I had my wading boots planted in sacred gravel and that my eyes were watching one of fly fishing’s most storied events.

Then the first big Yellowstone cutthroat slurped in a dun not five feet from where I stood dabbing my imitation with a little floatant, and I quickly forgot all the romantic history of the river and just started casting.

That was July 1999.

Now, just 13 years later, and the hatches at Buffalo Ford continue unabated. Unfortunately, there aren’t nearly as many big Yellowstone cutthroats there to enjoy the buffet. Over the last 20 years or so–and most notably over the last decade–introduced lake trout in Yellowstone Lake have literally eaten away the most heralded population of wild, native cutthroat trout left in America. What once was a population of native that likely approached 5 million is now down to just a fraction of that number. In some spawning tributaries of Yellowstone Lake, the numbers of migrating cutthroats are a mere 1 percent of historic highs.

But there’s hope, and Trout Unlimited is right in the middle of the effort to remove lake trout from Yellowstone Lake. Presently, TU’s state councils in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho are spearheading a fundraising effort to help the National Park Service buy and install needed monitoring equipment that will help biologists understand more about lake trout, where they go, their migration patterns and, most importantly, where they spawn. Armed with this information, commercial-grade netters will know where to chase the big non-native char, and work to get them out of the lake.

It’s probably not a realistic possibility that Yellowstone Lake will ever be free of lake trout. But, by controlling the numbers of the introduced fish, TU and its partners can give native cutthroats a fighting chance. And we need your help–every penny counts. Perhaps one day, my kids can stand in the gravel at Buffalo Ford and cast to rising cutthroats during one of those epic hatches.

I hope to be standing right there beside them.

Spending these cold winter months practicing their casting and learning the basics of fly tying is fun for sure, but putting their new skills to use on the stream is the icing on the cake.  And for the 400 or so TU volunteers who have connected to these veterans through programs at VA Medical Centers, outpatient clinics and DOD facilities around the country, getting their heroes out on the water brings their involvement full circle.

As I speak to the individual volunteers, one theme is constant: Payback. Yes, we owe our veterans a lot, especially those from forgotten wars – the guys from ‘Nam that until recently never heard the words, “Thank you for your service,” and for their younger brothers and sisters–the ones recently injured in defense of our liberties–how can we not extend a hand and invite them to experience the thrill of standing knee deep in a trout stream casting a fly they tied themselves to the beautiful creatures that we all work so hard to protect?

During the past year TU members involved with the VSP provided over 20,000 volunteer hours teaching the intricacies of our sport to disabled veterans, and of course, many of our new participants have heard about the 175 outings that our members hosted last year, whetting their appetites for the adventures to come this summer.

As of this writing, there are over 60 TU chapters involved in the VSP and yours could be the next one.  Every community in the USA has a population of wounded warriors–some more than others–but every one of these guys and gals can benefit from the healing power of the water.

For more information on how you and your chapter can get involved please contact Veterans Service Program Coordinator Alan Folger, at afolger@tu.org. And stay tuned to tu.org–our new VSP landing page, complete with details about the program, links to our wonderful partners and information about upcoming events, will be completed soon. And, if you’re in Washington, D.C. on March 1, considering joining us for annual Veterans Services Program dinner. Proceeds go to benefit this wonderful program and the veterans we serve.

And the next time you encounter one of our millions of military veterans, offer them a simple “thank you.” Better yet, offer to take them fishing. They’ve earned it.

-Alan Folger

Here’s my logic: Fishermen are wanderers. We are the dilettantes of the sporting world, always seeking something new, something different… something unique. Hunters, on the other hand, have very intimate connections with specific landscapes. They return, year after year, to the same camp, and they hunt the same hills for birds or big game. They go with their fathers, their sons and daughters and eventually their grandchildren to the very same place. They truly get to know the country, from every hidden canyon to landmark trees to the best stream crossings to the best meadows likely to hold a bull elk at first light and good grass for the stock in the afternoon.

In my opinion, that’s why hunters are so important to TU’s efforts to protect iconic landscapes in the United States. Hunters are the experts when it comes to the land and the magic it possesses. For the most part, anglers merely appreciate the beauty of a single place, and then we’re off to find beauty elsewhere.

Now, there are exceptions to every rule. Last weekend, I attended my local Safari Club chapter banquet, and these guys get all geeked about far-flung hunts in places like Namibia or the steppes of Mongolia. And while they occasionally make these hunts happen, simple economics keep these hunters home most years. And most years, they hunt the same unit because that’s what they know so well. They love the “home place.”

Anglers, too, have favorite streams, or even favorite sections of streams, but the nature of our craft makes it easy to look to the horizon and wonder what swims in the hidden creeks the next drainage over. It’s easy to pull out the gazetteer, follow a blue line on the map with our finger and then be there the very same day, fly rod in hand and a taste of wanderlust on our tongues.

As I said, we wander. I’m living proof.

Over the years, I’ve managed finagle a host of fishing trips to far-flung places, and in just a couple of weeks, I’m making my first trip to the Bahamas to chase bonefish. It’s a trip I’ve long dreamed about, and dreams and fishermen go together like peanut butter and jelly.

So it’s no wonder that, as I scanned the pages of Midcurrent this morning, I became enamored with yet another destination. The video below had me making travel plans and maxing out the credit card (again). Thankfully, restraint got the best of me (for now).

And, when it’s not some distant lake in the remote Argentinian outback, it’s a hidden north woods river burgeoning with grayling, or a Gulf Coast flat where redfish lurk. Or maybe it’s that unnamed stream in the heart of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, where I caught Dolly Varden so vibrant and beautiful that no camera can do them justice. Perhaps it’s that Appalachian brook trout stream hidden from view by dogwoods and redbuds, or maybe it’s that Montana wilderness river where native cutthroats watch the surface for hoppers like Jaws watches for waterskiers.

I know these places, but they keep their deepest secrets hidden, simply because I never stick around long enough to learn them. There’s always another stream, another lake … another float plane ride to another fish destination that I can’t wait to meet.

And I’ll leave too soon, yearn to come back and probably never will. I’m a wandering fly fisher, after all.

By upholding an October, 2011 ruling that overturned a lower court finding that the 2001 Roadless Rule violated existing federal land-use regulations, the decision clears the way for the Obama Administration to enforce the rule on public land across the West. It will now safeguard millions of acres that, according to TU president and CEO Chris Wood, hold “some of the best hunting and angling opportunities on the planet.”  

Two exceptions remain. Idaho, which enacted its own version of the roadless rule – one that the state’s sportsmen view as superior to the original in terms of habitat protection – and Colorado, which has struggled for years to produce its own state-enacted rule and stands accused by many hunters and anglers as promoting a version that contains too many concessions to the ski industry, oil and gas producers and logging interests.

Many Colorado residents are calling on the state to abandon the effort to create a separate roadless rule now that the 2001 version has been upheld again by the federal bench. TU has adopted a wait-and-see approach, to see if Colorado can come up with a roadless rule that offers superior protection than the original: “Our expectation is that if finalized, the Colorado rule will exceed the fish and wildlife protections in the 2001 rule so that it may earn the support of the hunting and angling community,” Wood said.

Stay tuned to this issue, as Colorado’s next version of its own roadless rule is due for release this spring. Judging from the size of the writing overhead today, it needs to be very good indeed. If not, it’s going nowhere.

Click here to read an article by Bob Berwyn that views the latest court ruling from a Colorado perspective.

An exhibit featuring art made byKetchikan elementary students that celebrates Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest is on display at the Tongass Historical Museum through February 25.

“A Forest of Words: Youth Voices Celebrate the Tongass National Forest” is a collection of two-dimensional art, including drawings and paintings, video pieces, a PowerPoint presentation and written work, such as poems. About 400 pieces were created by children living in the small Tongass communities of Naukati, Craig,ThorneBay,Petersburg, Wrangell and Yakutat.

Museum director Michael Naab said the project was coordinated by Faith Duncan of the Forest Service in conjunction with the International Year of theForestin 2011, according to the Ketchikan Daily News. Read more about the exhibit.

The Tongass is the country’s largest national forest. Its 17-million-acre expanse runs about 500 miles along the scenic Southeast Alaska coast, bordering with Canada. The Tongass is a coastal temperate rain forest that produces tens of millions of salmon annually. It’s crisscrossed with over 17,000 miles of salmon rivers and streams, making it America’s national “salmon forest.” TU works to conserve the highest-value salmon and trout watersheds in the Tongass through a campaign called the Tongass 77. Learn more.

Important story in today’s Denver Post: The Environmental Protection Agency is calling for enhanced flows for the Upper Colorado River in the face of proposed water diversions– fully vindicating what TU has been saying all along about the state’s namesake river: it’s in trouble and needs improved flows, above and beyond what the state has recommended as mitigation for the Windy Gap pipeline expansion.

TU has been trying to get state officials to pay attention to their own study, completed last fall, which showed a river ecosystem devastated by depleted flows, algae and choking silt.  As the article shows, they’re not listening yet.  

Will Gov. Hickenlooper step up and show leadership on saving this priceless river? Stay tuned. . .

A bear print in the mud atop Colorado's Roan Plateau.

Over the years, Hal and I have become friends, sharing a common passion for the outdoors and for protecting the best of what’s left when it comes to landscapes where things are pretty much as they should be, and where, if we leave well enough alone, they’ll stay that way for the benefit of future generations. These are places where wild trout still swim, where elk still bugle and where the tracks left in the soft earth on backcountry game trails can make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

This past summer, Hal participated in the TU/Field & Stream Best Wild Places tour of Idaho’s Clearwater Country–it was the second year of the unique partnership, and Hal’s second Best Wild Places tour. His first tour with TU happened in the summer of 2011, when I had the privilege of joining him, along with a host of TU staffers and volunteers, on the Roan Plateau in northwest Colorado.

This was my first “in the field” experience with Hal, and it’s where I came to genuinely like the man. We put the tour participants through a special kind of hell on the Roan that summer–we hiked into the depths of the Roan’s breathtaking canyons (and back out again), toting camera equipment and fishing gear in hot, dry conditions. The reward for our labors was the chance to catch a unique population of native Colorado River cutthroat trout that evolved over time above a series of waterfalls–these fish are found nowhere else on the planet, and their persistence now depends on a pending decision over whether or not to allow natural gas rigs in certain areas atop the Roan.

As much as I’d like to say the fish were enormous, that would be a lie. They were (and still are) pretty diminutive–a foot-long fish in those waters is remarkable. But they are absolutely stunning, and when you stop to consider the sheer austerity of their environment, it’s easy to add an inch or two in your brain and be pretty pleased with your efforts.

I was pleased because Hal, despite the relatively modest size of the fish we hooked on dry flies over the span of a couple days, seemed absolutely thrilled each time one of the Roan’s cutthroats came calling. He has an infectious laugh and a deep south Alabama accent (even though he calls Montana home these days) that adds a little seasoning to just about any conversation. But more importantly, Hal could see the value in this severe landscape, and he could see the value in TU’s work to protect these fragile fish in the water in which they evolved. He “got it.”

The rare Roan Plateau cutthroat trout.

Hal is, in short, the real deal–an outdoor writer who takes it all in and then writes from his heart about the wild country and the need to protect irreplaceable resources. Enjoy the conversation between Chris Wood and Hal Herring. I think you’ll come away from this discussion with a better understanding of why we at TU do what we do, and why we have such deep respect for people like Hal.

(Courtesy of Sitka Conservation Society)

Trout Unlimited and partner organizations are preparing to send a group of commercial fishermen, anglers, guides and yacht-tour operators to Washington, D.C., next month to push for stronger conservation of fish habitat in the Tongass National Forest of Southeast Alaska. The group will meet with key lawmakers and agency leaders to seek changes in the Forest Service budget for the Tongass, the country’s largest national forest and its top salmon producer. They will lobby for fish habitat conservation and watershed restoration to become top priorities for the Forest Service, reflected in the agency’s budget.

In a recent blog post, Sitka Conservation Society’s Andrianna Natsoulas wrote about why the Forest Service budget for the Tongass no longer makes sense as it emphasizes timber and road-building over fisheries, watersheds and restoration. It’s worth checking out.