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Creating hope again, again, and again
Remembering a stalwart of the Forest Service
Remembering a stalwart of the Forest Service If we are honest, when we are asked to take hard stands, most of us think, “What will this mean for me or my career?” Or “How or what will people think about me?” Not Jim Furnish, a stalwart of the Forest Service who passed away this week.…
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Ordinary people doing extraordinary work
What makes them so remarkable is how typical they are of others in Trout Unlimited. They are simply two ordinary people doing extraordinary work.
The other day, I met Bob Blankenship and Karen Barnett of the South Coast Chapter of Trout Unlimited in California. I listened as they described their work to recover a more natural Los Angeles River, and an alarming vision of recovering steelhead in the river. You must see the LA River to appreciate the audacity…
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Good Samaritans get to work
What’s next in tackling abandoned mine pollution
What’s next in tackling abandoned mine pollution It’s been 20 years since the New York Times wrote about how Trout Unlimited, by working with unlikely partners, surmounted hurdles to cleaning up abandoned mines. That story highlighted the ways that federal laws hold Good Samaritans liable for pollution they want to clean up—as if they were…
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A note from Chris Wood on elections and the work ahead
In 2016, Donald Trump defied the polls and became president. Some of you may recall what I wrote to you back then: This was an uncommon and rancorous election, but the outcome was not. As is the case every four years, many are excited about the prospects for the new administration, and many are afraid…
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This could be the most pressing threat to public lands yet
For many people in the western United States, public lands are a fact of life. They are places where families hike, float and camp; where hunters stalk big game and anglers pursue wild trout; where veterans can find solace in the outdoors. They also provide clean drinking water for communities, forests that store carbon, grazing…
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Blue Lines
When I was first introduced to fly fishing by my friend, Bill Sargent, in Vermont, I fell in love with a whisper of a stream that flowed off the Green Mountain National Forest. The brookies were rarely longer than six inches, but the scenery and solitude made up for the lack of fish girth. It…
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It’s official: Apache trout are back
FWS removes the native fish from Endangered Species list in a first for a trout or salmon species The survival of Apache trout is a testament to the wisdom of protecting, reconnecting and restoring river systems to recover native trout. First listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, they later…
Author
Chris Wood
Chris has worked at TU for 22 years, and is not the best angler, but he is among the most earnest.