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The Wisconsin way
Something breeds great conservationists in Wisconsin. John Muir, famous for the Sierra’s, was born in Scotland and moved to Wisconsin as a young boy. He took his first course in botany at the University of Wisconsin. Aldo Leopold, author of the seminal, "A Sand County Almanac," lived in Wisconsin and raised five prominent conservationists in…
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Lessons from Warren and Scott
Trout Unlimited members, and many of our staff, love to fish. Perhaps none more than Scott Yates and Warren Colyer, both of whom co-lead our largest staff cohort, the Western Water and Habitat program. One of my favorite memories at TU was fishing on Wyoming’s Gros Ventre River at dusk. I was working the far…
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Restoration drives advocacy in the Great Lakes, thankfully
Many conservation organizations are great at on-the-ground habitat restoration. Others excel at policy advocacy. Trout Unlimited is one of the few that shine at both. Our recipe for success is simple. We take the results and good will generated by the partnerships, relationships, and in many cases, friendships created through our restoration work, and use…
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The passing of two giants
The calls came 24 hours after each other. I was driving down I-95 on New Years Day. Brian Cowden, a former Trout Unlimited employee, called to say that Rick Ege, a former chapter president and council chair had passed away. I last spoke with Rick a few years ago. Another New Jersey guy had mentioned…
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The decade of recovery
I often think of my life in decade intervals. The first ten years was the goofball phase; 11-20 years old involved anything with a ball; 21-30 was consumed by conservation—you get the idea. If we are lucky, we will get eight or nine of these opportunities to think about the new decade in front of…
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Mark and his dad
Mark looks different, but the same. Twin swatches of grey hair above his ears. Still fit, his full mane of hair—something he, his Dad, and older brother, David, share—maybe thinning just a tad. His eyes are red. Mark was maybe my best friend in college. He was a tight-end. I was a wide receiver. We…
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Connecting science and conservation
At a recent gathering of our scientists and other staff at Trout Unlimited, I recounted how one of my happiest days was when I was hired as a fisheries biologist—for three days—by the Bureau of Land Management. My vision of being a fisheries biologist was informed by the John Steinbeck novel, Cannery Row. Even more…
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