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Sustaining wildlife and ancestral land uses together
It started with a mouse, the New Mexico Meadow Jumping Mouse, which was listed in 2014 under the Endangered Species Act. The listing closed an important pasture to grazing and also locked out trout anglers from fishing the Rio Cebolla. United in their belief that the mouse could be preserved along with ranching and fishing,…
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Our digital conservation future
Having finished the online NYT crossword over morning coffee, retweeting some delicious burns on climate deniers, checking Facebook and Instagram, liking a picture of a steelhead, and prioritizing work emails before a day of zoom calls, he/she remarked, “Kids these days are hopelessly addicted to their devices,” as though the Peleton screen was an actual…
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Unfishing Season
Abstaining from fishing doesn’t just happen. There must be a reason. As New Mexico swims through its third fat month of monsoon season, I’ve barely noticed how much water is in our streams. Winter was scary dry, then our shirt-sleeve spring collided with New Mexico’s largest-ever wildfire. Every morning from April to July, I stepped…
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An angler’s bucket list
Later in life, a new credo beckons: Get out, before you can't.
Later in life, a new credo beckons: Get out early and often When I ran a fly shop long ago, I fell into the habit of buying flies on the store discount instead of tying my own. Perhaps not a bad move for someone with my ham-handed tying skills, but since my favorite patterns don’t…
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Home water, economic engine
Mining proposal is another reason that New Mexico’s Pecos River needs protection I’m fortunate to have grown up close enough to a trout stream that I could go fishing at the drop of a hat. In the summers during high school, my best fishing buddy and I ran a little yard business in Santa Fe,…
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Conservation in Cow Country
In New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains, TU and ranchers are working together to keep streams healthy and improve range productivity. On our way to inspect his grazing allotment, Manuel Lucero and I pull over next to a tree where some campers have left their trash in a neat and organized pile of boxes and tied up…
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’Tis the Season
When big browns are spawning, it’s a good time to stop and relish the moment What’s not to love about brown trout? They’re crafty, tenacious, mean, strong, and damn near invincible. Jason Bourne, Derrick Henry, Kaiser Soze, and Dracula all rolled into one fish. Increasingly concerned about the plight of North America’s native salmonids, I…
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