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
TU lauds proposal to bolster conservation funding in New York
Trout Unlimited is applauding an ambitious New York stream restoration initiative included in a $3 billion proposal announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week. The “Restore Mother Nature Bond Act” was highlighted in Cuomo’s 2020 State of the State address. It would fund projects that improve critical fish and wildlife habitat and reduce flood risks across New York by reconnecting streams, removing obsolete dams, retrofitting road-stream crossings, restoring wetlands and natural floodplains, conserving forests and open space, reducing stormwater runoff, and upgrading fish
Beavers in heaven
By Bradley Thornton Riffee We crept up a beaver creek on a cool fall day filled with nothing but sunshine. The colorful leaves in all their glory brightened our world as we set out to find our native brook trout friends patrolling their mud-packed ponds. Dragonflies of October danced across an eastern breeze as we
TU completes road-stream crossing projects in Mich.
By Matthias Bonzo In 2019, TU worked with its partners to complete two road stream crossings in the Huron-Manistee National Forest in Michigan. The crossings were on Boswell Creek, in Manistee County, and on Hinton Creek in Wexford County. Boswell Creek is a tributary of Bear Creek and contains a healthy population of brook trout.
Griphoists aid in Wild and Scenic wood management
By Matthias Bonzo The management of mixed-use rivers is always a tough balancing act. Fishermen want to see whole trees and lots of wood in the river to provide habitat for their favorite quarry, while other users such as canoeists and kayakers would like to see less, ensuring a safe time for them and their
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
TU’s top videos of 2019
We produced or help fund a number of films and video in 2019. Here are our favorites: