Forest Service honors Home Rivers Initiative in East

By Mark Taylor Trout Unlimited doesn’t work to win awards. But that doesn’t mean it’s not great when recognition comes TU’s way. The U.S. Forest Service has honored TU’s Eastern Home Rivers initiative as the Volunteer and Service Award winner for the agency’s Region 9, in the Restoration category. Michael Owen, aquatic ecologist for the

TU Supports the Stream Protection Rule

January 31, 2017 Re: Trout Unlimited (TU) opposes the CRA Resolution against the Stream Protection Rule On Wednesday the House is expected to take up the CRA resolution (H.J. Res. 107) to terminate the Stream Protection Rule (RIN: 1029-AC63). The resolution is an ill-conceived tool for jettisoning a useful rule that will protect mountain headwater

Tracking trout in the wilds of Vermont

By Mark Taylor Scientists tend to have a pretty simple philosophy about data: More is better. So Jud Kratzer can be forgiven for not hurriedly working up a paper on results he’s seeing while surveying streams in Vermont, where he has been studying the effects of habitat restoration work on brook trout populations. After all,

Voices from the River: Old Blue

by Chris Hunt It was bright blue when I first crawled into it as a 12-year-old kid. Its paper-thin nylon hardly seemed sturdy enough to stop a breath of wind, let alone protect its occupants from whatever it was that wandered the woods at night. That wispy little barrier, though, provided real emotional security for

Video spotlight: Grand Cascapedia

A few years ago, when the Outdoor Writers Association of America had it’s annual conference in Lake Placid, NY, my buddy Brett Prettyman and I were lucky enough to fish for and catch Atlantic salmon. OK, so they were of the land-locked variety, and plenty small. The biggest might have been 10 inches long. But

Traditions: Pig tails and pink spots

Dustin Wichterman and daughter Brooklynn quickly pose with a West Virginia brook trout before releasing the fish. By Dustin Wichterman To say that angling has always been a big part of my life is probably an understatement. It has been imprinted from both sides of my family, and after finding out that several of my

Rivers and roads: Connecting people … and fish

By Laura MacFarland A majority of Wisconsin’s 115 fish species, including trout, need to move throughout a watershed seasonally or at varying stages in their lifecycle to feed, find cooler water, avoid predators, and reach spawning habitat. Rivers, long and linear in nature, are vulnerable to habitat fragmentation thanks in part to our immense network