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Let’s keep water where it is in Colorado’s San Luis Valley
You would think after several decades and several failed attempts that water speculators would get the hint: people in Colorado’s San Luis Valley want to keep their water where it is. Yet, it seems every few years there is a renewed attempt to divert water from the valley’s fertile alfalfa and potato fields and sell it…
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Take care of your feet
Footwear matters on the river, especially when you’re putting in big miles and days in and out of the boat. If you can keep your feet happy, the rest will follow
A couple of weeks ago I showed up to a friend’s house after a day on the water. My choice in footwear became the focus of conversation. One would assume I was going for a mid-day stroll in my Crocs and socks. “What in the world are you wearing?” “Do those work?” They were talking…
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Congress must act to reform ancient mining laws
Abandoned hard-rock mines create some of the most significant water quality problems facing our country, but in Congress we have an opportunity to invest in cleaning up pollution of the past, while modernizing our mining laws so we don’t face the same issues in the future. With an estimated $54 billion in cleanup costs and tens of thousands of abandoned mines polluting our lands and waters, action is long…
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Choosing a rod is about the flies, not the fish
I had always assumed that an angler chooses a fly rod based on the type of fish they wanted to chase. Turns out, that’s not exactly true. Sure, a 5-weight is probably still the gold standard “trout rod,” but that has less to do with fighting the fish, and more to do with the range of…
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Is ‘destination marketing’ bad for our fishy resources?
Oh, those innocent little hashtags. I’m in Vermont at the annual Outdoor Writers Association of America’s annual conference, and I just stepped out of a session about how writers, communicators and influencers can work with destinations to promote the activities at those destinations to encourage readers and viewers to take the plunge and take a…
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Everything you wanted to know: westslope cutthroat trout
Westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi) Species Summary & Status: Officially designated as Montana’s state fish, the westslope cutthroat’s historical range included all of Montana west of the Continental Divide, as well as the upper Missouri River drainage. The average size of these fish is 6 to 16 inches, depending on habitat. It is often…
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Mourning loss and ascending the Lochsa
Catching westslope cutthroat trout and seeing the forest through the trees in north-central Idaho Editor’s note: Daniel Ritz is fishing across the Western United States this summer in an attempt to accomplish the Master Caster class of the Western Native Trout Challenge. He will attempt to land each of the 20 native trout species in their historical ranges of the 12…