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Climate resilience in a hotter, drier West
The West is in the grips of another hot, dry summer, with more than 60 large wildfires currently burning across the region. At the same time, the effects of last year’s fires are apparent in many states; Interstate 70, a major artery for east-west transportation, has been shut down through Colorado’s Glenwood Canyon multiple times in the past two months due to mudslides resulting from last year’s Grizzly Creek fire. The epicenter of the ongoing drought is the Colorado River…
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The most over-the-top drift boat ever?
Did the headline grab you? Good, because this might be a slight exaggeration. Or maybe not. Over the weekend, my buddy sent me a link to a boat over on a group we belong to on Facebook called Drift Boats Unlimited. In the posting, a gentleman named Grant Brown had about 25 images of a…
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Why fly fishing is like pizza
Pizza is pizza, right? A little crust, a little sauce, some cheese… bada-bing! There you go. Not hardly! Perish that thought. Great pizza is an artform. It should be a perfect balance involving great crust, delicious sauce, golden cheese and fantastic toppings. If any of those four elements are deficient in any way… meh pizza! The operative word…
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Chasing the Green Drake all the way to the Arctic
The Green Drake. Chris Hunt photo. Five years ago, I drove from my driveway in Idaho Falls all the way to Dead Horse, Alaska, where I caught a glimpse of the Arctic Ocean, and then back again. It was a 10-week journey, and, when it was all said and done, I put about 20,000 miles…
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Forest Service announcement is great win for the Tongass National Forest
A brown bear searches for its next meal near Wrangell, Alaska, on the Tongass National Forest. Chris Hunt photo. By ending industrial old-growth logging and investing in restoration, USFS places new focus on forest health, recreation and resiliency For decades America’s largest national forest has been subjected to industrial clear-cut logging that has left its bountiful salmon runs,…
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Chill out and let others enjoy the river, too
I once observed a school of trout whacking away at PMDs have a canoe float right over them. How long do you think it took for them to turn back on?
I have to chuckle when I see anglers get so bent out of shape when a kayak floats by, or a dog takes a swim within barking distance of where they are fishing. I once watched a friend’s ears literally turn red every time a tuber drifted downstream. That’s silly for two reasons. First, we…
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Think (outside the) Tank: meet the beavers
It’s been over a month since we released our Think Tank brook trout into the Cross River, and we are finding that they have new neighbors moving in: beavers! Evidence of the beavers can be seen all along the stream—from dams to lodges, chewed down trees to flooded plains. Beavers have long been known to be ecosystem engineers and drastically change the stream in many ways. Beaver structures at Ward…
