Editor’s note: To kick off our education series exploring the complexities of water in the West, we interview author and TU’s water policy associate for its Western Water and Habitat Program, Sara Porterfield. How long have you been with TU and what do you work on day-to-day? Sara Porterfield: I started with TU in October
Born to fish, forced to guide.
Dogs have their place on a boat, period.
Pardon my preference to the canine companions we all love so much but it’s true. When you bring a dog on a boat, or in our case a barge sized raft loaded to the gills with camping equipment, you often spend your day receiving smiles and waves from complete strangers. Who doesn’t love that?
I often lie when I’m asked when I’ll be home from fishing. I’ve learned to not answer the question until I’m in my car driving home. It’s so hard to leave the river. There’s always another bend, another puzzle, more wildlife. I almost rather not go at all than to leave!
There’s no better time to start
Growing up as a midwestern kid from the suburbs I didn’t know much about the outdoors. Being from Ohio we didn’t camp a lot. Rivers were a bit foreign to our family of six. Don’t get me wrong, we fished, swam and rode bikes until the streetlights came on but there’s nothing in that equation that prepared me for navigating moving water.
“I knew the bugs would be smashed up against the bank and the angle and light would all be just right, but I was in pain. I ended up arguing with myself but seeing the shot already in mind forced me to get up and be a functioning human being. I knew if I didn’t go then, I would miss it. Things couldn’t have worked out any better. I owe that to the river.”
“People don’t necessarily think about the necessity of fish to be able to move like terrestrial animals,” said Anna Senecal, an aquatic habitat biologist with Wyoming Game and Fish. “We all know about bird migrations and we know about ungulate elk migrations, but fish need to move as well.”
