Suction Dredge Mining Reform in Washington State

TU is working hard to address a serious problem impacting Washington’s watersheds and threatening the health of our native fish populations: unregulated suction dredge mining and other forms of motorized mineral prospecting. Most recently, TU helped to introduce HB 1261and SB 6149 which would bring Washington in compliance with Clean Water Act rules and would ban suction dredge

Connecting people to policy

TU’s government and policy staff. By Chris Wood Several of the bright lights in the Trout Unlimited policy world came into the intergalactic headquarters last week. Their recent accomplishments are pretty amazing. Dave Kinney of New Jersey helped organize efforts to pass and then fund legislation for restoration in the Delaware Basin; Taylor Ridderbusch of

How the shutdown is harming anglers

By Chris Wood “Good riddance. Think of all of the money we are saving.” I looked at Max in exasperation. He is one of the most hard-core sportsmen I know. I have hunted for whitetail with him in driving rainstorms in West Virginia, and stalked catfish on the Potomac using hummus-impregnated Clouser-minnows. He is a

Mimicking beavers improves trout habitat

By Crystal Elliot What do watershed resilience, high-quality fish habitat and sustainable water supplies look like in the Intermountain West? Probably much like it did before western expansion and trapping decimated North American beaver populations in the 19th century. Once numbering in the hundreds of millions, beavers played a principal role in how water moved and

Getting started: Know your trout

The brook trout is actually char, native to Appalachia, eastern Canada and the upper Midwest. Photo by Chris Hunt. Editor’s note: This the third in a series of posts geared toward new fly fishers. More installments will follow.  A couple of years ago, I was fishing a small, backcountry trout stream on the Island Park

Voices from the River: Now I begin

The California coastal stream where the author tried to begin again. By Sam Davidson The photos didn’t do justice to the fish. I had been waiting patiently for word from the Steelhead Whisperer, who had spent most of the day on his favorite winter water on the central California coast. But for hours all I

Oregon Wildlands and Frank Moore bills need your help

Thanks to the leadership of elected officials in Oregon who understand the importance of wild places, and the value salmon and steelhead bring to our outdoor economy, there’s a decent chance that Oregon could end up with some new public lands protections in the next few days. As we posted last week, the halls of