Currently browsing… California
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These hips don’t lie
Crawling around small creeks was an exercise in bad yoga, as I dragged myself to standing by grabbing branches and logs. When I finally had the hip examined, I was told what I already knew
Two summers ago, I agreed to join a backpacking trek with some friends I hadn’t seen since college. Our mission -- honoring the life of a mutual friend who’d passed away -- took us deep into the Sierra Nevada range, a 54-mile journey filled with golden trout and jaw-dropping views of ice-etched peaks and verdant hanging valleys. As…
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The tonic of wildness
If you are active in the outdoors, it’s hard to beat living in the American West. That’s because all states west of the Great Plains have big swaths of public lands available for fishing and hunting. Except when big swaths of extraordinary wildfire shut them down. Right smack in the middle of Public Lands Month.…
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TU’s Conservation Hydrology program steps in to monitor and measure California streams
One of the fundamental precepts of science is that, to understand a phenomenon or a system, it is necessary to observe change over time, the rate of change, and the influence of causal factors. In other words, to monitor and measure. Yet frequently resource managers are stretched too thin to do consistent monitoring of salmonid…
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Russian River coho and steelhead conservation update
The Russian River watershed, north of San Francisco, is the focus of an intensive, multi-year effort to recover coho salmon – now one of the rarest native fish species in California. TU is playing a lead role in this effort through the Russian River Coho Water Resources Partnership. The focus of the Partnership is boosting…
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Skate punks and disc golf
In praise of urban trout streams The thought occurred to me while I was fishing under the Highway 20 bridge over the lower Yuba River in California’s Gold Country. To reach the water I had crossed a floodplain so altered by quarrying, mining and off-road vehicles that it more resembled a moonscape than a functional…
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Fishy people stories
We all know that some people have a transcendental ability to find and catch fish. This ability typically derives from an unteachable, instinctive feel for the water and how its piscine residents move and feed in it and is honed by years of dedication to the craft. These people are often referred to as “fishy.”…
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Northern California summer steelhead could be listed by 2020
We love all steelhead here at Wild Steelheaders United and Trout Unlimited, but some anadromous O. mykiss populations may deserve more love than others. Consider wild summer run steelhead in Northern California. The available data for wild summers between Redwood Creek and the Gualala River (including the legendary Eel River watershed) suggest their numbers are greatly…