Currently browsing… Oregon
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Guaranteed: they will come back
Pacific salmon and steelhead connect the Pacific Ocean to the Sawtooth mountains and persist at 1-2 percent of their historic numbers. Their decline precisely parallels the construction of the four lower Snake River dams
Editor’s note: This is the sixth and final installment in a series of articles showing that removing four dams on the lower Snake River is the last, best hope for wild Snake River salmon and steelhead. Wild Snake River salmon and steelhead are on the brink of extinction, but we can bring these incredible fish…
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‘Posted’ signs a sad end to a chapter
How much trouble is it to ask permission to access a choice swimming hole? An Oregon landowner reluctantly posts his property after neighbors repeatedly ignore his requests for a heads up before swimming.
Dad has always been proud of the spot. "It's the best hole on the creek," he has said many times about the spot down the hill from his house. That's something of a guess. Dad hasn't explored the entire creek, a tributary to Oregon's South Umpqua River that runs for probably 15 miles from its…
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TU salutes Water for Conservation and Farming Act
TU's Nell Scott with the first bull trout found in the reconnected reach of Oregon's Sun Creek after completion of a TU-led restoration project, Upper Klamath Basin. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has introduced the Water for Conservation and Farming Act, a bill that will provide a major boost to some of Trout Unlimited’s highest watershed…
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The West is full of great rivers to float
Didn't draw a lottery permit? No problem It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, I’m not referencing the holiday season in December. I’m talking about river permit season. Most have chosen their dates meticulously with groups of people on rivers like the Smith, the Green, the Yampa, the San Juan and the list…
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Welcome to winter steelhead fishing
Dean hollered from upstream as a steelhead took his fly, then hollered again a moment later as the fish released it. At another spot Dean had a nice fish on for perhaps a minute, his rod bowed and bobbing. But that steelhead, too, practiced detachment. Welcome to winter steelhead fishing.
Molly the water dog and Jenny Weis on Oregon's Umpqua River, before everything blew out. By the third day, it seemed a foregone conclusion that at least one of our three-person party would feel the chilly fingers of a stream no longer kept at bay by their waders. The ubiquitous blackberry vines armoring the banks…
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A case study for the ‘portfolio approach’
A fisheries management plan for southwest Oregon coastal streams spurs debate over harvest of wild steelhead A fishery management plan being developed for southwest Oregon coastal rivers has generated debate over whether to temporarily reduce or prohibit harvest of wild steelhead. Trout Unlimited’s Oregon Field Director Kyle Smith recently penned an opinion-editorial in the Curry County Pilot making the case for caution in killing…
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Conserving Oregon’s ‘vast and wild’ Owyhee River
The rugged country and streams in the Owyhee River watershed in eastern Oregon represent one of the best remaining opportunities for landscape-scale conservation in the West. Trout Unlimited is working through a coalition of sportsmen’s groups and sporting businesses — Owyhee Sportsmen — to ensure this remarkable area remains unspoiled by development. The campaign to…