Currently browsing… Snake River salmon and steelhead
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Best, maybe last, chance for salmon
One of the great mythologies in America is that conservation is a "zero-sum game"—a term used by economists when the gain of one person is offset by the loss of another. Conservation is often, for example, described as “job-killing,” or pitting fish and wildlife versus people. Congressman Mike Simpson’s (R-ID) proposal to re-imagine the relationship…
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Helping trout and helping America
As he was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States this week, Joe Biden made a powerful call for unity as the necessary foundation for tackling our nation’s challenges. Many celebrate and welcome the change. Others are angry and frustrated. Here is what I wrote four years ago when President Trump was…
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It’s time for the lower Snake River dams to go
“It is our collective opinion, based on overwhelming scientific evidence, that restoration of a free-flowing lower Snake River is essential to recovering wild Pacific salmon and steelhead in the basin.” So reads a remarkable letter recently sent to the governors of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana by 10 of the finest and most-respected salmon and steelhead scientists in…
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Extinction, Idaho?
Our iconic Snake River chinook salmon are down to less than 1 percent of their historic numbers. With a few real exceptions, juvenile smolts in Idaho rear in some of the West’s best habitat, but on their way to the Pacific Ocean they must traverse eight dams, including four on the lower Snake River. How…
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Lessons from Warren and Scott
Trout Unlimited members, and many of our staff, love to fish. Perhaps none more than Scott Yates and Warren Colyer, both of whom co-lead our largest staff cohort, the Western Water and Habitat program. One of my favorite memories at TU was fishing on Wyoming’s Gros Ventre River at dusk. I was working the far…