Centuries-old tenkara is becoming a hit on streams in the American West.
Fish
Posted inApril 14, 2014: A landscape of surprises
49 trout streams of southern Colorado
49 Trout Streams of Southern Colorado Mark D. Williams and W. Chad McPhail, 120 pages, softcover:$27.95. University of New Mexico Press. 2013. For southern Colorado anglers in search of plentiful, hard-fighting trout, getting to gold-medal waters is the easy part: there’s the Gunnison, the Frying Pan, and the Animas, to name a few. But as […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
The great Flathead fish fiasco
State and tribes disagree over how to tackle an exotic species’ takeover of a Montana lake.
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
Location matters in the war on lake trout
Lake trout aren’t just found in low-elevation lakes with large recreational fisheries, like Montana’s Flathead Lake. For more than two decades, they have thrived in the crystalline, icy waters of Yellowstone Lake, in the heart of Yellowstone National Park. Biologists believe someone introduced lake trout to Yellowstone Lake back in the 1980s. Since then, the […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
Hard lessons from the mighty salmon runs of Bristol Bay
The world’s longest ongoing salmon research reveals the astounding complexity of wild ecosystems.
Posted inDecember 24, 2012: The new Wild, Wild West
A mining rush in Canada’s backcountry threatens Alaska salmon
Last summer, John Grace, one of the world’s elite kayakers, traveled more than 3,000 miles from his North Carolina home into the wild northwest corner of British Columbia, to explore the Iskut River. It’s the biggest tributary of the Stikine River, which flows all the way to the Alaska panhandle coast, and together they’re the […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
Can pallid sturgeon hang on in the overworked Missouri River?
Chrrrrp, chrrrp: Our headphones echo with the tinny peeps of a radio-tagged pallid sturgeon (Scaphyrincus albus). Dave Fuller, a Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks fisheries technician, maneuvers the jet boat up and down the Missouri River on a beautiful October day. The sapphire sky has yet to succumb to winter’s haze, and the […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2011: Ganjanomics
Re-watering Nevada’s dying Walker Lake
Nevada is the nation’s driest state, and Mineral County is as parched as any place in it. Past the Sierra Nevada’s rain shadow, it’s sagebrush and alkali dust, sun-bleached skies free of clouds. So as a boy, Glenn Bunch, who grew up in Hawthorne, the county seat, spent as much time as he could at […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Columbia Basin (Political) Science
An investigation into the Bonneville Power Administration’s influence on salmon research
Posted inWotr
On second thought, Mr. Cheney
On the last day of 2008, a little bird told me that the venerable American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vt., a beacon for the nation’s fly-fishers and a keeper of their rich tradition, had landed Vice President Dick Cheney as the guest of honor and speaker at its spring 2009 meeting. So I […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
A River Once More
In Oregon, an unprecedented alliance is working to put water someplace it hasn’t been in a long time: in the river.
Posted inMay 1, 2006: Magic Valley Uprising
County and Forest Service bury the shovel
A long-running dispute over an infamous dirt road in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest may be winding down. The Forest Service and Elko County, Nev., are asking a federal judge to approve a settlement over the county’s claim to South Canyon Road in Jarbidge Canyon. Although the agency still refuses to recognize the county’s assertion of […]
Posted inMay 1, 2006: Magic Valley Uprising
Hobby miners flock to public streams
Growing pastime raises concerns about an outdated law
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
Columbia River dams revived
Tribes get shut out of new plan touted as good for fish
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Tiny stream invaders may harm Western trout
Researchers tackle a problem likely to be spread by hatcheries and anglers
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Trouble in the Delta
A water peace effort in California falls apart at the worst possible moment
Posted inWotr
Lewis and Clark trout at 200
One June evening exactly 200 years ago, a young private in the U.S. Army baited a hook tied to a willow stick and tossed it into one of the largest waterfalls on earth. The line went taut under the strength of a 2-pound flash of living silver. The soldier took in the line, hand over […]
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
In the Washington woods, managers face a catch-22
Critics say that by trying to please everyone, new rules could fail fish and wildlife
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
Protecting the treaty, saving the fish
NAME Kat Brigham VOCATION Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Board of Trustees member HOME BASE Umatilla Reservation, near Pendleton, Oregon CLAIM TO FAME Fighting for tribal fishing rights on the Columbia River, as well as for the health of the river’s fish. SHE SAYS “I like fish any way — baked, smoked, fried, dried or […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
The public pays to keep water in a river
A new wave of ‘takings’ lawsuits could bust the environmental protection budget