Conservation

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) announced last week the implementation of a new program to track steelhead. According to the agency's website, "Biologists are putting satellite 'pop-off' tags on 10 adult winter steelhead in the Rogue and Chetco rivers this spring. The goal is to tag 'kelts' – the fish that already successfully spawned...

Ted Williams joined Tom Rosenbauer on the most recent episode of the Orvis podcast to talk about preserving native trout. Ted is a sometimes outspoken environmental writer, and recently wrote a series of stellar articles about glyphosate and native trout here at MidCurrent. The conversation Ted has with Tom centers around using rotenone to remove nonnative...

With the removal of dams along the Klamath River well underway, we've seen quite a few publications come out in opposition to the project. Chief among their concerns are the dead and dying animals that are struggling as the dam removal process send tons of sediment downriver. As Trout Unlimited points out in this recent blog post, though, the short-term...

The Government of Canada announced that the entirety of Kootenay National Park is closed to watercraft and all fishing, effective until March 31, 2025. The closure is to protect the waterbodies within Kootenay National Park from whirling disease, a parasite that impacts fish and is impossible to eradicate once established in a water system. The release from...

The Price River near Helper, Utah, received some much-needed attention from multiple conservation groups. The combined efforts of Trout Unlimited, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation, and Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative resulted in six dams being removed from the Price River as it flows through Helper. Removing the dams...

The Snake River Dams are in the news once again, and this time they're in the crosshairs of scientists from a group called Tell The Dam Truth (a bit on the nose, but I like it). Tell The Dam Truth just released a study that looks at claims about the clean energy produced by the Lower Snake River Dams - The Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, and...

Regulators in California recently proposed a delay for new rules dictating how much water residents can use on their lawns, per The Independent. While areas of California have seen record rain and snowfall in recent years, the state has a scarcity of adequate water storage, and still faces critical water conservation issues in the areas that depend on...

We recently discussed the issues facing the Smith River here at MidCurrent, with the approval of a new dam on one of its most important tributaries. Tom Rosenbauer tackles this topic as well in his latest installment of the Orvis podcast. David Brooks, of Montana Trout Unlimited, joins Tom to fill anglers in on exactly what is threatened by the development...

Earlier this week, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) announced the acquisition of the 1,860-acre Collard Ranch in Park County. Contained within that ranch is five miles of Tarryall Creek, which will soon be open to the public for angling. “Tarryall Creek is a special area to so many people in Colorado, with easy access for Park County residents and folks...

In a recent story over in Fly Fisherman Magazine, outdoor writer Glenn Zinkus did a fantastic job highlighting a potential new problem facing some fisheries. Osprey populations used to be low on Oregon's famed Deschutes River, but efforts to help save them over the past 50 years have resulted in booming populations. And guides on the Deschutes say that...