The outside bend.
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Choose your own adventure.
Sunday mornings I start coffee. I top up the bird feeders, and jot down what visits. I journal. I listen to ragtime on the local radio station, figure out what needs done for the next twelve or sixteen hours. I try to carve out an hour or two to hop on here and see what…
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Last best streams- #1731.
The note pegged to the kiosk was too small for the whole story. Every every summer, every year, thousands of underpaid graduate students fan out across the country collecting data for their projects. If their work isn’t the backbone of modern conservation, it’s certainly one of the most important data streams available. Like most essential…
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The world needs little fish.
Take the menhaden, for example. Little, oily fish that fuel commercial and recreational fisheries up and down North America’s east coast. Redfish, bluefish, striped bass and more rely on menhaden as they move along inshore habitat. Menhaden are also coveted by a commercial fishing industry that renders them into fish oil for livestock feed and…
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Volunteers needed to remove invasive plants along the Highlands Greenway — Plateau Daily News
Highlands Plateau Greenway needs volunteers to help remove non-native invasive plants on Saturday, Feb. 18. Volunteers will meet at the back parking lot of the Highlands Rec Park at 9 a.m. In partnership with the Coalition for Non-native Invasive Plant Management (CNIPM), volunteers will be removing Privet and Oriental Bittersweet from the Rec Park. Please […]…
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Are we doing enough to protect Montana grayling?
Grayling are objectively one of the coolest fish out there, with that sail-like dorsal fin sporting blues and purples. They’re also uncommon in the Lower 48, historically only found in northern Michigan and the Missouri River headwaters in Montana. They’ve been extirpated in Michigan, though reintroduction efforts are underway. They still hang on in parts…
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First of February.
I’m ready for the robins’ return. Last time I was here, there were thousands up in the trees eating sugarberries and on the ground rifling through fallen leaves. They’ll be on their way soon enough; the velvet brown buds of pawpaw are swelling along the stream. I took it easy in the morning and didn’t…
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The new spirit of fly fishing.
The sport of fly fishing is too old and too male and too white, and Outside magazine is coming to the rescue, highlighting three seasoned anglers as spokespeople for greater diversity and inclusion in the sport. It’s a noble cause, one I think all anglers should get behind. My hangup isn’t the anglers or the…
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The Colorado experience.
I was not prepared for this Colorado experience. I came through the southeast corner in the evening and passed a mile of concrete feed bunks with a cowboy on a horse in full regalia- the hat, the snap shirt, everything- trotting back and forth, waving an American flag over the heads of hundreds of gorging…
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Last Best Streams: # 127.
No rush. There’s an understated satisfaction in taking the morning to get gear squared away and double-checked. With a new car, with functioning air conditioning, there’s no need to get an early start, or drive through the night. That said I still drove with the window down, on the two-lane highways, putzing along behind hay…
The outside bend. 