The Orvis Conservation Blog speaks to our impassioned belief that if we are to benefit from the use of our natural resources, we must be willing to act to preserved them, an ethos we practice by committing 5% of pre-tax profits to conservation.
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The final day of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership Western Media Summit continued the run of ridiculously gorgeous weather we’d been on, and I chose to spend it with a small group at the K-T Ranch (pronounced kay-bar-tee) about two hours away in the town of Meeker. A satellite property of The High Lonesome Ranch, the K-T sits on the White River and contains two spring creeks, as well. I fished with Todd Tanner, senior editor at Sporting Classics magazine, and. . .
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The second day of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership Western Media Summit dawned as gorgeous as the first, and participants had the option of fishing for trout or hunting for pheasants, quail, and chukar. I spent the afternoon in the field with Bill Klyn, of Patagonia, and Bob Marshall, outdoors columnist for both the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Field & Stream, along with our guide, Willy, and his three Labrador retrievers. We walked pretty hard for just a few birds, but. . .
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For the next two days, I’ll blogging from The High Lonesome Ranch in De Beque, Colorado, where the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) is holding its 8th annual Western Media Summit. The event brings together outdoor journalists from around the country to discuss the most pressing conservation issues of the day. Orvis is one of the sponsors of the summit, so I’m out here with Orvis vice chair Dave Perkins, Rod & Tackle marketing manager Tom Rosenbauer, and hunting product developer Brett Ference to help advance the causes that are part of the Orvis Commitment. We’re joined by media representatives from Field & Stream, Sporting Classics, The Drake, the Salt Lake Tribune, and many others.
Read MoreGraffiti is often a blight, but this ingenious artwork is a peaceful demonstration against the continued presence of a California dam that serves no purpose, yet keeps the Ventura River from flowing free and blocks the migration of anadromous fishes. This passage from the website of the Matilija Coalition explains the problem: . . .
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One of the five Orvis Commitment initiatives for 2011 is working with the National Wildlife Refuge Association to help preserve the unique habitat of the northern Everglades south of Orlando, Florida. Yesterday, National Public Radio featured a story on the innovative ways. . .
Read MoreElwha River Fish Weir from John Gussman on Vimeo.
The destruction to homes, bridges and roads across Vermont in the wake of Hurricane Irene has been extreme.
On GoFishn, I just read that up to 80,000 trout were lost at theThe Vermont State Fish Hatchery in Roxbury, Vermont. These were fish set to be released into the state’s rivers and streams in 2012.
From the Times Argus:
As Whalen [supervisor of the hatchery station] walked through the debris-filled, seven-acre area, he pointed to where there had been five ponds and drainage brooks used to raise brook and rainbow trout, which would have been used to stock many of Vermont’s rivers and streams in 2012.
“The buildings are old and tough and didn’t really sustain much damage,” Whalen said.
“I’m sure some of (the fish) made their way to the Third Branch,” Whalen said, referring to the branch of the White River.
Whalen said he and the two other full-time staff were able to capture as many as 10,000 fish and contain them in one of the ponds that had a section of open water, but many of the fish were left to die as the water receded and small pools the fish were in dried up.
Read the rest of the story here.
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Entering into an already heated debate, a recent study on the potential impact of climate change on trout has chilling news for cold-water fisheries.
In a moderate plan for a warming climate drawn up by the researchers, brook trout would lose more than three-quarters of their range in the West in the next 75 years. Brown and cutthroat trout would lose about 50 percent of theirs. Rainbow trout would fare the best, losing a little more than a third of the miles of stream in which they can thrive.
The rest of the article can be read on the New York Times Environment blog here.
What do YOU think? Take our poll below on how you feel trout populations could be impacted and leave your feedback in the comments section.
Kristi Miller, a Canadian scientist who published a study on the collapse of Canada’s West Coast salmon in the leading research journal Science has been muzzled by Ottowa’s Privy Council Office from speaking about the research. The research showed a possible link between farm raised salmon exposing wild salmon to disease.
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The San Francisco Bay Delta is formed where the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers join in Northern California. The delta is an important resource for both fisherman and farmers. However, as with many rivers systems, far more water has been diverted from these rivers for irrigation than is needed for the farming, and the fish populations are being devastated. In this compelling video by the NRDC, we learn that salmon populations dropped from 1.4 million to 39,000 between 2002 and 2009, a 90% collapse. But action is being taken, and awareness of the problem is being raised, in part by videos such as this one above.
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