Conservation

This summer, Trout Unlimited partnered with Field & Stream to showcase the Best Wild Places in America. The tour highlights six spots out West where people can experience some of the best hunting and fishing and most spectacular wilderness in the country. By fishing and hunting in these places, the goal is to inspire people to visit these places–all of which are located on public land.

Also, we hope to raise awareness about how special these places are so that they may receive the protection they deserve. Each one of the places on the tour faces some threat–development, energy disputes, or other threats that has the potential to rob future generations from the chance to experience the landscapes and wildlife. In this podcast, TU’s President and CEO, Chris Wood, talks with Chris Hunt, of TU’s Sportsmen’s Conservation Project, about the tour.

Click the play button below to listen to this episode and go to orvis.com/podcast to subscribe to future episodes!

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The road to restoring populations of Eastern brook trout is ongoing, and it is a complex project. Across the species’ range, it faces a host of threats…

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It’s back to school–and TU’s program, Trout in the Classroom, is part of the curriculum in hundreds of schools around the country. The program helps children learn about trout and conservation by raising trout in aquariums.
In this podcast, TU President and CEO Chris Wood talks with two TU volunteers in New York state about their experience teaching children about the wonders of trout and their life cycles. Stacey Weirl is a physical education teacher who teaches kindergarten through fifth grade at the Fox Meadow Elementary School in Scarsdale, New York. Also joining Chris is a longtime TU volunteer, John Genovesi. John is the past president of the Croton Watershed TU chapter and directs the Trout in the Classroom program in Westchester County, New York. For more information about Trout in the Classroom, go to https://www.troutintheclassroom.org/
Listen to the podcast by clicking the “play” button below. Subscribe to future podcasts at www.orvis.com/podcast.

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The conservation organization Friends of the Upper Delaware has issued an Crisis Alert because water authorities who control the dam at the Cannonsville Reservoir cut flows into the famed West Branch of the Delaware by 90 percent overnight on Sunday, which the organization calls a “reckless and irrational act” that endangers trout populations…

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The Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office has been awarded $27.5 million to be used for salmon-recovery efforts. The grant, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, will be used for everything from habitat restoration to
fish-hatchery improvements to increased monitoring. Another $10.8 million was awarded to the Washington DFW to be used in Columbia Basin hatcheries.

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The Penobscot River provides the largest freshwater input into the Gulf of Maine, and there are important connections between sea-run fish and groundfish and other commercially important species in Penobscot Bay. Photo: Cheryl Daigle

We are adding a new feature to the Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast by partnering with Trout Unlimited to bring you updates on their conservation programs. Tom is a huge fan of Trout Unlimited and Orvis has been a long-time partner in their efforts to restore and protect coldwater fisheries.
In this episode TU President & CEO Chris Wood interviews Jeff Reardon about restoring the Penobscot River. Involving miles and miles of river and multiple dam removals, this is the largest project of its kind in history.
We hope you enjoy this new feature of The Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast. Let us know what you think on our Facebook wall at facebook.com/orvisflyfishing or by dropping us a line at podcast@orvis.com. Listen by clicking the play button below.

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Face it: the Age of Felt is coming to an end, and anglers will simply have to adjust. Biologists have known for years that felt soles serve as vectors for all manner of aquatic nuisance species (ANS), from whirling disease to didymo, and various attempts at solving or at least ameliorating the problem have been proposed—sprays, boot baths at boat ramps, public-education campaigns, and the like. Yet the ANS problem persists, so states such as Alaska and Vermont have passed bans on felt soles to take effect in the near future, with more such legislation from other states expected soon. (New Zealand was way ahead of the curve,…

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The historic range of the Eastern brook trout in the U.S. stretches from the northern tip of Maine to the high country of northern Georgia, and from Minnesota to the Atlantic. Unfortunately, with the first appearance of Europeans on these shores, the waters that supported brook trout began to suffer from dams, deforestation, and siltation. Add in poor agricultural practices, road building, mine runoff, acid precipitation,…

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The proposed Pebble Mine isn’t the only place where gold mining could damage a fishery. Since four dams on Oregon’s Rogue River were removed in recent years, gold-seekers with suction dredgers have moved in to sift through the gravel that had built up behind the dams for decades. Many of these gold-seekers are from out of state and have come to Oregon because California banned the practice last year….

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For a few years now, fly fishermen have been committed to stopping construction of the Pebble Mine, which threatens the salmon runs—and the entire ecosystem—of Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Felt Soul Media’s film Red Gold has helped to spread the word about the potential damage that could result from an accident at such a huge mine. But even much smaller extractive practices can do irreparable harm to fish and wildlife. In recent years, oil companies have been devoting more and more resources to getting at the huge amount of natural gas stored in the Marcellus Shale formation, which lies beneath some of the more fragile brook-trout habitat in the East. A unique geological formation more that 400 million years old—stretching from Columbus, Ohio, to Albany, New York, and south into northeastern Tennessee—the Marcellus Shale doesn’t give up its natural gas easily,…

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