Conservation

Here’s some cool and hopeful news about some (strange) new allies in the movement to protect Bristol Bay, Alaska from the threat of Pebble Mine. Investors representing $170 Billion urge EPA to Safeguard Bristol Bay.

Read More

The black rhino of Zimbabwe is threatened by poachers

 

Orvis has learned that Raoul du Toit, African Rhino Program Coordinator for the International Rhino Foundation, is the well-deserved recipient of a 2011 Goldman Environmental Prize! Raoul’s grassroots mission and effort to save the black rhinos of Zimbabwe from poachers caught our eye last year, resulting in a partnership Orvis is proud to support and promote as one of our own 2011 Orvis Commitment efforts.

The Prize recognizes individuals from six regions around the world for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. Raoul plans to put his award right back into the Lowveld Rhino Trust programs in Zimbabwe to continue his good work.

To learn more, or to make an easy donation to help save the Rhinos of Zimbabwe from poachers who kill the rhinos for their horns, please go to our Orvis Commitment . Orvis will match your donation, and together we can all support Raoul and the International Rhino Foundation in an effort to protect the black rhino from poachers.

Read More

Wild Maine brook trout

Maine is the last best stronghold for wild, native brook trout in the United States; and nobody knows those brook trout, their watersheds, and the precarious balance to keep the population healthy than the Libby family of Libby Camps on Millinocket Lake. The Libbys have operated Libby Camps in the North Maine Woods since 1890, and are now in their fifth generation of family ownership.

This week, Jed Fiebelkorn, host of Trout Unlimited’s On the Rise gets his feet wet on some of the region’s pristine brook trout waters with none other than former TU CEO, Charles Gauvin, who now has a little more time on his hands to pursue his beloved brook trout after stepping down as TU CEO in 2010. Matt Libby, the owner of Libby Camps hosts Jed and Charles on a fly-out adventure in northern Maine.

Check out the show to see the greatest, and most remote, brook trout fishing left in the United States, where wild, native brookies can still be measured by pounds not inches; and how Libby Camps, TU, and others have worked to make sure it remains that way.

You can check out the show on the Sportsman Channel on:

Mon 4/11/2011 1:00PM

Tue 4/12/2011 10:30PM

Fri 4/15/2011 7:30AM

Sat 4/16/2011 12:30PM

Read More

photo by Mike Daley

In rivers throughout the Northwest, from the mighty Columbia to Seattle’s urban Green River, wild steelhead populations are desperately hanging on. The steelhead are listed as threatened, and even hatchery efforts to increase their numbers are failing. Habitat loss, dams, and warming waters caused by climate change, appear to be sealing their fate. In a great piece by Green Acre Radio,(brought to our attention by the Wild Steelhead Coalition)Martha Baskin visits the Soos Creek hatchery on the Green River and talks with wild steelhead advocates including veteran fisheries biologist Don Chapman, who’s been monitoring the situation for fifty years. Click here to go to the audio and give it a listen.

Read More

Trout Unlimited’s On the Rise TV show, airing on the Sportsman Channel, resumed this week with a new host Jed Fiebelkorn, a Montana guide and former host of Fly Fisherman’s TV show. On the Rise focuses on great American trout rivers and the conservation issues surrounding them. In the first episode, Jed floats the Teton River with Mike Dawes of WorldCast Anglers and Kasey Collins, President of Teton Valley Trout Unlimited Chapter 721.

Read More

As with many rivers of the American West, the Upper Colorado River is facing a crisis in the balance between keeping a river intact and “alive” and the water needs of the region’s population. But water needs for drinking water is one thing; water “needs” for keeping one’s sprinkler going in order to have a plush lawn of blue grass in an arid region is quite another.

Read More

The New Seafood Watch App for Android

I love seafood, but I have read enough to know that my gastronomical preferences might be contributing to the demise of some of my favorite fish! Two-thirds of fish stock worldwide require rebuilding. Aquaculture is now responsible for half the seafood consumed on the planet. Some aquaculture practices are very harmful to the environment, while many are environmentally responsible. Enter Monterey Bay Aquarium’s  Seafood Watch app, which I now keep on my iPhone and refer to all the time. MBA is a world leader in seafood research and consumer education. This app advises which seafood are responsible choices from a sustainability viewpoint. I highly recommend it. — Perk Perkins Orvis CEO

Remember the days when you went to the store, bought what you needed and went home again without much thought to it? Now there are choices for organic, Fair Trade, eco-friendly and a whole host of other things. Welcome to the age of the conscious consumer. All of us are beginning to recognize that things we do have an impact on our planet and that through thoughtful consumerism we can make a difference.

Read More

Friends of the Upper Delaware are once again hosting their annual One Bug Fly Fishing Tournament and Dinner, April 29 through May 1, to help raise funds for the restoration and protection of the Upper Delaware River and its tributaries.

The Upper Delaware

Read More

Here is a great example of how a “big problem” for ranchers and Bonneville cutthroat trout turned into a “big plus” for everyone when creative ideas are put into motion to reconnect a spawning tributary to the Yellowstone River. A fine example of how working together can be a win-win for everyone, and every species.

Read More

You may have heard about the Obama administration’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative, which argues that

[L]asting conservation solutions should rise from the American people–that the protection of our natural heritage is a non-partisan objective shared by all Americans. AGO recognizes that many of the best ideas come from outside of Washington. Instead of dictating policies, this initiative turns to communities for local, grassroots conservation initiatives. Instead of growing bureaucracy, it calls for. . .

Read More