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,…

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,…

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….

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,…