By Bob Marshall

Editor's Note: Welcome to The Conservationist, a new blog on FieldandStream.com, where at least three times per week we'll be posting conservation news, analysis, and commentary from Conservation Columnist Bob Marshall, Contributing Editor Hal Herring, and Deputy Editor Jay Cassell.

So what does President Obama's decision to open once-protected areas of our coasts to energy drilling mean for fish, wildlife and sportsmen?

It could be terrible. It could be bad. Or it might not matter much at all.

The Terrible: If this derails the push for meaningful carbon reduction legislation, it will be a black mark on his presidency, and a disaster for fish and wildlife and sportsmen.

There is no greater threat to our outdoor pursuits than global warming, and the major cause of that problem is the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere, primarily from fossil fuels. There are alternative fuels, but the only way to encourage development and use of those fuels is to place a penalty on the production of carbon. That's what cap and trade is all about. [ Read Full Post ]

From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:

Salmon aren't alone in being snagged during this busy summer fishing season in Alaska. Anglers get the hook, too.

Monica Musgrove, a nurse at Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna, said emergency room staff have removed 62 hooks from patients since May - including a few through the eyelids and one from the tip of the nose.

And it's likely that many more went to other hospitals or did their own first-aid work.

  [ Read Full Post ]

By Kirk Deeter

Photo by Tosh Brown

A fly fishing memoir is a tough thing to pull off.  In my mind, "been there, done that," isn't good enough.  "Me and Bob went fishing"... yawn.  "How I learned to solve the mysteries of the universe while I caught trout"... give me a break.

In other words, I often pick up these books, and within 10 pages, I'm usually thinking to myself, "Get real!"

Whoa, wait a minute... there's a thought.  Get real...

That's what Miles Nolte did with his compelling and gritty work in The Alaska Chronicles, published by Departure ($27.50).  The work is a collection of semi-daily reports (initially posted on the message board of The Drake magazine website) from a summer spent guiding in Alaska.  In effect, it became a collective "being here, doing this" experience... a thread that connected over 3,000 online message board readers from Singapore to Germany.

The writing appeals to me by virtue of its honesty and simplicity.  Sure, you get the fish stories, but you also get the client grind, the cold hamburgers, bloodied body, fatigue, bears... essentially the stuff that separates the pretenders from... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

From the Anchorage Daily News:
Even in a city whose logo is "Big Wild Life," the summer of 2008 is testing residents' tolerance for large carnivores.

The problem is bears, black bears and bigger grizzlies. So far this summer, three people have been mauled in the city.

Some people say humans are to blame for the confrontations and insist that no bears should be killed because of the attacks. [Others] . . . want something done about the big bruins.

A few excerpts on each side of the debate:
-- "It is pretty much unsafe to walk around at night," [bear-attack victim Devon Rees] said.

--People using the city parks need to practice some common sense, said Dave Parker, a 25-year-old resident of Wasilla, outside the municipality.

"The bears were here before we were," Parker said. "You don't go swimming in shark-infested waters and don't expect to be bit. . . ."

--Mike Vogel, a 51-year-old insurance agent, was stomped by a moose in 2003 on a popular city trail. . . . "We need to kill some of these bears and we need to kill some of these moose," he said. Vogel accuses Fish and Game of catering to "bunny huggers."

"I think the pecking order... [ Read Full Post ]