by Kirk Deeter

When I can't actually be out on the river fishing, the next best thing is to be with thousands of like-minded outdoorsy people talking about fishing. And that's exactly what I'll be up to in the next few days, when the International Sportsmen's Exposition rolls into Denver January 5-8 at the Colorado Convention Center.

I'll actually be hosting the Fly Fishing Theater, introducing the likes of Pat Dorsey, Kelly Galloup, Landon Mayer, and April Vokey. I'm going to be giving a couple talks myself, focused on "Stillwater Fishing for Trophy Trout" at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, and 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

--Chad Love

No-good heartless bastards recently stole a disabled, wheelchair-bound St. Louis, Missouri angler's entire inventory of fishing tackle from his van.

From this story on kplr11.com:

"...Someone apparently targeted Willie Vickers because he was an amputee who didn`t always have the stamina to bring his gear in from his van in the 4500 block of Ashland in North St. Louis, after hours of fishing. The water at Fairgrounds Park in North St. Louis and all that swims beneath the surface have been calling to Vickers since boyhood. 'I remember my first fish,' he said, recalling how a kind neighbor couple took him fishing for the first time more than 40 years ago. He was the only one of them to catch a fish that day.

by Chad Love

In the current political climate it's fashionable (on both sides of the aisle) to cut programs and legislation that "doesn't pay its way." Not surprisingly, conservation and environmental programs and legislation are currently under attack because we "can't afford it any more." But what if, as many of us have been arguing for years, not only can good conservation and environmental programs pay their way, they also pump money into the economy even in the depths of a recession?
 
That's the gist of a recent economic study from the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks department that revealed hunting and fishing activity along the front range of the Rocky Mountains is a remarkably recession-proof activity and an important regional economic engine. And that's a very good reason, argues one sportsmans's group, to encourage further environmental legislation to protect the area.

From this story in the Great Falls Tribune:
The Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front said that based on economic indicators from recent Fish, Wildlife & Parks studies of hunting's impact, the Front needs further legislative protection. Five Montana sportsmen said in a teleconference call Tuesday that the hunting industry is a rare economic bright spot in the current recession, and called the Front a poster child of this sustainable economic engine. "The remarkable thing we are seeing here is stability," said Randy Newberg, an accountant and host of the hunting television series "On Your Own Adventures." "The numbers along the Front show public land hunting has not been as susceptible to the broader economic challenges facing other industries during the recent recession," he said.

--Chad Love

You may recall a few weeks ago, the almost universal comment panning that Field Notes readers gave a proposed art project over the Arkansas River. Alas, there obviously were no Field Notes readers in the "deciders" division of the Bureau of Land Management, because the BLM just approved artist Christo Vladimirov Javacheff's plan to cover around six miles of water on the Arkansas River with sheets of fabric that look like water. Because it's...art.
 
From this story in the Pueblo (CO) Chieftain: 
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday released the final environmental impact statement for New York artist Christo's Over The River project, paving the way for the plan to proceed if final approval comes this fall. After 2 1/2 years of study, the approved form is much how Christo envisioned the grand-scale artwork. It will allow for the suspension of eight silvery, luminous fabric panel segments totaling 5.9 miles over portions of the Arkansas River between Salida and Canon City.