What's The Biggest Conservation Story Near You?

May 04, 2011

By Hal Herring

I made a trip south April 22nd to fish for native cutthroats with Trout Unlimited’s Corey Fisher, National Wildlife Federation’s Land Tawney, and Joel Webster of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. I started out at daylight, and crossed Rogers Pass in a howling horizontal blizzard. At the Cenex station in Lincoln, the first town for seventy miles from my house, I stopped for coffee. A young tow truck driver at the gas pumps asked me, “How’s the pass?” I struggled for an answer that would actually describe what I’d just driven through.

“Ahah,” the driver said. “It’s real bad!” I just nodded. It was Earth Day, and the earth was throwing my rattle-trap Hyundai and me a pretty good thrashing.

By the time I got to the river- and yes, it is in southern Montana--the skies were the color of lead, but the wind and snow had quit, and the temperatures were edging above freezing. We rigged up and headed upstream, in the clear light of mid-day, with a snow squall off in the high country, but a thin sun coming down on us like a blessing. I didn’t care if there weren’t any bugs showing, or even if the fishing on big streamers and nymphs was tough. It felt so good to be out after a grueling winter that it was all could do to keep from bursting into song. But on top of all that, we actually got into them. Corey took one right away on a nymph and my first fish whacked a big weighted sculpin pattern, swung deep through a cold green line of current that had scoured out a channel under some old willows. Later, the sun came out strong enough to set off a hatch--Corey called them March Browns--and a few fat squalls appeared, flying slow just above the rush of the water. We all caught good fish during that short stretch of warmth, heavy-bodied natives rushing a floating Adams, rods bowed, whooping and hollering. The cutthroats a deep golden color, black spots, rose bellies, bright arterial blood-red slashes below the gills. Springtime, man. Like the shaggy moose ma and her two leggy young ‘uns threading the mud trails in the bottomland thickets, we’d all made it through another winter.

Since this is the Conservationist, I want to point out that the river we were fishing is public water, and it gets fished hard, and it remains one of Montana’s top Blue Ribbon Streams, in large part because its headwaters are on the Bitterroot National Forest, which in that place is mostly roadless and wild. That unbroken heavy-timbered high country and the snow that it catches and turns loose in the spring and summer is what gives us the clean water and the cutthroats and all the rest of the fish below. You can’t create wealth like that, and you can’t replace it if we let people who don’t understand how it works mess it up. Besides that, it’s hellacious backcountry elk hunting. But that is all for another day and another blog post.

What I really want to do today is ask readers for some help. I try hard to keep up with the conservation news and all the issues that relate to healthy fish and wildlife populations. But it’s a mighty big country, and I’ll never know a thousandth of the places and the stories in them. So I’m asking: what is the main conservation issue or challenge where you fish or hunt? Please remember, conservation is a broad topic. I’m looking for the big picture to the tiny picture here- for example, loss of local hunting access, or dwindling numbers of fishermen, is just as important as a valley fill from mountain-top removal coal mining. I’m looking forward to learning from fellow hunters and fishermen whose best-loved places are woods and streams that I have never heard of.

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from DSMbirddog wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

Here in Iowa the price of corn has gotten high enough that farmmers will no longer sign up even marginal ground for CRP. In the laast five years I believe that is one major factor that has ruined our pheasant and quail hunting. Habitat is required to get birds through tough winters and provide for good nesting success.

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from Moose1980 wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

Getting the logging practices in Maine to leave the deer yards alone. The population has been absolutely hammered to last 5-6 years. The best statistic I found from the state Fish & Wildlife is from 1950-1970's, deer wintering areas compromised 10-15% of the total suitable deer habitat in Maine. Today, it's down to 4%. I know logging is king in Maine, but it sure wont be the same without those big North Woods bruisers walking around.

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from atavisim44 wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

Here in PA if it's not major flooding at the wrong time of year, tearing up some of the finest trout streams in the east, it's water temperatures too high to even think about fishing for trout. Clearly, something is happening out there, and all the stream improvement devices in the world aren't likely to protect trout if the temperature keeps going up and the weather keeps getting wackier.

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from nhbearman wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

This state's legislators are stealing funding from the Fish and Game Department, right out of the pockets of sportsmen and women, to fund the general fund. $500,000 was taken last year from the boating access acount. And this year some $700,000 is proposed to be stolen including all the fines collected by our conservation officers from violators. These funds have in the past help support the department. And to top it all this year the legislators are taking all the dedicated funding from the Land Conservation and Historic Investment Program to the tune of $4 million dollars. This is a special account set up a decade ago to protect fish and wildlife habitat that is kept open to hunting and fishing forever. In ther last decade 300,000 acres has been protected. Our state's sportsmen and women are being robbed by the very folks that are supposed to protect our interests.

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from upacreek333 wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

Great post, Hal... As usual, you managed to remind us of the one vital ingredient to quality fishing and hunting: Intact habitat.

Without it, nothing we do afield would be successful. Keep up the great work.

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from Chinook627 wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

I'm under the opinion that there is a good majority of people out there who don't know how fragile our resources are as fisheries. In NY where I'm from the saltwater fishery management is absolutely appalling. Take the fluke fishing (summer flounder) for instance which is a big factor for those who depend on the income generated by party boats, tackle shops, and charter businesses. The state came down hard on regulations for this fish by basically limiting the amount of fluke a person can keep as well as shortening the season we can fish for them. While this sounds great in theory to help re-generate the stocks, the state makes recreational anglers pay the price while the commercial guys can just take and take without much scrutiny. Another problem too is that the state sets such a high size limit for this fish that to catch a keeper fluke is practically unheard of these days. The problem lies within the conservation. Recreational anglers pay the ultimate price and the commercial guys get to exploit the resource. I have also brought to the attention of officials regarding the notion that raising a size limit doesn't necessarily help the fishing. Yes we are seeing more fluke now than ever but the quality of the fish has gone down because the big breeders all get killed because of the size limit. I think if the state wanted to impose a more effective system they would look at possible slot limit possibilities that way we can attempt to save some of those bigger breeder fish to ensure we have them for generations to come. This is just one of the big conservation issues near me that remains a problem season after season. Just thought I'd share.

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from delrod wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

Two things for me here in Utah. One is this ridiculous water diversion they're trying to push through. Taking water out of the Green River in WY and pumping it all the way across WY to Colorado. This will ruin the fishery in Flaming Gorge Lake for both WY and UT. The blue ribbon fishing below the dam will take a big hit too. The other one for me is the inability to find good hunting areas. OHV's have just taken over and torn it up. I'm tired of hiking for an hour in the dark in the morning, getting into elk, and then have someone come blasting across the open sagebrush in a quad and scaring them away. I have many friends that don't hunt any more because of this. In a sport that's already dwindling. . .we can't afford to lose the good and ethical hunters. I'm thinking of hanging it up myself.

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from MTbackcountry wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

I think that one of biggest challenges facing hunters and anglers is a philosophy that we can mitigate, manage and manipulate our way out of fish and wildlife problems…that more hatcheries, more feed grounds, killing all predators and more tinkering will right the wrongs of habitat destruction. Good habitat = good hunting and fishing, period. Trash wild habitat and it is a long, expensive effort to get back even a glimmer of what once was.

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from troutaholic wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

The biggest threat to SW Colorado fisheries is the remnants of the hard rock mining industry. Draining mines and poorly placed tailings piles continue (to this day over a hundred years later) to dump heavy metals and acid mine runoff (low pH) into our area's headwaters. In these headwater areas, if fish can even survive, they often only hold brookies, which can handle the metals. Native cutthroats are a rarity. The lack of Good Samaritan protection from liability concerns prevents good-intentioned groups from cleaning up these mine sites. It's time to give these groups the protection they need and to revamp the outdated 1872 General Mining Law which still serves as the rule for new mining operations.

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from Roderick K. Purcell wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

Know what I hate? I hate it when I get up before dawn, climb a mountain in the dark to be where the elk are at daybreak. Then, just as the sun comes up, hear a train of ATVs coming. Or find the place trashed out by tire tracks and ruts. I bet i'm not alone. I've got nothing against ATVs -- they are just a tool, my family owns them. But habitat has to come first. just because someone buys a $5000 machine, doesn't give the right to spook the game and trash the habitat. The USFS, BLM and game wardens need to make this a higher priority if we are going to keep our hunting traditions alive.

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from prairieghost wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

wolf hunting will resume in MT.
Hurray, hurray, it's early May.
the envirowackos are in disarray.

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from philbourjaily wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

DSMbirddog has it right for Iowa. I would add that not only are farmers not enrolling in CRP but they are clearing brush, fencelines, sloughs etc faster than ever to make more room for corn

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from shane wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

Ohio rivers are about as clean as they're gonna get now, as opposed to being flammable not too long ago. Ohio lakes and ponds are as bad as ever now. Most bodies come with don't swim warnings.

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from baconboy206 wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

well where i live in the pacific northwest the biggest story is our pathetic salmon stocks. Right now they are predicting the total extinction of our wild pacific salmon in the puget sound within 20 years. In my local river, the nooksack our wild steelhead are pretty much gone, as are our spring chinook and fall sockeye, the fall runs of chinook and silvers are getting worse and worse every year and are a pail shadow of their former selves. The Chum and Pink runs are holding on, but are now starting to decline. All salmon fishing in the system now, except for chum, is hatchery fish only, which are smaller, dont fight as hard, have lower return rates and inferior genes, they also interbreed with the wild fish and contaminate the gene pool of the wild fish, therefore lowering return rates on wild fish. This is a huge issue that the governing agencies are really ignoring, they just build more hatcheries and dump more hatcherie fish into a failing ecosystem so the that the tribes and commercial interests can keep netting ( and "accidently" netting and killing endangered stocks). The poor runs are the result of a whole host problems, logging, farming, overharvest, hatcheries, fish farms in the ocean, stream straightening, removing log jams for navigational purposes,pollution, dams, the warming of the ocean and rivers, melting glaciers, irrigation and more. For anybody wanting to learn more i would recommend a book called "king of fish: the thousand year run of salmon" by david montgomery, its a very interesting and educational read

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from Chinook627 wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

baconboy206, I have to agree with you on what you're saying. On the northeast coastline where I'm from there used to be wild strains of brook trout, in fact the only native trout to the northeast was the brook trout. Every stream where I come from used to harbor an abundance of native brookies. Now there are literally only one or two streams that I can name that still do have native brook trout residing in them, and due to extensive stocking programs to catch a native brookie is far and in between, as they compete with the rainbows and browns. According to the books I have read the area I live in used to see sea run brook trout often called "salters" on streams that would connect with the bays and eventually ocean. I can tell you I have only caught very few true "sea run" trout and by few I mean I can count how many on one hand, and they weren't brookies. Basically I caught holdover stockies that somehow made it to the saltwater so some can argue that they weren't even true sea runs. I have read books that talk about how back in the early 1900's however that sea run brook trout that were native to the streams I fish used to be caught in excess of 7 lbs. Every one of those streams I talk about now would not be able to support trout without a stocking program. I have caught native trout in the state of NY where I'm from but I've had to travel for them. As far as I'm concerned the native trout that used to lie literally right outside my backyard are long gone and even in the last 15 years or so the stream quality has gone down terribly. Its insane to think that a 9 lb brook trout was caught on record and weighed in the early 1900's and those fish are now gone. Its sad to see native fisheries destroyed. I personally would love to see a sea run brookie better than a few pounds without having to travel as far as Labrador, but just goes to show you what poor conservation will do to our resources.

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from 007 wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

I offer two issues for your consideration in no particular order of importance. We have some wonderful trout and smallie streams available to us in WV and it's shocking how these streams are abused with litter. We have already lost a good stream to posted signs due to this kind of nonsense. The other would be the apparently declining deer herd and/or habitat for same in eastern WV. Thanks for asking.

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from Roderick K. Purcell wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

I see a trend here, Hal. There isn't one big story. There are lots of local ones. Hunters and anglers see the world though their own experiences in their favorite places.

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from hal herring wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

Indeed, Roderick. I'd like to see a thousand or more of these from people- imagine what could be learned.

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from Mike Diehl wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

In southern Arizona, illegal immigrants. The immigrants typically travel with food, blankets, water bottles and a complete change of clothes. When they get to a layup area in good wildlands, they discard ALL of that except for the new clothes that they don when they get into the vehicle sent to pick them up. There are literally hundreds of thousands of tons of discarded clothes, backpaack,s blankets, and garbage cast out into the desert. A small number of people, mostly hunters and ranchers, regularly try to pick up the nasty. But we're inundated, and you only have so much volunteer time to give in any given month.

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from Matthew Clark wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

I think one of the big picture issues I run into is a lack of public interest in, and awareness of, how the ecosystems and habitat that we live in and use function. There are so many people on both sides of the fence with differing and often anecdotal or incomplete opinions about what does or does not impact a given resource. I often wonder what public discussions of resources and multi-use conflicts on federal lands would look like if people took the time to try to understand the issues thoroughly and from all sides. They’d probably be a fair bit more balanced, democratic, and compromise minded I’d guess. So I suppose the take home for me is more education, more thought, and less knee jerk opinion all the way around. And while we’re at it, let’s get our children, our schools, and our communities out in the woods hunting and fishing, having a good time, and learning about not only how important the resources are, but how we can all adjust our uses a bit to ensure they stay around and intact for a long, long time.

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from BearClaw wrote 1 year 3 weeks ago

Here in Missouri, the Department of Conservation recently began an elk restoration plan. The elk are being introduced on a 346 square mile elk restoration zone in a rural county selected by the MDC. 6 Bull elk and 28 cows and calves, brought in from Kentucky, are currently on site and will eventually be released into the elk restoration zone. More detailed info available at: http://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/elk-return-missouri-after-150-year-absence

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from Clay Cooper wrote 1 year 2 weeks ago

Ozark Forest were they are trying to shut down ATV's, but this is ok!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/trophyroom/recent/single?pnid=10013...

Oil change anyone!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/trophyroom/recent/single?pnid=10013...

Move over Quick Lube, it's Forrest Lube!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/trophyroom/recent/single?pnid=10013...

Who says dar ain't no Elka in those hills of Arkansas!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/trophyroom/recent/single?pnid=10013...

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from Clay Cooper wrote 1 year 2 weeks ago

Ozark Forest were they are trying to shut down ATV's, but this is ok!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/trophyroom/recent/single?pnid=10013...

Oil change anyone!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/trophyroom/recent/single?pnid=10013...

Move over Quick Lube, it's Forrest Lube!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/trophyroom/recent/single?pnid=10013...

Who says dar ain't no Elka in those hills of Arkansas!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/trophyroom/recent/single?pnid=10013...

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from Clay Cooper wrote 1 year 2 weeks ago

DSMbirddog

Not only the pheasant population, the Gulf of Mexico will be hit by more phosphates due to the increasing of corn production for E85 which has more far more damaging impact than gas from oil

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from jbird wrote 1 year 2 weeks ago

I'm a Missourian like BearClaw, and it's sad that the Elk introduction in our state is the only positive conservation issue listed here.
At some point, WE, and I mean the entire outdoor community, will have to come to understand that greed is killing our planet. Mining has destroyed thousands of miles of once pristine waterways, commercial fishing has devestated our ocean's stocks, and the asinine subsidizing of Ethanol is ruining a once brilliant CRP program, as well as hiking the price of our food supply. All of these have something in common: Greed overpowers what is right, big business buys the elected officials, and they vote as they're told.

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