Adventure photographer Bill Decker documented this relocation operation in Arizona.
We'd been eyeing it on our maps for years. An unnamed trout lake nestled deep in the peaks of Colorado's rugged Gore Range. It looked like nobody would ever hike in there to fish, but we'd done our research, and knew that the Department of Fish and Wildlife had once stocked it with cutthroat trout. It took the four of us (me and my friends Jeff Rogers, Charlie Bloch, and Ben May) years to coordinate our schedules, but we finally set a date: Labor Day weekend, 2006. Boy was it worth it. Here's the story of our trip in pictures. Photos and text by Tim Romano
Although we have focused here on the Green River country of Wyoming, energy development is booming on public lands all across the West. More than 50,000 wells are planned or already in place in: The Red Desert (Wyoming) Jack Morrow Hills (Wyoming) Northern Colorado Roan Plateau (Colorado) San Juan Basin (Colorado) Valle Vidal (New Mexico) For more on the issue, be sure to check out Hal's May 2006 conservation column, "The Killing Fields" or contact: Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, 307-231-3128 Trout Unlimited 406-721-4441 Upper Green River Coalition, 307-367-3670