Today, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon introduced the River Democracy Act of 2021, which would create new Wild and Scenic River designations for a number of stream segments in Oregon where TU is working to protect and restore habitat, water sources and fishing opportunities. TU supports this legislation, which is based on more than 15,000 recommendations submitted by Oregon residents.
Our failure to remember affects salmon and steelhead conservation
We’ve all heard stories from our grandparents of unbelievable abundance and sizes in their fishing forays — the salmon so numerous it boggled the mind, and those Lahontan cutthroat trout so big you couldn’t wrap your arms around them. Yet even with these anecdotes it’s still hard to internalize just how different our experience of today is from way back when. That’s just human nature: memory is hard to maintain, especially across generations.
Can-Kicking Lower Snake River Dams Record of Decision Released
The ROD adopts the preferred alternative developed through the agencies’ environmental impact statement process. The decision recommends a limited increase in the amount of water spilled over the four dams on the Lower Snake River, but allows the dams to stay in place at a significant cost to salmon, steelhead, tribes, anglers, and communities across the Columbia Basin.
Wildfire Perspectives: Returning Home to a World Upended
Wildfires have consumed over 1,000,000 acres across Oregon. Countless homes have been lost and some of our most storied fishing grounds, including the North Santiam, McKenzie, and North Umpqua, have burned to the ground.
Snake River Dams Perspectives: John Appleton of Alpine Archery and Fly
Earlier this summer, TU released a report entitled “Why We Need a Free Flowing Lower Snake River” that lays out the scientific basis for the federal government’s conclusion that the best way to restore salmon and steelhead in the Snake Basin is to remove the four dams on the lower river. Snake River salmon and steelhead populations are now so …
A Tribute to Gary Fredricks (and the many public servants like him)
In the world of salmon conservation, criticizing government agencies can be a popular sport. By nature they are easy targets: faceless, powerful, bureaucratic and slow to evolve even in the face of glaring need to do so. But often overlooked and underappreciated are the many well-intentioned, dedicated individuals working within those agencies.
Oregon South Coast Management Plan Proposal Nearing Completion
In order to continue with the opportunity to harvest wild steelhead in southern Oregon, we need better science. If we continue down the path of harvesting wild steelhead without better understanding of population and harvest levels, we could watch those populations decline to unfishable levels within our lifetime. Here’s our update on the latest…
Lee Geist: Strobe Probing For Steelhead
Wild Steelheaders United ambassador Lee Geist with some well-worn advice on how to catch steelhead using a spinner- in this case his favorite #5 Blue Fox. Catch Lee on Instagram @lee_geist and check back for his semi-weekly Wild Steelheaders United blog updates. If you told me I could only fish one steelhead lure for the rest of my life I …
Oregon Wild and Scenic Effort Heating Up
Late last year, Oregon’s Senior Senator Ron Wyden put out a call to all Oregonians to nominate their favorite rivers and creeks for potential designation under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The result of that call to action was over 15,000 different nominations for more than 4,000 miles of rivers and streams in Oregon. As we’ve written before, …
Twenty Years of Snake River Hindsight
Eric Crawford is the North Idaho Field Coordinator for Trout Unlimited and the Wild Steelhead Initiative. Before coming to TU, Eric worked a 25 year career as an enforcement officer with Idaho Fish and Game. He’s based in Moscow, Idaho. It was a fishing trip on a balmy November day, back trolling plugs with an old boss in an even …