fbpx

by:

posted in:

September 2, 2015

2742407693_ea8f42fb0a_b

Do you have any thoughts on this post?

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Comments must be under 1000 characters.

by:

posted in:

September 1, 2015

Arizona Anglers and Fishing Guides List Six Ways to Enhance Lees Ferry Rainbow Trout Fishery

Image courtesy of Eric Petlock.

To address concerns over an unstable rainbow trout population in northwest Arizona’s Lees Ferry, a coalition of conservation and sportsmen’s groups and Marble Canyon fishing guides has submitted a list of recommendations to the federal and state agencies responsible for maintaining and improving the blue-ribbon fishery. The recommendations will be provided to the Bureau of Reclamation and National Park Service as they develop an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the adoption of a long-term experimental and management plan to determine Glen Canyon Dam operations and river restoration actions for next 15 to 20 years.

The coalition—which includes the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Trout Unlimited, the International Federation of Fly Fishers, Northern Arizona Fly Casters, Arizona Fly Casters, Desert Fly Casters, Anglers United, the Arizona Sportsmen for Wildlife Conservation, and Marble Canyon guides and businesses—delivered the report titled “Lees Ferry Recreational Trout Fishery Management Recommendations: The voice of Lees Ferry recreational anglers, guides, and businesses” at the meeting of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Work Group in Tempe, Arizona, last week. This group advises the Secretary of the Interior on matters related to the operations of Glen Canyon Dam.

Image courtesy of Eric Petlock.

Currently, dam operations have direct and indirect effects on rainbow trout in the 16-mile stretch of the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Marble Canyon—an area commonly referred to as Lees Ferry. Completion of the dam in 1964 created a unique tailwater rainbow trout fishery that has grown in importance and reputation locally, regionally, and nationally. But varying water releases from the dam are currently affecting the production and diversity of insects in the river, the survival of young trout, and the growth and condition of adults.

The trout in Lees Ferry have experienced several significant population swings over the years, which has been bad news for local guiding and lodging businesses that depend on a reliable sport fishery. “Currently, the Lees Ferry trout fishery is ecologically unstable,” says John Hamill, Arizona field representative for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “Rainbow trout are exhibiting strong natural recruitment, but these populations aren’t fully supported by the amount and diversity of food in the river. Scientific studies also suggest that food supplies are also limiting to native fish populations downstream in Grand Canyon National Park.”

“Our goal is to make sure the trout fishery gets a fair shake in the EIS process,” Hamill says.

Here’s a summary of the recommendations:

  • Establish a more diverse and stable aquatic food base by experimenting with more stable flow regimes to bring back bigger bugs, like mayflies, stone flies, and caddis flies. A more diverse aquatic food base will also benefit the native fish community and other wildlife in the Colorado River corridor.
  • Conduct high-flow releases in the spring to improve the aquatic food base and enhance trout spawning and recruitment when needed.
  • Test the use of flows to manage trout in the Lees Ferry reach and reduce downstream migration. This could help minimize competition with and/or predation of endangered humpback chub.
  • Implement a water temperature control device that has the capacity to release both cold and warm water from the Glen Canyon Dam. Recent studies suggest that the amount of water in Lake Powell will likely decrease in the future as a result of increased water demands and climate change, leading to warmer water releases from the dam. This would seriously impact the Lees Ferry trout fishery and lead to an invasion of cool- and warm-water fish which would seriously impact native fish in Grand Canyon National Park.
  • Establish re-stocking and environmental compliance protocols for responding to potential catastrophic losses of the rainbow trout population in Lees Ferry.
  • Create action strategies to reduce or avoid the potential effects of poorly-oxygenated water passing through the reservoir. Though a rare occurrence, these conditions can pose a direct and immediate hazard to rainbow trout in Lees Ferry.

These recommendations aim to boost the Lees Ferry fishery without detriment to downstream resources. “Our recommendations will improve the quality of the trout fishery and benefit many other Colorado River resources below Glen Canyon Dam,” says John Jordan, conservation chair for Arizona Trout Unlimited. “We expect these steps to support the recovery of the endangered humpback chub, the improvement of camping beaches in Grand Canyon National Park, the development of hydropower generation, and the protection of archaeological sites.”

Read the full report here.

by:

posted in:

Locked Out: Montana’s Missouri River Breaks

In an increasingly crowded and pay-to-play world, America’s 640 million acres of public lands – including our national forests and Bureau of Land Management lands–have become the nation’s mightiest hunting and fishing strongholds. This is especially true in the West, where according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 72 percent of sportsmen depend on access to public lands for hunting. Without these vast expanses of prairie and sagebrush, foothills and towering peaks, the traditions of hunting and fishing as we have known them for the past century would be lost. Gone also would be a very basic American value: the unique and abundant freedom we’ve known for all of us, rich and poor and in-between, to experience our undeveloped and wild spaces, natural wonders, wildlife and waters, and the assets that have made life and citizenship in our country the envy of the world.

A big game hunter’s bucket list might include a trip to the slopes of Alaska’s Brooks Range for Dall sheep or an excursion deep into the southwestern desert for beautiful little Coues deer. But, one thing is certain: That list will hold a hunt for big bull elk, and there is no better place to do that than on high-country public lands in Colorado.

In Part Six of our series, we head to the north-central part of Montana.

Thousands of years ago, the Missouri River in Montana ran north of where it is today. As the ice ages ended, the river took a new course below the Bears Paw Mountains, near the present-day town of Havre, cutting a wide channel through the fine clay soils of the plains. Rain and snow have since carved the earth into a vast and twisted maze of coulees and canyons, some of them hundreds of feet deep, marked by cliffs of yellow sandstone and weathered buttes, steep slopes of scree and gumbo soil.

Image courtesy of BLM.

The Breaks were one of the last places to be settled in the West. Much of the land went unclaimed while the region was homesteaded. A lot more of the land was abandoned later, when fierce winters and seemingly endless droughts forced even the toughest families to leave.

Today, most of the Missouri Breaks is public land in the care of the Bureau of Land Management. American hunters know it as perhaps the most unique and legendary elk, mule deer, and bighorn sheep country in the world. If you’ve never seen it, ponder this: Mountain hunters are accustomed to going up into the hills to seek their quarry. In the Breaks, you hike down, eventually reaching the big river itself. This is the home of the second-largest elk herd in Montana and some of the West’s biggest trophy bulls.

Nothing comes easy here. There’s galling heat, clouds of mosquitoes, and big rattlers during bugling season. Sometimes in September there’s snow or gumbo mud that will defeat the most determined off-roader. By November, there’s howling blizzards and subzero temperatures. Here, you pack meat uphill and risk missing that one coulee that leads back to the truck. It’s a tough place, and that’s the way Missouri Breaks hunters like it.

Image courtesy of BLM.

So, imagine their dismay at hearing the Breaks are in the crosshairs of the movement to transfer public lands into state—and possible private—ownership. On June 24, 2014, the Montana GOP announced that it had taken a position of “shifting public land management away from Washington, D.C., control,” and interest in private ownership of Missouri Breaks land remains at a record high.

A Texas family recently purchased more than 300,000 acres in the area for hunting purposes. The once-abandoned and unclaimed lands, now rich with big game, solitude, and adventure, are the on-the-ground equivalent of diamonds and gold. If transferred to the state of Montana, these lands could be sold and closed forever to the average American sportsman.

Five individual bills were introduced into the Montana legislature in 2015, and all sought to eliminate or undermine America’s public lands legacy. Rank-and-file sportsmen reacted strongly to these proposals and several hundred of them rallied at the Montana Capitol in opposition to the seizure of public lands. In the end, the voice of sportsmen carried the day, and lawmakers put a stop to every land seizure bill under consideration.

We won this round, but those who want to seize your outdoor riches and opportunities for great adventure will be back with new proposals aimed at eliminating America’s public lands legacy. Sportsmen must be prepared to fight another day.

Here are three ways you can support sportsmen’s access on public lands. 

Stay tuned. In the rest of this 10-part series, we’ll continue to cover some of America’s finest hunting and fishing destinations that could be permanently seized from the public if politicians have their way.

by:

posted in:

August 31, 2015

TRCP President Takes Seat on Conservation Advisory Council

TRCP president and CEO will help advise federal agencies on ways to advance habitat conservation, hunting traditions, and sportsmen’s access.

Whit Fosburgh, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, has been selected to serve on the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council, a group established in 2010 to advise federal agencies on wildlife habitat conservation and hunting-related policy issues. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made the announcement last week.

Image courtesy of TRCP.

This is the first time that Fosburgh will represent TRCP on the council, comprised of 18 discretionary members appointed by the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture and seven non-voting, ex officio members representing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency, and Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

“I’m honored to work with this exemplary group of industry leaders, including many of TRCP’s coalition partners, to create better awareness of sportsmen’s issues in Washington and to benefit fish, wildlife, and public access through thoughtful conservation policy,” said Fosburgh.

The council is an official advisory group established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to help promote and preserve America’s wildlife and hunting heritage for future generations. This group will provide advice on conservation endeavors that benefit wildlife resources and recreational hunting throughout fiscal year 2016. In fiscal year 2015, the council made recommendations on greater sage-grouse conservation measures, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the next phase of BLM land-use planning—all issues on which the TRCP has been actively engaged.

“The appointees to the Council represent top leadership within the conservation community and possess the expertise to provide us with insightful recommendations to better manage resources critical to America’s rural communities,” Secretary Vilsack said in a release. “Hunters were the nation’s first conservationists, and supporting America’s hunting heritage goes hand-in-hand with pursuing our conservation mission.”

Here are the new and returning appointees to the Council:

  • Jeffrey Crane, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation
  • Whit Fosburgh, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
  • Wayne Hubbard, Urban American Outdoors
  • Winifred Kessler, The Wildlife Society
  • Robert Manes, The Nature Conservancy
  • Frederick Maulson, Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission
  • Robert Model, Boone and Crockett Club
  • Miles Moretti, Mule Deer Foundation
  • Collin O’Mara, National Wildlife Federation
  • Joanna Prukop, former New Mexico Secretary of Energy, Minerals & Natural Resources
  • Stephen Sanetti, National Shooting Sports Foundation
  • Land Tawney, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers
  • Christine Thomas, College of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin
  • George Thornton, National Wild Turkey Federation
  • John Tomke, Ducks Unlimited
  • Howard Vincent, Pheasants Forever
  • Larry Voyles, Arizona Department of Fish and Game
  • Steve Williams, Wildlife Management Institute

For more information about the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council, click here.

by:

posted in:

August 28, 2015

Federal Judge Blocks Clean Water Rule

Late Thursday, a federal judge in North Dakota blocked the EPA’s new clean water rule just hours before it was due to take effect. Here’s our take:

“The EPA’s rule simply restores clean water protections to what they once were, a move that is essential for the future of outdoor recreation, public health, and the economy,” said Whit Fosburgh, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “It’s disappointing that opponents of clean water would prefer legal maneuvers and confusion over clarity in the law, which benefits industry and conservation alike. To ensure the health of one in three Americans, who get their drinking water from streams currently without protection, and the $646-billion outdoor economy driven by hunters, anglers, and others who rely on clean water, this rule must be allowed to move forward.”

HOW YOU CAN HELP

CHEERS TO CONSERVATION

Theodore Roosevelt’s experiences hunting and fishing certainly fueled his passion for conservation, but it seems that a passion for coffee may have powered his mornings. In fact, Roosevelt’s son once said that his father’s coffee cup was “more in the nature of a bathtub.” TRCP has partnered with Afuera Coffee Co. to bring together his two loves: a strong morning brew and a dedication to conservation. With your purchase, you’ll not only enjoy waking up to the rich aroma of this bolder roast—you’ll be supporting the important work of preserving hunting and fishing opportunities for all.

$4 from each bag is donated to the TRCP, to help continue their efforts of safeguarding critical habitats, productive hunting grounds, and favorite fishing holes for future generations.

Learn More

You have Successfully Subscribed!

You have Successfully Subscribed!

You have Successfully Subscribed!

You have Successfully Subscribed!