By Dean Finnerty, photo by Ken Morrish Back to back public meetings in Gold Beach, Oregon and Grants Pass, Oregon (Sept. 9th and 10th respectively) made history for Southwest Oregon conservation efforts. “In 30 years of conservation work in Southwest Oregon, we’ve never seen this kind of support for protection of our drinking water and salmon and steelhead streams. …
Two minutes, 14,000 miles of Oregon streams
Two minutes can help protect 14,000 miles of Oregon streams. The Oregon Board of Forestry (BOF) will soon decide whether to increase Oregon’s riparian buffers. These buffers supply cool water in the heat of summer, water necessary for steelhead, trout, salmon and other organisms important to Oregon rivers and streams. Currently, Oregon requires only a 20 foot buffer — far smaller …
Blueback’s Chapter leading the way in Angler Science
John McMillan Last weekend I returned to the Siletz River on the Oregon Coast to participate in snorkel surveys being led by the Blueback’s Chapter of Trout Unlimited. The Siletz River was my adopted home river during my graduate studies at Oregon State University, and I spent as much time as possible fishing for and observing steelhead. So it will …
Pudding Creek Gamble
By Sam Davidson There’s a little gambling going on right now in an obscure coastal stream in Mendocino County, California, called Pudding Creek. No one is throwing dice or yanking on a one-armed bandit here. We are talking habitat restoration. And the habitat restoration game always involves a bet. Trout Unlimited, a landowner, a timber management company, resource agencies and …
Take Action: Smith River Mining Withdrawal
TAKE ACTION Tell the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to protect salmon and steelhead streams in southwest Oregon and northern California from large-scale strip mines What’s the issue? Two companies, (one foreign owned) have been working to develop surface strip nickel mines in an area that would threaten Rough and Ready Creek (a tributary to the Illinois River and world …
Crooked River Steelhead and Opal Springs
Opal Springs Fish Passage As iconic Oregon fisheries go the Crooked River is an amazing resource. One of the great bread-and-butter trout streams of central Oregon, it not only fishes well, but is amazingly beautiful as well. The Crooked is a working river, providing water for communities and farms as well as recreation for anglers and boaters. As a major …
California water supply takes hit from marijuana
Photo: California Department of Fish and Wildlife By Brian Johnson, Curtis Knight and Mike Sweeney Originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle California, the nation’s top agricultural producer, also is the source of up to 70 percent of the marijuana consumed in the United States. The marijuana industry is largely unregulated and there are few protections to ensure illegal water …
Recommend the Skagit, Elwah and Puyallup/White a Steelhead Gene Bank
TAKE ACTION The opportunity to make major progress toward rebuilding abundant, fishable wild steelhead populations does not occur often, but that is precisely the opportunity before us between now and August 13th. During that period the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will receive public comment on which rivers to designate as “wild steelhead gene banks” – rivers that will …
Better buffers mean healthier steelhead
Last week, the Oregon Board of Forestry met to consider stream buffers as they revise a rule that would determine how close timber can be harvested when next to a stream or river. The riparian rule as it’s called, stands to impact thousands of miles of water in Oregon and as such, important populations of steelhead. Increased buffers improve shade, recruit large …
Our WDFW Gene Bank Testimony
On July 21st in Seattle, Rob Masonis VP of Western Conservation at Trout Unlimited made the following testimony at the WDFW Puget Sound Gene Banks Meeting. We encourage you to use this in information for either your online or your verbal testimony. For more information Go Here “Let me start by applauding the Department for moving forward with WSGB …