Posted in Commentary and Reflections Environmental

Losing the Solitude

I first visited Yellowstone National Park (YNP) in early October 1975, when I was training at the Naval Nuclear Prototype facility that was  50 miles west of Idaho Falls. I qualified there to operate nuclear power plants on submarines. That…

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Posted in Technique and Tips

Better Casting Leads to More Privacy

No fly fisher goes looking for crowds, at least none I’ve met. One of the attractions of the sport is finding a stream or beach where no one else is in the vicinity. A place where the casting and fishing…

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Posted in Environmental

The Health Impacts of Climate Change

Cathy Whitlock, PhD, is a paleoecologist at Montana State University in Bozeman. She has written over 200 peer-reviewed articles for scientific journals, and was the lead author  of the 2017 Montana Climate assessment, that among other findings forecast continued decreasing…

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Posted in Environmental

National Parks in Trouble

I’ve written of the problems of crowds and traffic in Yellowstone National Park (read here). Now the Denver Post has an extensive article on the problems faced by a number of western national parks and the communities that surround them….

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Posted in Environmental Fishing Locations

Yellowstone Gridlock

Visit Yellowstone National Park whenever the park’s roads are open (typically April to late October), and there’s always the possibility of crowds at popular highlights (e.g., Old Faithful), long waits at restaurants, and gridlock caused by animals on the road…

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Posted in Fishing Locations

Browns, Bison, and Snow

Trips to Montana in early October can mean a possibility of cold and snow. But then again, an October trip to Montana means a chance to see the autumn colors and wildlife, and an opportunity to fish for spawning brown…

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Posted in Environmental

The Fish That Destroyed the Yellowstone Ecosystem

National Geographic has a troubling article on how one fish has, and is, changing the ecology of Yellowstone National Park (YNP). The introduction of lake trout into Yellowstone Lake has led to the demise of the native cutthroat trout (see…

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