Adventure Fly Fishing Blog

My brother just launched Stansberry Sportfishing. It's a blog about his travels fly fishing across the country, from the Pacific Northwest, to the NYC nearshore, to the Great Lakes steelhead scene. Check it out: Stansberry Sportfishing.

New Oregon fly fishing blog

OregonFlyFishingBlog.comThis week The Caddis Fly shop in Eugene and the geniuses behind Oregon Outdoor Journal and One Mule Team joined forces to create an Oregon Fly Fishing Blog with river reports, fly tying tips and fly fishing adventure and disaster stories. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Oregon coastal coho protections restored

NOAA fisheries announced its decision to restore federal Endangered Species Act protection as a “threatened species” for Oregon Coastal coho salmon. The agency, charged with salmon and steelhead conservation, had been under a court order to reconsider its 2006 decision not to list the Oregon Coastal coho. Trout Unlimited was among a group of fishing and conservation groups that sued to force a relisting.



According to Oregon Trout Unlimited volunteer Karl Mueller: To grossly simplify the state and federal position, a listing was not warranted because coho are particuarly resilient and are able to rebound from periods of low abundance. In other words, a small number of spawning adults can beget a large number of spawning adults three years later.

Oregon businesses support Rogue Wilderness expansion

A column in today's Register-Guard says the BLM WOPR is bad for businesses in Southern Oregon and calls on elected officials to expand protections for the Rogue River. For more info, check out SaveTheWildRogue.org and find out how you can help protect one of the most diverse ecosystems in North America.

Oregon salmon collapse in 2008?

According to the executive director of the the Pacific Fishery Managment Council, Donald McIsaac, the West Coast is facing "what appears to be an unprecedented collapse in the abundance of adult California Central Valley... fall chinook salmon stocks."

Blogger OneMuleTeam says: What really has fisheries managers (and me) worried is that only about 2,000 2-year-old juvenile chinooks — which are used to predict returns of adult spawners in the coming season — returned to the Central Valley last year, by far the lowest number recorded. On average, about 40,000 juveniles, or “jacks,” return each year. I was no math major but I know that 1/20th of average = not good.

Moose populations tracked in Eastern Oregon

According to ODFW, wildlife biologists collared four moose in the northern Blue Mountains of Wallowa County the week of January 14, marking the first collaring of the animals in Oregon and an increased effort to trace moose activity in the state.

ODFW's Moose Fact sheet says Oregon’s moose are believed to have traveled south from Washington and Idaho to take up residency in the Blue Mountains. Although individual moose have occasionally been observed in northeast Oregon during the past 40 years only recently have animals been considered established residents.

The folks at the Testing the Waters blog have a great post with lots of photos of a Grande Ronde kayak trip where they spotted some Oregon moose last summer.

Help ban elk ranching in Oregon

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is considering changes to its elk ranching policy in our state. I am a hunter in Oregon and I am against elk ranching. The ranches threaten the health and integrity of our wild elk and deer, and hunters pay almost all the costs of regulating the elk ranches!

It would be best if ODFW would ban elk ranching altogether, but falling short of that, the commission should consider the following safeguards:

Retire elk ranching permits as the permit holders quit or go out of business.

Ban the practice of selling “shooter” bulls to out of state canned hunting operations.

Require that the elk ranchers provide double fencing to reduce the risks of escape and disease transmission.

Require that elk ranches carry appropriate bonding and insurance to cover the cost of escapes and disease eradication.


ODFW is accepting comments on this issue through Feb 8. Send an email to Odfw.commission@state.or.us to have your voice heard on this issue.

Trout Unlimited Oregon State Council meeting

TU Chapter 678 conservation officer Karl Mueller summarized the 2008 Oregon State Council meeting for Trout Ulimited in a recent blog post.

Issues discussed included:

An update on the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) Carmen-Smith relicensing. Carmen-Smith is a hydropower project on the upper Mckenzie that blocks upstream passage for ESA listed Chinook and Bull trout.

Excitement over the TU-spearheaded Copper-Salmon Wilderness.

A look at the potential settlement of the Klamath Pacificorp relicensing issue.

Here's an updated photo of TU's protect, reconnect, restore strategy:

Timber industry-linked hunters support WOPR

This week the Mail Tribune ran an Op-Ed from timber industry linked sportsmen, Steve Mealey and John Lowe, calling out the sportsmen coalition that opposed the WOPR. Mealey is a retired forester and went on to work for forest products company Boise Cascade. Lowe is also a retired forester and has a really interesting presentation on the State of Oregon Web site, that quotes Teddy Roosevelt, "A forest which contributes nothing to the wealth, progress or safety of the country is of no interest to the government."

I have no business calling these guys out. Mealey is a badass. His bio says he was a grizzly bear researcher, comes from Oregon homesteader lineage and has probably spent more time in the woods than I'll ever do in my life. And these guys have a good point -- the anti-WOPR coalition never got a blessing from the Oregon Hunters Association. It didn't speak for everbody. But I can call out the Mail Tribune. They made them out to be unbiased hunters and that's just not the case. To quote Lowe's presentation again: Anyone who claims to be unbiased is fooling themselves or fooling you.

Lowe and Mealey have been at this way longer, and have more experience than I do -- but I think it needs to be clear where people's loyalties are. I'm opposed to the WOPR because I value biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. On the other hand, Lowe and Mealey have made their livings through managed forestry and that was not made clear in the Op-Ed.

One point of contention: The authors raise the spectre of declining elk and deer populations and blame it on the NW Forest Plan. That's bullshit. It's the old argument that ungulates love clear cuts. The browse available in a regenerated clear cut is better forage for a short period of time. But as soon as those stands turn into ultra dense, monocultured doug fir, they are biological wastelands for the next 50 years. And anecdotally speaking -- how much elk shit have you seen in a clear cut? Now how much do you see in a remote, old growth wilderness? I mean, the damn things are practically humping me in the backcountry so I gotta say a healthy old growth system wins out over clear cuts every time.

Register-Guard hopeful on Klamath River restoration

Editors at the Register-Guard are hopeful now that talks are underway to remove dams on the Klamath Basin, opening up habitat for the Klamath’s devastated salmon runs. The project is dependent on the dam operators (PacifiCorp) to sign onto the plan, which seems possible at least. But conversation groups Oregon Wild and WaterWatch have flagged this plan as being flawed, stating that the salmon would not get the water they need to survive under these provisions. EarthJustice has a video that gives an overview of the situation on YouTube.