Posted by pdobbyn on February 8th, 2010

A new threat is emerging to the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska, home to the world’s largest remaining chunk of intact temperate rain forest.

The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is moving to mark up Senate Bill 881, legislation intended to benefit Sealaska Corp., the regional Alaska Native corporation in the Southeast panhandle. Sealaska has large timber holdings in Southeast Alaska and has clear-cut logged thousands of acres of forest in recent decades. Under the bill, the corporation would get another 80,000 acres of the Tongass as part of its final land selections under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

The Senate bill would not only transfer tens of thousands of acres of prime public lands into private hands for logging. Sealaska would be eligible to select dozens of future economic development sites ranging in size from four to 1,400 acres scattered around Southeast Alaska in some of the best bays, coves and anchorages valued by hunters and fishermen.

Check out the fact sheet on the Sealaska bill.  Consider contacting your senators – especially if he or she is on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Posted by rscholfield on February 8th, 2010

Developer Aaron Million wants to build a 560-mile pipeline to deliver Colorado River basin water from the Flaming Gorge of Utah to the Front Range–but with some studies estimating the Colorado River nearly tapped out, will there be any extra water to take?  “That’s the center of our concern,” says Chris Treese of the Colorado River Water Conservation District. “How do we develop whatever’s left, or do we rush headlong into pursuing and approving very large projects that race us off the edge of the cliff before we know how close we are with regard to the Colorado River Compact? You don’t want to ever be in a deficit position. The Million project is perhaps taking us over the edge of that cliff.”

Posted by pdobbyn on February 8th, 2010

Good news emerged recently from the Alaska Board of Fisheries regarding Bristol Bay, home of Alaska’s largest salmon runs. Late last week, the seven-member board sent a letter to the Alaska Legislature asking lawmakers to conduct a comprehensive review of the state’s permitting standards for mines. The board members asked legislators to review all regulations and statutes to see whether they provide adequate environmental safeguards for Bristol Bay, and if not, to enact stricter ones.

Trout Unlimited Alaska, along with a large contingent of fishermen, Alaska Natives, guides, outfitters, lodge owners and other members of the public, had asked for such a review.

“The scale of this mine is unprecedented and the risks it poses to Bristol Bay’s fisheries warrant at the very least a hard look by Alaska lawmakers at the state’s existing permit regulations,” said Tim Bristol, director of Trout Unlimited’s Alaska program.

The fisheries board, whose members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature,  set seasons, bag limits, and other policy aspects of Alaska’s subsistence, commercial, sport, guided sport, and personal use fisheries.

Read more:

Posted by pdobbyn on February 5th, 2010

A group of high school students in Dillingham, Alaska, has launched an online petition calling on Congress and the Obama Administration to oppose to massive Pebble mine project in Bristol Bay. The group, called Rebels to the Pebble,  is organizing young people to join a grassroots campaign to stop the mine project from going forward. Like many others, including Trout Unlimited, Rebels to the Pebble say the risks to Bristol Bay’s rich salmon fishery are too great.

View the petition.

Posted by Hannah Moulton Belec on February 4th, 2010

Brown trout/Chris Anderson

In the winter issue of Trout magazine, David J. Tough wrote asking what he could do to help conserve Colorado’s Big Thompson.  He has observed more fishing pressure between Loveland and Estes Park, Colo.

Two local chapter presidents got in touch to give us the scoop on conservation efforts and concerns on this stretch of the Big Thompson. Thanks to Trigg White, president of the Alpine Anglers Chapter, and Lee Evans, president of the Rocky Mountain Flycasters, for helping answer this question for us.

Continue reading this post…

Posted by Scott Laeser on February 3rd, 2010

As the 2010 legislative session kicks into gear, President Obama has reaffirmed his Administration’s goal to see comprehensive climate change and clean energy legislation to the finish line.  In his State of the Union Address, the President discussed the importance  of this legislation in the context of jobs:  “But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives.  And that means… passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.”

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican working with Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman to find a bipartisan legislative compromise, also reaffirmed his commitment to passing comprehensive energy and climate legislation, telling a group of renewable energy business leaders “…if the approach is to try to pass some half-assed energy bill and say that is moving the ball down the road, forget it with me.”  The fate of legislation is still very much in limbo, but these are positive signs that the President and legislators are making a push to move legislation this year, despite the looming fall elections. Continue reading this post…

Posted by pdobbyn on February 2nd, 2010

Alaska wild salmon got a huge boost from a national retail chain in January. Target pledged to stop selling farmed salmon in all of its 1,744 stores across the United States and to replace it with wild Alaska salmon. This unprecedented decision by a large U.S. retailer marks the first time that wild Alaska salmon will replace farmed salmon in a major grocery store chain.

With the proposed Pebble mine and other resource development threatening Bristol Bay, Alaska, and its healthy sockeye salmon fishery — the world’s largest –  Target’s commitment to Alaska’s wild salmon is critical and deserves applause. Target’s decision adds value to Alaska’s salmon fisheries and helps protect the things Alaska wild salmon need to stay healthy and productive: clean water and pristine habitat. Learn more at www.savebristolbay.org.

Listen to Trout Unlimited’s Alaska Policy Director, Shoren Brown, discuss Target’s decision on “Good Day with Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert.”  Tune in to Radio America at 8:15am EST on February 13th. Find the station nearest you at www.radioamerica.org

Posted by Greg on February 2nd, 2010

American Basin in Colorado's Alpine Triangle

 Midwinter may be the slow season for chasing trout or hunting big game, but it’s been a busy 2010 so far for TU’s Sportsmen’s Conservation Project (SCP). In January, the nation-wide call by hunters and anglers for more balance in the process used to lease public land for oil and gas development was answered by Sec. of the Interior Ken Salazar. And in Colorado, the SCP launched a backcountry campaign to preserve the jewel of the San Juan Mountains, the Alpine Triangle.

Read bout these development, and more news that may directly affect your favorite place to hunt or fish on our public land in the January/February 2010 edition of Field Notes.

Posted by Hannah Moulton Belec on February 2nd, 2010

You read about the author of the Fly Fishing Rabbi blog in the winter 2010 issue of Trout, now you can read the questions and answers we didn’t have room for—like where to fish in Israel, and what Rabbi Eisenkramer’s congregation thinks of his blog.

Continue reading this post…

Posted by Scott Laeser on January 27th, 2010