tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45252488899603987722024-03-05T17:32:45.746-06:00Trout TymeA swirling eddy of commentary on All Things TroutSalmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-21337856303245707522013-04-17T13:05:00.000-05:002013-04-17T13:05:07.741-05:00National Trout Center<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWC1mnXeXQqMkBBwCZF8YxVeUv8pbofmLNDQl5A8l52MFCXIE6mqSwUNb_ury5SsrnJdurZDC1hx7M3Hdaz8wwiSZvGvcSrTATcELpOgrqHr9-NpdZSBOMwQ_81csilGQssJmOPW4iSXI/s1600/NTC_LOGO_correct.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWC1mnXeXQqMkBBwCZF8YxVeUv8pbofmLNDQl5A8l52MFCXIE6mqSwUNb_ury5SsrnJdurZDC1hx7M3Hdaz8wwiSZvGvcSrTATcELpOgrqHr9-NpdZSBOMwQ_81csilGQssJmOPW4iSXI/s200/NTC_LOGO_correct.png" width="190" /></a></div>
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The National Trout Center in Preston, Minnesota, has just opened its doors to the public for the 2013 season. Now in its fourth year of operation, the National Trout Center is embarking upon its first major attempts to secure funding for its permanent home and operations as an environmental learning center focussed upon trout, trout habitat, and the rôle that trout fishing has played in the arts and literature of our culture since the time of Izaac Walton.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;">The mission of the National Trout Center (NTC) is to conserve our natural and cultural heritage of trout and their cold-water environments by engaging the public through education, practice and awareness. A public well-informed about cold-water streams and trout habitat, appreciative of the intrinsic beauty of trout, and the importance of the trout fishery to our culture, will develop strong motivation for conservation and responsible stewardship of these resources.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">To fulfill this mission, the NTC provides an experiential education and outreach program for people of all ages and abilities that engages them in the ecosystems that support healthy trout populations. By increasing public awareness of the rich diversity of life in trout waters, and by promoting the arts, cultural heritage and experience of trout fishing and angling in cold-water streams and rivers, the NTC will instill in its visitors a life-long respect and admiration for trout and their environments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The temporary home of the National Trout Center currently provides exhibits, research, and experiential programs focused on trout biology and behavior, trout habitat and cold-water streams. A permanent home for the NTC, planned for Preston, Minnesota, in the Root River valley, will provide an anchor for on-site activities in the science of aquatic ecology, angling experience, fishery management, and a window into a living stream characteristic of trout habitat in the region.<span class="apple-converted-space"> From its permanent home in the heart of the unglaciated region of the upper midwest, the Trout Center will eventually provide our visitors with a "virtual engagement" to trout fisheries at home, and, ultimately, all over the world. The website for the NTC will become a portal of information for "All Things Trout".</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Life-long learning opportunities of the kind promoted by the National Trout Center will continue to improve the lives and experiences of our citizens, leading to an ethic and appreciation for cold-water environments embraced by Aldo Leopold in his promulgation of a “Land Ethic”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">You can support the conservation vision of the National Trout Center by volunteering your time or skills, items of interest for the permanent collection, or, by cash donations. Simply go to the NTC <a href="http://nationaltroutcenter.org/support-us/">support webpage</a>, and follow the instructions there. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">We wish the National Trout Center every success in their endeavors to make the public aware of the need for responsible land use and stewardship of the magnificent trout resources of the upper midwest.</span></div>
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Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-63519433683700620562012-08-13T20:42:00.000-05:002012-08-25T09:47:29.062-05:00Minnesota Trout Stamp for 2013<br />
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Congratulations to
Mike Zillgitt, southeastern Minnesota artist, for winning the 2013 Minnesota
Trout Stamp contest. The winning design, a brown trout about to strike a lure,
was announced August 9 by the <a href="http://news.dnr.state.mn.us/2012/08/09/dexter-artist-wins-2013-trout-and-salmon-stamp-contest/#more-9530">Minnesota Department of Natural Resources</a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A life-long artist, Mike is no
stranger to the charms of outdoor life in southeastern Minnesota. A youth spent
sketching, drawing, hunting and fishing in the headwaters of the Root River,
lends strong authority to <a href="http://www.mzillgittart.com/gallery">Mike's current gallery</a> of artistic creations. In addition to Mike's winning entry in the Minnesota
2013 Trout Stamp contest, was tied for first place in 2012 (and runner-up in
the tie-breaker competition) with his turkey stamp contest entry. In winning
the Trout Stamp contest, Mike joins the ranks of other <a href="http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/contests/stamps_pastwinners.html">distinguished Minnesota artists</a> in
bringing their perspectives of the outdoors to the attention of the public at
large, and outdoor enthusiasts, in particular.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Minnesota Trout Stamp is one
of five "<a href="http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/contests/stamps.html">habitat stamps</a>" that the Minnesota DNR makes available to hunters, fishers, and collectors. Some
of these serve as extra cost "validation" for a license to hunt and
fish for persons 16-64 years of age. Others are vehicles for donations to the
DNR in support of management projects to restore or create new habitat for fish
and wildlife. Statistics on the number of stamps sold provide important
economic and management information, enabling resource management agencies to
understand the specific interests of their hunting and fishing clientele. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Once again, our heartiest
congratulations go out to Mike for his creativity and generosity in sharing his
view of one our most precious natural resoures. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-27392526069845840282012-01-01T08:50:00.001-06:002012-01-01T12:40:43.036-06:00New Year with GustoWelcome back to Trout Tyme in 2012! Dawn breaks over the driftless area of the upper midwest with high winds and gusts above 40 mph this New Year's Day.<br />
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The winter trout stream fishery opens today on a snowless landscape, thanks to above-normal temperatures throughout the final month of 2011. In Minnesota, your 2011 fishing license (with trout stamp) will be good until March 31, 2012. <a href="http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fishing/trout_streams/winter.html">Check the regulations</a> to insure that you know the rules! Minnesota streams require barbless hooks and catch-and-release fishing. Iowa offers year-round fishing in its trout streams, but some are listed as catch-and-release only. Check the <a href="http://www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing/WheretoFish/TroutStreams">Iowa DNR website for locations and regulations</a>.<br />
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</div>You may want to start the year with a proven favorite pattern, such as a <a href="http://trouttyme.blogspot.com/2011/03/pink-squirrels-and-golden-retrievers.html">pink squirrel</a> in size 14 or 16. If midges are hatching, you might go to a smaller copper john or zebra midge. Don't expect towering clouds of insects, but a few caddis, blue-wing olives and midges will be winter emergers, especially when temperatures are close to freezing. <br />
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Bead-heads, double beads or weighted-body nymphs are good producers as this snow-angel brown trout attests.The double-bead patterns in larger sizes may be productive. If you haven't tied these, have a look at "fishingbobnelson's" instructions over at the <a href="http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern12295.html">Fly Tying Forum</a>.<br />
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A new twist for winter trout in North America is the importation of <a href="http://www.tenkarausa.com/">tenkara fishing</a>, a long-time tradition in high-mountain Japanese trout streams. Tenkara fishing uses a "telescoping" 11 to 19-foot rod, a light level line of the same length, and a 3 to 4-foot leader. The line is knotted to the tip of the rod and cast with a single overhead motion for a reach of up to 30 feet. With no reel or line guides to freeze, the simplicity of tenkara fishing, together with the low cost of equipment, brings a new dimension to winter trout fishing.<br />
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One final note is to use special care in moving streamside when winter trout fishing. Approaching the stream in winter is hazardous because of shore ice, and ice-covered gravel bars. Use footwear that provides secure footing in snow and ice, and you may find a wading staff useful, not only in the stream, but also for probing the snow ashore to avoid going out over open water on snowdrifts that may be weakly supported by overhanging vegetation. Approach the stream from the weak current side at river-bends, rather than from the high-bank, strong-current side. This will decrease the likelihood of an avalanche that might carry the fisher into water deeper than her/his waders. Do not venture out onto shelf ice extending over the stream. The thickness of such ice is unpredictable and changing daily with variations in air temperature and subsurface flows. Wear clothing that breathes well, and plan to fish within a short distance of your car or a warm shelter. Be especially alert to <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hypothermia/DS00333/DSECTION=symptoms">signs of hypothermia</a> such as shivering, loss of coordination (noticeable in knot-tying) and shallow breathing. Fish with a buddy and arrange to meet or communicate frequently so that help is nearby in the event of a mishap.<br />
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Wishing all of our readers the very best for the New Year.<br />
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</span></div>Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0United States43.793054119927 -92.41341973124997417.553642119926998 -152.71337373125 70.032466119927 -32.113465731249974tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-61575402213960920402011-10-08T10:39:00.000-05:002011-10-08T10:39:08.743-05:00The Savagery of IgnoranceThe full depth of this story has yet to be revealed. When it is, we will all be astonished at the extent to which our ecological futures still depend upon the individual and collective actions of people who are unable or completely unwilling to see human beings as an integral part of the biotic community of the earth, rather than something alien and independent of all other biota.<br />
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The tale surfaces with the belated discovery of a white <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/131300084.html">pelican rookery destroyed</a> at a southern Minnesota lake. As investigators moved along the swath of destruction,<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">...they began finding smashed and dead chicks. They found a total 1,458 nests and 2,400 eggs and chicks had been destroyed. Only one chick was still alive.</span></blockquote>The farmer who admitted committing this outrageous act, attempted to excuse his actions by claiming financial loss to his crops (including "potential earnings") over several years, and by stating that "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">their droppings had ruined the soil." </span><br />
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Here is a man, professing to be a "farmer", who imagines that pelican droppings did more to ruin the soil than his own practices on the land. What does he know of the effects of the drain tiles under his land, of ammonia injections into his soil, of the hardpan accreting beneath his equipment? How much marsh was destroyed to enable his plantings of corn and soybeans? Where is the nutrient processing occurring for the excess nitrogen and phosphorus deposited on his land by the pelicans and his own equipment, or that of his tenants? How does his imagined $20,000 loss compare to the loss of livelihoods among fishermen created by the <a href="http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/deadzone/">"dead zone"</a> in the Gulf of Mexico?<br />
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Trout fishers will recognize the parallels between the practices and knowledge of environmental effects exhibited by one ignorant farmer in Faribault County, Minnesota, and others who plant corn and soybeans on the thinnest of topsoils in the karst region of the upper midwest. Who will accept responsibility for what humans do to the soil, water, atmosphere and biota of the earth?<br />
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If anyone in your presence expresses doubt about the possible global effects of human activity, as has been common during the past decade in regard to global warming, you have an opportunity to help him/her to abate their own ignorance. Simply send them to a well-researched article on "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming">global dimming</a>", or, point out the <a href="http://www.johnmartin.com/earthquakes/eqpapers/00000054.htm">increase in seismic disturbance</a> frequently recorded near recently filled reservoirs, or the <a href="http://www.cawater-info.net/aral/aral0_e.htm">desertification of the Aral Sea</a> in mid-continental Asia.<br />
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Not all the barbarians are at the gate. Some are living amongst us.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-7734634355992431162011-10-06T11:20:00.000-05:002011-10-06T11:20:40.297-05:00I Followed My DreamThe passing of Steve Jobs yesterday revived my interest in understanding the importance of what we choose to do for a living. I think Steve said it very well in his address to the Stanford graduating class in 2005. Entitled "<a href="http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html">You've Got to Find What You Love</a>", he implored the class, on the occasion of their commencement into their working lives, "...to find what you love."<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.</span></blockquote>
I was sixteen and already knew that I loved to fish. I knew there were game wardens and fish hatcheries, but until I met Tom Richardson, I didn't know that there was a profession of fisheries biology.<br />
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My buddy and I discovered Tom tending a fish trap in Chico Creek following an effort by the California Dept. of Fish and Game to rehabilitate the steelhead run. Over the next few weeks, Tom put up with a couple of teenagers following him relentlessly to find out more about fisheries biology. Two years later, my buddy and I enrolled in Humboldt State College to pursue bachelor's degrees in fisheries.<br />
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It didn't take two years to make this decision. I doubt that it took more than two weeks. If this looks like "love at first sight" it certainly was. It would provide the basis twenty years later for advising academically frustrated students to follow their hearts in selecting a major course of study at the university.<br />
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Steve Jobs was right. If you haven't found what you want to do, keep looking. Don't settle. Don't settle.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-23192522014648966192011-05-28T14:57:00.007-05:002011-05-31T11:45:02.486-05:00Swallow This!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The hunter is the "alert man" according to Jose Ortega y Gasset, author-philosopher whose "<a href="http://www.chilit.org/Papers%20by%20author/Maher%20--%20Hunting.pdf">Meditations on Hunting</a>" has become the <i>de facto</i> standard to explain the intrinsic human instinct to hunt. This applies, of course, to the aquatic hunter, or fisher, who is constantly seeking cues to the activity and whereabouts of her/his quarry. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/_rfcCcd4jo0/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_rfcCcd4jo0&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_rfcCcd4jo0&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>The question arises, alert to what? Alert to anything; especially, able to think clearly; intellectually active. And so, when I emerged from the house one mid-May morning and saw the swallows swarming over the river, I suspected that a hatch was on.</div><div style="text-align: left;">While the swallows were visible enough, their prey was not. Nor was there a conspicuous cloud or swarm of insects over the river. I concluded that the swallows were feeding on very small insects, perhaps midge-sizes, certainly not mayflies larger than tricos. </div><br />
I seldom carry an insect net afield when I am fishing, but I often swipe my hat at nearby flying insects, to see first-hand what they are, or, at least, how big and what color they are. Skittering insects on the surface of the water frequently indicate egg-laying is in progress. Empty shucks (exoskeletons) of insects attached to plant stems at riverside are further indicators of what kind of trout food is present, or, recently risen. <br />
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Just as the hunter is attuned to the squawk of crows or ravens, sometimes heralding the approach of ground-roving creatures, so too does the fisher remain alert to the actions of birds and other riparian indicators of trout food in the making.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-8939805013682923762011-05-03T15:00:00.010-05:002011-05-26T07:00:41.933-05:00Lampreys Suck; and, so does the Budget<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Palatino;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal;">We seldom have better evidence of the perils of eating the seed corn than appears in the continuing resolution budget. Last March, in the congressional frenzy to appease the 'baggers while trying to appear responsible in allowing the gov'mint to stay open for business, both the White House and congressional "leaders" recommended <a href="http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/04/11/copy/cuts-could-set-back-lamprey-control.html?sid=101">spending cuts of 15-20 per cent for the Great Lakes lamprey control program</a>. A reduced lamprey control budget penalizes the scientists and fisheries managers of the international control agencies for one of the most cost-effective, ingenious and diverse integrated pest control programs anywhere in the world, and it threatens to set back by decades the rehabilitation of lake trout, whitefish and the coldwater fish community of the upper Great Lakes. Not to mention reneging on an international agreement with Canada.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><br />
The unparalleled effectiveness of the lamprey control program hinges upon control strategies that exploit the unique life history of sea lampreys. These exotic invaders gained access to the upper Great Lakes following the 1935 expansion of the Welland Canal, enlarged to allow maritime shipping to bypass Niagara Falls in eastern Lake Erie.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmL1GQvqzSFfeNHv9VT2M7UMd0v7wTNivtUVacLIG6kkWKxDXKVEZtgIgUDq-F0_RkCdmEp9PiP3kVMb9zx-e_i1TX0rqwq3zZ8KKQJHQVCWJE6Ei1Cp_mDaxrDmG9yiipHSHGOXAsgE/s1600/SeaLampreyTransformer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmL1GQvqzSFfeNHv9VT2M7UMd0v7wTNivtUVacLIG6kkWKxDXKVEZtgIgUDq-F0_RkCdmEp9PiP3kVMb9zx-e_i1TX0rqwq3zZ8KKQJHQVCWJE6Ei1Cp_mDaxrDmG9yiipHSHGOXAsgE/s320/SeaLampreyTransformer.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ammocoete larva, bottom; transformer, middle; <br />
car keys for size comparison, top.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Palatino;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal;">A female lamprey will spawn with an individual male by depositing eggs in gravel nests in large and small streams tributary to the Great Lakes. Like Pacific Salmon, sea lampreys spawn only once in their lifetime, and then die. The eggs hatch into larvae known as ammocoetes which form burrows in the fine sediments in the bottom of the stream. There, they filter water through their gills, extracting fine particles of detritus and algae, and grow, over a period of several years, to a size of about 120mm. Soon after attaining this size threshold, the ammocoetes undergo a morphological transformation in which they form a true "camera" eye, develop a sucking mouth with a rasp-like tongue, and dorsal fin and tail. The transformed larvae now migrate downstream and begin a parasitic life in which they attach to fish, rasp a hole in the skin and suck the bodily fluids out of the fish.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ30fgYWoLwSthZ50Emf5Tqarw9ZjGtoaZ4M66B5hlQa6FBWeZFEoMjjiXE0AZgYkLPv5ylL5FrVbTHvfF_nT_jfeHrDmIWuo5h_ECYXVQ9cW95RVStvEz4jPMJ38fsTeH7mDWVo3PvDw/s1600/CohoFLM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ30fgYWoLwSthZ50Emf5Tqarw9ZjGtoaZ4M66B5hlQa6FBWeZFEoMjjiXE0AZgYkLPv5ylL5FrVbTHvfF_nT_jfeHrDmIWuo5h_ECYXVQ9cW95RVStvEz4jPMJ38fsTeH7mDWVo3PvDw/s320/CohoFLM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fresh lamprey mark on Great Lakes coho salmon.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">Parasitologists have known lampreys for years as "parasites", because they don't often kill their host fish in their natural marine environment. But, in the Great Lakes, the lampreys frequently do kill their host if the fish they attach to is small relative to the rate at which lampreys suck out their fluids. Great Lakes sea lampreys are easily capable of killing a 2-pound trout, burbot, or whitefish during a single feeding attack. After feeding for 14-18 months, the lampreys migrate to a stream to spawn and die. A single lamprey will kill an estimated 40-50 lbs. of fish during its "parasitic" stage.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Palatino;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal;">The life history segment when ammocoete larvae are living in streams is their "Achilles heel" ably exploited by the lamprey control program. Because it usually takes at least 3 years to grow to a size large enough to "transform" into a parasitic stage lamprey, the streams occupied by ammocoetes need to be treated to kill these larval lampreys only once every 3 years, or even less frequently if the larvae are growing more slowly. A single treatment with a selective toxicant, TFM, can then remove several year-classes of lampreys at once, making the control program one of the most effective fishery management programs anywhere in North America. In combination with low-head barrier dams, sterile-male release programs, selective-release toxicants for lake bottom application, and pheromone attractants to lure mature lampreys into fish traps, the sea lamprey control program has gradually allowed the restoration of the cold-water fisheries of the upper Great Lakes.<br />
<br />
It took more than 30 years of intensive stocking and lamprey control to begin to see the rehabilitation of naturally self-sustaining stocks of lake trout in Lake Superior. Lake Huron is only just beginning to show lake trout year-classes produced by natural spawning, and Lake Michigan is still lagging behind in natural reproduction of lake trout. Meanwhile, the steelhead, salmon and whitefish have also benefitted greatly from the lamprey control program. A cut-back in funding now will have very far-reaching consequences in continuing to restore these lakes to fishable self-reproducing populations.<br />
<br />
The upper lakes fishery is estimated to be worth from 8-12 billion dollars in annual economic activity. At current budget levels of about $20 million, the sea lamprey control activity generates a $200 return for every dollar spent. That's approximately the cost of one Apache attack helicopter, as used in last Sunday's raid against Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.<br />
</span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Palatino;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal;">There is no reason not to invest just a little more in higher taxes rather than accept long-term damage to one of the nation's greatest fishery resources.</span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Palatino;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal;">Cross-posted to the <a href="http://renaissancepost.com/">Renaissance Post</a></span></span></div>Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-87442027377388815172011-04-27T12:36:00.002-05:002011-05-05T10:30:24.792-05:00A Hatch at Last!I heard them even before I could see the river. Splash! Kerplunk! Whoosh!<br />
<br />
We've waited patiently(?) through a turbulent spring season, seeing some light hatches of Blue-Winged Olives, even a thin midge hatch, but the night before last was too good to miss.<br />
<br />
I had anticipated a trial of a new (to me) pattern that I call a flashy burger, a hybrid between a woolly bugger and a slump buster. I tie it with a brass or black cone head in olive, black, or dark brown on size 8 and larger hooks. Think of a woolly bugger wrapped over by a sparse, dark, flashabou hackle. But, I simply had to tie on a large (#12) elk hair caddis when I saw the surface just popping with fish.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmQ_BZNdMQsWfRkaj2o_zzmaYFr84YnMhJrvIvio4ixG_Rk0ONT_SMneWL-GSnFLFyebNi5OAztsSCQZPKugLEOHI0zTc7tlf0K5_ib6Ay3xQKFYkj0WrGK_YQYu6QdkxpmmpoTUG_YSE/s1600/RRfirstTrtApr400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmQ_BZNdMQsWfRkaj2o_zzmaYFr84YnMhJrvIvio4ixG_Rk0ONT_SMneWL-GSnFLFyebNi5OAztsSCQZPKugLEOHI0zTc7tlf0K5_ib6Ay3xQKFYkj0WrGK_YQYu6QdkxpmmpoTUG_YSE/s400/RRfirstTrtApr400.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>As soon as I stepped into the water, a large light brown caddis climbed up to safe refuge on my waders. Multiple rises from the bow wave of my boots all the way across the river, with the largest fish just beyond the reach of my 3-weight rod. I know they were larger because that is how I measure the reach of my cast. If I can't quite get there, they're bigger than anything I've already caught.<br />
<br />
And so, for the next hour, the rigors of the day now closing dissolved into the white noise of slurping brown trout, honking geese and a pulsing, thrumming rod tip. The trout, too, however briefly, seemed over-joyed to escape their aqueous tether, only to return again, replenishing their diets and my spirits, and promising even greater escapades in the weeks and months ahead.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-88917655496126681642011-04-05T21:41:00.001-05:002011-04-05T21:56:11.455-05:00Renewing the FlowThe snow has finally gone, melting into the dormant grass, soil, rock crevices; now dripping off the bluffs, forming rivulets in the ditches; and, in turn, joining together with other trickles to form the brook, then the stream, then the river coursing to the sea. Snowmelt also seeps and flows within the surface of the earth, moving slowly or imperceptibly in clays, more rapidly in gravels, loess, and alluvium until reaching impervious boundaries of bedrock. There, it hesitates until the hydraulic pressures from above move it to the surface where it bubbles forth in springs or seeps, flowing freely once again with other surface waters. Hydrogeologists call this an <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorheic_basin">exorheic</a></i> system in which detectable flows exit the watershed by drainage to other bodies of water.<br />
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Other destinies await surface and groundwater too. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Basin">Great Basin</a>, covering almost all of Nevada and portions of five other states, is an example of systems where water cycles entirely within the area where the precipitation falls (an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorheic_basin"><i>endorheic</i></a> system). The result on the surface is drainage to terminal lakes where evaporation and seepage into the bedrock are the only natural mechanisms for water loss. A final result for these systems, when evaporation exceeds precipitation, can be a salt flat, such as the famous Bonneville salt flats in Utah, or, Great Salt Lake, a modern remnant of ancient <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bonneville">Lake Bonneville</a>.<br />
<br />
Intermediate results include lake basins such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Lake_(Nevada)">Pyramid Lake</a>, Nevada, where lake levels and salinity change on a decadal time scale as a function of short-term climatic variation, and, more recently, diversions for irrigation and hydroelectric generation. The indigenous <a href="http://www.summitlaketribe.org/Lahontan_Cutthroat_Trout.html">Lahontan cutthroat trou</a>t, cui-ui, and tui chub are fishy features of special note that we will revisit at a later time. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsD9kKwAoNohCnpN3R8IwIIU8BrA0p75AAFqG1CCddEH4EmM3vOr7V3NzvV3KrYSsFboqIemyhGnDFFojWp0ZF7BPr6anSJs3zB1MFI6auOMAb1L-ZNrxtC5lIlSrR7xtWE3ki0zXNsrs/s320/ModTurbidity350.jpg" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moderate flow, approx. 1 foot above summer level,<br />
transparency about 35 cm. in a <a href="http://www.cee.mtu.edu/sustainable_engineering/resources/technical/Turbidity-Myre_Shaw.pdf">turbidity tube</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>For now, the subterranean and surface drainage over the <a href="http://www.karstwaters.org/kwitour/whatiskarst.htm">karst geology</a> of the <a href="http://www.fws.gov/midwest/driftless/">driftless area</a> provides evidence of flow regimes important to all who fish these trout waters. A visit to Camp Creek last week provided visual evidence of two important sources of streamwater flow. <br />
<br />
The most conspicuous of these is the turbulent flow through hardwood forest and meadow, meandering as much as it can within the confines of the stream banks. Where flow is laterally constricted, as in passing between bridge abutments, some scouring will occur, re-suspending silt and sediments previously deposited, and moving them downstream to slower channels where the heavier particles will settle to the bottom again. Similar scouring of banks on the outer river bends , and deposition on the inner bends keeps the stream in a state of continuous lateral movement. Some of the very finest of suspended particles may remain in suspension over great distances, depending upon the velocity of stream flow.<br />
<br />
At flow levels exceeding riverbank heights, some water escapes main channels, courses through meadows, drops sediment there. At high flood, riverbanks erode laterally, changing the channel cross-section, thus changing the location of maximum hydraulic pressure. Root balls or well-anchored riparian vegetation create further deflection of the <a href="http://www.fgmorph.com/fg_3_14.php">thalweg</a>, causing it to scour yet another path of least resistance. Thus does the river meander, never the same water, never the same path.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMCM8dn2rpsAo5-06ZcnyI602obhuuBKO9R3ZbhRA2mm7jng2c8-H_hKKCOdW3ITgSLDpVzyN9wAF7vbbzM_4thYLkLWnAI60f0C-GmcXeTS3S36Q9YKVWeUZCS5w7yd9i-fFDzvbnqvg/s1600/SpringFlow400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMCM8dn2rpsAo5-06ZcnyI602obhuuBKO9R3ZbhRA2mm7jng2c8-H_hKKCOdW3ITgSLDpVzyN9wAF7vbbzM_4thYLkLWnAI60f0C-GmcXeTS3S36Q9YKVWeUZCS5w7yd9i-fFDzvbnqvg/s320/SpringFlow400.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Streamside base spring on karst landscape in the<br />
Camp Creek valley</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Water also enters the stream through instream springs where it emerges from a subterranean flowage. This water has descended from its point of deposition on the surface through soil, gravel, sand or, in karst geology, fractures in the bedrock. When it emerges in base springs, the filtration and slower flow through porous substrates has allowed much of the fine particles from the surface to settle out, clearing the water that emerges in the spring. This is much like the action of a pressurized sand filter taking fine particles out of a swimming pool. Often these base springs are immediately adjacent to the stream course and are visually evident when the mainstem of the creek is turbid while the spring waters are clear.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt5kpMK4DtqGfD9JcXIsWRofZMc5JwYYtJmu9AlohNjhXuv6F6ScrmDLyegowbGMlHmlumlreoAaO2CpUupcaC6wrMxbPJByWwC3QeMhx9f3PpWl8Q2dp0n2mGVMJ2Rj9PJGawII5uvIs/s1600/SpringFlowMixingZone350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt5kpMK4DtqGfD9JcXIsWRofZMc5JwYYtJmu9AlohNjhXuv6F6ScrmDLyegowbGMlHmlumlreoAaO2CpUupcaC6wrMxbPJByWwC3QeMhx9f3PpWl8Q2dp0n2mGVMJ2Rj9PJGawII5uvIs/s320/SpringFlowMixingZone350.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spring water flowing over gray cobble (left)<br />
and mixing with turbid stream water (right)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>At snowmelt time in southeastern Minnesota, stream temperatures may also reveal hidden inputs from base springs. Our groundwater temperatures at the latitude of the driftless area are about 46-48°F, the mean annual temperature for the region. Meltwater, flowing in volume across the surface of the land will stay close to its 32°F temperature during cool spring daytime, and daily overnight lows just below freezing. As surface runoff becomes the dominant source for streamwater, our creeks and rivers reach their annual low temperatures. In the photo here of clear spring water mixing with turbid mainstem water, the spring temperature was 47°F, while the stream temperature was 42°F. <br />
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What does all this mean for trout inhabiting these waters? The lower temperatures certainly keep their metabolism low and reduce both energy demands, and feeding rates. So too, do many stream invertebrates reduce their activity levels, the exceptions being those species that are especially adapted to colder temperatures. In these cases, the insects, themselves, take advantage of the torpor of the trout, emerging at a time when stream fishes and other predators may be least threatening to them. While cold-climate adaptations might reasonably be expected in polar or alpine environments, <a href="http://www.entomology.umn.edu/midge/People/Bouchard/WB_thesis.htm">recent research</a> is<br />
beginning to show important adaptations in other latitudes too.<br />
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For all things, there is a season.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-5849893353495696382011-03-31T21:15:00.003-05:002011-04-01T07:20:33.547-05:00Anthology: Sacramento RiverThis article is the first of an intermittent multi-part series to compare, contrast, and describe selected rivers and trout habitats. "Trout" will be interpreted liberally to mean members of the family "Salmonidae" including those with subterminal mouths and gaudy dorsal fins. Habitats will also be treated liberally to include lentic and lotic, natural and artificial. Readers are encouraged to add their own experiences to this chronicle, both by original articles, and by commentary.<br />
<br />
On an early fall trip to northern California, we had the pleasure of visiting the streamcourse of the mighty Sacramento River. Draining the high altitude lava fields of northeastern California at the southern edge of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascade_Range">Cascade range</a>, the Sacramento originates with the Pit and McCloud Rivers and flows about 350 miles to the San Francisco Bay delta. Even though it traverses rich agricultural lands, it holds clear water most of the year, with transparencies measured in meters over at least 75% of its course. We never see water clarity of that kind in the large rivers of the midwest and eastern US, so it is reasonable to ask what are the differences in the origins of silt loads and turbidity between these systems.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrnKpqStMxZqgy1EsmRpEqtsvLT93ZARytRSfRuPJBsojTySptvr9iBy5NHoIiFpu2O7eGaXKoA71LtwfAxKXmDztlynbZ23G7KvxOOOl-8Gos4gb-1iBYvOc_CkVnNV-zeZbRny3WTk0/s1600/SactorRivermap350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrnKpqStMxZqgy1EsmRpEqtsvLT93ZARytRSfRuPJBsojTySptvr9iBy5NHoIiFpu2O7eGaXKoA71LtwfAxKXmDztlynbZ23G7KvxOOOl-8Gos4gb-1iBYvOc_CkVnNV-zeZbRny3WTk0/s400/SactorRivermap350.jpg" width="262" /></a></div><br />
Our analysis boils down to only three critical environmental features: flow rate, bedrock characteristics, and soil overburden.<br />
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Episodic flows occur only with winter rains and spring snowmelt. Most of the flowage comes from the windward (western) slope of the Sierras and Cascades as the Coast Range provides a rain shadow over the valley. Flow rates in the upper river are further moderated by temporary holding of headwaters in Shasta Lake for hydroelectric power generation and release later in the season.<br />
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Bedrock in the upper reaches is basalt or insoluble lava or other igneous rock, leading to very low mineral concentrations in runoff and very poor biological productivity. High gradient tributaries flowing in from the Sierras also drain insoluble granitic bedrock. Percolation is rapid from surface into groundwater aquifers through fractures and lava flow boundaries, including numerous <a href="http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/LavaTubes/description_lava_tubes.html">lava tubes</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOX1MEDG3h4Hvvdt4cKQ62o4E4vSzpmaKyeD_JrCwPvdlsd4Up9QYb9M2ePXJDg28PauBnPYfnKZu2hYwOECZM48Bpuxdk9dBd_cG9Sdk747YH0N5Vj_dauq0-z_LoPe-lk4CKX5jLV_s/s1600/BurneyFalls450.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOX1MEDG3h4Hvvdt4cKQ62o4E4vSzpmaKyeD_JrCwPvdlsd4Up9QYb9M2ePXJDg28PauBnPYfnKZu2hYwOECZM48Bpuxdk9dBd_cG9Sdk747YH0N5Vj_dauq0-z_LoPe-lk4CKX5jLV_s/s320/BurneyFalls450.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In this remarkable photo of <a href="http://www.burneychamber.com/falls.html">McArthur-Burney Falls</a> on the Fall River, we see significant flows emerging from the face of the lava wall over which the bulk of the water falls. The subterranean channels whose termini we can see at the falls form a groundwater network of great extent under the lava fields surrounding Mount Shasta.<br />
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Soil overburden is generally thin in upper reaches and held in place by evergreen forest and perennial shrubs. High altitude meadows are generally unsuitable for tillage but may support low intensity grazing on perennial grasses. Soil integrity in mountainous areas has been disturbed only by fire, clear-cut deforestation, recently being replaced by more selective logging practices, and hydraulic mining scars left over from the Nineteenth Century.<br />
<br />
In the arid high elevations, and in the foothills below the Sierra-Cascade crest down to the Sacramento valley floor, the dominant vegetation is a drought-tolerant assemblage of oaks and evergreens interspersed in vast expanses of chaparral. Significant species of shrubs include rabbit brush, manzanita and buckthorn so entangled as to make foot passage nearly impossible in river canyons. The density of this vegetation in the Mill Creek and Deer Creek canyons is credited with hiding the existence of<a href="http://www.angelfire.com/sk/syukhtun/Ishi.html"> Ishi, last of the California Yahi Indians</a>, for fully 40 years in the closing decades of the Nineteenth Century.<br />
<br />
From Redding down to the Bay Area delta, the river flows through some of the richest agricultural soils in the world. The gravels underlying modern valley soils are glacial outwash deposits no more recent than the Tioga glacial recession of about 15,000 years ago. The soils themselves are deposits of glacial fines accruing organic matter annually from vegetation cycling. Agriculture today is mostly stone fruit and nut tree orchards with replacement schedules of decades. In the lower valley, intensive rice culture with controlled flow paddies dominates annual plantings. Further diversion of Sacramento River flows for irrigation and domestic water supplies severely limit late-season fish migration opportunities both upstream and down.<br />
<br />
The result of all this is that high sediment loads in the Sacramento river occur only during winter flooding when flows are sufficient to scour riparian surfaces and re-suspend sediments previously deposited in the river valley. For trout and salmon, headwater habitats remain viable but the great mainstem migrations of salmon and steelhead are now gone or mere shadows of those a century ago. Severe water quality problems for over half a century in the San Francisco Bay area, combined with inadequate upstream fish passage and insufficient flows to deliver smolts to the marine environment, make the prospects grim for the remaining threatened and endangered salmonids.<br />
<br />
One exception is the near-heroic attempt to protect and sustain the Butte Creek<a href="http://www.buttecreek.org/"> spring run chinook salmon</a>. Only time will tell if the recent management efforts and habitat restoration programs in the Sacramento River basin will be sufficient to rebuild and restore some elements of the once-great <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxvUruNVGBc&feature=player_embedded">salmon</a> and steelhead runs in the north central valley. <br />
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Prominent trout streams in the Sacramento River watershed: McCloud R., Fall R., Hat Cr., Pit R., Deer Cr., Butte Cr., Feather R., Yuba R., American R., Sacramento R.<br />
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</div>Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-54090137239279947412011-03-29T18:42:00.002-05:002011-03-29T20:21:19.974-05:00Spring SpringingOur snow is gone except for the roadside ditches compacted by snow machines and shady wind drifts under towering banks and bluffs. It surely was a winter that came early, stayed late and caused area residents to wonder if they, too, had stayed too long. While challenging in some respects, our changing seasons are also among the wonders that annually renew themselves and our spirits. As mid-day shadows shorten, annual bird lists lengthen until once again the robins, grackles, crows and house sparrows assume their common places sprinkled with the chimes and warble of bunting, bobolink, oriole, and crane.<br />
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Curious about the flow of CamelCreek, I took the country road behind the village, over the ridge and down past the tree where, several years ago, my friend pointed out the only dickcissel that I have ever identified. At the bridge, the water was at least a foot above early summer flow, and discolored; about the maximum turbidity that trout could tolerate in following a brass spinner.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlHlw30CqRDcHThX45cRGnojGL88bdiGb4Qt5qDBX6pBQYmrxq79wHwLU8Wb1EJNuK14VrBR3pUJdOWnjuzUX_sGBpbaJfKumZf7mXsseVkmNIk6DB1WJpuRq78LBzWVS-2iz2j-VZ6gw/s1600/Dragons%2527Teeth250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlHlw30CqRDcHThX45cRGnojGL88bdiGb4Qt5qDBX6pBQYmrxq79wHwLU8Wb1EJNuK14VrBR3pUJdOWnjuzUX_sGBpbaJfKumZf7mXsseVkmNIk6DB1WJpuRq78LBzWVS-2iz2j-VZ6gw/s320/Dragons%2527Teeth250.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>Proceeding up the creek, the dog thrust her nose into every receding snowbank, professing great interest in things that I could not see, hear or smell. The icicle stalactites, mere shadows of their bulk a month ago, but still hanging like dragons' teeth from ledges of limestone revealing the terminus of lateral aquifers on strata below the crest of the bluff.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihId7qQ3q_JjfMv1WPeKsF245QUIuFASAv163G0dEYUxnDsZLlbms8N6WWE82RV4sv38m6W4Hctvrxbc34cRgEdfFW2ZVG7GsIqU6cPdao3lQoz9y19vt7FkXzw0G4pcOM3oYYsTX8oO4/s1600/coyoteTrack250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihId7qQ3q_JjfMv1WPeKsF245QUIuFASAv163G0dEYUxnDsZLlbms8N6WWE82RV4sv38m6W4Hctvrxbc34cRgEdfFW2ZVG7GsIqU6cPdao3lQoz9y19vt7FkXzw0G4pcOM3oYYsTX8oO4/s1600/coyoteTrack250.jpg" /></a>A peripheral movement a hundred yards ahead, flash of tawny fur, pricked ears, tail full and horizontal as he glided silently over the old iron bridge. He stopped broadside and watched us for a moment, the dog's nose buried in a snowbound burrow, my concentration on him as I fumbled for the camera in my pocket. Then, unhurried, he ascended the farm road to the west. The dog and I proceeded to the road where she suddenly lifted her nose and charged ahead to the full extent of her leash, straining to hold the lingering scent. I anchored her to a sturdy oak, found his prints in the snowmelt mud and recorded the track for later assurance that this was not a ghost or shadow, but a coyote, as we were, out to savor a fine spring day.<br />
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Cross-posted to <a href="http://renaissancepost.com/">The Renaissance Post</a>Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-54644412269533802742011-03-16T22:43:00.002-05:002011-03-17T13:31:46.952-05:00Spending Minnesota Outdoor Heritage FundsThe recent introduction of House File 1073 in the Minnesota legislature <a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/118048569.html">raises the spectre of decreasing citizen involvement in decisions about how to spend revenues generated by two amendments to the Constitution of the State of Minnesota.</a> Among the measures proposed are establishing a Legislative Environment Commission; eliminating the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, the Clean Water Council, and the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources; and eliminating the water system improvement loan program.<br />
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This is a perfect example of an attempt to fix something that has not yet broken. No justification for these changes has been offered by the co-authors of this bill, nor has there been any statement of dissatisfaction with how the existing councils conduct their business. Proponents of this bill have not addressed how the members of the proposed "Legislative Environment Commission" will be soliciting expert advice to guide their recommendations to the legislature. This is surprising since one of the main reasons for replacing the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCMR) with its more recent incarnation, the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), was to relieve the embarrassment of having poorly chosen funding proposals decided on a purely political basis, rather than by rigorous technical review of the merits of proposals. The conditions of appointment of citizen advisors to the LCCMR are <a href="http://www.lccmr.leg.mn/Members/vacancy.html">clearly spelled out</a> in the enabling legislation:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;"><i>Per M.S. 116P. 05 as amended ML 2006 Chapter 243. (1) Have experience or expertise in the science, policy, or practice of the protection, conservation, preservation, and enhancement of the state's air, water, land, fish, wildlife, and other natural resources; (2) have strong knowledge in the state's environment and natural resource issues around the state...</i></span></blockquote>Proponents of the new bill argue that this "streamlines" government in Minnesota by simply requiring legislators to make the decisions they were elected to make. This specious argument simply avoids acknowledging that the LCCMR and the other citizen-legislative councils, act only in an advisory capacity to the legislature, thus, the legislators still make all final funding decisions. <i><b>And, they need to be held accountable for their votes, especially when they fly in the face of informed opinion.</b></i><br />
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In the headlong nationwide rush to "make government more efficient" we are preparing to throw the baby out with the bath water. We are demonizing unions and civil servants because they have legally negotiated contracts that provide a living wage for essential services. We have reinforced claims of government inefficiency by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy wherein agency workloads are increased beyond the capacity of existing staff while positions authorized but vacated by retirement, deaths and resignations remain unfilled.<br />
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More and more these government efficiency pronouncements are being exposed as façades to cover a philosophy of "don't confuse me with the facts", cronyism, anti-intellectualism, and irrational legislation. By the refusal of elected officials to acknowledge the real costs of responsible governance, state agencies have been strangled and educational systems have been financed on the backs of an alcohol and gaming-addicted public, while the infrastructure essential to a prosperous business environment crumbles around us. Mystical mantras such as "no new taxes" and "invisible hands" are merely smoke and mirrors that substitute for carefully considered planning and legislation.<br />
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Surely, Minnesota, its citizens, and its natural resources deserve better.<br />
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Cross-posted to The Renaissance PostSalmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-72276887036005735782011-03-07T11:33:00.001-06:002012-02-21T18:48:11.560-06:00Pink Squirrels and Golden RetrieversBoth have demonstrated their character in yesterday's foray to CamelCreek in quest of the wily winter trout. We're not talking about cocktail recipes here, rather, a history of results for a well-known and variously tied trout fly.<br />
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Dawns a perfect winter fishing day: air temperatures hovering around 38°F while the water, revealing some snowmelt, was just a trifle off-color, with temps of 43°F.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0erlAW0qIO5ZU6ucUqJDOKwN43t5g10JTYoqnQxeyrwxKMzBGXgSPGB07qiTMkPM7O-WYvN4WbeITrfekTT68vY-s9sjBzw6qO9UUQE4TtjMToRZhi1B30f4tIWyHokH1dTaHBEsiFA/s1600/BrnPinkSquirrel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0erlAW0qIO5ZU6ucUqJDOKwN43t5g10JTYoqnQxeyrwxKMzBGXgSPGB07qiTMkPM7O-WYvN4WbeITrfekTT68vY-s9sjBzw6qO9UUQE4TtjMToRZhi1B30f4tIWyHokH1dTaHBEsiFA/s400/BrnPinkSquirrel.jpg" width="400" /></a> </div>Long known to Driftless Area fishermen, the Pink Squirrel, first tied by <a href="http://illinoiswisconsinfishing.blogspot.com/2012/01/bethkes-pink-squirrel-part-1-of-3.html">Wisconsin fly fisher John Bethke</a>, has proven itself time after time as a reliable "attractor" nymph pattern. No one really knows why attractor patterns attract fish since they don't imitate any known species or life stages of particular aquatic organisms. But, attract fish, they certainly do, indiscriminately duping browns and rainbows alike, in summer and winter, testifying to their appetites for squirrels or dogs.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRqARFswJviv6vO19rvHPsEW6Rs1HhKkEGBgWyHnPdGpIVf8N3PdGgqvW5wgMbXep6h9W_MRgSfm-nQEkOKtrhyjWtHaqueRWkVqOb4wiKrTktHUV-T5LK32XzgFP70utaunSCUQitbQo/s1600/RBTonPinkSquirrel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRqARFswJviv6vO19rvHPsEW6Rs1HhKkEGBgWyHnPdGpIVf8N3PdGgqvW5wgMbXep6h9W_MRgSfm-nQEkOKtrhyjWtHaqueRWkVqOb4wiKrTktHUV-T5LK32XzgFP70utaunSCUQitbQo/s400/RBTonPinkSquirrel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
The original tying recipe has been modified innumerable times with variations in the dubbing and collar. All seem to work, but the fox squirrel dubbing and pink chenille may challenge the fly tyer's supply house. Yarn in colors from cream through pink to fluorescent orange will suffice for the collar, but a variation on the fur dubbing has also proven effective by my good friend and <a href="http://www.davenorling.com/">master rod builder, Dave Norling</a>, of Minneapolis.<br />
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Dave, who breeds and trains golden retrievers (who also attend his fishing forays), ties his pink squirrels with a masterful blend of fibers salvaged from his own genetic line of loyal, faithful, true, and golden retrievers. Just as <a href="http://www.whitingfarms.com/index.html">Whiting hackle</a> attests to the value of prudent breeding in producing chicken necks, so do the photos here attest to Dave's perspicacity in dog breeding and fly tying.<br />
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So, the next time I'm out on CamelCreek or some other incarnation of karst geological drainage, perhaps it would be appropriate to raise a toast to John, Dave, trout, pink squirrels, and a continuing line of Rough (Ruff), Ready (Reddy), and all the rest--with a Pink Squirrel, of course!Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-60494309008748045312011-03-02T17:40:00.000-06:002011-03-02T17:40:53.060-06:00Temperature DroppingBeautiful sunny day in the driftless region of the midwest. Air temps from 10-20°F over the region at mid-day. Fishing was non-productive for me, but larger streams are producing some nice browns for other folk. Lots of snow still on the ground but some melting obvious on south-facing slopes. Stream temperature was 43°F at 3 pm on a small tributary to the Root River near Preston, MN. This is down about 3° from last week, and the creeks, while still clear, are running about double the volumes of last week as snow melt trickles in. Expecting another major storm before next Tuesday. Stay tuned! Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-68999815377619753482011-02-27T22:40:00.003-06:002011-02-27T22:52:28.110-06:00Winter ReadingTovar Cerulli over at the <a href="http://www.tovarcerulli.com/">Mindful Carnivore</a> website has posted a very rich reading list that will likely appeal to most hunters and fishermen that I have known. Common to many of us is the realization that we "have always known" that we were fishers or hunters in some innermost way, but it has often been difficult to express this knowing to others, and, especially to ourselves.<br />
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Cerulli's book list begins and ends with two of my personal favorites. <a class="title" href="http://www.amazon.com/Hunters-Heart-Honest-Essays-Blood/dp/0805055304/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298858805&sr=1-1">A Hunter's Heart: Honest Essays on Blood Sport</a>, <span class="ptBrand">by David Petersen and Richard K. Nelson, is an eclectic assemblage of reflections on the hunt. Many essays in this set will leave the reader wondering how the hunting experience can mean so many different things to hunters. The complexity of meanings undoubtedly testifies to the centrality of this practice to humans in all walks of life, including those who refuse to acknowledge it. </span><br />
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<span class="ptBrand">Mary Stange's book, </span><a class="title" href="http://www.amazon.com/Woman-Hunter-Mary-Zeiss-Stange/dp/0807046396/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298859863&sr=1-1">Woman the Hunter</a> brings fitting closure to any list of titles that have grown from personal experience. This is not an apology, nor an "alternate feminist view" of hunting, but a deeply personal recounting of one woman's acknowledgement of her inner self. Her story is couched in her disciplinary experience in Nordic mythology, and in some small measure in her studies in feminism, but it is clear to the reader that the results of her analysis are not gender-dependent.<br />
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One other book that Cerulli mentions had escaped my notice earlier, but has now been added to my own book list. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #003399; font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Outermost-House-Year-Great-Beach/dp/080507368X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298849517&sr=1-1"><b>The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod</b></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #003399; font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: black;"> by Henry Beston, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Palatino;">first published in 1928, has long been judged a classic in American environmental writing. In the Introduction to the 2003 reprinting, Robert Finch wrote, "</span></span></span>He understood, as well as anyone before or after him, the psycho roots of our need for and response to wild nature". And, in this simple attribution, without proof or documentation, I recognized that my own perception of the authenticity of any hunting or fishing expedition hinges critically upon the notion of "wildness" in the quarry.<br />
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But there is clearly a reciprocity between the wildness of the prey, and the wildness of the predator. Without this reciprocity, the contest devolves into entrapment by means of superior technology. Thus is the hunter or fisher obligated to establish and maintain a notion of fair chase and fair capture.<br />
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For insightful analysis of the relationship between humans and other animals, it is illuminating to examine our parallel evolution. The great human ecologist, Paul Shepard, has done just that in his final synthesis, "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Home-Pleistocene-Paul-Shepard/dp/1559635908/ref=sr_tc_2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298866071&sr=1-2-ent#reader_1559635908">Coming Home to the Pleistocene</a>" edited and published posthumously in 1998 by his wife, Florence. Shepard's academic journey, culminating in this book, can be traced back through <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Shepard/e/B001K8QS4I/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1">nearly a dozen titles</a>.<br />
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If his final book whets your appetite to understand its origins, you will find a veritable trove of reason, empiricism and analysis in his earlier works that will shorten the remaining nights of this, our winter of discontent.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-8581905255767138312011-02-14T11:23:00.001-06:002011-02-14T11:31:08.779-06:00A Valentine for Minnesota's Natural Resources<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Acting swiftly in his new capacity as Commissioner of Natural Resources, Tom Landwehr has assembled <a href="http://news.dnr.state.mn.us/index.php/2011/02/08/44048/">a remarkable team</a> of assistants and resource management professionals to lead the state in responsible stewardship of Minnesota's natural resources.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULOy5gLbZyhu9Wmu_wTm-ghehOoLUHNqhTeyzuVurTFjaiOkGNZgBGow8JS5TPQUUz6QVrSrD9x0KWNHLpaptmKFnzdCn4z8LHD3L7GJKBIw9_ht_D50sHoNxOrDVQKOSrq3cz9q0rpE/s1600/team_lrg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULOy5gLbZyhu9Wmu_wTm-ghehOoLUHNqhTeyzuVurTFjaiOkGNZgBGow8JS5TPQUUz6QVrSrD9x0KWNHLpaptmKFnzdCn4z8LHD3L7GJKBIw9_ht_D50sHoNxOrDVQKOSrq3cz9q0rpE/s400/team_lrg.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Pictured left - right:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Ed Boggess</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Fish & Wildlife Division director;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">David Epperly</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Forestry Division director;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Bob Lessard</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, special assistant to the commissioner;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Tom Landwehr</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, commissioner;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Larry Kramka</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Lands and Minerals Division director;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Elaine Johnson</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Management Resources administrator;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Denise Legato</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Human Resources administrator;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Denise Anderson</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Office of Management & Budget administrator;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Marty Vadis</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Lands & Minerals division director (retiring);</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Col. Jim Konrad</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Enforcement Division director;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Laurie Martinson</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Operations Services director;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Steve Hirsch</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Ecological and Water Resources director;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Mary McConnell</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, assistant commissioner for legal and government affairs;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Keith Parker</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Central Region director;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Erika Rivers</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, assistant commissioner for customer relations;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Dennis Frederickson</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Southern Region director;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Chris Niskanen</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, communications director;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Bob Meier</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, special assistant to the commissioner for legislative affairs;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Dave Schad</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, deputy commissioner;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Kent Lokkesmoe</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, capital investments director;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Courtland Nelson</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Parks & Trails Division director. (Not pictured: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Craig Engwall</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, northeast regional director and</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Mike Carroll</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 10px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 10px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">, assistant commissioner for field operations.)</span></span></td></tr>
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Minnesota has long enjoyed one of the most progressive of the natural resource departments and conservation agencies in the country. Our civil service has been populated with some of the best-trained and most effective managers in charge of the widest diversity of land, forest, fish and wildlife resources anywhere in the nation. Their approach has been based upon sound science and best practices management techniques that have resulted in the finest and most accessible network of trails, waterways, forests and parks anywhere in the nation.<br />
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Management of publicly owned resources has never been easy. Resource management issues evoke powerful emotions in devotees of a broad array of outdoor recreation. Everyone who has cast a lure, swung a shotgun, pulled a plow, paddled a canoe, or tracked a deer believes in their own insights into matters of resource management. These people are as passionate about their access to and support of public resources as anyone in America and they regularly express this in every way, from the Chickadee Checkoff to State Constitutional amendments. With funds dedicated to "re-investing in Minnesota" from lottery proceeds to sales tax increments, Minnesotans are unrelenting in their insistence upon abundant and well-managed renewable resources all across the state.<br />
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Nevertheless, only a special few have ever directly addressed the challenges of providing cost-effective and equal access to these outstanding resources. Such challenges often require skills unlikely to be held by a single individual. Recognition of this reality is implicit in the Commissioner's choices for his management team. No one here needs a "breaking-in". All have been long-committed to the actual management of resources, or, to the persuasion and communication of sound management principles among a public often too busy in other walks of life to become technically informed about best management practices.<br />
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Commissioner Landwehr has risen to the challenge in picking the best of the best among experienced legislators, public relations and communications specialists, and well-seasoned civil servants. We are all looking forward to seeing the results of these appointments in perpetuity.<br />
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Cross-posted to The Renaissance PostSalmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-73905585369971664542011-01-28T22:23:00.001-06:002011-02-06T21:27:14.392-06:00Catch, but, Release?<i>Posted on Renaissance Post in early January, this essay has been modified to ask if the "catch and release" philosophy is yet another form of denial of being human.</i><br />
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-family: 'Lucida Bright', Verdana, Georgia, Inherit, 'Times New Roman', Arial, sans-serif, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><b>We Are All Killers</b></div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-family: 'Lucida Bright', Verdana, Georgia, Inherit, 'Times New Roman', Arial, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">A stark truth to a modern mind, unfettered by the need to stun, choke, hook, net, skewer, drown or trap other denizens of the planet. True, nevertheless. Some still say that others can do the killing. What, exactly do they mean? How is it preferable to depend upon others to take the lives that sustain you? Does this slaughtering place those who conduct it on a moral platform above or beneath our own? How dare we seek to assign such a judgment!<br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-family: 'Lucida Bright', Verdana, Georgia, Inherit, 'Times New Roman', Arial, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Still others will say that a complete diet can be obtained from plants. Possibly true in some environments, but clearly we did not evolve with the expectation that industrialization and fossil fuels would handily and economically transport vegetable matter across half the globe to sustain humans during severe and ice-bound seasons. Our dentition mutely agrees; we are undeniably omnivores.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-family: 'Lucida Bright', Verdana, Georgia, Inherit, 'Times New Roman', Arial, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Why is it that we struggle so mightily to obscure the reality of our nature? One may have reasons not to consume animal flesh, but avoiding the reality of being human cannot be one of them. The concept of respect begins with oneself. And so we are faced with an imperative to inflict and accept the death of individuals of other species as a condition of our own lives.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-family: 'Lucida Bright', Verdana, Georgia, Inherit, 'Times New Roman', Arial, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Those of us who hunt and fish are responding to an intrinsic motivation in the human genome that sustains us yet, after millions of years. Although it is a part of every human being, and almost certainly drives activities such as foraging (including shopping), it is manifest in two kinds of hunters and fishers in the modern world: those who hunt and fish for food, and those who hunt to sanctify their very existence. The former need no further explanation and no one can doubt the respect these people bestow upon their quarry. Anthropologists, carefully examining cultures other than their own, cite dozens of examples of rituals and customs across cultures past and present to thank, fête and glorify the animals that sustain us.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-family: 'Lucida Bright', Verdana, Georgia, Inherit, 'Times New Roman', Arial, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">There remain those who hunt or fish to acknowledge their humanity. Some of this activity, we call sport, a misnomer considering its breadth of meaning, but uncritically accepted to describe the pursuit of game and fish with full intent to kill and possess the quarry, but no conspicuous need to do so. Such pursuits are almost purely ritual, with strong rules for the participant’s behavior, the qualities of the quarry, the conduct of the pursuit, notions of fair chase, and membership in the party.</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-family: 'Lucida Bright', Verdana, Georgia, Inherit, 'Times New Roman', Arial, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Enter <a href="http://kirjasto.sci.fi/grasset.htm" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #123456; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">José Ortega y Gasset</a>, Spanish philosopher influential in early Twentieth Century thought. Well known among devotees of the blood sports, his essay entitled “<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Nh1rlJ8sg58C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Jose+Ortega+y+Gasset&source=bll&ots=QU6A28jMUz&sig=IzYJp0MLtzRxOuQvkqhktDr435I&hl=en&ei=OWwnTfPuLtLhnQeK9NSxAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11&ved=0CGoQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=Jose%20Ortega%20y%20Gasset&f=false" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #123456; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Meditations on Hunting</a>” was first published as an introduction to a friend’s memoirs of big game hunting. Gasset succinctly describes how practitioners of the hunt become one with themselves and their environment, reaffirm atavistic roots, and, achieve a state that is unapologetically human. This re-creation of the spirit sets hunting and fishing apart from entertainment, a distinction frequently mis-understood by non-hunters. It also defines hunting as a sport unlike the athletic contests presented under the same label. And, it distinguishes fishing from what have latterly become known as "fishing tournaments".</div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-family: 'Lucida Bright', Verdana, Georgia, Inherit, 'Times New Roman', Arial, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">And so it came to pass that, on one fine November day, I mentioned to my Department Head that I would be away from Thursday until the following Tuesday. My appointments had been re-scheduled and appropriate cover had been arranged for my classes while I would be pursuing pheasants and quail in Kansas. So, said he, you’re one of the killers. Yes, I said, squandering a precious “teaching moment”. I regret not saying, “we’re all killers, more’s the pity that we’re not all hunters.</div>Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-33253335913066281882011-01-26T21:59:00.001-06:002011-02-06T21:28:05.052-06:00The Fallout of Global WarmingToday, we return to the commentary about climate that we started last December. There (archives, Dec. 2010) we noted unusual precipitation in the continental US just before Christmas. To complete the picture globally, we have only to reflect upon the news and weather reported from all over the world during the past year. Beginning with lowland flooding in the <a href="http://www.metro.co.uk/news/852744-uk-braced-for-potential-floods">British Isles</a> and across Europe during the fall and winter of 2009, torrential rains in the Spring of 2010 in <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/21/world/la-fg-china-floods-20100722">China</a>, followed by intensification of <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate-uk/2010/08/20/why-pakistan-monsoons-support-evidence-of-global-warming/">monsoons in Pakistan</a> and <a href="http://cdnedge.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1038900.stm">southern Asia</a>, an Austral summer of record-setting rains and flooding in Northeastern Australia, and massive <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Green-Economics/2011/0121/Adapting-to-natural-disaster-risk-the-case-of-Brazil-s-flood">floods in Brazil</a>, we have witnessed an entirely unprecedented increase in severity and frequency of precipitation events world-wide.<br />
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Mountain regions, too, are subject to <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121164054.htm">flooding</a>, especially where runoff is accelerated by clear-cutting of forests. Overall, rivers and streams world-wide should be expected to carry heavier silt loads as a consequence of increased precipitation throughout both hemispheres. Some have even speculated that this year's Australian runoff sediments might even<a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110118/full/news.2011.21.html"> endanger marine life</a> on the Great Barrier Reef!<br />
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Not only do we have to contend with increased flood events, but, at the other end of the spectrum, we are experiencing regional <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0321-hance_china_drought.html">droughts</a> and <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0707/Global-heat-wave-hits-US-reignites-climate-change-debate">heat waves</a> that are crowding the extremes recorded in the historical past. The links above, and internet sites linking to them, are rife with accusations as to who, or what, is responsible for what we are seeing.<br />
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All politics and finger-pointing aside, let's look at some basic physics and statistics to see if we can understand what is happening.<br />
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Water leaving the sink, tub, or moving downriver will self-organize the fluid flow to provide maximum relief from the gradient of stress imposed by the viscosity of the water and the pull of gravity. Eddies result. In marine environments, differences of salinity or temperature may drive the flow, a Gulf Stream or gyre will transport huge volumes of water into the global circulation, the great oceanic conveyors.<br />
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In the atmosphere, temperature and pressure provide the gradients. Cyclonic rotation of the air mass is the visible outcome, tornados over land, waterspouts or hurricanes over water. The vigor of the emergent circulation will be in direct proportion to the magnitude of the gradients.<br />
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What can statistics reveal about the consequences of increases in temperatures, even small ones? If we increase the upper limit of observed temperatures, the lower limit has not changed, so the range has increased, and with it, the variation in storm expression.<br />
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Trout and salmon fishermen, the world over, are going to have to expect that anadromous runs of fish will be impacted by these changes in climate. Do we have to rely on politicians, industrialists or climatologists to explain this to us? We can count the events and see the devastation for ourselves. The fish have spoken volumes already.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-69302153029384948562011-01-06T20:33:00.001-06:002011-02-06T21:28:50.949-06:00It's About Tyme!Rejecting the patronage of the last two gubernatorial administrations, Governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, today appointed Tom Landwehr to the vital post of Commissioner of Natural Resources.<br />
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In a campaign debate last summer, Dayton promised "I will work closely with the hunting, angling and conservation groups to select a strong supporter of your interests as the commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources." With today's appointment, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will be led by a resource management professional, schooled in public policy and conservation issues and thoroughly tested in the rough and tumble field of resource management.<br />
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In a press release today, Gov. Dayton lauded Landwehr for his past accomplishments and charged him with full responsibility for management of Minnesota's natural resources:<br />
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St. Paul—Today Governor Dayton appointed Tom Landwehr as Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources. Landwehr brings both an insider’s knowledge and an outsider’s perspective to the agency. He has served as a City Council Member and as an Instructor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Natural Resources. He also served for seventeen years at DNR both as a scientist and as a Wildlife Manager. With a Master’s Degree in Business, Landwehr understands that conservation and resource management must be properly balanced to promote economic prosperity and support jobs. Landwehr is widely respected by people in the conservation, recreation and business communities. He brings to the agency a reputation as someone with creative and innovative solutions to many of Minnesota’s top natural resource issues.<br />
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“I believe that Tom Landwehr has the years of experience in resource conservation and management, as well as 17 years of service in the DNR, to bring strong leadership to that vitally important agency,” said Governor Dayton. “No other agency of state government affects as many Minnesotans’ lives directly as the DNR. At its best, the agency is viewed as a wise steward of our state’s natural resources for the benefit of all our citizens and for future generations. Tom’s mandate from me is to bring out the best in the agency and all of its people.”<br />
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Well said by the new Governor, seconded by anyone with a knowledge of, and passion for Minnesota's natural resources, and, a solemn challenge, indeed.<br />
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Good luck, Tom; we'll be rooting for you.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-60840427499840584872010-12-23T11:35:00.002-06:002011-02-06T21:29:43.381-06:00Final Deluge of 2010Just before we trundle off for the holiday season, it is worth noting that the Los Angeles area has just suffered unprecedented rainfall in the past couple of days. More than 20 inches of precipitation (No, that is not a typo!) in the mountains surrounding the LA basin, while more than 6 inches (half the "normal" annual rainfall) fell in the basin itself. The media are broadcasting hourly reports of houses slumping into ravines, sinkholes opening in the streets, and flash-flood channels filled with water, debris and automobiles. In summary, the last few years have shown record precipitation events of a severity unknown in modern times, WORLDWIDE.<br />
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We also note that the surface temperature of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico are over one degree Fahrenheit higher than average sea surface temperatures (SST) just a few decades ago. For every 1-degree rise in SST, moisture content of the overlying atmosphere goes up 7-8 percent. This translates into a 4-5 percent increase in subsequent precipitation. Doesn't seem like much, does it? Until you consider that precipitation on the land doesn't come down uniformly across the year, but has to be wedged into the time available in each of the seasons described here in our previous post (that ecliptic thingy).<br />
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In a nutshell, global warming increases global precipitation, and the amplitude (severity) of meteorological events such as rainfall, windstorms, tornadoes and other gradient-reducing phenomena. Will this affect our runoff patterns in trout country? Could it not? Go Figure!Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-57898018008337038442010-12-22T10:04:00.001-06:002011-02-06T21:30:34.621-06:00Thanks to the Obliquity of the EclipticNo, this is not an expression of gratitude for the holiday recess of Congress, rather it is an acknowledgement that our days in the northern hemisphere will (mercifully) be lengthening for the next few months due to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obliquity_of_the_ecliptic">axial tilt</a> of the planet. Not that we'll feel much difference soon, but there is some comfort in knowing that things are improving.<br />
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As we're waiting for a midwestern warmup, the Sierras and Cascades are topping off their peaks with the water that will irrigate the gills of trout on the west slopes, before it spins the turbines to cool martinis and waters the grass of suburbia encroaching on the great valleys of the Sacramento and Willamette Rivers. A snow-pack of 10 feet on <a href="http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/donner.html">Donner Summit</a> next spring won't be enough to start new glaciers, but will provide sufficient stream flows throughout the summer to ensure some headwaters survival of native trout.<br />
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Along the California coast, the Eel, Russian and Klamath Rivers will rise as much as 40 feet, carrying silt from hydraulic mining and clear-cutting scars over a century old and still in the adolescence of their recovery. Massive flows of water during coastal winters in primeval times provided migrating fishes access to headwater reaches. This, together with undisturbed forest soils that maximized retention time, provided adequate summer flows for juvenile fish habitat for coho and chinook salmon and coastal rainbow and cutthroat trout. Reduced summer flows and hydroelectric impoundments now limit the abundance and range of these species through increased temperatures and limited nursery habitat, leaving only remnants of the once-great runs of these anadromous fishes.<br />
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The contrasts are clear between western coastal seasonal runoff and the midwestern sequence of events. Mid-continental winter temperatures hold precipitation as snow and ice until spring temperatures begin a protracted period of snow-melt that raises river levels and floods low-lying river basins. The midwestern drainages to the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson's Bay lowlands peak in late spring. But between then and now, our trout streams, while glazed over in places, will provide a winter fishery that will temper the passage of time until the caddis and blue-wing olive mayflies signal the onset of yet another dry fly season.<br />
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Have a happy holiday season, and may the New Year see multitudes of leaping trout testing your tippets!Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-76435813235619238912010-12-18T11:48:00.001-06:002011-02-06T21:31:41.813-06:00River EternalWatching and feeling the extremes of seasonal changes in Minnesota are hallmarks of living in mid-continental North America. These include a landscape going from bare ground and mineral soil to croplands luxuriant with leaf and flower; temperatures ranging from -30° to 105°F; and, rivers brown and angry in draining the land from snowmelt and cloudbursts, or clear and serene in meandering to the Gulf. The constant in this is perpetuity itself with the <a href="http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/6h.html">orbit </a>of the earth imposing adjustments on its surface, and by all who live here. The wonder is that so much can be accomplished in so little time, a single revolution about our nearest star.<br />
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The distillation apparatus linking the sun's heat to our rivers' currents moves millions of tons of water through the atmosphere, onto the watersheds, into the groundwater, and back into the atmosphere about 75 times within a typical human lifespan. Fortunately, at least a few humans have taken the trouble to observe and record for the rest of us the pulse and patterns of distribution of this immense flow of water.<br />
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Thomas F. Waters (we can only applaud the juxtaposition of surname and subject here) has just completed his fifth full-length treatise on the magical and often lyrical movement of water across the landscape. "The Rivers of Minnesota" is a comfortable blending of geography and ecology and our human trysts with recreation and conservation in the North Star state. Opening with a stimulating Foreword by the late Tom Helgeson, a writer long known to midwestern fishers, and preceding the dedication, is Riversong, a poem as gentle as the waters it describes. Throughout the remaining 400 pages, chapter after chapter reverberate with the song of moving waters and the spirit of the writer whose own life has been so intimately intertwined with streams and rivers. Readers will appreciate the respect he has shown them in not revealing too much, that they might encounter their own mysteries in traveling the myriad waters of the state, with fishing rod or paddle in hand.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuXhcTsPU0nG6zTtNZxz1vvOP_ilrs9lbXWNIR2NhZTkOhVcktRNEkH9UnDkYzqmH0cnMktDbYXU_5KS82_TabnKJGo5-RaRD1syPUGDTp14PuykY578MrI9wqEezRm2VLxL_v9NRTmgg/s1600/MNRivers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuXhcTsPU0nG6zTtNZxz1vvOP_ilrs9lbXWNIR2NhZTkOhVcktRNEkH9UnDkYzqmH0cnMktDbYXU_5KS82_TabnKJGo5-RaRD1syPUGDTp14PuykY578MrI9wqEezRm2VLxL_v9NRTmgg/s320/MNRivers.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><br />
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Books like this remind us that life is short.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-16146228882779000102010-12-04T10:36:00.001-06:002011-02-06T21:32:27.573-06:00Pheromones and Fear of InvasivesEvery trout angler knows the dangers of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species_in_Australia">invasive species</a>, how they can disrupt native communities, destroy habitats, displace treasured species, transmit new diseases and otherwise create ecological mayhem. Australians, especially, can attest both to the ravages of the invasives themselves, and to the perils of inappropriate control measures hastily implemented in the hope of preventing further damage by exotic species running amok.<br />
<a name='more'></a> Biological and chemical control methods themselves have often created greater problems than the invasive species they were meant to control. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_toads_in_Australia">cane toad</a> in Australia and <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/data_tables/Mirex_ChemicalInformation.html">Mirex</a> application to control fire ants in the southeastern U.S. provide textbook examples of how not to respond when invasive species are first found in your neighborhood. <br />
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Fortunately, pest control research has turned a corner in its search for a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_bullet">silver bullet</a> whenever the spectre of new invasive species arises. Broad spectrum and ecologically <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_organic_pollutant">persistent organic pollutants</a> such as DDT and Mirex are gradually being displaced as control agents as new methods of control are being discovered. The new approaches are not mere tinkering in the chemistry lab, but are characterized by targeting the specific life history features of individual invasive species, so that control methods will affect them without poisoning everything else in the immediate vicinity. A good example of this approach in fisheries is the selective toxicant <a href="http://www.glfc.org/pubs/FACT_4.pdf">TFM</a> used in Great Lakes <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/basalfish/petro.html">sea lamprey</a> control.<br />
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While this toxicant, discovered in 1958, remains a powerful tool in the sea lamprey control arsenal, the search for additional control methods remains a priority for Great Lakes fishery managers. One such method has emerged after nearly 20 years of meticulous research. This is the discovery, by Prof. Peter Sorensen at the University of Minnesota, of a biologically active compound secreted by larval sea lampreys (ammocoetes) living out their pre-parasitic life stage in tributaries of the Great Lakes. These <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheromone">pheromones</a> have proven attractive to adult lampreys seeking potential spawning sites in Great Lakes streams. Recent field trials suggest that adult lampreys can be lured into streams that provide optimal trapping sites so that they can be destroyed before they have a chance to produce another generation of lampreys. <br />
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The power of pheromone attractants as biological control agents may also be effective in controlling other invasive species. Such <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/09/3061330.htm">trials are currently underway</a> in Australia as a mechanism for controlling the common carp. If successful there, it may be possible that this method can be used in North American waters, finally offering an opportunity to control a species that has plagued fishery managers here for over a century.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-67286704423363874582010-11-17T10:46:00.001-06:002011-02-06T21:33:44.708-06:00Fall Storm Carnage?Our last posting recognized the Storms of November as notable passings from a human perspective. What do massive storm events, particularly windy ones, mean for our fish? The Great Lakes provide some interesting examples of how these disruptive forces of nature may be essential to the renewal of fish populations. The frequent occurrence of windstorms in spring and fall seems to be at odds with the observation that so many of our favorite fishes spawn either in the spring, or in the fall. Strong and persistent winds move millions of tons of water, which, in turn, move mountains of gravel on beaches and shoals of exposed lakeshores. Doesn't this conjure up visions of fish eggs being ground to paste by pounding surf? Perhaps, unless there is some strange convergence between the ecology of gravel bars, and the physics of fish eggs.<br />
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Gravel bars provide habitat for many aquatic creatures, including fish such as <a href="http://www.fish.state.pa.us/pafish/fishhtms/chap20.htm">sculpins</a>, darters, minnows, and <a href="http://gfp.sd.gov/wildlife/critters/fish/rare-fish/troutperch.aspx">troutperch</a>. Insect larvae, crayfish and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphipoda">aquatic amphipods</a> also crawl and swim about the substrate in search of tasty morsels by which to sustain themselves. Just as "oats, peas, beans, and barley grow..." into concentrated kernels of nutrition for humans, so too do the reproductive products of birds and fishes provide food resources rich in oil and protein for those organisms prepared to scrape, bite, pierce or suck up these high energy nuggets of nutrition. Unless, of course, these creatures are too busy scurrying amongst or swimming away from gravel or rocks tumbling about in the aquatic equivalent of an earthquake in a brick factory.<br />
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Consider also the nature of fish eggs. Many of these are just ever-so-slightly more dense than water. They sink, eventually, into the crevices of rocks and gravel, but their spherical form and turgid resilience assure that the slightest movement of substrate can dislodge or bounce them to a new location. Think how difficult is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_bobbing">bobbing for apples</a> in a large tub compared to a small one, or, imagine the difficulty of slicing an inflated basketball with a dull axe, in contrast to hitting a half-inflated ball with the same instrument. <br />
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The upshot of these considerations is that the storms of November (or, March) effectively disrupt the physical structure of shoals and gravel bars, just as a moldboard plow or rototiller disrupts the physical structure of soils. This "sets back" the environment to an earlier developmental state from which new organisms can sprout, or hatch, to begin their lives of reorganizing the environment around them to suit themselves. Ecologists call this process "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_succession">succession</a>", and it occurs on a variety of time scales ranging from geological time (millions of years), to mere minutes for microorganisms. It can be human-induced as in the farming examples above, or, it may be driven by "natural" processes such as fire succession in forests or prairies, or by windstorms. It is no wonder then, that the premier spawning time and habitats for whitefishes, lake trout and shallow-water ciscoes in the Great Lakes have been the exposed beaches and shallow reefs of near-shore waters racked by the storms of November.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4525248889960398772.post-12781849847167847522010-11-03T13:28:00.000-05:002010-11-03T13:28:47.419-05:00Storms of NovemberGordon Lightfoot had it right, <a href="http://home.pacbell.net/chabpyne/lyrics.html">"With the gales of November remembered."</a> The meteorological service and statisticians are at odds with the <a href="http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=EP19281123.2.105">literati </a>(e.g. Shakespeare, Frost, Conan Doyle, Whittier, Longfellow) who insist that gale-force storms are more frequent and intense around the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Here in Minnesota, I have to cast my lot with the literati, considering the <a href="http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/low_pressure_101026.htm">latest cyclonic circulation</a>. Our record low pressures, 955 millibars of mercury, and near-record sustained wind velocities at Rochester, 24-hr average over 31 mph, convince me that late October and early November bear watching for outdoorsmen of every stripe. Recent memory of such events include the <a href="http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/top5/numberthree.htm">Great Hallowe'en snowstorm, Oct. 30, 1991</a>, which turned into the <a href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/satellite/satelliteseye/cyclones/pfctstorm91/pfctstorm.html">"Perfect Storm"</a> when it reached Atlantic waters, the Nov. 10, 1975, <a href="http://www.ssefo.com/info/storm.html">"Edmund Fitzgerald"</a> storm, and the <a href="http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/top5/numbertwo.htm">Armistice Day Blizzard</a> of 1940. An interesting event occurred a century and a half earlier, on Nov. 10, 1835, before official weather recordings, when newspaper accounts reported the lower Great Lakes <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2009/11/veterans_day_often_signals_sto.html">"stripped of sail"</a> by a massive windstorm. Fortunately for the trout in the Driftless Region, little precipitation accompanied the winds and our streams showed no obvious discoloration after the storm. The <a href="http://www.winonaflyfactory.com/">Winona Fly Factory</a> even reported some late season action in northern Iowa streams after the hatches had been battened down (pun intended) after the storm. Our next commentary will address the question of the role of fall storms on fall-spawning fishes in the Great Lakes.Salmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03266325817485680629noreply@blogger.com2