Oregon in crisis: Nalgene phasing out water bottles

This is bad. Nalgene, the company that made it cool for us to tell Pepsi and Coca Cola to take their bottled water and stick it where the sun don’t shine, just published a news release saying that they would be phasing out the ubiquitous plastic bottles on account of controversial carbonate plastic bisphenol-a (BPA). [...]

Read Full Post »

Invasive Species are the new litter

I watched Oregon Public Broadcasting’s special on Invasive Species tonight. It’s a great way to spend an hour. You get the sense that we can actually do something about this nightmare before it pushed out all our native species. It wasn’t as Oregon focused as I’d have liked to have seen, but still good. OPB [...]

Read Full Post »

Field & Stream editors hit new low, blow up my bullshit meter

It’s hard to imagine how, but the editors at Field & Stream have hit a new low.
In it’s “Heros & Villains” section (May 2008 issue, page 30), Thomas McIntyre named Paris Hilton a hero — and then had the gall to label Arnold Schwarzenegger a villain for the collapse of the salmon fishery in [...]

Read Full Post »

New trout blog (seems like there’s one every week): OR TU Council

I just launched a new WordPress site for the Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited this week. It’s a gathering place for all of the state’s TU chapters and will serve as a hub for coldwater fisheries conservation news. Hopefully it’ll help tie our disparate chapters efforts togehter more.

Read Full Post »

Columbia Spring Salmon in the freezer

Just in case you weren’t checking over on the Oregon fly fishing site… Spring Columbia River Chinook.

Read Full Post »

New sweet blog: How to have fun

One of my pals has started a new blog that deserves some props: How to have fun. Check it out, it’s hilarious.

Read Full Post »

Death Valley Finale: Darwin Falls and Pupfish behind bars

On the final day of our Death Valley saga, KP and I started the day off at Zabriske Point, a lookout over the Death Valley Badlands and the Borax mines… neither of which I found very exciting, so I’m posting some pics and moving on:
 

Later that day we hiked to Darwin Falls, all the way [...]

Read Full Post »

Day 3: Mojave Madness, Joshua Tree is frigging packed

On day three of our California desert roadtrip, we decided to head south to Joshua Tree National Park. We drove through the towns of Baker, 29 Palms — neither of which I liked very much (giant Bob’s Big Boy, SoCal strip of garbage food and shops), then we got into the park. It was crawling [...]

Read Full Post »

Death Valley roadtrip Day 2: Best and worst lodging, Ash Meadows

Death Valley Day 2: I snapped awake the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel at 1am, itching to get out. Too nasty to shower. This little hotel on the eastern edge of Death Valley is a historic place that’s fallen into serious disrepair — I guess it was a building engineering marvel in its day. Now [...]

Read Full Post »

Death Valley trip 2008, Day 1: Salt Creek, Scotty’s Castle

Thursday morning we woke up and drove to Death Valley National Park– there’ s a whole lot of nothing in between, like the town of Pahrump. No offense to the Pahrump chamber of Commerce — but can we at least get a restaurant that’s not attached to a gas station-casino? I’m willing to pay more [...]

Read Full Post »