BRTU E-News
Because there's more to fishin' than just fishin'!
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#272: Dec. 10, 2022
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This will likely be the final BRTU E-News of 2022. Happy Holidays to all 797 subscribers in Montana and around the country. Let's hope for a decent snowpack, good streamflows, new friends, and happy trout in 2023. And mark down the Thursday, January 19 BRTU program on your new 2023 calendar. |
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Trout in the Classroom Get Legs! |
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Some of the TIC trout getting familiar with their new home in Darby High School. Courtesy: Dave Ward. |
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In a few months the hatchlings will start to look like real trout fry. Source: BRTU. |
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A TIC class from 2020 pose for a photo with their finny classmates into the pond at Heironymus Park. Source: BRTU. |
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After equilibrating the water temperature, the fish are released into the pond at Hieronymus Park. Source: BRTU. |
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The participation in BRTU's Trout in the Classroom program continues to expand. We started off 3 years ago with Vanessa Haflich at Hamilton High School and Jeff Kaiser at Hamilton High School and the word has really gotten around.
This year the following teachers will be hosting some finny students in their classrooms:
- Vanessa Haflich and Joe Ruffatto (Hamilton High School)
- Jeff Kaiser (Corvallis High School)
- Cara Grula (Florence High School)
- Andrew Shulstad (Darby High School)
- Rose Nimba (Trapper Creek Job Corps Center)
BRTU provides the tank, all the hardware, the water chemistry materials and the hatched eggs. The classes have to feed the fish (not too much!) and monitor the water chemistry. If the water quality goes sideways, the little trout respond by going belly up - a very important lesson for the students.
When the fish reach a certain size in the spring, the classes take them to the pond at Hieronymus Park where they are released under the watchful eyes from MFWP fisheries staff.
The success of this nationwide program in Montana demonstrates the effectiveness of TU's efforts to promote education about our trout and water quality. The Pat Barnes Trout Unlimited Chapter in Helena supports TIC in 13 area classes! And just last week, it was announced that students in the advanced biology class at Frenchtown High School will be getting their feet wet. It's a mixed metaphor, but trout in the classroom is really getting legs in Montana.
If you would like to get involved with BRTU"S Trout in the Classroom or make a donation to help support the program, please contact BRTU Chapter President Dave Ward.
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All I Want for Christmas Is... |
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If you're uncertain what holiday gift to get this year for your friend, your partner, your mentor, your tormenter, your kid, your grandkid, or even yourself, the last year or so has seen a bumper crop of really terrific conservation and fishing related books. And face it, don't most of us already have an embarrassingly ample inventory of tackle and flies.
So, here's an abbreviated list of books that made it into our house. All are available from Chapter One Book Store, our local independent book store. You can simply stop in, call or email.
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I have to start with John N. Maclean's Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River. John's book deserved and won critical praise, including the Montana Book Award and it is an elegant companion to A River Runs Through It, written by John's father Norman Maclean. The relationships among the members of the Maclean family and the family's relationship to the Blackfoot River and Montana are richly described.
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Dave Ames has written Trout Town, another outrageous mystery/thriller that revolves around a city on one of Montana's trout streams. It's likely to become a cult-classic. The cast of characters includes a bunch of questionable trout-y characters, including a flyfishing veteran with PTSD, and the laugh-out-loud plot involves kidnapping, military intelligence, seduction, espionage and a lot of fly-fishing along the Backbone-of-the-World. Dave's earlier cult classic True Love and the Wooly Bugger is also a fun book to read and the cover art beyond description!
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The Bull Trout's Gift sits on our coffee table. I find myself drawn to it repeatedly to re-read the story about reciprocal relations with the natural world that is related by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai. The artwork by Sashay Camel really enhances the story. This is a terrific book for a young person, but it is also a very captivating and thought provoking cultural story.
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Down By The River by Andrew Weiner is another kid's book that has a lot to say about kinship and diversity through the lens of a multigenerational family on a fishing outing. It would be a heartwarming story for a cold day. This one hasn't made it off the coffee table either.
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Monte Dolack has created so many paintings, lithographs, prints and posters, no one could possibly own or display them all (although I have tried!). His very recent and beautifully produced The Art of Monte Dolack: Vision-Myth-Mystery contains many of Monte's iconic works as well as some lesser known ones from the last 20 years. It's definitely a coffee table book!
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Finally the folks at Chapter One told that I had to mention Chris Dombrowski's The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water. I haven't read this book yet, but the reviews have been excellent and Chapter One has never steered me wrong! Chris, a local fishing guide, recently did a reading of the book at Chapter One that was very well received.
Chapter One has been a longtime supporter of BRTU and they sponsor the BRTU Puzzler. The book store has an amazing collection of other books, like the eye-opening Comanche Empire, cool calendars and even gift cards. Local businesses like Chapter One can be counted on to support local causes like BRTU and we should reciprocate.
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Jack with a nice redfish. Source: Merle Loman. |
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Merle with an even nicer redfish. Source: Merle Loman |
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The bent rod suggests that Jack is either into a gator or another very nice redfish. Source: Merle Loman |
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Some of the grassy hummocks in the brackish water where the redfish and other species hangout. Source: Merle Loman. |
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This issue's Picture(s) of the Week were submitted by BRTU Board member Jack Mauer and Merle Loman.
For several years, Jack, owner of Wapiti Waters and guide extraorinaire, has been talking about heading down to New Orleans for some reds and this year he and Merle made it down for both red beans & rice and flyfishing for the fabled redfish.
Jack contacted his friend Missoula Guide and Captain Scott Stanko who owns Tailing Red Anglers near Chalmette, LA, booked the flights, and Merle and he headed down. The fishing is from a casting platform on a skiff and Jack says the casts are about 45 feet with crab flies. The fish hang near grassy hummocks and move depending on which way the tide is flowing. Scott has his sports use 8 weight outfits which leads to quite a tussle with a 20-30 pounder. Jack and Merle said the bird life was really amazing, too.
Please send me any fishing or conservation related photos to be considered for the "Picture of the Week." Make sure that the files are less than 5 mB in size. Note that in most cases I plan to not to use "grip and grin" photos, but rather pictures of fish in the water or net.
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This week's BRTU Puzzler came from KUOW, a Public Radio station in the Seattle area. The UOW stands for University of Washington.
There were several entries, but the first correct one was from former BRTU Chapter President and long-time conservationist Art Callan. Art correctly identified the critters as "rough-skinned newts" or Taricha granulosa, and they are one of many species disappearing as part of the "amphibian apocalypse." The KUOW story described how the newts are falling ill and disappearing from lakes on the Olympic peninsula. Many amphibians around the world are being killed by a chytrid fungus, but that agent has yet to be detected in the newts.
The newts have a little medicine of their own because their skin is covered in tetrodotoxin, a nerve poison also found in pufferfish. So people handling them have to wash their hands well or suffer the consequences. However, this defense is not protecting them from the "amphibian apocalypse."
The BRTU Puzzler now has a new sponsor - Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton. Chapter One is offering a $10 gift card to each winner but it must be picked up in person. The book store is a long time BRTU supporter and has an unbelievable inventory of books and magazines. If Chapter One doesn't have the tome you want, they can get it in a jiffy. Shouldn't we be patronizing local small independents rather than big online giants?
Art can claim his gift card by stopping in at the book store.
If you have a cool fishing, outdoor activity, or conservation related photo, consider submitting it to BRTU Puzzlemaster Marshall Bloom for the BRTU Puzzler. BRTU E-News will no longer publish grip and grin photos of native fish out of water but will highlight photos of actual fish in the water.
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Monte Dolack BRTU prints
now available at Joe's Studio.
A very few Publisher's Proofs of the limited edition "Bitterroot River-Lost Horse Bend" by Monte Dolack are still available at Joe's Studio. BRTU commissioned Monte Dolack in 2007 to create this iconic print of the Bitterroot River.
The remaining Publisher's Proofs are $375 and all proceeds support BRTU efforts to protect trout and streams.
Joe's Studio, a regular BRTU sponsor, is located in Hamilton at 220 Marcus Street (961-4586, joesstudio@aol.com)
The "U" in BRTU
Unlike many groups, BTRU has no paid staff. We are an entirely volunteer organization. We are always looking for new members to get involved in projects or to join our board and assist with maintaining our focus on native fish, clean healthy streams and education. If you would like to help out, please contact BRTU Chapter President Dave Ward. We could sure use your help!
In other words, how about putting a little "U" in BRTU?
If "U" are not already a member, "U" can join TU today by going to the the BRTU website. chapter number is #080. If you have a question about your membership, please call the Montana TU office at 406-543-0054.
The BRTU Mission statement is "To conserve, protect, and restore the Bitterroot River and it's watershed," directly in line with the Montana TU mission statement.
For your information, here is a tabulation of our current hard-working BRTU officers and board members.
BOARD OFFICERS
Donna Haglund; Vice President; E-mail: haglunddonna@gmail.com
Vacant, Treasurer;
BOARD MEMBERS
Charlie Harris; E-mail: hmgharris@gmail.com
JuliAnne Thomas; E-mail: thomasjulianneh@gmail.com
Vacant; (student board member)
GENERAL FACTOTUM AND NEWSLETTER PUBLISHER
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