Three Things Not to Miss Today…

by Mark McGlothlin on February 17, 2014

in Inquiring Minds Want to Know

One. At least once every single day (no sh*t, every single day) I’m awestruck by something that a fellow fly fisher (or hunter for that matter) has written, imaged, recorded, drawn, carved or painted.

Most often it’s simply something beautiful that captures the starkly simple, refreshingly real nature of being and doing things in the great outdoors.

Sometimes it’s a reminder that the natural world around us is being squeezed by mismanagement and greed at an unprecedented level and if we don’t get off our assess and get involved in stemming the tide of unwanted change(s), the outdoor world as we know it today very well may not exist tomorrow.

Tom Sadler writing over at Middle River Dispatches put up a must read post yesterday – The Coin of the Realm is Action. TS opens with a favorite quote –

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. – Edmund Burke

Readers of the conservation topics in this blog know that I take the conservation of our public lands very seriously. At its core is the firmly held belief that access to healthy habitat creates recreational opportunity that leads to economic activity.

When those values are threatened by our elected officials or thinly veiled campaigns to discredit the good guys then we must do more than hope things will change.

He goes on to cite and quote a couple of great reads on the topic: Todd Tanner’s Insidious: Let’s Stop our Losing Streak and Matt Copeland’s (Stalking the Seam) Government Property.

Tom offers some other great insights and they’re not to be missed. Just go read it.

Two. Thursday the 20th is the final day that Smith River Float permits may be filed or mailed. Snowpack for the Smith basin is at 143% of median as of today. Hot damn.

Three. Winter in Yellowstone is nothing short of other-worldly. Friend of Chi Wulff and one of Montana’s top fly guides (and that’s actually saying something these days), Joe Moore, spends his West Yellowstone winter behind the wheel of his Bombardier B12 traveling Yellowstone. Read his two latest posts here and here and start planning that Yellowstone trip for next winter.

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