Updates from Henry's Fork

By Matthew Ward, Flat Ranch Preserve Manager

This spring, I was quickly reminded how critical The Nature Conservancy’s efforts in the Upper Henry’s Fork have been in protecting important wildlife habitat and migration corridors. Within the first few days after the snow disappeared, we had a grizzly bear, over twenty antelope, moose, and dozens of elk all out on the flat feeding. The pothole wetlands were filled with thousands of boreal chorus frogs and aquatic insects. Trumpeter swans, beaver and mink were out in the river, long-billed curlews were everywhere and dozens of species of songbirds were singing and staking out territory in anticipation of breeding, nesting and rearing.

The vast beauty of Flat Ranch Preserve. Photo ©Chris Little

Our efforts to engage more individuals and organizations in conservation continue to grow in Eastern Idaho and we have partnered with BYU-Idaho, the Upper Snake chapter of the Audubon Society, and the Idaho Master Naturalist to start an annual bird survey that will begin the first week of June. BYU-Idaho has also hired a GIS intern that will be working throughout the next several months to map out ecological zones and begin the first steps to set up long term study sites on the Flat Ranch. We hope that this relationship will grow into the future and give undergraduate students the chance to participate in research and restoration projects in the Upper Henry’s Fork in the years to come.

In preparation for a restoration project we have planned this fall on the Flat Ranch, we will be utilizing BYUI students to help plant over 400 willows along a one mile section of Jesse Creek. The last mile of Jesse Creek will be permanently restored to its historic channel by the end of October. This spring's planting will be the first step towards returning Jesse Creek to a healthy, naturally functioning aquatic corridor.

Follow us on Facebook to get up to date information and a schedule of our summer educational programs.

A Place To Call Home

By Dayna Gross, Silver Creek Preserve Manager

When you live in a climate where winter dominates much of the year, the first signs of spring are enough to get your blood flowing and optimism churning. In February, the Red-winged Blackbirds return and mark my favorite day of the year- when I first hear them singing. Like many things that are ‘common’ it may not be the most newsworthy event. The Sibley bird guide states, “common; our most widespread blackbird,” but to me their song is the best sound of the year as it marks the beginning of the snow melting, longer days, and warm sunshine on my face. The year is marked by the movement of animals and birds to and from the preserve. And there is no better way to watch the birds than to put up a birdhouse and give them a place to nest. Thanks to our wonderful volunteers last year, Pete Martin who built the houses, and Doug and Nan Little who put them up, this year the preserve is covered with great nesting boxes for swallows, wrens, kestrels, owls, and ducks.

If you build it, they will come. Photo ©Dayna Gross/The Nature Conservancy

How hard is it to build a birdhouse? Not that hard- four sides, a roof, and a base with a hole of some sort. At least that’s what I thought; in actuality, in order to get the ‘right bird’ to the ‘right box,’ it is important to be a little more detailed than that. For instance, you need the right size hole—having a hole too big will bring in the starlings or magpies. And you need to mount them at the right height. Put a kestrel box at 8 feet instead of 15 feet and you may end up with a Saw-whet Owl (maybe not such a bad thing). And maintenance is necessary too. Boxes must be cleaned annually. For nest-building birds, last year's nest materials must be removed as well as leftover food remnants and droppings. Nest materials left to accumulate put young birds closer to the box hole and make them easier prey for squirrels, raccoons, and other opportunistic predators.

Pete Martin, the visitor center host in September at the Silver Creek Preserve, took my suggestion to build a few birdhouses to the extreme last year. He researched, scrambled for the least expensive materials, and $300 and six months later, delivered over sixty birdhouses to the preserve.

This is important because many bird species have suffered from dramatic population declines due to loss of habitat and nesting structures (tree cavities in many cases). Loss of habitat is often a result of logging, industrial and residential development, cultivation of land for agriculture, and other influences. Providing suitable nest boxes can have a very positive impact on bird populations in rich settings like the Silver Creek Preserve.

Pete displays his work. Photo ©Dayna Gross/The Nature Conservancy

Each species requires a different maintenance and mounting plan, but the birdhouses themselves are relatively simple to build. Click here for a nest box spec sheet.  Don’t worry about making them beautiful- we found that the most simple and boring birdhouse, if designed and mounted correctly, attracted exactly the right birds. 

It’s spring—and there are birds out there looking for a place to nest!

Are You Going to the Dance?

By Art Talsma, Director of Stewardship and Restoration

Thank goodness sage grouse like to dance. Male sage grouse "strut their stuff" by puffing up, creating one of the most memorable spring spectacles out there. Combined with deep music tones, their display is designed to attract females to the dancing ground. The males gather in remote sagebrush country throughout their native range in the western states. These gathering grounds are called leks. Just like the prom, the dance is occurring now. In Idaho’s good sage grouse range you may find 8-20 male sage grouse displaying to attract the sage hens to the dancing grounds.  If you are going to the dance, plan to get up at 4:00 a.m. and expect a long drive to arrive near the lek before sunrise. Bring a warm jacket, good field glasses and your camera. Soon the historic dance will begin.
 

Here they come! Sage grouse in flight. Photo ©Ken Miracle

So why are wildlife biologists and conservationists drawn to this spectacle and why are we so focused on the historical location of sage grouse leks? The birds are telling us where they want to be and where safe haven is found year after year for the mating dance. Leks are where they will begin their annual reproductive cycle. Hens nest nearby in the best available habitat to be successful. They hope to find safe brood habitat with an abundance of insects, forbs, and native grasses to hide their young while feeding. Most importantly the lek locations tell us where to focus our conservation work.    

In the Owyhee uplands we have learned that sage grouse avoid areas that are encroached by juniper trees. Juniper trees provide perches for predators like ravens, so grouse will not nest near them. Ideal habitat is a place where they can hide their nest under sage with tall native grasses. They need a wet meadow nearby to get their broods to water and feed. To restore sage grouse habitat, ranchers, land managers, biologists and volunteers are all working together to focus our conservation work in CORE areas where leks are concentrated in the landscape. These priority areas allow us to team together as partners in conservation. We do conservation practices that benefit both the birds and improve range conditions for all wildlife. We remove young junipers by a process called mastication—chomping up junipers and turning them into mulch-- or simply cutting the invading trees.

Art presenting juniper mastication at Josephine Creek. Photo ©Art Talsma/The Nature Conservancy

We protect and enhance wet meadows for brood habitat.  We mark fences that are close to leks so grouse are less likely to hit fences. We plant native seed and sage after summer wildfires. We control weeds and are working on innovative methods to control annual grasses.

Method to mastication. Art with Dave Bunker, designer of machine's cutting teeth. Photo ©Art Talsma/The Nature Conservancy

If you would like to learn more about these conservation practices there are a number of good web sites like the Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI). You can even click on a lek and "like" it.

The Wheels on the Bus

By Justin Petty, Associate Director of Philanthropy

The snow around town is all but gone, and the 5 day weather forecast is predicting highs in the low 60’s. Trout have been on the rise, a few low elevation trails close to home have dried out enough to hike, and I find myself staring out my office window wishing I was spending more time outdoors. Before moving to Idaho, I would tell folks that my favorite season was fall, but these days I find the first of the warm months – the first green growth, bird song, sun you can feel in your bones – to be as good as it gets.

I have worked for the Conservancy in Idaho for close to 8 years now, the last 3 in the philanthropy department. The best days on the job are those spent in the field with the individuals that support our work. As the largest conservation organization in the world, The Nature Conservancy is addressing the biggest conservation threats at the largest scale – 119 million acres of land protected globally, thousands of miles of rivers, and over 100 marine programs. From humble beginnings in 1951, today’s Conservancy is a force that I am humbled to be a part of. And none of it would be possible without the commitment of those that donate to fund the work. 

Conservation outing with donors Jane and Tom Oliver.  
Photo ©Clark Shafer/The Nature Conservancy

When the days grow longer, the snow falls less frequent, and I start feeling restless, I know that I have another season in the field with our donors to look forward to. Time spent standing in a creek with a fly rod discussing an important restoration project, floating a river canyon that demonstrates what successful conservation looks like, or hiking a trail with binoculars at the ready. It is during these moments that I hear what others appreciate about the work of the Conservancy, why they invest in protecting lands and waters of ecological and human importance. It’s an opportunity for me to listen and learn. These supporters do not stumble on to the Conservancy, they seek it out because the mission aligns with their values. 

In a couple of weeks I’ll be at The Crooked Creek Preserve with someone who has been a good friend to the Conservancy for decades, viewing Sage Grouse strutting on their leks. His support for the Conservancy, and his interests in conservation, extends well beyond Idaho. We will make our way through the sage brush predawn with stars still in the sky, to shiver in the cold, and wait for the grouse show to begin. And while we wait, Bob will tell me about his travels, his health, and his commitment to places that are important to people and where Sage Grouse dance.

Sage grouse strut. Photo ©Bob Griffith

Sharing Idaho's Natural Heritage

By Nathan Welch, GIS Analyst

So, you're backpacking in the Pioneer Mountains of south-central Idaho and you have a close encounter with a wolverine...

Wolverine photo-op, courtesy of the National Park Service

You immediately want to share this thrilling sighting with the world… but how? A post on Facebook might get lost among posts on the relatively mundane eating habits of your friends. Perhaps you’d like your observation to be useful, to make a difference. Where can amateur and professional naturalists alike go to report these rare observations?

In Idaho, go to the web site for the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Information System, or IFWIS: https://fishandgame.idaho.gov/ifwis/portal/page/report-information. Here you can document your observation and provide lots of detail, including pinpointing the location on a map or providing GPS coordinates. The site also provides lists of rare plant and animal species, including species of greatest conservation need: https://fishandgame.idaho.gov/ifwis/portal/page/species-status-lists

Castilleja christii (Christ's Indian paintbrush) - 
Photo courtesy of the US Forest Service /Teresa Prendusi

The Idaho Fish and Wildlife Information System is a small team within the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, responsible for compiling, managing, and sharing data about the state’s natural heritage. It is the primary source for detailed information about the distribution of rare plants and animals in Idaho. IFWIS does not receive direct funding from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. It depends on support from partnering agencies, businesses, and organizations.

The Idaho Fish and Wildlife Information System is one of 82 natural heritage programs in the Western Hemisphere. The Nature Conservancy started the first program in 1974 in the United States. Today, local fish and wildlife agencies and universities manage most of these programs.

The Nature Conservancy in Idaho uses the information about rare and threatened plants and animals to guide its conservation work in identifying critical habitat, protecting and managing lands for key species, and prioritizing areas where we focus our protection efforts.

Good Fire, Bad Fire

By Ryan Haugo, PhD; Forest Ecologist

The 2012 Pacific Northwest wildfire season was one for the record books. In Idaho, the Mustang Complex alone burned 300,000 acres. In my home state of Washington, over 350,000 total acres burned and fire suppression costs alone totaled more than $70 million dollars. Not exactly chump change in this time of fiscal cliffs and sequestration. Yet, fire always has been and always will be an integral part of our western forests. Fire is both inevitable and is the ultimate contradiction; often beautiful, terrifying, destructive, renewing and life-giving, all at the same time.   

In my role as a forest ecologist I spend a lot of time talking about the risks of “uncharacteristic fire” (bad!) and the importance of “prescribed fire” (good!) in restoring healthy and resilient forests. Our official tagline is “The Nature Conservancy works to maintain fire’s role where it benefits people and nature, and keep fire out of places where it is destructive.” An excellent sentiment, but the line between fire that “benefits people and nature” and fire that is “destructive” is often quite blurry.

Last September I was in Lewiston and Orofino about 2 weeks after an intense late summer lightning storm had rolled across Northwest. The weather was funneling smoke from the Wenatchee, Table Mountain, and Yakima Complex fires in the eastern Cascades directly into the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and the Clearwater Basin, where it mixed with smoke from the fires within the basin itself. During the day visibility was terrible and at night my eyes stung and my throat hurt even when holed up in my hotel room. No fun – that much smoke must certainly indicate a “bad fire,” right? 

Table Mountain Fire, September 2012

Not necessarily. This winter we were finally able to get out and take a look at some of the newly burned forests that had smoked-in my September travels. Matt Dahlgreen, TNC forester and intrepid explorer, shot a beautiful series of photos from one section of the Wenatchee Complex fires. His photos show rejuvenation and restoration, not death and destruction. These fires had burned with relatively low severity during a time of moderate weather conditions, and the net result were thinned forest stands that will be even more resilient to the next fire. There were other patches with nearly all of the trees killed, but this occurred in areas where the forest is adapted to “high severity fire” and the bear, elk and other wildlife will greatly benefit.

A winter look over the Peavine and Klone Peak fires. Mt. Rainier in the background. Photos ©Matt Dahlgreen/The Nature Conservancy

What determines if a wildfire is good or bad? Suppression costs? Property destruction? Air quality? Impacts on wildlife habitat? Can a fire be good and bad at the same time? I don’t think there are any easy answers to these questions. Even a small, seemingly benign prescribed fire produces smoke that can be hazardous to sensitive populations. Even a massive “mega-fire” leaves behind habitat for a number of different wildlife species.  

The one thing that we know for certain is that in forests across the west there will be more wildfire in the coming years. In the face of this inevitability, our focus at the Conservancy is on promoting resilient natural and human communities. In the forests that have traditionally supported timber economies, we focus on smart restoration using tools such as mechanical harvests and prescribed fire. In other forests, we advocate letting wildfires burn when the conditions are right.  Just as there is often not a simple answer as to whether a fire is good or bad, there is no one single approach to conserving our forested landscapes.

Sustaining Our Global Food Supply

By Bas Hargrove, Senior Policy Representative

About 10,000,000,000. That will be the population on earth in 2050. How do we feed 10 billion people? How do we conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends while feeding all these folks? These questions have been on my mind lately as the Conservancy has taken an increasingly hard look at the role of agriculture and conservation. As part of that increased emphasis on sustainable agriculture, I’ve begun leading the Conservancy’s Grasslands Conservation Network in addition to my policy work in Idaho.

Gary and Sue Price of the 77 Ranch accept the 2013 NCBA Environmental 
Stewardship Award.  Photo ©NCBA

Earlier this month I joined several thousand ranchers and others involved in the beef industry at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) annual convention. In many ways, I was a stranger in a strange land. Hundreds of booths on the trade show floor touted specialized products ranging from new-fangled hay balers to portable ultrasounds that identify sex of fetal calves.

I was there representing the Conservancy on NCBA’s Environmental Stewardship Award selection committee, comprised of representatives from industry, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and conservation. Each year the committee selects seven regional winners and a single national winner from hundreds of nominated cattle operations.

Coming from Idaho – a battlefront for decades-long range wars – it was refreshing to meet the Environmental Stewardship Award winners. These seven operators from across the U.S. impressed me with their dedication to stewarding the land, pragmatic approach to conservation, and pride in winning the award. And no one impressed me more than the 2013 national award winners, Gary and Sue Price of Blooming Grove, Texas.

While conservationists and cattlemen may not always agree about land and water management, I am certain we won’t solve our global challenges without working together.

Let’s face it – hunger trumps nature for most people. If we conservationists are going to succeed in sustaining the natural systems that sustain humanity, our solutions will involve people, and particularly the people who live on the land and produce our food.

How do we conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends while feeding all 10 billion people?  That’s a work in progress. I do know that we’re not going to get there without working with folks like Gary and Sue Price who are doing their level best to produce the food we eat and take care of the land and water that sustains us.

A logger, a forester, an ATV enthusiast, and an environmentalist walk into a bar…

By Will Whelan, Director of Government Relations

This isn’t the set-up for yet another version of the old joke formula. It is what actually happened last week in Boise at the annual conference of the Idaho Forest Restoration Partnership.

A remarkable trend has emerged in recent years in the much fought-over national forests of Idaho. People with very different viewpoints are working together to support active land management that provides jobs and wood products while improving the ecological health of the forests. Once a year, citizen-driven forest restoration groups meet in Boise to trade stories, receiving training, and network with each other. Last week’s event drew eighty participants from across Idaho. They represented seven separate efforts in the Clearwater, Nez Perce, Payette, Boise, Panhandle, and Salmon-Challis national forests.

2013 Idaho Forest Restoration Partnership conference. Photo ©Will Whelan/The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a founding member of the Idaho Forest Restoration Partnership and participates in groups in the Clearwater and Panhandle national forests.

Each collaborative group is distinct in its origins, make-up, and focus. But, all are finding ways to overcome a pattern of conflict and gridlock that has beset national forest management for most of the last two decades. Conservation groups, such as the Idaho Conservation League and The Wilderness Society, have been willing to promote logging projects that thin small diameter trees and seek to make forests more resilient to fire. The timber industry and the Forest Service have been willing to adopt new, more ecologically-based forestry techniques and to focus timber harvest in the already roaded “front country” of the national forests. All parties are working to integrate watershed restoration– such as decommissioning old, unneeded roads that bleed sediment into local streams – into logging projects.

Right to left: Faye Krueger, Region 1 USFS Forester; David New, timber industry consultant; Gregg Servheen, IDFG biologist. Photo ©Will Whelan/The Nature Conservancy

Everyone who participated in the conference had a compelling story to tell. Here are a few highlights:

The Clearwater Basin Collaborative is helping the Forest Service carry out a ten-year project in the 1.4 million acre Middle Fork Clearwater-Selway River landscape. The plan includes carefully crafted logging, retirement of old roads, weed treatments, recreational improvements, and a wide range of other actions. The project is expected to create 127 jobs in economically depressed Clearwater and Idaho counties. The collaboration has been so effective that the Forest Service recently boosted its projections of future timber harvest in the Clearwater and Nez Perce National Forests by 50%, with the support of key environmental groups.

The Payette Forest Coalition’s project in the upper Weiser River Basin is moving forward without appeals or litigation – a remarkable achievement for a large-scale project to treat 24,000 acres with a combination of thinning, logging, prescribed fire, and watershed restoration. The Coalition won the U.S. Forest Service’s regional award for best public-private partnership and is now designing a new project northwest of McCall.

Last summer, the vast Mustang Complex Fire burned 300,000 acres near Salmon. Nothing seemed to slow the fire down during the hottest weeks of the summer. But, the fire calmed down when it encountered tree stands that had been thinned by the Hughes Creek Project championed by the Lemhi Forest Group.

None of this progress has come easily. Each group has endured through countless meetings and struggled through innumerable arguments. The long-term success of these efforts is hardly assured. But, the hardy band of unlikely allies that gathered in the bar last week will tell you that bridging the divides between environmentalist, logger, recreationist, and land manager offers the best hope for the future for the communities and the wildlife that depend on Idaho’s forests.

For more information, visit the Idaho Forest Restoration Partnership website:  idahoforestpartners.org.

The Hemingway House Preserve In Fall

By Caroline Clawson, Philanthropy Assistant

Ernest Hemingway wrote a eulogy for a Sun Valley friend, Gene Van Guilder, who died in a tragic bird hunting accident on an autumn day in 1939.  It reads in part:

“Best of all he loved the fall … the fall with the tawny and grey, the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods, leaves floating on the trout streams and above the hills the high blue windless skies. He loved to shoot, he loved to ride and he loved to fish.”

For three days this past October I spent time at the Hemingway House in Ketchum with artist Matthew Barney and his crew of a videographer, a producer, a tech and an actor.  I arrived early, before sunrise on the second morning to open the shades and meet the crew while Matthew and his photographer filmed the sun coming up over the hills across the river from the house on a ridge far away in the trails around the White Clouds above Sun Valley Resort.  I stood on the front lawn above the river bed and I also watched the sun come up.  While I sipped my coffee and waited in the chill, the grass, covered in a layer of thick frost, began to thaw as the sun settled over it.

Later in the day the filming continued in the bedroom upstairs; shots of Hemingway’s trunk brought back with him on his last voyage from Cuba, and video of his boots, and the view from the window.  While the crew worked, I was looking through the picture window down at the river bank, at the trees on the flood plain.  For a long while I watched a moose cow and calf moving through the woods.

During the three day filming I was able to see the Preserve in every possible light and it reminded me of the quote above.  There is something indescribable about how beautiful the light is, and the reflections on the water, something that we enjoy every fall all around Idaho. 

Mary Hemingway bequeathed the property to The Nature Conservancy after becoming familiar with the organization’s work at nearby Silver Creek Preserve, which Jack Hemingway helped create.  Today, thanks to Mary Hemingway’s bequest, The Nature Conservancy protects 12 acres of Big Wood River frontage just 2 miles north of Ketchum.   

Photos ©Caroline Clawson/The Nature Conservancy

Life Without Winter

By Lou Lunte, Associate State Director

Okay, like many people I can get pretty grumpy about winter. I’ll admit it, come mid-January, the darkness, bitter cold and icy roads get to me. Sure, I ski and like the view of a beautiful winter day, but that’s just not always enough to contain the grumpiness.  Sometimes my wife can hear me muttering about “Why is it so cold and dark? Couldn’t we just go from fall to spring and avoid winter?” She smiles and consoles me with a reminder to never move to Alaska.

Who would have guessed that an added benefit of hosting foreign exchange students would be a renewed enthusiasm for winter? Over the last few years my family has been lucky enough to host high school students from Thailand and Colombia. Though they both had long lists of experiences they hoped to have as part of their year in Idaho, near the top of both lists was winter and snow. They had never experienced four seasons and had never been in the snow.

Suddenly, everything about winter became exciting. There was so much to see and do and explain and photograph. First the leaves changed colors and fell. Then there were ice crystals in the crisp air, the colors of the winter sky and the clarity of the winter nights. Of course, we spent lots of time getting out to explore and enjoy winter. Walks along the Boise River, its side channels frozen into exquisite ice sculptures, always seeing fox, squirrel, weasel and geese prints in the snow. Many trips to Bogus Basin as they learned to ski and snowboard. Snow angels, snowmen, icicles and snowball throwing. How can you not sigh with pleasure as you settle down into Kirkham hot springs with light snow falling from the sky, watch the elk on the hillside near Tollgate or enjoy a snowy walk along the Oregon coast?

Wow, I remembered how fun and beautiful winter could be. How great it is to have four seasons, particularly when you live in Idaho and can so easily get outdoors and enjoy nature’s dramatic changes. Thanks to Daniela and Fa for reminding me how lucky I am to have fresh fallen snow. I’m thinking of you now as my wife, daughters and I grab our skis and head for a crisp but sunny day on Bogus – my daughters flying down Wildcat, while my wife and I swish along beneath the snow laden ponderosa pine.

Okay, maybe not Alaska yet, but I’m loving January in Idaho!

Photos ©Lou Lunte/The Nature Conservancy

Christmas Bird Count

By Marilynne Manguba, Idaho Protection Specialist

Maybe you read the news in October - “Most of Idaho town destroyed by fire - six buildings burn in Howe.” I thought of the Little Lost Store and the restaurant next door, a traditional stop on the way out of camping trips into the Little Lost Valley or the west side of the Lemhi mountains. Both closed the last few times I’d been through Howe and at the time of the fire. Howe is a tiny little town between Arco and Mud Lake, essentially where three roads meet at the bottom of the Little Lost Valley. The last time I was there was in December 2011 for the Christmas Bird Count. Every year in December and early January, thousands of volunteers count birds on established routes all over North and South America. Historic data and information on how the data is used can be found on the Audubon website. In Idaho there are over forty routes, including one centered near Howe. So, if the town was essentially burned down, what happened to all those trees where a pair of Great horned owls have been spotted for many years?

2012 Christmas Bird Count in Howe, Idaho. Photo ©Marilynne Manguba/The Nature Conservancy.

This past Saturday, on January 5th, I left Idaho Falls at 7:30 a.m. with two Snake River Audubon Society members to do the 2012 Christmas Bird Count. The sun was just starting to come up behind the Tetons. As we drove across the desert, places where normally you’d see hawks hanging out on fence posts and utility poles were empty, we were the only ones crazy enough to be out moving around in -3°.

In Howe, the store and restaurant and other buildings are just piles of rubble except for some scorched bark on the bottom of a few trees - they survived. The only birds around were a flock of Eurasian collared doves, and an American kestrel just warming up in the sun near the Howe Community Center, where we met to warm up and discuss routes with the rest of the crew.

We searched the farmyards, fields and skies for birds as we drove up the Little Lost Valley to a little warm oasis in the cold desert, an open water pond where a bunch of mallards were hanging out. Just up the road a golden eagle perched on a pole and was soon joined by a second eagle. Song sparrows, marsh wrens, and as the veterans knew, Virginia rails who have been found hanging out in the cattails, reeds, and grasses of freshwater marshes. We then headed over to a farm pond where a bald eagle was keeping an eye on a bunch of mallards and green-winged teals. Checking the temperature it finally got up to 14° midday but the birds still seemed to be hunkered down with just a few songbirds, a great blue heron, and a Townsend’s solitaire spotted along the river road.

Volunteers at 2012 Christmas Bird Count. Photo ©Marilynne MangubaThe Nature Conservancy.

We spent the afternoon driving the farm roads between Howe and the mountains where we found rough-legged hawks, a Northern harrier, and a few prairie falcons. Then just as we were ready to head in we spotted a flock of bohemian waxwings and to cap the day off, about 150 common redpolls alternately swirling around and perching in a big cottonwood, bringing our species total to 28, not bad for a very cold day.

Red polls at 2012 Christmas Bird Count. Photo ©Marilynne Marilynne Manguba/The Nature Conservancy.

And the great horned owls, we finally spotted them perched in the cottonwoods behind what was left of the store and all breathed a sigh of relief to see them.

Great horned owl at 2012 Christmas Bird Count. Photo ©Marilynne Manguba/The Nature Conservancy.

Senator Crapo steps up to protect a key conservation program

By Will Whelan, director of government relations for The Nature Conservancy in Idaho

These days, it seems rare for senators from both parties to unite on any issue. So, we took note last week when Senator Mike Crapo joined 48 of his Senate colleagues to call for the renewal of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, one of our landmark conservation laws.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1964 directs that a portion of the nation’s revenues from outer continental shelf oil and gas leases be used to acquire new public lands and conservation easements in places with extraordinary wildlife, scenic and recreation values. LWCF has protected many of Idaho most prized landscapes, such as the Sawtooth Valley, South Fork of the Snake, Boise Foothills, City of Rocks, Hells Canyon, and Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Rafting the South Fork of the Snake River, one of the landscapes protected by the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Photo by Will Whelan/The Nature Conservancy.

LWCF needs every friend it can get in these challenging political times. Congress has rarely provided the program with the full funding authorized by the 1964 Act, even though it amounts only a small fraction of the nation’s oil and gas revenue. In 2011, an amendment in the House of Representatives to cut all funding for the program lost by just two votes. (Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson helped save the day by rising to debate against the amendment). And, Act’s authorization expires in 2015, which means that efforts to renew LWCF must begin now.

So, it is no small thing that an Idaho senator would join seven of his GOP colleagues to express support for this crucial conservation program. The senators’ letter explains that LWCF – and the economic, health, and environmental benefits it produces – have earned it huge public support:
Support for LWCF comes from interests as diverse as sportsmen’s groups, large landowning companies, the outdoor industry and other businesses, and over 1,000 national, regional, state, and local groups located in every state.

Hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, paddling, biking, snow sports, wildlife viewing and other activities contribute to the economy and the health and well-being of Americans….  [T]hese investments are paid for not with general revenue but by using a small percentage of drilling royalties paid by oil companies.

The senators pledge that they “remain committed this Congress to finding a solution that will permanently fix this promise to the American people.”

The letter is just the latest of expression of Senator Crapo’s long-standing interest in collaborative, on-the-ground conservation efforts.  Four years ago, Senator Crapo championed the Owyhee Initiative, Idaho’s first wilderness bill since 1980, because it had the support of conservation groups (including TNC), local ranchers, the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, and county commissioners.

You can leave a message to thank Senator Crapo for his support of the Land and Water Conservation Fund or express your views by clicking on this link.

A life-changing summer at Silver Creek

By Ham Wallace, 2012 Silver Creek Intern 

Editor's note: Ham became our intern through The Charlie Blumenstein Water and Wildlife Conservation Internship program at Colorado College. The program was established by the Blumenstein family to provide an internship experience that might spark a life-long interest in the environment and conservation in much the same way it did for their late son, Charlie Blumenstein. This is his internship report.

Moon rise over Picabo Hills, View from Silver Creek. Photo by Ham Wallace.

When I look back over this summer, I can’t help but get teary-eyed, as it was something of a fantasy to me. I guess I’ll start as far back as I can go, to when I saw the application posted to the bulletin in the Barnes Science Center lobby. I don’t quite recall what it said–I just know it was the first time I laid eyes on Silver Creek, and that was what it came down to. I took the flyer back to my room, sat at my desk and typed “Silver Creek Preserve” in the search bar, soon to discover my home for twelve weeks during the coming summer. I eventually found the internship description on the Career Center’s webpage. As breathtaking as the images I found were, that was not what set my sights on this particular internship–it was Charlie’s story that did it for me. His connection with this place was so influential that the Blumenstein family, friends, and Colorado College sponsors someone every summer to work there–to go see what Charlie was so passionate about. Let me just say that this summer my eyes were opened, and I can now see a trajectory for the rest of my life. 

I pulled into the French’s little red farmhouse just before midnight on Thursday, May 24. All I knew at that point was where I would be living, working, and that I would be staying in a house with the Preserve Assistant, Sunny. Delirious, not ready for my first day of work the following morning (which I would sleep through anyway, due to a small communication error), I made my way to the front door of the house and knocked. Soon, a smiling face appeared in the window and the door opened–and there stood Sunny, my housemate, coworker, fishing buddy and sidekick for the twelve weeks to come. I could not have made it through the days without Sunny working alongside me. 

Two weeks into the internship a second intern, Veronika, would arrive. She lived with us at 240 Picabo Road for the next ten weeks, and we would all become great friends and co-workers. Veronika, or “V”, as we came to know her, came to work for the Nature Conservancy from Atlanta, Georgia by way of Morris College.

Veronika Horton, Silver Creek intern, with bull trout on South Fork. Photo by Ham Wallace.

There was never a day on the Preserve that I did not learn, and maybe that was my favorite part about the job. There was no “easing into” work, either. From the first day until the last, there were things that needed to be done, and the only ones to do them on most days were Dayna, Sunny, Veronika and I. By the end of the summer I had covered every foot of the trails on the 883 acre Preserve, and seen enough beautiful sights for a lifetime. 

The moment you enter the wetland habitat surrounding Silver Creek, or even the fields lying immediately beyond it, you can feel the presence of life which pulses throughout it. Sights, sounds, smells–all invading your senses, letting you forget that a world even exists outside of Silver Creek. One evening after work I set out to canoe the Creek as I had done many times by that point in the summer–but this time would be different. I had the original plan to stop along the way and toss grasshoppers at the big brown trout that lived at the confluence of Grove and Stalker Creek–an activity that can be quite captivating. It was late summer now, and the herd of fifty or so elk had become a regular occurrence at the confluence. Each evening they came to mingle with one another and drink from the pristine, mineral-rich spring water, their grunting and groaning interjecting among the sounds of feeding trout and bantering coyotes. Captivating–exactly what this scene was; the sun set right before my eyes and my feet remained planted in the muck. I cast pinky-size flies to boiling browns until well after dark. I was not even close to being off the creek at this point, a mere third the way to the take out. 

Photo by Ham Wallace.

When I realized my predicament, I had no choice but to hop in the canoe and finish in the dark. I learned something that night; Silver Creek never sleeps, its personality changes. From hot to cool, from sharp and pungent to sweet and mellow, from energetic to eerie. Trout are still swirling, still feeding–but their intent is different. Among the small browns and rainbows still sipping mayflies and caddis from the surface, the largest trout have begun their nightly ritual.

The big brown leaves the comfort of his deep lie–now predator chasing prey, both slamming against the side of the canoe, making my heart jump. Conversing owls echoing through the willows–I decide that they are talking about me. 

Apart from my housemates and Dayna, the preserve manager, I worked with a number of other amazing people, and worked days on and off the Preserve. Megan and Cameron were two awesome volunteers that came by twice a week to help with water monitoring, a job that needs as many hands as it can get. The volunteers who occupied the cabin on Kilpatrick pond for the summer were some of the nicest people I have ever met–Jerry and Cheryl, Leroy and Ronile, John and Gwen. Blaine County, the US Forest Service and Wood River Land Trust provided their services to help in the never-ending war against noxious weeds on Silver Creek Preserve. I became great friends with the Wood River Land Trust, Americorps and Sawtooth Botanical Garden interns, Chad, Allie, Jesse and Quinn. That crew lived twenty miles north of Picabo, in Hailey. Though I spent most workdays on the Preserve, we would travel to help with the conservation efforts of other organizations a few times each month. Most of these trips involved suiting up in protective gear and spraying dangerous chemicals on noxious weeds–an activity I enjoyed thoroughly.

Spending the summer on Silver Creek allowed me to observe the aquatic entomology of a world-class, spring creek trout fishery–a truly magical opportunity. During the summer months, it seems like the bugs are always hatching, the fish feeding–an aquatic entomologist, fish biologist and fly fisher's dream. The exuberance of the Silver Creek ecosystem I feel can only be compared to that of a tropical rain forest. One requirement of my internship was to complete a long-term project that I would work on during my time in Idaho, and submit at the end of the summer. 

There is an incredibly unique community surrounding Silver Creek. It consists of, but is certainly not limited to: fishermen, hunters, birders and conservationists. Working on the Preserve, you meet people from all walks. Whether they come from halfway around the world, or just past the blinking light, there is a special sense of family among Silver Creek visitors; and though the Preserve is beautiful and unique in every aspect, the aesthetic is not the main allure. It is true passion–to support the preservation of something wild and indescribable. This passion was not only present in The Nature Conservancy, but also the Wood River Land Trust, Blaine County and United States Forest Service. In working with these organizations, I discovered people working to protect nature in ways I had never imagined. Engineers, biologists, philanthropists–all working to better the Silver Creek ecosystem for the future, and I have decided that somehow, I want to be a part of it. This experience, coupled with my love for wildlife, has opened my eyes to a world of conservation work. I can now envision a career in conservation, and cannot think of a better outcome from this internship. 

I would like to thank the Blumenstein family for this opportunity of a lifetime. Never have I undergone such a profound transformation in terms of my future, long-term goals. I would also like to thank Dayna Gross for being an amazing friend and inspiration–your commitment to conservation is astounding, and I will always remember my summer on Silver Creek. 

A special place in the heart of the Wood River Valley

By Toni Hardesty, state director of The Nature Conservancy in Idaho

Since I was a little girl, I always loved coming over Timmerman Hill and getting my first peek at the Wood River Valley. Seeing the valley meant it was either a weekend or we were on vacation; we were headed for some outdoor fun (skiing, camping, fishing, riding horses); and, we would most definitely see pretty places and amazing wildlife. Although much has changed in the Wood River Valley since I visited as a little girl, thanks to many visionary people and organizations, it is still a beautiful valley with practically unlimited outdoor recreation opportunities and still home to an amazing amount of wildlife.

Heart Rock Ranch. Photo by Alex Quintero/The Nature Conservancy.

In fact, at the intersection of Highway 20 and Highway 75 is a special piece of property that provides habitat to a host of birds, fish, and mammals.  It was but a few years ago that this property was planned for significant development. But lucky for us, and the animals that love this area, Shirley and Harry Hagey purchased the property, which they named Heart Rock Ranch. After a lot of hard work and intensive restoration, the ranch is thriving with new stream channels, cool and clean water, native plants, and excellent fish and wildlife habitat.  As if that is not enough, all of the improvements are protected into perpetuity with a conservation agreement between the Hageys and The Conservancy.

Shirley and Harry Hagey. Photo by Alex Quintero/The Nature Conservancy.

I had the pleasure of touring the ranch this past month with other Conservancy staff from the west. Believe me, it takes your breath away. For a glimpse into this amazing conservation effort, click on the following link and see for yourself what an inspirational project this is - see video.

Horrible things can be wonderful

By Susanna Danner, Director of Protection, The Nature Conservancy in Idaho

You know you’re in a healthy forest when you have two horrible species.

When I visited a North Idaho forest recently, I was lucky enough to see one and relieved to not see the other. One can pincushion your skin with hundreds of brittle spines, and the other can eat you.

Scientific names are funny things. Sometimes they describe things perfectly, even if you’re not a Latin expert. Like the barn owl: its scientific name is Tyto alba, literally, ‘white owl.’ Poison ivy is Toxicodendron radicans, or ‘toxic leaves with rooting stems.’ Other times, scientific names can be a bit pejorative. They evoke the feeling that the scientist might have had when he or she named the animal or plant. Such is the case for our “horrible” species on a forest recently acquired by the Conservancy.

This week, the Conservancy purchased the Hall Creek Forest in North Idaho, near Bonners Ferry.  The 317-acre property has some of the best forest habitat we’ve ever seen in the history of our North Idaho program, with huge conifer and hardwood trees, and an extensive forest wetland.

So what about those horrible species?  While splashing through the wetlands on the property, I gave a wide berth to devil’s club (Oplopanax horridus). Devil’s club is a wetland plant with spiky stems and enormous, maple-shaped leaves. The plants are very sensitive to disturbance, so when you see a devil’s club, you know you’re in a healthy, ancient wetland. 

As I walked around the old orchard on Hall Creek Forest, I had to step carefully to avoid the abundant scat from our other horrible species, the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis). I peered at the sloping bank of a stream, where tracks showed that long-clawed feet had scrabbled on the slick mud. While I was doing this, I kept to my North Idaho policy of making lots of noise. Bears have an aversion to surprises, and I have an aversion to mauling.

Grizzly bears prefer large habitat areas without many houses, but productive timber operations don’t faze them much. They forage in a mosaic of forest types, and Hall Creek Forest is ideal habitat for them, with its mix of harvest history, deciduous and coniferous species, and wetlands.

We’ll plan restoration activities for the property and to sell the property restricted by a conservation easement to a private buyer. The property will continue as working private timberland, and it will also continue to support two of our favorite “horrible” species in all of lovely North Idaho.

Apple Tree and Grizzly Scat. Photo © The Nature Conservancy.

Devils Club, one of those 'horrible' plants. Photo © The Nature Conservancy.

TNC Staff walking through Hall Creek Forest. Photo © The Nature Conservancy.

Staff Spotlight: Bob Unnasch

In our 2012 annual report we visit with Idaho's Director of Science Bob Unnasch to chat about his 25-year-anniversary with the Conservancy and what keeps him excited about conservation. Read on for the full interview: 

Bob Unnasch spent much of his childhood outdoors. After feeding him and his brother breakfast, Unnasch’s mother would put the boys outside and say, “Don’t come back until it gets dark.” He quickly developed an all-consuming curiosity about the ways of the natural world. “I spent my childhood roaming around in the woods, becoming comfortable in the natural world, identifying all the birds and collecting snakes and salamanders,” he recalled.  

His interest never waned. Instead it inspired his study of Wildlife Biology and Ecology at Rutgers and then Stony Brook Universities. He wrote his dissertation on seed dispersal and seed predation in shrubland communities. During graduate school he began working part-time for The Nature Conservancy at its David Weld Sanctuary in Long Island, NY. More than a quarter century later, he still works for the Conservancy. 

Photo courtesy Art Talsma/The Nature Conservancy

In 2012, Unnasch celebrated his 25^th year with the organization. After working at the sanctuary for four years he moved to Connecticut to serve as preserve director for the Ordway Preserves, where he lived next door to affluent and famous people including Keith Richards, Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Soon after The Nature Conservancy’s national office recruited him to be the national director of monitoring and research. His responsibilities included leading the grazing management program, which brought him out West to Boise, Idaho. He has served as the director of science for TNC’s Idaho Chapter for four years. 

Tell me the story of how you got started at The Nature Conservancy. 

Twenty nine years ago I was in graduate school and our department was interested in identifying natural areas within the vicinity of the university to facilitate research. All the faculty doing ecological research in exotic locales and students who weren't interested in tropical ecology had no real place to do work. So a group was formed to try to identify places near the university. I was on that committee. As I explored areas around the university I stumbled upon a preserve that was owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy, The David Weld Sanctuary, and I nominated that location as a potential site. The department was very excited about it because it was a private preserve and we didn't have to get permits to undertake research in it. We contacted the Nature Conservancy and they said, "That's great but the university has to provide a caretaker [for the property]." And so I volunteered to take that job as caretaker and that involved moving into a small, one-room cabin, sitting on a bluff overlooking Long Island Sound with a one-mile long beach that was piping plover habitat. It was surrounded by state parks on either side. Despite having no electricity, heat, or telephone we stayed there for four years.

What excites you in your day-to-day work? 

I have always been and remain committed to conservation, old school conservation - the conservation of species and habitat, biodiversity. I remain very excited to coming to my job, especially here in Idaho because what we do is we are still focused on conserving on plants, animals and natural communities. I think that's a valid life mission and that's something I always have and remain very excited about. 

What do you consider your greatest career accomplishment? 

Conservation Action Planning (CAP), which, for a number of years, has evolved. CAP was the first real transparent framework for doing conservation planning. My team and I designed the foundation and initial framework of this conservation action planning process. And CAP has now been implemented by hundreds of organizations in dozens of countries worldwide. 

Photo courtesy Art Talsma/The Nature Conservancy

What do you like to do outdoors besides collect data? 

In the growing season I'm an avid fly fisherman – have been my entire life. I'm also an avid birdwatcher. As a kid, I could lie on my back and see 15 to 20 species of warbler in a single tree. In the winter, I hike, tele-ski, and cross country ski. 

What advice do you have for students interested in pursuing science as a career? 

Anyone that I've ever known who's been successful in the natural sciences has spent enormous amounts of time outdoors understanding the diversity and complexity of the world. Sometimes students decide to study natural sciences because it ‘sounds interesting.’  Those students may feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the subject at the college level. So I always encourage students to find something that naturally interests him/her and figure out what subject encompasses those interests. Try to understand [the subject], try to understand all the interactions within that subject and then develop an emotional commitment to the study of it. That commitment is what will sustain you in your career. 

Can you tell me something that people would be surprised to know about you? 

Not only am your general natural historian but I also do medical research. I have a research appointment at the medical school in geographic medicine in the University of South Florida. 

Silver Creek and the Union Pacific Years

A Former Guide’s Reflections on the Ultimate Trout Stream by Charlie Most

The Nature Conservancy/Ketchum Historical Society

Easing gently into that silky-smooth current was a near mystical experience for me. This was Idaho’s famed Silver Creek, long considered by many to be North America’s finest trout stream.  In my wallet was an Idaho Registered Guide certificate.

It was 1950 and I had just turned 20.

How a kid from Oklahoma came to be in that place at that time was the result of youthful fantasies, a passion for fly-fishing, a carefully written letter, and a rabbit hunt. 

When Averall Harriman, Board Chairman of the giant Union Pacific Railroad, wanted a place to ski, he just built one. Appropriately named Sun Valley, the new Idaho resort opened in 1937 to soon become a favorite of the rich and famous. And the Union Pacific streamliners took them there.

Although known primarily for its wonderful skiing, Sun Valley also offered many summer activities such as golf, tennis, trail riding, shooting, and trout fishing.

The resort lies along Trail Creek above its confluence with Big Wood River. The headwaters of the Big Lost River are just beyond the Pioneer range to the east. These are all fine trout streams, but Silver Creek, 30 miles to the south, was the crown jewel. So the railroad also bought 480 acres along the stream and named it Sun Valley Ranch.

Back in Oklahoma, my youthful fantasies were mostly about hunting and fishing. Reading the outdoor magazines at the local barbershop just fueled my dreams of living exciting adventures. And such magazines had advertisements for an intriguing place called Sun Valley, and a stream with the magical name of Silver Creek.

As my high school days were ending with little hope for college, I wrote a letter to Sun Valley asking for a job. A return wire offered one and a rail pass to get me there.

I was hired as a houseman, a janitor-like job, but then luckily assigned to the night shift in Sun Valley Lodge.  Our crew worked hard and fast from 1 to 6 a.m. getting the place clean and ready for early rising guests.   

The daylight hours could then be spent exploring and fly fishing local streams, but that did not include Silver Creek.   That dream stream was literally beyond my reach.  Sun Valley Ranch was closed to all but guided resort guests, higher level employees, or off duty guides, while private sections of the stream were rife with no-trespassing signs.

For two seasons, I hiked or bummed rides to all the other streams I could reach, while learning all I could about fly fishing for trout.

And, with youthful optimism, I also wanted to be a Sun Valley guide.  Strangely enough, a rabbit hunt opened that door.

Returning on snow-covered Trail Creek Road from an overnight ski trip into Sun Valley’s Pioneer cabin, I saw an apparition in some willow-fringed meadows.   It was a large white rabbit hard to see against the snow.   The next day I was back with a rifle.

The Lodge night mechanic took the two rabbits I shot, and later said they tasted great.  Hunting snowshoe rabbits or hares on skis became a regular pursuit that was soon known around the resort.   So when Sports Director Joe Burgy asked me to take a Lodge guest snowshoe rabbit hunting, I sensed a heaven-sent opportunity.

We skied up Trail Creek to those meadows where I floundered through the brush to flush out several rabbits.  He shot three which I cleaned and left with the Lodge’s head chef.   All he had to do then was call when he wanted his rabbits cooked. 

The man told Burgy about the great time he had and when Joe told me this, I said, “Joe, I’d like to be a guide.”   The hours spent watching Taylor Williams tie flies then paid off.   Burgy asked the head guide what he thought and Williams said “good."

As an apprentice, I helped other guides when they had two or more guests to take out. I went with Taylor Williams only three times, but was out with Don Anderson, Adolph Rubicek, and Dutch Gunderson on a regular basis. Dutch’s nickname came from his skill with a dutch-oven. I would guide until he joined us after burying the oven in hot coals. Those delicious streamside beef pies were an important part of his guided trips, and his “guiding” was much in demand. 

Sun Valley guides would fish only if our “guest” suggested it. Our fly vest pockets were stuffed with full fly boxes, leader materials, and other items for their use, and we had to know where, and hopefully how, they could catch some fish. Our rods were just to demonstrate the cast for a given situation, but many said go ahead and fish.  

Knowing little about Silver Creek, I began fishing there on my own when I wasn’t guiding and if the stream was not too heavily scheduled. Those smooth flows, dense beds of aquatic plants, deceptive depths too often over the wader tops, and rainbow trout wary beyond belief – collectively conspired into an angling experience that could be downright exasperating while still an all absorbing challenge.  This was graduate school!

Silver Creek often has multiple hatches, two or more kinds of mayfly coming off at the same time.  The fish would key on one of those, and deciding which was not easy.  And it wasn’t always the most obvious bug on the water. A fish conditioned to feeding on a smaller insect will often stay with the bug it knows rather than change to one it doesn’t. But then, they could suddenly start taking almost everything that came along.

It could be a real crapshoot, and finding the answer made your whole day.

After the 1950 season I left for college, but returned to Sun Valley and guiding for two more summers. Silver Creek was now one of my streams.

Silver Creek trout were seldom easy but with more experience, I became fairly successful there, even to reaching the point where former guests asked for me.

Early in that second year of guiding, Dutch Gunderson asked me to come with him and a Mr. Hayes to Silver Creek. I wasn’t booked that day and eagerly agreed. 

Mr. Hayes was from New York, in his 80’s, and with the tackle and demeanor suggesting wealth.   Most summer days on Silver Creek are very bright and this one was no exception. While insects often hatch throughout the day, trout spook easier under a mid-day sun. But Mr. Hayes did not want to drive down early, so it was 10 o’clock when we reached the stream. 

While Dutch fired up some charcoal to cook lunch, Mr. Hayes and I walked over to watch the water.  A hatch was on, the trout were feeding, and if we could just cast without spooking them, we might catch a few. 

In those pre-Polaroid sunglass days, a floating fly could disappear into the surface glare, and also be distorted to the fish.  A dark fly was the logical choice, easier to see against the glare, and in that brightness, perhaps acceptable to the fish. My choice was a Black Wulff, and I tied one onto Mr. Hayes’ tippet.It was almost as easy as the proverbial shooting fish in a barrel! My younger eyes saw the strikes and I’d say when. But not seeing the strike, Mr. Hayes broke tippets on so many fish I was getting low on Black Wulffs. But he did catch several large rainbows, and when Dutch joined us, Mr. Hayes was taking a rest on the bank.

On returning to Sun Valley, Mr. Hayes gave Dutch some bills, then turned to me

and said, “the sports desk will have something for you in a few days.”   That fine old gentleman had Abercrombie and Fitch, the great New York sporting goods emporium of those days, send me a Kaybar multi-tooled pocket knife with Fly Fisherman on one side of the yellow handle and my name engraved on the other. 

Greatest tip I ever had and I used that knife for years.

In 1964, the railroad sold its Sun Valley holdings, ending the Union Pacific’s management of Silver Creek.   Today, the Ranch property is the centerpiece of The Nature Conservancy’s Silver Creek Preserve.

I last fished Silver Creek ten years ago.  My wife Pat and I were heading home from attended a meeting in Oregon and pulled the RV into the Hayspur campground in late afternoon. We planned to overnight before heading on east, but I did want to fish Silver Creek the next morning. We drove over, put our donation in the box and walked upstream. Just past the footbridge over Sullivan Lake’s outlet was a long, grassy bank. A pod of trout was feeding steadily just upstream. 

Pat sat down on the grass, so saying “keep the camera handy,” I carefully waded in. The insects floating by were the fairly large Green Drakes and smaller Blue-winged Olive mayflies. I watched for a few minutes and saw the fish were taking the olives.

The size 16 hair-winged fly looked right but like many youthful experiences there, the fly drifted right through that pod as the fish continued taking the naturals. I cast for an hour with no strikes but at least my casting hadn’t put the fish down.

Could those clumps of aquatic plants, some just under the surface, be affecting the seemingly smooth surface currents? If there were such counter currents, the leader might be causing a nearly imperceptible drag on the fly. 

I changed leader tippets to a lighter one that was two feet longer. A tippet too long and light for the fly size would not straighten on the cast, and that’s what I wanted!

When cast, the tippet piled up around the fly but allowed a natural drift as the long tippet slowly straightened out. The fly was almost through the pod before a fish took it. I tightened up, moved the fish towards me so as not to spook the rest, and released a 14-incher. Three more casts and I hooked a 17-inch fish.   Several more casts and a big trout casually took the fly. I yelled, “here’s grandpa,” and after a spirited fight, landed and released a 20-inch rainbow.

Wading over to Pat, I said “now we can leave.”     

In 1972, I flew from my home in Billings, Montana into West Yellowstone to rent a car and drive to a Sun Valley meeting.  It was Sunday and the meeting was to start that evening. Reaching Picabo before noon, I drove up to the Hayspur Campground which was then adjacent to the hatchery diversion ditch from Loving Creek.  Loving Creek is Silver Creek’s largest tributary with its lower reaches now within the Silver Creek Preserve.  Climbing the stile over the brush-covered fence, I saw beautiful water and trout making scattered, lazy rises.

I only caught one fish that day but it was the biggest rainbow trout I’ve ever landed, at least five pounds and perhaps even six. Phenomenal!   It was so big I didn’t dare tell about it at the meeting.

A year later, I repeated that trip. With memories of that huge rainbow, I again drove to Hayspur Campground so I could fish Loving Creek for a while. But on climbing  the fence stile, I was dismayed to see a new house right where I had stood to catch that big trout!

This sort of thing seems to be happening everywhere today and, without Nature Conservancy protection, I can visualize a worst case scenario. Silver Creek would be flowing between expensive homes with manicured lawns down to the water. Those “No Trespassing” signs would just be for float tubers and such since locked gates would keep the rest of us out.

But under ownership of The Nature Conservancy, the stream will stay in its natural state and available for those of us who love the challenge of angling for sophisticated trout. After nearly 60 years of trout fishing in many parts of the United States and Canada, Silver Creek still gets my vote as the ultimate trout stream.

About the author

Charlie Most, with degrees in wildlife biology and in journalism, enjoyed a more than 30-year career as a biologist, public information specialist and public information supervisor with Federal land managing agencies.

He has lectured about or taught fishing at American University in Washington, D.C., Rocky Mountain College in Montana, Chesapeake College in Maryland, and  George Mason University in Virginia.

While serving on the National Conservation Committee of the Boy Scouts of America, Most wrote the earlier Conservation of Natural Resources Merit Badge handbook, the chapter on fishing in the Boy Scout Fieldbook, and developed the Scout’s national Fish-N-Camp program.  He also served as a conservation instructor for four Boy Scout Jamborees.

He has written many free-lance articles about fishing, hunting, natural history, and related subjects, and was an award winning outdoor columnist for two northern Virginia daily newspapers – the Potomac News and the Alexandria Gazette.

Most served three years on the Board of Directors for the Outdoor Writers Association of America, and two terms as president of the regional Mason-Dixon Outdoor Writers Association. 

He and his wife Pat now live in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he wade fishes near  home for things big and mean.  He does try to go west each summer to fish for trout.