A stalled now hazardous open pit mine in Jefferson County, that owes around $5 million in back taxes to the county and is destroying westslope cutthroat trout habitat, is highlighted in a recent article.
Businesses join the fight to protect the Smith!
As Trout Unlimited continues the campaign opposing the proposed copper mine that threatens Montana’s famed Smith River, companies from around the country are stepping up to help. Read about what Upslope Brewery and Rep Your Water are doing to help protect our precious resource.
Trout Line – Summer 2017
Follow the link to read the full electronic version of Montana Trout Unlimited’s quarterly newsletter.
Tell us your clean water story
On June 30 we urged folks to send us their Clean Water Stories. Below is one of those great submissions! We urge you to keep those stories coming in. We’ll send you some sweet MTU gear in exchange. Submit your stories and photos to [email protected] we’d also love to see your photos on Instagram #30daysforcleanwater. For more information on our plea for stories read our executive director, David Brooks, post on the the importance of headwater streams.
The Pursuit of Happiness By Joshua Bergan
Headwaters are important. To me, to generations before and after me, and to the fish and wildlife that live on the vital sustenance that headwaters provide.
Recently, my wife and I have spent most of our summer free-time hiking up to and fishing Montana’s mountain lakes, many of which are the headwaters for streams that feed the large rivers. These lakes have become a part of us. I thought that once our project was complete, we’d be happy to get back to floating and fishing big rivers, but that’s not the case. We cannot wait to spend more time at these headwaters.
These pristine mountain lakes are spectacular. They often sport clear teal water that you can see 20-feet into and host native cutthroat trout and arctic grayling – the same species that Silas Goodrich caught on the Corps of Discovery, and that sustained people for hundreds of years before that. These fish have only a small fraction of their original places left, where anglers like my wife and I can find them. Clean , healthy headwaters are important to us.
Aside from the well-documented significance these sanctuaries provide for native plants and animals, they provide people like us with a refuge, a reason to get exercise and get healthy, some peace, memories, photo-ops and ultimately, the pursuit of happiness.
It’s true that there is some economic opportunity up there. We need the minerals and metals that are buried near these important waterways and we all need to make a living. We need to balance these things with peoples’ right to recreation, low-impact economic opportunity, and the plants and animals that rely on these places that have the same right to exist as humans do. It is my strongly held belief that we do not need those minerals, metals, and monies enough that it’s worth destroying these headwaters.
Headwaters are too important to us all to allow protections to lapse.
30 Days for Clean Water – We need your help!
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MTU Tip of the Hat – Let’s out do 2016 on July 22, 2017
In 2016 generous Montana Guides and Outfitters (40 of them!) pulled together and donated their tips for one day, and raised more than $3,500 for conservation IN MONTANA. Let’s break last year’s record and raise even more for conservation projects on the rivers we love to fish. Nobody knows the rivers like the conservation-minded guides and outfitters on them everyday.
Participation is SUPER easy. Let Kelley @ MTU know via a quick email ([email protected]), text: 608.225.2779, or voicemail: 406.543.0054. We’ll mail you a pre-paid, addressed envelope to send in with your tips. We’ll feature you on MTU’s website, and send your name to our 4,500 members in Montana.