A gumbo of fly-fishing, conservation, politics and days afield, for what it is worth....
Each week, I have the pleasure of joining Mountain Journal founder Todd Wilkinson in our “The Week That Is,” column where we discuss topical events relating to the nation’s capital city and the public land West. On Monday’s you can read the previous week’s column here.
In this edition, the conversation turns to Interior Secretaries past and future, including the controversial tenure of sagebrush rebel James Watt of Wyoming.
Last month one of my dreams became reality when I picked up a side hustle as Mountain Journal’s (affectionately know as MoJo) National City Correspondent. For those not familiar with MoJo (affectionately know as MoJo,) it’s a non-profit public interest publication at the intersection of people and nature in Americ’s wildest, most iconic ecosystem, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Here’s MoJo’s Editor’s note:
With his introductory essay below, Mountain Journal introduces Tom Sadler who brings decades of experience as a writer and veteran of navigating Washington DC policy issues—issues that require thinking and working across political divides. Sadler also has been a business entrepreneur, a fly-fishing guide and conservationist dealing with freshwater and saltwater fisheries policy. He understands the importance of clean water as much as anyone.
Here’s my inaugural article: Meet Tom Sadler, MoJo’s Correspondent In The US Capital City
Monitoring what’s happening in Washington DC has never been more important. for policies shaping greater Yellowstone and the West.
Links to future article will appear after they are published on MoJo
Please subscribe to the newsletter and support the cause in the sidebar of the MoJo website.
* sorry, I couldn’t resist, the headline wrote itself…
O’Dell Creek holds a special place in my heart.
The first time I saw it was in August 2006 with Alex Diekmann. Alex and I worked together at the Trust for Public Land; he was a project manager, and I was a lobbyist. He found the places to protect, and I helped find the resources to try and protect them. One of the last times I was with Alex we fished O’Dell together.
photo:Alex Diekmann
The O’Dell project as it has come to be known is the conservation vision and hard work of Jeff Lazlo. Jeff has made O’Dell Creek wetlands restoration an award winning model for citizen-driven conservation. In doing so he created a source of cold, clean water and a haven and breeding ground for native cutthroats in the Madison River.
Alex’s death was a blow to many of us, but his legacy of fishing and conservation I am delighted to say lives on in his youngest son Liam.
Liam writes of fishing and conservation for Mountain Journal. His latest article, For Every Great Trout Stream, There’s a Conservation Map, is his story about working on Lazlo’s, Granger Ranch, home to O’Dell Creek.
I thought the way you learned about trout was by catching them. But my project taught me how and why a good trout stream exists. Clean, cold water filled with healthy amounts of natural fish food doesn’t just happen.”
Liam is a fine young outdoor writer, and his work reflects a conservation ethos steeped in things he learned at his mother’s and father’s side. His articles in Mountain Journal are worth the read.
If you don’t know Mountain Journal, it is a new publication keeping a weather eye on the Yellowstone ecosystem. They are a not-for-profit public interest journalism outfit, check it out and shoot them a few buck so they can keep lights on and the presses running.
Tom, Liam, Alex photo: Logan Diekmann
