Laegreid Outdoors

Dear Mr. President, American Sportsmen and Women are tired of seeing hoot-owl closures on their rivers. We're tired of fish kills caused by extreme water temperature . We're tired of seeing our forests killed by beetles because our winters are not getting cold enough and our summers are hotter. We're tired of ocean conditions making salmon survival even more difficult. We're tired of longer, hotter forest fire seasons . Sportspeople are out in the wild parts of our great country more often than most, and we are seeing the effects of climate change on a daily basis. The sporting way of life is in danger as a direct result of the warming earth, and you just withdrew us from the Paris Agreement. Mr. President, you (and your son) have said how you want to protect the rights of sportsmen and women, second amendment rights and land usage rights and so on, but none of that matters if we don't have fish and game to pursue. If the environment goes, the game goes,...

Disclaimer: It is not my intent to have a politically charged blog, but this is too important to not discuss. I will try to be brief. Dear readers, With the recent election, the outdoor way of life that we love is in danger. If you hunt, fish, or use public lands in any way, it is time to step forward and take action. Corporations are looking at a president and congress that will kowtow to their desires, and that bodes ill for the sportsmen and women of America. It is not in the interest of big business to keep our coldwater fisheries clean; it is not in the interest of big business to keep public lands in public hands; it is not in the interest of big business to do anything positive for the natural world that provides us with so much. It is with this in mind that I ask you to be vigilant. Watch the bills that are being passed. Pay attention to legislation that will remove our rights. Join conservation organizations. Support small businesses; this is their fight too. Most import...

Graphic in the way that flowcharts are graphics, of course! Instead of a photo-filled post, today's post is some fishing-related graphics I've done recently. I've already shared my Annual Fishing Goals graphic; let's dive into a few others. Note: If you follow Laegreid Outdoors on Facebook and Twitter you might have already seen these, but I think they're cool, so you get to see them again. Yay! The Salmon ID Flowcharts Salmon are amazing fish. They're strong, they're delicious, and in saltwater, they all kind of look the same. This is the issue my brother-in-law had when he moved from Oklahoma to Washington. With the regulations as they are in Washington, it is very important to be able to distinguish between the different species while they are in their ocean phase. The WDFW provides a nice pamphlet (from which I nicked the photos. Thanks, public domain!), but I felt it might be good to have a helpful guide to aid in identification.  There ...

So, rhinos are cool, and also pretty crazy endangered.  Poachers hunt them for their horn, which is sold on the black market for its medicinal and/or magical properties (Pro-tip: those 'properties'? You could get the same effect from chewing your fingernails; they're basically the same stuff).  So what does South Africa want to do to save the rhino? They want to legalize the rhino horn trade. If that doesn't raise some red flags, it should.  The focus should be on eliminating the demand base, thereby driving the price down to nothing and ending the poaching, not feeding the market.  It's not worth getting shot by anti-poaching rangers if you're only going to get five bucks for a rhino horn. I feel that an educational campaign might do more good than legalizing the trade of horn. If the consumers knew that they're paying top dollar for the same stuff that's in horse hooves, perhaps they might think twice.  Or the price of horse hoof would skyrocket. Who...

It's not often we get to hear of a massive societal change for the better, especially not when the environment or conservation is involved.   Occasionally, however, we get a win. The short version of the article is that demand for shark-fin soup in China is down due to a large public-awareness campaign (most didn't know what is in the soup and/or how it is harvested) and, more surprisingly, government action forbidding extravagant food, such as shark-fin soup, from being served at its banquets. Demand for the soup is down 50-70%. For those of you that don't know, the main ingredient in shark-fin soup is, you guessed it, shark fins.  The problem with that is, because only the fins of the sharks garner high prices from Asian markets, fishermen catch sharks, hack off their fins, and return the maimed, but still living, animals back to the sea. This is a wickedly cruel thing to do, not to mention a waste of perfectly good shark meat. The steps taken by shark supporters to...