"Letter from a lifelong fisherman: the rivers were alive" - Tom Stuart

By Tom Stuart, IRU Board Member

“The river world connected me to nature in ways I didn’t understand then, and perhaps to a part of my own consciousness.  I fish now to experience and energize the connection; it feels personal, ancient and profound.”

I’m a lifelong fisherman.  As soon as I was able, I walked Colorado streambanks with my dad and grandmother, stalking trout for dinner.  I quickly learned to love it – partly because of the fish, but largely because of the captivating beauty of the rivers. I could fish for many hours.  Sometimes, long after leaving the stream, the hills seemed to flow in my vision, which was distorted from staring at current and riffles for so long. The river world connected me to nature in ways I didn’t understand then, and perhaps to a part of my own consciousness.  I fish now to experience and energize the connection; it feels personal, ancient and profound.

My family moved to Idaho in the late 1960s, where I began to prowl the Upper Salmon River, quickly falling in love with it. It was an astonishing fishery; steelhead in springtime, chinook and big bull trout in summer, cutthroat in spawning colors in the fall. I had never seen anything like it; but it didn’t last very long for me.  By the early 1970s, the fish were disappearing, and something was clearly wrong. I didn’t understand why at the time, and honestly didn’t pay a lot of attention to it for years, being distracted by life – a family of my own, jobs, bills, chores.

Then in 1990, I went to Alaska with friends on a fishing trip. We explored and fished several tributaries of the Susitna River, the Kenai, and some coastal streams, roasting fresh salmon every night. There, I saw rivers full of fish – sockeye, Chinook, and Dolly Varden trout, with the salmon acting as keystone species for many other animals. Those rivers were alive, just as Idaho’s Salmon River once was and should be.

Returning to Idaho, I realized what was happening in the Salmon River that I loved, and felt a sense of loss that has never really left me. With the sense of loss came deep anger; Idaho was losing a natural legacy – its rivers were dying.

I committed then to doing what I could to stop the loss and reverse it. I looked for conservation groups who might be aware and engaged in recovering salmon; I found Idaho Rivers United leading the charge. IRU was one of the first organizations to realize that Idaho salmon could not be saved without undamming the lower Snake River. IRU led then, as now – although the team in 2020 is larger, and I hope, stronger.

I am very proud of IRU for the work done in the last 25 years on this issue, and I am convinced that without a few groups like IRU, Idaho salmon and steelhead would already be extinct.  We have much more to do; this issue will always be a passion for me, and I will continue the work as long as I am helpful.  We can all be proud of the history, strength and persistence IRU brings to this cause – with a powerful staff, board, volunteers, connections, friends, and allies. 

It is said that a few committed people can make a big difference; I’m counting on that.  Please jump in with us, and with IRU, to restore wild salmon to Idaho.  The time is now.