Dirtbag Diaries: Beyond the Lines

Maps. We’ve all studied them. Stuffed them into backpacks or the seatback pocket of our car. Maybe we’ve even been led astray by a map. But have you ever thought about the person who made that map? Or how that person might influence your initial impression of a landscape?

“A map is not a perfect representation of a landscape. It’s an abstract representation,” says cartographer Marty Schnure. Today, we have a story about a mapmaker, Patagonia Park, and the process Marty uses to create a map--a map that she hopes will connect you to a place.

Music: Road that Burned My Boots by Jahzzar • Asuncion and Dayanara by Health&Beauty • Neo Zen by Ketsa • Quasi Motion by Kevin MacLeod • Wake Me Up by Publish the Quest • Gone by Noush Skaugen

Most tracks provided by Mevio’s Music Alley and Free Music Archive. Additional music by Amy Stolzenbach.

"On Fly-Fishing the Northern Rockies"

Anyone would be hard-pressed to find a pastime more emblematic of the western spirit than fly-fishing. Liberating, poetic, wild, soothing and inspiring, it pushes the boundaries of the mind. In essays ranging from introspective to ironic, angler authors Chadd VanZanten and Russ Beck distill the purest truths of fly-fishing into essential, often humorous rules of thumb. With kernels like "always tell the truth sometimes" and "all the fish are underwater," wade into the blue ribbon waters of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah to reflect metaphysically on these lines of practical wisdom.

LINK (via: Utah Public Radio)

Lake Trout Funk

Striped Bass: A Cautionary Fish Tale

Nine years after this story first aired striped bass still face the same threats.

The 1980s fight to bring back the striped bass is considered one of the greatest environmental success stories. But, today the species faces a new and potentially devastating threat: the omega-3 market. Author Dick Russell talks with host Steve Curwood about what it will take to save a species that's already been saved.

(published June 30, 2006)

The Dirt Bag Diaries Adventure 1000

It’s January. Time for The Dirt Bag Diaries annual Year of Big Ideas.

(via: The Cleanest Line)

Fly fishing as a meditative, healing process for veterans

Sgt. Kurt Erickson fishing on the Naches River as part of a Rivers of Recovery trip.