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DENTRY: You keep spurs; I'm going fishing

By Ed Dentry, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 24, 2008 at 11:11 p.m.

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A hunter's silhouette is a dark contrast against a colorful sunrise while he awaits the arrival of waterfowl.

Photo by Ed Dentry © The Rocky

A hunter's silhouette is a dark contrast against a colorful sunrise while he awaits the arrival of waterfowl.

A slate-gray dipper peeks out from a thick tuft of moss, watching for the right time to plunge head-first into the Fryingpan River.

Photo by Ed Dentry © The Rocky

A slate-gray dipper peeks out from a thick tuft of moss, watching for the right time to plunge head-first into the Fryingpan River.

An angler nets a brown trout with ease with the use of a rubber net.

An angler nets a brown trout with ease with the use of a rubber net.

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What it comes down to is a delight in creation. Or the glimmer of trout in a river pool. Or pintail ducks swirling to corn stubble.

Definitely, it's in the imperious bugle of a bull elk. Sometimes, the meaning of life distills down to the flare of the tail of the skunk on the trail ahead of you.

OK, what it really comes down to is deadlines. All that blather in those two paragraphs up there was just puffing up while the saddler tightened the cinch.

The deadline comes with spurs. Now we can plod along.

Usually I know what I'm going to write before I write it. This time, I'm shaking my cranium to see what falls out.

Cutthroat trout, mud puppies, wild asparagus, mule deer, catfish, wild mushrooms, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, marmots, ravens, red ponderosas, sagebrush, cholla cactus, bird dogs, sharp-shinned hawks, stoneflies, porcupine quills, rattlesnakes, lightning.

And people. Lots of people - selling stuff, selling adventure or ideas or tricks for tracking critters. Some selling cynicism, greed and human primacy.

The best have come along for the ride and to absorb the sound of the river.

It's a mess up there in the brain pan, but rich as forest humus, and I'm taking it all with me. Well, you can keep the spurs.

So I'm retiring. I'm leaving the greatest job on Earth and the newspaper that let me do it for 21 years. You might say I'm going fishing, and you might be right.

Much of the trek has been sad. Human nature renders every generation so shortsighted as to overlook the great loss while squirming a bit over some immediate losses. In the short haul, we fight to keep a trail open or closed, to save a scrap of wilderness or change a trout limit or preserve sage grouse.

In the long haul, the natural Earth is stripped bare. Growth and progress are considered inevitable and worthy of exemption from any goal or objective.

I admire folks whose attachment to the Earth is strong in the face of the invasion. The good news is that a powerful conservation movement is being reborn among hunters, fishermen and nonsportsmen who see the big picture.

When I started at the Rocky in 1987, the Two Forks Dam imbroglio was the hot item. The threat of losing a precious trout fishery and landscape was enough to bring hook-and-bullet people together with environmentalists.

They killed the dam, and I was privileged to write about it.

In those days, "wacko animal-rights activists," "anti-gun people" and "tree huggers" were considered to be the only enemies of hunting and fishing.

That was a huge propaganda victory for the cynical forces of progress who couldn't care less about public lands or hunters or tree huggers or cutthroat trout or jumping mice.

Divide and conquer.

Then motorize the backcountry to pit "hunters" against hunters and "recreationalists" against solitude.

Drape the flag of patriotism over the drilling rigs, but not this land.

It's been some potent snake oil, and many of us bought into it. Now the movement is coming together. Sportsmen have joined environmentalists. As conservationists, they are sticking up for the land.

The Rocky Mountains are my home, and here is where I'll stay, at the front line. Just don't expect me to do anything useful until after the archery season.

I'll miss those of you who've been readers, as some have said, "since forever." I'll especially miss the ones who send photos and greetings from their Brittanies and Labs and wire-haired pointers and fishing terriers.

I'm really going to miss my friends at the Rocky. There's no business like the news business.

It's been quite a party. I think I'll stop working it and take a bite.

"For nowadays the pride of man denies in vain his kinship with the original dust." - Robert Louis Stevenson in the essay, Pulvis et Umbra.

Comments

  • July 25, 2008

    10:53 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Squatch writes:

    Congratulations Ed on your retirement. I dont always agree with what you write or your opinion but thats what makes America great we can disagree. I have enjoyed your articles for they 21 years you have been doing it in RMN(since I was 9 years old) I can remember opening up the sports section and reading your stories and the fishing report. I will give you one thing if I sent you an mail you did respond and I do appreciate that. Enjoy your retirement and fish & hunt as much as you can stay away from that honey do list im sure your wife has waiting for you.

  • July 25, 2008

    11:16 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    not2serious writes:

    Dear Mr. Dentry,
    Thanks for all of your great work over the years. I have really enjoyed it. It will be hard to replace you, and you will be missed. Have fun though, you have earned it.

  • July 25, 2008

    11:40 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    jmkratt writes:

    I am going to miss Ed!

    Now we are left with only Charlie! D'oh!!

    Thanks for all the years, Mr. Dentry. You will certainly be missed.

  • July 25, 2008

    5:29 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    sheepherder writes:

    Congrats Ed, hope they find someone to fill your shoes...it will be hard!

  • July 27, 2008

    12:17 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jbowen43 writes:

    They say that greed is a deadly sin. There is no doubt that greed will be the death of the natural beauty of Colorado. People have been killing it softly for decades now they are accelerating the slaughter.

  • August 13, 2008

    11:35 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    upacreek333 writes:

    Ed,

    I doubt very much the average sportsman in Colorado realizes how much you have contributed to the protection and well-being of the state's fish and wildlife resources, and that's a shame. Your steadfast ethics, and your refusal to let hunters and anglers forget the reasons they chase game or pursue wild fish in our great state will be your legacy, and for that I and many others are eternally grateful. Enjoy your retirement--you've earned some time afield where you won't have to tote the camera (even though I know you will) or watch as someone else gets the first shot or the first chance at that glorious trout pool. You should be very proud of what you've accomplished at the Rocky--you've given a generation of sportsmen in Colorado some perspective that will hopefully carry on for years to come. All the best...

  • August 17, 2008

    8:52 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    newhampshire writes:

    Ed, I cannot possibly say it better than upacreek333,I echo all of those sentiments. I am delighted that your first non deadline fishing trip was in "my lake with my canoe".It was such a joy to watch you enjoying Forest Lake and New Hampshire, knowing that you weren't thinking about "Thursday"! Now is the time to take time to enjoy the fruits of your labors.
    our love to you and S

  • September 1, 2008

    4:41 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    KneeDeep writes:

    Tight Lines Ed!
    Thoreau said-
    "Everyman must believe in something, I believe I will go fishing"
    Time for you to fish!

  • September 2, 2008

    2:32 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Squatch writes:

    Its nice to see the RMN has done such a good job replacing you. Its hunting season RMN you might want to get somebody to write a nice column about the upcoming seasons and some fishing news.

  • September 11, 2008

    9:18 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Leakywaders writes:

    What will the hunters and fishermen of Colorado do without you, Dentry, telling them what to think? I guess asking an outdoors columnist to stay out of the political rhetoric is too much. Here's hoping the next guy drags his decoys over the high road.