Rainbow trout - an entirely synthetic fish. Learn more Feb 7 in Missoula, MT

Join Missoula and the author for a reading and signing of Anders Halverson's An Entirely Synthetic Fish. The event will be at Fact & Fiction, 220 N. Higgins Ave, Missoula, Montana on February 10^th from 7 pm to 8:20 pm. For more information call the book store at (406) 721-2881. Click here for directions to Fact and Fiction downtown.
About the Book

An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World (Hardcover)

By Anders Halverson
$26.00 - ISBN-13: 9780300140873
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Yale University Press, 3/2010
Anders Halverson provides an in-depth account of the rainbow trout and why it has become the most commonly stocked and controversial freshwater fish in the United States. Rainbow trout have been proudly dubbed “an entirely synthetic fish” by fisheries managers. According to Halverson, his book examines the paradoxes and reveals a range of characters, from nineteenth-century boosters who believed rainbows could be the saviors of democracy to twenty-first-century biologists who now seek to eradicate them from waters around the globe. He discusses how the story of the rainbow trout is the story of our relationship with the natural world—how it has changed and how it startlingly has not.

Anders Halverson is an award winning journalist with a Ph.D. in aquatic ecology from Yale University. With support from the National Science Foundation, he wrote this book as a research associate at the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West.
A lifelong fisherman, he currently lives in Boulder, CO.

• Anders Halverson’s An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World just won the National Outdoor Book Award. You can get a copy for yourself if you donate $25 to Trout Unlimited.
  
• Click here for excerpts of reviews.

Other Montana events for this book are:
Book Signing at Country Bookshelf Bookstore, Bozeman, MT on Monday, February 7, 2011 at 4:00pm. Click here for more information about the Country Bookshelf Bookstore.
Book Discussion at Montana State Univ., Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT Monday, February 7, 2011 at 6:00pm. Click here for the website for Museum of the Rockies
Plenary Address at the Montana Chapter of the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Great Falls, MT, Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 9:00am. Click here for AFS information http://www.fisheries.org/units/AFSmontana/

For fun, he posted this quiz on GoFishn.com. The winner received his book.
The Rainbow Trout Quiz: Question #1 - GoFISHn on GoFISHn
In 1996, IdahoDepartment of Fish and Game hatchery managers routinely taught their fish one thing before releasing them into the wild. What was it?

The answer: worms. Candy Craig got it right, and she's the winner of a copy of the book. The reason the fisheries officials put the fish on a worm diet was to prepare them for the wild. They feared the fish would swim around looking for pellets  when they were released, which is their normal fare in the hatchery.

Dancing Trout Ale helps celebrate Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited's Success and Future on Sept. 12, 2009 in Missoula

Here is a post dedicated to our neighbors, Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited in Missoula, Montana.

A message from our friend, Jerry O'Connell:

For the past 20 years, our Big Blackfoot Chapter Trout Unlimited (BBCTU) has done more watershed restoration and preservation than any other chapter in the US. It has gained national acclaim and recognition for the hundreds of miles of restored and protected tributaries of the Big Blackfoot River. Over the years, BBCTU has set the standard for designing, managing, and executing boots-and-shovels projects at the grass roots level.

BBCTU has done all of this without a single fundraising event. However, we feel it’s time to break that tradition as we celebrate these two decades of progress. Thus, we’ll be holding our 20th Anniversary Party on Saturday, September 12, 2009, complete with bus tours of some of our projects, cocktails, a pitchfork BBQ and an auction with some very unique items (need a steer?). It’ll be at the Rolling Stone Ranch in Ovando, right in the heart of the Blackfoot Valley.

Please come! Pass the word to your friends – the more the merrier. You can call me (244-5612) or the BBCTU offices (677-6454) to make reservations. It’s a bargain at $25 each (or $50 will get you dinner and a Monte Dolack print of the Blackfoot). Email Jerry at joconnell@blackfoot.net.

Merle's note: What a way to break tradition. If you can make this event, DO IT! It will be an amazing gathering loaded with fun and you will mingle with some of Montana's interesting, caring and socially and environmentally involved people.

About Trout Slayer and Bayern Brewery

The original brew was called Trout Slayer Ale but in 2007 on the 20th anniversary of Bayern Brewing, the oldest brewery (and in my opinion the best) in Montana decided to give Trout Slayer Ale a new face to best reflect Bayern Brewing’s environmental company philosophy.

Their search for a more appropriate name kept them coming back to “Dancing Trout.” Whether as a fishing term or in various spiritual expressions of music and dance, Dancing Trout became a symbol of celebrating life and the lifestyle embraced by Montana.

So, they also endorsed Montana Trout Unlimited. The name change to Dancing Trout Ale was not merely a cosmetic one. They knew that it was time to brew a beer with a cause. They presented the idea of making Bayern Brewing’s Dancing Trout Ale the official beer sponsor of Montana Trout Unlimited (www.montanatu.org) and were met with the organization’s immediate support and enthusiasm. Bayern Brewing pledges a portion of all merchandise and every case of beer sold to Montana Trout Unlimited to support the preservation of Montana’s trout habitat.

Click here to learn more about Bayern Brewery and Dancing Trout Ale

To order Dancing Trout gear click here

To order Dancing Trout Ale online click here

For a signed print of the original Dancing Trout artwork contact Kate at

406-543-0054 or kate@montanatu.org

Bitter Root TU Commissioned Artwork by Monte Dolack

By the way, visit another post about Dancing Trout on the fantastic Missoula beer blog, the Grizzly Growler.