In waters around the North Platte area, anglers will now have more opportunities to fish for trout. 275 acres of land owned by the Bret Van Rensselaer family was sold to The Conservation Fund for less than market value. This land involved is said to hold critical spawning grounds for rainbow trout. The Conservation Fund in turn sold the land to the Bureau of Land Management who took ownership recently and will manage the area for fishing and other recreational opportunities.

To me this is a key element in the mindset behind the land purchase by The Conservation Fund and the resale to BLM. According to Luke Lynch, Wyoming field representative for TCF, purchase of this land will prevent development but also insures fishing opportunities for more anglers.

He said a big increase in fishing use is putting pressure on a limited number of public access areas, and The Conservation Fund wants to make the river available to people who can’t afford expensive private fishing excursions.

“More and more what we’re seeing on the North Platte and elsewhere is the outfitters and those sorts of folks are more heavily controlling access to private land, so we need to provide more opportunities for people,” Lynch said.

This is true everywhere and as long as land is being taken out of private ownership, it needs to be open to all for public use.

Tom Remington