Month: October 2020

books

Bibliophiles take note: Volumes from Bill O’Kelly’s incredible book collection for sale
Reading about fly fishing is almost as much fun as a line on the water. (Jim Burns)

From the Southwest Council:

As most of you know by now, Bill O’Kelly, past president of the Southwest Council and of Sierra Pacific Fly Fishers, passed Aug. 12. If you never had the opportunity to attend a fly fishing show with Bill, you missed an experience. He loved to cart around boxes of books to procure signatures from noted show attendees and authors. He was forever crunching his spreadsheet to see who else was available to sign his books. It was such a delight to witness his excitement when he would preview a show program and realize how many signatures would be his. Needless to say, his UPS bills were extraordinary.

His family has asked for our assistance to sell this vast collection and this is the first step. If you click here, you will get a Word document listing almost 1,200 titles. Many are first editions. If you are interested, please reply to this email (specialprojects@swcffi.org) with the title AND item number (first number on the line). We will find the book to ascertain its condition and quality and get back to you with a price.

If you know you would prefer a signed copy or a first edition, please note this, or on the other hand, if you just want a reading copy, please indicate that as well.

Other than whether something is hardcover, paperback, signed or personalized to Bill, we do not know what some of Bill’s other notes on the spreadsheet may mean.  We will let you know if we figure it out as we proceed.

Nothing about this process will be fast so we ask for your patience as this moves forward. Once we know which book(s) you hope to purchase (since there may be multiple offers), we can discuss delivery options. With over 20 clubs in SoCal and Nevada, we should be able to get books from place to place and maybe avoid some shipping costs.

All net proceeds will be going directly to the family.

Michael Schweit, Special Projects Director SWCFFI

News

Fishing paradise Mammoth inundated with Creek Fire smoke
BEFORE AND HEARTBREAKING AFTER pictures of Twin Lakes, above Mammoth Lakes, Calif., from July 21 and today. The Creek Fire, which is not in Mammoth, has burned more than 338,000 acres with full containment expected by Halloween. (Courtesy BiBi Photography)

News

‘We’re going to turn this place into a trout stream again’
Twenty-five-inch steelhead trout caught in the Los Angeles River near Glendale, in January, 1940. (Courtesy family of Dr. Charles L. Hogue)

From Los Angeles Times environment writer Louis Sahagun:

Biologists and engineers are setting the stage for an environmental recovery effort in downtown Los Angeles that could rival the return of the gray wolf, bald eagle and California condor.

This time, the species teetering on the edge of extinction is the Southern California steelhead trout and the abused habitat is a 4.8-mile-long stretch of the L.A. River flood-control channel that most people only glimpse from a freeway.

The brutal vista of concrete and treated urban runoff exists as an impenetrable barrier to ancestral spawning grounds in the San Gabriel Mountains for the estimated 400 federally endangered Southern California steelhead left on Earth.

The Los Angeles River Fish Passage and Habitat Structures Design Plan, which is being championed by Mayor Eric Garcetti, aims to change all that with a carefully calibrated retrofit.

Read the whole story here. The Council for Watershed Health has launched a webpage allowing people to keep up with the progress of the fish passage project. Read my 2012 thoughts about the possible return of steelhead here.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

News

Angeles National Forest remains closed through Oct. 8
Due to extreme fire conditions, the Angeles National Forest, along with six other forests in California, will remain closed through Thursday, Oct. 8. This is because of a combination of extreme heat, dry conditions, significant wind events and firefighting resources that are stretched to the limit, the U.S. Forest Service said. The Bobcat Fire has burned for 26 days and is about 63 percent contained after tearing through almost 155,000 acres. Nine hundred ninety two personnel continue to fight the conflagration. (Courtesy @mrcalparks)