This morning I visited the Odyssey School in Stevenson, where I checked in on the fast growing Kamloops strain rainbows, showed the class lots of insects and a sample of Didymo, and generally talked about water quality and what Brookies, Rainbows and Browns need in order to live. On the way back to the shop I caught the last hour of the Diane Reihm show. Anders Halverson, Journalist and author of the book “An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World” was being interviewed along with guests, Curtis Milliron, a Senior Biologist and Specialist with the California Dept. of Fish and Game and Gerald Smith, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan and Curator Emeritus of Fishes for the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

The show’s description, “An Environmental Outlook on the unintended consequences of stocking the nation’s inland waters with hatchery-bred fish and a look at the invasive species threatening the Great Lakes” got my attention.

Let’s just say it’s worth a listen, lots of talk about native fish, rotenone, and recreational angling and trout management, but I must warn you that it may change the way you regard rainbow trout-at least East of the Cascades.