Every once in a while (more often if you’re lucky) you meet a character so rich and colorful that it can be intimidating for someone like me to convey the ex­perience of their story and depth of their knowledge on the mere page. Master horseman L. Dutch van Dierendonck is one of them. This September, he will even be an honored volunteer at the World Equestrian Games in Lexington, KY.
Dutch may be a lot of things, but I wouldn’t consider him a cowboy. Maybe it is just because I …

by Amie Rodgers
At the risk of possibly oversimplifying the Cowboy Way too much, it is hard not to feel like a cowboy after a good ride through forest, fields and streams that ends with a hearty meal and good old fashioned entertainment. The life of the cowboy may be a hard one, but it is a good one.
Always up for something new, I took Keith Williams up on the invitation to saddle up, hit the trails and enjoy some cowboy hospitality. Keith Wil­liams and his father Victor own and …

by Dennis Jones
Introducing fly anglers to the rewards of fishing midges for trout in the White Mountains.
In earlier days trout fly-fishing was predominately a dry-fly sport. It wasn’t considered gentlemanly to fish with any fly that didn’t represent the adult form of the mayfly insect floating on the surface of the water. Attitudes have changed in recent times and we have experienced a proliferation of fly types that are being used effectively to entice a bite from our noble and increasingly elusive quarry. This abundance of new flies came …

On June 12, members of the White Mountain Open Trails Association (WMOTA), US Forest Service, Show Low and Pinetop-Lakeside Chambers of Commerce and the public celebrated the dedication of the Maverick Motorized Trail #655. For more info, visit www.wmota.org.

by Amie Rodgers
Fly fishing is an ancient angling method that uses flies that are cast with a special fishing rod and line. The practice is thought to go back to before the 2nd century and was first recorded as a Macedonian practice. Fly fishing can be done in lakes, streams and rivers in both fresh and salt waters. Fly fishing is most renowned as a method for catching trout and salmon, but today it is also used for a wide variety of species including pike, bass, panfish, grayling and carp, …

Submitted by the White Mountain Nature Center

Twenty-seven educators, representing fifteen different schools, participated this past Saturday in the Mountain Naturalist Educators Workshop. The workshop was a joint venture of the White Mountain Wildlife and Nature Center, Audubon Arizona, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and the Navajo County School Superintendent’s Office. Highlights of the all-day session included Cathy Wise, from Audubon Arizona, presenting the Science Takes Wings program, Lannie Gillespie, the Navajo County Education Service Agency Director, discussing the Navajo County Wetlands Planning Grant, and Eric Proctor (shown above), from …

To join the fun,
email grh@hatchmotorco.com or
call Gentry at 1-800-272-5513.

Birds, butterflies, beaver and antelope, wildflowers and frogs — could their survival possibly be connected to top predators like the wolf and cougar? For those who have seldom given thought to the great predators so often missing from the web of life, here is a world of reason to think again. Following in the footsteps of wolves and cougars, and the scientists working to understand their place in the rapidly changing world of nature, award-winning filmmakers Karen and Ralf Meyer of Green Fire Productions have captured the predators’ ongoing drama …