Author, filmmaker and Tight Line Media CEO Kris Millgate joined the Marine Fish Conservation Network and host Tom Sadler for an online Waterside Chat on January 29, 2025.

Kris is an Emmy-winning multimedia journalist who started Tight Line Media in 2006. She hosted Time OUT(an outdoor TV news segment) for seven years, then created East Idaho Outdoors magazine in 2014.

Her first book, My Place Among Men, was published in 2019. The sequel, My Place Among Fish, was published in 2021 alongside the debut of her salmon film Ocean to Idaho. Her third book, My Place Among Beasts, was published with her wildlife film, On Grizzly Ground, in 2023. You can learn more about these and her other projects and order your own copies at: https://www.tightlinemedia.com/

Among many other topics, Kris and Tom talked about:

• How she became an outdoor journalist despite shyness and a childhood fear of people with beards
• How she spent a summer in a camper following salmon from the ocean to their spawning streams in Idaho
• The physical toll migration takes on salmon -- and on a filmmaker following them
• The difference between a situation that makes you uncomfortable and one that's actually unsafe
• The one thing everyone does when they come face to face with a grizzly
• Why it's so important to capture all points of view on a topic as controversial as dam removal in the West
• Why storytellers need to meet people where they are, understanding that they may take in information in different ways via different media
• Her newest project, Sage Wisdom West, which follows sage grouse in the high desert, "a fantastic landscape that sustains perhaps more wildlife than the mountains"

ABOUT WATERSIDE CHATS:

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The Marine Fish Conservation Network’s Waterside Chat series connects people who depend on healthy oceans and fisheries with the issues that directly affect them and their communities. Each episode the Network’s Deputy Director Tom Sadler talks with different guests about ocean policy and fisheries management topics. He engages them in genuine and thoughtful conversations about what policy decisions mean for people’s livelihoods, communities, recreation, and coastal ways of life.

Join the Network's email list to learn about future Waterside Chats.

The Wild Steelhead Coalition’s Brian Bennett joined host Tom Sadler for an online Waterside Chat on November 14, 2024, making his second appearance on the program. Brian is the Wild Steelhead Coalition‘s communications and social media manager, produces the organization’s podcast, “The Adipose,” and assists with other communication and advocacy efforts.

Among many great topics, Brian and Tom talked about:

• Wild Steelhead as Pacific coast icon and watershed health indicator (the fish spawn in climate zones ranging from from high desert to temperate rainforest)
• The work of the Wild Steelhead Coalition and the Now or Never Campaign
• The need to build a robust army of wild steelhead supporters as devoted to preserving the fish as they are to catching them, particularly as the climate changes around us
• How a wild steelhead is a rainbow trout that goes to sea to feed, and how the fish return not just to the same stream to spawn, but to the same spot in the stream
• How wild steelhead populations are at 3% of historical levels in Washington state, due to warming waters, habitat loss, harvesting and more
• Why a big pink salmon year in the Pacific means fewer wild steelhead in Idaho
• How steelhead have been around for millennia and have been able to adapt to many environmental changes, but they have not been able to adapt to the genetic impacts of hatchery-raised fish
• How rainbow trout start going out to sea as soon as we remove dams and other obstacles, making stream trout a genetic bank for the species
• How the species and the industry need us to create a long-term plan for survival in the face of climate change
• Why if you’re in the fishing space, whether as a consumer, fisherman or brand, you have a responsibility to conserve the species

Also in this episode: The Adipose podcast, with the Linda Mapes interview mentioned in the Chat taking place on October 02, 2024.

The Marine Fish Conservation Network's Waterside Chat series connects people who depend on healthy oceans and fisheries with the issues that directly affect them and their communities. Each episode the Network's Deputy Director Tom Sadler talks with different guests about ocean policy and fisheries management topics. He engages them in genuine and thoughtful conversations about what policy decisions mean for people’s livelihoods, communities, recreation, and coastal ways of life. Join the Network's email list to learn about future Chats. You can also watch past Chats and subscribe to the podcast on the Network's website.

Kate Masury, executive director of Eating with the Ecosystem, joined the Marine Fish Conservation Network for a Waterside Chat on October 16, 2024. Among many topics, Kate and host Tom Sadler discussed:

• Eating with the Ecosystem, the work they do, and how they are a nonprofit that started as a food gathering
• Their place-based approach to sustaining wild seafood
• How bribing people with delicious seafood is a good way to get them to the table
• Working with members from all parts of the local seafood supply chain
• Why one of the best things you can do for sustainability is to eat a variety of ocean species
• Why you’re connecting directly with the oceans when you’re eating local seafood, and why it’s better for people to choose seafood from their local area
• Creating a Roadmap for Climate-Resilient Seafood Supply Chains
• And of course, much more

The Marine Fish Conservation Network's Waterside Chat series connects people who depend on healthy oceans and fisheries with the issues that directly affect them and their communities. Each episode the Network's Deputy Director Tom Sadler talks with different guests about ocean policy and fisheries management topics. He engages them in genuine and thoughtful conversations about what policy decisions mean for people’s livelihoods, communities, recreation, and coastal ways of life. Join the Network's email list to learn about future Chats. You can also watch past Chats and subscribe to the podcast on the Network's website.