Steve Featherstone

Syracuse

Freelance Contributor at Freelance

Outdoors Reporter at The Post-Standard

Guy who knows a guy who knows more about that thing. @NewhouseSU @NYTMag @NewRepublic @Harpers @GrantaMag @PopSci @SciAm @Slate @TheBafflerMag @BestAmEssays

Articles

Central NY anglers still reeling in the trout (photos)

6 days ago | syracuse.com | Steve Featherstone

Following in the footsteps of his grandfather Robert Cleghorn, Colton Cleghorn, 5, of Jamesville, caught a 15-inch brown trout in Butternut Creek with his dad. He was using worms, and released the fish in a family-owned pond. Matthew Baldwin caught and released this superb example of a wild brown trout from a little creek near his hometown of Utica, his first time fishing it in years even though he’s there during deer season. The 4-lb, 23-inch fish took a rapala.
Rangers find missing ADK hiker by tracking him through snow

1 week ago | syracuse.com | Steve Featherstone

A 57-year-old man hiking alone recently failed to return from a hike up Seward Mountain in the Adirondack High Peaks region. With an elevation of 4,361 ft, Seward Mountain is one of Adirondack’s 46 high peaks. The man’s friend called New York State Department of Environmental Conservation forest rangers at 10:30 p.m. on April 8 to say that he was overdue. At 2:30 a.m., six rangers set out to search for the missing hiker. They were soon joined by 12 more rangers.
Kids can adopt a trout at Green Lakes State Park’s annual ‘FishStock’ event

1 week ago | syracuse.com | Steve Featherstone

The annual family-friendly finned freak out known as ‘FishStock’ falls on Weds., April 16, at Green Lakes State Park, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The popular event is free but the Food Bank or CNY will be accepting donations of non-perishable food items. The Food Bank is currently facing a shortage of two million pounds of food amid Trump budget cuts. Carpenter’s Brook Fish Hatchery will supply 1,800 yearling rainbow trout fresh from its ponds. Kids can ‘adopt’ a trout and release it into Green Lake.
Kids can adopt a trout at Green Lakes State Park’s annual ‘FishStock’ event

1 week ago | thisiscny.com | Steve Featherstone

The annual family-friendly finned freak out known as ‘FishStock’ falls on April 16, at Green Lakes State Park, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The popular event is free but the Food Bank of CNY will accept donations of non-perishable food items. The Food Bank is currently facing a shortage of two million pounds of food amid Trump budget cuts. Carpenter’s Brook Fish Hatchery will supply 1,800 yearling rainbow trout fresh from its ponds. Kids can ‘adopt’ a trout and release it into Green Lake.
Motherless, malnourished black bear rescued in Upstate NY

2 weeks ago | syracuse.com | Steve Featherstone

A black bear cub raised alarm bells when it wandered onto the grounds of Hunter Mountain ski resort in the town of Hunter on March 15. Resort employees shooed the bear off the trail and into the woods near the Madison Square ski trail. Two New York State Department of Environmental Conservation police officers (ECOs) arrived soon after and discovered the bear hiding in tall grass adjacent to the ski trail. The cub appeared malnourished and dehydrated, and was moving slowly with no mother in sight.
Central NY anglers show off their early season trout

2 weeks ago | syracuse.com | Steve Featherstone

A week into spring trout season and winter isn’t ready to let go. While the chilly temperatures on opening day slowed the bite for many, here’s a few CNY anglers who had no trouble landing some truly terrific trout. Conan Cute, 4, of Cortland, had the appropriate reaction to catching a 24-inch rainbow trout from Grout Brook. Cute was using a purple egg sac, and his grandfather Kevin Cute insists that he didn’t help Conan land it.
Cold start to trout season doesn’t deter these Central NY anglers (video)

2 weeks ago | syracuse.com | Steve Featherstone

The spring trout season got off to a slow start on Tuesday after a cold front blew in and knocked nearly 40 degrees off the previous day’s high. Temps hovered around the freezing mark all morning and snow pellets swirled in the air. Most anglers we met throughout the day at various streams and creeks in Onondaga County blamed the bottomed-out barometer for shutting off the bite. Jack Selisnky, of Syracuse, was scouting the scene at Butternut Creek near Route 20.
Catch trout for $5 at Carpenter’s Brook Fish Hatchery on Saturdays this spring

3 weeks ago | syracuse.com | Steve Featherstone

Carpenter’s Brook Fish Hatchery will launch its popular Saturday Spring Fishing program this Saturday, April 4, from 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. The program runs through May 24. Cost is $5 per person, pre-registration required, no walk-ins allowed. Children under 2 are free. No fishing license necessary. Saturday Spring Fishing is designed to give families, small groups, and individual anglers a relaxing morning of catch and release fishing at Carpenter’s Brook Pond, located at the hatchery in Elbridge.
The (mostly) untold story of a prize-winning Central NY trout, 60 years later

3 weeks ago | syracuse.com | Steve Featherstone

Sixty years ago, a 12-year-old Syracuse boy named Don Dixon caught a spectacular brown trout in Fabius Brook. Dixon received a Distinguished Angler’s Award from Sports Afield for the 4 lb 12 oz fish. He also got his picture in the Sunday paper. The photo of Dixon—flaxen-haired, freckled, grinning from ear to hear—holding his trophy trout is pure Americana.
NY state bear harvest way up in 2024

3 weeks ago | niagara-gazette.com | Steve Featherstone

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recently released its annual bear harvest report showing that hunters harvested an estimated 1,685 bears during the 2024 hunting seasons. That number is 24% higher than 2023, and approximately 13% higher than the five- and 10-year averages. kAm“}6H *@C<’D 962=E9J 362C A@AF=2E:@? 4@?E:?F6D E@ AC@G:56 6I46==6?E 9F?E:?8 @AA@CEF?:E:6D[” D2:5 str s:G:D:@? @7 u:D9 2?5 (:=5=:76 s:C64E@C y24BF6=:?6 {6?5CF>]k^Am kAmqC@<6? 5@H?