Mode: “I’m 66 years old and I don’t ever remember not hunting and fishing.”

That’s Richard Mode, an avid duck hunter and trout fisherman in North Carolina. He’s seen the impacts of the changing climate first-hand. He says ducks are migrating later and later, often not even showing up until after the hunting season ends. The fishing has also changed.

Richard Mode canoeing on river.

Mode: “Trout require cold, clear, clean water. Places that I’ve trout fished in the past that used to hold lots of fish are warming, and the fish just aren’t there like they used to be. It makes me very, very sad. There’s a sense of loss there that I cannot fully describe to you verbally.”

Mode hopes these changes can be slowed or reversed before more trout habitat is lost, but more importantly . . .

Mode: “Climate change is a national security issue, it’s a health issue, it’s not just sportsmen wanting to catch more fish. There are many, many reasons why we need to move away, as much as possible, from a carbon based energy policy.”

Otherwise, Mode fears that the hunting and fishing he grew up with and loves will disappear.

Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media.
Photo: Richard Mode (source: ClimateStoriesNC video).

More Resources
Richard Mode: Outdoorsman (video)
Richard Mode
This Bud’s for Richard Mode

Sara Peach is the editor-in-chief of Yale Climate Connections. She is an environmental journalist whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Scientific American, Environmental Health News, Grist,...