Stream Doctor: Trout love his landscapes

Many entrepreneurs have a pioneer's spirit, but Rich McIntyre was literally in the wilderness when he found his calling. Fly-fishing on the banks of Montana's Gallatin River in 1977, McIntyre, then a 23-year-old landscaper, noticed brown trout thrashing about in a muddy stream bed nearby, trying to clear silt from the bottom so they could lay eggs on clean gravel. Deciding to help the fish reproduce and make some money for himself, he became America's first commercial stream doctor.

For fees of up to $50,000 a mile, McIntyre has worked with wealthy landowners, anglers and developers to rehabilitate streams that became...