Trout Unlimited Hires New Director for its Wyoming Water Project

May 4, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:  
Scott Yates 307-332-7700 
Kathleen Campbell 703-284-9427

Trout Unlimited Hires New Director for its Wyoming Water Project

Arlington, VA – The national conservation organization Trout Unlimited (TU) has hired Scott Yates as the new Director of its Wyoming Water Project (WWP).  He will replace TU WWP founder Laurie Goodman, who will continue to work as a consultant and advisor for water policy and legislative issues.  

“I’m looking forward to continuing TU’s efforts to develop reasonable and practical legislative approaches to protect and restore stream flows in high priority watersheds in the state,” said Goodman.  “I’ve known Scott Yates for years, and he brings a cooperative approach to working with landowners and the agricultural community as well as a wealth of expertise on fishery-related natural resource issues.”

Yates is a long-time Trout Unlimited staff member who most recently initiated and directed the organization’s Idaho Water Project from 2001 to 2004.  His work there included ground-based stream flow restoration efforts, landowner partnerships and water management issues associated with large dams owned by the Bureau of Reclamation. 

While working for TU in Idaho, Yates also did a six-month stint in 2002 as interim Executive Director of the Henry’s Fork Foundation – an organization dedicated to collaboration and creative community partnerships to protecting and restoring one of the West’s great trout fisheries and overall watershed health.  Most recently, he worked in the private sector for Portland General Electric as the License Manager for the largest privately owned hydroelectric project in the State of Oregon. 

Yates is a 1996 graduate of the Lewis & Clark College Northwestern School of Law where he also received a Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resource Law.  He recently re-opened the TU Wyoming Water Project office in Lander and can be reached at 307-332-7700 or syates@tu.org [1].

The WWP was created to develop local partnerships with landowners and state and federal resource agencies to protect and restore trout habitat in Wyoming.  Trout Unlimited, which is the largest coldwater conservation organization in the United States, has more than 1,300 members in the state.

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Date: 5/4/2006