Priority Waters
![](https://www.tu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Native-trout-swimming-off-150x150.jpeg)
Picture a native trout in a river, suspended in the flow. Or wild salmon flooding into a stream, following instincts handed down over too many generations to count.
Picture a native trout in a river, suspended in the flow. Or wild salmon flooding into a stream, following instincts handed down over too many generations to count.
Our Priority Waters approach borrows heavily from the portfolio concept by ensuring that risk for trout and salmon is spread across a variety of habitats and populations.
The Trout Unlimited Priority Waters initiative is all about pulling together to care for and recover America’s trout and salmon watersheds. Our vision: volunteers and staff working hand-in-hand with partners and allies in their communities to protect, reconnect and restore more than 200 Priority Waters from Alaska to North Carolina, from California to Maine. We
Here lies the promise of our plans to develop a shared agenda of priority waters.
2023 was a good year for Great Lakes coldwater conservation, marked by an influx of federal funding for necessary infrastructure upgrades.
TU’s sticktuitiveness at work on a Priority Water in California
TU projects in Alaska, Oregon and Washington Priority Waters recommended for a new round of federal infrastructure funding
I was caught, checking my phone yet again, in hopes of finding a response to the question that I’d posed hours earlier: an invitation to a woman I recently met to get a drink together.
The scenery and fishing opportunities here will take your breath away, but even this far-flung corner of Alaska isn’t immune to the degradation of fish habitat that can happen when development occurs alongside rivers and streams.
Strengthening protections for Eel River tributaries ensure continued fishery health
Surveying a recent Trout Unlimited dam removal site deep in Virginia’s mountains, Dylan Cooper made sure to not just focus on what wasn’t there anymore, but what remained.
The Medicine Lake Highlands complex of public lands, some 30 miles northeast of Mt. Shasta in California’s Cascade region, is a truly remarkable place.
Nation’s largest coldwater conservation nonprofit identifies 200+ “Priority Waters” where work is needed to reverse declines of wild and native fish Contacts: ARLINGTON, Va.—Wild and native trout and salmon, as coldwater fish in a warming world, are facing enormous threats. More than 1.5 million miles of America’s trout and salmon waters are degraded, and populations
The California Salmon and Steelhead Coalition celebrates ten years, legislative leaders for coastal streams and water policy
There are only a handful of streams in all of southern California where one can fish for trout. The East and West Forks of the San Gabriel River are two of them.
Another award highlights TU’s good work on coho populations and steelhead benefit too.
Legislation necessary to remove liability hurdles preventing abandoned mine cleanups Contacts: ARLINGTON, Va.—Today, a coalition of 78 outdoor recreation, hunting and fishing businesses and associations delivered a letter urging Congress to pass the bipartisan Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act of 2024 (S.2781 & H.R.7779). Senate legislation is sponsored by U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
As part of its statewide Trout Management Plan, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is proposing to simplify angling regulations for all inland waters “to make them easier to understand, and to better align regulations with management objectives on each water.” CDFW is taking public comment on this effort, and on proposed changes
White House action “needed and welcome” to better protect habitat,water sources, and sporting opportunity in southern California FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 2, 2024 Contacts: ARLINGTON, VA—Today, President Biden issued a proclamation expanding the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, in the Angeles National Forest in southern California. Trout Unlimited (TU) and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA)
TU’s North Coast Coho and Steelhead Restoration Program is clearing the way for salmon and steelhead in coastal streams north of San Francisco.