Our founders were anglers. By history and by nature, we are optimists.
Founded in 1959 on the banks of the Au Sable River near Grayling, Mich., by a handful of anglers united by their love of wild trout and their growing disenchantment with the state’s practice of stocking its waters with cookie-cutter hatchery trout. Convinced that Michigan’s trout streams could harbor far superior fish if left to their own devices, the anglers formed a new organization: Trout Unlimited, dedicated to caring for and recovering wild and native trout and salmon.
In short order, the fledgling organization had persuaded the state to curtailing trout stocking and begin managing for wild trout and healthy rivers. Inspired by that success, anglers in Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, and Pennsylvania quickly founded their own TU chapters, and the organization soon doubled in size.
We still help anglers channel their passion for fish into meaningful conservation, but we have grown well beyond those roots.
Over the years, we have safeguarded Bristol Bay’s sockeye salmon fishery and protected more than 38 million of acres of public lands across the country. We have cleaned up abandoned mines and the streams they pollute, and championed a law that makes it easier for others to do so. We have helped spearhead the removal of antiquated dams from the Klamath in the West to the Kennebec in the East. We have reconnected thousands of miles of streams and reopened upstream habitat to native trout. We have mobilized thousands of grassroots advocates, educated generations of young people, and provided solace to countless veterans.
Today, Trout Unlimited is the nation’s leading conservation organization working to care for and recover rivers and streams and their trout and salmon populations. We bring people together across the country to be champions for their rivers and help make our water cleaner and our communities healthier.