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Re-routing quickly heals wayward Michigan stream
When Trout Unlimited crews and contractors dive into a construction project, they move fast. Often, it takes just a week or two of construction to complete the work. Getting to construction can be a longer haul. It was more than a decade ago when Chad Kotke, a stream restoration specialist on TU’s Great Lakes team, learned…
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Challenges delay but don’t stop big project in NC
Trout Unlimited’s project managers are accustomed to encountering challenges in the field. Jeff Wright, who until recently was TU’s Southern Appalachians program manager, had no idea what he was to face for a major culvert replacement project deep in the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. Hurricane Helene, which devastated swaths of the landscape across the Southeast early in the fall…
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River champion Steve Brooke never gives up
Steve Brooke doesn’t actually remember his “first fish.” But there is a memento of that moment, a photo of a not-yet-year-old Brooke sitting on his mom’s lap, her holding a pretty cutthroat trout caught near the family’s home in Colorado Springs. Steve Brooke got an early introduction to trout. Not yet 1, here he sits…
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A year after Helene, TU’s impact continues to resonate
Jay Hawthorne was enjoying a tour of a Kentucky bourbon trail with his wife and another couple when it became clear that Hurricane Helene was going to hit the inland Southeast. The group managed to make it back to Madison County, N.C., where Hawthorne and his wife watched the French Broad River rage from their…
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Monumental agreement for Maine’s Atlantic salmon
Setting the stage for dam removal and Atlantic salmon recovery In the early 1800s, as many as 200,000 Atlantic salmon would return to Maine’s Kennebec River for their annual spawning run. In 2025, just 47 adult Atlantic salmon — designated as a federally endangered species — swam up the river to Lockwood Dam, where they…
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Putting Fancy Creek back in its natural place
TU and partners will restore Wisconsin stream to its former channel Fancy Creek, 1937 In the aerial photo, Fancy Creek looks like an idyllic Driftless Area trout stream. As it meanders through a wetland in tight bends, you can almost imagine big brown and brook trout hunkered under banks waiting for the stream to bring…
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Seed Savers Exchange celebration to feature a trout tour
Seed Savers Exchange stewards America’s culturally diverse and endangered garden and food crop legacy for present and future generations. They educate and connect people through collecting, regenerating, and sharing heirloom seeds, plants, and stories. Seed Savers Exchange has been saving and sharing seeds with gardeners since 1975. To commemorate the Seed Savers Exchange network—and all…
Author
Mark Taylor
A native of rural southern Oregon, Mark Taylor has lived in Virginia since serving a stint as a ship-based naval officer in Norfolk. He joined…