Driftless symposium goes in-person again

Over 135 people attended the 2025 Driftless Symposium hosted by the Trout Unlimited Driftless Area Restoration Effort and the Wisconsin Wetlands Association on Tuesday February 25 in La Crosse, Wisc.  Several common threads emerged among this year’s presentations, highlighting both threats to watershed health and the countermeasures being developed to face those threats.    Threats to…

Faces of Restoration: Capitan Forestry in Oregon

Restoration work in Oregon couldn’t happen without Capitan Forestry. The Grande Ronde and North Fork of the John Day headwaters are critical habitat and special places to fish, and the collaboration between TU and Capitan is making it even better.   Capitan Forestry historically specialized in upland forest restoration work, but after partnering with TU’s aquatic restoration efforts in the…

Reconnection Report Card — New York Priority Waters 

Trout Unlimited’s staff and municipal partners continue to work diligently to complete a wide-spanning list of New York priority culvert surveys and replacements. The reconnection of fragmented and dammed rivers resides at the core of our strategy to improve habitat for New York’s wild trout. With our small but mighty team, we reconnected over 30…

Vander Werff joins TU staff to lead project work in CT

TU’s Northeast Conservation program has welcomed a key role player to the team. Jon C. Vander Werff is TU’s new Connecticut project manager.  Vander Werff will orchestrate the 2025 Norwalk River Cannondale Dam (below) removal project, partnering with regional staff leads Tracy Brown and Jesse Vadala to execute this major project and connect our mission…

Sharing expertise: The Driftless Symposium

More than 15 years ago, when Jeff Hastings took over leadership of Trout Unlimited’s Driftless Area Restoration Effort, one of his first priorities was to build his knowledge of restoration techniques.  As he dug in, he found plenty of information.  He also found that much of it didn’t get wide distribution throughout the area’s four…

TU/Costa’s 5 Rivers Students Help Complete Willowemoc Restoration Project

Students from Trout Unlimited’s 5 Rivers Program, hailing from six different universities across New York and Connecticut camped, fished, and planted trees in the Catskills for the Fall 2023 Northeast Rendezvous.   Participants were welcomed by New York State Council’s Director of Youth Programming, Lindsay Agness and TU’s Youth Education Program Director, Franklin Tate who…

Brian Stranko to lead TU’s program in Maine

Brian Stranko has joined the Trout Unlimited staff as its Maine program manager.  TU has many projects and initiatives under way in Maine, including enhancing streams with strategic wood additions and advocating for better fish passage for endangered Atlantic salmon. He will work closely with TU’s Maine Council and chapters.  Stranko succeeds longtime TU staffer…