Search results for “tomorrow fund”

Youths, DOI secretary talk public lands

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014 Contacts: Judith Kohler, National Wildlife Federation, 303-441-5163; kohlerj@nwf.org Katie McKalip, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, 406-240-9262; kmckalip@trcp.org; Shauna Sherard, Trout Unlimited, 307-757-7861; ssherard@tu.org Youths, DOI secretary talk public lands Winners of sportsmens essay contest share with Secretary Jewell how their experiences on public lands have shaped their lives WASHINGTON…

Yakima Basin Integrated Plan legislation advances through U.S. Senate committee

Senator Cantwells precedent-setting water and fisheries legislation passes Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee CONTACT: Michael Garrity, American Rivers, 206-852-5583 Lisa Pelly, Trout Unlimited, 509-630-0467 Ben Greuel, The Wilderness Society, 360-670-2938 (Nov. 19, 2015) Seattle, Wash. Today federal legislation to protect and enhance the Yakima River basins fisheries, ecosystem and water supply was passed by…

TU lauds WaterSMART program

Oct. 31, 2016 Contact: Laura Ziemer, lziemer@tu.org, (406) 599-2606 Trout Unlimited, Senior Counsel and Water Policy Advisor Steve Moyer, smoyer@tu.org, (571) 274-0593 Trout Unlimited, Vice-President for Governmental Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Trout Unlimited lauds WaterSMART program New criteria prioritizes both water savings and river health WASHINGTON, D.C. Trout Unlimited today praised the Bureau of Reclamations…

Wyoming loses steadfast conservationist and visionary

Published in Uncategorized

Mark Fowden retired ater 39 years with Wyoming Game and Fish in early January. He passed away March 31. Photo courtesy Wyoming game and Fish. By Cory Toye Wyoming lost a man who dedicated his life to the conservation and management of our great fisheries when Mark Fowden passed away March 31. Mark led a…

Proposed dam threatens CA’s Bear River

Published in Uncategorized

Fishing the Bear River. This reach would be inundated by the proposed Centennial Dam. By Chandra Ferrari With California just emerging from five years of punishing drought, there continues to be a lot of discussion about creating more water storage. While the fastest and most affordable way to capture and store more water is to…

TU bids Chief Tidwell a fond farewell

Published in Conservation

Tom Tidwell is retiring as Chief of the US Forest Service. It is difficult to overstate the importance of the 191 million acres that the Forest Service manages to trout and salmon. Half of the blue-ribbon trout streams in the country flow across national forests. A vast majority of western native trout and salmon depend…

Partners Building Fire Resilience with the Forest Service in Washington

Published in Conservation
Two men have conversation next to a stream

SFS Chief Moore gets a firsthand look at TU restoration work in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National ForestThe eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains in North Central Washington are one of the epicenters for catastrophic fire risk in the Western United States. Climate change, tree disease and over a century of forest mismanagement are to blame. In recognition of this risk, the Forest Service recently launched the Central Washington Initiative (CWI) in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest as part of its national Wildfire Crisis Strategy. This important work is supported by $100 million of funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The CWI is one of approximately 20 initiatives of its kind across the nation receiving this unprecedented investment through 2026. These initiatives represent an “all lands, all hands” approach to addressing forest health and wildfire resilience, meaning the Forest Service sees partnerships as the key to success. TU’s $40 million keystone agreement with the Forest Service is a perfect example. Through this partnership, TU will be implementing many of the aquatic components of this work and other critical efforts benefiting wildfire resilience and coldwater habitat recovery on National Forests across the country.

Collaborating to Reduce Wildfire Risks

The risk for catastrophic fire in North Central Washington is well known to TU and other members of the North Central Washington Forest Health Collaborative (NCWFHC) who have been working on the issue of forest health in this region for more than a decade. During this time, NCWFHC partners have been frantically building solutions while bearing witness to the biggest wildfires in Washington State history. To say there is a sense of urgency surrounding this work is a wild understatement.

Developing and implementing innovative approaches to helping the Forest Service increase the pace and scale of restoration on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest has been NCWFHC’s key objective, and we have made significant progress in recent years. Enough progress, it turns out, to entice the Chief of the Forest Service, Randy Moore, to come out and see it with his own eyes in late May.

As part of the NCWFHC’s tenth anniversary celebration, we had the honor of hosting Chief Moore on a field tour of some of the Collaborative’s project sites.

Working to Keep Water on the Landscape

One of the stops on the NCWFHC tour was at TU’s beaver dam analog (BDA) project on Alder Creek, outside of Leavenworth Washington. This work is led by staff from TU’s Wenatchee-Entiat Beaver Project. TU’s Lisa Foster and Michael Dello Russo were on site to answer questions and demonstrate the work to partners and USFS staff.

I’m biased, but the site visit seemed to be a highlight for Chief Moore given his willingness to thrash through thick brush and endure heinous mosquitos to get an up-close view of the project. We got to talk about how low-tech process-based restoration techniques, like BDAs, expand floodplain connectivity, improve late season flows and increase soil moisture in riparian zones to create fire breaks in an otherwise parched landscape. Michael Dello Russo and his crew were also able to demonstrate how these structures get woven together with streamside trees. The Chief seemed so impressed with the work that he hinted at returning when we extended an invitation. We hope he takes us up on it.

We want to thank all of the NCWFHC partners for their ongoing work and for making the anniversary tour such a success.

Thank you, Chief Moore, for taking the time to join us in the field. We are grateful for your enduring support of this important work in North Central Washington forests and watersheds!

Conservation Committee Resources

Conservation Committee Duties The Conservation Committee takes the overarching conservation and restoration goals of the chapter to bring these facets of the strategic plan to life by developing projects, partnerships and plans to get the work done. Many chapters have a standing conservation committee, or appoint a conservation chair, whose duties include organizing and implementing…

AOP surveys continue in Driftless Area

Published in Barrier removal, Conservation

The summer of 2024 was our second year having field technicians working across the Driftless Area to assess the condition, fish passage status and flood vulnerability of bridges and culverts on our coldwater streams.    This work is often termed “Aquatic Organism Passage” or AOP due to the broad ecosystem benefits that are achieved when…

What’s good for the forest is good for the trout

Published in Uncategorized

Volunteers plant trees along a small stream in the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay. Healthy riparian buffers are important for streams. By Steve Moyer Healthy trees, in addition to Trout Unlimited members and mayflies, has to be high on a trout’s best friends list. That is why TU is applauding Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) for…

Bringing back the Big Wood

Published in Conservation

Eroding banks along the Bridge to Bridge project area By Chris Wood The sign behind the two-person Trout Unlimited office in Hailey, Idaho, reads, “Parking for Trout Unlimited only. If towed, call Dick York Towing.” It is an inside-Hailey joke as Keri York’s Dad ran Dick York Towing—the only towing business in the Big Wood…

Alaska and Montana sit at the top of every angler’s bucket list

Published in Conservation

By Chris Wood Montana wisely chose to stop stocking trout in 1974. Alaska’s sheer size and quality habitat make it the most desired destination-fishery for very large native rainbow trout and salmon and steelhead. Passing separat e ballot initiatives in each state will ensure that both states remain iconic. In Montana, I-186 would allow the…

Boating Liability

Boating events present good opportunities to engage current or prospective members in TU’s mission and to provide beneficial, on-the-water experiences for others. Boating events, however, present some risk of injury to the participants, and those events must be structured to minimize those risks. TU has prepared the following checklist for boating events sponsored by TU…