Trout Unlimited

Conservation operations:trout Unlimited pursues its mission through protecting, reconnecting, and restoring coldwater habitat. Where rivers are intact, we protect them. Where they are fragmented by dams or dewatering, we reconnect them. Where they are degraded, we restore them. We are working to protect healthy rivers and landscapes, especially the headwaters on public lands that provide cold, clean water and critical habitat for fish, but also are targets for new water storage and resource extraction projects. During this reporting period, tu added protections on 273 stream miles in the east and 8,678/10,039,978 (miles/acres) in the west. We are working to reconnect habitats within watersheds through instream flow improvement and barrier removal so that fish and wildlife can access spawning and rearing grounds; find thermal refuge; and access and repopulate areas impacted by drought, fire, or other events predicted to increase in a warming climate. During this reporting period, tu reconnected 314 miles of habitat in the east and 378 miles in the west. Restoring functioning riparian zones, wetlands and off-channel habitats to provide food and structure that Trout and salmon need is the third critical element of our habitat work. During this reporting period, tu restored 70 miles of habitat in the east and 397/301 (miles/acres) in the west. Sciencetu science led the interagency species status assessment (ssa) for the apache Trout; this synthesis and analysis of current science and population characteristics was completed in 2022 and subsequently used by the us fish and wildlife service in their proposal to remove the fish from the list of threatened and endangered species. We published several additional impactful papers in peer-reviewed journals as the culmination of on-going work: 1) "historical records reveal changes to the migration timing and abundance of winter steelhead (oncorhynchus mykiss) in olympic peninsula rivers, Washington state, usa", was published in the north american journal of fisheries; the study analyzed multiple sources of historical data (circa 1948-1960) to estimate the historical migration timing and abundance of wild winter steelhead in Washington's quillayute, hoh, queets, and quinault rivers to compare with contemporary population trends (circa 1980-2017), 2) "spatial conservation assessment for native fishes in the lahontan and central Nevada basins, usa" was published in the peer-reviewed journal water. The assessment is used by the desert fish habitat partnership to inform regional conservation investments, and the rankings are available for broader use by resource agencies working on native fish conservation at landscape scales, and 3) "population genomic monitoring provides insight into conservation status but no correlation with demographic estimates of extinction risk in a threatened Trout" was published in evolutionary applications and provided the genetic assessment data for the us fish and wildlife service 2022 5-year status review for lahontan cutthroat Trout.

Membership development:the nlc workgroups continue to make progress toward completing their quantifiable goals which support the tu strategic plan. We are at approximately 90% completion, up from 75% reported in september, 2023 of workgroups highlighting specific goals with a focus on "collaboration and "engagement."

Volunteer operations and chapter support:in the last fiscal year, tu chapter and council volunteers contributed 566,056 volunteer hours, putting on:- 3,058 conservation or science/monitoring projects involving 16,536 volunteers - 3,124 youth activities that engaged 92,990 young people (32 percent growth over last year)- 515 events for veterans and first responders that engaged 3,055 participants - 93 events designed for under-represented communities that reached 2,388 people - 4,328 other general community engagement activities reached 87,451 attendees growing community engagement through a network of regional coordinators continues to expand with more than 20 conservation and advocacy staff in these new and evolving national "engagement and outreach coordinator" roles, along with more than a half-dozen state council and local chapter staff doing similar work. These professionals support inclusive community engagement for events like tree plantings, trash cleanups, fishing days, community science programs and social activities and connect that work directly to our chapter/council grassroots efforts. In 2023, tu staff and chapter volunteers held more than 40 individual tree plantings across 14 different states, engaging over 433 volunteers who planted 25,998 trees covering over 61 acres of riparian landscape. The value of the volunteer time is calculated at $41,308, and over the next 30 years these trees will conserve 118 million gallons of stormwater runoff and sequester 26,195,904 pounds of carbon dioxide. Regional rendezvous in 2023 were greatly welcomed and appreciated with more than 500 grassroots members and partners attending one of the three events. Our impactful, in-person training conferences connect the most active and passionate volunteers and bring them together with our expert staff and partners to learn best practices, share innovations, network with each other and grow our "one tu" culture. In june 2023, we brought together multiple 5 rivers college club leaders from across the country on the wind river indian reservation in Wyoming for the costa ambassador summit. During the summit, the students learned about the history of the reservation and the 2.2 million acres of land managed by shoshone and arapaho tribal fish and game. They also learned about indifly's work on the reservation and their mission to use fly fishing as a tool to create sustainable economic opportunities for tribal members. Throughout the week, the students camped, fished, discussed their struggles and triumphs with their 5 rivers clubs, and bonded over their shared love of fly fishing and tu. On their last day on the reservation, the students hosted a learn to fly fish clinic for tribal youth and helped dozens of kids catch their first Trout on the fly. The 10th annual tu teen leadership summit was held at georgetown lake, Montana in june-july 2023. This event brings together 25 teen leaders from across the country, many of whom are graduates from one of tu's summer fly fishing camps and academies. The summit empowers the group of teens to plan out the coming school year and what outreach activities they will complete as members of tu's youth leadership council. The main focus of the ylc is to devise new ways to get other young people into tu's conservation work. Summiteers also host guest speakers, participate in educational site visits of conservation projects, and get to know each other via team building exercises. All summits feature some sort of trout-centric, hands-on volunteer project, and teens at the 2023 summit worked with tu staffer tess scanlon and the us forest service to construct beaverdam analogs on a native cutthroat stream. Community science efforts grow among chapters. Tu spearheaded a fun project among dozens of chapters in collaboration with the salmonfly project to monitor macroinvertebrates in their local river systems with volunteers and community buy-in. As we know from our marketing efforts, a younger and more diverse group of people want to get their hands dirty participating with tu. Macro monitoring is proving to be incredibly engaging for the test chapters involved, and findings from projects can lead to bigger studies and hopefully more funding opportunities.

Communications:as conservation teams began to secure bipartisan infrastructure law and inflation reduction act funding and implement on-the-ground projects, we communicated the early investments and results through the media, in tu films and on tu's print and digital channels. We landed two national television spots about our work in Idaho and California. Potential reach of media mentions were up 28% over the three-year average. In support of policy campaigns for mining reform and removal of the snake river dams, opinion pieces were placed in the new york times and major regional papers. Tu hired its first dedicated social media manager and began growing audience and engagement. Our social media audience grew 4%. We hired our first west coast communications director and amplified storytelling about our robust Washington, Oregon, and California conservation programs.

Government affairs:the tu government affairs department has been implementing our new and expanded approach to protection and advocacy across all aspects of tu and externally to federal agencies and congress.highlights include:- tu simultaneously testifying in congress in both the senate and house hearings on significant conservation and policy issues.- holding a key meeting with the us forest service that could expand our keystone agreement by $50-70m over an additional 10 years.- exploring the development of a tu tribal partnership center for advocacy.- propelling tu's good samaritan mine cleanup bill, which has 26 senate cosponsors and the unique status as the only bipartisan conservation bill in congress.- taking a new leadership role in advocating for protections for coldwater fisheries in the arctic.- taking a comprehensive approach to the lower snake dam removal issue as the administration reached an agreement with the tribes and plaintiffs.