Why your support matters

Clean waters, healthy fish,
thriving communities

Left to right: Idaho’s Teton Valley (photo by Frogwater Productions), spawning cutthroat trout, students in the TU Headwaters Youth program.

This is how we make our name: boots in the water, getting our hands dirty, restoring and reconnecting rivers and streams.

In every part of the wild and native ranges of trout and salmon, we are at work recovering waters where things have gone wrong or where we can be doing it better. Places where mining and timber operations left landscapes and rivers degraded. Where road-stream crossings and dams are blocking fish from getting where they need to go. Where streambanks have been eroded, habitat channelized, and waters damaged by pollution.

This work is ever more urgent to species that rely on cold, clean water in a warming climate.

We know from decades of experience that the best way to conserve healthy waters and fisheries also happens to be the simplest: don’t ruin them in the first place.

We accomplish this by protecting public lands, pushing for smart policy, protecting instream flows, advocating for smarter fish management, and working with land trusts.

Together, we are defending and protecting the last best strongholds of trout and salmon.

Before we do our fieldwork, we do our homework. Your support enables us to bring fisheries and conservation science to bear on our work across the country.

Our national network of scientists and program staff offer specialized skills in conservation genetics, web mapping and data visualization, fisheries and ecology, population modeling, entomology, hydrology, engineering, and restoration remote sensing.

Our science assets guide how and where we focus our conservation efforts and underpin our policy positions.

There are wide-ranging benefits to TU’s work: clean drinking water, reduced flood and wildfire risks, resilience to drought and climate change, healthier communities, and stronger economies.

At the heart of it, our dream is to see thriving wild and native trout and salmon in healthy watersheds. We are passionate about making fisheries and fishing better.

From California to West Virginia, in big rivers and tiny tributaries, for bruising salmon and fragile brook trout, our work is making an impact on coldwater fish that mean so much to so many.

From the beginning, all the way back to 1959, the core of TU has been a thriving grassroots base.

We encourage you to connect with your local TU Chapter. We are stronger together and our volunteer base—both those who fish and those who just love rivers and streams—regularly roll up their sleeves, pull on their muck boots, and raise their voices to recover the rivers they love. Every action amplifies our efforts as a conservation organization.

To grow our impact, we inspire and empower the next generation and welcome everyone to champion our rivers and streams.

We can’t do it alone. Collaboration is the name of the game. Everywhere that we make change, it is by working together with unlimited partners. We have a built a successful track record on our ability to remove barriers and build bridges—in the water, in communities, and in the halls of government.

We know there is no such thing as light work in conservation, but with many hands, we are rising to the challenge. Through steadfast and resilient partnerships, we are achieving conservation outcomes that benefit fish, people, and communities.

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