2002 Annual Report

A Message from Trout Unlimited

Those of us who care about the environment know the one constant in nature we can count on is change. Healthy coldwater streams change to meet the demands of floods and drought. Healthy trout and salmon relocate to habitat that offers relief from summer heat and winter ice. If Trout Unlimited is to evolve and fulfill its mission, so must we adapt to new challenges and changes.

Trout Unlimited's staff and volunteers entered 2002 with a renewed sense of purpose and fresh hope in our mission. Fittingly, the year was one of positive changes, some of which were born of the difficult year we faced in 2001, while others were the culmination of years of planning and effort.

We took a hard look at how best to dedicate our organizational resources in response to changed conditions, both pre- and post-September 11. First, TU restructured its senior management team to improve its ability to assist our volunteers. The National Resource Board then dissolved to create a new body, the National Leadership Council, to facilitate cooperative efforts between the national office and our state councils and chapters.

We adapted to the nation's political climate, dominated by the war on terrorism, the campaign for homeland security, and the recession, by finding new ways to accomplish our conservation agenda.

We proved we could influence decision-makers in the nation's capital. We helped remove a harmful hydropower measure from the Energy Bill and secure new water conservation provisions in the Farm Bill, including a $200 million program to protect endangered trout and other wildlife in desert lakes.

Spurred by a TU report on river levels, the Colorado legislature strengthened the state's program to buy water rights to ensure that water stays in streams for fish and wildlife. In California, based on our petition to federally protect the last remaining golden trout, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed that doing so may be warranted and will now review the goldens' status. We scored a legal victory for controlling sediment in New York's Esopus Creek. On Maine's St. George River, years of negotiation for the removal of the Sennebec Dam yielded 17 miles of habitat to Atlantic salmon. We began our newest "Home Rivers" restoration project on Idaho's South Fork of the Snake River.

Our efforts attracted the media's attention, from the Cleveland Banner and Denver Post to the New York Times and USA Today. We were recognized for what makes TU unique: We have members who are committed to reviving the health of the lands and waters that sustain our communities.

Going forward, we will be active in public lands protection, environmentally safe energy development, and rehabilitation of waters damaged by mining. The nation's economic uncertainties and security concerns will remain as challenges, ones that will require us to prepare for some difficult battles, but TU has the conviction and resolve to face them head on.