WASHINGTON COUNCIL OF TROUT UNLIMITED

Our goal is to protect, restore and reconnect Washington's cold-water streams and their watersheds in order to save native salmon, steelhead and trout. To do this we need to be able to have a multi-prong approach in Washington state.
1) We need to have a strong influence in Olympia
2) We need to have funding to take on large scale projects.

TU uses a multiprong approach to help fish in Washinton.

The foundation of TU is our 16 local chapters in Washington which take on projects to improve life for fish in their communities. They do stream cleanups, water monitoring, salmon fry counting, and habitat restoration. Thirty members have been trained to Fish Barrier Evaluations and are working across the state in conjunction with WDFW to evaluate culverts and diversion dams.

At the state level, we have a volunteer Advocacy committee which works in Olympia to get support for funding for state projects and to stop legislation that is detrimental to fish. We also have a volunteer Conservation committee which works on issues that extend to entire watersheds or multiple watersheds. We also do fundraising at the state level to provide funds for all of TU's work in Washington.

At the national level, TU has 17 staff working in Washington on projects to help salmon and steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula and to return water to streams by improving irrigation systems in the Yakima drainage. The state council would like to work with National to hire a person to work full time in the eastern part of the state on Snake and Columbia River issues.

The state council would like to hire two full-time people. One of the people would be a Legislative Consultant that would consult and coordinate with our Advocacy committee to work for fish in Olympia. The other person would work with the Conservation committee to raise money and work on projects. This person would oversee work that the State Council has contracted to be completed.

The sixteen chapters in the state have 4400 volunteers who are enlisted to take on projects. At present this is the sum total of our workforce. While volunteer labor is wonderful it does not have the time or the skills to take on large, complex projects.

Currently, we don't have the capabilities to do more. Only through the gifts of other like-minded people and organization will be able to add the necessary resources to bring about larger and more significant change.

Our local chapters have counted Kokanee Salmon fry returning to Lake Sammamish for the past eleven years. They have restored Bullhead trout habitat in Eastern Washington. They have removed tons of trash from our streams and lakes. They have run a cutthroat recovery project on the Tenaway River. They have monitored steelhead returns on the Olympic Pennisula. They have counted steelhead redds on the Skagit. They have funded kids going to camp to learn conservation and fishing. They put on veterans fishing days so our wounded vets could have a day of fishing.

At the state level, we have worked to get legislation passed to closely monitor and regulate the use of suction dredge mining devices that suck up river bottoms in search of gold. We got it through the Senate but it stalled when the house ran out time to get it passed. We have written letters, testified at hearings and provide expert testimony for numerous fish related issues. We have funded fish science on the Olympic Peninsula.