Priority Waters

TU’s Mission: Our mission is to bring together diverse interests to care for and recover rivers and streams so our children can experience the joy of wild and native trout and salmon.

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With its Priority Waters initiative, Trout Unlimited is applying the best available science and engaging with partners to identify the places where TU can make the greatest contribution to the health, resiliency, and viability of our nation’s wild and native trout and salmon fisheries in an age of climate change.

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Borrowing from the financial planner’s maxim that a diversified investment portfolio reduces risk, a science-based “portfolio” approach was used to prioritize genetic, life history, and habitat diversity across the range of trout and salmon species.

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Having used the best available information to identify potential priorities, other important questions were asked: Is there an opportunity for TU to have an impact? Will our work be significant enough to speed the pace or scale of the work in these watersheds? What are the conservation priorities of federal, state, and tribal fishery agencies? Are there communities that care about and depend on these native and wild trout and salmon waters, and will act as conservation partners?

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Trout Unlimited is most successful when we pull together as staff, volunteers, and partners to focus our resources on shared priority areas—and stick with the work long enough to achieve an ambitious conservation vision.