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Trout Unlimited Yanks Proposed Policy Change on Stream Access

By Greg Lemon, 3-26-07

Trout Unlimited is reconsidering a recent proposal to pull itself out of the stream access debates around the country.

Last Thursday, Trout Unlimited’s board of trustees decided to pull the resolution presented by chairman, Bob Teufel, said Steve Moyer, vice president for volunteer operations and government affairs.

Instead the board recommended forming an ad-hoc committee to review the issue over the summer and make a recommendation to the board of trustees on Aug. 15, Moyer said.

Trout Unlimited’s involvement in stream access debates has long been a contentious issue. Teufel put forth his resolution earlier this month, as Hal Herring reported last week here at NewWest.Net.

Teufel rescinded his resolution after getting a number of comments from state chapters and Trout Unlimited members, Moyer said.

“The gist of it is that chairman Teufel responded to criticism of his original proposal,” he said.

(Editor’s note: Our original coverage of the proposal here, as well as a guest column by TU President and CEO Charles Gauvin, touched off a firestorm of discussion on the issue. Read or join the threads here and here.)

The ad-hoc committee will eventually recommend whether or not Trout Unlimited will make a policy change in regards to it’s involvement in public access disputes, Moyer said.

Trout Unlimited’s current policy is that chapters may be involved in public access disputes “only under narrow circumstances,” he said.

“TU does not ever really, in any case, do a lot of access policy involvement,” Moyer said. “But for chapters and councils to get involved in disputes there is a review process that has to be gone through.”

That review process involves getting the approval from the organization’s executive committee, he said.

“It only can be done when a chapter or a council is defending existing public access,” Moyer said.

Bruce Farling, executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited, is pleased the national organization is taking another look at the issue.

Now Farling and Montana Trout Unlimited will have the summer to educate the ad-hoc committee about the importance of stream access.

“It’s not totally resolved internally with us but we’ve got some time to work it,” he said.

Access to streams is important in getting sportsmen involved in conservation, Farling said. Montana has the best coldwater fisheries in the nation and the reason is that sportsmen have access to all natural waterways.

“That’s why we’ve long interpreted stream access as part and parcel of our conservation mission,” he said. “If (sportsmen) don’t have access to the resource they don’t fight for conservation or restoration.”

Once the ad-hoc committee makes it’s recommendation to the board of trustees in August, members will have a chance to voice their opinions before the board’s meeting September, Moyer said.

Farling is optimistic that over the summer the board and its committee will see the importance of allowing the organization to defend access.

“The vast majority of TU members and our leadership agree that we ought to have the ability to weigh in on access issues.”

• Click here for Hal Herring’s original story on TU’s proposed resolution.
• Click here to read TU President and CEO Charles Gauvin’s guest column on the issue.

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