Trout Unlimited President Says Group Spends More Money Here Than Its 2,000 Idaho Members Raise (With Audio)

By Roger Phillips, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Sep. 15–Trout Unlimited president Charles Gauvin doesn’t have to go far from his Downtown Boise hotel to see the results of his organization’s work.

Three showcase projects on the Boise River are part of what drew the 150,000-member organization with a $22 million annual budget to hold its annual meeting in Boise this week.

The meeting, which started Wednesday and concludes today, brought hundreds of volunteers and staffers to Boise, including Gauvin, who sat down with the Idaho Statesman Thursday to talk about the organization’s priorities, challenges and projects in Idaho.

Gauvin said about 80 percent of the organizations’ efforts are focused on the West, and that Idaho is in a “happy place” because TU spends more money on projects here than is raised by its approximately 2,000 Idaho members.

That means there’s been money available for several projects in the Treasure Valley, such as restoring a side channel of the Boise River on Eagle Island for trout spawning and rearing, uncovering and restoring a 300-foot long channel in Julia Davis Park, and building a new side channel at Harris Ranch to provide better trout habitat.

TU also partnered in a $200,000 project to improve Mores Creek near Idaho City by removing mine tailings and rebuilding the stream’s flood plain.

“We meet in places where we have a good, strong local presence and projects and people we really want to showcase, so Boise was a natural choice,” he said.

Local projects reflect national goals

The projects are also part of Trout Unlimited’s conservation strategy, which focuses on protecting, reconnecting, restoring and sustaining trout habitat.

That focus has put TU in the spotlight of Idaho environmental politics with its support for protecting Idaho’s roadless areas from road building and development.

TU has also opposed a proposed cyanide leach gold mine on the Middle Fork of the Boise River, and worked toward securing rights to keep water in streams rather than siphoning it out for irrigation.

“All those things are major, major determinates of habitat quality,” Gauvin said.

Water rights are one of the West’s trickiest issues, because they largely focus on irrigation and power generation, not wildlife conservation.

“Right now, in terms of conservation priorities, we are working very hard at creating legal and policy mechanisms to conserve water and to improve instream flows in trout and salmon streams,” he said.

It could be a critical factor in many trout streams as the West faces a prolonged drought and climate change, he said.

If temperatures continue to increase, it will shrink remaining trout habitat and could isolate more populations, which makes them more vulnerable to get wiped out by fires, mudslides and other natural events.

“What better way of helping these fish than enhancing stream flows?” Gauvin said.

He also pointed out that trout, salmon and steelhead do not have federal programs for habitat enhancement similar to the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to improve wildlife habitat on private land.

Snake River dam breaching not a priority

One thing TU has not been active in lately is the fight to breach dams in the Lower Snake River to recover threatened salmon and steelhead. Gauvin said the Bush administration is “openly hostile” to breaching.

“You have to look at it in terms of what’s doable politically,” he said. “In the past six years, it wasn’t going to happen. There’s a different Congress now, and you’re going to have a different president. Things could change, and we think that will re-emerge.”

But Gauvin said TU hasn’t ignored salmon and steelhead issues.

TU was at the forefront of the court battle that overturned a federal judge’s decision to allow counting hatchery salmon along with threatened wild salmon under Endangered Species Act rules.

“Probably the biggest contribution we have made to Columbia and Snake salmon and steelhead in the last six years was overturning U.S. district judge Michael Hogan’s decision,” he said. “Had the federal government been able to do what it wanted to do, it pretty much could have swamped those wild fish with a lot of hatchery fish and claimed that they were actually recovered.”

Access not part of TU’s primary mission

Gauvin defended TU’s reluctance to get involved in stream access, which is a divisive issue, especially in states like Montana where private landowners can block access to prime trout streams.

Access is not part of TU’s primary mission of habitat protection restoration, and in some cases could detract from it, he said.

“I’ve never been afraid to take risks where litigation or advocacy is concerned when it’s something that’s clearly within the mission,” Gauvin said. “(Access) is not something that’s clearly within the mission. It’s very important to the membership, however, and the membership should get involved. Whether Trout Unlimited is the correct vehicle to get involved in (access issues) is a different matter.”

TU looks toward the next 50 years

Trout Unlimited turns 50 in 2009, and Gauvin said he foresees the organization “scaling up.”

Gauvin said TU hopes to expand its programs and instead of $2 million projects, he envisions $10 to $30 million projects that could change national and state water policies.

“It costs money not only to create these legal institutions, but because people have water rights. Ultimately, you have to pay them something if they’re not going to use them,” he said.

He also envisions broad habitat restoration, which he said is important for trout and salmon species because their historic ranges have shrunk drastically in the last century.

“It’s scary,” he said. “If you want to expand that (range), the need to scale up becomes really apparent.”

Roger Phillips: 373-6615

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