Nov 2025| View Upcoming Events

November 2025 Newsletter

It’s November and a time for us to be thankful. Most of us are thankful that the prolonged Washington impasse may be finally ending. The constant barrage of pompous politicians haranguing one another may soon be over (we hope).

The temperatures are cooler, and although not quite “frost-on-the-pumpkin” type days, our triple digit days are behind us for a while. And while the temperatures are cooling, our activities are beginning to heat up.

We host a series of Salt River Saturdays with our Fishing Club partners, Desert Flycasters Club (DFC), and Arizona Fly Casters Club (AFC), and of course with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD).

We begin with our first Salt River Saturday on November 15th and continue through April. Look for additional announcements later this month. We scheduled the Salt River Saturdays as follows:

• November 15, 2025
• December 13, 2025
• January 3, 2026
• January 17, 2026
• February 7, 2026
• February 21, 2026
• March 7, 2026
• March 21, 2026
• April 4, 2026
• April 18, 2026

Look for announcements later in the newsletter and in your inbox.

Zane Grey Chapter is expanding, so we’ll have a series of Pint Nights around Western and Northern Arizona. Our next TU on Tap will be at Spokes on Southern, November 6. This will also serve as a membership meeting. Come out and support your chapter. Look for an announcement and more details later in the newsletter. Stop by and say hello, and better yet bring a friend. We plan these as an occasional series of live meetings for our members. So, stay tuned … there are more to come!

Scroll down to the volunteer section to learn more and look for a follow up email addressed to Zane Grey members asking for your help and support.

Your ZGTU board asks that as you read this newsletter, please think about how you would like to join in and help promote fishing, conservation, education, and love of nature. You may contact me or any board member to let us know about your ideas.

We hope you can join us, or better yet volunteer to help with these many and varied activities. 

Until then, 

Tight Lines. 

• Alan Davis

Coming up in Zane Grey Land

November 6th Pint Night Tempe!

We would love to see our members and interested parties from the East Valley! We have another pint night coming up on Nov 6th at 6:00PM. We'll be back at Spokes on Southern in Tempe. We have some fun activities planned and more than likely a raffle! Who knows, your first drink may even be on us! Come out and share some fish stories, learn about AZTU's exciting partnership with Odysea Aquarium and upcoming habitat projects!

Salt River Saturday Clean Up!

Our first clean up of the season is coming up on November 15th! The weather is balmy, the area beautiful and the fishing good! Come on out and spend Saturday morning in the outdoors doing good for the land! We'll bring the coffee and muffins! Register here

Arizona Fly Casters Club (AFC) is holding its monthly meeting on Nov 11th at 6pm. Speaker if Garrett Lesko, he's been an avid fly fisherman since high school and will be sharing from his years of learning! Meeting is held at the Arizona American Italian Club, 7509 N 12th St, Phoenix, AZ.

Desert Fly Casters Club (DFC) monthly meeting November 12th 6:30pm.Those in the East Valley will also be able to be with Garrett Lesko at the Elks Lodge in Chandler when he presents at DFC meeting on November 12th!

And, if you need to renew your TU membership you can do it here easily. This link should take you directly to the renewal page.

October Meeting Summary

The AZ Council of Trout Unlimited Public Policy Committee (AZTU-PPC) held its normal monthly meeting on Thursday, October 9, 2025, at 7:00 pm. The PPC meeting did not have an external speaker in October 2025, as the meeting was devoted to developing a list of Arizona specific conservation agenda items to be adopted into the Trout Unlimited National Conservation Agenda. Given the lengthy list of agenda items generated by the PPC members at the meeting, this TU National Conservation Agenda list will be discussed further at upcoming PPC meetings to get the list refined and shortened.

Legislative Update

The state legislature is not now in session. We do anticipate numerous bills supporting public land sales will be forthcoming in the 2026 legislative session, and TU will be engaging and educating certain legislators about TU's objection to public land sales and to the rescission of the Roadless Rule by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In June 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its intention to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule. The rescission notice was posted on August 27, 2025, in the Federal Register. Without the Roadless Rule, 45 million acres of National Forest land across the country impacting fish and wildlife habitat will be open to harmful development! TU National is now encouraging all state Councils and chapters to start a mailing campaign from TU members to congressmen and congresswomen to stop the discontinuance of the Roadless Rule.

The National Office of Trout Unlimited has created a new TU Advocacy Champions online community group. If you are interested in receiving the periodic emails from the Advocacy Champions, please email Doug Agee at doug.agee@tu.org and request to be put on the email list.

Groundwater Management in Rural Arizona

Tom Osterday - Past Chair AZTU PPC

The Rural Water Working Group will be having our Annual In-person Meeting on November 14th from 8:30 to 3:30. The event will be at the Red mountain Campus of Mesa Community College. Speakers include Patrick Adams, the Governor's Water Policy Advisor; Jen Loredo, the Governor's Legislative & Policy Director; Ben Bryce, the Assistant Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR); Kris Mayes, Arizona's Attorney General; Kevin Moran, VP of Regional Affairs for the Environmental Defense Fund; and Kathy Ferris, Senior Research Fellow at the Kyl Center for Water Policy of ASU. If you are interested in participating, please contact Tom Osterday at tgosterday@gmail.com. We will be providing an update on the event in the December newsletter.



Upcoming Public Policy Events

The next regular scheduled AZTU-PPC monthly Teams meeting will be held on Thursday, November 13, 2025, at 7:00 pm. Our meeting will have a speaker: Ty Churchwell, the mining coordinator with TU National, who will provide an update on the Good Samaritan regulations and the Abandoned Mine Remediation Act. Part of the meeting will also be devoted to various AZTU-PPC member updates and the refinement of an AZ specific conservation agenda items to be adopted into the Trout Unlimited National Conservation Agenda.

The AZTU-Public Policy Committee hosts a virtual Teams meeting on the second Thursday of the month at 7:00 PM until 8:00 PM. If you are interested, please contact Ron Stearns at PublicPolicyChair@az-tu.org.

Join us as we host a series of Salt River Saturdays with our Fishing Club partners, Desert Fly Casters Club (DFC), and Arizona Fly Casters Club (AFC), and of course with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD).

1st clean up of the season Saturday November 15th! Click to Register Now!

We've set our dates for the cooler season! Come out and join us for some coffee, camaraderie and clean up! Bring your fishing rod you don't want to pass up a chance for some great fishing do you?

The Arizona Council consolidated the Arizona Trout Unlimited chapters. Effective January 1, 2025, much of eastern and southern Arizona, Kingman and Navajo County east and south including White Mountains: Show Low, Greer, etc., is becoming a part of the Old Pueblo Chapter based in Tucson.

The Mogollon Rim, and areas west of Kingman, including Flagstaff, Lees Ferry and the Colorado River down to Yuma become part of the "new" Zane Grey Chapter based in Phoenix. The below map will give you some idea of the new alignments. The Green areas are the new Zane Grey Chapter, while the Blue areas are the Old Pueblo Chapter's new alignment. The non colored areas are National parks, Military reservations, or other government areas, do not have postal delivery Zip code, and few if any residents.

The Arizona Sportsmen for Wildlife Conservation (AZSFWC) license plate fund is derived from the sale of wildlife conservation license plates and member organizations as well as non-member organizations are eligible to apply for those funds. 

The Arizona TU Council and Chapters have received funds over the past thirteen years to support the Annual Native and Wild Trout Conferences, Fish Camp, Trout in the Classroom program and various conservation projects.

The next time your registration comes up for renewal, choose the conservation license plate option at registration to show your support for conservation and our projects. 

Social Media: 

Check out our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/zanegreytu Check out the Instagram page for

Arizona of Trout Unlimited: @Trout_Unlimited_Arizona

If you're more traditional, try signing up for the private Facebook group: Arizona Women of Trout Unlimited.

Below is a list of fishing organizations in Arizona. Feel free to join, explore, visit their websites or attend a meeting to find out more information:

Make sure to follow our Instagram @Trout_Unlimited_Arizona