June 2026| View Upcoming Events

June 2026 Newsletter

Welcome to the June newsletter. With the summer here it brings increased opportunities to enjoy all the wonderful outdoor opportunities that Arizona has to offer - fishing, hiking, camping and conservation work. With our warm and dry spring please take extra precautions when you head outdoors. Fire danger in Arizona remains very high.

The Arizona Game & Fish Department recently launched it's "Fish250 Challenge" to coincide with the America250 celebrations. You can find more information about this new program at State launches 'Fish250' challenge to get anglers celebrating America250 .

June begins our seventh season of hosting AZTU Fish Camp. This years camp will be held June 22- 28 in Payson, AZ. To date we have 23 young people signed up for camp. More information on Fish Camp can be found later in this newsletter.

Arizona Trout Unlimited Public Policy Committee monitors legislation developments at both the state and federal level. This monitoring is designed to ensure that we have a voice in ensuring laws are passed that protect our cold water resources. The recent rapid development of data centers across the country has created environmental impact concerns, specifically as it relates to water usage.  As a result of these concerns Trout Unlimited has developed a policy statement regarding data center development.  The Policy can be found here data center policy and additional information on this policy can be found at this accompanying website.

We recently learned that NPR did a piece on TU's Trout in the Classroom program.

It's a very inspiring piece. If you 'd like to listen to it it can be found at the following link NPR TIC Segment

This past school year 44 schools and approximately 4,500 students were engaged with Trout Unlimited's Trout in the Classroom program. We are already in the process of signing up schools for the upcoming school year.

We encourage you to join us for our upcoming activities. Click here and visit our webpage to see the various events we have scheduled. We’ll continue to update these events, so check back frequently.

Finally, we would like to thank all our volunteers and supporters for their continued dedication to Trout Unlimited and our mission. We could not do what we do without your support, and we are grateful for each and every one of you.

Should you have questions about these projects, please don’t hesitate to contact me.  I can be reached at president@zanegreytu.org.

Tom Goodwin

Chapter President

Conservation

Club Meetings

Arizona Flycasters Club (AFC) is holding its monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 9th at 6pm. Speaker this month is Board member Tom Knight and Bryon Conrad, topis is Fishing in Argentina!

Desert Fly Casters Club (DFC) DFC's monthly meeting is June 10th 6:30pm. We don't have information on their speaker at this time!They meet at the Elks Lodge in Chandler.

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.

The 17th Annual Native and Wild Trout Conference was held on April 23^rd at the AZGFD headquarters with over 100 attendees.

Posting of the conference agenda and presentations will be made available in June.



May Meeting Summary

The AZ Council of Trout Unlimited Public Policy Committee (AZ TU PPC) held its normal monthly meeting on Thursday, May 14, 2026, at 7:00 pm. Our guest speaker was Jess Raty, the Legislative Policy Administrator for the Arizona Game & Fish Department (AZGFD). Jess stated that all of the bills the AZGFD was following, no bad bills to date have made it to the Governor's office for signature. Jess's call to action was to support the Department's request for a one-time $11 million appropriation of sportsmen's dollars for the rehabilitation of fish hatcheries and ponds facility in AZ. AZGFD's request is not a true appropriation in that "No" State general fund dollars will be spent by the AZGFD. All of the funds to be spent come from the licenses and tags paid by sportsmen and sportswomen! Jess requested that we call our state senators and representatives to request that they support the AZGFD $11 million appropriation!

Legislative Update

The state legislature is near the end of the regular 2026 session and the lawmakers are focused on the fiscal 2027 budget. TU had engaged and educated certain legislators on why AZ TU objects to large public land sales without Congressional approval and to the rescission of the Roadless Rule by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). AZ TU was following SB 1068 regarding the Arizona State Legislature and Governor approval for the sale of private land transfers to the federal government which effectively died in committee and is no longer moving. AZ TU has been following HB 2758 regarding groundwater that is discussed below.

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! The Forest Service has nearly $11 billion of deferred maintenance currently on 370,000 miles of roads in our National Forests; do we really need additional roads? 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 USDA is in the rule-making process to rescind the Roadless Rule and expects to finalize the repeal in 2026.

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 AZ TU PPC

 We have not seen significant bill movement at the Capitol over the last few weeks as a result of the bill signing moratorium in effect by the Governor. Governor Hobbs recently lifted the moratorium. On Monday 4/27, the House and Senate Republican leadership published a budget and is currently debating this budget. We anticipate, because this is not an agreed upon budget between the AZ Legislature and Executive Office, this budget will stall or be vetoed. There has been little progress on the bills we are tracking closely, including HB2758 the McMullen groundwater transfer legislation. Here's the background on HB2758:

This bill authorizes McMullen Valley Basin water to be transported to Phoenix, Tucson or Pinal to benefit the private equity firm, Water Asset Management (WAM). WAM has purchased thousands of acres, not to farm them, but to sell the water associated with the land. While this transfer is a concern, the bigger concern is that this could become the new standard for taking water from rural communities to support growth in metro areas. At the writing of this newsletter, this bill has passed the House and passed the Natural Resources Committee in the Senate and is awaiting a floor vote in the Senate.

Colorado River Water Steewardship

Tom Osterday - Past Chair AZ TU PPC

On May 14, TU published a very interesting article on our partnership with over 70 other conservation groups to advocate for legislation to provide significant funding to address the Colorado River water crisis:

"Trout Unlimited Joins Colorado River Basin Cities, Businesses, Farmers, Utilities, and Conservationists to Call for $2 Billion in Federal Drought Funding"

Read the article HERE



Upcoming Public Policy Events

The next regular scheduled AZ TU PPC monthly meeting will be held on Thursday, June 11, 2026, at 7:00 pm. Our guest speaker for our June 2026 meeting will be Ed Sanchez, the Legislative and Government Affairs Chief with the Arizona Game & Fish Department, and he will provide an update on certain activities of the 2026 AZ Legislative Session.

The AZ TU Public Policy Committee hosts a virtual 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.



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