It was a toasty September but jammed with cool end-of-summer fly angler outings that ranged from fishy to films. Let’s start with the biggies. 

On Saturday, September 23, AZ Fly Shop and their myriad of sponsors hosted the Third Annual Carp Rally as a prelude to the Fly Fish Film Tour at Moon Valley Country Club the following day. Both events were extremely well-attended and raised a lot of cash for Homeless ID, Casting for Recovery and the Arizona Council of Trout Unlimited. The most fish netted for top honors at the Carp Rally went to Scott and Henry Waggy.

The Arizona Council of Trout Unlimited and the Grand Canyon Council of Boy Scouts of America started the summer with an intensive three weeks of Fish Camp at R-C Scout Ranch in the high country. It is a remarkable collaboration between two of Arizona’s leading stewards of outdoor life. And, it was only fitting that some of us end the summer together on New Mexico’s San Juan River with a fly rod in our hands and big trout in the nets.

The Third Annual Fly Fishing Invitational was held Sept. 14-17 at the Soaring Eagle Lodge overlooking the San Juan River. On hand were GCC board members, including CGC President Tom Curzon, GCC CEO and Scout Executive Andy Price, Arizona Council of TU Chair and Zane Grey Chapter president, Alan Davis (our Fish Camp honcho) and yours truly. It was inspiring fellowship and a spectacular end to the summer. And the fishing was crazy good. 

Coming up in October in Zane Grey land. 

Arizona Fly Casters has its monthly meeting on Tuesday, October 10, 6-8:30 p.m. at the Arizona American Italian Club, 7509 N. 12th St., Phoenix, AZ. This month’s speaker is Bryce Sisson, Manager of the Tonto Creek Hatchery. Bryce is young man, but a legend among Arizona’s anglers. In 1999 he caught the state record brown trout in Reservation Lake and that record still holds. www.azflycasters.org for info.

Desert Fly Casters will hold its monthly meeting on Wednesday, October 11, 6-8:30 p.m. at the Elks Lodge, 1775 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler, AZ. This month’s speaker is Pat Vermillion of Sweetwater Travel, owner of Copper River Lodge and Royal Coachman Lodge in Alaska. www.desertflycasters.com 

JUST A REMINDER: If your TU membership has lapsed, please take a moment and renew. Our Zane Grey TU team is doing great work and we need you! And after you’ve re-upped, tell a friend to join us. New members get an introductory half-price membership here. Pass it on. Here’s the renewal membership link. Click here to renew.

Here's a link to an interesting story from Alaska about one of the numerous award winning projects TU is responsible for around the nation. Trout Unlimited in Alaska.

Trout Unlimited's Annual Conference:

CX3 - Spokane

Community * Coldwater * Conservation

Over the five-day period of September 27 – October 1, 2023, Trout Unlimited held its annual conference in Spokane, Washington. Called “CX3” for Community, Coldwater, and Conservation, the five-days were full of leader training, dam tours, breakout sessions, the ‘State of TU’ and annual meeting, national Trout Unlimited staff presentations, discussions with government and tribal officials, keynote speeches by fly-fishing industry professionals, a bit of local fishing, and a few happy hours.

But perhaps the most important things that happened was the Trout Unlimited Board of Trustees elected our very own Susan Geer as a Board of Trustees Grassroots Member. Succeeding Susan as the Arizona National Leadership Council Representative is Zane Grey Chapter Vice President, Tom Goodwin. Congratulations to both Susan and Tom.

During the Annual State of Trout Unlimited, Chris Wood, President, and CEO, presented an inspiring and powerful look at the incredible work you, and TU volunteers nationally make through tireless dedication and commitments to TU. President Wood highlighted the “incredible accomplishments” of Arizona’s work in the Apache Trout removal from the Endangered Species Act, and the creation of the Grand Canyon monument. If you’d like to hear him directly, click Facebook. The Apace Trout comments begin at 9:38, and the Grand Canyon Monument comments begin at 30:08.  

Arizona’s contingency included Zane Grey Chapter members Susan Geer, Arthur Greenway, and Alan Davis, and Old Pueblo Chapter member and Arizona Council Secretary Steve Reiter. 

Native Trout Workgroup booth at CX3 Portland in 2022

The Native Trout Workgroup facilitates grassroots implementation of Trout Unlimited’s National Conservation Agenda related to protecting our cold water native salmonid species. The scope of the workgroup activity is nationwide. The workgroup facilitates education, awareness, restoration, and science projects related to native salmonid species. The workgroup provides information related to native species through a web page on TU’s website and serves as an advocate for Councils and Chapters on issues related to native species.

This active workgroup invites excellent guest speakers to present interesting, educational and science based topics at their monthly Zoom meetings. Some recent presentation topics include Programmatic Environment Impact Statements on renewable energy projects, Brook Trout Genetics and fish piscicides, Idaho trout stocking policies and native trout conservation, and TU’s critical mineral report and Geographic Information System (GIS) critical minerals mapping tool. In addition, to promote awareness, workgroup members attend and display native trout posters at TU annual meetings, Regional Rendezvous, and fly fishing trade shows. 

This year to facilitate education the workgroup supported partners in the preparation and distribution of the Coastal Cutthroat Trout poster. The workgroup initiated a project to collect State native and wild trout management plans and other educational materials to make available in the workgroup’s resources web page for reference by TU Councils and Chapters to help execute local Priority Waters plans. Members also drafted pamphlets to educate the public on native trout and the threat of non-native fish. In March, the workgroup supported TU comments in response to the Bureau of Land Management solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement scoping comments. Recently, the workgroup supported TU comments in response to the Department of Interior’s proposed rule for solar and wind development on public lands. 

Some of the workgroup’s next steps for 2023 and beyond will:

• Review the workgroup’s charter and mission to develop goals and metrics that align with TU’s National Strategic Plan.
• Develop native trout educational brochures/pamphlets and assist partners in developing and distributing new native trout posters.
• Support the TU Priority Waters initiative by assisting States and Councils to develop native and wild trout management plans, and making available information resources that describe standard criteria or methodology to identify road culverts and other obstacles that are barriers to aquatic organism passage. 

Workgroup members include NLC members and TU volunteers. They come from diverse backgrounds with exceptional educational, professional and citizen science experience. Members are valued enthusiastic contributors to the workgroup’s activities and accomplishments. Workgroup members actively support native trout restoration, with emphasis on Yellowstone Cutthroat restoration and the Yellowstone Fly Fishing Volunteer Program. 

All TU volunteers are invited to join the workgroup and be part of the fun and rewarding educational experience. This workgroup meets on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 8:00 p.m. Eastern via Zoom. Contact Eric Eric Tichay, Workgroup Chair.

Yes, I'm Fishing Alone:

Self-Defense for the Outdoors

Virtual Class - October 24 at 7:00 MST

Ever been worried about your personal safety when fishing or hiking or traveling solo? Do you want to feel confident and independent venturing out on your own? Have you been wanting to learn some badass, simple, and effective self-defense moves for your fishing, hiking, backpacking, and camping trips? Then join Nicole Snell, an experienced solo hiker, camper and traveler as she teaches practical and realistic self-defense strategies to empower you to feel more confident about exploring the outdoors or wherever your adventure takes you. Safety is often the #1 barrier that keeps people from experiencing the outdoors or going on a trip. Nicole specializes in alleviating that fear and replacing it with education to open up people's access to exploring the outdoors, and the world, on their terms. We are so fortunate to have Nicole available to share her knowledge with us. Check out Nicole's experience at nicolesnell.com.

This is a virtual training hosted on Zoom. The program will be 60-75 minutes plus Q&A. Registration fee is $35.

September Meeting Summary

The AZTU-PPC meeting held in September 2023 included a presentation from Rebecca Davidson with the National Forest Foundation (NFF) and shared with the AZTU-PPC members the goals of the NFF and the projects that the NFF has been involved with in Arizona. We concluded that AZTU-PPC and NFF have a lot of common goals.

Legislative Update

The state legislature is very quiet right now, they passed their budget on May 12th and there is no activity on bills. The only items taking place are confirmation hearings. TU will continue to monitor these hearings and continue building relationships with lawmakers over the Summer and into Fall so we can be productive in the upcoming 2024 session.

Groundwater News in AZ

Groundwater continues to be a hot topic in AZ! Here are two articles published in the Arizona Republic recently:

Arizona won't explain why it has paused leases on some state-owned farmland.

Is the Arizona State Land Department taking steps to reverse a handful of unpopular leases? Or, more widely rethinking water use on state trust land?

Check out the story here:

Water shortfall could halt growth.

Check out the story: here

Upcoming Events

The September 2023 AZTU-PPC Meeting will be held Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 7:00 PM. This meeting will have a presentation from Jennifer Yachnin with E&E News by Politico. She writes about Western water and drought policies. We are anxious to hear from her on her observations.

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

Arizona Trout Unlimited is working on a new spring box and water line at the R-C Scout Ranch near Payson, AZ. The current system is very old and leaks and feeds a pond that is listed as one of the established habitats for the endangered round tail chub. It will also increase the volume of water in Christopher Creek as well as eventually open a new year round fishing area in the creek, about 80 to 100 yards up stream of the spring box. We recently hired a contractor to do the work, but access is very challenging due to overgrown brush in the area. 

We had a workday at R-C Scout Ranch on Saturday, September 29^th that was scheduled from 8:00am to 5:00pm. On that morning nine of us showed up. I was a little worried that we wouldn’t be able to finish all the work we had to get done with only eight people. The work of the day consisted of clearing a path for a waterline from the spring box to the pond, a path for accessing the spring box and clearing out brush from around the existing spring box. 

I am happy to report that, because we had three chain saws and some strong backs, all the work was completed by lunchtime and the contractor has now begun working on the new system. This is a great project in that the pond also provides youth recreational fishing and conservation opportunities.

Rod Buchanan

conservationchair@zanegreytu.org