In This Section

Savor Bristol Bay at the Alaska State Fair

Come celebrate wild Bristol Bay salmon during "Wild Salmon Day", August 29th, at the Alaska State Fair. Well-loved Palmer-based restaurant Turkey Red will be preparing Bristol Bay salmon samples from 11:30am - 1:30pm with Bristol Bay salmon recipe cards and cedar grilling planks available to take home with you. Try Anchorage-based Chef Clayton Jones's favorite Bristol Bay salmon recipe here.

Water & Wine

Not sure what wine to have with your wild salmon? Check out one of Trout Unlimited's Water & Wine partners and invest your dollars in a winery that's investing in the future of our wild salmon

WW Business Partners

Wondering where to go to dinner or where to buy some wild salmon? Check out our growing list of WhyWild Business Partners with businesses all over the country committed to sustainable wild salmon fisheries and doing their part to save wild salmon. View the list

Winter 2009

Trout Unlimited's - Why Wild Campaign

Winter 2009

Welcome to Trout Unlimited's WhyWild quarterly
e-newsletter

WhyWild is Trout Unlimited’s community of consumers, chefs, retailers, businesses, sport and commercial fishermen, processors, and others in the salmon marketplace who value wild Pacific salmon and all that wild salmon support and sustain. To learn more, please visit: www.whywild.org.

Program Director, Elizabeth Dubovsky
419 Sixth Street, Suite 200, Juneau, AK 99801
907.321.7221, whywild@tu.org

Bristol Bay sockeye served in Seattle with conservation message

As part of Trout Unlimited’s Red Gold debut in Seattle last November, Bristol Bay sockeye salmon was prepared by Slow Food Seattle Chefs, Craig Hetherington of Taste Restaurant and Kevin Davis of Steelhead Diner.  Hundreds of people attended the two Red Gold screening events, got a chance to enjoy Bristol Bay sockeye salmon and learned about the proposed Pebble project -- what would be North America’s largest open-pit gold and copper mine developed in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska, the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

As part of the event, Taste Restaurant featured Bristol Bay sockeye salmon on their menu for several days as a way to show their support for the Bristol Bay salmon fishery.  So, next time you’re out at your favorite restaurant, ask where the salmon is from and if it’s Bristol Bay Wild.

»More about TU's award-winning documentary film Red Gold 
»More about Bristol Bay's salmon fishery

Salmon Conservation Updates

Pristine Alaska salmon habitat at risk of becoming mining district

Bristol Bay watershed - photo by Ben Knight
Photo by Ben Knight
At the end of 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a new management plan that would open nearly one million acres of U.S. federal land in southwestern Alaska best known for its rich salmon runs and abundant wildlife to oil, gas and mineral exploration development.  The management plan covers up to 1.9 million acres near Bristol Bay – one of our nation’s last wild salmon strongholds - that, up to now, had been off-limits to development and belong to two of our nation’s most prized National Parks: Lake Clark and Katmai.

Thankfully, it’s not too late to weigh in on the BLM’s Record of Decision, which was recently pushed through at the end of the Bush Administration.  With the new Obama Administration in Washington, we now have an opportunity to encourage the BLM to retract this rushed decision on Bristol Bay’s pristine lands and waters. 

Write your local delegation and the Obama Administration, requesting that the BLM reopen the Bristol Bay Resource Management Plan (RMP) planning process and protect Bristol Bay’s salmon and wildlife resources for both local users as well as all Americans.

»Learn more about TU's efforts to protect Bristol Bay
 

Plans underway to restore the Deschutes River and its fisheries 

Trout Unlimited has been working to improve conditions in Oregon’s legendary Deschutes River Basin for more than a decade.  The Deschutes is home to one of North America’s most beautiful native fish, the Columbia Basin redband trout, as well as robust populations of Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed bull trout.  Also moving forward is an effort to reintroduce ESA-protected steelhead and Pacific salmon into historic habitat in the upper basin. 

The Upper Deschutes is impacted by a legacy of land use practices common throughout the West, such as large-scale agriculture, dense livestock grazing, and forestry operations. It is also facing new threats from the rapid and steady encroachment of suburban development, destination resorts and the ever-increasing demands of outdoor enthusiasts.

Recently, TU announced plans to name the Upper Deschutes River Basin as its newest Home Rivers Initiative (HRI) Project. The HRI program is a staffed, member-driven program, focused primarily on watershed-based restoration, and has a track record of strengthening and engaging chapters in areas where the program operates.  Through engagement of ranchers, farmers, anglers, sportsmen, developers, local government and agencies, and communities, we can build a constituency for the river that will be the core of a conservation ethic for the region.

»More about TU's HRI program  »TU's Deschutes River Chapter


Grape growers bringing back California’s salmon through Water and Wine

Water and Wine logo

In response to dwindling wild salmon populations in California’s streams and rivers, TU is partnering with grape growers in Northern California Wine Country and working with them to adopt water management practices that restore and reconnect critical salmon and steelhead habitat on their properties.
 
Launched in March 2008, the Water and Wine Program brings together agricultural interests, urban water users, other conservation groups, state and federal water agencies, and local governments to seek solutions that ensure reliable water for both wild fish and grape growers.  Together, we’re tackling the dysfunction in California’s water rights system and turning California’s wet winters and dry summers into opportunities rather than obstacles for wild salmon and growers alike.  
 
»See if your favorite California wine is a Water and Wine partner


Vote With Your Fork

Vote with your Fork

Support businesses that are committed to wild Pacific salmon and the protection of their habitat. If you are a business and would like to join and be featured on our WhyWild Business Partner List, then you can do so online.

»View our business partners, or become one



From the kitchen

Delicious&healthy salmon

Chef Kevin Davis, founder/owner of Seattle’s Steelhead Diner, works everyday to provide his customers with high quality, sustainable, healthy food, including wild Pacific salmon.  An avid fly-fisherman, Davis values wild salmon both in his kitchen and in the Northwest’s streams and rivers.

»Steelhead Diner’s Tomato-Crusted Bristol Bay Sockeye Salmon Recipe



Know your salmon

While the majority of wild Pacific salmon is caught during the summer months, you can actually enjoy wild Pacific salmon year-round.  How?...

Southeast Alaska is home to a winter troll fishery, which produces high-quality Chinook (or king) salmon products sold fresh through the winter. You can also buy frozen-at-sea wild salmon (most often coho or sockeye salmon) which is a great year-round option that delivers delicious taste and human health benefits enjoyed by eating wild Pacific salmon.  Canned wild salmon (often pink or sockeye salmon) is another healthy way to enjoy wild salmon during the long winter months.

»Become a savvy salmon shopper



You are receiving this email because this email address is associated with a Trout Unlimited membership or has signed up to recieve information about TU's pacific Salmon Initiatives. To modify your communication preferences or update your profile, please contact us tollfree 1-800-834-2419 or by emailing trout@tu.org.

Trout Unlimited
1300 N. 17th Street
Suite 500
Arlington, VA 22209