Trout Unlimited uses all available tools to protect treasured landscapes and two examples of this in recent years are found in Arizona and Oregon. In these states, Trout Unlimited helped secure administrative moratoriums on mineral extraction to protect critical wildlife and fisheries habitat.  

In 2012, the U.S. Department of the Interior issued a “time-out” on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon in Arizona to study its impacts on the water, wildlife and habitat of the region. Trout Unlimited supported then-Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar who implemented a 20-year moratorium.    

The Grand Canyon and surrounding national forests contain cold-water streams that feed the Colorado River and sustain wild fish, including the Apache trout. Apache trout, a native of the White Mountains far to the southeast of the canyon, were introduced many decades ago in one of the canyon’s coldwater streams. It is the state fish of Arizona and is listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act. This landscape is wildlife-rich and includes the world-famous North Kaibab trophy mule deer herd as well as elk, bighorn sheep and even bison. The longest migration corridor of mule deer in the state runs north from here into winter range in Utah.  

Water in this area is scarce and small seeps and streams provide conduits for contamination to locations far from the original source. The risk of contamination to the region’s lands and waters is  high and 15 documented springs and seeps have uranium levels exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard.  In addition, roads and utilities built and used by the mines would disrupt migration paths of big game animals,  affecting  reproductive success . The vast majority — 92 percent — of the mining claims in this region are owned by foreign companies  which have a checkered history of  evading  cleanup costs.   

Most recently, Trout Unlimited has organized angler and hunter support for Congressman Raul Grijalva’s legislation to place a permanent uranium mineral withdrawal on one million acres around the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act. With leadership of Arizona’s grassroots Trout Unlimited members, this bill passed in the House on October of 2019 and by December companion legislation was introduced by Arizona’s U.S. Sen. Krysten Sinema, S.3127

To date, Trout Unlimited has the formal support from the Coconino County, the city of Flagstaff, conservation groups, 300 local businesses, and more than 10,000 individual signers. With the momentum and support Trout Unlimited has already generated, he organization will continue working with Sen. Sinema to pass the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act, designating this area around the Grand Canyon as a permanently withdrawn from mineral production and securing the future of outdoor recreation for the next generation.

Trout Unlimited has always operated on sound science and a pragmatic approach to find solutions to dynamic problems. Trout Unlimited is not anti-mining, nor is it anti-uranium mining, but when it comes to the Grand Canyon and the potential impacts on wildlife and the outdoor recreation economy in Northern Arizona, permanent protection makes sense.

At the same time, many miles to the north, Trout Unlimited staff were working to secure a mineral withdrawal on a unique landscape on Oregon’s coast. The Kalmiopsis Wilderness area in remote southwest Oregon boasts some of the rarest plant life on the planet. Darlingtonia pitcher plants found nowhere else on Earth make their living in the seeps and fens along the steep rugged slopes of this semi-arid, coastal mountain range.

A multitude of small creeks and streams tumble out of these mountains and form rivers that flow into the Pacific Ocean. In these rivers and streams, Endangered Species Act-listed Coho salmon return each fall and winter to perpetuate their species. Wild winter steelhead, Chinook salmon, cutthroat trout as well as big game species such as blacktail deer, Roosevelt elk and black bear all call the Kalmiopsis home. Moreover, these game animals and high quality fisheries provide a robust recreational economy, attracting hunters and anglers the world over to an area where economic diversity is highly valued.

A foreign-owned mining company set its sights on developing a massive nickel mine here. Intent on steamrolling over local opposition, the mining company instead found itself against the largest, most diverse coalition ever formed in the politically conservative stronghold of rural Oregon and Northern California. It was a sight to behold at public meetings in Grants Pass (east side, interior of the wilderness area) and the coastal communities from Brookings, up the coast to Gold Beach. Led by TU, and including environmental groups, native peoples, timber folks, farmers, commercial fishermen and angler/hunters, the opposition was fierce. All joined together and opposed this industrial mine. In the end, the agencies received tens of thousands of written comments opposing the mine and a 20-year mineral withdrawal in support of legislation was ordered.