California Trout
California Trout is a San Francisco-based 501(c)(3) conservation group dedicated to “protecting and restoring wild trout and steelhead waters throughout California”.
They are the only organization focused exclusively on protecting and restoring wild trout, salmon, steelhead and their waters throughout California.
They currently focus their efforts around three conservation initiatives:
- Restoring Steelhead & Salmon
- Saving Imperiled Native Trout
- Protecting California’s Blue Ribbon Waters
Initially organized in the mid-1960s as a local unit of Trout Unlimited, the founders formed CalTrout during Christmas week of 1970 and filed papers of incorporation the following January. Among its founding officers and board members were a doctor, an insurance broker, a public relations executive, a tackle shop owner and a real estate agent.
Today the organization boasts over 7000 dues-paying members, five regional offices and a full-time presence in Sacramento. Its headquarters is in San Francisco.
Organizational highlights include:
- 1971: Was the first non-governmental organization (NGO) in the USA to successfully intervene in a federal re-licensing of a hydropower project (PG&E's Potter Valley Project on the Eel River).
- 1971: Proposed and won Fish and Game Commission approval of a statewide Wild Trout Program to balance natural systems against hatchery supported systems.
- 1972: Led the charge for the creation of the California Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (signed by Governor Ronald Reagan).
- 1977: Purchased and still maintains the only free public fishing access to Fall River (Shasta County), one of the nation's largest spring-fed rivers. Also sponsored first of two national Catch-and-Release symposia leading to the establishment of C&R as a modern angling ethic.
- 1979: Sponsored the Trout and Steelhead Conservation and Management Act. Signed by Governor Jerry Brown, the law made wild trout management codified state policy.
- 1989-90: Co-founded the Smith River Alliance, then lobbied and won congressional approval of the Smith River National Recreation Area (NRA)to protect and manage the entire watershed. Signed by President George H.W. Bush.
- 1990-91: Won two lawsuits to return water to four tributaries of Mono Lake. This water had been diverted to Los Angeles for decades, depleting several blue-ribbon trout fisheries and dropping water levels for Mono Lake. In legal circles these precedent-setting rulings are known as CalTrout I and CalTrout II, requiring adequate water for fish below dams.
- 2001: Helped craft the Heritage Trout Program within the California Department of Fish and Game. The program protects California's eleven native trout species.
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