Conservation

Project Healing Waters

http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/
Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active duty military personnel and veterans through fly fishing and fly tying education and outings.

Grassroots Activist Network

At the center of TU's efforts to raise the profile of coldwater conservation is the Grassroots Activist Network - TU members who have volunteered to contact their members of Congress, Governors, members of state legislatures and natural resource agencies on issues of importance to trout and salmon. Grassroots Activists receive brief summaries or Action Alerts of issues pending before government decision-makers that could harm or help coldwater fisheries, and guidance on how to be an effective voice for trout and salmon.
As we work to protect fish and their waters, we need your support and involvement to carry the conservationist message. To join the Grassroots Activist Network, please send an email containing your mailing address to grassrootsactivist@tu.org

Volunteering - AZ Game & Fish Sport Fishing Program

Email Joe Fagan (JFaganFishEd@gmail.com) with your name, address and zip code to receive a volunteer packet from Game and Fish. For members without email call 730-6398. After completing the packet, go to G&F to get fingerprinted, then send the packet to Phoenix. After a background check you will receive a calendar of events.

Other Conservation Opportunities

Dear OPTU Members,
My name is Erica Sontz, and I am a graduate student at the University of Arizona in the Fisheries Science program. I am also the treasurer of the student chapter of AFS/TU. I realize that our chapter hasn't been very active, but we've just recruited some undergraduate students and we hope to start doing some regular projects in the coming semesters. In the meantime, the undergraduates are about ready to head home for the summer, but the graduate students are still hard at work.
My project involves developing a captive breeding and culture program for two native Arizona fishes of concern: the roundtail chub (Gila robusta) and headwater chub (G. nigra). The roundtail chub is still considered a sportfish species in Arizona, though with the recent listing of the headwater chub as a candidate species, that could change in the future (due to difficulties in telling one from the other). I will be spawning adult broodstock and running some experimental trials over the summer to test different conditions under which to rear these fish in a hatchery setting. The results of my experiments will be used by state (AZGFD) and federal (USFWS, USBR, USBLM)
I am in need of volunteers to help me during the summer months. My research lab is located on the University of Arizona campus, and my propagation lab (which houses the adult broodstock) is located on the West Campus Ag Farm. I can accommodate any kind of time commitment and schedule (from just an hour or two a week to as much as someone wants to offer). In addition, my major advisor has some other native endangered fish species housed in his labs, including the Gila chub (G. intermedia), Yaqui chub (G. purpurea) and Mohave tui chub (Siphateles bicolor mohavensis). We also have a post-doctoral student working on some projects that involve invasive crayfish, with opportunities to go out into the field to sample crayfish populations in a variety of locations (including the White Mtns, so fly fishing on these trips may be an option).
If any OPTU members are interested in native fish husbandry/hatchery techniques, learning about captive breeding program development and evaluation, or working with invasive species, please contact me. If several people are interested in doing a group volunteer effort, maybe combined with a lie and tie at the lab during the volunteer shift, we would be happy to break out a coffee pot and some snacks to accommodate.
My contact information:
Erica Sontz sontz@email.arizona.edu

Conservation - Action Items

A Note From: