An unlikely case study for trout conservation: Arizona

From securing national monuments to scaling up multi-million-dollar projects, Arizona’s policy and restoration work is ready to take center stage.

Yes, Arizona has native trout. And, yes, we have quite an advocate for them in Nathan Rees, Trout Unlimited’s Arizona state lead.

A family man in the Phoenix Valley, Rees’s role is pivotal to TU’s advocacy and restoration efforts across the state, specifically benefitting three major entities we all love: the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River and the native Apache trout.

His collective work on these three things, detailed below, earned him recognition as the Arizona Game and Fish Commission’s Conservationist of the Year in 2024.

When he’s not focused on the Colorado River or the state’s ephemeral, intermittent and perennial streams, you can find him fishing in Arizona’s high country.

Here’s what’s in his fly box for Apache trout country:

Time of Year	Streams	Local Fly Shop	Tips & Tricks
June – October (watch for monsoons come July-September)	– West Fork Little Colorado River (hike into the Mt Baldy Wilderness) – Headwaters of the West Fork Black River (above our Thompson-Burro Meadow project) – Bear Wallow Creek (in the Bear Wallow Wilderness)	AZ Fly Shop	Any gnat, mosquito, mayfly, caddisfly or stonefly imitation will work, as well as terrestrial patterns such as ants, beetles or hoppers. Tying as a dropper rig will always increase your chances Like fishing for any wild trout, identify good looking habitat and cautiously approach. Drift your fly right on the edge of an undercut bank.

Rees’s advocacy work pays off

For years, Rees led TU’s efforts to protect the greater Grand Canyon region from future uranium mining. And, following two decades of local collaboration by tribal nations, anglers and hunters, sporting businesses, local leaders, conservation groups and many Arizonans, 2023 saw the designation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.

The monument designation truly represented a yearslong, comprehensive and locally led campaign to identify the benefits and alleviate the concerns of Arizonans about how best to protect and preserve this special place.

To achieve this balance, it meant that the nearly 1 million-acre national monument would grandfather in 600+ valid mining claims, allow for the continued operation of the active uranium mining operation at the Pinyon Plain Mine (located about six miles south of the southern entrance to Grand Canyon National Park) and address the concerns of sportsmen and sportswomen by ensuring hunting and angling access remain in place.

In short, generations of people felt the adverse impacts of the history of mining near one of our nation’s most prized places —Grand Canyon National Park— and led the push for monument designation while also recognizing the need to preserve this unique landscape for future generations to enjoy.

A project to improve habitat resiliency for trout

Since then, Rees has led TU’s expansion into restoration projects in Arizona, including our new, $1.8 million priority restoration project in the Thompson-Burro Meadow, which is located near the community of Alpine close to the border of New Mexico.

This area is a pivotal nexus of conservation. Not only do the streams and rivers in this area feed the Phoenix valley and Colorado River, but they are also home to the state’s native Apache trout and are part of the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in the United States. This area is also still recovering from the impacts of the 2011 Wallow Fire in Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, which burned the landscape and overwhelmed the river systems causing channel incision and erosion, which led to the loss of instream habitat and floodplain connectivity critical to groundwater storage and functioning riparian and wetland wildlife habitats.

Because of the variety of benefits, this project was able to secure funding from U.S. Forest Service – TU Keystone/Regional Agreements, the Bureau of Reclamation – WaterSMART Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, CK Blueshift, and BlueCommons ReBeaver Restoration Fund. The Bonneville Environmental Foundation and World Resources Institute have also joined as project partners, helping to bring in additional funders, such as Microsoft and the Caterpillar Foundation.

And, as a result, this project will restore approximately 3.5 miles of stream, reconnect 128 acres of wet meadows and inject millions of dollars into Arizona’s rural economies through local contractors and suppliers. It will also make the area more resilient to drought and wildfire to the benefit of Arizona’s communities.

Apache Trout

While most of the credit to the conservation of this species goes to the foresightedness of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, federal agencies relied upon on a species assessment by an interdisciplinary group led by TU’s science team to formally delist the Apache trout from the Endangered Species Act in 2024.

Why is that important? Because it became the first trout or salmon species—ever—to be removed from protection of the Endangered Species Act thanks to species recovery.

Our Thompson-Burro Meadow Restoration builds upon the decades-long efforts of the White Mountain Apache Tribe and agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department to restore the health of these populations and their natural habitats.

For these reasons, we put a spotlight on our Arizona team, and especially their leader, Nate Rees, for its work to better the rivers and native species in their backyard—even if there are cactuses between them.