Author

Chris Wood

  • Conservation

    Taking action to protect the places we live and love

    This week’s news that the EPA was suspending the Clean Water Act’s protections for headwater streams was a stark reminder that elections have consequences. The previous presidential administration worked for years to write the rule, and the new one doesn’t like it. Game over, right? No. Don’t forget an unassailable fact—elected leaders are elected. By…

  • Conservation

    What does the SCOTUS decision mean for clean water?

    Yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that district courts across the country -- not the circuit courts--should be the first to hear the merits of cases regarding the 2015 Clean Water Rule. In 2015, the Sixth Circuit stayed the Clean Water Rule nationwide. Pending the outcome of litigation in the district courts, yesterday’s decision potentially…

  • Conservation

    Making the world a better place

    TU does more work than any other organization in the country to make fishing better. For example, in Mill Creek, a tributary to the Russian River in California, we worked for seven years with our partners to remove a dam to reopen 14 miles of critical spawning habitat for imperiled Coho salmon. Across the country…

  • Conservation

    Looking back at 2017

    By Chris Wood Last week, I had an hour between meetings in Carmel, California, so I called Tim Frahm, who directs our CA coastal steelhead work. He invited me to look at a project that Christy Fischer, his spouse, and he had worked on. Over chicken sandwiches they told me a riveting story about how…

  • Conservation

    Giving thanks

    Seven years ago, I asked Marcia Woolman, the first woman to win the Ray Mortenson Award, the highest honor Trout Unlimited gives to a volunteer, what was most important for volunteers. Her response? “Chris, just say thank you.” Today, I begin every day thinking about Marcia’s counsel. How do you properly thank over 400 chapters…

  • Conservation

    Recovering America’s native optimism

    by Chris Wood Al Perkinson looks like a California surfer dude. He’s got wavy long hair and the languid movement of a gracefully aging athlete. He is also the guy who built the Costa del Mar brand, helped TU start the Five Rivers program, and now runs marketing for Simms. I was talking with Al…