Currently browsing… science

  • Featured Dam Removal steelhead

    Our failure to remember affects salmon and steelhead conservation

    'The best run in years' doesn't mean things are getting better overall We’ve all heard stories from our grandparents of unbelievable abundance and sizes in their fishing forays — the salmon so numerous it boggled the mind, and those Lahontan cutthroat trout so big you couldn't wrap your arms around them. Yet even with these anecdotes it’s still hard to internalize just how different our experience…

  • Science Climate Change

    ‘Climate change is water change’

    Climate change is water change. A warmer climate impacts nearly every facet of the water cycle: increased evaporation and transpiration deplete water from the land, rivers, lakes, oceans, and forests. Warmer air retains more water that is later released through intense precipitation events that are more likely to cause flash flooding and run-off pollution.

    By Chase S. Whiting As summer transitioned to fall, the sun hung eerily over the Adirondack Mountains and illuminated smoke that traveled some 3,000 miles from wildfires out West. Seeing the smoke reminded me that seemingly distant corners of the planet are in fact interconnected by our shared environment.  In Vermont, the climate change story…

  • Barriers Featured Science

    Habitat connectivity helps trout take care of themselves

    If we do our part to remove migration obstacles from rivers and streams, the fish will take care of the rest. The benefits could be immeasurable.

    By Brian Hodge In our work at Trout Unlimited, we often rely on scientific theory to plan and implement conservation projects. In some instances, we also test hypotheses by monitoring projects and comparing predictions with outcomes, and in doing so contribute towards the broader body of scientific theory.   For TU and our local agency partners, the…

  • Science Featured

    Science leads to credible conservation

    TU staff across the country and our programs utilize science daily As Trout Unlimited has grown and changed, we have been thinking a lot about what science means to our organization.  It is an ever-evolving conversation, partly because we have an ever-growing staff applying science in their work. Whether hired specifically for TU Science or field programs, across the organization we now have, unbelievably, more than 30 staff with significant science backgrounds. We’ve grown…