Daughters of Trout Unlimited:
Maggie Heumann
Manager of Volunteer Operations (daughter Cricket)
If you had told me I would have been included in a TROUT magazine feature with my daughter, as a TU employee, a year ago, I would have laughed. Seven years into marriage, I had (almost) resigned myself to not having kids, which was okay with me. Then, I got pregnant last summer (2021), followed by the opportunity of a lifetime to go work for TU. Suddenly, it wasn’t just about any selfish wants for experiences for myself, it’s about making sure my daughter has the exact same opportunities that I’ve had in the outdoors, but better. It’s now about making sure she can catch a wild steelhead or go watch the salmon return to Redfish Lake. It’s about making sure that trout streams remain cold, fires stay at bay, and that she always has access to lots of clean water to use and to recreate in. That’s a big part of why a job at TU appealed to me so deeply. I want to help mobilize the younger generations to learn the ethics of conservation and become stewards of the environment and do everything they can to protect it, especially those places that contain wild trout and salmon.
The world is changing at such a rapid rate, and so much is being developed so quickly. I want to teach my daughter the importance of protecting wild things in wild places. I want her to have firsthand snapshots forever in her mind of the beauty and wonders of growing up in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Most importantly, I want to compel her to share this knowledge and love with her children and her children’s children. I had not always envisioned myself as a mother, but now that I have a daughter, I am overwhelmed by the desire to protect this planet for her to enjoy as a strong outdoorswoman.
I want to help mobilize the younger generations to learn the ethics of conservation and become stewards of the environment and do everything they can to protect it, especially those places that contain wild trout and salmon.”
This series of stories about daughters originally appeared in TROUT Magazine.
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