A Message from the President

Winter Newsletter 2022 - Odom Wu

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is having an excellent “Trout Season” on the Guadalupe River. I’d like to start off by discussing the direction of Trout Unlimited National and follow that with GRTU specific topics. I am looking forward to the next two years in this role and feel we are well-positioned to build on the tremendous accomplishments GRTU has recorded in the past decade. Trout Unlimited has charted a new course for the organization with a Strategic Plan covering the years 2021-2026. Chris Wood discusses the plan in a video HERE. The Strategic Plan may be viewed HERE.

From this plan, a new mission and vision for TU were created. They are:

Our Mission
To bring together diverse interests to care for and recover rivers and streams so our children can experience the joy of wild and native trout and salmon.

Our Vision
For communities across America to engage in the work of repairing and renewing the rivers, streams and other waters on which we all depend.

GRTU will be creating a new Strategic plan in 2022 to align our goals to more closely align with TU Nationals. Thank you to Michael Racis and Mark Dillow for leading this effort. 

As a chapter, GRTU has been a leader on many fronts within TU that our members should be very proud of. You will notice that going forward we will communicate more often (beginning with this newsletter) with a focus on the activities that are in line with our Mission and Vision. Although the LAP is certainly an important aspect of GRTU, and one which will have a significant investment of both time and money to get right in 2022-2023, it is not our Mission and Vision as an organization. We are a conservation organization, not a fishing club; although I like most of us love to fish! And stocking the river is vital as it allows us to have a chapter and helps acquire new members. We have a multitude of major accomplishments that were planned and executed phenomenally well by our team that do have an impact on Coldwater Conservation, Wild and Native Trout and Salmon, Repairing and Renewing Rivers and Streams and Youth Education and Engagement to name a few. I’ll be highlighting these success stories on a regular basis and will start with these: 

The GRTU Tomorrow Fund – This fund has put GRTU in a leadership position in Youth Education and Engagement at TU nationally.

GRTU Youth Trout Camp –  A highly successful and respected event furthering Youth Education and Engagement.

The GRTU Coldwater Outreach Conservation Fund – A grant mechanism within GRTU to assist TU Chapters Nationwide with their work of repairing and renewing rivers, streams and other waters. You may see some of the many grants we have made HERE. Our most recent grant which is not shown on this page yet was $20,000 to New Mexico and Colorado Chapters for the Willow Creek Project.   

Troutfest TX  –  A huge volunteer-run undertaking that has developed into a known and respected fly fishing show nationally. This is no small accomplishment and one we should all be very proud of. The revenue it generates is vital to our philanthropy efforts. 

The above are nowhere near a complete list and I’ll speak to more in the upcoming newsletters.

We will be rolling out a new grtu.org in the first quarter of 2022 which I am looking forward to and am excited by what I’ve seen so far from the developer and the GRTU folks working with them. After we are done getting that up and running, we are going to address the Forum as it is challenging to use at this time. 

Like any organization, we had a few challenges (LAP anyone?) this past year, but we had far more wins and should be very proud of and build on those victories in the future. 

I look forward to seeing many of you at Troutfest TX 22 in February and on the river! 

Tight Lines.
Bill Marshall

photo credit – Odom Wu

CONSERVATION

Protecting, reconnecting, restoring and sustaining our cold water fisheries. It’s what we are here to do.

LEASE ACCESS PROGRAM

Our lease access program allows members access to fish the Guadalupe River at 14 private locations.

YOUTH TROUT CAMP

Engaging our young people in river ecology, conservation and fly fishing with an expert hosted parent/child weekend on the river.