Three Rivers Trout Unlimited - April 2025 Newsletter
Get ready for our next Member Social!
When: April 12, 2025
Time: 12:30-3:00pm
Location: Lake Sammamish State Park, Rotunda Shelter (marked with a letter ‘B’ on the map)
Lake Sammamish State Park map (partial). The Rotunda Shelter is labeled with the letter ‘B’.
Our member socials were paused for several months, and we are ready to reconnect with our fantastic members! We are thrilled to announce that we are hosting the next one in two weeks. Join fellow 3RTU members, bring your families, enjoy food and conversation, and discover what your chapter has been up to lately, along with all the exciting activities ahead! The 3RTU board will serve burgers, hot dogs, drinks, and snacks. We encourage you to bring a side dish to share. Additionally, there will be a chance to practice fly tying and fly casting. Don’t miss out!
We are also in the midst of an amazing fundraiser raffle. If you’d like a new fly rod, we are raffling off a 7wt, 9’6” Sage R8 Core rod and a Sage Spectrum LT 7/8 reel. Raffle tickets are $20 apiece and can be purchased with cash during the social. The drawing will be held on May 31st at our Annual Volunteer Recognition, Member, and Family Social.
Kokanee Fry Trapping (ongoing)
Kokanee fry trapping is currently underway, with Lewis and Ebright creeks reporting over a thousand fry each night. Check the calendar and email Wayne Lamm if you can volunteer a few hours to assist with trapping. wayne@threeriverstu.org. Fry trapping occurs on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday evenings until May 15. We would love your help!
Visit https://www.threeriverstu.org/kokanee-fry-trapping for more information.
Annual FishOUT is happening!
When: April 13, 2025
The annual Fishout at Beaver Lake will take place on April 13, 2025. This event is for participants and volunteers of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing. Sponsored by Three Rivers Trout Unlimited, the Overlake Fly Fishing Club, and the Annie Pulliam Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, this is a fantastic event that has been held for the past 20 years. We will have PHW participants from JBLM, Seattle, Spokane, and Portland Programs. Approximately 17 boats will be on the water, each with 2 anglers. All boat captains and the volunteers on shore managing breakfast, lunch, registration, and boat traffic are essential to the event. We expect around 65 to 70 people to attend! Coincidentally, WDFW will stock the lake a few days prior, so we've also invited plenty of trout! While we currently have enough volunteers, we are always seeking additional help for events like this. Thank you all for your past, present, and future support! If you have any questions about the event, please contact Bruce Tyson, Veterans Services Representative for Trout Unlimited and Project Healing Waters Volunteer.
Image is from https://prioritywaters.tu.org/washington/
Priority Waters – Lake Washington/Lake Sammamish
Priority Waters are a collection of rivers and streams across America where Trout Unlimited concentrates its efforts on establishing sustainable long-term trout and salmon habitats. This initiative encompasses over 200 watersheds, including rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds, where Trout Unlimited directs its resources to enhance and restore native trout, salmon, and steelhead populations.
More information about this project can be found at https://prioritywaters.tu.org/. Twelve regions comprising river and lake systems have been designated as Priority Waters in Washington state. The Lake Washington/Lake Sammamish basin, crucial for our kokanee salmon recovery efforts, has been identified as one of these Priority Waters. This watershed hosts native kokanee salmon, cutthroat trout, ESA-listed chinook salmon, coho salmon, and sockeye salmon. Its location within a large, diverse population center presents a unique opportunity to advance our conservation program and refine our stewardship messaging.
Through our collaboration with USFW’s Lake Sammamish Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership (or UWRP), we are engaging new audiences to enhance our impact in the Lake Sammamish watershed. We have established a set of goals that will guide our activities in this watershed over the next five years. These goals are –
· Continue stream reconnection and restoration in the watershed,
· Re-establish consistent kokanee salmon production in three major streams,
· Spearhead aquatic weed management as a salmon conservation tool,
· Along with USFWS, advance myxozoan parasite research,
· Advance TU’s goals to continually engage new audiences in conservation activities,
· Grow UWRP by bringing in new conservation partners
Our chapter supports the Priority Waters concept through these goals, which drive our fish recovery projects. You can learn more about these activities on our website (https://www.threeriverstu.org/) and the UWRP website (https://www.lakesammamishrefuge.org).
Volunteer Hours
Dear Volunteers and Members,
Please remember to track your volunteer hours regularly. For nonprofit organizations like the Three Rivers Chapter of TU, keeping accurate records of volunteer time is crucial. It allows us to demonstrate the value of your contributions to our mission, secure funding through grants, and comply with legal and reporting requirements. Your dedication and recorded hours play a vital role in strengthening our impact. Thank you for your continued support! We have an easy tool that you can use to submit volunteer hours, whether you are helping with conservation efforts, community outreach, or events. Either use the link provided or the QR code to access our volunteer hours tracker, and THANK YOU!
Update Your Email Address
It's important that all our chapter members have current email addresses so they can receive important information from our chapter and Trout Unlimited national. If you think your email address on your TU membership is incorrect or if you know a member who does not have a valid email address on their membership, there is a simple way to correct that! Just log in to www.tu.org/reconnect using your member ID and update the email address. Even better, every member who updates their information before April 15 will be entered into a drawing to win a new Scott Centric rod and Cheeky Launch 350 reel!