The following is from Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited:
All of us in the Trout Unlimited family are concerned about the Coloradans who have been impacted by the catastrophic flooding. As I write this, hundreds are still unaccounted for, and the extent of the massive damage is not fully known. What we do know is that over 10,000 TU members in Colorado—many of them living on the Front Range which has borne the brunt of these impacts—stand ready to assist the most-affected individuals, families and communities.
TU members, in Colorado and elsewhere, are intimately connected to their communities. Each TU chapter donates over 2,000 volunteer hours per year forging relationships with a variety of stakeholders, ranging from school children to veterans, to farmers and ranchers to state and federal agencies. In the face of this tragedy, TU’s volunteers and partners will do what they have always done best, and set the greater good ahead of themselves to help their neighbors in their time of need.
While epic floods such as this cannot be planned, we can take steps to better protect communities from future floods, while maintaining habitat for Colorado’s world-renowned trout. Little of that helps those who lost friends, family, property and livelihoods in the floods. To them, we offer our thoughts and prayers and those of the TU staff, and the 150,000 members of the Trout Unlimited family across the country.
Trout Unlimited is the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring North America’s trout and salmon and their watersheds. Follow TU on Facebook and Twitter, and visit us online at tu.org.
