NCWF Affiliate of the Year

>100 members

Rocky River Trout Unlimited

It’s pretty easy to call yourself a conservationist these days. Here in drought-stricken Raleigh, all you have to do is not flush the toilet every now and then and you’re up there with Al Gore.

But the members of the Rocky River Trout Unlimited chapter know that it’s one thing to talk the talk, and another to commit every aspect of your resources—finances, time, energy, enthusiasm—to the sacrificial work of conservation. In 2007, Rocky River Trout Unlimited poured sweat equity into Wilson Creek, mobilizing on the famous trout stream for National River Clean Up Day. The group helped officials at South Mountain State Park improve stream habitat and stock trout. Last year the group poured financial resources into scholarships for college students and underwriting for a youth summer camp. They’ve given $15,000 to the Muddy Creek Project and donated untold hours of labor to the Boy Scouts’ Camp Grimes. And members of Rocky River TU worked the phone lines, email accounts, and letter-writing campaigns on projects such as the Wilson Creek development proposals, settlement of the North Shore Road issue, the 2007 Farm Bill passage, and Chatooga and Tellico River conservation.

In the nomination form for this award, Rocky River TU wrote, “We may not live next to the resource we love and cherish, but we do all we can to extend help to those that ask for it.” That’s how you call yourself a conservationist these days. The Rocky River Trout Unlimited Chapter is the 2007 Affiliate of the Year with more than 100 members.