Today, Trout Unlimited launches its much-anticipated Wild Steelhead Initiative with five simultaneous events in Juneau, Seattle, Portland, Boise and Santa Cruz, and the formation of its new steelhead advocacy arm, Wild Steelheaders United.

While TU has always been active in steelhead conservation issues, particularly in the Northwest where steelhead are native, the organization hasn’t had the funding or the on-the-ground capacity to truly dive into the sensitive issues surrounding steelhead conservation, or to take on some of the threats to wild steelhead that truly drip with controversy.

With 70 percent of the wild steelhead populations in the Northwest requiring federal protection, the time is right for TU to dive in and help pull all the steelhead conservation groups together for the united cause of keeping wild steelhead—those ocean-going rainbows that anglers love and curse in one single breath—from winking out altogether.

With that in mind, TU is asking anglers across America to engage and sign the Wild Steelheaders United credo, and to “be steelheaded” in their resolve to advocate for North America’s most-prized gamefish.

To read the full Wild Steelheaders Credo and take the pledge, head to www.wildsteelheaders.org.