Welcome to Trout Unlimited's podcast, where we talk about anything related to fishing, rivers, and conservation and TU's mission to conserve, protect, and restore North America's trout and salmon fisheries and the watersheds that they depend on.

I'm Chris Wood, I'm the President and the CEO of Trout Unlimited.

Today we're going to move west and talk about some of the unique issues associated with

managing rivers in the Western United States.

And I'm pleased to welcome Scott Yates, who's our newly minted director of the Western

Water Project.

Welcome, Scott.

I appreciate it.

It's great to be here. Scott, so you're, as I mentioned, you were recently named the new program director of the Water Project. For folks who aren't familiar with the program, tell us a little bit about it and how it operates and where it operates.

T-Western Water Project started in 1998,

and it's been dedicated to doing a variety of things

ranging from focusing on legislative efforts to

make it easier under Western Water law, the doctrine of prior appropriations to actually

restore stream flows.

And then also we have a ton. appropriations to actually restore stream flows.

And then also we have a ton of on-the-ground projects

in a variety of these states that focus on reconnecting habitat,

for instance, partnerships with irrigators, ranchers and farmers to actually

make sure that their agricultural infrastructure is conducive to fish being able to move,

when they need to move, and where they need to move.

We've started out in 1998 with offices in Colorado and Montana

and have expanded over the years to now include activities

...