Minnesota Trout Unlimited

HELP US PROTECT, RESTORE AND SUSTAIN COLDWATER 

FISHERIES WITH YOUR SUPPORT! 

100% of Minnesota TU Board Members support the organization financially. This year, these volunteer leaders have pooled their pledges into a Minnesota TU Board Challenge Match for the community. Your gift will be matched 100% until the $30,000 match is used. Give today to ensure your gift is matched and your impact is doubled! Thank you!

Support Our Mission

Minnesota Trout Unlimited works to conserve, protect, and restore coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.  Clean water and healthy aquatic systems are essential for sustaining trout populations, and thus are a core focus of our conservation efforts.  

Minnesota Trout Unlimited (MNTU) coordinates the advocacy, habitat restoration, and educational efforts of five local chapters across Minnesota. These volunteer chapters serve as the “watchdogs” of local streams, rivers, and lakes, including Lake Superior. MNTU supports chapters and members in implementing stream habitat restoration projects, monitoring legislation, and advocating effectively for clean water and "fish-friendly” policies with federal, state, and local officials.

Minnesota Trout Unlimited receives no financial support from our national organization and must raise all of our own operating funds. We hope you'll agree that we offer a tremendous return on your conservation dollar.

If you are able to contribute more, we invite you to consider joining the Riverkeepers Council supporters group. Please find more information under the tab above labeled "Riverkeepers.”

Legacy Gifts: Many supporters reflect on how trout fishing has enriched their lives and choose to make a legacy gift to Minnesota TU so others can enjoy our state's beautiful waters. For more information, including gift language for your will, please visit our website.  

Our Work

Our work encompasses extensive habitat restoration projects, policy advocacy, education, and outreach to youth and veterans. MNTU directs the attention of state, local, and federal policymakers to the needs of trout, steelhead, and salmon, as well as the watersheds and groundwater springs that support them.

For six decades, our members have carried out habitat restoration and enhancement projects across Minnesota, from Arrowhead trout lakes and North Shore streams to central Minnesota waterways and the fertile spring creeks in southeast Minnesota within the Driftless area. Since 2010, we have improved trout and steelhead habitats along 100 miles of streams and reclaimed six inland trout lakes. 

Minnesota Trout Unlimited, along with local Gitche Gumee, Headwaters, Hiawatha, Twin Cities, and Win-Cres Chapters, is leading the accelerated restoration of stream habitats across Minnesota. This year, we completed more than 8 miles of in-stream habitat projects, working both north and south, including planting trees, removing barriers, and restoring channels, all of which make trout water healthier, cleaner, and more fishable. 

We have led efforts to protect and restore Lake Superior and North Shore watersheds. We remain firm in our advocacy for proper regulation of ballast water discharges from Great Lakes vessels to prevent the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species into Lake Superior and Minnesota waters. We also continue to support coaster brook trout restoration, wild steelhead rehabilitation, and the restoration of Lake Superior’s native lake trout fishery.

More importantly, we are providing strong advocacy and a unified voice for the state to protect and maintain clean, cold aquifers and streams. For example, we have submitted a petition to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, demanding regulation of neonicotinoid-treated seeds. 

We also support a conservation education program for Minnesota students called Trout in the Classroom. Now in more than 70 classrooms across Minnesota, children learn about freshwater and stream ecology by experiencing the trout lifecycle firsthand in classroom aquariums, ultimately releasing the fish into a wild trout stream.

For more information, please visit www.mntu.org.

Thank you for supporting Minnesota Trout Unlimited!!