Submitted by shauna_sherard on Mon, 2015-10-05 14:52 Conservation West of The Rockies Trout Magazine Climate Change Chapter Sites Users Group Vote Up Down +15 + Flyfishing for winter steelhead_resized.jpg A new Trout Unlimited Chapter was recently established in Oregon. The South Coast Cutthroat Chapter, with a small but active group of volunteers became an official TU Chapter at the end of September. Elk River Chinook.jpg The Chapter is based in Coos Bay on the southern Oregon coast with members from Florence to the California border. Some of Oregon’s well known coastal river basins are in the area like the lower Umpqua, Coos, Coquille, Elk, and Sixes. These basins have populations of wild Chinook salmon, coho salmon, winter steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout. The South Coast Cutthroat Chapter is already building important partnerships with local watershed councils along with state and federal agencies. The primary focus of the South Coast Cutthroat Chapter will be to conserve and restore important salmonid populations and their habitats along the southern Oregon coast. Many of the Chapter’s active volunteers are avid steelhead anglers and the Trout Unlimited’s Wild Steelhead Initiative will be a big part of our work plan. Chapter volunteers are already looking for ways to assist state agencies and the local watershed council to improve fish passage at Stull’s Falls on the West Fork Millicoma River in the Coos Basin. This set of falls, at low flows, can be a partial barrier to upstream migrating coho salmon and winter steelhead.