Valley Forge Trout Unlimited

For more than forty years, we at Valley Forge Trout Unlimited have pursued better water and better environments for the cold-water streams of Chester County. 

The Valley Forge Chapter of Trout Unlimited is a conservation organization dedicated to preserving, protecting, and restoring trout habitat throughout Chester County, Pennsylvania.

We have led by example in fighting for clean cold water and enhanced habitat for trout. 

Valley Creek, which flows through Valley Forge National Historical Park, has a robust Class A wild trout population, the state’s highest designation. However, poor stormwater management programs have caused some severe erosion points along the stream.  The chapter has worked long and hard to improve conditions in and about Valley Creek.  From working with local municipalities to improve their stormwater management, to working with the residents to educate them about the importance of cold clean water, to installing demonstration projects to illustrate stormwater management techniques that work.  The chapter has negotiated with many developers to improve their stormwater management as they move forward with their projects in our watersheds.  We continue to assist local community groups as they try to deal with stormwater issues associated with development.  We respond to reports of problems in and about our streams, including chemical spills.

The chapter has many varied programs for our members and volunteers to become involved.

We hold monthly meetings September through May that feature speakers of interest for the membership on an wide variety of topics.

Our spring ritual “TROUT SHOW” is our largest fund raiser and most energetic program of the year is held in March.  It is a carnival of raffles with prizes of a few dollars to others valued at several hundred dollars – from lures to kayaks and bicycles.  There is a guest speaker usually well-known in fishing circles.  We also invite many conservation and other organization to join us for them to mine the attendees for new members.

Our annual Fly Fishing School held in May is always a hit.  We almost always fill the school to the maximum with a waiting list for next year.  It is an all day affair with three meals served, morning classroom time and ends with fishing with a friend from VFTU to see if you actually catch that trout.

The annual Valley Creek Clean-up happens in April.  We have been holding an annual stream clean-up for more than 20 years.

Our chapter sponsors three very active Project Healing Waters – Fly Fishing programs to help heal injured vets and active duty military folks.  Two of the programs are out in the Coatesville area (Coatesville VA Hospital and West Bradford) and the other in Spring City.

We sponsor 15 schools with “Trout in the Classroom” programs and offer financial assistance in providing consumable supplies for the program.  We also can help with some technical problems and issues due to that large local network.

Stream Monitoring is something that VFTU has been doing for some time but it has taken on a new focus recently.  We have two Stroud Water Research Center “Mayfly loggers” installed in upper Valley Creek.  There is a small but active group of volunteers that tend to these monitor as they need regular maintenance. We also have temperature monitoring devices in West Valley and Pickering Creeks.

Stream Girls is another project that we are working with Stroud Water Research on.  It is a program for young girls put together by Trout Unlimited, Inc. which expands on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to make it more fun.  The STREAM Girls program includes Science, Technology, Recreation, Engineering, Arts and Math.  The girls are taught about fly fishing and how to actually fly fish, tie flies, entomology, stream ecology.  They produce arts and crafts with a watery twist and have scavenger hunts stream side.

Planting fertilized trout eggs in local spring runs.  It is the opinion of the chapter that stream born fish are better than stocked fish.  We have been searching for suitable areas to make artificial trout nests and nurture some stream borne trout with a little help from their friends at VFTU.  This renewed effort began last year with some limited success.

For additional information and to contact us please visit our website: http://www.valleyforgetu.org/