Self-description: TRCP represents a coalition of the nation's leading hunting, fishing, and conservation groups working together to guarantee all Americans quality places to hunt and fish.
 

Actual: Almost exclusively campaigns against oil and gas development.

NoDOG Connection: TRCP Chairman James D. Range (deceased 2009) influenced Rep. Nick  Rahall (D-WV), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, to hold a March 27, 2007 hearing titled, Access Denied: The Growing Conflict Between Fishing, Hunting, and Energy Development on Federal Lands. Three TRCP directors, Steven A. Williams, William Hite, and Rollin Sparrowe, gave testimony against oil and gas development.

Librarian's Note: A board member of this group, John M. "Mick" Seidl, was once the president of scandal-ridden Enron Corporation.

John M. "Mick" Seidl, TRCP director, came to the board from the Gordon E. and Betty I. Moore Foundation, where he served as Chief Environment Program Officer from June, 2001 to December 2004. He arranged a $600,000 grant from the Moore Foundation to TRCP, paid in 2005, "to change the current course of energy development on public lands," which The Librarian takes to mean the destruction of coal, oil and gas production on government land. He has also been president of MAXXAM, chairman and chief executive officer of Kaiser Aluminum Corporation and chairman of the Pacific Lumber Company. Prior to that, Seidl was president, chief operating officer and director of Enron Corporation in Houston, Texas. Seidl also served as chairman of the board and president of Houston Grand Opera and remains a trustee. (Business Wire Release)

James D. Range (deceased 2009), Chairman - also Trustee, Trout Unlimited; Vice Chair, American Bird Conservancy, Vice Chair.
Steven A. Williams, Director - also Director, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Charles Gauvin, Director  - also President/CEO Trout Unlimited.
Matt Hogan, Director  - also Executive Director, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
James T. Martin, Director - also Director, National Wildlife Federation.
R. Thomas Buffenberger, Director - also Vice President, American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations and International President, Machinists Union.
Rollin Sparrowe, Director - also Officer, North American Grouse Partnership.
Charles S. Potter, Jr., Director - also President/CEO, Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation.
Donald L. Rollins, Director -  also At-Large Member, Board of Directors, Ducks Unlimited, Inc.
J. Michael Nussman, Director - also President and CEO, American Sportfishing Association.

History: In 2000, Trout Unlimited became the “fiscal sponsor” of a new group, the “Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance” (TRCA). Trout Unlimited passed more than $2 million from the Pew Charitable Trusts to the new TRCA.

The new group was not incorporated and had no IRS exempt status of its own. Trout Unlimited received and managed funds on behalf of the new group as fiscal sponsor. This type of arrangement is not uncommon among non-profit organizations wishing to “incubate” new groups.

Trout Unlimited made no public acknowledgment of its money-funnel role that The Librarian could discover, although Pew’s role as TRCA’s key donor was well-reported and widely known.

In 2002, Trout Unlimited’s fiscal sponsorship of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance changed. TRCA found new donors (including the Turner Foundation), hired new leadership, and incorporated to become the “Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership” (TRCP). TRCP applied for its own IRS exempt status in 2002 and was approved in 2003. Its first Form 990 was filed in 2003.

TRCP no longer needed to borrow the exempt status of Trout Unlimited, but continued its former cooperative association.

In 2005, TRCP received a $600,000 grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation “To change the current course of energy development on public lands.” Moore Foundation Form 990, 2005, Schedule of Appropriations.

TRCP immediately launched a barrage of attacks on the oil and gas industry, with:

●        Internally-prepared reports of damage to wildlife allegedly caused by oil and gas development (booklet, “FACTS for fish and wildlife”, protests filed on 1 million acres in Wyoming, many more);

●        False allegations that its opinion poll findings showed most sportsmen opposed to oil and gas development (Sportsmen Support Congressional Reform of Energy Development on Federal Public Lands - 2007), and;

●        Congressional testimony urging limits and burdens on oil and gas operations designed to ultimately bankrupt and destroy oil and gas production on politically vulnerable public lands, where most independent producers operate (Access Denied: The Growing Conflict Between Fishing, Hunting, and Energy Development on Federal Lands – 2007, House Natural Resources Committee).