Since the founding of Trout Unlimited in 1959, the organization has fought against the use of hatcheries in lieu of healthy habitat. Nowhere has this issue been more contentious than in the Pacific Northwest, where hundreds of hatcheries have been built as rivers were dammed, forests were clearcut and streams rendered dry. But in the span of less than three months during 2007, three federal court decisions spanning many years of work affirmed TU’s argument that fish produced in hatcheries - in these cases, Pacific salmon and steelhead - cannot be counted as equals to naturally spawning fish when determining the overall health of specific populations and their need for protection. By prevailing in these cases, TU and its partner groups retained protections for 16 depleted stocks of wild Pacific salmon and steelhead and their habitat, and reminded managers that they must address the underlying reason for the decline of these species.