| Trout Unlimited members, working with a University of Tennessee law school student and faculty members, made history in the 1970s by stalling construction of the Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River, referred to as the “Little T.” From its proposal in the 1940s, there was no real justification for the dam’s role in flood control and power generation, but it rolled forward until suspended by TU and others, a creature called the snail darter, and the Endangered Species Act. In 1978, the Supreme Court issued a strong ruling in favor of protecting the river and stopping construction of the dam. Unfortunately, Congress passed an appropriations rider into law to assure completion of the dam in 1979, but not until after TU helped make history by affirming the strength of the Endangered Species Act and the importance of free flowing rivers.
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