Trout Unlimited is an organization of conservative minded anglers.  Their national office is based just outside of Washington, D.C. and employs professionals who testify before Congress, publish the organization’s quarterly magazine, TROUT, and intervene in federal legal proceedings.  There are also 500 local and state chapters that organize over 125, 000 grassroots volunteers involved in conservation issues.  Trout Unlimited also stresses the importance of native fisheries and the negative impacts of introduced or "exotic" species on native salmonid populations. The organization realizes that total eradication of lake trout in Yellowstone Lake is not possible so it’s position on the issue is that every effort should be made limit the lake trout population to a level that will affect cutthroat trout as little as possible. Several of its newsletters have focused on the lake trout issue in Yellowstone Lake and they have encouraged members to help however possible.  In 1996 the Wyoming Council of Trout Unlimited coordinated anglers in an effort to put a dent in the lake trout population by fishing.  This met with limited success.   They have since volunteered to help with the Park Service’s gillnetting program. However, to date, the Park Service has not called upon any of their volunteers to help.

By Act of Congress on March 1, 1872, Yellowstone National Park was "dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" and "for the preservation, from injury or spoilation, of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders. . . and their retention in their natural condition."

The US Fish and Wildlife Service enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, and conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands.  Until August 1996 a resident unit of the US Fish and Wildlife Service operated within Yellowstone National Park as a carryover from the park’s long history of fish stocking and transplanting.  This Fisheries Assistance Office cooperated with the Park Service on fisheries monitoring and research.  It recommended management plans based on their data of fish populations and angler usage.  Because of a reordering of national USFWS priorities and objectives in 1996, the monitoring of Yellowstone sport fisheries by the USFWS was no longer feasible and the task was handed over to the Park Service.  In August 1998, USFWS received a petition to list the Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout as threatened.  It denied this petition in February 2001 on grounds that the petition did “not provide substantial biological information to indicate that a listing may be warranted”.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies is a tax-exempt, non-profit public interest organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of the native biodiversity of the Northern Rockies Bioregion.  This includes the natural features; natural functioning ecosystems; and native plant, fish, and animal life of parts of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, Alberta, and British Columbia.  The Alliance has offices in Missoula, MT and Boise, ID.  It has a membership of nearly 1,000 businesses and organizations on top of approximately 3,600 individual members.  The Alliance’s goals include promoting protection for the native wildlife and fish species in the region and their habitat.  Also the establishment of wilderness areas, parks, wild and scenic rivers, and other designations to protect the natural and primitive qualities of the landscape is of great importance to them.  The Alliance also serves as a watchdog organization which reviews the policies and programs of federal land management agencies and provides the public with information on issues which affect the parks, wildernesses and other natural landscapes of the region, including the greater Yellowstone area.

Members of the Alliance currently work, or have worked, as park and forest rangers, naturalists, researchers, hiking guides, photographers, and nature writers.  Its members are directly affected by any activities which threaten or alter the natural qualities of the Northern Rockies Bioregion.  This includes the issue of the Lake Trout introduction into Yellowstone Lake and its threat to the native Cutthroat population.  The Alliance raised this issue when, along with three other organizations it petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Yellowstone Cutthroat as a threatened species.  Under its philosophy of preserving “ecological integrity”, the Alliance supports the Park Service’s efforts to limit the Lake Trout population through its gill netting operations.