World Trout Grassroots Recipients – 2011

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust
This project targets the tagging of tarpon to locate their spawning area in the Gulf of Mexico, southeastern coast of the U.S. and the Caribbean Sea. BTT will use this information to develop effective conservation and management plans for these spawning areas and in addition, will engage recreational anglers and guides in gathering information essential to protecting tarpon populations and the recreational fishery that relies on healthy tarpon populations.

California Trout
This is Cal Trout’s third year requesting funds for their Golden Trout Project. Cal Trout has successfully balanced science, created community partnerships, and engaged in outreach and advocacy to create a conservation strategy that’s proving to have a positive impact on the health of this fishery.

Coastal Watershed Institute
CWI promotes ecological, community based stewardship of the marine and terrestrial ecosystems along the Olympic Peninsula with a priority on the upcoming dam removals on the Elwha River. They have identified a set of high priorities needs to address prior to and during dam removal. Since nearshore restoration will only be partially restored the group has determined additional information is needed to understand what further actions are needed to achieve ecosystem restoration in the nearshore. Priorities include developing and implementing a nearshore restoration action plan, documenting long term fish use of the Elwha nearshore, defining the role feeder bluffs play in sediment dynamics of the Elwha nearshore, and understanding linkages between hydrodynamics and ecological function of the Elwha estuary and shorelines.

Downeast Salmon Federation
Our funding is supporting an ambitious project by the Downeast Salmon Federation in three coastal Maine watersheds working on removing two dams (or tide gates) and installing fish passages at four others. There is an inter-connectedness of the projects and the “domino effect” where dam removal on some sites will affect the outcomes for other sites.

Friends of the Teton River
This grant proposal aims at stopping an ill-conceived Bureau of Reclamation dam proposal in the remote Teton Canyon in Eastern Idaho.

National Coalition for Marine Conservation
NCMC’s mission is to build awareness of the threats to our marine fisheries and convince policy makers to restore and protect publicly owned fishery resources. This project aims to amend the current Interstate Atlantic Menhaden Fishery Management Plan into a Forage Fish Plan that addresses and protects menhaden’s critical role as prey for many predatory fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.

Rare
An interesting proposal from Rare to support NGO/Private/Public partnership conservation targeting local anglers in an effort to reduce illegal taimen fishing in the Onon River watershed in Mongolia. A key element of the campaign is to build the capacity of local stakeholders to implement and support newly established taimen conservation efforts.

River Alliance of Wisconsin
By engaging paddlers, anglers, and hunters in preventing the spread of invasive species, the River Alliance is working with the very people who are at times inadvertent carriers of these invasives. This project also targets small coldwater spring creeks that are host to native brook trout populations.

The Quivira Coalition
This is the 3rd year The Quivira Coalition has requested funds for their Comanche Creek watershed, Rio Grande cutthroat trout project. The project goals remain the same; 1. watershed assessment, 2. maintenance on existing bank stabilization and grazing enclosures, and 3. hosting free workshops on stream restoration techniques.

The Snake River Fund
The Snake River Fund Ambassador Program allows for the protection and stewardship of one of the most heavily used, threatened, and unmanaged reaches of the Snake River (the Teton stretch). Their goal is to put ambassadors on the ground to educate users, collective data for future management decisions, and to restore the river from the impacts of overuse.

Trout Conservancy
This proposal center’s around building public support for the protection and preservation of native wild trout populations in the Neretva River, Balkans. Their plan is to learn all they can about current and future threats to the wild native trout in the river and help coordinate strategies for protecting and preserving these fish with local people who depend on the river.

Trout Unlimited – Alaska
TU – AK’s proposal supports the Alaska Natives Guide School. This grant helped pay for room and board for 16 students and 4 instructors at the Ekwok Lodge located on the Nushagak River near Bristol Bay. It’s a sustainable economic development program that helps locals in the Bristol Bay can withstand the pressure from the proposed gold and copper mine and develop sustainable employment opportunities.

Trout Unlimited - Big Blackfoot Chapter
The project goal is to restore a migratory corridor for westslope cutthroat and bull trout to 7 miles of Sauerkraut Creek, a tributary to the upper Blackfoot River.

Wild Fish Conservancy
WFC works to improve conditions for all of the Pacific NW's wild fish by conducting important research on wild-fish populations and habitats; advocating for better land-use, harvest, and hatchery management; and developing model restoration projects. This project developed a public outreach campaign in support of the removal of three dams on lower Icicle Creek operated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wild Salmon Center
Our last grant to WSC helped them formally establish the 94,000 acre Koppi River Fisheries Reserve in the Khabarovsk Region of the Russian Far East. That’s only the first step. They are now working with local communities to form public watershed councils to help manage the fisheries and stop salmon poaching in the Koppi River watershed.

Wild Trout Trust
WTT works to conserve wild trout throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. This project's goal improves habitat for sea trout spawning and juvenile life stages on the south coast of England by advising riparian landowners and river managers on how best to better support sea trout and then to implement habitat improvements with willing landowners.

Willamette Riverkeeper
Willamette Riverkeeper have long been stewards of the Willamette River and are currently working to ensure the Army Corp of Engineers implement the Biological Opinion for the river that will lead to the recovery of threatened native fish such as the spring chinook and steelhead. Specifically, they are working to improve fish passage and more natural flows at several large dams in the Willamette system.

Wyoming Wildlife Federation
The goal of this proposal is to conserve native wildlife in the Green River watershed of western Wyoming with specific focus on habitat for Colorado River cutthroat trout. They do this by increasing public support for cutthroat trout conservation, ensuring the fish are adequately considered in BLM’s Resource Management Plan revision, and to reduce oil and gas leasing within the project area.