September 17, 2021
Trout and Salmon Foundation (“TSF”) recently announced 2021 grant recipients approved at TSF’s annual board meeting. TSF awarded a record high $80,000 in grants to 17 community-based watershed organizations across North America.
“Trout and Salmon Foundation is making incredible progress towards our goal of becoming the premier volunteer-run foundation supporting community-based watershed restoration projects, at scale, to protect and to grow wild trout and salmon populations. Trout and Salmon Foundation’s support will enable our partner organizations to remove 9 fish passage barriers, reopening more than 100 miles of critical habitat, improve in-river habitat and riparian zones along more than 40 miles of wild and native trout and salmon waters, and provide critical support to a variety of sensitive, threatened, and endangered fish species,” said Harry Hanson, Trout and Salmon Foundation Chairman.
Trout and Salmon Foundation grant recipient organizations for 2021 include:
- Appalachian Mountain Club: $5,000 to replace a culvert on Roaring Brook (Maine) with a steel and concrete bridge, reopening more than two miles of stream habitat to benefit native brook trout and Atlantic salmon as part of AMC’s multi-year Restoring Native Brook Trout and Atlantic Salmon Habitat in Maine’s 100 Mile Wilderness project. https://www.outdoors.org/
- Greater Yellowstone Coalition: $5,000 to support the protection of pure Yellowstone cutthroat trout in Crandall Creek (Wyoming) by removing non-native species and installing an impassable barrier for non-native species from the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River. https://greateryellowstone.org/
- Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group: $5,000 to remove an undersized culvert on the Skagit River (Washington) with a pedestrian bridge, providing juvenile and adult salmonids, including Coho salmon, chum salmon and steelhead, with access to more than a mile of upstream habitat. https://www.skagitfisheries.org/
- Oregon Natural Desert Association: $4,000 to complete restoration work on the South Fork of Crooked River (Oregon), including planting more than 4,000 willow and cottonwood trees, to benefit native species, particularly interior Redband trout. https://onda.org/
- Clark Fork Coalition: $5,000 to restore riparian integrity, enhance channel form and instream habitat complexity, facilitate floodplain access, and promote bank and channel stability on Miller Creek (Montana), an important tributary for spawning West slope cutthroat and rainbow trout in the lower Bitterroot River. https://clarkfork.org/
- The Piedmont Environmental Council: $5,000 to remove a culverted crossing of Bolton Branch (Virginia), the last remaining barrier to fish passage on the stream and replace it with an improved low-water ford to reconnect two miles of Eastern brook trout habitat and provide full fish passage all the way to the headwaters. https://www.pecva.org/
- Montana Trout Unlimited: $5,000 to improve overwintering habitat for ad fluvial Arctic grayling, a rare endemic species, in Upper Red Rock Lake (Montana) within Red Rock Lake National Wildlife Refuge. https://montanatu.org/
- Henry’s Fork Foundation: $5,000 for restoration of natural stream function and improving spawning and rearing habitat on a 0.34 mile reach of lower Rainey Creek (Idaho), a significant tributary to the South Fork Snake River, to benefit native fluvial Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout. https://henrysfork.org/
- Trout Unlimited: $5,000 for the replacement of two undersized and perched culverts on Wilson Creek (Wisconsin), a class one trout stream, and reopening more than two miles of upstream, cold-water habitat that supports natural reproduction of native brook trout. https://www.tu.org/
- Conservation Resource Alliance: $5,000 to replace a failing road/stream crossing on the north branch of Boardman River (Michigan) with a channel spanning bridge, renewing up to 1,200 feet of natural stream function and restoring full aquatic passage to 30 miles of upstream habitat for native brook trout and wild brown trout. https://www.rivercare.org/
- Trout Unlimited: $3,500 to remove an undersized culvert on Farnsworth Branch (Pennsylvania) and to restore in-stream habitat, ultimately reconnecting over 9 miles of high-quality Eastern brook trout habitat. https://www.tu.org/
- American Rivers: $5,000 to assist in the removal of Somerset Dam, reconnecting 60 miles of Laurel Hill Creek (Pennsylvania) and its headwaters tributaries and reopening 40 acres of floodplain for access by trout and other cold-water species. https://www.americanrivers.org/
- Trout Unlimited: $5,000 to improve native brook trout habitat and reduce erosion issues on Wolf Creek (Tennessee) by replacing two perched culverts with a natural-bottom stream crossing, reconnecting one mile of brook trout stream and 13.2 miles of small tributary network in the Wolf Creek Watershed. https://www.tu.org/
- Lower Clark Fork Watershed Group: $3,000 to support expanded revegetation along the main stem Bull and East Fork of the Bull River (Montana) and redeveloping the historic closed canopy cedar forest to improve habitat for native fish, particularly bull trout, a listed species under the Endangered Species Act. https://lowerclarkforkwatershedgroup.org/
- Big Hole Watershed Committee: $5,000 to support habitat restoration on Oregon Creek (Montana), a critical headwater tributary to the Big Hole River, including installation of 70 beaver dam analogs along a 40 mile stretch of a native fish stronghold on public land to benefit native species, including Westslope cutthroat trout, Arctic grayling, and Western Pearlshell mussels, all of which are Species of Concern in Montana. https://bhwc.org/
- Maine Trout Unlimited: $5,000 to complete one mile of large wood additions as part of a multi-year habitat restoration effort on the Middle Branch Pleasant River (Maine) aimed at improving habitat suitability and climate resiliency for brook trout and endangered Atlantic Salmon. https://tumaine.org/
- Trout Unlimited, WestSlope Chapter: $4,500 to restore nearly two miles of Gilbert Creek (Montana), a tributary to Rock Creek, and revegetate the stream channel and surrounding 10 acres of wetland habitats to support native bull trout and Westslope cutthroat trout as well as wild populations of brook trout, brown trout, and rainbow trout. https://westslope-trout.org/
Over the past 50 years, TSF has invested almost $1.7 million in more than 400 habitat restoration and improvement projects sponsored by nearly 100 community-based watershed organizations across cold water trout and salmon fisheries in 35 states.
About Trout and Salmon Foundation
Trout and Salmon Foundation was founded in 1969 to protect wild salmon and trout in North America. TSF enables and accelerates the work of local conservation organizations, landowners, and government agencies by providing grants to restore cold water fish habitat.
Trout and Salmon Foundation is a self-funding non-profit and 100% of all outside donations to TSF are used to fund habitat and restoration projects in trout and salmon waters across North America.
For more information contact:
Trout and Salmon Foundation
www.troutandsalmonfoundation.org
paul@troutandsalmonfoundation.org