Watershed Restoration - Home Rivers Initiative

Since Trout Unlimited (TU) was founded in 1959, on-the-ground restoration of streams, watersheds, and fisheries has been our hallmark. Throughout the country our active volunteers work through their TU chapters implementing restoration projects within their home watersheds. These volunteers have done everything from installing habitat improvement structures and fencing out cattle to replanting stream banks and educating children about aquatic conservation. Each year TU chapters and councils invest over 125,000 hours and more than $1,500,000 in restoration work. The National office administers the Embrace-A-Stream grant program, established in 1976, to provide matching grants to TU chapters and council to aid their on-the-ground conservation efforts.

Since 1994, Trout Unlimited national staff has complimented these local efforts by implementing an impressive array of large-scale watershed projects under its flagship program, the Home Rivers Initiatives. The national office of Trout Unlimited launched its first comprehensive watershed restoration project on the Beaverkill-Willowemoc River system in New York State. TU initiated this program based on the premise that everything in a watershed is related and connected, and that watershed restoration requires far more than site-specific treatments.  Each Home Rivers project is a collaborative multi-year effort that combines applied scientific and economic research, community outreach, on-the-ground restoration, and the development of long-term conservation and management strategies and tools.

The number of watershed projects has grown impressively since the program's inception with approximately 15 Home Rivers projects currently underway.  The projects  have addressed such diverse resource concerns as acid mine drainage, native species restoration, irrigation efficiency, improving in-stream flows, and abandoned hard rock mine remediation. All Home Rivers projects involve public-private partnerships and have been extremely successful in engaging local communities, demonstrating cutting-edge restoration practices, and leveraging significant resources to benefit the watersheds. As we have become more experienced and adept we have applied the watershed principals to regional efforts that encompass very large or several river systems.

In addition, TU has several productive partnerships with federal agencies which enhance out ability to restore rivers and fisheries across the country.  Several of the Home Rivers projects are funded through the Bring Back the Natives (BBN) program.  BBN is a national grant program established in 1991 to fund restoration of native aquatic species and their habitats on public lands. Trout Unlimited is currently working with program partners, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service, to establish new restoration programs throughout North America.

For more information, contact:

Warren Colyer, Watershed Programs Director
Trout Unlimited
316 Burlington Ave.
Missoula, MT 59801
(406) 542-3304
Email Warren Colyer