FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Erin Mooney: (703) 284-9408, TU National Press Secretary
TU Little River Chapter Receives $7,800 Grant for Brook Trout Genetics Study
Knoxville, Tenn. -- Trout Unlimited (TU), the nation's oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization, today awarded a $7,800 Embrace-A-Stream grant to its Little River Chapter in Knoxville, Tennessee for a brook trout study program.
The Embrace-A-Stream grant will fund the chapter's efforts to identify many unknown remaining populations of brook trout, specifically the native Southern Appalachian Brook Trout (SABT), in eastern Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina. The chapter will partner with the National Park Service to collect tissue samples from 20 brook trout streams in 2010. Identifying remaining populations of SABT and understanding their genetic profile will greatly assist efforts to protect and manage these native fish.
Embrace-A-Stream is the flagship grant program for funding TU grassroots conservation efforts. Funding is provided primarily through the support of TU members, with additional support in 2010 provided by Costa del Mar and the FishAmerica Foundation. An Embrace-A-Stream Committee comprised of TU volunteer representatives and scientific advisors evaluates all proposed projects and makes the awards.
In 2010, the Embrace-A-Stream program will provide over $125,000 to 24 projects in 15 states. Projects will address stream habitat restoration, improving fish passage and protecting water quality. Many of the projects will benefit eastern brook trout from Maine to Georgia, and will help protect cutthroat trout in the West as well as coho and Chinook salmon in the Pacific Northwest. Since the program's inception in 1976, Embrace-A-Stream has funded more than 950 individual projects totaling approximately $4 million. As a result of this funding from Embrace-A-Stream, the projects have leveraged more than $12.7 million in additional funding.
"Through the hard work of TU members across the country, we are able to put our organization's mission into action," said Bryan Moore, Vice President for Volunteer Operations and Watershed Programs. "TU's grassroots members work tirelessly to protect and restore the nation's coldwater resources so that they will exist for generations to come."
Trout Unlimited is North America's leading coldwater fisheries conservation organization, with more than 140,000 members dedicated to conserving, protecting, and restoring North America's coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.