I had a choice this weekend. I could head down to Shenandoah National Park and fish for native brookies or ply the Potomac for blue catfish and perhaps an occasional schoolie striper.
I chose the Potomac. While I love fishing the Potomac, after multiple days of high temperatures, I didn’t feel great about tugging on bespeckled jewels, even in cold small mountain streams.
Your actions matter
Trout and salmon evolved with frequent floods, fire, and drought, but the scarcity of water over the past few years in the United States is unprecedented.
The actions we take as angler-conservationists can determine whether local populations of wild and native trout and salmon persist or perish.
By July of last year, some of Montana’s most famous rivers, such as the Madison, Clark Fork and Gallatin, were closed to fishing after 2 p.m. Similar “hoot-owl” restrictions also went into effect on some of Yellowstone’s fabled rivers, such as the Gibbon and the Firehole.
Whether the state closes fisheries or not, conscientious anglers should think twice about fishing for trout during periods of drought and intense heat.
Creating healthy river systems
But even more important are the actions that we collectively take to recover the natural resilience of our rivers and streams, so that they are better able to withstand the effects of prolonged drought, unnaturally intense wildfires and severe flooding.
Trout Unlimited’s approach to conservation focuses on protecting the sources of our coldest and cleanest water, including roadless areas on our national forests. We then reconnect and restore these waterways so that trout and salmon can swim through connected systems.
Consider our work in the Southwest to help recover Rio Grande cutthroat trout—a species that has been eliminated from 88 percent of its historic habitat. Twenty years ago, we helped to pass federal legislation to protect more than 100,000 acres of the Valle Vidal in the Carson National Forest.
Since then, we have worked with the Forest Service and other partners to reconnect tributaries such as the La Cueva and Turner Creeks to the Rio Costilla. These and other projects helped persuade the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to list the Rio Grande cutthroat for protections under the Endangered Species Act. The recently enacted Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund will ensure that this type of restoration continues in the future.
A healthy river system performs three core functions; it catches, stores and then slowly releases water over time. Our work to recover meadows and riparian areas provides multiple benefits. These green streamside areas serve as “natural fuel breaks” for unnaturally intense wildfires. They keep water in the system longer which is good for fish and good for late season irrigation for farmers. Functioning meadows and riparian areas naturally filter water and reduce downstream water treatment costs.
Our efforts to help recover the natural resiliency of our rivers and streams not only benefit fish; they benefit people, too. In Arizona, for example, the Thompson-Burro meadow restoration will improve several miles of habitat for the Apache trout, which was the first salmonid to be removed from the Endangered Species Act because it was recovered. Importantly, the project will improve the quality and quantity of water for the downstream city of Phoenix, Ariz.
If taken to scale, restoration projects such as the one on Thompson Burro can help ameliorate the effects of the decades-long drought in the Colorado River Basin—a river system that provides water to more than 40 million people. This is why TU is one of 70 organizations calling on Congress to pass a $2 billion drought mitigation fund for the basin.
TU is responding to ongoing drought declarations in the Pacific Northwest with a combination of water leasing, irrigation improvements and habitat restoration. Several years ago, for example, we helped to purchase senior water rights in Butte Creek, an important tributary of the Rogue River in Oregon. That water right was then transferred to the state with the commitment that some of it would be left instream to prevent dewatering on 12 miles of the river.
One of the most retro and important innovations in restoration is PBR. Not the beer, but process-based restoration. This approach deploys relatively simple and straightforward actions to mimic natural processes and promote healthy and self-sustaining rivers and streams.
Beaver dams constructed by people are one form of PBR. Stakes are driven into stream beds and then native willows, alder or other vegetation are woven through the stakes. This helps create pools, add habitat complexity and retain water in streams into the late summer and fall.
This technique has been deployed to great effect on the Kern River in California. The Kern is home to three unique native trout: the California golden trout, the Little Kern golden trout and the Kern River rainbow trout. Almost all their habitat is on public land managed by the Forest Service.
Unfortunately, about 60 percent of the high elevation wet meadow habitat that sustain the watershed have been compromised by grazing, erosion and climate change. TU is working with state and federal agencies and other partners to recover those wet meadows. To date, we have restored more than 30 miles of the Kern thanks to the construction of hundreds of beaver dam analogues with another 45 miles planned by 2030.
These are a few of the hundreds of projects that TU is working on to ameliorate drought and mitigate against other effects of climate change such as unnaturally intense wildfires.
We can make a difference together
Climate change has an enervating effect on people: How can we as individuals, or even a leading national conservation organization such as TU, make a difference?
These projects and many more demonstrate that the answer is deceptively simple.
First, make smart decisions about where and when to fish (and what to fish for).
Second, support Trout Unlimited and help us care for and recover the places that are critical to cold and clean water and healthy fisheries. No other organization does as much to help make this great nation’s rivers and streams more resilient to the effects of drought, fire and flooding.
