Anyone who shops at Bass Pro Shops knows that the retail stalwart and its sister store, Cabela’s aren’t just about bass. Nor is the company’s charitable foundation. A grant from the Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund recently helped…
Anyone who shops at Bass Pro Shops knows that the retail stalwart and its sister store, Cabela’s aren’t just about bass.
Nor is the company’s charitable foundation.
A grant from the Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund recently helped Trout Unlimited’s staff in the mid-Atlantic continue to make progress in its ambitious fish passage work.
“The Outdoor Fund was critical in filling funding gaps for the second year of a multi-year initiative to facilitate the removal of up to 20 fish passage barriers that we have identified as priorities within the Potomac and Greenbrier watersheds,” said Abby McQueen, conservation director for TU’s Mid-Atlantic and Southern Appalachian regions. “These projects will open up to 200 miles of quality headwaters habitat in West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland.”
The $75,000 grant helped fund a diverse array of fish-passage-related tasks, benefiting brook trout and other stream-dwelling species across 29-square miles of the Potomac River watershed and 63-square miles of the Greenbrier River headwaters on public land.
The influx of funding was also put toward the important work of assessing sites where roads cross streams within the Monongahela National Forest and State Parks and Forests in Maryland.
Such crossings almost always require infrastructure such as bridges and culverts, and the latter can be especially problematic because they can block upstream fish passage and are prone to flooding that can damage roads.
The grant helped provide matching funding required as part of other funding agreements.
“With the money from the Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund grant we were able to secure additional funding to complete even more fish passage projects,” McQueen said. “Without the funding, TU would not have been able to obtain $450,000 through the Great American Outdoors Act.”
That major award enabled TU to take on two additional fish passage projects in the Greenbrier River headwaters, with those projects slated for construction in 2024.
The Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity that puts 97 cents of every dollar toward conservation efforts. It is supported by a round-up program that taps into the generosity of the stores’ 200 million customers. The fund supports more than 2,000 projects annually.