TU Snake River Headwaters Initiative - Issue #14
Dear Friends,
Hello from Jackson Hole and welcome to the 14th edition of our e-newsletter! We hope you’ve been enjoying the rainy, verdant spring as the rivers swell and reservoirs fill, and that you’ve been able to find some clear water somewhere to wet a line. (Most recently, I fished R Park’s ponds with my son Oliver at Kids Fishing Day).
This spring has been a whirlwind, thanks in large part to the rapidly unfolding situation we faced with the news of the proposes flow reductions out of Jackson Lake Dam. Added on top of our normal field work prep, Jackson Hole TU Tie One On banquet duties (highlight: special guest Jimmy Kimmel!), and the startup of our new Snake River Headwaters watershed group, it’s been a wild ride! Through it all, I am grateful to my incredible coworkers, partners, community members, friends, and family for showing up in so many ways - thank you.
We hope you will enjoy this spring-to-summer e-newsletter issue, which features an inside look into the Jackson Lake Dam releases issue, the design of the new watershed group, a preview of our 2023 projects, a new inclusive outdoors film festival, a homemade project video, and an introduction to our new major gifts officer. As always, we would love to hear from you!
All the best,
Leslie Steen
Jackson Lake Flows Secured, For Now
From the moment we learned that flows from Jackson Lake Dam into the Snake River could be cut to 50 cfs or lower this spring, we knew that we would have to harness the collective power of “One TU” to avert a major disaster for our Snake River cutthroat fishery (280 cfs has been determined to be the bare minimum needed for the aquatic ecosystem). We got to work immediately, researching the details of the State of Wyoming’s water rights, communicating with Wyoming state agencies, Grand Teton National Park, and fellow nonprofits, and penning a Letter to the Editor with former WY Senate president and director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service John Turner. Our TU national staff in DC, including President and CEO Chris Wood, reached out to key officials and contacts at the Department of Interior and Senator Barrasso’s office with our concerns and recommendations. A coordinated Action Alert on tu.org, set up by our communications team and shared by blog post, emails, and social media, tapped into our local membership and community and made a difference. Thankfully, at the 11th hour, a solution was announced by the agencies involved and minimum instream flows have been secured through the spring. While there is cause to celebrate, there is also more work ahead to ensure critical flows are maintained into the future. We remain committed to working alongside partners, water managers, water users, and the community to identify long-term, durable solutions.
Feds may rent Idaho water to maintain Oxbow flows - JH News and Guide
“The Oxbow Bend of the Snake River won’t be drying up this spring, to the detriment of fish and other aquatic and terrestrial wildlife, thanks to a deal brokered by the U.S. Department of the Interior with the states of Wyoming and Idaho.”
Snake River Flows Secured, For Now - tu.org
“In the week leading up to May 10, the day that flows were scheduled to be cut by the Bureau of Reclamation, Trout Unlimited, along with many partners and community members, leapt into action.”
Snake River Headwaters Watershed Group Launches
Over 60 stakeholders - agency partners, nonprofits, university researchers, ranchers, fishing guides, legislators, and interested community members - attended the first Snake River Headwaters watershed group design meeting in early May. While water quantity and management was of course top of mind given the recent events at Jackson Lake, many other watershed issues and opportunities have been brought forward as topics for the watershed group to rally around. The design process is being facilitated by LegacyWorks Group with help from an informal task force of agency and nonprofit partners led by Trout Unlimited, and has received funding from the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. A second design meeting focused on purpose and goals was held virtually last week, with an eye towards hosting the first official watershed group meeting this fall.
3 Projects On the Horizon for 2023!
After several years of planning and fundraising, we have three restoration projects on deck to be completed this fall. The Gros Ventre Crystal Creek project will stabilize and improve fish habitat on 0.25 miles of the Gros Ventre River through bioengineered methods compatible with its Wild and Scenic designation, and will ensure continued public access to the upper Gros Ventre watershed. The Lower Snake River Ranch project near Munger Mountain will address 0.5 miles of heavily eroding bank along the mainstem Snake River and one of its side channels. It will increase habitat complexity, diversity, and quality by creating riparian buffers, and will showcase natural alternatives to riprap. The River Bend Ranch Phase 2 project, located on a mix of working cattle and bison ranch and Bridger-Teton National Forest lands, will address channel and bank instability on 2.5 miles of the Upper Hoback using floodplain restoration, bioengineering, and riparian fencing techniques. Together, these projects represent over 3 miles of restoration and nearly $1.5M in federal, state, foundation, private, and in-kind funding invested into our local waters. In addition, we have one fish passage project in the Salt River watershed and one process-based restoration project in the Greys River watershed that are tracking to be completed in 2023. Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering for these projects in the fall, we can always use the help!
Mountains of Color FilmFest Tonight!
Please join us for the Mountains of Color Film Fest today, June 5th at the Center for the Arts! The festival is a place to share, learn and celebrate stories not typically featured in mainstream mountain town culture and outdoor media. The joy showcased through the stories of BIPOC+ people connecting with the mountains and the outdoors through fly fishing, mountain biking, skiing, running, and rafting is meant to inspire our community of Jackson Hole, WY, to explore these connections for themselves and create a welcoming and inclusive culture for all. Doors open at 5:30 pm so you can enjoy beverages, food truck fare from Street Tacos, water and fish educational activities with Trout Unlimited, and a raffle that benefits TU and Coombs Outdoors. Each film set will feature a Q & A with panelists. The event is FREE but ticketed. Visit this link to get tickets and check out the lineup and read more about the event on Buckrail.com.
North Fork Tincup Creek Process-Based Restoration
Check out this homemade video about our North Fork Tincup Creek Process-Based restoration project by Lee Mabey, recently-retired fish biologist for the Caribou-Targhee National Forest (CTNF)! Located in the backcountry, the project required innovation and old-time methods including draft horses and hand crews. This year, TU’s Science Team and Salt River Watershed Manager Tanner Belknap, together with the CTNF, will be monitoring the results for fish, beaver, willows, and the water table.
Welcome, Lizzie Votruba!
Lizzie Votruba joined TU in May as a Major Gifts Officer. She has been an avid angler since her early teens when she first discovered fly fishing on a NOLS trip in the Wind River Range, and later dabbled in steelheading in her hometown of Cleveland, OH. The mountain landscape drew her west for undergrad, where she attended Colorado College and fell deeply in love with exploring high mountain trout streams. Lizzie has a masters in prehistoric archaeology, but more recently has focused on client management, communications, and marketing. Above all else, Lizzie loves getting to know people, and is eager to do just that in her new role. When not on a river, Lizzie loves skiing and mountain biking with her two dogs, seeing live music, and cooking spicy, local, sustainable foods.