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CUTTHROAT TROUT AND COWS BENEFIT FROM PROJECTS FUNDED BY UTAH�S WATERSHED RESTORATION INITIATIVE.
Author
DeRito, Jim
Burnett, Paul
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2017
Body

Trout Unlimited works with a variety of partners to develop projects that benefit rangelands as well as streams and fish across public and private lands. The WRI has been a key funding source and process with which to develop these projects in Utah. We highlight three examples in Northern Utah where these mutual benefits across ownership boundaries have been achieved with the WRI. The first project occurred in the National Forest headwaters of the Bear River in the Uinta Mountains. An irrigation diversion on forest was completely rebuilt to improve the rancher�s water operation and maintenance to deliver water to private ground. In return, a fish screen was installed in the irrigation canal to prevent fish loss to the canal. In the Weber River watershed, WRI played an important role in bringing landowners together to reconnect habitat for cutthroat trout by removing a failed culvert and reconstructing and stabilizing the stream.� This has led to greater collaboration among landowners to solve the watershed scale issues and develop additional projects to improve irrigation and rangeland. The third project involved rebuilding numerous irrigation diversions and replacing undersized culverts to improve fish passage on over twenty miles of stream on Bureau of Land Management and private lands. This work facilitated the reintroduction of cutthroat trout across these lands. In all three cases, irrigation water delivery and conditions for cutthroat trout have been greatly improved on rangelands across ownership boundaries.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM St. George, UT
Collection
SRM Annual Meeting Abstracts