Big news for America’s fishes and waterways! The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week $38 million for 40 projects across 23 states and Puerto Rico through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fisheries National Fish Passage Program. WNTI and our partners work with the National Fish Passage Program every year to implement critically important conservation projects for the native trout and char of the Western U.S. There are many projects on the 2022 list that benefit native fish, and WNTI is happy to see $1.3 million for the “Upper Bear River Fish Passage for Native Bear River Cutthroat” which is a group of four high priority projects that we have been working on with our partners to design, fund and implement. The four projects being supported with National Fish Passage Program funding this year are Historic Evanston Dam, North Eden Creek, East Fork Hilliard Canal, and Sims Creek Slough. Funding from other partners also support design and implementation of these important projects that benefit Bonneville Cutthroat Trout, local economies, water users, ranchers, and recreationists. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Funding Law increased funding to the National Fish Passage Program for the next five years by $200 million. 
Evanston, Wyoming, Historic Dam. Photo courtesy Therese Thompson