Project aims to help Upper Snake cutthroat trout

JACKSON, Wyo. – A restoration project that hopes to improve spawning habitat to help native cutthroat trout is underway for the Upper Snake River watershed, aiming to protect the prime fishing area by removing fish barriers and restoring the flow of streams.

The project is being paid for with $100,000 raised by Jackson Hole Trout Unlimited and funds from the nationwide organization.

The project, called the Snake River Headwaters Home Rivers Initiative, will have a full-time staffer. “We’ll be working with water users and land managers to develop projects that may include fish screens, irrigation infrastructure and river restoration,” said Cory Toye, the organization’s Wyoming water project director.

Board President Barbara Allen said the project also will include areas beyond the Jackson Hole area. The next phase of the Snake headwaters initiative will expand on a project that has already fixed up trout habitat along more than 3 miles of Flat Creek where it flows through the National Elk Refuge.

The group and other partners demolished a diversion dam that spanned Spread Creek in 2010. Two years later, they worked to remove the damaged Newbold Dam from the Gros Ventre River near Kelly, reconnecting 60 miles.