World Trout
Trout Unlimited
Federation of Fly Fishers
Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers Campaign
Save Bristol Bay

World Trout – new initiative for Winston. This year, Winston is proud to become a formal part of the World Trout program, helping to protect wild trout habitat. In addition to our other conservation efforts, we have committed to donating $5 from the sale of each of our beautiful new World Trout t-shirts featuring the spectacular artwork of Artist/Author James Prosek. Our new World Trout t-shirts are now available to purchase online or through any of our dealers around the world. Consequently, you too will be doing a great deal to help protect native trout habitat in purchasing these shirts for yourself or for others as gifts. We expect the beauty of these new shirts alone will be enough to entice you to buy one. Combine that with knowing you’ve contributed to helping protect the environment and they become even more appealing. The following describes some of the great things James Prosek and others involved with World Trout are doing:

Mission

Identify the individuals and groups that protect native fish, tell their story and support their conservation efforts.

Background

Trout in this world are held at human’s mercy due to over fishing and destruction of habitat ranging from logging to war, immense climatic changes to it being a basic food source.

We are fortunate to have talented individuals and groups working tirelessly to preserve indigenous trout. Artist/Author James Prosek had illustrated this point with a story about his first trip to the Zeta River in Serbia-Montenegro to search for the rare softmouth trout. After 3 weeks of searching and finding absolutely nothing, they felt the trout was extinct. Reports from locals, including the President of the local fisheries club lamented the loss of the softmouth trout. A tip about a single man protecting these fish in his local, spring fed tributary prompted a scientific team to return. Because of this single man’s passion, the team discovered to their dismay, hundreds of fish. As a side note, with the commitment by the University of Lubjiana that is the recipient of revenues from World Trout, this scientific team has become a viable project with an official name – Balkan Trout Restoration Group.

In 1999, James Prosek met with Patagonia owner Yvon Chouinard both committed to doing something to address the dramatic challenges trout face around the world. Several years later, Patagonia and James continue to dedicate significant energy and resources to World Trout and remain a big part of its continuing success.

Arising from the tremendous initial efforts of James Prosek, Patagonia and others, World Trout is now an ongoing program involving several companies and individuals interested in helping raise funds to directly combat the declining natural resources and populations of trout. Each participating company is encouraged to either identify new and deserving conservation programs or to supplement existing successful groups. As we learned from the story in the Balkans, or conservation efforts can be made anywhere in the world often requiring little more than one passionate individual with a desire to help.

Since conservation efforts require organization, money and a positive political climate, the goal was to make this initiative simple and to place the money into the hands of the actual groups working to protect the fish. By telling a compelling story and providing the angler and interested parties with a call to action, World Trout is able make this happen with the participation of all of its member companies and of individuals who help by purchasing World Trout products.

Here are a few organizations to which World Trout has contributed so far:

Grassroots Recipients – 2005

In 2005, the first three World Trout groups were chosen to i) represent a global effort in Japan focusing on a small yet important grassroots group, ii) a US regional effort in Colorado involving the Greenback Trout, and iii) a larger US initiative involving a number of groups working together to bring down a dam that increases traditional spawning grounds.

Penobscot River Restoration Project - http://penobscotriver.org
This group has been working to restore self-sustaining populations of native sea-run fish. Their main tool is to open up more miles of traditional river spawning habitat by negotiating for dam removal while maintaining hydropower resources. Of note, the Penobscot Partners working on this project include broad support by the dam owners, power company, Indian tribe, State of Maine, Trout Unlimited, Atlantic Salmon federation. When successful, this project can serve as a template for other working groups to successfully remove dams and open traditional water to native fish.

Colorado Greenback Restoration Group – http://cotrout.org

Once thought to be extinct, recovery efforts by a strong interagency partnership with Colorado Trout Unlimited, CO Division of Wildlife, US Forest Service, US Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management to reclaim waters. The plan was to enhance traditional habitats by overcoming degradation, install barriers to prevent non-native fish invading greenback habitats, re-stocking into recovery habitats and provide outreach and education.

Obirame Restoration Group – http://homepage3.nifty.com/huchen.obirame/summary.html

The se-run huchen (obirame) is a very old, revered fish in Japan. But alarming declines in fish populations has stirred a group of local fishermen and residents to restore the health of the Shiribetsu River. A recent study of the river revealed that there were no sea-run huchen spawning beds or young fish. Efforts are underway to restore habitat, develop a hatchery program that preserves the genetic diversity of the fish and to build alliances with other groups working to restore huchen throughout Hokkaido.

Through this effort, the government of Japan has joined in this effort to review and work with the various Obirame groups around Japan.

Grassroots Recipients – 2006

Yellowstone Park Foundation (www.ypf.org)

Yellowstone National Park is not only our first National Park, it is considered one of the world’s finest fly-fishing destinations. Several factors, including invasive species such as Whirling Disease and New Zealand Mud Snails, introduction of non-native species such as lake trout, are contributing to the sharp decline of Yellowstone’s native cutthroat trout populations. The Yellowstone Park Foundation, a private non-profit organization, who’s main effort involve protection of the Park’s imperiled Westslope and Yellowstone Cutthroat trout by funding

genetic research, scientific studies, restoration, raising public awareness and conservation projects.

Friends of Wild Salmon (www.friendsofwildsalmon.ca)
With open-net fish farms irreparably damaging wild fish stocks and the environment, Friends of the Wild Salmon works to stop the development of these fish farms on rivers in British Columbia’s North Coast for the benefit of steelhead, salmon and other species. Sales of the steelhead t-shirt will benefit this group. Early donations have gone to support the current injunction from operating fish farms within the mouth of these classic rivers in this area.

Balkan Trout Restoration Group (www.balkan-trout.com)
The Softmouth discovery story defines what an individual can do on his own to protect trout. A formal organization was sanctioned through the Department of Animal Science at the University of Ljubljana. This University was instrumental in beginning the recovery effort for Softmouth and Marble Trout. Joining them were the Fisheries Institute of Slovenia, Angling Club of Tolmin, Slovenia, additional scientists, grassroots groups, and concerned collaborators from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Macedonia and Austria. Although seemingly a large program because of its University associations, it still remains a small, grassroots effort growing through people’s passion.

With the significant decline of these fish populations due to non-native trout introductions, environmental degradation and over fishing, this effort could not be more timely. Main efforts involve genetic research and ecological studies in order to establish fish and environmental protection for of endangered salmonids such as softmouth and marble trout along with building awareness through public education.

Grassroots Recipients – 2007

With the continued successes of World Trout, the first grassroots groups will continue to be supported (as well as new ones):

Greenback Restoration Project - Greenback Cutthroat Trout T-shirt
Penobscot River Restoration Group – Atlantic Salmon T-shirt
Friends of Wild Salmon – Steelhead T-shirt
Balkan Trout Restoration Group - Marble Trout t-shirt
Yellowstone Park Foundation – Westslope Cutthroat Trout T-shirt

Our 2 new groups will be:
Trout Unlimited Driftless Area - TUDARE focusing on the Harry and Laura Nohr Chapter of TU (www.tu.org/driftless) (www.nohrtu.org) - Brook Trout t-shirt
The Midwest Driftless Area Restoration is a geographically focused, locally driven, consensus based effort to protect, restore and enhance riparian and aquatic habitat that had been lost due to farming practices in the early 1900’s. (Driftless refers to a lack of residual vegetation, rock and dirt that was not left behind by receding glaciers.) The Midwest Driftless Area Restoration Effort includes 24,000 square miles of southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa western Wisconsin and Northwestern Illinois. This Effort includes a broad partnership of federal, state and local government, local landowners, academic institutions, and conservation groups such as Trout Unlimited and sportsmen’s groups. The goal is to increase watershed restoration by reducing erosion and pollution, benefit fish and their habitat and expands recreational opportunities.

We will be supporting the aggressive efforts of the Harry and Laura Nohr Chapter of TU that is currently working on the Blue River in Wisconsin along with other soon to be targeted regional rivers.

The Golden Project – Golden Trout T-shirt (www.tucal.org)
California’s State fish dazzles anyone with its beauty. But hybridization with rainbow trout and degradation of habitat dramatically has impacted this pure strain of fish to the point of extinction. Enter CA Department of Fish and Game, USFWS, Forest Service and grassroots groups CA Trout, Federation of Fly Fishers and Trout Unlimited have taken on this challenge with a 4 prong approach: locate and identify pure strains of golden trout populations throughout the Sierra; remove non-native and predatory fish from golden waters; restore riparian habitat damaged by cattle grazing; and public education and outreach.