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Title: The Freshwater Trust: Coordinating, Data-Driven Strategies to
Improve Fresh Water Ecosystems in the West
Abstract: The Freshwater Trust (TFT) has been actively involved with conservation and restoration
projects to fix rivers, preserve fish habitat, and improve water quality within Western U.S. river
basins since the 1980’s. In this talk I will provide an overview of TFT’s mission and highlight
several TFT projects in the West. I will then focus on TFT projects in the Snake River Basin in
Idaho and Oregon. The Snake River and many of its tributaries are highly stressed by water
users within the basin. Canal networks have been constructed to divert water to agricultural
fields for irrigation. Excess irrigation runoff is returned directly to rivers through a network of
return drains. The result is significant sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus, and mercury loads, which
impair water quality. The Freshwater Trust (TFT) has been actively involved with conservation
projects to improve water quality within the Snake River for more than a decade. I will
summarize our Snake River Stewardship Program with Idaho Power Company and our recently
funded EPA Toxics Reduction Program, among others. I will also highlight 1) TFT’s data-driven
approach to prioritizing conservation projects; 2) recently developed data analytic tools that
facilitate optimizing project benefits and costs; and 3) TFT’s coordinated watershed-scale
conservation funding strategy. TFT is excited to work with local partners on this critical
challenge, and we hope this coordinated strategy generates momentum, reduces risk, and
attracts political support and additional conservation funding.
Affiliation: Science Director at The Freshwater Trust