Trout Unlimited was awarded a Collabortive Forest Restoration Program (CFRP) grant in the amount of $360,000 in 2006 for the purposes of re-establishing a natural fire regime in the Gila National Forest and for the construction of two fish passage barriers.

The bulk of this grant money will be spent doing an environmental assessment in preparation for a controlled burn that will secure approximately 89,000 acres of Gila trout habitat in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness.

This was a pretty controversial grant, and during the funding meeting, it was touch and go whether this grant would happen or not. The Collaborative Forest Restoration Program exists only in New Mexico, originating from the ‘Community Forest Restoration Act’ of 2000, which was sponsored by Senator Bingaman and co-sponsored by Senator Domenici. The program was designed to help local communities that interface with the national forests in New Mexico by reducing fire threats and by adding to the economies through the sustainable use of forest products. I believe that this is the first time this grant program was used to support a controlled burn. By proposing this project, we seem to have opened up some controversy on how the USFS and the USFWS communicate with each other when controlled burns are done in the presence of endangered species. Hopefully this grant will also help those agencies sort through some of their problems.

Our reasoning behind the grant is that by securing habitat for Gila trout and other imperiled native fishes in the Gila, local communities would benefit from improved recreational opportunities. By doing large burns in the Gila under controlled circumstances, we hope to slow down the threat of the large uncontrolled crowning fires that have caused so much damage to the forest and to the Gila trout over the past decade. The area to be burned is within the South Diamond Creek drainage. With the  down-listing of the Gila trout, there is more opportunity to pick up the pace of restoration efforts.

In addition to the money for the controlled burn, there are also dollars that will be used to build a couple fish passage barriers for two non-trout species.

Kira Finkler, formerly of Trout Unlimited’s DC office was instrumental in getting this grant money for us. She helped put together the proposal and associated budgets and coordinated with the local Forest Service staff.  We were able to get letters of support for our grant proposal from several environmental and conservation organizations throughout the state.

More information on this program can be found on the internet at:
USFS Region 3 CFRP Grants

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