Historic Projects and Partnerships

Large Game

Reestablishment of Rocky Mountain Elk and Mountain Goats into to Utah

One of our most significant contributions to the state was our efforts to help UDWR with the reintroduction of Rocky Mountain Elk back into to Utah along the Wasatch Front after populations had been essentially eliminated by the turn of the century through over-hunting and agricultural efforts. That effort has been so successful that elk are now found statewide to become over-populated on the Wasatch.

Rocky Mountain Goat Introduction

We helped UDWR to introduce Rocky Mountain Goats to the Wasatch Mountains, and even participated in a viewing event.

Medication for Bighorn Sheep

Working with UDWR and Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife we helped to protect bighorns by feeding sick animals with them a special medicated apple mash, as well as contributing to the purchase and donation of grazing rights on critical winter range for newly transplanted sheep and resident mule deer.

Small Game

We raised chukar and pheasants for Utah

Early in our history we raised various game birds for stocking for hunters.

Introduction of Rio Grande Turkey into Yellow Fork

Working with National Turkey Federation we purchased and helped to introduce turkey into the County’s Rose Canyon Horse Park. We have continued to monitor that population and our directors have even harvested toms there. More recently, we have worked with UDWR to work on a sage grouse habitat restoration project by installing beaver dam analogs on Vernon Creek.

Farmington Bay Waterfowl Refuge Restoration and Access

We worked with UDWR to reseed and provide additional access to visitors.

Sport Fisheries

SLCF&GA historic fish hatchery 

In our early years we raised millions of trout stocked in Utah’s lakes and streams from our own fish hatchery located on Scott Avenue, just off of 700 East, SLC. That property and its fish hatchery was later sold to UDWR in the 1970s with a gentleman’s agreement that our Association would receive an annual “allotment” of one hatchery truck load of catchable-sized rainbow trout every year. We have not held UDWR to that commitment recently.

Strawberry Reservoir

Over the years we have been heavily involved in the restoration of fishing in Strawberry Reservoir, including our participation in the eradication of all the fishes there, and, also helped to restore the reservoir’s spawning tributaries in the monumental effort to restore its sport fishery. Working through the Utah Anglers Coalition we also formally proposed the lake’s current fishing regulations, that have proven to be so successful that the fishery received a national award.

Uinta Mountain Alpine Lakes Management

After years of noting the need to conduct the Uinta Mountains Lakes Resource Management Plan, UDWR has finally agreed to work with the Anglers Coalition and other interested Uintas anglers to gather fishing data to evaluate UDWR’s stocking regimes. Three of our directors participated in this valuable effort this past summer by visiting many lakes on the heavily visited West end of the mountain range.

$10,000 Donation to UDWR for Fish Hatcheries Upgrades

Our largest annual grant donation was a $10,000 grant to UDWR to upgrade Utah’s hatchery trucks, hatching equipment and other specialized hatchery-oriented equipment Grantsville.

Reservoir Catch-and-Release Fishing Contest

We organized and ran an official Catch-and-Release Trout Fishing Contest at Grantsville Reservoir for three consecutive years to prove that salmonid fishing contests can be successfully held without harming the fishery. The attendance and fishing was good, and many smaller prizes were awarded.

Donation of Fishing Tackle Crafting Materials

We donated a variety of fishing tackle crafting kits to the UDWR for use in their various fishing promotion activities. Kits included: spinner making, spoon making, fly tying, soft 

plastic baits molding, and all the vices, specialized tools, and materials. UDWR added to the various kits and used them for years.

Donation of Fishing Simulator

We donated a “Fishing Simulator”, including: a TV, fishing rods, the simulator box, and a variety of fish tapes. UDWR in participation with us successfully used the device to 
realistically simulate hooking and fighting a fish for many years.

Endangered Species

June Sucker Restoration Implementation Program (JSRIP) 

Working with a variety of involved wildlife agencies and water users our nonprofit has supported the restoration of the endangered June Sucker, endemic to only Utah Lake through the June Sucker Recovery Implementation Program (JSRIP) for more than a decade. We have participated as that program’s only non-compensated volunteer, “Outdoor Interests” representative. Where there were only several hundred surviving suckers left in the lake when the species was added to the America’s Endangered Species list, the program has been so successful in it efforts to restore the fish through stocking and restoration efforts, that there are now tens of thousands of June sucker swimming in the lake and running up its tributaries to spawn. Through its support of stocking and habitat restoration efforts the program and its participants recently received a national award.

Yampa River Fish Removal Program

To protect the various endangered fishes of the Upper Colorado Drainage, including pike minnow, razorback suckers, and humpback chubs, we worked with the US Fish and Wildlife Agency to primarily remove channel catfish from the lower Yampa River through Dinosaur National Monument. The effort primarily involved hook and line removal of various other introduced, exotic fishes on a variety of Service-supported raft float, canoeing, and backpacking trips through and into the gorge. We participated on five of these fishing trips that spanned years.

Mill Creek Bonneville Cutthroat Trout Restoration

We participated with the US Forest Service and UDWR in a stepwise trout eradication of non-native brown trout and replacement with Utah’s State Fish, the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout.

Wildlife Habitat Restoration

Fife Wetland Preserve in Salt Lake City

After an oil spill from a Chevron pipe on Red Butte Creek, Salt Lake City (SLC) negotiated a mitigation settlement for damages to downstream nature. We organized two of SLC’s communities to support the creation of a nature area on the Jordan River and 9th South. That area has been named the Fred and Ila Rose Wetland Preserve, and with our support has been partially restored with a shallow wetland oxbow pond and native plants. This urban nature preserve is bounded by the renowned International Peace Gardens to the south and the Fifth South Park to the north, and the various other parks along the 900 South 9-Line Corridor, we continue to work with SLC towards a better habitat for native wildlife. The Preserve is especially valuable for public viewing of neotropical birds and waterfowl migrating between the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake along the Jordan River Corridor.

Antelope Island Spring Protection

Working with Utah Division of Parks and Recreation and Dedicated Hunters we revegetated and protected a valuable spring by installing an electric exclusion fence.

Strawberry Mud Creek Protection

We worked with the US Forest Service and Strawberry Anglers Association to install barbed wire-covered buck-and-pole fencing to inhibit vehicle travel in the dispersed camping area in Mud Creek, one of the spawning tributaries of Strawberry Reservoir.

Public Access

Book Cliffs

We worked with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to obtain important wildlife habitat in the Book Cliffs area previously closed to prime big game habitat.

Utah Lake Knolls

We made financial contributions towards gaining hunting and fishing access at the Knolls area on the west side of Utah Lake, and even participated in a cleanup there.

Strawberry Reservoir Fish Trap Boardwalk

We worked with UDWR to design and install an extension to the already existing boardwalk from the Strawberry Visitors Center to the fish spawning facility. The boardwalk made for better viewing by the public of spawning trout and salmon.

Wildlife Center

State of Utah Wildlife Center

We have worked towards the creation of a nature center that could operate as a hub for information on all of Utah’s wildlife and nature-oriented organizations. Our original intentions were to build the facility somewhere in the Jordan River Corridor and we invested thousands of dollars creating a presentation portfolio to promote the idea. Working with most of the municipalities and other nature-oriented organizations through the umbrella group, the Jordan River Natural Areas Forum, we were able to secure a potential location on the North Jordan River State Park. However, Salt Lake City negotiated with State Parks to secure that flood plain area for the construction of their controversial Regional Athletic Complex, and the dream of such a facility died.