Sustainable Livestock Grazing and Trout Stream Restoration: Issues of Scale, Innovation and Collaboration

Incompatible livestock management is a common factor in the decline of trout populations with impacts compounded during periods of increasing drought, wildfires, or other disturbances.   Despite this, where livestock grazing has been a traditional practice there often are strong desires to integrate livestock use with stream restoration.  Success requires collaborative and non-traditional partnerships between agricultural producers, agencies and conservationists.  We present a collaborative framework that has proven effective in Idaho, and we report on two successful restoration efforts where livestock use degraded stream  and riparian habitat for native trout.  At Maggie Creek, Nevada, termination of hot season use and creation of riparian pastures facilitated recovery of streams within a large watershed.  Beavers helped build resistance to drought and wildfires by creating large wet meadow and riparian zones where threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout could survive disturbances.  In West Virginia’s Big Run, cattle had degraded stream channel, water quality, and riparian conditions for what was otherwise considered to be an intact brook trout population.  At Big Run, the riparian area was fenced and replanted.  Alternate water sources were provided to maintain livestock use in upland zones.  Monitoring proved critical to determine restoration effectiveness and to modify actions in the face of disturbance.