Bighorn River Alliance

Outreach: Bighorn River Alliance reaches its membership and the community at large to provide education and awareness of the Bighorn River and the work of the organization through numerous outlets including: an annual report, bi-annual newsletters, monthly email updates, social media exposure and an interactive website that contains blogs, and an interactive River conditions tools feature of which current and historical River data can be found. Other outreach efforts include signage at specific geographic locations and informational brochures placed at local businesses. Bighorn River Alliance interacts with its membership and other watershed stakeholders through community forums, presentations and events, and Bighorn basin interagency meetings.

Tenkara with the tribe: a youth educational fishing program to introduce local crow youth to fly-fishing in their local reservation waters as a form of positive recreation. Through one-on-one instruction, youth learn about the sport while also learning about the Bighorn and little Bighorn rivers.

Research initiative: the Bighorn River Alliance recognizes that the health of the Bighorn River fishery is dependent on the ecological health of the entire River corridor. The research initiatve program works to better understand the health of the River and how it responds to natural and human factors, through in depth scientific inquiry that can lead to projects that protect and preserve the resource. Components of this program include the annual long-term monitoring of water quality and macroinvertebrate communities, monitoring of rainbow trout spawning grounds, large scale side channel restoration work that restores connection between the Bighorn River and its side channels, and monitoring of habitats post restoration. To date, Bighorn River Alliance has restored 7 side channels with plans to restore 4 more in 2024.