Smoky Headwaters Initiative

Here is a great resource from some great organizations on native trout.

Alberta's Native Trout (albertanativetrout.com)

Arctic Grayling is not listed here because they are not a trout per se, but they belong to the greater trout family (Salmonidae). 

We have chosen paired watersheds (one pair flows into the Kakwa River and the other pair into the Simonette River) for this project. We will assess all 4 watersheds for water quality and sediment loading. But only two will receive the restoration efforts to reduce sediment loading.  This will allows us to measure how effective we are at reducing sediment loading to coldwater fish habitat.  

We are excited to begin a new project in the Smoky Headwaters. Every watershed has a headwaters and the Smoky River's are in the Grande Cache Vicinity.

This is initiative is going to look at reducing threats to coldwater fish, think Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus) and Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus), habitat. These coldwater species are often at risk.

Our State of the Watershed identified the Smoky Headwaters as both critical fish habitat, ranked by fisheries because of important spawning habitat, and an area where Arctic Grayling were not as impacted as other places.

So we are going to focus on the Smoky headwaters for this important work of restoring coldwater (species at risk) fish habitat.