UW Professor Wins NSF Grant to Study Trout Conservation and Environmental Change

A University of Wyoming professor has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study how projected environmental changes over the next four decades will impact trout fisheries in the Intermountain West -- as well as recreational anglers, tourism and the natural food supply.

Kelly Dunning, UW's Timberline Professor of Sustainable Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, received the award for her project, "Rainbows on the Horizon: Understanding the Dynamics of Integrated Climate, River, Trout, Tourism and Policy Systems in the Mountain West." The grant comes through NSF's Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems program.

The $770,000 project is noteworthy for its interdisciplinary research looking at the relationships between snowpack, precipitation, hydrology, trout ecology and evolution, recreational fisheries livelihoods, and management policy for trout in Wyoming and Colorado.

"The goal is to understand how trout fisheries in the Intermountain West are impacted by a rapidly changing climate and how stakeholders and managers are reacting to these changes to better protect mountain trout fisheries and the bioeconomy that depends upon them," Dunning says. "Trout are a flagship species, one of the most popular game fish in the United States, with immense value to tourism and livelihoods in rural communities. They also are expected to be the species most heavily impacted by climate change in mountain ecosystems."

Dunning's project will last three years and involve a large network of partners, including Assistant Professor Ryan Williamson, of UW's Political Science Program; scientists at Auburn University; and NSF's National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The study sites in Wyoming and Colorado include some of the most productive trout fisheries in the U.S. Computer modeling will use climate and water data to project changes in populations of native cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, brown trout and brook trout. Additionally, the project will include a survey of several thousand people asking whether changes to biodiversity will impact people's willingness to fish -- and how changes to local fish may impact overall satisfaction with outdoor experiences and the use of trout for food.

The project also will ask decision-makers to play a role, including National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service managers, state game and fish agency scientists, and tribal leadership. These managers will co-create the questions about projected environmental changes over the next 40 years; how those changes will impact trout fisheries that characterize rivers and streams of the Intermountain West; and how those changes will affect recreational anglers, tourism and the natural food supply.

Ultimately, the project will engage decision-makers at the federal, state, local and tribal levels -- as well as nongovernmental organizations and outfitters -- regarding how changes in climate, biodiversity and public preferences on outdoor recreation can be met with changes to public policy and collaborative management.