The Freshwater Trust

10/10/2026

Cheers to the weekend and to great partners! Hetty Alice is back with another one. The TFT Riffle Hazy IPA now available in fine beverage stores across the Pacific Northwest.

10/02/2026

More than $220,000 will be going to Oregon's Willamette, Sandy, and Deschutes watersheds for much needed restoration in 2026, thanks to Portland General Electric’s Habitat Support Fund customers. Recipients include the Calapooia Watershed Council, Clackamas River Basin Council, Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, Deschutes Land Trust , and The Freshwater Trust.

The review team was impressed with the robust design, team experience and agency support demonstrated by the projects from these five recipients.

Multi-phase projects that have already implemented early restoration projects—such as the floodplains and side-channel rearing habitats in the Ochoco Preserve—are now attracting native fish such as steelhead and trout.

09/18/2026

The Freshwater Trust Awarded $6.1 Million in NOAA Funding to Restore Salmon and Steelhead Habitat in Oregon’s Sandy River Basin: "When we helped secure Endangered Species Act protection for these fish decades ago, the goal wasn’t to put them on some sacred list and mourn—it was to recover them,” says Joe Whitworth, President & CEO. “The Sandy program shows what can happen when you work at the scale of the whole basin, put effort into projects that matter most, and measure success by outcomes: spring Chinook and winter steelhead returns are now consistently surpassing ESA delisting abundance targets. This basin is one of very few spots in America where that’s actually happening. This NOAA investment lets us keep doing what works until the job is done.”

PORTLAND, OR – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden joined U.S. Representatives Val Hoyle (OR-04) and Maxine Dexter (OR-03) today to announce $12 million in federal funds for Oregon habitat restoration and coastal resilience projects through the Community-based Restoration Program ...

09/17/2026

Almost $150,000 will be going to four Oregon waterways for much needed restoration in 2026, thanks to Pacific Power's Blue Sky Program . Recipients include Hood River Watershed Group, Trout Unlimited, The Freshwater Trust, and Long Tom Watershed Council.

Four waterways will receive much-needed restoration in 2026, thanks to a partnership between Pacific Power’s Blue Sky® Habitat customers and The…

09/01/2026

Water solutions are bigger in Texas.

In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, TFT is helping irrigation districts identify where infrastructure upgrades can save the most water and make limited funding go further.

Making Every Drop and Every Dollar Count The Middle and Lower Rio Grande Valleys (RGV) depend heavily on surface water from the Rio Grande River to…

08/26/2026

TFT staff recently traded screen time for face time, gathering in person to reconnect, recharge and spend a little time thinking about the work ahead. Being in person reminded us of something that sits at the heart of how we work: tough problems are better solved together.

08/10/2026

In California’s Sacramento & San Joaquin River Basins, The Freshwater Trust and our partners are improving regional resilience to drought, flood, and fires through coordinated investment in priority groundwater recharge, flood management, and forest health projects. Explore our impact in California through the link below.

Together, we can fix the water crisis with research, technology and innovation. Learn more about our applied solutions for farmers, cities, and watersheds.

07/24/2026

Alongside amazing partners, we are implementing region-scale solutions in the Snake River Basin that modernize agriculture, keep electricity costs low, improve water quality, and restore key habitat.

Find out more at the link below.

https://thefreshwatertrust.org/impact/basins/snake/reduce-toxics

07/16/2026

On Colorado’s West Slope, we're partnering with ditch companies and conservation districts to design programs that build drought resilience through large-scale water delivery and on-farm irrigation modernization projects. These efforts conserve water, strengthen agricultural productivity, improve watershed health, and help address the basin’s structural deficit. They also improve water security for individual producers and enable them to participate in conservation programs and contribute to water quality improvements. Partners are using TFT’s decision-support tools to identify strategies for drought response, explore what water savings are possible within their system, and calculate the economic benefits to farmers and ranchers and water quantity and quality benefits to the river system.

Together, we can fix the water crisis with research, technology and innovation. Learn more about our applied solutions for farmers, cities, and watersheds.

07/01/2026

Joe Whitworth, President and CEO of The Freshwater Trust, joined the "Smart To Fish Wild" podcast to discuss bringing a tech-driven approach to environmental conservation. Joe breaks down how TFT uses advanced analytics to align the economic interests of local farmers with critical river protections, and bypass outdated, slow-moving bureaucratic processes to deliver real, scalable environmental outcomes.

I had an incredible conversation with Joe Whitworth, the President ...