BY KAREN BOSSICK
Learn how to create a Trout Friendly Yard during a Zoom presentation at 5:30 p.m. tonight—Thursday, April 22.
Ryan Santo, the Wood River Land Trust’s restoration specialist, will discuss the free certification program and share steps to create attractive landscapes that promote water and soil health during this Earth Day presentation.
To tune in, RSVP to Kristin.fletcher@haileypubliclibrary.org
“The Big Wood River is a crown jewel winding through our valley,” said Fletcher, programs and community engagement coordinator for the Hailey Public Library, which is hosting the presentation. “Everyone shares a responsibility to help keep it healthy. This talk will focus on ways to reduce water use, reduce or eliminate the use of synthetic fertilizers and herbicides and utilize native and drought-tolerant plants.”
Santos is originally from New Jersey but has spent the last 14 years monitoring endangered salmon and steelhead populations in the Snake and Upper Columbia River basins.
He graduated with a bachelor degree in Fisheries and Aquiculture from the State University of New York – Cobleskill. And he’s worked throughout the Northwest with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and, most recently, the Nez Perce Tribe.
At the Land Trust, Ryan focuses on implementing water conservation and habitat rehabilitation projects. He led the recently completed mile-long Howard Preserve River Restoration Project, which will mitigate flooding on private property and enhance floodplain and natural fluvial processes.