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2022 Trout Friendly Landscaper & Business Certification
The Jackson Hole Clean Water Coalition invites landscaping professionals and interested individuals to the annual Trout Friendly Landscaper Certification Workshop from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19. This year, the Coalition is pleased to announce that we are expanding the Trout Friendly Program to Teton Valley. Landscaping professionals from Teton Valley are encouraged to attend. The online workshop is FREE, though registration is required to attend.
Experts will present on Trout Friendly Lawn practices, including soil health, nutrient cycling, fertilizer and pesticide application, native plants, and more. Continuing education credits may be available.
Not a landscaper? Encourage your landscaper or landscaper friends to attend the workshop. As a resident, you can also get your lawn Trout Friendly Certified (it’s free and only takes a minute).
The Jackson Hole Clean Water Coalition, a group of 10 local nonprofits and agencies working together to improve water quality, launched the Trout Friendly Landscaper & Business Partner Certification Program in 2020 to help lawn care and landscaping professionals create and maintain quality lawns and gardens while also limiting impacts on water from fertilizer and pesticide runoff. In 2021, nineteen local landscaping and lawncare companies became certified Trout Friendly.
“We are thrilled to see our local landscapers and businesses stepping up to steward our local waterways through the Trout Friendly program. They are helping to raise awareness with their clients that what we do on the land can affect the health of our streams and fisheries. As this effort expands, we hope to see measurable reductions in nutrient pollution from lawn fertilizers,” said Leslie Steen, NW Wyoming Program Director for Trout Unlimited.
Betsy first visited Teton Valley as a 10-year-old from Atlanta, GA, on a family trip west (station wagon and pop-up camper in tow), and knew from that point that the Tetons were amazing and the Rockies were where she wanted to be when she grew up. With a B.A. in Biology and an M.A. in Geography, she enjoyed a career in natural resource management with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service, the last 20 years in Utah and Montana. In 2022, she and her husband Dan started building their home in Tetonia, moving here in 2023, and are enjoying the outdoor joys of the Tetons and getting to know Teton Valley. She enjoys all things outdoors, particularly hiking, mountain biking, skiing, and trying to dabble in bikepacking; loves traveling although finds leaving their senior tabby to be so hard.
Rafe owns and operates Canewater Farm in Victor, Idaho. Rafe studied business at The University of Georgia and organic agriculture at the University of California Santa Cruz. Rafe brings the unique perspective of the local agricultural community to Friends of the Teton River. He is a farmer and a fisherman who views the Teton River as the lifeblood of the community. He advocates for collaboration between agricultural and recreational stakeholders. He is a proud father of two children, Rowan and Emmalou. He and his family sneak away from the farm any chance they can to camp, fish, ski, bike and explore the beautiful mountains and rivers of the area.