From Yellow Dog:
The Yellow Dog Community and Conservation Foundation (YDCCF) was founded in 2016 to preserve, protect and enhance the communities and fisheries that matter to anglers.
Earlier this month, the YDCCF Board met and approved $106,000 for 10 new grants to projects including destinations in the Bahamas, Montana, Belize, Kiribati, Mongolia, Mexico, Alaska and Argentina. The slate of grants highlights YDCCF’s continued commitment to fisheries restoration and protection, youth conservation education, and community assistance. Groups receiving funding include the Fisheries Conservation Foundation, Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association, the Bristol Bay Guide Academy and Upper Missouri Waterkeeper, among others. Please see the full list below and on our Grantees page online.
YDCCF is the only organization of its kind dedicated to supporting destination fishing communities and their fisheries. Every booking with Yellow Dog Flyfishing and online and in person purchase with the Yellow Dog Fly Shop generates a percentage donated to YDCCF to support the communities that matter to anglers. Since its inception, YDCCF has granted almost $2M to support the places that Yellow Dog sends anglers.
For more information about YDCCF, their grants, and how to apply, please visit www.ydccf.org
Contact Information:
Brooks Scott
Executive Director – Yellow Dog Community and Conservation Foundation
brooks@ydccf.org; 406-220-3900
Yellow Dog Community and Conservation Foundation
Grants Spring 2025
Bristol Bay Guide Academy
Started in 2008, the Bristol Bay Guide Academy annually trains 15-18 new guides, predominantly from local indigenous tribes in the region. YDCCF has been supporting this program for several years. The Guide Academy was featured in the 2023 Orvis film “School of Fish”. This grant is partially supported by YDCCF Lodge Partner Bear Trail Lodge and owner Nanci Morris Lyon, who helped create the guide academy in 2008 and remains involved to this day.
Montana Trout Unlimited Youth Camps and Clinics
Every year Montana Trout Unlimited brings 20 kids (ages 11-14) to Georgetown Lake for a five-day immersion into all things fishing and conservation. Youth are selected from across the state and sponsored by local chapters; in addition, MTU holds at least 2-3 slots open for children from Missoula Youth Homes to be able to participate. YDCCF has been supporting MTU’s youth conservation and education efforts for the last four years.
Wildlife Conservation in Mexico
A small group of dedicated biologists is working on isolating and naming the native trout of the Sierra Madre in northern Mexico. YDCCF has supplied funding for the last two years for this project aimed at convincing the Mexican government that the native trout species in the Sierra Madre Occidental deserve protection and restoration.
Fisheries Conservation Foundation
In collaboration with two of YDCCF’s Lodge Partners on Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Christmas Island Lodge and Ikari House, FCF has been commissioned to start a three-year study documenting the movement of Giant Trevally around Christmas Island. The study will provide baseline data on the population, as well as any impacts to the population from local commercial and private harvest. The goal is a better understanding of the nature of the GT fishery, with an eye toward conservation.
Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association (TASA)
TASA is responsible for the management of the Turneffe Atoll Reserve in Belize. In conjunction with an effort to provide further protections for the flats fishing habitat around Turneffe, TASA has commissioned a scientific research study aimed at determining where the bonefish population aggregates prior to spawning. PSA’s – pre-spawning aggregations, are massive schools that collect before heading off the flats to deeper waters to spawn. Protecting the areas where this happens is key, hence the research to understand where these are occurring at Turneffe. This grant is partially supported by YDCCF Lodge Partners Turneffe Flats Lodge and Turneffe Island Resort.
Mongolia River Outfitters Healthy Taimen Festivals
This is an ongoing signature collaboration with YDCCF Lodge Partner Mongolia River Outfitters. Together with MRO and BioRegions International, YDCCF funding has supported providing health screenings for over 1000 Mongolian children in remote communities. Each year, two or three festivals are held, bringing preventive healthcare where none is normally present.
Xcalak Community Enrichment Project
Started in 2022 by YDCCF, the Xcalak Community Engagement Project seeks to help the residents of this small village on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico by providing arts, education and English language instruction at the new Esperanza de Vida. Each summer, a weeklong curriculum is presented to the residents, both adults and children, and this has now evolved into a year-round program with teachers visiting the community monthly. This grant is partially funded by YDCCF Lodge Partner the XFlats.
Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Crooked Island Mangrove Nursery
YDCCF has been supplying funding to assist BTT’s Bahamas Mangrove Initiative for several years, and this year our focus has shifted to Crooked Island in the far southern portion of the Bahamas. Crooked Island suffered a near total loss of its mangroves during Hurricane Joaquin in 2015. Without a healthy population to help provide the seeds for regrowth, the mangroves have not come back. YDDCF has stepped forward to provide the startup funding to build a new mangrove nursery on the island that will begin the process of bringing back Crooked’s mangrove forests.
Upper Missouri Waterkeeper / Save Wild Trout
It has been a couple years since the news came out about alarmingly low fish counts in the Jefferson Basin (Big Hole/Beaverhead/Ruby/Jefferson). The first full season of research and capture of stream data focused on water quantity, quality and temperature across the basin revealed that a combination of high temperatures, low dissolved oxygen, high in-stream nutrients and lack of cold instream flows are at the heart of what is causing a system wide collapse. The question is – what can be done? The short-term answer right now is to persuade the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to issue an “impairment” designation for the watershed. Conversations between SWT and FWP biologists in the region have pointed to this outcome specifically as beneficial to being able to assist in restoration and protection efforts. It is going to take a coordinated approach across state agencies (FWP/DEQ/DNRC) combined with privately funded NGOs like SWT and the Big Hole River Foundation to fully address the core issues and work to improve the habitat. YDCCF’s funding is aimed at assisting this.
Patagonia Fly Fishing Expo
Held annually at the beginning of each season (traditionally late October) in San Martin de los Andes in Neuquen, the Patagonia Fly Fishing Festival draws guides and anglers from across South America for a two-day event to promote the development of the sport in the region. Panels and discussions led by local leaders help inform and promote fly fishing as a business and economic driver in the region. The 2024 festival featured youth educations programming highlighting conservation.
