The purpose of the Llano River project is to work with willing landowners to protect and improve aquatic habitats of Guadalupe bass and other species in the Llano River, Texas. Despite recent increases in human populations throughout the native range of Guadalupe bass (State Fish of Texas), many stream reaches remain relatively pristine and intact. However, projections of population growth, water demands, and land-use changes indicate that these locations will soon be at risk. Like most of Texas, lands contained within the native range of Guadalupe bass are privately owned, thus effective coordination with private landowners is critical to the long-term conservation of habitats important to Guadalupe bass and other native species. 

This project will preserve populations of Guadalupe bass in the Llano River, Texas by developing a network of willing landowners interested in implementing coordinated landscape conservation actions at a watershed scale.  Conservation actions implemented by the landowner network promote functional riparian and stream systems, and emphasize the conservation of native fish communities and supporting habitats.  The network is attempting to curtail or eliminate activities on the landscape that degrade water quality, reduce water quantity, degrade riparian systems, favor non-native species, or fragment stream systems, while encouraging a wide array of sustainable land-use activities that are compatible with aquatic resource conservation.

Through more than $1.4M in grants and donations from project sponsors, including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Anheuser-Busch Corporation, project partners are taking action to protect and restore instream, riparian and upland habitats in the Llano River Watershed that support healthy habitats, natural ecosystems and sustainable populations of Guadalupe bass.  Specific actions include stream bank stabilization and reestablishment of native vegetation to support functional riparian zones, removal or redesign of road crossings that serve as barriers to fish passage or that alter natural fluvial processes in the river, instream structural habitat enhancements, including placement of root wads, log and boulder complexes that support sustainable populations of Guadalupe bass and other native fishes, and upland grasslands restoration to support recharge of springs and restored hydrologic flows.

Partners: Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, South Llano Watershed Alliance, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, Anheuser-Busch Corporation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, Texas State University, Texas Tech University at Junction, BASS, FLW Outdoors, KT Diaries, World Fishing Network, Trout Unlimited, City of Junction, USDA, and NRCS.