Here's an article about efforts to save a genetically pure strain of Colorado River Cutthoat trout on the Roan Plateau from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. They write, "More than 15 years ago, the Grand Valley Anglers chapter of Trout Unlimited adopted Trapper Creek, a headwater tributary of East Parachute Creek, and the handful of cutthroat trout that managed to survive in the stream during the millennia since the fish were isolated on the plateau at the end of the last Ice Age. There are five remaining populations of Colorado River cutthroats on the Roan Plateau, but only two of them - in Trapper and Northwater creeks - are considered Core Populations, meaning their genetics are at least 99 percent pure. The others show signs of interbreeding with rainbow trout stocked in the previous century. But more than exotic species threatened the cutthroats. Years of cattle grazing along the creek resulted in beaten-down banks and, along most of its length, the stream was too wide, too shallow and too warm to support fish easily. In 1991, the GVA gathered about two dozen volunteers and spent a day moving rocks, building instream log barriers to create pools and drops, and planting willows and narrow-leafed cottonwoods. Chief among their efforts was building, with cooperation of the Bureau of Land Management, cattle exclosures along two sections of the creek, totaling about three-quarters of a mile. This was hands-on conservation volunteerism at its most basic...
"In 2002, Bill Elmblad, then the Colorado Division of Wildlife area fisheries biologist, attempted to salvage some of the Trapper Creek fish after hearing reports that drought had nearly emptied the stream, leaving fish trapped in small pools where they were becoming featured dinner items for the local black bear population. 'The stream was virtually dried up, some of the worst conditions I've ever seen,' Elmblad said in a later conversation. 'We somehow managed to bring in 48 fish. But they immediately turned cannibal and the larger fish ate the smaller fish before we could separate them in the hatchery.' The fish proved difficult to raise and initially refused to eat the normal hatchery fish diet. Once a suitable diet was found, the fish managed to thrive, but when Elmblad decided to return some of the fish to Trapper Creek, there wasn't still enough water to do so."
Category: Colorado Water
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