© 2003 by Leo Poppoff

May 15, 2003

Basin Watch

by

Leo Poppoff

TRUCKEE ANGLERS ARE HOOKING LAHONTAN CUTTHROATS AGAIN

For a century after Anglos arrived in the Truckee River Basin,
cutthroats endured heavy commercial and sport fishing pressure, sawdust,
sewage and toxic waste. Dams barricaded their spawning grounds and
occasionally left them flopping helplessly in dry riverbeds. Finally, in
1944, Truckee River's native trout gave up and disappeared from view.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is dedicated to the goal of
restoring Lahontan cutthroats to the Truckee River. Along with the
Nevada Division of Wildlife and the Paiute tribe, the FWS has been
engaged in an ambitious Lahontan cutthroat restoration program. But,
it's a tough job.

Restoring native Lahontan cutthroat trout (the only native trout in the
Truckee) is a tricky business. The historic run of the Truckee River,
from Pyramid Lake to Lake Tahoe is no longer available for them. Over
the past decades, rainbow and brown trout have been stocked in the
river. And some of them have been able to spawn and establish a wild
fishery. Cutthroats and rainbows and browns are related and can spawn at
the same time and place. When that happens, genes get mixed up and
cutthroats lose their pedigree. They look more like rainbows and are no
longer unique native fish.

Randi Thompson, with the FWS, explains that there are ideas of how to
prevent this. For example, if the fish and game folks planted spring
spawning rainbows, they wouldn't get mixed up with fall spawning
cutthroats. The various dams on the Truckee River that prevent
cutthroats from engaging in their historic spawning runs could also be
used as barriers to keep rainbows and browns in some stretches of the
river, while allowing cutthroats to use habitats in other parts. Part of
the cutthroat restoration process is to identify stretches of the
Truckee that would be most suitable for cutthroats and stretches that
would provide trophy rainbow and brown trout fishing. The FWS and its
partners have been planting Lahontan cutthroat trout in various reaches
of the Truckee River system for quite a while. From 1995 to 2000, some
50,000 cutthroats \-- eight to ten inches long \-- were planted each
year. Thompson explains that we're still collecting data on where the
fish were. Are they still in the system . . . where were they found? She
points out that this is a very science driven program . . . we want to
know how the fish are adapting to this environment.

Nevada's Division of Wildlife and the Paiute tribe are currently
planting spawning sized (longer than 24 inches) cutthroats in the
Truckee, east of Reno, close to tribal lands. It's an experiment,
Thompson said, to see if they can actually spawn in the river.

Last summer, the FWS had an opportunity to plant Lahontan cutthroat
trout in a stretch of the Truckee closer to home. According to Thompson,
some 50,000 fish from the Lahontan National Fish Hatchery in
Gardnerville were planted in the stretch of river from the Tahoe City
dam to Donner Lake. The one-year-old, eight to ten-inch long, fish were
hatched from eggs taken from Independence and Pyramid Lakes.

California's Department of Fish and Game ran out of money for its usual
stocking of rainbow and brown trout. So, the FWS furnished cutthroats as
the game fish for Truckee River anglers last summer. In addition to
providing recreational fishing for Truckee anglers, it provided a study
opportunity for the FWS. "The fish were tagged," Thompson explained,
"and as they travel through the system and are caught, we'll be able to
learn more about where they've gone."

Is it the FWS intention to provide for recreational fishing or to
restore a wild Lahontan cutthroat trout fishery? "It's both," Thompson
points out. "Our intention is to bring native trout back to the Truckee
(and that they be used) for recreational purposes. We're not looking to
take away rainbows and browns, leaving the river devoid of fish. We're
looking at replacing rainbows and browns with Lahontan cutthroat trout
(in areas where they do well) and get the numbers up so recreational
fishing of a native trout will be a pretty good tourist draw. We're
seeing nationwide, that a lot of areas are returning native fishes and
creating unique fisheries."

"California saw that this could be a selling point," added Thompson.
"After the planting (of Lahontan cutthroats) we did last year, they had
an increase in fishing licenses in that area and got a lot of positive
feedback from anglers in that region, saying that it was really cool to
be able to fish for native trout. That's the kind of feedback we're
getting from a lot of anglers, even the folks who've not really been
supportive of us. They're saying: I must admit it's kind of neat to be
able to fish for the native trout."

It's obviously a long, hard road back for the Truckee River's native
fish. But, it might just happen. And wouldn't that be great news.

Comments? Send them to basinwatch@earthlink.net