LAHONTAN CUTTHROAT TROUT

Among the various government agencies, Native American tribes, and private interests already involved with Lahontan cutthroat trout, there is a strong commitment to recovery. Recovery, as defined by the USFWS, simply means that Lahontan cutthroat trout populations are no longer at a significant risk of extinction, and may be removed from the list of threatened species, but "recovery," according to the strict, technical definitions under the Endangered Species Act, does not by itself guarantee that other components of aquatic ecosystems are intact. Recovery also does not necessarily ensure that once- prolific fisheries are restored.

The recovery of fisheries and ecosystems will only occur when the public realizes that the disappearance of Lahontan cutthroat trout is more than just a fish issue; rather, it symbolizes a broader environmental threat that affects all desert life, including people.

"Environmental" and "threat" are two words that often go together in this land where letters from the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management (BLM) can be received with the anxiety most feel when they receive notice of a tax audit from the Internal Revenue Service. The federal government owns about 87% of the land in Nevada, and people who depend on their privilege to use public lands for their own benefit may be frustrated by land-use regulations.

This frustration has taken many forms. In 1994, Nye county commissioner Dick Carver illegally bulldozed a closed road in the Toiyabe National Forest as part of a nationally publicized attempt to gain local control of federal lands. In the past four years, at least three bombings have been directed at federal land management offices in Reno. More recently, Elko County has launched a grand jury investigation of federal land management officials. Needless to say, Nevada is not a popular tour of duty for many federal employees. Yet despite of this hostile climate, there are encouraging signs of civility.

One of the first signs of civility on behalf of Lahontan cutthroat trout came in 1988, when an unlikely assembly of ranchers, environmentalists, and federal and state officials formed the Trout Creek Working Group. The group has involved a host of participants, including representatives of the Izaak Walton league, Oregon Trout, the Oregon Cattleman's Association, local ranchers, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the BLM, and the USFWS. The group formed in response to the need to better manage habitats supporting Lahontan cutthroat trout populations in streams of the Trout Creek Mountains, which straddle the remote desert lands of the Oregon-Nevada border.

In the past decade, the Trout Creek cooperative efforts have reduced livestock use along streams by nearly 80 percent, with the most visible result has been the dramatic recovery of riparian plants and trees. Instream habitat characteristics, such as pool frequency, have been slower to respond, but Lahontan cutthroat trout numbers appear to be increasing with a total population of roughly 22,000 fish aged one year or older in 1994.

Fluctuations in those trout populations are undoubtedly due in part to natural climatic cycles, such as the drought of the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, abundant regeneration of stream bank vegetation signals the beginning a natural, long-term recovery process. Research in other parts of the arid West indicates that stream habitat responses to grazing management (e.g. fencing and livestock exclosures) may take several decades.

A watershed restoration project on the Marys River, which supports one of Nevada's largest remaining native populations of Lahontan cutthroat trout, has become a flagship example of cooperation in native fish restoration. Matt Holford, Trout Unlimited Nevada State Council Chairman and Elko resident, described the series of events that initiated the Marys River restoration project.

"In 1988, the BLM, Nevada Division of Wildlife, USFWS, U. S. Forest Service, local ranchers, and sportsmen embarked on a cooperative trout habitat restoration project for the Mary's River. A $45,000 dollar donation was given by Barrick Goldstrike Mines Inc., and matched with Sport Fish Restoration funds to make the initial $180,000 investment. Land swaps and conservation easements with local ranchers have brought recreation access to most of the 128 stream miles of the Mary's River."

In 1992, the Bring Back the Natives program was launched by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the BLM, the Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited's national office. Bring Back the Natives restores native fish on public lands. Over the past five years, the program has injected considerable sums of private and public dollars into the Marys River project.

"TU's Northeastern Nevada Chapter (NNTU) became involved in this project from the chapter's inception in 1990, and has since raised tens of thousands of dollars for habitat projects, fencing monitoring, and scientific studies," said Holford.

"Funding raised by NNTU includes three grants through TU's national Embrace-A-Stream program and six Bring Back the Natives grants." In 1997 alone, NNTU matched a $10,000 Embrace-A-Stream grant with an equal amount in cash and in-kind contributions.

Much progress has been made, but critical gaps remain in terms of areas needing protection. There are culverts, water diversions, and unmitigated grazing damage in many parts of the basin.

Non-native brook trout in tributaries of the lower Marys River pose another potential threat to Lahontan cutthroat trout. If brook trout are able to invade other parts of the basin, they may displace Lahontan cutthroat trout and threaten the success of habitat restoration. In 1997, a single brook trout was captured in the upper Marys River, but it is uncertain whether this fish originated from populations downstream, or from an illegal fish introduction.

While a formally chartered working group has not yet been established on the Marys River cooperation between local ranchers, such as the Wright and Gibbs families, and state and federal agencies, has been key to improved protection and recovery of damaged and sensitive habitats. Increasingly, ranchers are coming to appreciate their role in habitat recovery.

In a recent interview published in the Great Basin News, Bill Wright explained why his family supports restoration and responsible land management:
"I grew up on horseback. The otters were there, the fish, the coyotes, the sandhill cranes. It's pretty. We like it that way." In the same article, Preston Wright said, "Too many people view home rule as a way to do things the way we've always done them. Ranchers have to admit they're part of the problem. We get along with the BLM. But I think I might be able to influence my peers more than some agency can."

Said Oregon ranchers Doc and Connie Hatfield of the Trout Creek Working Group: "Success on the land comes when a diverse group of interested [members of the] `public' acknowledge one another as human beings and develop a vision for what a healthy land and community needs to be. The main obstacle is overcoming the frontier mentality we've fostered in the West for the past century - that the land is a source of unlimited products to be used for people's immediate benefit."

Ultimately, habitat recovery projects like those on the Marys River and Trout Creeks, will require a long term commitment. That commitment entails, in part, continuing financial support. While cooperation from both government and private parties will continue to be vital, the question of financial responsibility is contentious, particularly when public lands grazing and tax dollars are the issue.

Increasingly, the price of doing business on public lands is affected by rapidly growing demands for cleaner and healthier streams, and more recreational opportunities, such as high quality angling for native trout. Said William Marlett of the Oregon Natural Desert Association "We fail to appreciate the size and cost of the success relative to the size of the problem...this is not to sound cynical, just being realistic. In most cases, conservationists, taxpayers and the fish would be better off if we could just buy out the grazing permit from the rancher and get rid of the problem once and for all." That prospect is a lightning rod for many ranchers who view a federal permit as a property right rather than a government subsidy.

Others have completely different ideas. Said one federal land manager, who wished to remain anonymous: "The long-term plan is to `wean' ranchers (and other land users) from this dependence on government supervision. ranchers may ultimately be required to do their own utilization surveys, monitoring, etc., and be accountable, [recognizing that] there are consequences for non-compliance." The land manager continued, "Improvement of streams can improve water supply and forage for cows, thus benefiting ranchers and fish." If not motivated by fish alone, ranchers should be elated about the prospect for decreased government supervision and increased water supply and forage. This self-monitoring approach is not likely to thrill some conservationists, however.

Large-scale habitat restoration underway in the Trout Creeks and Marys River is a radical departure from more conventional approaches. In the past, trout habitat restoration in trout streams often relied on the strategic placement of rocks, logs, or rock weirs to create pools, undercut banks, and other forms of habitat. Habitat structures may produce rapid results, but they are only short-term solutions if land management at the watershed level is not properly implemented.

Watershed management involves complex coordination between many individuals and agencies covering large tracts of land. Unlike habitat structures, which can be installed in a period of a few days, the response of streams to changes in land management practices can take decades. In the long term, however, that approach may be the best investment for Lahontan cutthroat recovery.

Explained Pat Coffin, senior author of the USFWS's Recovery Plan for Lahontan cutthroat trout: "Recovery of Lahontan cutthroat trout is dependent upon the reestablishment of a metapopulation structure where the trout has an opportunity to complete the full array life requirements including migration between streams." Historically, most populations of Lahontan cutthroat trout were part of a larger "metapopulation" or group of populations living in a network of interconnected stream habitats. In such systems, localized losses in trout populations can be balanced by immigration of fish from other habitats.

Today, most Lahontan cutthroat trout occupy small and isolated habitats that may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of disturbances like floods, fires, droughts. There is little or no chance that isolated habitats will be naturally re-populated by immigration. In larger, interconnected systems, such as the Marys River, trout may rapidly re-populate following local extinctions.

Not only are Lahontan cutthroat trout populations more stable in larger systems managed with a watershed approach, but the opportunity to migrate from smaller to larger habitats can provide for bigger fish.

From an angler's perspective, the potential for trout to adopt migratory lifestyles can provide excellent fishing opportunities. Historically, anglers in the Marys River and other streams in Nevada targeted large, migratory Lahontan cutthroat trout. Today, few migratory fish are available, but habitat restoration in the Marys River may revive this fishery. This vision is behind Matt Holford's efforts to restore, Lahontan cutthroat trout: "I want my children to have the opportunity to catch big native trout here - in Nevada."

Lahontan cutthroat trout are just one of many reasons to reconsider how stream habitats are valued and used in Nevada. For example, Nevada is home to at least four other native trouts, all of special concern, including Bonneville and Yellowstone cutthroat trout, redband rainbow trout, and bull trout (considered to be a charr by biologists). Streams draining from Nevada into the Snake River, such as the Bruneau, Owyhee, Jarbidge, and Salmon Falls Rivers supported prolific runs of chinook salmon before they were ultimately destroyed by construction of downstream dams.

Looking back on history, it is difficult to imagine how productive these streams once were, providing abundant fish, wildlife, and clean water. Yet, the dramatic environmental changes that have occurred following the arrival of white immigrants 150 years ago span only a brief moment in the region's history, including a native human history dating back thousands of years. While many lessons remain to be learned, habitat restoration projects in the Marys River and Trout Creek have shown an encouraging potential to reverse this legacy, and return the land to a place where people and fish can coexist.

While the historical fisheries for large (20-60 pound) Lahontan cutthroat trout in Lake Tahoe and Pyramid and Walker Lakes are legendary, it is less well-known that smaller desert streams in Nevada once supported remarkable fisheries in their own right. Lahontan cutthroat trout populations of the upper Humboldt River basin were prolific when the first white emigrants traveled along the river in the 1840s. Journals of many of the 1843-1870 emigrants speak of the fine trout caught in the Humboldt River and its tributary streams. As an example, early descriptions of Pine Creek in Pine Valley indicated it was a long grassy valley, with a clear silvery stream of water and was known for its splendid trout. In June 1899, the Reese River Reville noted that an Austin boy had caught the largest trout seen in that section of the river for a long time, weighing over 12 pounds, and measuring over 30 inches in length.

At the time the Elko area was settled by white emigrants the Humboldt River provided excellent trout fishing. In July, 1869, the Elko Independent newspaper noted "Silver- scaled, speckled trout, fresh from the limpid waters of the Humboldt, and weighing from one to three pounds, are plenty in this market at four bits apiece. It is not unusual for fishermen to capture trout weighing five and six pounds, and one has been recently caught which weighed eight pounds." The last documented Lahontan cutthroat trout was taken from the Humboldt River about 1937.

Many tributary streams still have populations of Lahontan cutthroat trout. Declines in populations of larger native trout have been noted during recent decades. As an example, during the 1970s, Marys River frequently provided cutthroat trout in the two to four pound size range, and a fish caught by a fly fisher in 1972 measured 25´ inches in length. Loss of these larger trout appears to be related to changes in stream habitat conditions and loss of larger pool structure in Marys River.

Founded in 1990, TU's Northeast Nevada Chapter (NNTU) is dedicated to saving native fish in northeastern Nevada. The chapter has faced many challenges, including securing fishing regulation changes to benefit native fish, appealing U. S. Forest Service road construction projects on the Jarbidge River - home to the country's southernmost populations of bull trout - and working with the Goshute Indian Tribe and TU's Utah Council to restore Bonneville cutthroat trout. It's largest effort by far is the Lahontan cutthroat trout recovery program on the Marys River.

Project work on the Marys River has been underway since 1990 and will continue well into the early years of the 21st century. TU volunteers and local Elko County residents have planted more than 6,000 trees on the Marys River and rebuilt 35 miles of fencing. At its annual banquets during the last few years, NNTU challenged local mining companies to become involved in the Marys River project: Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Inc. stepped up to the plate and became one of the project's principal supporters. Last year Barrick Goldstrike employees volunteered in rebuilding two miles of fencing. Barrick has also led efforts to remove a multi-culvert system, which has prohibited Lahontan cutthroat trout movement, on the newly-acquired Hawk's Ranch and replace it with a bridge. Barrick engineers have completed bridge design and field surveys; the bridge is expected to be in place by the fall of 1998.

In recent years, NNTU's membership has grown, and the popularity of Trout Unlimited and fisheries conservation has caught on in Nevada. TU members are working on a native fish strategy for the state of Nevada that will enhance the significant recreational fisheries program already in place. Local TU members have started a new state council and a chapter in Las Vegas-the Southern Nevada Chapter. A third chapter, the Sagebrush Chapter, is based in Reno where TU's 1998 convention will take place in August.

Dickerson, B. R. 1997. The effects of high temperature and high levels of dissolved solids on the growth and survival of Lahontan cutthroat trout, Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi. Master's thesis, University of Nevada, Reno.

Dunham, J. B., M. M. Peacock, B. E. Rieman, R. E. Schroeter, and G. L. Vinyard. In review. Conservation implications of local and geographic variability in the distribution of stream-living Lahontan cutthroat trout. Submitted to Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.

Dunham, J. B., M. E. Rahn, R. E. Schroeter, and S. W. Breck. In revision. Diets of syntopic Lahontan cutthroat trout and brook trout: implications for species interactions. Accepted to Great Basin Naturalist 4/98.

Dunham, J. B. 1998. Bringing back the Lahontan cutthroat trout: restoring habitat for fish and people. Trout 1998(Spring): 20-29.

Dunham, J. B., G. L. Vinyard and B. E. Rieman. 1997. Habitat fragmentation and extinction risk of Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi). North American Journal of Fisheries Management 17:910-917.

Dunham, J. B. and G. L. Vinyard. 1997. Relationships between body size, abundance and the self-thinning rule in stream-living salmonids. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 54:1025-1030.

Dunham, J. B. and G. L. Vinyard. 1997. Incorporating stream level variability into analyses of fish-habitat relationships: some cautionary examples. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 126:323-329.

Dunham, J. B. and G.L. Vinyard. 1996. Dysfunctional characteristics of small trout populations. Final report for USDA INT-92731-RJVA. 175pp.

Dunham, J. B. 1996. The population ecology of stream-living Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi). Doctoral dissertation, University of Nevada-Reno.

Gutzwiller, L. A., R. M. McNatt, and R. D. Price. 1997. Watershed restoration and grazing practices in the Great Basin: Marys River, Nevada. Chapter 21 in J.E. Williams, C.A. Wood and M.P. Dombeck, editors. Watershed restoration: principles and practices. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, Maryland.

Jones, K. K., J. M. Dambacher, B. G. Lovatt, and A. G. Talabere. 1998. Status of Lahontan cutthroat trout in the Coyote Lake basin, southeast Oregon. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 18:000-000.

Myers, T. J. 1995 and S. Swanson. 1995. Impact of deferred rotation grazing on stream characteristics in central Nevada: a case study. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 15:428-439.

Sevon, M., J. French, J. Curran, and R. Phenix. 1997. Lahontan cutthroat trout fishery management plan for the Quinn River/Black Rock and North Fork Little Humboldt River drainage basins. Nevada Division of Wildlife, Reno, Nevada.

Vinyard, G. L. and A. Yuan. 1996. Effects of turbidity on feeding rates of Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi) and Lahontan redside shiner (Richardsonius egregius). Great Basin Naturalist.