RESTORING NATIVE FISH IN NATIVE WATERS:  WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

 

By:  Jim White, Fisheries Biologist, Jicarilla Apache Game and Fish Department

 

Have you every caught a Rio Grande cutthroat trout?  Chances are you have not.  That’s because the Rio Grande cutthroat trout has been pushed out of approximately 95% of its former habitat, primarily by non-native trout (brook, rainbow, and brown trout).

Non-native trout were brought in to the Rio Grande Drainage (which includes the Chama River and all of its tributaries) by private landowners and state Game and Fish Agencies around the early 1900’s and stocked into waters containing native cutthroat trout.  These fish were stocked to provide anglers with new fishing opportunities and to fill a perceived vacant “niche” in western streams; not much thought at the time was given to the potential impacts these new comers might have on the indigenous trout populations.

Biologist now know that the decline of western cutthroats, including the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, is largely because these fish never evolved with a similar trout species.  The Rio Grande cutthroat did not develop strategies to avoid predation, or to compete for food, and breeding habitats with their close but geographically distant “cousins”.  The result has been a dramatic decline in the abundance and distribution of Rio Grande cutthroats in the rivers of New Mexico and Colorado over the last 80 – 100 years.

Suitable habitat for Rio Grande cutthroat trout exists on the Running Elk Ranch (a.k.a. Chama Land and Cattle Property).  The Jicarilla Game and Fish Department, along with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, have been actively reclaiming habitat for Rio Grande cutthroats and have re-established this beautiful fish in the headwaters of Little Willow Creek.  Although we successfully reclaimed the headwaters of Little Willow Creek, we were not able to remove the brook trout from Poso Creek and another “restoration effort” needs to be done.

A restoration effort typically involves three steps.  First we identify a suitable stream at the headwaters of the drainage.  Second, we build a barrier so that trout downstream of the project area cannot move upstream (we isolate the non-native trout to downstream areas).  Finally, and this is where controversy often arises, we use a piscicide (a product called Fintrol, which only affects fish and some stream dwelling insects) to lethally remove the non-native trout.  If there were a realistic alternative to complete removal of the non-native trout, we would do it.  Unfortunately, there is not (approximately 35 years of carefully conducted scientific studies by Game and Fish Agencies and research institutions, e.g., Universities, across the nation and world, support this statement).

After we make sure no non-native trout are left in the stream above the barrier (fish below the barrier are spared by detoxifying the Fintrol before it gets to them), we re-stock with Rio Grande cutthroat trout.

The question often arises, if rainbow, brook, and brown trout are better competitors than Rio Grande cutthroats and anglers generally don’t care what species of trout they are catching, why should we (the Tribe, NMDGF, and USFWS) go to all the trouble of removing non-native fish such as the brook trout in favor of this, admittedly, “weaker” trout?  We go to all of this trouble because Rio Grande cutthroat trout are uniquely adapted to the waters within the Rio Grande River Basin.

One has to look further in the future than just his or her or their grandchildren’s life span.  For example, the ponderosa pine tree that is so abundant today, and such a valuable source of timber and income, was once found in only a small geographic region approximately 10,000 years ago.  As the climate warmed and habitats grew, the ponderosa pine spread throughout much of western North America.  Now, imagine if a resource agency decided (yes I know nothing like that existed 10,000 years ago!) that the ponderosa pine was not worth saving, a valuable and renewable natural resource would have been lost.

Another argument can be made for saving the Rio Grande cutthroat; this one may be more of a moral and emotional argument then the preceding one.  The ancestors of the Jicarilla Apache tribe once fished for Rio Grande cutthroats because they were the only trout found in streams across northern New Mexico a 100 years ago.  The Tribe now has an opportunity to restore an area (the headwaters of Poso Creek) back to its original state, a condition similar to what their ancestors experienced before Europeans arrived.  As stewards of the land, I believe the Tribe has an obligation to restore this beautiful trout to its original homeland.  Who better to champion the restoration of this unique species than the Jicarilla people?

It is often difficult to explain to people why saving this relatively obscure trout is important and why Game and Fish Agencies need to go to such “extreme” measures to remove all non-native trout before they can re-stock with native Rio Grande cutthroats.  I sincerely hope the information in this article will help people to judge the recent and ongoing efforts to restore Rio Grande cutthroats into Poso Creek on the Chama Land and Cattle Ranch in a more balanced and reasonable light.