Wander Your Watershed
Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Restoration in the Headwaters of the Upper Truckee River
By Erin Miller, USFS Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit Aquatic Biologist
As many people hike to Meiss Meadow in early summer to see a show of unique wildflowers, what they may not know is there is another rare species just out of sight in the meadow’s small creeks. The Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi) once occupied a vast range extending from the Sierra Nevada crest in California, northeast into Nevada, including a small portion in Oregon. They occupied a wide range of habitats, from high-elevation mountain streams to low-elevation alkaline desert lakes.
Historically, Lahontan cutthroat trout were the top predator in many water bodies, such as the Carson and Walker river basins. However, human impacts such as overfishing, logging, mining, dams, water diversions, grazing, and the introduction of nonnative fish have drastically transformed their habitat. In fact, they have been extirpated from nearly 95 percent of their native range in California. Lahontan cutthroat trout are currently listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The small population in Meiss Meadow is now thriving due to restoration efforts that began in the early 1990s by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. ...
