June 23, 2015
Contacts:
Jack Williams, Trout Unlimited senior scientist, jwilliams@tu.org, (541) 261-3960
Chris Hunt, Trout Unlimited national communications director, chunt@tu.org, (208) 406-9106
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Trout Unlimited report highlights challenges facing native trout in the U.S.
Climate change, non-native species among biggest threats on the Colorado Plateau and in the southern Rockies
WASHINGTON, D.C.North Americas already embattled native trout populations continue to face serious threats, according to a comprehensive new report released today by Trout Unlimited.
The State of the Trout details the status of 28 separate species and subspecies of trout and char native to the United States. Of those detailed populations, three are already extinct, and more than half of the remaining trout and char populations occupy less than 25 percent of their native waters. While the state of trout in America is tenuous, there are success stories that prove trout recovery is possible. The report lays out a roadmap for that recovery.
Trout Unlimiteds staff of scientists spent more than a year preparing the detailed report with input from TUs field staff and independent, federal and state fisheries experts. The full report is available in digital form at tu.org.
Native trout are in trouble in the United States, said Chris Wood, Trout Unlimiteds president and CEO, in the reports foreword. But we are making a difference and with help, involvement and action can promise a future of recovery, not one of loss, for our children.
Energy development and climate change head a long list of challenges facing trout, which also are under pressure from increased demand on the nations water resources, threats from non-native species, and loss and degradation of habitat.
On the Colorado Plateau and in the southern Rockies, native trout face several threats ranging from century-old abandoned mine runoff to ongoing efforts to drill for gas and oil within native trout ranges. In Colorado, native greenback cutthroat trout were thought to be nearing recovery and delisting under the Endangered Species Act when new genetic techniques revealed that stocks used for reintroduction were not greenbacks, but rather a strain of Colorado River cutthroat trout. Today, self-sustaining native greenbacks are found in just four miles of Bear Creek on the slopes of Pikes Peak, making them susceptible to natural events made more severe by yet another threata changing climate. The Front Range of Colorado has been hit hard in recent years by fire, extreme drought and heavy flooding that has wreaked havoc on communities and entire watersheds.
Native Colorado River cutthroat trout, while in much better shape than greenbacks, also face a number of historic and ongoing threats, including the persistence and expansion of non-native trout within their native waters, and ongoing energy development projects within the fishs native range. Colorado River cutthroats today are largely relegated to headwater streams that are usually disconnected from one another, making individual stocks susceptible to local events often exacerbated by climate change, like fire, flood and extreme drought.
Despite threats to their long-term persistence, there is good news for Colorados native fish. In western Colorado, Trout Unlimited volunteers have worked diligently for 20 years to protect a unique strain of Colorado River cutthroat trout atop the Roan Plateau in the heart of the Piceance Basin energy fields. Volunteers from the Grand Valley Anglers Chapter of Trout Unlimited have worked to restore the headwaters of Trapper Creek for years, and just recently, a negotiated deal with natural gas leaseholders on the Roan will protect the watersheds in which these prized native trout swim.
Colorados native trout are a vital part of our states fishing heritage, something that anglers can experience in Colorado and nowhere else, said David Nickum, executive director of Colorado Trout Unlimited. The State of the Trout report is a wake-up call that we need to step up our efforts to conserve and restore these fish, so that they are still there for our children and grandchildren to experience and enjoy.
In the end, its all about hope and optimism.
People who fish are eternal optimists, Wood said. Even the most cynical among us, on the last cast of the day, are confident we will catch the biggest fish of the day. That optimism and hope for the future breathes through this report.
Read the report today at tu.org/stateofthetrout.
To download print and web-ready photos that correspond to the report:
http://bit.ly/1GuyvUg
Password is: SOT
To download broadcast-quality video and b-roll footage that correspond to the report:
http://bit.ly/1MOKv4z
Trout Unlimited is the nations oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring North Americas trout and salmon and their watersheds. Follow TU on Facebook and Twitter, and follow our blog for all the latest information on trout and salmon conservation.