Latest Story: 'Saving North America’s Rarest Trout'

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.  Check out our latest story!   Saving North America's Rarest Trout The juvenile Paiute cutthroat trout shown here is from a source population that will eventually be used to stock the species back into 100 percent of its historic range in California's Silver King Creek. Credit: Dan Hottle/USFWS By Dan Hottle November 14, 2016 It is believed that the loss of the Paiute cutthroat trout, North America's rarest and most imperiled trout, from its historic range of an 11-mile stretch of rugged, eastern Sierra wilderness stream began as far back as the early 1900s when William Howard Taft was president and the newly-minted Ford Model T was puttering around on 22 cents per gallon gasoline. Today, efforts led by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and its partners, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service, to restore the Paiute cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii seleniris) to its native home waters remain every bit as challenging for the team as they were back in 1967 when the species was first listed as endangered, six years before the passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and as when it was later upgraded as threatened under the ESA in 1975. "The Paiute cutthroat is the rarest and yet most recoverable trout in the U.S. It has evolved with a sparkling, iridescent purplish coloration that provides it with camouflage in the higher elevation streams where it lives," said CDFW fish biologist William Sonner. "But in restoring this beautiful trout we are challenged with the impacts of climate change, along with the California drought, which have left the source populations severely reduced in numbers." Continue to full story...     Stay Connected with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region     SUBSCRIBER SERVICES: Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe All  |  Help This email was sent to mantiskhiralla@gmail.com using GovDelivery, on behalf of: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region · 2800 Cottage Way · Suite W-2606 · Sacramento, CA 95825