CPW's recovery of San Juan cutthroat during 416 Fire highlighted in new film 'The Fish & the Flame'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  John Livingston
Southwest Region Public Information Officer
970-759-9590 / [email protected]

DURANGO, Colo. – The successful recovery of the San Juan cutthroat trout in the face of Durango’s 416 Fire of 2018 is the subject of a new documentary film produced by Days Edge Productions and presented by Western Landowners Alliance and Chama Peak Land Alliance.

A free virtual film screening of “The Fish & the Flame” will be held at 5 p.m. Jan. 10. The 14-minute showing will be followed by a question and answer session with Colorado Parks and Wildlife aquatic biologist Jim White, Banded Peak Ranch manager Tim Haarmann, Western Landowners Alliance executive director Lesli Allison, Chama Peak Land Alliance executive director Caleb Stotts and producer Page Buono.

The film highlights how White, a CPW aquatic biologist based out of Durango, collaborated with Haarmann to save one of the last remaining populations of the recently rediscovered San Juan cutthroat trout as the 416 Fire threatened to decimate the fish that until 2018 was believed to be extinct.

“It’s really nice to have private partners to work with because it gives us an opportunity to do conservation work we wouldn’t have access to otherwise,” White said. “There are a lot of folks out there that really want to see native species flourish. That gives me hope about the future of cutthroat trout.”

The San Juan cutthroat trout once flourished in the streams of Southern Colorado. But the effects of mining pollution, fishing pressure and non-native competitors drove it to the level that it was believed to be extinct. But with genetic data collected from a 146-year-old tissue sample at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, White and his team identified a few tiny holdout populations in 2018. The isolated populations were found in streams of the San Juan River Basin within the San Juan National Forest and on private property.

Immediately after the discovery, the 416 Fire burned through the watershed and flushed toxic chemicals into streams where one of the eight known populations existed. So, White’s crew from CPW and a team from the U.S. Forest Service hiked into the small, remote creeks affected by the 416 Fire and successfully removed 58 fish that were taken to the Durango Fish Hatchery.

“The Fish & the Flame” film shows how landowners are successfully working with state and federal agencies for the betterment of biodiversity and species such as the San Juan cutthroat.

“Private lands provide a critical refuge for biodiversity in the Upper Rio Grande and the Southern Rockies in general,” said Stotts, executive director of the Chama Peak Land Alliance, of which Banded Peak Ranch is a founding member. “This story highlights just how dedicated to conservation landowners in our region really are.”

Today, White and CPW continue to restore the San Juan cutthroat trout to streams throughout the San Juan River Basin.

“The awesome thing is that the fish is still around and that we have a chance to not only conserve it but to expand its population,” White said. 

“The Fish & the Flame” has already made a splash on the film festival circuit as an official selection of the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, Jackson Wild Film Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival, Durango Film Festival and others.

White said he is looking forward to the public being able to participate in Monday night’s free virtual screening and the opportunity to talk more about the San Juan cutthroat trout in the Q&A session following the film.

To register for the film screening, go to https://wla.social/fishflame-register
To view the film’s media kit, go to: https://wla.social/fish-mediakit

For more about the “The Fish & the Flame,” contact Louis Wertz of Western Landowners Alliance at [email protected] or 415-676-0122.