CPW, San Juan National Forest rescue unique native cutthroat trout from path of Stoner Mesa Fire

John Livingston
Southwest Region Public Information Officer
970-759-9590 / [email protected]
@CPW_SW

A "green lineage" Colorado River cutthroat trout pictured in a net after it was rescued from Wildcat Creek during the Stoner Mesa Fire on Aug. 11, 2025. (CPW photos)

RICO, Colo. – Jim White and Clay Kampf are no strangers to driving toward a fire in an effort to save one of Colorado’s most precious natural resources – native cutthroat trout.

“Being an aquatic biologist in the Southwest these days, there is an intersection between fisheries work and wildfire,” said White, the Southwest Region Senior Aquatic Biologist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). “We have seen the impacts fire can have on our rivers, streams and this important fish habitat firsthand. When you’ve got a rare or unique lineage of fish thriving in an area and suddenly they are threatened by a wildfire, we feel it is important to Colorado’s natural heritage to step in and do something to try to save those fish and that lineage.”

White coordinated with CPW Durango area aquatic biologist Kade Jackson and a team of wildlife managers and aquatic technicians to set out early Monday morning from Durango toward Rico, where the Stoner Mesa Fire had grown to 3,579 acres in difficult terrain in southwest Colorado.

CPW joined Kampf, the San Juan National Forest Supervisory Aquatic Biologist, and his crew and descended on Wildcat Creek, a small tributary to the Upper Dolores River that is known to local aquatic biologists as being home to a unique strain of Colorado River cutthroat trout that CPW biologists are now calling the “Uncompahgre cutthroat trout.”

“Green lineage, or ‘Uncompahgre,’ Colorado River cutthroat trout are recognized as the native cutthroat to the Upper Dolores, Gunnison and Colorado River basins,” said Jackson. “By analyzing fin clips from fish collected in Wildcat Creek, our aquatic research team has identified rare genetic markers that make this population unique to the genetic diversity of cutthroat within the Upper Dolores River basin.”

The state and federal partners were directed to Wildcat Creek under the guidance of firefighting personnel who were eager to assist in the effort. Partnership across agencies is critical to an effort like Monday’s, as access to the stream would not have been possible without prior planning and coordination.

 “Constant communication with Stoner Mesa Fire Incident Personnel was necessary before relocating the cutthroat trout to ensure that CPW and Forest Service biologists could safely conduct the work inside the fire operational area,” Kampf said. “A ‘trigger point’ was identified where the fire was growing close to Wildcat Creek but was not creating unsafe conditions for biologists to collect fish. With the fire moving closer to the headwaters of Wildcat Creek, the window was closing to collect fish and the biologists jumped on the opportunity to conduct the operation before the fire entered the watershed.This proactive approach would ensure that the unique fish genetics were protected if the fire impacted the Wildcat Creek watershed and posed a threat to the cutthroat trout.”

When it was time for the rescue, dozens of personnel lined the small creek. One biologist walked the channel using a backpack electrofishing setup, while others followed alongside and behind with nets to collect every fish that surfaced. Through electrofishing, a light dose of electricity is applied in the water, which briefly stuns fish and allows for their capture.

The goal was to secure 250 of the cutthroat trout, and the team was able to successfully net 266. The fish were transferred from nets to buckets and relayed down toward the shoulder of Colorado Highway 145, where a truck from CPW’s Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery was waiting. CPW Assistant Area Wildlife Manager Steve McClung estimated he put in six miles shuttling buckets of fish from the creek to the truck.

Once loaded into the hatchery truck, the cutthroats took a roughly 165-mile ride to the hatchery. Now, the cutthroats are being kept in an isolation unit so that there is no risk of any potential disease spreading from the wild fish to the population of trout and kokanee salmon currently being raised at the facility located just north of Gunnison. CPW regulations only allow for one strain of fish to be held in each isolation facility to maintain genetic integrity.

“Upon arrival at the Roaring Judy isolation facility, the 266 cutthroats were sorted by size and moved to circular rearing tanks,” said Hatchery Manager Seth Firestone, who personally drove the hatchery truck Monday to Wildcat Creek. “The circular tanks provide the fish with a constant supply of cold, clean, oxygenated well water and plenty of space to grow. Over the following days and weeks, the fish will be feed-trained to accept a high quality fish pellet that contains all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals required to help them grow and remain healthy. The fish will be closely monitored and cared for every day until conditions are suitable to restock them back into the wild.”

Wildcat Creek has been a focus for proactive cutthroat management and protection for several years, Kampf said. In 2022, the Forest Service, CPW and Trout Unlimited identified Wildcat Creek as having unique genetic diversity within the population of cutthroat trout, and a plan was developed to install logs to improve habitat conditions for the fish. The methodology, known as “low tech processed based restoration,” increased deep pool habitat to mimic natural habitat features that fish rely on for winter survival. This work was completed in the summer of 2023.

A fish in fire
Stoner Mesa Fire officials are working diligently to protect not only homes and property in the vicinity of the fire but also all the watershed tributaries in the area. By Wednesday, two days after the cutthroat rescue, the fire had grown to 7,123 acres.

“Because the headwaters of Wildcat Creek are located very close to the Stoner Mesa Fire, there is concern that the fire could impact the creek and negatively change the characteristics of the water, which could be extremely harmful to this unique species of trout,” Stoner Mesa Fire Operations Chief Brian Austin said. “Fire Operations leaders are doing all they can to protect Wildcat Creek and all of the watershed tributaries, but the potential threat to species like the Colorado cutthroat remains.”

Impacts from fire to fish populations have been well documented by CPW, and the effects can continue long after fires have been extinguished.

“While the fire itself and aggressive fire suppression with retardant drops pose a risk to the fish, the primary concern is the potential flooding caused by loss of bank stability from the lack of streamside and landscape vegetation,” Jackson said. “Flooding events can introduce fine sediment and ash into streams, covering spawning gravels, eggs and fry as well as coating fish gills and reducing their surface area for oxygen uptake, potentially leading to suffocation. 

“Post-fire flooding can also lead to chemical irritation, reduced water quality, and increased metabolic demands on fish, all of which can cause additional stress or even mortality.”

CPW has worked for decades to protect native cutthroat trout from numerous other threats including loss of genetic diversity, habitat degradation, competition, predation and hybridization with non-native trout species.

“Our fisheries monitoring efforts are critical for tracking these vulnerable populations, enabling timely management actions to protect and preserve these unique and aesthetic cutthroat trout lineages within our state,” Jackson said.

CPW plans to keep the cutthroat trout from Wildcat Creek at the Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery until after the fire incident is concluded and there is no longer a threat to water quality that could threaten their survival.

“We are looking at a couple of scenarios to either restock the fish back into Wildcat Creek once they are out of danger,” White said. “We may also replicate this population in the Dolores River Basin in a stream where non-native trout were removed just last year.”

From flames to enhanced conservation
For White, this wasn’t his first fish rodeo in the middle of a fire. In 2018, he famously was part of a rescue effort of the rare San Juan cutthroat trout when the 416 Fire burned north of Durango.

Up until 2018, it was believed the San Juan cutthroat trout was actually extinct, but genetic testing revealed there were a few populations still holding on in southwest Colorado.

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 partnered with Kampf’s team from the U.S. Forest Service to gain access into a wilderness area with small, remote creeks affected by the fire. White successfully removed 58 fish that were taken to the Durango Fish Hatchery’s isolation unit.

“Recognizing the potential extreme fire in the Hermosa Creek watershed prior to 2018, the San Juan National Forest had prepared an evacuation plan for San Juan cutthroat trout which considered the Hermosa Creek Wilderness, as well as the difficult access in the watershed, in the event of a wildfire,” Kampf said. “It was only days after the evacuation plan was complete that the 416 fire started.  The plan was implemented within the first week of the fire, before any of the impacts affected the fish.”

CPW was able to establish a broodstock of those unique fish and to date have been able to use those to stock out more than 6,000 San Juan cutthroat trout and establish four new populations of the trout once believed to be extinct.

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

The rescue effort of the San Juan cutthroat trout during the 416 Fire was the subject of a 2022 documentary film, “The Fish & The Flame.”

While the fish captured during Monday’s effort on Wildcat Creek may not be as rare as a San Juan cutthroat, those fish have an importance all their own within the Dolores River Basin. For Jackson, the opportunity to protect the native species near his hometown of Durango is a big reason he pursued a career with CPW as an aquatic biologist.

“It’s not every day in fish and wildlife management that you feel like you’re making a meaningful difference for the greater good, but today we truly felt like we were fighting the good fight and securing a conservation victory for a unique little trout in an unsuspecting stream right in our own backyard,” he said.