Saving Bonneville Cutthroat Trout after the Strawberry Fire

This article was originally published in The Midden – Great Basin National Park: Vol. 16, No. 2, Winter 2016.

The Strawberry Fire burned over 4,000 acres during the summer of 2016, including over the riparian zone in parts of the Strawberry Creek watershed.

NPS Photo by G. Baker

By Jonathan Reynolds, Fisheries Biologist

In August 2016, a wildfire burned the Strawberry Creek drainage, destroying much of the riparian corridor and degrading prime Bonneville cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki utah, BCT) habitat. Initial investigations concluded that a large portion of the BCT population was lost, most likely succumbing to increased water temperatures as the fire passed over the stream. However, survivors were found in less-intensely burned areas.

Due to the threats of siltation, flash flooding, and possible changes in water chemistry, it was determined that the surviving BCT located in at-risk stretches of stream should be relocated. With the assistance of the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), a total of 251 BCT were collected in Strawberry Creek and released into Silver Creek. An additional 27 BCT were collected and transported upstream to a section of Strawberry Creek that was unaffected by the fire.

Bonneville cutthroat trout (BCT) survived in two of eight sampling sites in Strawberry Creek. Efforts have been made to save BCT by transporting them to nearby Silver Creek and the upper reaches of Strawberry Creek.

NPS Photo

General aquatic habitat surveys were completed to document the decrease in the quality of fish habitat and serve as a baseline for Strawberry Creek’s recovery over the years to come. Population surveys conducted after the fire showed BCT are currently present at only two of the eight sites that they occupied in 2011.

It will take a lot of effort and even NPS Photo more time to reestablish BCT throughout the stream in the numbers that they once were. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. A viable population of BCT still exists in Strawberry Creek, and much of the riparian vegetation has already begun re-sprouting throughout the canyon.