Volunteers Help Carry Hundreds Of Greenback Cutthroat Trout Up Dry Gulch
(CBS4) -- Wildlife officials, conservationists and dozens of volunteers hiked up to 2.5 miles carrying greenback cutthroat trout up Dry Gulch on Tuesday. Each backpacker carried 13 fish and dropped them off at different locations to help Colorado Parks and Wildlife stock the stream.
We have about 60 volunteers here today to help us stock the greenback cutthroat trout up Dry Gulch. pic.twitter.com/fRSQrMsE4x
— CPW NE Region (@CPW_NE) July 16, 2019
Aquatic biologists with CPW and personnel from the Forest Service and Colorado Trout Unlimited organized the effort to stock Colorado's state fish in the headwaters of Clear Creek.
Around 800 greenback cutthroat trout were delivered by the Mt. Shavano Fish Hatchery in Salida.
The Mt. Shavano Fish Hatchery in Salida delivered around 800 greenback cutthroat trout to be stocked today in Dry Gulch. Each backpacker will deliver 13 fish they hike up. pic.twitter.com/HBkQ7X4Yti
— CPW NE Region (@CPW_NE) July 16, 2019
The fish -- all yearlings -- are 4-6 inches long.
Watch as the native greenback cutthroat trout, the state fish, get released into the stream up Dry Gulch. About 800 were stocked here today. They get released in bags of 13, all yearlings that are about 4-6 inches. @usfsarp @Colorado_TU @USFWS @BLM_CO pic.twitter.com/VbLL4nOaFh
— CPW NE Region (@CPW_NE) July 16, 2019
Aquatic biologists expect about 40% of the fish to survive.
"That may sound low, but it is actually quite well," CPW officials tweeted. "It is biology and nature and that is how it is supposed to work, this is an encouraging project."
Things haven't always been good for these fish. Twenty years ago they were thought to be extinct. That is until a group of them were discovered in a section of Bear Creek southwest of Colorado Springs. CPW has been breeding them since 2010.