Activity Report Explorer

South San Juan Broadband • Entered by Louise van Vonno on August 10, 2024

Learn about Cutthroat in Hermosa watershed

August 5, 2024

Key Issue: Wildlife Protection
Activity Type: Stewardship (monitoring, sampling, planting, etc.)
Key Partners: Jim White- Colorado Parks & Wildlife
Landscape/area: San Juan National Forest (1864595 acres)

Measurable Outcomes

Outcome 1: Event Attendees (3 people)

Short Description of Activity

3 Broads met in Hermosa Creek to discuss health for native fish.

Reflection/Evaluation

Notes from Meeting to learn about Cutthroat Trout in the Hermosa Watershed
August 5, 2024, Upper Hermosa trailhead
Susan Bolton, Bob Kuhnert, and Deb Paulson (Great Old Broads for Wilderness) met with Jim White, Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Genetic technology has advanced rapidly and it is now recognized that a distinct haplotype of the Colorado Cutthroat trout, native to the San Juan drainage, still exists in 6 small populations, 2 of which are in the Hermosa drainage (Big Bend and Clear Creek). Clear Creek was stocked with transplants from the native San Juan population of Big Bend in 1989. This was fortuitous, as Cutthroat genetics were not yet known at that time.
In response to the 416 Fire, some San Juan Cutthroat were removed from the wild and a brood population established. This will allow expansion of the San Juan Cutthroat’s presence in the San Juan Watershed.
Starting in the 1990s, before it was known that a genetically distinct San Juan Cutthroat existed, Colorado Cutthroat trout were restored to various parts of the upper Hermosa drainage in stages. These trout came from various locations in Colorado, mainly from the Yampa drainage and Flattop Wilderness area. All of these native Colorado Cutthroat trout count toward the core conservation population as defined by an agreement between Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to restore and conserve the Colorado Cutthroat, but they are not the native haplotype of the Hermosa or San Juan Watershed.
The lowest fish barrier on the Heromsa is at the confluence of East Fork of Hermosa with Hermosa Creek. It was built in 2017.
The Big Bend population of San Juan Cutthroat exists on a ¼ miles stream segment above a natural fish barrier. Today Jim’s team was headed to Big Bend Creek to clear (rotenone) a 2-mile segment of Big Bend Creek, from the natural fish barrier down to a recently created log fish barrier near the confluence with Hermosa Creek. San Juan Cutthroat will then be able to expand their range along that segment.
We asked about the success of reintroduction and Jim said the populations were doing well. They have good spawning and recruitment of young fish. The native fish could be impacted by several things. Whirling disease could get into the drainage, as the area has heavy fishing use. Fine sediments from natural and human-enhanced run-off can cover spawned eggs and kill them. Purgatory Resort’s water rights could allow it to pump groundwater that could impact stream flows. Grazing can have impacts, both through streambank alteration and removal of willows that cover and cool the streams.