this project could have been a native fish geared regulation, physical project, removal, or even just a sign in the ground saying these native trout are there and heres why their important.
It happened to be a comprehensive entire stream level management plan but that doesn’t matter. What struck me was not the project itself but the mindset of the managers.
This quote says it all
“Moving forward, Fish Creek will provide great fishing for anyone looking to catch a Bonneville cutthroat from its native range. Catching a cutthroat here will count towards an angler’s Cutthroat Slam completion, as well. The fish aren’t big, but trophy trout aren’t the management focus.
“We’re really kind of managing it as a conservation population, that’s kind of the focus,” Braithwaite said.”
You will never hear this kind of “conservation first” thinking and commitment from our PFBC social program first managers. Thats just the simple and honest truth.
In PA this would never happened.
If archeologists and historians discovered evidence of a child rodeo the natural history museum, the Smithsonian, and PFBC would have preserved heritage rodeo instead of heritage genetics.
And the barrier would have never been placed and the rare native trout would be managed under “wild trout” stream regs right along with protection of the invasive fish destroying them. There would be no acknowledgment those cutts even exist within the regulations.