THE LONG ROAD TO RESTORATION
The "Big South" - the Cache la Poudre River, near Rocky Mountain National Park. This cascade - possibly with some enhancement - will serve as the downstream barrier protecting the connected habitat restored for Greenback cutthroat trout.
To protect the watershed from invasion by non-native species, fish barriers will be established on the Grand Ditch and on the mainstem Cache la Poudre below its confluence with La Poudre Pass Creek. Within the watershed, temporary barriers will also be installed to enable fishery biologists to complete restoration of native trout in more manageable chunks, tackling one section of the basin at a time. After installing temporary barriers, biologists will remove non-native fish from the upstream areas so that the restored native fish will be secure from predation, hybridization or displacement. Once a sub-basin is confirmed to be free of non-native trout, it will be re-stocked with native greenback cutthroat trout. Finally, once restoration is complete across the full area, the temporary barriers will be removed so that fish will be able to move freely between the different restored tributaries. Completion of all project elements is expected to take 2-3 years in each subbasin, and 10-15 years overall, but once completed it will provide for a connected "metapopulation" of trout across the watershed - the largest such restored native trout habitat in Colorado. The area will be highly protected, spanning wilderness in the northern part of Rocky Mountain National Park and across the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forests.
A natural fish barrier in the upper Cache la Poudre drainage.
A volunteer releases native trout into a high mountain stream as part of a Colorado Parks & Wildlife restoration project.
