Native Trout Restoration
Greenback Cutthroat Trout
Native trout in Colorado are of three cutthroat subspecies: Colorado River, Rio Grande, and Greenback. The Greenback cutthroats inhabited Eastern Slope rivers and is of special interest to RMF because the chapter’ home waters are the site of major Greenback restoration and protection projects.
Recent News:
September 2023
Greenback Stocking at William's Gulch
See the full story in our Current Events
September 2022
Colorado’s official state fish makes second comeback after previously thought extinct
A complex state effort announces first success restoring the breeding population of greenback cutthroat trout in a historic spot
See the full story in the The Colorado Sun
Poudre Headwaters Project
An area surrounding the Poudre River headwaters, when complete, will be the largest native Greenback Trout Restoration in the history of Colorado. Since 2010, volunteers have been assisting US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Forest Service staff with field studies to determine existing species numbers and size, existing fish health, and stream morphology data for use in designing barriers. There is much work left to complete the project, so please register interest to assist with future field activities.
The Rocky Mountain Flycasters Stream Monitoring Project is a multi-year project being conducted on behalf of native Greenback Cutthroat Trout restoration in the Poudre River watershed. Project partners include Rocky Mountain Flycasters, Colorado Trout Unlimited, Western Native Trout Initiative, US Forest Service, US Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Established in 2018, by the end of the current 2022 field season, team members will have installed and be visiting temperature sensors at 26 sites throughout the Poudre River watershed. Detailed information such as: GPS coordinates; site and installation descriptions and photos; sensor serial numbers; names of volunteers; site visit dates to install sensors or retrieve data; and more, is collected at each site. This collected data is distributed to the Colorado Greenback Cutthroat Trout Recovery Team and US Forest Service. Analysis of the collected data helps fish biologists and project planners determine the best locations for cutthroat trout restoration efforts. In 2022, the project was expanded to include the installation and maintenance of water quality monitoring stations.
Team members will need to participate in some training prior to working independently in the field. If this project is of interest to you, please contact Phil Wright at philwright@ieee.org.
Stream Temperature Monitoring Project
Greenback trout were restored to Zimmerman Lake in the upper Poudre Canyon in 2014 by Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists with assistance from RMF. Since then the lake has been stocked annually with 900 to 1,000, age-1 Greenback Cutthroat Trout (Bear Creek). The population represents an important brood source, meaning that eggs are collected and fertilized annually to support stocking in other recovery projects, and to perpetuate the Zimmerman and Leadville National Fish Hatchery brood stocks. Prior to stocking the first-year class of Bear Creek Greenbacks in 2014, CPW and USFWS established an agreement that CPW would monitor catch and release angling, to protect CPW’s ability to manage the population for catch and release fishing.
