Paiute Trout Swim Again in Eastern Sierra

Paiute cutthroat trout at Silver King Creek, Alpine County. Photo by Jeff Weaver of the DFG Heritage and Wild Trout program.

FRESNO (KMJ) – A very special fish is back in business in the Eastern Sierra, thanks to researchers and some mules.

For the first time in a century, a trout species will swim again, in a mountain creek that’s its native habitat – a milestone that conservationists hope will lead to a thriving population and removal its status as threatened.

About 30 Paiute Cutthroat Trout will be plucked Wednesday from coyote valley creek in the eastern Sierra Nevada and hauled in cans strapped to pack mules for about two miles west into Long Valley.

The fish will be dumped into a stretch of Silver King Creek, where the fish lived for thousands of years before starting to disappear in the 1920s.

Click below to listen to the report by Clint Olivier: