By: Melanie Dabovich, USFWS

An example of a young Gila trout that was stocked in Frye Creek in November 2009.

Get ready to dip in that fly! For the first-time ever, anglers will soon have the opportunity to fish for native Gila trout in the fish’s historic habitat in Arizona.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners are working diligently to recover native Gila trout populations in the fish’s historic waters in the Southwest in an effort to remove the struggling trout from the endangered species list.

For the past 50 years, Trout Unlimited (TU) has served as one of the largest non-profit organizations in the United States dedicated to establishing healthy populations of native trout and other fish in their historic waters.

So it is no surprise that when the Service’s Arizona Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (FWCO), the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) launched a project to restore populations of threatened Gila trout in three mountain streams and was looking for partners, TU was ready to lend a hand. The goal is to create several miles of recovery streams and the first-ever fishable populations of native Gila trout in Arizona in the fish’s historic waters.

An Arizona Game and Fish staff member releases Gila trout fish stock into Frye Creek in the Pinaleno Mountains in November 2009.

“Trout Unlimited has been involved since the inception of the project,” said Jason Kline, fisheries specialist with Arizona Game and Fish. “It is a big cooperative effort. It’s an (Arizona) Game and Fish project on (U.S.) Forest Service land, and we’re dealing with a threatened fish species. It’s a huge exercise in coordination and cooperation.”

The effort to restore native Gila trout in several Pinaleno Mountain creeks in Arizona began two years ago, according to Kline. Jeremy Voeltz, Service FWCO fishery biologist, described habitat loss and degradation, cattle grazing, overfishing, and hybridization with stocked rainbow trout as the factors that led to the fish’s imperiled status.

“The (Gila trout) populations in Arizona were eliminated a long time ago when non-native trout were introduced in these streams,” Voeltz said. “In the late 1800s, they stocked rainbow trout because they were popular with anglers. The Gila trout bred with rainbows, so we had non-pure populations.”

The Gila trout, found only in the headwaters of the Gila River in Arizona and New Mexico, was upgraded from “endangered” to “threatened” in 2006 due to decades of conservation efforts. This latest phase of the project, funded in part by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, includes habitat surveys on Frye, Ash and Marijilda creeks, selective chemical renovation on Ash and/or Marijilda to remove non-native fish, and to stock 500 fish in at least two of the streams beginning in October.

The Pinaleno Mountains are located on Coronado National Forest land managed by USFS. Wildlife, Fish and Rare Plants Program Manager Rick Gerhart of the Coronado National Forest headed the task of ensuring environmental compliances were accomplished to allow the project’s partners to move forward.

“This is a project where you have support across the board with a common purpose,” Gerhart said. “None of the agencies could have done this without the cooperation and help from the others.”

Staff, workers and biologists transfer the Gila trout fish stock into 5-gallon buckets to carry up by hand to Frye Creek to restock the stream in November 2009.

TU jumped on board in 2008. Jeff Collins, TU Tucson Chapter board member and former state council chairman, said the organization offered financial support for the project–funding the environmental assessment through grants and donating a backpacking fish shocker used for field research. Several TU members, as well as the Federation of Fly Fishers, participated in initial fish stocking activities last year at Frye and Grapevine Creeks. According to Collins, restoring native trout is part of the group’s mission.

“Getting (the Gila trout) off the endangered species list is our goal, and we are trying to recover native trout in the Western United States,” Collins said. “TU has been mapping all the native trout throughout the Western U.S. and we are working to establish all the historic waters and bring them back.”

The fish stock comes from the Service’s Mora National Fish Hatchery and Technology Center in Mora, New Mexico. The hatchery’s mission is to protect and rear imperiled Southwestern fish, and the Gila trout is the focus of restoration and recovery activities at the center.

A USFWS staff member checks on Gila trout fish stock from the Mora National Fish Hatchery and and Technology Center in Mora, New Mexico. The fish stock are loaded into 55-gallon drums and transported via helicopter up the Pinaleno Mountains to Frye Creek where they will be released.

Getting the fish from New Mexico to the high-elevation creeks in Arizona is quite an intricate process involving more than 40 team members and a lot of manpower, Kline explained.

At the hatchery, fish are loaded into 55-gallon transport barrels with oxygen tanks and trucked to Arizona. The tanks are then flown up the mountain by Papillon helicopters to team members who have hiked up to the remote streams at 10,000 to 6,000 feet in elevation where the fish will be released. The fish are transferred into 5-gallon lined buckets where they are carried up the rugged, steep terrain. At the creek, team members slowly add water to the buckets to equalize water temperature before releasing the fish into their new habitat.

The challenging terrain and remote location of the three steams in the Pinalenos made it an ideal location for Gila trout recovery, according to Kline.

“You have to want to go there. All the creeks have really rough roads that require hiking, so there’s definitely less risk for human intrusion while the population is being established,” he said. “Even after we get a healthy population and open it up for fishing, it will be single, barbless hook, catch and release only.”

In addition to fish stocking activities and recovery projects, TU and the department also team up to educate the younger generation about the importance of protecting native fish and fisheries.

Kline teaches kids about fish development during “Trout in the Classroom,” a TU nationwide project where elementary and middle school students raise fish from eggs to a small fry and learn about trout development and water environments. New classes will be starting again this fall.

A Papillon helicopter transports 55-gallon drums up the Pinaleno Mountains filled with young Gila trout that were released into Frye Creek in November 2009.

“The partnership that we have created is fantastic. We both have the same goals in mind,” Collins said. “If they need more funding, we can get more grants. We are dedicated to seeing the Gila trout project through.”

Collins could hardly contain his enthusiasm as he spoke about the opportunity to fish for Gila trout in a year or two after the population is established.

“It’s a great opportunity for southern Arizona, because in addition to the Gila, there are also rainbow, brook, brown and Apache (trout). A person could go and fish for five different species of trout on one mountain,” he said.

Game and Fish has plans to stock 500 fish three times over the course of three years on the mountain, Kline explained. Members of TU will be there again in the fall to help in the field and run the camps for the team. The organization’s help has been an integral part of the project.

“I went up there (to the streams) recently to check on things and it looks great. It’s wonderful knowing our efforts were worth it,” Kline said. “There were two driving forces behind this project: one was the recovery plan and the second was concerned gentlemen from Trout Unlimited who wanted to see something done with these streams.”

Originally posted 08/31/2010