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Trout reduction plan could help humpback chub<br>

The endan-gered humpback chub.

According to Cross, an experimental trapping last fall netted about 600 fish, which were released. Under the proposal currently under review, the fish would be killed and data collected on them before they’re removed from the Canyon.

Cross said his office is compiling its findings from the public comments and is consulting with Native American tribes. When the report is drafted it will go out for more public comment, which will shape the final report. Cross said he expects the compliance to be finished in time for next fall, when the fish spawn again.

As information is released, it will be posted on the NPS Web site, at www.nps.gov/grca/compliance/index.htm.

The Bright Angel project is part of a larger array of projects, including the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program and the U.S. Geological Survey’s initiative to remove trout around the Little Colorado River. Those projects have cleared the NEPA process and are under way.

Before Glen Canyon Dam was built, the Colorado River was too warm and turbid to support trout and its tributaries too isolated. Brook trout introduced to Bright Angel Creek by the Park Service in the 1920s failed to thrive, but rainbow and brown trout stocked from the 1930s until 1964 were successful – too successful, in fact. Rainbow trout are now the dominant species in the Colorado River and the brown trout dominates Bright Angel Creek.

At the same time, eight native species have been affected by the trout and by the changes Glen Canyon Dam brought to the ecosystem. Of the eight native species in the canyon, three – the roundtail, bonytail and Colorado pikeminnow– are gone and a fourth, the razorback sucker, is believed to be gone as well. The other four species – the speckled dace, flannelmouth sucker, bluehead sucker and humpback chub, have suffered significant declines – with the humpback chub on the endangered species list.

Although NPS management policies call for the eradication of exotic species if they interfere with the survival of native species, the scoping letter dated Dec. 9 states, “During the years that non-native fishes were stocked in Grand Canyon, government agencies generally responded to prevailing social values and public demand by giving sport fishing a higher priority than the preservation of native aquatic communities.”


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