Pyramid Lake Pauite Tribe

THE WASHINGTON POST tile tyramid Lake NATIONAL NEWS S SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 1998 A3 'Low-Tech' Effort Aims to Return PHOTOCOPY Massive Trout to Nevada Waters By Lou CANNON Special to The Washington Post Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt joined leaders of the Paiute tribe and Trout Unlimited today in plac- ing novel fish incubators alongside the swiftly flowing Truckee River in the first step of an effort to restore giant trophy trout to a degraded lake and river system. "I have the vision that in my lifetime Lahontan cutthroat trout will swim from Pyramid Lake up the Truckee and see the bright lights of Reno on their way to Lake Tahoe," Babbitt said. The Truckee flows more than 100 miles from Tahoe in the high Sierra to Pyramid Lake in an arid desert 35 miles north of Reno. Pyramid Lake was once home to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, left, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council monster Lahontan cutthroat trout Chairman Mervin Wright Jr. discuss effort to restore Lanontan cutthroat trout. that weighed from 40 to 60 pounds. Babbitt caught a "planted" sponsors of the Nevada project details of this agreement and hav- Lahontan trout weighing about hope the Lahontan trout will hatch ing it signed by all parties is a high five pounds from the lake today and become biologically imprinted priority for the Interior Depart- PHOTOS BY DIXON-RENO JOURNAL VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS and presented it to Mervin Wright with the Truckee River. They ment. Babbitt, center rear, and Steve Kinerson of Paiute Tribal Council, right, help move incubator made from refrigerator. Jr., chairman of the Pyramid Lake would then spawn throughout the The Lahontan _cutthroats, river, perhaps eventually also re- named for two distinct red slashes killed by sawdust pollution from Derby Dam." from giant Lahontans that were Paiute Tribal Council. turning to Lake Tahoe. Fish that on their lower jaw, were once the lumber mills. By 1875, dams near By the 1940s Pyramid was clas- caught and mounted earlier in the Later Babbitt, Wright and Matt are raised in hatcheries and then largest inland trout in the nation, Reno had blocked 75 percent of sified as a "dead lake," impoverish- century. Holford, chairman of the Nevada put in a lake or stream rarely leave and the story of their near-destruc- their spawning habitat. ing the Paiute, who had used the In a recent paper, Dunham said Council of Trout Unlimited, joined in placing the first of two stream- the area in which they have been tion is characteristic of what has Even so, the abundance and trout for food and maintained a broodstock of the fish from Pilot happened to many species during a resilience of these native trout was side incubators along the Truckee. placed. flourishing guide business on the Peak may "provide an important "We know this succeeds in theo- century and a half of development remarkable. Annual railroad ship- shores of the lake. source of genetic diversity for re- Holford said they were the "ulti- mate in low-tech incubation." The ry. Now we have to see if it works in the West. ments of cutthroat trout from Lahontan trout survived in trib- building the cutthroat fishery at incubators are nothing more than In 1844, the explorer John Fre- Wadsworth in the 1880s ranged utaries and lakes of the Truckee in the Truckee," said Patrick Cof- Pyramid Lake." But it is not known fin of the Fish and Wildlife Service. mont and his party traveled south from 200,000 to 250,000 pounds. and other small streams in various if these fish will attain monster camouflaged old refrigerators into Babbitt has compared the La- from Oregon and became the first The most serious blow to the parts of Nevada. In the early 1970s size. Dunham's paper said changes which plastic boxes holding trout hontan restoration attempt with people of European origin to see Lahontans was struck in 1905 by these trout were listed as a threat- in environmental conditions as eggs will be placed. Water flows ened species, and federal and state well as genetics may have reduced through the refrigerators and the the controversial campaign to the saline body of water he named the federal government, which hatched fish swim into the river. bring back the wolf to Yellow- Pyramid Lake because of a distinc- owns 87 percent of Nevada lands. agencies worked with tribal the Lahontans' size. Wright said restoration of the stone. tive formation in the middle of the The newly created Bureau of Rec- groups and private organizations Restoration of the native fishery giant trout, upon which the Paiute Both attempts have been unpop- lake. Pyramid is a remnant of lamation built Derby Dam to irri- such as Trout Unlimited in an could be significant to the Reno ular with ranchers-the wolf be- Lahontan Lake, a vast inland sea gate vast areas of desert for farm- effort to restore them. Today a area, where casinos are closing, have long depended as a principal source of food, would be crucial for cause it is a presumed livestock that 12,000 years ago covered ing. When the Paiute objected that Lahontan fishery thrives in PyΓa- downtown real estate values are in his people. predator, and the trout because much of Nevada. The trout and a this would destroy the fish, Bureau mid Lake, but the fish are much decline and outdeor recreation is "It's a great day that we are some farmers fear they will be rare sucker-type fish, cui-ui, which of Reclamation Commissioner smaller than the monsters of the increasingly seen as the wave of deprived of irrigation water. While is sacred to the Paiute, can tolerate Frederick Newell declared: "Fish past, rarely above 15 pounds and the future. The Reno Gazette-Jour- actually trying to restore the native trout after talking so long about farmers in the Fallon area east of higher levels of salinity and heat have no rights in water law." more often about five. For a long nal on Thursday said the valuation doing it," Wright said. The effort here did not object to installation than most non-native species. Fre- For many years, sufficient water time, it was believed that the origi- of downtown Reno is less than one to restore the Lahontan cutthroat of the streamside incubators, they mont received a friendly greeting passed over Derby Dam to allow a nal genetic strain of the giant luxury casino opening this year on trout is the latest and one of the have made it known that they will from the Paiute, who gave his reduced fishery. In the 1920s, Pyr- Lahontan trout had been lost when the Las Vegas strip. Increasingly most dramatic steps in a campaign oppose any efforts to reduce their party a feast of trout that the amid Lake became a fashionable the lake went dead in the 1940s. across the West, the presence of launched by Babbitt last year to water rights or remove dams on explorer thought tasted better vacation spot for movie stars who But a small population of fish native trout is being seen as an "bring back the natives," meaning the Truckee River. Currently, how- than any fish he had ever eaten. often were photographed with tro- was found in two streams at Pilot index of environmental health. a variety of native western fish at ever, a series of wet years in According to fish historian and phy trout they had caught. But in Peak near the Nevada-Utah border "Trout are so sensitive to habi- the brink of extinction. northern Nevada and agreement biologist Robert J. Behnke, "Fre- 1938 increased diversion from the that some scientists believe are tat, needing cold and clean Each of the incubators planted among government agencies, the mont and his party were the first Truckee and a severe drought all descendants of the original Lahon- streams, that they form keystone along the river today will be filled tribal council and farmers bro- and probably the last Anglos to see but finished off the Lahontans. The tans. Using new genetic methods, species that link aquatic plants and in mid-May with 90,000 fish eggs kered by Sen. Harry M. Reid (D- Pyramid Lake and its native trout trout that spawned that year were, Jason Dunham and G. L. Vineyard animals throughout the water-