“Devastated” Poudre River restocked with 108,000 rainbow trout following Cameron Peak Fire

By DILLON THOMAS

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    COLORADO (KCNC) — Three years after the Cameron Peak Fire, the largest fire in Colorado history which devastated Larimer County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is working to restore the wildlife around the burn scar.

As first reported in the CBS News Colorado documentary “SCARRED: Lessons from Cameron Peak,” nearly all of the fish in the Poudre River near Black Hallow were killed following landslides along the burn scar. Now, years later, CPW is working to restore the fishery by restocking the river with rainbow trout.

CBS News Colorado’s Dillon Thomas joined CPW in 2021 as they surveyed and counted fish east of the Black Hallow landslide which had killed four people. Fish downstream were limited but present compared to previous years. However, west of Kelly Flats between the landslide, not one single fish was located along the stretch. In previous years hundreds of fish would have been counted in the same area.

“This one was pretty devastating,” said Kyle Battige, Senior Aquatic Biologist for CPW.

While brown trout in the region have slowly made their return up the river, rainbow trout have had a more difficult time.

Rainbow trout were already struggling in the river since the 1990’s due to whirling disease. So, in hopes of helping recreate a strong fishery for decades to come, Battige’s team set out to restock 108,000 fry in the river along the impacted region of the Poudre.

Battige said CPW specifically brought Gunnison River rainbow trout to the Poudre after learning that species had evolved to be resistant to whirling disease.

Twenty-one volunteers from across northern Colorado joined CPW to help strategically place the fish.

“I came to help the fish recover after the Black Hallow flood,” said Alec Lucas, a volunteer.

The fry, which are baby fish only one inch in length, are relatively easy to disperse. The volunteers took one net scoop of fish at a time from a truck to the river. Each scoop consisted of about 550 fry.

The team dispersed around 200 buckets of fish throughout a 21-mile stretch of the Poudre River.

“Mother nature just keeps us busy,” said Dennis Cook, a volunteer. “If we don’t take care of nature, nature is going to outrun us, unfortunately.”

Cook said he wanted to take time to help restock the river as a way to give back to an ecosystem he has enjoyed recreating in for many years.

“It makes me feel good. It means the fishing is going to be better in about three years,” Cook said.

Battige said CPW intentionally stocked the river with small and young fish instead of more mature rainbow trout.

“Because they are so small we can distribute them throughout the reach pretty easily. And, if they survive moving forward, they are going to be as wild of a product as we can get by stocking them earlier on in life,” Battige said.

For one volunteer, Todd Peterson, volunteering was personal. A family member of his was personally impacted by the fatal landslides in 2021.

“My daughter-in-law lost family in the flood. I am here to put life back in this river,” Peterson said.

By helping restart the future of the fishery, Peterson said he felt he was helping honor the lives of those who were tragically taken years ago.

“There was a lot of tragedy here in 2021. My daughter-in-law lost two uncles, a cousin and an aunt. A lot of tragedy here. The least I can do is to come and put some life back,” Peterson said. “If I can help make it a better fishery, that is what I want to do.”

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