A creek in Larimer County has been stocked with rare as part of an experiment by state wildlife officials who are working to ensure the fish’s survival.
The trout were placed in Sand Creek — which is sustained by spring inputs and rainfall alone as opposed to snowmelt — in the county’s Red Mountain Open Space just south of the Wyoming border.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife are hoping that they can survival from the unusual stream.
The greenbacks are by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“The creek is currently inhabited by a low-density brook trout population, with 2015 population estimates suggesting densities of brook trout range from 30 to 110 adult fish per mile, much lower than typical brook trout streams,” Boyd Wright, a native aquatic species biologist for CPW, said in a statement. “Usually nonnative brook trout quickly outcompete and displace native cutthroat trout, but given the low densities in Sand Creek, we are employing an experimental approach to see if this may be a unique scenario where cutthroat might actually have a competitive advantage over brook trout.”
About 270 yearling greenbacks were stocked in the stream and later this year an additional 1,000 will be added.
CPW says analysis of the creek indicates the greenbacks should do well.
Greenbacks were thought to be extinct by 1937 but were discovered in the watersheds of the South Platte and Arkansas basins in the late 1950s, according to CPW. Wildlife officials because the greenback cutthroat trout are Colorado’s state fish.
