Monday, March 28, 2011

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

save it. I like DNA more than the next guy, but when we still have something that looks like it once did and IT IS THE LAST OF ITS KIND, SAVE IT!



My friend Gary went out in the field and found something cool. He had good evidence it would be there from Robert Behnke and the fish certainly are not "pure", but trout that look like this have not been seen since the Virgin Creek debacle in the early eighties. Now we have them. They won't last long. Let's find a sterile creek somewhere and given them a chance.

Here is what you can do. Read this.

And then write a letter. Such a letter should include the information below, but if you feel like it, offer some other support (like time or money...):


1. Conducting a transplant of the most "Alvord-like" fish to a stream with suitable habitat. Such a stream should have good riparian habitat and water quality so that a self sustaining population can be created.


2. The stream currently holding these fish should to made catch and release only and no bait to help protect the remain "Alvord-type" fish found there.


3. The restoration of these fish should not hinge on waiting for genetic testing as such testing is timely and this population is too fragile to await such delays. Also this testing is going to be difficult to conduct as the Alvord cutthroat is lacking in quality genetic samples to compare with.


Please submit letters of support for an Alvord phenotype rescue and restoration project to: Shannon Hurn, ODFW District Office, 237 Highway 20 South/PO Box 8, Hines, OR 97738 or via email to shannon.m.hurn@state.or.us