Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, Evanston-Mountain View Ranger District; Utah; West Fork Smiths Fork Colorado River Cutthroat Trout Enhancement

Résumé

The Evanston-Mountain View Ranger District of the Uinta- Wasatch-Cache National Forest ("Forest Service"), in cooperation with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR), proposes to treat the streams in the West Fork Smiths Fork drainage including some waters within the High Uintas Wilderness and High Uintas Inventoried Roadless Area with rotenone to remove non-native fish species and enhance habitat for native Colorado River cutthroat trout (CRCT; Onchorhynchus clarki pleuriticus). Implementation of this proposal would require the use of a piscicide (a substance used to kill fish; i.e., rotenone) to remove competing and hybridizing non-native fish species from selected streams. Non-native fish species to be removed are primarily rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and hybridized Colorado River cutthroat trout, although all fish species would be removed from the project area. Following the last treatment of the selected streams, CRCT, sculpin (Cottus sp.), mountain sucker (Catostomus platyrhynchus), and speckled dace (Rhinichthys osculus) (all native to the drainage) would be restocked. Tiger trout (Salmo trutta x Salvelinus fontinalis) are a sterile hybrid that may be stocked