Lahontan Time 2-04 to 2-06

[BearLakeFishGuy]

I had the wonderful opportunity to work with both Kent Summers and Bryce Nielson on the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Project on the Pilot Mountains when I first started with the UDWR back in 1992. We also were part of the feature that Doug Miller did with the landowner (who is a friend of mine to this day). It was a magical time and great project. If you go back to the Doug Miller shows, you will see me in those videos, complete with no gray hair and sporting a mullet). However, we often got asked, "Why doesn't Utah (UDWR) plant the Lahontan Cutthroat in a water in Utah?". The answer is disease. The Pilot Peak stream and Lahontans have at least one disease (it was either whirling disease and/or BKD (bacterial kidney disease), and therefore, it was not possible (against the Dept. of Agriculture laws) to take any eggs and/or Lahontans and move them within Utah since it was simply against the law. Additionally, the Lahontan Cutthroat are not in their native basin here in Utah, so that presented an additional question to the USFWS in allowing it. But the disease issue shut it down before we could get that far. (note: Bear Lake cutthroat trout in Strawberry are not in their native basin either) (second note: Utah's fish disease status is far more conservative than Nevada, or even Idaho for that matter), so they continued to bring Lahontan eggs into both the Nevada state and federal hatchery systems).