Fish can survive a wildfire. It’s what happens next that often kills them.
That’s when rain washes ash and sediment into the water, polluting their habitat. It happened to southern Utah’s Upper Kanab Creek after a fire in 2022, wiping out a population of Bonneville cutthroat trout the state had established there.
The loss left Utah with just one remaining group of Bonnevilles in that watershed: the ones in Blubber Creek just west of Bryce Canyon National Park.
“And if we were to lose this one, we'd pretty much be left with nothing,” said Adam Kavalunas, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources’ outreach manager for southern Utah.
So, when the France Canyon Fire threatened Blubber Creek in mid-June, the state swooped in with nets and water tanks to rescue 96 of the small stream’s trout.
The June 27 mission captured a nice range of ages and sizes, Kavalunas said, from 4 inches long to more than a foot. The crew then trucked the trout to the isolation unit at a state hatchery to ensure they don’t contract any pathogens.
It’s a pretty rare rescue operation, said Brian Anderson, a member of Utah’s executive committee for the conservation group Trout Unlimited.
“More common is for fires just to really ruin and destroy a lot of streams,” he said. “Fire has been very destructive to fisheries in Utah over the last decade, decade-plus. So, it’s a big deal.”
Moving fish is generally illegal because of concerns about introducing invasive species and diseases to new areas. Anderson was a member of the Utah Fish Health Policy Board, the entity in charge of approving fish relocations, during the West Valley Fire. It burned through southwest Utah’s Pine Valley Mountains in 2018 and set the precedent for this latest relief mission.
That time around, the fish — also cutthroat trout — were taken to the Loa Hatchery in Wayne County. It’s currently being rebuilt and is unavailable. So, the Blubber Creek fish were transported farther north to the Fountain Green Hatchery in Sanpete County.
There are several reasons why Utah would want to save a group of Bonneville cutthroat trout.
For one, the species is the Utah state fish.
Additionally, protecting native fish populations is vital for maintaining ecosystems and preserving genetic diversity in the state’s waterways. This species evolved in the Great Basin region, home to ancient Lake Bonneville, completely cut off from the ocean. That isolation, Anderson said, led them to develop unique qualities to handle the stressors here and carve out their niche for survival.
“I love all fish, but native cutthroats have a special place in my heart,” he said. “They're just beautiful, and they belong there.”
Bonnevilles also face their share of threats.
Invasive fish introduced to Utah often outcompete them for food and habitat. By the 1970s, native cutthroat populations in Utah had declined so much that they were on the brink of being listed as an endangered species. While conservation efforts have helped avoid the worst, the fish still have an uphill battle. Utah DWR estimates that even after the state completes planned habitat restoration work, Bonneville cutthroat will occupy just 35% of its historical range.
Although there were other native fish like leatherside chub and mountain suckers in Blubber Creek when the France Canyon Fire was closing in, those species are relatively abundant, Kavalunas said.
“We didn't even really attempt to salvage those,” he said. “We just focused specifically on Bonneville, because we have very few populations in that area.”
Now that the trout are out of harm’s way, the plan is to hold them at the hatchery until eventually returning them to Blubber Creek or elsewhere in the Upper Sevier River watershed.
But the fish can only go home once the area has recovered from the France Canyon Fire, which has burned around 35,000 acres. That may take a while.
“We would want to see that area regrow and restabilize for at least a season — and maybe longer — before we would put fish back in there,” Kavalunas said.
The fish could remain at the hatchery for five to seven years.
