Dam Bypass Opens Truckee River for Cutthroat

Photo: USFWS Pacific Southwest/Flickr

The reintroduction and subsequent success of Lahontan cutthroat trout in Pyramid Lake is nothing short of a miracle. The fish barely survived being wiped out by a wildfire almost 40 years after the lake-strain Lahontans were extirpated in Pyramid Lake. A small population of lake-strain Lahontans were found on Pilot Peak, near the Nevada-Utah border. The fish were captured and taken to a hatchery shortly before a wildfire tore through the area. Since reintroducing the fish into Pyramid Lake, the Lahontans have grown almost as large as the fish of old (the world record cutthroat is a 41-pound Lahontan caught from Pyramid Lake).

It hasn’t been all roses and rainbows for Lahontan cutthroat, however. They’ve been blocked from accessing their historic spawning grounds in the Truckee River thanks to the Numana Dam. This dam was built in 1917 to divert water from the Truckee River to farmers and ranchers on Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal lands, according to an article from The Nevada Independent.

That article goes into detail on how a new dam bypass will be constructed on the Numana Dam which will allow both Lahonton cutthroat and cui-ui (a sucker fish native to Pyramid Lake) to access 65 miles of the Truckee River for spawning runs. This is just another step not only in restoring Lahontan cutthroat trout, but the entire Pyramid Lake and Truckee River systems.

You can read more about this effort here.