So you landed a greenback cutthroat trout?

If you have ever proudly proclaimed to have caught a greenback cutthroat and even have the photo captioned “my first greenback,” you probably remember the day, the time and the location.  But, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, if you didn’t catch it in Bear Creek, you didn’t actually catch a greenback cutthroat.  A recent study just published by the University of Colorado reveals that “the last surviving wild population of the federally protected greenback cutthroat trout” lives in a 4-mile stretch of Bear Creek.  What you caught was a yet-to-be-identified cutthroat. 

In all seriousness, this new report is not just “a fish story.”  It has important ramifications regarding the conservation of the greenback cutthroat trout in the state and huge environmental issues in our own backyard.  You can bet that we will follow this story as it unfolds.