Help Rescue Brown Trout on the Upper Rio Cebolla
What, Where, and Why: On August 7th staff from the US Forest Service and the NM Department of Game and Fish will shock the upper Rio Cebolla to remove brown trout that have gotten into a part of the stream that is designated for native Rio Grande Cutthroat trout. The brown trout outcompete the RG cutthroats and threaten the survival of a native trout population.
The last time the stream was shocked, over 600 browns were removed from a one-mile stretch of the Cebolla above McKinney Pond and “banked”, or tossed on the bank to die. We have discussed this waste with USFS staff and they have agreed to provide a tank truck to receive and transport the browns if NM Trout provides the volunteers to carry them in buckets from the stream to the waiting tank truck. At the end of the day, the fish will be released on area streams still to be determined, such as the San Antonio and the lower Cebolla.
We need lots of volunteers for Tuesday, August 7th. I know this is a weekday, but this project has a very direct and immediate bearing on our interests as fly anglers. It is worth a day’s vacation or a rearrangement of a schedule to help rescue a lot of brown trout.
The Details: We will start at 9:00AM at the work site above the Seven Springs Fish Hatchery. Wear sturdy shoes and bring work gloves and water. Long pants, long sleeved shirts, a hat and sunscreen are a good idea.
We will need to minimize the number of vehicles driven to the work site. I will make a list of volunteers and their email addresses and then circulate it so participants can get together to carpool wherever possible. If you drive separately, plan to meet at 8:30AM at the Seven Springs hatchery parking lot and we will carpool from there.
RSVP to ronloehman@gmail.com as soon as possible. We need to make more advance arrangements than for typical projects so early replies are essential. The club will provide lunch for volunteers.
The bottom line is that if we do not get enough volunteers to make this work, the browns will be banked (killed).