The East Fork of Parachute Creek (Colorado): Beavers, Brook Trout, and Chemical Reclamation, Oh My!

The East Fork of Parachute Creek (EFPC) is located in northwest Colorado, on lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within the Roan Plateau.  Native Colorado River Cutthroat Trout (CRCT) (Oncorhynchus clarkii pleuriticus) once occupied this drainage, but the population is now extirpated due to competition with nonnative Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis).  Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and the BLM initiated planning for chemical reclamation of the EFPC drainage in 2007.  From 2011-2013, the agencies collaborated with Colorado Trout Unlimited to construct a fish barrier in the upper portion of the drainage, in preparation to eliminate Brook Trout from the entire watershed.  In July 2014, beaver were live-trapped and removed from the treatment reach upstream of the fish barrier, and 23 beaver pond-dam complexes were converted into stream habitat.  Liquid rotenone (5% CFT Legumine), a piscicide certified for fish control by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was applied to the 6.4 kilometer treatment reach in mid-August 2014.  Crews electrofished the treatment area post-reclamation, confirming that Brook Trout had been eradicated upstream of the fish barrier.  The treatment area will be re-evaluated in 2015 prior to the re-introduction of CRCT into the headwaters of the EFPC drainage.