Scanning east to the distant mountains from Great Basin National Park, one would not imagine that thousands of years ago the Snake Valley was filled by Lake Bonneville. Within this Pleistocene lake lived the Bonneville cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki). The Bonneville cutthroat is a subspecies of trout that evolved in complete isolation from other trout populations over the last 25,000 years. Towards the end of the Pleistocene era, the climate became drier, glaciers melted, many rivers and streams ceased their flow, and the evaporation of lakes exceeded the inflow. The lakes dried throughout the Great Basin, and the net effect was to produce the present moist high mountain islands surrounded by seas of low desert. As Lake Bonneville dried up, populations of Bonneville cutthroats sought refuge in more favorable habitats within the cool, clear, high mountain streams.

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Bonneville cutthroats flourished in this new-found habitat and were once well distributed in all major streams on the east side of what is now Great Basin National Park. Because of the introduction of non-native competitive trout species, water diversions and other land management practices, most streams and lakes within the park no longer support populations of Bonneville cutthroats.

On the west side of the park, Pine and Ridge Creeks do contain Bonneville cutthroats. Somewhat surprisingly, these populations are outside of their historic range. Apparently, early settlers stocked these streams with trout from the east side of the Snake Range. These populations represent an important source of genetically pure Bonneville cutthroat that could be used for re-establishing this species within its historic range.

The National Park Service is beginning to study the feasibility of re-establishing Bonneville cutthroats in selected park streams. The first step is to inventory stream ecosystems to assess the suitability of habitats to support the species. To begin the process, Park personnel will be conducting aquatic habitat monitoring along all creeks in the park.

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