Calif. biologists rescued 5,800 rainbow trout from a fast-drying creek

Eagle Lake lies north of Susanville on the Great Basin edge, with an undulating shoreline, sagebrush flats to the north, and pine and fir along the south. It is the second largest freshwater lake entirely within California, forming a closed basin with alkaline water, one main tributary, and no outlet. Eagle Lake rainbow trout are a unique subspecies with an 11-year maximum recorded lifespan versus a 4-to-6-year average for other rainbow trout. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife stocks them across California for recreational fishing because Eagle Lake is their original habitat. In spring, they migrate upstream on Pine Creek to spawn, but the arid creek flows only a few months and can warm rapidly in wide open sagebrush valleys lacking riparian vegetation. A sequence of December and February snowstorms, followed by rain and a record-setting heat wave, left thousands of migrating fish at risk of being stranded as Pine Creek threatened to dry faster than they could swim back downstream to Eagle Lake.

"Come spring, Eagle Lake rainbow trout migrate upstream on the lake's main tributary, Pine Creek, to spawn. The problem is, Pine Creek can be a gamble. The arid creek only flows for a few months out of the year and quickly dries as the weather warms up."

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