Bracing for the complete loss of a restored native fishery in the path of the now-slowing West Valley Fire, wildlife officials Monday rescued 400 Bonneville cutthroat trout from a stream in southern Utah’s Pine Valley Mountains.
DWR predicts sediments unleashed from the blaze will flush into the stream and asphyxiate thousands of fish. The waterway could be uninhabitable for two years, potentially neutralizing the agency’s efforts to establish a safe haven for native cutthroat in these waters north of Toquerville in Washington County.
An abandoned campfire sparked the West Valley Fire June 27 in designated wilderness on the Pine Valley Mountains’ west slope.