The White Mountains of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, located about a four-hour drive east of Phoenix, Arizona, is home to the Apache trout, a yellowish-gold treasure. The reservation spans approximately 1.24 million acres and reaches a height of 11,000 feet above sea level at its highest point. It is the only place in the world where Apache trout can be found in their natural habitat.
The Apache trout was once abundant in the White Mountain headwaters, populating nearly 700 miles of streams. However, due to habitat loss, overfishing, and the presence of non-native species, the Apache trout has been considered a threatened species for almost as long as it has been recognized.
Thanks to conservation efforts led by the White Mountain Apache Tribe Game and Fish, along with partners such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Forest Service, Trout Unlimited, and others, the Apache trout is now the first sport fish and trout species to be recovered and removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species.
It takes teamwork for species recovery! To get the Apache trout to where it is today, many programs within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Fish and Aquatic Conservation program and several partners, led by the White Mountain Apache Tribe Game and Fish, rallied together for more than five decades. Work involved habitat restoration, maintaining a captive , non-native species management, and population assessment and monitoring, driven by the best advances in applied science and grounded in strong partnerships.
Partnerships
The White Mountain Apache Tribe were the first stewards of Apache trout and have been leading the conservation efforts since the beginning. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Service's Fish and Aquatic Conservation program play a supportive role and coordinate very closely with the Tribe.
The Service, the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the U.S. Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited share responsibilities under a 2021 Apache Trout Cooperative Management Plan. That plan outlines goals to reach recovery and delisting of the Apache trout, and when delisted to maintain a recovered status, while providing sportfishing opportunities.
Building a Healthy Fish Population
Williams Creek National Fish Hatchery, located in the beautiful White Mountains on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, is dedicated to the restoration and recovery of the threatened Apache trout. It is the only hatchery in the nation to have a captive broodstock of Apache trout and uses state-of-the-art techniques to emulate a habitat that’s safe from predators and free of disease.
To spawn the trout, hatchery staff collects milt or the semen of a male Apache trout to fertilize the eggs. Once fertilized, the eggs are placed in hatching trays for 3-4 weeks as they develop to the eyed egg stage. Then, the dead eggs or non-fertilized eggs are removed. All eggs are enumerated. After sorting out dead eggs the eyed eggs are either put into hatching jars or back into hatching trays for another 1-3 weeks until they begin to hatch. After that, another 3 weeks at the alevin or sac fry stage until the yolk sac is absorbed and it is at the fry stage. According to hatchery records and staff, the highest number of Apache trout eggs taken in a single spawning season is between 800,000-900,000.
Apache trout are susceptible to disease so to help keep Williams Creek National Fish Hatchery disease-free, tests are regularly conducted by the hatchery and at the state level. The hatchery collects samples from each female fish that is spawned at the facility and sends the samples to the Southwestern Native Aquatic Resources Recovery Center in New Mexico for testing.
To bolster the broodstock, the introduction of cryopreserving sperm was incorporated into the Apache trout spawning process in 2018. Biologists and Tribal staff collect sperm from wild Apache trout in the East Fork of the White River and freeze it on liquid nitrogen at -321 degrees Fahrenheit. The frozen sperm is shipped to Warm Springs Fish Technology Center in Georgia where it is kept until it’s needed for spawning at the hatchery.
Restoration
A major threat to Apache trout populations has been the introduction of non-native trout. The gene pool was threatened by hybridization with non-native rainbow and cutthroat trout. Additionally, non-native brook and brown trout pose threats through competition and predation. Environmental DNA sampling is used to look for non-native DNA in streams. If non-native fish are discovered, biologists use e-DNA sampling to find and remove them before releasing Apache trout into the waters. Arizona Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office biologists expend a great deal of energy removing non-native brown trout and brook trout from Apache trout waters.
Much of the collaborative conservation work has involved removing these introduced trout from the Apache trout habitat and constructing and maintaining barriers to block further non-native invasions. Mechanical removal, using backpack-mounted electrofishing equipment to capture and remove non-native trout, is the primary tool in use today to eradicate these non-native species. Chemical tools were employed as recently as 20 years ago to eliminate non-native trout, but concerns about their use led to our current reliance on mechanical removal for brown and brook trout along with a change in stocking methods. Once most non-native trout are believed to have been removed from Apache trout recovery habitat, biologists use environmental DNA sampling to pinpoint stream locations where non-native trout remain by looking for their DNA in streams. Then intensive mechanical removal efforts are deployed in these targeted locations to remove the last of the target species, usually brown trout on the Tribal lands.
Removing outdated barriers is reconnecting fragmented habitat and Apache trout populations and increasing genetic diversity. The National Fish Passage Program, via funding has invested in projects that have been supporting the recovery of Apache trout. These include the 2022 Apache Trout Recovery Fish Passage Infrastructure Project which is removing or replacing barrier culverts that when compete, will restore unimpeded access to 52.4 miles of habitat and the 2023 Crooked Creek Route 55 Culvert Fish Passage Project which will replace one culvert and reconnect eight miles of upstream habitat. The Crooked Creek project is planned for 2025. Both projects are led by the White Mountain Apache Tribe in collaboration with Service field staff.
Success
Thanks to conservation efforts led by the White Mountain Apache Tribe and collaboration between Tribal, state, and federal partners, Apache trout populations have rebounded and on September 5, the species was delisted from protections under the Endangered Species Act.
The Apache trout represents the region, the people for whom they were named, and Arizona as the state fish, but it also represents the success of the Endangered Species Act. Overfishing, habitat degradation, and the introduction of non-native trout prompted the Apache trout to be one of the first ESA-listed species in 1973 and among those first species to gain federal protection. In 1975, the species was downlisted to threatened, opening the door to recreational fishing.
In 2023 a delisting proposal was preceded by a 5-year review and a 2021 species status assessment, which included the best available scientific information. The assessment evaluated the species’ current needs, condition, and threats, in addition to modeling future scenarios. The 5-year review, published Aug. 23, 2022, recommended delisting the Apache trout due to recovery. Now that the Apache trout is delisted, active management to maintain conservation barriers to limit competition and predation from and hybridization with non-native trout species will continue. In addition, the ESA requires the Service to implement a post-delisting monitoring plan for a minimum of five years to ensure the species remains stable, the Service plans to conduct post-delisting monitoring for 10 years.
There's Always More to the Story
We've touched on only a fraction of the Apache trout story. Find more information on the road to recovery through the stories below.
Removal of Apache Trout from Endangered Species List - Press Release
Delisting of Apache Trout and Removal from Endangered Act Frequently Asked Questions
Apache Trout Recovery Fish Passage Infrastructure Project | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (fws.gov)
Swimming into Recovery | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (fws.gov)
Amazing Apache Trout
Proposed Delisting of Apache Trout -Press Release
Reading Between the Lines - Historic memo proves prophetic - Page 26
The Perfect Cast
Apache Trout
The Trout You Never Heard Of - Fishing Tackle Retailer - The Business Magazine of the Sportfishing Industry
Saving the Apache trout - Hatchery International
Frozen in time - Hatchery International
Impressionism and Native Trout - Sporting Classics Daily
Fish Health Surveys Inform Conservation (womensoutdoornews.com)
