Event Details

Western North America is home to an amazing diversity of big, showing salmonids (e.g., salmon and steelhead), but also hosts wonderful diversity of the mostly much smaller and less attention-grabbing Cutthroat Trout (Onchorhynchus clarkii).  The numerous subspecies occupy a wide range of habitats, from coastal rainforest streams to Great Basin desert-drainages.  Cutthroats range in size from the tiny, almost spotless Paiute Cutthroat to the gargantuan Lahontan Cutthroat.  In this presentation, we will discuss natural history and life history variation of salmonids in general, diversity of Cutthroats specifically, and focus in most closely on the three subspecies native to California.  Cutthroats are at the center of fascinating and hopeful conservation and management stories, have cultural significance to native people, and are worthy of our admiration and enduring attention, whether we are fish aficionados or not.