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In these times of dwindling environmental resources and worldwide species loss, at rates nearly equaling species destruction when the dinosaurs disappeared from the earth 25 million years ago, a handful of programs have demonstrated great success, and literally given a few of our most prized creatures a new lease on life. Sandhill Crane populations are on the increase, North American Buffalo can actually be found roaming the Plains once more, Pronghorn Antelope, a species which once numbered in the tens of millions in the 1870's and which reached a nationwide low of only 13,000 in the 1950's, have increased to a population of over 1 million animals, and albeit with reluctantcy, a handful of North American Wolves have been reintroduced into their once native habitat. One success story that Californians can be very proud of is that of the Golden Trout.
The Golden Trout family is a trout species originally found in only one river system in the entire world, the Kern river drainage of California. There are, actually, three distinct fish species which make up the Golden Trout Family, the Volcano Creek Golden Trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss aguabonita), the Little Kern Golden Trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss gilberti) and the Kern River Rainbow Trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss whitei) and they all live in separate isolated sections of the Kern River drainage.
Eons ago the landscape of California was much different than it is today. Conditions were such that fish from the ocean were able to migrate into and populate certain rivers, much like salmon and steelhead still migrate up coastal rivers to this day. In the case of the Golden Trout, a long long time ago, ancestors to the modern day steelhead found their way into the Kern river drainage from the ocean. As time went on, conditions in the landscape began to change and the fish became landlocked. Further changes in the landscape, such as repeated glaciation and desertification of the lower regions isolated the fish in the Kern river and its drainage. Those fish that remained turned into what we now know as Golden Trout, distinguished from all other trout species by their bright red, yellow and orange coloration.
These incredibly beautiful fish survived for centuries in their own isolated habitats on the Kern plateau. They occupied nearly 200 miles of stream and tributaries, from the shadow of Mt. Whitney all the way down to the present day site of Lake
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