The Colorado River and its surrounding lands are known for natural beauty and abundant outdoor activities. About 50 miles upstream from Grand Canyon National Park, the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area encompasses Lake Powell in Utah and the water below the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona.
The winding river, with countless channels, coves, and tributaries, provides limitless opportunities for anglers. Some of the most prized species in the country swim in the deep canyons. Rainbow trout, black bass, walleye, catfish, and stripers can be found and fished for throughout the system.
Remarkably, anglers can keep 20 smallmouth bass a day. There is no limit on how many striped bass one can harvest; and the same fish can be used as bait. Below the Glen Canyon Dam, there is no limit on any sport fish aside from rainbow trout. As one browses the various regulations and environmental plans associated with the Park Service at Glen Canyon, it becomes clear: state and federal groups want fish to be killed.
Last week, the National Park Service announced it would be starting a program to eliminate smallmouth bass. Further down in the news releases is an update to a 2020 initiative where anglers are encouraged to cull as many brown trout as possible.
What is provoking the systematic removal of two of the most sought after species in American fishing is a renewed understanding of what comprises a healthy ecosystem. Smallmouth and brown trout aren’t supposed to be in the Colorado River. Bonytail, Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, and razorback sucker are.
Particularly below the Glen Canyon Dam, the two aforementioned game fish are detrimental to the native species. The same predatory behavior that makes smallmouth and brown trout aggressive feeders and fighters for anglers makes them detrimental to a fish like the endangered chub. Consequently, recreational anglers have been getting “bounties” up to $33 per fish for brown trout and the Park Service will be strategically applying the piscicide rotenone to smallmouth and sunfish spawning locations.
Determining this course of action was spurred on by numerous significant variables. The presence of some of these introduced species was made possible by the impoundment itself; both the creation of Lake Powell and the coldwater releases into the Colorado beneath the dam. Quagga mussels and New Zealand mudsnails are causing significant damage. While virtually all nonnatives will have an impact on an ecosystem, some are especially harmful within a niche. (This is why rainbow trout, at least for the moment, get a pass,) Most significantly, it demonstrates a progressive understanding of human effects on the natural world. Protecting what wasn’t seen as important, or what wasn’t seen – like the humpback chub, is now a priority.
Inevitably, this progressive understanding of conservation in general and the Colorado River system in particular will reveal missteps in current initiatives. But contemporary plans do demonstrate a holistic paradigm that eschews more, bigger fish for the restoration and preservation of natural resources.
Learn more about Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the ecosystem of the Colorado river on NPS.gov.