Tuesday August 6, 2024
Oregon Public Broadcasting —
At a small dam on Sun Creek made out of corrugated vinyl sheeting, National Park Service fish biologist Dave Hering shuts off water leading into a metal box the size of a small elevator.
Michael Scheu, one of Hering’s team members, climbs inside. Surrounding his feet are twelve bull trout. They got trapped here trying to head upstream. Scheu collects half of them in a black bucket, handing it off to another team member above.
Bull trout are the only remaining native fish species in Crater Lake National Park. They used to be found all over the Klamath Basin, Hering says, including nearby Fort Creek.
“Fort Creek is a place where a bull trout was sampled in the 19th century and actually held in the Smithsonian,” says Hering. “And for decades, including the whole first 15 years of my career here, we didn’t have bull trout there anymore.”