An area in Southern Utah once known for trout fishing is being restored after nearly being destroyed by wildfire.
Lynn Chamberlain with the Division of Wildlife Resources said crews are using heavy equipment to add large dead trees to the stream-bed of North Creek near Beaver. He said the trees will help contain flood waters, which come down from the mountains and were previously held back by the trees lost in the wildfire a few years ago.
“When you don’t hold that back, then those waters have the tendency to come down and scour out the stream and get rid of all of the potential areas for fish to live, really destructive on the habitat," Chamberlain said. "It takes away a lot of the vegetation that would normally be in the stream because the water is just running unchecked and so fast.”
Chamberlain said ash from the wildfire was also flushed into the stream, causing a massive fish kill last summer.
He said the restoration efforts should lead to anglers pursuing cutthroat and rainbow trout sooner rather than later.
“There’s no reason to think that within a couple of years, we shouldn’t be — as far as the fish are concerned — right back to where we were before the fire," Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain said the same wildfire caused even more devastation to the fishery at Fish Creek where restoration efforts are also underway.