The Golden Trout Project
A film by Trout Unlimited
California Golden Trout are celebrated everywhere they’ve been transplanted across the West, but the native range of these beautiful fish is limited to the headwater meadow streams of the Kern River watershed high in the southern Sierra Nevada backcountry.
Today, these populations are struggling. Generations of habitat loss and hybridization have limited Golden Trout to a tiny fraction of their historic range and numbers.
Our new film celebrates the incredible work being done to restore this iconic species and their home waters.
Following years of rigorous planning and decades of work by dedicated volunteers, TU and our partners are expanding the scale of our ambitious effort to restore Golden Trout.
In the coming years, we’ll restore 75 stream miles and 7,000 acres of critical headwater habitat, a lifeline for threatened populations of this beloved species of native trout.
Read more about The Golden Trout Project
Restoration Partners
Restoration at this scale requires committed partnerships to be effective. Trout Unlimited, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and Anabranch Solutions have led the planning and on-the-ground project implementation.
The work has been funded by CDFW Proposition 1 and Nature-Based Solutions, California Wildlife Conservation Board, USFS, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Sierra Meadows Partnership, Starbucks, PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Ecolab and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.
Additional key partnerships include the Inyo and Sequoia National Forests, Sabra Purdy, Waterways Consulting, Point Blue Conservation, the Tubatulabal Tribe of Kern Valley, and the Federation of Fly Fishers.