The Alvord cutthroat trout, ''Oncorhynchus clarkii alvordensis'', was a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

cutthroat trout The cutthroat trout is a fish species of the family Salmonidae native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. As a member of the genus '' Oncorhynchus'', it is one of the Pacific tro ...

. It was known only from Trout Creek in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and Virgin Creek in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, although it may have lived in several of the larger Alvord Basin streams during recent times. It was native to spring-fed creeks that ran down to Alvord Dry Lake in southeast Oregon, which was a large lake during the

ice ages An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

and an isolated drainage, part of the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

today. This is one of the two cutthroat trout taxa considered

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

because all known populations are hybridized with

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

which were introduced into streams in the Alvord basin in the 1920s, resulting in

cutbow A cutbow ('' Oncorhynchus clarkii'' × ''mykiss'') is an interspecific fertile hybrid between a rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') and a cutthroat trout (''O. clarkii''). Cutbow hybrids may occur naturally where the native ranges of both ...

s. The subspecies name was given in 2002 by Robert Behnke (''Trout and Salmon of North America''). In the fall 2005 issue of ''Trout'' (

Trout Unlimited Trout Unlimited (TU) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of freshwater streams, rivers, and associated upland habitats for trout, salmon, other aquatic species, and people. It is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Th ...

's Journal of Coldwater Fisheries Conservation), in an article titled ''About Trout: Ivory-billed trout'', Dr. Behnke notes a historical reference that the now "extinct" Alvord Cutthroat Trout had been transplanted into another basin adjacent to the Alvord Basin, and that this transplant occurred prior to the 1928 introduction of rainbows into Trout Creek. Dr. Behnke reflects on which stream these trout may have been introduced into. In the winter 2007 issue of ''Trout'', in an article titled ''Toward Definitiveness'', Dr. Behnke relates a summer 2006 electrofishing (sampling) project with the

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for programs protecting Oregon fish and wildlife resources and their habitats. The agency operates hatcheries, issues hunting and ...

(ODFW). He realized that the stream he'd referenced in 2005 was above the maximum

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

lake level of any downstream flow-connected basins, and thus he doubts that

redband trout Redband trout are a group of three recognized subspecies of rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss''). They occur in three distinct regions in Pacific basin tributaries and endorheic basins in the western United States. The three subspecies are th ...

ever made it to this elevated location. In the late 1950s and through the 1960s the ODFW had introduced

Lahontan cutthroat trout Lahontan cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi'') is the largest subspecies of cutthroat trout, and the state fish of Nevada. It is one of three subspecies of cutthroat trout that are listed as federally threatened. Natural history ...

and rainbow trout into this stream, so Dr. Behnke expected to find a hybrid swarm during this sampling project. Yet, during this trip he was pleased to find that all of the trout examined seemed to be of the Lahontan strain; with some trout exhibiting the appearance (

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...

) of the "extinct" Alvord cutthroat trout. In a 2007 publication of the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, entitled ''Redband Trout Resilience and Challenge in a Changing Landscape,'' Dr. Behnke comments that he believes there is a strong possibility that trout caught in this stream circa

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(confirmed by local historian Mr. Bruce Gilinski, who had direct experience on the stream just after World War II) were derived from the early transplant of the now extinct Alvord cutthroat. He thus surmises that what remains of the Alvord subspecies is incorporated into the trout now found in this small stream adjacent to the Alvord Basin. Dr. Behnke has urged the State of Oregon to create a population of trout phenotypically representative of the "extinct" ''alvordensis'' by transplanting specimens that most closely resemble ''alvordensis'' into presently fishless waters, where they can self-propagate and preserve the phenotype (if not genotype) of the Alvord cutthroat trout. In April 2013, Shannon Hurn, ODFW Fisheries Biologist, Hines District (SE Oregon) has released a 2013 Management Proposal; which includes the plan to take spawning pairs of cutthroat trout that exhibit the phenotype of the extinct Alvord cutthroat trout, to relocate these pairs to the Klamath Hatchery in Oregon, and to propagate fry (offspring) from these pairs, to rear the trout at Klamath Hatchery, to look for uniformity among the sub-adult trout and to document the phenotype stages, and to ultimately transfer trout with the Alvord (''alvordensis'') phenotype to a suitable fishless host stream in SE Oregon (preferably in the Alvord Basin - the native realm of the extinct Alvord cutthroat trout). Unfortunately, the plan for the project was not followed. Instead, based on visual inspection at the parr stage it was assumed by ODFW staff that the trout appeared to be cutthroat x rainbow trout hybrids (prior to the genetic results being completed) and the hatchery program was abandoned. This move proved premature and ill timed, as once the results genetic study were available, it indicated that only ~3% of the genetics were from rainbow trout (Pritchard et al. 2015) Additionally, during the same period as that the hatchery program was initiated Southeastern Oregon was hit by several years of extreme drought. This resulted in an increase in fires along the stream and complete drying of some of the stream reaches. While the hatchery fish could have been returned to the stream to at least help buffer the drought conditions instead hatchery fish were released into Willow Valley Reservoir a body of water that is known for its warm water fisheries and is unlikely suitable for trout.

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Further reading