State Will Repopulate Sacramento River With Wild Trout

The state Department of Fish and Game does not intend to stock the upper reaches of the Sacramento River near Dunsmuir with hatchery-raised trout, officials said Friday.

But the department will repopulate a 40-mile stretch of the river with wild rainbow trout in an attempt to restore fish life to the area contaminated by a chemical spill from last summer’s train derailment.

Under the plan, employees will capture 50 pairs of adult rainbow trout from an unaffected area of the river above Dunsmuir.

Fish and Game workers will put 30 pairs of trout in the affected stretch of the river and hope they reproduce this spring. The remaining trout will be kept at a hatchery and their offspring will be placed in the river in the fall.

Tourism officials and merchants from the area had recommended stocking the river with adult-sized hatchery trout so fishermen would return to the Northern California region this season. But the department said hatchery fish would provide unnecessary competition for the wild trout.