The Northern Sierras exemplifies the idea of California beauty. Millions of visitors gather to this area each year from around the world to enjoy its vistas, waters, and recreational opportunities such as swimming, skiing, hiking, and angling.

The area is home to some of the most important, ecologically diverse watersheds in California. The Truckee and Carson Rivers, the tributaries of Lake Tahoe, and other ecologically significant waterways provide unique habitats for a variety of native trout species, including the Lahontan and Paiute cutthroat trout, Eagle Lake Rainbow trout, and the Mountain whitefish. As well as wild trout species including Brook, Rainbow and Lake trout.

However, these iconic wildernesses are slowly being loved to death. Growing commercial development, visitation, timber harvest, and water irrigation are overpowering the area’s ability to rejuvenate itself and straining the region’s fragile trout that rely on healthy rivers and streams to survive.

The California Trout Northern Sierra region, based out of South Lake Tahoe, has prioritized supporting the Lahontan cutthroat trout recovery back to it’s native range within the Tahoe Basin and Truckee River Watersheds, restoring the Paiute cutthroat trout to its native waters in Silver King Creek, supporting enhanced research of local fisheries and their habitats, and building a stronger voice for fisheries conservation in the region.

If you wish to help, please visit our Northern Sierra Facebook page to learn more and for a list of area events.

California Trout has determined that the Northern Sierra Regional office geographic priorities be defined by the upper Feather River system to the north, the Carson drainage to the south, the Nevada’s state border to the east and the major Lake Tahoe tributaries to the west.

Identification: Pale yellow to bronze in color, 6”-10” long.

Status: Federally-listed as threatened.

Fact: Are native only to Silver King Creek in Alpine County.

Distribution: Nine miles of stream from Llewellyn Falls downstream to Silver King Canyon and used to reside in small tributary creeks.

Conservation Recommendations: Restore them to their historic range and remove non-native trout from their habitat.

Paiute Cutthroat Trout - Roger Bloom

Concern: Were once the primary native trout species of the Eastern Sierra Nevada but are now confined to a few small wild populations, augmented by hatchery-supported populations.

Status: State- and federally-listed as a threatened species.

Restoration: Being reintroduction to several portions of the Truckee Watershed.

Distribution: Great Basin watersheds in eastern California, southern Oregon, and northern Nevada.

Conservation Recommendations: Determine suitable remaining habitats for re-introduction, habitat restoration, and elimination of competing species of trout.

Lanontan - Gerard Carmona

Independence Lake - Peter Moyle

Still seem to be doing fairly well in their native rivers of the eastern Sierra, although little is known about the species’ present status and trends.

Mountain Whitefish - Thomas Taylor

Concern: The trophy trout of Eagle Lake is on the verge of extinction as wild fish; today, the fishery is supported entirely by ~150,000-200,000 fish per year from Mt. Shasta Hatchery production.

Status: Species of concern and a Heritage Trout Species by the Department of Fish and Game, sensitive species by U.S. Forest Service.

Fact: Eagle Lake rainbow trout are the only rainbow trout native to the eastern Sierra Mountains and are endemic to Eagle Lake in northeastern California.

Distribution: Eagle Lake and its tributary streams, which include Pine, Papoose, and Merrill Creeks.

Conservation Recommendations: Eliminate passage constraints to spawning areas, reduce cattle grazing, eradicate non-native brook trout, reduce water diversions to Pine Creek.

Our Regional Manager, Jenny Francis has an accomplished work history in watershed conservation and aquatic ecology. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2001 with a degree in Conservation Biology and has worked in natural resource protection in the Truckee River and Lake Tahoe Watersheds for nine years. Her career began while still in college as an Americorp member serving with Douglas County Parks and Recreation and the Washoe-Storey Conservation District (WSCD). Following college, Jenny was hired on permanently by the WSCD as their Watershed Coordinator and oversaw stream restoration project design, outreach, and monitoring.

Jenny acted as Watershed Coordinator for nearly three years after which she then moved to the Lake Tahoe Basin to take a position with the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit Division of the U.S. Forest Service, monitoring the effects of off highway vehicle use on wildlife. Following her term with the Forest Service Jenny was hired to direct a local educational non-profit, Marine Research & Education, whose mission is to educate youth on lake ecology through hands-on water quality sampling and monitoring.

For the last five years, Jenny worked with the Tahoe Resource Conservation District (TRCD). While there, she led the public affairs campaigns of the District, managed the Backyard Conservation Program, and spearheaded the Lake Tahoe Invasive Species Program. During her employment at the TRCD she organized numerous events and workshops (including Earth Day and the Lake Tahoe Aquatic Invasive Species Symposium), she presented at numerous national and statewide conferences, she created the watercraft inspection program for aquatic invasive species prevention into Lake Tahoe, and she sat on executive committees and chaired the Lake Tahoe Aquatic Invasive Species Working Group.

Jenny’s long standing history and connection to the watershed, both professionally and personally, make her the perfect choice for launching the new Tahoe Regional office. California Trout is excited about the role we will play in advancing conservation and our mission in the Tahoe Region.

California Trout
c/o Jenny Francis
PO Box 9122
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96158

California Trout Regional Office
870 Emerald Bay Road, Suite #303
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

Phone: (530) 541-3496
Email: jfrancis@caltrout.org