干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Ecologically distinct stocks of resident redband trout above the Hells Canyon dam complex in southwestern Idaho represent physiologically unique components of the evolutionary legacy of the Snake River steelhead evolutionarily significant unit. These gene pools from the most extreme environments inhabited by this species, absent introgression produced by pooled hatchery stocks, have the potential to provide the genetic diversity necessary for species survival. Populations of desert redband trout in the Snake River drainages of southern Idaho are severely threatened by degradation of riparian habitat resulting from land use practices, as well as decreased streamflows accompanying prolonged drought.