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Threatened Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Back in Nevada River

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Lahontan cutthroat trout are successfully reproducing in the lower Truckee River east of Reno in what experts are calling a major milestone in efforts to restore the population once on the brink of extinction.

Last year, cutthroats raised from a strain of a remnant population near the Nevada-Utah line spawned upstream from Pyramid Lake for the first time in nearly 80 years.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say they've documented about 1,000 newly hatched baby cutthroats in the river after a second spawn this spring. They suspect as many as 45,000 may have hatched in recent weeks.Lahontan National Fish Hatchery manager Lisa Heki told the Reno Gazette Journal their success in a fourth drought year suggests they have the resiliency to be a self-sustaining population.