Northern redbelly dace stocked at Pawnee National Grassland

Northern redbelly dace have been stocked on federal land for the first time in two decades. Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service stocked state-endangered northern redbelly dace in a creek at Pawnee National Grassland in northern Colorado.

Biologists and rangers placed more than 18,000 dace into a small groundwater-fed creek on the Pawnee National Grassland on May 13.

It's the first time in Colorado history that northern redbelly dace have been stocked into a waterbody on land managed by the the Forest Service.

CPW said the dace were spawned and raised in the Native Aquatic Species Restoration Facility in Alamosa. The facility rears twelve species of fish, focusing on at-risk native species.