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After giving us an official state fossil and an official state dance in recent sessions, our General Assembly has returned another emblem: a state fish.
About 20 years ago, when I was at the newspaper in Kremmling, we got a press release from the Division of Wildlife, which wanted us to solicit our readers for nominations for an Official State Fish.
A month later, we received an update. It seems that in about 1954, the General Assembly had already designated the rainbow trout. Thus there was no need for a new state fish, and the Wildlife Division apologized.
Now some have argued that the rainbow should be replaced by the greenback cut-throat trout, since the cut-throat is the only trout native to Colorado, whereas the rainbow is an import, from California of all places.
But there's more to consider. For instance, almost all of our state insignia come from only one geographical province. The bighorn sheep, the blue spruce and the columbine are all montane.
The only representative of fauna from the short-grass prairie -- a third of the state -- is the lark bunting. The legislature could face demands for bioregional equity unless it adopts a warm-water fish like bass, crappie or carp.
On the other side of the mountains, there's the basin-and-range or plateau province, whose activists might argue on behalf of our renowned but endangered species, the Colorado River Squawfish and the Humpback Chub.
To prevent that, the legislature could honor the mining industry and declare that the goldfish is the official state fish and the silverfish the official state insect.
Mining isn't as important as it once was, though; the major action these days is in real estate speculation. For some reason, the sucker and shark immediately come to mind, but let's look harder.
Real-estate development means water diversion, which means converting useless creeks into dry streambeds of beneficial use for at least part of the year. Under these circumstances, the African lungfish, able to live for months without water, sounds like a perfect candidate for official state fish.
Despite these contenders, the General Assembly has focused only on the cut-throat trout, which came close to extinction. The native trout isn't an especially efficient competitor, and when confronted by rapacious imports like the rainbow and brown trout, the cut-throat loses.
That's a fitting allegory. In the human arena, Colorado
natives generally aren't very efficient competitors,
either. Many of us lack the aggression and credentials
needed to swim in modern Colorado. As Rob Pudim, the
Boulder cartoonist and writer, once remarked, Being born
in Colorado has only one benefit -- you're forever barred
from any position of public honor or trust in this
state.
While primitive nativist sentiment might argue in favor of the cut-throat, the rainbow trout is a much better reflection of contemporary reality, and the legislature ought to retain it as our official state fish. It truly stands for Colorado.
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