Massive NM fire prompts rescue of threatened fish

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYANAssociated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - As firefighters work to corral wildfires burning around the West, biologists are saving a threatened trout in southwestern New Mexico from the ravages of predicted post-fire flooding.
The team is gathering the Gila trout so the fish can be ferried out of the wilderness via helicopter. They will be taken to a fish hatchery for safe keeping.
The biologists are focusing on creeks within the perimeter of the Whitewater-Baldy fire, a blaze that has charred more than 453 square miles of the Gila National Forest.
Crews are also battling fires in Arizona, Alaska, Washington and Colorado. So far this year, fires have scorched more than 1 million acres across the county.
Nearly 1,400 firefighters are working the 81-square-mile High Park Fire near Fort Collins, Colo.
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