This past month, the world lost a great conservation hero. Edwin “Phil” Pister passed away on January 17, 2023, after spending his career working as a district fisheries biologist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (formerly Department of Fish and Game). Phil’s efforts to protect threatened fish species in eastern California – most notably, golden trout and highly endangered pupfish – made him well known throughout the world of fisheries and biodiversity conservation.
In 1969, he singlehandedly saved the Owens Pupfish population from extinction by relocating the last remaining population from a shrinking pond – by bucket.
“I distinctly remember being scared to death. I had walked perhaps fifty yards when I realized that I literally held within my hands the existence of an entire vertebrate species," Phil later wrote in “Species in a Bucket”.
He is remembered as a legend for this event and for his deep familiarity with and efforts to conserve high elevation golden trout populations.
“If you’re a professional biologist like I am, you look at [golden trout] as evolutionary marvels. The average person doesn’t give a blast about whether they are pure or not. [At CDFW], we care because that’s our job to be concerned with purity of species – that’s why we exist. That’s what motivated me to spend virtually my entire life up there trying to care for [golden trout],” Phil said in an interview with CalTrout for the Liquid Gold short film.
CalTrout is honored to have learned from Phil throughout his great life, and we hope you will remember him with us by checking out the video and links below.
Liquid Gold short film | Read Phil’s article “Species in a Bucket” | Learn more about Phil’s life and his great contributions to conservation
Cover Photo: Phil Pister in the Liquid Gold short film.
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Peter Moyle is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Associate Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, at UC Davis. He is author or co-author of more than 240 publications, including the definitive Inland Fishes of California (2002). He is co-author of the 2017 book, Floodplains: Processes and Management for Ecosystem Services. His research interests include conservation of aquatic species, habitats, and ecosystems, including salmon; ecology of fishes of the San Francisco Estuary; ecology of California stream fishes; impact of introduced aquatic organisms; and use of floodplains by fish.
Robert Lusardi is the California Trout/UC Davis Wild and Coldwater Fish Researcher focused on establishing the basis for long-term science specific to California Trout’s wild and coldwater fish initiatives. His work bridges the widening gap between academic science and applied conservation policy, ensuring that rapidly developing science informs conservation projects throughout California. Dr. Lusardi resides at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and works closely with Dr. Peter Moyle on numerous projects to help inform California Trout conservation policy. His recent research interests include Coho salmon on the Shasta River, the ecology of volcanic spring-fed rivers, inland trout conservation and management, and policy implications of trap and haul programs for anadromous fishes in California.
Patrick Samuel is the Conservation Program Coordinator for California Trout, a position he has held for almost two years, where he coordinates special research projects for California Trout, including the State of the Salmonids report. Prior to joining CalTrout, he worked with the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum, a non-profit that supports the eight federal regional fishery management councils around the country. Patrick got his start in fisheries as an undergraduate intern with NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in Sacramento, and in his first field job as a crew member of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Wild and Heritage Trout Program.
1 Comment
Phil was a great person and and an extraordinary biologist. From pupfish to cutthroat and golden trout he was a true visionary and guardian. I will always remember nights on the Kern Plateau when we all enjoyed his sense of humor and stories of days gone by in his early days as a CDFW employee. He noted, “I started my career introducing sport fishing species into the Sierra and finished it trying to remove the non-native species!” I learned the importance of each species as Indicators of the health of the whole system. As a leader in conservation biology he will be remembered, as a man of ethics and character he will be missed.