LCT are an important traditional food source for the Paiute Tribe and much like the tragic stories of decline of the American bison, sage-grouse, and many other game species that native peoples depended on for sustenance, populations of LCT began plummeting precipitously after white settlers colonized the Great Basin in the mid-1800s. Overharvesting, livestock grazing, logging impacts, dewatering for agriculture and industry and pollution decimated populations over the preceding decades. The trout were once so abundant that settlers established fish canneries for export to mining camps and population centers. By the 1940s, the Pyramid Lake Lahontan trout went extinct and remnant populations were genetically isolated in headwater streams throughout the Great Basin.

In the 1970s, the Paiute began stocking Pyramid Lake with LCT to revive populations of the fish using Summit Lake strain but the trout did not grow large. In 2005 native Pyramid Lake trout were discovered in an isolated stream in Utah and managers brought these fish back to Pyramid Lake where populations have recovered. The Pyramid Lake reintroduction is a great conservation success story, however, hatchery programs are still needed to sustain the population in the lake. While the Pyramid Lake population has recovered, LCT are struggling to survive across the rest of their range and are under threat of extinction.