At the same time, extensive logging and heavy livestock grazing caused Pine Creek to change from a permanent to an intermittent stream in its lower reaches.

In the early 1950s the few remaining eagle lake rainbow trout at the mouth of Pine Creek were rescued and used to start a hatchery program to maintain the species and the sport fishery.

[3] Because of the complete dependence of Eagle Lake rainbow trout on hatchery production, the American Fisheries Society considers it to be a threatened species and NatureServe has listed it as critically imperiled.

[4] Historically American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) nested on Eagle Lake.

They suffered from hunting by locals who mistakenly thought the pelicans ate the native trout and stopped nesting completely after 1932, when water was exported for agricultural irrigation and lowered the lake level by 10 feet (3 m), changing their nesting island into a less desirable peninsula ("Pelican Point").

Pine Creek is the main tributary of Eagle Lake and is 39 miles (63 km) long.