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State Officials OK Plan to Restore Native Trout to Central Montana Lake

By Beacon Staff

HELENA – State officials have approved a plan to restore westslope cutthroat trout to a central Montana lake and stream after poisoning other trout species that would breed with the native fish and compete for food.

The plan is part of a larger statewide effort to bolster populations of genetically pure cutthroat trout, which is the Montana state fish but occupies less than 3 percent of its historical range in the state.

The situation is more dire for the cutthroat in the Missouri River watershed east of the Rocky Mountains, where the fish has been driven out by habitat damage, lack of water and the introduction of nonnative species, according to a conservation group.

“(Wildlife officials) are trying to reintroduce them into their historical habitat so that this legacy fish of ours has the opportunity to hold on in perpetuity,” Bruce Farling, executive director of Trout Unlimited’s Montana chapter, said Wednesday.

The plan calls for state fish and wildlife officials to build a fish barrier and then use piscicides containing the toxin rotenone to kill rainbow and brook trout that now inhabit over 1½ miles of Crater Lake and Lake Creek in the Smith River drainage area.

Cutthroat trout eggs or adults from nearby fish populations would be removed about a year after the other fish are removed, said George Liknes, the FWP fisheries manager for the region. A public comment period will be held before that phase, he said.

The area isn’t large enough to contain the 2,500 fish recommended to sustain a long-term population of westslope cutthroat trout. But the creek and lake is a good site to build a barrier, Liknes said, and if successful, the project would increase the number of cutthroat trout in the Smith River drainage area by 25 percent.

“This is basically a stopgap measure until we can work to increase inhabited miles and create larger areas,” Liknes said.

The plan is outlined in the Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ final environmental assessment for the project released Friday. The project was approved after the state received no comments from the public.

The environmental assessment concludes the toxins would dissipate in less than two weeks after killing all gill-breathing animals and invertebrates but would not affect mammals or birds in the area. Amphibians and reptiles would be minimally affected because the poison would be dumped at a time of year when they aren’t many eggs or juveniles in the population, the assessment said.

Aquatic invertebrates from upstream will drift down and help repopulate the area, Liknes said.

Wildlife officials plan to begin work on the barrier either this or next summer, with the poisoning to follow. The timing is uncertain because engineering consultants are still designing the barrier to be used, Liknes said. The total cost was not immediately clear, but the project is to be paid for with both federal and state money.

The cutthroat restoration projects that involve the toxins are conducted in headwaters so the native fish can gain a foothold and eventually expand their range, Farling said. Fish populations outside of those headwaters are unaffected, he said.

“We’re not talking about going in and wiping out all the rainbows,” he said.

Similar projects have already been conducted in the Jewel Basin in northwestern Montana, 77 miles along a Madison River tributary and near the Elkhorn Mountains.

The success of the program will be determined only after monitoring how several generations of the cutthroat have fared, he said. Trout Unlimited would eventually like to see one or two large populations of cutthroat tout in connected tributaries in all the watershed of the Missouri River, Farling said.

“We’re generally supportive of these projects. The fundamental methods are solid,” Farling said. “The fears some people have of rotenone in streams have proven to be unfounded.”