Mark Deleray is settling into his new role as the state’s regional fisheries manager in Northwest Montana, a position that oversees the management and preservation of 450 fishable lakes, more than 3,000 miles of fishable stream and a diverse school of native and nonnative species. Deleray spent nearly 20 years working as a biologist in Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ fisheries management program before replacing Jim Vashro as the Region One chief. Vashro retired in January after 31 years.
“The fisheries manager position in Region One is the toughest in the state, and I couldn’t think of a better man for the job than Mark,” Vashro said.
The Beacon caught up with Deleray last week to discuss the issues he plans to tackle and the challenges he’ll likely face.
BEACON: What are some of the top priorities that you’re focusing on as you transition into this new position?
MARK DELERAY: The goal is always the same: to conserve aquatic and fishery resources for these and future generations. That’s what we’re trying to achieve. The challenge is that it’s an ever-changing playing field. As the valley develops, there gets to be more use, more pressure and more demands on these resources. There’s potentially climate change issues. We have illegal fish introductions. It’s always changing. So under that setting, you’re always looking at ways to get back to that goal of protecting and conserving these resources.
BEACON: Heavy angling pressure seems to be an issue that is frequently cited in Northwest Montana. How can we address some of those situations?
DELERAY: One challenge in northwest Montana is always balancing the native fish conservation effort and the recreation fishing opportunity. Often the recreational fishing opportunity is introduced fish. Sometimes they come in conflict. We’re looking at where can we provide the angling opportunities and in doing so not compromise our other values. That is one of the biggest challenges in this area.
BEACON: How do you feel about the situation involving Flathead Lake and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ disagreement over managing nonnative lake trout? It’s been a thorny subject in recent years.
DELERAY: Well you hear about the thorny parts but the other side of it is that we have continuously — and do to this day — work with them on a variety of issues very well, like access, developing access, water quality protection. Right now we’re working on a cooperative monitoring survey. You hear about the thorny ones but there is actually a lot of work that we’re collaborating on all the time.
BEACON: Your predecessor, Jim Vashro, was very focused on addressing bucket biology and ways to address illegal introductions.
DELERAY: He was a champion of that and actually constructed our database. We have over 600 illegal introductions in Montana, and half of those are in Region One at least. We have so much water, and because of that we have more opportunities for this type of illegal activity and we’ve suffered because of that. That’s an ongoing problem. We will try to continue to address and find ways to reduce the occurrence of those introductions and try to work with the anglers to solve that problem.
BEACON: Water quality is a big topic here in the valley. It seems like there are more efforts being made to address water quality.
DELERAY: I moved here in 1991 and from then on I think the most important concern of the people I’ve worked with is water quality in Flathead Lake and northwestern Montana in general, but especially Flathead Lake. People are continuing to work with that in mind. We’re just in the process of finishing a huge conservation effort in the North Fork involving Canada and the ban of mining up there. There’s ongoing discussion in the upper Kootenai. So that’s going to continue be a major issue that we will work on over time.
BEACON: Since you got here in the early ’90s, do you think water quality issues have gotten better, worse, or stayed the same?
DELERAY: I think it’s definitely gotten better. It was already in progress I think when I moved here, but industry in general does a much better job than they did previously. The logging and timber harvest techniques have changed dramatically over time and to the better. We’re seeing talk of cleanup at (the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company plant site). I think water quality is on everyone’s mind and there’s just a continual effort to improve things. But it’s one of those challenging issues with the changing environment. If you get more and more people, it gets harder and harder to maintain that high standard. This valley is going to continue to grow. That’s another issue that affects our access program.
BEACON: I was going to ask you about access. What are those challenges presently like?
DELERAY: Right now we have 36 fishing access sites in the region. And they’re all heavily used. We’re doing improvements and maintenance on those, and we’re trying to add more all the time. But it’s hard. It’s very hard to do, because land prices are high. As the valley’s population increases, everyone wants to get on the water, so there are more and more demands on those sites. That is going to be a really big challenge in the next 10 to 20 years.
BEACON: But how do you convince the average taxpayer who might not be an angler that it’s an important need to spend funds on?
DELERAY: Well we do already hear from the users that it’s important. Not everyone has their own beach or shoreline home. These are state waters — these are public waters — and to get on them they have to come through a public access site … The other side of it is, there’s quite a bit of economic value in having that opportunity, because people living all over the valley don’t have to buy a lakeshore home to have that opportunity to access public waters … That’s one thing about Montanans, but especially northwest Montanans: We love to get outside and fish and hunt and hike and boat. It’s key that not only are those resource intact and available but that there’s opportunity to get to them.
BEACON: Aquatic invasive species are an ever present threat. Are we doing enough to stop AIS? Do think the public is well aware of that threat?
DELERAY: It’s a huge problem. Progressively over the years Montana has gotten more and more aggressive. And this is not just an issue for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, it involves the entire community, and there are several agencies and private entities working on this issue. We’ve increased the number of check stations and I think there’s been a tremendous informational effort because people actually know what AIS means. And many of the species that we’re worried about aren’t here yet, but to be able to be that successful in a proactive measure is good. Usually you can really get support once there’s a problem. But we’re trying to avoid a problem. I would say it’s been a tremendous effort to date.