Boosting Bull Trout

BREAKING NEWS, 10/13/10 —
Obama administration reverses Bush policy on bull trout habitat

Related Article: Rescuing Science from Politics

Oftentimes when people think about fish in the American West, the "charismatic megafauna" of the American West fish world, the Pacific salmon (chinook, chum, coho, pink, and sockeye), is at the top of the list. Without a doubt, they have been the lifeblood of people in this western region for millennia. Even so, in western Montana, it's all about trout. Certainly, it's the fish group that thousands of residents and tourists try to coerce onto their angling hooks every year. Although the native species are off-limits to keep, the natives, such as the bull trout are beautiful fish to see up close and important players in the ecosystem. As the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service explains about Bull Trout, they have the most specific habitat requirements of any Pacific Northwest salmonids, , including the "Four C's": Cold, Clean, Complex, and Connected habitat. A number of factors have led to the bull trout's decline across its historic range -- competition with exotics, hybridization with brook trout, habitat degradation, and water drawn from streams for other uses.

During our tour, we'll be stopping near the state-run Jocko River Fish Hatchery in Arlee to check out a river restoration site. In 1948, a large flood inundated this area, so the river was channelized to protect the hatchery, which was setup in the early 1950s. The hatchery produces rainbow trout eggs, which are used extensively in lakes and reservoirs across Montana. Unfortunately, this doesn't do the bull trout much good. People on our tour will hear about why bull trout aren't suitable for hatchery production, and we'll also get an on-the-ground look at the work being done to restore the channelized river to a more natural state.

But our discussion will certainly go well beyond this single site. Craig Barfoot, the CSKT fisheries biologist who will join us there, will explain the restoration work and discuss how the bull trout is by nature far-ranging. Efforts at this site plus others like the recently opened fish ladder at the Thompson Falls Dam together help boost this fishery in at least some of its historic range.

Patrick Saffel, a fisheries biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, will talk to us about the work that the state is also doing for the bull trout. For example, he told me recently, just this year the state purchased about 25,000 acres in the nearby Clearwater River drainage. Saffel says this will especially help in their efforts to restore spawning areas for the bull trout. For more information on the "big picture", see the page featuring the Bull Trout Proposed Critical Habitat Revision, 2010 at the USFWS website.

Of course, you can't have a healthy fishery without water. Hydrology is a key component of this landscape -- not only for bull trout and the other aquatic species here, but also for the Ninepipe wetlands we'll also visit, as well as for the people who live here. Looking at the Mission Mountains on the east side of the valley, you might never know that a large irrigation canal that runs along the base of the range. In fact, I have lived in the Missoula area for more than 20 years, and had no idea this was the case until Whisper Camel pointed it out during our scouting trip. Water Rights Negotiations have been going on, and some may wish to check out the Preliminary Report on Groundwater Assessments for the Flathead Indian Reservation (PDF) that includes some maps, models, etc. that provides some background on the hydrology of the area.