Rob Roberts, a project manager with Trout Unlimited, poses for a portrait near the area where the Rattlesnake Creek Dam used to stand on Friday. A legal review of fish projects by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has private partners like Trout Unlimited concerned about the future of collaborative work that might involve removing non-native fish like those planted in upper Rattlesnake Wilderness lakes.
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is reviewing participation in projects such as this one in 2013 at Swan Lake to remove non-native lake trout.
A lake trout is brought up during a netting operation on Swan Lake in 2013.
A change in state policy has Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials reviewing numerous wild fish habitat projects, and alarming some of its private partners in the process.
Montana Trout Unlimited mobilized its members on Thursday after learning several of its collaborations with FWP were put on hold pending a new review by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission. All the projects involved removal of fish, whether by poisoning, electrofishing or netting. Such projects are typically designed to boost native fish species, such as gill-netting invasive lake trout in Swan Lake to protect westslope cutthroat and bull trout populations.
“So far, none of this has been transparent,” Montana Trout Unlimited Director David Brooks said on Friday. “We have no clear impression what laws are being followed in doing this.”
Brooks said that for several decades, Trout Unlimited had teamed up with state, federal and other private fish projects to benefit public habitat. Those projects have to go through state and federal environmental analysis, but were typically approved at the FWP regional level.
The problem, according to FWP spokesman Greg Lemon, was that projects using state Future Fisheries Initiative funding have to be reviewed and approved by the state commissioners, not the regional offices. Legislation passed this spring put a new legal spotlight on what had been a routine process, he said.
“We haven’t changed policy on fish removal,” Lemon said on Friday. “This has only been a process change. We determined these projects need a different process review.”
Of the roughly 30 fish-removal projects planned for this year, Lemon said only nine had gone through the commissioners’ review.
However, at least two such projects are going forward this year. They include an effort on the North Fork of the Blackfoot River inside the Scapegoat Wilderness Area where FWP is working with the U.S. Forest Service to poison a population of artificially stocked rainbow trout in mountain lakes and replace them with hatchery-raised but native westslope cutthroat trout. Lemon said that project was OK’d by FWP Director Hank Worsech because of existing commitments with the Forest Service and an outfitter who was contracted to handle the logistics of the wilderness project.
Two grizzly bears run near a bison herd in Yellowstone National Park.
That Blackfoot project had also drawn controversy from wilderness advocates who charged it was a violation of the federal Wilderness Act, which they argued would prohibit the planned use of motorboats, fish poison and helicopter access in a wilderness area. The Lolo National Forest, which has lead responsibility for the fish replacement, has not made a final decision on approving the project.
A similar situation in Missoula’s Rattlesnake Creek is not under review with the new procedures, according to FWP Fisheries Administrator Eileen Ryce. FWP, Missoula local government and Trout Unlimited led a large coalition of partners in removing an old dam from lower Rattlesnake Creek to improve fish passage. Now the coalition is exploring what to do with several more small dams on upper lakes in the Rattlesnake Wilderness. Those lakes have artificially stocked populations of rainbow trout, but could be sanctuaries for threatened westslope and bull trout similar to the North Fork Blackfoot project — which might involve fish removal.
Brooks said the unexpected change in FWP approval of the projects was frustrating after years of cooperation. For example, he pointed to an effort on tributaries of the Big Hole River where one round of fish poisoning was completed, but a second was needed to ensure that all the non-native species were removed. If that project got delayed this year because of the new review process, the window for a successful second round might be missed. That would waste the investment of the first round, he said.
“These projects keep sensitive species off the Endangered Species List, increase streamflows and help other water users,” Brooks said. “These native trout projects have been huge success stories.”
May 09, 2021
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Legal review roils fish projects - The Missoulian
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