conservation overkill?
To Protect Cutthroat, the South Fork of the Flathead to be Poisoned
By Dave Loos, 9-14-07
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| Caption: The westslope cutthroat trout. Courtesy of Joseph Tomelleri. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. | |
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It sounds like the most drastic of measures—killing an entire natural fishery in order to replace it with another.
But federal and state officials, and some environment groups, say a controversial plan to poison 21 lakes and streams in the South Fork Flathead River Watershed in Northwest Montana beginning next month is a necessary move, aimed at protecting one of Montana’s prized species, the native westslope cutthroat trout.
Others, including many local ranchers, businesses and outfitters, maintain that the Westslope Cutthroat Conservation Project’s attempt to remove rainbow and hybrid trout species from the drainage is destined to fail, causing further damage to fragile ecosystems.
The opportunity for opponents to comment, however, has long passed, and barring unforeseen circumstances, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials will begin treating two lakes in the Jewel Basin with potent piscicides in early October. The ultimate goal: Remove nonnative trout and their offspring so they can’t hybridize with the westslope cutthroat, and then re-establish a new fishery using the genetically pure species.
Sometime in early October, wildlife officials are expected to begin treating lakes in the Jewel Basin with rotenone and other fish toxicants to remove nonnative rainbow and hybrid species. Black Lake and Blackfoot Lake are up first, to be followed over the next decade by 19 other lakes in the South Fork Flathead Drainage.
All 21 of the targeted lakes are on public lands: Eleven are located in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, eight sit in the Jewel Basin Area, and two others are located elsewhere in the Flathead National Forest. In addition to nonnative rainbows and cutthroats, the South Fork of the Flathead River itself, according to MFWP, is home to many other fish species, including the abundant mountain whitefish and the bull trout, the latter listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.
First proposed in 2002, the joint federal and state Westslope Cutthroat Conservation Project is what officials call a necessary program to protect the threatened genetic line of the native cutthroat. In each of the 21 lakes, officials will move to quickly establish a new fishery of genetically pure fish as soon as all non-native hybrids have been eliminated.
While the Bonneville Power Administration is lead agency on the project and will fund the program, they have contracted out operations to MFWP. Wildlife mangers there will do almost all on-the-ground work over the next 10 years, undertaking a project that has faced scrutiny and controversy from the beginning.
MFWP officials say it will take about three days to treat each lake with rotenone, an organic piscicide derived from a tropical plant that disrupts cell function and blocks respiration in fish.
“It will get anything aquatic that’s breathing,” said Mark Shaw, a conservation manager with BPA. Shaw said the rotenone has been used for more than 70 years on similar projects and poses no threat to humans or plant life.
Both Black and Blackfoot Lakes will then be restocked with westslope cutthroat early next spring.
While commonly used to kill large populations of fish, administering rotenone to lakes and streams in the South Fork poses several challenges for project managers, including getting the dosage right and making sure the toxicant mixes with all the water. Shaw said the poisoning is conducted in the fall so that water levels are low and temperatures are more consistent at all levels of the lake, allowing the rotenone to mix effectively.
“Anything we can do to protect this species is worth doing,” said Mark Aagnes, conservation director for Trout Unlimited. “This area is the final stronghold of the westslope cutthroat trout, and we need to preserve the genetic purity.” He said the Hungry Horse Reservoir would block the invasion of other species in many of the lakes once the cutthroat populations had been re-established.
But such assurances did little to quell the anger of many locals during public comment on the proposal, some of whom accused BPA of undertaking an unnecessary project in order to keep the cutthroat off the Endangered Species List, a listing that could make the agency at least partially liable for protection measures. Now, the cutthroat is a “Montana Fish of Special Concern.”
“These thriving, healthy, big fat fish should not be killed purely for genetic reasons,” wrote Virgil and Barbara Burns, owners of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Ranch, in a 2003 letter to officials conducting the project’s Environmental Impact Statement. “These fish pose no threat whatsoever to pure westslope cutthroat.”
Ernie Barker, president of the Professional Wilderness Outfitters Association, accused the agency of taking drastic action despite no imminent threat to the cutthroat, adding that “the size and scope of this project and the lake sizes is untested in relation to getting a good kill on the existing fish populations.”
Brian Marotz, an MFWP fisheries biologist and one of the lead officials on the ground, attempted to explain the controversial program three years ago in an agency publication as public comment time came to an end. He said the pure-strain cutthroat weren’t completely protected from nonnatives or hybrids by the Hungry Horse Dam. “Some mountain lakes have been ‘leaking’ hybrids into the genetically pure cutthroat population downstream,” he wrote. “We’re losing the pure strain awfully fast, and once they’re gone, they’re gone for good.”
“If they were just picking drainages and starting to kill fish just so we could have a certain fishery, that would be reason for pause,” said Aagnes, who also said the native fish are more adept at dealing with climate changes and handling adversity than rainbow and hybrid species.
[End of article]It is useless to poison the rivers and streams, just look to California. A Nothern California lake and river were poisoned to get rid of Northern pike that were planted by someone years ago. They even drained the lake and it did no good, and many businesses were driven out of business as a result. The Pike came back with a vengeance after they replanted the lake with native trout....
Comment By Heather McKee, 9-14-07Why is Bonneville Power Administration in charge of this?
Comment By Craig Moore, 9-14-07This appears completely nuts as there will be unintended consequences. There are grayling in some of those waters as I have experienced fishing in those waters.
Comment By Chris McAdams, 9-14-07It is very important to protect one of the last intact Cutthroat fisheries in the US. That being said, Bonneville Power Administration should have nothing to do with the process.
Like they say, when they are gone, they are gone for good.
Chris, I beg to differ on the plan. It does not protect any of the fish in the drainage system. The poison will kill indescriminately. After all the fish are dead they will stock genetically pure fish in these waters. There is no protection aspect to this plan, only kill and replacement. Genetically pure fish of any variety can be seeded this way on any receptive waters... but to what end and why do this?
Comment By Jack, 9-14-07Total foolishness! FWP playing god with our resouces now. Poison one to introduce another. Look at Cherry Lake-Upper Cherry Creek. FWP started posioning native Yellowstone Cutthroat trout and other wild trout to replace with the HATCHERY west slope. Cherry Lake and tributaries within the Lee Metcalf Wilderness Area and EAST of the Divide.The wealthy downstream landowner wants west-slope in our public water and we can't even fish in the stream he can. He has contributed $500,000 to FWP to poison our wild trout. They will poison in natural wetlands as well. This project will FAIL and others will and have already. FWP has lost their way. They consider non- native wild trout predatory fish on the grayling in the Bighole River.FWP not representing our valuable fisheries in Montana anymore. They are motivated by ESA money and dough from the wealthy out of state landowners. We need new people in FWP that represent our public resources and not pet projects that destroy our valuable fish and wildlife resources.FWP must also receive a legislative audit the sooner the better. Interested public stop FWP from implementing these foolish projects!! We have seen enough foolish FWP poisoning projects as well. Also FWP placing pesticides in pristine water considered Montana Natural Resource Water under the statutes our best water. FWP must be stopped from destroying our fisheries they are required by law to protect and manage. What a disgrace they have become. Yes Davis Lake in California was one where California Fish & Game lost in a legal battle and polluted Davis Lake and tributaries. It cost them millions in the Judges decision. We need to do the same with FWP in Montana take them to court!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.Our Governor must stop these foolish projects as well contact him.
Comment By Marion, 9-15-07There seems to be an attitude that nauture cannot continue without intervention from the do gooders who are going to keep everything just like it was one hundred years ago. Sadly they will create a tremendous amount of destruction to achieve their idea of perfection. There are so many ways for eggs from different kinds of fish to be carried to various waterways that it is an exercise in futility. But they have the temporary rush of having controlled things.
Comment By Rose Mary, 9-15-07If you missed yesterday's AP article entitled "Salmon Spawn Baby Trout in Experiment " you can use this link to access it:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TROUT_FROM_SALMON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
A taste of what is written there includes:
"Japanese researchers put a new spin on surrogate parenting as they engineered one fish species to produce another, in a quest to preserve endangered fish.
"Idaho scientists begin the next big step next month, trying to produce a type of salmon highly endangered in that state - the sockeye - this time using more plentiful trout as surrogate parents.
"The new method is "one of the best things that has happened in a long time in bringing something new into conservation biology," said University of Idaho zoology professor Joseph Cloud, who is leading the U.S. government-funded sockeye project.
"The Tokyo University inventors dubbed their method 'surrogate broodstocking.' They injected newly hatched but sterile Asian masu salmon with sperm-growing cells from rainbow trout - and watched the salmon grow up to produce trout."
Fisher-expert-person I ain't, but I do find it interesting that "... federal and state officials, and some environment groups, say a controversial plan to poison 21 lakes and streams in the South Fork Flathead River Watershed in Northwest Montana beginning next month is a necessary move ..." while creative minds in Idaho are seeking other ways and means!!! Go figure, huh.
This breaking scientific news is fascinating and certainly worth reading in its entirety me-thinks.
Check it out. You might agree!
Excellent - The South Fork of the Flathead system is the largest in-tact river system left in the lower 48. Everything makes sense, with the native westslope and bull trout fisheries following historical migration and spawning habits. The lakes, however, full of nonnatives threaten to undermine this system. If people could only comprehend the importance of this project.
Poison away the rainbows. Thank God we don't have too many holier than thou Californians in Montana.
Understand trout genetics and the fish presence before posting a comment.
This isn't about pike or grayling. The only native species are westslope cutthroat, bull trout, and mountain whitefish. The river systems are not contaminated at all by nonnatives. If they poison the rainbows in the lakes and then flood the genetic pool with westslopes, the rainbows will not return. they will be washed out genetically because they interbreed with cutthroats. 10,000 westslopes and 3 rainbows after poisoning and restocking will solve the problem.
Then of course there is the problem with secondary poisoning. Poison native Cottis spp.,native whitefish, birds eating poisoned fish as well as bears and the list goes on. Poison in flowing waters is an accident waiting to happen and in the scientific literature.Water in wilderness areas is considered Montana's Natural Resource Water our best pristine Montana water look it up in the statutes. Poison,pestcides violates the Federal Clean Waters Act as well.Would DEQ Dept of Environmental Quality issue FWP permits and violate federal law? On the public national forest? Where is the USFS draft EIS for us to comment on? They must follow the NEPA a federal law as well.We didn't write the laws why can't they be followed? Follow the money trail on FWP fish poisoning projects and see where they lead.I think we have a legal case here for the courts.Contact the US Forest Sevice and Dept of Agriculture for the draft USFS EIS draft that also addresses secondary poisoning on our public land in our public water.
Comment By bear bait, 9-18-07If you examine the USFS Gallatin NF records, you will find where they poisoned some tribs of the Shields River for the very purpose of eliminating brook trout and rainbow to nurture a cutthroat population. The real story, however, is that they got Exxon Valdez settlement money to kill the fish in the Shields River system.
Now if there is not a whole lot of irony in that, it does not exist. You collect money from an accident that killed fish, and use it to kill more fish. That is the good ole Yew Hess Hay.....where the more insane the premise, the more likely it will get funding.
Kill species to promote diversity. Use fines from business killing fish to fund government fish killing. Now does the WFU process make sense? Of course it does not. This is the USFS and government we are talking about. Common sense went out the door with the last of the old District Rangers. What we have today is a giant social engineering task, and you engineer the human experience by many means. If you are a chosen species, the world is your oyster. In a real diverse ecosystem, we would have a lot more typhus, polio, small pox, and other diseases that are in danger of going extinct. After all, those pathogens were kind to the environment in that those nasty humans were kept in some sort of population balance. Like wolves are kind to some forests and ranges by killing all those envirnoment altering elk, deer, sheep and cattle. Playing God is cool. In a country supposedly without a state sponsored religion, you have to wonder about authorizing the Feds to play God, using your money to pay for it.
After the waters are sterilized of all fish life and replaced with government approved, genetically pure, Aryan stock will they have the rolling sun imprinted on their dorsel fins?
Comment By C. Scott, 9-24-07Jack,
Yellowstone Cutthroat are NOT native to Cherry Lake and the Madison river drainage. In Montana the Yellowstone Cutthroat is restricted to the Yellowstone River and tributaries down to at least the Big Horn River (this may blow your mind but Yellowstone Cutthroat are also found on the western side of the continetal divide in the Snake River drainage). The native trout Lewis and Clark found in the Missouri river were Westslope Cutthroat which are native to two large river drainages on the east side of the divide as well as an extensive distribution on the western side. The upper Missouri (Jefferson, Madison, Gallatin) and South Saskatchewan river drainages count the Westslope Cutthroat as native fish.