State of Our Trout Part II

For the better part of a century, the lakes of Swan Mountains in the Flathead National Forest have been dribbling alien genes from rainbow-Yellowstone cutthroat hybrids into the last best westslope sanctuary—the mainstem and tributaries of the South Fork of the Flathead River, isolated from rainbow invasion by the Hungry Horse Dam.  

Now, with mitigation funds from the Bonneville Power Administration (which operates the dam), Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has begun a 10-year program to eliminate the hybrids and replace them with pure westslopes. It can’t be called a “reclamation” because the lakes were originally fishless. But the Swan Mountains have become an important angling destination, and there’s no good reason to deprive the local economy of this huge source of revenue. There is, however, an excellent reason to establish pure westslopes where none existed—the genes they will contribute as they make their way into the South Fork system will help reverse the process of introgression by genetically swamping the mongrels.  

Wilderness Watch has been working overtime to kill the project. Of all its outrageous claims, the most disingenuous is that the westslope broodstock (recently infused with new genetic material from pure South Fork fish) aren’t quite the same as the downstream natives and therefore might degrade their genes. But the downstream natives now face extinction from the hybrids Wilderness Watch wants left alone.  

In June 2006, Wilderness Watch and Friends of the Wild Swan tried to stop the project by filing an administrative appeal with the Forest Service. Interestingly, Friends of the Wild Swan had successfully petitioned to list the bull trout as threatened. Why would it care about bull trout and not westslope cutthroats? The answer is that it cares about neither; it’s just that listed species are advantageous to its political agenda.  

While that agenda—protecting the Swan Mountains from slap-dash development—is laudable, using one listed species while simultaneously engaging in activity likely to cause the listing of another is precisely the kind of behavior that provides ammo to critics of the Endangered Species Act who claim “environmental extremists” are misusing it. 

If the administrative appeal wasn’t discouraging enough, many (maybe most) of the wilderness-fishing outfitters want the project stopped. Although the westslopes will grow faster and bigger because they’re better adapted to the habitat, it will take two or three years for the fish to reach catchable size. And, while there will be plenty of hybrids left in lakes yet to be treated, these outfitters don’t want even a small and temporary reduction in fishing opportunity. 

It’s fine with them if America’s rich and diverse trout-gene library continues to degrade into one big pile of homogenous mush, provided their clients’ rods get bent. Barbara Burns, co-owner of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Ranch—one of the oldest and best-known operations in the project area—tells me this: “There are a lot of other lakes that they could poison. Why take big, healthy, fat fish and kill them? If they want to play God outside the wilderness, fine. Are any of us pure? We’re all mongrels.”  

But, like I said, there’s lots of good news. And here’s the best I found anywhere: The U.S. Forest Service—the agency that cut and ran when challenged on Paiute recovery—denied the appeal of Wilderness Watch and Friends of the Wild Swan in language so forceful that it amounts to a stern rebuke. Rotenone treatments started in 2007 with what appears to be complete removal of hybrids from Black and Blackfoot lakes. Two down, 19 to go. 

Onward with native-trout recovery, and upward with all those brave, dedicated, enlightened souls in government and the private sector who make it happen.

Ted Williams’ column appears in every issue of FR&R. His latest book is Something’s Fishy, available at flyrodreel.com. The illustrations in this column are from Freshwater Gamefish of North America: An Illustrated Guide, to be published in 2009 by Fly Rod & Reel Books.