The Associated Press | Posted: Friday, October 28, 2005 12:00 am
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. (AP) - Biologists unveiled a proposal this week to poison all the fish in a remote stream in the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park and restock it with genetically pure westslope cutthroat trout.
The Specimen Creek drainage currently is home to hybridized and nonnative fish.
Todd Koel, Yellowstone's lead fisheries biologist, said the toxins that biologists would use to kill them, antimycin and rotenone, are naturally occurring and degrade easily.
He added that the poisoning method has a track record of success and has been used at Yellowstone before - to remove brook trout from Arnica Creek in the mid-1980s.
"The big thing for people to understand is it's going on across the country," Koel said. "It's shown to be a safe, effective tool."
Westslope trout are native to the headwaters of the Missouri River in Yellowstone. Researchers say the fish once occupied about 620 miles of stream in the park. They've been eliminated from about 36 percent of those waters, and those that survived have been hybridized.
Specimen Creek is a good candidate for westslope restoration because it's used by few anglers and is small enough to manage, Koel said. Under the proposal, once the other fish are cleared, the creek would be restocked with westslope eggs, fry and possibly juveniles from the Madison and Gallatin drainages.
The multiyear project may also require the removal of Yellowstone cutthroat trout from nearby High Lake, where they were stocked in 1937.
The restoration project would bring back a pure version of an iconic and historically important fish, said Bruce Farling, executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited.
"We're definitely strong advocates of it," he said.
Scott Bosse, rivers coordinator for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said his organization also supports the concept, but would like to see more specifics.
Use of the fish poisons has been controversial in some places.
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is working on a similar project at Cherry Creek, south of Bozeman. Opponent Bill Fairhurst sued unsuccessfully in state and federal court to halt the work.
The Park Service is planning two public meetings on the Specimen Creek proposal, one in Bozeman on Nov. 16, and one in West Yellowstone on Nov. 17. Park officials plan to release a draft environmental assessment on the plan next summer.