Fish Panel Rips Usfs Over Trout Federal Government Blamed For Damaged Spawning Areas

Like a fishing line bearing too much weight, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission snapped last week. The U.S. Forest Service got lashed in the process.

After telling anglers this month that they can no longer keep bull trout caught in Lake Pend Oreille, the commissioners sent a strongly worded letter to Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas. They complained that damaged spawning streams on federal land, and not overharvest, are to blame for declining numbers of the native trout.

They pointed out that Idaho anglers can no longer catch salmon, or wild steelhead, and that there are hundreds of restrictions on harvesting native cutthroat and rainbow trout.

“We are frustrated at having to take harvest opportunities away from legitimate sportsmen because of the failures of our federal government to live up to its mandated conservation responsibilities.”

In the case of Lake Pend Oreille, damming the Clark Fork River in the 1950s cut off much of the spawning and rearing area for the trout. Ninety percent of what remains is on national forest land, said the Oct. 11 letter signed by chairman Keith Carlson.

“Excessive harvest can no longer be used as an excuse for inaction,” the commissioners told Thomas. “Since 90 percent of the bull trout habitat is federally managed, the responsibility to restore the viability of bull trout in Lake Pend Oreille is now clearly yours.”

The federal agency isn’t shirking that responsibility, the supervisor of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests said Wednesday. David Wright cited the Inland Native Fish Strategy, and his recent appointment to a governor’s committee that is writing a bull trout conservation strategy for the state.

Both efforts are aimed at fending off an endangered species listing for the bull trout.

The decline of the fish throughout the region is the result not just of logging in federal forests, Wright noted, but management of private and state lands as well. Introduction of exotic species such as brook trout, which compete for food, is also a problem.

“We’ve all got to work together to resolve the problem,” said Wright, adding that he was glad the Fish and Game Commission changed the bull trout fishing regulations.

Effective Jan. 1, anglers can no longer keep bull trout. Pend Oreille was the last place in the Inland Northwest where it was legal to keep the fish.

Trestle Creek, which flows into the north end of Lake Pend Oreille, is the most important remaining spawning area. The Forest Service began an intensive effort this year to remove logging roads in that drainage. Erosion of roads washes dirt and rocks into streams. That fills pools where the bull trout lay their eggs.

Nearby Lightning Creek was probably the primary spawning area for bull trout before the watershed was logged, said state biologist Chip Corsi. But the number of bull trout nests counted in Lightning Creek and its tributary streams dropped from 301 in 1983 to 73 in 1994.

“Lightning Creek provides a graphic example of what’s gone wrong,” he said.

, DataTimes