Yellowstone to poison fish, restock with westslope trout

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. – Officials in Yellowstone National Park want to poison Yellowstone cutthroat trout in a lake and creek tributary and replace them with pure westslope cutthroat trout.

“We need to work proactively to restore westslope cutthroat to Yellowstone,” said Todd Koel, the park’s top fisheries manager.

“Less than 1,000 genetically pure westslope cutthroat trout are known to exist in the park. This species needs our help. These native fish cannot come back on their own.”

Last summer, park officials found more than 700 westslope trout in an unnamed stream on the western edge of the park. The fish are the only genetically pure population of westslope cutthroat in Yellowstone.

Koel wants to poison the fish in the East Fork of Specimen Creek and High Lake over the next three years, and then stock the creek with westslope. The plan also calls for building a log barrier to prevent other types of fish from reaching the east fork of the creek.

Eventually, Koel said, the lake could be used as a source for further restoration efforts.

“It’s trying to replicate what we had before they’re gone,” Koel said.

Westslope were once the most plentiful and widespread of the cutthroat subspecies in the West. Loss of habitat and other causes have limited the fish to 23 percent of its historic habitat.

In Yellowstone, genetically pure strains of westslope dwindled dramatically as park managers stocked waters with nonnative fish in the first half of the 20th century.

By the 1930s, pure westslope in Yellowstone were nearly wiped out by hybridization with other fish or being out-competed.

The public has until June 7 to comment on the Park Service’s plan and the environmental assessment on the project.

Comments can be made online at http://parkplanning.nps.gov.