Now's the time to save our native trout

Now is the time to conserve, protect and restore our native bull trout and westslope cutthroat. In the Flathead and Swan valleys the single largest immediate threat to these highly-prized fish is the non-native lake trout that prey upon and compete with our native species.

An environmental assessment by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, currently out for public comment, outlines a three-year program to remove non-native lake trout from Swan Lake.

Another EA is underway for experimental netting of lake trout in Flathead Lake to achieve lake trout catch numbers not currently possible through the fishing contests and general angling alone.

One may ask why these two projects are being undertaken. For Swan Lake, the answer is to protect healthy bull trout and kokanee salmon fisheries from the devastating effects of a predatory lake trout population becoming established there.

As lake trout have become established in our local lakes, it has, without exception, been at the expense of native fish populations. Currently, a broad range of anglers are able to fish for bull trout, kokanee salmon and westslope cutthroat in Swan Lake.

Swan Lake is one of a handful of waters nationwide where anglers may legally pursue bull trout. If a lake trout population establishes itself at the expense of native fish in Swan Lake, far fewer anglers will have access to this fishery.

In Flathead Lake and the Flathead River system, this is already happening. Flathead Lake supports far less fishing today than it did before lake trout tipped the balance.

Lake trout have pushed well into the North and Middle forks of the Flathead River, and today large boats with fishfinders and downriggers dominate Flathead Lake angling.

A few anglers complain that the proposed netting on Flathead Lake will ruin the lake trout fishery. That is decidedly not the case. Flathead Lake co-managers Fish Wildlife and Parks and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, at their meeting in February 2009, reported the lake trout population in Flathead Lake at approximately 393,000 fish.

The entire estimated bull trout population in the North and Middle forks, and the main Flathead River, including Flathead Lake, totals a mere 3,000 fish.

Things are badly out of balance in the Flathead system to say the least. The goal of the proposed netting in Flathead Lake is to simply restore the balance lost following the introduction of the exotic mysis shrimp.

This legal introduction resulted in the explosion of the non-native lake trout and Lake Superior whitefish populations and the decline in native bull trout and westslope cutthroat abundance.

The South Fork of the Flathead River, the third leg of a river system that supplies and supports Flathead Lake, is the best remaining stronghold for our state fish, the westslope cutthroat, and for our native bull trout.

This, as it turns out, was an unintended result of the construction of Hungry Horse Dam, which cut off access to this habitat for non-native lake trout pushing upriver from Flathead Lake. As a result of this limitation for non-native lake trout, any angler can still access and enjoy this fishery.

Montana anglers and hunters, and our many visitors, contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to our economy while hunting and fishing here. Everyone who appreciates Montana's great outdoors also greatly values the native fish and wildlife resources of our state.

These resources belong to all of us, and they need to be managed for the long term. Right now, that means investing to control lake trout before they balloon out of control and potentially devastate local fisheries like Swan and Flathead lakes.

Please take some time to speak up for our native fish and wildlife resources. It is much easier to conserve them now than to try to restore them after they have been devastated. Remember, once these populations are gone, they're gone forever.

Chris Schustrom, of Whitefish, is the president of the Flathead Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited.