Montana FWP, U.S. Forest Service, To Resume Cherry Creek Westslope Cutthroat Trout Project

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BOZEMAN—Fishery workers from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Turner Enterprises, Inc. and the U.S. Forest Service will resume the Cherry Creek Westslope Cutthroat Trout Restoration Project on August 4.   The multi-year project involves removing non-native fish species from about 60 miles of upper Cherry Creek, its tributaries and Cherry Lake, and introducing native westslope cutthroat trout.   Cherry Creek is a tributary of the Madison River southwest of Bozeman.  

Biologists will use the fish toxicant antimycin to remove non-native fishes from the Cherry Creek drainage.    The Project will begin on National Forest land and in future years move downstream to waters on the Flying “D” Ranch owned by Turner Enterprises, Inc.   Westslope cutthroat will be introduced into sections of the drainage after non-native fish are proven to have been removed from that section.   Treatments will occur in August and September each year to take advantage of low stream flows.

 

The Cherry Creek Project has been held up since 1998 by administrative appeals, and in 2000 by a lawsuit in state district court.   FWP has defended the project throughout these challenges and has prevailed in all cases.

 

“Westslope cutthroat trout in the upper Missouri River drainage are in need of help to survive as a species,” said Bruce Rich, Region 3 Fisheries Manager.   Rich said westslope cutthroat trout in the upper Missouri River drainage are found in only about five percent of the fish’s former habitat.   “In the Madison River drainage, where westslope cutthroat trout once inhabited more than 1,200 stream miles, there remains only about two miles of streams with pure westslope cutthroat trout,” Rich said.  

 

In streams of significant size it is important to be able to use toxicants to remove non-native fishes, Rich said.   “Electrofishing and other non-toxicant removal methods are simply too inefficient or ineffective on most larger streams,” he said.

 

The westslope cutthroat trout has been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act.