Fish barrier planned for Moose Creek

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is working toward a plan to put a fish barrier on Moose Creek in the North Fork.

The idea is to block upstream passage of hybrid rainbow-cutthroat trout into the creek, which has a good population of native westslope cutthroat trout.

Moose Creek is not a bull trout spawning stream, so it wouldn’t impact those species.

Hybrids are an increasing threat to native westslope cutthroat trout. The non-native rainbow trout have been introduced into the drainage, some through private hatcheries and some through unintentional escapes from federal hatcheries.

Wherever they come from, rainbows are threatening to water down the genetic pool of native cutthroats. The hybrids, biologists note, are generally an inferior fish, as they haven’t had millennia to adapt to the landscape like pure cutts have.

Eventually, you end up with a “hybrid swarm” fisheries biologist Kenny Breidinger told the crowd at the North Fork Interlocal last month.

A formal environmental assessment is due out on the proposed project later this year. The fish barrier would leave about six miles of stream upstream from the barrier for native westslopes.

It’s a productive creek, with 25 to 30 fish every 100 meters.

In other North Fork wildlife news:

Spring surveys show a good population of elk and deer in the North Fork, with 45 whitetail deer fawns per 100 adults and 32 elk calves per 100 adults, which is good news for hunters this fall.

There was just one wolf killed by hunting in the North Fork last season and no mountain lions. Using remote cameras, FWP biologists picked up a lynx earlier this year and a wolverine as well.