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FVTU Issues
Flathead Lake Draft Co-Management Plan 2008 Annual Report - PDF

This Annual Report presents activities completed for 2008 under the Flathead Lake and River Fisheries Co-management Plan. The report follows the strategies in the Comanagement Plan and follows the outline of the 2008 annual workplan.
Flathead Lake CoMgmt Plan Recommendations from the 5-year review MTFWP & CS&KT - PDF

The Flathead fishery includes 10 native species and 11 introduced species. Together the management agencies developed the goal to manage for healthier populations of native trout. Bull trout were listed as threatened under the ESA in 1998. To many, this bull trout population symbolizes the general health of bull trout populations throughout their range. The current Co-Management Plan, adopted in 2000, was completed under considerable scrutiny from the public, professionals, agencies, and conservation groups. There was substantial skepticism about the fact that we chose angler-based approaches as our preferred method to restore some balance to the fishery.
South Fork Westslope Cutthroat Project - from MTFWP

Over a 10-year period, the project will treat up to 21 high mountain lakes in late fall with rotenone or other fish toxicants to remove nonnativetrout and their offspring so they won’t hybridize with westslope cutthroat trout. Rainbow trout and Yellowstone cutthroat trout readily hybridize with native westslope cutthroat and produce fertile hybrids that produce more young. This project is a fishery replacement project, not a fishery removal project. When a fishery is eliminated, a new fishery using genetically pure westslope cutthroat will be quickly re-established. “Swamping” or over-planting genetically pure cutthroat in lakes with hybrids, has seen limited success in some lakes. We will continue to monitor the level of hybridization in the candidate lakes and investigate continued swamping to rehabilitate some lakes without using toxicants.
Draft Environmental Assessment for Removal of Lake Trout From Swan Lake - PDF

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) proposes to conduct a 3-year removal effort of lake trout in Swan Lake, Montana. The proposed action would involve contracting with professional fishery consultants to conduct gill netting over a 3-week period beginning late August or early September 2009. Additionally, FWP personnel will remove spawning adult lake trout during the months of October and November by gill netting along known lake trout spawning sites. These activities would be conducted annually for three years. Funding has been secured for the first two years of the project, and is being pursued for the third.

Montana’s waters hold 93 species of fish, including 56 that are native, two that might be native and 35 that have been introduced by humans. Native fish are those fish species that are indigenous to the state’s waters. These include species that are managed as sport fish or labeled “non-game” fish by state fishery managers. Wild fish are populations of both native and introduced species that reproduce in the wild...

 
 
 
 
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