Park wants to expand lake trout suppression
Glacier National Park would like to ramp up its war on non-native lake trout. The Park last week released a public scoping document to continue lake trout suppression in Quartz Lake and start suppression efforts in Logging Lake.
Non-native lake trout out compete native bull trout, driving the native fish to near extinction. Lake trout have a reproductive edge over bull trout — they spawn in lakes, whereas bull trout spawn in streams that feed lakes.
Quartz Lake has seen lake trout suppression efforts for four years now. Logging Lake was once a premier bull trout fishery, but it has been invaded by lake trout in recent years.
The Park’s plan is to net and kill lake trout in Logging Lake and transplant some bull trout from the lake upstream to Grace Lake, which is protected from migrating lake trout by a natural waterfall. Grace Lake currently sustains a population of non-native Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
A graduate student has been studying Grace Lake’s potential as bull trout habitat for a few years now. His work is expected to wrap up this fall.
The bull trout could possibly take hold in Grace Lake, spawning in its tributaries, or the lake could serve as a holding area for bull trout until lake trout can be suppressed in Logging Lake, Park fisheries biologist Chris Downs said.
Most of the effort, at least initially, will be to suppress lake trout in both Quartz and Logging lakes. Netting in Quartz Lake has proven successful in catching adult fish, but biologists admit they can’t completely eliminate lake trout once they’re established.
Biologists also plan to build a fish barrier on Quartz Creek between Lower and Middle Quartz lakes to halt further migration of lake trout into the system.
Lake trout were introduced into Flathead Lake in the early 1900s. Since then, they have gradually migrated upstream to every lake in the Flathead River system they can reach. The only thing that stops them are dams or natural barriers like waterfalls.
The suppression plan, however, also has wilderness implications. Both Quartz and Logging lakes are in wilderness areas, and biologists would like to use motorized boats to complete the netting work and research. Both lakes are also home to nesting loon populations, which are sensitive to boat use.
The scoping document can be viewed online at www.parkplanning.nps.gov/LoggingQuartz. Comments can be made online or mailed to Glacier National Park Superintendent, Attn: Logging/Quartz EA, P.O. Box 128, West Glacier MT 59936. Deadline is Sept. 10.