State to remove non-native fish from Cooney Creek

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks will use backpack electro-fishing equipment to capture and remove non-native brook and rainbow trout from Cooney Creek, a tributary of the upper Swan River.

The plan is to remove the brook and rainbow trout in Cooney Creek’s core westslope cutthroat trout habitat. The goal is to boost populations of both westslope cutthroat and bull trout.

Electrofishing temporarily stuns fish and allows them to be netted. In this project, the native trout will be returned to Cooney Creek and the rainbow and brook trout will be killed.

The work will begin this year and continue annually during June, July, August and September.

The project will be in collaboration with the University of Montana and MPG Ranch, a privately owned conservation ranch. Funding for the project is primarily provided by MPG Ranch with labor assistance from FWP.

Freshwater fisheries are in decline throughout North America, the agency said. In Montana, two species particularly at risk are westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout. Competition and hybridization between nonnative trout have caused declines of native westslope and bull trout across their historic range. Hybridization diminishes the genetic signature of a species, ultimately causing extinction.

Widespread hybridization between rainbow and westslope cutthroat trout has been documented in the Flathead River drainage, and in portions of the Swan River basin, FWP said.

The agency published an environmental assessment of the proposed Cooney Creek project in July and accepted public input for 30 days.

According to FWP, the Swan Valley “was once home to robust populations of native trout. However, populations of bull trout and genetically pure westslope cutthroat are now reduced in abundance and distribution.”