Yellowstone National Park, in coordination with partner agencies Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Wyoming Game & Fish Department and the U.S. Forest Service, is seeking public input on a proposed project to remove nonnative brook trout from Soda Butte Creek and reintroduce genetically pure Yellowstone cutthroat trout into the stream.

The objective is to remove brook trout by applying an EPA-approved piscicide (rotenone) to Soda Butte Creek upstream of Ice Box Canyon. The project will restore an important fishery in upper Soda Butte Creek and serve to protect cutthroat trout populations of the entire Lamar River watershed from future invasion by nonnative brook trout. Genetically pure Yellowstone cutthroat trout populations have declined throughout their natural range in the Intermountain West, succumbing to competition with and predation by nonnative fish species, a loss of genetic integrity through hybridization, habitat degradation, predation, and angling harvest.

Public comments are being collected until June 19, 2015, on the Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website. Just click HERE.

 

 

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