Cutthroat Trout Losing Battle AND War in Yellowstone
By Tom Chandler on May 10, 2007 in Environment, News
From the Yellowstone fly fishing blog comes this truly saddening news from the Billings Gazette:
“Non-native lake trout patrolling Yellowstone Lake are eating so deeply into the population that biologists last year found just 471 cutthroats at a spot where there were more than 70,000 in the 1970s.
The downward spiral has been particularly noticeable at that spot - Clear Creek on the eastern edge of Yellowstone Lake - over the last several years. After biologists counted 6,613 cutthroats in 2002, the number dropped to 3,432 in 2003, 1,438 in 2004, 917 in 2005 and 471 last spring, according to numbers released Wednesday.
They are the lowest numbers since record keeping began in 1945.”
Is the fat lady singing for Yellowstone Lake Cutthroats?
Interesting also is the response of the Feds:
Though Yellowstone cutthroat are struggling to survive in and around Yellowstone Lake - long one of the population’s strongholds - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined last year to put the species on the federal endangered species list.
This goes hand in hand with the Fed’s recent decision to not list the Fluvial Grayling, despite the fact it’s all but disappeared.
Then again, it’s hardly surprising; a recent congressional hearing found that scientifically derived recommendations for species listings and protections were often ignored, excised, or even rewritten to deliver the exact opposite recommendation.
Often done by political appointees with not expertise in the field, it’s become clear that this was typically done to benefit corporate interests (certainly not the general public).
If you follow the politics of the environment, this hardly comes as a shock; this practice has been rampant since the first days of the current administration.
Good luck, Yellowstone Cutts. You’re going to need it.
Technorati Tags: fly fishing, yellowstone, lake trout, cutthroat, trout
C4C Raine | May 11, 2007 | Reply
Isn’t this TU’s territory? Don’t people pay dues or something to that group with some kind of expectation of return in situations like this? I thought it was like AOPA for fish. Well, if that’s not the case I think The Underground is the place to start. Tom, you write copyright, so you should be able to handle the politicians in DC - you know fly back there every other week, and we’ll send you money for plane tickets, food and lodging, and the occasional business suit. How’s that appeal to you?
Sully | May 11, 2007 | Reply
Hold the bombast, boys.
No corporate villainy is involved in the downward spiral of cutthroat in Yellowstone Lake.
The situation is more akin to unleashing rabbits in Australia than pouring chemicals into Love Canal. Sadly, unlike with most Superfund sites, there doesn’t appear to be solution for Yellowstone Lake.
Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush if you’re scoring at home) were introduced into Yellowstone Lake (most likely from Lewis Lake) at least twice, once in 1989 and again in 1996. In a show of blatant environmental callousness the second introduction occurred two years after the initial alarm was raised. The Yellowstone Lake cutthroats are victims of some ignorant bucket biologist not Big Greed.
You can read about what the NPS has done to control the lake trout infestation. For uplift, though, I’d recommend watching the movie “Rabbit- Proof Fence”.
C4C Raine | May 11, 2007 | Reply
I wasn’t aiming at the CEO types, sorry for the miscommunication - and I’m actually serious about this too. (As if I’m not usually?) The focus was on the lack of Federal attention these little guys, and many other, small, finned, water aboding, vertebrates are receiveing. I just thought that TU actually advertised representation in congress, and if not there ought to be someone who does!
Tom Chandler | May 11, 2007 | Reply
Sadly, you won’t see me shuttling back and forth to DC. Thank god. My “conflict resolution” habits run to the extreme end of the scale — a poor fit with the Beltway Bandits.
There’s no corporate villan here, but the questions of ESA listings has never burned more brightly than they do now.
Sadly, science and public opinion seem to hold little sway under the current administration, whose politicall appointees feel free to ignore reality in the pursuit of a more favorable climate for their funders.
The end result isn’t pretty. More on this soon.