Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek Comments can be submitted through the WDFW Public Input portal or by email at LeClercCreekTroutRestoration@PublicInput.com.
More information is available on the WDFW SEPA webpage.
Washington fisheries officials want brook trout out of a creek in Pend Oreille County to make more room for native westslope cutthroats.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced this week plans for poisoning Upper West Branch LeClerc Creek over the next three years to kill non-native eastern brook trout so the stream can be replanted with westslope cutthroats sourced from the same area.
Brook and cutthroat trout occupy some of the same parts of the stream, but the species don’t mix well. Brook trout outcompete the native fish for food and habitat, and they are known to take over streams entirely.
Kenneth Behen, WDFW’s warmwater fish program manager, said in a statement that the presence of brook trout “has led to westslope cutthroat trout population declines throughout their range due to competition between the two species.”
A virtual public meeting on the project is planned for Monday evening at 6 p.m. Public comment is open until 5 p.m. on May 20.
If approved by the WDFW director, work would begin this summer with crews salvaging cutthroat and bull trout from the stream before using a naturally occurring fish poison to kill the remaining brook trout. Treatments would take place annually through 2027.
The project is the latest in a series of efforts between WDFW and the Kalispel Tribe to restore native species and their habitat in tributaries of the Pend Oreille River. Other projects have taken place along the creeks of Washington’s portion of the Selkirk Range, including Cee Cee Ah Creek.
Restoration work is a requirement of the county Public Utility District’s federal permit for operating Box Canyon Dam. Project documents cite a permit requirement for a Trout Habitat Restoration Program, which calls for restoring 164 miles of stream in the area.
The LeClerc Creek watershed was identified as a top priority. The first phase of the work on the Upper West Branch began in 2020, with crews surveying the stream with electrofishing gear and DNA sampling to determine fish distribution in the mainstem and in its tributaries.
Brook and westslope cutthroat trout were found in the stream, though there were places where brook trout had pushed all the cutthroat out, according to WDFW documents.
A temporary fish management structure was put in place in 2023 to separate the project area from the rest of the drainage. The treatment will take place on an 8.3-mile stretch upstream from the structure.
WDFW plans to poison the creek with rotenone, a piscicide derived from the roots of tropical plants that’s commonly used in fish restoration projects. It’s been used on other streams in northeast Washington and was used last fall on West Medical Lake.
Before the first treatment, up to 1,500 cutthroats will be salvaged and taken to the Seattle City Light Native Salmonid Conservation Facility near Usk, according to WDFW’s plans.
The fish will be held and spawned there over three to five years. Their progeny will be the fish that can be returned to the stream once DNA sampling shows brook trout have been completely removed.
amazing that the WDFW used to raise them and plant in lakes on the east side.
