Hunting Washington Forum

Other Activities => Fishing => Topic started by: Ridgeratt on May 09, 2025, 10:38:05 AM

Title: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: Ridgeratt on May 09, 2025, 10:38:05 AM: 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. :dunno:
Title: Re: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: TeacherMan on May 09, 2025, 11:00:34 AM: That really sucks! I grew up fishing there and LOVED hitting those creeks every year around my birthday in June.
Title: Re: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: boneaddict on May 09, 2025, 11:16:07 AM: I don’t know how to view it. Some action is better than no action. My guess is the cutts don’t do well with the warmer water, low flow etc. it will likely fail and the whole,e time will be closed to fishing. I love cutts so I am glad they want to save them. :dunno: I mean should they shoot all the whities there because they out competed the mule deer. It would be along the same logic.
Title: Re: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: Dan-o on May 09, 2025, 11:41:26 AM: Interesting.

The article says Brook Trout outcompete the Cutthroats.

I grew up in Northern Utah, fishing some small streams that were full of Brookies AND Cutts?

I'm no fish biologist...... but that's how it was.
Title: Re: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: HUNTIN4SIX on May 09, 2025, 12:39:38 PM: I've assisted in several of these projects when i worked for WDFW. I get it, but I don't. Many of these locations have sustained great brook populations for generations. Normally its the only species that will survive. Its that whole non-native species thing...which can be ridiculous. Most of the brookie population don't need managed and they self sustain. So great kill em all and put it cutthroat, that's the easy part. What doesn't happen is The follow up study and a continued management plan to sustain a population for a user group over a long period of time. Like much of our states fisheries, biologist are too few and don't get out in the field enough. Most sit behind a computer because of workload. Same way they manage lakes...Throw the same amount of catchable trout in a lake every year with very little knowledge of what is actually going on. Then a sudden outbreak of goldfish or tench or die off and public outcry then the reactionary oh crap management style comes out. :twocents:
Title: Re: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: metlhead on May 09, 2025, 12:56:04 PM: Anyone know if this stream has access and liberal limits on the brookies? Seems an easy and cost effective way to manage them and provide opportunity. Just enough left in the stream to grow larger yet not be an obstacle to cutts and bulls.
Title: Re: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: Ridgeratt on May 09, 2025, 02:01:14 PM: How much more liberal limits do you need.

Eastern Brook Trout (EBT): No min. size. No daily limit.

https://www.eregulations.com/washington/fishing/statewide-freshwater-species-rules
Title: Re: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: MADMAX on May 09, 2025, 02:13:07 PM: If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
Title: Re: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: Ridgeratt on May 09, 2025, 02:58:17 PM: Because the state is the enemy of good. If something is working good they will continue to fix it until they have broken it
Title: Re: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: Jake Dogfish on May 09, 2025, 03:02:53 PM: I’ll just point out that these projects often don’t work. Then it’s a lost opportunity for anglers.
Title: Re: Washington plans to kill brook trout in Pend Oreille County creek
Post by: supagoose on May 09, 2025, 05:26:13 PM: I grew up fishing all those creeks and still do. They seem too warm to hold cutts or bulls. Pretty rear for me to catch cutts down low. I'd have to go pretty high to catch cutts or be in a drainage thats stays pretty cold through the warm months. Kinda cool but in the last couple years Ive caught a few browns in those creeks. Im thinking they came up from the PO river. I heard the Kalispel are doing something with introducing stirle male brooks. Something about how they will out compete the fertile males and cause the population to collapse. They'd have to kill EVERY single creek/ stream. Pretty much water system that flows.