Bull trout and Westslope Cutthroat Trout are among the native fish species in Western Montana that are valued by anglers and threatened by warming waters.
Jonny Armstrong / US Geological Survey
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Jonny Armstrong / US Geological Survey
MISSOULA, Mont. – In early winter, when the river is still running high and cool from the snowmelt, KynsLee Scott loves trout fishing. As a fishing guide and conservationist, his life revolves around it, he said, standing in the shade of tall pines on the banks of the Blackfoot River.
But lately, he says with a pause, “It’s harder to love, just because the environment has changed.”
Scott is an angler – one of many in the western US – snagged in an ethical dilemma brought by the “really alarming” changes he sees with the warm climate: When your trout are fishing they need cold water, and cold water is increasing. rare, how and when should you fish?
“For me, unless I have to do my job, I don’t like to go out and target stressed fish,” he said. “It’s annoying. But we have to adjust what we do to have resources at the end of the day.
The Blackfoot River was the lowest in KynsLee Scott’s flying career. “I don’t know how you can be a guide and not worry,” he said.
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Western Montana is particularly water-starved this year after a meager snowpack and July is hot. Hot water temperature forced state officials to implement restrictions on fishing in 17 rivers this summer, including – to write – Blackfoot good, which is at the lowest level in 30 years. The so-called owl hoot restriction prohibits fishing during the hottest days to give the fish a reprieve, forcing anglers to get out on the water earlier.
Montana’s fishing industry, which brings in almost a billion dollars every year, try to adjust.
“People are worried about what it’s causing (climate change) and stuff. But that part is not the problem,” said Mike Bias, executive director of the Montana Fishing Outfitters Association. “The reality is hatches are happening faster. Peak flows are earlier and stop. So what do we do? How do we adapt?”
Some guides in the Missoula area have moved to cold rivers like the Missouri near Helena, where the water temperature is quasi-controlled by a series of dams. Others have moved on to target other fish like pike, which are invasive in some Montana watersheds. Almost everyone has moved the fishing season, client orders earlier in the spring and later in the fall.
“It’s a real paradox to me,” said John Herzer, who has been a fishing guide and angler on western Montana rivers for 35 years. On the one hand, he said, “the fishing is still pretty good.”
On the other hand: “There is just less and less water every year,” he said. “There is no question. Very little water.”
John Herzer, a fly-fishing guide of 35 years, has started booking paddling classes for a few days in August instead of fishing trips. “It’s changed drastically, so we’re trying to find an alternative for trout fishing,” he said.
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Trout need cold water
Humans have been fishing for trout in western Montana for millennia. In the Missoula area, the Salish people caught native bull trout in the Blackfoot River long before author John Maclean blocked the “half-light arctic canyon” from “Big Blackfoot,” as he called it, in his book. A Passing River.
The problem is that the “Big Blackfoot,” like many rivers in the American West, isn’t as big as it once was. Invasive species such as smallmouth bass and carp are crowding out the original trout. Water is pumped for agriculture, energy and cities.
“We’ve destroyed habitats, broken the connections between (them) and introduced invasive species,” said Clint Muhlfeld, a research ecologist at the US Geological Survey’s Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center. “Stressors combined with climate change are causing some of these trout species to decline.”
Pollution from cars, buildings and industry raise the global temperature. As a result the rain pattern it’s changing in Montana. It’s a drought heavier. Snowpacks are melt earlier.
“The northern Rockies are actually warming at twice the global average,” says Muhlfeld. “It’s really changing our hydrology and, therefore, the water that fish live in.”
Trout need cold, oxygen-rich water to survive. Temperature thresholds vary by species, but all trout become sluggish and stressed when the water temperature exceeds their comfort zone. It’s so hot, he’ll die.
The Blackfoot River joins the Clark Fork River east of Missoula, Mont. Both rivers were temporarily placed under fishing restrictions this summer due to high water temperatures.
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
In 2015, Trout Unlimited, a non-profit conservation group, published a report on 28 different species and subspecies of trout and char that come from the US It found more than half of the species and subspecies have been squeezed into a small range, occupying only a quarter of their historical range. Nearly all species of trout and char, the report found, face some level of risk.
Montana, Muhlfeld said, “is home to some of the last strongholds for native fish species.” But not invulnerable to change.
A study Muhlfeld co-author in 2022 found that more than one third Montana’s cold water fisheries could become unsuitable for trout by 2080, costing the state nearly $200 million in lost revenue.
“Underneath all these famous trout rivers are going to warm the fastest,” said Timothy Cline, the study’s lead author, who is now an ecologist at Montana State University. “We’re probably going to lose some lower areas in Madison, Blackfoot, Bitterroot, Big Hole.”
Fortunately, he said, his research also found that trout, and the industries that depend on them, are still resilient. Higher rivers and cold mountain streams and lakes still offer shelter. Trout are adaptable and will move to more suitable conditions if possible.
“The hope is that by maintaining and protecting all of these options, we can have a strong trout fishery and opportunity in the future,” Cline said.
Give the trout room to move
In some cases, maintaining and improving fish habitat requires removing relics from the past.
North of Missoula, on Rattlesnake Creek, which joins the Clark Fork River downstream of the Blackfoot, a coalition of agencies and groups work for decommission a series of now defunct dams that stretch into the Rattlesnake Wilderness.
“Fish that can’t move up to cold water will have a harder time dealing with climate change and warmer water,” said Warren Colyer, Western Water and Habitat program director at Trout Unlimited. “So we’re trying to remove that barrier.”
Earlier this summer, a team from Missoula, Trout Unlimited and the US Forest Service used 1,000 pounds of explosives to remove the McKinley Lake dam in the Rattlesnake Wilderness to help restore the lake and Rattlesnake Creek to their natural state.
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Colyer and her colleague, Christine Brissette, stand on the banks of Rattlesnake Creek upstream of the deep pool, which shows one of the dams being removed in 2021.
“We immediately saw after the dam was secured this fish that had been tagged at the mouth of the creek hanging out above where the dam used to be,” said Brissette. “They moved right into this habitat.”
Trout Unlimited and other conservation groups are working to restore floodplains, building artificial beaver dams in places to slow runoff. They work on irrigation to limit withdrawals during severe droughts.
Earlier this year, the Blackfoot Challenge, a coalition of landowners, public agencies, and conservation groups who live and work along the Blackfoot River, driven irrigation together Blackfoot to voluntarily reduce the demand on river water and anglers to shift their techniques, including the use of barbless hooks.
“Every guide has a responsibility to change the way we use water resources, especially for these cold water fisheries,” said Scott on the edge of the Blackfoot.
Fish are a limited resource, he said. Climate change is making things worse. “With the two combined there is only a limited amount of time so we can continue to adjust,” he said.
Asked how Scott thinks his job will change in the future, if the river will still run through, he laughs.
“A river will still run through,” Scott said. “And it might be a trickle.”
