BULL TROUT BELONG IN MONTANA

Bull Trout Belong In Montana! You heard it here first, but you’ll be hearing it a lot more in the coming weeks and months. “Bull Trout Belong In Montana” is the new FVTU slogan to bring attention to the plight of this very special, and very threatened, Northwest Montana native. FVTU has been the voice of our local bull trout since the mid 1980’s when the collapse of the kokanee fishery in Flathead Lake lead to the rise of lake trout as the apex predator and the rapid decline of bull trout system wide. Dozens of papers, articles, books, and blogs have been published documenting this decline. Suffice it to say that bull trout are on the brink, and in some places, like the Swan Lake watershed, bull trout redd numbers are at historic lows. If something isn’t done right now we could lose this exceptional game fish for good. To help raise awareness FVTU is letting everyone know that Bull Trout Belong In Montana!

To help bring the message home, FVTU has designed a bull trout bumper sticker which we’ll be distributing at all FVTU functions. You can pick one up for free at any regular monthly meeting, the FVTU booth at the upcoming Sportsman’s Expo (where you can also purchase a raft raffle ticket), or any where else that FVTU has a presence. If you can’t make the next meeting but want a bumper sticker, just reach out to any FVTU board member or drop me an email.

Coincidentally, our bull trout awareness campaign started just as Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks (FWP) is proposing to restart netting of invasive lake trout in Swan Lake. This would be a reboot of the 2009-2016 program which made significant inroads to reduce lake trout in Swan Lake while boosting bull trout survival and reproduction. Unfortunately funding ran out and the lake trout numbers rapidly rose back to pre-netting levels. You can learn more about the proposal on our Home Page (click Welcome to FVTU above). We encourage you to learn about and support this vital bull trout recovery program.

As I mentioned, our roll-out of Bull Trout Belong In Montana was done at our January regular membership meeting. Regular meetings are held October thru April, on the third Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm. We’re currently meeting at Sacred Waters Brewing Company and every meeting features an interesting program, good camaraderie, and door prizes. Our January meeting brought back one of our favorites, Jake Chutz of Montana Fly Company.

Come join us on February 20th when our program will be USGS fisheries expert Clint Mulfeld talking about our other precious native fish, the westslope cutthroat trout.

See you there!