WISE RIVER, MT - Joining Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) Director Dustin Temple, Governor Greg Gianforte yesterday celebrated rising trout counts in the Big Hole River at a trout habitat improvement project.

“The Big Hole is one of our prized rivers that supports the livelihoods of thousands of Montanans. It’s great to see encouraging numbers for trout across all areas of the Jefferson Basin,” Gov. Gianforte said. “I’m grateful to FWP for addressing community concerns with declining populations and for their dedication to finding solutions.”

Visiting the project site near Wise River, the governor heard from an FWP biologist on the results of their annual spring fish population survey that show stable or increased counts of brown and rainbow trout populations in all four sections of the river. 

“The most promising piece of data from the spring survey is the rising number of 2-year-old trout – the largest sample of young juvenile fish collected in the last 6 years,” said FWP Biologist Jim Olsen. 

Olsen continued, “While we’re still well below long-term averages, these numbers are encouraging. We don’t get big ones unless we get little ones, and we haven’t seen a strong year like this in a while.”

The visit to the habitat project site comes nearly a year after the governor and FWP convened a roundtable discussion, bringing together fishing guides, anglers, irrigators, ag producers, and biologists to discuss declining trout populations in the Jefferson Basin.

Since 2011, trout populations have steadily declined in several areas of the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Ruby rivers. In response, last year, FWP invested $3.2 million in monitoring efforts along the Big Hole to respond to declining populations and help manage the resource. 

“The rivers in southwest Montana including the Big Hole are one of the agency’s top priorities,” Dir. Temple said. “I am proud of our biologists who work every day to provide incredibly valuable insight into this issue. While we still have a long way to go, these numbers are encouraging and give me hope for the future of this fishery.”

In response to population declines, FWP, in partnership with Montana State University (MSU), last summer launched several research efforts to study fish mortality, juvenile fish, and fish health to better understand the causes of these declines, which are linked to flows, water temperature, disease, and other factors. The university recruited a team of graduate students and technicians to conduct the trout recruitment and determine where the young fish are coming from. They are also looking to identify any bottlenecks at the juvenile stage.

“We’ve brought together a great team of new people here at MSU to collaborate with the experienced professionals at FWP as well as interact with the anglers and other river users,” MSU professor Dr. Alexander Zale said. “We’re making good progress and I’m very excited to start seeing findings come in soon.”

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