Bull trout spawning rebounds in Flathead basin

By JIM MANN

The Daily Inter Lake

It was a banner year for bull trout spawning across the Flathead basin, even in some of the most troubled streams.

Every fall for 27 years, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists have been counting bull trout spawning beds, called "redds," in consistent "index sections" of spawning streams.

This year's redd counts in the basin's major drainages easily exceeded counts from recent years. Counts were up 53 percent from last year in the North Fork and Middle Fork Flathead river drainages, up 21 percent in the Swan drainage and counts in the South Fork Flathead drainage were at record levels.

"It was really good this year," said Tom Weaver, the state's lead bull trout biologist for the region. "The weather was good, flows were good and the counts were good."

Weaver said the counts are primarily due to higher river flows in the spring and into summer, allowing for improved fish passage into spawning tributaries.

Counts in the eight standard index sections in the North and Middle Fork drainages yielded 221 redds, a 53 percent increase from last year's count.

Perhaps the most significant improvement occurred in Coal Creek, a tributary to the North Fork Flathead River that has had single-digit counts the last seven years, including two years with no redds spotted in the stream's index section.

There were 17 redds in that section this year, compared to just 4 last year.

"That was incredible," Weaver said, noting that he went out and double checked an initial count made by another state biologist, coming up with the exact same number.

Weaver said it's difficult to say what triggered the turnaround in Coal Creek. The spawning class of bull trout that returned to the stream were hatched there in 1999, when seven redds were counted.

Regular surveys are conducted to monitor spawning conditions, by measuring fine sediments and other characteristics, and that survey has yet to be done in Coal Creek to determine if there have been habitat improvements, Weaver said.

In the South Fork Flathead drainage above Hungry Horse Dam, the fall survey came up with 588 redds, the most since the surveys started in that drainage 14 years ago. The surveys are conducted regularly in index sections on streams that feed directly into Hungry Horse Reservoir, and every other year, redd counts are conducted in four tributaries in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

This year, 414 redds were counted in the wilderness streams - about 50 more than the historic average of 277 redds.

The count in the reservoir tributaries came up with 174 redds, about 135 percent more than the historic average of 74 redds.

In the Swan drainage, counts conducted in four stream sections came up with 489 redds this year - about 60 more than were counted the last four years and significantly more than the average of 391 redds since the counts in that drainage started 25 years ago.

The lone disappointment turned up in Morrison Creek, a tributary to the Middle Fork River that is blocked by a series of beaver dams, Weaver said.

There were 11 redds counted in Morrison Creek this year, below last year's count of 16. No redds were counted upstream from the beaver dams.