Commissioner continues fight over fish poisoning

A state project aimed at ridding the South Fork Flathead River drainage of hybrid fish does not have the public support that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks claims, according to the Fish, Wildlife and Parks commissioner who represents Northwest Montana.

Commissioner Vic Workman vows to maintain his opposition to the project, which involves killing off and replacing fisheries in 21 alpine lakes over a 10-year period, and to give the public more opportunity to voice opinions on it.

"It is an issue that I intend to continue to focus on," Workman said this week.

In a recent conference call with fellow commissioners, Workman made a motion to kill the project, but it failed on a 3-2 vote with a provision that the commission will accept public comments before the issue is reconsidered in July.

"The commission decided it was in the best interests of the public to allow the public to give us comments through July," Workman said. "To me, that was a success, because before this point this didn't need commission approval."

The alpine lakes project advanced last year with administrative approval from the Flathead National Forest, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Bonneville Power Administration, which is providing funding for the work.

Workman said the commission does not impose its oversight authority over every Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks decision, but it has the discretion to do so in this case.

"We can do that with any issue we deem important enough," he said.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks staffers have contended that the project was subject to intense public scrutiny since it was first proposed in 2001.

An environmental review for the project involved four public comment periods and 22 meetings over a five-year period. And Fish, Wildlife and Parks has committed to holding regular meetings and soliciting public comments as the project progresses over the next 10 years.

But Workman is skeptical that the state's review reflects actual public support for the project.

"The majority of the public in Western Montana don't want the project to go forward," he said. "I have absolutely no doubt about that."

Workman said he has heard repeated opposition to the project from his constituents.

"I'm not doing this for me," he said. "I'm doing it for the public that keeps hounding me about it."

The project got under way last fall when fish in Black and Blackfoot lakes were killed off with a natural fish toxin called Rotenone. The two lakes, located in the Jewel Basin Hiking Area in the Swan Mountain Range, will be restocked with pure westslope cutthroat trout.

Project proponents have maintained that the treatments will turn back a tide of hybridization among native westslopes, Yellowstone cutthroats and rainbow trout with the goal of preserving Montana's major westslope stronghold in the South Fork.

But Workman doesn't believe that treating the lakes will effectively stop hybridization in the long run, because of the presence of hybrid fish in Hungry Horse Reservoir and Big Salmon Lake - lakes that are too large to effectively treat with toxins.

"It's been sold to the public that we're going to save a species and we're going to purify a drainage, and there's nothing that they can show me that can prove that there's a chance in hell that that's going to happen," he said.

Workman also has little faith that the quality of existing fisheries in the 21 lakes can be restored within three years as intended. The state may be able to plant fish, but it's unlikely to replace the abundance of large fish in those lakes, he contends.

Workman cites his personal observations on another lake in the North Fork Flathead drainage - Whale Lake - that was treated and restocked years ago. He maintains that today's Whale Lake fishery is not the same quality that it used to be.

Workman said he will personally gather comments on the project from the public. Those interested in contacting him can send e-mail to vic@montanalandoffice.com.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com