Meetings precede South Fork project work

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will hold two informational meetings on an ongoing project to purge non-native fish genetics from alpine lakes connected to the South Fork Flathead River drainage.

The first meeting will be Thursday at 7 p.m. in the agency’s regional headquarters on North Meridian Road. The second, hosted by the Flathead Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, will be at 7 p.m. April 17 in the same location.

Biologists will summarize last year’s restoration project at Necklace Lakes and the post-treatment monitoring and restocking of westslope cutthroat trout that has occurred so far.

There will also be discussions about the planned toxin treatment at Lick Lake, which historically was stocked with non-native Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

Removal of the fish is aimed at eliminating the hybridization risk they pose to westslope cutthroat populations in the South Fork.

The South Fork project started in 2007 with Black and Blackfoot lakes. Treatments were carried out in 2008 at Lower Big Hawk Lake, in 2009 at Clayton and Margaret lakes and in 2010 at Wildcat Lake.

The department is swamping six other lakes with heavy regular stocks of westslope, basically to overwhelm non-native fish, and there are plans to treat four more lakes over the next four years.

Informational meetings are held every year to keep the public informed about the project’s progress.  More information on the upcoming meetings is available by calling project leader Matt Boyer at 751-4556.