Westslope cutties pondered in Camas

GREAT FALLS — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is considering introducing westslope cutthroat trout to Camas Lake and Big Camas Creek.

Dave Moser, fisheries manager for the agency’s Region 4, tells The Great Falls Tribune that those are ideal locations because downstream waterfalls create barriers to other fish species.

“They’re protected from the rainbows and the brook trout downstream,” he said.

Westslope cutthroat trout are one of two subspecies of trout in Montana. The fish can serve as an indicator of the health of their ecosystem, and biologists have been keeping a close eye on the species because it has been threatened with habitat loss and hybridization with rainbow trout and Yellowstone cutthroat.

The two water bodies currently support Yellowstone cutthroat stocked in the 1950s. But Moser said Yellowstone cutthroat aren’t native to the Missouri River drainage and officials would like to see westslope cutthroat returned.

“Yellowstone cutthroat are native to the Yellowstone River,” he said.

The Missouri River drainage includes the Smith River drainage, which includes Camas Lake and Big Camas Creek.