Wild tropical fish in Idaho

Gambusia said:
Good points but

That depends on whether they were out competing an endangered species.

In which case I see removing the endangered species, kill off the non natives (or most of them) and then reintroducing the endangereds removed.
Click to expand...

True, but you don't want to introduce a foriegn compound into the water that could carry downstream. 3 years ago my Uncles pond was overpopulated with bluegill and green sunfish. We could have just used a chemical to kill them off, but instead we stocked the pond with Crappie and hybrid bass. In about 2 years the level of bluegill was down and we had a nice harvestable population of crappie and bass.
 
And in the case of endangered or threatened species, that happens. Check this for a huge restoration program going on now for the Colorado River Cutthroat Trout--it's been petitioned for listing as endangered, and these type of efforts are the reason that hasn't happened.
 
Is it legal to stock other trout in Wyoming? If they are doing this huge project to save the cutthroat, and you can still stock other species. Aren't they setting themselfs up for a fall?
 
Thank you for the link.

They are doing the same thing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with brook trout
 
Depends on the drainage. There are many where rainbows, brookies and browns are established and healthy, so we maintain them as such. And, of course, we have 4 different sub-species of cutthroat--there are restrictions on stocking in the Bear River, Snake River, and portions of the Wind and Big Horn drainages. So, in the La Barge creek drainage, stocking of rainbow is illegal, and there are barriers in place to prevent them from migrating upstream from other waters. Colorado River cuts can go downstream, but nothing comes upstream. This is one location where a project of this scope is possible, since it's almost all on Bridger-Teton National Forest, and we've had cooperation from the private landowners that are impacted by the treatment project. Many private landowners agreed to allow the removed non-native put into their waters, or allow access to personnel coming in to test, etc.
 
That will be the biggest determining factor for the cutthroats. The private land owners.
 
Depends on which part of the country they are in--in Western Wyoming, most of the land is publically held, either in National Forests, parks, or BLM land. Eastern Wyoming is mostly privately owned, but cutts aren't native over here. And, most people are very supportive of this type of work--it's much better for the private land owner to allow G&F access for restoration and put up with a few restrictions than if the species gets listed and goes to federal management.
 
People probably think it is okay to put fish in the springs because they can't leave. They can't survive in the colder water downstream, so it isn't a problem. The problem is they could be introducing foreign pathogens with the fish which could travel downstream and spread throughout the Snake watershed.
 
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