Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Montana Fishery
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Montana Fishery Project

Evaluation of juvenile bull trout outmigration in Thompson Falls Reservoir

November 2013 - December 2016

Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Bull trout are listed as a threatened species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and in the lower Clark Fork River the species is impacted by three main-stem impoundments (Thompson Falls,Noxon, and Cabinet Gorge reservoirs). Dams and reservoirs significantly alter natural habitats (physical and biological) and influence upstream and downstream fish movement. An understanding od juvenile bull trout use and movement through impoundments is necessary to identify how these altered habitats and dam operation can impact downstream migrating juvenile bull trout and accordingly the status of associated populations.