The Idaho Fish & Game Department (IDFG) recently announced a new conservation project on the Teton River aimed to help bolster native Yellowstone cutthroat trout throughout the river.
The project involves using rotenone, a highly effective compound derived from plant roots that kills organisms that use gills to breathe oxygen in water, like fish. Rotenone is used throughout the country to remove nonnative fish from waters, and is the most effective method for reintroducing native fish back to their historical range.
IDFG biologists will use rotenone to treat the lowest 5.5 miles of Badger Creek, a tributary of the Teton River. Badger Creek has an extremely high density of rainbow trout in its lower 5.5 miles, with estimates of nearly 4,500 rainbow trout per mile. Rainbow trout from Badger Creek have been observed moving down into the main stem of the Teton River, then up into Bitch Creek, which is a critical spawning ground for native Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
Rainbow trout can easily hybridize with cutthroat. While their offspring are fertile, great fighters, and pretty fish, they dilute the pure genetic gene pool of native Yellowstone cutthroat. That reduces the Yellowstone’s ability to persist on the landscape, especially throughout the main stem of the Teton, part of this fish’s historical native range.
“Given populations of rainbow trout upstream in Teton Valley, we recognize that complete eradication of rainbow trout in Teton Canyon is not a feasible objective,” says Fisheries Biologist Nathan Tillotson. “However, if we can push the reset button on Badger Creek and allow cutthroat to re-establish as the dominant trout species, the entire population of cutthroat in Teton Canyon will be more resilient going forward.”
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