INTRODUCTION 



The Blackfoot River is one of the most popular, scenic, physically diverse and 

 biologically complex rivers in western Montana. Segments of the river system however 

 support low densities of wild trout due to an array of natural conditions and human 

 impairments. Densities of imperiled native trout (westslope cutthroat trout - 

 Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi and bull trout - Salvelinus conjluentus) are particularly low. 

 Natural limiting factors involve cycles of drought, areas of high instream sediment loads, 

 low instream productivity, naturally intermittent tributaries, summer warming and 

 periods of severe icing of the lower mainstem river channel. Human impairments apply 

 to mining contamination in the upper Blackfoot Watershed, the loss of upstream fish 

 passage at the mouth of the Blackfoot River, expansion of exotic organisms including 

 whirling disease at the low elevations of the watershed, and pervasive perturbations on 

 >90% of tributaries. The sum of natural conditions and human impairments produce an 

 array of trout assemblages that vary regionally within the watershed and longitudinally 

 among river and tributary reaches. 



With an emphasis on correcting human impairments to the river ecosystem, the 

 Blackfoot River watershed is the site of a comprehensive wild trout restoration initiative, 

 with emphasis on the recovery/conservation of imperiled native fish. The initiative began 

 in 1988-89 when Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) identified declining Blackfoot 

 River fisheries and the degradation of primary tributaries. These early findings led to the 

 adoption of catch-and-release regulations for native fish in 1990, followed by the 

 initiation of early riparian improvement projects. Fisheries restoration has since evolved 

 to a ridge-top to ridge-top philosophy of coordinated conservation through the assistance 

 of many stakeholders. 



Conservation of wild trout relies on the voluntary involvement of resource 

 agencies, conservation groups and private landowners. While the philosophy of 

 managing wild trout provides the biological foundation of this endeavor, the Blackfoot 

 Cooperators {see below) form the social and technical base necessary to fiind and 

 implement the initiative. By correcting human-induced limiting factors, this initiative 

 fiirther provides a fi-amework for the recovery of dwindling stocks of imperiled native 

 fish when integrated with appropriate harvest regulations, and site-specific restoration 

 measures often undertaken in remote but critical areas of the watershed. 



Correcting environmental damage over large connected tracts of public and 

 private land and industrial forest involve long-term protection (conservation easements) 

 and restoration of biologically important but fisheries-impaired streams. Improving 

 habitat involves mostly passive (e.g. compatible grazing), but also active (e.g. channel 

 reconstruction) measures depending on the degree of degradation and a stream's recovery 

 potential. When properly implemented, fisheries restoration is also iterative - a process 

 that relies on continued habitat and population monitoring, expanding the scope of 

 projects and modifying methods of restoration based on monitoring results. Iterative 

 restoration leads to site-specific restoration measures of individual tributary populations 

 involving methods such as enhancing flows in rearing areas, preventing juvenile fish loss 

 to irrigation in migration corridors, reconstructing altered streams, fencing livestock fi-om 

 spawning areas, and expanding these types of actions to adjacent tributaries as limiting 

 factors are identified and as opportunities allow. 



