Yellowstone: a place that is known world-wide and a name that inspires visions of steamy geysers, broad valleys, high peaks, and abundant wildlife.  In addition, to us as an angling community, Yellowstone means crystal clear waters and trout, sometimes large trout, and angling for them in a wilderness unmatched.

It was this vast freshwater wilderness that brought a prominent ichthyologist, Dr. David Starr Jordan, to Yellowstone in September of 1889.  Jordan was tasked by the newly-created U.S. Fish Commission to survey the Park’s fisheries and make recommendations for stocking.  These surveys, among other things, help us now to understand the original, pre-Euroamerican distribution of fish in Yellowstone and also the extent of the Park’s fish-less waters, which in 1889 included more than 40% of streams, rivers, and lakes.  

One-hundred-seventeen years later, fisheries biologists, along with volunteer fly fishing anglers continue to discover fish in Yellowstone.  How can this be, one might ask, given that managers have placed great emphasis over all these years on the Park’s fish, especially the native cutthroat trout?  The answer lies in the vastness of Yellowstone, in its hidden, out-of-the way locations which simply have not been studied before.  The answer also lies in the unique abilities of wild, native cutthroat trout to persist in these isolated habitats when faced with harsh environmental conditions, especially during the long winter months.

The year 2006 will go down in history as a year of great fisheries discoveries in the Park.  In a tiny, isolated tributary to Grayling Creek, biologists confirmed the genetic purity of a westslope cutthroat trout population consisting of about 800 individuals. This year we also came upon an abundance of previously unknown cutthroat trout in a tributary to the Yellowstone River located between Mammoth and Tower.  The coloration and spotting pattern of these trout was much different than that of the Yellowstone cutthroat trout found in neighboring tributaries and the Yellowstone River.  In fact, the cutthroat we discovered had all the characteristics of a westslope cutthroat.  The Park has since received results from collaborating geneticists in Idaho confirming that this is indeed what they are!  Additionally, Park biologists confirmed the existence of stream-resident Yellowstone cutthroat trout in extremely remote tributaries of the Yellowstone River in the Thorofare region.  Previously thought to support only migratory cutthroat from the lake, we now know that these streams harbor cutthroat trout year-round.

Discoveries such as these are significant because prior to this, pure-strain westslope cutthroat were thought to have vanished from Yellowstone, and the once-abundant Yellowstone cutthroat trout of Yellowstone Lake have recently suffered a significant decline.  Now, while our battle with lake trout on Yellowstone Lake continues, the Yellowstone Fisheries Program is also moving forward to preserve larger, more secure stream habitats for replication of cutthroat populations. In other words, these efforts will transport eggs, juveniles, and/or adults from genetically-pure, wild populations into restored waters so the species can flourish as they once did.  This past summer, we removed nonnative fish from High Lake and Specimen Creek as the first step toward achieving our goal. 

The Yellowstone Fly Fishing Volunteers Program is generously supported by the Yellowstone Park Foundation and contributes an immense amount of trout distribution and genetics data to our native trout restoration efforts. The Yellowstone Park Foundation is also supporting scientific investigations needed to successfully complete cutthroat trout restorations with the Fisheries Fund Initiative.  With a goal of raising $500,000, this Initiative will help to ensure the conservation and preservation of the Park’s native cutthroat trout.  You can support these efforts by making a donation to the Yellowstone Fly Fishing Volunteers Program or Fisheries Fund Initiative.  For more information on volunteering on Yellowstone’s streams and rivers or to make a donation, please contact the Yellowstone Park Foundation at 222 East Main Street, Suite 301, Bozeman, Montana 59715 or visit the Foundation’s website at www.ypf.org. 

Together we can ensure that angling for our native cutthroat trout forever remains an important core activity within our country's first national park.