Jim Olsen, MT FWP fisheries biologist, gives explanation on projects which we’ve partnered.
Jerry Creek has one of the last and probably the largest remaining westslope cutthroat trout populations in the Big Hole drainage. If you have caught a cutthroat trout in the Big Hole River, it was probably somewhere near Jerry Creek. However the cutthroat trout in Jerry Creek are threatened by the presence of non-native trout. Rainbow trout can breed with cutthroat trout resulting in a hybridized trout that has little conservation value and Jerry Creek is open to rainbow trout migrating upstream. Jerry Creek is also home to non-native brook trout. Brook trout are an aggressive trout that compete and prey upon cutthroat trout. In many streams in the Big Hole and in other areas of SW Montana, brook trout have completely displaced native fish populations. To conserve the westslope cutthroat trout population in Jerry Creek and to prevent further hybridization a fish barrier has been proposed in the stream. This barrier would prevent upstream fish migration. The location for this fish barrier would be near the confluence of Long Tom Creek. This fish barrier would preclude all upstream fish passage and would prevent any further hybridization of cutthroat trout upstream. Once the fish barrier is in place, non-native trout upstream would be removed. The native cutthroat trout would be salvaged and released back into the stream once the non-native fish are removed. There are roughly 15 miles of stream habitat upstream of the fish barrier that cutthroat trout would inhabit without the threats posed from non-native species. Cutthroat and brook trout would still be present in Jerry Creek downstream of the fish barrier and this fishery would not change. Projects like this one aid in the long-term conservation of the only native trout in the Big Hole and they help keep the fish from being listed under the Endangered Species Act. Once completed it is likely that the current catch and release regulations for cutthroat trout in Jerry Creek would be lifted and anglers would be able to harvest fish.