The state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bonneville Power Administration have to agree to the plan, which could help keep the state fish off the endangered species list. The agencies are expected to issue their decisions this fall.
The EIS offers four alternatives to carrying out the project, ranging from no action, to carrying out the proposed plan using a combination of horse packing, aircraft and motorboats in the wilderness area, where there are motorized vehicle restrictions.
The project, first proposed in 2001, has drawn fire from the start, for its suggestions of bringing poisons and motorized vehicles into a wilderness area. There were also concerns that the poisons, rotenone and antimycin, might kill other species.
Some have objected to removing fish from a productive alpine lake, even though the proposal calls for restocking those lakes to re-establish a pure cutthroat fishery.
Jim Vashro, the state's regional fisheries manager, said many people don't understand that crossbreeding presents a long-term problem for cutthroat, and is an argument used in a petition to list cutthroats for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
It may take decades, but the westslope cutthroat eventually will be replaced by a mutt fish in the South Fork Flathead River drainage, said Brian Marotz, the state's fisheries projects manager.
"It's the state fish, and it's been reduced to 9 percent of its historic range," Marotz said. "The fate of the South Fork has a huge bearing on the status of cutthroats in Montana."
Grant Grisak, the state coordinator for the project, said testing shows the toxin concentrations used to kill fish would not affect amphibians.
As proposed, the project would involve treating one or two lakes each fall for a minimum of 10 years. The protracted schedule is intended to ensure that most of the lakes maintain recreational fisheries in any given year, and so biologists can learn from each year's efforts and fine-tune their methods.
"When you are doing two lakes in one year, you've got a chance to modify your techniques," said Jim Satterfield, regional supervisor for FWP. "You've got a chance to modify your approach over a 10-year period."
Marotz estimates that the project will cost from $300,000 to $500,000 a year. BPA would pay for the project through a program to mitigate impacts from construction of Hungry Horse Dam more than 50 years ago.
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