A TALE OF TWO RIVERS: Fish story, 04/26/01

Through the Adopt-A-Trout program, students are learning more about the migration of fish in the Blackfoot

Five westslope cutthroat trout, wending their way up the Blackfoot River to spawn this spring, are providing daily lessons for students in five rural schools located along the river.

The cutthroats were captured by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists below Milltown Dam this spring, implanted with radio transmitters and transported above the dam, as part of research being conducted by the agency to assess impacts of the dam on fish migrations in the Clark Fork River drainage.

Elementary school students from schools in Bonner, Potomac, Seeley Lake, Ovando, Helmville and Lincoln are monitoring the progress of the fish on a Web site in a pilot educational program.

Eventually this spring, each of eight different classes from the six participating schools will "adopt" one to three cutthroat trout to monitor for the remainder of the school year and beyond.

The Adopt-A-Trout Program was initiated this year by the Blackfoot Challenge, a grass-roots conservation group of private landowners, government agencies and conservation organizations that was formed to help coordinate management of the Blackfoot River, its tributaries and adjacent lands.

Participating classes each begin the program on separate field trips to Milltown Dam to watch FWP biologists capture fish attempting to migrate upstream to spawn.

FWP biologist David Schmetterling has conducted research for several years on the impacts of the dam on Clark Fork drainage fisheries. Last year, Schmetterling and his crew captured about 55,000 fish at the nearly 100-year-old dam, which allows downstream movements of fish but prevents their return upstream.

"All the fish we capture at the dam, we assume came down over the dam at some point," said Schmetterling.

Students have the opportunity to watch as workers net and tag fish for release. FWP biologist David Schmetterline says his crew captured about 55,000 fish at the dam last year.
Photo by MICHAEL GALLCHER/Missoulian

When the instinctual spawning urge overtakes them, the fish attempt to return to the stream in which they were spawned, to renew the cycle, only to be stymied by the dam.

As part of his research project, Schmetterling transports native cutthroat and bull trout around the dam, and tracks their upstream spawning journeys through radio telemetry to tributaries in both the Blackfoot and Clark Fork.

Last year, Schmetterling tracked the movements of 20 native trout transported above the dam and implanted with radio transmitters.

"Each fish had its own story," he said. "Through that story, you can learn a lot of things, not only about fish ecology, but land management, geography, all sorts of information."

Members of the Blackfoot Challenge, many of whom are also involved in the Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited, thought those fish stories could make a valuable education tool in area schools, Schmetterling said.

Tina Bernd-Cohen, executive director of the Blackfoot Challenge, with the help of Schmetterling and FWP, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and TU's Big Blackfoot Chapter, launched the "Adopt-A-Trout Program."

At the Milltown Dam field trips, students in each of eight classes will "adopt" one to three native trout, which they name and monitor on a Web site created and updated weekly by the U.S. FWS. The Web site charts are based on data provided by Schmetterling's radio telemetry research, in which the progress of each fish is checked four to seven times per week. Each fish has its own Web site river map documenting its spawning odyssey.

Bernd-Cohen worked with Helena teacher Sandi Smith to develop a teachers' guide for the program, featuring lesson plans for different grade levels, and incorporating a variety of academic disciplines. The teachers' guide is included in the FWS Web site.

When the cutthroats eventually reach their spawning tributaries, each class will take one additional field trip to that stream, to learn more about spawning habitat requirements and fish ecology. The Web site will be updated to include photos and information about the area the fish has selected in which to spawn.

Last week, Ovando Elementary School's fifth-through-eighth-grade class visited Milltown Dam for its introduction to the Adopt-A-Trout Program.

Schmetterling talked to them about the history of the dam and his fisheries research. He told the students about how Milltown Dam was created in 1907 to provide electricity to power the Bonner sawmill. The mill in turn produced lumber used in the mines in Butte and Anaconda.

"The kids start to get a sense of history," explained Schmetterling. "They see that cutthroats have been here thousands of years, but Milltown Dam was only built 100 years ago. That's our history. It's all there in a nutshell."

With hard hats provided by the dam's owner, Montana Power Co., clamped securely on their heads for their tour of the facility, the Ovando class of 13 watched in fascination as FWP personnel netted hundreds of fish trapped on a concrete shelf at the base of the dam.

The fish swim onto the shelf when dam operators open a crack in the spillway just enough to create a flow resembling a natural stream for 24 hours. When the spillway gate is suddenly closed, the fish are trapped.

Jim McFee returns a bucket of tagged suckers to the Clark Fork River below the dam.
Photo by MICHAEL GALLCHER/Missoulian

Last week, as usual, the fish swarming on the concrete "apron" were mostly long-nose and large-scale suckers, both native Montana fish. Many more were large spawning rainbow trout, a wild but non-native, introduced fish in Montana.

Two native cutthroats were captured. In quick, one-and-a-half-minute surgical procedures, Schmetterling implanted radio transmitters in the bellies of both fish.

On Monday of this week, the Ovando students started tracking their fish on the Web site.

"I think it's a real great opportunity for students to learn to understand their environment, and how to take care of what we've got - hands on," said Ovando teacher Linda Hugulet. "We'll do a whole unit where we track our trout and learn more about their migrations. It will tie in math and science. And we'll do some writing on it, so English and language arts will be involved. We'll be doing some conversions from the metric measurements and distances the biologists use to standard measurements. And we'll also do art projects in connection with it.

"It's something I'm hoping the students will follow through the summer, because they'll be able to go on the Web site at home. We do quite a bit of environmental science at our school, so it really ties in with that wonderfully. And I think it will teach them to be better stewards of the land."

Schmetterling said he is pleased that one area of his research is made accessible to students through the Adopt-A-Trout Program.

"All the fish we capture at the dam, we assume came down over the dam at some point," says David Schmetterline, of Fish, Widlife and Parks. The fish stage at the base of the dam in a futile effort to return to their spawning stream.
Photo by MICHAEL GALLCHER/Missoulian

"Through following fish migration," he said, "students can learn about a lot of things. They can learn about the biology of fish, the types of habitat they use, how those habitats may be influenced by people, and the problems fish have with their migration. There are hundreds of questions and answers that can come out of this. The deeper you look into it, the more complex things are. Some problems, such as the impact of Milltown Dam, are very complex, as are the remedies we are exploring."

The students will encounter a variety of other environmental problems as they follow their fish, Schmetterling said. Examples include habitat degradation, and the illegal pike introduction in Milltown Reservoir, and how the pike impact native fish.

There are no easy solutions to many of those problems, Schmetterling said. But in the long run, he said, education will be the key.

"One thing I hope students get out of this is an appreciation for the uniqueness of the native fish of Montana," he said. "If they have an appreciation for that, it will really help conservation in the future."

Greg Neudecker of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a member of the Blackfoot Challenge board of directors, said he is excited about the potential of the Adopt-A-Trout Program.

Neudecker is the assistant state coordinator of the FWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, which works with watershed groups and landowners to protect and restore habitat on private lands.

"It's a non-regulatory approach to fish and wildlife regulation," Neudecker said. "It's all voluntary. We provide funds and technical expertise."

Schmetterling's research grabbed his attention, Neudecker said, because tracking fish movements can help identify areas of stream habitat in need of protection or restoration.

"I don't think you can be successful protecting or restoring fish and wildlife habitat without community involvement," Neudecker said. "When you think about it, in these rural communities, these kids in school are going to be the land managers in the future. It's exciting thinking about these kids going home, and getting on the home computer, and showing their folks how a fish is moving up a tributary in their backyard, all the way from Missoula."

Internet provides way for all to join

The nice thing about the Adopt-A-Trout educational program instituted by the Blackfoot Challenge this year is that students and teachers throughout Montana, in fact anyone in the world, can join in - by way of the Internet.

The site includes a teacher's guide, with lesson plans for different grades and incorporating a variety of academic disciplines.

Everyone with access to the Internet can monitor the spawning migration of the native cutthroat trout, implanted with radio transmitters, that are part of research conducted by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks on the impacts of Milltown Dam.

The Web site also has science links, an explanation of radio-telemetry, information about the Blackfoot Challenge and its partners, and a "question of the week" posed by students in the program to FWP biologist David Schmetterling, along with his answer.

The only part of the Adopt-A-Trout Program that other schools can't participate in is the field trips, said Tina Bernd-Cohen, executive director of the Blackfoot Challenge.

One of the goals of the program, she said, is to encourage other schools to take advantage of it. Already, it's attracted considerable interest from teachers and fisheries biologists.

"We have all these other fisheries biologists across the state champing at the bit to create the same thing in their watershed," she said. "There has been talk about doing a statewide adopt-a-fish program. Another dream of mine is to extend the educational aspect of the program by tracking the habitat through various changes. So you could have an adopt-a-stream program that could help students understand the interconnectedness of the ecosystem."

For more information about the Adopt-A-Trout Program, call Bernd-Cohen at 406-442-4002.