Quote:
Originally Posted by Myles
Bull trout and cutthroat trout are both threatened species in this province. Sedimentation caused from eroding ATV trails negatively impacts the spawning beds of these fish and destroys their habitat when ATVs are operated in streams. Bull trout have been our provincial fish since the 90's and their population is not recovering. Something needs to change to turn this around.
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You might want to reach past the low hanging"atv's are the problem" fruit you and so many others reach for and educate yourself a little
This paper published in 1196 speaks of the encouraged eradication of the bull trout found in the lakes and steams of the mountainous region.
http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/bookstore_pdfs/18891.pdf
" the harvest of fish from Lac La Biche that supported the westward expansion of the fur trade and settlement in her doctoral thesis. The annual harvest of lake whitefish increased from 85 tons caught in 1800 to over 1,200 tons in 1875. But even subsistence harvest by a relatively small population was not sustainable and the fishery collapsed in 1878."
"Why did historically abundant populations of Arctic grayling (and northern pike, bull trout and mountain whitefish) disappear from the Beaverlodge River? Alberta Fish and Wildlife investigations report a “perfect storm” of cumulative, synergistic causes that resulted in crashes in fish numbers and distribution. The perfect storm came in the form of a series of land use decisions. Forest was rapidly replaced by agricultural fields; riparian fringes were narrowed and often disappeared with the patterns of settlement. Wetlands were drained and now roads interrupt drainage and channel flow. They send water to rivers faster. Both floods and droughts are exacerbated."
" In 2005, Travis Ripley,then a provincial fisheries biologist, extirpation of bull trout, in as little as two decades, from 24 to 43 percent of streams in the Kakwa River Basin subject to logging and road construction"
“Two sportsmen went out after trout at Fish Creek one day last week and
as a result brought back 400 fish.” Yes, anglers were greedy, wasteful, and
even rapacious, but the bigger impacts that destroyed trout populations were the landscape scale impacts on trout habitat: logging, mining, hydropower development, agriculture, and petroleum development.
The combination of overfishing and industrial land uses depleted cutthroat populations"
"It is apparent that perhaps less than five percent of historical habitat is currently occupied by cutthroat in the Bow watershed, somewhat more in the Oldman."
https://albertawilderness.ca/wordpre...sis_lfitch.pdf
"Fitch studied 54 small rivers and streams that flow into the Oldman River and hold bull and cutthroat trout. He found nearly every one of the waterways face multiple pressures: from logging roads to energy development to off-highway vehicle trails.
The banks of Hidden Creek, spawning waters for up to 80 per cent of the Oldman’s bull trout, are weakened by clear-cuts and stream crossings and are falling in on themselves. Cow Creek, with a confirmed cutthroat population, is contaminated by feedlot effluent and is drained for irrigation.
Fitch’s survey notes everything from motorcycle races to washed-out bridges to coal mining affecting creek after creek. Again and again he concludes “long-term cumulative impacts on cutthroat trout and bull trout.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle25477218/
"Most of the lakes in the mountain national parks were fishless before 1900. In a survey of 1464 lakes in Jasper, Banff, Yoho, Waterton, Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks, it was found that over 95% of the lakes did not contain fish until they were stocked in the 20th century"
"Since the early 1900s, nearly forty million fish have been introduced into the Bow watershed of Banff National Park"
"Lake Minnewanka was stocked with fish from 1901 to 1972. It's estimated that over 17 million eggs and fry of lake trout, Atlantic salmon, cisco, brook trout, cutthroat trout, splake, smallmouth bass, lake whitefish and rainbow trout were introduced into the lake's waters"
"This decline is the result of damaged habitat, over-fishing and the introduction of fish species which have displaced it. To protect the remaining populations of bull trout, all mountain national parks have instituted a zero catch and possession limit for the species"
https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/ban...ement-stocking
If you continue to ignore all the other contributing factors, that have greater impact, you will one day find yourself standing in the middle of no where, all alone with no fish to catch. At that point you can either head to the parks and take up fishing watching "
One way you can enjoy the fish in Banff National Park is simply by watching them or you can go back to playing Xbox in your mama's basement