Speak up for the wild Scapegoat Wilderness and all of its native inhabitants!

The U.S. Forest Service (FS) is considering a proposal by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) to poison 67 miles of streams and three small lakes in the North Fork Blackfoot watershed in the Scapegoat Wilderness, part of the famed Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. Please speak up by the March 12 deadline.

The State’s goal is to kill the fish they’ve been stocking in these headwater streams for several decades and replace them with westslope cutthroat trout, a species they deem to be more attractive to anglers. The plan involves massive amounts of helicopter and motorized equipment use, in addition to spreading hundreds of gallons of the poison rotenone.

Wilderness Watch has three major concerns with the State’s plan.

1. The lakes and streams in the upper North Fork are all naturally fishless and should not be managed as an artificial “fishery”. While the State and Forest Service refer to the original condition of this watershed as barren, in fact the streams and lakes are rich aquatic ecosystems filled with life. The native aquatic biota are harmed by introduced fish and many would be killed by the poison. In Orwellian fashion, the FS and FWP refer to the project as “restoration,” yet it isn’t restoring any condition that ever existed in the upper North Fork Blackfoot. If the State wants to remove the introduced fish, it should do so in a manner consistent with Wilderness.
    
2. The State plan includes 60 or more helicopter flights to haul in poisons and other equipment, a motorboat for poisoning the lakes, and extensive use of generators and other motorized equipment in the Wilderness. The Wilderness Act prohibits all of these activities unless they are the minimum required for preserving Wilderness. Because the project has nothing to do with wilderness preservation, the FS must reject the State’s proposal as submitted.
    
3. The Forest Service appears ready to approve the project without completing any independent environmental analysis, and shortchanging public comment. A project of this magnitude in Wilderness should require completing an environmental impact statement that looks at the impacts to the entire aquatic ecosystem, and considers alternatives to the State’s massive ecosystem manipulation and motorized use plan. Making matters worse, the FS is allowing less than two weeks for public comment.

Speak up for the wild Scapegoat Wilderness and all of its native critters.  Comments are due March 12, 2021. Please consider using your own words in our comment form or sharing a personal experience there.

Urge the Forest Service to say NO to Montana’s proposal to invade the Scapegoat with helicopters, motorboats, and poisons. The appropriate response to the presence of introduced fish in these waters is to let nature take its course as the Wilderness Act prescribes. If efforts are made to remove the fish, it must be done without motors and poisons. Under no conditions should other fish be stocked in the area.