Threatened Bonner County Fish
Countdown: 1 DAY TO GO until the CNCBC!! Have you downloaded the app, and created an account? Have you been practicing? Do you think you can find Sassy and win a CNCBC 2021 Trophy? Will you help Bonner County win the inaugural Northern Rocky Mountain Challenge Trophy? You just need to make ONE observation to help Bonner County compete to see which challenge gets the most people participating per capita. Get your family and friends involved, too…and your 5th cousin from Fargo if he’s visiting or passing through! You can even get your best friend, your dog, signed up (OK, that’s not true. Sorry. Got a little carried away there! You have to be human to participate).
Reminders:
1) You don’t have to live in Bonner County for your observations to count. So, folks from Benewah, Boundary, Clearwater, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, and Shoshone: come help! Next year the CNCBC can become a North Idaho Challenge! Heck, we even want our Washington and Montana neighbors to slip over the border and participate!
2) Dr. Jim Eakins of IDAH2O will be at the WaterLife Discovery Center (WDC) in Sagle on Saturday from 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM to teach about aquatic macroinvertebrates and how to ID them. Don’t miss this opportunity to speak with one of Idaho’s leading watershed experts! Learn about the Master Water Steward Program he administers. The WDC is a great place to make some observations, too.
3) Clues to Sassy’s location will be HERE, and on the Facebook Page, beginning TOMORROW!
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Here is a list of the most endangered Fish in Bonner County. You probably won’t see either of them, but that’s important to know, too: not only which species are present, but which ones we are in danger of losing from the ecosystem.
Bull Trout
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/taxa/19737
State Rank S4: Not rare and apparently secure, but with cause for long-term concern (usually more than 100 occurrences).
Kingdom: Animalia -> Phylum: Craniata -> Class: Actinopterygii -> Order: Salmoniformes -> Family: Salmonidae -> Species: Salvelinus confluentus
Encyclopedia of Life: --
NatureServe Profile: https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.106067/Salvelinus_confluentus
Integrated Taxonomic Information System: https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=162004#null
-US Endangered Species Act Threatened Species
-Bureau of Land Management Sensitive Species Type 1
-US Forest Service Intermountain Region Threatened Species
Animal Diversity Web: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Salvelinus_confluentus/
iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&taxon_id=111978
Montana Field Guide: https://fieldguide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=AFCHA05020
USGS: NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species: https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?SpeciesID=938
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From the Governor’s of Species Conservation: Bull Trout
https://species.idaho.gov/aquatic-species/bull-trout/
Final Bull Trout Recovery Plan
https://species.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/82/2016/05/Final_Bull_Trout_Recovery_Plan.pdf
US Fish and Wildlife Service: Bull Trout Critical Habitat
https://www.fws.gov/pacific/bulltrout/Habitat.cfm
Bull Trout background information – U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
https://www.fws.gov/pacific/bulltrout/
Bull trout 101: What anglers should know about this protected Idaho species
https://www.idahostatesman.com/outdoors/fishing/article245366815.html
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Burbot
https://idfg.idaho.gov/species/taxa/16458
State Rank S1: Critically imperiled because of extreme rarity or because some factor of its biology makes it especially vulnerable to extinction (typically 5 or fewer occurrences).
Kingdom: Animalia -> Phylum: Craniata -> Class: Actinopterygii -> Order: Gadiformes -> Family: Gadidae -> Species: Lota lota
Encyclopedia of Life: https://eol.org/pages/204768
NatureServe Profile: https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.101577/Lota_lota
Integrated Taxonomic Information System: https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=164725#null
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/135675/18233691
Animal Diversity Web: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Lota_lota/
iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&taxon_id=104813
Montana Field Guide: https://fieldguide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=AFCMA01010
USGS: NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species:
https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?SpeciesID=698
*Note: Burbot haven’t been observed in Bonner County, but they are found just to the north, and are a good recovery story.
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Pend Oreille Chapter of the Idaho Master Naturalists Webinar: Kootenai River Fish Restoration
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14fvoMe9jnepZeTilnY6jFP55ktH0p35W/view
-T.J. Ross, Senior Fishery Research Biologist for IDFG, conducted this presentation about the Kootenai River Fish Restoration Project on May 14, 2020. The addition of Libby Dam to the Kootenai River in NW Montana in 1972 resulted in significant negative impacts to the fisheries in the river downstream of the dam. The dam retains nutrients that previously flowed throughout the river system. In addition, levees had been added to the banks of the Kootenai River near Bonners Ferry 70-90 years ago to prevent flooding of the adjacent fields. Studies have shown that the flooded plains help young fish to grow after spawning, rather than being flushed downstream. IDFG and the Kootenai Tribe have been working to restore populations of burbot and white sturgeon. A nutrient addition project was implemented near the Montana-Idaho border in 2005, where Phosphorus and Nitrogen are injected into the river. This has improved the fisheries immediately downstream of the injection point and a second nutrient addition point is being considered near the confluence with the Moyie River. Burbot fishing was closed on the river in 1992, but with the increases in the population, burbot fishing was reopened in 2018. At about 59 minutes into the presentation, a video about the burbot was played, but the audio was poor. Here is a link to that video:
The decline and recovery of burbot in the Kootenai River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SK-5KHdjkM&feature=youtu.be
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