The Alberta Conservation Association is set to begin this year’s work on the Cutthroat Trout Population Assessment –a three year project begun in 2007 that will draw to a timely close this year. The assessment will consider the density and abundance of cutthroat trout in several rivers in the Castle Drainage, situated immediately north of Waterton Lakes National Park.
Senior ACA Biologist Trevor Council indicated that the project is funded through both Devon Canada Corporation and the ACA itself. The association, Council described, as a “not-for-profit, registered charity largely funded by Alberta’s hunters and anglers through license levies, and a growing number of corporate partners.”
The drainage population assessment is the first comprehensive study of its kind in the Castle Drainage. Previous studies, Council indicated, were done on a much smaller scale, whereas the current study is the first drainage-wide project for the area.
The project uses two crews with two staff members each. Data sampling is conducted throughout the warmer summer months, while data entry, two staff members analyze and write reports in the fall and winter. “Data collection efforts were focused in July, August and Sept. in 2008, and will continue during the same time frame in 2009,” Council said.
ACA staff developed and implemented the study, and conducted the data analysis, though Alberta Environment and Alberta Fish and Wildlife fishery biologists assisted with some of the data collection.
“In total, approximately 85 sites will be randomly sampled throughout the drainage,” said Council, “sampling techniques include backpack and tote barge electrofishing (which temporarily stuns the fish) to capture and enumerate all fish species.” In addition, fisheries staff are collecting tissue samples from cutthroat trout. These samples will be analyzed at a later date to determine the degree of hybridization with rainbow trout. Tissue samples will also be collected from bull trout and analyzed to determine the degree of hybridization with brook trout.
Researchers hope data gathered from the project will benefit Alberta anglers and the fisheries as a resource for better understanding trout populations in the region. Though cutthroat trout are the focal species in consideration, bull trout, brook trout, rainbow trout and mountain whitefish have also been collected in the assessment.
The area in question includes the Castle River, Carbondale River, West and South Castle Rivers and the tributaries to these rivers.
“Cutthroat trout are found in the mountain streams of Alberta’s Eastern slopes in clear, clean, oxygen-rich water,” says Council. Cutthroat trout can be identified by an orange slash under their lower jaw, and by black spotting above the lateral line and towards the tail end of the fish.
Data collection will be completed in September 2009, and the entire three-year project will draw to a close by year-end. The ACA hopes information afforded by the study will “provide the fishery manager with a greater ability to protect and conserve these cutthroat trout populations.”
This project comes on the heels of a similar cutthroat trout population assessment, says Council, which was conducted in the Oldman River drainage. The upper Oldman Drainage assessment was conducted west of the Livingstone Range, upstream from an area known locally as “Gap Falls.” The “Gap” occurs in the middle of the Livingstone Range mountains, which exist north of Highway 3 and west of Highway 22.
The ACA’s governing structure includes representatives of hunting, fishing and naturalist groups, in addition to the government, First Nations, the general public and other groups. It is an organization which funds conservation projects, studies, programs and services in Alberta. For more information on the Alberta Conservation Association, check out their website at www.ab-conservation.com.
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