Update on Native Trout Recovery

July 25, 2018

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• Action Alerts
• Fish and Forest
• Native Coldwater Fish

Hi everyone, it’s Joanna, your friendly neighbourhood Conservation Specialist with an update on work that’s happening for native fish in Alberta.

As you may know, late last year the government announced plans to recover native fish in the Central Eastern Slopes of Alberta. Called the North Central Native Trout Recovery Program (NCNT), it aimed to close a number of watersheds to angling for 5 years, which would be coupled with other initiative such as habitat restoration, water quality improvements, and the suppression of non-native fish.

Some anglers raised concerns, feeling they were being progressively restricted while habitat issues were not being addressed.
As a result, in late February of this year, Minister Phillips announced the government would be conducting an independent review to confirm whether the approach taken by the NCNT is the best one for native trout recovery.

This summer, AWA was invited to participate in a meeting to discuss how to best move forward with the science review, which will be conducted by the Environmental Monitoring and Science Division.The stakeholders at the table – which included anglers, conservation groups, and scientists – agreed to act as an Advisory Committee during the Third-Party Science Review; to be completed by the end of the year.

Another meeting is slated for late-July, so the Committee can meet the experts undertaking the review and provide guidance on what the scope of the review should be.

More information:

My article in the December issue of the Wild Lands Advocate describe the main proposals under the program and our thoughts.

Fly-fishing instructor Jim McLennan explained his concerns behind the government’s decisions for trout recovery in the March issue.