What the work on Yellowstone Lake is all about. A beautiful native Yellowstone Cutt from Yellowstone Lake.
Once again it’s our distinct pleasure to present another People of Fly Fishing interview.
Today’s featured fly fishing luminary is Scott Christy, currently serving as Trout Unlimited’s Wyoming Coordinator, who just happens to be based in one of the most outrageously nifty places in the world – Lander, Wyoming.
Scott kindly responded to our request for an interview and took time out of a very busy fall schedule to scribe responses to a few questions. We had the pleasure of first meeting Scott online back in August when he sent us some very useful information about the lake trout tagging program (the Judas trout) they were assisting with on Yellowstone Lake.
That program in fact prompted our first question below, perhaps even more pertinent given the Yellowstone lake trout update released last week in YNP’s Natural Resource Vital Signs report we chatted about here.
We first had the pleasure of chatting with you a few months back regarding the most recent Yellowstone Lake tagging program. What’s the latest news on that front?
What a kick start this year has been for our efforts to save the native Yellowstone cutthroat in Yellowstone Lake. The lake trout movement study is under way and we’re told by the Yellowstone Lake Science Panel that it is a critical step to combat lake trout predation ofYellowstone cutthroat. Basically, if we can figure out where these fish go, we can figure out how to better target them. Towards the end of the summer one hundred and forty one transmitters were implanted in lake trout and forty receivers were deployed to gather data on the Lake. The big thing is that we’re still trying to raise money for the movement study this coming year as the scientists tell us we need to add around 150 more telemetry tags and 40 more receivers in order to be statistically effective. The cost for each tag is $400 and the receivers run around $1400. If anyone wants to support this effort by buying a tag or receiver please contact me. We could really use the help.
What other initiatives / projects are at the top of your list for 2012?
We’ve got more things going on than I can fully outline here. Everything from youth education through our Adopt A Trout program to actively organizing in opposition to HR 1581 (the Roadless Release Act).
Congrats on Wyoming TU being named the Partner of the Year for 2011 by the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust. Tell us a bit about that.
Thanks. We’re pretty darn honored to receive the award. TU’s Wyoming Water Project has worked amazingly hard to develop beneficial partnerships with land owners that get projects on the ground benefiting all stakeholders and the resource. Over the last two years we’ve reconnected or restored 500 miles of stream habitat with the help of the WWNRT in 20 different projects. For example, one project in we’re working on right now in the Bighorn Basin will reconnect over 140 miles of native Yellowstone Cutthroat habitat for the first time in nearly 80 years.
What are the waterway / habitat hot potatoes in Wyoming right now?
The proposed Million pipeline comes immediately to mind. The idea, put forth by Colorado developer Aaron Million, is to build a privately held pipeline to send water from the Green River in southwest Wyoming and send it to urban Colorado. My friend and TU compatriot Walt Gasson sums it up well when he says, “Certainly it makes no sense to take 250,000 acre feet of water a year out of the Green River and ship it to the Front Range to grow blue grass.” To overstate the obvious, fish need water and we’re pretty concerned about what such an effort to take our water could mean for the health of our trout fisheries in Wyoming.
How can fly fishers around the country help you and your team make a difference in Wyoming this next year?
1. Join TU. The more people who actively get involved in fisheries conservation with TU the more effective our voice is when we want to speak for a given fisheries issue, both nationally and locally.
2. Care about our Wyoming public land fisheries. Every day we’re working for the health of our fisheries on both public and private land. Working with private landowners is often a long term process of partnering on a case by case basis, but public lands? Well, they’re public. They belong to everyone who is a citizen of the United States and by staying educated and involved one can ensure that they are managed to keep our fisheries healthy. What I’m telling you is that these lands are yours, and if you don’t care about them as an angler then someone else who doesn’t care a bit about fish will be heard instead.
We’ll have the second half of Scott’s interview posted (most likely) on Sunday the 20th.
Lake Trout caught by trap nets on Yellowstone Lake. When caught by suppression efforts the fish are measured, sexed, and then killed.
Tags: People of Fly Fishing
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Great interview, guys… Scott’s a great dude, and all of us at TU appreciate you not making fun of his haircut … Keep up the great work.
CH
Chris – appreciate you stopping by and it was our pleasure to chat with Scott. The pic he gave us of himself (going up on Sunday with the second part of his interview) has his hair strategically covered….are we missing something we really could be making fun of???
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