YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
From Sept. 2-13, the following areas of the Upper Gibbon river drainage in the central portion of Yellowstone National Park will close for fisheries work:
- Virginia Cascades Drive
- Wolf Lake Trail
- Wolf Lake Cutoff Trail (to Ice Lake)
Areas of the backcountry to the north and south between Canyon and Norris Junctions (see map).
All
campsites in the area will remain open and closures may lift if the project is
completed ahead of schedule.
Closures are necessary for park staff to continue work on a project to
eliminate non-native fish from the upper Gibbon River drainage, which includes
streams that flow out of Grebe, Wolf and Ice lakes. Once non-native fish have
been removed, biologists will reintroduce native fish to the streams in this
area.
Biologists will remove non-native rainbow and brook trout using the fish toxin
rotenone. Rotenone is a naturally occurring chemical compound derived from the
roots of tropical plants. Below the treatment area, biologists will add
potassium permanganate to the water to remove the effects of rotenone and
prevent impacts to downstream waters. To ensure the removal of non-native fish,
these treatments may be repeated in 2020. Reintroduction of fish will begin in
2020 or 2021.
This work continues the park’s efforts to create refuges that support the
introduction of westslope cutthroat trout and Arctic grayling. The historic stocking of non-native
fish nearly eliminated these species from Yellowstone. In recent years, the
park has attempted to restore them to the East Fork of Specimen Creek, Goose
Lake and Grayling Creek. Planning documents describing this work can be found
on the National Park Service planning website.
