The year 2005 marked the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Many conservationists consider the era of Lewis and Clark a benchmark for the health of the wildlife and wild places of the Northern Rockies. One of Lewis and Clark’s missions was to bring back word and samples of the wondrous flora and fauna of this exciting, vast land. Among those unique native species, existing in great abundance and distribution, was the westslope cutthroat trout or as it was later scientifically named Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi, in honor of the explorers. This fish was so abundant, it went almost unnoticed. Sadly, today westslope cutthroat trout are in precipitous decline.

The westslope cutthroat trout is an indicator species of the health of the entire ecosystem. It requires pure, cold water conditions for survival, secure connected habitat (tributaries and main stems), protection from introduced non-native fish, and an especial sensitivity to its wild naivete so as not to be over-harvested. When these requirements are not met, WCT numbers plummet; in the extreme, the subspecies disappears. Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi will disappear from the Northern Rockies without a region wide, long-term effective protection and recovery effort.

Pure WCT are extinct throughout most of their historic range, and existing populations are in imminent danger from land-use activities and hybridization with introduced rainbow and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Even the strongest populations in Glacier National Park and the Flathead Basin of Montana are in serious decline. Reasons for the critical condition of the WCT include habitat destruction from logging, road building, grazing, mining,urban development, agriculture and dams, introduction of artificial hatchery strains, competition and hybridization from introduced non-native fish species, and over-fishing.