Canyon Ferry Lake in Montana is one of the region’s most popular recreation and fishing spots – but in recent decades illegally-introduced walleye bullied yellow perch and trout, throwing the fishery out of balance.
So, starting in the early 2000s, state agencies every spring have used helicopters to fly in strings of old Christmas trees and drop them into the water.
The trees are weighted with cinderblocks and sink to the bottom. There, they provide spawning habitat for perch, as well as protection for hatchlings.
That’s helped strike an even balance between all three fish species that anglers love – yellow perch, walleye and rainbow trout, Nathan Jaksha, the Helena region fisheries biologist with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP), told Cowboy State Daily.
Somebody Dumped Walleyes In
Canyon Ferry Lake is actually a reservoir created by a dam on the Missouri River near Helena and Townsend, Montana.
It was “historically a perch and rainbow trout fishery,” Jaksha said.
However, in the late 1980s, somebody illegally dumped walleye into the reservoir. By the late 1990s, walleyes were dominating other fish species, including perch, trout and white suckers, he said.
The walleyes gobble smaller fish, such as yellow perch hatchlings.
There were some efforts to seriously cut back or possibly even eliminate the walleyes, but to no avail. And anglers started taking a liking to them.
“No matter what we did, they (walleye) were established, and people here started liking walleye as much as they do in the Midwest, where they’re native,” Jaksha said.
Christmas Trees To The Rescue
The perch needed somewhere safe to spawn, and where their hatchlings could have a chance to grow.
The solution came in the form of old Christmas trees.
FWP joined forces with local Boy Scout Troops and Walleyes Unlimited to collect trees that people in tossed out at the end of the holiday season.
The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) provides choppers and flight crews.
“It’s been going strong since 2002,” Jaksha said.
Strings Of Trees
Holes are drilled into the bases of the trees, so they can be strung together roughly a dozen at a time, and then weighted with cinderblocks.
The only possible snag going forward is a diminishing supply of Christmas trees.
Helena and Bozeman, Montana have been the primary sources of trees, Jaksha said. But the City of Bozeman started using old Christmas trees as mulch, so that supply line dried up.
And it seems as if “more people are using fake Christmas trees,” Jaksha said.
“We like to get around 2,000 trees” in the water during March and early April, Jaksha said.
About 1,300 trees were dumped into Canyon Ferry this spring.
Perch Need Vegetation
When they spawn, “yellow perch release a stringy, gelatinous egg mass,” Jaksha said.
They need underwater vegetation for the eggs to cling to, so they don’t get “silted in” on the reservoir bottom and deprived of oxygen, he said.
Old Christmas trees are great for that. And once the eggs hatch, the pine boughs give the young perch a place to hide from ravenous walleyes.
Despite waning numbers of Christmas trees, Jaksha hopes the tradition of dropping them in to Canyon Ferry Lake can continue, so anglers can get the variety of fish that they want.
Contact Mark Heinz at mark@cowboystatedaily.com
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
