Submitted by Dayson Romain and Rory Macleod
Drought of trout? Native fish local to Castlegar are facing ruthless summers, but why? B.C. experienced an extremely dry summer in 2023 causing mass drought. This drought has had an immense impact on our native aquatic wildlife on multiple levels.
So, what’s the big deal? Trout and other fish species are important to the West Kootenay, providing for the people for hundreds of years. These trout droughts are causing panic on local and provincial scales.
Impacts
Populations of native trout have seen the greatest amount of pressure and stress from the drought. Of course, drought means less water availability for trout, but drought in the summer months is much more complex than that. Drought and elevated temperatures create a snowball effect that impacts the structure of the stream. Lower water levels in streams can create isolated pools or pools with low flow. The low water levels dry riffles and small falls, removing the opportunity for aeration in the stream. Lower lake and stream levels compress habitat and temperature refuge, meaning predator and prey must share the valuable habitat. Lower levels also cause water temperatures to raise to a fatal level.
Oxygen is best stored in cold water, 4 degrees Celsius, to be exact. Warm water temperatures increase the metabolic rate of fish, in turn they need to intake more oxygen from the already depleted system. This snowball effect continues throughout the waterbody and is extremely detrimental to trout populations and health.
Actions
So how does one mitigate the risk? Provincial governments practice multiple procedures to mitigate impacts of trout populations by closing many watersheds to fishing or heavily regulating access. Local Castlegar systems are included; streams within sub regions (MU’S) 4-3 to 4-9 were closed to fishing from 2 p.m. to midnight starting on Aug. 2. This regulation exempted multiple main tributaries of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers.
There are also many practices that an individual can use to mitigate impacts on trout in these high stress water bodies. For example, an angler could search up the water conditions on Water Survey of Canada or test the water temperature with a simple thermometer. Anglers could also avoid fishing in streams or lakes that exceed 20 degrees Celsius, limit time in isolated pools where fish go to find refuge, limit the fish’s air exposure and practice catch and release fishing. These are just a few of the things that people can do to help conserve this great species of fish.
Why?
Trout are important to everything, and everyone who reside or recreate within the ecosystem. The fish provide balance within the ecosystem, managing bug populations, acting has a food source for bears and other animals, and when they die the carcasses release nutrients into the streams and forests. Trout are extremely important to any ecosystem, but here in the West Kootenay, and specifically for the community of Castlegar, they generate a great economic opportunity.
Every summer thousands of people fly or drive to Castlegar to experience the amazing fishery and scenic views our great town has to offer. And when they come, they must spend money on hotel rooms, gas for their cars and boats, tackle from our local tackle shops, food from our stores, and guiding services. This helps to drive our economy creating more jobs and allowing our town to thrive and flourish. This is why trout are vital to not only our ecosystems, but our economy and we should come together as a community to help protect our native trout populations. Ensuring not only their future but our town’s as well.
Dayson Romain and Rory Macleod are second year Recreation, Fish & Wildlife students at Castlegar’s Selkirk College.
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