Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has completed habitat restoration work on the Madison River in Bear Trap Canyon, creating improved spawning conditions for trout in an area that has historically had low fish numbers.
The project involved enlarging an existing island and narrowing the side channel between the island and the riverbank to increase water velocities. This design helps clear fine sediment and exposes the gravel beds that trout need for successful spawning.
Madison River trout get new spawning habitat - See how this restoration project aims to boost fish numbers in Bear Trap Canyon
"There's an island on the Madison that we have enlarged, and the side channel between the island and the bank here has been narrowed so that water velocities can increase and clear out a lot of the finer sediment to leave gravels that trout need to spawn," said Morgan Jacobsen with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
Crews worked for several weeks to complete the restoration project, which required temporary restrictions on public access to the area during construction.
Now that construction is finished, officials are asking the public to continue avoiding the area through March to protect spawning trout. The spawning season for trout runs from October through March.
"Especially this time of year, really between October and March, that's the spawning season for trout, and so we want to give them some space to be able to use this place that we built to encourage spawning to occur there," Jacobsen said. "So that includes both recreational floating, but we'd also encourage anglers to not fish in this area around the island, really to give trout an opportunity to spawn successfully."
The restoration project represents a partnership between Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, NorthWestern Energy, the Bureau of Land Management, and River Design Group.
Fish, Wildlife & Parks will continue monitoring the area to evaluate the success of the habitat improvements in boosting trout reproduction in this historically low-production stretch of the Madison River.
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