Conservation groups file federal lawsuit against National Park Service over Gunsight Lake project

Sep. 17—Local conservation groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court which alleges the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act by approving a trout reintroduction project in Gunsight Lake.

The lawsuit revolves around the park's plans to reintroduce bull trout and west slope cutthroat trout in Gunsight Lake in hopes that the fish will repopulate the St. Mary drainage. Park biologists argue that moving both native trout species to the high alpine lake will protect them from the threats of hybridization and climate change, according to the project's environmental assessment.

West slope cutthroat trout and bull trout have never lived in Gunsight Lake because a waterfall prevented upstream migration. According to the project's assessment, this will protect the native fish from hybridization because nonnative fish cannot reach the lake, and their own populations will only be able to move downstream.

Members of Friends of the Wild Swan and the Council on Wildlife and Fish disagreed with the project from its inception.

Previously, the groups sent a 60-day notice letter to the agencies for violating the Endangered Species Act by approving actions without a valid permit and without recognizing it was experimenting on endangered populations like bull trout, which is listed as a threatened species. The groups said they would take legal action if the park and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not change course.

The groups filed a complaint with U.S. District Court on Sept. 16 that alleged the federal agencies violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act, in addition to the Endangered Species Act.

The project's plan was to kill and remove the nonnative fish in Gunsight Lake and replace them with bull trout sourced from streams in and outside of the park, as well as propagating more fish at a hatchery located outside of the park, according to the project's environmental assessment.

Members of the groups said the environmental assessment "never analyzes or discloses key questions on how many bull trout it will take from streams, from what streams it will take them, at what hatchery it will propagate them, or how many it will introduce into Gunsight Lake to establish a genetically viable population," according to the release.

The release goes on to say that the park service's "vague plan lacks essential, foreseeable details because the agency wanted to finish the plan later with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — outside the light of public notice and comment," which they claim is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.

The groups claim that the park service violated NEPA in other ways, by failing to determine whether this project is necessary now that the Bureau of Reclamation is rebuilding the St. Mary Diversion Dam and eliminating the largest obstacle to bull trout recovery. In addition to this, the park service also decided to stock mountain whitefish in Gunsight Lake after public comment had ended, according to the Friends of the Wild Swan and the Council on Wildlife and Fish.

Because NEPA contains no judicial review provision, courts review NEPA decisions under the Administrative Procedures Act, according to court documents.

"Glacier Park is keeping the public in the dark and planning this experiment in secret," Arlene Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan said in the release. "They are tinkering with a threatened species to create an isolated population of bull trout in a place they never lived before."

The release said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent a new permit to the groups issued in June 2024 that does not allow propagating new bull trout — part of the park service's plan for trout reintroduction.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is out of control, neglecting its primary duty to recover the threatened St. Mary bull trout population, " Steve Kelly with the Council on Wildlife and Fish said in the release. "All this dithering and speculative experimentation detracts from the basic immediate needs of bull trout."

Katharine Hammond, the regional director for National Park Service Interior Regions 6, 7 and 8, last year signed off on findings that there were no significant adverse effects from the project. The project was approved in August 2023 after a public comment period.

Glacier National Park officials did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com.