Experts meet to save threatened and endangered native trout species

Experts from across North America gathered in Calgary to share data and consider how to restore Alberta trout populations.

A group of experts are coming together in the city for a three-day conference to find out how to help a critical part of Alberta’s ecosystem recover.

The Alberta Native Trout Science Workshop runs in Calgary from Feb. 26 to 28 and brings together industry, academia, government, First Nations and NGOs to share everything surrounding native trout recovery.

“In Alberta we have three stream dwelling native trout that are all federally and provincially listed as either threatened or endangered,” said Lesley Peterson, director of conservation for Freshwater Conservation Canada.

“That’s all of our stream-dwelling native trout, they’re all in trouble, we’re all working together to address the threats that are affecting these populations and prioritizing action and then actually implementing those projects.”

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Peterson says those three species of native trout are Athabasca rainbow trout up in the Athabasca watershed, bull trout along the eastern and west slope and cutthroat trout in the Bow and Old Man drainages.

This is the second year for the event that was first held in 2023 and it’s sold out, with 160 attendees from all over North America.

“Everyone brings something different to the table so we all have to know what each other is doing so that we can kind of coordinate our own activities and it’s really important that Albertans know what’s going on,” she said.

“Fish are indicators of overall watershed health and it’s kind of like a report card. If the fisheries aren’t doing well, it’s probably because there are things happening on the landscape that are causing problems for other things as well.”

Ben Kissinger, FRI Research water and fish program lead and adjunct professor at the University of Calgary, says the event is an opportunity to connect all the people and organizations interested in recovering native fish with a focus on native trout within Alberta.

“We do applied research related to questions with fish and water,” he said.

“The studies that we do are designed to help inform management and policymakers and industry to interact better with the landscape, in my world specific to fish and predominantly working on native trout.”

Kissinger and his team are researching the impact of water temperature on fish and help people take action to recover aquatic habitat because fish die when the water is too warm.

“Unlike humans that regulate their own body temperature, a fish’s body temperature is influenced by the environment surrounding it and so their metabolic processes function best within a narrow range of temperatures,” he said.

“So if they get pushed above that, it can put them into a scenario where they release stress hormones or the proteins within their bodies aren’t functioning at their best capacity.”

Kissinger says some species do better than others in warmer water.

“So that’s where having non-native species or species that might exist in those warmer habitats could result in encroachment or competition with our native species,” he said.

“Adding a whole other layer of challenges to recovering these species on the landscape.”

Organizers say the event is an opportunity to connect all the people and organizations interested in recovering native fish and guest speakers will share work being done now throughout the province.

Workshops will guide participants towards sharing updates, research, questions and ideas on trout and fish habitat recovery in Alberta.

“A lot of times we all have our head down and we’re doing our jobs and we forget that we don’t know what everyone else is doing,” said Peterson.

“So this is really about information sharing, networking, bringing people together and they’ll publish the conference proceedings so that there’s a lasting document that will result from this as well.”

Some of the themes up for discussion include cumulative effects, climate change, non-native species interactions, angling, genetics, habitat, research advances, cows and fish, forestry and fish, communication and outreach, monitoring threats.

Learn more about the host organization here: https://www.freshwaterconservationcanada.org/