The geology below Yellowstone lake reflects shaping by lava flows where the lake lies within the caldera and shaping by glacial and other processes in the southern half of the lake that lies outside of the caldera.
NPS/Neal Herbert
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CODY (WNE) – Victory on Yellowstone Lake is within grasp.
Recent numbers show the battle is being won when it comes to Yellowstone cutthroat trout recovery in Yellowstone Lake, due to the decline of the invasive lake trout species.
“Nowhere else has seen the kind of adult lake trout collapse at the rate that has been achieved on Yellowstone Lake, not on the Great Lakes, not on Lake Pend Oreille (in Idaho),” said Dr. Michael Hansen, a recently retired biologist for the Great Lakes Science Center of the United States Geological Survey, and a longtime member of the Science Review Panel for the fisheries of Yellowstone National Park.
Dave Sweet, Yellowstone Lake special project manager for Wyoming Trout Unlimited, said lake trout data supports this analysis. This data was discussed during a series of science review panel meetings on the cutthroat’s recovery held in early April.
Intensive gill netting efforts have reduced adult lake trout – predators that prey the most on the cutthroats – to 10% of their peak population from just eight years ago. Now, the adult lake trout population is hovering around 10,000, representing only about 2% of the lake’s total trout population. Ten years ago that number was near 60,000.
Total numbers are still only estimates and projections, as no census exists for fish. Findings are reported about one year after collection.
Sweet said there is no accurate data existing on the current cutthroat population, but he said since 2010 when they were at roughly 250,000-300,000, their population has only been trending upward.
