LIVINGSTON - One year ago, the Yellowstone River was flowing in places it had not before. The historic flooding caused damage and changed some of the land around it.
It certainly affected those who live near it, but what about those that live in it?
Morgan Jacobsen of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks said they have received a lot of questions about that. He said yearly sampling on the Yellowstone River has continued.
Jacobsen said fish they sampled before the flooding have been re-captured. In some places, the numbers are actually pretty good. He says at Crowin Springs there has been an increase in brown, rainbow, and cutthroat trout numbers. Brown trout numbers are also in the Mill Creek area, but rainbow and cutthroat numbers are down.
Jacobsen said the bottom line is the fish are still there. The fish in the Yellowstone River have been dealing with flooding events for thousands of years and will deal with them again someday.
FWP expects the fisheries of the Yellowstone River to fully recover from last year’s floods.
