Due to increasing concerns about the potential impacts of lake trout on Bear Lake's endemic species, last fall the Idaho Department of Fish and Game became interested in a change in fisheries management at Bear Lake.
Endemic species are species found no where else.
As a means to insure that the stocked lake trout would not someday become self-sustaining, and possibly lead to extinction of Bear Lake s endemic species, the department proposed ending lake trout stocking. Self-sustaining populations of lake trout have had devastating impacts on cutthroat trout, bull trout, and kokanee in Northern Idaho's Priest Lake and in Montana s Flathead Lake, and there is concern that the same may happen in Lake Pend Oreille. Lake trout are also causing significant concern in Yellowstone Lake. So far, lake trout in Bear Lake, where they have been stocked for more than 80 years, have not become self-sustaining, and are maintained by periodic stocking. However, lake trout populations persisted in Priest Lake for over 50 years, and in Flathead Lake for nearly 60 years, before starting to impact the fisheries in those lakes.