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Global warming will have profound effects on the northern Rocky Mountains of the U.S. The impact of global warming on cold water fisheries, which are already stressed by degraded habitat, disease, and hybridization, will be profound. Global warming will increase water temperature and decrease stream flow. Native fisheries have evolved with, and depend upon, cold water and interconnected habitat for survival. Native trout like bull trout and westslope cutthroat are already imperiled from the cumulative impacts of a century of logging, dams, mining and urbanization in the northern Rockies. Global warming may constitute the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back and leads to the extinction of numerous populations and perhaps entire species.
This paper touches upon the challenges presented by climate change in the face of habitat impacts that have already compromised native fish. Bull trout, one of the nation's largest freshwater salmonids, require the coldest water of all native fish. They can provide an excellent yardstick to measure aquatic health and protect other native fish throughout their home range in the northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest. Their protection under the Endangered Species Act will help spur conservation and recovery efforts, which can dovetail with a strategy to protect the species from climate change.
Timely and effective pro-active measures are needed to ensure the survival of native fish. Cooperative habitat improvement projects can improve current populations and buffer habitat from some of the effects of global warming. We suggest a coordinated combination of ecosystem based habitat protection and restoration, education and outreach focused on bull trout and westslope cutthroat to address the effects of global warming before those effects overtake already imperiled populations.
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Read more: download the full report (PDF, 20 pages, 774kb)
The Sierra Club and Resilient Habitats.