Fall Creek Bull Trout Recovery Project

Take a look at this excerpt from our partners' FRI 2025-2026 Annual Report about our collaborative project to recover bull trout in Fall Creek.

"Southwest of Rocky Mountain House in Fall Creek, a small population of native bull trout is at risk from cumulative effects in the area. With Freshwater Conservation Canada leading efforts to inspect and reclaim undesignated stream crossings in the area, Fall Creek was chosen by a coalition of fish scientists for a first-of-its-kind in Alberta: bull trout range expansion stocking. The group is composed of ourselves, the Alberta Conservation Association, departments of the federal and provincial governments, Freshwater Conservation Canada, and West Fraser, which sponsored funding for the project through the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta. Range expansion stocking reduces the risk of local extirpation for small fish populations by establishing a new sub-population in a previously unoccupied part of their range. At Fall Creek, bull trout have been limited to the lower reaches by a large waterfall, leaving the upper section of this watershed naturally fishless. The Fall Creek Bull Trout Recovery project team is working to establish a new sub-population of bull trout above the waterfall. In 2025, we analyzed data from temperature dataloggers, installed by FCC, to confirm that it is suitable bull trout habitat and help select good sites for the translocation. This enables the team to move fertilized eggs and hatchery-reared fry to upper Fall Creek in 2026. The Water and Fish Program’s Sam Chevalier will be doing a Master’s project tracking the effectiveness of the egg transfer. Successful methods could be replicated at other appropriate locations."

To read FRI's full Annual Report, click here.

Lelsey Peterson, Director of Conservation at Freshwater Conservation Canada, arriving at Fall Creek Falls.