08-08-2008, 11:10 AM
GLASGOW, Mont. - Bill Wiedenheft, who served as FWP's Region 6 fisheries manager since 1992, is saying goodbye to the old and aloha to the new.
Wiedenheft, 56, retired from his post on the last day of June. He'll soon join his wife, Denise, in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she is employed by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Under Wiedenheft's leadership, fish stocks in Fort Peck Reservoir were stabilized and diversified, a new state-of-the-art hatchery designed to raise multiple types of species was established at Fort Peck, and vulnerable native fish such as sauger, paddlefish and pallid sturgeon were tracked and monitored with high-tech sophistication.
Anglers across northeastern Montana can also thank Wiedenheft and his versatile crews of biologists and technicians for vastly expanding fishing opportunities through increased stocking in the region's reservoirs, rivers and streams. Under Wiedenheft's helm, more than 500 million fish were transferred from hatcheries to their new, stocked homes.
Wiedenheft was born in Omaha, Neb. and graduated from high school in southern Minnesota. He earned a bachelor's of science degree in fish and wildlife management from Montana State University-Bozeman in 1974 and a master's degree in zoology from North Dakota State University-Fargo in 1980.
He started with FWP in 1974 as a seasonal high-lakes surveyor in the Beartooth Range and completed other fisheries studies on the Musselshell River. In 1982, he began working on the Boulder River near Big Timber and was soon named the lead biologist on Fort Peck Reservoir. He and Denise have a daughter and a son, both now grown.
While Wiedenheft's modesty is well-known, he's clearly proud of many accomplishments during his long career. High on the list is the decision to start taking eggs and milt from Fort Peck walleyes once it became apparent the fish were not fully reproducing on their own because of a lack of spawning habitat. Young fish are raised in the Fort Peck State Fish Hatchery before being released back into the wild. The practice has boosted walleye numbers, as well as survival rates.
Another key decision during Wiedenheft's tenure was to push ahead and stock spottail shiners and cisco as forage fish in Fort Peck. In other warm-water reservoirs, rainbow smelt had long been the preferred stocked forage fish. But the smelt can be hard to manage because their populations tend to fluctuate wildly. Cisco and spottail shiners typically have more stable life cycles, he said.
While there still were concerns that the new food species wouldn't work out, Wiedenheft said it's now a fine view looking back.
"It was the right decision," he said. "I can't imagine that anyone would challenge that. Apparently there was space out there for some other prey species. The results speak for themselves."
Wiedenheft also was in charge when the first Pacific salmon were introduced at Fort Peck in 1984. He said the salmonids, which primarily utilize cold, deep waters, did quite well at first. But as drought set in and reservoir water levels dropped, salmon had a tougher time.
"Our guess is that these fish are being preyed upon by other predator fish," Wiedenheft said. Part of the current strategy is to hold salmon longer in the hatchery so they'll be at least 8-inches long when stocked. That way they may be better able to elude the hungry mouths of walleye and northern pike.
Fort Peck lake trout, which in the past were self-sustaining, are also finding reduced water levels to be a challenge. Key spawning areas were "devastated" by drought, Wiedenheft said, adding there is now a clear need to take lake trout eggs and raise them in a hatchery setting to keep the population sustained.
But current legal restrictions on what can be raised at the Fort Peck State Fish Hatchery present a roadblock to helping lake trout, as well as other species, he said. A turning point in the management debate will occur if the fishing public gets more active, he predicted.
"People need to take charge of the funding issue and what fish are raised at Fort Peck," Wiedenheft said. "It will affect their fisheries for a long time into the future. They need to be engaged."
While reviewing his nearly three decades in the fisheries business, Wiedenheft said changes have often come at a rapid pace.
"It's like night and day," he said of the then and now. "It's not the same beast it used to be, not even close. It's a lot more complicated - a lot more bureaucracy."
Wiedenheft, 56, retired from his post on the last day of June. He'll soon join his wife, Denise, in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she is employed by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Under Wiedenheft's leadership, fish stocks in Fort Peck Reservoir were stabilized and diversified, a new state-of-the-art hatchery designed to raise multiple types of species was established at Fort Peck, and vulnerable native fish such as sauger, paddlefish and pallid sturgeon were tracked and monitored with high-tech sophistication.
Anglers across northeastern Montana can also thank Wiedenheft and his versatile crews of biologists and technicians for vastly expanding fishing opportunities through increased stocking in the region's reservoirs, rivers and streams. Under Wiedenheft's helm, more than 500 million fish were transferred from hatcheries to their new, stocked homes.
Wiedenheft was born in Omaha, Neb. and graduated from high school in southern Minnesota. He earned a bachelor's of science degree in fish and wildlife management from Montana State University-Bozeman in 1974 and a master's degree in zoology from North Dakota State University-Fargo in 1980.
He started with FWP in 1974 as a seasonal high-lakes surveyor in the Beartooth Range and completed other fisheries studies on the Musselshell River. In 1982, he began working on the Boulder River near Big Timber and was soon named the lead biologist on Fort Peck Reservoir. He and Denise have a daughter and a son, both now grown.
While Wiedenheft's modesty is well-known, he's clearly proud of many accomplishments during his long career. High on the list is the decision to start taking eggs and milt from Fort Peck walleyes once it became apparent the fish were not fully reproducing on their own because of a lack of spawning habitat. Young fish are raised in the Fort Peck State Fish Hatchery before being released back into the wild. The practice has boosted walleye numbers, as well as survival rates.
Another key decision during Wiedenheft's tenure was to push ahead and stock spottail shiners and cisco as forage fish in Fort Peck. In other warm-water reservoirs, rainbow smelt had long been the preferred stocked forage fish. But the smelt can be hard to manage because their populations tend to fluctuate wildly. Cisco and spottail shiners typically have more stable life cycles, he said.
While there still were concerns that the new food species wouldn't work out, Wiedenheft said it's now a fine view looking back.
"It was the right decision," he said. "I can't imagine that anyone would challenge that. Apparently there was space out there for some other prey species. The results speak for themselves."
Wiedenheft also was in charge when the first Pacific salmon were introduced at Fort Peck in 1984. He said the salmonids, which primarily utilize cold, deep waters, did quite well at first. But as drought set in and reservoir water levels dropped, salmon had a tougher time.
"Our guess is that these fish are being preyed upon by other predator fish," Wiedenheft said. Part of the current strategy is to hold salmon longer in the hatchery so they'll be at least 8-inches long when stocked. That way they may be better able to elude the hungry mouths of walleye and northern pike.
Fort Peck lake trout, which in the past were self-sustaining, are also finding reduced water levels to be a challenge. Key spawning areas were "devastated" by drought, Wiedenheft said, adding there is now a clear need to take lake trout eggs and raise them in a hatchery setting to keep the population sustained.
But current legal restrictions on what can be raised at the Fort Peck State Fish Hatchery present a roadblock to helping lake trout, as well as other species, he said. A turning point in the management debate will occur if the fishing public gets more active, he predicted.
"People need to take charge of the funding issue and what fish are raised at Fort Peck," Wiedenheft said. "It will affect their fisheries for a long time into the future. They need to be engaged."
While reviewing his nearly three decades in the fisheries business, Wiedenheft said changes have often come at a rapid pace.
"It's like night and day," he said of the then and now. "It's not the same beast it used to be, not even close. It's a lot more complicated - a lot more bureaucracy."