The Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus), a member of the salmon family, historically inhabited only two areas within the coterminous United States: parts of Michigan and the upper Missouri River system, primarily in Montana. The species vanished from Michigan by the mid-1930s and the fluvial variety persists in but a tiny fraction of its range in Montana. Focusing on Montana’s Big Hole River (the last place in the Lower 48 where native fluvial grayling survive) and Michigan’s Au Sable River (once a prominent grayling fishery and today a renowned trout stream), this article examines how a combination of capitalist endeavors and climate change contributed to the fish’s decline and hampered efforts to preserve and reintroduce grayling populations. As overfishing, shifts in land use, and introductions of non-native salmonids visibly eroded the grayling populations of both states by the early twentieth century, government agencies and sportsmen’s groups counted on hatchery work to save the species. Although conservationists had successfully created and diversified recreational fisheries by propagating and stocking other species, this method bore little fruit when applied to fluvial grayling. Undercut by the profound transformation of waterways, fluvial grayling conservation and restoration efforts offer a humbling case study of the limitations of science and human agency.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Sherri Sheu;
(October 2019)
“Bring the Lake to Your Living Room”: Video Game Nature and the Meanings of Digital Ecologies
(/isis/citation/CBB081927021/)
Book
Colten, Craig E.;
(2014)
Southern Waters: The Limits to Abundance
(/isis/citation/CBB001422404/)
Book
Marco Armiero;
Roberta Biasillo;
Wilko Graf von Hardenberg;
(2022)
Mussolini's Nature: An Environmental History of Italian Fascism
(/isis/citation/CBB022333357/)
Article
DeLucia, Christine;
(January 2018)
An “Indian Fishing Weir” at Musketaquid: Marking Northeastern Indigenous Homelands and Colonial Memoryscapes
(/isis/citation/CBB825341334/)
Book
Bogue, Margaret Beattie;
(2000)
Fishing the Great Lakes: An Environmental History, 1783-1933
(/isis/citation/CBB000111077/)
Article
Huntington, Tom;
(Summer 2010)
Tinkering with History: Vintage Motorcycles
(/isis/citation/CBB808723036/)
Book
James R. Skillen;
(2015)
Federal Ecosystem Management: Its Rise, Fall, and Afterlife
(/isis/citation/CBB299980332/)
Book
Taylor, Joseph E., III;
(1999)
Making Salmon: An Environmental History of the Northwest Fisheries Crisis
(/isis/citation/CBB000500166/)
Book
Robert John Zenk;
(2014)
Southern Pacific & the KM Hydraulics
(/isis/citation/CBB241799817/)
Article
R. Angus Buchanan;
(1975)
New World 1974
(/isis/citation/CBB358883232/)
Article
Huntington, Tom;
(Winter 2010)
Tinkering with History: Historic Aircraft, winged survivors
(/isis/citation/CBB482283608/)
Article
John H. White;
(1981)
Preserving a National Symbol: The Steam Locomotive
(/isis/citation/CBB460797834/)
Book
Laura J. Martin;
(2022)
Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration
(/isis/citation/CBB391113514/)
Book
Ann Vileisis;
(2020)
Abalone: The remarkable history and uncertain future of California's iconic shellfish
(/isis/citation/CBB492618078/)
Article
Mosley, Stephen;
(2014)
Coastal Cities and Environmental Change
(/isis/citation/CBB001421432/)
Book
Muscolino, Micah;
(2009)
Fishing Wars and Environmental Change in Late Imperial and Modern China
(/isis/citation/CBB001034471/)
Book
Clancy, Peter;
(2014)
Freshwater Politics in Canada
(/isis/citation/CBB001422354/)
Book
MacDowell, Laurel Sefton;
(2012)
An Environmental History of Canada
(/isis/citation/CBB001422385/)
Article
Hubbard, Jennifer;
(2013)
Mediating the North Atlantic Environment: Fisheries Biologists, Technology, and Marine Spaces
(/isis/citation/CBB001211797/)
Book
Bolster, W. Jeffrey;
(2012)
The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail
(/isis/citation/CBB001422515/)
Be the first to comment!