JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Every Tuesday and Thursday the Youth and Outreach Education Team at Grand Teton National Park will be teaming up with Teton Science Schools 5th Grade program to study the native and non-native fish at Kelly Warm Springs. They hope to collect data to better understand the ecosystem at the springs.
The spring has been a target for illegal dumping of aquarium fish since the 1940s. A number of tropical and warm water aquatic species that are harmful to native fish and capable of surviving a wide range of temperatures, persist in both the spring and its outflow areas of Savage Ditch and Ditch Creek.
Since 2015, park managers have been considering several alternatives to remove these exotic species including netting and trapping, electrofishing, and piscicide treatment. The park preferred alternative was an EPA-approved piscicide called rotenone.
In addition to unwanted exotic fish, the springs has also been riddled with Naegleria fowleri—a brain-eating amoeba discovered for the first time in that water last summer. Park officials do not recommend bathing in Kelly Warm Springs or Polecat and Huckleberry Hot Springs in the John D. Rockefeller Parkway near Flag Ranch, where the parasite was also discovered.
Budget concerns and other time-sensitive project prioritizing has put on hold plans eradicate pet species like goldfish, madtoms, and bullfrog tadpoles found as far away as Ditch Creek, within 10 meters of the Snake River, according to GTNP’s Carol Cunningham. Park officials received some 50 responses during a public scoping process in 2015 on the use of rotenone, and were to have begun application in the fall of last year.
