“Piscicide in Idaho:
a lost art and re-emerging tool for conserving native species.”
Plenary Speakers
Martin Koenig

Martin Koenig will be providing a brief history of rotenone in Idaho. Martin will discuss the “Dark Ages” of rotenone treatments following the disaster at Yellowbelly Lake and walk us through the evolution of using rotenone aimed at conserving and managing native species in Idaho in the coming decades, and that future work will ultimately rely heavily on the next generation of biologists now early in their careers. He earned a BS in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology from the University of California Davis, and an MS in Fisheries Biology from Utah State. He began working in Idaho in 2003 while conducting his thesis research on Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout in the Teton River. In 2006, Martin began his 19-year tenure with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and has held a variety of fisheries research and management roles. Currently, Martin serves as the Sportfishing Program Coordinator, a fancy title for someone who writes species management plans, coordinates native trout and sturgeon conservation efforts, and works on fishing regulations.
Bryan Bakevick

Bryan Bakevick will present a large-scale conservation effort focused on restoring native Rio Grande fish to 120 miles of streams, 16 lakes, and a reservoir in northern New Mexico. The restoration significantly increased native fish distributions and contributed to their exclusion from federal endangered species listings, exemplifying the impact of ambitious, landscape-level conservation initiatives. He holds a BS in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana and an MS in Fisheries Biology from Iowa State University. He is currently the Rio Grande Basin Native Fish Supervisor for New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. In his 12 years with the Department, he led a large-scale, multi-year native fish restoration project and contributed to many others throughout the state.
Julie Carter

Julie Carter will share experiences from Arizona and emphasize the importance of ensuring strong stakeholder and public engagement for proposed treatments, as well as understanding the political landscape in treatment areas. She will discuss the challenging but worthwhile journey to retain the ability to use piscicides in fisheries management, highlighting the importance of adapting to evolving processes to ensure effective conservation outcomes. Julie has been working for the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) in Phoenix, Arizona since 2005 and has been the Aquatic Wildlife Branch Chief since 2021. Prior to her time with AZGFD, she spent eight years as a fisheries biologist with the USGS Alaska Science Center. She received her BS from Northern Arizona University and MS from University of Alaska Fairbanks. Julie is very active in AFS, serving as a member of the Fish Management Chemicals Committee and is the current president of the Western Division and Fisheries Management Section.
Nick Voss

Nick Voss will present a set of biological considerations useful to making effective prioritizations for non-native species removals. He will then propose a set of general guidelines to inform future prioritizations and identify useful areas for future research. Nick Voss holds a BS in wildlife biology with a minor in Geoscience from the University of Montana, and a MS in Fish and Wildlife Management from Montana State University. Nick is currently a Ph.D. candidate with Dr. Michael Quist at the University of Idaho. His dissertation research focuses on the ecology of non-native Brook Trout and their interactions with native Bull Trout across Idaho under a changing climate.
Craig Barfoot

Craig Barfoot will present on a comprehensive watershed restoration effort on the Flathead Indian Reservation focusing on selective fish passage work and provide an overview of the first piscicide project undertaken on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Craig has a MS in Fish and Wildlife Management from Montana State University, where he collected data to inform instream flow reservations and studied the ecology of prairie stream fishes in southeastern Montana. After completing graduate studies, Craig worked for about nine years on the Snake and Columbia rivers with the USGS Columbia River Research Lab. For the last 24 years, Craig has been employed as a fisheries biologist with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes where he works on a wide variety of aquatic and riparian management issues.
Anthony Dangora, Luke Ferguson, and Rick Wilkison will be teaming up to present on a collaborative Bull Trout conservation project from a headwater stream in Idaho that was threatened by a rapid expansion of nonnative Brook Trout. As a result of this collaboration, the group installed a migration barrier, removed over 4,000 Brook Trout, and salvaged and returned 128 Bull Trout to 4.5 kilometers of chemically restored stream.
Anthony Dangora

Anthony Dangora is a regional fisheries biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, based out of the McCall subregion. He earned his MS in Fish and Wildlife Biology in 2022 from the University of Montana. His work involves the management of lakes and reservoirs, rivers and streams, and high mountain lakes.
Luke Ferguson

Luke Ferguson is a fish biologist with the Payette National Forest, based out of McCall, Idaho. He graduated from the University of Idaho with a BS in Fisheries Resources. His work focuses on threatened and endangered fish species conservation on Forest Service administered lands.
Rick Wilkison

Rick Wilkison is a Senior Fisheries Biologist with Idaho Power Company in Boise, Idaho where he manages the company’s Bull Trout Program. He is a graduate of the University of Wyoming (Go Pokes!) where he obtained a BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology and Management in 1992. He earned an MS degree in Biology (Fish Ecology emphasis) in 1995 from Idaho State University. His work has focused primarily on assessing the status of and monitoring Bull Trout populations associated with Idaho Power’s Hells Canyon Hydroelectric Complex while developing effective protection, mitigation, and enhancement measures to aid in recovering the species.