"It wasn't all fish and game. "
yes it was keith..........montana fish and game decided they wanted more, and more tourist money so they introduced mysis shrimp to boost salmon population into flathead lake and whatever rivers (flathead watershed and other) the salmon were running in the late 60', early 70's i think, i don't remember now.
it backfired. flathead lake had a great population of lake trout, and other species. mysis shrimp also competed with and took over zooplankton (salmon's preferred food. it's complicated to describe but in short the introduction of mysis shrimp decimated the salmon population that we had and other native species, besides the salmon; the bull trout population. you can find many articles about this subject, and it has nothing do with dams or flood control.
just one of those things where montana thought they could expand the salmon population and by doing so, decimated it. or just one of those things where the fed/state gov thought they could 'fix' or 'improve'..........
i remember the last time i saw a salmon run in glacier park in the early 80's on a river.......very cool, eagles lined up in the trees, bears wandering around and kokeenee salmon running thick. i remember fishing for salmon in flathead lake and other rivers.............no more.........
sad but true.