Fish Wildlife and Parks says they are trying to help bull trout, a federally threatened species, thrive and increase.

Biologists check nests in riverbeds to see if bull trout are successfully spawning. This year the nest counts were down a fair amount in the South Fork Flathead River and Swan Drainage. They are about average for the last decade for the Middle Fork and North Fork, but down some from recent years.

Wildlife biologists say in the Swan Drainage lake trout could be preying on bull trout, or it could be annual variation. People can not fish for bull trout anywhere in the Flathead.

"They have to be immediately released if they're caught accidentally, we're doing increased limits on lake trout in Flathead Lake, which will hopefully take some of the pressure off the bull trout, and we're doing a lot of habitat conservation so we're pushing hard to do everything we can to help bull trout thrive and we're hoping that they'll increase," said FWP John Fraley.

FWP has been doing the nest counts for up to 30 years to gauge how well the bull trout population is doing.