Wednesday's stocking is part of a long-term project aimed at eliminating the threat of rainbow and Yellowstone cutthroats interbreeding with native westslope cutthroats in the South Fork of the Flathead River drainage.

A fish toxin was used last fall to kill all the fish in Black Lake and Blackfoot Lake, where hybridization had been detected. Wildlife officials say the lakes were stocked 1- and 2-year-old cutthroats, while more 1-year-olds and fingerlings will be stocked in the next month or so. The fish were raised at the Washoe Park State Hatchery in Anaconda.