If you’ve ever pulled a westslope cutthroat out of a cold Jocko River run, watched a peregrine falcon stoop over the Mission Valley, or dropped a line through the ice at Flathead Lake during Mack Days, there’s a good chance the work of four Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes employees had something to do with making that moment possible. This month, those four professionals received some of the most respected conservation honors in Montana, and if you hunt or fish in the Flathead region, you owe it to yourself to know their names.
A Century of Combined Service, Four Big Awards
The Montana Chapter of the American Fisheries Society recently honored Les Evarts, Barry Hansen, and Cindy Benson with its Career Achievement Award — one of the most prestigious fisheries recognitions in the state. Meanwhile, the Montana Chapter of The Wildlife Society handed its Distinguished Service Award to Art Soukkala. Together, these four CSKT Natural Resources staff members bring more than a century of combined service to the Flathead Reservation’s lands, waters, and wildlife. That’s not a press release talking point — that’s a staggering investment in some of Montana’s most productive wild country.
The Jocko River: A Restoration Story Worth Telling
Les Evarts joined CSKT in 1989 and spent 26 years as Fisheries Program Manager. His signature achievement is the restoration of the Jocko River, a tributary of the lower Flathead River that drains agricultural land east of Arlee and Ravalli. Left to irrigation diversions and channelization, stretches of the Jocko were dying. Evarts led the charge to screen irrigation diversions, restore instream flows, reconstruct channel form and function, and secure Tribal ownership of critical riparian corridors. The result? Fisheries biologists now regularly point to the Jocko as one of the healthiest rivers flowing through an agricultural landscape in the entire state. For anglers, that means recovering bull trout habitat. For everyone downstream, it means a river that actually functions like a river.
Barry Hansen has invested nearly 40 years in aquatic resource conservation, more than 35 of them with CSKT. His portfolio reads like a master class in big-picture watershed management: instream flow protection, forestry and riparian restoration, shoreline management on Flathead Lake, and a leading role in the Flathead Lake and River co-management planning process. His long-term push to restore balance between invasive lake trout and native species in Flathead Lake has been critical to the ecological health of a body of water that is, frankly, irreplaceable. At roughly 28 miles long and one of the largest natural freshwater lakes in the western United States, Flathead Lake’s fish community affects everything from the bull trout runs in its tributaries to the grizzly bears that feed on spawning fish along the Swan and Flathead rivers.
Mack Days and One Million Lake Trout Removed
If you’ve ever fished Mack Days — the popular lake trout fishing contest on Flathead Lake — you’ve participated in a conservation program that Cindy Benson built into what it is today. She started as a creel clerk on Flathead Lake and worked her way into directing Mack Days beginning in 2002. Under her leadership, the event grew to hundreds of participants and resulted in nearly one million lake trout removed from Flathead Lake. That’s not a typo. Lake trout are invasive in Flathead Lake, preying on native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. Every fish pulled through the ice is a direct deposit into the account of native fish recovery. Benson also managed the Native Fish Keepers, Inc. processing facility, keeping harvested fish out of the waste stream and in front of the public as a tangible conservation story.
The 2026 Spring Mack Days contest is currently underway on Flathead Lake — check with the CSKT Natural Resources Department for the confirmed end date, current rules, and registration details before you head out.
Falcons, Frogs, and Thousands of Restored Acres
Art Soukkala brings 45-plus years of total wildlife management experience to his work, including more than three decades since joining the CSKT Wildlife Management Program in 1991. He’s helped reintroduce peregrine falcons and northern leopard frogs, tackled carnivore conservation, navigated hydropower mitigation, and led the acquisition and restoration of thousands of acres spanning prairie, shrubland, woodland, and wetland habitats across the reservation. His wetland restoration work has strengthened habitat connectivity in ways that benefit not just tribal members but every hunter, birder, and wildlife photographer who has ever glassed the Mission Valley or walked a wetland edge in search of ducks.
Why This Matters to Every Montana Hunter and Angler
Here’s the plain truth: tribal wildlife and fisheries programs are among the most undercovered conservation stories in Montana outdoor media. CSKT manages roughly 1.3 million acres of ceded territory and reservation land in the Flathead Basin — land that connects directly to the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Mission Mountains, and the entire Flathead watershed. What happens on that land doesn’t stay on that land. Bull trout don’t respect jurisdictional lines. Elk and whitetails move freely across ownership boundaries. Wetlands filter water that flows to rivers everyone fishes.
- Plan a Mack Days trip: Spring Mack Days is currently running on Flathead Lake — confirm the end date with CSKT before you go. It’s legal, it’s fun, and it’s legitimate conservation.
- Know the co-management framework: Fishing Flathead Lake or its tributaries? Understand that CSKT and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks jointly manage these waters.