planned rotenone treatments of eastern Washington waters

[Larry3215]

I hate when they do this.

WDFW NEWS RELEASE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov/

July 3, 2017

Contact: Bruce Bolding, 360-902-8417

Meetings scheduled on planned rotenone treatments of eastern Washington waters

OLYMPIA – State fishery managers will host five public meetings in mid-July to discuss plans to treat several lakes and two streams in eastern Washington with rotenone, a naturally occurring pesticide commonly used to remove undesirable and illegally stocked fish species from lakes and streams.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is proposing to treat Rigley, Rocky and Williams lakes in Stevens County; Hog and Fishtrap lakes in Spokane County and Ephrata Lake in Grant County. The lakes will be treated in the fall to remove species ranging from bass and bullhead to stunted panfish.

WDFW is also proposing to treat a 5-mile section of Smalle Creek and a half-mile of Highline Creek in Pend Oreille County.

"The goal is to restore trout populations by removing competing species that have essentially taken over these waters," said Bruce Bolding, WDFW warmwater fish program manager. "Illegally stocked fish compete with trout fry for food and prey upon them, rendering efforts to stock trout ineffective."

Bolding said the proposed treatments would help foraging waterfowl and their young at Ephrata Lake, where the birds compete with fish for food. The lake is managed for waterfowl habitat and is currently closed to fishing.

At Smalle and Highline creeks, WDFW is proposing to remove non-native eastern brook trout in order to restore a population of native westslope cutthroat, he said.

WDFW has scheduled public meetings to discuss the planned lake and stream treatments as follows:

Colville: 6:30 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, July 12, in the WDFW District 1 Office, 755 S. Main Street.
Ephrata: 6 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, July 12, at the WDFW Region 2 Office, 1550 Alder Street NW.
Olympia: 6 to 7 p.m., Thursday, July 13, in Room 175 of the Natural Resources Building, 1111 Washington Street.
Spokane: 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, July 13, in the WDFW Region 1 Office, 2315 North Discovery Place, Spokane Valley.
Cusick: 6:30 to 8 p.m., Thursday, July 13, in the Cusick Community Center, 107 1st Avenue.
In addition to input received at the public meetings, WDFW will consider written comments received through July 21. Comments should be addressed to Bruce Bolding, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA 98501-1091.

A decision on whether to proceed with the planned treatments will be made by the WDFW director in late July.

Rotenone is an organic substance derived from the roots of tropical plants, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved for use as a fish pesticide. It has been used by WDFW in lake and stream rehabilitations for more than 70 years, and is commonly used by other fish and wildlife management agencies nationwide.

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

I wonder why Ephrata lake is on the list. As I understand it, Ephrata Lake is closed to both hunting and fishing.

[dj2loud]

instead of killing off the entire lake, let us fish it, and possibly take a few home to feed some family and friends... --- Oh no, let's just kill the lake and its inhabitants and waste a resource..


WDFW is now and will always be WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF FRAUD AND WASTE......

[Larry3215]

Im sure Im missing something, because I dont see why the emphasis on trout over bass and pan fish?

There has to be money involved in it somewhere or there would be no political will to do this crap.

Why/where/how is the money with trout?

[dj2loud]

i'm assuming hatchery planted systems, instead of allowing the system to do its thing they would rather spend the $$$ at the hatcheries and raise trout so we the sportsmen quit bitching about low numbers of salmon that they are not having to raise/.? Im very surprised to see the numbers lately of what's being collected vs what had been collected 5-10 years ago, the numbers are staggering on the decline the hatcheries are producing with concerns to salmon..........

[Fordtuff]

Why does everything have to be focused on trout in this state. The only thing I can figure is there has to be shady money being made somehow for the state. These other species don't cost anything and just need to be left alone. But instead we have to kill off the warm water species and dump trout in everything. I think they would turn every lake in the state into a sterile holding pond for trout if they could get away with it. Instead of poisoning lakes why don't they help the fish habitat? What exactly are we getting with our "warm water enhancement" that they added to the license fees back in the day? I don't trust wdfw to do anything productive or helpful