[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 9/4/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

September 4, 2007

 

3. Watersheds -

 

Bid to eradicate pike will close Lake Davis -

Sacramento Bee

 

Editorial: Lake Davis: Part II -

Sacramento Bee

 

Invasive fungus proving deadly to once-thriving Sierra frog -

Stockton Record

 

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Bid to eradicate pike will close Lake Davis

Sacramento Bee – 9/1/07

By Jane Braxton Little - Bee Correspondent

 

PORTOLA -- Monday is the last day Lake Davis is open for fishing as state and federal officials move into the final stages of preparation for a $12 million project to poison the reservoir and close the area to the public for more than two months.

 

The project will pump 17,000 gallons of toxic chemicals into the Plumas County reservoir in the California Fish and Game Department's second attempt to eradicate northern pike, a nonnative species that has flourished there since 1994.

 

The U.S. Forest Service will launch a temporary public closure Tuesday, said Lee Anne Schramel Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Plumas National Forest. The closed area will include Lake Davis, shorelines, all tributaries and all lands upslope of them to the ridge tops of the Freeman Creek watershed.

 

Campgrounds, boat launches and day-use sites in the Lake Davis recreation area will remain off-limits to the public until tributaries and Lake Davis are found free chemicals, she said.

 

Pike have been flourishing in Lake Davis since 1994, when state officials believe an angler illegally planted the Midwestern native species. A 1997 chemical treatment similar to the current plan cost the state $20 million but was unsuccessful.

 

Fish and Game Department officials began planning to poison Lake Davis a second time after a seven-year effort failed to control the pike without chemicals.

Although state officials initially said no naphthalene would be used, they disclosed in April that chemicals including traces of known carcinogens would be among the liquids used to disperse rotenone, a South American root extract designed to kill all aquatic life in the reservoir.

 

Health issues are the primary concern of Save Lake Davis, a coalition of citizens opposing the use of chemicals.

 

Fish and Game Department officials have called the health risks "extremely minimal." Their primary fear is that pike will escape from Lake Davis and migrate downstream to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where they would pose a threat to salmon and other native fish as well as the state's $2 billion-a-year commercial fishing industry.#

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/355598.html

 

Editorial: Lake Davis: Part II

Sacramento Bee – 9/2/07

 

State Fish and Game officials this week plan to start closing Lake Davis, a Plumas County fishing destination that suffered through a saga much like Amity Island, the resort town featured in the 1975 film "Jaws."

 

As at Amity Island, a sharp-toothed monster has invaded Lake Davis and damaged its tourism business. Biologists and public safety officials fear this predator will soon spread elsewhere. Thus, they have come with a risky and potentially costly plan to kill this unwelcome visitor.

 

At Lake Davis, the invader is the Northern Pike. Hundreds of thousands of these voracious, nonnative fish have flourished in this Sierra Lake since they were discovered in 1994 and the state sought to poison them three years later. Biologists fear they could escape and migrate to the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta, gobbling up smelt, juvenile salmon and other protected fish.

 

Thus, the state plans -- again -- to use a rotenone compound to poison the pike. Let's hope this sequel has a more satisfying ending.

 

Back in 1997, the state Fish and Game Department fumbled its initial stab at eradication. It didn't examine alternatives. It didn't work with the community. It didn't have the support of the U.S. Forest Service to fully close the lake, and ensure all fingers of the lake were properly treated. To top it off, it allowed poison to leak out of Lake Davis, killing fish downstream.

 

Not surprisingly, the department's efforts generated angry protests. The Legislature agreed to compensate business owners with a $9.1 million settlement.

All those conditions appear to be different now. Since 2000, the Fish and Game Department has tried different methods to control the pike, but the fish keep proliferating. As a result, the department since 2005 has worked with the community on an eradication plan, and has faced much less resistance. One big reason: All Lake Davis dwellers now get their drinking water from water wells. Back in 1997, the lake was a water supply for 2,300 residents.

 

It's never easy to swallow the notion that a waterway must be bombed to be saved, but there's no doubt that pike pose a serious threat. As The Bee's Jon Ortiz reports, the pike are devouring trout in Lake Davis, and local businesses are hurting. If these predatory fish were to spread into the Delta, the potential costs to control them, and prevent them from harming native species and water deliveries, could be far higher than the $16.7 million the state now plans to spend at Lake Davis.

 

Will the money be worth it? Any ultimate verdict will depend on whether the eradication ends the pike problem at Lake Davis, and is sensitive to local concerns. While Fish and Game officials have learned some lessons from 1997, Plumas residents don't want to keep watching this movie, again and again.#

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/354993.html

 

Invasive fungus proving deadly to once-thriving Sierra frog

Stockton Record – 9/4/07

By Alex Breitler

Record Staff Writer

 

A fungus that reproduces sexually may be the largest factor in the decline of a frog species in the Sierra Nevada, scientists have concluded.

The deadly fungus, first identified in 1998, has been spreading from west to east across the mountain range at a rate of about a mile per year, according to a recent study by the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Officials are trying to determine if the fungus, known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, was recently introduced, or has always been there.

 

If the latter proves true, the mountain yellow-legged frog's recent susceptibility may have been exacerbated by other factors such as global warming or pollution from pesticides that drift into the mountains from farmers' fields.

 

Pesticides have been linked to a broad decline in amphibian species from the Central Valley to the Sierra Nevada, as well as the introduction of nonnative fish to Sierra streams and lakes.

 

The mountain yellow-legged frog has disappeared from up to 95 percent of its historic range in the past 35 years. As a result, predators such as the garter snake are suffering.

 

"The frog's decline is leading to an unraveling of a high-elevation ecosystem," said study co-author Roland Knapp, a University of California ecologist. Global amphibian decline is a "major environmental disaster," the study says.

 

When it reproduces sexually, the waterborne fungus creates spores that can last for a decade. Those spores can be transported by animals - on birds' feathers, for example - or on the soles of shoes or the tread of car tires.

 

The fungus probably disrupts the frogs' ability to absorb water through their skin, ultimately killing them.

 

Tens of thousands of yellow-legged frogs in hundreds of locations have disappeared, the study says.

 

The fungus also has been found in South America, Australia, Europe and Africa, including some areas that are too remote for human activity.

Attempts to reintroduce yellow-legged frogs in the Sierra have mostly failed.

 

"Within two years, the healthy frogs we introduced would become infected with the fungus and die," Knapp said. "It's a stunning thing to see."#

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/A_NEWS/709040307