09-21-2006, 03:17 PM
CALEB WARNOCK - Daily Herald
State officials poisoned 21 miles of the headwaters of Diamond Fork Creek in Spanish Fork Canyon on Wednesday to create a new home for declining populations of Bonneville cutthroat trout.
About 7 gallons of rotenone were dripped into the creek and three tributaries beginning at 8 a.m., said Don Wiley of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The poison kills all the fish in the water by disrupting the ability of the gills to transfer oxygen.
The mass poisoning was a success because no dead fish appeared, Wiley said. Wednesday's attempt was "insurance" against a similar poisoning conducted a month ago. The fact that no wild dead fish were found on Wednesday was proof that the first attempt was a success.
In recent months Forest Service crews built a fish wall of boulders above the Three Forks confluence, creating a 4-foot waterfall that brown trout and other non-native species of fish will not be able to breach, Wiley said. Aggressive brown trout, which were introduced to Utah about the time the transcontinental railroad was completed, are the primary reason for the plummeting numbers of Bonneville trout.
Fish from hatcheries were submerged in the creek in cages at several points, both below and above the fish dam, to monitor whether the treatment was working, Wiley said. A second chemical was added to the stream below the dam to neutralize the poison before it could reach the Three Forks confluence. The fish in cages above the dam died, proving the poisoning was working, while fish below the dam did not, proving the neutralizing agent was working, too.
Thirty-five employees of the Forest Service and DWR braved a steady rain and mud while working on the project amid a blaze of autumnal trees turned red, orange, yellow and green.
The goal in killing all the fish in the 21-mile stretch of Diamond Fork is to create a home for 10,000 3- to 4-inch Bonnevilles that will be released into the stream next month, Wiley said.
State crews are hoping to replenish the Bonneville population in order to keep the fish from being listed as endangered species -- an action that would mean federal restrictions on both land use and fishing in areas where the Bonneville used to live, Wiley said.
At one point around 11 a.m., a passerby who declined to identify himself stopped to question Wiley about the fish dam, saying he was hoping crews were at the site trying to figure out a way to remove the dam.
When Wiley asked the man about his concern, the man said he was afraid high water would hit the dam in the spring and wash away the road.
"The Forest Service engineered it for a 100-year flood, that's their baby," Wiley said.
A spokeswoman at the Spanish Fork Ranger District office said no one was available for comment.
Wiley said he wanted to make clear to the public that no other brown trout fisheries outside the Diamond Fork headwaters would be affected by the poisoning. This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.
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State officials poisoned 21 miles of the headwaters of Diamond Fork Creek in Spanish Fork Canyon on Wednesday to create a new home for declining populations of Bonneville cutthroat trout.
About 7 gallons of rotenone were dripped into the creek and three tributaries beginning at 8 a.m., said Don Wiley of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The poison kills all the fish in the water by disrupting the ability of the gills to transfer oxygen.
The mass poisoning was a success because no dead fish appeared, Wiley said. Wednesday's attempt was "insurance" against a similar poisoning conducted a month ago. The fact that no wild dead fish were found on Wednesday was proof that the first attempt was a success.
In recent months Forest Service crews built a fish wall of boulders above the Three Forks confluence, creating a 4-foot waterfall that brown trout and other non-native species of fish will not be able to breach, Wiley said. Aggressive brown trout, which were introduced to Utah about the time the transcontinental railroad was completed, are the primary reason for the plummeting numbers of Bonneville trout.
Fish from hatcheries were submerged in the creek in cages at several points, both below and above the fish dam, to monitor whether the treatment was working, Wiley said. A second chemical was added to the stream below the dam to neutralize the poison before it could reach the Three Forks confluence. The fish in cages above the dam died, proving the poisoning was working, while fish below the dam did not, proving the neutralizing agent was working, too.
Thirty-five employees of the Forest Service and DWR braved a steady rain and mud while working on the project amid a blaze of autumnal trees turned red, orange, yellow and green.
The goal in killing all the fish in the 21-mile stretch of Diamond Fork is to create a home for 10,000 3- to 4-inch Bonnevilles that will be released into the stream next month, Wiley said.
State crews are hoping to replenish the Bonneville population in order to keep the fish from being listed as endangered species -- an action that would mean federal restrictions on both land use and fishing in areas where the Bonneville used to live, Wiley said.
At one point around 11 a.m., a passerby who declined to identify himself stopped to question Wiley about the fish dam, saying he was hoping crews were at the site trying to figure out a way to remove the dam.
When Wiley asked the man about his concern, the man said he was afraid high water would hit the dam in the spring and wash away the road.
"The Forest Service engineered it for a 100-year flood, that's their baby," Wiley said.
A spokeswoman at the Spanish Fork Ranger District office said no one was available for comment.
Wiley said he wanted to make clear to the public that no other brown trout fisheries outside the Diamond Fork headwaters would be affected by the poisoning. This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.
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