“Once insects and frogs explode, everything reacts,” said Danny Boiano, the parks’ supervisory ecologist. Just three years later, there were 4,000 frogs and 14,800 tadpoles. Before eradication, surveys of two lakes revealed 134 mountain yellow-legged frogs and 53 tadpoles. Rotenone, it had testified, might harm mountain yellow-legged frogs - which don’t even exist in Paiute-cutthroat habitat.Īfter 2016, the opposition fell silent, and in 16 lakes cleared of trout with gillnets, ecosystems reawakened.
No rat developed the disease, just Parkinson’s-like tremors.Įlsewhere in the Sierra, Wilderness Watch had litigated against, and dangerously delayed, rotenone treatment to save native Paiute cutthroat trout that were being hybridized off the planet by alien rainbow trout. Concentrated rotenone was pumped into rats’ veins for five weeks. The myth derives from an Emory University study designed to create Parkinson’s-like symptoms, not the disease itself. Still, many opponents echoed Wilderness Watch’s false assertion that rotenone is “linked” to Parkinson’s disease. And Terry Swofford, chair of the Plumas County Board of Supervisors, declared, “To me, this is just another way of destroying our economy.”īut the Wilderness Act explicitly provides for the use of poisons to eradicate alien species. Does anyone really care?” editorialized Feather Publishing in its six newspapers. “If the yellow-legged frog disappears, would anyone notice? Seriously. Rotenone only affects gill tissue.īut as early as 2008, numerous anglers, media and local politicians were throwing hissy fits about an effort to protect mountain yellow-legged frogs merely by suspending trout stocking in 175 waters within national forests. For centuries, Indigenous peoples have used high concentrations to kill fish for consumption. In modern fisheries management, rotenone has never been seen to permanently affect a native ecosystem except to restore it.
But in 33 lakes, the only option was rotenone, a short-lived, organic fish poison derived from plant roots and applied at 100 parts per billion. The agency plan called for eradicating trout in 110 lakes, though trout would remain in 465 park lakes and hundreds of stream miles, leaving plenty of fishing opportunities. Fish and Wildlife Service listed both groups of frogs as endangered, prompting aggressive action by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Gorging on zooplankton, insects, and two kinds of mountain yellow-legged frogs, the alien invaders unraveled aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, often in designated wilderness. Some of the fish hit rocks and ice, but most hit water. Shortly after World War II, California fish managers had a brainstorm: They loaded juvenile trout into airplanes and saturation-bombed naturally fishless lakes in the High Sierra Mountains of California. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
0 kommentar(er)
