SACRAMENTO — A decade after poisoning a scenic Sierra reservoir in a controversial and failed attempt to exterminate invading northern pike, California wildlife officials proposed Tuesday to again turn Lake Davis into a chemical stew in hopes of finally finishing off the saw-toothed predatory fish.
While the last effort to treat the lake caused an uproar in nearby Portola and shut down what had been the tiny city's main source of water, this time the proposal is getting a far more friendly reception.
Many locals say they believe the California Department of Fish and Game now is receptive to their concerns about effects on health, the local economy and the environment, and seems better prepared to get the job done.
"Most of the former opposition was because they were shoving something down our throats," said Plumas County Supervisor Bill Powers, who in 1997 chained himself to a buoy in protest. "Now they're bending over backward to address our concerns. But it's still a nasty business."
Fish and Game officials remain concerned that the voracious pike, which they believe were first planted by a backwoods saboteur, could escape downriver to endanger salmon and other native fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and beyond.
Since pike were found anew in the lake in 1999, the state has tried catching them with nets, setting off explosives, shocking them with electricity and even holding pike-fishing derbies.
Nothing has stopped the pike population explosion. More than 60,000 have been taken from the reservoir since 2000, and some locals estimate up to 1 million may now swim the waters of Lake Davis, feasting on its trophy-sized trout.
Last year, the fish came close to escaping. Heavy winter rains brought Lake Davis to within about 2 feet of overflowing and spilling the pike into the Feather River, which leads to the delta. In May, two anglers were caught at a Fish and Game checkpoint attempting to transport live pike out of the region.
"The genie is out of the bottle, but so far it's only leaked into a little larger bottle," said Loris Ryan Broddrick, Fish and Game Department director. "These fish are top-end predators. If they get loose, California's aquatic ecosystem would not look the same."
The proposal, which now must go through regulatory review and further public scrutiny, calls for the state to dump a chemical fish-killing agent -- a liquid form of the pesticide rotenone known as CFT Legumine -- into the water after Labor Day.
