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43 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, January 27, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 26, 2004 State to raise funds for Diamond Lake A combination of grants and donations from groups will be sought to cover the cost of poisoning tui chubs By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune State fish biologists will put on their fund-raiser hats beginning next week in an effort to raise more than $1.6 million needed to chemically treat Diamond Lake to kill off millions of tui chubs that harm the lake’s water quality and trout fishery. Umpqua National Forest Supervisor Jim Caplan signed off this week on a plan to draw the lake down and use rotenone to poison the illegally introduced chubs in fall of 2006, then re-stock the lake with trout for anglers. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and others will look everywhere from local sport-fishing groups to regional wildlife coalitions to federal grants to raise the money to cover the cost of the chemicals, treatment, pre-treatment work and cleanup. Though the decision still faces possible appeals, ODFW biologists and others will meet Tuesday in Roseburg to start organizing the money search. "We’re ready to get out of the environmental part of it and into the fund-raising and implementation phase," said Steve Denney, the ODFW’s Umpqua Watershed manager who is part of a multi-agency group working on the Diamond Lake program. Advertisement "I’m pretty confident we’re going to get the money to do this," Denney said. "It’s not only an important project for the department, but the state of Oregon as a whole." However, one place they probably won’t get money is the Oregon Legislature, which convenes next month in a session likely dominated by fiscal belt-tightening. "With the fiscal issues facing the state now, it’s going to be very difficult to get money out of the legislative process to fund this part of it," said state Rep. Susan Morgan, a Myrtle Creek Republican who also is part of the working group. Morgan said she believes the project could qualify for any of a host of federal grants, which typically fund up to half of the entire projects. Morgan said she is confident a combination of cash and in-kind donations could be created over the next 18 months to make lake treatment a reality. "We’re going to be very creative and try to look at a broad base of funding," Morgan said. "But I don’t think it’s unattainable. I really don’t." Illegally introduced in the early 1990s, the small, plankton-eating chubs now number in the millions and have altered the ecosystem of the popular trout-fishing lake in the High Cascades of eastern Douglas County. The degradation has reached a point where fingerling trout cannot survive and toxic algae blooms close the lake to recreation at times in the summer. Once Oregon’s most popular trout-fishing destination, the lake has seen about a 90 percent drop in visitors from its heyday of more than 100,000 visitor-days a year. The ODFW now spends more than $100,000 a year stocking the lake with enough big trout to keep anglers’ interest while it works on a long-term solution with the Forest Service and other agencies. The state’s current Diamond Lake management plan calls for drawing 100,000 angling trips each year to the lake. "It seems like, over the past 40 years, everybody’s had a relative who’s fished Diamond Lake or who has camped at Diamond Lake," Denney said. "So I’m hopeful there will be a lot of interest in helping us raise the money." The most expensive part of the plan is $900,000 to buy the 8,900 gallons of liquid rotenone and 168,000 pounds of powdered rotenone to treat the lake, Denney said. A New York-based chemical firm has told the ODFW that it will take about a year to assemble that amount of rotenone, which is derived from a South American plant root, Denney said. The plan calls for spending about $225,000 on mechanical removal of chubs before the rotenone treatment, he said. The actual treatment, including transportation, monitoring and cleanup costs, is estimated at $500,000. Morgan said she is convinced that Diamond Lake’s rich angling tradition is worth the effort. "It holds a special place in people’s hearts," Morgan said. "That’s why it’s so important to fix it and make it fishable and swimmable again." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers